Condoms

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Imagine walking into a bar and seeing the usual baskets of toothpicks, breath mints, business cards and condoms.

Why condoms? It’s the law.

West Hollywood is developing a plan that would require mandatory condom distribution in the city’s 28 “high-risk” bars, nightclubs and adult establishments. If approved by the City Council, it would be the first such measure enacted in the nation.

West Hollywood has provided condoms as part of a voluntary distribution project for years, but officials call compliance “abysmal” and are looking to increase the efficiency of the program by making it mandatory.

While many in the gay community support the theory behind the proposed legislation, some expressed outrage at the prospect of further government intrusion and the discrimination they feel is inherent in the mandate.

“I think all the bars in the city should be forced to carry them,” said Vincent Gioiella, owner of 7702, a bar on Santa Monica Boulevard. “It’s not just a gay disease anymore. I see a lot of straight kids who are very crazy and taking chances.”

West Hollywood has an AIDS case rate more than twice that of any other part of Los Angeles County, according to the AIDS Healthcare Foundation. Advocates report an alarming sense of invincibility among young gay men, some of whom believe that advances in AIDS drug therapy make them less vulnerable should they become HIV-positive.

“The younger generation didn’t face the deaths of the ’80s,” said Mayor Pro Tem Jeff Prang. “This crisis has not ended and if we don’t take preventative steps, we will have another wave of people dying.”

The City Council voted earlier this month to develop a plan for mandatory condom distribution overriding a recommendation by the city’s Staff & Human Services Commission to keep the program voluntary. If the plan receives final approval, the mandatory distribution program could begin in October.

The city would pay for the condoms and the cost of the program would be minimal, Prang said. Two varieties would be distributed: a single condom that costs the city 8 cents, and a 20-cent packet with lubrication and HIV prevention information. There would be no cost to the bar owners or patrons. The city hopes to distribute 250,000 condoms annually, far more than the 36,000 handed out under the voluntary program.

While specifics of the distribution plan are still being worked out, advocates envision that enforcement would be similar to the way businesses comply with the smoking ban that is, by having random checks and fines for non-compliance.

But some West Hollywood bar and club owners see it as an unnecessary and potentially dangerous intrusion.

“Who’s going to be coming into the bars (to check for condoms) and how open-minded are they?” asked Gioiella. “They don’t come in here like storm troopers with flashlights like they used to, but what about the potential for harassment?”

Others claim that enforcement of the plan would create a kind of gerrymandering based on sexual orientation, in which some groups of businesses would be checked for condom distribution and others would be ignored.

“How would it work? The Abbey (coffeehouse) would have the ordinance, but the corporately owned Starbucks wouldn’t?” asked Michael Niemeyer, owner of Micky’s, a West Hollywood bar. “Micky’s would have it, but corporately owned House of Blues, which has a gay night one night a week, wouldn’t? You can pick on businesses that are perceived as unpalatable.”

The city believes that focusing the mandatory distribution effort at gay business would do the most good. But a mandatory distribution policy for gay bars only may be on shaky legal ground, according to local civil rights attorneys.

“You’re talking about a big-time constitutional matter,” said attorney Gail Kaplan. “From a civil rights standpoint, it’s a form of discrimination.”

Niemeyer said he is organizing an effort among business owners to oppose the mandated program.

“We want to fight the city on this one, and say that this is a disease of everyone, not just gay men,” Niemeyer said. “If it’s citywide and every bar and every business is to participate, then I’m in favor of it.”

But a citywide distribution initiative is unlikely, officials said.

Earlier this year, the AIDS Healthcare Foundation secured enough signatures for a ballot measure that would have required the city to implement a comprehensive condom availability program.

But Prang asked the foundation to hold off on the measure not able to envision condoms being offered alongside Happy Meals at McDonald’s.

“It wasn’t really reasonable and prudent from a public policy point of view,” Prang said. “We concluded that the places in West Hollywood which primarily target young gay men are not doing a good job in participating in the public education campaign. One thing we wanted to make sure is that, if you’re in a nightclub on Santa Monica Boulevard and if you’re drunk and you’re picking somebody up to go home, you will have the basic component of safe sex at your disposal. You can grab a condom on your way out the door.”

West Hollywood city officials said it became increasingly clear that the voluntary distribution program wasn’t working.

Ged Kenslea, a spokesman with the AIDS Healthcare Foundation, said one bar in West Hollywood kept the plexiglass container meant to store condoms behind the bar filled with cut limes.

“One bar owner said he didn’t want to put them out because he didn’t want to offend his customers,” Prang said. “To say I was angry would be an understatement. But we don’t legislate based on anger, we do it on what makes sense. I believe that we’re in the middle of another public health crisis and we have to respond as expeditiously as possible in order to save as many lives as possible.”

Several bar owners who participate in the voluntary program disagreed with the contention that they have been lax in their efforts.

“I keep them on the bar at all times,” Gioiella said. “I put them out and I turn around and they’re gone. If one or two kids get the message, then we’ve saved somebody.”

Officials with the Stop AIDS Project, an education group in San Francisco, said that mandating condom distribution in West Hollywood might not be the best way to go. Stop AIDS works on a voluntary distribution program with 80 vendors in the San Francisco area and believes that working with businesses will give AIDS prevention programs more impact throughout the community.

“We prefer to build relationships with merchants and see how that proceeds,” said Stop AIDS spokesman James Nguyen. “It’s much better when the community gets involved and is much stronger than if distribution is mandated from some government body.”

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