Amid all of the publicity, among all of the stars and media hoopla there are a number of key propositions on the recall ballot that could have serious effects on the GLBT community and the future of HIV and AIDS funding. Proposition 54, innocuously called The Classification on Race, Ethnicity, Color & National Origin (CRECNO) Ballot Initiative or the Racial Privacy Initiative, if approved, would prohibit California state and local governments and their agencies from collecting racial data.

“There are two main reasons the LGBT community must stand up against propositions like this and vote no on Oct. 7,” said AJ Davis-Defeo, the director of The Center’s Public Policy Department, said about Prop. 54. “The first reason is that the LGBT community is made up of every racial and ethnic group. There are lesbians, gay men, bisexual folks and transgender women and men who will be directly affected by Prop. 54 all around us. The second reason the LGBT community cannot stand quietly aside on this issue is that it is not until all marginalized communities come together and stand up for the civil and human rights of all people that we will begin to realize the equality we seek.”

Demographic information allows the agencies that fund everything from medical care to hate crime prevention to make educated decisions based on fact. If passed, Prop. 54 would conceal powerful information regarding racial and ethnic disparities and remove a major tool to identify means to respond to the needs of historically underserved and disadvantaged communities.

“There’s a lot of stuff that we will be missing if proposition 54 passes,” said Jess San Roque, executive director of APICAP. “We won’t be able to get any kind of data as it pertains to ethnic minorities. For instance, the medical community is strongly against Prop. 54 because they need that information with regards to diseases within each of the ethnic groups.”

Racial and ethnic groups experience differences in treatment, have different rates of risk behavior, and respond to different methods and messages in education and prevention campaigns. Public health prevention resources that are often carefully allocated to specific racial and/or ethnic groups would be severely impacted by Prop. 54. Former U.S. Surgeon General Dr. David Satcher states that, “Without that data we could not even begin on a course toward eliminating disparities in health; we would not be able to measure our success or evaluate our objectives toward eliminating disparities…”

“One thing that we are hearing is that we don’t have the numbers, and if we don’t have the numbers with regards to HIV and AIDS then we are not going to get funded,” San Roque said. “By passing Proposition 54, that will definitely affect us of the Asian Pacific Islanders with regards to HIV and AIDS funding. They are already saying that we don’t have the numbers, even though we do have a small percentage with regards to HIV and AIDS. Then it will be even harder for us to go after HIV money within the people of color communities.”

Currently, the fastest growing community being affected by HIV and AIDS is the African-American community but they are not being targeted with enough funds or the right kinds of messages needed to save lives.

“In particular there are continuing disparities as it relates to HIV and AIDS and death experienced by African-Americans and [Prop. 54] will not allow us to make a direct correlation and or substantiate that information,” Arvella Murray, executive director of the Center for Social Support and Education. “Since the whole system regarding funds, etc. is anchored in stats, and that’s the way we trace all diseases, that’s a national methodology that’s used for all information relative to medicine. Everything is anchored in numbers. Without that measuring stick, without that standard, how are decisions made as it relates to funding?”

Those who defend Prop. 54 say that it creates a colorblind society.

“I think it’s ridiculous to think that we can create a colorblind society, because we are not,” said Carolina Ramos, the executive director of Bienestar. “Color does matter; it does, and there are some privileges that come when you have light skin and I think that people need to acknowledge that.”

A part of recognizing that this is not a colorblind society is realizing that different communities respond to messages and information in different ways, particularly about HIV and AIDS education, and particularly those communities that do not realize that they are at risk for the disease.

“Part of the problem is that we end up dying from the disease, when we don’t have to die from the disease,” Murray said. “The whole point of HIV awareness and education right now is a life and death scenario for us. They don’t have the information, they don’t think they are at risk and by the time they go to the doctor the symptoms are exacerbated and they end up dying because they go to the doctor too late.”

Beyond differences in healthcare, Prop. 54 would prevent the state attorney general and public agencies from prosecuting and tracking race and ethnicity-based hate crimes. Traditionally, people of color are the victims of violence and hate crimes at higher rates than Caucasians. Additionally, victims of discrimination based on race and ethnicity will not have the data to meet court standards in proving racial discrimination when it comes to state employment, contracting or housing. Without data on race and ethnicity in law enforcement, it would be nearly impossible to track and prevent racial profiling.

“Our community knows what it is like to not be recognized under hate crimes laws,” said Davis-Defeo. “The federal government does not keep statistics on hate crimes based on sexual orientation, nor do they cover us under hate crimes laws. This does not mean that there are no hate crimes against our community, it only means we have no way of tracking them on a national level. In the state of California the largest single group of hate crimes are race-based. Imagine if we could no longer track that data. We would no longer know statistics about race-based hate crimes and would have our hands tied as we try to bring those numbers down. We know how that feels and we cannot allow that to happen.”