Subject: Gays to picket PlanetOut over syphilis hysteria, privacy violations
From: [email-masked]
Date: Sat, 2 Oct 1999 03:48:19 EDT

PLEASE REPOST!!    PLEASE REPOST!!

For Immediate Release
DATE:  October 1, 1999

CONTACT:
Michael Bellefountaine: (415) 864-6686
David Pasquarelli: (415) 751-7457
    
Gays to Picket PlanetOut.com Over Syphilis Alert
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Online service violated privacy during public health campaign

SAN FRANCISCO — Members of the direct action gay rights group ACT UP San 
Francisco will hold a picket and press conference this Monday at the Mission 
Street offices of PlanetOut, a homosexual online service. Activists will 
protest the internet provider's promotion of an unfounded syphilis alert 
targeting gays online, condemn violations of subscriber privacy and present 
reporters with just-released health department STD reports that confirm 
syphilis is at an all-time low and that there is no new "outbreak."

Date:   Monday, October 4, 1999

Time:   12:00 noon

Place:  PlanetOut Offices at 965 Mission Street

ACT UP demands an apology to gays from PlanetOut CEO Tom Rielly, for 
participating in a homophobic health department campaign without first 
securing scientific proof of an alleged syphilis outbreak. ACT UP wants a 
commitment from the online service not to interfere in the private sexual 
lives of gay men in the future. PlanetOut has recently made headlines after 
an infusion of $16.4 million of funding from Silicon Valley's Mayfield Fund, 
America Online Investments, the UK's Eden Capital, and private investors.

"Tom Rielly and his new Board of Directors obviously know more about stock 
reports and publicity than epidemiology and privacy. They jumped on this 
syphilis bandwagon to scare up a name for themselves and perpetuated a 
damaging stereotype of gays," stated ACT UP member David Pasquarelli. 
"PlanetOut has a responsibility to investigate the facts and protect 
subscriber privacy rather than promote the dangerous misconception of gays as 
'diseased fags.'"

On July 29, after allegedly identifying four (4) cases of early syphilis, 
health authorities issued the controversial alert and placed an alarmist 
full-page ad featuring a ticking timebomb in the gay press. The following 
week, ACT UP took out a full-page ad calling the syphilis alert "an anti-gay 
lie" and accusing the STD officials of deception. According to a front-page 
article in The New York Times, PlanetOut sent messages to subscribers 
suspected by government officials of spreading syphilis. PlanetOut also 
trained 60 volunteers to monitor gay male chat rooms and transmit instant 
messages to those who entered warning them of the alleged "outbreak" and 
urging them to get tested for syphilis at the city's STD clinic.

"Tom Rielly needs to alert the gay community that syphilis rates are at their 
lowest point in San Francisco since the 1950s," commented ACT UP member 
Michael Bellefountaine. "We urge gay men to stay away from PlanetOut—do not 
give them personal information and do not use their chat rooms until this 
issue is resolved."

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ACT UP San Francisco
1884 Market Street * San Francisco, CA 94102
(415) 864-6686 * Fax: (415) 864-6687 * Email: [email-masked]