GAY TRUTH

HOMOSEXUAL ADVOCATES IN THIS ARTICLE STATE  GAY MARRIAGE AND APOLOGIES ARE NOT ENOUGH Gay advocates have now moved beyond gay marriage to schools, the government and now want more changes. The Government's plan to posthumously pardon gay and bisexual men convicted of now-abolished sexual offences in England and Wales is a cosmetic measure which means very little to gay men today. The 1967 Sexual Offences Act finally decriminalised private homosexual acts between men aged over 21 in England and Wales, although the law wasn’t changed in Scotland until 1980, or in Northern Ireland until 1982. The age of consent was only equalised in 1998. Of the 65,000 men convicted under the laws, 15,000 are still alive . SNP MP Jon Nicholson's private member's bill, "talked out" in Parliament on Friday afternoon, would have meant an automatic pardon being granted to them too. That’s all well and good as a symbolic gesture. But we continue to live in a society that ...

The World Health Organization issued a warning July 11 that despite all efforts the global HIV epidemic continues to severely impact men who have sex with men, as well as other "key populations " that include people in prison, people who inject drugs, sex workers , and people who identify as transgender. "Rates of HIV infection among men who have sex with men remain high almost everywhere and new prevention options are urgently needed." In the lead-up to the International AIDS Conference in Melbourne, Australia , which begins July 20, WHO released  new guidelines for prevention, diagnosis, treatment, and care of key groups that are particularly vulnerable to the virus. "Rates of HIV infection among men who have sex with men remain high almost everywhere and new prevention options are urgently needed," the organization states in a news release. In a new tack towards trying to deal with the HIV epidemic, the WHO now for the first time "strong...

English: Location of Queensland on Australia. (Photo credit: Wikipedia ) Queensland has seen a dramatic spike in HIV notifications, with 93 people diagnosed this year, up 34 per cent on the same period 12 months ago. Dr Andrew Redmond from HIV Foundation Queensland says the statistics are alarming. "It's only provisional figures at this stage and we will have more reliable data by the end of the year," he said. "Why we're getting more positives now it's hard to know."We're really trying to test people who are of high risk of HIV, and it's certainly possible that if we're going to test people of high risk, we're going to get more positive tests or it might be the rates are just really going up. "It's very difficult to know." Last year, Queensland was the first state to roll out free rapid HIV tests , where a person knows their HIV status within 30 minutes. Dr Redmond says the vast majority of new HIV notifications are a...