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People with HIV who need a kidney or liver transplant will be able to receive an organ from a donor with HIV under a new rule announced Tuesday by U.S. health officials. Previously, such transplants could be done only as part of research studies. The new rule, which takes effect Wednesday, is expected to shorten the wait for organs for all, regardless of HIV status, by increasing the pool of available organs. 'This rule removes unnecessary barriers to kidney and liver transplants, expanding the organ donor pool and improving outcomes for transplant recipients with HIV,' said U.S. Health and Human...

A Republican lawmaker is working to repeal several Ohio laws that criminalize HIV, arguing that they are “outdated” and “do not reflect our current understanding of HIV,” according to NBC News. State Representative Sara Carruthers (R–Hamilton) introduced House Bill 498 to repeal a state law that penalizes people with HIV who try to donate or sell blood. She also introduced House Bill 513 to repeal an additional five laws that have resulted in more than 200 HIV-related criminal prosecutions. From 2014 to 2020, at least 214 Ohioans were charged under these laws, which can result in a second-degree felony conviction,...

On May 10, the Canadian Blood Services (CBS) issued an apology to 2SLGBTQIA+ communities for the role its former donor eligibility policy played in contributing to “discrimination, homophobia, transphobia, and HIV stigma within society.” From 1998 until 2013, CBS had a lifetime blood donation ban for any man who had sex with another man, even once. This ban then became a deferral period of five years, then 12 months, and finally, three months. Under their most recent screening policies updated in late 2022, both CBS and Héma-Québec ask every potential donor if they have had anal sex with a new...

In 2020, a gay Thai man living with HIV sparked controversy with a Facebook post. He was on antiretroviral therapy and had gotten lab tests to check the level of virus in his blood. Since his viral load was undetectable, he wrote, he was going to stop using condoms. The public responded with a mix of contempt and disbelief. How could he? So selfish! So reckless! The resulting debate spilled from social media onto national radio and TV. “There was a huge backlash,” remembered Dr Nittaya Phanuphak, the Executive Director of the Institute of HIV Research and Innovation (IHRI). She...

Gay bathhouses in San Francisco could see a revival under new legislation spearheaded by District 8 Supervisor Rafael Mandelman. Mandelman, whose district includes the Castro neighborhood, is looking to repeal a section of the police code that puts the burden on the police department for permitting new gay bathhouses.

Friday, September 27, marks National Gay Men’s HIV/AIDS Awareness Day (#NGMHAAD) 2024. The awareness day was founded in 2008 by the now-defunct National Association for People with AIDS as a way to focus attention on the unique challenges of gay and bisexual men affected by HIV. Although the annual rates of new HIV diagnoses among this population are decreasing, gay and bisexual men still account for most new cases, and African-American and Latino men are disproportionately affected.

September 13, 2024: Is HIV stigma finally decreasing in the United States? More Americans believe so, found the 2024 State of HIV Stigma report. “For the first time in five years, [the report] found a statistically significant decline of HIV stigma in the U.S., with 85% of Americans saying they believe HIV stigma exists, down from 89% in 2020,” according to a press release from LGBTQ media advocacy group GLAAD, which spearheaded the annual report in partnership with pharma giant Gilead Sciences’ Gilead COMPASS Initiative. Troublingly, though, is the finding that fewer people believe everyone should get tested for HIV...

Heralding an End to Indonesia’s War of Occupation Kim Peart17.12.11 4:45 amOne day an Australian Prime Minister may find the courage and resolve to fly to Washington and address the Congress and the President and inform them that we no longer agree with their policy on West Papua, that they are plain wrong to facilitate and support the ongoing Indonesian colonial occupation of western New Guinea, that the Papuan people of this territory deserve to be granted the free and fair vote that was stolen from them in the fraudulent plebiscite held in July 1969. Source

Americans living with HIV who maintain an undetectable viral load can no longer be barred from enlisting in the U.S. Armed Services, a federal judge ruled this week, striking down the last remaining policy limiting enlistment for those with HIV. The ruling came in Wilkins v. Austin, which was filed against the Department of Defense November 2022 by the LGBTQ advocacy group Lambda Legal; Peter Perkowski, Esq.; Scott A. Schoettes, Esq.; and Winston & Strawn LLP.

An Italian man has simultaneously tested positive for monkeypox, HIV and COVID-19 after returning home from a holiday, according to a paper published in the Journal of Infection. The 36-year-old reported having intercourse with men without a condom during a five-day Spanish holiday from June 16 to 20. Nine days after his trip, he developed a fever, sore throat, fatigue and headache before testing positive for COVID-19 on July 2.

Right-wing critics have called Dr. Demetre Daskalakis, the White House national monkeypox response deputy coordinator, a "Satanist" for having the pentagram tattoo on his chest. Some conservative commentators expressed their opinions about Daskalakis, who is openly gay, and criticized President Joe Biden for deciding in August to appoint him to the position. "Meet Demetre Daskalakis. Demetre was just appointed by Joe Biden to be the official White House National Monkeypox Response Deputy Coordinator. Demetre proudly wears the official symbol of the Church of Satan: The Pentagram. Joe Biden appointed a Satanist to the White House," Newsmax host Benny Johnson tweeted...

To combat HIV transmission and improve access to care in Georgia, telemedicine provider MISTR has partnered with Walmart to offer free at-home HIV testing kits in seven Walmart stores, according to a MISTR news release. In 2022, the South accounted for 49% of new HIV cases in the United States, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). Georgia has some of the worst HIV rates in the nation. By the end of 2022, there were 63,984 people living with HIV in Georgia, with 2,575 new diagnoses. In 2021, the Atlanta metro area had the third highest rate...

Gay men get HIV at higher rates than any other group in the United States, and there are many reasons for this. Biological factors dramatically increase a gay man's vulnerability to infection. Social, cultural, and economic factors—such as stigma, racism, homophobia, and high rates of poverty—further compound the risk. Regardless of the causes, securing access to testing, prevention, and PrEP to lower HIV transmission in this high-risk group remains a pressing issue. There are numerous free or low-cost confidential testing and treatment sites offered by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services via their online testing locator.

Monkeypox is back, only this time it has a new variant that kills 10% of the people who get it. Currently, the disease is still in Africa, but that can change. For that reason, it’s time (again) that we talk about the problem of promiscuity among gay men, since they were monkeypox’s primary vector in 2022. One of the biggest topics in the 1980s was AIDS, a sexually transmitted disease killing gay men. It got them because of their lifestyle choices. Back in 1981, while I was in college, I worked as a secretary for two virologists who were on...

Eighteen people living with HIV in Indiana were arrested between 2001 and 2019 for donating plasma, though, thanks to effective screening methods, none of them posed a risk of transmitting the virus, found a new report by the Williams Institute. The Williams Institute is a research center focusing on law and public policy as they pertain to sexual orientation and gender identity; it is part of the University of California, Los Angeles School of Law. HIV criminalization refers to the use of unfair laws to target people with HIV—notably African-American, Latinos, LGBTQ people, and women—and punish them because of their...

It’s been six months since three Kansas City Chiefs fans were found dead in a friend’s backyard after gathering to watch their favorite football team play, but the victims’ families are apparently no closer to getting answers about the tragic incident. This week “the families of those three dead men have few answers, and they say their questions are being ignored,” local news outlet WDAF-TV reported. The frozen bodies of David Harrington, 37, Ricky Johnson, 38, and Clayton McGeeney, 36, were found Jan. 9 in the backyard of a home rented by their friend Jordan Willis. They had gathered at...

A federal appeals court on Friday found unconstitutional a key component of the Affordable Care Act that grants a health task force the effective authority to require that insurers both cover an array of preventive health interventions and screenings and refrain from imposing out-of-pocket costs for them. The lawsuit centered on the objections of a coalition of small businesses in Texas to the requirement that they cover a drug for HIV prevention, known as PrEP, in their employee health plans. The appeals court did not, however, overturn the related ACA pillar; the practical, immediate impacts of its ruling apply narrowly...

With a goal of reducing and tracking the stigmas that act as a barrier to HIV prevention, treatment and care—as well as a hindrance to better overall health outcomes—AIDSVu recently added a new online feature, the JHU Stigma Dashboard that offers visualized stigma-related data. Currently, the dashboard tracks sexual behavior stigma in Georgia, New York and Maryland. Specifically, it includes data on men who have sex with men in those states. Additional data and geographic areas will be added to the dashboard in future phases.

After letters to my senators and an American Thinker article, Why is the FDA Contaminating America’s Blood Supply? it is the United Kingdom that finally comes clean: Britain’s ‘day of shame’ as full scale of infected blood scandal revealed‘The result of this inquiry should shake our nation to its core. This should have been avoided. It was known these treatments were contaminated; warnings were ignored repeatedly. ‘Time and again people in positions of power and trust had the chance to stop the transmission of those infections. Time and again they failed to do so.’ Patients “died or suffered miserably” as...

VIDEOEvil Dr. Anthony Fauci was the villain of "Dallas Buyers Club" yet for some bizarre reason the star of that movie, Matthew McConaughey, years later sucked up to Fauci with an incredibly softball interview about COVID in August, 2020. McConaughey likes to portray himself as a politically independent thinker yet he carefully followed the liberal narrative while questioning Fauci. Keep in mind that it was Fauci's drug policies that McConaughey's screen character was angry about. Oh, and please don't tell me that the villain of the "Dallas Buyers Club" was not Fauci because the McConaughey character was railing against the...