April 19, 2008 | Main | May 2, 2008
April 25, 2008
THE AWARDEES HAVE SPOKEN
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Diane and Reggie Williams |
The locations just get better and better—but the love, family spirit and activist dedication to ending AIDS are always the beating heart of the best activist party of the year, the Keith D. Cylar Awards and Benefit Gala. This year Esther Boucicault, Gloria González, Diane Williams, Paul Davis and Asia Russell were honored with Cylar Awards at the regal Times Center on Thursday, April 17. The honorees' incredible stories of bravery in the face of AIDS stigma (told in three different languages) prompted standing ovations, laughter and tears. The gala was the culmination of a week's worth of activities associated with the Cylar Awards, given to AIDS activists who demonstrate extraordinary courage and commitment in the fight to end the HIV/AIDS epidemic. The award is named for Keith Cylar, the cofounder of Housing Works and a legendary AIDS activist who died of AIDS-related complications in 2004.
Special guests included the ceremony emcee, TV personality and celebrity stylist Bev Smith, POZ editor-in-chief Regan Hoffman, CBS News correspondent Randall Pinkston, Assembylman Dick Gottfried, and 1998 Miss America and current star of Broadway's Legally Blonde star Kate Shindle, who hosted the cocktail party before the awards ceremony....
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ANOTHER A-GENDA?
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Sklarz and Hunter talk GENDA |
A Tuesday forum and panel to mobilize the transgender community and its advocates around the Gender Expression Non-Discrimination Act (GENDA) bill in New York City became contentious when some panelists and audience members voiced their opposition to the portion of GENDA that amends New York State hate crime law to include gender identity. The Audre Lorde Project and the Sylvia Rivera Law Project—as well as many audience members who spoke—are opposed to the hate crimes measures as a tool in the "prison industrial complex" that can actually be used against transgender people.
"We see queer people get arrested for nothing at all. Hate crime legislation disproportionately affects African-Americans who are already overrepresented in the criminal justice system," Sylvia Rivera Law Project (SRLP) Staff Attorney Gabriel Arkles said to applause. Arkles told the Update that the SRLP decided to raise the issue now because the organization hadn't before realized that GENDA included a hate crimes provision....
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HOUSE PROTECTS MEDICAID
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Can this Medicaid-slasher be stopped? |
By a veto-proof margin of 349 to 62, the House of Representatives passed legislation (H.R. 5613) delaying the implementation of regulations by the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) that would end reimbursements for seven non-medical and preventive services. Every voting Democrat and dozens of Republicans voted to stop implementation of the changes until 2009 so their potential impact can be assessed.
President Bush has threatened to veto the bill. Similar legislation in the Senate hasn't yet moved, and while it is expected to pass, opposition by Senate Finance ranking member Charles Grassley casts doubt on the likelihood of a veto-proof margin....
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COLD SHOWER
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Reps. Davis and Waxman |
At the first-ever Congressional hearing about the use of federal funds to support abstinence-only-until marriage sex education on Wednesday, nine of 11 witnesses advocated for comprehensive sex education programs. The testimony came on the heels of studies—including one by the Bush administration—that ab-only education doesn't prevent teen pregnancies or STIs and increasing national talk of "block grants" and "local control" of funding that would let states shift ab-only dollars to comprehensive sex ed.
No piece of testimony during the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform was more compelling than that given by Max Siegel, an HIV-positive policy associate at AIDS Alliance for Children, Youth and Families....