Î U * ï
K’iu ¡i i ; ivi ^iinew s
gay Portlander was among 26
people appointed to the 35-
member Presidential Advisory
Council on H1V/A1DS in Ja n
uary. The only problem: N o President Bush appoints gay Portlander to embattled HIV/AIDS panel
body knows who be is.
by Jim R ad o sta
The Log Cabin Republicans described
James P. Driscoll as a “longtime A ID S
had just disappeared,” he says. “It was like
activist.” But Thomas Bruner, Cascade
driving around a cemetery.”
A ID S Project executive director, told Just
Out he never has met, done business with
Driscoll got involved in A C T UP and
began writing newspaper opinion pieces
or heard of him during his three years in
attacking the FixxJ and Drug Administration’s
Oregon or his 15 years in HIV work.
slow approval process. He also formed coali
The mystery comes at a time when
tions with cancer and Alzheimer’s disease
critics are accusing President Bush of
patients who felt the same way.
stacking the council with unqualified
A big dispute concerning protease in
campaign contributors and other peo
ple with little or no background in
hibitors divided the A ID S community in
1996. Driscoll opposed “extremely consumer
H IV /A ID S public policy or science.
protectionist” activists who wished to con
Most of the attacks are aimed at the
duct more thorough testing, and “obviously
co-chairman, former U .S . Rep. Tom
our side won.”
C oburn, R -O kla., who once called
“ Protease inhibitors came out faster
for the firing o f the Centers for Disease
than virtually any drugs have come out
C on trol and Prevention director
since, I think, penicillin,” he says. “As
because the agency promotes condom
soon as they came out, the death rate
use.
began to drop dram atically...about 75 per
Bush— whose budget reflects a $33
cent overall.”
million increase over 2002 to fund absti
nence-only education— also selected
In 1997, legislation finally passed to reform
the FDA. “I was, I think, one of the leading
several people who oppose safe-sex prac
people in the AIDS community pushing for
tices. Among them were Rashida Jolley, James P. Driscoll says the A ID S epidemic in Africa, if
that,” Driscoll says.
2000 Miss District of Columbia, and ignored, will have “ major” geopolitical consequences
He spent the next few years lobbying on
Dandrick Moton. a 25-year-old whose
behalf of Log Cabin to increase funding for
background in H IV/AIDS policy consists of
o who is Jim Driscoll? After multiple calls
traveling with his mother as dual motivation
to the White House and Log Cabin Repub the A ID S Drug Assistance Program, which
helps patients who don’t have private insur
al speakers encouraging kids to save them licans, Just Out finally was able to contact the
5 5-year-old— and it turns out he’s an outspo ance and are not on Medicaid. “This program
selves until marriage.
is particularly appealing to Republicans
ken critic of the abstinence-only approach.
Maureen S. O ’Leary, G ay and Lesbian
it
enables
“While I’m an Oregon voter and resident because
M edical A ssociation executive director,
patients to continue on
says this approach further will marginalize at-
there, I’ve never really been involved in the
risk queer and questioning youth. “The pro Oregon AIDS scene,” he says, explaining his the job, paying taxes,
being self-sufficient with
low profile. “So in some sense I’m sort of an
gram emphasizes abstinence until marriage
out having to go on wel
when marriage for them is not relevant.”
outsider.”
fare to get drugs.”
Driscoll was horn in Neosho, Mo., and
Adding to the controversy was Secretary
Driscoll says he left
moved to Oregon when he was 3. He gradu
of State Colin Powell’s appearance Feb. 14 on
ated from Tigard High School; studied philos Log C abin during the
M TV in which he expressed support for
ophy at Whitman College in Walla Walla, spring of 2000 when a
condom use. The anti-gay Family Research
Wash.; and earned a Ph.D. in English from “significant split” arose
Council immediately slammed his “reckless”
with supporters of U .S. Sen. John M cCain,
University o f Wisconsin in Madison.
remarks
and
dem anded
presidential
R-Ariz. “ I sided with the Bush people, and
He has worked as a real estate investor and
punishment.
has written hooks applying Jungian psycholo that sort of led to the agreement that we
Meanwhile, Powell found an unlikely ally
gy to literary criticism of William Shake would he terminating our relationship at the
in C h ad Johnson, N ation al Stonew all
speare and John Milton. But how does this end of the year.”
Democrats executive director. He made light
He now works as federal affairs adviser for
make him qualified to serve on a national
of the mixed messages coming out of the
the
National AIDS Treatment Advocacy Proj
H
IV
/A
ID
S
advisory
panel?
White House.
Driscoll didn’t become an activist until ect, which fcKuses on education along the East
“ 1 would trade Secretary Powell for most of
the late 1980s. He was living in San Francis Coast. He also has been involved during the
Bush’s new appointees to the presidential
past year with the AIDS Healthcare Founda
co, and two of his closest friends had AIDS.
A ID S council,” Johnson says. “ It appears that
tion, the largest provider of treatment in the
“ I remember what the Castro was like at
he, unlike the majority of the council, under
that time— how dreadful it was to be where so United States.
stands that ignorance does not effectively
Driscoll especially is interested in efforts to
many people were getting sick and dying or
protect against HIV transmission.”
G ood A dvice ?
S
0 M t |11
address the international epidemic. He spent a
month in South Africa last Christmas and
describes the “utterly horrendous situation” in
some areas where the HIV infection rate for
people between 18 and 45 is at 40 percent.
“It’s like...the Castro district was in the
1980s,” he says. “And they’re faced with
something much worse, because they can’t
get treatment.”
Driscoll says U .S. indifference will hurt
race relations and predicts the ultimate
geopolitical consequences here will be
“major”— even worse than terrorism. “When
South Africa implodes— which many people
think it will as a result of just tremendous
numbers of deaths that are coming in five to
10 years— it’s going to have really negative
implications for the whole of Africa, which of
course faces the same problem as South
Africa.”
riscoll says the council did not convene
in 2001 because the disputed 2000 elec
tion slowed down the appointment process. It
will come together three or four times this
year, with the first meeting scheduled for
March 14 and 15.
He admits some o f the appointments were
controversial but thinks they potentially
have “a lot of clout. It’s not like a milquetoast
sort o f council which won’t offend anybody
but also won’t be able to do anything.”
Driscoll says if they address concerns such
as HI V/hepatitis C coinfection— a huge prob
lem in the African American and Hispanic
communities— “the administration will have
to listen.” He also doubts the abstinence-only
argument is going to succeed.
“The council is not
going to come out with a
position that abstinence
is the only type of preven
tion,” he says. “A bsti
nence is...if it can be
practiced...a highly effec
tive prevention strate
gy... but that’s not the
only approach that we
should be using for prevention.”
Driscoll, who is single, moved back to
Portland three years ago. But because of his
busy schedule and the increased difficulty of
flying, he now spends most of his time resid
ing in Alexandria, Va.
As a gay Republican, he sees the party
becoming more inclusive of gay appointees
but wishes things would speed up. “At this
stage, you have to go slowly and carefully so
that you don’t deliberately or inadvertently
antagonize the right, because that could be
counterproductive.” JH
"The council is not going to
come out with a position
that abstinence is the only
type of prevention"
— James P. Driscoll
O P EN 2 4 H O U R S
DVD VIDEO M AGAZINES TO YS
N O VELTIES LO TIO N S AND MORE...
M U LTI-C H A N N EL A R C A P E WITH VO YEU R G L A S S
2330 S .E . 82ND AVE
PORTLAND 503-777-6033
237 S.E. MLK BLVD
PORTLAND 503-239-1678
3473 SILVERTON RD N.E.
SALEM
503-370-7080