www.youtube.com/watch?v=_TBd-UCwVAY

Australia’s ruling party endorses gay marriage

SYDNEY — Australia’s ruling party voted Saturday <December 3rd> to endorse same-sex marriage, a reversal of its long-standing position that has little practical effect on the chance of gay marriage being legalized in the country.

The impact of the vote at the center-left Labor Party’s annual conference was diluted by the party’s endorsement of a motion by Prime Minister Julia Gillard to allow lawmakers to make a “conscience vote” on bills attempting to legalize gay marriage. That means legislators can vote on the issue according to their personal beliefs rather than being forced to vote in line with the party’s official position.

Gillard’s government holds a wafer-thin majority in Parliament over the conservative Liberal Party — which opposes same-sex marriage — and several Labor members personally oppose gay marriage. So any bill proposing to legalize gay marriage will still face a tough battle.

Recent polls show a majority of Australians favor allowing same-sex marriage, and several Australian states already permit civil unions between gay couples. But Gillard opposes any changes to Australia’s Marriage Act, which prohibits same-sex marriage.

She called the party’s support of the conscience vote “the right decision,” but brushed off questions about its endorsement of the policy change.

“My focus was on the conscience vote and people should be able to vote in accordance with their conscience — and certainly now they will,” Gillard said.

Marriage equality advocates said they were disappointed with the conscience vote, but praised the policy change as historic.

Read more.

Condoms for porn actors to be on Los Angeles ballot

(Reuters) – A ballot initiative requiring Los Angeles porn actors to wear condoms has qualified to go before city voters in a presidential primary election in June, organizers said on Tuesday.

America’s second-largest city is home to the multibillion dollar U.S. porn industry, which health advocates say is riddled with sexually transmitted diseases.

The AIDS Healthcare Foundation said the city clerk certified the over 71,000 signatures it helped collect, far more than the 41,000 needed for the ballot initiative.

“There are thousands of STDs in this industry,” said Michael Weinstein, president of the AIDS Healthcare Foundation, adding that jurisdictions pass the issue around like a hot potato.

“It’s the ick factor. They don’t want to deal with this because it’s sex, and because it’s porn,” he said.

Weinstein compared the measure to other public health laws that the city enforces, like those regulating massage parlors and smoking in public.

The California Division of Occupational Safety and Health has issued over $125,000 in fines against porn producers in the past five years for various violations, but some of those citations are on appeal, according to figures from the agency.

Despite facing fines, most major porn companies continue to film without condoms.

“History has shown us that regulating sexual behavior between consenting adults does not work,” said Diane Duke, executive director of Free Speech Coalition, the trade association for the adult entertainment industry.

Read more.

www.youtube.com/watch?v=S54R7WOze-M

Visit Making AIDS History, make a donation to amfAR, and read about Elizabeth Taylor’s contribution to amfAR by downloading the AIDS Patient Care and STDs Elizabeth Taylor Tribute Issue in recognition of World AIDS Day.

*******************************************************************

34 million people living with HIV thanks to treatment access

A significant expansion in access to treatment helped slash the number of AIDS-related deaths in 2010, bringing the number of people living with HIV to a record 34 million, the United Nations said on Monday.

Read more.

Learn more by visiting Health Initiatives for Men at www.checkhimout.ca/hottest

Brent Corrigan’s Oral Exam

www.youtube.com/watch?v=XN1AbMHwCsM

See more on www.dcfukit.org.

Read more on LifeLube.

Not Anti-Catholic, Just Anti-Harm

By Joe Zuniga, op-ed contributor

There comes a point in Dan Brown’s bestselling thriller Angels and Demons, in which its protagonist, Professor Robert Langdon, in response to being queried about his faith, proclaims he is not anti-Catholic “just anti-vandalism” – in reference to a 17th century Pope’s desecration of male statuary whose phalluses were chiseled away in an act of prudery gone wild.

For some reason, this reference struck me only weeks after participating in a conference on HIV/AIDS prevention and care hosted last month by the Vatican’s Pontifical Council for Health Care Workers. As a former Catholic (now Episcopalian), I struggled at many points during this two-day conference to ensure my words and deeds did not seem anti-Catholic.

The Roman Catholic Church’s doctrine of intolerance related to condoms and homosexuality, not to mention its promulgation of a patriarchal society that leaves women powerless and vulnerable, are determinants of HIV’s spread worldwide, but especially in parts of the world with low health literacy. So, like Professor Langdon, mine was a message of solidarity in our global fight against disease, but clear in an anti-harm position.

As with Professor Langdon’s re-education in the importance of faith and doctrine, the 100 or so participants of what was billed an “international study conference” were presented with back-to-back lectures showing that regardless of moral arguments over an individual’s use of a condom to prevent disease, the Vatican still judges condom promotion a failure in the battle against HIV/AIDS. And at least three clerics – among them the president of the Pontifical Council for Health Care Workers – aggressively promoted their belief that the “abandonment of homosexuality” is HIV prevention.

As a gay man, and one who has come of age during the 30-year history of the global HIV pandemic, I joined several progressive conference participants in reminding others of our mutual responsibilities to respect the human dignity of each person. We must also hold each other harmless from violence, including the violence caused by HIV at the cellular and biological levels, and the emotional and spiritual violence embodied in the intolerance and ensuing stigmatization suffered by those individuals society classifies as “other” – which demeans their existence and facilitates self-destructive behavior.

Today is National HIV Testing Day, an occasion for focusing on knowing one’s status and, if negative, remaining so; if positive, linking to treatment (which as a recent scientific breakthrough proves, is HIV prevention). Stigma, heterosexism, denial, and discrimination against gay men continue to fuel this global health crisis, mirroring much of what occurred at the dawn of the AIDS era 30 years ago. They fuel not only a deep HIV crisis, but also numerous other health crises among gay men, including high rates of other sexually transmitted infections; high rates of anxiety, depression, and mental health problems; high rates of substance and alcohol abuse; and a number of concomitant health concerns.

Before anyone can understand this reality, one must see a larger context of social exclusion and marginalization. Despite nearly three decades of advocacy on the part of gay communities around the world for appropriate legal rights and health care services, including HIV prevention and care, in most parts of the world gay men still have little or no access to either HIV services or gay-oriented general health services.

Read more.  If you’d like to get tested for HIV or other STIs, please visit our Testing Resources link.

www.youtube.com/watch?v=-7RLsQFfaD0

Read Lady Gaga’s Message