The Board of Directors of BAPHR

Since their inception in the late 1970’s, Bay Area Physicians for Human Rights (BAPHR) has granted money to many LGBT community service groups. As of their last granting cycle in November 2008, they have distributed more than $1 million to Bay Area organizations. A grant distribution ceremony was held at Davies Medical Center Gazebo on Jan. 9 where 12 organizations received funds.

“This is a big milestone for the BAPHR Foundation,” said BAPHR Board Chair Kent Sack. He explained that BAPHR was founded in 1977 by a group of gay doctors, and the Foundation, composed of a committee of physicians, was developed in 1983. The Foundation began giving grants in 1986 with a total of 242 through 2008, reaching a grand total of $1,003,539. BAPHR played a very significant role in the early epidemic of AIDS as the only organized gay physicians group in the nation. They were involved politically, socially, and also personally with their patients as they lost all their resources.

Many of the BAPHR members fell to the epidemic as well. Currently BAPHR focuses on nine Bay Area counties: San Francisco, San Mateo, Santa Clara, Alameda, Contra Costa, Solano, Napa, Sonoma, and Marin. They have three open slots on the board, and welcome people to join. Dr. Sack noted that during these times of extreme economic struggle, government funding is all but gone, and philanthropic organizations such as BAPHR depend on donors and bequests from estates. “The twelve agencies receiving funds tonight are probably the heart and soul of community services in the LGBT community,” Sack said. The following are the recipients:

“AIDS Legal Referral Panel started just over 25 years ago by a group of gay attorneys who noticed that a lot of their colleagues were dying very young from AIDS,” explained ALRP Executive Director Bill Hirsch. The Association of Gay & Lesbian Psychiatrists began in the late 1960s, when lesbian and gay members of the American Psychiatric Association met during its annual conferences. Following the APA’s declassification of homosexuality as a mental disorder in 1973, the Caucus was officially founded. A primary function of the organization is to advocate to the APA on LGBT mental health issues. The Caucus changed its name to AGLP in 1985.

Family Builders has been around since the mid-1970s as a foster care/adoption agency, and its offshoot, Pride and Joy, is the first LGBTQ foster care program of its kind in the country. Lavender Seniors of the East Bay is over 14 years old, and is headed by Dan Ashbrook, who said the funding would assist health and human service providers to expand their capacity in serving LGBT seniors.

Balentin Aguirre accepted the check on behalf of the LGBTQ youth (24 years and under) served at LYRIC. He said 90% of their youth are low income, and 75% are youth of color – working with mental health services. Christopher Berlini, on the board for New Leaf, accepted the check to help with mental health and substance abuse services for clients as well as elder care for the LGBTQ community. Leslie Ewing, new executive director of the Pacific Center, explained that the Center was started 35 years ago after a gay bashing occurred in downtown Oakland. Shortly afterwards, a group of gay men decided it was time to form a community in the East Bay. Ewing said she was on her way that evening to a fundraiser for the lesbian who was recently brutally attacked and raped in Richmond. “Thirty-five years later we’ve come a long way, but we’re still dealing with the same shit,” she said. “We will continue to provide mental health services; a safe place for youth to come to after school in Berkeley and Oakland; and peer support groups.”

Joanne Kipris, development director for Pets Are Wonderful Support (PAWS) accepted the check on behalf of PAWS’ 720 clients and their more than 900 companion animals. PAWS has existed for over 21 years providing animal care services to loving, committed individuals with HIV/AIDS and others with disabling illnesses, and they are now serving seniors. “For many of our clients, their pets are the only member of the family that they have,” said Kipris. They provide veterinary care, a food bank, in-home care such as dog walking, and advocacy for clients at risk of losing their homes because of pet issues with their landlords. John Cunningham, development director of Positive Resource Center, accepted on behalf of the 2,400 clients they service annually. He said PRC was founded 22 years ago, when it was determined that the federal government’s basic safety net for social security was not set up to assist people with HIV/AIDS. “The Employment Services Program was initially founded to assist these individuals to return to some kind of esteemable work that made them feel part of the community,” he said. “As this epidemic has progressed, we are now providing full vocational retraining and helping individuals go back to college, so they can return to the workforce.”

Receiving for the Rainbow Community Center of Contra Costa County were Youth Director Michelle Herrera and Executive Director Ben-David Barr. “The Center is located in Concord, and we appreciate BAPHR for extending the area as far away as we are,” said Barr. He thanked Dr. Sack for serving as former executive director of the agency. “The further away from San Francisco, the more oppression, discrimination, and marginalization occurs,” said Herrera. She said they have seen an increase in transgender identified youth in the last two years, so there is increased need for counseling both them and their parents in the coming out process during transitional hormone therapy and eventual surgery. UCSF AIDS Health Project Executive Director Jim Dilley received, explaining that AIDS Health Project has been in existence since 1984, responding to the AIDS epidemic. “We started out with three basic ideas: to provide professional mental health services for people with HIV/AIDS; to bring mental health and behavioral science to HIV prevention work; and to educate and train around these issues,” said Dilley. “We currently serve approximately 8,000 people a year – and two-thirds of those live under $13,000 or less a year.” Shane Snowdon, director of UCSF LGBT Resource Center, accepted, saying, “This will be the primary funding for something that has never happened in the world - a two-day forum on LGBT health issues for future health professionals of all disciplines.” That would include not just med schools but nursing, dentistry, pharmacy, public health, and social work, among others. The funds will go for scholarships to undergrads thinking about a health professional career.

Summing up the evening’s awardees, Sack said proudly, “This is the scope of what the LGBT community is moving towards!”