By Ramy Eletreby

Gay Games VII Starts July 15 in Chicago

The 2006 Gay Games VII, an international sports and cultural festival held every four years, opens July 15-22 in Chicago. Over 12,000 athletes are expected to participate in 30 different competitions. Each sport will be directed by experts in their fields, with professionally organized tournaments and world-class facilities.

More than 60 entertainment legends from around the world are set to perform in the Opening and Closing Ceremonies, including British pop superstar Andy Bell of Erasure and comedian Margaret Cho. Will & Grace’s Megan Mullally will perform at the Opening Ceremony July 15 at Soldier Field and Cyndi Lauper performs at the Closing Ceremony July 22 at Wrigley Field.

SIRIUS OutQ, the 24/7-satellite radio channel for the LGBT community, will be the exclusive national radio broadcast partner for Gay Games VII.

For tickets, schedules, and more information see
www.gaygameschicago.org.

Arkansas Throws Out Ban on Gay Foster Parents

On June 29, the Arkansas Supreme Court upheld a lower court decision that threw out a 1999 ban by the Child Welfare Agency Review Board against gays becoming foster parents, reports AP. In 2004, the lower court threw out the ban after four Arkansas residents sued, claiming discrimination and privacy violations. The American Civil Liberties Union represented the plaintiffs in the case.

After hearing testimony from a member of the Child Welfare Board, the justices issued a unanimous ruling stating that the ban was “an attempt to legislate for the General Assembly with respect to public morality.”

“There is no correlation between the health, welfare and safety of foster children and the blanket exclusion of any individual who is a homosexual or who resides in a household with a homosexual,” wrote Associate Justice Donald Corbin.

On June 30, Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee called on the state Legislature to consider reinstating the ban. “I'm very disappointed that the court seems more interested in what's good for gay couples than what's good for children needing foster care,” Huckabee said in a press statement.

Danny Glover and Harry Belafonte Call for AIDS Action at BET Awards

During the 2006 BET Awards in L.A. on June 27, actors Danny Glover and Harry Belafonte called for black America to join the national Mass Black Mobilization Movement to end the AIDS epidemic in the black community. Longtime AIDS activist and humanitarian Glover presented Belafonte with the BET Humanitarian Award. “Following the example of the man we are honoring this evening, let us remember that we are in the 25th year of the HIV/AIDS epidemic,” said Glover, a previous BET and Black AIDS Institute honoree. “Please join with BET’s Rap-It-Up and the Black AIDS Institute to create a mass mobilization where we all do our part to end this pandemic.”

In his acceptance speech, Belafonte said, “The struggle is long. It hasn’t ended. The enemy is tenacious and resilient and we have to be more tenacious and more resilient. Katrina isn’t fixed yet. HIV/AIDS isn’t fixed yet. Two million men in prison isn’t fixed yet. Justice isn’t fixed yet. And the only ones who can fix it are those of us who are victims of it… [We] must rise up and make sure that tyranny does not prevail.”

Pentagon Revises Document Listing Homosexuality as Mental Disorder

On June 28, the Pentagon announced that it would revise a document that refers to homosexuality as a mental disorder. The Defense Department Instruction outlines discharge procedures for dealing with service members with disabilities and lists homosexuality as a defect along with mental retardation and personality disorders, reports AP.

The listing was discovered last month by the Center for the Study of Sexual Minorities in the Military at the University of California, Santa Barbara, which considers the document another instance of military discriminating against gays. Under its Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell policy, the military discharged an average of two service members per day in 2005. A bi-partisan movement to repeal DADT is currently underway in Congress.

“Homosexuality should not have been characterized as a mental disorder in an appendix of a procedural instruction,” said Defense Department spokesman Lt. Col. Jeremy Martin. “Notwithstanding its inclusion, we find no practical impact since that appendix simply listed factors that do not constitute a physical disability, and homosexuality of course does not.”

The American Psychiatric Association (APA) criticized the Defense Department, noting that homosexuality was officially disavowed as a mental illness over 30 years ago. “Based on scientific and medical evidence, the APA declassified homosexuality as a mental disorder in 1973—a position shared by all other major health and mental health organizations based on their own review of the science,” wrote APA head James H. Scully Jr. in a letter to the Defense Department.

Four Wisconsin Ex-Governors Oppose Gay Marriage Ban

On June 28, four former Wisconsin governors— Democrats Patrick Lucey, Martin Schreiber, Tony Earl, and Republican Lee Sherman Dreyfus—came out against the proposed ban on gay marriage on the Nov. 7 ballot. “The founding document of our state is designed to lay the foundation for our government and protect individual freedoms. The civil unions and marriage ban is wrong because it would mark the first time we have ever amended our constitution to limit freedom,” they wrote in a joint statement.

“We also oppose the ban because it is unnecessarily harsh and far-reaching. Marriage for gay couples is already illegal in the state of Wisconsin. It is unfair to single out a group of people in our state and deny them any measure of basic legal protection,” they wrote. “We urge the people of Wisconsin to carefully consider the civil unions and marriage ban and the impact it will have on families who live in our state. We hope you will join us in voting no in November.”

Fair Wisconsin, the group fighting the measure, expects current Gov. Jim Doyle to also oppose the ban, reports the Capital Times.

FDA Approves Three-Drug Combination HIV Treatment; Updates Black Box Warning on Aptivus

On June 30, the FDA granted tentative approval for a new generic pill that combines three antiretroviral drugs into one treatment. Produced by Indian drug manufacturer Aurobindo Pharma, the new treatment combines lamivudine, zidovidune and nevirapine into a twice-daily pill, VOA News reports. Since the new treatment was only granted tentative approval while it meets the FDA’s safety and efficacy standards, it is not yet allowed to be sold or distributed throughout the United States because of patents and exclusivity agreements. However, the drug can be used by relief organizations outside the United States under the President's Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief.

Also on June 30, The Wall Street Journal reports that the FDA and drug manufacturer Boehringer Ingelheim updated the black box warning on Boehringer’s protease inhibitor Aptivus, which is used in combination with Abbott Laboratories’ Norvir for patients with HIV/AIDS who have developed resistance to other drugs. The updated black box warning, which is a drug’s strictest warning, recommends that physicians use caution in prescribing the drug to people who are at risk for increased bleeding after 14 documented cases of intracranial hemorrhaging occurred in 13 people taking Aptivus.

Seattle Gay Philanthropist Commits Suicide

On June 24, Ric Weiland, an openly gay philanthropist and quiet hero for the gay community, died in his Seattle home from a self-inflicted gunshot wound. Weiland, 53, was one of the first five Microsoft Corp. employees when high school friend and Microsoft co-founder Paul Allen hired him in 1975. After leaving Microsoft in 1988, Weiland became a respected philanthropist contributing millions of dollars to several local charities, including the Pride Foundation, the Lifelong AIDS Alliance, United Way of King County, and the Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center. Friends say he suffered from depression.

Numbers as of 12 p.m., July 7, 2006:

U.S. Deaths in Iraq: 2,540 (pending DoD confirmation-www.casualities.org)

Iraqi Dead since 2003: Between 38,843 - 43,273 (www.iraqbodycount.org)

Cost of War: $294,141,730,000 (www.nationalpriorities.org)

National Debt: $8,420,001,956,903.18 (www.brillig.com/debt_clock)

U.S. Trade Deficit: $387,324,503,000

(www.americaneconomicalert.org/ticker_home.asp)