And the tweak goes on.

Despite GMHC's laudable decision to close what it could not clean up, the Morning Party is the only circuit party that has been canceled.

Two years ago in this space I wrote a column questioning the wisdom of AIDS groups' sponsoring and profiting from drug-saturated "circuit parties" like the Morning Party held by Gay Men's Health Crisis. There are about 50 of these AIDS benefits around the nation, and many are famous for high levels of drag abuse, overdoses, and unsafe sex. I argued that since drug use is the number one factor that leads to unsafe sex, as shown in almost every study of gay men's health, it was wrong for groups dedicated to fighting AIDS to sponsor, profit from, and legitimize events centered on the very behaviors that most contribute to infection.

Many disagreed. Some argued that I was exaggerating the drug abuse. Some argued that, drugs or no drugs, AIDS groups really need the money generated by circuit parties. Some argued that they were perfect places to educate people about the connection between drugs and HIV transmission. Some even argued that there's actually little unsafe sex at these events because the vast majority of attendees are so stoned on coke, GHB, crystal meth, ecstasy, and special K that they can't have sex at all, so what the hell was I talking about?

Fast forward to this past December, when GMHC canceled the Morning Party, citing "alarming levels" of drug use "despite GMHC's many attempts to discourage drug-taking." The cancellation occurred after a gay man who went to Fire Island for the party and its attendant preparties and postparties died of an overdose, several others OD'd, and someone whom GMHC hired to keep the event drug-free was among the 21 people arrested for drugs.

A widely read circuit party newsletter claimed that my Advocate column "launched the misguided campaign" that led to the Morning Party's cancellation, and some have suggested that I "won" and that I should be happy with the result. After all, that's what columnists are supposed to do--shake things up, have an impact.

Well, I'm not so happy, and no one won. For one thing, I never argued that AIDS groups should shut down their parties; I argued that they should turn them into events not centered on drugs and unsafe sex. I believed they could, but as GMHC genuinely tried to do this and failed, I guess I was wrong. That means that these benefits are so permeated by drugs, even the full weight of a sponsoring group like GMHC cannot turn them around.

And that's ominous because--despite GMHC's laudable decision to close what it could not clean up--the Morning Party is the only one of these events that has been canceled. And the real reason it was canceled is quite clear. Not because of the drags. Or the unsafe sex. Or the medical emergencies. Or those two deadly letters: OD. But because of those other two deadly letters: PR. In New York a bunch of determined activists continually embarrassed GMHC until, as one former Morning Party promoter told The New York Times, the negative publicity was becoming too much of a burden.

Get that. The negative publicity, not the problem itself. And so, in the approximately 50 other cities where AIDS groups continue to sponsor and legitimize such events without much negative publicity (but with plenty of drugs and ODs), the beat--and the tweak--goes on. All to "benefit AIDS."

I'll say. This tragic travesty is being played out against certain facts about AIDS that are now undeniable. HIV has mutated to create superstrains increasingly resistant to the miracle drug combinations. Huge numbers of people who got better thanks to those combinations are now getting worse again. Unsafe sex is way, way up, according to every study. HIV transmission appears to be exploding among gay men, up 50% in a single year in one Atlanta study. Gay men with resistant strains of HIV appear to be able to pass them along easily.

Madonna, no enemy of hedonism, posed on the cover of the March issue of Esquire to publicize an alarming article by Pulitzer Prize--winning health and science reporter Laurie Garrett that essentially says the protease inhibitor miracle of 1996 is over and that scientists are bracing for a catastrophe.

So it's one thing to celebrate, as Madonna would say. We all need that. But for a population that also needs an urgent wake-up all, it's another to profit from, sponsor, and legitimize dances of drag-saturated denial. If Madonna understands the urgency, it's sad that most AIDS groups do not.