A long time aim.
in an outer settinn

tar. tar anat...

tlllffll lllAll5,l'l\i\\\

A FAEIIIE lllllllflfll
BIll'l'll IIAY |'llIl'|'Y

our nail in the Sun:

Pride '99
name III

 

WILB

.0971

 

VOLUME XIV, NUMBER 06

JULY 1999 WWW.VTPR|DE.ORG

Victory Fund Health Department Changes ASO Funding Rules

Backs Flanagan
in US Senate Bid

 

Vermont State Auditor Ed
Flanagan spoke at this year is
Pride Rally.

a US Senate candidate, the

Gay and Lesbian Victory
Fund has announced its support of
Vermont state auditor Edward
Flanagan in his bid to unseat
incumbent Republican Senator
James Jeffords.

The organization calls
Flanagan “the first truly competi-
tive openly gay candidate for a US
Senate seat.”

Currently the nation’s first and
only openly gay statewide elected
otiicial, Flanagan would become
the first such US senator in history
by winning in the 2000 elections.

"By acting now, we have. a
truly historic opportunity to give
members of the US Senate the
vital experience of working with a
dedicated, exemplary colleague
who happens to be openly gay,”
said Victory Fund Executive
Director Brian K. Bond. “Ed
Flanagan will stand up to the spe-
cial interests in Washington, speak
up for the citizens of Vermont and
help our country live up to the
promise of equal rights under the
law for all Americans.”

“As a Vermonter working for
Vermont’s working families, I
have been a voice for taxpayers
and consumers whose health care
and retirement security have been
threatened by needless govern-
ment waste,” said Flanagan. “I
deeply believe that fiscal responsi-
bility and social responsibility go
hand in hand. Vermonters deserve
a government in Washington that
knows the value of their hard-

I n its first-ever endorsement of

 

FLANAGAN, p I 8

  

State Restricts Money for Clients with Confidential Files

provide us with names of '

by Barbara Dozetos

ermont’s AIDS service
‘  organizations face cuts in
funding unless they agree

to a procedure some believe
would compromise client confi-

dentiali{y.
The ermont Department of
Health informed ASOs last

month that new clients can no
longer opt tokeep their files from
being reviewed during state
inspections of agencies’ offices.

Organizations may still allow
new clients to restrict state access
to their files, but will no longer
be eligible for the annual $1100
per-client administrative funding
for such clients.

Some ASOs and HIV/AIDS con-
sumer organizations oppose the
change, saying that clients should
have the option of restricting
access to the sensitive informa-
tion ofien contained in their files.

Many feel that allowing state
employees to read their files
threatens their privacy. This fear
is especially prevalent in

Chittenden County, where the
state’s reviewer is based.

This potential for breach of con-

fidentiality was raised by the
Vermont People with ‘ AIDS
Coalition after the DoH’s
September, 1998, site visits.
Chuck Kletecka of PWAC
acknowledged that the reviews
are intended for quality assur-
ance, but expressed concern that
“people didn’t know that their
charts might be reviewed.”

Clients of Vermont CARES,
Chittenden County’s primary
ASO, may be those most affect-
ed by the policy change.
Executive director Tim Palmer
said, “Our work is very much
about empowerment; our clients
are very active in the community.
Imagine being in a meeting with
a state employee who just read
your case record.”

In December, I998, the
Department 0-fl’Health responded
to privacy concerns by allowing
ASOs to ask client permission for
departmental review of each file.
Agencies were assured that even
those denying access would be
counted for funding purposes.

The new policy maintains the
department’s funding commit-
ment to clients who have already
denied state access. But, new
clients who refuse permission

will not be counted in future cor-
responding funding calculations.

The change comes on the heels
of a legislative battle over med-
ical records reporting. Despite
the DoH’s push for names report-
ing in HIV/AIDS cases, the
Vermont legislature recently
approved a unique identifier sys-
tem designed to protect clients’
anonymity.

Thefunding change “strikes me
as a circuitous route to gain
access to the names of people
with HIV,” says Palmer. “It is
unfortunate that the state has
decided that the only way a per-
son with HIV can gain access to
services is by giving up the right
to privacy and confidentiality.”

Hinesburg representative Bill
Lippert said Vermont law is
sketchy on medical records con-
fidentiality, but felt legislature
made its preference clear in the
past session. “If there’s any intent
to use this as a way to circumvent

the legislative decision, it’s an

outrageous breach of policy and
authority,” said Lippert.

Vennont state epidemiologist
Peter Galbraith said it is not
clients’ names the department is
after. “We don’t require ASOs to

New England Senators Fight Discrimination

clients,” he said. “ASOs have the

option of blocking out names and ’

other personal identifiers in a
file.”

But that’s not a realistic option,
say the ASOs; photocopying each
file and blacking out anything
that might identify a client could
provea serious drain on agency
resources. “I would have to have
a staff person dedicated solely to
that process and still couldn’t
guarantee that all identifying
information was removed from
each file,” said Palmer.

Galbraith maintains that the
Department of Health’s bottom
line is, indeed, the bottom line.
“In order to assure financial
accountability in all the programs
we fund, we perform audits dur-
ing which we review the case
load,” he said.

ASOs are still hoping for a
departmental change of heart. An
official statement from a June 28
emergency meeting of the
Vermont CARES board of direc-
tors declared they would “contin-
ue to seek to resolve this issue in
a way that protects the confiden-
tiality and privacy of people with
HIV and AIDS.” V

 

WASHINGTON — A bipar-
tisan assembly of congression-

al lawmakers led by
Vermont’s James Jeffords,
Joseph Lieberman of

Connecticut and Ted Kennedy
of Massachusetts reintroduced
the Employment Non-
Discrimination Act on the
floor of the US Senate in June.

ENDA would add sexual
orientation to age, disability,
gender, national origin, race,
and religion as categories pro-
tected from discrimination
under federal law.

In the 25 years since the
first civil rights bill to protect
gays and lesbians from dis-
crimination was introduced in
the US Congress, ENDA is the
only such bill that’s ever
received a floor vote in either
house. It fell one vote shy of
passage in the Senate in

 

September, 1996, around the
same time as the Senate over-
whelmingly passed the
Defense of Marriage Act.

The bill is largely the prod-
uct of the Human Rights

“For the first
time we see
support coming
from key law-

I makers in lead-

ership positions
in both parties. ”

Campaign. “We have seen
growing support for ENDA
since it was first introduced in
l994,” Winnie

said

 

Stachelberg, HRC political
director. “For the first time we
see support coming from key
lawmakers in leadership posi-
tions in both parties.”

President Clinton, who first
endorsed ENDA in October
I995, said the bill is about
“ensuring that Americans,
regardless of their sexual ori-
entation, can find and keep
their jobs based on their abili-
ty and the quality of their
work. It is designed to protect
the rights of all Americans to
participate in the job market
without fear of unfair discrim-
ination.” Clinton reiterated his
support in his 1999 State of
the Union address.

Gender identity and gender
expression are not included as
a protected category in

A record-breaking crowd turned out for
Pride festivities in Burlington on June 19.
The 1999 celebrations marked the 30th
anniversary of the Stonewall Riots in New
York City. For more Vermont pride cover-

 

ENDA, p 24

  

prions xew oioud