February 2009 Archives

Recovery.gov was launched recently to let the American people track how the $787 billion stimulus plan gets spent. I'm looking forward to tracking if and when any of it goes to HIV/AIDS prevention, treatment and research.

According to the site, $59 billion is allotted to health care. There are no details yet on the site as to how that breaks down. The site promises, however, that "new information on the allocation of funds will be posted on Recovery.gov as it becomes available."

When $400 million for prevention of sexually transmitted infections such as HIV was dropped from the stimulus plan earlier this month, I became pessimistic about how seriously HIV/AIDS was going to be treated by the Obama administration. I'm now cautiously optimistic that it was an anomaly.

The New York Times reports that about $10 billion from the stimulus plan will go to the National Institutes of Health. Math has never been my friend, but I think that leaves $49 billion to be accounted for in the coming months. I hope that a nice piece of that pie lands on our plate.

Watch President Obama explain the mission of Recovery.gov:

Click here to read a related blog post by AIDSmeds founder Peter Staley titled "AIDS Research Gets Huge Stimulus."

The 81st Academy Awards were presented last night. It was a great show--a welcome surprise in and of itself. What impressed me the most, however, was a smaller moment during the montage "Romance 2008" highlighting the best on-screen romances of the year. LGBT relationships weren't forgotten.

I was watching with my boyfriend and we saw memorable romantic scenes from a cross-section of films from 2008, such as "Slumdog Millionaire" (won Best Picture), "The Reader" (won Best Actress for Kate Winslet) and even "Sex and the City" (didn't win any awards, but Sarah Jessica Parker did co-present the artsy awards with Daniel Craig).

We quickly noticed, however, that there was no LGBT romance. With "Milk" in the running for Best Picture and other awards (won Best Original Screenplay and Best Actor for Sean Penn), I started to get a bit upset. Then, a flash of Sean Penn. I was pleased, but not yet satisfied. Then, a flash of Sean Penn kissing co-star James Franco. I was satisfied.

To have omitted the gay Sean Penn/James Franco kiss from all that kissing by straight characters would have been a mistake--and I'm thrilled the Oscars understood.

I couldn't find a photo of the Penn/Franco kiss. Not sure what it means, but it makes my anti-homophobia/anti-stigma Spidy senses tingle. Well, you can imagine the kiss that also somehow is missing from the end of this publicity clip:

Major media outlets in Latin America have formed a new partnership to increase awareness of HIV/AIDS and reduce stigma, according to PRNewswire.

Iniciativa de Medios Latinoamericanos sobre el SIDA (IMLAS), a.k.a. the Latin American Media AIDS Initiative, is the first media partnership in Latin America on HIV/AIDS. The partnership will coordinate a regional public information campaign, journalism workshops and other skills-building programs.

IMLAS was formed in response to efforts by the Global Media AIDS Initiative, which has launched similar partnerships in Africa, Asia-Pacific, Eastern Europe and the Caribbean.

Founding members of IMLAS include: Canal 13 (Argentina), Ecuavisa (Ecuador), TC Television (Ecuador), Telefe (Argentina), Televisa (Mexico), TV Azteca (Mexico) and TV Globo (Brazil). The initiative plans to expand its membership across Latin America. Fundación Huesped, a non-governmental organization based in Buenos Aires, will provide operational support.

"Although Latin America is the third most impacted region of the world in terms of the number of people living with HIV/AIDS, after Africa and the Caribbean, the epidemic in the region is often invisible," said Leandro Cahn, director of communication for Fundación Huesped.

Ronald Gonzalez--the former executive director of Alianza Latina, an AIDS service organization for Latinos in Western New York--was one of the passengers who died in the plane crash of Continental Flight 3407 near Buffalo, NY, on February 12, which killed 50 people, The Star-Ledger reports. Gonzalez, 44, was planning to visit his relatives in Buffalo.

Most recently, Gonzalez was director of a New Jersey-based youth services program, New Brunswick Tomorrow. Outcome Buffalo reports that Gonzalez also was an openly gay man who worked to educate LGBT youth through his AIDS advocacy work and in collaborative programs with Gay and Lesbian Youth Services of Western New York.

Gonzalez told The Star-Ledger in a 2007 interview about his work at New Brunswick Tomorrow:

"I know it's part of my mission in life to help people like that because I was that person. I'm here to tell people: Don't throw your stereotypes at people."

This plane crash has taken the lives of many extraordinary individuals, including a 9/11 widow, a human rights activist and many others. Sadly, Gonzalez also is on that list. I did not know him, but Gonzalez was clearly the kind of person that we cannot afford to lose in the fight against HIV/AIDS.

Many thanks to Barry Walston of New York State's AIDS Institute for contacting me about the death of Gonzalez, who was both his friend and colleague.

Former baseball star Roberto Alomar was sued yesterday for $15 million by an ex-girlfriend alleging that he had unprotected sex with her without telling her that he was HIV positive. The suit also alleges that he has "full-blown AIDS."

It's too soon to know the facts in the Alomar case, although I have no doubt that they will come out. However, it's not too soon to declare that the phrase "full-blown AIDS" without quotes around it has made an unwelcome comeback. It's used without quotes from the original Daily News article to other traditional media sources such as The New York Times, CNN and USA Today. Quotes make all the difference.

The Associated Press (AP) has a stylebook that most journalists abide by to determine proper usage of certain words and phrases. The National Lesbian & Gay Journalists Association (NLGJA) has a supplement to the AP stylebook. The NLGJA stylebook supplement focuses on LGBT-related terminology, but it also includes a few HIV-related entries.

Here's the NLGJA stylebook supplement entry for AIDS:

AIDS: Acquired Immune Deficiency Syndrome, a medical condition that compromises the human immune system, leaving the body defenseless against opportunistic infections. Some medical treatments can slow the rate at which the immune system is weakened. Individuals may be HIV-positive but not have AIDS. Do not use the term “full-blown AIDS”; it is appropriate to simply say that HIV-positive people have developed AIDS or that their immune system is failing. Avoid “AIDS sufferer” and “AIDS victim.” Use “people with AIDS” or, if the context is medical, “AIDS patients.”

The NLGJA clearly recommends that "full-blown AIDS" not be used. The reason is not mentioned, but I believe that it has to do with the fact that "full-blown AIDS" has become a phrase loaded with stigma. I have two other reasons to object to the phrase, one serious and one silly.

As with "HIV virus" (which is completely redundant because "virus" is already part of the "HIV" acronym), the term "full-blown AIDS" is redundant. At best, the phrase was an attempt to make a distinction between being HIV-positive without symptoms and being HIV-positive with AIDS-defining symptoms before such a distinction was understood by most people. Now that the distinction between HIV and AIDS is understood by most people, I believe that we can just say "AIDS" and leave it at that.

The words "full-blown" get caught in my mouth, too many letter Ls. To my ears, "full-blown AIDS" is an inelegant phrase.

I realize that the phrase is being used in the media because it was used in the suit against Alomar. Nonetheless, "full-blown AIDS" should at least be in quotes. Adding quotes acknowledges it as a phrase without necessarily granting it the legitimacy that naked phrases possess.

Last night I saw Annie Lennox of the Eurythmics at a Q&A event by The New York Times. I was moved by this HIV/AIDS warrior as she bore witness to the pandemic. She's also promoting her new album The Annie Lennox Collection, a compilation of her solo hits with two new songs.

I've been a fan of hers ever since the 1983 single "Sweet Dreams," the first hit in the United States for the Eurythmics. Her gender-bending closely-cropped flaming red hair in the video for that song was seared into my young mind as a revelation.

She's been a friend of the HIV-positive community for years. The SING Campaign is the most recent example. The single "Sing" launched the campaign, which focuses on women and children with HIV/AIDS in Africa.

Jon Pareles, the chief pop music critic for The New York Times, started the interview by highlighting her commitment to HIV/AIDS advocacy, then a video was shown commemorating the 1st anniversary of the SING campaign.

Watch it:

The video set up an in-depth discussion of her HIV/AIDS activism. Her responses clearly demonstrated her emotional connection to the topic. She spoke of the importance of personalizing the issue. To that end, another video was shown focusing on one family of AIDS orphans.

Watch it:

After the second video ended, Lennox sang "Why?" as she played the piano. It was a wonderful version that Lennox has been playing for years that she has associated with the fight against HIV/AIDS.

Watch her perform a similar version of "Why" at the 2006 LIVE 8 concert:

After her performance, the conversation switched to her career and her thoughts on the creative process for all artists. Her quirky, funny and straightforward personality was in abundance.

Lennox ended the evening by fielding questions from the audience, singing a touching version of "Little Bird" and showing the video for her new single, "Shining Light." I wish her much continued success as an artist and an ally.

Click here for a great interview with Annie Lennox about her new album and her HIV/AIDS activism by Trenton Straube.

The killer of a gay, HIV-positive man in the Bahamas in 2004 was acquitted recently of the murder, The Nassau Guardian reports. The killer accused the victim of attempted rape and used the "gay panic defense" successfully.

The details of this case are sketchy, but the outcome is clear—a gay, HIV-positive man is dead and his killer is free because homophobia was deemed acceptable by the judicial system of the Bahamas.

Matthew Shepard's killers tried to invoke the "gay panic defense" but weren't allowed to by the judge. Without the refuge of such a defense, his killers are serving life sentences in prison.

Although HIV was a side note to the Bahamas case, I can't help but wonder if AIDS phobia played a role in the killer's mind. In the Matthew Shepard case, unsubstantiated claims of him being HIV-positive were made after his death and were never confirmed. However, I also can't help but wonder if AIDS phobia played a role in his murder.

Whatever role HIV phobia may have played in either case, I'm saddened by so many people believing that LGBT people deserve death as punishment for the crime of being themselves.

After the many setbacks to LGBT civil rights we've witnessed these last few months, I found myself in a tiny pity party with a colleague at work. When she and I had our fill, I said: "The wind is at our backs." I believe we're on the right side of history—and I just ran across a story that supports my belief.

Fred Phelps, the infamously anti-LGBT preacher, and his followers picketed a soldier's funeral in a Kansas town on the afternoon of February 5. They regularly picket military funerals to attribute those deaths as God's punishment of the United States for tolerating homosexuality.

Phelps and his followers have been showing up with picket signs at the funerals of LGBT people for years. They were at Matthew Shepard's funeral, but thankfully friends dressed as angels shielded the mourners from having to see signs saying "AIDS Kills Fags Dead" and "God Hates Fags."

Hundreds of adults and students from the local high school showed up to protest Phelps. I guess Phelps didn't do his homework—the school has a gay and straight alliance and students elected an openly gay homecoming king in 2007.

This photo from The Kansas City Star bears witness to my optimism. Signs saying "Donate for AIDS Research" and "God Loves Everyone" have replaced those hateful signs from Matthew Shepard's funeral. The younger generations across the country (even in more traditionally conservative states like Kansas) understand LGBT people are entitled to our civil rights. Amen.

Tip of the hat to the LGBT blog Towleroad for this story!

Jon-Jo Douglas, a Canadian judge, in 2007 ordered an HIV-positive witness with hepatitis C to wear a mask in the courtroom because the judge feared being infected, Xtra.ca reports.

According to a trial transcript, the judge said:

The HIV virus will live in a dried state for year after year after year and only needs moisture to reactivate itself ... I mean, [the witness] speaks within two feet of me with two serious infectious diseases. Either you mask your witness and/or move us to another courtroom or we do not proceed.

The judge was punished by submitting to one day of HIV education at an AIDS hospice. Local HIV/AIDS activists only recently learned of the outcome and aren't satisfied with the results. They say that one day is insufficient for the judge to overcome his fears and that a public statement from the judge should have been required.

I agree with both of those points. I also believe that he should recuse himself from any future HIV criminalization cases that come before him.

There does seem to be a silver lining to this story. As a result of this incident, the chief justice of the Ontario Court is considering mandatory HIV/AIDS education for all judges.

Rosendo Huesca Pacheco, the archbishop of Puebla, recently revealed that all men in his diocese who apply to become priests must submit to HIV testing—and if the results are positive the men are rejected for priesthood, the Mexican magazine Proceso reports.

He also reiterated the Roman Catholic church's ever-increasing rhetoric that gay men are not welcome as priests. The archbishop made all these comments in response to an initiative by local legislators to define pederasty as a crime. It seems that he believes that denying HIV-positive men and gay men from the priesthood will make defining pederasty as a crime unnecessary.

Equating HIV-positive men and gay men with pederasts is not just grossly inaccurate, it's an outrage. Thankfully, civil rights leaders in Mexico are arguing that excluding HIV-positive men from the priesthood solely on the basis of their HIV status is illegal, Mexican news agency Notiese reports.

As the leader of the oldest diocese in Mexico, this archbishop has influence. We can only hope that his influence is counterbalanced by those fair-minded civil rights leaders.

Tip of the hat to Blabbeando for this story!

UPDATE: The uproar from Mexican civil rights activists seems to have had an impact—plans to give HIV tests to all applicants for the priesthood have been cancelled, Notiese reports.

Martin Delaney, the founder of Project Inform, died recently. He was 63 years old. He wasn't HIV-positive, but he was one of the most influential HIV/AIDS treatment activists.

Rachel Maddow gave Delaney a great tribute on her TV show last week for his life's work, especially praising Project Inform and HIV/AIDS activists everywhere.

Here's an excerpt of Rachel's comments:

The treatment activist movement that Project Inform helped launch set a new standard for how medical research is done. It set a new standard for community activists being recognized as the experts in their own field, regardless of whether they had the degrees and job titles that usually conferred the honor of expertise. And, not incidentally, they saved the lives of hundreds of thousands, if not millions, of people who would not have made it ... Project Inform still exists. The AIDS activist movement still exists. It is essentially a hidden, huge success story about people power changing the world. It is worth knowing about. Maybe even worth joining up.

Watch the clip here (the Delaney story starts at 1:53):

Click here to read a wonderful tribute to Delaney by AIDSmeds associate editor David Evans.