March 2011 Archives

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Anthony Fauci
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Anthony Fauci, MD, the director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID), was on The Colbert Report on Tuesday, March 29.

Stephen Colbert did a great job at setting up questions for Fauci to knock down. And Fauci did a great job at setting up punchlines for Colbert.

Here are some excerpts:

Colbert: Why aren't we talking about it [AIDS] if it's still a big deal?
Fauci: Well, people get used to it being around, they get complacent about it...

Colbert: Why are so many still people getting it, because we have abstinence education--
Fauci: That rarely works, that rarely works...

[Fauci explains that African Americans are disproportionately affected.]

Colbert: Is their a vaccine?
Fauci: Not yet.
Colbert: Sounds to me like the vaccine is to be a rich white person.

Colbert: Let's go over some of the basics. I know you can transmit AIDS through sex. What about kissing?
Fauci: No.
Colbert: And crying?
Fauci: No. You're OK, you can kiss and cry.
Colbert: That's good, because I also do those during sex.

Jokes aside, not once (at least in the edited version that appeared on air) was "HIV" uttered. I'm sure that wasn't deliberate, but I'm disappointed.

Making the distinction between HIV and AIDS is necessary for people to understand the disease. What a missed opportunity.

That said, the segment did shed some much-needed light on a topic that doesn't get anywhere near the kind of media attention it used to get.

Oriol on:

The 9th annual LGBT Health Awareness Week runs from March 28 to April 1, 2011. The National Coalition for LGBT Health organizes the event.

"Come Out for Health" is this year's theme, encouraging lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender people to talk openly with health care providers and policy makers.

In a guest blog for The Bilerico Project, Hutson Inniss, executive director of the National Coalition for LGBT Health, writes:

LGBT people are significantly more likely to be uninsured then the general population. In the United States, the ratio of uninsured gays and lesbians to heterosexuals is 2 to 1. For transgender people the uninsured rates are even higher: in a recent New York state study, 21% of transgender people reported having no health insurance at all.

The lack of insurance is a severe barrier to accessing necessary care: 39% of the GLB community delayed diagnostic or treatment services because of a lack of insurance, versus 25% of heterosexual men and women. Fear of discrimination from healthcare providers plays a significant role: 16% of lesbians and 15% of the larger GLB community said they delayed seeking care because of a fear of discrimination, versus only 3% of heterosexuals.

To coincide with the commemoration of this event, the National Coalition for LGBT Health and the Center for American Progress released a report exploring what health care reform means for LGBT people.

Here's an excerpt:

We investigate four major areas where efforts by LGBT advocates and their allies in each state will be key to ensuring that the new health law delivers the largest possible positive results for the LGBT community when the law is fully implemented by 2014. Specifically, these areas are:

• Achieving comprehensive nondiscrimination protections in health insurance exchanges
• Establishing LGBT-inclusive data collection policies
• Recognizing and including LGBT families in all health reform activities
• Supporting community-based health interventions that are LGBT-inclusive

In each of these four areas we include recommendations for federal officials and state governments. Briefly, those recommendations include:

• Establish comprehensive and LGBT-inclusive nondiscrimination policies and practices in health insurance exchanges
• Improve our knowledge base on LGBT health disparities, by including sexual orientation and gender identity demographic questions in federal health surveys
• Recognize and include gay and transgender families in the new health law, by making sure that definitions of family are not solely based upon marriage and adoption laws that automatically exclude LGBT families
• Create community-based healthcare interventions that are responsive to the needs of gay and transgender people

To read more about the report and download a copy, click here.

For more information and materials about the event, click here.


Oriol on:

As a gay former Marine, I obviously support repeal of "Don't Ask, Don't Tell" (DADT). However, I'm reserving my celebration until full implementation of DADT repeal, which should happen sometime in 2011.

For LGBTs in the military, there are still a few obstacles to overcome until full implementation. And many obstacles will remain even when full implementation is a reality. A recent article in The Daily Beast does a good job of pointing them out.

The most obvious obstacle is that DADT remains in effect until 60 days after the president, the secretary of defense and the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff certify that the Department of Defense is prepared to implement repeal.

So, although repeal is coming, LGBTs in the military can still technically be discharged if they came out. That sucks for now, but at least that will be done with soon enough.

Military-wide training on DADT repeal is currently underway. The Daily Beast interviewed several LGBTs in the military associated with OutServe, a network of active-duty LGBT military personnel, about their experiences so far with the training. Most seemed encouraged by it, but they also were reminded of the inequalities yet to be resolved.

Their concerns fell into two camps: 1) Grievances about alleged discrimination will be handled through the chain of command, not the Military Equal Opportunity office, which handles such things for women and people of color. 2) The Defense of Marriage Act is being used as an excuse to not extend benefits to same-sex partners of LGBTs in the military.

And then there was this concern:

James, also with the Air Force, has served in Iraq and is currently overseas. He says ... "When they talked about medical readiness and HIV it made me think that all straight people who go through the training will think we all have it." OutServe's Smith agrees that "it's pretty demeaning to service members to say they have to 'train' about health and HIV with repeal of DADT. Instead they should say 'it's a false stereotype, get it out of your head.'"

It's not clear from the article what exactly is being taught about HIV during these trainings. However, OutServe does have a link to training information for Navy and Marine Corps commanders that includes the following tidbit about HIV:

Will repeal of DADT have health implications for the Marine Corps?

No.  The Navy Surgeon General conducted research and found that there would be no increase in Marine or Sailor health risk.  Existing policies and procedures for HIV screening and testing, management of HIV-positive personnel, and management of the military blood supply will continue to be effective following a repeal of the law.  The Navy Surgeon General has examined this issue and determined there would be no increased risk.

It's good to know that military commanders are apparently being told the facts about HIV, but the question remains about why HIV is part of the training on DADT repeal.

The answer reveals itself in an article from last year at LGBT POV about a campaign by the anti-LGBT Family Research Council against DADT repeal. Among the reasons they cite against DADT repeal was the supposed threat of increased HIV rates in the military as a result.

To the extent that HIV was made into a reason not to repeal DADT, it's appropriate to address fears related to HIV in the training for DADT repeal. That said, it's also appropriate for the military to address the stereotype that all gay men have HIV. I sincerely hope they do address it.


Oriol on: