From: MPetrelis@aol.com
Date: Tue, 23 Mar 1999 00:40:33 EST
Subject: I need YOU to tape a sex club meeting in SF


Dear Friends,

	When the war on gay bathhouses was waged in San Francisco back in the 1980s
and into the 1990s, no one from the gay community apparently filmed or taped
the proceedings conducted by the Department of Public Health.  

	I have asked dozens of friends if they know of anyone in the gay community
who might have attended the public meetings where health officials promulgated
a theory that bathhouses contributed to spreading AIDS among gay men, and have
visual or audio recordings from those meetings.  The answer I received was no.
Except for local TV stations present at several meetings to get footage for
news broadcasts, no gay historians with recording devices taped the meetings. 

	If they did, I would like to see their footage and hear the voices of the men
who 
spoke up back then.
	This Wednesday, March 24, at 6:00 p.m., at 101 Grove Street, third floor
meeting room, the current health director for San Francisco, and the gay
health coordinator for the health department, will host a forum about the
current policies that prohibit gay bathhouses from re-opening, but allow for
sex clubs without any private spaces to operate.  

       Many sex positive activists will be there, probably along with dozens
of employees from SF AIDS agencies, political operatives from City Hall,
reporters from the gay and straight press, and others.  The evening should be
an informative debate, not only about sex establishments, but AIDS prevention
efforts also.  Something well worth preserving.

	I think it should be recorded, but I don't have a video recorder.  Do you?
Are you able to make it to this important meeting and record it, not just for
my political purposes, but for gay history?  If you are, get in touch with me
so we can arrange for you to tape the enitre meeting, then help duplicate the
tape and donate a copy to the gay historical society.

	Don't let this opportunity to document the state of gay male sexuality and
AIDS 
education in San Francisco in 1999 slip by.  Volunteer now to record this
important 
meeting.  My phone number is 415-621-6267.

       Even if you don't own a video recorder, please show up anyway.  Help
put an end to the dishonest AIDS prevention policies of San Francisco and
insist that bathhouses be allowed to operate again.  Thanks.

--Michael Petrelis