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SOUTHERN VOICE
OCTOBER 14/1993
VOTE ANDY
LOFTIS
“There is a major difference between a
friend in office and a gay person in office,
it’s not enough just to have friends
represent us, no matter how good these
friends may be. We must give people a
chance to judge us by our own leaders and
our own legislators.” - Harvey Milk
Mary Davis wants you to believe she is a champion of
Lesbian & Gay Rights.
Lesbians & Gays will know true political
power when one of their own represents
them on the Atlanta City Council.
Elect Andy Loftis - City Council District
6-The Gay Candidate
873-0469
PAID FOR DY: COMMITTEE TO ELECT ANDY LOFTIS,
P.0. DOX 54739, ATLANTA, GA 30308
Minority HIV program
Continued from page 15
[community groups],”says CDC’s Megan Foley.
“I think their concerns just never reached the
right person.”
Dazon Dixon finally decided that Gov. Zell
Miller and DHR Commissioner James Ledbetter
might be the right people. Rudy Cam, whose
agency provides AIDS education to gay and
lesbian African-Americans, called U.S. Rep. John
Lewis. After that, contracts that public health
officials had taken months to write were pro
cessed within 48 hours. “If we hadn’t called, I
believe we’d still be waiting for our money,”
says Dixon.
State officials admit that frequent staff turn
over and reorganization makes accountability
hard to come by. The Division of Public Health
has had two directors since the death of Dr.
James Alley in 1990. Since 1986, the AIDS
program has been part of the Office of Infec
tious Disease, the Communicable Disease Branch
and now the Epidemiology and Prevention
Branch. The branch has had three directors over
the past six years, and the People of Color Initia
tive has had four coordinators.
In mid-September, Dr. Toomey asked the
community-based organizations to give her team
a chance to fix some of the initiative’s long
standing problems. Some of the changes that Dr.
Toomey’s staff is now implementing under the
CDC’s watchful eye include:
• appointing an independent steering com
mittee with knowledge about HIV in communi
ties of color to oversee the entire grant applica
tion and review process;
• developing specific responsibilities for
Morehouse School of Medicine and DHR staff
so that consistent financial monitoring and pro
gram evaluation can occur
• performing more site visits so that DHR’s
AIDS staffers can have first-hand knowledge
about each group’s activities.
In addition, Tim Broughton says “a new
attitude” among the AIDS staff will keep per
sonality problems from recurring. “It’s not about
getting even or finding fault. It’s about restoring
DHR’s reputation and rebuilding trust in com
munities of color.”
Dora Burke is also optimistic about the fu
ture. “At one time, we had our differences with
DHR, but nothing that couldn’t be resolved,"
she says. “Dr. Toomey understands the prob
lems of the community-based organizations, as
well as those at the public health level.”
One of the CDC’s options if Georgia’s ef
forts fail is to withhold funding for the state’s
minority initiative. “At that point, though, the
wrong people arc punished and nobody is
served,” says Foley. “I hope DHR has learned
that working more effectively with [commu
nity-based organizations) in this area has to be a
priority.”
But epidemics rarely wait for bureaucracies
to untangle. HIV infections among heterosexu
als in Georgia continue to rise, with 80 percent
of the state’s new AIDS cases now reported
among African-American women. AIDS is now
the leading cause of death in Georgia for Afri
can-American men and women between the ages
of 20-44.
“Cultural sensitivity is not just a buzzword,”
says Dixon. “This experience has taught me that
organizations of color can’t afford to operate in
isolation.”
The other lessons learned this year can be
measured in very human terms. One DHR staffer
described a vivacious young woman in her 20s
named “Toni,” who was well known to federal
and state public health officials for her work as
an HIV educator.
“Toni died of AIDS last spring,” he re
called, quietly. “But many of us were so con
sumed with the busy work of our jobs, we didn’t
even know she had passed. We really need to
straighten this thing out, if only for Toni.”
dr
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