Supervisors Go on Record as Favoring AIDS Hospice Care
Los Angeles County supervisors Tuesday voted to support the concept of hospice care for dying AIDS patients, responding to pressure from homosexuals who protested last week in front of Supervisor Michael Antonovich’s Glendale home.
The vote, on a motion by Antonovich, came five days after about 200 protesters--including AIDS patients, patients’ relatives and health care workers--marched by candlelight through Antonovich’s quiet north Glendale neighborhood and gathered in front of his home.
Tuesday’s 3-0 vote included no county funding for hospice care, but Dawson Oppenheimer, an aide to Antonovich, said it was designed to “send a message to Sacramento that we badly need funding for hospices in Los Angeles County.”
He said the vote mirrored similar votes taken by the board in past years and was not a change in county policy.
Michael Weinstein, coordinator of the Los Angeles AIDS Hospice Committee, said the board’s vote will have no direct effect on care for dying AIDS patients but will help increase public awareness of the need for hospice programs in the county. The committee is an organization of gay leaders and health care workers.
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