Activist Matt Foreman To Lead HIV/AIDS Legal Group

The San Francisco Chronicle reports:

When San Francisco’s AIDS Legal Referral Panel was founded 40 years ago by a loose collective of gay attorneys desperate to help ill friends and loved ones, the vast majority of their work was crafting wills for young men, in some cases days before they died. Bill Hirsh, executive director of the nonprofit agency for 24 years, got his earliest training out of law school writing some of those wills.

And in the late 1990s, as HIV became a treatable disease and not a death sentence, Hirsh helped determine how best to meet the changing needs of the survivors, most of whom are now over 50 and need assistance with housing, employment and the other complexities of living. Next month, Hirsh retires from ALRP.

One of the longest-lasting and best-known leaders of the globally recognized “San Francisco model” of care — a grassroots and public health support system built during the worst, earliest days of the AIDS epidemic — Hirsh will pass the baton to Matt Foreman, a longtime LGBTQ rights leader.

Foreman has been active in LGBTQ rights since the early days of the AIDS epidemic, before lifesaving antiviral medications had been developed. Working in civil rights was a way to feel helpful at a time of devastating loss for the gay community. “I was in New York City when AIDS hit,” Foreman said. “I lost many dear friends. The way I coped with that was to get involved in gay rights.”

Read the full article.

From the Gay Men’s Health Crisis:

At a time when the MAGA majority in Congress is trying to slash $767 million in federal spending on HIV programs, including completely defunding the Ending the HIV Epidemic in the U.S. (EHE) initiative, Matt Foreman is exactly the kind of leader we need. Over 20 years ago, Matt showed me what it means to be a leader while I was working at the National LGBTQ Task Force. As its Executive Director, he was not only bold, vocal, steadfast, and publicly visible when needed, but was supportive with a mentoring managerial style I now endeavor to mirror at GMHC. HIV is not over, but Matt will surely help get us there.

Foreman is also the former executive director of Empire State Pride Agenda and the New York City Gay & Lesbian Anti-Violence Project. He is also a founder of New York City’s Heritage of Pride (now NYC Pride). Foreman is prominently featured in the gripping new four-part HBO documentary series, “Last Call: When a Serial Killer Stalked Queer New York.”

DISCLOSURE: Matt is a longtime personal friend and hero of mine, so I’m thrilled to share this next chapter in his tireless crusade on behalf of our people.

A transition in S.F.’s AIDS fight — and for legal aid organization at its center. https://t.co/T8tKSVuCU3 pic.twitter.com/igLfNrWqFm

— San Francisco Chronicle (@sfchronicle) September 24, 2023

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