Box Turtle Bulletin

Hartline’s Revelations About a Cure

I don’t often discuss anti/ex-gay activist James Hartline. I personally believe him to deeply emotionally and mentally disturbed and for that reason am more tolerant of his irrational rants. I do, however, find those like Peter LaBarbera who take advantage of this poor man’s condition to be beneath contempt.

Yet some conservative media will trot Hartline out when they want extremist anti-gay quotes. And they conveniently avoid quoting his less conventional opinions. For example, no conservative evangelical Christian media will be quoting this rather bizarre statement:

To those involved in gay activism who persecute my ministry: Are you really as truthful as you claim with regards to wanting an end to the AIDS epidemic? Think about this:

Do you really want a cure? What if God wants to reveal the cure to one of His Christian servants? Perhaps He is going to reveal to me or one of the members of my prayer team a cure for AIDS. We pray for a cure all of the time. In fact, He may have already revealed the cure. We have just not analyzed all of the revelations that God has shown us through our prayer times.

So, the next time you think about attacking our ministry because we stand up for the Bible, you may be attacking the one that God is showing the miracle of a cure for AIDS.
We do pray for a cure and we believe that God is bringing a cure soon.

Sadly, Hartline does not see a cure for AIDS as a demonstration of God’s compassion, but solely as a reward for Hartline’s prayers. And he further believes that God is showing him great revelations that may already include such a cure. James is the central character in his universe and his god plays a secondary role.

I wish James health and happiness. I wish him peace and mental comfort. And I wish that those who irresponsibly showcase him in their anti-gay activism would repent from their exploitation.

Jenna Bush Advocates Safe Sex to Prevent HIV/AIDS

Last month, BTB contributing author Timothy Kincaid mentioned Jenna Bush’s new book based on the life of a young woman in Latin America living with AIDS. Ana’s Story: A Journey of Hope also represents a key break from official White House policy on HIV prevention:

Safe sex is encouraged through-out her new book, even though the Bush administration’s hotly contested HIV-prevention campaign was built around a staunch “abstinence only” message. “In Africa my dad’s policies are pretty much in line with mine, but not domestically,” says Bush, referring to her father’s ABC (abstain, be faithful, use a condom) policy in Africa. “But it’s a personal decision. All of us want our kids to be safe, and there’s no doubt that condoms make our kids safe. And many girls don’t have the choice—they are exploited sexually. It’s important they stay protected and protect others.”

The First Family’s rowdier twin was once known for her hard partying ways. Now it seems that she’s taking a hard look at the world around her and drawing her own conclusions — as are many others of her generation.

God’s Judgment?

Most credible religious figures have disavowed the notion that AIDS is God’s judgment against gay men. But from a television preview column out of London comes a tidbit of information of which I was unaware:

Stephen Fry: HIV and Me BBC Two, 9pm

This invaluable programme sheds light on the ignorance and prejudice that continues to surround HIV. There are now three times as many people with the virus in Britain as there were ten years ago, and heterosexual sex has overtaken homosexual sex as the most common route of transmission.

I am assuming that this is discussing HIV transmissions in the UK. We’ve long known that global HIV transmissions are predominantly via heterosexual sex.

Nonetheless, here in the States we continue to see HIV and AIDS used as an excuse to oppose equality, freedom, or even support for gay youth. While I certainly don’t hope for more HIV transmissions for anyone, heterosexuals included, I do hope for the day when a cure is found for all of those who suffer from this insidious virus be they gay, straight, American, British, or African.

Jenna Bush’s HIV Book

Jenna Bush, daughter of the President, has penned Ana’s Story, a book for youth based on the life of a young woman in Latin America. The AP reports that it is better than might be expected:

Ana has a story worth telling.

Her life has been a struggle with poverty, abuse and prejudice. Her mother and aunt were raped by their stepfather, who infected them with HIV. Ana’s mother, father and infant sister died of AIDS before she finished sixth grade. Only her other younger sister, Isabel, escaped the disease.

Ana learns to keep her illness quiet at a young age.

“Life’s not fair,” her grandmother warns her. “If you tell, you’ll be treated badly. People will call you bad, ugly names. They will be afraid of you.”

If Bush’s book allows young people to become more aware of the tragic impact this disease has on our world then it is indeed a welcome addition.

Abstinance Only Programs Not Effective for Combatting HIV

A study published in the British Medical Journal suggests that Abstinance Only programs are not effective in reducing risk to HIV.  This is, to me, a no-brainer as such programs inevitably exclude any consideration of male gay youth.  “Wait until you are married… which will be NEVER” does not seem to me to be a particularly effective approach to encouraging responsible sexuality.

However, this report appears to be addressing heterosexual HIV risks:

Compared with no program, safer sex programs, and various other control programs, the abstinence-only programs did not seem to reduce HIV risk. Specifically, abstinence-only programs did not influence the rate of unprotected vaginal sex, the number of sexual partners, condom use, or initiation of sexual activity.

However, as I’m certain the current administration is aware, Abstinance Only programs are very effective at doling out tax money to certain religious and quasi-religious institutions to advance their doctrines about sex.

PBS Frontline Examines True Cause Of Uganda’s Success In War On AIDS

Religious right groups often point to success in Uganda in fighting the AIDS epidemic claiming a religiously based abstinence-only campaign is the cause of such dramatic results. PBS’s Frontline program takes a look at the impact of American policy on Uganda’s war on AIDS. Click here to watch the entire segment.

BTB Original Video Interview With Michael Bussee, Co-Founder Of Exodus

Last September hundreds of gays and lesbians from around So Cal gathered in Palm Springs to speak out against Love Won Out. Included in those who came to Palm Springs was Michael Bussee one of the co-founders of Exodus who later left the ministry realizing it didn’t work. USC film student Esteban Rael pulled Bussee aside and shot a video interview with Michael for his upcoming masters thesis film me & god. Esteban and I have collaborated frequently on our respective projects/interests and he and Michael were both kind enough to let me publish nine clips from that interview here.

The first two videos below tell the story of what led to the founding of Exodus and Michael’s eventual shift to speaking out against exgay therapy. The remainder of the clips are on a variety of exgay issues.

The Creation of Exodus International

Two Of Exodus’ Founders Come Out As ‘Ex-Ex-Gay’

Gay Therapist On His Religious Clients’ Inner Conflict

“Exgay” Conversion Therapy For Gay Youth?

Am I Gay? Will God Change Me?

Growing Up – What The Culture Taught Me About Being Gay

Are ‘Gay’ and ‘Christian’ Incompatible?

A 12 Year Old Boy Struggles To Find Out What ‘Gay’ Means

“Exgay” Organizations Oppose Hate Crime Protections

See also:

BTB Original Video Interviews With Former Exodus Leaders

Gay Blood Still Unacceptable

In 1983 the FDA wisely decided that gay men should not donate blood to the country’s blood banks.  HIV had not been identified and no tests were available to identify its presence.

Things have changed since 1983.  Now you can take a saliva-swab test and find out your HIV status within 20 minutes.  And it is increasingly likely that gay men regularly test and are aware of their seroimmunity status.

Also, the face of HIV/AIDS has changed.  In 2005, only half of reported HIV transmissions were related to sex between men.  And currently the greatest contributing factor to HIV transmission and to knowledge of HIV status is race.

Taking these changes into consideration, those responsible for our blood supply called gay ban “medically and scientifically unwarranted” and requested that the FDA rethink their requirements.

In March 2006, the Red Cross, the international blood association AABB and America’s Blood Centers proposed replacing the lifetime ban with a one-year deferral following male-to-male sexual contact. New and improved tests, which can detect HIV-positive donors within just 10 to 21 days of infection, make the lifetime ban unnecessary, the blood groups told the FDA.

The FDA said “no” because “men who have sex with other men have the highest risk of transfusion-tramsmitted diseases like HIV and hepatitis.”

I would like to believe that decisions made in Federal agencies are based on fact and science rather than because of appointments predicated on ideology and political loyalties and alliances. I would like to think that this decision was made because the FDA put principle and protection first and not the religious-based agenda of the administration’s partisan allies.

To answer that question, Fox News asked Dr. Louis Katz, a past president of America’s Blood Centers:

Given what the medical community knows today, do you think the FDA is being overly cautious in upholding its 1983 ban on gay men?

“I support a less stringent deferral,” Katz said. “I think deferring blood donation to six months or one year after male-to-male sexual contact is reasonable and would not have a negative impact on the current safety of our blood supply. I understand their thought process. But the other issue is fairness. Not all men who have sex with men are at high risk for HIV. I’m not violently angry about it, but I think they could have dealt with the concern a little differently.”

Dr. Katz is more generous than I.  He can see faulty thinking, while I see policy that eliminates healthy blood contributions during a time when the need is increasing.  And while I too am not violently angry, I am fully disgusted at the politicians who place their biases, stereotypes, religious alliances, and personal loyalties over what is best for our nation.

A Cure for AIDS?

It may be possible that in some select group of patients the HIV virus may be eliminated entirely.  Or at least that is the hope of scientists, including Anthony Fauci, director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases.

AIDS may be cured in a select group of patients who now have extremely low levels of virus in their bodies by aggressively dosing them for a year with new HIV drugs from Roche Holding AG and Merck & Co., according to the top U.S. infectious disease scientist.

For those who are religious, please keep these efforts in your prayers.  Perhaps it is fitting that this announcement of hope comes on the same day as the death of a man who once called AIDS “the wrath of a just God against homosexuals”.

The Prostitute and the Pharisees

Note: This post began as a comment I left on Warren Throckmorton’s web site.

Rev. Karen Booth, Executive Director of Transforming Congregations, an Exodus-affiliated ex-gay ministry based in Delaware, left this comment more than a week ago describing her ministry:

My “organization” is not politically involved, so we don’t have the goal of squelching equal rights. In fact, we’re also connected to the United Methodist Church, which takes a strong stand on the rights of the LGBT community.

But then, last Friday Rev. Booth left a comment in a free-wheeling thread on Warren Throckmorton’s web site that led me to look around a little. That’s when I found this on Transforming Congregations’ web site:

TED HAGGARD MASSAGE TABLE ON EBAY

I recently discovered that Mike Jones, the gay prostitute that “outed” Rev. Ted Haggard, is selling his massage table on eBay… Even though Jones claims the proceeds will go to an AIDS charity, this act is reprehensible.

It is very difficult to register a complaint with eBay, and almost impossible to do so through their website… I have sent a message (which follows at the end of this report) that can be used as a model for you to fax eBay with your concerns…

So if Rev. Booth’s ministry is not political, why is she encouraging her supporters to engage in a political act? What exactly does interfering with a charity auction have to do with “equipping the local church” to “meet the needs of confused, trapped and hurting people”?

Later in that same thread on Warren’s site, she returned to taunt everyone there:

BTW – Mike Jones eBay auction was cancelled by eBay. I’m really glad, and hope they got a ton of complaints. Interesting that I didn’t see any criticism of Mike’s action (who was also on the Montel show) in this thread. But then, it’s so much easier to just keep bashing Alan [Chambers].

I spent the rest of the weekend wondering why nobody — myself included — rushed to Mike Jones’ defense. And I guess we all know why, really. He’s a former prostitute.

Sure, it’s salacious and in poor taste for Mike Jones to put his massage table up on eBay for charity. The proceeds of the auction were to go to Project Angel Heart, which “promotes the health, dignity and self-sufficiency of people living with HIV/AIDS, cancer and other life-threatening illnesses by providing nutritious, home-delivered meals with care and compassion.”

Yes, putting the “Ted Haggard massage table” on eBay is in extremely poor taste. Also in poor taste? How about the Sisters of Perpetual Indulgence, who organized some of the first safe-sex messages when official health departments were afraid to touch the subject? They also raised money for home AIDS care, food and housing when nobody else would.

And don’t forget all those leather daddies, also in extremely poor taste and a terrible influence, many of them. They also have a reputation for being among the most generous donors of time, money and talent towards AIDS care at the height of the crisis.

And we cannot forget the Dykes on Bikes, who cleaned apartments, cooked meals and walked the dogs. You get my drift…

Now don’t get me wrong. The Sisters of Perpetual Indulgence deeply offend my Catholic sensibilities. Leather daddies are not my scene — in fact, I find all public displays of sexual fetishes offensive. As for the Dykes on Bikes, I have nothing against them — they just scare the bejeezus out of me.

But Sunday evening, Chris and I had several friends over for dinner, including two gentlemen who had lived in New York City during the early ’80’s, just as the AIDS epidemic was getting started. They reminded us of the abject fear they felt of not knowing what was happening, the feeling that nobody anywhere in the country cared about what was going on, and of course, of attending memorials two or three times a week. Alan said, “it was simply exhausting.”

And I can tell you right now that if you had been in my home Sunday evening, you would have heard nothing but gratitude for everyone — no matter who they were or where they came from — who worked hard and tried to make a difference. You would have heard words of immense gratitude for the Sisters, the Dykes, the daddies, the drag queens — every blessed one of them. They were among the more prominent groups who were key to establishing and funding many of the AIDS service organizations that exist today, organizations which continue to do the hard work that nobody else is interested in. They all did this because nobody else would.

And where was the church during all that? Well, I think we don’t really have re-hash all of that, do we? Everyone knows the answer. Ex-gay author and counselor Joe Dallas gave a powerful, emotional talk at Love Won Out on the church’s shameful failure. He listed the church’s sins of omission as well as its sins of commission. And he concluded that portion of his talk in a thunderous voice, “And they [they gay community] will never forget it!” By the tone of his voice and the look in his eye, he left unspoken the words “… and who can blame them?” He left that part unspoken, but I think everyone there understood it that way anyway.

Rev. Booth, if you really want to know why many in the gay community are not willing to condemn Mike Jones or any of the other “salacious” groups, it’s because when the chips are down, there are still today — twenty-five years later — only two responses: thunderous condemnations or silence on the one hand, or rolling up your sleeves and getting to work on the other.

So today, we have Mike Jones, a prostitute. I’m not going to defend his profession. Not by a long shot. But the folks at New Life Church made the brave decision to embrace him and forgive him. No, not forgive him, thank him for revealing what Ted Haggard was doing.

And if he wants to raise money for a worthwhile AIDS charity, nobody’s going to hear any protest out of me. I’d rather follow Christ’s example and choose the prostitutes over the Pharisees any day.

Update: Rev. Booth responds in the comments. I reply to Rev. Booth at Ex-Gay Watch.

Update: The auction is back up and Rev. Booth has a partial change of heart.

AIDS, Fifty Years Later

That’s right. Fifty years — and that estimate is on the low end. And here you thought AIDS was “only” twenty-five years old.

In 1986, Dr. A.J. Nahmias, writing in the journal Lancet, reported on testing that had been done on blood samples taken during a 1959 malaria study in Kinshasa, in what was then the Belgian Congo. When those preserved samples were tested in 1986, one sample tested positive for the HIV virus. Other stored blood samples from Central Africans taken in 1960’s and 1970’s tested positive as well. According to one expert:

If the prevalence detected in those collections is at all representative, several hundred or several thousand HIV infections may already have existed in Kinshasa in 1959 and 1970, several tens of thousands by 1980, and tens or hundreds of HIV infections in (the Zairian province of) Equateur by 1976…

Doctors in Europe were baffled by a mysterious disease that they were seeing in wealthy Africans who were going to Paris and Brussels for treatment in the late 1970’s. This new disease was similar to diseases that some European doctors were themselves suffering and dying from — doctors who had served several years meeting the medical needs of poor villagers in the Congo River basin under primitive conditions in the 1970’s. This new disease was also similar to one that suddenly started appearing among Haitians, after thousands had returned to that island after working for several years in civil service jobs in the newly independent country of Zaire. And later, this strange new disease was similar to diseases that were striking otherwise healthy gay men in New York, San Francisco, Los Angeles and Miami.

It was easy for AIDS to go unrecognized in Africa amid impoverished conditions, poor nutrition and hygiene, and social upheaval. But we now know that AIDS began spreading through Africa some fifty years ago. (Some believe it may have started in the human population in the 1930’s.) But it wasn’t until gay men in America started dying of the disease that the world took notice, and the world noticed it as a “gay plague”.

Today is World AIDS Day. AIDS is likely more than fifty years old, but the stigma surrounding it dates to June 5, 1981, when the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention issued its first report on the syndrome. Today, we remember those millions who died here in America and around the world. And just as importantly, we honor those who survived and cared for the dying and the living.

The word “family” has a very strong resonance in the gay community — in a way that few outside of the community know about. When someone wants to ask whether someone is gay or not, the question most often asked is “Is he family?” That’s not a rhetorical question; “Family” is an honorific that the gay community has earned through twenty-five years of hard work and determination. As those with AIDS were cast out of their own homes and natural families, they turned to those who stepped in and filled the rightful role of family in their lives. The gay community has reinvented the family, not in imitation of what others think a family should look like, but in response to the life-and-death need for all of us to be “our brother’s keeper.” AIDS, more than anything, awakened a realization in the gay communities that nothing is more important than family. And today’s drive for gay marriage was born from this realization of how very essential family is to each and every one of us.

In Opportunistic Infections, I discuss how the stigma of AIDS has shaped the gay communities in America, and how the gay communities have risen to meet the challenge when no one else would. AIDS was the conflagration that forged a new sense of community and determination that never again will we be marginalized in such a cruel and heartless fashion. And never again will we be denied the simple dignity that is due to everyone who is born a child of God.

The “Root Cause” of AIDS

Focus on the Family, in an October 19th online CitizenLink article, joins the chorus in denouncing U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice’s remarks at the swearing-in ceremony for Mark Dybul as deputy global AIDS coordinator. Ambassador Dybul, who is openly gay, was joined by his partner Jason Claire, who held the Bible as Secretary Rice administered the oath of office and first lady Laura Bush looked on. Also in attendance was Claire’s mother, who Secretary Rice referred to as Dybul’s mother-in-law.

According to the Focus on the Family report, Secretary Rice’s chief of staff tried to backpeddle a bit, but Focus wasn’t having any of it:

Tom Minnery, senior vice president of government and public policy for Focus on Family, called Rice’s comments “astonishing.”

“This is very provocative,” he said, “and very disappointing.”

In response to inquiries from Focus, Minnery heard from the State Department on Wednesday.

“Secretary Rice’s chief of staff called to say it was a mix-up,” he said. “That somebody should have checked this mother-in-law business, didn’t do it, and it got out.”

Perhaps, but such nuances are Rice’s stock in trade. Besides, she was standing right next to Dybul’s partner as he held the Bible for the swearing-in.

Peter Sprigg, vice president for policy at the Family Research Council, claimed this was evidence that “they’re really rather apathetic about the efforts to defend traditional marriage.” He also went on to cite a “conflict of interest” in having a gay man lead HIV/AIDS prevention efforts:

“If we are not willing to say that men should not engage in sex with other men,” Sprigg noted, “then we are really not willing to tackle the root causes of the AIDS problem.”

Sprigg added it’s unlikely a gay man can effectively articulate that point — if it’s still the point the administration wants to make

Clearly Peter Sprigg needs to be much more educated on the issue. Gay men are quite capable of articulating how to prevent AIDS. What other explaination is there for the dramatic drop in AIDS cases since the mid-1990’s? Since then, new AIDS cases fell by more than 60% in New York and Los Angeles while in San Francisco — that ever famous gay mecca — that drop was more than 80%.

But when it comes to “root causes of the AIDS problem,” it’s not men having sex with men. It’s people of all sexual orientations engaging in unsafe sexual practices. AIDS began as a heterosexually transmitted disease which was quietly killing generations in the Congo River basin of central Africa since the late 1950’s, long before the deaths of five gay men in Los Angeles grabbed the medical community’s attention twenty-five years ago. (You can read more about it in our report Opportunistic Infections.)

Demagoguery surrounding HIV/AIDS has been a persistent obstacle in dealing with AIDS, both here and around the world. Words like these continue to shore up the stigma associated with HIV/AIDS. And as long as that stigma continues, real answers to the problem will continue to remain elusive.

The Judgment of Future Historians

Stall, Ronald D.; Mills, Thomas C. Editorial: “A Quarter Century of AIDS.” American Journal of Public Health 96, no. 6 (June 2006): 959-961.

This month’s edition of the American Journal of Public Health is dedicated to the twenty-fifth anniversary of the CDC’s first report of AIDS. In one of the lead editorials, Drs. Ronald Stall and Thomas Mills provide a brisk overview of the public response to the epidemic, and emphasize the special difficulties that come with combating a heavily stigmatized disease.

“A Disease of Denial”

Noting that AIDS struck first and the hardest at the most marginalized groups in society — gay men, drug users, foreigners, racial minorities and others of lower socioeconomic status — AIDS has been a disease of denial at the individual, group and national level. When the disease is seen as affecting “those people” it’s easier to deny some of the realities of what it actually takes to combat the epidemic:

Because so many controversial issues directly shape the AIDS epidemic, governments will continue to be tempted to respond by funding unproven programs that convey the impression of restoring traditional cultural values rather than fielding scientifically proven prevention approaches that directly target issues of sexual safety or drug use.

Citing six major meta-analysis studies, the authors contend that we have definitive proof that AIDS prevention programs which directly target safe sexual practices and drug use yield significantly positive results. The difficulty is in finding ways to put these programs into practice given the cultural and political climate today.

“How Will History Judge Our Actions?”

The twenty-fifth anniversary of the first report of AIDS offers an important moment to reflect on our response to this epidemic. Drs. Stall and Mills contend that because future historians will know that we weren’t ignorant of the dangers of the disease or how it is transmitted, “we cannot escape responsibility for our failure to use effective, scientifically proven strategies to control the AIDS epidemic.”

They will probably be impressed with the rapid progress made in scientific understandings of the pathogenesis and treatment of AIDS, yet appalled by the instances when the ancient curses of racism and homophobia prevented us from fully responding to AIDS epidemics unfolding in our midst, as is the case now with African American MSM [men who have sex with men].

…They will also likely regard as tragic those instances when we allowed scarce resources to be used to support ideologically driven “prevention” that only served a particular political agenda.

My Thoughts

We can avoid the harsh judgment of future historians, but that’s probably poor motivation for implementing the programs that we know will be effective in preventing the spread of AIDS. Instead, we should be motivated because we see those who are vulnerable as our neighbors, not as “those people.” Until we recognize the humanity of all those who are vulnerable and at risk, prevention measures will continue to be driven by ideology and not science — or compassion.

You can further explore the role that anti-gay prejudice has played in the AIDS epidemic in our special report Opportunistic Infections.

The Age of AIDS, The Age of Family

AIDS is twenty-five years old today.

It was on June 5, 1981 that the CDC first reported a puzzling new disease that we would come to know as AIDS. The intervening twenty-five years has been searing experience for the gay community. Discovering that one had AIDS was to receive an automatic death sentence, and over those twenty-five years an estimated half a million Americans died in the worst epidemic of modern times.

As deadly as AIDS was before the advent of Highly Active Anti-Retroviral Therapy (HAART), the Age of AIDS was not the Age of Death. Instead, it is the age of struggle and determination, of coming together and caring for one another, and ultimately of triumph. Today, modern medicine means that for most people, AIDS is not the automatic death sentence it once was. With HAART, most of the estimated one million Americans who harbor the HIV virus live normal lives. But HAART is not a cure. For that, there is still more struggle and determination to go.

But more than anything else, the Age of AIDS is the Age of Family. “Family” has a very strong resonance in the gay community — in a way that few outside of the community know about. When someone wants to ask whether someone is gay or not, the question most often asked is “Is she family?”

That’s not a mere euphemism. “Family” is an honorific that the gay community has earned through twenty-five years of hard work and determination. As those with AIDS were cast out of their own homes and natural families, they turned to those who stepped in and filled the rightful role of family in their lives. The gay community has reinvented the family, not in imitation of what others think a family should look like, but in response to the life-and-death need for all of us to be “our brother’s keeper.”

Jonathan Rauch, writing in Sunday’s New York Times, offers this very experience to explain why marriage is so important to the gay community:

But there was also an epidemic of care giving. Lovers, friends and AIDS “buddies” were spooning food, emptying bedpans, holding wracked bodies through the night. They were assuming the burdens of marriage at its hardest. They were also showing that no relative, government program or charity is as dependable or consoling as a dedicated partner.

Yet gay partners were strangers to each other in the law’s eyes. They were ineligible for spousal health insurance that they desperately needed; they were often barred from hospital rooms, locked out of homes they had shared for years, even shut out of the country if they were foreign citizens. Their love went unmentioned at funerals; their bequests were challenged and ignored. Heterosexual couples solved all those problems with a $30 marriage license. Gay couples couldn’t solve them at any price.

The Age of AIDS has awakened a sense of family for all of us, and with that the determination to protect our family with all the power we can muster.

This twenty-fifth anniversary is a day for remembering those who have died. It is also a day for celebrating those who have survived. And it is a day to remember that the struggle isn’t over. AIDS entered our consciousness twenty-five years ago, and so did the stigma that went along with it. You can read about the role this stigma has played in this epidemic in our latest report, Opportunistic Infections.

A Strange Way To Commemorate An Anniversary

Monday, June 5^th will be the 25^th anniversary of the first CDC Report of what would later become known as AIDS. Since then, it is estimated that some half a million Americans died of AIDS. Today, more than 415,000 people in the U.S. are living with AIDS, and according to some estimates more than a million are HIV-positive.

PBS’s Frontline aired a very informative two-part documentary Tuesday and Wednesday of this week entitled “The Age of AIDS.”

In an act with impeccable timing, President George W. Bush will commemorate the anniversary on Monday with a quiet ceremony in which he will announce his support for the proposed constitutional amendment to prohibit gay couples from marrying.