Garibaldi Gay

Roy Ashburn

SACRAMENTO, CALIFORNIA – Republican state Sen. Roy Ashburn said Monday he is gay, ending days of speculation that began after his arrest last week for investigation of driving under the influence.
Ashburn, who consistently voted against gay rights measures during his 14 years in the state Legislature, came out in an interview with KERN radio in Bakersfield, the area he represents.
Ashburn said he felt compelled to address rumors that he had visited a gay nightclub near the Capitol before his DUI arrest.
“I am gay … those are the words that have been so difficult for me for so long,” Ashburn told conservative talk show host Inga Barks.
The 55-year-old father of four said he had tried to keep his personal life separate from his professional life until his March 3 arrest.
“When I crossed the line and broke the law and put people at risk, that’s different, and I do owe people an explanation,” he said.
Ashburn was arrested after he was spotted driving erratically near the Capitol, according to the California Highway Patrol. Shelly Orio, a spokeswoman from the Sacramento County district attorney’s office, said a breath test showed the senator’s blood-alcohol level was .14 percent, or .06 points above the legal limit.
The next day, reports surfaced that Ashburn had left Faces, a gay nightclub, with an unidentified man in the passenger seat of his Senate-owned vehicle.
“The best way to handle that is to be truthful and to say to my constituents and all who care that I am gay,” he said. “But I don’t think it’s something that has affected, nor will it affect, how I do my job.”
Ashburn had been on personal leave since his arrest, but attended Monday’s brief Senate session, where he avoided the media. Fellow lawmakers greeted him warmly, and he received pats on the back and hugs from some Republicans and Democrats.
Ashburn has voted against a number of gay rights measures, including efforts to expand anti-discrimination laws and recognize out-of-state gay marriages. Last year, he opposed a bill to establish a day of recognition to honor slain gay rights activist Harvey Milk.
Equality California, a group that advocates for expanded gay rights and other issues, has consistently given Ashburn a zero rating on its scorecard.
The group’s executive director, Geoff Kors, said Monday that he hopes the senator’s revelation will lead him to change his voting patterns.
“He’s still the same person, only living more honestly,” Kors said. “I hope his own self-awareness will result in him no longer voting to deny people the most basic rights.”
Ashburn said his votes reflected the way constituents in his district wanted him to vote, not necessarily his own views.
“I felt my duty – and I still feel this way – is to represent my constituents, not my own point of view, not my own internal conflict,” he told Barks.
Ashburn said he planned to continue voting on behalf of what he sees as the majority viewpoint in his district, which includes parts of Kern, Tulare and San Bernardino counties.
Former state Sen. Sheila Kuehl, an openly gay Democrat who was visiting the Capitol Monday, said she hopes Ashburn receives support, not condemnation, from his friends, family and constituents.
“It’s very painful,” she said of the coming-out process. “And mostly it’s painful because you think everyone will be against you.”
In the radio interview, Ashburn said he is drawing on his Christian faith, and he asked people to pray for him.
He said he does not plan to run for any public office after his term ends this year.
from The Associated Press

Related Post: Anti-Gay Lawmaker At Gay Club Before DUI Arrest

Sean Hayes

Yup, he’s gay in real life, too.
Sean Hayes, who played flamboyant Jack McFarland on NBC’s Will and Grace for eight years, has publicly confirmed his sexuality for the first time.
The resolutely private actor recently gave his first interview to gay newsmagazine The Advocate after many denied requests.
The Advocate and other media had long criticized Hayes, 39, for not confirming what many have called the “open secret” of his sexual orientation.
“Really? You’re gonna shoot the gay guy down? I never have had a problem saying who I am,” Hayes says in the new cover story.
“I am who I am. I was never in, as they say. Never,” he states.
The actor, about to star in the Broadway musical Promises, Promises with Kristen Chenowith, still bristles at the idea that he was somehow obligated to come out earlier.  “Nobody owes anything to anybody,” he says. “You are your authentic self to whom and when you choose to be, and if you don’t know somebody, then why would you explain to them how you live your life?”
The star of the popular, Emmy-winning gay sitcom adds, “I feel like I’ve contributed monumentally to the success of the gay movement in America, and if anyone wants to argue that, I’m open to it.”
Hayes remains hesitant to reveal too much about his personal life, however. “I spend time with a special someone in my life,” he says simply. “That’s all I need…I don’t do a lot. I live my life like an 85-year-old man. I’m just quiet. It’s fantastic.”
from US Magazine

Paging Dr. Ruth: Adults don’t even agree on what it means to “have sex.”
Doctor Hilda Hutcherson answers your most personal questions.
Researchers at the renowned Kinsey Institute at Indiana University asked 484 people “Would you say you had sex with someone if …”
People between the ages of 18 and 96 took part in the study, and their results showed no single generation or gender agrees on a definition of “had sex” — be it oral, anal or digital.
But doctors, sociologists and therapists all agree that the varying definition of “sex” can be a big problem in some cases.
“Having sex is a euphemism. It is not a very exact term,” said Eli Coleman, of the Program in Human Sexuality at the University of Minnesota Medical School in Minneapolis. “That’s why it’s very important that physicians and health care workers ask more specific and precise questions rather than using euphemisms.”
Nearly 95 percent of people in the study agreed that penile-vaginal intercourse meant “had sex.” But the numbers changed as the questions got more specific.
For example, 11 percent of respondents would not use the phrase “had sex” if “the man did not come.” About 80 percent of respondents said penile-anal intercourse meant “had sex.”
About 70 percent of people believed oral sex was sex.
“The only things we see consistently are the inconsistencies,” said Brandon J. Hill, Kinsey Institute researcher and corresponding author on the recent study published in the journal Sexual Health.
Researchers at the Kinsey Institute first examined the question of what “had sex” meant to people in 1991, among college students at Indiana University. They asked nearly 600 students about various scenarios of sexual behavior, and 59 percent of respondents said that oral sex did not constitute having “had sex” with a partner.
Stephanie A. Sanders, who is also an author of the current study, and June M. Reinisch, director emeritus of the Kinsey Institute, published the student survey research eight years later — shortly after the 1999 scandal between former President Clinton and White House intern Monica Lewinsky.
The decision to publicize the work at that time cost Dr. George D. Lundberg, the editor of the Journal of the American Medical Association, his job.
Hill said the most recent study gave researchers the chance to compare answers across age groups, and a few interesting differences appeared.
or example, 81 percent of all survey participants considered penile-anal intercourse as having had sex, but only 50 percent of men age 65 and up agreed.
“I don’t think people were looking at other people [for the answers],” Hill said. “I think the definition definitely ran through their own experience.”
By Hill’s estimation, different ideas about what sex means may have less to do with a generational gap and upbringing, and more to do with forming the idea of “sex” into something that makes people feel good about themselves at the moment.
For instance, Hill hypothesized that “younger male participants may want to increase or decrease the number of partners at any given point so that would change the way they define sex.”
If a person felt nervous in front of a doctor who was asking about the number of sex partners, that person may exclude oral sex to decrease the number, Hill said. On the other hand, if there was a bragging atmosphere, a person might extend the parameters of “having sex” to increase that number.
Reinisch, who is now director of Acquisitions and New Exhibitions at the Museum of Sex in New York City, pointed out that the older men in the study were unlikely to label penile-vaginal intercourse as “sex” if they were using a condom. One hundred percent of the men in the 18 to 29 age group called penile-vaginal intercourse with a condom sex, but only 82 percent of the men in the 65 and up age group considered sex with a condom sex.
Reinisch said this “reflects how a significant portion of individuals born during a certain era feel about or understand a particular phenomenon.”
People who came of age before the contraceptive pill was widely available may then define intercourse as sex only if there’s a possibility to procreate.
“Perhaps for older men what really counts … is the act that is involved with procreation. The act that was primarily thought of and discussed as ‘the sex act,’” Reinisch said.
Ed Laumann, a professor of sociology at the University of Chicago, said these differences require social science researchers to be really careful about asking questions in studies.
“It’s been a discussed problem for a long time,” said Laumann, who also doesn’t believe we will ever come to a consensus as a society about what it means to have sex.
“Well, what is the answer? There is no true objective thing here,” he said.
While changing definitions might be interesting for sociologists, the shifting definitions could cause doctors problems.
Coleman, of the University of Minneapolis’ Program in Human Sexuality, said, “What kind of sexual activities a person is having will determine what kinds tests and where to test them.”
from ABC News

RICHMOND, VIRGINIA – Virginia’s attorney general has advised the state’s public colleges that they don’t have the authority to ban discrimination based on sexual orientation, saying only the General Assembly has that power.
The letter sent by Attorney General Kenneth Cuccinelli to state college presidents and other officials Thursday drew swift criticism from Democrats and gay rights activists.
Cuccinelli said the legislature has repeatedly refused to exercise its authority. As recently as Tuesday, a subcommittee killed legislation that would have banned job discrimination against gay state employees.
“It is my advice that the law and public policy of the Commonwealth of Virginia prohibit a college or university from including ’sexual orientation,’ ‘gender identity,’ ‘gender expression,’ or like classification, as a protected class within its nondiscrimination policy, absent specific authorization from the General Assembly,” Cuccinelli wrote.
The Republican advised college governing boards to “take appropriate actions to bring their policies in conformance with the law.”
Jon Blair, chief executive officer of the gay rights group Equality Virginia, said Cuccinelli’s “radical actions are putting Virginia at risk of losing both top students and faculty, and discouraging prospective ones from coming here.”
C. Richard Cranwell, state Democratic Party chairman, said Virginia’s colleges and universities were more than capable of setting policies that work for them “without meddling from Ken Cuccinelli.”
The attorney general said his letter merely stated Virginia law, which prohibits discrimination because of “race, color, religion, national origin, sex, pregnancy, childbirth or related medical conditions, age, marital status, or disability,” but makes no mention of sexual orientation.
Cuccinelli said the criticism was coming from people who have been frustrated in their attempts to change the law.
“None of them suggest our reading of the law is wrong. It’s people who don’t like the policy speaking up because it’s their opportunity to go on the attack,” he said.
The American Civil Liberties Union of Virginia legal director Rebecca Glenberg said colleges are bound by U.S. Supreme Court decisions not to discriminate on the basis of sexual orientation.
A spokesman for the Family Foundation of Virginia, which has opposed expanding state anti-discrimination policies to protect gays, said the criticism of Cuccinelli’s action is unwarranted.
“My understanding is all he’s done is essentially ask the universities to follow the law,” spokesman Chris Freund said. “It’s a little perplexing to see people respond the way they have.”
Virginia’s last two Democratic governors, Mark Warner and Tim Kaine, signed executive orders barring state agencies from discriminating in hiring, promotions or firing based on sexual orientation. Republican Gov. Bob McDonnell, who took office in January, removed protections based on sexual orientation from his anti-discrimination order.
As attorney general in 2006, McDonnell said Kaine exceeded his constitutional authority by extending protections to gays.
fromThe Associated Press

Microsoft took a bold step Friday by letting gamers include their sexual orientation in their Xbox Live nicknames, or Gamertags.
Previously, Microsoft deemed the words “gay,” “straight,” “lesbian,” “bi” and “transgender” to be unacceptable, fearing that players would use them in a derogatory way. Those fears are justified to anyone who spends a few hours playing Modern Warfare 2 or Halo 3. Anonymity does some revolting things to human behavior.
Players’ Gamertags can now include all the words mentioned above, but the service’s updated code of conduct strictly limits the terminology to those five words only. Marc Whitten, Xbox Live’s general manager, explained Microsoft’s reasoning in an open letter:
Under our previous policy, some of these expressions of self-identification were not allowed in Gamertags or profiles to prevent the use of these terms as insults or slurs. However we have since heard feedback from our customers that while the spirit of this approach was genuine, it inadvertently excluded a part of our Xbox LIVE community.
It took a while to get here. In 2008, a player named theGAYERgamer made his case public after Microsoft banned his Gamertag. In late February, a player claimed her account was suspended because her profile said she is a lesbian. This prompted a blog post from the Gay and Lesbian Alliance Against Defamicrosoft xboxmation, among other responses, so I’m guessing Microsoft finally felt there was enough pressure to make some policy changes.
Whitten promised that the code of conduct will be enforced more stringently to prevent misuse of the terms. That probably entails taking a closer look at Gamertags to make sure they’re not being used as insults. But the real hard part will be monitoring players’ responses to these nicknames. Hopefully Xbox Live’s moderators can do a better job of booting people who toss around homophobic, ethnic and racial slurs without fear of repercussion.
from PC World

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justonelook@garibaldi-gay.com

BOULDER, COLORADO – A protest is being organized for Sunday morning outside a Catholic preschool where a lesbian couple was told their child could not re-enroll because his or her parents are homosexual.
Teachers at Sacred Heart of Jesus Catholic School were told about the situation earlier this week. Staff members say they were told a student would not be allowed to re-enroll because of his or her parents’ sexual orientation.
The Denver Archdiocese says the student’s parents are two women and their homosexual relationship violates the school’s beliefs and policy.
A group of concerned citizens plans to protest outside of the Sacred Heart of Jesus Catholic School at 9:45 a.m. on Sunday before the 10 a.m. mass.
An organizer, Beth Osnes, told 9NEWS in an e-mail, “We are doing this protest to draw attention to this injustice, especially as it impacts a child.”
“We also hope to make sure the members of this faith community are aware of its institutional prejudice,” she said.
In a statement sent to 9NEWS, the Archdiocese said, “Homosexual couples living together as a couple are in disaccord with Catholic teaching.”
According to the Archdiocese, parents who enroll their kids at Sacred Heart of Jesus Catholic School are expected to follow the Catholic Church’s beliefs.
“No person shall be admitted as a student in any Catholic school unless that person and his/her parent(s) subscribe to the school’s philosophy and agree to abide by the educational policies and regulations of the school and Archdiocese,” the statement said.
Because this student’s parents are homosexual, the Archdiocese says they were in clear violation of the school’s policy. Legal analysts tell 9NEWS the Archdiocese is within its rights.
from 9 News Boulder
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GUERNSEY – The age of consent for gay men in Guernsey could be reduced to 16, if the island’s politicians agree.
Later this month the States are due to debate if the laws should be made equal for homosexuals and heterosexuals.
Currently sex between two men is illegal under the age of 18, but between a man and a woman is legal from the age of 16.
The Home Department, which has put forward the move, said there needed to be equality on human rights grounds.
The department said according to legal advice anybody who objects to the change on moral or religious grounds is unlikely to be justified in law.
The changes would also strike from the law-books the current ban on sex between more than two men at the same time.
In 1999, Guernsey lowered the age of consent for homosexuals from 21 to 18 and the issue was last raised in the States in 2007.
from The BBC

Marie Osmond

marie osmonds poor gay son killed himself

because he had been told how wrong and how sick he was every day of his life by his church and the people in it. Calling that “depression” is a lie!
Yet the Osmonds still talk lovingly about their church, saying nothing about its extremely anti-gay Crusade. Marie also has a gay daughter! Hey, I want her and all the gay kids in the world to know that they are just fine being gay and that they deserve love and respect instead of insults and rebuke! I have gay people in my family and my circle of friends and I am kicking bigot ass and taking names!
That is how its done in my religion—(I have my own religion that I made up for myself and it is a great religion that actually works and respects facts and not fantasy!)
Gerald Lund one of the ex church apostles has three gay kids himself.
Yet, even though the people they say they love the most in all of their public displays and speeches (THEIR KIDS AND FAMILY!!) are gay,– their own children,for crying out loud- these people cannot find the christian decency and compassion within themselves to stop their hypocritical gay bashing!!
How sickening. I know so many mormon kids who were gay and committed suicide, and I just cannot and will not stay quiet in order to not offend bigots anymore. It is all so terribly depressing.
Marie please don’t talk about how your faith in your church has helped you get through this one! Please get some integrity and tell that church of yours that you will leave it and stop giving it ten percent of your money if they don’t stop trying to destroy your kids’ and all gay people’s civil rights and dreams and hopes!!
G-d is trying to use you for something good and this is your opportunity! Your church is wrong and on the wrong wrong wrong side of things! Get as vocal about that as you are about your diet. G-d bless you too, Marie.
Take a hard look at the facts now as you use this very sad time for introspection, healing growth and prayer, and become a strong symbol for loving mothers who make no apologies for hatred against their own kids!
Roseanne Barr
from Roseanne World

ROME, ITALY — A singer in an elite Vatican choir and a jailed Italian public works executive who served as a papal usher were let go by the Vatican this week amid allegations that they were involved in what prosecutors believe was an organized network of gay prostitution, Italian news media reported.
Ghinedu Ehiem, a Nigerian who sang in a choir that performs at St. Peter’s Basilica, was dismissed after the center-left daily newspaper La Repubblica reported Wednesday that he had procured men, including seminarians, for Angelo Balducci, a former member of the board of Italy’s public works department who was arrested and jailed last month on corruption charges.
After his arrest, Mr. Balducci was removed from his Vatican post in The Gentlemen of His Holiness, an elite group of ushers who serve at the Apostolic Palace when visiting dignitaries meet the pope, the ANSA news agency reported Thursday, citing Vatican sources.
The reports emerged as part of a sweeping investigation into corruption in the awarding of public works contracts by Italy’s Civil Protection Agency. Mr. Balducci, a consultant to the Vatican on major construction projects, is one of four people to be jailed in the inquiry, which has dealt a serious blow to the well-respected director of the Civil Protection Agency, Guido Bertolaso.
In wiretapped phone conversations leaked to the news media, people with business before the agency are heard organizing parties for Mr. Bertolaso, complete with beautiful young women believed to be to his liking. Mr. Bertolaso is under investigation but has not been charged with a crime.
But nothing quite compares to the reports of a gay prostitution ring that emerged this week. Citing a police document drawing on intercepted phone conversations, La Repubblica reported Wednesday that Mr. Ehiem procured men for Mr. Balducci. In one conversation, the paper quotes Mr. Balducci as asking Mr. Ehiem, “At what time does he have to return to the seminary?”
Over more than a year of taped conversations, Mr. Ehiem described the physiques of various men to Mr. Balducci. “I have a situation from Naples,” Mr. Ehiem says in one conversation, according to La Repubblica. “I have a situation from Cuba,” he says in another, continuing with “a German who just arrived from Germany,” “two black guys,” “the soccer player” and “the dancer for the RAI” state broadcaster.
It was not immediately possible to reach Mr. Ehiem’s lawyer. Mr. Ehiem, who the Vatican said was not a member of any religious order, told Panorama magazine that he had met Mr. Balducci through an Italian friend who had worked as an escort, ANSA reported Thursday. Mr. Ehiem accused magistrates of “ruining his life,” it added.
Mr. Balducci, who is married, has said he is innocent of the corruption charges. His lawyer, Franco Coppi, who successfully defended a former prime minister, Giulio Andreotti, against charges of Mafia dealings, told the news agency that it was “shameful” for newspapers to publish conversations unrelated to the investigation. He added that he and Mr. Balducci had “laughed” when they learned of the sex allegations.
from The New York Times

Jonathan Pilkington’s boss wouldn’t take no for an answer.
During more than two years as a food runner at an upscale steakhouse in Scottsdale, Ariz., Pilkington says his male supervisor groped, fondled and otherwise sexually harassed him more than a dozen times.
“It was very embarrassing,” Pilkington said. “I felt like I had to do something because the situation was just so bad.”
Now Pilkington, a married father of two, is the star witness in a federal lawsuit against Fleming’s Prime Steakhouse & Wine Bar and one of a growing number of men claiming they are victims of sexual harassment in the workplace.
From 1990 to 2009, the percentage of sexual harassment claims filed by men has doubled from 8 percent to 16 percent of all claims, according to the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission.
Women still file the overwhelming majority of sexual harassment claims with the EEOC and state and local agencies. But lawyers at the commission say they’ve noticed the increase in complaints by men – more than 2,000 were filed in 2009 out of about 12,700 cases.
Male claims made up about 12 percent of all cases a decade ago, but the percentage has continued to rise even as the overall number of sexual harassment complaints has declined. And last year, the percentage of lawsuits the EEOC filed on behalf of male victims hit an all-time high, making up 14 percent of all cases.
“It’s certainly possible that there’s more sexual harassment of men going on, but it could just be that more men are coming forward and complaining about it,” said Ernest Haffner, an attorney in the EEOC’s Office of Legal Counsel.
While some cases allege harassment by female supervisors or co-workers, most charges involve men harassing other men. Sometimes it’s unwelcome romantic advances. Other times, men are picked on because they are gay, perceived as being gay or not considered masculine enough for the work setting.
In the past, some employers might have shrugged off such antics as “boys will be boys” horseplay or fraternity-type behavior. But the EEOC has been filing more lawsuits involving male victims, saying it wants to send a message that such behavior is unacceptable and unlawful.
In November, for example, the Cheesecake Factory restaurant chain agreed to pay $345,000 to six male employees who claimed they were repeatedly sexually assaulted by a group of male kitchen staffers at a Phoenix-area restaurant.
The EEOC said the abusers would drag some victims kicking and screaming into a walk-in refrigerator, touching and grinding against the victims’ genitals and take turns simulating rape. The company denied the allegations but agreed to make a financial settlement and educate its employees and managers about sexual harassment.
Susan Strauss, a consultant who advises companies about how to avoid sexual harassment in the workplace, said she’s seeing more cases in which men are subject to a sexualized form of hazing.
“If you don’t fit the masculine stereotype or are viewed as effeminate, you get picked on in a sexual way to demean you,” Strauss said.
Cases involving women making unwanted advances toward men may also be rising as women make up a growing part of the work force. Last year, the Regal Entertainment Group, which operates a national chain of movie theaters, agreed to pay $175,000 to settle a lawsuit by a male employee who claimed a female co-worker repeatedly grabbed his crotch at work.
When the employee complained to his supervisor and the theater’s then-general manager, he claims, she failed to stop the harassment and instead retaliated against the victim with unfair discipline and lower performance evaluations.
The number of cases filed by men has grown steadily since a landmark Supreme Court ruling in 1998 held that same-sex harassment is a valid claim under federal anti-discrimination laws. That ruling involved an offshore oil rig worker who said he was subject to humiliating sex-related treatment by other workers, including being sodomized in the shower with a bar of soap.
In Pilkington’s case, he claims the restaurant’s chef would grope and pinch his genitals or grab his backside when Pilkington walked to the kitchen or stock room. Despite his complaints to the restaurant’s operating partner, he says the conduct didn’t stop.
After one incident, Pilkington lost his composure and yelled at the chef, making a scene. Days later, he was fired – an action he claims was retaliation for his complaints. An EEOC lawsuit on behalf of Pilkington and three other current and former employees is pending.
“I think maybe it’s just harder for males to come out and file a complaint because of how embarrassing it is,” Pilkington said. “When I talk about it I get this nauseous feeling in my stomach.”
The restaurant has denied the charges. In a statement, the company that owns Fleming’s said the restaurant “has always been committed to providing a safe and healthy workplace free of harassment for all of its associates.”
Many victims are hesitant to come forward because they are afraid of being considered unmanly or being derided by co-workers, said Mary Jo O’Neill, a regional attorney in the EEOC’s Phoenix District office.
“All sexual harassment victims feel humiliated, lacking control and power,” O’Neill said. “This has a different twist because everyone expects that they would be able to handle it and take care of it themselves.”
Pilkington has since moved on to another job. While he is embarrassed by the publicity his case has received, he says it was the right thing to do. The EEOC lawsuit seeks damages for him and other workers alleging harassment, along with back pay and compensatory and punitive damages.
from The Associated Press

New guidelines for prostate cancer screening issued Wednesday emphasize that physicians should better educate men about both the risks and benefits of using the PSA test for screening.
They also call for cutbacks in the use of digital rectal exams to find tumors and recommend the end of mass prostate-screening programs at health fairs and other sites.
The revised guidelines issued by the influential American Cancer Society come on the heels of several studies suggesting that large numbers of tumors identified by PSA screening are inconsequential and that biopsies and treatment produce more harm than those tumors would.
Because of such findings, the new guidelines emphasize the importance of physicians explaining both risks and benefits to the patients more fully so that each man can make an informed decision about whether to get tested.
Perhaps recognizing that physicians are unlikely to invest greater amounts of time in such educational efforts, however, the society also urged greater use of education specialists, pamphlets, videos and other materials to explain the risk-benefit trade-offs.
The panel that issued the guidelines called for cutbacks in community screening programs precisely because such educational efforts are rarely, if ever, incorporated.
And the group downplayed the importance of digital rectal examinations — procedures that were once a mainstay of physical exams for men over 50 but which have become less common in recent years — because of lack of evidence that they save lives.
Dr. Otis W. Brawley, chief medical officer of the American Cancer Society, said the new guidelines were not that different from those issued in 1997 and 2001.
Now, he added, “we have two clinical trials that very vividly illustrate the uncertainties associated with screening,” which makes it even more important for men contemplating the PSA tests to understand the risks. Those major trials showed that PSA screening does not lower the risk of death from prostate cancer and might actually increase it slightly, perhaps from unnecessary treatments.
Dr. S. Adam Ramin, a urological oncology specialist at St. John’s Health Center in Santa Monica, said that the cancer society guidelines placed too much emphasis on whether the tests saved lives and not enough on whether they prevented complications from tumors, such as leaking of urine, incontinence, bone pain, anemia and weight loss.
“Although it is true that treatment will not necessarily save a lot of lives, it does prevent complications,” he said.
But other experts noted that treatment itself can produce complications such as urinary incontinence and impotence.
Skip Lockwood, president of Zero — The Project to End Prostate Cancer, said that calls to end the digital rectal exam were “kind of nuts. . . . The whole concept that you would do anything to reduce the amount of information you have does not make sense to me.”
He said his organization would continue its mass screening programs with PSA tests, which have tested more than 100,000 men.
Several medical groups, including the American Urological Assn. and the National Comprehensive Cancer Network, now offer guidelines on screening with the PSA test, which measures levels of a tumor-associated protein in blood.
Prostate cancer is the most common cancer in men after skin cancer, affecting 192,000 men each year and killing 27,000. And though all the parties may not concur on how and how often PSA screening should be used, they are in unanimous agreement on one point. As Lockwood said, “We need a better test.”
from The Los Angeles Times

WASHINGTON, D.C. – The time has come to change a policy that imposes a lifetime ban on donating blood for any man who has had gay sex since 1977, 18 senators said Thursday.
“Not a single piece of scientific evidence supports the ban,” said Sen. John Kerry, D-Mass., who joined 16 other Democrats and independent Sen. Bernie Sanders of Vermont in writing Food and Drug Administration Commissioner Margaret Hamburg.
The lawmakers stressed that the science has changed dramatically since the ban was established in 1983 at the advent of the HIV-AIDS crisis. Today donated blood must undergo two different, highly accurate tests that make the risk of tainted blood entering the blood supply virtually zero, they said.
The senators said that while hospitals and emergency rooms are in urgent need of blood products, “healthy blood donors are turned away every day due to an antiquated policy and our blood supply is not necessarily any safer for it.”
Brian Moulton, chief legislative counsel for the Human Rights Campaign,the nation’s largest gay rights group, said they are hopeful that the policy, last reviewed in 2006, will change under President Barack Obama, “who is interested in looking at all the policies that have a discriminatory effect.” The goal, he said, is “to have policies in place that are based on the science” rather than “any discriminatory idea about our community.”
The senators’ letter noted that in March 2006, the American Red Cross, America’s Blood Centers and the American Association of Blood Banks reported to an FDA-sponsored workshop that the ban “is medically and scientifically unwarranted.”
The FDA, in a statement, said that “while FDA appreciates concerns about perceived discrimination, our decision to maintain the deferral policy is based on current science and data and does not give weight to a donor’s sexual orientation.”
It said that while some groups favor relaxing restrictions, others, “such as those representing the hemophilia community, support continuation of the current policy.”
People with hemophilia, a bleeding disorder, require periodic transfusions and in the past, before screening techniques were improved to ensure blood was HIV-free, were among those most at risk of contracting the virus.
Kerry compared the effort to lift the blood donation ban to legislation he backed in 2008 to end the law banning people with HIV from traveling and immigrating to the United States. That ban was lifted last year.
Also signing the letter were Kirsten Gillibrand of New York, Dick Durbin and Roland Burris of Illinois, Daniel Akaka of Hawaii, Sheldon Whitehouse of Rhode Island, Sherrod Brown of Ohio, Frank Lautenberg of New Jersey, Bob Casey of Pennsylvania, Russ Feingold of Wisconsin, Mark Udall and Michael Bennet of Colorado, Al Franken of Minnesota, Maria Cantwell of Washington, Carl Levin of Michigan, Tom Harkin of Iowa, and Mark Begich of Alaska.
from The Associated Press

Roy Ashburn

SACRAMENTO, CALIFORNIA – A state senator from Southern California was arrested for allegedly driving drunk after leaving Faces, a gay nightclub in midtown Sacramento, early Wednesday morning.
The California Highway Patrol pulled over Senator Roy Ashburn at 2:00 a.m. Wednesday after an officer noticed a black Chevy Tahoe swerving at 13th and L Streets.
Ashburn, a father of four, is a Republican Senator representing parts of Kern, Tulare and San Bernardino Counties with a history of opposing gay rights
When the officer stopped the state-issued vehicle, the driver identified himself as Senator Ashburn. He was arrested without incident and charged with two misdemeanors: driving under the influence and driving with a blood alcohol level higher than .08% or higher.
A male passenger, who was not identified as a lawmaker, was also in the car but was not detained.
Ashburn was booked into the Sacramento County Jail and released on $1,400 bond.
Ashburn issued a statement on the arrest Wednesday afternoon:
“I am deeply sorry for my actions and offer no excuse for my poor judgment. I accept complete responsibility for my conduct and am prepared to accept the consequences for what I did. I am also truly sorry for the impact this incident will have on those who support and trust me – my family, my constituents, my friends, and my colleagues in the Senate.”
Ashburn served six years as a state Assemblyman before being elected to the State Senate.  According to Project Vote Smart, Ashburn has voted against every gay rights measure in the State Senate since taking office.
from CBS 13 Sacramento