April 13, 2007
STORMING THE HILL
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Ready for action, 45 Housing Works clients hit Capitol Hill.
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I was so excited about the trip, I couldn’t sleep last night. —Curtis Lewis, W. 13th St. client advisory board chairman
I got on the bus this morning because nobody can speak for me better than I can. —Kiara Saint James, Housing Works Thrift Shop employee
I really got into the spirit of the awards and remembering Keith this week. What an amazing few days it has been. —Deborah Peterson Small, Recipient of the 2007 Virginia Shubert Courage AwardYou need to have a pretty good reason to get up early enough to make an 8am bus on a chilly spring morning for a four-hour ride from New York to Washington, D.C. But Curtis Lewis, Kiara Saint James, and more than 40 other Housing Works clients had one: the annual visits to Congressional offices that are an essential component of the events connected with last night’s Keith D. Cylar AIDS Activist Awards.
Those intrepid clients also had some VIPs waiting for them: last night’s awardees Gracia Violeta Ross Quiroga, Michael Rajner and Deborah Peterson Small. All three made the trip to D.C.--for Ross Quiroga, all the way from her hometown of LaPaz, Bolivia--to make Congressional stops of their own and attend a cocktail reception given in their honor by Congressman Edolphus “Ed” Towns (D-NY) and POZ magazine. The other Cylar awardee and Housing Works State Issues Organizer Mark Hayes, who passed away last week, was palpably there in spirit. “I’m raising hell today to honor Keith and Mark Hayes,” said W. 13th Street client Damon Grandison.
To read more details about Ross Quiroga, Small, and Rajner’s visit, click here.
Meet and greet (and lose the gum)
After a road trip spent watching bootleg copies of Norbit and Crank, the Housing Works contingent pulled into the Capitol around 12:30, just in time for a quick lesson from development director Robert Cordero and New York State organizer Charles Long about Capitol Hill etiquette—lose the gum before your meetings, shake hands firmly—and a talking-points refresher.
The crew then split up into four groups to make an amazing 47 Congressional visits, including the entire New York and Mississippi delegations and all foreign relations and appropriations committee members. They completed this feat in an incredible two hours.
“It’s a lot of work, but forcing elected officials and their representatives to sit and listen to people living with AIDS and HIV is the best way to make the need for universal access to prevention, treatment, services and real to them,” said Charles King, Housing Works CEO and president, who went on several of the visits with awardees.
Folks were eager to share their personal stories and speak with legislative staffers about supporting the Early Treatment for HIV ACT (ETHA), increasing funds for the Housing Opportunities for Persons with AIDS (HOPWA) and universal access to health care.
During a visit with Denise Mixon, Rep. Towns’ deputy chief of staff, Saint James drove home the importance of housing and treatment by sharing her own story of overcoming drug addiction, homelessness and dealing with HIV as a transgender woman. Saint James, who has been with Housing Works for a decade, now works in the Thrift Stores warehouse and has become a fierce advocate. Mixon listened respectfully to Saint James and others and asked numerous questions about Housing Works programs.
“Meeting with [Mississippi Rep.] Bennie Thompson’s legislative assistant Karis Gutter made my day,” said Charles Waters, a client since 2003. The smooth talking Waters spoke with Gutter about the importance of housing and medical access for all HIV-positive individuals. “He sat us down like we were family. He was very humble, hospitable and knowledgeable. He said his office is 100 percent supportive of our needs. It was the best part the day.”
“The visits went really, really well,” said Christine Campbell, Housing Works director of national advocacy and organizing. “We met senators who were wiling to sign off on ETHA, reps who were willing to sign off on HOPWA. Some offices hadn’t heard about either piece of legislation! They were willing to take in the information and learn.”
A warm reception
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Charles King, Ross Quiroga, Small and Rajner with a picture of Hayes at the reception.
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One thing that helped the Cylar Awardees, clients and Housing Works staffers get through the long day? Knowing that a swank reception awaited them at the Rayburn House Office Building that evening.
Some 120 people attended, checking out tables strewn with New York City condoms and Keith Cylar photo buttons as they sipped cocktails and feasted on hors d’oeuvres. Campbell, Cordero and King all made speeches, then Pat Bass, project director for the President’s Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief and an old friend of Keith Cylar’s introduced Ross Quiroga, Rajner and Small who gave lively speeches about their work. (Bass filled in last minute for POZ editor in chief who, sadly, had to cancel due to illness.)
“It’s an honor to be here,” Bass said. “All the activists who are receiving awards represent Keith’s spirit. He was always there for people without a voice, as they are.”
Rajner spoke out about the importance of access to treatment, needle exchange and ETHA legislation in post-Katrina Florida. Ross Quiroga said how impressed she was by Housing Works and that the organization is proof that grassroots groups can make big changes. Small raised powerful questions about the absurdity of criminal drug charges compared to punishments for white collar crimes and spoke about how honored and humbled she was to receive an award named for her friend Keith Cylar.
The room was silent during a video about Cylar’s legacy and another that honored the memory of Mark Hayes. “We’ve lost another champion,” said Bass, of Hayes. “This makes us remember that this disease isn’t over and we have to keep fighting.”
On the road again…
The day was not over for the busload of road-trippers, who had a four-hour ride back to NYC, but the journey was clearly worthwhile.
“I used to do a lot of advocacy work with Mark Hayes in Albany. Today I feel like I picked up where I left off,” Grandison said.
Lewis, for one, couldn’t wait to do it all over again. “This was my first time doing this kind of advocacy and I plan to come back many times. It’s important to me to give something back. Housing Works has been life saving for me.”
Help us achieve our goal of raising $3 million for the Keith D. Cylar Activist Fund. To learn more about the fund and make a donation, click here.