AIDS Volunteer Services

usual suspect wrote:
> Rat & Swan wrote:

> > > R. Tang wrote:
> > <snip>

> > > > > > Swamp, the claim was that the gay community didn't help itself.
> > > > > > My answer is that it did, beginning with the 1980's when the plague
> > > > > > first became a major issue in the community.  Gays/lesbians didn't
> > > > > > just sit around on their butts waiting for government hand-outs;
> > > > > > they organized to help each other

> > > > > Yes, to get government hand-outs.

> > > >     This is, of course, a lie, in direct contradiction to what's 
> > > > already been presented.

> > > Unsupported claim.

> > Give it up.

> Why'd you snip what I wrote and pasted to support it?

Because it didn't address what I had already presented to show the
volunteer efforts within the gay community itself.

> Radical homosexual groups like ACT-UP formed expressly to get the 
> government to spend a lot more money on HIV/AIDS research and treatment. 
> They, and Congressional radicals from SF like Barbara Boxer and Nancy 
> Pelosi, measured "compassion" by government expenditure.

>     Deploying increasingly bold tactics such as demonstrations,
>     civil disobedience, die-ins and political funerals, ACT.UP has
>     addressed issues including more research funding, quicker drug
>     testing, AIDS prevention education, government intervention, and
>     most recently, measures to combat the disease in Africa.
>     http://www.actupny.org/video/

> Now tell me, KAREN, are they footing the bills for "more research 
> funding, quicker drug testing, AIDS prevention education, government 
> intervention, and most recently, measures to combat the disease in 
> Africa" themselves or are they demanding that of the federal government?

Yes, groups like ACT-UP (a very small minority within the vast
volunteer effort of the gay community) and others wanted money.
Everything costs money.  But that was _in addition_ to the
volunteer efforts, not instead of.  Do church food banks turn
down help from the city or private shelters for the homeless
or soup kitchens turn down help?  Not often.  But if the volunteer
organization didn't exist, there wouldn't be much for the government
to help, and heaven knows the government doesn't pay the salaries
of the volunteers. Private individuals, gay and straight, donated
(and still do) their own time and money -- lots of it.  They still
volunteer as individuals to help as individuals and as members of
private volunteer groups.  The churches help, too.

> >  Check out LA CARES, the still-existing food banks and
> > organizations in cities like San Francisco (which I know personally)

> LA Cares received public funding, including from grants.

Sure, but it was staffed by volunteers (unpaid) when I worked there.

> AIDS Services 
> of Austin always has and always will received public funding. Our city 
> council found out what happens when they even think about cutting such 
> expenditures to ASA.

> > and others like LA and New York.  All you need is to look in the
> > phone book, or check with any of the local gay resources groups.

> Most of which receive some kind of public funding -- either directly 
> from a government (like the City of Austin) or from block grants.

As do many soup kitchens, private shelters, and so on.  Don't you
think the community in general should help the poor and sick?  I'd
rather see my taxes go to help keep people alive at home than to
kill poor people overseas.  If the government didn't take so much of
my money to kill people, support agribusiness, and rape the
environment, I'd have more to give to people and animals who need it.

> > Are you by any chance a member of the Flat Earth Society?

> No, and you know better than to ask that.

I'm beginning to wonder.

Rat