THE VOICE OF CHICAGO'S GAY, LESBIAN, BI, TRANS AND QUEER COMMUNITY SINCE 1985

One would think the Vatican would've established a damage control department by now, but no: the News of the Weird column in the Chicago Reader (11-14) quotes a Cardinal Alfonso Lopez Trujillo as saying people should not use condoms to prevent the spread of HIV because the virus can pass through pores in the latex. The Archbishop of Nairobi, Kenya (where 20% of the population is infected with HIV) says: "AIDS has grown so fast because of the availability of condoms."

The Tribune (11-13) reports a University of Chicago study of sexual orientation has led scientists to believe that it may be hard-wired. "The hypothalamus—the sex center of the brain—functions differently in gay men than in most heterosexual men." Dr. William Gilmer, a neurologist who is the past president of the Gay and Lesbian Medical Association, says this study backs up other studies and further that "most gay and straight people know what they think is attractive from their earliest sexual feelings, and [that doesn't] change much through their lives."

As people go to see the new Russell Crowe flic with the subliminally gay title, Master and Commander: The Far Side of the World, as reviewed in the Trib (11-19) and the NY Times (11-13), perhaps a few will think about implications of two men in an intense personal relationship spending many years sailing around the world on a small boat with an all-male crew. Patrick O'Brian, the author of the book, absolutely would not comment on any such thing—or on his own personal life. Winston Churchill perhaps said it best: life on these 18th century floating boxes consisted of "rum, sodomy, and the lash."

Remember the gay Floridian couple who were prevented from adopting their HIV-positive foster child? Steven Lofton and Roger Croteau have moved to Oregon, taken in several more similarly challenged children, for a total of five, and decorated their new Arts and Crafts home so spectacularly that for extra money Lofton has been able to set up a home business as an interior designer. The NY Time's pics of the home are fab. (11-20) ----------------------------------------