It must be an election year. Bush partially lifts the HIV ban to the US yesterday (as pointed out to me by Kingston Andy, the guy who married me off). Good news for HIV+ people travelling to the US. Now they’re pretty much level with people who regularly travel to the US and get nervous around power-mad TSA agents.
From Andy:
…the history of this is that it was a Democrat controlled Congress that introduced the restriction in 1987 and signed into law by Ronald Reagan, and it is again a Democratic controlled congress that sponsored the new bill signed into law by Bush. There was an expectation Bush might veto this line in the overall bill, but he didnt.
Of course, back in 1987, alot of straight people including law makers were under the impression you could get HIV by sitting on a toilet or kissing
So it looks like the FFN people can take an indefinite leave. Or maybe make nice with the Church Street BIA and stop this egotistical pissing match that countermands the Pride view of unity and maybe create a street festival that would rival Folsom’s. Just a thought.
Regardless of my bitchiness, this is good news!
3 thoughts on “FFN, meet BIA. BIA, Meet FFN”
I’ve always thought that FFN was a craven cash grab, and never bought the line that it came about as a result of the U.S. ban on poz visitors.
The way I heard it was quite different, and involved a certain someone being a total dick to a U.S. customs official when questioned about the huge amount of HIV meds in his luggage, which he was bringing to Provincetown for a summer vacation on his insurance company’s LTD dime.
I have no idea how much, if any, of the above story is true, but when combined with the legal faffing-about regarding the “Folsom” name, as well as the no-show of funds promised to HIV/AIDS charities, well, it’s deeply depressing that that particular crew was the best effort put forward for a perv event in the largest city in the country.
Thanks Dan. This “feud” was the first thing I thought of when I was shown this news article. I was working at the Eagle and approached by both the FFN and BIA people when both events started up and got to listen to each other bad mouth the other in turn. It was the last straw for me in my “community” dealings. Though both are similar in their execution (99% the same vendors for both), their ends are different, of course. thanks for pointing that out.
And I’ve also been reminded that this is not a full repeal of the law. The Department of Health needs to rescind their decision as well before travel is free again.
re: FFN and BIA – that ain’t ever gonna happen.. and it’s not even an actual pissing match.
The two events are ultimately at cross-purposes: FFN is a for-profit event with a nominal contribution to a charity, while CSFF is an event to promote business for the BIA membership (which is why there’s no beer garden, but the bars are full and the street isn’t a complete mess..)
To boot, FFN has burned a lot of people/sponsors in the past couple years, which makes things much harder for them.
Dan (who has done stuff for both CSFF and FFN)