June 29, 2007
PRIDE—AND HASA—FOR ALL
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Housing Works mixed Pride with politics |
Proud to be homeless?
Proud to be sick?
Proud to do nothing?
Those were some of the rhetorical questions printed on the slick T-shirts, banners and fans promoting the theme of last Sunday's Housing Works Gay Pride contingent: universal access to HIV prevention, treatment, care and support for homeless and poor people with HIV. "Pride means loving ourselves as LGBT people," said Housing Works' openly gay president and CEO, Charles King. "It also means taking care of our brothers and sisters with HIV/AIDS in need of assistance."
The 60-something members of the Housing Works group, which was celebratory because of or in spite of the highly political theme, also put the word out about openly gay City Council Speaker Christine Quinn's refusal to support and lead the HASA for All campaign, handing out more than 2,500 hand fans with information criticizing her inaction. HASA for All seeks to extend full HIV/AIDS Services Administration (HASA) housing, nutrition, transportation and other benefits to asymptomatic low-income and homeless people with HIV. Currently, indigent people with HIV must progress to an AIDS diagnosis in order to get full assistance.
"I know people whose T-cells aren't low enough to get HASA, but they're too sick to work," said Frederick Taylor, a former Housing Works client who now works at the 23rd Street Thrift Shop and served as one of Housing Works' parade marshals. "They're caught in a limbo and that makes their lives very hard. Gay Pride is an important time to make a stand for those folks."
The raucous Housing Works Pride group marched down Fifth Avenue with a flatbed truck equipped with two thumping subwoofers and decked out in rainbow flags and colorful banners pushing for universal access. The contingent was one of dozens of AIDS groups marching, including GMHC, one of the largest organizations supporting HASA for all. As he marched behind GMHC's pride banner, Chief Operating Officer Robert Bank said he admired the anti-Quinn hand fans and was glad to see Housing Works putting out the word about HASA for All. "We hope we'll be able to convince Christine that this is a wise way to spend city dollars—she's been a great ally but we need to show her that housing prevents HIV transmission," Bank said. "We have the data to support that."
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Housing Works client Rodriguez brings glamour to Pride |
Coco Chanel Rodriguez, a transgender client who has been coming to Housing Works for ten years, put the HASA situation more simply: "It's not fair," she said. Rodriguez, resplendent in a form-fitting formal cocktail dress and rainbow umbrella, was in attendance with her chosen family: partner Louis Rodriguez and son Jesse Lee. "I love Gay Pride because it's not about age, or gender, or sexuality. It's about everyone coming together," Coco said.
Louis agreed. "It's about family—we're all family today."
If your organization would like to sign on to a letter supporting the HASA for All campaign, contact Derrick Chandler at chandler@housingworks.org.