I had the opportunity to speak to Lansing Community College President Brent Knight this evening. We spoke about the HIV textbook controversy.
Knight said he was unaware of the controversy, even though staff from the college, including Lori Murphy, his assistant, have been fully involved in the situation since I brought it to light Jan. 13.
He said that the college has hundreds of textbooks the students use, “So in that context I wouldn’t know.”
Asked if the college had more responsibility in this case because the LCC name was on the cover, Knight responded, “That’s a legal question.”
Fair enough.
But he did express concern about the errors, stating: “The students should be updated promptly.”
He went further, noting, “you can die from Kaposi’s Sarcoma,” then stating “It should be based on science. It’s all about the science. The blindfolded scale of justice, if you will.”
Students still have not been informed that an errata has been issued on the textbook, according to a student in the class. An errata was issued by the company on Jan. 22, and The Conversation published it the same day.
Lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender activists and their allies have gathered in Dallas for the annual Creating Change Conference, sponsored by the National Gay and Lesbian Task Force. And today, Rea Carey, executive director of NGLTF took to the stage in Dallas to deliver the annual State of the Movement speech.
Let me back up a bit. This same conference came to Detroit in 2008, and it was during then-executive director Matt Foreman’s State of the Movement speech that Foreman declared HIV is a “gay disease,” and that the community members “need to own up to it.” Foreman delivered that stunning statement, overturning nearly two decades of HIV activism bent on addressing HIV stigma which is fueled by homophobia, as he was leaving the NGLTF for a new job.
Carey replaced him. And since Foreman, who one presumes was speaking for NGLTF as a whole, threw down the gauntlet and demanded the community “own up to it,” in regards to the disproportional impact of HIV on the men who have sex with men community (gay and bisexual men); one would expect Carey to have stepped into the role and taken up that gauntlet.
If you expected that– as I did– you have been sorely disappointed by Ms. Carey’s leadership.
In what can only be described as fantasy masquerading as academic/scientific publishing, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in Atlanta has released a piece (pdf) looking at how the agency has responded to the HIV pandemic in the Black community in the U.S.
And while they do a fine job of putting on their rosy glasses, and as the agency is wont to do when confronted with this epidemic, spin a lovely song and dance number– the fact remains the agency’s response to the epidemic has been, from the start, pathetic.
And they spend several pages talking about all they have done to address the epidemic in the Black community, but the most stunning and most appalling fact they release is that only 4%– YES 4%– of the fed’s funding for HIV/AIDS response is spent on prevention. That number the researchers note has declined.
So, let me get this right– The CDC wants us to praise them for prevention programs which focus on those already infected, and then to be overwhelmingly excited that they spend on 4% of their budget on prevention programs directed at stopping the epidemic? Right. Oh yeah, and half of that funding, 2%, is targeted at communities of color.
The piece claims the interventions and prevention models are successful. Really? How is that, considering 50,000 people are year being infected? How is that when here in Ingham county, we continue to see an annual increase in new cases of between 10 and 15 and have since the late 90’s? Just how exactly is THAT success? Take of the glasses, stop smoking whatever you are smoking and get with reality.
Prevention, in order to be successful, has to actually PREVENT new infections. It’s not happening. That in my book says no matter how you spin it means the programs are a failure. Period. End of story.
How about if the feds spent the same kind of money, energy and attention to the HIV epidemic that they did for the pig flu– oh sorry H1N1 Influenza. We mustn’t link it with swine, as that could hurt the swine industry.
That is a rare thing to find, and it is deeply appreciated.
However, it is noted that the misinformation about Michigan’s HIV disclosure law remains unchanged. For the record, here is the law:
333.5210 Sexual penetration as felony; definition.
Sec. 5210.
(1) A person who knows that he or she has or has been diagnosed as having acquired immunodeficiency syndrome or acquired immunodeficiency syndrome related complex, or who knows that he or she is HIV infected, and who engages in sexual penetration with another person without having first informed the other person that he or she has acquired immunodeficiency syndrome or acquired immunodeficiency syndrome related complex or is HIV infected, is guilty of a felony.
(2) As used in this section, “sexual penetration” means sexual intercourse, cunnilingus, fellatio, anal intercourse, or any other intrusion, however slight, of any part of a person’s body or of any object into the genital or anal openings of another person’s body, but emission of semen is not required.
There is nothing in there about protection or no protection. It is all about disclosing your status. Period. And only during sexual situations.
Jackie Braxton, the porno peddler masquerading as an HIV prevention message.
Ah yes, the proverbial Jackie the HIV hoax is not gone. The good folks at Time Magazine who flew into Detroit for a year long expose on the city have published a blog in which they praise the porno star for her public service.
Seriously.
In a post that is part breathless adulation for the 23-year-old, and part puritan the wages of sex are death, Darrell Dawsey manages to not only miss the damage Braxton’s porno promotion stunt did to HIV-positive people, it continues the woefully inadequate coverage of HIV in Detroit that has hamstrung the story from the word go.
First of all, let’s get this clear. Braxton may claim an altruistic intention for her porno pandering. But, if you visit the skin flick site she and her husband host, you find the self-proclaimed HIV awareness aide ignoring her own advice. Nothing says be safe like porno without condoms. This stunt was a commercial venture, plain and simple. Braxton and her hubby wanted more people to oogle their raw sex, and rake in some more cash. She didn’t care about HIV when she made the B.S. video in which she claimed to have syphilis and HIV and to have infected 500 others with the diseases; and she sure as shit doesn’t care about it now, either.
She wanted more traffic on her site, so she created a scandal to drive the traffic there. This was about GREED, not HIV prevention.
And THAT simple fact is what makes Dawsey’s fawning adoration of her all the more vomit inducing.
Kevin Michael Cox, accused in armed robberies using the weapon of needles allegedly infected with HIV
A Wilmington Delaware man is in custody accused of brandishing hypodermic needles allegedly tainted with HIV in order to rob several stores on the east coast.
Police say 36-year-old Kevin Michael Cox pulled out needles and threatened to stab attendants in at least two stores in Delaware if clerks did not give him the cash in the store tills. Cops say he got away with $314 in two robberies in Delaware county.
The Delaware County Times reports Cox faces multiple charges:
On Wednesday, Delaware County District Attorney G. Michael Green announced that a warrant had been issued for Cox, whose last known address is Wilmington, Del. He is facing multiple counts of robbery, aggravated assault, theft by unlawful taking, terroristic threats, reckless endangerment, receiving stolen property and possessing an instrument of crime.
He is currently being held in jail, but could be released if he puts up a $93,000 bond.
Police in Pennsylvania believe he is the same man who committed similar robberies in that state.
PA cops say they will wait to see what happens in Delaware before they seek to have Cox brought to the state to face charges.
Rep. Tammy Baldwin (D-Wis.) says that anyone with a communicable disease should be punished for intentionally attempting to spread the illness.
In an interview with CNSNews.com, Baldwin, who is an out lesbian, said:
“When somebody has a communicable disease, whether it be H1N1 flu, and they go about the public without — you know, potentially doing harm, or a sexually transmitted disease with calculation, tries to expose others, that is something that I think should be punishable,” Baldwin told CNSNews.com.
It’s nice to know that one of the few out gay lawmakers in the nation’s capitol is looking out for the rights of HIV-positive people. I wonder if Baldwin supports the terror charges against Daniel Allen, a 44-year-old HIV-positive gay man from Macomb county. Allen was charged with bio-terrorism after a neighborhood scuffle. During the fight, the victim–Winfred Fernandis, Jr.–alleges Allen bit him. Police reports from the October incident show Fernandis had a laceration through his lower lip.
But Allen alleges Fernandis, his father and his wife, ganged up him in what he has alleged is a hate crime based on sexual orientation. The FBI is investigating a complaint Allen and his attorney James Galen, Jr. filed with the Clinton Township field office last week. Allen also sought, and received a personal protective order against Fernandis in the days after in the incident.
Allen was charged on Nov. 2 with the bio-terrorism charge. The charge was brought after Allen admitted to Fox 2 news that he was HIV-positive. That admission came 10 days after the fight. But hey, Tammy says charge HIV-positives, so what’s a little terrorism charge based in ignorance?
Lawyers representing PAM Transportation Services, Inc. have filed a motion in federal court asking that a lawsuit against the company for allegedly discriminating against an HIV-positive employee be dismissed.
The Equal Employment Opportunity Commission filed a lawsuit in October alleging that the Arkansas based company violated the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA). The case is explained in an EEOC press release from Oct. 29:
The EEOC’s lawsuit (EEOC v. P.A.M. Transport Inc., Case No. 2:09CV13851) filed in the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Michigan, charged that P.A.M. Transport refused to allow the driver to return to work once he notified the company he was HIV-positive. P.A.M. requires all drivers to notify the company whenever any treatment is received from a medical professional. Because of this policy, the employee informed P.A.M. he had a routine appointment to monitor his HIV-positive status. The EEOC said that when the information was disclosed to the company, it required the driver to provide a full release of his medical records and refused to allow him to return to work.
The Commission’s lawsuit was filed on behalf of the individual employee, as well as a class of drivers who were also subjected to medical inquiries under the company’s broad policy.
But the Arkansas company filed paperwork in federal court because the court was unable to grant relief, reports the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette.
The EEOC press release says the Commission is seeking damages for the wrongful discharge:
The suit seeks to recover monetary damages for the employee and a class of drivers, including back pay, compensation for emotional distress and punitive damages. The EEOC filed suit after first attempting to reach a voluntary settlement.
I admit that I am one of those people who reads everything I can about HIV/AIDS. I buy used textbooks to chart the course of changes in educational presentations about HIV. I have Google Alerts for HIV issues and I am on over a dozen HIV related list serves.
So it really should be no surprise that when a friend brought over their microbiology text for Biology 203 at Lansing Community College, I eagerly sought out the HIV references. There in this book, Microbiology:Principles and Explorations, 7th edition, prepared for Lansing Community College by Wiley Custom Learning Solutions, were 5 pages dedicated to HIV. Certainly not extensive, in reference to the amount we know about HIV, but certainly no slack of information either.
In those 5 pages, I identified 7 factual errors. You can imagine how angry this got me. The information created implications which were indeed dangerous in relation to HIV prevention, and counter to the facts known about the disease.
This just came into my e-mail from Gay Lesbian Alliance Against Defamation. Evidently this nationally syndicated jerk-off thinks having HIV is a dandy -do walk on a sunny beach with luxury for all. (Audio thanks to mediamatters.org)
The transcript of Quinn’s stupidity:
“Oh, and by the way, last night — was it Savage last night talking about how the – yeah-how the Obama administration is looking toward allowing AIDS patients to come to America. Now, there was a big flap a couple days ago about a US Air flight where a guy got on the flight with tuberculosis – he was on the uh no-fly list because he had tuberculosis – after all, we don’t want an epidemic of tuberculosis. So everybody was going nuts-o over that, and in the meantime you want to bring in AIDS patients. Do you know why? Here I’ll tell you why — because tuberculosis is a disease, AIDS is a civil right. Thanks to the homosexual AIDS lobby, AIDS is a civil right. When you get AIDS, pal, the door opens up to you. You have got all kinds of government goodies, including a maid to clean your house, transportation – I mean it’s – there’s just a wealth of wonders that come. And of course, the more AIDS patients we have in America, why the more dependent people we have and, of course, isn’t that the goal of government, everybody depend on them? So this is a wonderful class of people to bring in because they’ll be dependent on the government. And, by the way, as an added bonus they’ll vote democrat every time. We’ve elected the enemy.”
Um.. wow. Where to start?
First, TB is spread through casual contact– particularly through the closed ventilation system of an aircraft. Thus a person with active TB infection should not be flying because they will actually be exposing hundreds of people to the disease. On the other hand, sharing a plane ride with a person with HIV is not going to expose you to the virus (unless you decide to join the Mile High Club with the HIV-positive person), and even then the risk is based on viral load and what activity you get into while locked in the two foot square closet that passes as a bathroom on commercial airliners.
Secondly, a maid? Seriously? Where the hell is MY maid? I have been HIV positive since 2007 and I don’t have a maid. The government doesn’t pay for my car (a 1991 Geo Metro convertible I have dubbed Betsy). So what exactly is this scuzz ball talking about?
Take a minute to let Clear Channel know this scuzzball needs to find a new job by responding to this GLAAD action alert.
Or, better yet, contact officials from Clear Channel all by yourself:
Rep. 
I admit that I am one of those people who reads everything I can about HIV/AIDS. I buy used textbooks to chart the course of changes in educational presentations about HIV. I have Google Alerts for HIV issues and I am on over a dozen HIV related list serves.