Sixth International Conference News

Boycott Update

* At this time over 130 AIDS and health organizations are
boycotting or withdrawing from the Sixth International Conference
on AIDS in protest of U. S. visa and immigration policies,
according to a list released June 14 by the NAMES Project in San
Francisco.

* The Bay Area Physicians for Human Rights, a San Francisco
gay physicians' organization which will attend the Conference,
has suggested wearing red armbands at the Conference in
solidarity with those boycotting.

* The second International NGO (Non-Governmental
Organization) AIDS conference, originally scheduled for San
Francisco during the three days before the Sixth International
Conference but called off because of the travel restrictions on
persons who are HIV positive, has now been rescheduled for Paris,
November 1-4. Its co-sponsors are the National Minority AIDS
Council in Washington, DC, and the Comite France SIDA in Paris.
For more information, call Chris Castle, National Minority AIDS
Council, 202/544-1076.

* Harvard University has announced that it will not co-
sponsor the 1992 International AIDS Conference in Boston if U. S.
policy continues to make it difficult for HIV-positive persons to
attend. It is possible that the 1992 Conference could be
cancelled, as two years may not be enough time to reserve space
and make necessary arrangements elsewhere.

Rejected Abstracts: Progress in Sight

On April 25 the Sixth International Conference announced
that 50 percent of the 4,900 abstracts submitted to the
conference had been rejected -- compared to almost no abstracts
rejected last year at Montreal. The high rate of rejection raised
concern because: (1) no one can be sure what will turn out to be
important in AIDS; (2) it is hard to judge short abstracts
because so little information is available, leading to summary
judgments based on who is known to the reviewer, or on
superficial "gotcha" criteria; and (3) there was no way for the
public to ever see the rejected abstracts.

Today progress is being made in addressing these concerns.
About 800 more abstracts have been accepted, leaving 1,600 still
rejected. While arrangements are not final, it is likely that the
Conference will be willing to inform the authors of the rejected
abstracts that another organization -- probably Project Inform in
San Francisco -- is willing to publish them.

Publication will probably consist of delivering one 8.5 by
11 inch sheet (21.5 by 28 cm) for each abstract to a photocopy
shop which will fulfill orders as received; a similar system was
used two years ago to make copies of the Stockholm Conference
abstracts available.