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Please Take This Survey by The National LGBT Cancer Network

If you have five minutes or less, please help the National LGBT Cancer Networl.

The National LGBT Cancer Network wants to do something about the increasing prevalence of anal cancer in our community. First, we need to find out what people know about anal cancer. We are asking gay and bisexual men to complete a brief (5-minute) anonymous online survey to assess their knowledge of anal cancer. We are particularly interested in hearing from and hope that you will publicize this request through your blog, listserves, website, mailing lists. The more respondents we have, the more we learn.

In the general population, anal cancer is a rare disease, but among men who have sex with men (MSM), the incidence of anal cancer is 40% higher and increasing annually. However, the majority of gay men know little about the disease, have ever been tested for it, or even know that screening tests exist. Health care professionals, too, remain divided on how and whether to screen for it. In fact, a standardized screening protocol for anal cancer does not yet exist.

To participate, click here.

THANK YOU. To learn more about cancer in the LGBT community and the work of the National LGBT Cancer Network, please visit our website, www.cancer-network.org.

The survey is not an advertisement and Rod 2.0 makes no money from this. Please consider taking part and participating. It only takes a few minutes of your time. I took the survey and it only took three minutes.

New Surgeon General's Only Brother Died of HIV-Related Illness

When President Barack Obama nominated Dr. Regina Benjamin for the post of Surgeon General, there was considerable reason to be impressed with the credentials. The rural Alabama doctor won a MacArthur Foundation "genius grant" last year, became the first black woman to be president of a state medical society and the first black woman and the youngest doctor elected to the American Medical Association's board, etc. etc.. But this little-reported biographical data point from Dr. Benjamin's remarks at the White House were most impressive:

Public health issues are very personal to me. My father died with diabetes and hypertension. My older brother, and only sibling, died at age 44 of HIV-related illness. My mother died of lung cancer, because as a young girl, she wanted to smoke just like her twin brother could. My Uncle Buddy, my mother's twin, who's one of the few surviving black World War II prisoners of war, is at home right now, on oxygen, struggling for each breath because of the years of smoking.

Very promising that the next Surgeon General has a personal and immediate understanding of HIV. HIV/AIDS has dramatically increased in the inner cities and the South. Black gay men are the most likely to become infected with the virus. Those numbers are unfortinately increasing.

Dr. Regina Benjamin's nomination for surgeon general requires Senate confirmation. She is almost certainly to be confirmed.

26 AIDS Activists Arrested in Capitol Hill Needle Exchange Protest

UPDATE: John Aravosis at AMERICAblog reports the "White House website pledge to support repeal of the federal ban on needle exchange appears to be gone."

Can't say you didn't see this coming. Capitol Hill Police arrest 26 HIV/AIDS who shut down the Capitol Rotunda to protest the Obama Administration's reversal on campaign promises to overturn the ban on funding needle exchange programs.

[Police] said the group entered the rotunda, located beneath the Capitol dome, and linked themselves together with a white chain at about 10 a.m. The area is usually crowded with tourists, but police restricted the traffic while they made arrests. The activists carried signs in support of funding for needle exchange, HIV/AIDS housing and programs aimed at fighting AIDS. They chanted, "Fight global AIDS now," and, "Clean needles save lives." They marched in a circle before lying down on the floor.

Omolola Adele-Oso of DC Fights Back questioned why lawmakers were bailing out financial institutions instead of devoting more dollars to AIDS programs. "HIV is not in a recession," Adele-Oso said in a written statement from the coalition about the demonstration.

As soon as two weeks after the election of President Barack Obama, Rod 2.0 reported the new Administration was backing away from campaign promises to overturn the ban. In May, the Administration reversed itself and banned federal funding for needle exchange programs in the FY 2010 budget this year.

Far from a recession, HIV/AIDS has dramatically increased in the inner cities and the South. Black gay men are the most likely to become infected with the virus. Perhaps the White House and Congress are just waiting for a "better time" and are "too busy" to fund needle exchange programs "now"?

Report: HHS Revises Caseload Data Due to HIV Travel Ban Rule

Politico publishes an interesting, behind-the-scenes report on the Obama Administration's decision to change HIV-related travel and immigration policy. The "Under the Radar" blog reports the Department of Health and Human Services "put forward and then retracted some scary-looking estimates of new HIV infections."

The new version of the proposal goes online today and Politico compares the two proposal. The revised data estimates the number of immigrants living in the U.S. with HIV after five years as 676. The original estimates the number after 20 years—a whopping 37,780 new HIV cases. "Calculating 20 years out obviously had made the cost higher, too ... over $952 million, or what critics could easily call 'nearly $1 billion.' "

Good thinking on the Administration's part, especially with the "health care" reform on the menu. Last thing we need are conservatives attempting to derail repealing the HIV travel ban because it would be "too expensive."

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Naked Man on US Airways Flight Forces Pilot to Make Detour

In this morning's "wtf were they thinking?" news: A "mentally disturbed" New York City man strips naked, attempts to take a nap, and fights with the crew on a Los Angeles-bound US Airways jetliner.

The outburst with 50-year-old Keith Wright happened on US Airways Flight 705, which was heading from Charlotte to LA. A flight attendant asked Wright, a Navy vet, to put his clothes back on. "She covered him with a blanket and he took that off" before Wright "punched and kicked the flight attendant", the LA Times reports. Wright was subdued by the passenger who took this picture and an off-duty Los Angeles police officer onboard. The jetliner and its 148 passengers was diverted to Albuquerque, where FBI agents were waiting to arrest the unruly streaker.

Money quote: "Obviously he was not taking his medication," says younger brother Richard Wright.

LA Sheriff to Expand Condom Distribution to Gay Prisoners

At the same time many states and municipalities are reluctant to distribute condoms in prisons, Los Angeles County Sheriff Lee Baca may expand an eight-year-old program at Men's Central Jail that distributes condoms in a unit for gay men, the Los Angeles Times reports.

"The nonprofit Center for Health Justice has been visiting the jail almost weekly since 2001, when Baca approved a small but groundbreaking program that allowed the health group to pass out prophylactics to inmates in a segregated unit for gay men. [The Center] has distributed more than 43,655 condoms to inmates since the project began, but said that is not nearly enough. ... The sheriff is pondering whether to expand it by doubling the number of condoms distributed to the 300 inmates within the segregated unit. It would be one of the most aggressive measures in the nation's jails and prisons to curb the spread of HIV/AIDS, experts say."

LA County Sheriff officials say about 65 new HIV cases are detected each month.  On average "there are about 1,400 people in L.A. County jails with HIV each year" and the health cost is about $2 million per year.

Currently, only several jails in the United States—including some in San Francisco, New York City, Philadelphia and Washington, D.C.—offer condoms to inmates. Condoms are also available to prisoners in Vermont. Rep. Maxine Waters (D-CA) has sponsored legislation that would require condoms in federal prisons.

Obama Administration to Lift HIV Travel Restrictions

You are looking at a global map that details countries that impose HIV travel and residence restrictions. (Expands when you click.) The United State is one of many nations colored "red" that impose restrictions against HIV-positive foreign nationals from entering the country. The Obama Administration has taken the first steps in lifting the regulatory ban that was signed into law last summer by George W. Bush.

The Office of Management and Budget posted a notice on its site Friday afternoon indicating that the department of Health and Human Services could move forward with steps to change a regulation that has restricted HIV-positive people from gaining entrance into the United States.

The proposed change will likely have an impact on both travel and immigration to the United States. Under current regulations, non-U.S. citizens who are HIV-positive cannot travel to the United States unless they are granted a waiver by the Department of Homeland Security. Immigrants have also been required to be tested for HIV. The actual regulatory change, however, will not be available until next week, and advocates are waiting to analyze the exact language.

The new regulations will be published in the federal register tomorrow and must undergo several review periods. "We’re hoping it will take effect by the end of the year," says Steve Ralls, communications director for Immigration Equality.

The HIV travel ban is a mean-spirited relic of the Jesse Helms era. It was approved in 1987 and codified by Congress in 1993. Good bye and good riddance ... and kudos to the Obama Administration for taking the first steps to lift the ban.

UPDATE: Duh. Didn't post the map earlier.

UPDATE2: HRC Backstory reports the new regs will be published in the Federal Register tomorrow "which will signal the start of the public comment period."

Family: Jackson OD'd on Demerol, Narcotic Similar to Morphine

Autopsy results are could take weeks in the death of Michael Jackson, the iconic entertainer who suddenly and mysteriously died yesterday of cardiac arrest. An attorney close to the Jackson says family members were concerned for years that he was "over-medicated." TMZ reports the drug in question is Demerol, a highly addictive synthetic narcotic similar to morphine.

TMZ quotes family members who say Jackson "received a daily injection" of Demerol and yesterday's dosage at 11:30 AM was "too much." MJ's problem was reportedly so severe that father Joe Jackson recently "wanted to put Michael in a rehab facility for what he considered an 'addiction' to morphine and prescription drugs."  Family members are quoted as saying Michael Jackson was "unable to perform" his upcoming concerts because of his drug use.

Reuters moved a similar report last night.

TMZ also reports Jackson had a live-in doctor to write prescriptions and give injections. The doctor, who allegedly gave MJ his last injection of Demerol, is nowhere to be found and police are searching for him.

Despite Criticism, CVS Continues to Lock Up Condoms in Black and Hispanic Neighborhoods

An update on a story we reported in March. CVS locations in Washington D.C. have been accused of limiting access to condoms and locking them up in black and Hispanic neighborhoods. The practice is apparently nationwide, reports POZ.

Change to Win, a coalition of labor unions, believes that CVS’s practice of locking up condoms at certain stores—commonly in communities of color—creates a barrier to access for young people who are less likely to ask a store associate for them. The group asserts that CVS’s anti-theft policy puts those communities at risk for unwanted pregnancy and sexually transmitted infections, including HIV.

By surveying more than 2,200 CVS drug stores nationwide, the labor group found that, in nine of the 19 markets where prophylactics are kept under lock and key, the company was at least three times more likely to lock up condoms in communities of color than in predominantly white neighborhoods.

"We do know from studies that free access to condoms cuts down on sexually transmitted infections," said Neerav Desai, MD, assistant professor of pediatrics at the Monroe Carell Jr. Children’s Hospital at Vanderbilt University in Nashville. "For someone that has any hesitation about use, this could be another reason for them not to use condoms."

CVS locations in Washington D.C. have been accused of abusing this practice. In Chicago, some black gay activists have accused several Walgreens locations of refusing to sell condoms to gay men.

CVS Criticized for Condom Lockup [POZ]

Did You Read ... ?
Obama to Repeal "Provider Conscience" Regulations [R20]

Racism and Homophobia Cloud Story of 7 Year Old Boy with Sickle Cell Raised by Two Gay Men

This morning's post on the adoption initiative for black and black gay parents leads to another story that is somewhat bittersweet: A 7-year-old black boy in rural Washington has sickle cell anemia and is badly in need of a bone-marrow transplant, the Seattle Times reports. Zyreal Oliver-Chandler is being raised by two gay men and the reception to the story has been marred by racism and homophobia.

Thomas Oliver and his partner, Jeffrey Chandler adopted Zyreal when he was only 7 months old, knowing the infant had sickle-cell anemia. Oliver and Chandler say they fell in love with Zyreal when they first saw him— a wide-eyed baby who easily fell asleep in their arms. "He had a round head just like Charlie Brown," Oliver says.

In Zyreal's room near Seabeck, he chatters happily about all the books he's read and Blueie, a stuffed elephant. "I found Blueie walking down the hall at Mary Bridge (Children's Hospital in Tacoma) looking for somebody to love him," Oliver says as Zyreal tosses Blueie into the air. Zyreal says little when asked about his many hospital stays. And his two fathers hope he'll someday be free from pain and medical procedures.

Thomas Oliver and partner Jeffrey Chandler —who are not black—have another adopted black son with special needs who is a Western Washington University student.

The comment stream at the Seattle Times is noteworthy: Several of the comments are downright homophobic (some have been removed), while many others spout proto-racist, faux scientific gene theories or just plain ole racism such as the succinct "Does the Seattle Times put black people on the cover of their paper so often because of white guilt?"  One commenter asks: "You guys need to look in the mirror and figure out how you can take this where you took this. It's just a story about a child whose parents are trying to save his life and you find fault in that?"

It's also worth noting that supporters of Washington's Referendum 71, which would rescind the state's recently passed "everything but marriage" domestic-partnership law, would intentionally harm families like the Oliver-Chandlers'. A letter to the editor at the Times asks: "What would the Rev. Ken Hutcherson, the anti-gay, black preacher, say to Zyreal about the only two parents he has known?"