Frank Oldham has worked in the field of HIV for nearly two decades in cities ranging from Los Angeles to Chicago to his native New York, where he headed the office of HIV/AIDS under Mayor Michael Bloomberg. Earlier this year, he took on the challenge of serving as executive director of the National Association of People With AIDS ( NAPWA ) . Here are excerpts from an exclusive interview.
The Job
'NAPWA is the oldest AIDS organization in the United States. It's the mother of all the organizations, and right now it is in jeopardy because it has lost a lot of funding. It is critical that the voice of people living with HIV and AIDS [ adhere to ] the Denver Principles: that people with HIV and AIDS are involved in every single stage of planning, service delivery, prevention, care, and housing— [ and ] continue to be heard.'
Racism and Homophobia
'Racism and homophobia—homo-hatred—are the two issues that really impact people living with HIV/AIDS. Being an African-American gay man, you can feel both of them. You can see how people fall through the cracks.
'AIDS is a civil-rights issue. I keep tying it back to two films, Brokeback Mountain and Crash, because those are the issues [ of homophobia and racism ] where I think that American society tends to normalize a lot of pain.
'We often hear that AIDS was a white gay man's disease, and now it is a disease of people of color. Well, there is truth in some of that and dangerous myths in other parts of it. More than 250,000 gay men of all colors have died, from the beginning it has been gay men of all colors.
'The term white gay men is used to be divisive. We need to call that for what it is—a dangerous, divisive term. It is gay men of all colors.
'If you had to have a color attached to the epidemic, it is lavender. It's gay men who are white, gay men who Latino, gay men who are Asian, and gay men who are Black. The epidemic is still lavender.'
Black Women
'The other giant catastrophe that has occurred is that for African-American women, ages 25 to 44, AIDS is the number one cause of death. And there is not one demonstration in the street about that. It is unconscionable. One of the things that we are going to do at NAPWA, there will be a march of Black women on the Capitol, Mother's Day 2008, right before the election.
'People need to understand that never again should vice presidential candidates of either party not know that AIDS is the number one cause of death for African American women [ as happened during the televised 2004 vice-presidential debate. ] '
The CDC
'They are in a difficult position; CDC sometimes cannot say to Congress [ that ] this is what we need, but the community needs to be able to say that. That is why events like AIDSWatch and NAPWA are so important, because we must continue to be on Capitol Hill saying to congressmen, CDC cannot afford a 4% cut like it had this year. That's unconscionable.'
Medicalization of Prevention
'I'm swimming against the tide; I understand that is the reality. Community-based organizations are invaluable, and they need to have a close association with or actually incorporate HIV primary medical services. That is what I would do as a strategy. If you look at the L.A. gay and lesbian center, where I was managing director for a year, they have medical services. That kind of merger should start to occur.
'… In a society as rich as ours, where we don't have universal healthcare, we have to sit here and talk about [ things like if ] we take care of someone's mental health; substance abuse issues; and issues of identity and self-esteem. Or give them a pill so that their body does not die. They are all one.
'The Ryan White CARE Act must be reauthorized at $2.56 billion a year. We must have that amount to be sure that we have the strong infrastructure that we need to save people's lives.'