Aug 06, 2004   | COMMENTS     

HONOLULU (AP) — Resolutions by the nation’s largest association of psychologists backing gay marriage and same-sex parenting drew criticism last week from conservative and religious leaders. The policy positions were approved July 28 by the American Psychological Association’s Council of Representatives during the group’s annual convention in Waikiki. Liberty Counsel, a conservative law group based in Orlando, Fla., said by supporting gay marriage, the psychology professionals are showing their “support for the homosexual agenda of gaining full acceptance for the homosexual lifestyle.” The research supporting gay parenting is flawed, the group said. “The APA’s position on homosexuality flies in the face of common sense, ignores the social science research, and will hurt children,” Mathew D. Staver, president and general counsel of Liberty Counsel, said in a statement. William Donohue, president of the Catholic League, said, “The only surprise in learning of this decision was why it took so long. The politicization of homosexuality in this country is now all but out of control.”

FDA approves new single-drug combination HIV medications
WASHINGTON — The Food & Drug Administration approved two AIDS drugs designed to simplify treatments, according to a Reuters report. The new drugs combine two medicines into one tablet, making it easier to follow treatment regimens, according to Reuters. The makers, GlaxoSmithKline and Gilead Sciences, said they intended to provide the medicines at "no-profit'' prices for needy nations. Glaxo also said it would give a free, 60-day supply of its combination drug, called Epzicom, to patients in the United States. Before these new pills, patients juggled multiple pills and doses. Glaxo's Epzicom combines the company's HIV medicines Epivir and Ziagen into a once-a-day pill. Gilead's once-a-day tablet, called Truvada, contains the AIDS-fighting drugs Viread and Emtriva. Proponents of aggressive treatment of AIDS around the world consider the easier-to-take combination pills vital to fighting the disease in Africa and the Caribbean.

Drugs allow HIV-positive men to be dads via in vitro fertilization
MELBOURNE, Australia — Men who are HIV-positive now can father disease-free babies via in vitro fertilization (IVF) thanks to a breakthrough by Melbourne doctors, the Victoria Herald Sun reported this week. While health officials once feared that sperm from men with HIV would result in transmission of the disease to the mother or baby, effective HIV drugs and a new technique have somewhat alleviated those fears, the newspaper reported. The new method, developed at Melbourne IVF and the Royal Women’s Hospital, now allows couples that include an HIV-positive man to have their own babies, the Herald Sun reported. Associate Professor Anne Mijch, head of the Victorian HIV Service at the Alfred Hospital, told the newspaper, “They’re able to have a normal life with a family and kids, and do that safely.” According to Mijch, combined antiretroviral therapy for HIV patients give them virus levels too low to detect, and once the potential fathers’ HIV is considered undetectable, a similar test is used to determine if their sperm has any detectable virus.

Scientist: Hundreds of animal species engage in homosexual behavior
SYDNEY, Australia — Animals ranging from koalas to wallabies, penguins and dolphins engage in homosexual activity, flying in the face of an old argument that gay humans’ behavior goes against nature, the Sydney Morning Herald reported. Dr. Geoff MacFarlane is a biological sciences lecturer at the University of Newcastle and gave a public speech this week on the topic of homosexual behavior among animals, according to the Herald. Although some argue that such behavior is unusual or deviant among wild animals, leading to assertions that sex between members of the same gender is “against laws of nature,” MacFarlane said recent scientific research “forcefully demolishes these assumptions,” the newspaper reported. More than 450 species worldwide have been identified as exhibiting some gay behavior, MacFarlane told the Herald. Among bonobos, or pygmy chimpanzees, for example, about 50 percent of their sexual encounters were between the same sex, MacFarlane and a colleague wrote in the journal Nature Australia, according to the Herald.

New Missouri campaign aimed at reducing HIV infection rate
ST. LOUIS (AP) — A new two-year marketing campaign funded by the Missouri Foundation for Health will dispatch guardian angels to encourage safer, smarter sex across St. Louis. Young gay and bisexual men are the primary target of the Guardian Project, which will be promoted on billboards, bus shelters and in radio messages starting in September. Uniformed “guardian captains” will visit bars, nightclubs and other places frequented by gays to distribute condoms and answer questions. The hope is that it will reduce the HIV infection rate among young gay and bisexual men who ...