• ▼ July 1. I M S ▼ ]»•« o u t
national news
She’s the right person
at the right time
San Francisco Mayor Frank Jordan appeased
both the Latino and gay and lesbian communities
when he appointed Susan Leal, a Latina lesbian,
to fill Roberta Achtenberg’s vacant seat on the
San Francisco Board of Supervisors. Achtenberg
resigned June 2 to join the Clinton administration
as assistant secretary at HUD. Leal (pronounced
lay-ALL) was sworn in on June 7 and will com­
plete the two years remaining on Achtenberg’s
term.
Jordan had been under pressure from Latino/as,
whose sole representative lost his bid for re-
election last year. The gay and lesbian commu­
nity lobbied Jordan equally hard, since they be­
lieved Achtenberg’s seat should be filled by a gay
man or lesbian. Leal was a choice that many from
both sides could live with.
“I am delighted to name Susan Leal,” Jordan
said in a press release. “She is the right person, at
the right time, to the right kind of job for San
Francisco. She’ll be a real asset to the Board and
more importantly to the city of San Francisco.”
Leal, 43, is the youngest daughter of Mexican
immigrants. She was bom and raised in San
Francisco. She holds a law degree from the Uni­
versity of California at Berkeley. She is also vice
president of Healthcare COM PARE Corporation,
a health-care cost-management firm she helped
found. She is currently single.
“I’m going to first of all answer to all the
people of San Francisco, but I will have a particu­
lar sensitivity to the Latina/o community and to
the gay and lesbian community,” she said at the
press conference announcing her appointment. “I
am proud of being Latina. I am proud of being a
lesbian.”
Leal worked on Capitol Hill from 1976 through
early 1981 as counsel to the House Energy and
Commerce Committee’s Subcommittee on Over­
sight and Investigations.
A political newcomer, she says she never
planned on apolitical career until a few weeks ago
when friends offered her name to the mayor for
consideration as a replacement for Achtenberg.
“I was approached for the position because
some people felt I didn’t represent different fac­
tions in the community,” she said in an interview.
“They felt I was more apt to attract a broader
cross-section of the community.”
Leal is the first openly gay or lesbian person of
color to sit on the Board of Supervisors. As for her
support in the general Latino/a community, Leal
says the notion that Latino/as are less tolerant of
sexual minorities is false and misleading.
“I think its a stereotype,” she said. “I met with
a cross-section of Latino/a groups and many of
them supported me. I’ve come across more skep­
ticism and homophobia among the white, Anglo
community. In the Latino/a community I didn’t
have people backing up when I said I was les­
bian.” Leal finds herself in a unique and challeng­
ing position. The largely Spanish-speaking Mis­
sion district has a different set of problems and
concerns than the relatively affluent Castro and
Noe Valley neighborhoods where Leal lives.
“There are a lot of common threads in the
Latina/o and gay communities,” she said. “Public
safety is important to both. Both are concerned
about the city working well, and with keeping
jobs in the city."
Lesbian and gay communities appear pleased
with Leal for the moment. She describes herself as
“a moderate Democrat.” What that means and
how it will play out in a community that considers
itself anywhere from liberal to progressive re­
mains to be seen.
“There may be certain groups that may be
unhappy with me but I think most will be happy
that I am fairly moderate and a part of the business
community,” she said.
As for the possibility of protests over her
positions, “I am prepared to face that from all
communities,” she said.
Leal cannot afford to anger many people; she
intends to run for election to her own four-year
term on the Board. She has little time to establish
her own identity with the election just two years
away. In addition, Leal is almost certain to be
directly challenged by longtime Latino/a political
activists, some of whom resent being passed over
for a relative newcomer. “I know that three or
four Latina/os will run for office,” she said. “What
I have to do is try to do some consensus-building.
I have to set myself apart as a serious candidate
not just for certain factions but reach out to the
many parts of the community.”
Meanwhile, outgoing supervisor Roberta
Achtenberg said her formal “good-bye” to San
Francisco.
“We have a very special way of doing business
in San Francisco that has already served me well,”
she said to hundreds of well-wishers gathered in
the City Hall chambers. “We San Franciscans
have participated in an unusual morality play that
played itself out on a national stage. It inspired us
and we came out looking pretty damn good.”
Later that evening Castro Street was closed to
traffic and over 2,000 people gave her a rousing
send-off at a huge street party. The following day
Achtenberg, her lover. Judge Mary Morgan, and
their son, Benjamin, boarded a plane for Wash­
ington, D.C.
Sidney Brinkley
AIDS cases up in 1993
The number of people with AIDS in the United
States surged by more that 35,000 dui .i.g the first
three months of this year, most due to a new
definition of the disease, government health offi­
cials reported.
Cases not at-
____
tributed to the
broader definition
rose
climbing 21 per­
cent, the Centers
for Disease Con­
trol and Preven­
tion reported.
“That is higher
than
we ex ­
pected,” said Dr.
John Ward, chief
of AIDS surveillance for the CDC. “Some of that
21 percent is a sign that the AIDS epidemic is
continuing to grow.” It also means that people
with HIV who have fought off illness for several
years with medication are starting to get sick.
Since 1987, patients with HIV were consid­
ered to have AIDS once they contracted blood
infections, Kaposi’s sarcoma or any of 21 other
diseases. Starting this year, pulmonary tubercu­
losis, recurring pneumonia, invasive cervical can­
cer and a significant decline in immune cells were
added as diseases indicating AIDS.
From Jan. 1 through March 31, 35,779 new
AIDS cases were diagnosed nationwide, a 204
percent increase from the 11,770 new cases dur­
ing the same period last year, the CDC reported.
Rep. Gerry Studds
and biodiversity
Congressman Gerry Studds declared the En­
dangered Species Act vital to preserving both
threatened animal species and a host of natural
medicinal agents that could yield treatments for
AIDS and other diseases. Studds introduced leg­
islation last month reauthorizing the ESA, which
is designed to protect threatened and endangered
species of plants and animals.
Studds stressed the relevance o f species diver­
sity to the search for a cure for AIDS. He cited the
recent case o f calanolide A, a potent anti-HIV
compound derived from a tree found in a Malay­
sian swamp. Laboratory tests of samples col­
lected from the tree were found 100 percent
effective in preventing the replication of the
HIV-1 virus.
On the basis of preliminary research, the Na­
tional Cancer Institute sent a team of collectors
back to Malaysia to gather more material from the
tree. They found the tree had been cut down, and
have not been able to find another one. According
to Rep. Studds, other species found in the rain
forest show similar potential. “We must act now
to be sure these species are still there when we
learn how to harness their secrets,” he said.
HIV tests for boxers
Pressure for mandatory HIV antibody testing
of professional boxers increased dramatically in
late April when British boxing authorities stripped
world featherweight champ Ruben Palacio of his
title after learning he had tested positive for HIV.
The British Boxing Board of Control announced
Palacio’s antibody status April 16, the day before
he was slated to defend his World Boxing Orga­
nization title. The fight was canceled, and Palacio
was sent home to Colombia.
A week later, the World Boxing Association
said it was considering requiring HIV tests of
boxers before all fights. “I don’t think we can
delay getting boxers tested any longer, ” said WB A
chief legal counsel Jimmy Binns. “In boxing
there is a probability, if not a certainty, that
infected boxers will infect other boxers, referees,
trainers, or people at ringside. In some of these
fights, there is blood flying everywhere, and we
have a responsibility to make sure that no one is
infected.”
Civil libertarians said mandatory HIV testing
may violate federal anti-discrimination laws, as
well as state laws in California, New York and
New Jersey, three of the states where many fights
are held. ‘Testing boxers for HIV is simply en­
couraging people to be hysterical,” said Alma
Gomez, staff counsel for the American Civil
Liberties Union’s AIDS project.
Centers for Disease Control and Prevention
spokesman Kent Taylor agreed. “There contin­
ues to be no known case of HIV transmission
through any sport anywhere,” he said.
Compiled by Beth Hyams
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