Puerto Rican first lady has apparently found the cure for AIDS

Lucé Vela, wife of Republican Puerto Rican Governor Luis Fortuño, says there is a cure for AIDS.

At least that's what Vela told a reporter today while participating at a World AIDS Day event in San Juan (Primera Hora currently lists it as their lead story on their web portal and has video of the brief interview as well).

This could have just been a slip of the tongue or some sort of unfortunate brain fart but, even if it was, it shows terrible lack of awareness about HIV/AIDS today of all days!

There has yet to be a statement from Vela or the island's governor explaining her comments.  If there is a forthcoming statement, expect the power couple to laugh it off as an unfortunate slip up.

I wasn't planning on writing about World AIDS Day. I know the date is meant to raise awareness about the issue and there is some merit to that. But, as someone who worked at an HIV prevention agency for almost fifteen years of my life, I also find a lot of the World AIDS Day observances to be self serving and - to a surprising degree - homophobic as well - particularly among those agencies that work with communities of color.  Agencies will highlight their work with children and women with HIV/AIDS or talk about their faith-based HIV prevention work while downplaying the gay angle to the disease.

And so governments will organize very special ceremonies and mourn the dead very respectfully.  And the White House will hang a huge red AIDS ribbon while President Barack Obama addresses the topic in a 45 second video. And corporations will chime in: The Gap resuscitates it's (RED)™ campaign.  Stars like Justin Timberlake and Lady Gaga - who are as gay friendly as they come - will play dead ans silence their Twitter accounts for a "Keep a Child Alive" campaign that doesn't mention gays at all.

And so, on to Puerto Rico's first lady and her comments.  Here is my translation of the interview caught on camera at Primera Hora:

Reporter: This is, eh, the First Lady, your comments, please, regarding this [World AIDS Day] march...
Lucé Vela: Look, this is the second time that I participate in these marches to create awareness about HIV.  We did it last year.  We are also present this year and we want, in this way, with all the people who have shown up this morning, to create awareness and that people know that this has a cure. That we can - if detected on time - if we can test people who are at high risk on time - look, that there is a cure for this.  That it could be people like the many people who are here with us this morning could be of benefit...
Reporter: Of benefit to society...
Lucé Vela: ...it could be of benefit to society that they get tested to be able to get the necessary treatment to push ahead and be healthy.

Yes, she said it twice.

What ads insult to injury is that Puerto Rico has such a sorry track record in providing appropriate care to people living with HIV/AIDS in the island.

Three years ago, I was able to assist New York Times reporter Erik Eckholm in translating interviews with HIV positive individuals in Puerto Rico during three-way telephone calls he made as the groundwork for a groundbreaking article titled "Puerto Rico's AIDS Care in Disarray over funds".

In that respect, Lucé Vela should be ashamed of implying people should get tested in order to be cured of AIDS.

One of the persons who blew the whistle on the 2007 scandal featured in the New York Times is José Colón, a longtime hero of mine, who could very well be described as the Larry Kramer of Puerto Rico.  He posted the following Spanish-language video on YouTube today in observance of World AIDS Day and I am posting it here just in case the Puerto Rican Governor's Office checks in:



As for Larry Kramer himself, my friend Rex Wockner just alerted me to the fact that he is also none too happy with the Obama administration's World AIDS Day response. You can check out an interview he did with the New York Daily News here.

Mexican supreme court will determine constitutionality of Mexico City's marriage equality law: NY Times

On December 29th Alex Freyre and José Maria Di Bello shocked the world by becoming the first gay couple to be allowed to marry in all of Latin America. Their marriage victory in Argentina came after a protracted court battle which ended when a Buenos Aires judge ruled that it was discriminatory to deny them the right to marry. A Buenos Aires court placed a stay on that ruling but the couple circumvented that last obstacle by traveling to Tierra del Fuego, where that municipality's Governor's Office allowed the marriage to proceed, making Latin American history at the end of 2009.

By some accounts, more than a hundred same sex couples in Argentina have filed marriage claims following Freyre and Di Bello's historic wedding but, as of now, there are still no laws allowing same-sex couples to marry anywhere in Argentina and no marriage bureaus willing to grant marriage rights to other couples.

is no law allowing those marriages to take place or a marriage bureau willing to start processing additional marriages. The matter is to be decided later this year when the Supreme Court is expected to take up the matter and determine whether the Argentinian constitution is indeed discriminatory in not allowing same-sex couples to wed.

Buenos Aires already enjoyed the reputation of being the first city in Latin America to have granted limited civil union benefits to same-sex couples in the year 2003. In 2007, Uruguay became the first Latin American country to adopt a country-wide same-sex civil unions measure. In 2009, the Colombian constitutional court stopped short of calling for marriage equality but ruled that same-sex partners had the right to the same rights as heterosexual couples. Mexico City and other Mexican localities have also passed limited same-sex civil union statutes since 2006. Some municipalities in Brazil and Ecuador have also passed similar measures. But it wasn't until December that Mexico City became the first municipality in all of Latin America to approve a law allowing same-sex partners to marry. The law goes into effect on Thursday, March 4th, and hundreds of couples are expected to take advantage of the opportunity to marry.

As you would expect, the measure, which also allows same-sex couples to have the same adoption rights as heterosexual partners, has drawn the ire of right-wing political parties and conservative religious groups. Mexico's attorney general has filed a suit to block the law before the Mexican supreme court. The court recently announced that it will accept the suit and determine whether the law is constitutional. But the suit won't reach the court until possibly the end of the year and, by then, hundreds of couples might have already married.

Today's New York Times takes a look at the law and its repercussions. I believe it gives too much credence to the conservative parties that are trying to derail the law but it is a worthy read ["Gay marriage puts Mexico City at center of debate"]. It is also the only English-language coverage that I have seen covering the right-wing challenges that await the landmark law in months to come.

So, come March 4th, please join me in celebrating the same-sex marriages that will take place in Mexico City and rejoice in their historic nature. But also know that the law faces incredible challenges in the future and that the marriage equality fight in Mexico, as in the United States, is far from won.

From "Coming Out at 48" to "Coming Out / Staying Out"...

There are more than a few interesting bloggers out there and one that caught my eye early in my own blogging timeline was "Chris P." who blogged at Coming Out at 48.

The sub-head below the blog title read "At 48, a married man tells his wife he is gay. Life stops in its tracks and then begins again. He still goes to sleep in the evening and he still rises in the morning, but everything has changed" and his blog entries were a fascinating series of semi-daily observations by a man whose whole world had suddenly shifted as he made his first tentative steps out as a gay man, not without some trepidation.

I wasn't the only one reading. Coming Out at 48 was featured in a New York Times article in August of 2006 ("When the Beard is Too Painful to Remove"). Here is an excerpt from the article:

The loss [of a long term spouse] comes on top of the adolescent awkwardness of not knowing the social norms of a new world, described on the blog Coming Out at 48. Its author, who identifies himself only as Chris, writes of changing his clothes many times before heading to his first gay bar, finding it empty and not realizing he had arrived too early. He writes of not understanding the sexual terminology in gay personal ads and looking for an “always gay’’ man to teach him what he needed to know.

In an e-mail exchange, Chris compared the experience to “living abroad,’’ where the “thrill of a new place’’ competes with “the deep loneliness’’ of unfamiliarity. It is not, he said “the existential loneliness of not knowing who you are and where you belong, but the loneliness of ‘What am I going to do this weekend?’ ‘How am I supposed to behave?’ or ‘When will the phone start to ring?’ ’’

Eventually, "Chris" found surer footing in this new world an met someone with whom he clicked. Coming Out at 48 remained online (it's still in my blog roll) but most blog entries disappeared. "Chris" decided to focus on his new life instead. Until now.

Meet Paul. For a while now, I have been keeping in touch with "Chris", whose real name is Paul, and he recently reached out to say that he had launched a brand new blog. He felt the itch to write again and to share his most recent experiences. His new blog, "Coming Out / Staying Out" has been added to my blog roll. It's still in its infancy but I am sure it will be worth your time. Feel free to ad it to your RSS feeds.

Related:

• On Writing (Coming Out / Staying Out)

Thank goodness...

The Times has more reader-submitted photos here. Thank goodness nobody perished (except the geese) or ended up like the all time classic "Airport'77" (itself "bigger, more exciting than "Airport 1975" according to the advertising and featuring Brenda Baccaro, Olivia de Havilland, Christopher Lee, George Kennedy and James Stewart, among other luminaries).

Charles Ober gets New York Times endorsement for Tuesday's City Council special election

UPDATE: Unfortunately, Charlie did not emerge the victor ("Only 70 votes separate 2 candidates in City Council Race," Newsday, June 3, 2008)

As readers of the blog know, this Tuesday voters in Queens' 30th District (covering Ridgewood, Glendale and Middle Village) will elect for someone to replace disgraced Republican Councilmember Dennis Gallagher in a special election.

Readers also know that my friend Charles Ober is vying for the seat as a Democrat and an openly gay candidate in what is considered to be a conservative district. He has already been the focus of a vile homophobic and anonymous letter writing campaign to dissuade voters from voting in his favor.

Being gay, of course, does not automatically qualify you for the city council, but Charlie has certainly worked hard as a community leader in Queens for decades and he has certainly earned his right to vie for the seat. As a friend, I might be biased in my support, but some less biased observers also think he is the best candidate among the contenders.

The New York Times editorial board, for one, endorsed Ober yesterday:

Charles Ober [is] a financial executive and community activist. The fact that Mr. Ober is openly gay has drawn attention because of the district’s conservative leanings. But more important are his deep roots in the community and the years he has spent engaging his neighbors on problems like prostitution and graffiti. His energy and civic engagement would be a valuable addition in the City Council.

By all accounts the leading candidate is Democrat Elizabeth Crowley, the cousin of Congressman Joe Crowley, who happens to be the Queens Democratic Party boss. She has also shown not to be all that gay-friendly.

Back in April, Azi Paybarah of the New York Observer noted that Ober had won the endorsement of the Stonewall Democratic Club - the largest LGBT political club in the city - and that Crowley did not even show up at the endorsement meeting.

This in itself does not make her unfriendly to gays but more telling was her campaign's response when those anti-gay letters began to appear in voter's mailing boxes: The Crowley camp not only failed to repudiate the letters but insinuated that the Ober campaign might have made them up (On May 1st, Crowley campaign manager Michael Reich told the New York Daily News "It looks like they manufactured an issue and tried to get press on it").

Considering these developments and the fact that Ober might be poised to become the first openly gay candidate from Queens to be elected to the city council you might think that the only gay Democratic club in the borough might give him a ringing endorsement.

Alas, you might be wrong.

Gay City News reported that the Lesbian & Gay Democratic Club of Queens voted 19-0 in favor of endorsing Crowley over Ober. This despite the fact that Ober showed up at the endorsement meeting and completed a candidate's questionnaire and - big surprise! - Crowley did neither ("Gay Council Bid in Queens," May 15, 2008).

Pauline Park, also a friend, put it this way "It's really hypocritical and extraordinary that they would not endorse a qualified gay candidate especially when they endorsed a candidate who has no apparent qualification for public office at all except that she's the cousin of the county boss."

Then last week Crowley met with the editorial board of the Queens Tribune and came out against same-sex marriage ("Gay Dems' pick in Queens Opposes Gay Marriage," May 29, 2008).

This played into the paper's endorsement on Thursday which says, in part:

Charles Ober, a longtime civic and Democratic activist in his Ridgewood community who served the LGBT community for the past decade as the board president of the Queens Pride House, is a thoughtful candidate unafraid to tell voters how he feels on critical issues, regardless of the way the wind is blowing through any particular audience.

A spokesperson for the Lesbian and Gay Democratic Club of Queens indicated that the club's endorsement was still secure in Crowley's hand. "It's surprising because she did send a representative to the club and she showed interest in getting our endorsement," he said, "I'm not going to try to minimize that."

He also added that "It doesn't make Charlie Ober any better of a candidate; we're not comfortable with Ober's relationship to our club," indicating that their endorsement (or lack of one) speaks to animosity against Ober and is not necessarily based on merit.

If you are someone who can cast a vote this Tuesday in the 30th district in Queens, I urge you to pull the lever for Ober. Show that Queens can elect a Councilmember based on his or her ability to serve the 30th District and not on who the Democratic Party boss - or the Gay and Lesbian Democratic Club of Queens - tells you to vote for.

Related:

• The Gay Tammany Hall of Queens (The Visible Vote, June 2, 208)

Previously:

• Homophobic campaign literature emerges in NYC council race (May 1, 2008) - includes VIDEO
• Charles Ober runs for City Council (March 21, 2008)

Manhattan Offender flushes the toilet

Ok, I realize this is a rather jarring entry considering today is "Blabbaeando is Orange for a Day" day (if you read this post after Nov. 11th that whole sentence won't make too much sense anyway) BUT how genius is this:

Manhattan Offender just finished live blogging from - err - one of the brand new $100,000 public bathrooms that the Bloomberg administration has bestowed to the City of New York (they might well be the most complicated public bathrooms in the world as well - see buttons, right).

In chronological order: Intro, Tolitet Live Blog I, II, III, IV, V, VI (NSFW), VII, VIII, IX, Outro, and Post-Mortem.

My favorite live blogging observation: "Passersby are fascinated. By a toilet. This is the future of news."

Be forewarned, though:

Black dispenses toilet paper. One will quickly familiarize oneself with that button, because the designers have deigned a little 16-inch strip the standard helping of paper. A word to the wise: There is a maximum of just three helpings.

That, according to The Times this morning.

The news stories that stuck with me in 2007

As a regular newshound there are always a few stories that stick with you at year's end. This year its seems they are mostly about immigration.

This was the year that immigration became a political bugaboo (replacing, in some ways, same sex marriage as a wedge issue). Two of the stories that spring to mind are related to migrant labor and the harshness of life in the streets for some of the undocumented immigrants that come to the United States seeking work.

In late November The New York Times profiled a Colombian-born man from Queens, Jorge Muñoz, and his daily efforts to provide warm home-made food to the day laborers that congregate in the streets of Woodside, just a few blocks away from my own apartment, as they try to get picked up in the early mornings to do the menial and rural work that most people won't do.

It might be argued that Mr. Muñoz makes it easier for undocumented immigrants to remain in the country by providing them food but just try to sleep in the streets of New York on a winter night and sustain yourself on one meal a day and then talk to me about "easy."

You might be surprised by some of my views on immigration (I, for one, do believe that each country has the right to regulate immigration and was also against NYS Governor Eliot Spitzer's push to grant driving licences to undocumented immigrants) but - as an immigrant myself - I also understand the sacrifices that these men make to make a living in this country and loathe the way that anti-immigrant zealots try to deny their humanity.

It is for this reason that I found Adam Bellick's story for the Times ("The Chicken and Rice Man") so inspiring as well as this video documenting Mr. Muñoz's work.

Another story that caught my eye this year - not as inspiring and much more disturbing - appeared in September in the largest Spanish language newspaper in Los Angeles, La Opinion ("Prostituyen a Jornaleros"). Reporter Claudia Núñez takes a look at migrant workers who allege that they have been targeted by some gay men for sex in exchange for money or outright threats. Núñez avoids - for the most part - the lurid trappings of reporting such a story and catches a couple of American men as they pick up on a younger undocumented immigrant for sex. She admits that some of the dynamics at work involves immigrants who are more than willing to make a quick buck in exchange for sex with men but also captures the vulnerability of some of these men and the shame that forces them to keep instances of sexual abuse under wraps for fear of being deported or being tagged as gay by others. New American Media translated the story and named it as one of the two Best Hispanic Media Stories of 2007.

On Christmas Day, the Chicago Tribune also ran the first mainstream news story that I have ever seen on participation by LGBT advocates in last summer's immigration rights rallies ("Gay Immigrants Fight to Join Movement"). Unfortunately they also play up the fact that one older man hurled insults at gay marchers questioning their presence.

My experiences during immigration rights rallies in New York have been different and show that most participants more than welcome LGBT contingents and seem to recognize not only that there are transgender folk marching but also the symbolism of the rainbow flag.

I am sure there has been a homophobic presence at the various rallies but I can say without a doubt that I have never seen any homophobic sentiments expressed at the rallies I have been in.

Speaking about immigrants, the Spanish-language edition of the Miami Herald (appropriately named El Nuevo Herald) ran an incredibly moving story in February about Carlos Mielgo, a 45 year old Cuban-born man struggling with cancer and the unwavering support from his partner of 14 years, 52 year-old Joe Vásquez. The Spanish language version of the story is still accessible ("Cuando el amor se jura con palabra de hombre"). Can't find the English-language version except for a mention in Steve Rothaus' blog here.

What makes it a personal story for the Miami Herald is that Carlos is a former employee of the newspaper.

Perhaps the most moving story I read this year has nothing to do with immigration. Instead, it has to do with a man wrongly convicted for raping and killing a high school classmate and freed earlier this year after 16 years in prison.

In the November New York Times story ("Vindicated by DNA, but a lost man on the outside"), Fernanda Santos takes a look at the life of Jeffrey Deskovic after being freed through efforts from The Innocence Project. Mr. Deskovic has a MySpace page should you care to contact him after reading the article.

Tidbits: Michael J. Sandy, HIV & Latinos, Montel Williams, alien invasion

A few tidbits:

• Both Gay City News (here) and The New York Times (here) have stunning news from the Michael J. Sandy murder trial: One of the accused defendants says he is also gay in a trial that prosecutors have tagged as a hate crime against a gay man.
• Mike Lavers looks at the 9/11 announcement from the New York City Department of Health on the increasing HIV transmission rate among black and Latino "men who have sex with men" in New York.
• My friend Pauline Park (pictured above when we were both Heritage of Pride parade judges in 2004) will be on "The Montel Williams Show" this Thursday. This is what she has to say about the show:

The segment will include Susan Stanton's first television interview since she transitioned and was fired as city manager of Largo (a small city in Florida near Tampa). The show will also feature an interview with the father of a Duke University student who was informed that a transgendered woman would be moving into her dormitory on campus. The hour-long segment will conclude with an interview with a 12-year-old girl who was born male and a 26-year-old transman who recently began transitioning from female and with the mothers of both individuals.

I was invited to comment as a 'guest expert' sitting in the front row of the audience, and while I have not seen the edited version of the show that will be airing on Thursday, I thought Montel handled the interviews with sensitivity. The show airs from 1-2 p.m. on Channel 9 in New York City; check your local listings for air times in other cities.

It might all be a moot point though because, as few people know, the pod people might are already here: Disturbing news from Perú (h/t Towleroad)

In Puerto Rico, AIDS care in crisis

New York Times reporter Erik Eckholm spent a few days in Puerto Rico investigating claims that mismanagement of Ryan-White HIV/AIDS care funding had led to clients going without HIV treatment medicines for weeks at a time and to HIV-treatment waiting lists for newly diagnosed HIV-positive individuals.

A few days ago, upon his return from the island, I was glad to be able to act as translator for a telephone interview he did with a service provider as he sought additional information for the article he was writing.

The result of his investigation appears in an article from today's newspaper ("Puerto Rico's AIDS Care in Disarray Over Funds," June 5, 2007).

Ratching up their Latino cred (or at least attempting to do so), Republican Oklahoma Senator Tom Coburn and Democratic New York State Senator (and presidential candidate) Hillary Clinton have each released letters expressing concern about the goings-on (Coburn's letter can be accessed here; I can't find an online link to the Clinton letter but I've posted an image of it above and here).

There are advocates working diligently in Puerto Rico, New York and DC to draw attention to the dire situation in the island and to make sure that those without access to HIV medicines are quickly brought into appropriate care.

Let's hope that the Times article puts enough pressure on the Puerto Rico government and on federal HIV treatment funders to resolve the situation quickly and prevent this from ever happening again in the island.

My New York: La Paisa rules

In the past, Oswaldo Gomez a/k/a La Paisa a/k/a Ms. Colombia a/k/a Luz Clarita has been featured in the Queens Tribune, New York Press, the Associated Press and VH1's Best Week Ever (the week they chose "Gays" as having their best week ever) and even on Blabbeando.

On Sunday it was The New York Times that ran the above picture in their City section Op-Ed Photo page (see "Multimedia" here). Congrats Oswaldo! We are proud of you.

Governor Spitzer: No gay marriage in the next 9.5 weeks

In yesterday's New York Times, Governor Eliot Spitzer addressed his priorities for the two months left in the current legislative session with campaign reform at the top. Not among the priorities, gay marriage, an issue he supported before being elected governor.

This morning The Politicker's Azi Paybarah stopped by a breakfast presentation at Crain's by the Governor in which he spoke of the recent bruising budget fight with the health care industry. At the meeting Spitzer was asked why gay marriage was not listed among his priorities. His response? It's something that is "not likely to be passed in the next ten weeks."

Over at the Daily News Daily Politics Elizabeth Benjamin cuts the time to 9.5 weeks and quotes Spitzer as saying "I am focusing on politics as the art of the possible."

OK, then. How about in 12 weeks? 30? Hm, any forseable time during your tenure as Governor?

Paul Schindler at Gay City News elaborates in an article for today's print edition and says that some leading same-sex marriage advocates and friendly legislators still think that Spitzer will support a same-sex marriage bill sooner than later (if not in the next 9.5 weeks).

Rev. Al Sharpton on FBI probe of Rev. Ruben Diaz, Sr.

The Reverend Al Sharpton on the current FBI probe of State Senator Ruben Diaz, Sr. and his son, Assemblymember Ruben Diaz, Jr.:

The fact of the matter is that it might not hurt them at all. Sometimes, in communities of color, attacks from law enforcement backfire. When you’re under attack, it gives your supporters a chance to rally around you, especially when the attacks seem unfair or unwarranted.

From a profile of the Senator and his son in today's New York Times. The article notes the differences of opinion between father and son on issues regarding same-sex marriage and abortion, among other issues (h/t The Agenda).

NYC Health Commissioner: The Times "misrepresented" comments on circumcision

[NOTE: This statement was sent out to community activists in .pdf form earlier today. I have not been able to find a direct link to the statement at the Health Department's site but the LifeLube blog also received the document and has uploaded and made it available for download here]

THE CITY OF NEW YORK DEPARTMENT OF HEALTH AND MENTAL HYGIENE
Michael R. Bloomberg, Mayor
Thomas R. Frieden, M.D., M.P.H., Commissioner

nyc.gov/health

April 9, 2007

Dear Community Member:

Recent media reports misrepresent the Health Department’s response to recent studies showing that circumcision significantly reduces HIV transmission in some contexts. We do not yet know what impact circumcision could have on HIV transmission in New York City, and we have not suggested or planned any initiative or campaign. Quite to the contrary, I indicated in an interview with the New York Times (the source of the misrepresentation) that I very much doubted that even 1% of men at high risk in NYC would undergo the procedure.

As a result of rigorous studies, we now know that circumcision reduces risk of female-to-male spread of HIV by about 60%. There is some evidence, but no proof, that circumcision may reduce male-to-female transmission. There is also some evidence, but again no proof, that it may protect men who engage in insertive anal sex from male-to-male transmission.

Our goals are the following:

• Inform the community of the facts regarding what is known and what is not known about circumcision’s effects on HIV transmission;
• Promote discussion among community groups and health care providers to explore how circumcision may be relevant in New York City;
• Increase access to circumcision for men who want the procedure.

The need for new effective prevention methods is urgent. But even if circumcision is as effective in preventing male-to-male transmission as it is in preventing female-to-male transmission, it does not by any means eliminate the risk of becoming infected with, or spreading, HIV. Any new approach, including circumcision, needs to be seen as an addition to our existing portfolio of proven HIV prevention strategies, including reduction of unsafe sexual encounters and consistent condom use.

There will be a community forum in the next few weeks to discuss these issues and we hope you can attend.

Sincerely,
Thomas R. Frieden, M.D., M.P.H.
Commissioner

Brazil: Circumcision not an HIV prevention tool for gay men

If it wasn't for Vivir Latino on my blog roll, I might have missed this tidbit from Spain's 20 Minutos.

Turns out that even before NYC health commissioner Thomas Frieden spoke to The New York Times on plans to promote circumcision as an HIV prevention method for men "at high risk" of HIV transmission in the city, the head of another health department a few thousand miles away had pretty much rejected that same idea based on the same studies that Frieden used to support his push.

On March 28th, the World Health Organization and UNAIDS released a joint statement recommending that "male circumcision should be part of a comprehensive HIV prevention package."

In the statement Dr. Kevin De Cock (love the name), Director of the HIV/AIDS Department at WHO, said:

The recommendations represent a significant step forward in HIV prevention. Countries with high rates of heterosexual HIV infection and low rates of male circumcision now have an additional intervention which can reduce the risk of HIV infection in heterosexual men. Scaling up male circumcision in such countries will result in immediate benefit to individuals. However, it will be a number of years before we can expect to see an impact on the epidemic from such investment.

In addition the statement warns that before implementing the plan among other populations further research was needed:

In countries where the HIV epidemic is concentrated in specific population groups such as sex workers, injecting drug users or men who have sex with men, there would be limited public health impact from promoting male circumcision in the general population.

Not heeding those caveats, the Times says that Frieden told them that "it is logical to assume that circumcision would offer protection in some types of gay sex."

Enter Brazil: Known for their groundbreaking HIV prevention programs, particularly in gay populations, Mariángela Simao - the technical advisor of the Brazilian health ministry - told news agency EFE that the studies did not provide any data that circumcision reduced the risk of HIV transmission among gay men.

She also pointed out that the recommendations only were applicable in countries where HIV incidence reached more than 15% of the population which would leave out every Latin American country.

Simao expressed concern that circumcised men might get the message that it is OK for them to have unprotected sex without any risks of HIV transmission and said that she feared that, based on the recommendations, developed countries would now devote current international HIV treatment funding towards circumcision surgery procedures instead of proven methods.

In other words, Brazil has officially rejected circumcision as an HIV prevention method amongst gay men - until specific studies are done - and says that they would rather concentrate their prevention funding on promoting condom use and the free availability of HIV treatments for those that test positive.

Updates: In his statement to the New York Times Commissioner Frieden said that he had consulted gay rights and helth service organizations before speaking to the Times but in the April 6 edition of The New York Post, Tokes Osubu, Executive Director of Gay Men of African Descent says "For anyone to think there is going to be a long line of men in their 20's lining up to have part of their anatomy chopped off, it's ludicrous" and Michael Robinson of People of Color in Crisis says "I can't imagine us going around encouraging adult men to have adult circumcision. It's just too painful."

If these are the reactions of two top gay African-American leaders in the city I wonder which gay advocacy and health service organizations the Commissioner did reach before speaking to media. An April 7 New York Post editorial criticized Dr. Frieden for the proposal (but it should be said that the Post has previously assailed Frieden for some of the City's sound health policy projects including the indoor public space smoking ban and a proposal to ban trans-fats from being used in restaurants throughout the city).

On April 6, the New York Times printed a follow up article in which Mayor Michael Blooberg seemed to distance himself a bit from Frieden's statements.

The Agenda blog also points out that the New York City Department of Health and Mental Hygiene posted a brief response to some of the criticism that sprung over at the New York Times political blog, The Empire Zone (read comments here).

In the brief statement Geoffrey Cowley, a spokesman for the Department of Health, denies that agency is ready to launch a campaign to promote circumcision as an HIV prevention tool in New York City but says that, considering the results of the research in Africa, the possibility is worth exploring.

The Department of Health has also said that they will be organizing community town-hall meetings on the issue to get some feed-back.

Michael J. Sandy and so many others

Something that was said at today's City Hall press conference (2nd from top) in response to the senseless death of Michael J. Sandy last week stuck with me: We have been here before.

Whether it's Michael last week (holding the crystal ball above); Kevin Aviance (3rd from top making his first public appearance after being assaulted at an anti hate-crime march this summer); Rashawn Brazell (his mom, Desire Brazell, 4th from top, at a Brooklyn vigil this summer to draw attention to her son's murder); Nelson Torres (an employee of the Hispanic AIDS Forum, 5th from top, who survived an attack in 2005); my friend Eddie Garzon (that's his family holding a memorial prayer on the sidewalk where he laid bleeding five years ago this summer, 6th from top), Sakia Gunn, Rodney Velazquez, Dwan Prince, Julio Rivera, it's as if history keeps repeating itself.

This must stop. Unfortunately, I have the feeling that it won't be long 'til we see more of the same. Please help me to make sure that it does not.

NOTE: More photos of today's press conference at my Fotki site (if you want to post or reproduce them please ask for permission by writing to blabbeando@gmail.com).

Other observations:

• Gathering in Michael's name (Bejata, Oct. 17, 2006)
• NYC Hall Press Conference for Michael Sandy (Brotthaluva Cafe, Oct. 16, 2006)
  

"Michael J. Sandy almost escaped his death..."

That's the lead sentence in a story that appears on the front page of the New York Times Metro Section tomorrow ("From Crime to Arrest, By Way of Computer," October 15, 2006).

The article takes a look at how NYPD detectives were able to trace back what happened a week ago tonight when Mr. Sandy was lured into a trap by someone he thought was offering to have a sexual encounter when it actually turned out to be four heterosexual white youth who had previously decided to try to rob a gay man using a single profile to lure him.

The Times tells what happened next:

When Mr. Sandy pulled up to a Sheepshead Bay street corner last Sunday, he found not the lone man he thought he had been exchanging instant messages with, but two men. Uncomfortable, he drove away.

Back home, Mr. Sandy resumed his online chat with the man calling himself “fireyefox,” who persuaded him to go through with the rendezvous.

Later that night, Mr. Sandy was led to a trash-strewn parking lot near the Belt Parkway, and confronted by four men who, the authorities say, were hoping to rob him. He was beaten and chased onto the highway, where he was hit by a car. On Friday, a day after Mr. Sandy turned 29, his family removed him from a respirator.

Detectives were able to determine these things from something that Mr. Sandy did not do before he went out a second time that night: He did not turn off his computer and left his Adam4Adam profile on (the Times also runs a photo of Mr. Sandy's Friendster profile).

What follows is an incredibly sad and vivid account of the confrontation near the Belt Parkway and disturbing emerging profiles of the four assailants.

"It wasn't a hate crime against blacks or gays," says a young woman who knew the assailants but did not give her name to the Times. Then she ads "They were looking to rob him. They didn't think he'd fight back if he was gay."

As for Mr. Sandy's passing on Friday afternoon, McCartha L. Lewis, his aunt, tells the Times "He was already gone, he's resting in the arms of Jesus right now."

Ms. Lewis is also known as the soca music performer Calypso Rose.

REMEMBER: A rally in memory of Michael Sandy is scheduled for Monday afternoon at 5pm on the steps of the New York City Council building. It's being organized by People of Color in Crisis, the New York State Black Gay Network, the New York City Gay and Lesbian Anti-Violence Project and the National Black Justice Coalition and has been endorsed by Brooklyn Pride.

RALLY/VIGIL FOR MICHAEL SANDY
MONDAY OCTOBER 16
5:00 pm
City Hall, Manhattan
2/3 to Park Place
4/5/6/J/M/Z to Brooklyn Bridge/City Hall
A/C to Broadway-Nassau
R/W to City Hall

According to Michael's MySpace profile, a memorial is also being planned. For updates please write to: Friends.of.Michael.Sandy@gmail.com

Quinceañera opens tomorrow in NYC and Los Angeles

The reviews are in for Quinceañera and they are overwhelmingly positive:

Stephen Holden at The New York Times: "As smart and warmhearted an exploration of an upwardly mobile immigrant culture as American independent cinema has produced"

John Anderson's 3 1/2 starred review at Newsday: "An ostensibly innocent act, with vibrations that travel around forever" (the lead actors are also interviewed here)

Kevin Thomas of the Los Angeles Times: "Endearing and perceptive"

Ella Taylor of the LA Weekly: A "saucy, rowdy, heartfelt and terribly sweet movie" and ads "Quinceañera neither skirts nor condescends to the difficulties faced by poor urban communities assailed by rapid change. Like Mi Vida Loca, Allison Anders’ 1993 Echo Park girl-gangbanger melodrama, it’s an act of solidarity with a threatened minority, but one that never falls into Anders’ exuberant embrace of ethnic stereotype"

Gary M. Kramer in Gay City News: "Profoundly moving"

Dissenting voices come from indieWIRE and the conservative-leaning New York Sun (who pass similar judgements as I perhaps did in my previous post, though I am willing to reconsider in light of some of the reviews and this interview from Jennifer Merin in the New York Press).

(Above photo of Quinceañera directors, writers and lovers Wash Westmoreland and Richard Glatzer at the 2006 Sundance Film Festival taken by Brian Brooks for indiWIRE)

Last we heard about CP...

Last we heard about CP on Blabbeando, he was giving us his thoughts on "Brokeback Mountain."

This morning, when I picked up the New York Times and saw a story on married men who take years to come to terms with their sexuality and begin to make the difficult choice of staying or leaving their marriages, CP came to mind and I planned to forward it to him when I got to the office.

That is, before I read the last few paragraphs which actually mention his blog, Coming Out at 48, and quotes him on his experience. Not sure that CP was looking for quite that amount of attention when he began his blog but it felt like seeing a friend after a while of not hearing from him.

It's a truly amazing blog even if CP has indicated in the past that there is the possibility that there won't be any additional postings.

You should check it out sometime.

NY Times: Stepping off plane, man is arrested in '01 Queens murder

NY Times: Stepping Off Plane, Man Is Arrested in '01 Queens Murder

By KAREEM FAHIM

Published: June 30, 2006

Five years ago, the fatal beating of Edgar Garzon, a gay man, as he walked home from a bar in Jackson Heights sent tremors through the gay community in Queens. But the crime soon faded from public attention after the terrorist attacks on Sept. 11, 2001.

The police said they did not forget, and on Wednesday night they arrested John L. McGhee, 38, at Kennedy International Airport, as he stepped off a plane from London. Mr. McGhee, an ex-convict, was charged with murder, manslaughter and attempted robbery, the authorities said.

The police said that Mr. McGhee fled the United States for England soon after the beating of Mr. Garzon. It is unclear when Mr. McGhee became a suspect, but in the last year detectives in New York, acting on tips, tracked him to London and began cooperating with their British counterparts, law enforcement officials said.

When Mr. McGhee applied for citizenship there — and lied on his application by not revealing his criminal history — there was an opportunity to bring him home, the officials said. Authorities in London told Mr. McGhee to leave England or face prosecution there, the officials said.

On Aug. 15, 2001, Mr. Garzon, 35, a restaurant owner, had been walking home from the Friends Tavern, a gay bar, when two men followed him in a red car, officials said. They said one of the men beat him with a blunt object and fractured his skull. Mr. Garzon went into a coma, then died on Sept. 4, 2001.

A law enforcement official said that elements of the beating, including the fact that Mr. Garzon made a comment to one of the men about wanting a date, according to a witness at the time, led to theories that it was a hate crime.

Richard A. Brown, the Queens district attorney, said yesterday that prosecutors were still investigating the murder as a "possible hate crime."

Detectives from the 115th Precinct in Jackson Heights, led by Detective Daniel Corey, led the push to find Mr. Garzon's killer, officials said yesterday. Mr. Garzon's father, Armando Garzon, 72, praised the police yesterday, saying that they had "persisted in solving the case that in the beginning lacked substantial evidence — only a video snippet of a red car," he said.

Details of Mr. McGhee's life in London were not available yesterday, except that he lived, at some point, in a house by a park in London and was unemployed at the time he left, according to officials. His history of arrests in the United States stretched back to 1987, though the details of those arrests, at least five in New York, were not immediately known.

At some point before Mr. McGhee left for London, he bragged of the killing to a friend, officials said.

Mr. Garzon's father, who splits his time now between his native country, Colombia, and New York, said his son, a restaurateur, was a "happy, carefree man who never had a single enemy." Speaking in Spanish, he spoke proudly of his son's accomplishments, and said that he and his family "have focused on persisting."

"The murder trial and its resolution will give me final peace of mind," he said.

Mick Meenan contributed reporting for this article.

Other coverage:

• AP: Man arrested 5 years after Queens attack on gay man (June 29, 2006)
• New York Daily News: Arrest in gay killing after five long years (June 30, 2006)
• Newsday: Arrest in '01 slay of gay man (June 30, 2006)
• New York Post: '01 'Gay-Bash Killer' Gets Caught at JFK (June 30, 2006)
• Gothamist.com: Five year old murder gets an arrest (June 30, 2006)

Marga Gomez comes home: Los Big Names

It's nice to see Marga Gomez get some props in today's New York Times.

She is featured in the "One to Watch" section of their annual Spring theatre season preview. The amazing actress will be bringing her auto-biographical one-woman show "Los Big Names" to New York on April 9th. It's the latest in a series of solo performances in which she explores living in the United States as a Latina lesbian and her relationship with her family. Often hilarious, she also mines deeply personal and emotional universal themes. Currently, "Los Big Names" is playing at the Magic Theatre in San Francisco's Mission District before its Broadway debut so if you're in San Francisco, check it out!

As for her big-time Hollywood movie debut as "military personnel and computer expert Jane Edmund" in "Sphere," check out her thoughts here.