Subject: Press Release: NY's Lesbian Gay Newspaper Joins HIV/AIDS Prevention Media Campaign
From: "Media" <[email-masked]>
Date: Tue, 23 Mar 1999 02:58:51 -0800

PRESS RELEASE
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
23 March 1999
CONTACT: Devin KORDT
415.255-6022 PST
Email:  [email-masked]
Web:  http://www.aggressive.org

NY's LESBIAN GAY NEWSPAPER JOINS HIV/AIDS PREVENTION MEDIA CAMPAIGN

Bi-Coastal Support for Ongoing HIV/AIDS Health Advisories in Media and Peer
Publisher Criticism of SF's Bay Area Reporter

SAN FRANCISCO, CA - March 23rd, 1999 - New York's Lesbian Gay Newspaper
(LGNY) and Aggressive AIDS Prevention, Inc. join forces today and take a San
Francisco pilot media campaign to the East coast to fight HIV/AIDS/STD
infection and bring an accountability focus to journalism and the publishing
industries.

The public service ads developed by AAP, Inc. and endorsed by the Department
of Public Health and twelve prominent San Francisco AIDS service
organization leaders, currently appear in the personal classified ads
sections of several San Francisco free newsmagazines and will be customized
for the New York community.

The ads contain life-saving information on the basics of HIV/AIDS
transmission, prevention precautions, and benefits of HIV antibody testing.
A cutout wallet size card with hotline numbers is also provided as an
invaluable resource to LGNY's bi-weekly readership of 35,000 and will launch
in a special health edition of the newspaper this month.

AAP, Inc.'s ongoing campaign targets free press publications that have
graphic personal classified ads that promote behaviors which are considered
high-risk for contracting HIV/AIDS and other sexually transmitted diseases.
Publishers are asked to run a health advisory, not as free advertising, but
as part of responsible publishing practices.

Troy Masters:  `As publisher of LGNY, the newspaper for lesbian and gay New
York and a long time community AIDS prevention activist, I applaud the work
Aggressive AIDS Prevention, Inc. has done to bring attention to the
responsibilities of journalists and publishers who write and publish
articles and advertisements.'

The San Francisco Bay Area Reporter newspaper, which publishes high-risk ads
and has unmoderated city-wide newsrack distribution, currently refuses to
provide any health advisory whatsoever, despite a request spearheaded by
AAP, Inc. and co-sponsored by leaders from community organizations such as
the AIDS Emergency Fund, Bay Area Young Positives, Black Coalition on AIDS,
California Prostitutes Education Project, Instituto Familiar De La Raza,
Inc., Native American AIDS Project, New Leaf, Planned Parenthood, Project
Inform, the Southeast Asian AIDS Prevention Project, and the SF Department
of Public Health.  The BAR is currently experiencing an `Adcott' launched by
AAP, Inc. as of March 1st, which calls for advertisers to suspend their
advertising until an acceptable advisory to balance the high-risk ads is
run.

Unlike many of the San Francisco free papers publishing such ads, LGNY
refuses to run any ads in which behaviors that are deemed unsafe are
promoted as a matter of principle.  `I will not allow personals advertising
in LGNY that solicits unsafe sex, just as I would not take an ad from a
gay-basher seeking to lure a gay man or lesbian into a sexual or private
situation. I cannot understand how an ad from a barebacker (unprotected
intercourse) is all that different.  I do not understand how the Bay Area
Reporter fails to understand this,' says Masters.

`We invite other publishers-at-large to visit our website at
www.aggressive.org to see if their readership communities can be served by
running the HIV/AIDS/STD health advisory,' says Devin Kordt, Founding
Director & President of AAP, Inc.   `We also ask HIV/AIDS preventionists to
hold publishers accountable for their content and organize locally to be
heard.'

Aggressive AIDS Prevention is a nonprofit corporation dedicated to raising
awareness of HIV/AIDS, encouraging HIV antibody testing, and promoting HIV
Negative maintenance through Media.

###

******
Mailing Address:  PO Box 26227, San Francisco, CA 94126
Telephone:  415.255.6022
******
Visit our website at:    http://www.aggressive.org

******
Subscribe to our FREE Action Alert and receive timely news via email from
the HIV/AIDS prevention front, the latest on our programs and campaigns,
updates about issues and trends impacting HIV/AIDS, and immediate
notification of new features on our website.  Visit this link to subscribe:
http://www.aggressive.org/action_alert_sign_up.htm