A New Home for Magnet and Stonewall

The Stonewall Project and Magnet, two established community health programs that serve gay men in San Francisco, will formally unite with the San Francisco AIDS Foundation on July 1, 2007. Driven by a desire to improve gay men's health locally and across the U.S., the Foundation will help both programs serve more people while encouraging their unique models of candid, peer-driven health care and social interaction.

"We all have a shared vision of the health of gay men, both individually and as a community," explained Michael Siever, Director of the Stonewall Project, whose harm reduction model helps methamphetamine users address the problems associated with substance abuse through counseling and other forms of intervention.

Magnet, Stonewall and AIDS Foundation leadership celebrated the alignment of gay men's health services with local elected leaders, from left: Reese Isbell from Assemblyman Mark Leno's office, Steve Gibson, Mark Cloutier, City Treasurer Jose Cisneros, Steven Tierney, and Michael Siever.

At Magnet, a gay men's health center and community space in the Castro, anyone can receive sexual health services and enjoy ongoing social activities in the same location. Steve Gibson, Magnet's Director, highlights their one-of-a-kind offerings, pointing out that, "Magnet is the only place you can get an HIV test and also go to an art opening."

Mark Cloutier, Executive Director of the San Francisco AIDS Foundation, made it clear that Magnet, Stonewall, and the Foundation have common objectives. "I'm pleased to welcome these two model programs into the Foundation's fold," he said. "While encouraging Magnet and Stonewall to continue as agents of excellence in the gay community, we will help them meet growing demand for their services and disseminate these models of community-led care to other places with large gay populations that face similar health challenges."

From their earliest planning stages, both Stonewall and Magnet have been affiliated with the Psychiatry Department at the University of California, San Francisco, which made financial and administrative resources available. "We're now ready to take the next step in our evolution that can help us maximize our potential, and we're eager to have the AIDS Foundation alongside as a partner," said Gibson.

Magnet sees more than 4,500 clients a year, though it was designed to serve one-third that number. Lines often form outside its 18th Street storefront several hours before the doors open. Gibson is excited that the merger with the AIDS Foundation will not only allow Magnet to turn fewer people away, but also to participate in long-range planning about gay men's health through collaboration with established AIDS Foundation programs like Black Brothers Esteem, the The Speed Project, and El Grupo (Latino Support Group).

Magnet, which was created as a response to the totalizing effect of HIV on gay men's health, garnered national attention for a perspective on wellness that goes above and beyond HIV/AIDS. Steven Tierney, Deputy Executive Director for Programs and Services at the AIDS Foundation, was a member of the original planning group that helped secure the funding for Magnet and has volunteered as a Magnet HIV counselor for several years. "To focus the attention of the gay community on its own health is a critically important task. Magnet does this and more by connecting physical, mental and social well-being at social events and cabaret that allow people to get together in the Castro outside of a bar or dance club."

Every few Fridays, Magnet is transformed into "Tina's Café," a cabaret where guys can talk about speed through spoken word, music, and art. The event is organized by Tweaker, the outreach arm of the Stonewall Project, which also distributes Tweaker Packs of condoms, lube and lollipops for guys to keep handy when using meth. Tweaker's popular Web site, www.tweaker.org, is targeted to gay men who use speed, whether or not they think it's a problem. With its hip graphics and candid language, the site is sexy and attractive to anyone who wants non-judgmental information about meth.

For those ready to take a serious look at their speed use, Stonewall offers weekly group meetings and private sessions with a counselor. According to Siever, the highly trained staff has experience in substance abuse and mental health, and many have had their own relationship to issues of drug use and living with HIV--all of which helps them relate to participants on both a peer and a professional level. Stonewall is ready to help participants regardless of their relationship to meth. Making people feel welcome and safe enough to come back, even when they might normally feel ashamed, is a key factor in the success of the program, which recently celebrated its ninth anniversary.

As with Magnet, the demand for Stonewall's services exceeds its present capacity. But the upcoming merger will better equip the program to meet community needs. As Siever observed, "The more that men in the gay community have a resource to help them deal with this drug and not let their lives disintegrate as a result, the better off the community will be in terms of preventing new HIV infections."