HIV advocacy groups join forces in Michigan

BRIGHTON — Leaders in the fight against HIV in Michigan from as far away as Traverse City packed into a meeting room in Brighton to discuss the formation of the Michigan Coalition of AIDS Advocates, a new HIV policy lobbying group. Those leaders were also rubbing elbows with representatives of several major pharmaceutical companies.

The goal of the new group is to present a unified voice to state lawmakers in relation to HIV issues in the state.

“This should have been done 20 years ago,” said Craig Covey, chief operating officer of the Michigan AIDS Coalition in Ferndale. “Sometimes Michigan takes awhile to get its act together.”

Covey has been at the forefront of battling HIV for 25 years. He is also the first openly gay man to be elected as mayor of a Michigan city, Ferndale in this case.

“As an individual who sits on both sides of the political divide, it’s just imperative that if we have interests, we have to advocate for them,” Covey said. “That’s how things work in a democracy.”

Jay Kaplan, staff attorney for the ACLU Michigan lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender project says the coalition is coming along at an important time.

“[Lawmakers] don’t hear enough voices,” said Kaplan, noting that the fight to remove informed consent for HIV testing showed that many legislators lacked knowledge about HIV issues. “A lot of education needs to be done.”

Kaplan was pleased with the turnout, noting that broad coalitions are the political inroad to success in relation to civil rights issues and when dealing with hot topic issues such as HIV.

“It’s important to have broad coalitions, speaking with a uniform voice,” said Kaplan.

David Munar, vice president for policy at the AIDS Foundation of Chicago, was the featured speaker at the event. His organization has for years been lobbying on HIV issues at the Illinois state house in Springfield as well as in municipalities such as Chicago proper. He advised the gathered group to address policy matters by engaging the membership of their organizations, particularly those living with HIV.

“What’s being started here is very important for addressing the HIV epidemic,” Munar said. “This kind of coalition is the only way to get lawmakers to address HIV.”

He said people living with HIV need to be part of the policy discussions, not just in meeting rooms at the local AIDS Service Organizations (ASOs) but in lawmakers’ offices.

“They need to be in conversations with policy makers to find out what their priorities and concerns are,” Munar said. “The only way they are going to be concerned about HIV is for people affected by HIV to address them with their concerns.”

Munar, who is HIV-positive himself, said that approach is easier said than done.

“[Being open about being HIV-positive] is a very personal decision. It has to be calibrated for their own safety and needs,” Munar said. He said that HIV-positive people should have the right to calibrate the degree of openness they are willing to have. Some people, he said, will be fine using their name in a newspaper article, but not appearing on television. Others will be okay talking to media outside their local news outlets, but not with the local news.

Covey noted there had been a predecessor lobbying group called HIV/AIDS Advocacy of Michigan (HAAM), but that organization required members to pay dues and ultimately as funds for HIV programming disappeared, the group shrank. Between the Lines newspaper reports the group only includes four member organizations, and two of them — The Lansing Area AIDS Network and CARES of Kalamazoo — have acknowledged interest in the new group. Both groups were represented at the Brighton meeting.

The new group will not charge membership fees. The group has been formed through the work of the Michigan AIDS Coalition policy committee. The group will continue functioning in working groups deciding how to structure its leadership as well as to determine how the group can take stands on policy issues. The group hopes to have enough funding by the second quarter of 2011 to have a lobbyist knocking on doors at the state capitol, policy committee chair Derek Smiertka said.