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Surrounded by cheering, clapping gay-rights activists and legislators, Governor Deval Patrick today signed a bill repealing a 95-year-old statute that had prevented gay and lesbian couples from most other states from marrying in Massachusetts. "It's a good day," said Patrick, declaring that the repeal will "confirm a simple truth: that is, in Massachusetts, equal means equal." Massachusetts will "continue to lead the way as a national leader" and affirm "all people come before their government as equals," Patrick said in a bill-signing ceremony at the State House's Grand Staircase. Gay marriage "is still troubling for some of our citizens," he...

Psychologists to Review Policy on Homosexuality by Jennifer Mesko, associate editor Focus on the Family, others urge APA to consider faith of patients. Beginning next week, a task force set up by the American Psychological Association (APA) will begin reviewing the organization's 10-year-old policy on homosexuality, which opposes counseling that treats same-sex attraction as a mental illness, but does not forbid various therapies that address unwanted same-sex attraction. Focus on the Family has joined more than 250 pro-family organizations and individuals in urging the APA to recognize the religious beliefs of clients and to allow those who struggle with unwanted...

WASHINGTON — For more than a decade, gay rights advocates have grumbled about a federal policy that forbids blood donation by men who have had sex with men. They say that the policy, originally intended to keep HIV-positive blood from entering the nation's blood supply, implies gay men are inherently ill and that it prevents healthy people from donating. Occasional protests and talks with the U.S. Food and Drug Administration, which oversees blood banks, have brought no change. Now, some college students have taken up the cause, and they're taking a new tack. Instead of pressuring the FDA directly, they...

Gays faced with new STD strains By JACOB GOLDSTEIN jgoldstein@herald.com In the past five years, without much fanfare, a syphilis epidemic has emerged among gay men in South Florida and around the country. Nationwide, rates of drug-resistant gonorrhea have risen rapidly in gay men. And a rare form of chlamydia has spread among gay men in Europe, moved to Canada and New England, and may have made its way to South Florida. Syphilis, gonorrhea and chlamydia are all curable, but they can be painful and, if not treated promptly, can cause long-term damage. And having a sexually transmitted disease makes...

Gay men should be able to donate blood, students say College group pressures Red Cross By STEVEN BODZIN Los Angeles Times July 11. 2005 8:06AM WASHINGTON - For more than a decade, gay rights advocates have grumbled about a federal policy that forbids blood donation by men who have had sex with men. They say that the policy, originally intended to keep HIV-positive blood from entering the nation's blood supply, implies gay men are inherently sick and that it prevents healthy people from donating. Occasional protests and talks with the U.S. Food and Drug Administration, which oversees blood banks, have...

ATLANTA -- The United States has reached an AIDS milestone, but not the one the government intended. This was to be the year that federal health officials slashed the country's annual rate of 40,000 new HIV infections in half. Instead, the government said Monday the infection rate has remained the same and that for the first time since the height of the epidemic in the 1980s there are 1 million Americans living with HIV. In part, it's a testament to the powerful medicines keeping so many people alive. After nearly a quarter-century of battling AIDS, much more is known about...

In an eerily similar way to how HIV/AIDS was first spread, a heretofore rare sexually transmitted disease some are calling the "new AIDS" is making its way through the male homosexual community in Canada and the U.S. According to a report in the Canadian Medical Association Journal, lymphogranuloma venereum, or LGV, has been identified in 22 homosexual and bisexual men in Canada in recent months, all of whom practice risky sexual behavior – including anal sex without a condom, ingesting the drug crystal meth anally and "fisting." Six cases have been identified in Boston, Mass., reports the Associated Press, while...

A lesson in AIDS/HIV has a Saugus family seeing red after their second-grader took home an explicit workbook noting that "semen" and "vaginal secretions" spread the disease. The Saugus case is the second time in a week parents have complained that schools are giving young kids more than they need to know on sensitive issues. Paul Stamatopoulos came forward after hearing of a Lexington father who was arrested after he complained when his kindergartener brought home a book that dealt with gay marriage. Stamatopoulos was dumbfounded when his 7-year-old daughter showed him what she called the "sad book." "I took...

Everthing you thought you knew about AIDS is about to change!

The intro is worth listening to, but not strictly necessary. Each audio file speaks for itself.

By Amy Norton NEW YORK (Reuters Health) - Many young gay and bisexual men who are HIV-positive may not know they have the virus, according to U.S. health officials. Their study of more than 5,600 men between the ages of 15 and 29 found that more than three-quarters of those who tested positive for HIV were unaware they were infected. Moreover, before being tested, a majority of these men thought themselves at low risk of having the AIDS virus, and half had had unprotected sex with another man during the previous 6 months.

Font Size: Why Is HIV So Prevalent in Africa? By Michael Fumento  Published   04/15/2005  Ninety-nine percent of AIDS and HIV cases in Africa come from sexual transmission, and virtually all is heterosexual. So says the World Health Organization, with other agencies toeing the line. Some massive condom airdrops accompanied by a persuasive propaganda campaign would practically make the epidemic vanish overnight. Or would it? A determined renegade group of three scientists has fought for years -- with little success -- to get out the message that no more than a third of HIV transmission in Africa is from sexual...

Ninety-nine percent of AIDS and HIV cases in Africa come from sexual transmission, virtually all heterosexual. So says the World Health Organization, with other agencies toeing the line. Massive condom airdrops accompanied by a persuasive propaganda campaign would practically make the epidemic vanish overnight. Or would it? A determined renegade group of three scientists has fought for years – with little success – to get out the message that no more than a third of HIV transmission in Africa is from sexual intercourse and most of that is anal. By ignoring the real vectors, they say, we’re sacrificing literally millions...

The lethal virus hits a new generation In the public mind, the HIV virus has mutated from a feared killer to an illness easily managed with new medications. But under the microscope, HIV's rapid mutations defy new drugs and outpace science's attempts to find a cure. That gap is troublesome to Utah activists and doctors, who worry years of medical advances and declining media coverage have left Americans vulnerable to HIV's growing threat. "There's a younger generation that denies the danger because they weren't around when everyone was dying," says Kristen Ries, a physician at the University of Utah's infectious...

On February 11 health officials in Ner York City reported the appearance in one man of a highly virulent strain of HIV, called 3-DCR HIV, that's resistant to three classes of antiretroviral drugs; the man's infection apparently progressed to AIDS very quickly -- within a few months (it often takes as long as a decade). He is in his mid-40's, had unprotected anal sex with numerous men in October 2004 (at which time he used crystal meth), and had not previously been treated for HIV infection. And just nine days before that announcement, city health officials had reported the appearance...

Where have all the condoms gone? Don't try looking at the Monster, the Hangar, Starlight or Barracuda. On a recent evening, these and more than a dozen other Manhattan gay bars were well stocked with free going-out guides, but not a scrap of literature about H.I.V. prevention or the perils of crystal meth. As for condoms, the frontline defense against sexually transmitted diseases, only one establishment stocked them - behind the bar. As part of his graduate course work at New York University, Michael Marino set out last winter to compare the AIDS prevention efforts of New York and London....

NEW YORK (AP) - It's a Friday evening, traditional kickoff time for the party scene in New York's gay community, but the 75 men packed into a small room at a gay health center aren't in a partying mood. Through a humbling 12-step program modeled after Alcoholics Anonymous, they are battling to kick their addiction to methamphetamine, and in doing so escape an epidemic that is roiling urban gay communities nationwide with disease, despair, embarrassment and anger. Meth is an equal-opportunity menace - many thousands of men and women, gay and straight, have fallen prey to it in rural villages,...

WITHIN days of infection, the AIDS virus destroys more than half of the immune cells that might recognise and help fight it, US researchers have found. The discovery might force a re-evaluation of how to tackle the deadly infection. Two separate studies in monkeys showed that SIV, the monkey version of the human immunodeficiency virus or HIV, attacked CD4 memory T-cells right away and wiped out more than half of them. "The findings may require a rethink of strategies to design HIV drugs and vaccines," said Dr Mario Roederer, of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases. The findings...

March 18, 2005 Rare AIDS Strain Is Very Aggressive, Study Says By MARC SANTORA A genetic study of a rare strain of AIDS that led New York City health officials to issue a public warning last month will be published today, allowing experts from around the world to more accurately evaluate the scientific basis of the alert. The study, appearing in The Lancet, a medical journal, shows the virus to be resistant to nearly all licensed drugs and particularly aggressive. Most of the study's details were disclosed earlier during an AIDS conference in Boston. The report is based on the...

CNSNews.com) - A nationally syndicated columnist who is openly homosexual is offering what he calls "a truly radical step" to curb unsafe sex -- forcing HIV-positive homosexual men who knowingly or negligently spread the virus to be financially accountable to their affected sexual partners. The idea is being panned by medical experts who work extensively with the homosexual community, but it has drawn praise from a spokesman for a leading conservative group in Washington, D.C., who not only called the establishment of HIV paternity a "useful" idea, but said there should be more criminal prosecution for the reckless spread of...

New York Suburb Has First Case of Rare STD Sat Feb 26, 6:29 PM ET Health - AP MINEOLA, N.Y. - A Nassau County man has been diagnosed with a rare sexually transmitted disease, the first case in the county and one of seven around the country. The Nassau County Department of Health has confirmed that the man has Lymphogranuloma Venereum, a form of chlamydia. The disease's symptoms can be serious — rectal pain and bleeding, and sores. The disease can also increase the risk of HIV (news - web sites) transmission. Two men in New York City were diagnosed...

BOSTON, Feb. 24 - The researchers whose findings led the New York City health department to warn of a rare and possibly virulent strain of H.I.V. defended on Thursday their decision to notify city officials, saying the virus presented a serious threat to public health. Giving a detailed account of their investigation for the first time at a scientific meeting here, the researchers said their discovery of the potentially more aggressive strain in a New York City man with multiple sexual partners was reason enough to sound the alarm. Dr. David Ho, director of the Aaron Diamond AIDS Research Laboratory...

BOSTON - The New York man who sparked fears of a powerful new strain of HIV had drug-fueled, unprotected sex with more than 100 men in the months before his diagnosis, a top researcher said yesterday. Dr. David Ho of the Aaron Diamond AIDS Research Center in Manhattan will unveil today a case study of the unidentified man, who his team believes may harbor a mutant strain of the deadly virus. Skeptical AIDS researchers from around the world believe the case is isolated and not the beginning of a new epidemic. In a preview of the study, Ho said the...

Tony Venenum (we’ll call him), 26, reasons that he has always taken risks in life. He was raised by a single parent and made his way in a neighborhood where toughness was a requirement for survival. He discovered, in his teens, that he had solace in male companionship, and before he was 20, had been seduced, and had lived then with Guido, an older man. Both had jobs in establishments that required conformist behavior — Tony even wore a jacket and tie to work, but then Guido took sick and the diagnosis was AIDS. But the retrovirus inhibitor kept him...

The manager of Manhunt.net on the HIV “super-strain,” unsafe sex, crystal meth, and corporate—and personal—responsibility. The news that a New Yorker had contracted what appears to be an especially fast-acting, medically impervious form of HIV put the three-year-old gay-personals site Manhunt.net on the front page of the Times, and on the defensive. Along with AOL chat rooms, the popular site was repeatedly cited as a place where men arrange to have sex with other men (although the actual site, or sites, where this man met some of his “hundreds” of unsafe-sex partners while bingeing on crystal meth, has not been...

New AIDS Strain? Of Course. Gay activists are already protesting the announcement of the appearance of a new and deadly strain of the AIDS virus. In reporting the story, the The New York Times wondered aloud about the protests (e.g., who could protest a scientific announcement?) but then went on to justify it: announcing the new strain apparently might call attention to the continued reckless behavior of the gay community, and its continued intimidation of public health officials â€" as in this protest. Of course the Times didn't quite put it this way, but that was its meaning. This protest...

An unidentified San Diego resident may be infected with the same rare, aggressive and highly drug-resistant strain of HIV found last week in a New York City man who has rapidly become ill with AIDS, health officials said yesterday. "(The local person's) HIV has a similar molecular makeup as the patient in New York City," said Dr. Nancy Bowen, the San Diego County public health officer who held a press conference about the finding yesterday afternoon in San Diego. It's important to notify the public about a new and possibly supervigorous strain of HIV so people can take extra precautions,...

Last week's announcement by federal and New York City health authorities of the discovery of a superstrain of HIV that is unimaginably aggressive and impossible to treat has help smash clichés about homosexuals and fidelity while undermining the foundation of arguments for mandatory HIV testing for all Americans. A 40-something homosexual is believed to have contracted the superstrain in October, but was not diagnosed until December. In between, he had unprotected sex with hundreds of men, which means a geometric progression of the supervirus through the homosexual community may be under way. What has health officials horrified is the man...

NATIONAL NEWS | washingtonblade.com Bush cuts AIDS prevention funds in '06 budget Abstinence programs would see $38 million boost By LOU CHIBBARO JR. Feb. 11, 2005 The proposed 2006 budget that President Bush submitted to Congress this week calls for cutting funds for federal AIDS prevention and surveillance programs by $4 million, a development that drew sharp criticism from AIDS activists. Activists said they were especially concerned that the proposed cuts came at the same time the president is calling for a $38 million increase in programs aimed at curtailing AIDS and teen pregnancy by promoting sexual abstinence until marriage....

After all the thousands of AIDS deaths and all the years of "Safe Sex Is Hot Sex" prevention messages, it has come down to this: many gay men who know the rules of engagement in the age of AIDS are not using condoms. As news of a potentially virulent strain of H.I.V. settles in, gay activists and AIDS prevention workers say they are dismayed and angry that the 25-year-old battle against the disease might have to begin all over again. While many are calling for a renewed commitment to prevention efforts and free condoms, some veterans of the war on...

AIDS viruses isolated from two individuals are being studied to determine whether either might be the source of a rare and potentially more aggressive form of HIV .... resistant to 19 of the 20 licensed antiretroviral drugs. ...The two male contacts in New York, only one of whom is cooperating with the investigation, are among hundreds of men with whom the New York man told health officials he has had sex in recent weeks while using crystal methamphetamine. The man who sparked the investigation is cooperating with city health officials but apparently does not know the names of all his...

At a Friday news conference, city health officials said the case marked their first encounter with the strain. The man, who tested positive for HIV in December and is now sick with AIDS, had used the recreational drug crystal methamphetamine and had unprotected anal sex with multiple male partners. He had not responded to three of the four classes of AIDS drugs. Just one case "was not enough to warrant a public health alert," Gallo said in an interview from his Maryland home. "It's irresponsible and outrageous," he said. "We've already heard past claims about superviruses that all turn out...

A rare strain of H.I.V. that is highly resistant to virtually all anti-retroviral drugs and appears to lead to the rapid onset of AIDS was detected in a New York City man last week, city health officials announced on Friday. It was the first time a strain of H.I.V. had been found that both showed resistance to multiple drugs and led to AIDS so quickly, the officials said. While the extent of the disease's spread is unknown, officials called a news conference to say that the situation is alarming. "We consider this a major potential problem," said Dr. Thomas R....

A new, highly resistant strain of HIV that appears to develop rapidly into AIDS has been diagnosed in a New Yorker who had not previously undergone antiviral drug treatment, says the city health department, which is holding a press conference today. While drug resistance is increasingly common in people who have been treated for the human immunodeficiency virus, city officials called the case “extremely rare.” The patient, who now has AIDS, is a male in his mid-40s who reported multiple male sex partners and unprotected anal intercourse, often while using crystal methamphetamine. The patient appears to have developed AIDS within...

Homosexual Males Award Us Again Saltnlight Feb 8, 2005 So you thought AIDS was the worst of it? Think again. Now there is LVG among men who have sex with men. This stems from Chlamydia and is just in it's beginnings in New York where there has been 2 cases thus far. It's medical name is Lymphogranuloma venereum and has been seen most in tropical climates until recently when 92 cases of it were reported in the Netherlands in one year. I wonder why???? According to New York's Department of mental health and hygiene commissioner, Dr Thomas Frieden this disease...

POP star Andy Bell says he always WANTED to be HIV positive. The gay Erasure singer, 40, revealed he is HIV positive last month — six years after diagnosis. And in a new interview he says: “You are going to think this strange, but I wanted to be HIV positive. I thought HIV was a touchstone of being gay. “But I’m a fighter. They will have to take me from this world kicking and screaming.” Bandmate Vince Clarke, 44, insisted Bell’s diagnosis did not change anything. He said: “I had no fear this was the end. “I have other friends...

NEW YORK : Two New York men have been diagnosed with a rare sexually transmitted disease that has recently been making inroads among gay and bisexual men in Europe. The disease, a rare form of chlamydia known as lymphogranuloma venereum, or LGV, can cause serious illness, permanent disfigurement and fuel the spread of AIDS, according to New York health officials. "LGV is a serious condition and its emergence in New York City reflects continuing high levels of unsafe sexual activity among men who have sex with men," said the city's health commissioner Thomas Frieden. "It is also critical for gay...

Erasure star Andy Bell has shockingly admitted he wanted to be diagnosed with HIV. The openly homosexual singer revealed he was HIV positive in December - six years after he was diagnosed with the fatal disease - and admits he believed catching the illness was a re-affirmation of his homosexuality. He said: "You are going to think this strange, but I wanted to be HIV positive. I thought HIV was a touchstone of being gay." The 'Breathe' singer also says he doesn't think about dying, because he believes he can fight the disease for many years with the help of...

Bug chasers and gift givers probably can't hurt you. But they're trying to kill each other. You've probably heard of neither. And you probably couldn't fathom their taste in an astoundingly risky sexual behavior. Bug chasers are HIV-negative gay men hoping to contract the virus. Gift givers are HIV-positive homosexuals who enjoy obliging bug chasers. It's no urban myth. They're real - and they're here. You might think such a thing possible in San Francisco and New York. But bug chasers and gift givers practice their lethal thrill-seeking locally. "We have bathhouses in Chicago and we have adult bookstores in...

JONATHAN M. PERRY has never been shy about being identified as gay at Johnson C. Smith University, a historically black college here. He tells anyone who asks, and plenty who don't. At 6-foot-2 and a trim 150 pounds, he's hard to miss. He sometimes paints his fingernails and toenails black and wears flip-flops so no one will miss the fashion statement. He has an ''I Like Your Boyfriend'' T-shirt. ''I don't believe in having any skeletons in any closets,'' he explains. So Mr. Perry was a logical choice to speak at a sorority-sponsored forum on AIDS during his sophomore year....

AIDS rate for homosexuals climbs; data called 'astonishing'Dec 2, 2004By Michael FoustNASHVILLE, Tenn. (BP)--New statistics showing that homosexual men make up 44 percent of all new HIV and AIDS cases underscore the fact that homosexuality itself is unnatural, a prominent leader in the ex-homosexual community says. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention released data Dec. 2 showing that the number of newly diagnosed HIV and AIDS cases has increased 11 percent among homosexual men. The data spanned a four-year period ending in 2003. Despite the fact that homosexual men make up only 1 to 2 percent of the population,...

ATLANTA, Dec. 1--A rise in new cases of AIDS and HIV infection among gay and bisexual men in many U.S. states, reported in a federal study Wednesday, has given support for concerns the disease is resurgent in the country. The report by the Centers for Disease control and Prevention, released in connection with World AIDS Day, said new HIV and AIDS diagnoses in 32 U.S. states rose 11 percent among gay and bisexual men between 2000 and 2003. Rates were stable among most other population sectors, and the overall infection rate rose to 19.7 cases per 100,000 people in 2003...

...Medical experts are observing the emergence of a relatively new strain [of Staph infections], known as community-acquired MRSA, among gay and bisexual men, athletes, prisoners and Native Americans. Since a staph outbreak among gay men in Los Angeles in early 2003, the Centers for Disease Control & Prevention identified five major factors that facilitate the transmission of the infection: close contact, crowding, cleanliness, contaminated items and surfaces, and compromised skin integrity, said Nicole Coffin, a CDC spokesperson. The compromised skin integrity category includes tiny abrasions that may occur during "manscaping" -- the cosmetic shaving of body parts popular with some...

'Not a simple answer' for desert’s syphilis problem By Brian Joseph The Desert SunPALM SPRINGS -- In the year since health officials warned of a growing syphilis problem here, the alarming but easily curable disease continues to overrun the Coachella Valley.Despite a year of education and testing efforts, Palm Springs alone has a syphilis rate of 81.8 per 100,000 people in 2003, twice the rate of the nation’s No. 1 city for syphilis, San Francisco.As of the end of August, 73 cases were reported in Riverside County, compared with 78 during the same period in 2003. In both years,...

Antibiotic-resistant strain of syphilis is spreading A fast-spreading mutant strain of syphilis has proved resistant to the antibiotic pills that are offered to some patients as an alternative to painful penicillin shots. Since the late 1990s, doctors and public health clinics have been giving azithromycin to some syphilis patients because the long-acting antibiotic pill was highly effective and easy to use. Four pills taken at once were usually enough to cure syphilis. But now researchers at University of Washington in Seattle have found at least 10 percent of syphilis samples from patients at sexually transmitted disease clinics in four cities...

HIV infections rise among gays More and more young homosexuals forget about the risks of AIDS By Peter-Philipp Schmitt Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung The test had been long overdue. But Tim decided to have it done once he realized that he had another problem anyway. “I only went because I had contracted syphilis,“ he says. The results were not the news Tim wanted to hear: He had HIV, the virus that causes AIDS. Around Germany, increasing numbers of young German homosexuals like Tim are learning that they, too, are carrying around the deadly virus. While the number of new infections has...

Guest CommentaryA Pharmacist's View on Gay MarriageBy J.R. Schoenle, Pharm.D. June 29, 2004(AgapePress) - Having worked with AIDS patients and investigational drug studies for HIV at Johns Hopkins Hospital, I feel a lot of compassion for homosexual persons. But as a professional health care provider, I am compelled to educate people with medical facts regarding same-sex marriage. This is not a "privacy" issue. Gay activists have brought the gay lifestyle into the public square with their demands for "marriage" or "civil union." (The public has not gone into anyone's bedroom; rather, they have brought their bedroom issues out in...

(CNSNews.com) - Several homosexual advocacy groups are closed on Friday for a day of mourning -- but they won't be mourning President Ronald Reagan. Equality California, which is fighting to legalize same-sex marriage, announced that it would join the National Gay and Lesbian Task Force in closing its offices on June 11, 2004 in memory of the millions of people who have died of AIDS. "As California's state-wide LGBT advocacy organization, whose roots come out of the AIDS pandemic, we are closing in honor of our brothers and sisters who died as a result of President Reagan's silence and failure...

Health Many HIV-Positive Men Don't Realize It: Study By Randy Dotinga HealthDay Reporter WEDNESDAY, June 2 (HealthDayNews) -- A new British report suggests that one in 10 homosexual men who visit popular gay venues in London are infected with the AIDS virus, and a third of them don't realize it. In another disturbing finding, the researchers found the percentage of gay men who admitted engaging in the most dangerous form of unsafe sex increased at a fast clip over the four-year study period. The numbers won't come as a surprise to American researchers, who have been tracking similar trends in...

A drug-resistant form of gonorrhea with an overwhelmingly disproportionate effect on homosexuals is making its way eastward from Hawaii and California, according to the federal Centers for Disease Control & Prevention. The data presented "show that drug resistant gonorrhea is a rapidly emerging health concern, particularly for gay and bisexual men," the CDC's STD prevention director John Douglas told reporters last week. Incidences of the drug-resistant disease are 12 times higher for homosexual and bisexual men than for other men, based on data acquired in clinics from 30 U.S. cities between 2002 and 2003, the Washington Blade reported. Homosexual men...