Tag Archives: HIV/AIDS

“Art AIDS America” 30 Years of Reaction and Response

Events, Featured, Gay History, Gay News From Around The Globe, , , , , , , , , , , , ,

AAA_Terrill“Art AIDS America” is an in depth survey of artistic reaction to the AIDS crisis. Angry, political, pained, mournful, always personal and autobiographical,  this exhibition of 47 pieces, including never-before-seen-works by Catherine Opie, hangs at both the ONE Archives and Gallery in West Hollywood and at the West Hollywood Library. Part of the WeHo @30 series of art exhibitions celebrating West Holywood’s thirty years of cityhood, “AIDS Art America” shows the shift in American art from the abstract/conceptual works of the 1960s through early 80s inot the more revealing art of present day–a direct reaction to the personal tragedy experienced by so many artists of the time period.

” Art AIDS America” is a preview of Tacoma Museum of Art exhibition which opens later this year before traveling to New York and Georgia in 2016.

Locations & Hours

Please be aware that hours for the ONE Gallery and the West Hollywood Library differ and visitors wishing to see both parts of the exhibition should plan accordingly. Overlapping hours include Thursdays from 4-7 pm, and Friday/Saturday from 1-5 pm. Three hours of free validated parking is available in the Library Parking Structure located on El Tovar Place (validations available at the West Hollywood Library) during regular Library operating hours.

ONE Archives Gallery & Museum
626 North Robertson Boulevard
West Hollywood, CA 90069

Thursday: 4pm-8pm
Friday, Saturday & Sunday: 1pm-5pm
Closed Mondays through Wednesdays, and June 12-14 (for LA Pride weekend)

Free admission, donations accepted. To verify hours, call (213) 821-2771 or visit one.usc.edu

West Hollywood Library
625 North San Vicente Boulevard
West Hollywood, CA 90069

Monday-Thursday: 11am-7pm
Friday and Saturday: 10am-6pm

On Saturday, July 18, curator Jonathan D. Katz PhD. leads a free tour from 1:00 – 2:30 pm at the West Hollywood Library and from 2:45 – 3:30 p.m. at ONE Archives Gallery & Museum. Free admission. RSVP at calgbtarts@gmail.com

Top image: Joey Terrill, Still-Life with Zerit, 2000

41ImfDt41CkUsJE_oB6rPandzYcJWDlDUxdye62uutI-1

Albert J. Winn, Akedah, 1995
6-UR9rmEXl25NnXhFDASxR6va1tgRZkOl3w_MUuJgt0

Niki de Saint Phalle, AIDS, you can’t catch it holding hands, 1987

AAA003

fierce pussy, For the Record, 2013

AAA005

Tino Rodriguez,
 Eternal Lovers, 2010

85q9TzMcbu1U1lMUiTOS7NcukMs5RZMZo954_qbWsfc

Julie Tolentino, The Sky Remains the Same, from Ron Athey’s Self Obliteration #1, 2008

1xqofBxSzZb6s6SVh0rUiLkvZO_JTbxJtTfCrEXwZDU,LhuZHz753K7gZMnEJ-Er64dFLsLxtzhiDzmmPFSSEYk

Shimon Attie, Untitled Memory (projection of Axel H.), 1998

FDA Changes Gay Blood Ban Rules. Gay Men Must Now Be Celibate One Year To Donate Blood

Featured, Gay News Domestic & U.S. Politics, , , , , ,

blood ban

 

The U.S. Food  and Drug Administration announced on Tuesday that gay men will now be able to donate blood but only if they had not han a man on man sexual experience for one year.

The proposal will be introduced early next year to end a ban that has been in place since 1983.

Via Reuters:

Scientific evidence shows the move will not create risks for the nation’s blood supply, the FDA said. The policy change is expected to boost the supply of donated blood by hundreds of thousands of pints per year. Blood donations from gay men have been barred since the discovery that HIV, the virus that causes AIDS, was being transmitted through transfusions.

The FDA said it will issue draft guidance on the policy, hopefully early in 2015. It would then review the comments and issue final guidance “as quickly as possible,” Peter Marks, deputy director of the FDA’s Center for Biologics Evaluation and Research, said during a press briefing. An FDA advisory committee met this month to discuss issues around changing the policy, such as the effectiveness of new blood supply tests for HIV infections. In November, an advisory committee to the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services recommended a one-year deferral. The FDA stopped short of eliminating the ban for gay men altogether. Marks said during the briefing that scientific evidence for a ban shorter than a year was not “compelling.”

While still discriminatory Corey Dubin, a member of the FDA’s Blood Products Advisory Panel and founder of the hemophiliac advocacy group the Committee of Ten Thousand (COTT) the group represents hemppheliacs who have contracted HIV/AIDS through blood transfusions is against any lifting of the ban, no matter how incremental. “With the science so far, it’s a leap of faith, No matter how you stack it, there is a risk increase.” Dubin does not  have a medical background.

ACLU Legislative Representative, Ian Thompson countered:

“The FDA’s proposal must be seen as part of an ongoing process and not an end point. The reality for most gay and bisexual men — including those in committed, monogamous relationships — is that this proposal will continue to function as a de facto lifetime ban. Criteria for determining blood donor eligibility should be based on science, not outdated, discriminatory stereotypes and assumptions.” The FDA blood donation policy, which has been in place since 1983, prohibits any man who has had sex with another man, even one time, since 1977 from donating blood. The American Civil Liberties Union previously submitted comments urging the FDA to reassess its policy based on current scientific evidence.

The question still remains though who is going to  be the celibacy police?

 

 

 

Michael Weinstein and AIDS Healthcare Foundation Runs Anti-PrEP Ad, Dismisses CDC, and All Other AIDS Orgs.

Featured, Gay News From Around The Globe, , , , ,

AHF

 

Michael Weinstein, the outspoken president of the Los Angeles-based AIDS Healthcare Foundation and his organization is still standing alone and  stubbornly campaigning against PrEP and Truvada the daily medication that has been shown to greatly reduce the risk of contracting H.I.V.  The mystery is why l Weinsteinand the AHF is so against a clinically proven prevention drug and why they continue to battle against alone.

,Josh Barro of The New York Times reports:

“There’s no large controversy; there is one loud voice,” said Charles King, the president of the H.I.V. nonprofit Housing Works and a co-chairman of an anti-H.I.V. task force appointed by Gov. Andrew Cuomo of New York. Mr. King called the A.H.F. ad “a direct attack on New York State’s efforts to end AIDS as an epidemic.” The growing pro-PrEP chorus includes government bodies like the World Health Organization and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention; various state and local health departments, including in New York and San Francisco; and most H.I.V.-related nonprofits that have taken a stance. Mr. Cuomo has made PrEP one of three planks in his anti-AIDS plan.

Mr. Weinstein’s vociferous opposition to PrEP has made him perhaps the most hated man in the AIDS business. “I consider him a menace to H.I.V. prevention,” said Peter Staley, a veteran activist who also serves on the Cuomo task force. James Loduca, the vice president for public affairs at the San Francisco AIDS Foundation, compared him to a “climate-change denialist.” For his part, Mr. Weinstein insists he’s not really alone. He says “a majority” of H.I.V. experts he speaks with privately agree with his view that PrEP is an ineffective public health intervention, but they do not want to talk publicly.

or his part, Mr. Weinstein insists he’s not really alone. He says “a majority” of H.I.V. experts he speaks with privately agree with his view that PrEP is an ineffective public health intervention, but they do not want to talk publicly.

“I think that people are intimidated,” he said in an interview. “When they see how mercilessly anyone who speaks out on this is attacked, I think it has a chilling effect.” He attributes the chill to AIDS activists in thrall to Gilead, Truvada’s manufacturer, which provides support for AIDS nonprofits.

Herein lies the problem.  Weinstein is on the  record stating that Truvada works and there are some whispers in the community  that  Weinstein and AHF’s attack on Truveda is nothing more than retaliation against Gilead from pulling funding from the organization. Or is it nothing more than  Weinstein’s vested interest in protecting his position in the HIV-prevention community.  In either case is that  really worth people’s lives? Because that is going to be the cost if the ludicrous and self-glorifying campaign he is running, almost entirely on his own is successful.

 

 

AFTHA’s “Porno Pete” LaBarbera: The Government Should Stop Pushing Condoms And Let Them All Die Of AIDS

Featured, Gay News From Around The Globe, , , , , , , , , , ,

porno pete

 

“The question is, if we know what behavior is causing these diseases, why don’t we encourage people not to practice the behaviors? Homosexuality, especially among men, is vastly overrepresented in HIV cases, so the government should be taking steps to discourage men and boys from practicing homosexual behavior.  We’re in a situation now where the government is encouraging groups to pass out condoms at homosexual clubs, as if that’s going to stop the disease. I mean, basically, we’ve done everything but publicly discourage men from practicing homosexuality. Instead the CDC goes around talking about stigma and ‘homophobia.’ This is really a politically protected class of disease because of its association. – American’s for Truth About Homosexuality’s hate group leader “Porno Pete” Peter LaBarbera, quoted by the AFA newsite OneNewsNow.

 

Too bad they weren’t pushing condoms when you were conceived you evil fucking douchebag.

The Associated Press Reports That Gay Bathouses Are Facing Extinction

Featured, Of Interest, , , ,

erotic art

The Associated Press reports that the last of the nations bathhouses which managed to survive through the 1980’s and 1990’s are closing at an alarming rate and facing tough financial times. 

In the heyday of bathhouses in the late 1970s, there were nearly 200 gay bathhouses in cities across the U.S., but by 1990, the total had dropped to approximately 90, according to Damron, the publisher of an annual gay travel guide. In the last decade, bathhouses, including ones in San Diego, Syracuse, Seattle and San Antonio, have shut down and the total nationwide is less than 70. Most patrons are older. Hollywood Spa — one of the largest bathhouses in Los Angeles, a city regarded as the country’s bathhouse capital — closed in April. Owner Peter D. Sykes said fewer customers and rising rent put an end to four decades in business. “Bathhouses were like dirty bookstores and parks: a venue to meet people,” said Sykes, who still owns the smaller North Hollywood Spa. “Today, you can go to the supermarket.” Bathhouses date to the Roman Empire. In the 19th and early 20th centuries, American bathhouses were built in many cities to maintain public hygiene among poor and immigrant communities. Chicago and Manhattan each had about 20 public bathhouses. But the need for public places to wash up declined and by the 1950s and ’60s, bathhouses largely had become rendezvous spots for gays, prompting occasional raids because sodomy was still criminalized.

To those younguns out there that claim not to understand the appeal of the Baths, that’s fine. And if you look down your noses at those of us who did patronize the baths, you’re a fucking snob. No one ever forced anyone to go to them. But hundreds of thousands of us did. And we seemed to have thoroughly enjoyed ourselves. Maybe if there were more of them know these young stick up thier asses gays could go and have that stick replaced by something better and stop being so uptight.

PolitiFact Looks at AFA Hate Group Bryan Fischer’s Bulls**t, Rates Him “Pants On Fire” Liar

Featured, Religious Morons and Anti-Gay Idiots, , , , , , , ,

Bryan Fischer lunatic



 
PolitiFact.com the project operated by the Tampa Bay Times, in which reporters and editors from the Times and affiliated media outlets “fact-check statements by members of Congress, the White House, lobbyists and interest groups recently took on the  American Family Associations resident spokesdouche Bryan Fister Fischer after Fischer claimed that President Obama only mentioned the loss of HIV/AIDS researchers on the downed Malaysian Airlines flight for”politicizing” their deaths in order to legitimize gay relationships. Not surprisingly PolitiFact which assigns each a “Truth-O-Meter” rating from “True” for completely accurate statements to “Pants on Fire” (from the taunt “Liar, liar, pants on fire”) for false and ridiculous claims found Fischer’s polyester slacks FLAMING!

“Fischer stood by his claim in an interview with PunditFact, citing a report from UNAIDS that the rate of HIV is 19 times higher among men who have sex with men than the adult population. Also, he said that while his tweet isolated on men having sex with men, he made a somewhat broader argument on his radio show.

“We know how to stop the HIV/AIDS epidemic. Persuade men not to have sex with men,” he said on his radio show Focal Point. “Persuade prostitutes to go straight, and persuade people not to shoot up with drugs. If we can get everybody persuaded to do that, then the epidemic begins to diminish overnight.”

Dr. Stefan Baral, a Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health epidemiology professor and director of the Key Populations Program of the Center for Public Health and Human Rights, said Fischer’s post on Twitter reveals a misunderstanding about human nature and societal behavior.

“His recommendation is akin to making recommendations for people not to drive cars for fear of car accidents or riding a bike for fear of falling,” Baral said in an email. “In other words, this is a natural and healthy normal practice that in the context of an additional determinant induces risk. It would not be dissimilar from saying that there would be no cervical cancer if heterosexual people didn’t have sex.”

HIV/AIDS overview

There is no cure for AIDS or HIV, the virus that leads to AIDS and ravages the body’s immune system if untreated.

The statistics are staggering. About 35 million people have HIV in the world, including about 3.3 million children and 1 million Americans, according to the Foundation for AIDS Research, or amfAR. Among Americans, about 50,000 are newly infected each year, and 18 percent do not know they have the virus.

In 2012, 1.6 million people died from AIDS, which was a 30 percent drop from 2005, according to UNAIDS.

In the United States, gay men contract the virus at disproportionate rates to their share of the American population. In 2010, men who have sex with men comprised 78 percent of new HIV infections among men — 63 percent of all new infections — even though they made up just 4 percent of the male American population, according to the CDC.

Still, preventing men from having sex with men (if that were even feasible) will not end HIV/AIDS in the United States. About 20 percent of Americans infected with HIV in 2010 were women, mainly through heterosexual sex, according to the CDC.

HIV is carried through body fluids. The virus is passed when HIV-infected fluids enter the bloodstream of someone else, such as through contact with a cut or sore, sharing needles or syringes, or through the vagina, rectum, mouth, or tip of the penis.

In the United States, anal sex is the highest-risk behavior for spreading HIV, followed by vaginal sex, sex with multiple partners and sharing needles with someone infected with HIV.

Mother-to-child transmissions are not common in the United States thanks to widespread HIV testing of pregnant women and drugs that prevent the virus from affecting a child. Neither is getting the virus through blood transfusions and organ donations and transplants, which are intensely tested for HIV.

But what’s true for Americans is not true for other people in the world.

World picture

About 70 percent of all people infected with HIV live in sub-Saharan Africa, about 24 million people. This region is also home to the most children living with HIV whose infections originated during pregnancy, childbirth of consuming breast milk, according to AIDS.gov.

Globally, the dominant form of transmission is heterosexual sex, said Sophie Barton Knott, UNAIDS spokeswoman. Nearly half of people with HIV are female, and most were infected through heterosexual sex. Most of the 50.9 percent of men with HIV got it through heterosexual sex, too, she said.

The highest rates of AIDS among 15- to 24-year-olds is among women in many parts of the world, said Seth Faison, spokesman for The Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria. And in Eastern Europe, the highest transmission rates of AIDS are among people who inject drugs.

“Men who have sex with men are a high-risk group, but not the only one,” he said.

The bottom line?

Preventing men from having sex with men will not end AIDS.

Faison said the criminalization of same-sex activity actually can increase transmission rates. Being gay is a crime in at least 76 countries, and in those places, gay men are less likely to receive treatment, testing and prevention.

The CDC also says stigma and homophobia are likely one factor behind the rise in HIV infections among young gay men in the United States.

“In effect, efforts to ‘persuade men not to have sex with men’ is counterproductive,” Faison said. “It will not stop AIDS.”

Our ruling

Fischer said, “We know how to stop AIDS: persuade men not to have sex with men.”

Though men who have sex with men are at the highest risk of contracting HIV/AIDS in America, this is not a serious solution to ending a pandemic disease. Not in the United States, and certainly not worldwide.

Women, children, and men who don’t have sex with men are also at risk, and women make up about half of people worldwide who have HIV/AIDS.

Fischer’s claim is ridiculous. It rates Pants on Fire.”

Now, will someone actually be lighting his pants on fire? Because I would pay good cash money to see that.

2014 Presidential Proclamation: Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, And Transgender Pride Month

Featured, Gay News Domestic & U.S. Politics, , , , , , , , , ,

Gay USA

 

“As progress spreads from State to State, as justice is delivered in the courtroom, and as more of our fellow Americans are treated with dignity and respect — our Nation becomes not only more accepting, but more equal as well. During Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, and Transgender (LGBT) Pride Month, we celebrate victories that have affirmed freedom and fairness, and we recommit ourselves to completing the work that remains.

“Last year, supporters of equality celebrated the Supreme Court’s decision to strike down a key provision of the Defense of Marriage Act, a ruling which, at long last, gave loving, committed families the respect and legal protections they deserve. In keeping with this decision, my Administration is extending family and spousal benefits — from immigration benefits to military family benefits — to legally married same-sex couples.

“My Administration proudly stands alongside all those who fight for LGBT rights. Here at home, we have strengthened laws against violence toward LGBT Americans, taken action to prevent bullying and harassment, and prohibited discrimination in housing and hospitals. Despite this progress, LGBT workers in too many States can be fired just because of their sexual orientation or gender identity; I continue to call on the Congress to correct this injustice by passing the Employment Non-Discrimination Act. And in the years ahead, we will remain dedicated to addressing health disparities within the LGBT community by implementing the Affordable Care Act and the National HIV/AIDS Strategy — which focuses on improving care while decreasing HIV transmission rates among communities most at risk.

“Our commitment to advancing equality for the LGBT community extends far beyond our borders. In many places around the globe, LGBT people face persecution, arrest, or even state-sponsored execution. This is unacceptable. The United States calls on every nation to join us in defending
the universal human rights of our LGBT brothers and sisters.

“This month, as we mark 45 years since the patrons of the Stonewall Inn defied an unjust policy and awakened a nascent movement, let us honor every brave leader who stood up, sat in, and came out, as well as the allies who supported them along the way. Following their example, let each of us speak for tolerance, justice, and dignity — because if hearts and minds continue to change over time, laws will too. 

“NOW, THEREFORE, I, BARACK OBAMA, President of the United States of America, by virtue of the authority vested in me by the Constitution and the laws of the United States, do hereby proclaim June 2014 as Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, and Transgender Pride Month. I call upon the people of the United States to eliminate prejudice everywhere it exists, and to celebrate the great diversity of the American people. 

“IN WITNESS WHEREOF, I have hereunto set my hand this thirtieth day of May, in the year of our Lord two thousand fourteen, and of the Independence of the United States of America the two hundred and thirty-eighth.” – Barack Obama.

 

Thank you.

Now PLEASE #SignTheDamnEO protecting LGBT Federal Contractor Employees!

1982: While Gay Men Lay Dying The Reagan White House Laughed At AIDS

Featured, Gay History, , , , ,

Reagan

David Mixner posted a transcript today of the first time that AIDS was mentioned in the White House during a press briefing.  If you want to know the barriers people with HIV/AIDS faced in the early 1980’s just read this transcript between White House Press Secretary Larry Speckes (Reagan was President) and the media, notably Lester Kinsolving, who is still alive,  still hateful, refers to gay rights groups as “the sodomy lobby. and work’s for Wingnut World Net Daily.  At this time over six hundred Americans had died from HIV/AIDS.

But to the White House because the victims were gay it was a laughing matter.

Question: Larry, does the President have any reaction to the announcement — the Centers for Disease Control in Atlanta, that AIDS is now an epidemic and have over 600 cases?

MR. SPEAKES: What’s AIDS?

Question: Over a third of them have died. It’s known as “gay plague.” (Laughter.) No, it is. I mean it’s a pretty serious thing that one in every three people that get this have died. And I wondered if the President is aware of it?

MR. SPEAKES: I don’t have it. Do you? (Laughter.)

Question: No, I don’t.

MR. SPEAKES: You didn’t answer my question.

Question: Well, I just wondered, does the President—

MR. SPEAKES: How do you know? (Laughter.)

Question: In other words, the White House looks on this as a great joke?

MR. SPEAKES: No, I don’t know anything about it, Lester.

Questoin: Does the President, does anybody in the White House know about this epidemic, Larry?

MR. SPEAKES: I don’t think so. I don’t think there’s been any—

Question: Nobody knows?

MR. SPEAKES: There has been no personal experience here, Lester.

Question: No, I mean, I thought you were keeping—

MR. SPEAKES: I checked thoroughly with Dr. Ruge this morning and he’s had no—(laughter)—no patients suffering from AIDS or whatever it is.

Question: The President doesn’t have gay plague, is that what you’re saying or what?

MR. SPEAKES: No, I didn’t say that.

Question: Didn’t say that?

MR. SPEAKES: I thought I heard you on the State Department over there. Why didn’t you stay there? (Laughter.)

Question: Because I love you, Larry, that’s why. (Laughter.)

MR. SPEAKES: Oh, I see. Just don’t put it in those terms, Lester. (Laughter.)

Question: Oh, I retract that.

It would not for another FIVE YEARS until September 1987, when Ronald Reagan would make his his first public mention of the word “AIDS” in response to a reporter’s question. The death toll at that time was over 21,000.

Pat Robertson Responds: I Only Said That Because Gays Were Trying To Infect Me With AIDS

Featured, Religious Morons and Anti-Gay Idiots, , , , , , , , ,

Pat Roberstosn Liar

“I was asked by a viewer whether she had a right to leave her church because she had been asked to transport an elderly man who had AIDS and about whose condition she had not been informed. My advice was that the risk of contagion in those circumstances was quite low and that she should continue to attend the church and not worry about the incident.

In my own experience, our organization sponsored a meeting years ago in San Francisco where trained security officers warned me about shaking hands because, in those days, certain AIDS-infected activists were deliberately trying to infect people like me by virtue of rings which would cut fingers and transfer blood.

I regret that my remarks had been misunderstood, but this often happens because people do not listen to the context of remarks which are being said. In no wise (sic) were my remarks meant as an indictment of the homosexual community or, for that fact, to those infected with this dreadful disease.” – Pat Robertson, in a statement emailed by his head publicist for the 700 Club.

There is absolutely no way that Robertson’s original comment could have been misinterpreted.

By Robertson using the excuse that he wasn’t spreading a vicious, disgusting lie about people currently infected with AIDS but was spreading a vicious, disgusting lie about people who were infected with AIDS years ago again is disgusting and proves that he’s well aware that it is indeed a hateful piece of anti-gay propaganda land has no problem using it until caught.

 

Elizabeth Warren and 86 Members of Congress Demand an End to the FDA’s Gay Blood Donor Ban

Featured, Gay News Domestic & U.S. Politics, , ,

Elizabeth Warren

Led by Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-MA) and a group of 87 members of Congress sent a letter has sent a letter to the Food and Drug Administration (FDA)’ demanding that they lift the ban on  blood donors who are “men who have had sex with other men , at any time since 1977,” a policy the FDA has had in place since the height of the HIV/AIDS crisis in 1992.

“Since the beginning of the HIV/AIDS epidemic more than 30 years ago, the scientific community’s understanding of the virus has changed dramatically. We have seen vast advances in blood screening technology, blood donation policy changes in other countries allowing MSM to donate, and opposition from our nation’s blood banks who have called the current ban ‘medically and scientifically unwarranted.  Our current policies turn away healthy, willing donors even when we face serious blood shortages. Further, the existing lifetime ban continues to perpetuate inaccurate stereotypes about gay and bisexual men, and fosters an atmosphere that promotes discrimination and discourages individuals from from seeking HIV testing and treatment services.”

Other signatories included Sen. Tammy Baldwin (D-WI), Rep. Mark Takano (D-CA), Rep. David Cicilline (D-RI), Rep. Sean Patrick Maloney (D-NY) and Rep. Mark Pocan (D-WI), all openly gay or lesbian members of Congress.

In a  statement on her website, Warren writes, “For me, this has been a basic issue of fairness and of science – blood donation policies should be grounded in science, not ugly and inaccurate stereotypes. When a Massachusetts man told me he wanted to donate blood during the bombings but couldn’t because of his sexual orientation, I dug deeper into this discriminatory ban and I didn’t like what I found. Current policies are contrary to science.”

The American Medical Association, has also joined the chorus of those who oppose the FDA’s ban on gay and bisexual blood donors.

(h/t Raw Story and Covington Cat)