By Ramy Eletreby

Freedom to Marry Week

Over 500 people participated in the annual Freedom to Marry Week Feb. 12-18, where same-sex couples attempt to get marriage licenses from their local courthouses on Valentine's Day. The event also marks the second anniversary of San Francisco Mayor Gavin Newsom's granting of marriage rights to same-sex couples.

Equality California (EQCA) held a press conference at the Beverly Hills courthouse where about 20 same-sex couples were turned away. "On Valentine's Day, couples of all kinds celebrate their love and commitment to one another, but same-sex couples are denied access to basic protections that married couples enjoy. We want to put a human face on that reality," said EQCA's Stephanie Wells. "Marriage equality is going to happen in California ... It's not if, it's when."

A new coalition -- Marriage Equality Matters -- was announced on Feb. 13 by Lambda Legal, the National Black Justice Coalition, the National Latino/a Coalition for Justice, Asian Equality, and Freedom to Marry to show an elevated representation of communities of color supporting marriage equality.

In New Jersey, the state Supreme Court began hearing arguments on Feb. 15 in a case that could make the state the second in the union to legalize same-sex marriage. Massachusetts legalized gay marriage in 2003. New Jersey activists are also hoping their state legislature will expand their existing domestic partnership law into full marriage benefits.

Meanwhile, at the Conservative Political Action Committee Conference on Feb. 10, Sen. Bill Frist (R-Tenn.) announced a June 5 vote in the U.S. Senate on a measure preventing states from allowing gay marriage. The bill will require a two-thirds majority vote for approval and will force senators to officially take a position on same-sex marriage. "Today, the institution of marriage is under attack," said Frist. "When America's values are under attack, we need to act."

"Don't Ask, Don't Tell" Cost $363.8 Million

A new analysis of the cost of implementing the military's anti-gay "Don't Ask, Don't Tell" policy from 1994 to 2003 revealed that taxpayers lost an estimated $363.8 million, a 91 percent increase from last year's Government Accountability Office's estimate of $190.5 million. The analysis, based on the estimated cost of recruiting and training volunteers to replace discharged gays, was presented to Congress on Feb. 14 by a University of California Blue Ribbon Commission that includes former Defense Secretary William J. Perry, former Asst. Defense Secretary Dr. Lawrence J. Korb, and UC Santa Barbara Professor Aaron Belkin, director of the Center for the Study of Sexual Minorities in the Military. Gary Gates of The Williams Project at UCLA School of Law served as senior project consultant.

"The Army is facing a recruiting crisis, yet we're turning away volunteer soldiers who are willing and able to fight and willing to make the ultimate sacrifice simply because of their sexual orientation," said Rep. Martin T. Meehan (D-Mass.), who is sponsoring legislation to repeal the policy.

Bishop Robinson Gets Sober

Openly gay New Hampshire Episcopal Bishop Gene Robinson, whose 2003 confirmation sparked a crisis in the 2.3 million-member Episcopal Church, admitted himself into a treatment center on Feb. 1 "to deal with my increasing dependence on alcohol."

In a Feb. 13 e-mail, Robinson said he thought of alcoholism "as a failure of will or discipline on my part, rather than a disease over which my particular body simply has no control, except to stop drinking altogether ... Once again, God is proving His desire and ability to bring an Easter out of Good Friday."

"Gene has become a symbol of liberation for countless gay people struggling to come out of their various closets. We will always thank him for this great contribution," Episcopal priest and LGBT Elder Malcolm Boyd told IN. "And now he is giving us another gift -- showing victims of alcoholism and drugs a way to come out of those personal tragedies and openly to seek healing."

Meanwhile, St. Luke's-of-the-Mountains Episcopal Church, La Crescenta, became the fourth Southern California church to severe ties with the Diocese of Los Angeles and aligns itself with the Diocese of Luwero, Uganda, over Robinson and the blessing of Boyd and his partner of 21 years, Mark Thompson, by Los Angeles Bishop J. Jon Bruno. -- Karen Ocamb

Focus on the Family Backs an Alternative to Domestic Partnerships

The anti-gay organization Focus on the Family supports a proposed bill by Colorado Republican state Sen. Shawn Mitchell granting "reciprocal beneficiary agreements" (limited legal benefits), to couples not allowed to marry under state law, according to the Washington Blade. The bill was introduced as an alternative to a Democratic-sponsored domestic partnership bill that includes sexual orientation.

Focus' Jim Pfaff told the Denver Post that the group supports the bill because it does not try to "recreate the family structure." Additionally, he said, domestic partnerships give "extra benefits" to gays with a "high standard of living" at the expense of the poor "and we believe that's discriminatory."

Recently the Post published a poll of 625 registered voters -- 50 percent said they supported giving same-sex couples rights similar to married couples, with 41 opposed. However, 55 percent said they would support a constitutional amendment banning gay marriage, while 36 percent said they would oppose it.

Coloradoans for Marriage are hoping to put an anti-gay marriage constitutional amendment on the state ballot in November. The AP reports that in 2004, 13 states approved gay marriage bans by ratios of up to 3-1.

New HIV Drug Reduces Viral Load in HIV-positive Patients

On Feb. 9, Gilead Sciences announced the results of a Phase I/II dose-escalation study of its newest HIV drug, GS 9137, which showed significant reductions in the viral load among HIV-positive patients taking the drug as monotherapy or in combination with ritonavir as a boosting agent.

Most of the current antiviral drugs attack one of two enzymes used by HIV to duplicate itself and are known as either protease or reverse transcriptase inhibitors. GS 9137, also known as JTK-303, is an integrase inhibitor, a potent new class of antiretroviral treatments that interfere with HIV replication by blocking the ability of the virus to integrate into the genetic material of human cells. "New and better options are desperately needed, particularly among treatment-experienced patients who must often take complex regimens," and may have developed drug-resistance, said Dr. Edwin DeJesus.

Meanwhile, LGV chlamydia, a "particularly bad strain not usually seen in this country" that is slowly spreading among gay and bisexual men, is believed to increase chances of spreading HIV, according to AP. While only 27 diagnoses have been confirmed by U.S. health officials, specialists believe that those are fractions of the new HIV infections.

Gays Attend King Funeral

Gay leaders were among the 10,000 mourners at the Feb. 7 funeral in Atlanta, Ga., for Coretta Scott King, known as the mother of the civil rights movement. Mrs. King, widow of slain civil rights hero Rev. Martin Luther King Jr., died Jan. 31 at age 78.

Mrs. King was a longtime, staunch supporter of LGBT rights, including the right to marry. Friends with Bayard Rustin, the openly gay man who organized the 1963 March on Washington, Mrs. King trudged through the halls of Congress in 1994 on behalf of the Human Rights Campaign-sponsored Employee Nondiscrimination Act (ENDA). In 2004 she called the federal constitutional amendment banning same-sex marriage "a form of gay bashing."

At the funeral, only Rev. Joseph Lowery and poet Maya Angelou mentioned sexual orientation, but it mattered. "When opinion leaders and community treasurers like Maya Angelou and Rev. Lowery speak of the harms of homophobia and the righteousness of equality, that makes it harder for those who choose to promote fear and spread untruths about the lives and contributions of lesbians and gay men," National Black Justice Coalition Executive Director, H. Alexander Robinson told IN.

"It was an extraordinary honor to be at Mrs. King's funeral," National Gay and Lesbian Task Force Executive Director Matt Foreman told IN. "[Her] standing up for us caused discomfort for many, including some within her own family. But she never wavered, because that is who she was. We have lost the best ally our community has ever had." -- Karen Ocamb