By Ramy Eletreby

LAGLC’s HIV “Gay Disease” Ad Sparks Controversy

The Los Angeles Gay & Lesbian Center’s new HIV ad campaign —“HIV is a gay disease…Own It. End It” (www.OwnItEndIt.org)—has provoked international controversy. The campaign’s goal is to prompt discussion and encourage vigilance after years of growing complacency among gay and bisexual men. “Why do we need to say HIV is a gay disease? We have so effectively de-coupled the epidemic from the word ‘gay’ that most of us don’t even know the degree to which we are impacted,” says LAGLC Chief Executive Officer Lorri Jean. In San Francisco, AIDS is the leading killer of men ages 15-64, according to the city’s department of HIV/AIDS Statistics and Epidemiology. In L.A. County, a reported 75 percent of HIV/AIDS cases are among men who have sex with men (MSM), with the vast majority of them being men of color.

However, there are fears that the ad could result in MSMs (who don’t identify as “gay”) and other minorities not taking their risk seriously. “Is [the campaign] intended to reach those folks who feel represented by the ‘gay community’?” asks Susan Forrest of Behavioral Health Services. If 75 percent of HIV-positive men in L.A. County are men of color, “is this ad campaign targeting the 25 percent white self-identified gay men it will likely reach?”

“The risk they’re taking is that other minority groups will feel they’re not affected; that HIV is not a risk for them, when clearly it is,” said Australia’s Geoff Honnor, executive officer of People Living with HIV and AIDS NSW.

Gerry Studds dies

Former U.S. Rep. Gerry Studds died Oct. 14 of a blood clot in his lung, his husband Dean Hara told AP. He was 69. Studds was first elected to Congress from Massachusetts in 1972. He came out in 1983 after an early consensual relationship with a 17-year-old page was revealed, for which he was censured. Nonetheless, he was re-elected, making him the first openly gay person elected to Congress. He retired in 1997. Studds and Hara legally married in 2004.

Massachusetts Judge Allows Rhode Island Lesbian Couple to Marry

On Sept. 29, Massachusetts Superior Court Justice Thomas E. Connolly approved a Rhode Island lesbian couple’s right to legally marry in Massachusetts. The decision is the first to allow gay couples from other states with ambiguous laws on same-sex marriage to come to Massachusetts and legally marry in the state. Couples from states that explicitly forbid gay marriage would not benefit from this decision.

However, whether Wendy Becker and Mary Norton’s married status will be recognized is unclear. “What happens when they go back to Rhode Island? Will they be treated as if they’re married? That's sort of the million-dollar question,” said Lee Badgett, of the Williams Institute for Sexual Orientation Law and Public Policy at UCLA Law School.

Congress Adjourns Without Reauthorizing the Ryan White CARE Act

The Ryan White CARE Act reauthorization failed to pass the Senate on Sept. 29 before Congress adjourned for the November elections. Though the House of Representatives passed the bill 325-98, it was blocked by New York and New Jersey senators who insisted the revised formulas would hurt their states. The proposed five-year authorization would shift funding from urban to rural areas.

"A bill that devastates the ability of high-prevalence communities to deal with cases is unacceptable," said Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton (D-N.Y.) in the San Francisco Chronicle. A temporary one-year reauthorization was proposed which would increase authorization levels by 3.7 percent to account for inflation and would provide $30 million for states without cities that receive separate Title I funding and would give states an extra year to change the way they report HIV data.

“The [temporary reauthorization] would give all parties time to regroup and reflect. It will also give us time to get accurate data projections on the full impact of any changes on every city and state,” said AIDS Project Los Angeles Executive Director Craig Thompson, “We must have a CARE Act. The legislation may be on hold, but the epidemic can’t wait.”

NY Gay Bashing Victim Michael Sandy Dies

Michael Sandy, 29, victim of an alleged gay bashing in New York, died Oct. 13 after his family took him off life support, WNBC4 reported. A Brooklyn District Attorney spokesperson said prosecutors will probably file homicide charges against the three young men already in custody charged with hate crimes during the assault and robbery. A police commander told AP that Sandy had been lured to a meeting by a sexual posting on the Internet, and then convinced to drive to an isolated parking lot where the other men were waiting. Seeking to escape, Sandy ran onto the Belt Parkway where he was hit by a car. LGBT activists held a rally Oct. 16 to protest anti-gay hate crimes.

National Coming Out Day Celebrated

At universities and other venues across the country, LGBT people and their friends and family celebrated National Coming Out Day on Oct. 11. A new survey of 2,932 adults conducted by Harris Interactive, in conjunction with Witeck-Combs Communications Inc., reports that seven out of 10 straight adults in the United States know someone who identifies as LGBT. The nationwide online survey also found that 83 percent of those who self-identify as LGBT consider themselves out.

“If seven out of 10 heterosexuals know someone who is LGBT, then many gays and lesbians are making their identity apparent as a natural part of their lives—just like their age, height, hair color, or personality,” said Mark Shields, director of the Human Rights Campaign’s National Coming Out Project. “For most people, coming out or opening up to someone starts with a conversation. And for those interested in fostering strong, deep relationships with their friends and family, living openly often allows for closer relationships with the people they care about most.” For more information, go to www.hrc.org.

Empire Pride Agenda Raises $1 Million at Event

Empire Pride Agenda, New York’s statewide LGBT civil rights organization, raised about $1 million at a sold-out gala on Oct. 5 at the Sheraton New York Hotel and Tower. The event featured remarks from Wisconsin Sen. Russ Feingold, a prospective presidential candidate, and from New York gubernatorial candidate Eliot Spitzer, as well as appearances by actors Edward Norton and Anne Hathaway and playwright Tony Kushner.

In his keynote address, Spitzer spoke of the threat to women’s reproductive rights and promised to make same-sex marriage “the law of the state of New York.” Openly gay City Council Speaker Christine Quinn talked about receiving an admiring letter from a 14-year-old gay California boy whom she called and thanked for his courage in coming out.

Pride Agenda Executive Director Alan Van Cappelle repeated his vow to take aim at legislators who claim to be friends but then turn their backs on the LGBT community. Without mentioning names but with images of Sens. Hillary Clinton and Chuck Schumer and others playing behind him, Van Cappelle said that the response to such leaders should be to “vote them out of office.” No one protested his position. – Julie Bolcer

AIDS Activist Jeff Getty Dies

AIDS activist Jeff Getty, who made headlines in 1995 after receiving the first bone-marrow cell transfusion from a baboon, died Oct. 9 of heart failure following cancer treatment at the High Desert Medical Center in Joshua Tree, according to his longtime partner, Ken Klueh. Getty was 49.

Getty’s ultimately unsuccessful attempt to use the baboon’s natural resistance to AIDS was a sign of the desperate search for HIV/AIDS treatments before the advent of combination drug therapies. It also sparked a national debate over the moral, ethical, and medical implications of animal transplants into humans.

Numbers as of 12:15 p.m., October 13, 2006:

U.S. Deaths in Iraq: 2,605-pending DoD confirmation (http://icasualties.org)

Iraqi Dead since 2003: Between 43,937-48,783 (www.iraqbodycount.org)

Cost of War: $333,887,000,000+ (www.nationalpriorities.org)

National Debt: $8,548,526,730,229.35 (www.brillig.com/debt_clock)

U.S. Trade Deficit: $614,840, 000, 00+ (www.americaneconomicalert.org/ticker_home.asp)