Oct 24, 2008  |  By: CHRIS JOHNSON  | COMMENTS     

Some AIDS activists are rallying behind Democratic nominee Barack Obama as the best presidential candidate to address the growing number of HIV infections nationwide.

Obama and Republican presidential nominee John McCain have each proposed implementing a national AIDS strategy to confront the epidemic, but two prominent activists said this week that Obama has a more reliable record on HIV/AIDS issues.

Carl Schmid, director of federal affairs for the AIDS Institute and a Republican, said “it’s great that both presidential candidates” favor a strategy, but he had more praise for Obama’s work on the issue.

“Sen. Obama has been quite knowledgeable and active and supportive of the issues that we’ve been working on — both domestically and globally,” Schmid said. “On the other hand, John McCain … really hasn’t been active on the domestic front.”

Schmid, who is gay, said Obama started calling for a national AIDS strategy last year, but McCain only began calling for such a strategy this fall.

Obama also has been a strong supporter of the Ryan White CARE Act, a law that provides federal funding for HIV prevention, and has written letters supporting increased funding for HIV prevention, Schmid said.

In one such letter, dated Sept. 19 and submitted to the 2008 U.S. Conference on AIDS, Obama writes that “aggressive federal action” and “new investments that are with state and local initiatives” are necessary to confront the problem.

“Clearly, Sen. Obama is much more comfortable and progressive on these issues,” Schmid said.
Sean Strub, an HIV-positive gay man and founder of POZ magazine, said “there is no question” that Obama’s AIDS strategy is “far superior” to McCain’s.

“He has a vastly better record on AIDS than McCain, and given the likelihood of large Democratic majorities in both houses of Congress, he’ll be in a better position to implement his plan,” Strub said.

Strub said McCain’s “continued referencing” of Sen. Tom Coburn (R-Okla.) “as his go-to guy on AIDS should send chills down the spine of everyone with HIV as well as those who care about us.”

In March 2007, McCain referenced Coburn as “the guy I really respect” on HIV policy and said he looks to him on these issues. McCain said Coburn promotes abstinence and “where that doesn’t succeed,” he supports employing contraceptives.

“Coburn has often pursued a religious agenda at the expense of people with AIDS,” Strub said. “He is familiar with the issues, but he is no friend of people with HIV.”

But Strub lamented that Obama does not have many AIDS activists visible in his campaign, such as Bob Hattoy, who supported Bill Clinton’s 1992 bid for the White House and later served in his administration.

Activists are calling on the presidential candidates to be ready to implement plans to confront the HIV epidemic and growing number of HIV infections.

According to a report released this summer by the Centers for Disease Control & Prevention, new testing techniques have revealed that HIV infections are occurring at a higher rate than previously thought.

In 2006, CDC estimates show, 56,300 people were newly infected in the United States and gay men represented 53 percent of the infections. The organization had previously believed that the annual rate of new infections had been about 40,000 each year.

In Sept. 16 testimony before House lawmakers, CDC Director Julie Gerberding said the federal funding necessary to confront HIV would be $877 million in fiscal year 2009 and an additional $4.8 billion in the next four years.

Neither presidential candidate has revealed comprehensive details of his national AIDS strategy, but both noted some key points of their plans in recent interviews with the Blade.

In a written interview published Sept. 12, Obama said he would implement a strategy during his first year in office that would include all federal agencies and “reduce HIV infections, increase access to care and reduce HIV-related health disparities.”

He also said he would continue to confront the stigma surrounding HIV that is “too often tied to homophobia.”

Obama also called on lawmakers to approve the JUSTICE Act “to combat infection within our prison population.” The legislation, currently in limbo in Congress, would allow community organizations to distribute condoms throughout federal prisons and engage in HIV education and counseling at the facilities.

During an Oct. 17 conference call with reporters, Neera Tanden, domestic policy director for the Obama campaign, said the candidate’s AIDS strategy would not supplant, but rather incorporate, the Ryan White CARE Act.

She said Obama has “committed to increased funding” for HIV efforts in his administration, but she could not quantify how much money Obama would allocate for his strategy because he wants to “work ...