AIDS Activist Is ‘a Rebel Without a Clue’

To the Editor:

Michael Petrelis is not so much a menace as he is a rebel without a clue (“Michael the Menace,” July 30). He rubs elbows with rabidly anti-gay, anti-AIDS-group bigots to find someone — anyone — who will listen to his claim that AIDS charities are making their managers rich and leaving their clients in need.

In reality, the non-profit world and the philanthropic community largely ignored gay men and lesbians until AIDS came along. After some tens of thousands of us gay men died in pain and without access to basic health care, some philanthropic foundations and the U.S. Congress decided to start helping people with AIDS.

The Ryan White CARE Act and some philanthropic foundations began helping with basic assistance in health services, food, shelter, and transportation. Today, AIDS is becoming an illness that affects a different group of marginalized people: African Americans, other people of color, the very poor, and intravenous-drug users.

Mr. Petrelis could do us a favor if he would focus his noise on the many philanthropic foundations that ignore in their grant making the physical violence, employment discrimination, and lack of access to adequate health care that so many gay men and lesbians face, regardless of H.I.V. status. He would help all of us, including the new faces of AIDS, if he would bring to the public eye the Form 990 tax returns of philanthropic foundations that support the Family Research Council, the Christian Coalition, and other bigotry-based groups with which Mr. Petrelis has become so chummy.

Perhaps then Michael would have a moral high ground to go along with his soapbox.

David R. Bobbitt
Reston, Va.

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To the Editor:

I was completely shocked to see the deplorable journalism your fine publication displayed in your pieces on AIDS charities and their detractors (“Michael the Menace,” “Who Benefits From This Charity? Some Say It’s the Founder, Not AIDS Patients,” July 30).

As someone who worked for an AIDS charity for six years, I can assure you that all of my colleagues were not in it for the money. I think our organizations probably were more scrutinized than most of the non-profits I have known. In fact, our annual audit was one of the most intrusive I have ever seen. On the whole, I think AIDS organizations are held to a higher level of accountability.

Furthermore, it is beyond me how you can print the ramblings of a few unreliable detractors and bring into the equation Rep. Tom Coburn, who certainly is no friend of people with H.I.V. Your publication should stick to helping legitimate charities get the funding they need and not hit their shrinking resources by publishing such trash.

David Peters
Kapaa, Hawaii