Calif. bill would create annual Ronald Reagan Day

The Associated Press had this item today:

(Sacramento, Calif.) AP – California is one step closer to establishing an annual day honoring Ronald Reagan, the former president, governor and actor.

The state Senate on Thursday unanimously passed a bill designating Feb. 6 as Ronald Reagan Day. It encourages schools to spend the day commemorating Reagan’s life and accomplishments.

The legislation, which heads to the Assembly, is one of three Reagan-themed bills Republican lawmakers hope to pass before Feb. 6, 2011. That would have been the 100th birthday of the conservative icon, who died in 2004.

Ronald Reagan Day would be the third special day of recognition in California dedicated to an individual.

The first honors conservationist John Muir. Last year, lawmakers honored Harvey Milk, a gay activist and former San Francisco supervisor who was gunned down at city hall in 1978.

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That’s what the AP had to say. This is from an old article up on SF Gate [1]:

A significant source of Reagan’s support came from the newly identified religious right and the Moral Majority, a political-action group founded by the Rev. Jerry Falwell. AIDS became the tool, and gay men the target, for the politics of fear, hate and discrimination. Falwell said “AIDS is the wrath of God upon homosexuals.” Reagan’s communications director Pat Buchanan argued that AIDS is “nature’s revenge on gay men.”

With each passing month, death and suffering increased at a frightening rate. Scientists, researchers and health care professionals at every level expressed the need for funding. The response of the Reagan administration was indifference.

By Feb. 1, 1983, 1,025 AIDS cases were reported, and at least 394 had died in the United States. Reagan said nothing. On April 23, 1984, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention announced 4,177 reported cases in America and 1,807 deaths. In San Francisco, the health department reported more than 500 cases. Again, Reagan said nothing. That same year, 1984, the Democratic National Convention convened in San Francisco. Hoping to focus attention on the need for AIDS research, education and treatment, more than 100,000 sympathizers marched from the Castro to Moscone Center.

What do you think, readers? Should gay and lesbian Californinans be fighting this bill the way that others fought the Harvey Milk bill? Or was Reagan such an important president that it should stand?

[1] http://articles.sfgate.com/2004-06-08/opinion/17428849_1_aids-in-san-francisco-aids-research-education-cases

US May Lift Entry Ban on HIV Patients

For more than two decades, anybody who is HIV positive has been prevented from entering the United States. But with President Barack Obama’s support, the ban will likely expire soon, with the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) taking public comments until August 17. The department of Health and Human Services (HHS) will then make the final decision. “We’re trying to end the stigma and the discriminatory practice for a disease that doesn’t warrant exclusion for coming into this country,” said the director of the CDC’s division of global migration and quarantine, Dr. Martin Cetron. “We have to appreciate this is not a threat we face from abroad.” He acknowledged that “HIV is clearly a public health disease of significance,” but added that simply letting somebody with HIV into the country does not “immediately pose a risk to the public.”

The proposal could allow an average of about 5,000 HIV-infected people into the United States each year. And according to a CDC estimate published in the federal register, the lifetime medical costs of those admitted in just the first year would total almost $100 million. The United States is one of about 15 countries that prevent entry of HIV-positive patients, though it is possible to obtain a waiver under certain conditions. See US May Lift Entry Ban on HIV Patients

The New American

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Obama taps NYC health commissioner to head CDC

(Washington) President Barack Obama on Friday appointed Dr. Thomas Frieden as director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, turning to New York City’s health commissioner to deal with the swine flu outbreak and other major health issues.

Frieden has served as commissioner for the past seven years, where he …

Obama Administration Launches Campaign To Refocus Attention On HIV/AIDS

(Washington) The Obama White House, the Department of Health and Human Services and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention have announced today a new five-year national communication campaign to combat complacency about the HIV/AIDS crisis in the United States.

CDC data show that every 9-and-a-half minutes another …

Smoking prevention groups go after tobacco ads targeting gays

The cigarette pitch demands a second look.
Two ripped, rakish men and one lean, pristine hound pause, inexplicably, in the cool shallows of a calm green sea.
“How gay is this ad?” R.E. Szego, a Portland tobacco-prevention specialist, asks when she sees such an image.
It’s a sincere question, not a slam.
Wooed for years by tobacco companies — who lavish free merchandise on their bars and clubs, sponsor their events and advertise heavily in their publications — gays, lesbians and bisexuals remain hooked on cigarettes, even as the general population smokes less.
But public health specialists are optimistic that a new ban on smoking in Oregon bars will cause a decline in the smoking rates of gays and lesbians, who tend to pick up the habit as teens coming to terms with stigma surrounding their sexual identity.
“If you were coming up gay, it used to be the only place you got to meet was in a bar,” says Michael Kaplan, executive director of Cascade AIDS Project and a former pack-a-day smoker. “If you wanted to fit in, you’d smoke.”
About one in three gay, lesbian and bisexual Oregonians smoke, compared to about one in five smokers in the state’s overall population, according to the public health division of the Oregon Department of Human Services. The disparity is worse among gay, lesbian and bisexual teens, who are 2 1/2 times more likely to smoke than their straight peers. What’s more, half of all gay Oregon smokers say they don’t want to quit.
Nationally, tobacco-related illnesses such as cancer and heart disease kill about 30,000 gays, lesbians and bisexuals each year, reports the American Cancer Society. AIDS kills about half as many, straight people included, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. See Smoking prevention groups go after tobacco ads targeting gays
The Oregonian – OregonLive.com -* Tags = gay men gay news lesbian news transgender bisexual

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Lambda Legal and ARCW File Federal Lawsuit on Behalf of HIV Positive Woman Denied Surgery by Healthcare Provider

(Milwaukee, WI, February 12, 2009) — Lambda Legal and the AIDS Resource Center of Wisconsin (ARCW) filed a federal lawsuit today in the US District Court for the Eastern District of Wisconsin on behalf of Melody Rose, a 35-year-old Wisconsin woman who was denied surgery to remove her gallbladder because she has HIV.
“Discrimination in healthcare remains a major problem for people living with HIV,” said Peter Kimball, Director of the Legal Services Program at the AIDS Resource Center of Wisconsin (ARCW). “In violation of both federal and Wisconsin law, Dr. Steven Cahee refused to provide needed medical treatment to our client, Melody Rose.”
Lambda Legal and ARCW represent Melody Rose who experienced health problems with her gallbladder while incarcerated at Taycheedah Correctional Institution in Fond du Lac. Ultimately, her physician referred her to Dr. Steven Cahee at the Fond du Lac Regional Hospital to have her gall bladder removed.
However, Dr. Cahee refused to perform the surgery after learning Ms. Rose is HIV-positive. Some time thereafter, a surgeon at a different medical facility removed Ms. Rose’s gallbladder in a laprascopic procedure, which is considered routine surgery.
“Dr. Cahee’s actions fly in the face of ethical behavior for a medical professional,” said Scott Schoettes, Staff Attorney with Lambda Legal’s HIV Project. “Long ago, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention established that using universal precautions — which are required in all sorts of medical situations, including surgeries — makes it extremely unlikely for the virus to be transmitted in this setting.”
The complaint filed today alleges that the defendants –- Steven M. Cahee, M.D., Agnesian HealthCare, Inc., and Fond du Lac Regional Clinic, S.C., violated four different state and federal laws. The complaint alleges that the defendants violated the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) and its state law counterpart, which both prohibit disability discrimination by places of public accommodation (including healthcare providers); the Rehabilitation Act, which requires recipients of federal financial assistance not to discriminate against people with disabilities; and a Wisconsin law addressing HIV discrimination specifically, which forbids healthcare providers from denying services to people (or humiliating and degrading them) based solely on their HIV status.
The case is Rose v. Cahee, et al.
Scott Schoettes, HIV Project Staff Attorney, is handling the case for Lambda Legal. He is joined by co-counsel Peter Kimball, of AIDS Resource Center of Wisconsin.