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Puerto Rican artist accuses trustee of New York LGBTQIA+ art museum of HIV discrimination in book dispute
Dr. Daniel Berger, trustee at the Leslie-Lohman Museum of Art, denied making negative, discriminatory comments about artist Jorge Sánchez’s HIV-positive status
Adam Rhodes
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A Puerto Rican artist is accusing a member of the board of trustees of the world’s only LGBTQIA+-dedicated art museum of making disparaging comments about his HIV status in a copyright dispute over a book the pair worked on together about Black and queer artists.
According to court documents, Puerto Rican artist Jorge Sánchez claimed that Dr. Daniel Berger, a trustee at the Leslie-Lohman Museum of Art, formerly the Leslie-Lohman Museum of Gay and Lesbian Art, made numerous negative, discriminatory comments about Sánchez’s HIV-positive status as the two worked on their book.
Berger filed a copyright infringement lawsuit against Sánchez in February and, in court documents filed Monday, characterized Sánchez’s claims of discrimination as “defamatory allegations and other calumny spouted by Sánchez.”
In an email to Prism, Berger refuted Sánchez’s allegations and said the allegedly discriminatory statements never happened.
“The notion that I would discriminate against someone who is HIV positive is completely absurd,” Berger wrote. “I have spent the better part of my life treating and helping people with HIV diagnoses and AIDS. I have treated thousands of patients, and co-authored a book to help those who are facing such a diagnosis. My work on the first ever study of combination therapy was important to the development of the ‘cocktail’ that has allowed many people to live with AIDS.”
But Sánchez disagreed.
“This action is not a copyright dispute. It is a case about discrimination, retaliation, and the abuse of institutional and economic power to silence a scholar after he engaged in protected activity,” Sánchez wrote in counterclaims filed in February. “Daniel Berger has attempted to reframe this dispute as a narrow disagreement over copyright ownership arising from an editorial services contract. That framing is misleading.”
Sánchez declined to comment to Prism on the record, citing the ongoing litigation.
A spokesperson for the Leslie-Lohman Museum of Art also declined to comment, stating that the museum does not comment on litigation to which it is not a party.
Berger is a Chicago-based HIV specialist who, according to the Chicago LGBT Hall of Fame, was “one of the heroic early ‘AIDS doctors.’” Along with his decades of scientific research into HIV treatments, including some of the first on combination drug therapies to treat the virus, Berger also founded Northstar Medical Center, a private HIV/AIDS research and treatment center in Chicago.
Sánchez is a Puerto Rican artist and writer who has curated and collaborated on projects across the Americas. Sánchez was previously a curator for CENTRO, the Center for Puerto Rican Studies at Hunter College in East Harlem, and has organized events in New York, Ecuador, and Chicago.
According to court documents, the pair met in 2022 when Berger and another Leslie-Lohman board member, Michael Sodomick, invited Sánchez to curate an exhibition in Chicago at a private space that Berger owned.
After the success of that exhibition, Berger, Sánchez, and another artist executed the 2023 editorial services contract at the center of the copyright lawsuit to work on a book highlighting the work of Black and LGBTQIA+ artists.
Berger’s lawsuit seeks an order that Sánchez has no copyright or ownership claims to his contributions to the project and a payment of at least $100,000 after Sánchez allegedly breached a confidentiality provision of the contract by discussing and sharing the project with others.
Sánchez, however, alleges that the copyright lawsuit is retaliation after he repeatedly complained to the Leslie-Lohman Museum’s board about Berger’s alleged discriminatory comments about Sánchez’s HIV status. Sánchez alleges in the counterclaims that he made repeated complaints about harassment, retaliation, and efforts to censor his work. Berger called the allegations of retaliation “offensive.”
In one complaint quoted in court documents, allegedly shared with the museum’s Executive Director Alyssa Nitchun, Sánchez claims, “On several occasions, I have been told inappropriately that I have an ‘obsession’ with HIV/AIDS—remarks that diminish the legitimacy and importance of my scholarship in this area.”
Sánchez’s allegations of discrimination are part of his answer and counterclaims that he has filed as part of the lawsuit.
“The true gravamen of this case is [Berger’s] creation and maintenance of a hostile and discriminatory working environment … followed by retaliation when [I] objected to that treatment and made protected complaints,” Sánchez alleges.
In his counterclaims, Sánchez alleges that Berger made repeated discriminatory comments over the course of the project about Sánchez’s HIV status, in violation of New York’s antidiscrimination law, and additionally tried to rewrite or omit some of Sánchez’s contributions to the book that mentioned HIV/AIDS.
Sánchez claims that Berger repeatedly referred to his scholarly work as “an AIDS obsession” and that he had “a virus gone wrong in the head.” He further claims that Berger allegedly made disparaging comments about Sánchez to Sodomick and others who worked on the book project.
According to Sánchez’s counterclaims, the bookmaking process eventually became so hostile that Sodomick, also a board member, facilitated an unsuccessful mediation to resolve the dispute, during which Berger allegedly again threatened Sánchez’s career and reputation if Sánchez did not remove references to HIV/AIDS from his contributions to the book.
Finally, Sánchez alleges, the dispute culminated in Sánchez filing a formal complaint to the Leslie-Lohman board on Sept. 6. Hours later, according to Sánchez, Berger terminated the contract accusing him of breaching their agreement.
Since his termination, Sánchez claims that the Leslie-Lohman Museum has refused to furnish any conflict of interest or nondiscrimination policies, and has not shared any outcome of any review or investigation into Berger’s conduct. Three days after Sánchez said he made one final complaint to the museum’s executive director, Berger filed the copyright suit in Illinois federal court.
As for the actual contract dispute, Sánchez alleges that the contract was originally for a catalog project that later grew into the book project, and that his role transformed from a simple catalog of artistic works to a full-fledged book.
The original lawsuit was filed in Illinois federal court in late October, but the court agreed with Sánchez that the dispute centers on a museum, witnesses, and scholarly project all principally based in New York and moved the case to the state in mid-March.
Sánchez, who identifies in court documents as a nonpracticing lawyer, is representing himself in the copyright lawsuit, and Berger is represented by John R. Cahill and Ronald W. Adelman of ARTxLAW PLLC.
Editorial Team:
Sahar Fatima, Lead Editor
Lara Witt, Top Editor
Stephanie Harris, Copy Editor
Adam Rhodes
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