County Expands AIDS Panel to Improve Minority Presence

The San Diego County Board of Supervisors voted Tuesday to expand the membership of the Regional Task Force on AIDS from 24 to 34, in part to improve representation from the black and Latino communities, which nationally have been hit hard by the disease.

The new members of the year-old advisory group are to be nominated by the county medical society, the VA Medical Center, the Visiting Nurses Assn., county Drug Abuse Services and the task force itself, with approval coming from the supervisors.

One of the new members nominated by the task force must have close ties to the Latino community, and another to the black community. A third member is to represent Baja California, signifying the concern about AIDS on both sides of the border.

The board had also been scheduled to consider a proposed ordinance banning discrimination against people who may have been exposed to the AIDS virus, as well as a countywide strategic plan for controlling the spread of AIDS and handling the disease in the future.

However, the supervisors postponed until next Tuesday discussion of the strategic plan in order to give themselves more time to consider it. They put off discussion of the ordinance for several weeks to give the county counsel an opportunity to review it.

The question of expanding the AIDS task force became controversial in April when supervisors expressed an interest in appointing Dr. Theresa Crenshaw, a San Diego sex therapist whose positions on AIDS issues have drawn criticism from some gay activists.

However, Crenshaw has withdrawn from consideration from the position. She was appointed last week to President Reagan’s 13-member commission on AIDS.