The City of Newark held an event today to launch their "Status is Everything" campaign and frankly we all should pay attention. The fact that AIDS is now a disease that can be controlled through treatment means it's all the more important to get tested.
The social marketing campaign is a partnership between the African American Office of Gay Concerns and the Mayor's Office's Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender, and Questioning Commission to use traditional and modern social media to provide 24-hour instant access to local HIV/AIDS testing centers. The campaign will feature traditional large-scale outdoor advertising and cutting-edge interactive functionalities like e-cards, and social media integration on StatusisEverything.org, the campaign's official website.
"Since my administration took office in 2006, we have taken significant strides to unite create a healthier Newark," Mayor Booker said. "Today is another example of a great community partnership which is using 21st-century technology to communicate a simple message to persons at risk: get yourself tested for HIV and AIDS. Only with the health of our residents can we build a stronger, safer, prouder City."
Timothy Daniels, a 22-year-old regional AIDS and HIV activist pictured below, said:
"Young people need to speak directly to other young people because they will listen. You can save your life by knowing whether or not you have HIV or AIDS. This campaign reaches people's hearts and it the best way to get the message out there. By using social media and new technology, the organizers of this campaign have taken the time, and maintained the courage to get this message out into the community,"
According to the City of Newark, there have been 50,694 cases of AIDS in New Jersey and there were 13,218 people living with HIV or AIDS (PLWHA) in the Newark area as of December 31, 2008. The Ryan White act is important in their lives:
The Newark EMA's Ryan White program provides care and treatment to almost 7,000 people, which is approximately 51% of the total infected population throughout the EMA. The Ryan White HIV/AIDS Program was established by Congress in 1990 through the CARE Act and was last reauthorized in 2009 and renamed the Ryan White Treatment Extension Act.
Below is an alphabetical list of NJ pols who voted YES on medical marijuana. If you know -- or are rep'd by -- anyone on this list, take note. Hopefully you'll get a chance to thank them one day.
From the Senate (Republicans in bold):
Senate:
Baroni,
Bateman,
Beach,
Buono,
Ciesla,
Cunningham,
Gill,
Girgenti,
Gordon,
Kean,
Lesniak,
Pennacchio,
Ruiz,
Sacco,
Sarlo,
Scutari,
Singer,
Smith,
Stack,
Sweeney,
Turner,
Van Drew,
Vitale,
Weinberg, and
Whelan
When the NJ Senate and Assembly overwhelmingly passed a medical marijuana bill yesterday it put the Garden State in line to be the 14th state in the union to decriminalize cannabis for sick people.
Assemblyman Michael Patrick Carroll has the QOTD in this one for sure.
I've posted so many videos on this site and elsewhere I can't hardly remember them all, but this issue is possibly the most satisfying day I've has as an activist since the Obama/Alder double victory.
So take a minute to meet the heros of this battle.
According to the state Department of Health & Senior Services, more than 35,000 persons were reported living with HIV or AIDS in New Jersey, with minorities accounting for 76 percent of adult and adolescent cases and 78 percent of all persons living with the disease.
State-level data indicates the number of new cases of HIV/AIDS in New Jersey dropped to 924 last year, smallest since annual records began to be kept in 1990. At its peak in 1992, 6,593 cases were identified in a single year and 4,071 deaths were recorded. Last year, 29 deaths in HIV/AIDS cases were reported ? the smallest number on record, and down every year since 1992, or 15 straight years of declines.
The Health Department says New Jersey ranks fifth among the states with more than 70,890 cumulative AIDS cases and has one of the highest percentages of women who have the disease. The proportion of cases resulting from drug use is down, though still high, while the share of people exposed through sexual contact is rising.
They also provided county and municipal statistics. The numbers appear to be trending down, but there is still much more to be done. Consider this an open thread to share your thoughts, opinions and feelings twenty years later. How has AIDS affected you, your friends or your family?
Today, a bombshell article in The New Republic (TNR) exposed what many of us thought to be true?that Chris Smith's misguided priorities go far deeper than his twenty-two attempts to ban the common, everyday birth control pill.
Thanks to new investigative reporting by TNR's James Kirchick, we now know that Chris Smith is a founding member of the radical right. A reporter at TNR, Kirchick is the author of a highly-regarded article on Ron Paul's ties to segregationists; that article changed the national narrative on Paul earlier this year.
Kirchick's new article reveals that Chris Smith has longstanding ties to religious-right hate groups; that he sat on the board of advisers of a pro-racial segregation organization in the 1980s; that he authored legislation that would bar gays and lesbians from working openly as nurses, doctors, first responders, federal employees or federal contractors; and that he played a role in a vicious disinformation campaign about HIV/AIDS that demonized gays and lesbians as "serial killers." The article also reveals that Smith concealed campaign contributions from at least two hard-line, pro-segregation groups.
The New Republic only scratched surface of Smith's bigotry. Following up on TNR's reporting, this morning, the Zeitz campaign discovered Chris Smith not only worked with segregationists; he voted with them. In 1981, Chris Smith voted to restore non-profit status to segregated private schools [HR 4121, 7/30/81] that were created as a mechanism for white Southerners to avoid the full implications of the Supreme Court's decision in Brown v. Board of Education.
The Zeitz for Congress campaign also obtained a copy of Chris Smith's early college writings. In an article dated 1973, Smith accused gays and lesbians of being in league with "the Anti-Christ":
In Smith's words:
"We can live in harmony with His [God's] spiritual laws and be like the man, as Christ said, who built on an undestructable [sic] rock, or we can live in disharmony with the Anti-Christ; the devil, not the laughable, fiery and character with horns, but the evil one often spoken of by Jesus and he like the man who built his life on sand which eroded and eventually fell. God wants us happy; His laws are for our welfare, our protection, not Sin!"
Chris Smith's bigotry goes beyond his early career. In the 1990s, Smith introduced legislation that would force any company or public entity that receives federal funds to fire openly gay employees. The legislation would deny gays and lesbians the right to work as teachers, doctors, nurses, first responders, federal contractors, or state and federal workers. It might even deny basic rights like student loans to gay college students.
What we've learned today:
Chris Smith is a founding member of the Religious Right, having sat on the advisory board of the Christian Voice. The Christian Voice strongly supported racially segregated private schools in the South and worked closely with Jerry Falwell.
Chris Smith voted to support segregation by allowing all-white private schools (which were created after forced-desegregation) to remain segregated.
Chris Smith failed to abide by FEC rules and report contributions from openly racist, misogynistic, and homophobic groups on the radical right.
Chris Smith introduced legislation in the 1990s to mandate that the government (or any recipients of federal funds, like local school district, fire departments, police departments and federal contractors) fire any openly gay employees. Openly gay individuals would have been barred from any receipt of federal funds such as school loans, food stamps or unemployment benefits.
"Chris Smith is an extremist," said Steven D'Amico, Zeitz for Congress campaign manager. "There is nothing moderate about racial segregation. There is nothing moderate about denying jobs and education to millions of gay Americans. There is nothing moderate about taking away the right to use common, everyday birth control. These are unacceptable positions that are out of step with basic human decency."
I'm asking you to do a couple of things here. Please make a contribution. Also, if you're in or near the district, please contact ian_at_joshzeitz_dot_com to volunteer.
We can win this race, and we need to do it in order to show New Jersey and the country that this kind of extremism is immoral and unacceptable, and voters will hold such extremists accountable.
A bipartisan coalition in Congress is working to pass legislation to address the HIV/AIDS epidemic in Africa, and you'll never guess which side Congressman Garrett and his ideological blinders are on. Matt Fretz:
This has to be a campaign commercial this year.
In his most recent post on Townhall.com, Representative Scott Garrett came out strongly against the compromise bill to re-authorize the President's Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief (PEPFAR). Here are Garrett's thoughts:
More than 25 million people have died from AIDS and many lawmakers want to extend this compassionate effort, but sadly this proposal does not help the people of Africa, it only hurts them.
Okay, here are the results of the program thusfar:
Prevention of mother-to-child HIV transmission services for women during more than 10 million pregnancies;
Antiretroviral prophylaxis for women in over 827,000 pregnancies;
Prevention of an estimated 157,000 infant infections;
Care for more than 6.6 million, including care for more than 2.7 million orphans and vulnerable children;
Over 33 million counseling and testing sessions for men, women and children.
While the days slowly get longer, here's a little something to chew on.
In November 'o8, we get a new president, but voters in New Jersey also vote for Senator. Which member of the GOP clowncar will take on the venerable Lautenberg? Anne Estabrook belches up this nugget. (Note to Anne: C'mon in!! The water's great! Try to spend as much as you can!)
What is of greater value: privacy rights or curbing AIDS? It's a really tough call IMHO. This pInky article points out some reasons why. Have a read and share your POV, won't ya?
Jon Bon Jovi for Governor? How about Senator? At any rate Jersey's second best rocker sure does seem to love his politics.
If ever there were a watertight argument for a veto-busting majority, THIS is it.
Looking for a good way to spend that Christmas cash, why not get yourself a union-made BlueJersey T-shirt? These purchases help us keep the lights on AND they look damn good, too! (Got a pic of yourself in the BlueJersey T? Leave it in the comments section!)
Tis the season to look back and examine NJ's roll inAmerican Revolutionary history. This week is Patriots week in Trenton with an amazing lineup of stuff going on in and/or around the Statehouse. This article suggests how tenuous that era was and -- goofy currents notwithstanding -- what might have been.
A bill was released yesterday by the Senate Health and Human Services Committee to the full Senate which would "test pregnant women for HIV as part of routine prenatal care unless the woman refuses testing and requires testing for all newborns for HIV.
The bill (s-2704) sailed through committee on a 9-0 vote. I gotta say, such unanimity is rare in Trentonia. At least on the committee hearings I go to.
Sens. Codey and Weinberg -- the bill's sponsors -- added their thoughts afterwards citing the importance of knowing your HIV status. Early.
Codey: "For newborns, early detection can be a life-saving measure.''
Weinberg: ''Early detection is the key to helping people living with HIV/AIDS to live longer with a better quality of life. Currently, we have the treatment available to help prevent the transmission of HIV/AIDS from mothers to their babies. This legislation would be a huge step forward to help protect all babies while helping to educate mothers.''
I think anytime more people are getting tested it's a good thing. But that's just me. Early detection is important too. Just ask my dead friend Kevin who never got tested until it was too late by which point he had full blown AIDS and a grapefruit sized tumor in his brain. After 6 months of dementia and wasting, Kevin died at thirty.
The reasons he never got tested were two fold: he was scared shitless of the results and the terrible stigma. I hasten to add, this was 1994 and times have certainly changed since then. But for many, this disease is still stigmatized which is why Sen. Codey suggests testing everyone should do it.
Codey: ''The additional benefit of testing every woman is that it reduces the stigma associated with testing only those based on their risk behaviors and should, as statistics show, make women less inclined to refuse the test.''
Where do you stand on this one? Do you believe that mandatory testing is a useful tool in fighting the AIDS crisis? Or would such a measure violate any libertarian sensibilities out there?
Aparently HIV transmission rates are on the rise in Trenton, and the numbers are particularly troubling for our black brothers and sisters. Yesterday, activists from Trenton and across the state attempted to address this. Have you been tested lately? Well have you?
A goofy compromise was struck in to allow smoking in 25% of the casino floors in Atlantic City. Am I the only one who's troubled by the notion that huge chunks of the state's economy are propped up by taxes from cigarettes and/or gambling revenue?
A decorated Iraq war soldier from NJ aparently "played a key role in a multimillion-dollar bribery scheme that netted her a Cadillac Escalade, two handguns, prescription drugs and enough money to install a deck and hot tub at her home in Trenton." Ahhh, our taxes at work.
Speaking of taxes, Congressman Chris Smith wants to earmark an astonishing $100,000,000 to combat Lyme's disease in the state. I am sure that's music to the ears of someone with Lyme's, but what about more pressing health concerns like AIDS? There were ~3,400 cases of Lyme's in NJ last year. According to my math, that's about $30,000 per patient. Somewhere a big pharma exec is smiling.
That's all for today. If I missed something, then fire away in the comments.
I've been tending to sick family and away for a functioning computer for almost a week; I did so want to post this when Jay Lassiter was blogging up on World AIDS Day, but it's never too late.
If you, as a straight, progressive person, want to to do ONE SIMPLE THING to destigmatize AIDS, it is to get tested.
By your family physician. At the expense of your insurance company.
BECAUSE AIDS is a disease, not a marker for affectional orientation. To discriminate against you receiving the test because you appear to be straight (Oh, why do you need that, sez kindly Dr. Welby) or to discriinate against you because you DID take the test (we haven't got the whole good hand for you, Mr. Health Insurance Consumer, but here's one finger!) is, one the one hand, short-sighted and discriminatory, and on the other, short-sighted and illegal.
Assuming we both follow same sex guidelines, your chances of contracting AIDS are no great than mine. But assuming you don't need to be tested because you're straight, or than you needn't risk the warath of your insurer because you're straight, is palpable nonsense.
Of course, it IS a well-known fact that sometimes, some straight married men never engage in nooners with members of any and all sexes without using condoms, so being married and straight is proof you can't get AIDS, right?
When the Democrats regained the upperhand in the Senate, it had immeadiate and dramatic consequences for the fight against AIDS. No more slashing funds to pay for other priorities, no more ignoring science to promote a judgemental agenda, no worries about how I will afford the drugs that keep me from getting skinny and dying with lesions all over my face.
Anyway, surely ya'll all remember Ryan White, the young AIDS activist who's also the namesake of the Federal Program that funds AIDS/HIV psycho-social services for folks like me living with the disease. It probably comes as little surprise that the funding for HIV/AIDS has been less-than-robust for the last six years or so. That's why I'm so relieved to hear my Senator Bob Menendez serve notice that he'll stand up for me in the new dem-controlled Senate. (You'd be relieved too if your life depended on it.)
Bob Menendez wants a comprehensive bill that would expand funds for critical care. Menendez:
On World AIDS Day we should be celebrating the passage of comprehensive Ryan White CARE Act bill that provides critical care to all who suffer from HIV/AIDS. Instead, some continue to advance a so-called 'compromise bill' that would have disastrous implications on several states including New Jersey, and would slash millions in funds to the front-line care providers in our states. This cannot stand. I will continue good faith negotiations with my colleagues on this bill, however, I will not back down in my opposition to any legislation that imperils our New Jersey's ability to treat those with HIV/AIDS."
Sorry to harp on the HIV thing. I know it's morbid. But it's another 360-something days until the next World AIDS day and I wanted to squeeze in one last nugget while the iron is still kinda hot.
Brace yourself for one of the most cynical, most disgusting political schemes ever whipped up by the U.S. Congress -- a scheme that could kill thousands of New Jerseyans living with HIV and AIDS, perhaps someone you know and even love. In a moment we'll tell you how you can e-mail Garden State Equality's prewritten letter to your members of Congress, enabling you to take action now. It will take just seconds -- but first allow us to explain the dire situation.
Congress is about to reauthorize the Ryan White Act -- the federal funding law for HIV and AIDS prevention and treatment -- by forcing mind-boggling funding cuts upon states like New Jersey, New York and California. But especially upon New Jersey, which ranks FIFTH IN THE NATION IN REPORTED CASES OF HIV AND AIDS.
And which states will receive significantly increased funding under the planned reauthorization of Ryan White? States like Alabama and North Carolina. States with a tiny fraction of the HIV and AIDS caseload that New Jersey has.
Let's be real: The Republican-controlled Congress is showing favoritism to Republican states. The result will be the utter decimation of AIDS prevention and treatment programs in New Jersey, including impeding the heroic work of New Jersey's extraordinary statewide HIV and AIDS organization, Hyacinth.
Hyacinth, which you can visit at www.Hyacinth.org to learn more and even make an online donation in their website's "What Can I Do?" section, may be the nation's most effective HIV and AIDS service organization. This, even though Hyacinth's government funding is painfully insufficient as it is. What our friends at Hyacinth achieve with so few resources is one of the great social-service successes of our time.
Already down to the funding bone, Hyacinth, as well as the other AIDS service providers in New Jersey, have not an ounce of room to absorb the cuts proposed in Congress.
Make no mistake: THERE WILL BE NEW JERSEYANS WITH HIV AND AIDS WHO WILL DIE BECAUSE OF CONGRESS' MASSIVE FUNDING CUTS TO NEW JERSEY. That is no exaggeration.
The most grotesque part of all?
CONGRESS' REAUTHORIZATION PLAN WILL WREAK THE MOST HAVOC -- UNBEARABLE HAVOC -- ON WOMEN AND PEOPLE OF COLOR WITH HIV AND AIDS IN NEW JERSEY.
Among all U.S. states, New Jersey ranks #1 in the percentage of people with HIV or AIDS who are women.
56 percent of all New Jerseyans with HIV or AIDS are African-American. One in every 63 African-Americans in New Jersey is living with HIV or AIDS, compared to one in every 775 whites in New Jersey. AIDS is the fifth biggest killer of African-Americans in New Jersey. AIDS is the fifth biggest killer of Latinos and Latinas in New Jersey.
So how dare we not tell it like it is? Congress' new Ryan White reauthorization plan has bone-chilling implications of sexism and racism. It is vile.
WHAT CAN YOU DO ABOUT IT?
The wonderful Congressman Frank Pallone (D-Monmouth and Ocean Counties), one of America's greatest champions of equality and of the rights of people with HIV and AIDS, has introduced a bill to reauthorize the Ryan White Act for one year at its long-existing funding levels -- meaning the horrible cuts to New Jersey's HIV and AIDS prevention and treatment programs would be avoided for now.
We at Garden State Equality now ask you to go to http://eqfed.org/cam... to e-mail our prewritten letter to your member of the U.S. House and to New Jersey's two U.S. Senators. The letter asks them to vote for Congressman Pallone's bill that is fair to New Jersey -- and to vote no on the evil "Barton Bill" that would decimate HIV and AIDS prevention and treatment funding for New Jersey.
Please e-mail our letter now, not later today. We are racing against time: Congressman Pallone's bill will come up for a vote likely within the next 48 hours, and both houses of Congress must reauthorize the Ryan White Act by September 30th. THIS IS OF URGENT, GRAVE CONSEQUENCE TO THE THOUSANDS OF PEOPLE ACROSS NEW JERSEY WHOSE LIVES ARE AT STAKE.
Again, please go to http://eqfed.org/cam... to e-mail letters to your members of Congress. This may be one of the most important political actions you ever take. It could save the lives of thousands.
With deep gratitude,
Steven Goldstein
on behalf of all of us at Garden State Equality
Goldstein@GardenStateEquality.org
Cell (917) 449-8918
www.GardenStateEquality.org
In 2004, NJ State Senators Tom Kean Jr. and Ron Rice both filed a lawsuit against the McGreevey administration and received an injunction ending three proposed needle exchange pilots. These pilots were to be in three cities most affected by HIV/AIDS: Camden, Atlantic City and Newark.
Yesterday, State Senator Tom Kean Jr. voted against a bill that would permit needle exchanges in the state of New Jersey. New Jersey is the last state not to allow a needle exchange program to stem the tide of HIV/AIDS.
Later that day, a compromise bill providing for six pilot programs across the state passed the Senate Health Committee, along with $10 million more for drug treatment.
What changed? For one, New Jersey has become the last holdout in the nation, the only state in the country where a drug ad dict cannot legally obtain a clean needle.
That means addicts here are more likely to share needles, more likely to get AIDS, and more likely to pass on the agony of this disease to their infant children. ...
Gov. Jon Corzine got involved, pressing recalcitrant Democrats. So did Senate President Richard Codey, who hammered out the compromise with Sen. Joe Vitale, the committee chairman.
It was a good day for public health in New Jersey.
But it has taken way too long. You almost want to light a candle for the many people who were lost over the last decade or so while the politicians in Trenton dithered. They did not have to die.
They ... did ... not ... have ... to ... die.
I hope that line wakes Tom Kean Jr. up in the middle of the night.
I’'ve previously documented the important facts and alarming statistics about HIV transmission in New Jersey here. I’ve also detailed how legislation stalled in the NJ State Senate will effectively address this massive problem here.
Briefly to recap, a number of facts are crucial: New Jersey’s rate of HIV transmission through injection is nearly twice the national average. Needle exchange programs have been proven to reduce the rate of transmission of bloodborne pathogens, including HIV, hepatitis C and others. And with Delaware’s recent passage of needle exchange legislation, New Jersey remains the only state to explicitly forbid such life-saving programs.
You might wonder how, in the face of such overwhelming scientific evidence, some New Jersey leaders might still justify holding up needle exchange. You might wonder what reason or strategy they’d cite in opposing programs that are proven to effectively fight HIV transmission, especially considering New Jersey has the fifth highest HIV/AIDS rate nationally, including the highest rate of infection among women, and the third highest pediatric infection rate.
Seems like Newark's Senator Ron Rice is at it again. This time, he is serving his fellow Real Estate brokers with a mechanism to get more money. A real estate broker himself, Ron Rice is pushing a bill that would remove Property Tax Record cards from the list of government records. This essentially makes it harder for regular folks to view and review tax records for houses in a particular area and puts the access solely in the hands of Real Estate agents and brokers. Can you see agents charging even more fees than they already do?
Senator Rice's justification is that tax assessors are apparently overwhelmed with requests for these records since they are the keepers of the cards.
We should be moving towards more open government not a more secretive one. If tax assessors are overwhelmed then put these records on the internet and be done with it.
It is extremely rare that I agree with things that appear on the Asbury Park Press editorial page but in this case they hit a bullseye. Go read the whole thing.
Then call Ron Rice's Office at (973) 371-5665 and tell him he is supposed to be serving his constituents in Newark, not himself and his buddies in the Real Estate business.
Oh... While you have him on the horn, ask him why he keeps letting NJ be in the dark ages when it comes to our AIDS policy, which happens to affect his district disproportionately.
Happy World AIDS Day everybody. Every minute of every day 5 people die from AIDS/HIV. There is no cure but there are rather expensive drugs for treating the disease. As a result, prevention continues to be the preferred method of combating the disease.
Where do NJ AIDS statistics stand?:
In NJ nearly half of all new HIV cases in the state are related to injection drug use, nearly twice the national average, New Jersey is one of only five states that require a prescription to purchase a syringe and, along with neighboring Delaware, one of only two states that have not passed laws explicitly allowing needle exchange programs (NEPs).
CONGRATULATIONS! We are in the minority and presumably some really "red states" are included in the 45 and 48 other states that have agreed that statistics on Needle Exchange are pretty solid.
