NACIONES UNIDAS REPORTA SOBRE VIH

ONU SUGIERE CAMBIOS...

Michel Sidibé, UNAIDS Executive Director, with the Outlook report

A new United Nations report says that a radically simplified approach to ensuring access to HIV treatment for everyone who needs it could prevent 10 million deaths by 2025 and 1 million new infections annually.

The so-called Treatment 2.0, says the Joint UN Programme on HIV/AIDS (UNAIDS), could lower the cost of treatment, simplify treatment regimens, ease the burden on health systems, and improve the quality of life for people living with HIV and their families.

“We can bring down costs so investments can reach more people,” Michel Sidibé, UNAIDS Executive Director, said at the report’s launch in Geneva today. “This means doing things better – knowing what to do, channelling resources in the right direction and not wasting them, bringing down prices and containing costs. We must do more with less.”

The agency estimates that there were 33.4 million people living with HIV worldwide at the end of 2008, as well as nearly 2.7 million new infections and 2 million AIDS-related deaths.

It adds that only one third of the world’s 15 million people in need of HIV treatment are accessing life-saving medicines.

For the new plan to succeed, the agency’s Outlook report calls for action to be taken across five key areas.

Firstly, it calls for the creation of a better pill that is less toxic and for a simple diagnostic tool to monitor treatment.

Secondly, evidence suggests that people living with HIV who have reduced the level of virus in their bodies, through antiretroviral therapy, are less likely to transmit it. As a result, UNAIDS says that if everyone in need has access to treatment, this could reduce the number of new HIV infections by one third annually.

The report also urges slashing the cost of antiretroviral treatment, especially for hospitalization and monitoring treatment, which can cost twice as much as drugs.

Fourth, UNAIDS stresses the need to improve voluntary HIV testing and counselling, since starting treatment at the right time, optimally when their CD4 count – a measure of immune system strength – is around 350, boosts the efficacy of treatment and increases life expectancy.

Lastly, Treatment 2.0 will be fully successful if communities are mobilized and involved in managing treatment programmes and access.

“Not only could Treatment 2.0 save lives, it has the potential to give us a significant prevention dividend,” said Mr. Sidibé.

The report also shows that young people are leading the prevention revolution, with 15 of the most severely affected countries reporting a 25 per cent drop in HIV prevalence among this key population.

In eight countries – Côte d’Ivoire, Ethiopia, Kenya, Malawi, Namibia, Tanzania, Zambia and Zimbabwe – significant HIV prevalence declines have been accompanied by positive changes in sexual behaviour among young people.

Mr. Sidibé cautioned that flatlining or reductions in investments in HIV will only hurt the AIDS response, with nearly $27 billion required this year to meet country-set targets for universal access to HIV prevention, treatment, care and support.

“The AIDS response needs a stimulus package now,” the official underlined. “Donors must not turn back on investments at a time when the AIDS response is showing results.”

His agency recommends that nations invest between 0.5 and 3 per cent of government revenue into their AIDS response programmes, but warned that for the majority of countries severely affected by the epidemic, national investments, even at optimal levels, are insufficient.

Also included in the report released today are the results of a public opinion poll that shows that nearly three decades into the epidemic, countries continue to rank AIDS high on the list of the most important challenges the world faces.

Overall in the survey, AIDS is perceived to be the top healthcare issue in the world, followed by safe drinking water.

The publication wraps up with a “Last Word” from UNAIDS Goodwill Ambassador Annie Lennox, who said that “as a woman and mother, I feel compelled to speak out, and try to raise awareness in the best way I can, to try to use my platform to do so.”

un.org/July13,2010

INTERESANTE REACCIÓN AL PLAN VIH/SIDA DE OBAMA

After President Obama revealed the new U.S. plan to fight HIV, several leaders from the nation's top advocacy groups voiced their support for the plan, as long as it can be carried out.

After a year and a half of research the White House on Tuesday released its national strategy for tackling HIV. The plan calls for a 25% infection reduction over the next five years as well as using a $30 million cash infusion — redirected from the Affordable Care Act — to focus on prevention and targeted testing. Many AIDS organizations heralded the strategy, while others were skeptical. Here’s what groups are saying:

“Today’s release of the strategy is an important milestone that we should all celebrate. However, it’s critical to acknowledge that is just the beginning. Advocates must stay engaged in the weeks, months, and years ahead to ensure this plan gets fully implemented.”

—David Ernesto Munar, AIDS Foundation Chicago vice president

“We are pleased with the direction the Obama administration is pursuing in its national strategy on fighting HIV and AIDS. We have called for an informed and robust dialogue around the truths about HIV and AIDS, including discussions about safe sex, prevention, public education, and living with HIV/AIDS, among other things. That this is happening at the highest level of government sets the tone for significantly reducing the impact of HIV and AIDS in the black community and beyond."

—Sharon J. Lettman, National Black Justice Coalition executive director

"The news of the National HIV/AIDS Strategy brings much needed hope for all Americans affected by HIV/AIDS. We commend President Obama and the leadership of the Office of National AIDS Policy, particularly Jeff Crowley, Greg Millett, and James Albino. We are encouraged that the 14 community forums across the country allowed for the perspectives and experiences of people living with HIV to inform the content, and ultimately the success, of the strategy."

—Marjorie Hill, Gay Men's Health Crisis chief executive

"The president has shown leadership, and for that we commend him. Now, his leadership must continue because the nation’s ability to achieve or exceed the goals articulated in this strategy will require a serious focus by appropriate branches of government and a significant increase in federal resources."

—Darrel Cummings, L.A. Gay & Lesbian Center chief of staff

Advocate.com/ July 14, 2010/Editors

SENADO REITERA ISSUE PENDIENTE "ENDA"

Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid

Senate Democrats will not address the Employment Non-Discrimination Act before their recess, according to The Hill.

In the next few weeks Democrats will focus on forcing Republicans to vote on issues that primarily reflect the party differences concerning fiscal policy. Senate Democrats aim to send three bills to President Obama's desk in the next three weeks — one regulating Wall Street (which was passed Thursday), an unemployment bill, and a bill extending credit for small businesses.

The Hill reports Congress will go to recess in August and will focus primarily on the November elections. Democrats worry if they appear ineffective before the summer recess, they could lose majorities in both the House and Senate.

Advocate.com/July 15,2010/Marche Grair

CRÍMEN DE ODIO: "BACK STORY"

CASO SUCUZHANAY: 2 CRÍMENES DE ODIO

Un mensaje social pero en la segunda ronda del caso…

Yesterday, a New York State Supreme Court jury convicted Keith Phoenix of committing two hate crimes for beating José Sucuzhanay to death and attacking the decedent’s brother, Romel, in Brooklyn’s Bushwick neighborhood after mistaking the Ecuadorian immigrants as a gay couple.

A mistrial was previously declared on May 11th when one juror held out for a lesser charge of manslaughter while the other 11 jurors believed that second-degree murder should be applied. Unlike the second jury, the first jury did not believe Phoenix’s acts were bias-motivated.

After hearing the verdict, Diego Sucuzhanay, another of José’s brothers, stated that “this verdict sent the right message.” HRC applauds the jury for holding Phoenix accountable for the horrendous bias-motivated crimes he committed against José and Romel.

HRC-Backstory/June 29,2010/Ty Cobb &Partial Contribution by Jeffrey Sallot, Law Fellow.

MIRANDO DE CERCA EL EVENTO ARGENTINO

Argentina de hoy a la vanguardia gay: escribe su nombre en el mapa en mayúsculas

Gay rights activists celebrate Argentine vote for same-sex marriage

Argentina has become the first Latin American country to legalize same-sex marriage. The Senate approved the new law early Thursday after more than 16 hours of debate.

It was 4:05 a.m. and frigid outside the Congress building in Buenos Aires as Argentine lawmakers voted Thursday to legalize same-sex marriage, but Marcelo Marquez was still there. He had waited through 14 hours of debate for the moment that would make his country the first in overwhelmingly Catholic Latin America to grant gay couples the same rights as heterosexual ones.

Gay marriage passes last vote in Argentina

"For me, it was incredible," said Marquez, 41, a philosophy teacher who now plans to marry his partner, Mariano Tissone, 37. "Everyone exploded -- screaming, dancing, hugging, some singing the national anthem."

The Senate voted 33 to 27 in favor of the bill, which the lower house had approved in May with strong backing from President Cristina Fernández de Kirchner. The vote -- which also made Argentina the second country in the Americas, after Canada, to approve marriage for gay men and lesbians -- prompted thousands of supporters to whoop in the streets and shout, "We made history!"

Among them was Marquez, who recounted a long fight for what he called equal rights. "We now have legal recognition, given by the state," he said. "We are so happy that the state did not stop our fight for equality."

Gay rights activists in the region and beyond said Argentina's action would serve as an example. Already, advocates of gay marriage in Chile and Paraguay have said they hope their lawmakers will be spurred to approve similar proposals.

Dan Hawes of the National Gay and Lesbian Task Force in Washington said the vote in Argentina also gives momentum to gay rights advocates in the United States.

"The victory in Argentina shows those of us in the U.S. who are working for the freedom to marry that with persistence, engaging the public, in making the case why same-sex couples need and deserve the right to marry, that we can continue to advance the freedom to marry," he said by phone Thursday afternoon. "Even in places where the odds are stacked against us."

In Argentina, the Catholic Church had mounted a vigorous campaign to stop the bill. Posters plastered on walls featured a man and a woman cuddling a baby and the admonition, "Kids have a right to a dad and mom." As the debate in the country's ornate, 104-year-old Congress began Wednesday, tens of thousands of people opposed to the legislation prayed and rallied outside.

They were led by Argentina's highest cleric, Cardinal Jorge Mario Bergoglio, who had warned that approving the bill amounted to an "intention to destroy God's plan."

A step for minorities

But what observers had predicted would be a tight vote in the upper house turned out to be not so close.

Sen. Gerardo Morales told other lawmakers that the bill would remedy "a situation of injustice and discrimination toward sectors of the Argentine society who really do not have the guarantee of equal rights as our constitution establishes."

Fernández de Kirchner, speaking from China where she was on a state visit, said she was "very satisfied with the vote."

"To think that 50 years ago women could not vote and that not long ago there was no interracial marriage in the United States," she said in comments carried by La Nación, a Buenos Aires newspaper. "All that has changed. We can think this has been a positive step in defending minority rights."

In Latin America, which is uniformly Catholic and where the church hierarchy is often consulted on major decisions, only Mexico's capital city has approved same-sex marriages. But gay activists have made progress: Colombia's highest court last year gave same-sex partners nearly all the rights found in common-law unions. Uruguay's Congress also recognized same-sex civil unions.

"In some northern countries, they said these advances could never happen in our region," said Marcela Sanchez of Colombia Diversa, an advocacy group on gay issues in the Colombian capital, Bogota. "But now we are seeing movement forward in a number of places."

For American gay rights advocates, the vote in Argentina puts that country of 41 million people ahead of the United States, where voters in California and other states have approved propositions blocking gay unions. Only the District and five states, four of them in New England, have legalized gay marriage.

The right place

In some ways, Argentina seemed a logical choice for the approval of gay marriage.

Though influential, the Catholic Church is not omnipresent in the country, which has long been a magnet for immigrants from around the world, including Jews, Muslims and, a century ago, anarchists who rejected the Vatican.

The Argentine capital, Buenos Aires, is also among the world's most cosmopolitan cities, with numerous bars and hotels catering to gays. The city legalized same-sex unions in 2002, though gays have faced legal obstacles to getting married and only a handful had taken vows.

Nearly 70 percent of Argentines thought it was time to legalize gay marriage, according to a recent poll by the Analogías polling firm. Analía del Franco, the firm's general director, said the country's strong human rights tradition, a product of the fight against a military dictatorship that lasted from 1976 to 1983, had helped propel the gay marriage bill.

"This is something that comes from way back," del Franco said.

washingtonpost.com/wp Foreign Service/July16,2010/Juan Forero & Special correspondent Silvina Frydlewsky in Buenos Aires contributed to this report.

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Argentina de ayer: 2009

Gay Marriage in Argentina is 1st in Latin America

TRUTH WINS OUT.ORG/December 29th, 2009/Wayne Besen

Two Argentine men were joined Monday in Latin America’s first same-sex marriage, traveling to the southernmost tip of the Americas to find a welcoming spot to wed. Argentina’s Constitution is silent on whether marriage must be between a man and a woman, effectively leaving the matter to provincial officials.

The ceremony upset the Roman Catholic Church, which had to take a break from its pedophile priest scandal to condemn the love of this happy gay couple.

“The decision took me by surprise and I’m concerned,” Bishop Juan Carlos, of the southern city Rio Gallegos, told an Argentine news agency. He called the marriage “an attack against the survival of the human species.”

I just checked my newspaper and took a walk around the block. Apparently, the human species is still alive and well. I don’t suppose, given the facts, that Gallegos will issue a “correction” for his embarrassingly idiotic statement. In my view, the church is inviting violence against this couple by claiming they will essentially destroy the world.

Same-sex civil unions have been legalized in Uruguay, Buenos Aires, Mexico City and some states in Mexico and Brazil, but marriage generally carries more exclusive rights such as adopting children, inheriting wealth and enabling a partner to gain citizenship.

Only seven countries allow gay marriages: Canada, Spain, South Africa, Sweden, Norway, the Netherlands and Belgium. U.S. states that permit same-sex marriage are Iowa, Massachusetts, Vermont, Connecticut and New Hampshire.

Earlier this month, lawmakers voted to make Mexico City the first in Latin America to legalize same-sex marriage. Leftist Mayor Marcelo Ebrard was widely expected to sign the measure into law.

Well, it appears the United States continues to fall behind other civilized nations as our Religious Right continues to drag this country down in its quest to take us back to the Dark Ages.

DESPLUME: D.A.D.T. PART II

Stephen Vossler, a former Korean interpreter for the Army and a "don't ask, don't tell" repeal activist, also testified on Wednesday. Early in his military career, Vossler, who is straight, was given a room assignment with Darren Thomas, a soldier who was in the process of being discharged under DADT. Vossler said his roommate was highly qualified in his work as a language specialist but was given menial tasks, such as cleaning latrines and filing paperwork, as punishment due to the DADT investigation.

"Homosexuality was fair game. There were rules protecting gender, rules protecting religion and race, but no rules protecting homosexuality," Vossler said. "So it was something to make fun of ad nauseam."

Wednesday court proceedings concluded with testimony from University of California, Hastings College of the Law, professor Elizabeth Hillman, a military law expert who spoke about the disproportionate amount of women discharged by the ban. Though women comprise 14% of military personnel, they account for about 34% of all discharges. Women of color are particularly vulnerable to the policy, she said.

"Women are a minority," Hillman said. "Women in male-dominated positions are more likely to face resentment and barriers put up by their male colleagues."

During cross-examination, assistant U.S. attorney Scott Simon, representing the Justice Department, asked Hillman whether the disproportionate impact on women due to "don't ask, don't tell" was a deliberate action, to which she replied, "No, I believe it was not intended by leaders of the military."

Former Air Force major Mike Almy, Palm Center director Aaron Belkin, and former petty officer 3rd class Joseph Rocha are scheduled to testify on Thursday.

Advocate.com/July15,2010/ Michelle Garcia

D.A.D.T.: DESPLUMANDOSE EN CORTE

In a second day at trial, attorneys challenging "don't ask, don't tell" relied on witness testimony by DADT experts as well as critical statements made by President Barack Obama and a seminal tweet by a top defense official in making their case against the 1993 law.

Attorney Daniel Woods, representing the plaintiffs in Log Cabin Republicans v. United States of America, cited Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Adm. Mike Mullen's testimony during a February Senate Armed Services Committee hearing on the policy, where he said, "I cannot escape being troubled by the fact that we have in place a policy which forces young men and women to lie about who they are in order to defend their fellow citizens." Woods also submitted to the court a February 2 tweet from Mullen's personal Twitter account, which read, "Allowing homosexuals to serve openly is the right thing to do. Comes down to integrity[.]"

"This is one of the greatest admissions of all time," Woods said to U.S. district court judge Virginia A. Phillips during Wednesday's proceedings.

Nathaniel Frank, a DADT scholar and author of Unfriendly Fire: How the Gay Ban Undermines the Military and Weakens America, testified for a second day about research he conducted as a senior fellow for the Palm Center, including studies on foreign militaries that had successfully integrated openly gay, lesbian, and bisexual service members.

Assistant U.S. attorney Paul Freeborne assailed Frank's testimony as that of a biased advocate whose credentials did not merit expert witness status in court. During cross-examination, Freeborne quoted Gen. Colin Powell, who during 1993 congressional testimony said that although other militaries had integrated gay troops, no other nation had military operations comparable to that of the United States. (Powell has since said that he does not believe the military should institute a law banning gays and lesbians from openly serving.)

Frank also addressed the "close quarters" argument often made by conservatives and opponents of allowing homosexuals to serve openly. Sharing close quarters with gays and lesbians is nothing new to military life, he said, pointing out that gay people have always served in the armed services.

Advocate.com/July15,2010/ Michelle Garcia