Man of Letters

Gorcyca still believes those extreme measures are the only way to slow a crisis that now is out of control. "How else do they propose to make any difference in the incredible rate of infection?" he asks. "If they have a better way, why isn't it working?" As for criticism that his methods might result in panic, he responds, "The bottom line is it's better to be safe than sorry. Have you looked at the personal columns lately? Those people have no idea who they're going out with. Realistically, you can get infected tomorrow from the negligence ten years ago of someone you never met." All of AAAA's volunteers who answer phones and take down the names and last known addresses of callers' sex partners will have taken the two-day course regarding HIV counseling offered by the State Department of Health and Rehabilitative Services (HRS), he adds, and will carefully question callers to make sure they are indeed HIV-positive.

Future recipients of Gorcyca's HIV letter can only hope his volunteers are more careful than he was when he registered his company with the State of Florida. The organization promotes itself as a nonprofit corporation, but state records show it to be a for-profit enterprise that offers stock.

Gorcyca's criminal record, too, might raise a few eyebrows. He spent three years in federal prison and was twice tried on forgery and other felony charges. In 1984 he pleaded guilty to federal charges of accepting a bribe while an IRS agent (he insists he was innocent) and was sentenced to five years at the federal prison camp at Eglin Air Force Base in