Audio Interview, Michael Beatty, July 6, 2012
- EVELYN BAILEY: There we go.
- Mike, were you born in Rochester?
- MICHAEL BEATTY: No, I'm from Detroit.
- EVELYN BAILEY: Oh.
- MICHAEL BEATTY: Originally.
- But I moved here from just south of Syracuse.
- EVELYN BAILEY: OK.
- And what brought you to New York?
- I mean--
- MICHAEL BEATTY: The job at AIDS Rochester did, actually.
- I was in nursing in a hospital just south of Cortland,
- and I had two friends who died from AIDS.
- And so I volunteered at the Southern Tier AIDS Program
- and ended up getting on their board of directors,
- and heard that there was a change in leadership
- at AIDS Rochester from the executive director
- of the Southern Tier AIDS Program.
- And so one thing led to another.
- And the next thing you know, I was packing my bags
- and moving to Rochester for the job.
- EVELYN BAILEY: Wow.
- KEVIN INDOVINO: What year was that?
- MICHAEL BEATTY: That was in 1990.
- EVELYN BAILEY: And that change in leadership
- was from Jackie to Paula.
- MICHAEL BEATTY: Correct.
- EVELYN BAILEY: So you were here at the beginning of Paula's--
- MICHAEL BEATTY: Paula started two weeks before I did.
- EVELYN BAILEY: OK.
- Can you give us a picture of what the climate was
- like at that point in terms of AIDS
- being on the increase, funding the position
- that the agency had in terms of providing services?
- MICHAEL BEATTY: Sure.
- We were located on Chestnut Street at the time
- and had a small staff of about maybe twenty.
- Funding was just starting to get momentum from New York State.
- As you know, in 1983 is when AIDS Rochester was founded,
- and some money was being released.
- But as the AIDS epidemic started moving outside
- of New York City and Upstate, funding increased nicely
- over the years.
- Back then, I remember during my interview
- the ACT UP in Rochester had a few members,
- and they were doing some protesting
- around town for more services and more needs
- for people with HIV and AIDS.
- And I think, also, concurrently at that time,
- Dr. Valenti was preparing to open up his clinic, Community
- Health Network.
- And coincidentally, right after I
- began working at AIDS Rochester is when CHN opened its doors.
- Back then, when people became infected,
- we did a lot of crisis management with people,
- because usually, within six months to a year,
- they were dead.
- So it was a lot of end of life.
- A lot of supporting staff who were helping people--
- young, healthy people-- who became ill very quickly
- and died.
- We had a house at the time, a duplex house,
- here in Rochester called the ARIES house,
- and we were able to house six people there
- to help them sort of offset the high cost of housing.
- And that was a wonderful thing.
- EVELYN BAILEY: Can you tell us where that was?
- MICHAEL BEATTY: That was on Hayward Avenue,
- right behind the bus garage where RTS is on Main Street.
- EVELYN BAILEY: OK.
- MICHAEL BEATTY: It was right behind there.
- EVELYN BAILEY: At the time, did you have funding?
- MICHAEL BEATTY: Yes.
- EVELYN BAILEY: I mean--
- MICHAEL BEATTY: We did.
- We did.
- There were some issues with the transition in leadership
- around the state re-investing in AIDS Rochester
- because of some things I really can't
- get into for legal reasons.
- EVELYN BAILEY: Right.
- MICHAEL BEATTY: But we were able to, within six months
- to a year, reestablish our credibility with New York State
- and become pretty solid with the funding.
- EVELYN BAILEY: Did you ever lose funding in that transition?
- MICHAEL BEATTY: We did not.
- EVELYN BAILEY: And was it from New York State,
- or was it from the Fed?
- MICHAEL BEATTY: It was all New York state funding, primarily,
- and local donations.
- I think some foundations had invested in AIDS Rochester.
- We weren't yet a United Way agency.
- Paula and I, soon after starting,
- became friendly with United Way, and we started
- getting funding from them.
- EVELYN BAILEY: OK.
- Do you remember when federal funding started?
- MICHAEL BEATTY: That was probably in the mid-90s
- when housing opportunities for people with AIDS
- became available through HUD, and that
- was pass-through money.
- New York state handled some of the money and the city
- of Rochester handled some of the money,
- so we were able to get money for Monroe County
- and also money for the rural areas that we served.
- EVELYN BAILEY: Was HPA in full swing?
- MICHAEL BEATTY: HPA was in full swing then and going
- to Dining for Dollars.
- They were very, very helpful and generous to us
- in those early years.
- Very supportive.
- And Jeff Koss was our first development director,
- so he was very closely affiliated with Helping People
- with AIDS.
- EVELYN BAILEY: Right.
- Do you remember who was in charge of HPA?
- Besides Jeff's involvement, was it Tony Green?
- MICHAEL BEATTY: Tony Green was--
- I don't know if he was in charge of it,
- but he was certainly high up on the ladder with them.
- Tony was also on our board at AIDS Rochester.
- In fact, we named our housing services, and to this day
- it's called green house services.
- EVELYN BAILEY: Right.
- MICHAEL BEATTY: Green housing services.
- EVELYN BAILEY: Talk to us a little bit about Tony.
- MICHAEL BEATTY: Oh, Tony.
- Well, Tony was pretty larger than life
- in terms of his community involvement.
- He had, I think, once been a bar owner
- or a bartender here in town, and he knew everybody.
- He was like the mayor.
- And unfortunately, he was HIV positive also
- and went through a lot of health issues because of that,
- but never really lost his drive and his advocacy
- for people with HPA and with housing services,
- and stayed active with AIDS Rochester
- right up until the end.
- In fact, I believe Paula was with him shortly
- before he died, or the day before.
- EVELYN BAILEY: Yes.
- Yeah.
- MICHAEL BEATTY: Yeah.
- EVELYN BAILEY: Larger than life.
- MICHAEL BEATTY: Indeed.
- Indeed.
- EVELYN BAILEY: Can you say a little bit more about that--
- MICHAEL BEATTY: About Tony?
- EVELYN BAILEY: --experience?
- MICHAEL BEATTY: Tony was his own ACT UP.
- He wasn't politically correct.
- He was not shy about telling people exactly what he thought.
- One of his things was if people didn't
- put AIDS in all capital letters, he became vocal about that.
- He was a friend to everyone.
- He was a big softy on the inside,
- but hard as nails on the outside.
- EVELYN BAILEY: Yeah.
- Jim Black?
- MICHAEL BEATTY: Jim Black was also on our board at that time.
- And Jim was involved at the Forum quite a bit
- and did a lot of fundraising through the Bachelor Forum
- and with HPA also, and was a good friend to AIDS Rochester.
- EVELYN BAILEY: Yeah.
- Share with us a little bit about your own--
- MICHAEL BEATTY: I get teary talking about Tony.
- I'm sorry.
- EVELYN BAILEY: Yeah.
- MICHAEL BEATTY: I still miss him.
- EVELYN BAILEY: I know.
- He was a incredible human being.
- MICHAEL BEATTY: He really was.
- EVELYN BAILEY: Talk to us a little bit
- about your own reactions, your own sense or reason
- why you had two friends that died from AIDS.
- What did you find here in Rochester
- in terms of community, in terms of people who were connected
- to the AIDS crisis?
- How did that impact you?
- MICHAEL BEATTY: Well, I had a lot to compare it to.
- You know, being involved with the Southern Tier AIDS
- Program, which was in Binghamton,
- a much smaller community than Rochester--
- and when I came here, comparing the two,
- Rochester seemed to be leaps and bounds ahead.
- They had an organized fundraising committee, made up
- of mostly gay men who were throwing
- these fabulous fundraisers, raising hundreds of thousands
- of dollars for community agencies.
- And the spirit of the town, in terms
- of not only the gay community but others, was very involved.
- Very, very vocal and wanted to get more done.
- You know?
- Very impatient, and rightfully so.
- There were so many things happening
- that it was really hard to stay ahead of anything.
- And I'll never forget the day that Magic Johnson
- came out and said that he was HIV positive.
- We answered our hotline at AIDS Rochester until almost midnight
- that night, people calling.
- And it really put a face on AIDS,
- where there was fear and sort of people pushing away and saying
- it's only a gay man's disease.
- It doesn't really affect me.
- It suddenly did.
- And I remember Jeff and Paula and I and some
- of our prevention staff were there
- talking to people well into the night about their fears
- around HIV infection.
- It was really quite a night.
- EVELYN BAILEY: Wow.
- MICHAEL BEATTY: And then, of course,
- when Rock Hudson was on the cover of,
- I think, People Magazine as having died of AIDS,
- that, again, generated a lot.
- It was also good for fundraising.
- It was good for-- people started giving money, because it really
- put a face on this, that it was somebody else's problem.
- Rock Hudson and Magic Johnson, these two celebrities
- that sort of helped people know that it affected them too.
- EVELYN BAILEY: It was OK for them
- to share their experience--
- MICHAEL BEATTY: Right.
- EVELYN BAILEY: --because of these--
- MICHAEL BEATTY: Yes.
- EVELYN BAILEY: --figures who were so--
- MICHAEL BEATTY: Yes.
- EVELYN BAILEY: --much in people's vision, sight.
- MICHAEL BEATTY: The other thing that I remember
- loving and feeling so connected to here in Rochester
- that I had not heard of before was Street Outreach.
- And we had a staff member named Toni Obermeyer.
- Don't know if you remember Toni.
- EVELYN BAILEY: I do.
- MICHAEL BEATTY: Another larger-than-life person
- in the fight against HIV.
- And she was a pioneer with Street Outreach programs.
- She had been exposed to one in New York City.
- And I remember it was probably--
- I started in February, and I believe
- it was in the summer, my first summer,
- she took me out on Street Outreach.
- And we went on Jefferson Avenue here in the city,
- and she took me into a crack house.
- And we walked right in there and she said, "Hello, everybody.
- I'm Toni.
- Here I am," and started passing out condoms and safer sex
- information.
- And testing was only by blood draw back then,
- but she was-- everybody knew her.
- She was this very large, white lesbian who trounced
- the streets of Rochester talking to anybody and everybody about
- HIV, and had a team of people with her and didn't--
- she didn't care where she went or who she met.
- She talked to them about AIDS.
- So I just thought that was great.
- EVELYN BAILEY: How did you feel going into that environment?
- MICHAEL BEATTY: Strangely enough, I wasn't afraid,
- because Toni was with me.
- Had I been by myself, I probably would have
- had a much different reaction.
- KEVIN INDOVINO: Is she still around?
- MICHAEL BEATTY: No.
- Tony unfortunately died-- oh, god, Bill will remember.
- EVELYN BAILEY: Ten or eleven years ago.
- MICHAEL BEATTY: Yeah.
- Yeah.
- EVELYN BAILEY: Yeah.
- MICHAEL BEATTY: Yeah.
- She left here, got married, and moved to New York
- City, where she became--
- she was a huge advocate for needle exchange
- and became a pretty big mover and shaker
- in New York City with the harm reduction movement down there.
- Yeah, but she moved back to Rochester.
- I actually saw her--
- oh, god, she called me out of the blue and needed our help.
- And so I went to her house and took some things
- that she needed, and actually got to see her probably
- about a week before she died.
- It was great.
- It was great to see her again.
- EVELYN BAILEY: So what's your recollection of Jeff Koss?
- MICHAEL BEATTY: Oh, Jeff.
- Jeff was another larger-than-life guy
- in my early AIDS life here.
- He was so helpful to me in making connections and getting
- me acquainted with the community and different people who
- he thought I should know.
- And he was very, very helpful in those early days.
- Plus, he knew how to ask somebody for a dollar.
- He wasn't afraid.
- He believed very strongly in what we did.
- And between Paula, Jeff, and myself,
- we were sort of like the trio that
- put the face on AIDS Rochester, and really got the community
- to put their arms around AIDS Rochester
- and support us in any way that they could.
- And they did.
- Jeff organized the first AIDS walk here in Rochester,
- and I remember feeling so amazed by that feat.
- It was an extravaganza, and we just
- didn't know how it was going to work.
- And he made it work, and it was great.
- KEVIN INDOVINO: Michael, forgive me,
- when you first started here, what was your title?
- MICHAEL BEATTY: I was the program director when
- I started at AIDS Rochester.
- And then about, oh, five years later
- became the associate executive director.
- EVELYN BAILEY: And when Jeff was not working at AIDS Rochester,
- Miss Laverne came out very strongly.
- MICHAEL BEATTY: So I've been told.
- I never saw that side of him, believe it or not.
- I didn't.
- EVELYN BAILEY: Really?
- MICHAEL BEATTY: Uh-uh.
- I didn't.
- EVELYN BAILEY: Oh.
- MICHAEL BEATTY: I was very friendly with his partner,
- Michael, but I didn't--
- we didn't socialize a whole lot outside of the organization.
- EVELYN BAILEY: Right.
- Talk to us a little bit about Paula
- and how she kind of moved into AIDS Rochester at a very
- difficult time, and then moved the agency forward
- to where it was six, eight, ten months ago.
- MICHAEL BEATTY: Right.
- Well--
- EVELYN BAILEY: Or a year ago.
- Yeah.
- MICHAEL BEATTY: It's been almost two and a half years--
- EVELYN BAILEY: Two and a half years.
- MICHAEL BEATTY: --believe it or not.
- EVELYN BAILEY: It doesn't seem like that long.
- MICHAEL BEATTY: I know.
- Well, actually, it's been two and a half years.
- It was two and a half years --
- KEVIN INDOVINO: Since the merge?
- MICHAEL BEATTY: Yeah.
- KEVIN INDOVINO: Wow.
- MICHAEL BEATTY: Yeah.
- KEVIN INDOVINO: Yeah, I wouldn't have guessed that.
- MICHAEL BEATTY: Yeah.
- EVELYN BAILEY: Yeah.
- MICHAEL BEATTY: It feels like--
- but anyways.
- It feels a little longer to me.
- Well, Paula, above anything else,
- was a good fiscal manager.
- She believed in saving money for a rainy day,
- not putting all the money in one basket,
- really, really managing money well.
- And that's what AIDS Rochester needed.
- It was in debt.
- There were a lot of people who wanted to be paid.
- And so she initially started taking all of that
- apart and working closely with the board
- and with the board's finance committee
- to sort of write the agency and get it more solvent.
- That was an amazing thing.
- I immediately liked her when I met her during the interview,
- and I thought her ideas were very solid.
- She didn't profess to have all the answers.
- And she wanted somebody in a program director
- that could manage the programs and grow them, grow
- and expand them.
- And she didn't think of us as boss and subordinates.
- She thought of us as partners, and that's what we were.
- And we worked really hard.
- A lot of seven-day weeks and lots of lots of hours.
- There were lots and lots of problems with AIDS Rochester
- when we took it over.
- EVELYN BAILEY: If you were to name one thing that
- drove Paula, what would it be?
- MICHAEL BEATTY: That drove her--
- EVELYN BAILEY: To be so committed to--
- I mean, a job is a job, but let's face it.
- You don't put in twenty four-seven
- MICHAEL BEATTY: Right.
- EVELYN BAILEY: --just because you got a job.
- MICHAEL BEATTY: Well, Paula, from what
- I know about her before my time here,
- was very connected to the theater arts
- community, the dancing community,
- and as a result, the gay community.
- And I think she also suffered her own losses
- and her own tragedies around HIV and AIDS.
- And like me, you know, made a commitment
- to sort of make a dent in that in the community,
- to try to help people at a time when people were so helpless.
- It was a very, very, very different time than it is now.
- So I think that's what drove her.
- And also believing in the organization and its place
- in the community then and why it was
- so important to make AIDS Rochester really
- the center where people could come and get what they needed,
- HIV positive or not.
- And that's sort of the way we always
- ran it for the twenty years that we were together there.
- KEVIN INDOVINO: I'm going to just kind of cuff out something
- earlier that you just said.
- In the course of your time here with AIDS Rochester
- and eventually into the merger, if you
- were to identify one major challenge that
- needed to be overcome, or a challenge that's
- a constant throughout those years,
- what would be the major challenge
- in regards to AIDS Rochester and its impact on the community?
- MICHAEL BEATTY: The stigma of HIV infection and homophobia.
- Those are the two big ones that stay constant,
- and I think still do to some degree.
- When it--
- KEVIN INDOVINO: And so then the second part of that question is
- MICHAEL BEATTY: Yes.
- KEVIN INDOVINO: How do you overcome those challenges?
- MICHAEL BEATTY: Well, it was really, really difficult,
- and I don't think we've overcome them at all.
- I think we diminish them to a great deal,
- because the face of AIDS has changed
- over these past 20-plus years.
- People aren't dying anymore.
- They don't have Kaposi's sarcoma.
- They don't look like they have been starved for two years.
- People are living with HIV now and look healthy.
- It's really difficult to tell.
- Back then, anyone that looked--
- if someone had cancer, immediately,
- before they said, oh, what's wrong?
- Oh, you must have AIDS, and wouldn't go near them.
- I remember Dr. Valenti had a patient.
- He knew that I was in nursing, and he
- wanted his patient to go to the Cleveland Clinic for a drug
- trial.
- This is way, way, way long time ago.
- And I would need to pick up the patient at Highland Hospital
- and get on a plane with him to fly to Cleveland,
- and then take a taxi to the Cleveland Clinic,
- get the patient admitted and come back, and then
- go get him when this was done.
- And we boarded a US air flight.
- And this gentleman was probably in his early twenties,
- and he was so sick.
- And the flight attendants were so afraid to--
- and everyone on the plane just looked at him,
- and it was just awful.
- I'll never forget that.
- And this poor young man, who was just
- so desperate to get better, who had put himself
- through this just horrible, horrible atrocity of having
- to get on a plane with looking the way that he did,
- knowing how bad he looked and feeling embarrassed by that.
- But adding to that, having the people
- on the plane sort of look at him aghast because he
- didn't look like them.
- But the silver lining in that story
- is when I went to pick him up, maybe a month or a month
- and a half later, we get on a US airplane in Cleveland
- to come back to Rochester, and we sat down in our seat
- and he was even sicker.
- The drug trial hadn't done its job.
- And one of the flight attendants came up to me and she said,
- we're putting you in first class.
- Come on.
- He'll be more comfortable and so will you.
- It was a remarkable thing and they treated him like a king.
- And he died shortly thereafter.
- But that was just how it was then.
- And you can probably remember that, Evelyn.
- People were just so judgmental and so afraid
- because they didn't understand it.
- And there was so much that, you know,
- you can get it from a toilet seat.
- You can get it from shaking hands or hugging,
- or sitting next to someone, or if they coughed.
- You It was just irrational fear that took over.
- So over time, that's gotten better,
- but I'm still amazed at people who
- I hear about through our prevention education
- department who still don't understand
- how HIV is transmitted.
- There are still people in this community who
- have closed their ears for all these years
- and have chosen not to listen.
- EVELYN BAILEY: Yeah.
- Yeah.
- MICHAEL BEATTY: And I'm surprised
- that people are still getting infected
- knowing what they know.
- No judgment there, but knowing what they know
- and still getting infected with HIV.
- So we haven't overcome it all.
- KEVIN INDOVINO: Yeah.
- MICHAEL BEATTY: And we've gotten a long way.
- I think homophobia has diminished a great deal
- over the years with the help of the Gay Alliance
- and others in the community too, and sort
- of in the national movement in the LGBT communities.
- I think gay and lesbian people are
- more normalized than they were.
- There isn't all of the fear.
- KEVIN INDOVINO: Oh my god, (unintelligible)
- MICHAEL BEATTY: Is that a hug?
- Yeah, exactly.
- How can you tell if they are one--
- KEVIN INDOVINO: Right.
- MICHAEL BEATTY: --if they're not--
- anyways.
- So it's been a long road, but it's gotten better,
- but we've got a ways to go.
- We still do.
- I mean, the challenge now is to help people understand
- that HIV still is a problem in the community
- and that you don't want to get infected,
- because living with medication for the rest of your life
- is not something that you want to do.
- So the message has changed, but it's still the same.
- You have to take care of yourself.
- EVELYN BAILEY: Right.
- There was a point at which this disease, in a sense,
- became less identified with the gay population
- and more identified with the drug user--
- MICHAEL BEATTY: Oh, yes.
- EVELYN BAILEY: --and the criminal population.
- What impact did that change in, quote unquote, causation
- have not only on AIDS Rochester but on the community?
- MICHAEL BEATTY: Sure.
- Well, as I mentioned Toni Obermeyer
- earlier in our conversation, she was a big proponent
- of handing out bleach kits to clean needles and syringes
- to drug users.
- And we did that, but HIV infection in the injecting drug
- user community was on the rise at a remarkable rate
- here in Rochester and elsewhere in the country.
- And a woman by the name of Lisa Perticone,
- who was very much involved with the harm reduction movement
- and was getting her master's degree,
- became an intern of mine at AIDS Rochester.
- And she started telling me about needle exchange programs that
- were happening in larger cities across the United States.
- Not in New York.
- Mostly in San Francisco.
- One in Oregon.
- And so we helped petition New York State Department of Health
- to decriminalize syringes in New York State
- and allow them to be exchanged one for one
- in programs that were heavily sanctioned and regulated
- by New York State.
- So eventually, New York State agreed
- to do that throughout the state, but you
- had to go through a rigorous community engagement
- process in order to get one approved in your city.
- And so Paula and I became the community ambassadors
- for a needle exchange.
- And I can tell you that it wasn't pretty,
- and there were a lot of people who were vehemently
- against this program.
- And we were spit at and called the devil,
- and had things thrown at us and telephone
- calls to the organization that were hateful,
- but we plugged on.
- And we had a number of community meetings
- here with the New York State Department of Health officials,
- and eventually our program was approved.
- We looked at seroprevalence just before the program started,
- and it was very high in the injecting drug user community.
- Within eighteen months, it had dropped almost 50 percent
- because of the amount of clean syringes
- that we were able to put into the drug using system.
- And we had those results verified by Sloan Kettering
- Hospital.
- They came up and did some independent research.
- So the program continues today, and it's
- served well over 6,000 people during its lifetime.
- And it has shown to not only reduce
- HIV infection in injecting drug users,
- but that's been a sustainable decrease.
- It's a low number now, low number
- of people who are becoming infected that way.
- EVELYN BAILEY: Was the opposition
- you experienced to this not--
- was it across the board?
- Was it the gay community, the heterosexual community,
- the political community, the economic community?
- MICHAEL BEATTY: Well--
- EVELYN BAILEY: I mean--
- MICHAEL BEATTY: I can tell you, early on, hardly anyone--
- we had a core group of community members
- that supported the program and helped us,
- and one of the people that came to the very first meeting
- and never stopped coming to meetings and speaking out
- was Bob Duffy.
- Bob Duffy was the lieutenant police chief at that time.
- I remember him coming, and I had never met him before.
- And he sat there and he said, why aren't we doing this?
- This makes total sense to me.
- Why aren't we doing this?
- And so he became a very large figure
- in the movement in this community
- by getting Paula and I appointments with Howard Relin,
- the district attorney at the time
- who did not support the program, with other people in city
- and county government-- some who supported, some who did not.
- It was largely divided along political lines, Republicans
- and Democrats.
- He never missed a meeting.
- He always supported the program.
- And in fact, when I saw him at Paula's retirement party,
- I thanked him again for the work that he did.
- Because I truly believe that without him and others like him
- in the community, that program would not exist.
- EVELYN BAILEY: Was there any violence?
- I mean, I know you indicated that you were spat
- upon and catcalled, but was there any violence
- that erupted because of this?
- MICHAEL BEATTY: No, but I can tell you what did happen.
- On our first day, we used-- we didn't have a fixed office.
- We had a mobile van that we had three sites
- that we were approved to do syringe exchange out
- of our outreach van, and one of the sites
- was on Jefferson Avenue.
- So of course the media was very involved in this.
- And on the day that it opened, a reporter from Channel 10
- came to AIDS Rochester and interviewed Paula, I believe.
- Simultaneously, they had hired an actor
- with a backpack with a hidden camera that walked up
- to the needle exchange site and said to the worker,
- I'm thinking about shooting drugs.
- I'm not shooting them yet, but I'd like to start.
- Can you give me a needle?
- And the staff at that time did--
- the gentleman said, our staff said,
- why do you want to start injecting drugs?
- That's crazy.
- Why do you want to do that?
- And no, I'm not going to give-- that's not why we're here.
- Well, they ran that story.
- And we fought that pretty hard because the program's
- anonymous, and the users who are coming to that site
- were being filmed secretly from a different location.
- And that kind of crackpot journalism,
- I guess, if you call it, just--
- I've never forgotten it.
- And I still see that reporter on the air on the morning
- news on Channel 10--
- she's still there-- who sensationalized that story.
- Other media were very friendly.
- And we've had ups and downs with the community over the years
- with it.
- Mayor Johnson was very supportive.
- But when the community got a little agitated,
- he became a little agitated and wanted
- us to help calm things down.
- And we did.
- But he was a wonderful partner in this.
- EVELYN BAILEY: Well, the reporter
- smacks a little bit of the paparazzi kind of--
- MICHAEL BEATTY: Oh, it was totally--
- KEVIN INDOVINO: Yeah.
- MICHAEL BEATTY: I think still have--
- KEVIN INDOVINO: I think I know who you're talking about.
- She was young and just getting started. (Beatty laughs)
- EVELYN BAILEY: Talk to Kevin and I a little bit
- about your own experience in dealing
- with the Hispanic and black community here in Rochester
- in terms of support, in terms of behind the scenes,
- in front of the scenes.
- MICHAEL BEATTY: Sure.
- Well.
- The minority community, primarily African-American
- and Latino, there was a huge sense
- of denial in both of those communities around HIV
- infection and sort of everything associated with it.
- No one really wanted to talk about it.
- And the few who did and who tried to, who had
- emerged as leaders--
- Rudy Rivera was one of them--
- had a very difficult time sort of engaging people.
- They were seen as leaders in the community,
- yet it was really difficult for him and others
- to engage and talk about HIV infection,
- because that was a huge shame because of the behaviors
- associated with contracting it.
- As numbers started to rise in terms of HIV infections
- in both of those communities, we partnered with ABC
- and, excuse me, PRYD primarily and Ibero to work together
- in the community to--
- we had the credibility around HIV and AIDS
- because we had been around for so long and ABC
- and Ibero and PRYD were sort of newcomers to the HIV world.
- And they received some funding and we were a lot together
- in the communities to try to get the message out.
- I mean, it was very difficult because no one wanted
- to talk about it, and largely, I think,
- because of religion and also the homosexuality and drug use.
- And no one really wanted to talk about those problems
- or what they perceived were problems in their community.
- EVELYN BAILEY: As you look back over the past twenty, thirty
- years, can you identify for us--
- I usually say one, but I'll say two or three--
- things that you are most proud of having been involved with,
- started, begun?
- MICHAEL BEATTY: Yes.
- There's a lot.
- I'm really, really proud of AIDS Rochester, because I believe
- that originally, from '83 to '90,
- AIDS Rochester lived a very different life before Paula
- and I got there, and a life that was no less diminished
- by anything.
- It had its place, and it was a wonderful haven
- for people at that time.
- The problem outgrew the agency's ability
- to deal with it, unfortunately, and so things happened.
- And I really believe that--
- and I'm very proud of what Paula and I were
- able to do at AIDS Rochester and for the community.
- And the other is the needle exchange program.
- That was a very, very, very tough battle, and we--
- it wasn't just Paula and I. It was
- the engagement of a lot of very powerful people
- in the community, influential people in the community, that
- got that program going, and it had a remarkable effect
- and reduced infections among people
- who were already very fragile.
- And we've helped so many people not only with
- their clean syringes, but getting them into treatment
- and helping them inject their drugs safely
- so that other issues around injection drug use
- didn't crop up for them.
- So those are two big things.
- And if I can say one more, I'm very proud of the merge.
- I think that the time had really come for AIDS Community Health
- Center and AIDS Rochester to come together.
- You know, it's funny.
- Early on, we had a meeting with Bill,
- and Sue Cowell, I believe, was there, and Paula and myself,
- and we talked about merging.
- I think that was, like, in 1992.
- And we thought, you know, what a great thing we could become.
- And it just didn't work out at the time.
- The timing wasn't right.
- And so two and a half years ago it was.
- And we came together again, and we
- created an even more dynamic organization because of it.
- And I'm very proud to have been, in large part, a leader in that
- merge.
- KEVIN INDOVINO: Can you speak to--
- there seems to be, you know-- there
- was a time where the community was very supportive of AIDS
- awareness and AIDS care, and then
- we kind of reached a climax, and then
- it really kind of took a dove.
- MICHAEL BEATTY: Right.
- KEVIN INDOVINO: From your experience from the inside,
- tell me what you saw and what you witnessed.
- And again, how did you deal with those influxes?
- MICHAEL BEATTY: Sure.
- Well, the same thing.
- You know, as I said earlier, I liken it to these commercials
- that you see on TV for children with cancer or animals
- who have been abused, and these horrific pictures
- and the heart-wrenching music and reaching out
- to people to give, to help these people or these poor pets.
- And that's the way it used to be.
- People looked so sick.
- Young, healthy men and women looking like they
- were a hundred years old and celebrities dying.
- And then, around '95 or '96 when the new medications came out,
- I literally witnessed men and women regaining their health.
- They looked like they were at death's door,
- and they regained their health.
- Some of them went back to work.
- And they gained their weight.
- Their faces filled out.
- They looked as healthy as all of us.
- But soon, the outward appearance of somebody with HIV and AIDS
- and then living longer didn't have the same emotional appeal
- to the community.
- Because they believed that their dollar was helping
- save somebody's life or help making
- them comfortable in their last hours of life,
- and that retreated when people started living with HIV.
- And so the way we've overcome that is that we've really
- tried hard to keep the communities who
- are most invested in HIV and AIDS connected
- to it, because no one really knows how
- long the medications will work.
- There was not a lot of testing done.
- Medications got approved very quickly and put on the market.
- And yes, we predict people to live a long time now
- with this chronic illness, but no one really knows.
- If another strain of the infection comes--
- I mean, anything-- a tipping point
- could come again with this infection.
- No one knows.
- And so we want to keep people engaged not necessarily
- with that message, but with them, you know,
- you were there for us before.
- Stay with us and help people get into care.
- Because without the care, they're
- not going to do well with HIV.
- Have donations dropped?
- Yes, they have.
- We've seen that drop slightly over the years.
- And I remember hundreds of walkers coming every June
- to our AIDS walk annually, and this year we
- had eighty-eight people there that had registered to walk.
- You know, and that speaks volumes,
- because the connection--
- the people who used to march in memory of their loved ones,
- there were very few of those.
- I think time has passed and people have moved on.
- And the memories are painful, and perhaps they
- don't want to go back there again.
- So I think there's lots of reasons.
- And so one of the things we decided to do at AIDS care
- in our strategic plan is not lose sight of HIV and AIDS,
- but to look also in an outer circle
- of care for people who may be vulnerable or at risk for HIV.
- And those are substance users, people with hepatitis C,
- and also the LGBT community.
- And so we're moving in that direction now.
- We will never lose our heart, which is HIV and AIDS,
- but we will try to expand our services to people
- who are vulnerable in other ways, who may be marginalized
- because the health care that they need isn't there for them
- without judgment.
- So here we will be a health care organization
- without judgment and specialized in whenever people need.
- EVELYN BAILEY: The numbers are rising, though.
- Aren't they?
- MICHAEL BEATTY: With HIV?
- Not as rapidly as they once were.
- People are still getting infected.
- We still have all of our grants to fight infection.
- I think we're making progress there.
- Our needle exchange program is still as busy as ever.
- You know, that's not going away.
- EVELYN BAILEY: The younger generation
- under the age of thirty really does not
- have a picture of this disease that
- is unpleasant or difficult to look at.
- MICHAEL BEATTY: Right.
- EVELYN BAILEY: As an AIDS educator,
- as the CEO now of AIDS care, what would you say to someone
- who was in their twenties about behavior,
- about activity that would hopefully impact their thought
- process, their--
- or is there anything?
- Is this the age of--
- I'll never die.
- Nothing's ever going to happen to me.
- I'm not going to get that.
- I'm not-- what would you say?
- MICHAEL BEATTY: Well, I would say google HIV and AIDS
- in the 1980s and 1990s, and read and look at pictures
- and read the history.
- If you're gay, you should understand
- the history of the gay community that you live in.
- And you should know how many people in this community
- came before you, who-- some lived and some died,
- but they fought to get where we are today with HIV and AIDS.
- And we should pay them respect and some homage.
- But it also would help people understand
- what it was like then.
- There's nothing that I can say to someone that
- will change their behavior.
- People change their behaviors for multitudes of reasons.
- Whatever myth, whatever belief system
- that an individual person has, such as--
- I can tell when somebody has AIDS.
- If I have sex with somebody over thirty-five
- I would probably use a condom.
- But if I had sex with somebody a little bit younger,
- I wouldn't need a condom, because they're probably
- not infected.
- Or I can tell just by looking at them that they're infected.
- And even if I do get infected, there's
- a pill I can take to eradicate the infection.
- So there's all of those myths--
- some with a little truth in them, some
- that are all not true--
- but those are pervasive in the young--
- and I was a young man once.
- And so were my friends.
- They were young when they became infected, and they knew.
- I mean, HIV was around then, and we heard about it.
- And they became infected, and they
- died, because you don't think it's going to happen to you.
- That feeling never changes, I think, in young people,
- that it's somebody else's problem
- and it'll never happen to me.
- And then it does.
- And then you have to deal.
- And I would also encourage them to talk
- with a peer who is HIV positive and hear from their peer
- what it's like to have to take the medication every day
- and deal with the side effects and what restrictions HIV has
- put on their lives.
- Because that, I think, sometimes, is the most powerful
- thing, is when you talk to somebody who is like you in age
- and sex and behavior.
- And that can be a motivator to change.
- EVELYN BAILEY: I have a couple more questions.
- Hazel Jeffries was chair of AIDS Rochester board
- for a number of years.
- Do you remember when that began, maybe, and when?
- MICHAEL BEATTY: I do.
- I think that she came on the board, I want to say 1988,
- because she was on the board through the transition--
- excuse me-- with Jackie and then hiring Paula,
- and stayed with our board--
- oh, golly-- '94 maybe, '95.
- EVELYN BAILEY: She was a doc.
- No.
- MICHAEL BEATTY: No, no.
- At the time, she worked for ABC, I
- believe, and then move to Catholic Charities,
- and then retired.
- EVELYN BAILEY: Is she still in Rochester?
- MICHAEL BEATTY: I don't know.
- EVELYN BAILEY: OK.
- MICHAEL BEATTY: We honored her at our 20th, AIDS Rochester's
- 20th anniversary, and I don't remember hearing much from her
- since then.
- We invited her to Paula's retirement party,
- and I don't believe they heard back.
- I know that she lost her husband.
- And so I don't know.
- I don't know.
- I would love to know where she is.
- Was a great woman.
- EVELYN BAILEY: She was obviously a woman with vision
- and a woman who was able to negotiate and navigate
- the waters of that transition.
- How would you describe her?
- What would you say about her tenacity?
- MICHAEL BEATTY: Oh, her tenacity was unsurpassed
- in terms of staying the course.
- Hazel was a calm presence when everything around her
- was falling apart.
- She had wonderful judgment.
- She had excellent communications skills.
- She knew exactly what to do.
- And I'm sure, in her mind, she said,
- what the hell do I do next?
- But she just kept moving forward.
- And eventually things, as most crises do,
- dissipate, but she never faltered.
- She's an amazing woman.
- Amazing woman.
- EVELYN BAILEY: How significant has Bill Valenti been pre-CHN,
- CHN, AIDS Care, in the battle?
- MICHAEL BEATTY: Well, we don't have enough time for me
- to go into all of it, but I didn't know Bill before CHN
- I met Bill and Dr. Scheibel at the Bachelor Forum right
- after I moved to Rochester.
- I hadn't even started my job yet.
- And Steve Scheibel, Bill's medical partner,
- lived across the street from Paula
- at the time in the 19th Ward.
- And so Paula was trying to get me introduced.
- I was new to Rochester.
- And so Bill and Steve and Paula and myself
- and, I don't remember, someone else
- went to the Bachelor Forum, and we all sort of
- talked about CHN, sort of the preview of what
- it was going to be.
- And they were both so proud.
- And I was just amazed at how these two men, two doctors,
- had been able to gain the support of this community
- in a way that I had never heard of before to get funding,
- to get a building, to get furniture,
- to get people to come around them
- to make this clinic a reality.
- It's one thing to have a dream, but it's another thing
- to be able to live that dream.
- And that's what they did.
- And Bill, he's just been there through all this,
- through all these years, long before I got here
- when he was at the U of R in the early days.
- He knows everybody.
- He's so well connected.
- But his passion has never died.
- It's never flickered, to my knowledge,
- and I've known him all these years.
- And he and I work very closely here together now.
- He's a great man.
- EVELYN BAILEY: Jay Redman.
- Now, I know he's a doc.
- MICHAEL BEATTY: He is not a doctor.
- EVELYN BAILEY: No.
- MICHAEL BEATTY: Jay is our chief executive officer.
- I'm the chief operating officer.
- EVELYN BAILEY: Right.
- But Jay has been in this for a long time.
- MICHAEL BEATTY: Just, I think, ten years
- he's been the CEO of the organization.
- He was obviously very involved in the merge with Paula and I.
- And Jay came from working in health systems.
- I'm not sure what his last position was,
- but he has been really one of the very first leaders of CHN,
- ACHC that has stabilized that organization.
- There were very turbulent times for CHN and ACHC
- over the years.
- It was a brand new organization, and there
- were a lot of fragilities in navigating
- providing health care.
- Back then, health care was very, very, very expensive
- for people with HIV and AIDS.
- And many times, insurance didn't cover a lot of the things
- that Bill and Steve Scheibel provided.
- That didn't stop them, and they just kept finding money.
- So the organization on financial terms was fragile.
- And when Jay came along, he really
- brought that business sense with him
- from an administrative point of view.
- Much like with Jackie and then Paula,
- the same thing sort of mirrored itself.
- You know, CHN lived its life in the world
- that it needed to live and provided the care for people
- when it needed to be there.
- But then things changed, and that's when Jay came out,
- just like with Paula, and righted the organization
- and put it on solid ground.
- He's a great guy, too.
- EVELYN BAILEY: So Michael.
- MICHAEL BEATTY: Evelyn.
- EVELYN BAILEY: Twenty years from now--
- MICHAEL BEATTY: Oh, god.
- EVELYN BAILEY: --when people talk about Michael Beatty, what
- do you want them to say?
- MICHAEL BEATTY: Oh, boy.
- I don't think I've ever been asked that question.
- EVELYN BAILEY: Well, and if you want to put off the answer,
- that's fine.
- I mean, I ask that of most of the people we interview,
- because we never know when we're going through something
- the impact of it.
- I mean, the people who started Gay Live at the U of R forty
- years ago never imagined--
- MICHAEL BEATTY: Right.
- Right.
- EVELYN BAILEY: --could not even think the thoughts
- of what it would have become, and didn't really think
- they were doing anything other than what they
- had to do to be who they were.
- MICHAEL BEATTY: I'll tell you a story.
- When I took this job, I said to Paula,
- I'll take it for three years, because I'm
- going to miss nursing so much that I'm going
- to want to go back to that.
- But I'll get you through, and I'll stay for three years.
- That's been almost twenty-three years ago that I said that.
- So what I hope people--
- this has always been more than a job for me.
- It's been something that I have done to honor my friends,
- and it's been--
- that's why I originally did it.
- And I've never lost sight of what I'm doing.
- It's always been more than that for me in that I believe
- that a group of people can make a difference in the community.
- And I believe that back in those-- and still today,
- back in the day and today, that we have made
- a difference in this community.
- There have been so many things that I
- had a dream about doing with AIDS Rochester
- and even AIDS Care that became a reality.
- And I've learned a lot along the way,
- and I have not one regret for all that I've been through.
- And so I'm going to keep going for a while.
- There's some other dreams that I have
- that I want to make a reality, and then it'll
- be time to retire.
- EVELYN BAILEY: OK.
- MICHAEL BEATTY: OK.
- EVELYN BAILEY: Michael, thank you.
- MICHAEL BEATTY: You're welcome.
- EVELYN BAILEY: Very much.
- MICHAEL BEATTY: Thank you.
- My pleasure.
- EVELYN BAILEY: Very much.
- I'm going to turn this--