AIDS Services in Asian Communities, which held a popular health and social event for gay Asian men and their supporters for more than a decade, announced last week it would discontinue its involvement.
ASIAC has staged Jaded Lounge every second Friday at 12th Air Command since May 1997, but Ron Sy, ASIAC executive director, said the September event was to be its last, as the organization could no longer afford to stage it.
Richard McPeake, owner of 12th Air Command, said the club still held Jaded Lounge on Oct. 9 with the assistance of other local organizations, and will continue to host the event.
Sy said the city’s AIDS Activities Coordinating Office funded Jaded Lounge until 2007, when it had to terminate the contract because of shifting priorities within the agency.
ASIAC took over funding for the event, which costs about $1,000 per month, but Sy said the crumbling economy and, most recently, the state budget impasse made this expense impossible.
“With the economy lately, and I think the nail that really hit it on the head was the state budget not getting passed, we just had no choice but to stop it. It was a purely fiscal decision,” Sy said.
McPeake said 12th Air took over payment for the food and entertainment for Jaded Lounge about three months ago, but Sy noted that in addition to the monetary expenses, ASIAC invested manpower in the event — at least two or three ASIAC staffers were needed to run the affair.
When Jaded Lounge launched, it was held on 12th Air Command’s first floor, but Sy said the community’s overwhelming response merited the club moving the event to its larger second floor. At its peak, the event drew between 300-400 people, while recent Jaded Lounge socials netted about 150-200.
McPeake said last week’s party had an attendance of at least 250.
Jaded Lounge offers an array of HIV/AIDS resources and connects participants with HIV testing, case management and other services, as well as offering entertainment and drag shows; McPeake said all of these will still be provided.
ASIAC based Jaded Lounge off a model used at the time in San Francisco, which has since dissolved. Sy said he never expected the community to respond to the event as strongly as it did.
“I thought that maybe we would do this for two years or so and people would get tired of it and it’d fade away; I didn’t realize it would last this long,” he said.
McPeake said groups like Metropolitan Area Neighborhood Nutritional Alliance, Asians Helping Asian Men and Southeast Asian Mutual Assistance Associations Coalition, Inc., took part in last week’s Jaded Lounge.
“We didn’t want to end it because [ASIAC] wasn’t going to do it anymore,” McPeake said. “They did the outreach part, but there’s so many groups who do outreach, why stop it?”
Sy said he was “very thankful for all the support the community has given to the event, and most especially to the management of 12th Air Command. I’m sorry it had to come to this decision.”
Sy said ASIAC will continue with its outreach efforts and plans to expand its STD-testing services.
The organization will host “Eating for ASIAC” from 4-10 p.m. Oct. 22 and 10:30 a.m.-2:30 p.m. Oct. 25 at Konak Restaurant, 228 Vine St., with 20 percent of all proceeds from food sales donated to ASIAC.
Jen Colletta can be reached at [email protected].