World reacts to new drug that helps prevent HIV/AIDS in healthy gay and bisexual men

Only days after Michel Sidibé, executive director of the United Nations Joint Program on HIV/AIDS (UNAIDS) praised Pope Benedict XVI for announcing "the use of condoms is justified when intended to reduce the risk of HIV infection," the agency also released information on a new drug that helps prevent healthy gay men from catching it through sex with an infected partner.

"The announcement will make cooperation easier with faith-based organizations, in the fight against HIV and AIDS," Michel Sidibé hold world reporters. "This is an important step forward." The Roman Catholic Church rejects condoms as a means of birth control and had for many years said they are not a means of preventing AIDS.

United Nations' AIDS-fighting agency (UNAIDS) has been an even bigger priority at the United Nations since the current executive director, Michel Sidibé is also an Under Secretary-General of the United Nations, reporting directly to the Deputy Secretary-General of the world organization.

Kentucky Slides Backward with HIV/AIDS Treatment and Prevention

Nearly one in five gay and bisexual men in 21 major U.S. cities are infected with HIV, and nearly half of them do not know it.

HIV has reached epidemic levels again in the Bluegrass Region of the Commonwealth, especially among the Latino and Black communities.

Kentucky Equality Federation fought hard for new funding for the Kentucky AIDS Drug Assistance Program, as well as HIV/AIDS prevention during the 2010 Kentucky Legislative Session.  

Though the legislation also carried the support of Kentucky House Health and Welfare Committee Chairman Tom Burch, as well as the Kentucky HIV/AIDS Advocacy Group, AVOL, Lexington Gay Lesbian Service Organization (GLSO), House of Ruth, OUTsource at the University of Kentucky, and a wide variety of other organizations, the funding was axed by the Revenue and Appropriate Committee, particularly, the House Subcommittee on Human Resources during negations with Kentucky Equality Federation officers.  Why?  Senior citizen programs took priority because of the upcoming election as told to Kentucky Equality Federation negotiators. 

"We need to reinvigorate our response to preventing HIV among gay and bisexual men," Dr. Jonathan Mermin, director of CDC's Division of HIV/AIDS Prevention, said in a telephone interview with the media giant Reuters. "We can't allow HIV to continue its devastating toll among gay and bisexual men, and in particular, among young black men."

The "Breakthrough"

Scientists announced a "breakthrough" in the fight against AIDS for gay and bisexual men. A pill already used to treat HIV infection turns out to be a powerful weapon in protecting healthy gay men from catching the virus, a global study found.

Daily doses of Truvada cut the risk of infection by 44 percent when given with condoms, counseling and other prevention services. Men who took their pills most faithfully had even more protection, up to 73 percent.

Researchers had feared the pills might give a false sense of security and make men less likely to use condoms or to limit their partners, but the opposite happened — risky sex declined.

UNAIDS warns that condoms remain the first line of defense.

United Nations World AIDS Day is December 1st of each year.  

The results are "a major advance" that can help curb the epidemic in gay men, said Dr. Kevin Fenton, AIDS prevention chief at the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. But he warned they may not apply to people exposed to HIV through male-female sex, drug use or other ways. Studies in those groups are under way now.

Charles Karel Bouley, a blogger with the Huffington Post slammed the new drug however in his latest blog post, stating: "We need a cure for HIV and AIDS. We've always had a way to prevent it, it's called common sense and responsibility, though of course mistakes and accidents can happen. Condoms, while not easily accessible to everyone, are free at most clinics or Centers in the U.S., minimal at most drug stores and information is everywhere. If one day I turn up positive, I'll know why. It won't be because I didn't take a pill."

---> Posted by a volunteer Community Blogger of Kentucky Equality Federation. This is the official blog of Kentucky Equality Federation. Posts contained in this blog may not be the official position of Kentucky Equality Federation, its volunteer officers, directors, management, supported organizations, allies or coalitions, but rather the personal opinions or views of the volunteer Community Bloggers. The opinions or views expressed in the blog are protected by Section 1 of the Constitution of the Commonwealth of Kentucky as non-slanderous free speech; blogs are personal views or opinions and not journalistic news sites.

Admiral Mike Mullen: "End Don't Ask, Don't Tell" as soon as possible

The chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff said Sunday that Congress shouldn't wait to repeal the military's controversial "don't ask, don't tell" policy which forces gay, lesbian and trans-gender members to hide their personal lives or face expulsion from the service.

"The other piece that is out there that is very real is the courts are very active on this, and my concern is that at some point in time the courts could change this law and in that not give us the right amount of time to implement it," Admiral Mike Mullen told ABC's Christiane Amanpour. "I think it's much better done if it's going to get done, it's much better done through legislature than it is out of the courts."

The Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff (CJCS), currently Navy Admiral Mike Mullen, is by law the highest ranking military officer in the United States armed forces, and the primary military adviser to the the National Security Council, the Homeland Security Council and the Secretary of Defense.

Mullen refused to comment on the leaked results of a Pentagon survey that reportedly says there is widespread support for repealing the policy, and that doing so would cause only "minimal risk" to soldiers.  "We'll have this report done here and to Secretary Gates in the next couple of weeks by December 1st, and I won't make any comments on where I think we need to go until that report is done," he said.

But Mullen made it clear that he supports repeal. "From my personal perspective, absolutely."

"I think it belies us as an institution. We value integrity as an institution," Mullen continued. "Asking individuals to come in and lie about who they are every day goes counter to who we are as an institution." Mullen expressed concern about the head of the US Marine Corps, who said earlier this month it was the wrong time to overturn the ban on gays serving openly.

"There's risk involved; I'm trying to determine how to measure that risk," Gen. James Amos said at the beginning of November. "This is not a social thing. This is combat effectiveness. That's what the country pays its Marines to do."

"What concerned me about his most recent comments, it came at a time where we actually had the draft report in hand, and we had all agreed that we would speak to this privately until we completed the report and made our recommendations up the chain," Mulled said.

But the Join Chiefs chairman is confident that Amos will comply should the "don't ask, don't tell" policy be repealed.

"He basically said that if this law changes, we are going to implement it, and we are going to implement it better than anybody else," Mullen told CNN's Candy Crowley Sunday.

NOTICE:  This post is courtesy of Raw Story.  At the time of this post, it is BREAKING NEWS.

---> Posted by a volunteer Community Blogger of Kentucky Equality Federation. This is the official blog of Kentucky Equality Federation. Posts contained in this blog may not be the official position of Kentucky Equality Federation, its volunteer officers, directors, management, supported organizations, allies or coalitions, but rather the personal opinions or views of the volunteer Community Bloggers. The opinions or views expressed in the blog are protected by Section 1 of the Constitution of the Commonwealth of Kentucky as non-slanderous free speech; blogs are personal views or opinions and not journalistic news sites.

13 arrested for protesting Don't Ask, Don't Tell; Cindy and Megan McCain blast the Republican Party

U.S. Senator John McCain (R-Arizona) made some of his strongest remarks yet in defense of the "Don't Ask, Don't Tell" military policy that prohibits open homosexual service, suggesting Sunday that an imminent Pentagon study on the issue is biased and arguing that a bill that would overturn it should not pass during the lame-duck session of Congress that began Monday.

His wife, Cindy McCain disagrees with him however, as does his daughter, Meghan McCain. Just the other day, Cindy McCain was part of an all-star anti-bullying video in which she criticized the government's failure to let gays be open in the military. Afterward however, Cindy McCain backed down and Tweeted that she supported her husband's stance on DADT. 

Cindy McCain continues to stand by her statement however that the "government(s) [local, federal, and state] treat the [gay] community like second-class citizens."

Today, thirteen gay rights activists handcuffed themselves to the White House fence (pictured above), calling for U.S. President Barack Obama to work harder for repeal of the "don't ask, don't tell" ban on gay service members serving openly.

Several taunted the president, calling for him to come out of the White House and display more courage supporting equal rights for gays. One man shouted, "President Obama is afraid to act."

One of those arrested was a Catholic priest, the Rev. Geoff Farrow, who has spoken in favor of same sex marriage.

Megan McCain (pictured), the daughter of U.S. Senator John McCain, and the oldest of the four children John and Cindy McCain have has become something of a star to the gay and lesbian community for her many public appearances saying the Republican hatred of gay marriage and its inability to tolerate and grant equality to gay and lesbian people will be the undoing of the Republican Party.

In her recent book, "Dirty Sexy Politics," Megan McCain complains that the base of the Republican Party is becoming narrower and narrower, and is no longer the party of individual freedom promoted by Barry Goldwater and Ronald Reagan. Megan McCain has also described herself as a Republican who is "liberal on social issues."

"We need to make room for all Republicans," she writes in her book. "That means my gay friends ... shouldn’t have to pretend they aren't gay – or have an unequal, Don't Ask, Don't Tell kind of lifestyle – if they want to find a place in the Republican Party."

Will this family split make for a bit of awkwardness around the dinner table on Thanksgiving?