From: [email-masked] (Rex Wockner)
Date: Wed, 14 Sep 1994 01:14:12 -0700 (PDT)

BAJA CALIFORNIA LOCAL NEWS #6

BY REX WOCKNER

15 SEPTEMBER 1994

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ALL ITEMS COPYRIGHT REX WOCKNER AND THE GAY & LESBIAN TIMES OF SAN 
DIEGO. DO NO REPRINT IN ANY NEWSPAPER OR MAGAZINE WITHOUT PERMISSION OF 
THE AUTHOR, [email-masked].
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Tijuana AIDS Clinics Feud and Expand
 
        The AIDS clinic run by Tijuana's Municipal AIDS Committee 
(COMUSIDA) and the community group Organizacion SIDA Tijuana has expanded 
its hours to Monday to Friday from 7:30 a.m. to 1:30 p.m. and Thursdays 
from 5 p.m. to 9 p.m.
        The city's gay-community-based AIDS clinic, ACOSIDA, also 
recently expanded operations, to two nights a week, Tuesdays and 
Thursdays from 5 p.m. to 8 p.m.
        The clinics see from 14-30 patients a day.
        Meanwhile, the volunteers who run the clinics continue to 
criticize each other's services.
        ACOSIDA workers say the COMUSIDA clinic has no drugs to give its 
patients, none of whom can afford to buy them at a pharmacy.
        COMUSIDA Medical Director Carlos Diaz acknowledges ACOSIDA has 
more drugs, but charges this is because a small, clandestine program that 
funnels leftover drugs to Tijuana from San Diego (from places where PWAs 
have died) favors ACOSIDA over COMUSIDA -- due to longstanding conflicts 
between some activists involved in the drug smuggling and some people 
involved in COMUSIDA.
        Diaz counter-charges that ACOSIDA's doctors "don't know how to 
use the drugs they have."
        "Their doctors are not trained in AIDS," Diaz said last week. 
"They don't know what they're doing. It's criminal."
        Diaz said he regularly attends AIDS-update conferences at the 
University of California at San Diego (UCSD).
        A spokesman for ACOSIDA, Fred Scholl, disputed Diaz' claims.
        "(ACOSIDA's) Dr. Blancas is one hell of a physician," Scholl 
said. "He has gone through the AIDS mini-residency at UCSD Medical Center 
and he's a physician at the La Mesa penitentiary, working with their AIDS 
patients. Our woman physician has also gone through the UCSD residency 
and knows what she's doing.
        "Our Dr. Briceno was a pharmacist before he went to medical 
school," Scholl said. "He is the most-knowledgeable physician I've run 
into in Tijuana in terms of medication interactions and such. All the 
ACOSIDA doctors understand the medicines and know their use."
        Scholl counter-attacked that in the days when the volunteers from 
both Tijuana AIDS clinics used to work together at just one clinic (until 
two years ago), Dr. Diaz "regularly misdiagnosed" AIDS-related conditions.
        "Dr. Lepe, our then-medical director, had to review the cases of 
every patient Carlos Diaz worked with," Scholl said.
        The COMUSIDA clinic is on Avenida Constitucion between Calles 8 
and 9 at the city's Centro de Salud. The ACOSIDA Clinic is at 8324 Calle 
10, one and one-half blocks east of Avenida Revolucion.

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Students To Work At AIDS Clinic
 
        Law and social-work students from the University of Baja 
California in Tijuana will volunteer at the gay-community-based ACOSIDA 
AIDS clinic under an agreement reached last week.
        The students are required to do 300 hours of community service 
during their freshman year.
        Clinic spokesman Jose Navarro said they will work as counselors, 
administrators, drivers, buddies and caretakers.

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New Gay Publication In Tijuana
 
        "Sobre Cultura Gay" is a new Tijuana publication that will appear 
three times a year.
        Fifteen hundred copies will be distributed in Tijuana, Ensenada 
and Mexicali, said Jose Navarro, president of Grupo  Y Que?, the publisher.

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Tijuana Bar Starts Gay Night
 
        Diego's, a nightclub on Avenida Revolucion between Calles 4 and 5 
is now gay on Tuesday nights starting at 9 p.m.
        Tijuana has six full-time gay venues, the bars El Ranchero and El 
Taurino and the dance clubs Noa Noa, Mike's Disco-Bar, Los Equipales and 
Terrazas. Addresses are in the Gay & Lesbian Times directory.

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Gay Play Sept. 23 in Tijuana
 
        The gay-themed play "La Senora Tiene Un Rosario" will be staged 
Sept. 23 at 8:30 p.m. at Mike's Disco-Bar on Avenida Revolucion to help 
pay off debts from the June gay-cultural week sponsored by the newspaper 
Frontera Gay. Admission is $5 or 15 pesos.
        "It's a simple play about a senora and her (female) maid who are 
in love, with both characters played by men," said Frontera Gay Editor 
Max Mejia.

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Tijuana Gay Rap Group Moves
 
        Tijuana's gay-men's rap group has moved from Emilio's cafe to the 
women-sex-workers' center Vanguardia de Mujeres Libres Maria Magdalena on 
Avenida Martinez between Calles 1 and 2. 
        The group meets Thursdays from 9-11 p.m. Between 15 and 30 people 
attend.

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Tijuana Lesbian Group Starts Fall Meetings
 
        The Tijuana lesbian group Mujeres 2,000 (formerly CLIT) launches 
its autumn meetings Sept. 24 at La Capilla de Frida bookstore in the 
Plaza Fiesta shopping center in the Zona Rio neighborhood. For info, 
phone 011-52-66-88-02-67.

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Tijuana HIV+ Group Starts 7th Year
 
        The Tijuana HIV-positives' support group, Grupo de Apoyo VIH, 
enters its seventh year with a new location this fall.
        For directions to the Tuesday-evening meetings, phone 
011-52-66-88-02-67.

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Tijuana AIDS Radio Program
 
        The Tijuana AIDS talk show Programa Radio S/SIDA airs Wednesdays 
from 8-9 p.m. on XEJ-FM, 94.5. It is hosted by Dr. Carlos Diaz, medical 
director of Organizacion SIDA Tijuana.

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