HIV funding for migrant workers is skimpy, experts say
By ELIZABETH PIERSON
The Brownsville Herald


July 25, 2004 � Funding for AIDS prevention and treatment has fallen out of style, leaving local organizations looking for more money to help migrant workers.

�Dry,� is how Carlos Soles describes funding for HIV prevention programs. Soles works with the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, helping community groups that work with minorities find funding and use it wisely.

Attention in public health sectors has turned in recent years to obesity, and advances in HIV/AIDS medication have led some funders to believe it�s no longer the crisis it once was, experts said.

�HIV was vogue for a number of years in funding circles, and now it�s no longer sexy,� said Noelle Van der Tuin, director of communications with Migrant Health Promotion in Progreso


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NORTH DAKOTA INITIATIVES: Same sex measure nears signature goal
Fate of wheat and tax proposals remains uncertain
By Lloyd Nicholas
Herald Staff Writer


Organizers of a proposed North Dakota constitutional amendment to limit the recognition of marriage to one man and one woman said they are on target to secure the prescribed signatures by midnight Aug. 3, but the fate of the biotech wheat and tax initiative is uncertain.



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Pageant welcomes men,
married folk, the pregnant
(Manila Time) |By Anthony Allada, Inquirer Mindanao Bureau
Inquirer News Service


DAVAO CITY--Organizers of the Kadayawan sa Dabaw, the city's yearly festival, are making a major shift in this year's Hiyas sa Kadayawan (Gem of Kindness) beauty pageant as the search is now open to both men and women.

Not only that, the pageant is also open to married people and even pregnant women.
Oscar Casaysay, Hiyas sa Kadayawan co-chairman, said the contest was now open to both sexes. the only criterion being that the contestant could promote Davao City and Mindanao as well as its products and industries particularly tourism, fashion, and floriculture.

"We will have a major shift this year to send a message that there is no discrimination as far as sexual preferences are concerned. Gender here is not an issue," he said.

The weeklong Kadayawan sa Dabaw will be held on August 16 to 22.


Casaysay said 71 applicants are women, 28 are men, and one is a transsexual.


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"Outing" campaign latest fallout in D.C. over gay-marriage ban
By Lynette Clemetson
The New York Times


WASHINGTON � There was a time when Washington's robust and politicized gay community functioned under the same unspoken social rules that apply to other politically involved people in town. Heated battles waged during the day were left at the bar door at night. Wicked barbs might fly over hot topics, but nothing was too personal.

No more. The election-year fight over gay marriage has altered the gay scene in the capital in ways that have left some in the community � most notably gay Republicans � stunned and even fearful. Under intense pressure to separate their gay consciousness from their broader political identity, gay and lesbian conservatives are facing stinging ridicule in the very neighborhoods, bars and restaurants that were once unquestioned safe zones.

Lynden Armstrong, administrative director for Sen. Pete Domenici, R-N.M., an opponent of gay marriage, in recent weeks has been called "a Jew working for Nazis," and "a gay Uncle Tom." During a recent dinner at a Washington restaurant, a friend loudly berated Armstrong in front of other patrons. He even was confronted about his political allegiance during a weekend getaway in Rehoboth Beach, Del., again, by people he considered friends.


"I don't feel like I'm being attacked by anyone in my office," said Armstrong, 33, who is also co-chairman of the Gay, Lesbian and Allies Senate Staff Caucus. "The attacks have come from other gays and lesbians, and that's hard. It's very hard for me to understand how they can do that. Most people know how difficult this all is for all of us."