April 29, 2005

Leading Advocate Resigns from AIDS Action Council

A long-serving board member of AIDS Action Council, the nation’s leading lobby for people with HIV, resigned this week from the Foundation Board in protest of what he termed the group’s “timidity” in its collaboration with the Bush administration, whose policies he called “evil.” Craig Miller’s impassioned and embittered letter of resignation, dated April 25 and leaked to POZ, deplored the 20-year-old AAC’s growing lack of “responsiveness” to the 3,200 AIDS service organizations that it is “entrusted to represent.”

This failure of accountability has extended even to its own board members, who have loudly disagreed with AAC Executive Director Marsha Martin on certain highly controversial positions. During last year’s election, she refused to endorse the goals of AIDSVote, a national grassroots effort to register people with HIV and drive turnout, dismissing it as too partisan. In December, she was forced to withdraw AAC’s co-sponsorship of a party “celebrating the Presidential Inauguration and Republican electoral success” when a community furor erupted. Then in early January, Martin showed up in person at the first major organizing meeting for the Campaign to End AIDS (C2EA)—an unprecedented grassroots mobilization of HIVers culminating in a massive and peaceful D.C. protest in October 2005—to explain why AAC was not backing it. Martin has repeatedly refused to address her own board’s concerns, said Miller.

 POZ placed calls to four different AAC lines seeking comment throughout the day on Thursday, and all four calls went unanswered.

“I cannot subscribe to a policy of timidity toward this Bush administration…whose [domestic HIV] policies are callous and evil to the core,” writes Miller, in a cry from the heart on behalf of an AIDS activist movement to which he has devoted much of his life, most notably as organizer of the AIDSWalks for AIDS Project Los Angeles (APLA), Gay Men’s Health Crisis and other AAC heavies. Celebrating their 20th anniversary this year, these events are not only top institutional fund-raisers but celebrity occasions promoting HIVer visibility and AIDS awareness.

In an interview with POZ, Miller said, “For me, the issue is that what AAC does inside those corridors of power reflects the needs and views of their core constituency—people with HIV—which have been lost at least since the reelection of Bush. I think AAC can come off as not evil by being more vocal and more courageous in its advocacy on AIDS issues. I’m not suggesting AIDS Action walk around the halls of government carrying banners that say ‘Bush Sucks.’ What I am suggesting is that as advocates, they not back away from, or speak with muted voices about, our core principles.”

Miller is the first insider to join an ever-louder chorus of leading grass-roots activists lambasting AAC, including POZ’s Sean Strub, who took AAC to task in his April 2005 Founder’s Letter. Miller echoed Strub’s condemnation in his resignation letter, writing that AAC’s recent positions “make understandable why we now find ourselves labeled in good faith by some as being the Bush administration’s voice to the AIDS community.”

Martin Delaney, founder of Project Inform and a 20-year veteran of political battles from the grassroots to Capitol Hill, agreed. “There is a wide feeling out there that AIDS Action Council has gone off the deep end,” he told POZ. “Working on the inside does not mean you have to roll over and spread your legs every time. What’s the point of being there at all if you’re not going to argue with them?”

But the tight circle of AAC constituent groups, when reached by POZ, politely differed with Miller or had no comment. Ronald Johnson, Associate Executive Director of GMHC, said simply, “I disagree that AIDS Action is too soft on the administration.” APLA, which originally appointed Miller as its rep to AAC, had no comment. Even typically pull-no-punches Charles King, the Executive Director of Housing Works and organizer of C2EA, refused to weigh in, citing Saturday’s expected AAC turnaround endorsement of C2EA.

Even now, Miller remains supportive of AIDS Action Council’s mission. “I think that the lobbying that they are charged with carrying out is incredibly important to our community,” he told POZ. “So I would say the best thing is to continue to support AIDS Action, but make it very clear one’s views as to the direction the organization needs to go.”

But as the community reacts to Miller’s own bombshell, it remains to be seen how, or even if, Martin and AAC will respond.

What do you think? Email Marsha Martin at mmartin@aidsaction.org. And let POZ know at news@poz.com.