National
‘HIV will never be curable,’ doctor tells forum
“Get tested, listen to the experts, and lead the responsible life,” declared Michael Pistole, the sexagenarian sexologist and sometime wisecracking medical doctor speaking at a meeting on surviving the AIDS and hepatitis C viruses.
“Hepatitis C can be cured, but HIV will never be curable, since it gets into your DNA,” Pistole said.
Speaking before a group of about 100 doctors, nurses, patients and other community members gathered at the Hotel Palomar for dinner and a “Survival Forum,” Pistole summed up his message of safer sex this way: “Realize it’s not just you, it’s the rest of the world.”
Pistole’s message was punctuated by quips and risqué double-entrendres, to put people at ease and lighten the serious message about how exposure to HIV is still a real fear, while peppering the audience with sobering facts and figures underscoring that reality.
“Yes, it’s a controllable situation — with antiretroviral drugs — and you can live a normal lifespan, long enough in fact to die from something else, but we have to accept the fact that [HIV is] just like herpes, that will also never be cured, and you can’t take a vaccine for the common cold either.”
As for a vaccine to prevent exposure, he said, “I’d like to think we could get a vaccine for HIV but with the complexity of the virus, I’m not sure.” Hepatitis B, for example, has a vaccine, he pointed out, but hepatitis C does not.
As his slideshow continued, the audience could literally read the writing on the wall — currently 1.1 million adults and adolescents exposed to the virus in this country, with pockets of greater exposure according to race, ethnicity and gender.
For example, per 100,000 people in the U.S. in 2006, the most recent year for such data, there were an estimated 395 white males and 63 females exposed to the virus, compared to 2,388 African-American males and 1,122 females, and 883 Hispanic males and 263 females. Exposure rates per 100,000 people were estimated for 2006 at 220 among Asian males and 46 females and 340 American Indian and Alaska Native males and 127 females.
Pistole, 64, is an internal medicine specialist in private practice in the Washington, D.C., metropolitan area where he has been caring for HIV and hepatitis C patients since 1982. Exposure to the viruses continues, said Pistole, with risky sexual behavior rampant now in cities like D.C. where the incidence of virus carriers is skyrocketing, especially among African Americans.
According to Pistole, of total new infections recorded in 2006, 46 percent were African American, 36 percent were white, and 18 percent Hispanic, with approximately the same such proportions for men, but strikingly for women it was 61 percent African American versus 23 percent white. The highest risk factors remain IV drug use and male-to-male sexual contact, which had been decreasing as a cause of exposure but is now edging up again, said Pistole.
Among his other observations is what he called the antiviral “drug of the month” phenomenon, spurring some patients to say, “I want to try it,” something Pistole said should be discouraged by doctors.
Following his address, Pistole took questions and comments from the audience, including a memorable exchange with Michael Sainte-Andress, a 60-year-old resident of Logan Circle diagnosed with HIV in 1986.
“It’s very important to develop empowerment,” Sainte-Andress said. “You are the captain of your ship and everyone else on board is a deck hand.”
Pistole replied that “the doctor is not the captain of your ship, but he can be a little bit more than a deckhand. He can be on board as your engineer.”
Sainte-Andress is a local actor who recently played the role of Leonato in the Folger Theatre production of “Much Ado About Nothing.”
The event was sponsored by Peter Metaxotos, sole proprietor of Alpha Drugs, the Dupont Circle pharmacy at 1638 R Street, N.W., Suite 260. The next such forum, Survival Forum VIII, will be held in January with a transgender summit planned for March.
Arizona
Shooting outside gay bar in Ariz. leaves three dead
Tucson police investigating double murder-suicide as a hate crime
Three people were fatally shot outside a gay bar in Tucson, Ariz., early Monday morning, about a mile from the city’s nightlife district.
Police have said the shooting, which took place in the parking lot of Venture-N bar at 1239 N. 6th Ave., was likely a hate crime and a double murder-suicide following a verbal altercation.
The suspect, Ousman Ceesay, allegedly shot Vincent Anthony Siqueiros and Cameron Davis Capara while they were outside the club around 12:30 a.m. Monday.
Reports show Capara and Siqueiros were pronounced dead at the scene. Ceesay died after being taken to a local hospital with gunshot wounds.
Police have also said that Ceesay was carrying a list of LGBTQ businesses at the time of the shooting.
Arizona Public Media has said police are investigating the case as a hate crime because the suspect was carrying a note containing the names of multiple LGBTQ-associated businesses.
“I am deeply saddened that another senseless loss of life has happened in our community,” Tucson Police Chief Monica Prieto said in a statement. “Bias-based crimes are especially heinous and have no place in our community.”
According to Prieto, there is no imminent threat to the community, and the Tucson Police Department is working to provide extra protection to various LGBTQ businesses across town.
Congresswoman Adelita Grijalva, who represents the area, issued a statement condemning the act of violence, which appears to have been at least in part motivated by homophobia.
“I am disgusted and deeply saddened to learn of a targeted act of hate and the cold-blooded murder of two members of our LGBTQIA+ community, Vincent Siqueiros and Cameron Capara, at the Venture-N bar in Tucson last night. This horrific attack is a painful reminder that even in welcoming communities like Tucson, hate and violence against the LGBTQIA+ community still exist.”
“When that hate is combined with easy access to firearms, the consequences can be deadly. I am sick and tired of Congress refusing to lift a finger to protect our communities while, every day, dozens of people are shot and killed across the country. It does not have to be this way. The House of Representatives is returning to session this week, and our first action should be passing common-sense gun safety reforms that we know can save lives.”
Other federal lawmakers also condemned the shooting.
The Congressional Equality Caucus, which is made up of federal legislators advancing LGBTQ interests, issued a statement after news broke.
“Our hearts are with the friends and loved ones of the victims of this devastating attack outside a Tucson gay bar and with the Tucson LGBTQI+ community,” it said on X. “No one should fear violence because of who they are — and we’re going to continue fighting to build a world where no one does.”
The Human Rights Campaign, the largest LGBTQ organization in the country, released a statement following the shooting.
“We are heartbroken by the loss of Vincent Anthony Siqueiros and Cameron Davis Capara and our hearts are with their families, loved ones, and the entire Tucson LGBTQ+ community. Once again, we are reminded that gun violence robs people of their lives, destroys families, and devastates communities.”
A candlelight vigil honoring the victims is planned for Sept. 2 at 6:30 p.m. at Catalina Park in North Tucson.
Congress
HRC president campaigns for Chris Pappas in NH
Gay congressman running to succeed retiring U.S. Sen. Jeanne Shaheen
Human Rights Campaign President Kelley Robinson on Sunday campaigned for U.S. Rep. Chris Pappas (D-N.H.) in New Hampshire.
Robinson traveled to Manchester, the state’s largest city, nine days before the Sept. 8 primary that will determine who will vie for retiring U.S. Sen. Jeanne Shaheen (D-N.H.)’s seat.
We’re hitting the pavement across New Hampshire to fight for a freer, fairer future for everyone.
Glad to have Human Rights Campaign President @KelleyJRobinson join us for a canvass launch in Manchester today. pic.twitter.com/XWCEaQxy4o
— Chris Pappas (@ChrisPappasNH) August 30, 2026
Former U.S. Sen. John E. Sununu, who represented New Hampshire in the U.S. Senate from 2003-2009, will face off against former U.S. Sen. Scott Brown, who represented Massachusetts in the U.S. Senate from 2010-2013, in the Republican primary.
Karishma Manzur is among the Democrats challenging Pappas.
A poll the University of New Hampshire Survey Center released on Aug. 26 shows Sununu is ahead of Brown. The same survey shows Pappas ahead of Manzur and his other Democratic challengers.
The UNH Survey Center poll shows Sununu ahead of Pappas by a 45-43 percent margin if they were to face off in the general election. The margin of error is +/-2.1 percent.
Pappas would become the first openly gay man elected to the U.S. Senate if he were to win in November.
National
Milo Yiannopoulos deported to UK
ICE arrested far-right provocateur in New Orleans on Thursday
Editor’s note: The Department of Homeland Security on Saturday said Milo Yiannopoulos has been deported to the U.K.
U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement on Thursday arrested far-right provocateur Milo Yiannopoulos.
A DHS spokesperson in a statement sent to the Washington Blade said ICE arrested Yiannopoulos, who they described as “an illegal alien from the United Kingdom,” at Louis Armstrong New Orleans International Airport.
The DHS spokesperson said Yiannopoulos “legally entered the country” in New York on May 14, 2019.
“He chose to overstay his welcome in violation of our nation’s laws,” said the spokesperson.
The DHS spokesperson said an immigration judge on July 22 “issued a final order of removal” for Yiannopoulos “after failing to show up for his immigration hearing.” The Times-Picayune newspaper in New Orleans on Friday reported Yiannopoulos is being held at an ICE detention center in Alexandria, La., which is about 200 miles northwest of the Crescent City.
“He will remain in ICE custody pending removal,” said the DHS spokesperson.
Yiannopoulos has, among other things, repeatedly targeted transgender people and Muslims.
The American Conservative Union, which organizes the annual Conversative Political Action Conference, in 2017 disinvited Yiannopoulos from speaking at that year’s CPAC after a video in which he appeared to condone sex between adults and underage boys emerged. Yiannopoulos subsequently resigned from Breitbart News, a far-right news website, where he had been a senior editor.
Yiannopoulos later that year married his boyfriend in Hawaii. The far-right provocateur in 2021 claimed he was an “ex-gay.”
The Australian government in 2019 banned Yiannopoulos from entering the country “on character grounds.” Yiannopoulos was also banned from Facebook, Twitter (now X), and other social media platforms.

The Times-Picayune reported Yiannopoulos “most recently worked for” Ye, formerly known as Kanye West.
The controversial rapper is scheduled to perform in New Orleans on Friday.
Laura Loomer, a far-right conspiracy theorist who is close to President Donald Trump, has called for Yiannopoulos’s deportation. Loomer on Friday wrote on X that she “reported him to ICE and the FBI” after he “called for me to be assassinated.”
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