FRIDAY, MAY 20, 2005

Gay Men’s Health Crisis’ 20thAnnual AIDS Walk went off without a hitch on Sunday, May 15—but notwithout a bitch. That would be none other than the grande dame of AIDSactivism Larry Kramer, who never founded an organization he didn’t grow to love-hate, including GMHC itself. The legendarily angry author (Faggots, The Normal Heart and The Tragedy of Today’s Gays) lambasted GMHC’s executive director, Ana Oliveira, in a Monday morning e-mail, when he heard that arch-enemy The image “http://www.poz.com/images/GMHC_AIDSWalk_05.jpg” cannot be displayed, because it contains errors.(and ex-neighbor), former New York City Mayor Ed Koch,had delivered a speech at the traditional AIDS Walk breakfast ceremony.“What an intense slap in the face that is to me and to many multitudesof others.… Who is behind this ‘rehabilitation’ of this Hitler?… Howcould you sanction this in any way? Jews are not meant to forgetHitler, and gays must not forgive or forget Koch," the famous fumerfumed.  
     In fact, Kramer’s The Tragedy of Today’s Gays(just out from Tarcher/Penguin) pegs Koch as “the person mostresponsible for allowing HIV to grow unimpeded from 41 cases…to morethan 70 million,” making a detailed argument that the Greenwich Villagebachelor’s terror of being outed as gay prevented him from lifting afinger to fight AIDS. “Everyone, including Kramer, knows that AIDS wasspread and continues to be spread today by people who engage inunprotected sex,” said the octogenarian metrosexual ex-mayor, whencornered by the New York Post about the book.
    As for Ana O., she responded to Kramer in kindness rather than in kind,doing damage control by dialing direct. One version has it that she apologizedfor the affront by way of explaining that she had run into Koch and, atthe spur of the moment, invited the Big Apple icon to GMHC’s cash cowfor added pull. “It was all a big misunderstanding,” she told POZ.“It had nothing to do with sending a message that it’s better toforgive Koch" or better to fight the battles of 2005 rather than re-fightthe battles of 1985.
     Want to know what theWizard thinks? All’s well that ends on the phone, especially whenGMHC’s AIDS Walk set records in participation (45,000) and fundraising($5.8 million;see photo). Sure, Kramer had good reason to be miffed bythe Koch invite, but he may also be a tad sensitive that hardly anyonebut Richard Kim has bothered to take the bait and rebut the heartfelt hyberbole of his new opus It’s only $9.95 and worth the ride.

In the everything-old-is-new-again category, Sen. Tom Coburn (R.-Okla.) is expecting fresh-faced interns by the truckload at his “Revenge of the STDs” presentation next Thursday in Washington.Not only will the doctor-turned-PWA-basher present herpes from hell,chlamydia cliffhangers and other scare-you-sexless slides, but he’sspringing for pizza, too! These “educational” events used to be quitethe hit—the abstinence crusader’s last STD lunch, in 2000, when he wasin the lower House, drew around 250 interns, Hill staffers andothers—but, hey, that was before Fear Factor raised the bar on the ick! Factor.  “You’dbe surprised at how many people go up to him after to have one-on-onetalks with him as a doctor,” Coburn’s communications director, JohnHart, told POZ. Actually, no, POZ is not surprised thatAmericans need medical help—but this film is strictly PG (for PatientGuidance): Coburn’s advice about, say, HIV slipping through condoms’latex does not hold water

Across town from the Capitol but in the same morally shady hood,stands DC lobbying group AIDS Action Council (AAC), but for how muchlonger no one can say. This spring, you just can’t seem to smellWashington’s famed cherry blossoms—or are those anal warts, Dr.Coburn?—for the stink of the AAC scandals. Hot on the heels ofAIDS Walk founder Craig Miller’s high-profile resignation from the orglast month for stepping on the bodies of PWAs in its rush to hop intobed with Bush, AAC Foundation Board chairman Charles L. “Chuck” Henrywascanned this week as director of Los Angeles’ Office of AIDS Programsand Policy. As LA’s AIDS czar, Henry was in charge of doling out $82.5million in HIV-prevention and -treatment funds to community groups—andthen allegedly shaking them down for campaign contributions to AntonioVillaraigosa, who was elected LA’s mayor oon Wednesday. No one is yetsaying that’s the reason he got the boot, but with today’s news that helied on his résumé, claiming a law degree not in evidence, the Wizardof POZ predicts it won’t be long before the other shoe dropsfor old Chuckie over at AIDS Action Council. But even the Wizard can’tanswer what it will take for GMHC or APLA to read the writing on thewall and tell AAC, “Smell ya later.” There’s a new game in town calledHousing Works’ DC office, and they’re on our side.

Speaking of down the tubes, the mayor of Spokane, Washington, antigay bisexual James (“I wouldn’t characterize me as ‘gay’”) West,is almost there. In a turn of events that would make Roy Cohn proud,the longtime Republican pol was caught trolling Gay.com (his handle:“Cobra82nd” and “RightBi-Guy”), ultimately meeting up with someone whorepresented himself as a dude of 18 but was actually a private computerexpert hired by a local newspaper in what was essentially a stingoperation. Then West met the press to deny new accusations that hesexually molested two minors when he was a Boy Scout leader. OK, OK,this isn’t really an AIDS story (bi guys never get HIV, right?), butWest did oppose HIV-prevention legislation in 1986 and proposed criminalizing teen sex in 1990!

Enough about Hitler, herpes and hypocrites! What the Wizard reallywants to do is spread the love. So props to the Santa Rosa, California,school board for unanimously voting to allow Elsie Allen High School’shealth clinic to distribute condoms and birth control. “It waswonderful…. The board talked to students, teachers, parents. This wasnot a political decision but a social and medical one. I have no doubtthe health of our young men and women will improve,” the clinic’smedical director, Enrique Gonzalez-Mendez, told POZ. Score one for the true culture of life.

Hats (and shoes) off to high-dose capsaicin patches, the red-hot compound that has just completed Phase III trials with flying colors, soothing the red-hot pain of peripheral neuropathy(PN), one of the top tortures of med-taking HIVers. The chemical, whichis derived from chili peppers, is on track to become the first remedyapproved for HIV-related PN—but not for another year or more, saysAnthony A. DiTonno, president of NeurogesX, the patches’ papa.

Finally, no week is complete without celebrity sightings. Ponytailed ass kicker Steven Seagaltouched down in Accra, Ghana, to participate in the Save a MillionLives HIV/AIDS and Orphan projects. He’s also meeting with members ofthe Ghanaian film industry to give his flagging career—er, Ghanaiancinema—a boost.… Anyone who’s anyone in Cannes attended amfAR’s Cinema Against AIDS event: Celebs on the list included Sir Elton John, Liza Minelli and Sharon Stone. Try working out a seating chart for those three.… 

And with that, the great and powerful POZ has spoken. Now, as they say in Cannes, bon weekend!