SAN FRANCISCO — The first problem surfaced when Dulce Garcia went to a San Francisco clinic two years ago for her annual physical. As she filled out the intake form, all the questions assumed she was straight.

Then in the examining room, a nurse repeatedly offered her a pregnancy test and birth control.

“She kept telling me Latino women have a high risk of pregnancy,” said Garcia, a health educator who teaches youths about disease prevention. “I had to out myself right there and then. The nurse seemed shocked that I wasn’t heterosexual. Even here in San Francisco, this kind of thing happens.”

The health concerns of lesbians, from interpersonal difficulties in doctors’ offices to the high prevalence of risk factors for heart disease and many cancers, will be highlighted at a national summit this weekend in San Francisco.

“This conversation is long overdue,” said Dr. Sandra Hernandez, chief executive of the San Francisco Foundation and an assistant clinical professor at UCSF. “This is the first summit to bring together clinicians, scientists, leaders in their communities to discuss these issues.

“The summit will call for more research into lesbian health, and more funding for research.”

Women’s health has become a focal point of medical study relatively recently.

 See SF summit looks at lesbian health issues

San Francisco Chronicle

More subscribers to online pornography live in traditionally conservative red states than blue states, according to a study published last week in the American Economic Association’s Journal of Economic Perspectives.

Utah leads the country with 5.47 subscribers per 1,000 broadband users, followed by Alaska (5.03) and Mississippi (4.30). California ranked 39th at 2.46.

“The most natural interpretation is that conservatives are buying disproportionately much online adult entertainment,” said Benjamin Edelman, the study’s author. “Though, to be sure, it’s also possible that the minority of liberals in the same regions are the ones making these purchases.”

Edelman, an assistant professor of business administration at Harvard Business School, said he adjusted his data to compare states with varying populations and Internet usage, in order to place them all on a level playing field.

Edelman obtained a list of zip codes associated with credit card subscribers from what he described as a “top-10 seller of online adult entertainment” from 2006 to 2008. The company agreed to let Edelman analyze the information if he agreed to keep the company’s name anonymous, he said.

The researcher also found a marginally higher rate of porn subscribers in the 27 states that had passed “defense of marriage” amendments to keep same-sex marriages unconstitutional compared to states that had no such laws.

 Red State Porn Purchasing Power

San Francisco Chronicle 

This month, the San Francisco AIDS Foundation is launching an innovative program designed to catch new HIV infections shortly after they occur – when the risk of transmission is the highest.

The goal of the two-year pilot project, the first of its kind in the nation, is to reduce by half the number of new HIV cases by 2015.

During the two- or three-month period after infection, the viral load is highest and the danger of transmission is also at its peak. As many as half of all new infections are estimated to occur during the acute phase.

“The virus gets in your body and starts to replicate at a very high rate before the natural immune responses of your body start to mobilize,” said Mark Cloutier, chief executive of the San Francisco AIDS Foundation.

The expanded testing, along with counseling, will take place at Magnet, a community health center for gay men in the Castro.

Clients who report engaging in recent, high-risk behavior will be invited to take viral RNA (ribonucleic acid) testing, which will identify those who are acutely infected. They will also be encouraged to alert their partners.

It takes two weeks to get results. During that time, said Steve Gibson, director of Magnet, clients are counseled to behave prudently, as if they were HIV-positive.

 See Novel SF program tries to cut new HIV cases
San Francisco Chronicle,  USA

San Francisco members of the Lesbian and Gay Band Association and a Saratoga middle school marching band are the only two groups in California tapped to march down Pennsylvania Avenue in what is set to be an historic inauguration parade.

Twenty-six members of the San Francisco Lesbian Gay Freedom Band and Cheer San Franciscowere selected from the Lesbian and Gay Band Association’s thousands of members nationwide to participate in the Jan. 20 event.

“I think it is great that the event is continuing the inclusion of the GLBT community in the important activities of our nation,” said Paul Boneberg, executive director of the GLBT Historical Society in San Francisco. “I say congratulations to Obama for enhancing the visibility of our community by having them march.”

Doug Litwin, a clarinet player in the San Francisco band, said this is the first time an openly gay band has marched, although his band played on the sidelines during both Clinton inauguration parades.

“It was an amazing experience to be openly gay and participate, but this time we get to actually march in the parade,” Litwin said. “It is a bigger deal symbolically to be moving with the contingent.”

More than 1,400 marching bands applied to be in the parade that will follow Barack Obama’s swearing in at the Capitol on Jan. 20. To date, 70 have been selected.

 See San Francisco band to make history at inaugural
San Francisco Chronicle,  USA 

Activists had billed Wednesday as “a day without a gay,” when gays and lesbians across the country would call in sick, boycott shopping and show the impact of their absence from everyday life.

Designed to be a protest against the Nov. 4 passage of Proposition 8, which bans same-sex marriage, the day’s events drew only scattered support in the Bay Area, the heart of the gay rights movement, and also criticism.

Several gay and lesbian people said they couldn’t afford to take the day off, particularly in a tightening economy where many are concerned about their jobs. And in the Castro district, business owners were livid that people were encouraged to not shop during the holidays, a peak time for retailers.

“Our rights have been taken away as much as anyone else’s,” said Rich Boutell, who runs Whatever comics on Castro Street and whose marriage was thrown into limbo with the Nov. 4 election. He and his husband, Cougar Andrews, kept their store open and wished the “day without a gay” organizers had encouraged gay-allied individuals to patronize gay-owned businesses. “The whole purpose should be to support your own, not to boycott. If you’re going to have a protest, it should be a positive thing. The gay dollar is powerful.”

Those who did take off work said they did it with the cooperation of employers.

They included Glenn Coffee, 48, a Noe Valley resident who works at Macy’s and said the store has always been supportive of gay employees and the gay community. The main purpose, he said, of calling in sick was to show that “as a community, we can show we have worth.”

The day’s events prompted a mixed response, which might indicate that the gay rights movement is still finding its voice. Gay and lesbian people are included in ways never imagined decades ago, such as domestic partnership rights in states across the nation and being included by a presidential candidate in his election-night victory speech.

But there are also dramatic challenges. Thirty states, including California, explicitly ban same-sex marriage, and Arkansas voters recently passed a ballot measure to ban unmarried couples from adopting children, an initiative directly aimed at thwarting gay and lesbian parenthood.

Religious groups, students, business owners and shoppers all had different views of a day focused on gay rights.

A group of Bay Area Catholics gathered in the Castro district on Wednesday evening for a prayer vigil to atone for the actions of church leaders. Because Wednesday was also International Human Rights Day, they focused their efforts on the rights of gays and lesbians.

‘Day without a gay‘ protest fizzles
San Francisco Chronicle,  USA

Former “American Idol” singer Clay Aiken has sparked reports he’s dating a fellow Broadway star, just two months after revealing to the world he is gay.

Aiken revealed he was gay to People magazine in September as part of a photo spread featuring him and his new baby son, Parker, who was born in August.

According to reports the star has a new boyfriend, Broadway dancer Reed Kelly, who currently stars in hit musical “Wicked.”

 See Aiken Sparks Reports Of Romance With Broadway Dancer
San Francisco Chronicle,  USA