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Arrest made in murder of Angie Zapata: Allen Ray Andrade (right) was arrested yesterday morning in Greely, Colorado, and charged with last week's brutal murder of transgender woman Angie Zapata.In an affidavit obtained by The Denver Post of statements Andrade made to the police after being arrested, he says that he reacted violently after he realized Zapata was transgender after spending a night at her place, hitting her first with his fist and then with a fire estinguisher.The arresting police officer quotes Andrade as saying that he thought he had "killed it" and then proceeded to wrap the body in a blanket. He then tried to clean up the mess but "after he noticed Zapata sitting up, he hit her again with the fire extinguisher."He might claim temporary insanity once the trial comes but he seemed to recover his marbles pretty fast since he then systematically ran through the apartment and gathered some of Zapata's belongings including her purse, cellphone and car. Andrade has been charged with second-degree murder and aggravated motor-vehicle theft .I had previously written about the case here and here. Monica Roberts has additional commentary here.
United States HIV ban partially lifted: It's been said that one of President George W. Bush's few semi-positive legacies will be the increase in funding that the United States contributes towards HIV prevention worldwide and, as part of a funding initiative that he signed into law yesterday, he also removed a federal ban on allowing HIV positive non-residents enter the country.For those of us who have long advocated for a repeal of this discriminatory policy, it was a bitter-sweet but incredible moment. I have first-hand knowledge of the hell that so many go through when they have been eligible for immigration status but for their HIV status and this relic of the Jesse Helms anti-gay era is almost out of here.Almost, because the removal from federal policy does not automatically remove the discriminatory language from the Department of Health and Human Services stipulations on who is allowed to enter the United States ("Ban on travelers with HIV to U.S. partially lifted", Los Angeles Times).
Immigration Equality, one of the leading organizations behind the repeal, have this to say about it. I previously wrote about the issue here.
The Advocate often relies on the Associated Press for daily news updates posted on their online site so it wasn't surprising to see an AP story pop up on the site about statements made on Friday by Australian Prime Minister John Howard "people with the AIDS virus should not be allowed to migrate to Australia."
No mention in the AP blurb or elsewhere on the site that the United States also has banned HIV+ people from immigrating to this country since 1990.
Searching for "HIV ban" on their site the only reference is a pro-immigration statement that I signed, along with another 54 activists, which the Advocate Online reprinted in April of last year.
To be fair, the print edition of The Advocate has addressed the HIV ban in past articles that are not available online but it made me wonder if the online news editor had any inkling that a ban also exists in this country.
In the past, we have questioned the Advocate's reliance on the AP wires as their main source for their online news, particularly when the AP kept sending stories that unilaterally focused on anti-gay activities and statements by conservative institutions in Puerto Rico without mention of pro-gay developments (or advocacy) in the island. The editor at the time replied that "we are an extremely small company with no full-time Web staff and do not have the resources to do original reporting for our Web site, so we rely on wire coverage and other media whose work we can summarize for our readers" - but that was a few years back.
Online portals being what they are today and considering improvement in original reporting in their print edition, let's hope that The Advocate is making moves to improve it's original reporting online as well.
Queerty, who never sees an Advocate blurb it doesn't like, screams "Australia has discovered a cure for AIDS: Banishment!" but it takes a reader to point out to them that, yes, the policy they're criticizing editorially is actually this country's policy as well.
False hopes? As for the United States HIV ban, President George W. Bush raised hopes last December that he might be open to changing the law when he directed the Secretaries of State and Homeland Security to "initiate a rulemaking that would propose a categorical waiver" for HIV travelers in the United States but Gay Men's Health Crisis and Immigration Equality issued a joint press release warning that the President's order "does not rescind HIV travel ban."
Coalition to Lift the Ban: A number of local - read: NY metropolitan area - HIV service providers, immigration advocates and agencies are organizing a community forum for May 15th on this topic. In their statement they say:
"For twenty years U.S. policy has banned HIV + non-citizens from traveling and immigrating to the U.S., supposedly to protect public health and minimize public costs. Yet forcing HIV+ immigrants underground, and discouraging preventative care, the bar increases the risk to public health and the cost of health care, while limiting the lives of affected immigrants in incalculable ways."
I may ad that a foreign student that might qualify for a student visa, a foreign worker that might qualify for a work-related visa, or a foreign person that might qualify for residency status based on a petition by a brother or sister who is a citizen of the United States, will not be allowed to gain entry into the United States if they are HIV+.
There are only limited waivers when the petition is made by parents of an HIV+ child or through marriage.
Feel free to reach me at blabbeando@gmail.com if you would like additional information on the May 15th forum.
I am afraid to ask but... what is the margin of error? Anything above 2% would bring it down to zero! More here, as for Bush in actual freefall, well, you can go and play here. (Thanks to Rod at Rod 2.0 for alerting me to this stunning poll number)
[Update: Margin of error is actually 3.4%. Read more here]
[Update #2: OK, maybe it's a little bit higher, but still dismal. Read more here]
I recently wrote about a statement released by the Democratic National Committee (DNC) in which Howard Dean lamented an address by Republican National Committee (RCN) Chair Ken Mehlman at a gathering organized in DC by the National Coalition of Latino Clergy and Christian Leaders (CONLAMIC).
Dean, criticizing Mehlman and the Bush government for trumpeting false pro-immigration policies at the CONLAMIC gathering, nevertheless praised the Coalition and said that he wished to set "the record straight" by telling CONLAMIC "the truth" about the Bush administration's record on immigration.
The DNC statement went out on September 22, 2005.
Hm... Maybe the DNC should have been at the press conference organized on that same date by CONLAMIC with Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist in support of Judge John Roberts' bid to become Chief Justice of the Supreme Court of the United States?
Unless the Democrats lose their fear of confronting fundamentalist religious pimping, be it Latino or not, they look just as cynical as they say Ken Mehlman's statements are.
As for Roberts, minutes ago he was confirmed as the 17th Supreme Court Chief Justice, to CONLAMIC's delight, and the DNC's dismay (they had opposed the nomination as well).
In some ways, while CONLAMIC stuck to their principles and won, the DNC and the Democratic party continue to split strategies and lose even when the current government has the lowest approval numbers of any administration in recent memory.
Arrest made in murder of Angie Zapata: Allen Ray Andrade (right) was arrested yesterday morning in Greely, Colorado, and charged with last week's brutal murder of transgender woman Angie Zapata.
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