Compiled by Dawn Wolfe Gutterman
Politics
Gay-rights foe admits to same-sex relations
SPOKANE, Wash. – Mayor James E. West, a Republican foe of equal rights for gays, was caught by a Washington newspaper using the trappings of his office to try to court a young man on a gay Web site. West was also accused of molesting boys over a decade ago.
West denied the molestation allegations, but acknowledged he "had relations with adult men." He admitted offering autographed sports memorabilia and a possible City Hall internship to what he thought was an 18-year-old man on the Web site Gay.com. The man was actually a private computer expert hired by the Spokesman-Review newspaper as part of a journalism sting operation.
Brazil refuses U.S. AIDS funds over anti-prostitution clause
RIO DE JANEIRO, Brazil – Brazil won't accept some $40 million in U.S. funding to fight AIDS unless Washington drops a clause condemning prostitution, the Health Ministry said May 4.
Brazil has received AIDS funding from the U.S. since 1996.
The Health Ministry said the clause that condemns prostitution – which is legal in Brazil – was not in the original agreement signed by Brazil, but was added later by the Bush administration.
Brazil is one of the first countries to oppose the administration's policy of linking foreign aid to policies favored by the religious right.
Brazilian officials said that condemning prostitution represented a serious problem for their anti-AIDS program, which works with many non-governmental organizations that encourage the use of condoms by sex workers, one of the groups with the highest risk of getting AIDS.
Divorce bill arose from marriage equality debate
COLUMBUS, Ohio – Religious conservatives who succeeded in rewriting Ohio's constitution to ban equal marriage rights are pushing state lawmakers to make divorce more difficult and to ban gay people from becoming foster or adoptive parents.
The issues were priorities listed in a lobbying day by several groups last month.
Law
U.S. Supreme Court agrees to review FAIR case
WASHINGTON – The U.S. Supreme Court agreed on May 2 to decide whether Congress has the right to withhold federal funds from colleges and universities that refuse to allow military recruiters on-campus access to their students.
In November, the 3rd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals ruled in favor of FAIR, a coalition of law schools challenging the Solomon Amendment, a law prohibiting colleges and universities from barring military recruiters from on-campus access to students even though the military's "Don't Ask, Don't Tell" ban on LGBT personnel violates those schools' non-discrimination policies.
For more information on the Solomon Amendment, visit www.solomonresponse.org. For more information on the Servicemembers Legal Defense Network, which works to fight anti-LGBT discrimination in the U.S. military, visit www.sldn.org.
Equal marriage opponents wants Multnomah County to pay attorneys fees
PORTLAND, Ore. – Equal marriage rights opponents are calling on Multnomah County to reimburse their legal fees.
In a petition filed May 5 with the state Supreme Court, an anti-gay marriage coalition claims its four experienced attorneys billed 2,477.68 hours during a yearlong legal battle over Multnomah County's March 2004 decision to issue marriage licenses to same-sex couples.
In Oregon under certain circumstances, parties that prevail in a lawsuit can get attorney fees from the losers.
Family Rights
State says gay Kansas City women can't be foster parents
KANSAS CITY, Mo. – The state says Lisa Johnston and Dawn Roginski are exceptionally qualified to be foster parents, but an unwritten state policy prevents them from taking children into their home because they are openly gay.
The Missouri Department of Social Services cited the unwritten state policy in denying Johnston's application to become a foster parent. Johnston, with the backing of the American Civil Liberties Union, is suing the state.
The two passed a home site visit and completed seven of nine training sessions before being told they were not qualified.
Officials told the couple they could not become foster parents because children in such a home would suffer social stigma, the children's biological parents might disapprove, and because the two are not of reputable character because Missouri has a same-sex sodomy law.
Civil Rights
Retrial scheduled for men accused of killing Araujo
BERKELEY, Calif. – On May 9, prosecutors will try again as jury selection begins in a second attempt to convince a jury that what happened to Araujo was a murder. Lawyers are estimating it will take about four weeks to seat a jury and another two months to finish the trial.
Government report decries treatment of intersex individuals
SAN FRANCISCO – On May 5, the National Coalition for LGBT Health reported that on May 4, the San Francisco Human Rights Commission issued "A Human Rights Investigation into the Medical Normalization of Intersex People" which declared that the standard medical approach to intersex conditions leads pediatric specialists to violate their patients' human rights.
The report marks the first time that any governmental body in the U.S. has addressed medical management of intersex people as a human rights issue. The Human Rights Commission specifically condemned the continued healthcare practices of performing irreversible "normalizing" genital surgeries without the patients' consent, lying to patients about their medical histories, withholding their medical records, and repeatedly displaying intersex children's genitals.
Colorado foster children enrolled in AIDS-drug studies
DENVER – Researchers funded by the National Institutes of Health tested AIDS drugs on hundreds of foster children in the past 20 years, sometimes without providing independent advocates for the children, as required by federal regulations.
Officials estimated that 5 percent to 10 percent of the 13,878 children enrolled in NIH-funded AIDS studies since the late 1980s were in foster care.
Under the practice, foster children – mostly poor or minority – received care from world-class researchers. But they also were exposed to drugs known to have serious side effects in adults and for which the safety for children was unknown.
Foster children were enrolled in AIDS-drug studies in Colorado and at least six other states: Illinois, Louisiana, Maryland, New York, North Carolina and Texas, according to government records and interviews.
Health
Second request sent to remove inaccurate sexuality website
WASHINGTON – On behalf of 145 health and advocacy organizations, the Sexuality Information and Education Council of the U.S. submitted a second letter to the Secretary of the Department of Health and Human Services, Michael Leavitt, explicitly asking for written response from the Secretary to the issues raised in the March 31 letter seeking removal and review of HHS' 4parents.gov website. The 4parents.gov presents biased and inaccurate information as fact and does not address the needs of many youth, including sexually active youth, youth who have been or are being sexually abused, and LGBTQ youth.
FDA wants sperm banks to bar donors who've had gay sex
NEW YORK – The Food and Drug Administration is about to implement new rules recommending that any man who has engaged in homosexual sex in the previous five years be barred from serving as an anonymous sperm donor.
The FDA has rejected calls to scrap the provision, insisting that gay men collectively pose a higher-than-average risk of carrying the AIDS virus.
Although there is disagreement over whether the FDA guideline regarding gay men will have the force of law, most doctors and clinics are expected to observe it.
In a letter to the FDA, Lambda Legal has suggested a screening procedure based on sexual behavior, not sexual orientation. Prospective donors – gay or straight would be rejected if they had engaged in unprotected sex in the previous 12 months with an HIV-positive person, an illegal drug user, or "an individual of unknown HIV status outside of a monogamous relationship." But an FDA spokeswoman cited FDA documents suggesting that officials felt the broader exclusion was prudent even if it affected gay men who practice safe sex.
Groups objecting to new sex education policy in Maryland county file lawsuit
GREENBELT, Md. – Two groups filed a federal lawsuit May 3 to block a health curriculum that would allow discussions of homosexuality with eighth graders, and a video to be shown to sophomores demonstrating how to use a condom.
Citizens for a Responsible Curriculum and the Virginia-based Parents and Friends of Ex-Gays and Gays want to prevent Montgomery County from starting the program.
County educators say the changes were needed to teach students about the dangers of unprotected sex. However, those suing argue the county does not do enough to stress abstinence or allow people the groups describe as formerly gay to present their views.
A U.S. District Judge issued a temporary restraining order May 5 that prevents the system from using the pilot, which was slated to be expanded to all schools next fall.
The AIDS Institute supports National AIDS & Aging Day
WASHINGTON – The AIDS Institute is encouraging people over the age of 50 to become aware of their HIV/AIDS risk as part of National AIDS & Aging Day, Friday, May 13..
National AIDS & Aging Day was created Òto raise awareness of the potential for HIV infection in the aged community" and to offer testing, counseling and other HIV-related services to that community.
According to the National Association on HIV Over Fifty and Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, 11 Р15% of our nationÕs AIDS cases occur in persons over 50 years of age, and heterosexually infected women comprise a greater percentage of AIDS cases as age increases into the 60s and older.
For more information, call 813-974-2598 or visit www.theaidsinstitute.org.
Religion
Methodist Church appealing in case of lesbian minister
PHILADELPHIA – The United Methodist Church will ask its highest court for the right to defrock a lesbian minister who told her congregation that she was in a relationship with another woman.
Irene "Beth" Stroud was ousted last year for violating the denomination's ban on "self-avowed, practicing homosexual" clergy. A church appeals panel voted to set aside that decision. The appeal will be filed by May 29, within the 30-day deadline. The Judicial Council normally meets twice a year, during the last week in April and the last week in October.
Archbishop won't allow communion to sash-wearers
ST. PAUL, Minn. – Archbishop Harry Flynn, the head of the Archdiocese of St. Paul and Minneapolis, has told gay-rights supporters they can't receive Holy Communion while wearing rainbow-colored sashes because it is seen as a protest against Catholic teaching and unacceptable to the Vatican.
A gay-rights leader said sash-wearers would continue to attempt to receive communion at the cathedral.
