AIDS/LifeCycle charity bike ride gets personal when recession hits

Timothy Brodt is among more than 2,000 bike riders who left Sunday on a 545-mile trek from San Francisco to Los Angeles as part of the AIDS/LifeCycle benefit. He carried with him a small black-and-white photo of his Uncle Richard, who died of AIDS more than 20 years ago.

For the last two years, Brodt has participated in the annual bike ride to raise money for HIV and AIDS-related services at the Los Angeles Gay & Lesbian Center and the San Francisco AIDS Foundation.

“I had this idea of me doing a great thing,” Brodt said, recalling how he felt when he first participated in the bike ride. “I’m helping others.”

But Brodt, once a television producer with a six-figure salary, never thought “others” could include him.

After losing his job and health insurance, Brodt, 37, now relies on the same services that he raised money for in the past for his own HIV treatment.

He was laid off last April. Although he was offered another job in the industry, he decided to take time off to reassess his career. When he was ready to return to work, previous job offers had dried up. By then, he said, people who had provided job leads were losing their own positions.

Savings stretched only so far. Brodt moved into an older, cheaper apartment on the edge of Hollywood and gave up his car. Some weeks, he said, he had less than $20 in his bank account.

After six months, Brodt could no longer afford the $500 monthly payment for COBRA health insurance benefits. His HIV medications could run several thousand dollars a year. He stopped taking them.

It wasn’t long before he started to feel fatigued and depressed.

“I thought, maybe I need to talk to someone . . . Maybe I’m just depressed. I can’t find a job,” Brodt said. “I didn’t really think it had to do with HIV.”

Brodt’s symptoms were a textbook example of what can happen when someone who is HIV positive stops taking medication, said Brad Hare, medical director of UC San Francisco’s Positive Health Program at San Francisco General Hospital. A lapse in treatment can increase the risk of disease progression and medication resistance, he said.
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Being openly gay in Dartmouth athletics

In an article on gay pride week at Dartmouth College, the Ivy League school in New Hampshire, the school paper The Dartmouth interviewed two gay athletes and what they said is not a surprise to anyone who has followed the subject: they wish there were more out jocks.
“[Being gay at Dartmouth] has been a very positive experience, but one thing that definitely disappoints me is the very small population of out gay athletes,” Tyler Ford ‘11, a member of the men’s track and field team, said. “That leaves us without a support system.”
A former water polo player at the school who is about to graduate echoed this sentiment.
“Sports is one of the hardest places to come out in, to feel comfortable. Especially for guys, it’s such a macho area,” Taylor Holt said.
“Dartmouth has had a history of out gay athletes, and gay athletes at Dartmouth have the responsibility that they need to represent something more to closeted gay athletes throughout athletics, to the gay community in general,” Holt said.
In the past, Outsports has featured two out jocks from Dartmouth: Andrew Goldstein in lacrosse and Jamal Brown in track and field. Both athletes reported a positive response from coming out. Still, though, there is tremendous resistance among the majority of athletes to take that step. See Being openly gay in Dartmouth athletics
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“Voices of Witness Africa” Screening Set for May 10

The film “Voices of Witness Africa” will be shown at St. John’s at 7:30 pm on Sunday May 10. One of the filmmakers, the Rev. Cynthia Black of Kalamazoo, MI, will be there for this premier showing.

As long ago as 1978, the Lambeth Conference of Anglican Communion bishops urged the church to listen to Anglicans who are gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender (GLBT). Now a powerful new half-hour documentary film, Voices of Witness Africa, helps Episcopalians keep the church’s commitment to listen.

As we move toward the Episcopal Church’s General Convention this summer, issues involving full inclusion of all the baptized, including LGBT people, will once again be front and center. Much of the U.S. Episcopal Church, like our secular society, has moved toward full inclusion — but this impulse encounters deep resistance from other parts of the Communion where homosexuality is viewed as a foreign, perhaps imperialist, import. VOWA dispels any claim that there are no LGBT Africans — and gives us an opportunity to listen to their hopes and fears. See www.saintjohnsf.org

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Anti-Gay Bullying At Some Kennewick Schools. School Leaders Working on Changes

KENNEWICK, Wash.– Anti-gay bullying in school for some students is a daily battle. One student at Kamiakin High describes what it’s like through her eyes.

“I know friends that have gotten serious threats and they either go home for a few days, or transfer schools,” said Taylor Pack, a student.

Pack says her and others have asked school staff to start a Gay Straight Alliance on campus, but were told it wouldn’t be well received.

Kennewick staff know it’s a problem they need to address.

“Kids are experiencing rejection for no good reason and I think we have work to do to fix that,” said Wendy London, a member of the Kennewick School Board.

That’s why about two weeks ago London attended a meeting at the Vista Youth Center. There she heard feedback from students like Taylor. It was a first for London and may also be the first step toward change.

“We are concerned about student safety and we can’t address policy unless we have information about what’s actually going on in our schools,” said London.

London says while there may be some resistance at first, no tolerance for bullying policies are among some of the changes she hopes to see in the future.

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Israel – but not the US – joins states calling for support of UN gay rights declaration

srael has joined a group of United Nations member states calling for the institution’s first gay rights declaration, an initiative which has met with resistance by an Arab-backed opposition.

The declaration that was presented Thursday at the UN General Assembly calls for decriminalization of homosexuality. Israel joins states calling for support of UN gay rights declaration
Ha’aretz, Israel -