HIV Activist Calls Mayor Ed Lee a Name the Chronicle Would Never Print

Wonder how he feels about Jeff Sheehy ...

​In this election, Mayor Ed Lee has been called many charming names -- crooked, double-crossing, sneaky, Republican. Now he can add "dick" to that growing list of insults.   

According to the Bay Area Reporter, Jeff Sheehy, who was the HIV czar for former Mayor Gavin Newsom, publicly called the mayor a "dick" for not showing up to a Wednesday night HIV/AIDS forum. When the moderator told Sheehy, who was a panelist at the forum, to ask a candidate a question, he instead used his time to rail on Lee.

"Mayor Lee is a dick for not showing up," Sheehy said.

We called Sheehy to see if he had any remorse about his public name-calling. Turns out, he had a few more thoughts to add.

"I just think it's really rude and obnoxious when you say you are going to be there," Sheehy told us. "There are people with HIV and AIDS who came expecting to see the mayor and he didn't show up. And if you knew you weren't going to be there, then don't say you are going to be there."

However, Tony Winnicker, spokesman for Lee, confirmed that the mayor is not a dickhead. "I'm not going to dignify Dennis Herrera's attack-dog, name-calling with that comment," Winnicker said. "We are doing work everyday to help people with HIV and AIDS."

In fact, Winnicker said, Lee missed the community forum because he was at a separate HIV/AIDS event, the AIDS Legal Referral Panel, speaking to a group of 150 lawyers who work on behalf of clients living with HIV/AIDS. Winnicker said the mayor knew he had a conflict that evening, which is exactly why he never committed to going to the community forum.

"We never confirmed for [the other AIDS event] -- that's a complete lie," Winnicker said.

He added: "All those people are actively supporting another candidate." Which is code for "they're a bunch of dicks."

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