Gay ‘Circuit’ Fund-Raisers

Your wide-eyed report on “Circuit” parties (“Gay Party Tour: More Harm Than Good?” Oct. 13) misrepresented or neglected several crucial realities:

First and foremost, this phenomenon involves at most a few thousand people. The vast majority of gay men and lesbians have never heard of, much less attended, a Circuit party.

The most recent CDC findings show that AIDS cases and HIV infection rates are rising most rapidly among women (especially minority women) and youth. Your article reinforces stereotypes about the epidemic and diverts attention from critical education needs.

Your article depicts a collapse of will among the gay community in preventing HIV infection. This is not the case. Gay and lesbian Americans continue their tireless efforts to prevent HIV infection both in their own and in other affected communities.

The UC San Francisco study on the efficacy of protease inhibitor treatments doesn’t document a failure rate “as high as 53% when not taken faithfully.” It shows something rather more complex and hopeful. The UC San Francisco study included older treatment methods and very advanced cases of HIV; its meaning is unclear, but its own authors point to studies of more recent drug regimens which show more positive results.

Finally, we must question your priorities when you treat sensationalized reports of gay partying as news, but cannot find room in your pages for a single word about Gov. Pete Wilson’s veto of fair job and housing protections for gay and lesbian Californians.

CHRISTOPHER CALHOUN

Public Policy Advocate

Los Angeles Gay

and Lesbian Center