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About Just out. (Portland, OR) 1983-2013 | View Entire Issue (April 18, 1997)
6 ▼ aprii 18. 1 9 9 7 ▼ ju st ou t irYTTyyi TTTTTTTTTTTf TTTTTTTTTTTTTT national news Transitions.. A new group for Queer and questioning youth in Beaverton! Court rules people with HIV are protected under ADA FREE AND CO NFIDENTIAL! A March 6 ruling by the U.S. Court of Appeals established a precedent that it is illegal under the Americans with Disabilities Act for a dentist to refuse to treat a patient with HIV based on fear of disease transmission. It was the first case of its kind to reach a federal appeals court, and the first federal appellate ruling to establish that HIV positive asymptomatic people are protected from discrimination under — - the ADA. The case was brought by Sidney Abbott, an HIV-positive woman who was re fused a filling for a cav ity by Randon Bragdon, a dentist practicing in Bangor, Maine. Gay and Lesbian Advocates and Defenders, which represented the plaintiff, argued that public health authorities, including the Centers for Dis ease Control and Prevention and the American Dental Association, have determined that people with HIV can be treated safely with the use of standard infection-control procedures known as universal precautions. There has never been a documented case of HIV transmission from pa tient to dentist. Wednesdays from 3:30-5:00pm Cedar Park Recreation Center (11640 SW Parkway in Beaverton) More Info: (503)223-8290 CAAAXAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAJ See Vue Lodging— where mountain meets the sea 95S90 Highway 101 6.2 miles south of Yachats, Oregon 97498 ______(541) 547-3227 Less foreskin may mean more risk A New Dental Research Study at Russell Street Clinic Are You HIV POSITIVE? Do You Have Tooth Pain? Do You Have These Symptoms? Do you have a persistent tooth ache, intermittent tooth pain, or swelling in your mouth or face? Have you been told your tooth needs a root canal? Participate In A New Free Research Study You may qualify to participate in the Oral Health Enhancem ent Study being conducted by the Russell Street Dental Clinic, a part of OHSU. Volunteers must be HIV positive, 18 to 65 years of age and have at least 20 teeth. Benefits Participants will receive free root canal treatment, free CD4 counts and viral load blood tests, free check-ups, and $125 for participation. Participants will also be helping to improve the quality of life for people with HIV. For more information, call: ( 503 ) 494-6300 OREGON HEALTH Where Healing, Teaching and Di semer)' Come Together SCIENCES UNIVERSITY An equal opportunttv affirmative action institution. Although circumcision has long been pro moted as the healthier choice, scientists at the University of Chicago said on April 1 that circum cised men run a higher risk of contracting vene real diseases. According to a United Press International re port, the study of 1,410 men ages 18 to 59 found that the absence of foreskin is significantly asso ciated with bacterial sexually transmitted dis eases among men who have had several partners. The researchers also said that circumcision makes men more adventurous sexually—likely to en gage in a “more elaborate set of sexual practices,” such as masturbation and oral sex—although they added it is unclear to what extent these practices are related to social factors, like the stigma at tached to having a foreskin. On the other hand, the data also indicated one clear benefit: Circumcised men were less likely to experience sexual dysfunction or impotence as they got older. Still, sociologist Edward O. Laumann, the lead author of the report published in the Journal o f the American Medical Associa tion, said there is no persuasive evidence in favor of the procedure, since the claims about STDs aren’t true. Prevention of bacterial infections can be accomplished by thorough washing, he said. Both the American Academy of Pediatrics and the American Urological Association issued statements that circumcision has potential ben efits and risks, leaving the decision up to parents and individual doctors, who should weigh the medical problems as well as the cultural and religious considerations. AAP plans to review its policy this summer and may publish new guide lines at that time. Research uncovers lesbian risk for HPV Research published in the October 1996 issue of Obstetrics and Gynecology is causing the medi cal establishment to question the belief that there is little or no risk of female-to-female transmis sion of human papillomaviruses, a class of vi ruses known to cause cervical cancer and genital warts. According to a report in The Washington Blade, Drs. Katherine A. O’Hanlan and Christo pher P. Crum reported the case of a 36-year-old lesbian who has never had sex with men and nevertheless tested positive for HPV after being diagnosed with cervical cancer. It is still not known which specific sexual activities can transmit HPV, and the researchers say it is reasonable to expect that, like HIV, HPV can be transmitted by oral-genital contact be tween women. They recommend that all women receive yearly Pap smears, which can detect early stages of cervical cancer. Meanwhile, the Blade also reports that Medlmmune Inc. of Gaithersburg, Md., has be gun clinical trials of a vaccine against human papillomavirus that is based on a successful vac cine the company developed for dogs in 1995. The human version may help stem the tide of the roughly 1 million HPV diagnoses reported annually, which the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention says is the main factor in the nearly 80,000 new cases of cervical cancer each year. Studies to track the virus in lesbians have detected HPV-related cancer in about 2.8 percent of those examined. Activists call for march on presidential summit Thousands of lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender activists and groups are throwing their support behind the National Peoples Campaign’s March for Jobs, Justice and People’s Needs, planned for April 27 in Philadelphia, the group said in a press release. The march will coincide with the President’s Summit for America’s Future, which will draw attendees such as President Clinton, former presidents Bush, Ford and Carter, and Gen. Colin Powell. The press release states: ‘‘[These leaders] pro pose to replace social services with our volunteer labor and private charity. Underfunded and un derstaffed charities are already unable to meet the overwhelming needs of poor people. And replac ing wage workers with unpaid volunteers is part of a corporate drive that threatens millions of jobs of federal, state and municipal workers and public sector unions. “The White House and Congress have already united to throw millions off welfare... attack im migrants, downsize workers and slash Social Se curity Insurance. AIDS funding and public hous ing subsidies are being gutted, and affirmative action abandoned.... “It’s no accident that this reactionary program is being accompanied by a simultaneous rise in scapegoating— racist, transphobic and homophobic attacks....” The march is endorsed by many individuals and organizations, including Alice Walker, Leslie Feinberg, the National Gay and Lesbian Task Force, Gay and Lesbian Latino AIDS Education Initiative, the Washington, D.C., Deaf Queer Re source Center, Queer Nation and Lesbian Aveng ers. For more information about the march, con tact the N ational Peoples Cam paign at (212) 633-6646, or visit http:// www.peoplescampaign.org/. Frankly, senator, WPT doesn’t give a damn On April 4, despite the efforts of state Sen. Scott Fitzgerald (R-Juneau) to organize a letter writing campaign in protest, Wisconsin Public Television aired an episode of the national gay and lesbian newsmagazine In the Life which fea tured a segment on several gay men and lesbians who grew up on farms in the Midwest. A few of the farmers interviewed, it turns out, have been Fitzgerald’s constituents for decades. “This program portrays Wisconsin in a very negative light,” Fitzgerald said in a press release. He also stated that “public television has gone