The Washington Post - USA (2022-05-28)

B6 EZ RE THE WASHINGTON POST.SATURDAY, MAY 28 , 2022

BY MATT SCHUDEL

Kristine Gebbie, who was
named by President Bill Clinton
as the country’s first coordinator
of AIDS policy in 1993, then left
the post after a year, saying the
job was poorly defined and had
little real authority, died May 17
at a hospital in Adelaide, Aus-
tralia. She was 78.
The cause was cancer, said her
daughter Eileen Gebbie. Dr. Geb-
bie had been living in retirement
in Australia.
With a background in nursing
and education, Dr. Gebbie was
the top public health official in
the states of Oregon and Wash-
ington before joining the Clinton
administration as coordinator of
the Office of National AIDS Pol-
icy. She was often described as
the country’s “AIDS czar.”
Acquired immunodeficiency
syndrome, or AIDS, had claimed
the lives of about 200,000 Ameri-
cans at the time and was the
leading cause of death of people
ages 25 to 44. It was particularly
widespread among gay men.
Dr. Gebbie had previously
served on a presidential AIDS
commission during the adminis-
tration of Ronald Reagan and led
a national AIDS task force of
state health officials. But she said
neither Reagan nor his Republi-
can successor, George H.W. Bush,
had taken the disease seriously as
a public health crisis.
“I would never have been here
in the Bush or Reagan adminis-
tration,” she said in 1993. “They
weren’t interested in AIDS.”
After her appointment, Dr.
Gebbie’s supporters and detrac-
tors both agreed that her mission
was poorly delineated by the
White House, giving her little
chance of leading a break-
through in the fight against
AIDS. She had a staff of only 30,
and her office was not next to the
White House in the Executive
Office Building but across 17th
Street NW, 10 floors above a
McDonald’s franchise.
Despite being called the AIDS
czar, Dr. Gebbie had little control
of the federal government’s AIDS

response, with little influence

over the direction of research

and spending. Her primary re-

sponsibility was to coordinate

research and messaging among

several federal agencies, includ-

ing the U.S. Public Health Serv-

ice, the Centers for Disease Con-

trol and Prevention, and the Na-

tional Institutes of Health.

During that time, Larry Kram-

er and other AIDS activists were

leading confrontational demon-

strations at NIH and around the

country. They disrupted national

newscasts and once covered the

house of Republican Sen. Jesse

Helms (N.C.) with a giant con-

dom.

“To the very active AIDS advo-

cacy groups, particularly those

on the East Coast, I’m an unin-

fected, straight White woman

from the Northwest,” Dr. Gebbie

said. “How could I possibly be

their hero in this epidemic?”

Dr. Gebbie recognized that

AIDS was not just a medical

problem but that it posed a vari-

ety of social challenges, as well.

“It leads you into just about

every complicated human ques-

tion that you have to deal with,”

she told the Los Angeles Times

after joining the Clinton admin-

istration. “What does human sex-

uality mean? What is the balance

point between an individual’s

rights and responsibilities and a

community’s rights and respon-

sibilities? What is our responsi-

bility to people at the end of life?”

Nevertheless, she helped insti-

tute mandatory training pro-

grams on HIV/AIDS for all feder-

al employees and advocated for

more research funding. She also

oversaw the development of the

first federally funded public serv-

ice advertisements that men-

tioned condoms and urged

Americans to “talk much more

openly about sexual activity.”

“I might choose for all children

to stay abstinent from sex till

they’re 23 years old and married,

but I know that choice is not

real,” she told the Oregonian

newspaper in 1994. “And there-

fore I think we’re obliged to give

kids information about condoms

and safer sex practices. We’re

obliged to give them the informa-

tion that can help them live.”

After 13 months, Dr. Gebbie

resigned under pressure. Critics

said she was overwhelmed by the

job, partly because she had too

little guidance from the White

House and was unable to build

support on Capitol Hill. (The

Office of National AIDS Policy

was discontinued under Presi-

dent Donald Trump but was re-

vived last year by President

Biden.)

“This was a new job with al-

most nothing written down

about what it should be, and

expectations were too high,” she

said in 1994. “Some people will

never be happy about this posi-

tion unless it is the job of a real

czar who can command viruses,

money and jobs.”

Kristine Elizabeth Moore was

born June 26, 1943, in Sioux City,

Iowa. Her father was an Army

officer, and her mother was an

administrator with the U.S. Fish

and Wildlife Service. She spent

part of her childhood overseas

and in Montana and New Mexico.

She received a nursing degree

in 1965 from St. Olaf College in

Northfield, Minn., and a master’s

degree in nursing from the Uni-

versity of California at Los Ange-

les in 1968. Early in her career,

she was a hospital administrator

and taught nursing at UCLA and

St. Louis University. She helped

develop nursing standards that

were adopted nationwide. She

received a doctorate in public

health from the University of

Michigan in 1995.

Dr. Gebbie was Oregon’s top-

ranking public health official

from 1978 to 1989 and then led

the state of Washington’s health

department until 1993. After her

year as AIDS coordinator in

Washington, Dr. Gebbie became

a nursing professor at Columbia

University and directed the

school’s Center for Health Policy

from 1994 to 2008. She later

served two years as dean of the

Hunter-Bellevue School of Nurs-

ing at New York’s Hunter College

before retiring to Australia,

where she was an adjunct profes-

sor at several colleges.

Her marriage to Neil Gebbie

ended in divorce. Her husband of

27 years, Lester Wright, died in

April. Survivors include three

children from her first marriage,

Anna Gebbie of Binghamton,

N.Y., Eileen Gebbie of Urbana,

Ill., and Eric Gebbie of Portland,

Ore.; two stepsons, Jason Wright

of Portland and Nathan Wright of

Tacoma, Wash.; a sister; 10

grandchildren; and a great-

granddaughter.

KRISTINE GEBBIE, 78

First White House AIDS ‘czar’ held little s way in nation’s disease response

GREG GIBSON/ASSOCIATED PRESS

President Bill Clinton i ntroduces Kristine Gebbie as the White House coordinator of AIDS policy in 1993. With little administration

guidance and congressional support, she quit after 13 months. Gebbie died May 17 in Australia, where she had been living in retirement.

obituaries

BY KARINA ELWOOD

A group of Talbot County
residents filed suit against the
Maryland Department of the
Environment on Friday over its
approval of a massive develop-
ment on the Eastern Shore that
they say would pollute the Ches-
apeake Bay.
The lawsuit, filed by 11 resi-
dents and the resident-led Tal-
bot Integrity Project, escalates a
nearly 20-year battle over plans
to raise about 2,500 homes in
Trappe, Md., a rural town of
about 1,200 people.
It alleges that a sewer plan for
the Lakeside at Trappe develop-
ment approved by the agency
would further pollute a small
creek that leads into the Chesa-

peake Bay, in violation of Mary-

land law.

“MDE is willing to let a devel-

oper put substantially more sew-

erage into an antiquated treat-

ment system that is discharging

outrageous concentrations of

nutrient pollutants into an al-

ready impaired little waterway

that feeds into the Choptank,”

Dan Watson, a plaintiff and the

founder of the Talbot Integrity

Project, a recently formed or-

ganization fighting the develop-

ment, said in a news release.

In 2020, the agency green-

lighted the developer’s plans to

hook up the first 120 new homes

to the town’s outdated wastewa-

ter treatment plant, which was

discharging pollutants into a

tributary of La Trappe Creek

that empties into the Choptank

River and eventually the bay.

The state agency’s approval al-

lowed the developers to break

ground on the project’s first

phase last summer.

After learning about the exist-

ing wastewater treatment

plant’s discharge violations

from residents, the Talbot Coun-

ty Planning Commission voted

to rescind its initial approval of

the plan in November. But the

Talbot County Council decided

in March not to approve the

Planning Commission’s retrac-

tion; the state agency has also

not reversed its approval of the

plan.

Agency spokesman Jay Apper-

son said in an email that the

MDE is in the review process for

the final decision regarding the

Lakeside permit application and

that the department would re-

view any litigation regarding the

permit application.

The lawsuit alleges that by

continuing to let the project

move forward as planned, even

after the Planning Commission

determined that hooking up the

120 homes to the treatment

plant is inconsistent with the

county’s comprehensive plan,

MDE is violating a state law.

The battle over the Lakeside

development in Trappe dates

back to 2003, when the town was

financially struggling, and

Rocks Engineering, the North-

ern Virginia-based company be-

hind the development, promised

to fund some of the town’s

municipal services in exchange

for 924 acres for the project.

The company also agreed to

build a new wastewater treat-

ment plant on-site to replace

Trappe’s outdated water and

sewage system that was partly

responsible for the town’s

$3.5 million debt.

The project’s advancement,

nearly 20 years later, has riled

residents and environmentalists

who want to reduce the size of or

entirely stop the development,

which some fear would change

the character of Trappe.

The current sewage plan

holds that 120 homes will be

connected to the existing water

treatment plant until the devel-

opment’s new wastewater treat-

ment plant and spray irrigation

system are built.

Environmentalists unhappy

with the state agency point to

other criticisms of MDE in the

past year: In November, it did

not alert the public about a

sewage spill that sickened at

least two dozen people in St.

Mary’s County. In August, Blue

Water Baltimore, a nonprofit

behind the Baltimore Harbor

Waterkeeper, reported finding

high amounts of bacteria-pollut-

ed wastewater coming from the

city-operated Patapsco and Back

River sewage treatment plants,

which the MDE is supposed to

monitor.

Blue Water Baltimore went to

federal court in December alleg-

ing that the plants have been

violating anti-pollution laws

since at least 2017, and the MDE

filed a complaint in Baltimore

Circuit Court against the city-

operated plants earlier this year.

The Talbot County lawsuit is

being funded by donations from

over 150 county residents, ac-

cording to a news release.

MARYLAND

Group sues state agency o ver plans for development on Eastern Shore

Suit by Talbot County

residents c aps 20-year

battle over Trappe plan

The lawsuit alleges that by continuing to let the

project move forward as planned, even after the

Planning Commission determined that hooking up

the 120 homes to the treatment plant is inconsistent

with the county’s comprehensive plan, MDE is

violating a state law.

BY GREGORY S. SCHNEIDER

AND LAURA VOZZELLA

richmond — Virginia Lt. Gov.
Winsome Earle-Sears (R) offered a
full-throated defense of gun rights
Friday at a National Rifle Associa-
tion meeting in Texas, acknowl-
edging the horror of this week’s
shooting at a Uvalde elementary
school but blaming it on a range of
social factors from lack of prayer
in schools to “emasculated” men
and pandemic safety protocols.
Earle-Sears, who drew national
attention during last year’s elec-
tion campaign by appearing in ads
with an assault-style rifle strapped
across her dress, gave a keynote

speech for a women’s lunch at the

NRA’s annual conference in Hous-

ton. Many public figures have

backed out of the NRA event in the

wake of the horrific shooting, in

which 19 children and two teach-

ers were killed.

But Earle-Sears was defiant

about attending.

“They did not want me to come,

thinking you are monsters, that

you are culpable in the murder of

the children,” she said, according

to a written copy of her remarks

provided by her office. Reporters

weren’t allowed to cover the event.

“As you all know, the NRA was

first established by Union veter-

ans,” continued Earle-Sears, who

is Black. “I look at you, and I see

mothers, daughters, sisters, and

grandmothers, YOU are the NRA.

People. You are not this nebulous

entity. How far we have fallen that

we have labeled you monsters, our

fellow law-abiding Americans.”

Democrats were quick to con-

demn the appearance. Democrat-

ic Party of Virginia chairwoman

Susan Swecker called it “an abom-

ination to the victims of this shoot-

ing and an embarrassment to Vir-

ginia.”

Speaking Friday on a call with

reporters, Swecker and other

Democrats demanded that Gov.

Glenn Youngkin (R) say whether

he supports Earle-Sears’s re-

marks.

Youngkin’s office did not direct-

ly respond, but issued a statement

expressing sympathy for the fami-

lies of shooting victims and saying

that the governor had assembled

education, health and public safe-

ty secretaries to ensure that they

are protecting Virginia schools.

“The governor has been work-

ing on getting more school re-

source officers into the school[s]

since last year and making sure

parents can be confident in their

child’s safety on school premises,”

Youngkin spokeswoman Macaul-

ay Porter said via text message.

Del. Elizabeth R. Guzman (D-

Prince William) noted that most of

the victims in the Uvalde shooting

were Latino. “My people are hurt-

ing, our wounds have been re-

opened and the grief cuts deeper,”

she said on the call with reporters.

The Earle-Sears speech, she add-

ed, “is a slap in the face to the

victims and the Latino communi-

ty.”

In her remarks, Earle-Sears la-

mented the shooting at Robb El-

ementary School, quoting the Bi-

ble’s book of Jeremiah about Ra-

chel weeping for her children.

“This should not have happened

again,” Earle-Sears said.

She characterized America as

“in a battle for her children,” and

said the country weeps over social

ills, from “the breakdown of the

family” to “fatherless homes,”

from “lack of respect for fellow

men” to “countless Black men

murdering each other” and “the

onslaught against the liberty of

thought and expression.”

Earle-Sears, who has operated a

prison ministry and often speaks

in the tones of a preacher, warned

that “America is running headlong

into a dangerous abyss.” She

claimed that demonstrators are

disrupting church services and

babies are being aborted up until

the moment of birth. Even lan-

guage has deteriorated, she said,

“such that F-bombs and even the

startling MF bombs are spoken

across our airways.”

These and other ills are plagu-

ing the nation, she said, “Because

we took prayer out of schools. We

have so liberated our sexuality,

that we are now informed that

men can have abortions.”

Society frees its criminals so

they can pillage and plunder “in

the name of social justice,” she

said, and meanwhile fails to teach

children to read. Mental health is

deteriorating, worsened by “covid

protocols.” Fathers are not present

because “we have emasculated our

men,” she said.

Earle-Sears listed principles

she supports to make things bet-

ter, including a strong Second

Amendment, better mental health

services and stronger security in

schools. And, she said, “Churches

and communities need to step up.

More government action cannot

be the only answer.”

Despite her apocalyptic charac-

terization of a nation on the brink,

Earle-Sears said she is ultimately

optimistic.

“We will endure. For the sake of

our children’s children. Our chil-

dren will not just survive, they will

thrive. Because we will leave it

better than we found it. Our chil-

dren are depending on us. There is

no other refuge like America,” she

said.

Antonio Olivo contributed to this

report.

VIRGINIA

At Texas NRA event, Earle-Sears o≠ers unabashed defense of gun rights

Lieutenant governor

blames Uvalde school

deaths on social factors