  |  |  |  |  |  |
January 15, 2009
By DENNIS MCMILLAN
San Francisco Bay Times
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.
...
> Click here to access the full article on the San Francisco Bay Times website.
For more information on Tides Center project Lavender Seniors, see www.lavenderseniors.org.
