Washington Blade - September 9, 2005

SAN FRANCISCO - A $1.5 million grant from the city's Department of Public Health will help the Stop AIDS Project begin new HIV prevention and support programs for HIV-positive gay men, according to the Bay Area Reporter. "For us, these programs are about reducing the stigma of being HIV-positive and to help in HIV prevention," said Michael Cooley, the project's Positive Force program director. A variety of special events, workshops and support groups will be included in the programs, plus five weekend-long seminars in the next year called "Positive Living for Us." The seminars will include discussion on general health, nutrition, HIV treatment, alternative therapies and coping strategies.

Rome hospital rejects blood donation from gay man

ROME - One of Italy's largest hospitals is under fire after deciding to stop a gay man from giving blood, the United Kingdom Guardian reported. Italian Health Minister Francesco Storace condemned the Policlinico hospital in Milan for stopping a 39-year-old writer from giving blood after he told staff he was gay. The man, Paolo Pedote, said hospital officials told him that even though Italian law allows him to give blood, it was "internal policy" that gay male donors be rejected. Storace said the hospital's move was "very serious and unacceptable," and launched an inquiry into the incident. "We intend to determine the administrative responsibility," Storace told reporters. "But what has happened could also be grounds for a criminal investigation." Paolo Rebulla, director of Policlinico's transfusion center, said he stands by the staff's decision, which he said follows policy based on "strongly prudential criteria." Rebulla said the hospital has "a fundamental duty to protect patients who receive blood." The hospital policy excludes adult males who have had sex with other men in the previous five years from giving blood.

Tenn. woman sues 'ex-gay' therapist over alleged affair

NASHVILLE, Tenn. (AP) - A woman who sought to change her sexual orientation through faith-based counseling is suing her female therapist, contending she was manipulated into having a gay relationship with the therapist. Beverly A. Grubb, 59, alleges that Phyllis Garrison, a licensed clinical social worker at TrueHope for the Best Alternative in Brentwood, led her into an intimate domestic living arrangement that ended three months ago. Grubb had gone to TrueHope hoping to be reoriented to heterosexuality in 1997. The lawsuit, which names both Garrison and TrueHope, was filed last month in Williamson County Circuit Court. Grubb is seeking unspecified damages for breach of confidentiality, emotional distress, lost wages and humiliation. "I went to TrueHope for the cure and, while they didn't cure me, I believe you can be cured," Grubb told the Tennessean last week. "I'm a devout Christian. This isn't real easy for me." Garrison declined to comment.

Abused lesbians suffer without support services, study says

EDINBURGH - Without support services to address their specific needs, lesbians in abusive same-sex relationships suffer in silence, according to a new study, Scotland's Sunday Herald reported. Rebecca Barnes, a researcher at Nottingham University, presented findings at Aberdeen University. Officials interviewed 39 lesbians who have suffered abuse to get a view of same-sex violence and its effects; Barnes said she was caught off guard by the respondents' answers when she asked if they knew who to turn to if a woman is abused. "It was surprising that when I spoke to women about support services, and asked them the question, if it were to happen again to someone you know would you know what to do, and they said no," Barnes told the Herald.

Abstinence-only program may reduce some sexual activity: study

CLEVELAND - A new study of an abstinence-only education program for Ohio middle school students showed mixed results, Health Behavior News Service reported. Although the program did not reduce the number of students who have sex for the first time at a young age, it did trim future sexual activity among those who already were sexually active. Gay rights advocates criticize abstinence-only curriculum because such programs emphasize waiting until marriage to begin sexual activity, which is an option unavailable to gays outside of Massachusetts. Conducted in Cleveland and its suburbs, the study also found that the abstinence-only program discouraged sexually inexperienced young people from planning to use condoms in the future, perhaps because the youth were warned that condoms are not 100 percent effective.

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