“TEST ME / for hiv” challenges assumptions about HIV risk in the Asian and Pacific Islander Communities

Asian & Pacific Islander Coalition on HIV/AIDS, Inc. (APICHA) will announce the launch of “TEST ME / for hiv”, a historic effort to address a major discrepancy and public health problem – very limited access to HIV testing and increasing infection rates in the Asian and Pacific Islander (A&PI) communities.

On May 19 2009, A&PI HIV/AIDS Awareness Day, APICHA will be joined by elected officials and community leaders on the steps of City Hall to launch the campaign and urge the public to take control. May is also Asian Heritage month.

Currently, A&PIs are the only racial/ethnic group in New York that have not experienced a decline in the number of new HIV diagnoses, but only six percent (6%) of A&PI New Yorkers report that their doctor recommended an HIV test. This presents a major public health concern that could have a far-reaching impact.

“‘Do you want an HIV test today?”’ That question can be all it takes for a doctor to begin a conversation about their patient’s risk for HIV,” said Robert Murayama, APICHA’s Chief Medical Officer. “Doctors almost never pose that question to their Asian and Pacific Islander patients because they assume the patient won’t need it. The patient leaves the doctor’s office not knowing their status; this can lead to harm to the patient and extreme risk for their partner(s). This is a public health concern. Doctors have an obligation to ask that question without regard to culture or ethnicity.”

APICHA has identified limited access to HIV testing as a critical unmet need that requires the attention of doctors and the community. Often, doctors have preconceived assumptions about the sexual risk factors and lifestyle choices of A&PIs based on the stereotype of Asians as “the model minority.” APICHA seeks to change attitudes among doctors by encouraging A&PIs to begin the conversation in an effort to address this major public health problem.

Patients, who depend on their doctors to advise them about what they should be screened for, are left with an incomplete profile of their health and in possible danger. This year, a Chinese woman, living with AIDS, was finally diagnosed with the disease after she sought services at APICHA. Infected with HIV and stricken by an HIV related illness, she went from local doctor to doctor without a diagnosis, much less a recommendation for an HIV test. During this delay in getting the right treatment, HIV had weakened her system to the point where she developed an opportunistic infection, which could have been prevented with appropriate diagnosis and treatment.

The heart of the campaign will be a coordinated effort to have volunteers visit their doctor’s office wearing a tee shirt that reads “TEST ME / for hiv”. The action is meant to initiate conversation and create an opportunity to educate doctors about the discrepancy.

APICHA hopes that the earned media in both mainstream and ethnic press and work with religious and community leaders will expand the discussion about HIV in various A&PI communities. The campaign will also disseminate information about the issue, and educate A&PI community members about obtaining an HIV test.

“Our hope is that the doctors will come around, but until that time comes I call on every A&PI person to demand a test. APICHA is here to teach you what you should ask for and help empower you to take control of your health, but it’s up to you to take that step and say ‘test me for HIV’, “said Therese R. Rodriguez, APICHA’s Executive Director. “If you have not discussed HIV with your doctor, you do not have a complete picture of your health. You need to ask the question so that you can have the peace of mind that a complete health exam gives.”

APICHA’s mission is to combat HIV/AIDS stigma and related discrimination, to prevent the spread of the HIV/AIDS pandemic in Asian & Pacific Islander communities, and to provide care and treatment for Asian & Pacific Islanders living with HIV/AIDS and their families. The organization was founded twenty years ago and remains the only Pan-Asian HIV/AIDS organization devoted to working with A&PI communities in New York City.

“I applaud APICHA for empowering Asian and Pacific Islanders to take control of their health,” said Dr. Monica Sweeney Assistant Commissioner of the New York City Health Department’s Bureau of HIV/AIDS Prevention and Control. “As long as there are people out there who are unaware of their HIV status, there is a great risk of transmission. If you do not know your status, you cannot access the care you need and you can unknowingly spread the virus to others. Everybody needs to know their status.”

APICHA’s Chief Medical officer and Executive Director will brief the media about the issue and the campaign at the May 19 press conference and can be made available for interview prior to the announced. Mayor Michael Bloomberg, Governor David Patterson and other elected offices have been invited to attend the press conference.

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Alameda parents debate lessons addressing gay slurs, bullying

Hundreds of people showed up at City Hall on Tuesday night to express their support — or concerns — about the Alameda Unified School District’s proposed lessons to address slurs and bullying against gays.
So many people showed up to speak that police and fire officials had to clear much of the crowd out of City Council chambers, where the public hearing to discuss the lessons was held. A second hearing is scheduled for 6:30 p.m. Monday, May 18 at a location to be announced.

School Board President Mike McMahon said he had 200 speaker slips from people who wanted to be heard on the issue. The school board — minus Trustee Neal Tam, who was absent — heard three and a half hours of testimony on the curriculum on Tuesday.

Supporters of the curriculum said it’s a tool desperately needed by teachers to combat anti-gay slurs and bullying that starts as early as kindergarten. It’s not about sex, they said, but about offering positive images of gays and their families who are members of the community but invisible inside school walls.

The consequences of not addressing the bullying or offering such positive reinforcement is dire, they said: Statistically, gay youth are much more likely to skip school, abuse alcohol and drugs and commit suicide than their straight peers.

Alameda parents debate lessons addressing gay slurs, bullying

San Jose Mercury News -

LGBT Plan for K-5 Schools Draws Packed House NBC Bay Area

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Historic effort to boost HIV/AIDS testing in Asian and Pacific Islander (A&PI) communities.Set

NEW YORK, NY, – Asian & Pacific Islander Coalition on HIV/AIDS, Inc. (APICHA) will announce the launch of “TEST ME / for hiv”, a historic effort to address a major discrepancy and public health problem – very limited access to HIV testing and increasing infection rates in the Asian and Pacific Islander (A&PI) communities.

Currently, A&PIs are the only racial/ethnic group in New York that has not experienced a decline in the number of new HIV diagnoses, but only six percent (6%) of A&PI New Yorkers report that their doctor recommended an HIV test. This presents a major public health concern that could have a far-reaching impact.

The heart of the “TEST ME/for hiv” campaign will be a coordinated effort to have volunteers visit their doctor’s office wearing a tee shirt that reads “TEST ME / for hiv”. The action is meant to initiate the conversation and create an opportunity to educate doctors about the discrepancy.

APICHA’s Chief Medical officer and Executive Director will brief the media about the issue and the campaign at the May, 19 press conference. Mayor Michael Bloomberg, Governor David Paterson and other elected officials have been invited to join in launching the campaign.

APICHA’s is the only Pan-Asian HIV/AIDS organization devoted to working with A&PI communities in New York City.

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Busy First Day For Cleveland’s Gay Partner Registry

Cleveland city leaders offered a warm welcome to gay and lesbian couples arriving at City Hall to take advantage of a new domestic partner registry taking effect Thursday.
Gay advocates celebrated with a rally on the steps of City Hall. Six council members attended the rally, including Council Members Jay Westbrook, Joe Cimperman and Joe Santiago.
Registering with the city is mostly a symbolic act. Registered couples receive no guaranteed benefits or protections; any benefits gained would be strictly voluntary.
The registry’s shortcomings, however, appeared to be lost on the steady stream of couples lining up for it. Sixty-four couples, mostly gay or lesbian, had paid the $55 registration fee by 2PM, openly gay Councilman Santiago told On Top Magazine.
Opposition to the registry appears to have diminished since ministers called for its repeal in January. A group of mostly black ministers lead by Rev. C. Jay Matthews failed in an effort to stop the registry from taking effect. And while the group has vowed to place a referendum on the November ballot, it appears they missed a March deadline. See:

Busy First Day For Cleveland’s Gay Partner Registry On Top Magazine
Cleveland begins domestic partner registry for gay and other … Cleveland News – Fox 8
Cleveland’s Domestic Partner Registry a powerful symbol — Regina … The Plain Dealer – cleveland.com
Historic Day As Cleveland Opens Domestic Partner Registry Today E-Portage

* Tags = gay men gay news lesbian news transgender bisexual

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Cleveland partner registry opens

(Cleveland, Ohio) Same-sex couples began lining up early at city hall Thursday morning to sign up under Cleveland’s new domestic partner registry.

Outside city hall, there was an air of excitement; inside a group of conservative pastors held a prayer service using the National Day of Prayer to denounce gay unions.

City …

Five stories from five years of same-sex marriage

Cambridge, Mass. - Susan Shepherd looks up at the rough-hewn pink granite of City Hall, just across the Charles River from downtown Boston. An American flag ripples in the wind. Inside the building, a plaque commemorates Cambridge as America’s birthplace of legal same-sex marriage.

“I can’t believe it’s been five years,” Shepherd says, hugging her wife. “I feel like I just met her yesterday.”

Nor can gay marriage opponents believe what’s happened in Massachusetts since, in their view, traditional marriage came to an end.

Yet in the past five years as same-sex marriage became part of Massachusetts’ landscape, many Bay Staters say something unexpected has happened: Life is as it always was.

Just after midnight on May 17, 2004, Shepherd and Marcia Hams, a Cambridge couple who’d been together three decades and raised a son, became Massachusetts’ first same-sex couple to get a marriage license. They had waited 24 hours in rain and cold, and by the time they got the license, 10,000 supporters gathered on the front lawn of City Hall.

Five years later and 1,300 miles away, Iowa on Monday will allow same-sex marriages. As Iowa enters into uncharted territory for the Midwest, the Bay State may serve as a sign of what may come.

Since same-sex marriage became legal in Massachusetts, about 12,000 same-sex couples have applied for marriage licenses. Gay marriages now comprise about 4 percent of all marriages performed in the state, meaning there are about 1,500 a year.

There have been some same-sex divorces, too, most notably by the couple whose name was on the court case that legalized same-sex marriage.

To be sure, a sizable chunk of Massachusetts’ 6.3 million residents remain opposed to same-sex marriage, mostly on religious grounds. Some say legal same-sex marriage has led to censorship of those who remain opposed, to infringement on the rights of parents who object to same-sex marriage being taught in schools, and to Catholic Charities of Boston ending adoption work because it refused to allow same-sex couples to adopt.

But polling results show a shift toward acceptance of gay marriage. A 2004 survey by the Suffolk University Political Research Center in Boston found the state split: 42 percent supported gay marriage, 44 percent opposed it. A similar survey in 2008 found 59 percent in support of gay marriage, 37 percent opposed.

As Iowa enters a new era, a drive through Massachusetts and into Maine shows how same-sex marriage has changed life – for better, for worse or, as many say, hardly at all.

See Five stories from five years of same-sex marriage
DesMoinesRegister.com – Des Moines,IA,USA

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Crowds line up to get into Prop. 8 hearing

SAN FRANCISCO — Scores of people lined up this morning outside the California Supreme Court building in San Francisco, hoping for a seat in the chambers as the justices hear arguments on whether the voter-approved state constitutional amendment banning same-sex marriages should be overturned.
Some people arrived outside the building on McAllister Street at the Civic Center at 4:50 a.m., more than four hours before the arguments began at 9 a.m. The crowd grew as the hearing approached.
Motorists honked their horns, mostly in support of those who want the marriage ban overturned.
First in line was Sara Taylor of Novato, 54, an attorney who married her lesbian partner last June after the court ruled that same-sex marriages were constitutional – a decision that voters overturned five months later in approving Proposition 8.
“This court made the bold decision in the first place declaring that homosexuals have the right to marry,” Taylor said. “For me, it’s a gift to be sitting in front of them.”
On the other side of the issue was Jack Warner, a 60-year-old printer who traveled from Los Angeles for the arguments.
Holding a banner that read, “The Bible says the wages of sin is death,” Warner said he was standing outside the court because, “I want to give our side, God’s side.”
Another Prop. 8 supporter, Thomas Koors, a 63-year-old self-employed window and gutter cleaner from Novato, said he had spent the night in his Subaru near the courthouse and was there to “uphold democracy.”
“If we’re going to have democracy, we have to abide by the will of the majority of the voters, whether we like it or not,” said Koors, who waved an American flag and held a sign that read, “In God we trust.”
The Rev. Amy Morgenstern, 40, who is in a same-sex marriage and is a Unitarian Universalist minister at a Palo Alto church, countered, “It’s just crazy to think that majority rule should be able to take away a fundamental right.”
By 8:15, the line waiting to get into the courthouse took up two-thirds of the block. Others were gathering in Civic Center Plaza, where the three hours of arguments on the legality of Prop. 8 were being televised on a JumboTron set up directly across from City Hall. See
Crowds line up to get into Prop. 8 hearing * Tags = gay men gay news lesbian news transgender bisexual

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Action filed with West Bend Library Board to remove specific gay books

WEST BEND – Concerned with the presence and appropriateness of some materials at the West Bend Community Memorial Library, West Bend residents Ginny and Jim Maziarka are taking action.

The Maziarkas have filed a formal, written complaint with the library. The complaint has been placed on the March agenda and will be heard by the members of the Library Board when they convene for their monthly meeting on Tuesday night.

Due to a large crowd that is expected to attend the proceedings, the meeting has been moved from the library board room to the City Council Chambers at City Hall.

“We find the books for youth on homosexuality to be biased, gay-affirming, promotional and romanticized,” the Maziarkas said in an e-mail sent to the Daily News. “We believe our library should be offering appropriate, wholesome literature to our youth instead of pursuing the illegitimate goals of transforming the views of other people’s children on the contentious issue of homosexuality.”

See

Action filed with West Bend Library Board to remove specific gay books

Greater Milwaukee Today

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Phoenix’s domestic-partner registry debuts

Phoenix’s domestic-partner registry opens on Monday for couples wishing to make their relationships at least somewhat official.

The registry opens at 9 a.m. Monday at Phoenix City Hall. Registration will take place in Assembly Room B throughout the week before moving to the City Clerk’s Office on the 15th floor.

The registry grants the right to visitation with a domestic partner in any health-care facility in Phoenix. The registration also could be used to demonstrate a domestic partnership to employers or others who offer benefits to employees.

See Phoenix’s domestic-partner registry debuts
Arizona Republic, AZ

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Tours take in the sites of Harvey Milk’s life

he Oscar-nominated film Milk is igniting related tourism in San Francisco. The city played host during filming of this biopic about Harvey Milk, one of the first openly gay people elected to a high public office.

Start your visit off with a trip to City Hall, where the city supervisor worked and is honored with a large rainbow flag and a series of photos. Tours are available weekdays at 10 a.m., noon and 2 p.m. (sfgov.org/site/cityhall).

CITY GUIDE: More to see and do in San Francisco

Take the “Cruisin’ the Castro” Milk walking tour and visit everything from his former residence to the home of his ashes. Tour includes entry to the GLBT Historical Society’s Harvey Milk exhibit. Available Wednesdays from 10 a.m. to 1 p.m., $55 (cruisinthecastro.com, 415-255-1821). For a quirkier view of the Castro District, visit some of Milk’s lesser-known stomping grounds with FOOT! comedy walking tours. Available Saturdays at 2 p.m., $32 (800-979-3370, foottours.com).

Top of your touring with a glass of “Harvey Milk Punch” from the JW Marriott Hotel’s Level III lounge (levelthreesf.com, 415-929-2087).

See Tours take in the sites of Harvey Milk’s life
USA Today -