Hard-Hit Laguna on Offensive in AIDS Fight

At the Laguna Beach Chamber of Commerce, office manager Karen Huntling fields calls from prospective visitors who want to know: “If my child lies in the sand, will he get AIDS? If my child were to drink out of the drinking fountain, will he get AIDS?”

In his book-lined study at the Laguna Presbyterian Church, the Rev. Jerry Tankersley warns of promiscuity and proffers a small brochure, “Teens and AIDS,” that he will soon distribute to parishioners.

And at a downtown office building, accountant Laura Wantz says she knows three people who died of AIDS and 10 more who have the disease. In this town of about 19,000 people, nearly everyone knows someone who has AIDS, Wantz said.

Over the last seven years, AIDS has cut a wide swath through the populace of the pretty little coastal enclave of Laguna Beach.

Highest Orange County Rate

This longtime artists’ colony, whose turquoise coves, sheltered beaches and summer arts festival attract 3 million tourists every summer, has the highest rate of AIDS in Orange County, and one of the highest rates in the nation.

The toll of victims goes beyond the dead and dying to include Laguna Beach’s gay and heterosexual residents who do not have AIDS but who have suffered as friends and neighbors have died. It has also provoked fear in residents and tourists that they may catch the disease, and has given rise to increasing hostility toward Laguna’s gays.

With 66 AIDS cases since 1980, Laguna Beach has a per-capita incidence of the disease comparable to that of San Francisco or Manhattan, said Dr. Kenneth Castro, a medical epidemiologist for the National Centers for Disease Control’s AIDS program in Atlanta.

In one count, from last October, San Francisco’s rate was 316 per 100,000 population and Manhattan’s was 270 per 100,000. By extrapolation, Laguna Beach’s would be about 354 cases if it had a population of 100,000, Castro said.

‘Personal Awareness’

Laguna Beach may be one of the hardest hit in the country in terms of “personal awareness of AIDS deaths,” said Dr. Michael Gottlieb, a nationally recognized AIDS researcher from Santa Monica who has treated many of Laguna’s AIDS patients. “That kind of incidence can change the character and life of a community.”

Concerned about the rising toll from AIDS, the Laguna Beach City Council in February created a task force to educate the entire town about the disease. Committee members are getting organized, said task force chairwoman Karen Jones, who refers to the disease as “a plague.”

But, Jones said, they hope to target businessmen, church groups, students, psychologists--even astrologers--to debunk myths about AIDS and warn of how it is contracted.

Part of the committee’s mission is to protect the image of this tourist town, according to Tankersley, another task force member.

‘Safe, Beautiful Place’

“I’ve heard rumors about people concerned to come here, afraid to eat at restaurants or go to the beach or drink the water and get AIDS. The message needs to be very clear: This is a safe, beautiful place. We should not be looked at as a sick community.”

City Councilman Robert F. Gentry, who conceived of the task force, said he is hoping the committee can help to stop the spread of the disease. The stakes are high, Gentry and other city leaders say, for already AIDS has disrupted community life in several ways.

First, it has created a pervading sense of personal loss, Gentry and others said, because since 1981 half a dozen business and community leaders have died of AIDS. City Arts Commissioner Henry Hampton, Coast Inn general manager Crawford Hartley, several business leaders including a florist credited with beautifying a section of downtown--all have died of the disease.

AIDS deaths are so frequent that “almost every church in our town has had funerals of people who died of AIDS,” Tankersley said.

All over town, there is “a great sadness” from the deaths, Wantz said.

Sobering Effect on Gays

The disease has had a particularly sobering effect on Laguna’s gay community, which Gentry estimated makes up between 15% and 30% of the city’s population. (Though AIDS can affect heterosexuals, so far all the Laguna victims have been homosexual men.) In the last few years, gays have restrained, even changed, their sexual activities as the AIDS toll rose, some of Laguna’s gay residents said.

“We have become more monogamous,” said Lou, a 46-year-old computer operations manager who was drinking alone one recent weeknight at a gay bar called the Little Shrimp. Asked if he was monogamous, Lou answered quickly: “No. But I’ve become more careful.”

Some businessmen fear that the tourist trade could slow if continuing AIDS deaths leave a stigma on the town. “There is a real problem for the city if there are people who think they can contract AIDS by coming here,” one business leader said.

Another concern, Gentry and several other task force members said, is rising homophobia, apparently the result of the AIDS epidemic.

Taunts From Youths

At the Little Shrimp, high school youths regularly drive by the bar and yell at patrons: “You’re going to get AIDS and die!” waiter Rusty Tepper said.

Gentry, who is gay, has also experienced the homophobic abuse. “A couple of high school kids used to come by the house with megaphones and scream, ‘AIDS!’ ” he said.

To Gentry, the rise in verbal attacks on gays is especially disturbing because Laguna has had a long tradition of tolerance for different life styles. For at least 40 years, “Laguna Beach has been known as a place where gay and non-gay live neighbor-to-neighbor, where they know and respect each other.”

But, with the spread of AIDS, that may be changing, Gentry said.

One of First to Have Disease

When Orange County began experiencing AIDS deaths in 1980, Laguna was one of the first cities to have AIDS cases. It was also the first community to try to come to terms with the disease, city and county officials said.

“They were interested and concerned early,” said Dr. Thomas Prendergast, epidemiologist for the Orange County Health Department, who gave his first talk on AIDS in 1982 to a gathering of several hundred people at St. Mary’s Church in Laguna Beach. So early was it that Prendergast said he had to read up on AIDS to give the talk.

Since then, community reaction to AIDS has shifted from panic and ignorance to educated awareness, said Nancy Dudley, director of patient services at the Laguna Beach Community Clinic.

“I’ve seen an excellent progression from questions like: ‘I had a painter in my house and I know he’s gay and he touched the doorknobs. What do I do?’ to, ‘I’ve heard that AIDS transmission can be stopped. What is ‘safe’ sex?’ ” Dudley said.

Brochures and Condoms

In a continuing effort to combat AIDS, Dudley’s clinic recently began distributing free “Care Packages,” white envelopes containing brochures on AIDS and three condoms.

Like many of her fellow AIDS task force members, Dudley believes that Laguna Beach exhibits “a collective concern (about AIDS) that you don’t find in other cities. This city lives with AIDS. We’re not just talking about it; we’re trying to do something about it.”

“There’s concern in Paradise,” said Harry Moon, a well-known Laguna Beach restaurateur who serves on the AIDS task force. There have been too many deaths, he said, and the city is committed to stopping them.

For all that, some residents do not believe that the toll of AIDS deaths in Laguna Beach will end soon. Laguna Beach High School counselor Jan Fritsen has been warning students about the disease but fears that some will not get the message.

“I think teen-agers have a lot of denial, that it’s not going to happen to them,” she said. “We haven’t had any students diagnosed of AIDS . . . but I’m anticipating we’ll have some teen-agers die, and it frightens me. It saddens me.”