OK, kiddo! Here are all the fantastically amazing posts tagged with HIV

United States To Allow HIV Travellers

November 2nd, 2009

And you must contain less than 100ml of fluid, so you might want to use the washroom.

The United States will soon lift a 22-year old travel ban forbidding HIV-positive people from entering the country, even for vacation. The U.S. was one of only twelve countries to ban HIV travelers, sharing the unique distinction with Armenia, Brunei, Iraq, Libya, Moldova, Oman, Qatar, Russia, Saudi Arabia, South Korea, and Sudan.

This much-needed reversal in policy was actually signed into law by President George W. Bush, but wasn’t fully implemented before the end of his administration.

The policy change, which takes place on January 1st, means that the United States will now finally be eligible to hold the International AIDS Conference, which is great, since Canada isn’t all that interested.

Senegalese Gays Get Government-Funded Housing

January 9th, 2009

Long-term leases only.

Senegal is drawing international condemnation by human rights organisations for jailing nine gay men this week. Each of the men were sentenced to eight years in prison for “indecent conduct and unnatural acts,” Senegal’s legalese for, basically, being gay.

Homosexuality is illegal in Senegal, with a maximum prison sentence of five years. However, these men were given an additional three  years on top of the maximum for belonging to a “criminal organisation.” The organisation, AIDES Senegal, provides free condoms and information about HIV prevention.

Senegal recently played host to an important international AIDS conference which featured several prominent gay rights activists and AIDS workers. I guess Senegal cares about human rights—when the world is watching.

Moscow Keeps Ban On Gay Rights Marches

December 12th, 2008

No irony here.

Moscow’s mayor Yuri Luzhkov has vowed to continue bans on gay rights marches, calling homosexuality “satanic,” and blaming the gay rights movement for the spread of AIDS:

We have banned, and will ban, the propaganda of sexual minorities’ opinions because they can be one of the factors in the spread of HIV infection.

What a unique and simple strategy to help stop a worldwide AIDS epidemic: Ban opinions!

Sadly, all attempts at gay rights rallies in Moscow have been met with violence, with no police protection afforded for the marchers. While Canada’s rallies are, thankfully, far more peaceful, Yuri’s sentiment is still very close to home. Plans for a small parade in Abbotsford, British Columbia, was met with wild criticism and had to be changed to something smaller.

Tony Clement Embarasses AIDS Delegates

August 18th, 2008

Canadian AIDS delegates at the International AIDS Conference in Mexico were embarrassed by Health Minister Tony Clement, according to reports at Xtra.

Richard Elliott, director of the Canadian HIV/AIDS Legal Network, expressed his concern and disappointment, calling Clement’s performance “an embarrassment for Canada”:

It’s become very clear that we have a health minister, and presumably a government behind him, who are denialists. It’s similar to the condemnation the South African government received for denying that HIV causes AIDS.

Though I’m not exactly sure what Mr. Clement did, I can at least confirm that no lampshade hats or naughty xerox pranks were involved. Still, while the rest of the world is making the fight against AIDS a higher priority, Canada has been lagging. Stephen Harper was a no-show when Canada held the conference in 2006.

AIDS workers and researchers have been disappointed with Canada’s role in the fight against AIDS worldwide, blaming the government for a lack of funding and action.

Hat tip to Matt at Queer Liberal for the story.

U.S. Repeals HIV Traveler Ban

July 18th, 2008

The United States has repealed their ban on HIV-positive visitors and immigrants yesterday as part of a larger bill designed to combat AIDS through research and education.

Since 1987, any HIV-positive, non-US citizen was disallowed into the country, even to visit. This bizarre policy was later codified by congress in 1993, requiring another act of congress to overturn it. Fifteen years later, that has finally happened.

The bill’s journey wasn’t without some strange twists of its own. Senator Elisabeth Dole attempted to amend the bill to be named after the late Jesse Helms, who originally introduced the traveler ban with horrific anti-gay sentiment. That motion was defeated, which is good. Otherwise who knows what wacky law names they’d have next? The Dick Cheney Firearm Prohibition Law… The DDT-Growth Hormone Food Safety Law…

Russia Reverses Gay Blood Ban; Canada Still Lags

May 28th, 2008

A bloody goodbye

The Russian Health Ministry announced this week that it has ended its ban on gay blood donors.

This news came as somewhat of a surprise, as homophobia remains a large problem in Russia. Moscow’s first gay rights parade, for example, was met with violent protesters, condemned by the mayor, and banned by the courts. Authorities did nothing to stop violence against the marchers, many of whom where shoved, punched and kicked. This was in 2006.

Still, Russia has recognized what Canada fails to acknowledge: That allowing gay donors does not increase the risk of contaminants in the blood supply. Just last year, the American Red Cross called gay blood donor bans “medically and scientifically unwarranted,” and statistics support them.

In Canada, the fastest growing HIV demographic is young, heterosexual women, which makes up 25% of all HIV infections in the country. More worrying, however, are the statistics from the aboriginal community. In 2005, 22.4% of Canada’s HIV infections were among aboriginals, of which 53% were injection drug users, and 38.9% were women. More locally, a Manitoba study released in March showed that only 18% of HIV transmissions in the province were between gay men, with heterosexual intercourse transmissions climbing to a staggering 32%. The rest of the infections were caused by a mixture of injection drug users, birth transmission, travel, and other causes.

To suggest that young women and aboriginals should be banned from donating, though, would be irresponsible. Recent advances in HIV screening can identify—in only 60 seconds—if a person is infected with HIV with 99.96% accuracy. This is an important change, as when the blood ban was first enacted in Canada there was no effective screening at all.

Still, despite medical evidence and a nine-year low in Canadian Blood Service’s reserves, Health Canada is actually regressing. In January, Health Canada officially banned gays from donating organs, even to dying patients, despite a dangerous and time-sensitive shortage. Many doctors have refused to comply.

This puts Canada in a very strange situation. If medicine and statistics aren’t supporting the gay blood ban, then who is?

One particularly unsurprising group of supporters is lobbyists. Having Health Canada and Canadian Blood Services implement unfair policies toward gays gives an air of legitimacy to homophobia, and the anti-gay lobby jumps on the opportunity. Jim Enos of Hamilton’s Family Action Council has already suggested that since gay blood donors are permanently deferred, the Hamilton-Wentworth District School Board should cut its anti-homophobia and bullying policies protecting gay students.

Clearly something is awry, and it’s about time that Canada followed Russia’s lead in putting real medical and statistical data first. Canada is desperate for blood donors and classifying blood based on risky practices instead of risky people would increase both the safety and quantity of blood.

Canada’s Newest Nutty Publication

April 2nd, 2008

Conspiracy Weekly

Normally I slap media outlets because of wild homophobia and right-wing misinformation. This week, though, I ran across a Canadian newspaper which bills itself as “Canada’s new socially progressive and cross-cultural national newspaper.” While it’s a nice change to read stories raising awareness about homophobia and transgender violence, I have to bring up this publication up as proof that nonsensical accusations and fanaticism can come from any part of the political spectrum.

The Canadian National is prominently featuring an article that calls AIDS the result of a CIA eugenics conspiracy. The author, Alan Cantwell, says that the government designed HIV and purposefully introduced it into the gay community under the guise of hepatitis B vaccinations in the late 1970s:

There is no doubt that AIDS erupted in the U.S. shortly after government-sponsored hepatitis B vaccine experiments (1978-1981) using gay men as guinea pigs. [...]

Are we to believe that [...] AIDS in America resulted simply from two viruses jumping species in the African jungle? Or is the origin of HIV and AIDS—and the KS virus—related to secret medical research and covert human testing [...]?

I wasn’t sure how to go about showing this is utter nonsense, mind you, but thankfully Jim Burroway at Box Turtle Bulletin has done that for me:

The first known case of AIDS was found in a 1959 blood sample drawn from an unknown man in Leopoldville, Belgian Congo (today’s Kinshasa, Democratic Republic of Congo, formerly Zaire). This was long before the hepatitis B vaccine experiments [...]

Jim debunks some of the article’s other claims as well, but it doesn’t take much skepticism to understand that the knowledge and technology to design a human virus as complex as HIV simply didn’t exist in the 1970s.

So, as unjust as the U.S. government’s reaction to the AIDS epidemic in the gay community was throughout the 1980s, I don’t believe it was a CIA conspiracy. The lack of a decent and reasonably priced mojito in the greater Montréal area, on the other hand…

Will The U.S. Permit HIV-Positive Visitors?

March 19th, 2008

HIV Travel Denied

It’s not well-known that the United States refuses to allow HIV-positive travelers to enter the country, even for a vacation. It’s been true since 1987 though, and the policy was codified by congress in 1993, requiring another act of congress to overturn it. Now, after twenty years, two U.S. senators have introduced a bill that, if passed, would end the ban.

The new bill has support from around the world, including Canada. Supporters gathered in Vancouver on Sunday to raise awareness of the bill, including Martin Rooney, who recalled his experience being turned away at the border:

I was fingerprinted, photographed, run through the FBI most wanted list and—two and a half hours later—sent home. I have never felt more violated in my life.

The ban hasn’t only affected HIV-positive travelers. HIV-negative employees of AIDS agencies have also had difficulties traveling to the United States due to the ban.

Hmm… Maybe this means I should reconsider buying that (Product) RED iPod.

Ontario Judge Makes Witness Wear HIV Mask

February 1st, 2008

Paranoid Judge

An Ontario judge is facing a misconduct investigation after he forced a sexual assault victim to wear a mask, fearing that he’d contract AIDS without it.

The witness, who is HIV-positive and has Hepatitis C, was not permitted to testify until Justice Jon-Jo Douglas was satisfied that the courtroom’s “saftey and integrity” was protected. This included ordering all court staff to wear rubber gloves and placing all documents handled by the witness into plastic bags.

Quotes from the courtroom transcript reveal Judge Douglas’ astonishing ignorance:

I am frankly shocked that in this day and age we were not advised [about the witness' HIV status]. The HIV virus will live in a dried state for year after year after year and only needs moisture to reactivate itself.

I mean, [the witness] speaks within two feet of me with two serious infectious diseases. Either you mask your witness and/or move us to another courtroom or we do not proceed.

Bluma Brenner, an assistant professor at McGill’s AIDS clinic, called the judge’s claims about dried HIV re-activation “outlandish.” The witness’ lawyer also took offense, adding that a mask was not required in the community and could interfere with the court reporter.

Ontario’s Criminal Lawyers Association, the Canadian HIV/AIDS Legal Network, and the HIV and AIDS Legal Clinic in Ontario have all lodged formal complaints against the judge. The Crown has also appealed to have the judge removed from the case over apparent bias.

As for Judge Douglas’ wishes to ensure the safety and integrity of the courtroom, I can offer a little advice: Sanding down sharp corners and ensuring non-excessive microphone volume levels will make any courtroom a safer place to work. Restoring integrity, on the other hand…

Why Can’t Gay Men Donate Blood?

January 7th, 2008

Mister Swamp Blood

Canadian Blood Services is still amidst controversy for its heavy-handed blood donor’s questionnaire. Any man who has had sex with another man, even once, since 1977 is permanently banned from donating blood for life—even if he’s in a monogamous relationship and practices safe sex.

University groups across the country have been protesting this policy—and rightfully so. Statistically, the fastest growing HIV demographic in Canada is young, heterosexual women, which makes up over a quarter of all HIV infections. Yet, according to Blood Services, all gay men are publicly labelled as posing a special danger unshared by the rest of the HIV demographic.

So why does Canadian Blood Services—or, more specifically, Health Canada—continue to uphold the ban? It can’t be statistics; just last May, the American Red Cross called bans on gay blood “medically and scientifically unwarranted,” and other countries—including Italy and Australia—do not permanently ban their gay population from donating.

Whatever the rationale, until Canada’s infamous “question 18″ is re-worded to screen for risky behaviours instead of simple sexual orientation, healthy gay men will be forbidden to donate and save lives. Including George Smitherman. He’s Ontario’s Health Minister.

How’s that for irony?

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