Cardinal George to Meet With Gays
The Rainbow Sash Movement, an organization of Gay and Straight Catholics, are scheduled to meet with Cardinal Francis George ( Archdiocese of Chicago ) in November to discuss why Cardinal George refused the Eucharist to Gay and Straight Catholics on Pentecost June 3 at Holy Name Cathedral.
"We are faithful Catholics, who believe in the Teaching Magisterium, it is in that spirit we have agreed to this meeting," Rainbow sash stated. "RSM representatives will meet with Cardinal George as a Spiritual Sheppard, and together it is our hope that mutual understanding will develop."
DRUG-RESISTANT HIV
Reuters reports that by 2005, nearly half of all HIV patients in San Francisco will not respond to drugs now used to treat the disease, due mostly to inaccurate use of those drug regimens by doctors, according to researchers at the San Francisco and Los Angeles campuses of the University of California. Drug-resistant HIV arises when people who are already infected fail to respond to their treatment and when those AIDS cases have unprotected sex with others. "We found that the vast majority of new cases come from acquired drug resistance not sexual transmission," Sally Blower, lead author of the study and UCLA professor of biomathematics, told Reuters.
In the September issue of Nature Medicine, Blower's team shows they found that the number of drug-resistant HIV cases has already reached epidemic proportions in San Francisco, rising from 3 percent of overall cases in 1997 to a projected 42 percent in 2005. Reuters said they estimated that transmission from one person to another accounted for just 8 percent of new drug-resistant infections last year.
SCHLESSINGER TO SPEAK AT CONFAB
StopDrLaura.com leaders Robin Tyler and Andy Thayer report that radio host Dr. Laura Schlessinger is making an attempt to jump-start her career with the help of the Southern Counties Placement Committee, an organization which represents social service and mental health workers who work with foster children in California.
Schlessinger is the keynote at their Sept. 20-21 convention.
NGLTF POWER SUMMIT IN MIDWEST
More than 100 activists from six Midwestern states will attend a three-day Power Summit Sept. 7-9 in Chicago. This summit, hosted by the National Gay and Lesbian Task Force and the Federation of Statewide LGBT Advocacy Organizations, will train activists in the areas of legislative organizing, fundraising and community advocacy.
Most of the more than participants are from six states-- Illinois, Ohio, Missouri, Wisconsin, Michigan, and Arkansas.
