CUTE GIRL

In a video for message for World AIDS Day, the prime minister, David Cameron has called on the media and faith groups to help tackle the stigma associated with HIV and AIDS.

Mr Cameron spoke of the collaborations that the Government is making with the Terrence Higgins Trust and the African Health Network to target at those most at risk of HIV and AIDS. He also pointed out that 6,500 people in the UK were diagnosed with HIV in the past year.

Mr Cameron said: “We have made a lot of progress in fighting HIV and AIDS so far and I believe that by working together, we can help reduce the stigma, reduce the number of new infections and enable those living with HIV to lead full productive and happy lives.

He added: “tackling the stigma that comes with HIV and Aids is not just a job for government alone. It means those in the media sending out responsible messages, it means role models and well-known figures lending their support to the cause, it means community groups and faith groups doing their bit to spread the message about prevention and testing in the local area.”

Last week, Mr Cameron called on the gay community to tackle the rates of HIV infection and diagnosis. “One area where progress has not been good enough is infection rates. Over the last ten years, they have actually increased,” he wrote.

“You need to support each other in avoiding the virus. You still need to practice safe sex. You need to test and to know your HIV status,” he wrote. ” And as a society we need to continue to fight prejudice and stigma, especially as they can be a barrier to testing and treatment.

“I talk a lot about responsibility when it comes to my politics. And this World AIDS Day it’s important everyone thinks about the responsibility they have towards themselves, their partners and the wider community. Only together can we fight and then beat HIV and AIDS.”In his own message, Labour leader Ed Miliband wrote: “Despite the huge strides that have been made in medical treatment for HIV over the last two decades, knowledge about how HIV is transmitted is now lower than it was ten years ago.

“And the sad reality is that HIV stigma and discrimination are still an issue for many people. One in three people with the virus say they have experienced discrimination because of their HIV status. People with HIV report facing discrimination at work, at school, and even in healthcare settings – this is unfair, and unacceptable.”

A Conservative MP had a 15-minute HIV test at a parliamentary reception on Tuesday evening to encourage more people to take up testing.

Simon Kirby, the Conservative MP for Brighton Kemptown, has a constituency with one of the largest estimates of HIV-positive gay and bisexual men.

He was given a finger-prick blood test and was told he was HIV-negative.

The event was hosted by former health secretary Lord Fowler and organised by HIV and sexual health charity Terrence Higgins Trust to encourage more uptake of HIV testing.

Mr Kirby, the vice-chair of the All-Party Parliamentary Group on HIV & AIDS, said: “I am delighted to support this vitally important issue. We all need to work together to increase HIV testing because it is in everyone’s interests.

“I hope that this World AIDS Day more people who may have been at risk of HIV will decide to get tested. People used to think an HIV diagnosis was like a death sentence, but HIV treatment has moved on so much in the last few years. An HIV diagnosis today is something that could save your life, because as long as you get the treatment in time, you can expect to live well into old age.”

Sir Nick Partridge, chief executive of Terrence Higgins Trust, said: “We’re so pleased Simon is helping us to raise awareness of this important issue. People with undiagnosed HIV are not only putting their own health at risk, they are also more likely to pass the virus on unwittingly, so it’s vital we encourage more people to come forward for testing.”

A politician in the US state of Virginia has caused bemusement by claiming that airport security patdowns are “part of the homosexual agenda”.

Eugene Delgaudio, a Republican and an official on the Loudon County Board of Supervisors, sent out an email complaining about the controversial security measures in his position as president of the conservative non-profit Public Advocate organisation.

In it, he attacked the Transport Security Administration (TSA) for having a non-discrimination policy and claimed that gay staff could be “getting pleasure” from patdowns.

He is said to have claimed that this is part of the “wide-scale homosexual agenda”.

Mr Delgaurdio wrote: “It’s the federal employee’s version of the Gay Bill of Special Rights… That means the next TSA official that gives you an ‘enhanced pat down’ could be a practicing homosexual secretly getting pleasure from your submission.”

He confirmed his remarks to WTOP but has not commented further.

Public Advocate, which calls airport security measures “porno scanners” and “groping”, is predominantly concerned with homosexuality.

It says it offers “strong and vocal opposition” against those who support equal rights, hate crime legislation and the funding of the arts.

In April, Mr Delgaurdio provoked similar bemusement with a bizarre fundraising appeal for Public Advocate.

He described a visit to a factory where “long-haired, earring-pierced men” were printing thousands of “pro-homosexual petitions” to send to Congress.

In the letter, which some critics suggested was a work of fantasy, he claimed that he had been spotted at the factory by “radical homosexuals” who surrounded him and warned him that they would not lose.

The prime minister of Kenya claims he never said that gays and lesbians should be arrested.

Raila Odinga was recorded discussing homosexuality at a rally last Sunday.

He is said to have remarked: “If a man is caught having sex with the other we jail them, or if a girl is caught with the other … we will jail them”.

“We want a country that is clean, a clean way of doing thing has clean mannerisms … we do not want things to do with sodomy,” he added.

However, he said today that although homosexuality remains illegal in Kenya, he had not ordered the arrest of gays and lesbians.

Mr Odinga said: “It was said that I ordered the arrest of gay people but nothing could be further from the truth. I did not say that. I was just explaining the propaganda used by people who were campaigning against the new constitution.”

“I understand there are gay rights,” he added, according to Capital News.

Earlier this week, his spokesman, Dennis Onyango, said that the prime minister had been trying to say that groups opposed to Kenya’s new Constitution had claimed it would legalise gay marriage in order to get people to vote against it.

Kenyan gays and lesbians held a silent protest this week to call for Mr Odinga to retract his remarks.

One LGBT group, Gay and Lesbian Coalition of Kenya, said it had received frightened phone calls from gay and HIV-positive people who feared they could be taken into custody when collecting their HIV medication

A gay man has won joint custody of the two children he had through artficial insemination with a lesbian couple.

The company director, of Sussex, had been battling the children’s lesbian mother and her civil partner over where they should live.

The lesbian mother had two children, now aged seven and ten, with the man after he advertised in a gay magazine to become a father.

The father’s original advertisement said he was a solvent man who had “everything but kids”. It added that he wished for “a little involvement” as a father.

A previous ruling granted the father a joint residency order but the mother, who cannot be named, challenged it at the Court of Appeal.

However, she lost and the father will be given custody of the children for 152 days a year, the court ruled.

Lady Justice Black, who made the ruling, urged the parents to “put aside their differences” for the sake of their children.

According to the Daily Mail, she said: “The adults may be very concerned about issues of status such as who could and should be classed as ‘the parents’ but those matters are not likely to be of particular concern to the children.”

The court heard that the father had acted as a parent to the children, taking them to doctors’ appointments and paying their school fees.

But the mother argued that he was trying to “marginalise” her civil partner and “overpower” the children with his forceful personality.

Lady Justice Black added that the children would “inevitably suffer” if the animosity between the father and the lesbian couple continued.

The Illinois senate has given a green light to civil marriage legislation by 32-24 votes.

Democratic Governor Pat Quinn is expected to sign the bill into law shortly, making Illinois the fifth US state to allow civil unions.

Another five states allow gay marriage and campaigners in Illinois said this is their ultimate goal.

Jacob Meister, president of The Civil Rights Agenda, a gay rights organisation, told AP that civil unions would give gay couples essential rights but added: “The ultimate goal is not to be separate but equal.”

However, another gay activist, Modesto Valle of the Center on Halsted, said he was concerned that accepting civil unions now could make it harder to win marriage equality in the future.

Gay couples in Illinois will gain some of the rights associated with marriage but their relationships will not be recognised under federal law.

NHS West Kent is also ceasing referrals for gastric band surgery and couples seeking IVF but trans campaigners say people with these conditions do not have a high suicide rate, unlike trans people waiting for treatment.

Transgender patients wishing to attend a gender dysphoria clinic for hormone treatment and surgery will have to wait until March 31st at the earliest to be referred for further treatment and the delay is expected to cause backlogs.

“Urgent” cases will still be referred but it is not clear which cases will be given priority.

Michelle Bridgman of the Gender Trust, one of the UK’s largest transgender charities, attacked the decision.

She told PinkNews.co.uk: “We predicted this might happen when George Osborne began wielding his scalpel. West Kent PCT have announced that they will be deferring funding for any new referrals but that they will be advising GPs that ‘urgent’ referrals are to be continued. We see this as undue delay.”

The PCT’s decision, which comes into effect immediately, was made despite repeated government assurances that NHS services would be protected from public spending cuts.

But Daryl Robertson, NHS West Kent’s deputy chief executive, defended the move.

He said: “We regret that we are currently asking GPs to defer referrals for some treatments and appreciate that this may cause further distress for individuals. We have not made these decisions lightly, and have considered a range of treatments where a delay in referral will have least clinical impact.

“However, where there is a compelling clinical need for treatment patients will not miss out. This is not a permanent position and referrals will be made as normal in April.”

Mr Robertson added: “No urgent referrals are being deferred, and we are working closely with GPs and specialists to make sure that where patients’ needs are pressing, these can be met as soon as possible.”

NHS West Kent is currently responsible for the healthcare of 655,700 people, though the official number of trans referrals for the area is not yet known.

Bernard Reed OBE, of the Gender Identity and Research Society, estimates that the funding cuts could affects hundreds of people.

He said: “Within that area there will be about 7,000 people who have experienced some degree of gender variance. Of that number we estimate that about 175 have so far sought medical help and that figure will be increasing by 19 per annum.”

The Gender Trust is now calling for an independent review. Ms Bridgman said: “When will funding commissioners get past the misguided notion that trans people are opting for a lifestyle choice rather than a pressing clinical need?”

Describing the news as ‘the thin end of the wedge’, she said the money-saving measure did not take into account the true cost to the NHS of denying gender treatment.

“GPs rarely have sufficient knowledge and yet again PCTs are deferring treatment without any proper impact assessment. I asked what they would do for the inevitable increases in cases of depression and even suicide: there was no response,” she said.

The high suicide rate among trans people is well documented, with recent research showing that 41 per cent of transgender people in the United States have attempted to kill themselves.

Additionally, the cost of mental health support averages around £4,000 per year – compared to the cost of gender treatment at £9,000-12,000 on the NHS.

One trans woman currently awaiting referral for surgery in North Wales said she “wouldn’t have been able to go on” without a prescription for hormone therapy from her GP.

Emma Bailey, who runs transgender support website T-Form, said: “I think health authorities forget that the surgical treatment is a life-saving thing for many people. They need to factor in that there are people sat at home waiting for the surgery so they can get back on with their lives. For many, this is a matter of life or death.”

Ms Bridgman says that PCTs may fall foul of discrimination laws if they cease funding for trans people. She said: “We don’t see them cutting funding for any other major surgeries, and we fully encourage disappointed patients to challenge NHS West Kent on the legality of their decision. The Gender Trust will be at the forefront of challenging PCTs like this who see trans people as a soft target”.

According to legal experts, the law in this area was set by A.D.& G vs North West Lancashire Health Authority in 1999.

The appeal judges agreed with an earlier High Court ruling that the NHS had to fund gender reassignment surgery like any other legitimate treatment – and policies amounting to a blanket ban were deemed unlawful.

Following the ruling, the Department of Health issued guidelines warning care providers that discriminating against people in this way is illegal.