Category Archives: Activism

New York Times: Expanding HIV Treatment Necessary And Overdue

by D Gregory Smith

This hasn’t taken that long.

I’m blaming Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama.

The news that HIV treatment is prevention has taken a remarkably short time to hit the mainstream media, and it’s due to Secretary Clinton’s address to the NIH last month, and the President of The United States.

The NYT:

President Barack Obama announces a new compreh...

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Important new findings show that very early treatment of people infected with H.I.V. enhances their health and greatly lessens the likelihood that they will spread the virus that causes AIDS. We welcome the Obama administration’s announcement of a farsighted effort to treat millions more infected people abroad, especially in sub-Saharan Africa.

The administration expects that the expanded treatments can be paid for with existing resources, by pushing for greater efficiencies and more financing from recipient nations. But if that effort stalls, the administration should re-evaluate quickly whether to ask Congress for money.

… Mr. Obama also announced that he would commit an additional $50 million in this country in fiscal year 2012 to help pay for treatments at AIDS clinics and in-state programs that provide AIDS drugs to people who can’t afford them. The money may be drawn from $1 billion available through the health care reform law.

Working to get these changes made legislatively have proven impossible in a Republican-owned House and a Republican-bullied Senate- especially when it involves the health of gay and bisexual men- so policy and administrative action were required. And by beginning to make testing and immediate treatment for HIV routine, medical practices are established that will be hard to take back.

An estimated 1.2 million Americans were infected with the virus at latest count, of whom 240,000 people are unaware. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention started a campaign last week to increase testing with special emphasis on warning black gay and bisexual men, whose infection rates have been soaring, to get tested and treated.

Meanwhile, the New York City Health Department became the second (after San Francisco’s) to recommend doctors offer drug therapy immediately to every person diagnosed as infected, instead of waiting for the virus to damage their immune systems. The city has made enormous strides in testing, treating and cutting the number of new infections. Some 110,000 infected residents are under treatment; aggressive testing might find another 2,500 immediately and perhaps 500 a year thereafter.

The investments here and abroad should pay off in the long run by reducing the number of people infected and easing the severity of illnesses.

Thanks to you both.

 

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An Inspirational Man…

by D Gregory Smith

Howard Solomon, the uncle of a dear friend, has been profiled in the Portland Press Herald:

Howard Solomon was in his late 20s when he saw police cruisers screaming through Lower Manhattan and later read newspaper accounts of the groundbreaking riots that had erupted outside the Stonewall Inn in June 1969.

Solomon wasn’t at the now-famous nightclub that catered to New York City’s gay community.

“I was on a date with a female colleague,” said Solomon, now 69. “I was terribly closeted back then.”

A little more than a decade later, Solomon came out to his colleagues at Tufts University near Boston and began teaching some of the nation’s first college-level history courses that dealt openly with all aspects of sexuality.

Solomon, now retired and living in Bowdoinham, distinguished himself as a history professor at Tufts from 1971 through 2004 and as a vocal advocate for the rights of lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender people.

A gentle reminder that we stand on the shoulders of giants…

Give your Monday an inspirational start: Read the full story here.

Celebrate the Freedom to Read during Banned Books Week – Sept. 24-Oct. 1

by D Gregory Smith

From The ACLU:

HELENA, MT —Almost since Montana’s beginnings people have been trying to control what we read. Books have been targeted for being too violent, too insulting, too sexy or just plain too dangerous.

  • In 1902 Butte banned “The Story of Mary MacLane by Herself” as morally corrupt and insulting to Butte and its citizens.
  • During WWI Montana banned, and some towns even burned, German books as part of the Sedition Act.
  • Just last year, a parent challenged the use of Newberry Award-winning book “The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian” in Helena Public Schools’ curriculum. The ACLU of Montana was there, as were more than 100 supporters of intellectual freedom who successfully fought for the novel’s retention.

The ACLU takes a strong stance for the First Amendment and everyone’s right to read what they choose.

Celebrate Banned Books Week, Sept. 24-Oct. 1 by learning more about book banning, finding out what you can do to protect intellectual freedom, reading a banned book or attending a Banned Books Week event near you hosted by the ACLU or Montana or the Montana Library Association’s Intellectual Freedom Committee.

*Great Falls — Monday, Sept. 26
12:00 Noon
Montana State University – Great Falls, Heritage Hall

*Helena — Monday, Sept. 26
6:30 p.m.
Lewis and Clark County Library

*Plentywood — Monday, Sept. 26
7 p.m.
Sheridan County Library

*Butte — Tuesday, Sept. 27
12:00 Noon
Montana Tech Library

*Bozeman — Tuesday, Sept. 27
12:00 Noon
Montana State University Library, basement classroom

TAKE ACTION!

by D Gregory Smith

I spent the weekend with 30 HIV+ Gay men in the mountains outside of Helena, Montana. They ranged in age from their early twenties to their mid sixties. It was like every other gathering of gay men in many respects- with one exception: we talked a lot about our health- and our medications.

Mostly about the reliability of receiving these life-saving meds.

It creates a lot of stress for us. The meds are expensive, they have side-effects, they are sometimes mailed from pharmacies with in a day or two of our running out. It often requires us to hound our caseworkers to get what we need- every month, in some cases.

As in most cases with issues of efficiency, increased funding will help. But Congress always needs to be hounded in order to give the HIV+ the kind of funding we actually need. The kind of funding that other medically disabled get almost automatically.

We don’t even have enough money to take care of those waiting to be admitted to government programs that people already qualify for.

Thus The Waiting List for the AIDS Drug Assistance Program. It needs to end- and you can help. Click the link below the map.


SIGN THE PETITION TO END ADAP WAITING LISTS HERE   

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