Refusing to be ignored, GLAAD (the Gay & Lesbian Alliance Against Defamation) has teamed with the Black AIDS Institute and the National Black Justice Coalition (NBJC) and placed a full page ad in Monday’s Variety magazine, calling on ABC Television and its popular morning program The View, to correct a misleading quote about the spread of HIV among African Americans.

Last month, co-host Sherri Shepherd and guest host, comedian D.L. Hughley, blamed increased HIV rates among straight African American women on gay and bisexual black men men who are secretly gay, often referred to as “on the down low.”

“When you look at the prevalence of HIV in the African American community, it’s primarily young women who are getting it from men who are on the down low,” Hughley said on the June 22 broadcast.

Shepherd added, “It’s so big in the black community with women because they’re having sex with men who have been having sex with men.”

The Variety ad placement comes nearly three weeks after GLAAD issued a “Call to Action,” charging The View with perpetuating “dangerous myths,” despite evidence to the contrary from the Centers for Disease Control.

(The ad appears below; click on image to enlarge.)

Click to enlarge

After the show aired, thousands of people stood with GLAAD and demanded an apology and a correction. But so far, ABC and The View have remained silent on the issue.

“ABC and The View’s refusal to correct these inaccurate remarks comes at the expense of African American gay and bisexual men, straight African American women and millions of audience members who need facts about HIV/AIDS, not myths. It’s extremely disheartening to see a program that usually covers our community with respect, unwilling to correct this serious lapse in editorial judgment,” said Rashad Robinson, GLAAD’s Senior Director of Programs.

GLAAD has cited a 2009 interview in which a senior CDC official said that heterosexual black men with multiple sex partners — not bisexual men who secretly have sex with men — are responsible for high rates of HIV among black women.

In that interview, Dr. Kevin Fenton, director of the National Center for HIV/AIDS, Viral Hepatitis, STD and TB Prevention, said, “We have looked to see what proportion of infections is coming from male partners who are bisexual and found there are actually relatively few.”

“More are male partners who are having female partners and are injecting drugs or using drugs or have some other risks that may put those female partners at risk of acquiring HIV,” he added.

As of late Monday, still no comment from ABC or The View.

Interviews with 500 gay men throughout the District found that more than 40 percent were unaware of their diagnosis before the study, even though most had seen a doctor in the past 12 months, and more than a third did not know the HIV status of their last sex partner.

“This is a wake-up call,” said D.C. Council member David A. Catania (D-At Large), 42, who is gay. “It’s time for my generation to assume greater responsibility for themselves and their partners. Just because we escaped the epidemic of the 1980s doesn’t mean we are immune.”

Of those surveyed, younger men generally had safer sex behaviors, while men older than 30 were tested less frequently, had more sex partners and used condoms less. In fact, the report found that more than 40 percent of those interviewed said they did not use a condom with their last sex partner.

Kerry

Senator John F. Kerry of Massachusetts called today for the Food and Drug Administration to lift a “discriminatory” ban on gay men donating blood.

Kerry led a group of 18 senators — 17 Democrats and one independent — who sent a letter to FDA Commissioner Margaret Hamburg, urging her to lift the lifetime ban on men who have engaged in homosexual relationships since 1977.

“Not a single piece of scientific evidence supports the ban,” the Democratic senator said in a statement.

“A law that was once considered medically justified is today simply outdated and needs to end, just as last year we ended the travel ban against those with HIV.”

The American Red Cross and other health organizations support ending the ban, saying the law is “medically and scientifically unwarranted.”

“All donated blood is mandated to be tested for HIV with two different, highly accurate tests. Between these two tests, the risk of tainted blood entering the blood supply undetected is virtually zero,” said Kerry’s office.

The FDA, in a statement, defended the ban and said that “while FDA appreciates concerns about perceived discrimination, our decision to maintain the deferral policy is based on current science and data and does not give weight to a donor’s sexual orientation.”

The ban, enacted at the height of the HIV/AIDS crisis, bars men who have ever had sex with other men after 1977 from donating blood.

Read Sen. Kerry’s thoughtful essay at Bay Windows.

Gosling

Veteran BBC broadcaster Ray Gosling was released on bail today following an arrest Wednesday after admitting he had once killed his lover as he lay seriously ill in hospital “in the early period of AIDS.”

Police began their investigation Tuesday after Gosling’s admission on BBC’s Inside Out program Monday night that he carried out a mercy killing on his lover, who was dying of AIDS, to end his suffering. (Video here.)

Gosling, 70, has not revealed where or when the incident took place, although it has been widely speculated to have occurred more than 20 years ago.

So far, Gosling has also refused to name the man during repeated interviews by police, and would not tell detectives the circumstances, in honor of a pact with his former lover.

Asked whether he had any regrets, he replied: “None whatsoever, I did the right thing.”

Gosling, 70, made his revelation on BBC East Midlands’ Inside Out program.

Strolling through a graveyard for a segment of the show about death, he broke down as he recalled the day he took his lover’s life.

“Maybe this is the time to share a secret that I have kept for quite a long time. I killed someone once… He was a young chap, he’d been my lover and he got AIDS. In a hospital one hot afternoon, the doctor said, ‘There’s nothing we can do,’ and he was in terrible, terrible pain.

“I said to the doctor, ‘Leave me just for a bit’ and he went away. I picked up the pillow and smothered him until he was dead.

“The doctor came back and I said, ‘He’s gone.’ Nothing more was ever said.”

It is understood that the killing took place sometime in the 1980′s.

The White House, on World AIDS Day 2009

The United States has lifted a 22-year immigration ban which has stopped anyone with HIV/AIDS from entering the country.

The BBC reports:

President Obama said the ban was not compatible with US plans to be a leader in the fight against the disease.

The new rules come into force on Monday and the U.S. plans to host a bi-annual global HIV/AIDS summit for the first time in 2012.

The ban was imposed at the height of a global panic about the disease at the end of the 1980s.

“We lead the world when it comes to helping stem the AIDS pandemic — yet we are one of only a dozen countries that still bar people from HIV from entering our own country,” Obama said back in October, fulfilling a promise he made to gay advocates and acting to eliminate a restriction he said was “rooted in fear rather than fact.”

“If we want to be the global leader in combating HIV/AIDS, we need to act like it,” he said.

The United States was one of only 12 countries, including Saudi Arabia and Libya, that prevented people with HIV from crossing its borders.

Though leading scientists worldwide have dedicated their life’s work to understanding the virus, its genetic complexity is unprecedented and a cure is still beyond reach.

This month, In the Life speaks with scientists working tirelessly for a cure, advocates speaking out about the stigma of HIV, and looks at the success of a cutting edge prevention effort to stop the spread of the disease.

In “Creating Solutions,” In the Life examines the trials in development of an HIV vaccine, which remains the only hope for eradicating the virus, includes conversations with designer Kenneth Cole, chairman of the board of the Foundation for AIDS Research (amfAR), and Regan Hofmann, editor-in-chief of POZ magazine.

In the Life’s mission is to reach the largest audience possible to educate, challenge, and inspire viewers from all walks of life. To that goal, their broadcast is made available to sites such as LGBTQ Nation; please enjoy this month’s edition:

Since 1992, In the Life has been the only network series documenting the LGBT experience. Although it airs on 68% of public television stations across the country, it is relegated to timeslots in the wee hours of the morning and/or being aired inconsistently remains a problem. There remain nearly 100 channels reaching more than 30 million households in 13 states, that refuse to air In the Life at all.

For more information, or to view past editions, go to InTheLifeTV.org.

Each year, we mark World AIDS Day on December 1st in an effort to raise awareness of the AIDS pandemic caused by the spread of HIV infection.

AIDS has already claimed lives of 25 million people and 33 million more are estimated to be living with HIV/AIDS around the world today, including over 1 million Americans.

Of those currently infected, one in five does not know they have the condition, and the majority of new infections are spread by people who are unaware of their own status.

The World Health Organization announced recently that HIV/AIDS is the number one cause of disease and death among women ages 18-49 worldwide.

And yet, as infection rates rise, the public’s level of awareness of their very real risk for contracting HIV wanes. And stigma continues to prove as deadly as the disease itself, keeping people from getting tested and treated for HIV/AIDS.

There are many ways you can take action in response to HIV/AIDS:

• get tested
• practice safer methods to prevent HIV
• decide not to engage in high risk behaviors
• talk about HIV prevention with family, friends, and colleagues
• provide support to people living with HIV/AIDS

To locate an event in your city or country on this World AIDS Day 2009, go to WorldAidsCampaign.org.

On the eve of World AIDS Day, Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius, Senior Advisor to the President Valerie Jarrett, and other officials discuss the progress the Obama Administration has made in combating HIV/AIDS at home and abroad. November 30, 2009.

Watch the official White House video:

Obama made the announcement as he signed the fourth reauthorization of the federal program named for Ryan White, an Indiana boy who contracted AIDS through a blood transfusion. The program, started in 1990, provides funds for HIV-related care.

Obama said that lifting the ban is a “step that will encourage people to get tested and get treatment. It’s a step that will keep families together, and it’s a step that will save lives.”

“We lead the world when it comes to helping stem the AIDS pandemic — yet we are one of only a dozen countries that still bar people from HIV from entering our own country,” he said. “If we want to be the global leader in combating HIV/AIDS, we need to act like it,” he said.

The Ryan White HIV/AIDS Treatment Extension Act authorizes a 5 percent annual increase in federal support over the next four years. Funding under the law is scheduled to rise from more than $2.5 billion in fiscal year 2010 to nearly $3 billion in fiscal year 2013.

The measure passed both the Senate and the House of Representatives last week. Similar legislation first passed almost 20 years ago and was reauthorized in 1996, 2000 and 2006.

The process to end the travel ban was started last year by Congress and the Bush administration. The president said his administration will finish it by publishing the final rules on Monday to eliminate the ban. The ban is expected to be lifted early next year.

An experimental treatment strategy involving a vaccine that is tailor-made from an HIV-positive person’s virus and immune system cells can reduce viral load and improve the function of the immune system, according to a presentation at the AIDS Vaccine 2009 conference in Paris on October 21 that was announced by the vaccine’s developer, Argos Therapeutics, and reported recently by POZ.com.

Preventive vaccines work by stimulating the immune system so that when it encounters an infectious pathogen, it will quickly respond and keep the infection from taking hold.

A therapeutic vaccine is also designed to provoke an immune response, but in people already infected with a virus or bacteria. Its aim is to help the body better control the infection. A number of therapeutic vaccines have been tried in HIV disease, but have not proved successful until now.

Jean-Pierre Routy, MD, from McGill University Health Centre in Montreal, gave one of two presentations at the AIDS Vaccine 2009 conference on AGS-004.

Routy presented data on 16 people with HIV who interrupted their antiretroviral (ARV) therapy for 12 weeks after achieving undetectable viral loads and then receiving the vaccine.

Thirteen of the 16 patients had a viral load at the end of their 12-week treatment interruption that was lower than their viral load before starting ARV treatment. The average reduction in virus was about 80 percent.

No signs of significant side effects were reported.

Full story, POZ.com.