Two parties, one record of shame
By Imani Henry


According to the activist group AIDS Coalition to Unleash Power, 43 million people in the world are living with HIV/ AIDS. As of 2003, women represented 30 percent of the newly infected; 19.2 million women worldwide now live with HIV/ AIDS.

In the United States, the Centers for Disease Control report between 850,000 and 950,000 people living with HIV. Since 2002, 40,000 per year have become infected. While the CDC has yet to include transgender people in its AIDS reporting, of the newly infected, 70 percent are men and 30 percent are women. Sixty percent of the new cases were men who contracted the virus through sex with male partners.

Although African Americans and Latin@s represent only 12 percent and 14 percent of the U.S. population, respectively, they accounted for 50 percent and 20 percent of the newly infected in 2002. Half of all newly infected people globally are under the age of 25. (U.S. Dept. of Health and Human Services)

AIDS is a preventable disease. Yet it is the greatest health crisis the world has ever known.


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'Moderate' Face of Republican National Convention Can't Hide the Truth: Bush Administration 'the most anti-gay in history of gay rights movement,' says National Gay and Lesbian Task Force

 
WASHINGTON - With Republicans planning to present a moderate and compassionate face during the Republican National Convention, the National Gay and Lesbian Task Force today released a summary of the Bush Administration's record on lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) issues, calling the Bush-Cheney team "the most anti-gay administration in the history of the gay rights movement." The Task Force, the oldest national gay rights organization in the U.S., issued three reports on presidential candidates in 2000 and several reports on the Democratic and Republican candidates this election cycle.


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Gay Republicans say they are unlikely to back Bush, GOP platform Many upset at president's support for Marriage Amendment, a draw for evangelicals
Carla Marinucci, Chronicle Political Writer


New York -- At a convention where Republicans intend to showcase their unity behind the re-election of President Bush, the party's major gay group isn't exactly sticking to script.

Leaders of the Log Cabin Republicans said Sunday the group is unlikely to endorse Bush next week in the wake of the move by a conservative-dominated GOP platform committee to strongly support a constitutional amendment banning same- sex marriage and oppose legal recognition of gay civil unions.