When you re a member of the LGBT community, finding a supportive healthcare provider can be a harrowing experience, especially if you ve just moved to a new city. If you re seeking information about sexual health and STDs, the last thing you want is a doctor who treats you like a filthy sodomite, and you want someone w
The fourth annual Harbor to the Bay HIV/AIDS charity bike ride, held Sept. 16, broke all previous fundraising records for the ride, with current totals at more than $200,000 raised from the ride. In previous years the ride, which runs from Boston to Provincetown, has pulled in between $130,000 and $100,000, but Frank R
The Berkshires may be the bluest corner of the bluest state, as Ed Sedarbaum of North Adams puts it, but when it comes to electing a successor to retiring state Sen. Andrea F. Nuciforo Jr., a Pittsfield Democrat and longtime LGBT advocate, the Berkshire Stonewall Community Coalition (BSCC) isn t taking the five Democra
To read the Washington Post s Aug. 23 cover story on the Ryan White Care Act, the primary source of federal HIV/AIDS funding, one might think the debate over AIDS funding was now the latest front in the political schism between North and South, red states and blue states. The story details how New York Sen. Hillary Rod
The National Black Gay Men s Advocacy Coalition, officially formed last January to advocate for resources to combat HIV/AIDS in the black gay male community, has begun a membership drive to recruit new members as it prepares to begin lobbying the federal government. Rudy Carn, chair of the coalition, said the coalition
The images of 70s and 80s rock bands are stereotypically ones of a decadent life: sold out areas, all night parties, loads of cash and lots of women. But things were different for Styx, the rock band that reached the height of its success in the 80s and spawned the hits Lady, Come Sail Away and Too Much Time on My Hand
About 300 cyclists, volunteers and community supporters participated in last weekend s third annual Massachusetts Red Ribbon Ride to raise money for HIV/AIDS service organizations. Biking up to 175 miles from Pittsfield to Weston in just two days, riders brought spirit and awareness to communities across Massachusetts,
The Boston Living Center will host a fundraiser for the Humsafar Trust, a community-based health center in Mumbai, India serving the gay and transgender community, Aug. 22, featuring a photo exhibit documenting the impact of the AIDS epidemic in India. Megan McGuire, a Cambridge native who has been living in India for
Fenway Community Health expanded its roster of primary care physicians to 12 last month, adding Drs. Jose Caro and Padmini Harigopal to its staff. Caro, who worked from 2004 to 2006 at an infectious disease fellowship program at Boston University Medical Center where he worked exclusively with HIV/AIDS patients, said h
A determined group of about 135 cyclists will trek across the state Aug. 12 and 13 to raise funds for eight HIV/AIDS organizations in the third annual Mass. Red Ribbon Ride, and ride manager Andi Genser said there will be opportunities throughout the weekend for people across the state to show their support. Genser sai
About 135 riders are gearing up to ride across Massachusetts Aug. 12-13 to raise money for HIV/AIDS service organizations, but Andi Genser, ride manager for the third annual Mass Red Ribbon Ride, said there s always room for more. The prospect of embarking on a 175-mile ride on short notice may be daunting to most mere
Catherine O Connor likes talking about syphilis. She talks about it a lot. She also has her fair share of conversations about HIV, chlamydia, and herpes. On any given night across the state you can find her chatting up gay men and intravenous drug users (IDU), hunkered down in bars and shooting galleries, helping peopl
AIDS Response-Seacoast, a 19-year-old HIV case management and support organization based in southern New Hampshire, will hold a fundraising dinner and auction on Aug. 26. Founded in 1987 by members of Portsmouth s gay and lesbian community, ARS was originally a grass-roots response to the AIDS epidemic. Volunteers crea
On July 13 both the House and Senate voted to override Gov. Mitt Romney s veto of the pharmacy access needle bill, ending nearly two decades worth of fights by HIV/AIDS advocates to promote access to clean needles across the state. Reached the morning after the votes, AIDS Action Committee s director of public policy a
It s still not too late to check out Above and Beyond: Our Community Responds to HIV/AIDS a History Project Exhibit that provides a visual chronicle of the local LGBT community s response to the disease in the early days of the epidemic. The exhibit is now on display through July 31 at the MALE Center, AIDS Action Comm
Gov. Mitt Romney signed the Fiscal Year 2007 (FY07) budget into law July 8 and included with that budget a list of vetoes and funding reductions that hit just about every LGBT and AIDS-related initiative receiving state funding. Romney vetoed the creation of a new legislative Commission on Gay and Lesbian Youth, cut al
The July poll from State House News Service contained bad news for proponents of the pharmacy needle access bill, which would allow the sale of syringes in drug stores without a prescription and decriminalize possession of needles. The poll, conducted in late June, found that 66 percent of Bay Staters strongly oppose t
Among the expected hundreds of swimmers participating in the 19th annual Swim for Life Sept. 9, at least one will be taking an unorthodox route across Provincetown Harbor: underwater. Jay Critchley, one of the founders and lead organizers of Swim for Life, said one participant has vowed to swim the 1.4 miles across the
Next month Gay and Lesbian Advocates and Defenders (GLAD) will begin conducting one-on-one interviews with people living with HIV to find out what legal issues they re wrestling with, and over the next six months GLAD hopes to speak with 200 HIV positive people about their experiences. Carisa Cunningham, GLAD s directo
Eric Rofes always had 10 projects going at once, recalled his friend Amy Hoffman of Boston. He was, she said, a force of nature. Indeed, Rofes was a man of considerable accomplishment before his death from an apparent heart attack on June 26 at the age of 51. He leaves a 30-year legacy of groundbreaking gay and AIDS ac
Lt. Governor Kerry Healey s June 22 press conference to speak out against the pharmacy access bill was clearly designed to position her as tough on crime and as a champion of public safety issues, but the GOP gubernatorial candidate was outgunned when she spoke on the steps of the Statehouse. As Healey, flanked by a ha
NEW ORLEANS - Just several weeks into the 2006 hurricane season, government and community-based HIV/AIDS agencies are still struggling to get back on their feet after Hurricane Katrina broke the levees and flooded 80 percent of the city in up to 20 feet of water. I d say we re at 40 to 50 percent, said Beth Scalco, dir
The landslide votes in the House and Senate for the Pharmacy Access bill were a victory for HIV/AIDS advocates, but their efforts could be thwarted if Sen. Minority Leader Brian Lees and Gov. Mitt Romney have their way. Both have been vocal opponents of the bill, which would allow people to buy syringes in pharmacies w
If you missed the multi-media exhibit Above and Beyond: Our Community Responds to HIV/AIDS at the Jorge Hernandez Cultural Center in Boston s South End earlier this month, you ve still got a chance to take in The History Project s stunning chronology of the LGBT community s efforts in the fight against the epidemic ove
For the six members of the Wicked Wheels of the East, one of the teams participating in the third annual Mass. Red Ribbon Ride August 12-13 to raise money for HIV/AIDS service organizations across the state, this year s ride has a unique subtitle: Elvira Gulch s Last Ride. Dennis Duffy, the founder of the team and a ve
After 25 years of the AIDS epidemic, in this age of drug cocktails and prevention fatigue, what could persuade 10,000 people to wake up on a gloomy Sunday morning and participate in the 21st annual AIDS Walk Boston? At the opening ceremonies for the event, at the Hatch Shell June 4, keynote speaker Douglas Brooks had t
In the space of 24 hours Macy s decision to remove one firm-nippled rainbow-skirt-wearing mannequin and his similarly pecced-out mannequin companion from its Downtown Crossing store display window in response to complaints by anti-gay activists created a national controversy. Bruce C. Steele, editor-in-chief of the Adv
It was the late 1990s, a Saturday afternoon in Provincetown, and Sister Jeanette Normandin had just wrapped up a cocktail reception fundraiser at a private home for Ruah, a supportive housing program in North Cambridge for women with HIV/AIDS. At that point, a few of us - these were straight people, too - said to Jeane
After weeks of delays the Senate voted 26-8 June 7 to pass the Pharmacy Access bill, a measure that AIDS Action Committee (AAC) has called the most important HIV prevention program in Massachusetts in the last decade. The bill allows needles to be sold without a prescription at pharmacies and decriminalizes possession
Exactly 25 years after the Centers for Disease Control reported that five gay men had died of a rare form of pneumonia in Los Angeles - the first reported cases of AIDS in the U.S. - The History Project assembled a panel discussion of activists, physicians and people living with the virus to discuss the history of the
We ve got another one, said the hushed voice on the other end of the phone. It was the mid-1980s and a nurse was calling from the infectious disease ward of what was then Denver General Hospital to tell those of us at the fledgling Colorado AIDS Project (CAP) - with our two employees and a handful of volunteers - that
Since it first hit the streets in April 1983, Bay Windows has chronicled the AIDS epidemic and its impact on the gay community, from its earliest days as a weapon of homophobia and a galvanizer of gay activism, to the eras of AIDS fatigue and life-saving protease inhibitors to the ongoing battle against complacency
When people talk about the generation that has never known a world without AIDS, they re talking about my generation. As AIDS turns 25 this month I m about a month shy of 26. Yet growing up in the suburbs of Boston I may as well have been on another planet during the darkest days of the epidemic. While gay men in citie
The 21st annual AIDS Walk, which takes place June 4, comes at a critical time for its sponsor, the AIDS Action Committee. While AIDS Action funds much of its client services and prevention work through a combination of public and private funds, its advocacy work is funded entirely through private dollars, and right now
Despite being a leader in the global fight against HIV/AIDS, the U.S. is failing miserably when it comes to addressing the epidemic at home, says a study released May 24 by the Public Health Watch HIV/AIDS Monitoring Project of the Open Society Institute, a progressive grantmaking foundation. America is in many ways fa
HIV/AIDS advocates are hoping to block an amendment that would allow Gov. Mitt Romney to use federal funding to fund abstinence-only sex education programs. The Senate budget proposal from the Ways and Means Committee contains a provision preventing the state from using state or federal funds for abstinence-only educat
The Gay Men s Domestic Violence Project (GMDVP) has spent the past week lobbying lawmakers to maintain its state funding after the Senate Ways and Means Committee eliminated all of the $158,000 it receives from the Department of Public Health (DPH) in the budget it released May 17 for Fiscal year 2007 (FY07). State Sen
On May 30 Search for a Cure, a Boston-based nonprofit that does education and advocacy for people living with HIV/AIDS, will host its 12th annual forum on the latest developments in prevention and treatment, called The Latest News. The forum will feature presentations by Community Research Initiatives Research Director
Tuesday at 9 p.m. WGBH 2: Frontline looks back on 25 years of the AIDS epidemic in The Age Of AIDS: Part I . It was this week a quarter of a century ago that the first cases of AIDS were diagnosed in L.A., but this documentary takes a look at the global epidemic, filming in 15 different countries and including intervie
Three community health organizations will mark the ninth annual National HIV Vaccine Awareness Day May 18 with a community forum at the South End s Union United Methodist Church that will inform people about the latest developments in the search for a vaccine. Jim Maynard, core manager for research and evaluation for F
At a May 10 press briefing during the 2006 National STD Prevention Conference in Jacksonville, Fla., the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) told press about the recent outbreak of a sexually transmitted disease called lymphogranuloma venereum (LGV) among gay and bisexual men in the United States
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) released a pair of studies May 8 at the 2006 National STD Prevention Conference in Jacksonville, Fla., that the CDC believes may help explain the rise in syphilis cases among men who have sex with men (MSM). One study of syphilis cases in Chicago showed that MSM who
The Rev. Irene Monroe pulled no punches in her keynote speech at the 17th Annual Bayard Rustin Community Breakfast, but the hundreds who turned out April 22 at the John F. Kennedy Library didn t seem to mind. Monroe began her speech by telling the crowd that she would discuss the importance of the ancestral spirit of t
Ask Renata Simone, the reporter and writer of WGBH s new Frontline series The Age of AIDS , what the biggest missteps were in the earliest days of the HIV/AIDS crisis and her immediate response is Denial is bad. Political leadership is good. Simone says her use of such terse phrases is half-facetious. But after 25 year
Bowing to financial pressure from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), the commissioner of the state Department of Public Health, Paul Cote, pulled the plug last week on a consultation process to evaluate the state s HIV surveillance program and made the decision to switch the state over to a system th
California HIV/AIDS activists long opposed switching the state s HIV surveillance system from an anonymous code-based system to a name-based system, fearing that concerns about confidentiality would keep people away. Yet increased pressure to make the switch by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) led t
Larry Kessler may be retiring from the AIDS Action Committee on April 30, but his presence will be felt at AIDS Action s 21st annual AIDS Walk Boston, to be held June 4. In honor of Kessler s work as the agency s founder and longtime executive director AIDS Action is dedicating the walk to Kessler and launching Larry s
For the second year in a row, the federal government cut the funding for HIV/AIDS programs that Boston receives under Title I of the Ryan White Care Act. This year s cut of $312,000 will mean reduced resources for medications, case management and substance abuse and treatment services, among other areas. Those programs
Cambridge Care about AIDS (CCA), the Cambridge Health Alliance (CHA), and the Cambridge GLBT Commission will celebrate the fourth annual National LGBT Health Awareness Week March 13-17, providing free screenings for two days at Cambridge City Hall and hosting a luncheon to bring together city officials and clients and
Sen. Tom Coburn (R-Okla) introduced a bill to reauthorize the Ryan White Care Act, the major source of federal HIV/AIDS funding, Feb. 28, and the bill includes provisions that could cost Massachusetts as much as $2.5 million in federal funding. Locally HIV/AIDS advocates and officials see little chance that his bill wi
The Washington, D.C.-based AIDS Action, which advocates on behalf of HIV/AIDS organizations from around the country, announced Feb. 28 that Rebecca Haag, executive director of the AIDS Action Committee of Massachusetts (AAC), would become the D.C. organization s new executive director on March 1. That does not mean Haa
An important HIV treatment study presented at this month s Conference on Retroviruses and Opportunistic Infection has been poorly explained in the mainstream media, possibly leading persons living with HIV to dangerously misguided conclusions about when they need to start therapy. Consider the Reuters news headline fro
Founded organization in 1983 Larry Kessler, founder of the AIDS Action Committee, announced Feb. 15 that he will step down from his role as founding director after more than two decades with the organization. It seemed like a good time to retire because things are going so well here, and you never want to leave when th
Under pressure from the Centers of Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), the Massachusetts Department of Health (DPH) is studying whether or not the state should track the names of people who test positive for HIV in Massachusetts. The Bay State in one of just 10 in the country that protect the anonymity of those livin
It s hard to ignore a billboard of a grown man in a diaper, and that s what the AIDS Healthcare Foundation, the country s largest AIDS organization, headquartered in Los Angeles, is counting on. Beginning last December AHF began rolling out a new HIV prevention social marketing campaign called HIV - Not Fabulous consis
The third annual Mass. Red Ribbon Ride, which will be held Aug. 12-13, may seem a long way off, but organizers are working to get as many riders registered as early as possible to start the training process. The ride, which benefits more than eight Bay State HIV/AIDS organizations including AIDS Action, JRI Health, and
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