Subject: Kiyoshi Kuromiya: Honor Him/LIve Life Engaged:
From: [email-masked]
Date: Sat, 13 May 2000 12:24:17 EDT

Founding Member of the Modern Gay Liberation Movement & HIV/AIDS Activist, Dies in Philadelphia

A number of you on my e-list wrote back to me after reading the speech I gave
at the MMOW in DC on April 30th and asked who is Kiyoshi Kuromiya. He was one
of the founders of the modern gay/lesbian movement and remain a committed
activist his whole life. Kiyoshi Kuromiya was my gay brother and a fellow
traveler on the road for social justice, economic freedom and equality for
all. He spent his whole life fighting for a world where diversity enriched
each individuals life.  He died May 10th of AIDS.  The following is an obit
that I suggest you might want to read. Not only was his Asian gay blood
upfront from the very beginning of the post stonewall movement, he remained
committed to a radical re-oganization of sexual and gender politics and never
allowed difference of opinion to deter him from a vision of inclusion of all
people.

Live like him!

Jim Fouratt
May 13, 2000

Kiyoshi Kuromiya, Founding Member of the Modern Gay Liberation Movement &
HIV/AIDS Activist, Dies in Philadelphia

We regret to inform you that Kiyoshi Kuromiya, one of the world's leading
AIDS activists, died on the night of May 10, 2000, due to complications from
AIDS. To the last, Kiyoshi remained an activist, insisting on and receiving
the most aggressive treatment for cancer and the HIV that complicated its
treatment. He participated fully in every treatment decision, making sure
that he, his friends and fellow activists were involved with his treatment
every step of the way. He never gave up.

Kiyoshi devoted his life to the struggle for social justice.

He was a committed civil rights and anti-war activist. He was also one of the
founders of Gay Liberation Front - Philadelphia and served as an openly gay
delegate to the Black Panther Convention that endorsed the gay liberation
struggle.

As a pioneering AIDS activist, Kiyoshi was involved in all aspects of the
movement, including radical direct action with ACT UP Philadelphia and the
ACT UP network, PWA empowerment and coalition-building through We The People
Living with HIV/AIDS, national and international research advocacy, and
loving and compassionate mentorship and care for hundreds of people living
with HIV. Kiyoshi was the editor of the ACT UP Standard of Care, the first
standard of care for people living with HIV produced by PWAs.

Kiyoshi is perhaps best known as the founder of the Critical Path Project,
which brought the strategies and theories of his associate/mentor Buckminster
Fuller to the struggle against AIDS. The Critical Path newsletter, one of the
earliest and most comprehensive sources of HIV treatment information, was
routinely mailed to thousands of people living with HIV all over the world.
He also sent newsletters to hundreds of incarcerated individuals to insure
their access to up-to-date treatment information.

Critical Path provides free access to the Internet to thousands of people
living with HIV in Philadelphia and this region, hosted over a hundred AIDS
related web pages and discussion lists, and showed a whole generation of
activists and people living with HIV that the Internet can be a tool for
information, empowerment and organizing. He was a leader in the struggle to
maintain freedom of speech on the Internet, participating in the successful
lawsuit against the Communications Decency Act.

Kiyoshi understood science and was involved locally, nationally and
internationally in AIDS research. As both a treatment activist and clinical
trials participant, he fought for community based research, and for research
that involves the community in its design. He fought for research that
mattered to the diversity of groups affected by AIDS, including people of
color, drug users, and women.

He fought for appropriate research on alternative and complementary therapies
as well, and was the lead plaintiff in the Federal class action lawsuit on
medicinal marijuana.

In the first issue of Critical Path, published in 1989, he wrote, "it is our
conviction that . . . a heroic endeavor is now needed both to provide for the
continuing health maintenance of Persons With AIDS the world over, and, by
the year 2001 to find a cure for the ravages of AIDS for all time." That task
he set us still remains unfinished.

We will miss Kiyoshi's intelligence and the clear and even analysis he
brought to any meeting or political activity. We will miss his commitment,
and dedication to the idea that all people living with HIV should participate
in the decisions that will affect their lives. And we will miss his wit, his
smile, his sense of fun.

If you want to honor Kiyoshi, we urge you to make a donation to the activist
organization of your choice. And sometime soon, today, or tomorrow, or next
week, take the opportunity to speak truth to power, join a picket line you
might have passed by, or help plan a demonstration against global injustice
that you thought you were too busy to be involved with. He would have liked
that.

Memorial service arrangements are underway at this time and will be held the
week of May 21 to allow out of town travel.

Philadelphia FIGHT Vows To Continue Critical Path's Work

Philadelphia FIGHT, the fiscal sponsor of the Critical Path AIDS Project
today announced plans to continue the work of Critical Path. Julie Davids,
founder of Project TEACH (Treatment Education Activists Combating HIV) has
been named Interim Director of the Critical Path AIDS Project. Plans are
underway for immediate publication of the next issue of the print version of
Critical Path. Computer and Internet services are expected to continue
without interruption with present staff in place
.
"The loss of Kiyoshi Kuromiya is a tragedy for people living with AIDS and
for the AIDS community in Philadelphia and worldwide," said Jane Shull,
Executive Director of Philadelphia FIGHT. "But we will not allow his death to
end our efforts to carry out his mission of bringing timely, accurate
information to people living with HIV, through the Internet, through print
media, and through the telephone hotline.

"We share Kiyoshi's long held belief that information is power and we will
continue, in his memory, to empower people living with AIDS to take control
of their treatment. Critical Path will continue."

Davids, a respected AIDS treatment activist, was a colleague of Kiyoshi's, in
ACT UP Philadelphia as well as through Philadelphia FIGHT. She has served on
the Community Constituency Group of the AIDS Clinical Trials Group and on
many other advisory committees related to clinical research. As founder of
TEACH, Davids developed the curriculum of one of the most successful peer
education training programs in North America; TEACH has graduated over 350
treatment peer educators from an intensive 48 hour 8 week program and offers
peer education to people living with HIV at outreach sites all over
Philadelphia. TEACH's work has been recognized nationally and internationally
through poster and oral presentations at many recent scientific meetings.
Before his death, Kiyoshi met with FIGHT staff members to discuss his wishes
for the continuation of Critical Path. We promised him that the organization
will continue. We will keep that promise.

================================================================================

From: [email-masked]
Date: Fri, 12 May 2000 12:28:16 EDT
Subject: Kiyoshi Kuromiya has died of AIDS in Philly

[Copied from www.critpath.org on May 12, 2000]

<A HREF="http://www.critpath.org/">Critical Path AIDS Project--AIDS Treatment
In...</A>
Kiyoshi Kuromiya, HIV/AIDS Activist, Dies in Philadelphia

We regret to inform you that Kiyoshi Kuromiya, one of the world's leading
AIDS activists, died on the night of May 10, 2000, due to complications from
AIDS. To the last, Kiyoshi remained an activist, insisting on and receiving
the most aggressive treatment for cancer and the HIV that complicated its
treatment. He participated fully in every treatment decision, making sure
that he, his friends and fellow activists were involved with his treatment
every step of the way. He never gave up.

Kiyoshi devoted his life to the struggle for social justice.

He was a committed civil rights and anti-war activist. He was also one of the
founders of Gay Liberation Front - Philadelphia and served as an openly gay
delegate to the Black Panther Convention that endorsed the gay liberation
struggle.

As a pioneering AIDS activist, Kiyoshi was involved in all aspects of the
movement, including radical direct action with ACT UP Philadelphia and the
ACT UP network, PWA empowerment and coalition-building through We The People
Living with HIV/AIDS, national and international research advocacy, and
loving and compassionate mentorship and care for hundreds of people living
with HIV. Kiyoshi was the editor of the ACT UP Standard of Care, the first
standard of care for people living with HIV produced by PWAs.

Kiyoshi is perhaps best known as the founder of the Critical Path Project,
which brought the strategies and theories of his associate/mentor Buckminster
Fuller to the struggle against AIDS. The Critical Path newsletter, one of the
earliest and most comprehensive sources of HIV treatment information, was
routinely mailed to thousands of people living with HIV all over the world.
He also sent newsletters to hundreds of incarcerated individuals to insure
their access to up-to-date treatment information.

Critical Path provides free access to the Internet to thousands of people
living with HIV in Philadelphia and this region, hosted over a hundred AIDS
related web pages and discussion lists, and showed a whole generation of
activists and people living with HIV that the Internet can be a tool for
information, empowerment and organizing. He was a leader in the struggle to
maintain freedom of speech on the Internet, participating in the successful
lawsuit against the Communications Decency Act.

Kiyoshi understood science and was involved locally, nationally and
internationally in AIDS research. As both a treatment activist and clinical
trials participant, he fought for community based research, and for research
that involves the community in its design. He fought for research that
mattered to the diversity of groups affected by AIDS, including people of
color, drug users, and women.

He fought for appropriate research on alternative and complementary therapies
as well, and was the lead plaintiff in the Federal class action lawsuit on
medicinal marijuana.

In the first issue of Critical Path, published in 1989, he wrote, "it is our
conviction that . . . a heroic endeavor is now needed both to provide for the
continuing health maintenance of Persons With AIDS the world over, and, by
the year 2001 to find a cure for the ravages of AIDS for all time." That task
he set us still remains unfinished.

We will miss Kiyoshi's intelligence and the clear and even analysis he
brought to any meeting or political activity. We will miss his commitment,
and dedication to the idea that all people living with HIV should participate
in the decisions that will affect their lives. And we will miss his wit, his
smile, his sense of fun.

If you want to honor Kiyoshi, we urge you to make a donation to the activist
organization of your choice. And sometime soon, today, or tomorrow, or next
week, take the opportunity to speak truth to power, join a picket line you
might have passed by, or help plan a demonstration against global injustice
that you thought you were too busy to be involved with. He would have liked
that.

Memorial service arrangements are underway at this time and will be held the
week of May 21 to allow out of town travel.

Philadelphia FIGHT Vows To
Continue Critical Path's Work

Philadelphia FIGHT, the fiscal sponsor of the Critical Path AIDS Project
today announced plans to continue the work of Critical Path. Julie Davids,
founder of Project TEACH (Treatment Education Activists Combating HIV) has
been named Interim Director of the Critical Path AIDS Project. Plans are
underway for immediate publication of the next issue of the print version of
Critical Path. Computer and Internet services are expected to continue
without interruption with present staff in place.

"The loss of Kiyoshi Kuromiya is a tragedy for people living with AIDS and
for the AIDS community in Philadelphia and worldwide," said Jane Shull,
Executive Director of Philadelphia FIGHT. "But we will not allow his death to
end our efforts to carry out his mission of bringing timely, accurate,
information to people living with HIV, through the Internet, through print
media, and through the telephone hotline.

"We share Kiyoshi's long held belief that information is power and we will
continue, in his memory, to empower people living with AIDS to take control
of their treatment. Critical Path will continue."

Davids, a respected AIDS treatment activist, was a colleague of Kiyoshi's, in
ACT UP Philadelphia as well as through Philadelphia FIGHT. She has served on
the Community Constituency Group of the AIDS Clinical Trails Group and on
many other advisory committees related to clinical research. As founder of
TEACH, Davids developed the curriculum of one of the most successful peer
education training programs in North America; TEACH has graduated over 350
treatment peer educators from an intensive 48 hour 8 week program and offers
peer education to people living with HIV at outreach sites all over
Philadelphia. TEACH's work has been recognized nationally and internationally
through poster and oral presentations at many recent scientific meetings.

Before his death, Kiyoshi met with FIGHT staff members to discuss his wishes
for the continuation of Critical Path. We promised him that the organization
will continue. We will keep that promise.
----------------------------------

Michael Petrelis
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www.AIDS-statistics.com
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