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.
The White House
Judy Shepard to receive Presidential Medal of Freedom
Nancy Pelosi is also among this year’s honorees
Beloved LGBTQ advocate Judy Shepard is among the 19 honorees who will receive the Presidential Medal of Freedom, the highest civilian award in the U.S., the White House announced on Friday.
The mother of Matthew Shepard, who was killed in 1998 in the country’s most notorious anti-gay hate crime, she co-founded the Matthew Shepard Foundation with her husband Dennis to raise awareness about anti-LGBTQ violence.
The organization runs education, outreach, and advocacy programs, many focused on schools.
Shepard was instrumental in working with then-President Barack Obama for passage of the landmark Matthew Shepard and James Byrd Jr. Hate Crimes Prevention Act in 2009, which was led in the House by then-Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.), who will also be honored with a Presidential Medal of Freedom during the ceremony on Friday.
Also in 2009, Shepard published a memoir, “The Meaning of Matthew: My Son’s Murder in Laramie, and a World Transformed,” and was honored with the Black Tie Dinner Elizabeth Birch Equality Award.
Other awardees who will be honored by the White House this year are: Actor Michelle Yeoh, entrepreneur and former New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg, Jesuit Catholic priest Gregory Boyle, Assistant House Democratic Leader Jim Clyburn (D-S.C.), former Labor and Education Secretary and former U.S. Sen. Elizabeth Dole (R-N.C.), journalist and former daytime talkshow host Phil Donahue, World War II veteran and civil rights activist Medgar Evers (posthumous), former Vice President Al Gore, civil rights activist and lawyer Clarence B. Jones, former Secretary of State and U.S. Sen. John Kerry (D-Mass.), former U.S. Sen. Frank Lautenberg (D-N.J.) (posthumous), Olympic swimmer Katie Ledecky, educator and activist Opal Lee, astronaut and former director of NASA’s Johnson Space Center Ellen Ochoa, astronomer Jane Rigby, United Farm Workers President Teresa Romero, and Olympic athlete Jim Thorpe (posthumous).
National
United Methodist Church removes 40-year ban on gay clergy
Delegates also voted for other LGBTQ-inclusive measures
The United Methodist Church on Wednesday removed a ban on gay clergy that was in place for more than 40 years, voting to also allow LGBTQ weddings and end prohibitions on the use of United Methodist funds to “promote acceptance of homosexuality.”
Overturning the policy forbidding the church from ordaining “self-avowed practicing homosexuals” effectively formalized a practice that had caused an estimated quarter of U.S. congregations to leave the church.
The New York Times notes additional votes “affirming L.G.B.T.Q. inclusion in the church are expected before the meeting adjourns on Friday.” Wednesday’s measures were passed overwhelmingly and without debate. Delegates met in Charlotte, N.C.
According to the church’s General Council on Finance and Administration, there were 5,424,175 members in the U.S. in 2022 with an estimated global membership approaching 10 million.
The Times notes that other matters of business last week included a “regionalization” plan, which gave autonomy to different regions such that they can establish their own rules on matters including issues of sexuality — about which international factions are likelier to have more conservative views.
Rev. Kipp Nelson of St. Johns’s on the Lake Methodist Church in Miami shared a statement praising the new developments:
“It is a glorious day in the United Methodist Church. As a worldwide denomination, we have now publicly proclaimed the boundless love of God and finally slung open the doors of our church so that all people, no matter their identities or orientations, may pursue the calling of their hearts.
“Truly, all are loved and belong here among us. I am honored to serve as a pastor in the United Methodist Church for such a time as this, for our future is bright and filled with hope. Praise be, praise be.”
Federal Government
Republican state AGs challenge Biden administration’s revised Title IX policies
New rules protect LGBTQ students from discrimination
Four Republicans state attorneys general have sued the Biden-Harris administration over the U.S. Department of Education’s new Title IX policies that were finalized April 19 and carry anti-discrimination protections for LGBTQ students in public schools.
The lawsuit filed on Tuesday, which is led by the attorneys general of Kentucky and Tennessee, follows a pair of legal challenges from nine Republican states on Monday — all contesting the administration’s interpretation that sex-based discrimination under the statute also covers that which is based on the victim’s sexual orientation or gender identity.
The administration also rolled back Trump-era rules governing how schools must respond to allegations of sexual harassment and sexual assault, which were widely perceived as biased in favor of the interests of those who are accused.
“The U.S. Department of Education has no authority to let boys into girls’ locker rooms,” Tennessee Attorney General Jonathan Skrmetti said in a statement. “In the decades since its adoption, Title IX has been universally understood to protect the privacy and safety of women in private spaces like locker rooms and bathrooms.”
“Florida is suing the Biden administration over its unlawful Title IX changes,” Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis wrote on social media. “Biden is abusing his constitutional authority to push an ideological agenda that harms women and girls and conflicts with the truth.”
After announcing the finalization of the department’s new rules, Education Secretary Miguel Cardona told reporters, “These regulations make it crystal clear that everyone can access schools that are safe, welcoming and that respect their rights.”
The new rule does not provide guidance on whether schools must allow transgender students to play on sports teams corresponding with their gender identity to comply with Title IX, a question that is addressed in a separate rule proposed by the agency in April.
LGBTQ and civil rights advocacy groups praised the changes. Lambda Legal issued a statement arguing the new rule “protects LGBTQ+ students from discrimination and other abuse,” adding that it “appropriately underscores that Title IX’s civil rights protections clearly cover LGBTQ+ students, as well as survivors and pregnant and parenting students across race and gender identity.”
Judy Shepard to receive Presidential Medal of Freedom
Blade Summer Kickoff Party returns to Rehoboth
Andy Cohen coming to D.C.
Want to dance for a good cause?
Calendar: May 3-9
HHS reverses Trump-era anti-LGBTQ rule
4th Circuit rules gender identity is a protected characteristic
Pride season has begun
PHOTOS: Capital Pride Pageant
