Lydia Watts, named to take over the city’s HIV/AIDS Administration office,
was described as a born-again lesbian. (Photo by Leigh H. Mosley)
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LOU CHIBBARO JR.
Friday, August 06, 2004
D.C. Mayor Anthony Williams named Lydia Watts, whom Chicago AIDS activists describe
as a no-nonsense taskmaster and self-proclaimed born-again Christian, as the
new head of the city’s HIV/AIDS Administration on Wednesday.
Williams also announced he has nominated Detroit physician and former U.S.
Veterans Administration official Gregg A. Pane to become director of the D.C.
Department of Health, which has jurisdiction over HAA.
Watts worked in the late 1990s as a director of contracts for the Chicago
Department of Public Health’s AIDS office and later as director of the
department’s health care programs for the city’s prisons.
From 2000 to 2004 she worked as health policy director for Rev. Jesse Jackson’s
Rainbow/PUSH Coalition, where she specialized in domestic and international
AIDS programs.
AIDS activists and a former official at the Chicago health department said
Watts, while bright and highly knowledgeable on AIDS issues, drew criticism
for her outspoken opposition to clean needle exchange programs as a means of
curtailing the spread of HIV among injection drug users.
Critics also said her support for faith-based and abstinence-only HIV prevention
programs and her frequent discussion of religion in the workplace — which
included giving Bibles to employees — raised concern among some that
she favored faith-based programs over other strategies for HIV prevention.
In a District Building press conference, in which Williams announced the appointments,
Watts said she would closely follow the policy of the mayor and the D.C. Department
of Health, which have supported needle exchange programs. City officials have
said such programs are needed because the sharing of needles among addicts
has been deemed one of the main modes of HIV transmission in the District.
“I believe in needle exchange, and I believe that this administration
believes in needle exchange,” Watts said. “And my goal, as director
of the HIV/AIDS office, is to push the administration’s agenda.”
When asked if she personally favors needle exchange programs, Watts said, “My
personal opinions are different from my professional opinions. And my goal
is to stay steadfast in what the administration would like to see and what
needs to be done for the District and its constituents.”
She added, “Therefore, I believe that needle exchange is a methodology
that will decrease the spread of HIV disease among populations.”
In an interview after the news conference, Watts said she was not biased toward
any one method of HIV prevention and would not favor faith-based programs over
others.
“My thoughts are this,” she said. “Anybody who wants to
be in the fight for HIV and helping people who are HIV infected, we welcome
them in this fight. There’s no one over the other.”
Added Watts, “When you look at communities that are most impacted by
this disease, some of the things that interfere with us getting information
out is our failure to talk about frank sexual and drug activities that place
people at risk.”
A biography of Watts released by the mayor’s office says Watts brings
more than 17 years of public health experience to the District government from
a wide range of work in AIDS and public health issues.
It says that as director of contracts at the Chicago health department’s
AIDS office, Watts served as the city’s “principle liaison for
all HIV/AIDS and STD grant-related activities, managing more than $6.8 million
in funding.”
The biography notes that Watts, while working at Rainbow/PUSH, created the
first National Ministers HIV/AIDS Testing Initiative and convened a panel on
Women & HIV Disease that included former President Bill Clinton and the
first ladies of Nigeria and Haiti.
Thom Dombkowski, the gay former director of grants management and information
for the Chicago health department, said he and other employees at the department
were troubled by Watts’ frequent discussion of religion and biblical
passages at the workplace.
He said Watts gave him and other employees Bibles, saying that reading certain
biblical passages would have a “calming” effect and improve workers’ outlook
on their jobs.
D.C. Mayor Anthony Williams (rear) appointed Gregg
Pane to lead the District’s
Department of Health on Wednesday. |
“She makes no apologies for being a Bible-thumping Christian conservative,” Dombkowski
said.
According to Dombkowski, Watts, while an official at the Chicago health department’s
AIDS office, alerted city park police to a community group’s outreach
program to gay men of color who cruised in public parks.
“The police increased their patrols, scaring off the cruising men,” Domblowski
said, making it more difficult for the group to conduct its outreach efforts
related to HIV prevention. He said Watts later cut off city funding for the
group.
Mike Jackson, a spokesperson for the Chicago Department of Public Health,
said the department could not discuss any aspect of Watts’ actions or
work at the department under city personnel rules unless Watts submits a signed
waiver authorizing the release of such information.
Watts, who spoke briefly to reporters during and after the mayor’s Aug.
4 news conference, said she could not answer further questions until after
she takes office on Sept. 7.
Dan Bigg, executive director of the Chicago Recovery Alliance, a non-profit
group that carries out a clean needle exchange program in Chicago, said Watts
created tension among AIDS activists in 1996 and 1997, when she fought hard
against city funding for needle exchange programs.
“She did more to set back needle exchange in Chicago than anyone else,” Bigg
said.
Bigg and Louis Weisberg, a former reporter for the Windy City Times, a Chicago
gay newspaper that reported on the controversy over the needle exchange program,
said activists were more troubled over Watts’ rationale for opposing
such programs.
Bigg said she stated at community meetings that needle exchange programs were
part of a “racial parlor trick” to keep African Americans in the
city’s poor neighborhoods addicted to drugs.
Weisberg said Watts used racially divisive arguments during the needle exchange
battle as well as during disputes over which groups in the city should receive
city funds for various AIDS programs.
“This happened five and six years ago,” Weisberg said. “I
don’t know if she’s changed her views on these issues.”
David Munar, associate director of the AIDS Foundation of Chicago, who called
Watts a “tough cookie,” said she was also highly competent in pushing
for AIDS programs for both African Americans and gays.
“My experience is that Lydia is excellent on gay issues,” said
Munar, who noted that she has told co-workers and others that she is a lesbian
and has a domestic partner.
The Windy City Times identified Watts as a gay candidate in its coverage of
the 1993 election in Chicago for the city Board of Aldermen, which serves as
a city council. Watts ran unsuccessfully in the 20th Ward, losing to an incumbent.
Tony Bullock, Williams’s press secretary, said the mayor’s office
would arrange for Watts to be available for interviews in September.
“Give her a chance to prove herself because she came through a pretty
tough interview process, with a lot of highly qualified people who were also
looking for that position,” Bullock said.
“Her selection indicates a level of confidence that the city administrator
and the mayor have in her. And we don’t think that confidence is misplaced.”
Lou Chibbaro Jr. can be reached at lchibbaro@washblade.com.
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