Gay Marriage Victory Still Shadowed by AIDS
By AUSTIN CONSIDINE
Lambda Legal Mourns Passing of Former Plaintiff, Dr. Robert Franke
“Dr. Franke’s courageous stand against the discrimination he experienced as a senior living with HIV paved the way for just and fair treatment.”
Click the link above to read the full article.
Gay Men's Health Crisis on Needle Exchange Funding Ban
Congress removed funding for syringe exchange programs in the budget they passed last week and the Gay Men’s Health Crisis say that was a big mistake.
Federal funding for needle exchanges, which studies show reduce HIV transmissions, was removed during the tenure of George W. Bush; it returned when Barack Obama took office. But the Republican-controlled House has worked repeatedly to remove the funding since then and they were successful last week.
“New York City experienced a 78% decline in reported HIV infections among intravenous drug users since syringe exchange became available (from 1990 to 2002) - supported by state and local funds,” according to a press release from the New York-based GMHC.
GMHC CEO Marjorie Hill calls Congress’s ban on federal funding extremely shortsighted.
“How do you get to zero new infections when you let ideology stand in the way of using existing proven tools to reduce the rate of HIV infection,” Hill said in the release. “It is hypocritical that Congress would allow this retrograde policy to be put back into place. It is especially reprehensible that this step was taken during the 30th year of the epidemic when, as stated by the federal government, the tools exist to end the spread of HIV. This action, along with the decision to wastefully spend taxpayer dollars on disproven abstinence-only education demonstrates a clear lack of commitment by Congress to seriously confront HIV.”
Op-Ed: U.S. AIDS Policy vs. U.S. Trade Policy
The U.S. hopes to grant more power to pharmaceutical monopolies operating in developing nations — and that could seriously threaten world AIDS efforts.
On World AIDS Day, December 1, President Barack Obama announced plans to bring two million more people living with HIV/AIDS in developing countries onto U.S.-government supported treatment. The president’s commitment builds on the decade-long global treatment revolution, which has already saved the lives of millions.
Click the link above to read the full article.
World AIDS Day 2011 in Pictures
On December 1, 2011, the world focused on the fight against AIDS and HIV.
Workers hang a huge red ribbon on the North Portico of the White House one day ahead of World AIDS Day, which was Thursday. The day was created in London in 1988 at the World Summit of Ministers of Health on Programmes, which brought together health ministers and delegates from 148 different countries.
New documentary ‘We Were Here’ profiles earliest days of the AIDS crisis
This year marked the 30th anniversary of the beginning of the AIDS Crisis. The 1980s was a turbulent decade for the LGBT community and especially for gay men.
Marking the Crisis’ beginning has been difficult for the many who lived through it and lost friends, family and loved ones to the disease. For younger generations unfamiliar with the tragedy and urgency of the epidemic’s early years, noting the anniversary has been more academic than personal or emotional.
This year, screenwriter and director David Weissman — whose credits include the 2000 film “The Family Man,” 2001’s “Evolution” and 2010’s “When in Rome” — releases his “We Were Here,” a documentary profiling the earliest days of the Crisis at its epicenter, San Francisco.
Clinton Appoints Ellen DeGeneres as Global HIV/AIDS Envoy
In a Tuesday address to the National Institutes of Health, Secretary of State Hillary Clinton emphasized voluntary male circumcision programs and mother-to-child transmission reduction efforts as vital to building the foundation for an “AIDS-free generation.”
Clinton also announced that she had named Ellen DeGeneres as a special envoy for global AIDS awareness. “Your words will encourage Americans in joining you to make their voices heard in our campaign to achieve an AIDS-free generation,” Secretary Clinton wrote to DeGeneres in a letter released Tuesday. “The enormous platform of your television show and your social media channels will enable you to reach millions of people with the strong and hopeful message that we can win this fight.”
In the NIH address, Clinton called for increased voluntary male circumcision as well as more support for antiretroviral medication regimens among those infected — both of which contribute to an “ideal intervention that prevents people from being infected in the first place.” Recent studies have shown that HIV-infected individuals taking antiretroviral drugs are substantially less likely to infect sexual partners.
Debates on whether resources should favor either prevention or treatment are irrelevant to the modern-day battle against HIV, Clinton said.
The secretary also called for dramatic reductions in mother-to-child transmissions by 2015: “We can get that number to zero,” she said.
Any goal of eradicating the virus for future generations will require significant and sustained funding — a clear challenge at a time when global economic crises have contributed to a decline in private donations and government HIV/AIDS funding, which dropped nearly 10% worldwide in 2010 compared to the previous year.
But Clinton called on Washington — as well as nations that have the economic means to adequately fund HIV/AIDS programs but have been unwilling to do so — to make such initiatives a priority.
“In these difficult budget times, we have to remember that investing in our future is the smartest investment we can make,” Clinton said.
The secretary also criticized laws that criminalize homosexuality, saying they are an obstacle to effective reduction in infection rates — a sentiment echoed by many HIV experts.Responding to her State Department appointment, DeGeneres said in a statement, “I’m honored to have been chosen by Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton as Special Envoy for Global AIDS awareness. The fight against AIDS is something that has always been close to my heart. And I’m happy that I can use my platform to educate people and spread hope.”
“Now, if you’ll excuse me, I have to go look up what ‘envoy’ means,” DeGeneres quipped.Below, a video compilation of the remarks via Think Progress LGBT. After the jump, full text of Clinton’s speech.
Source: ff4equality
Call to legalise HIV home test kits | guardian.co.uk
Almost two-thirds of people would consider using HIV home testing kits if they were legally available and regulated, according to a survey.
The poll, by Terrence Higgins Trust (THT), comes as the charity urged the Government to legalise and regulate home testing in a bid to cut the number of cases of undiagnosed HIV in the UK.
The sale of HIV home testing kits is currently illegal in the UK. While they can be bought over the internet, THT says they are unregulated, often of poor quality and do not direct users to places where they can get support.
Of 490 people surveyed who have not tested HIV-positive, 63% said they would consider using the kits if they were legalised and 51% thought legalisation would make them test more often.
Among gay men, one of the groups most at risk of HIV in the UK, 60% thought legalisation would make them test themselves more often.
In 2009, 22,200 people were estimated to be living with undiagnosed HIV in the UK.
Lisa Power, policy director for THT, said: “Reducing undiagnosed HIV is a major challenge. A quarter of those with HIV in the UK remain undiagnosed, and so are more likely to pass the virus on. One way to bring this number down is by increasing the opportunities for people to test outside of traditional settings.”
A spokeswoman for the Department of Health said: “We are considering our current policy on HIV home testing and whether we need to repeal the current regulations.
“Key to any repeal will be the availability of a quality-assured testing kit suitable for home use. We are working with the THT and others in taking forward our review.
“HIV testing is widely available from open-access NHS sexual health clinics. Our advice is clear - if you think you might be at risk from HIV, contact your local sexual health service or your GP for a test.”
Obama Celebrates Gay Man’s HIV/AIDS Day By Giving $1.89 Billion To AIDS Programs | gayagenda.com
What better way to celebrate Gay Man’s HIV/AIDS Day than for the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services to release $1.89 billion in grants through the Ryan White HIV/AIDS Program.
The money will help “ensure that people living with HIV/AIDS continue to have access to life-saving health care and medications.” $853 million of the money will go towards helping restore medications provided through the AIDS Drug Assistance Program (ADAP) and helping reduce the ADAP waitlist from its current count of near 9,000 people. Looks like you really can fight HIV in a bad economy!
House reps work together on HIV/AIDS caucus
Members of the House of Representatives launched a bipartisan HIV/AIDS caucus this week to protect HIV/AIDS services here and elsewhere.
The group is being led by both Democratic and Republican leaders and will work to protect funding for HIV/AIDS programs both in the United States and abroad, with goals of helping to provide medical services to anyone who needs them and making sure no child is born HIV-positive after 2015.
“American leadership in the global fight against HIV/AIDS began a decade ago when Republican and Democratic leaders stood together and refused to allow a deadly disease to claim a generation of African teachers, nurses, doctors, parents and children,” Michael Gerson, one of the architects of the PEPFAR program, told reporters. The caucus, he said, would serve to remind Congress of its “continuing responsibility to save lives.”
This is quite impressive and I’m looking forward to this effort taking off. Now, can we see the same kind of bipartisanship when it comes to other issues?
Source: gaywrites
Eileen Garcia
Community Outreach Manager
A small passionate group of 10 AIDS activists held a “Die-In” Protest at Gilead Sciences headquarters this morning as company employees drove into work.Wearing skeleton masks and dressed in black, we demanded that “John Martin think twice! ATRIPLA needs a lower price!” and informed on-lookers that “Drugs that cost means lives are lost!”.
We also carried a coffin representing lives already lost waiting for life-saving HIV medications.
The head of security, once again, came over to welcome us and photograph the protest.
Awesome job yall! Gilead has to take notice sooner rather than later.
Source: ahfspeakout
ACTION ALERT!! Call Out Oklahoma Rep. Sally Kern for Her Homophobic Rant
Kern recently told a talk show host that AIDS and homosexuality is a bigger threat than terrorism in America, and that it is more dangerous because, “it will tear down the moral fiber of this nation.”
She also said that it the problem in America is: “Every day our young people are bombarded at school, in movies, in music, on TV, in the mall, in magazines…with homosexuality as normal and natural…fortunately we don’t have to deal with a terrorist attack every day.” Therefore, she concluded that our “great nation founded on the principles of religion and morality” will not survive with any homosexual presence.
Source: callitout.org
Making AIDS History
”The bottom line: in just the last five years, research has shown that the possibility of combining proven public health approaches (e.g. education, safe sex practices including condom use, syringe exchange programs…) with new breakthrough prevention strategies… is no longer just a goal, but a reality… These important scientific advances provide evidence that there can be an end to the pandemic globally.”
(via harmreduction)
Source: queerocracy
