The Conversation Starts Here

I am just now getting to checking the blog. And to my surprise what should I find, but this lovely screed by Ken Sudall:

“Just had a very rude encounter with Todd Heywood, the person – not the writer and now understand his bias, confusion and lack of compassion for any cause but his own.”

I decided rather than approve the comment, I would write a blog about it. Mr. Sudall, you see, thinks that you should be his friend on Facebook so he can try to sell you products. That is spam. but rather than accept a simple decline of his request to be a friend, so he can sell me crap, he decided to attempt to convince me I needed to be his friend so he could sell me his crap. His reasoning? Many of my friends had used his services, why shouldn’t I?

I responded:

Ken, I don’t care who you have done business with. I have not done business with you, and I m not going to “endorse” your business without having done so. Do you get it? You are spamming people. It’s inappropriate.

And his response on Facebook to this? After apologizing and saying he could not figure out how to send an email to a social media marketing person I referred him to, he then wrote:

Todd, we have a windshield application called Aquapel – go to aquapel users on facebook and check it out. I would like to offer you a free application, shake your hand and show you around.

Well to begin with, I have no need of his services. Secondly, adding him is an endorsement of his product/service. Since I have not used his produce or service. I am not willing to endorse it. Seems pretty logical to me.

Look, I get it. The guy is trying to make money in a tight economy and needs to market himself. Right on, go for it! Just don’t expect it to happen on my Facebook, or my blog. And when you harass some one to the point of going to their personal blog to post a comment, you have proven your customer service and your company are something NO ONE should work with.

For the record, Mr. Sudall, here is how spam is defined on Wikipedia:

E-mail spam, also known as junk e-mail, is a subset of spam that involves nearly identical messages sent to numerous recipients by e-mail. A common synonym for spam is unsolicited bulk e-mail (UBE). Definitions of spam usually include the aspects that email is unsolicited and sent in bulk.^{[1][2][3][4][5]}“UCE” refers specifically to unsolicited commercial e-mail.

In the future it might be wise to stop spamming others. Just saying…

I was contemplating putting the name of his company and his email address– which is an AOL account, if that indicates this man’s internet capacity and professionalism — but I decided that was simply inappropriate.

Sign the petition demanding accountability and transparency at the Lansing Area AIDS Network. You can sign the petition here.

It is time for Jake Distel to resign from the Lansing Area AIDS Network. Join me in calling for his resignation, by signing this petition.

It is disappointing to report that my calls for the resignation of Jake Distel as the executive director of the Lansing Area AIDS Network has been met with the tradition response by Distel– ignore, shame and shift blames to everyone else.

But more troubling is that in an email exchange with Board President Maxine Thome, I was made to believe I had done something wrong by publicly calling for Distel’s resignation. In that email, Thome, a person I have a great deal of respect for, made a plea for “respect.” I had to admit a very deep and troubling disappointment in this plea.

Respect is something which requires both sides to engage, dialog and explore solutions together. Sadly, as this blog has hinted at over the years, that has not been the case with LAAN. Instead, any attempt at activism and engagement has been met with silencing, shaming and defensiveness by the agency.

Respect also requires that when an agency has been presented with an in-depth series of complaints, all backed up with evidence, that the agency not promise a nebulous time frame for action. It requires immediate, forceful action. That action may be simple, like saying an executive committee meeting will be scheduled by x date to discuss the group’s next action. People deserve, in a respectful environment, to know how things will proceed, and how to participate.

Respect also dictates that ASOs engage their clients with The Denver Principles. That means the opinions, involvement and engagement of HIV positives is actively sought, encouraged and engaged. I would expand beyond that and note that ASOs have an obligation to hold board meetings which are open to the public, and publicized. The board should also be easily reached via email or phone and that information should be available on the ASOs website.

Respect also dictates openness. That means, in this era of the internet, transparency in the electronic frontier. It is not difficult to place the group’s bylaws, and minutes of meetings, policies and budgets on line. The budgets would be presented in the so-called “check book” style of transparency. Afterall, the money used by the agency is either tax dollar funds, or donations (although a vast majority of LAAN’s money is grant money, with a very small amount being raised in fundraiser). That means its our money. We should be able to see how it is being spent, month to month, and we should be able to point to a place where we know how accountable that spending is. Right now, as I pointed out yesterday, we have spent thousands in prevention efforts and we have failed on that account.

So, if LAAN would like things to be respectful, then LAAN can start the process by engaging in fundamental ways to be respectful themselves.

Following is a letter I sent to Jake Distel, executive director of the Lansing Area AIDS Network, last night. I am calling for his immediate resignation, or termination by the board, for failing to do his job. It is a sad day, but if LAAN is going to effectively combat the continuing increase in new cases, it needs leadership which understands the crisis and is willing to think outside the box. Since 2003, Ingham county has averaged 24.71 new cases of HIV a year. Since 2005, it has averaged 22.2 new cases a year. Clearly, we are failing somewhere.

If prevention were any other business model, which consistently failed to return on investment for year after year, the CEO would be fired. This situation is no different. LAAN, through its prevention arm, has failed to accomplish any meaningful decrease in new HIV cases in the county. As executive director, Distel is the CEO of the organization. It falls on him to accept the responsibility for this failure, and resign. If he does not, the Board of Directors should immediately fire him, for cause.

The question is: will the board fire him? Will Jake take responsibility? In private correspondence with me, the indications are that he will not take responsibility and will expect to continue to operate in the offensive, ineffective ways he has for years.

According to the 990s from the group, between Jake Distel and Audrey Matisoff, deputy director, account for $122,968 of the organization’s $804,885 budget in 2008. That mean two people account for one-eighth of the entire budget! The entire staff is 12 people, and costs the organization $609,839. That means two people account for 1/6th of that entire expense, while the remaining 10 people account for an average salary and benefits of $48,687.10 a person. It also only left the organization, $195,046 for all other program and organization expenses such as food pantry, medical cost and prescription assistance, emergency needs assistance all for clients, as well as office rent and prevention expenses such as materials, condoms and lube. Is there any wonder why Ingham county’s HIV rate continues to climb?

It is time for new leadership.

Here’s the letter

May 24, 2010

via electronic mail

Dear Jake,

I have done a lot of soul searching in the last 72 hours in relation to HIV prevention and addressing the HIV crisis in Ingham county. As a result, I have spent the better part of the last two days creating an intensive HIV prevention and education strategy which will marry traditional face to face outreach with social networking and internet resources. The entire program would be supported by an intensive, but simple, HIV marketing campaign — something the state and the county have never done effectively.

I will be presenting this at the meeting May 25 as a basis for discussion. It is my understanding that no immediate decisions will be made at this meeting, which is disappointing. I will be calling on LAAN and ICHD to begin an immediate process to review, evaluate and implement the strategy I am presenting.

This is only one part of what I have come to understand as an issue in Ingham county.

I have also come to the conclusion that there is something else I will have to recommend and demand at the meeting– and now. I am writing to you to provide you with advance notice of my intent so that you do not get blindsided. I will be calling for your immediate resignation, or your discharge from LAAN, as the executive director. I have arrived at this decision based on two simple, but profoundly troubling issues.

First, you are at the helm of LAAN and under your leadership, new HIV cases have averaged 24.71 annually since 2003. While there has been a downward trend with the first two years or so seeing significantly higher rates, the reality is that in the last five years alone the county has averaged 22.2 new cases a year. This year’s statistics are trending to land in exactly the same place. In addition, in the past two years, Ingham County has suffered two syphilis outbreaks, including one which is happening at this moment. In both cases, HIV was a co-infection in many of the identified cases of syphilis and it was found in the same target demographic age group of 30-39. This age category represents a sizeable number of the cases of HIV in Ingham county, yet prevention efforts, messages and programming is directed at younger people in the 13-29 age categories. Additionally, we know from many of the men involved in the HIV/Syphilis outbreak found their sexual partners on the internet.

In a March email you stated to me that the use of the internet for HIV outreach and prevention programs was “not a priority” for the Lansing Area AIDS Network. This shows a profound misunderstanding of aggressive intervention and prevention programs, as well as a dramatic failure in leadership. This statement underscores the the continuing HIV crisis in Ingham county and shows you are not capable of directing and running the programs to deliver effective, targeted prevention messages.

My second concern is that while I have been consistently offering my assistance, ideas, observations and time to assist LAAN in overcoming what I see as clear structural flaws, particularly as they related to HIV prevention and LAAN marketing, I have been met with silence, defensiveness, and being put off, never to be returned to. If you are doing this to a community leader with 20 years of media experience, how many other people are you hampering in their attempts to work with LAAN? HIV is a community problem, and it cannot be addressed by a small core of individuals, no matter how committed, who are acting without community buy-in, input and influence. This clearly is the case. Under your leadership, LAAN has shrunk, become nearly invisible in the LGBT community, disbanded client based support groups, and gutted programs such as the Buddy program and other client services.

In short, in my estimation, you have mismanaged LAAN. As a result, I am left with no other alternative but to publicly call for your immediate resignation or termination. It is not healthy to keep the management leadership in a failed business. And the statistical realities of HIV in Ingham county show, LAAN has failed in a primary purpose– prevention. Some one has to take the responsibility for this, and that some one has to be you.

Your resignation would be a bold statement to the community that LAAN is serious about addressing the HIV crisis in Ingham county.

Sincerely

Todd A. Heywood

Client Lansing Area AIDS Network

blogger/owner TheConversationStartsHere.net

As I am wont to do when slightly bored, but unwilling to get up off my duff and clean the house, I turn to state statistics and HIV. Today I decided to review the most recent reports from Ingham County. Those can be seen here.

Here’s what I found most interesting: HIV in Ingham county is an overwhelmingly WHITE, MEN WHO HAVE SEX WITH MEN disease. According to the statistics, 182 white men have HIV from MSM or MSM and IDU. That compares to 41 Black men and 13 Hispanic men. Less than 5 cases have no racial identifier, and both black and Hispanic MSM IDU’s have less than 5 cases.

Here’s something a bit more scary: age groups 13-29 represent 150 cases of HIV/AIDS in Ingham county. While the age group 30-39 represents 147 cases. The number decrease as the age bracket increases.

So what does this actually tell us? After all we had a significantly lower number of new cases this year than last (15 v. 23). But it does presage that we are failing to address the HIV epidemic in the men who have sex with men community.

I had a person here in Michigan whom I respect a great deal tell me that I was completely off base on my piece about Rea Carey, National Gay and Lesbian Task Force and the lack of HIV mentions in the State of the Movement speech. In fact, this person told me I had done Rea a great dis-service.

I try to always be direct and accurate with this blog, so this criticism from this person I respect hit home hard. So, I figured if I had done something wrong, I had an obligation to reach out and fix it. To do that, I reached out to Rea.

And I was pleasantly surprised to spend a half an hour on the phone with her Friday afternoon. Let me be clear, Rea did not feel it necessary for me to post this blog, but I feel that her perspective helps to better show the gray that is political activism in the LGBT community as well as the HIV community.

First and foremost, it is important to note that while HIV was not brought up in either this year’s State of the Movement speech, nor last year’s; Rea pointed out correctly that HIV has played a clear, concise and important front-row center role in both Creating Change events. In fact, following our conversation, she was kind enough to send me a list of programs during the conference which dealt with HIV. Here they are:

HIV As We Grow Older: Policy Needs

AIDS/HIV

Change we can believe in? LGBT equality and HIV/AIDS policy under the Obama administration

AIDS/HIV

Enhancing HIV/STD Prevention Outreach to Diverse Communities: African-Americans, Hispanics, and Men Who Have Sex with Men

AIDS/HIV

HIV and young gay and bisexual men and transgender women: Promoting Support

AIDS/HIV

Advocacy, Community Mobilization and Outreach, Participation and the Rest of the Mess in HIV Clinical Research: What’s the Deal for Populations Most Impacted?

AIDS/HIV

HIV, Race and Generational differences

AIDS/HIV

OK, that point is well taken. And what it points to, as well as the conversation I had with Rea, is that the LGBT movement has moved aside to allow the AIDS, Inc. to run the show. Now, we can all vary on the importance of allowing that to happen and the strategic importance. I happen to believe that AIDS, Inc. is not doing its job, and when the vast majority of the HIV cases continue to appear in men who have sex with men populations in this community, that the LGBT movement as a whole needs to step back up to the plate.

Rea counters, and I think with a valid perspective, that NGLTF is stepping up to the plate. It was nice to be reminded that it was NGLTF that stepped up to the plate in the earlier years of the HIV/AIDS epidemic and fought for legislation, funding and more. It was also nice to be reminded that Ms. Carey did not rise to her post in a vacuum. She rose to the post via years of street action for HIV and she was there fighting during the Reagan years when people were dropping like flies. While I was still in middle school and high school.

Where we diverge in belief, however, is that NGLTF’s activities, which are under the radar, should stay under the radar. Matt Foreman threw down the gauntlet in Detroit by declaring the community had to deal with the continuing HIV crisis among our population. Part of dealing with that crisis is also giving voice to it, not being under the radar. But again, that is my view and I don’t hold the budget strings, nor do I have the ability to direct NGLTF activities.

So in short, I have a much finer tuned understanding and appreciation for Rea and NGLTF. My frustration remains, but it is a frustration I hold for many LGBT groups in the state and the country, not just NGLTF. But Rea did something no other leader has done. When I reached out, she picked up the phone and reached back. Only by having those conversations can all of us get a better understanding of where we are going, what we are doing and what we hope to accomplish.

I had the opportunity to speak to Lansing Community College President Brent Knight this evening. We spoke about the HIV textbook controversy.

Knight said he was unaware of the controversy, even though staff from the college, including Lori Murphy, his assistant, have been fully involved in the situation since I brought it to light Jan. 13.

He said that the college has hundreds of textbooks the students use, “So in that context I wouldn’t know.”

Asked if the college had more responsibility in this case because the LCC name was on the cover, Knight responded, “That’s a legal question.”

Fair enough.

But he did express concern about the errors, stating: “The students should be updated promptly.”

He went further, noting, “you can die from Kaposi’s Sarcoma,” then stating “It should be based on science. It’s all about the science. The blindfolded scale of justice, if you will.”

Students still have not been informed that an errata has been issued on the textbook, according to a student in the class. An errata was issued by the company on Jan. 22, and The Conversation published it the same day.

Lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender activists and their allies have gathered in Dallas for the annual Creating Change Conference, sponsored by the National Gay and Lesbian Task Force. And today, Rea Carey, executive director of NGLTF took to the stage in Dallas to deliver the annual State of the Movement speech.

Let me back up a bit. This same conference came to Detroit in 2008, and it was during then-executive director Matt Foreman’s State of the Movement speech that Foreman declared HIV is a “gay disease,” and that the community members “need to own up to it.” Foreman delivered that stunning statement, overturning nearly two decades of HIV activism bent on addressing HIV stigma which is fueled by homophobia, as he was leaving the NGLTF for a new job.

Carey replaced him. And since Foreman, who one presumes was speaking for NGLTF as a whole, threw down the gauntlet and demanded the community “own up to it,” in regards to the disproportional impact of HIV on the men who have sex with men community (gay and bisexual men); one would expect Carey to have stepped into the role and taken up that gauntlet.

If you expected that– as I did– you have been sorely disappointed by Ms. Carey’s leadership.

Read the rest of this entry »

In what can only be described as fantasy masquerading as academic/scientific publishing, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in Atlanta has released a piece (pdf) looking at how the agency has responded to the HIV pandemic in the Black community in the U.S.

And while they do a fine job of putting on their rosy glasses, and as the agency is wont to do when confronted with this epidemic, spin a lovely song and dance number– the fact remains the agency’s response to the epidemic has been, from the start, pathetic.

And they spend several pages talking about all they have done to address the epidemic in the Black community, but the most stunning and most appalling fact they release is that only 4%– YES 4%– of the fed’s funding for HIV/AIDS response is spent on prevention. That number the researchers note has declined.

So, let me get this right– The CDC wants us to praise them for prevention programs which focus on those already infected, and then to be overwhelmingly excited that they spend on 4% of their budget on prevention programs directed at stopping the epidemic?  Right. Oh yeah, and half of that funding, 2%, is targeted at communities of color.

The piece claims the interventions and prevention models are successful. Really? How is that, considering 50,000 people are year being infected? How is that when here in Ingham county, we continue to see an annual increase in new cases of between 10 and 15 and have since the late 90’s? Just how exactly is THAT success? Take of the glasses, stop smoking whatever you are smoking and get with reality.

Prevention, in order to be successful, has to actually PREVENT new infections. It’s not happening. That in my book says no matter how you spin it means the programs are a failure. Period. End of story.

How about if the feds spent the same kind of money, energy and attention to the HIV epidemic that they did for the pig flu– oh sorry H1N1 Influenza. We mustn’t link it with swine, as that could hurt the swine industry.