1 in 7 gay men in D.C. are HIV+

About one in seven gay men in Washington, D.C., are HIV positive. That staggering figure was released last week by the D.C. HIV/AIDS Administration [1], according to a story by The Washington Post [2].

In a study of 500 gay men in the city, more than 40 percent of the participants were unaware of their diagnosis prior to the study. One in three men reported they didn’t know the status of their last partner.

[3]

“This is a wake-up call,” gay D.C. Council member David A. Catania told the Washington Post. “It’s time for my generation to assume greater responsibility for themselves and their partners. Just because we escaped the epidemic of the 1980s doesn’t mean we are immune.”

Last year, the city distributed more 3.5 million condoms and tested 95,000 people for HIV.

While the figures for HIV among gay men in D.C. are high – almost five times higher than the rate of HIV among adults and teens across the city – figures in other cities are higher. In San Francisco, 24 percent of gay men are HIV positive; in New York it’s 25 percent and in Baltimore, an astounding 40 percent.

[1] http://doh.dc.gov/doh/cwp/view,a,1371,q,573205,dohNav_GID,1802.asp
[2] http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2010/03/25/AR2010032503730.html
[3] http://www.365gay.com/wp-content/uploads/news-hiv-testing-top.jpg

Supreme Court reinstates death sentence for anti-gay neo-Nazi

(Cleveland) The Supreme Court on Tuesday reinstated for a second time the death sentence of a neo-Nazi convicted of murdering three men in Ohio more than a quarter century ago.

The justices ruled unanimously that a federal appeals court wrongly set aside the death sentence of Frank Spisak.

The 6th U.S. Circuit …

Court considers death sentence for Ohio neo-Nazi

(Washington) The Supreme Court seemed receptive Tuesday to reinstating the death sentence of a flamboyant neo-Nazi convicted of murdering three men in Ohio more than a quarter century ago.

Ohio attorney general Richard Cordray told justices during oral arguments that Frank Spisak had a fair trial and deserves death. Cordray urged …

‘Hate crime’ at Danish gay games

A Dane has been charged with committing a hate crime for allegedly throwing fireworks at athletes during a gay sporting event in Copenhagen.

He is accused of throwing fireworks into the Oesterbro stadium where the World Outgames running competitions were being held.

One US athlete suffered a light injury to his hand.

The attack marks the second suspected hate crime at the Outgames after three men were assaulted in the street.

In the stadium incident, the alleged perpetrator was apprehended by runners from the Sparta Athletes club as he attempted to escape.

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NY Visitor from Boston victim of attack, slurs during Gay Pride weekend

A man visiting a friend on the upper East Side was robbed and pistol-whipped during Gay Pride weekend by a group of hoodlums yelling anti-gay slurs, the victim and cops said Sunday.

Joseph Holladay, 36, said he was set upon by at least three men on E. 85th St. about 4 a.m. Saturday.

“Out of nowhere, I’m being attacked,” he said from his bed at New York Presbyterian-Hospital Weill Cornell, a nasty gush visible on his forehead.

One of the robbers called out, “What are you looking at?” and used an anti-gay epithet, the Boston man added.

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The Robert Wone Stabbing: Anatomy of a Murder Case

A 911 call from a million-dollar townhouse in Dupont Circle on a sweltering summer night three years ago:

“We need an ambulance,” Victor Zaborsky blurted, his delicate voice pitched so high that the operator mistook him for a woman.

“What’s wrong, ma’am?”

“We had someone . . . in our house, evidently,” Zaborsky said, gasping, “and they stabbed somebody.”

Over the next eight minutes, stammering breathlessly on the phone, he would report that while he and his two housemates were asleep, an unseen “intruder” had slipped into the residence and attacked a visiting friend of theirs.

“Are they bleeding?” the operator asked. “See someone bleeding?”

“Yes,” said Zaborsky, then 40, in words that echo today: “Someone is bleeding in our house.”

So began a real-life parlor mystery — an unsolved killing and alleged coverup in the guest room of an elegant home in the heart of Washington’s gay community, with a trio of seemingly unlikely suspects: a self-described “polyamorous family” of three men. The bizarre murder that evening of a young Ivy League lawyer named Robert Wone, still grist for gossip and conjecture on the city’s gay blogosphere, has vexed police and prosecutors since the 911 call just before midnight Aug. 2, 2006.

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Gay men attacked on Ore. beach

(Seaside, Oregon) Police are searching for at least three men who attacked two gay men on the beach in Seaside, Oregon. Both victims were left unconscious by the beatings.

The names of the two victims are being withheld, but police told KPTV that both men are from Washington state.

The two men were …

Galveston gay bar attack draws rare use of law

Galveston prosecutors took the exceedingly rare step this week of filing hate crime enhancements when they charged three men with felony assault for an attack at one of the city’s gay bars.

This marks only the second time the Galveston County District Attorney’s Office has pursued such enhancements, based on the staff’s recollections, said prosecutor Jennifer Ott.

As a result, brothers Lawrence Henry Lewis III, 20, and Lawrneil Henry Lewis, 18, and their cousin, Alejandro Sam Gray, 17 could face an elevated punishment of five to 99 years or life in prison if a jury convicts them of aggravated assault with a deadly weapon and agrees they committed a hate crime.

The trio is accused of hurling large rocks or pieces of concrete at patrons inside Robert’s Lafitte in the 2500 block of Avenue Q around 8 p.m. Sunday, injuring two men, including one who tried to chase them.

Marc Bosaw, 57, needed 12 staples to close a laceration to the back of his head, while James Troy Nickelson, 39, was struck in the jaw.

One of the three suspects later told police their intent was to target homosexuals, said Galveston Police Department Lt. D.J. Alvarez. The trio also hurled homophobic insults, authorities said.

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Same-sex spouses challenge US curbs

Fifteen gay and lesbian residents from Massachusetts who wed after this state legalized same-sex marriages filed a discrimination suit today, challenging a federal law that defines marriage as a union between a man and a woman.

Six same-sex couples and three men whose husbands have died — one of the deceased was retired congressman Gerry E. Studds — said in the suit that the 1996 Defense of Marriage Act treats them like second-class citizens and is unconstitutional. The 92-page complaint was filed in US District Court in Boston.

The suit, which legal specialists described as the first serious challenge to the federal law signed by President Bill Clinton, contends that the statute has deprived the plaintiffs of benefits enjoyed by heterosexual married couples.

Those benefits include health insurance for spouses of federal employees, tax deductions for couples who jointly file federal income tax returns, and the ability to use a spouse’s last name on a passport.

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Trial Begins For Men Accused Of Killing Gay Man In Florida

On dirt road that leads to Wahneta, Florida a driver made the ghastly discovery of a bloody body stabbed to death sitting on the side of the road. The date was Wednesday, March 14, 2007 at about 1:20AM.

That dead man was Ryan Keith Skipper, 25, a gay man. The trials of his accused murders – William David Brown Jr., 22, and Joseph Bearden, 23 – begin today, after several delays, as lawyers begin selecting a jury in a Polk County courtroom, reports The Ledger.

The pair were arrested soon after Skipper’s body was found and have remained in custody over the past two years.

Details of what happened between the three men remain sketchy. Family and friends hope the trial will shed light on Skipper’s final hours.

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