Sheriff Considers Expanding Condom Distribution In Jail

LOS ANGELES - Inmates call Ron Osorio "West Hollywood" because the words are printed on the cream-colored cloth bag he carries inside Men's Central Jail each Friday.
The bag is filled with 300 Lifestyle condoms. Osorio, who works for the nonprofit Center for Health Justice, has been visiting the jail almost weekly since 2001, when Los Angeles County Sheriff Lee Baca approved a small but groundbreaking program that allowed the health group to pass out prophylactics to inmates in a segregated unit for gay men.
"We go to the dorms and a guy hands out the bagged lunches. There's another guy that hands out the juice. . . . and I stand between those two as they go through the line. They get their lunch, they get a condom, and they get their juice," Osorio said.
Not all inmates take condoms, but Osorio talks to those who do about the risks of HIV/AIDS.
He tells them that, despite what he's handing them, it's forbidden to have sex in jail.
Osorio has distributed more than 43,655 condoms to inmates since the project began, but said that is not nearly enough.
The transfer rate of HIV/AIDS in jail continues to be high, he said, and the public is at risk because once released, inmates carry the diseases back to their communities.
Eight years after Baca first approved the program, the sheriff is pondering whether to expand it by doubling the number of condoms distributed to the 300 inmates within the segregated unit.
His decision comes as a yearlong pilot condom distribution program at the California State Prison at Solano enters its eighth month.
Health advocates say that a successful review of that program could lead to widespread distribution of condoms in prisons throughout the state.
It would be one of the most aggressive measures in the nation's jails and prisons to curb the spread of HIV/AIDS, experts say.
Sheriff's officials acknowledge that the virus is a prominent problem in the jails.
They spend about $2 million each year in federally refundable money on HIV/AIDS medication and identify about 65 new cases each month.
On average there are about 1,400 people in L.A. County jails with HIV each year, said Steve Whitmore, a spokesman for the Sheriff's Department.
'There's a paradox'
Osorio, who was incarcerated for 19 months beginning in 1999, said that consensual sex in prisons is common.
He said inmates often go to extreme and unsafe lengths for protection, using plastic wrap from their sandwiches, rubber gloves and empty candy wrappers during sex.
"One condom per week is not enough," Osorio said. "To believe they're doing it one time, come on."
According to a United Nations report published last year on HIV and AIDS in places of detention, about 1.9% of prisoners in the United States are known to be HIV-positive.
The report also says the issue is international and calls for more education, efforts to reduce the supply of drugs in institutions, and condom distribution as a way to combat the diseases.
Currently, only a few jails in the United States -- including some in San Francisco, New York City, Philadelphia andWashington, D.C. -- offer condoms to inmates. Condoms are also available in prisons in Vermont.
Providing condoms to inmates seems like a "no-brainer," said Mary Sylla, who founded the Center for Health Justice, a nonprofit organization based in West Hollywood that focuses on reducing HIV cases in prisons.
She said that when condoms are offered, inmates do take them and reports of unsafe sexual activity decline.
Despite calls by health groups, most efforts to expand distribution have stalled, and state bills -- including one in California -- that could have led to widespread distribution of the prophylactics have been continuously voted down, died in committee or were vetoed.
Distributing condoms in jails is often a taboo issue, and authorities say they must balance the public health issue with their pledge to uphold the law.
"Sex in jails is against the law, but there is a public health issue that needs to be considered," Whitmore said. "There's a paradox here."
Some prison officials worry that inmates will use the condoms to attack prison guards by filling condoms with urine or feces and throwing them at guards in what is known as "gassing."
Richard L. Tatum, state president of the California Correctional Supervisors Organization, said his group opposes condom distribution programs in jails and prisons because inmates could use them to smuggle drugs and other contraband.
He said the spread of HIV/AIDS and other diseases within incarcerated populations is a problem, not only because of sex but also because of tattooing and other activities.
He said educational programs, not condoms, are the answer.
But Whitmore said the condom giveaways have not proved to be a problem in Men's Central.
Few problems
At the prison in Solano, where condoms are dispensed in a type of vending machine available to the general prison population, few problems have been reported, Sylla said.
"No place that has instituted condom distribution has then revoked it because of problems," said Nina Harawa, an assistant professor at Charles Drew University in South Los Angeles who researches HIV/AIDS in incarcerated populations.
Harawa said condoms are provided to prisoners in parts of Europe, the Middle East, Latin America and South Africa.
She said that the program at Men's Central "is an ideal example of how this can work successfully in the United States."
For Osorio, who is HIV-positive, the issue is personal.
He said he makes the trek to Men's Central Jail every Friday because condoms can save lives and money.
"How much money are we saving the state if we can keep one person from being infected?" he said.
"When they're in the jail system, you and I are paying for it," Osorio said. "That's what we need to understand."
from The Los Angeles Times

Homosexuals Are Christians Too

Despite most religious groups' contention that homosexuality is a sin, a recent survey revealed that a majority of gays and lesbians consider themselves to be Christians.
The poll also shows heterosexuals claim to have a personal commitment to Jesus Christ at a higher rate than homosexuals.
The survey, conducted by a Christian research firm in California, was conducted by telephone interview between January 2007 and November 2008. About 10,000 adults were interviewed.
"People who portray gay adults as godless, hedonistic, Christian bashers are not working with the facts," George Barna told Religion News Service. Barna is founder of the Barna Group in Ventura, California that conducted the research, adding that "A substantial majority of gays cite their faith as a central facet of their life, consider themselves to be Christian, and claim to have some type of meaningful personal commitment to Jesus Christ active in their life today."
Statistics also revealed in the survey found that:
• 72% of heterosexual adults say faith is important in their lives, compared to 60% of homosexual adults.
• 85% of heterosexual adults identify themselves as Christians, compared to 70% of gay adults.
• 75% of heterosexuals said their "personal commitment to Jesus Christ" is still important today, compared to 58% of gays and lesbians.
Of the 10,000 participants interviewed, 404 adults did not identify their sexual orientation.
from EUR

Baby Saved By Viagra

UNITED KINGDOM - 12-month-old Alfie Oliver, was born last July with a narrowing of blood vessels around his lungs and was given just weeks to live after suffering a cardiac arrest.
Parents Tracey and Rob Oliver were plunged into despair by the diagnosis, and Alfie was forced to endure a series of gruelling heart operations when he was just days old.
But after a team of experts from Great Ormond Street Hospital heard of his story they suggested the blue pills could open up his blood vessels and improve circulation.
Now Alfie's family are preparing for the first birthday they thought they would never see as he continues taking his Viagra.
And because of his young age the baby is not experiencing the notorious side-effects of the drug.
Mrs Oliver, 26, of York, said: "When they sat us down and said he needed Viagra we thought 'oh my goodness'. It's such a strange thing for a baby to be on, but it's literally saved his life."
Shortly after he was born Alfie was diagnosed with transposition of the great arteries which meant the position of his aorta and pulmonary artery were reversed.
He underwent an emergency operation to repair his heart when he was just 16 days old, but despite initially showing promising signs of recovery he was soon back in hospital.
Alfie also suffers from the rare ailment pulmonary hypertension. As well as narrowing the blood vessels around his lungs it increases blood pressure, and often goes undiagnosed because the symptoms are similar to asthma.
Last October they were told he had between two weeks and two months to live, but after experts from Great Ormond Street heard of his ordeal they visited their Leeds colleagues and suggested Viagra could save him.
from Telegraph U.K.

More Sex May Help Damaged Sperm

LONDON - For men with fertility problems, some doctors are prescribing a very conventional way to have a baby: more sex.
In a study of 118 Australian men with damaged sperm, doctors found that having sex every day for a week significantly reduced the amount of DNA damage in their patients' sperm. Previous studies have linked better sperm quality to higher pregnancy rates.
The research was announced Tuesday at a meeting of the European Society of Human Reproduction and Embryology in Amsterdam.
Dr. David Greening of Sydney IVF, a private fertility clinic in Australia, and colleagues looked at 118 men who had damaged sperm. Greening and colleagues told the men to have sex every day for a week. After seven days, the doctors found that in 81 percent of the men, there was a 12 percent decrease in the amount of damaged sperm.
Many fertility experts suggest men abstain from sex before their partners have in-vitro fertilization, to try to elevate their sperm counts.
Sperm quality can also be improved if men don't smoke, drink moderately, exercise, or get more antioxidants.
Since concluding the study, Greening says he now instructs all couples seeking fertility advice to start by having more sex. "Some of the older men look a little concerned," he said. "But the younger ones seem quite happy about it."
Experts think sex helps reduce the DNA damage in sperm by getting it out of the body quickly; if sperm is in the body for too long, it has a higher chance of getting damaged.
Some experts said that while Greening's research is promising, it doesn't prove that daily sex for men with fertility problems will actually produce more babies.
Greening said he and his colleagues are still analyzing the study data to determine how many women got pregnant.
"Looking at sperm DNA is just one part of the puzzle," said Bill Ledger, a professor of obstetrics and gynecology at the University of Sheffield, who was not connected to the research. "Maybe this will improve pregnancy rates, but we still need to do more studies."
Ledger said instructing couples with infertility problems to have more sex could stress their relationship. "This may add even more anxiety and do more harm than good," he said. He said couples shouldn't feel pressured to adjust their sex lives just for the sake of having a baby.
Greening said the study's findings were ultimately very intuitive. "If you want to have a baby, our advice is to do it often."
from The Associated Press

Family Research Council On Kevin Jennings

WASHINGTON D.C. - Few Obama administration appointments have been as startling as Education Secretary Arne Duncan’s appointment of Kevin Jennings, the homosexual founder of the Gay, Lesbian and Straight Education Network (GLSEN), to head the Office of Safe and Drug-Free Schools.
Jennings was undoubtedly chosen for this post (which does not require Senate confirmation) because the foundation of the homosexual education agenda is the concept of “safe schools.” However, “safe schools” as GLSEN defines them are like “hate crime laws” for kids. GLSEN’s model legislation would create protected categories like “sex, gender, . . . sexual orientation, [and] gender identity or expression.” (Ironically, they don’t include protection for the factor that GLSEN’s own research shows is the most common reason for harassment of students -- “the way they look or their body size.”) Everyone opposes violence, name-calling, and other forms of bullying. As with “hate crimes,” though, GLSEN’s “safe schools” do not protect everyone equally, but instead single out homosexuals for more protection than others.
Despite this inequity, some might be tempted to support the “safe schools” agenda as long as it is limited to ending bullying, and does not extend to actively affirming or promoting homosexuality. However, in a 1995 speech, Jennings admitted that the rhetoric about “safety” was a political device, saying that it “threw our opponents on the defensive, and stole their best line of attack. This framing short-circuited their arguments and left them back-pedaling.” In a 1997 speech he embraced the idea of actively “promoting” homosexuality, looking forward to a day when “people, when they would hear that someone was promoting homosexuality, would say, ‘Yeah, who cares?’” And an unsigned article on the GLSEN website in 2000 declared, “The pursuit of safety and affirmation are one and the same goal.”
While Jennings promotes tolerance toward homosexuals, he is unwilling to reciprocate by extending tolerance to those who disagree with him. His memoir, Mama’s Boy, Preacher’s Son, seethes with bitterness toward Southern Baptists, the country’s largest Protestant denomination (within which he was raised). Perhaps that’s why, in a speech in a New York church in 2000, Jennings is reported to have said, “We have to quit being afraid of the religious right. . . . I’m trying not to say, ‘[F---] ‘em!’ which is what I want to say, because I don’t care what they think! Drop dead!”
He wants homosexuality to be taught in American schools -- in his book Always My Child, Jennings calls for a “diversity policy that mandates including LGBT [lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender] themes in the curriculum.” But he wants only one side of this controversial issue to be aired, and apparently believes in locking sexually confused kids into a “gay” identity. That’s the implication of his declaration, “Ex-gay messages have no place in our nation’s public schools. A line has been drawn. There is no ‘other side’ when you’re talking about lesbian, gay and bisexual students.”
Jennings does not limit his promotion of homosexuality in schools only to high schools or middle schools. He wrote the foreword for a book titled Queering Elementary Education, which includes an essay declaring that “‘queerly raised’ children are agents” using “strategies of adaptation, negotiation, resistance, and subversion.”
Perhaps the most dramatic illustration, however, of Jennings’ unfitness for a “safe schools” post involves an incident when he taught at Concord Academy, a private boarding school in Massachusetts. In his book One Teacher in Ten (the title is based on the discredited myth, now abandoned even by “gay” activist groups, that ten percent of the population is homosexual), he tells about a young male sophomore, “Brewster,” who confessed to Jennings “his involvement with an older man he met in Boston.” But at a GLSEN rally in 2000, Jennings told a more explicit version of “Brewster’s” story. Jennings here quotes the boy and then comments: “‘I met someone in the bus station bathroom and I went home with him.’ High school sophomore, 15 years old. That was the only way he knew how to meet gay people.”
Did Jennings report this high-risk behavior to the authorities? To the school? To the boy’s parents? No -- he just told the boy, “I hope you knew to use a condom.” Sex between an adult and a young person below the “age of consent” (which varies from state to state) is a crime known as statutory rape, and some states mandate that people in certain professions report such abuse.
I do not know if “Brewster” was below the age of consent, nor whether Jennings was a mandatory reporter or violated mandatory reporting laws. When members of the National Education Association protested an NEA award to Jennings because of this incident, Jennings called the criticism “potentially libelous” and a GLSEN lawyer demanded a retraction. But when officials at Concord Academy -- the school where Jennings had taught -- were asked about the scenario described in one of Jennings’ accounts, a school spokesman said that such an incident should be reported.
In any case, public service requires adherence to a higher ethical standard than bare compliance with the law. Instead of veiled threats, Jennings now owes the public a thorough explanation of the “Brewster” incident. Regardless of the law, a 15-year-old who meets sexual partners in a bus station restroom requires more than a condom to be “safe.”
Kevin Jennings has neither the temperament nor the ethical standards needed for public service. His history suggests a commitment to serving only one narrow part of the student population, not all students. He is unfit for the post to which he’s been assigned, and Secretary Duncan should withdraw his appointment at once.
from Human Events

Fort Worth Gay Bar Raided On The 40th Anniversary Of Stonewall

FORT WORTH, TEXAS — A crowd of more than 100 protesters chanted "No more!" from the steps of the Tarrant County Courthouse on Sunday evening as they demanded an investigation of a police raid that happened hours earlier at a gay nightclub.
One patron was seriously injured during the raid at the Rainbow Lounge, which resulted in the arrests of seven people, protesters said.
Speaker after speaker decried what they called excessive force during the raid, an accusation that police dispute.
"I was scared," said Todd Camp, a former Star-Telegram writer who helped organize the protest. "I have never seen anything like this in my life."
The rally lasted about 20 minutes, and then some protesters marched down Main Street, holding signs and waving flags. A second protest is planned for 7 p.m. Sunday at the Fort Worth Convention Center.
The Fort Worth raid occurred on the 40th anniversary of the Stonewall riots in New York City, when police raided the Stonewall Inn on the night of June 28, 1969. The protest by gays against police harassment helped trigger the U.S. gay-rights movement.
"It is unfortunate that this incident occurred in Fort Worth and even more so to have occurred on the 40th anniversary of the Stonewall protests," Fort Worth Councilman Joel Burns said Sunday in a statement. "We are working together with our mayor, police chief, the city of Fort Worth Human Relations Commission and our state legislative colleagues to get a complete and accurate account of what occurred."
Witnesses said police arrived at about 1 a.m. at the Rainbow Lounge on South Jennings Street. They said a man who was arrested suffered a fractured skull and is in a Fort Worth hospital. His condition could not be obtained Sunday night.
Fort Worth police released a statement Sunday saying that the Rainbow Lounge was one of three bars targeted by six Fort Worth police officers, a supervisor and two agents from the Texas Alcoholic Beverage Commission. The group first went to the Rosedale Saloon and Cowboy Palace on Rosedale Street. Nine people were arrested, police reported.
The investigators then went to the Rainbow Lounge, the police statement said. While they were walking through the nightclub, an "extremely intoxicated patron made sexually explicit movements toward the police supervisor," the statement said. The person was arrested for public intoxication.
Another intoxicated person also made sexually explicit movements toward an officer and was arrested for public intoxication, the statement said. A third person assaulted a TABC agent by grabbing the agent’s groin, according to the statement. He was taken outside and arrested for public intoxication. He was released to paramedics as he was vomiting repeatedly, police said.
Another officer then asked for assistance from inside the club with an intoxicated patron who was resisting arrest. This person was put on the floor to control and apprehend him, police reported.
The department will conduct a thorough investigation of any allegations, the statement said.
The general manager of the Rainbow Lounge and several patrons dispute the police account, saying officers harassed patrons and used excessive force.
"He was just walking to the bathroom when an officer grabbed him and shoved him against a wall and pulled his head back," said Chris Hightower of Fort Worth, a friend of the injured patron. "He was then thrown to the ground, and three other officers were on him."
Several patrons said the officers were never assaulted.
"I have friends who are cops, and I know what to do when officers are working," Camp said. "No one was acting aggressive to officers."
General manager Randy Norman said the bar had been open just a week, and it had complied with all ordinances.
from The Star Telegram

July ads