AIDS Action Committee’s Blog

LET ME GET THIS STRAIGHT: last week the Bush Administration saw fit to increase funding for abstinence –only-until-marriage programming by 28 million dollars while simultaneously eviscerating healthcare funding for poor children. That means our government is putting kids at greater risk of HIV/AIDS, pregnancy and cervical cancer but is taking resources away from the very programs that will help these kids when they get sick and/or pregnant.

Young people need access to comprehensive health and sexuality education to make responsible decisions, prevent disease, and reduce unintended pregnancies so that they can lead healthy lives. Abstinence-only-until-marriage programs masquerade as education but in fact promote sexual ignorance. As a member of the AIDS community -and a new mother- I think that abstinence is a very important choice for young people. But it must not be presented in such a way that the health and well-being of young people are placed at greater risk.

For example, abstinence-only-until-marriage programs promote ambivalence about the efficacy of condoms. Under federal guidelines, these programs are prohibited from even discussing condoms except to emphasize their failure rates. Public Health professionals have spent the last 25 years trying to convince sexually active people of any age to use condoms to protect themselves. Besides – there is no evidence that these programs work. In fact, they have not been proven to delay the initiation of sexual activity, reduce the frequency of sex or the number of partners. To have the progress against the spread of HIV/AIDS undermined by programs that put ideology ahead of safety and health is heartbreaking and unconscionable.

Massachusetts currently accepts federal abstinence-only-until-marriage funds. We must join California, Maine and New Jersey and halt use of these funds immediately and reject any further funding. The health and well being of our young people depend upon it.

February 7, 2007 is being celebrated as National Black HIV/AIDS Awareness Day. Organizations have events planned all across the country. I’m sure prominent politicians and spokespersons of color will be trotted out and speak passionately about how this still devastating disease is wreaking havoc in communities of color. Their words will ring true.

This epidemic could be renamed the Black Plague, because HIV/AIDS is quickly becoming a disease of people of color. The numbers in developing countries and on the African continent coupled with the numbers in Black America make this real. As a black man who has lived with HIV/AIDS for 10 years I’ve seen first hand the devastation in my community. AIDS is the leading cause of death for black men/women aged 25-44. Think about that. A whole generation of folks, wiped out in their prime. Here in the Commonwealth people of color make up only 12% of the state population, yet they account for over 50% of new infections. For women the news is even more frightening. Black women account for 1/2 of all new infection in women and they have a 39 times higher likelihood to be positive than white women. These statistics are unacceptable. That our President didn’t even mention HIV/AIDS in the U.S. in his State of the Union is shameful.

In Massachusetts, February 7th is also our annual Lobby Day at the State House in Boston. We need to hit the State House in full force. We must let our new Governor and the legislature know that HIV/AIDS is still a devastating disease in the Commonwealth and it needs to be funded at the highest level. Please join us in the fight.

Word has quickly spread that (another) Phase III microbicide candidate has been taken off the shelf. Cellulose sulfate, an attachment inhibitor, may have been causing increased risk for HIV transmission in trials being done at several sites. As a result, these trials have been halted.
This news follows the closure of another phase III trial in August 2006. As Keith Alcorn wrote yesterday, that trial was showing “a lower than expected rate of HIV infections”. Though this is a less controversial reason for trial closure, both were cellulose sulfate and showed promise as contraceptive gels.
This is quite disheartening news for those of us working diligently to make microbicides a reality for the millions of women and men at risk for HIV through unprotected sex. Microbicides, a topical gel that could be used inside the vagina or anus during intercourse to reduce the likelihood of HIV transmission and possibly other STDs, would provide a non-barrier risk prevention option to the rather slim arsenal of HIV prevention options that currently exists.

Advocacy will now focus on the three products (all are not cellulose sulfate based) still in Phase III development, one of which is nearing completion and expected to have results by the end of this year. In the meantime, the microbicide advocacy community will continue to call for the necessary funding and support to meet the highest standards in HIV clinical trials and to put forth a greater inventory of promising candidate products.

Despite very little if any concrete epidemiological data to support the assertion that bug-chasing (people intentionally seeking to become HIV infected) really exists, this urban legend continues to surface. In today’s Boston Metro an article about the shameful statistics of homelessness among gay youth a throw-away comment about the phenomena was highlighted and pulled out in a special box in the article labeled “Contracting HIV.”

When pressed, the source for the article agreed that there is only anecdotal evidence that homeless queer youth claim to be seeking HIV in order to receive services, and that in fact, these claims are likely to be cries for help rather than actual plans of action. Adolescence is by its very nature a time for drama, and what’s not more dramatic than alleging suicidal intentions? I don’t doubt for a minute the desperate nature of being a homeless queer kid – I just don’t want us all to overreact and further marginalize and demonize homeless queer kids by taking everything they say too seriously. And, the truth about homeless queer kids is that an estimated one-quarter to one-third of them report engaging in survival sex during their time on the streets. That’s a horrifying enough reality without over blowing anecdotal cries for help.

And as for the hullabaloo that there is a community of gay men out there seeking HIV, again, I think the evidence is incredibly limited. I’ll even agree with Andrew Sullivan for a moment in his brilliant piece on Salon.com refuting claims made in Rolling Stone Magazine in 2003.

There’s more than enough work to be done to support queer youth and support people at risk for HIV without making up scary stories.