AIDS Activists Relish National Spotlight

Discussions of AIDS in traditional political arenas don’t usually elicit hoots of approval and shouts of “Go for it!” from AIDS and gay activists.

But Tuesday evening was different. Two people with AIDS--one gay, one not--were addressing the Democratic National Convention on prime-time television. History was in the making and members of Los Angeles’ gay and AIDS service communities were watching with pride and a sense of affirmation. Never before had an openly gay man with AIDS spoken to a presidential nominating convention.

What’s more, both speakers were from Southern California--Bob Hattoy, an environmental adviser for Gov. Bill Clinton’s campaign and Elizabeth Glaser, a high-profile AIDS activist and wife of actor/director Paul Michael Glaser.

Diagnosed with AIDS only weeks ago, Hattoy, 40, has long been a figure in local political circles. Many of the approximately 40 people who gathered to watch the speeches at the Los Angeles Gay and Lesbian Community Services Center’s HIV Clinic in West Hollywood know Hattoy. Some of them had even advised him on what to say.

And so when Hattoy took the podium, he couldn’t go wrong. The local audience loved it when he declared with his characteristic humor, “We need a President who isn’t terrified of the word condom .”

They whooped with approval when he challenged George Bush’s definition of family, noting how the gay community had nursed and mourned the tens of thousands who have died of AIDS in the last decade.

“The gay and lesbian community is an American family in the best sense of the word,” Hattoy told the convention-goers.

Richard Jennings, executive director of Hollywood Supports, said: “He made us all proud.”

AIDS activist Connie Norman, who has AIDS, said she was “thrilled to hear us finally franchised by a national party,” while at the same time saddened that it had taken so long.

Norman was also particularly impressed by the tenor of Glaser’s speech and her willingness to be a spokesperson for everyone with AIDS--a role Norman and others said Glaser has not always embraced.

“She’s not always been kindly disposed toward all people living with AIDS, “ Norman said. “So I’m very happy to see that compassion for all people is beginning to well up in our hearts, finally.”