December 1st
November 29-December 5, 2012 | www.sfbaytimes.com
World AIDS Day
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BUFF & BARE FOR A CAUSE
T h e Ba re Ch est C ale n da r h as ra ise d ove r $1. 5 m i l l i o n fo r l o c a l A I DS o r g a ni z a t i o ns . Re a d m o r e abou t it on pages 9 - 1 2 .
PH OTO B Y: M I C H AE L SM I T H
AIDS Beyond the Numbers
2012 Gay Marriage Timeline
By Gary Virginia
In the future, 2012 will be remembered by LGBT historians for its landmark gains in the fight for marriage equality. As of this writing, here are just a few US victories, with the biggest yet to come. Wedding bells are set to ring again for our community here in California. Marriage equality is forged out of love and tolerance, while Proposition 8 is rooted in fear and intolerance. Love will prevail!
I doubt there’s a teenager or adult worldwide who has not heard of HIV/AIDS (human immunodeficiency virus infection/acquired immunodef iciency syndrome). Every day over 7,000 people are newly infected with HIV and about 5,000 die from AIDS. AIDS is far from over. Since 1981, more than 60 million people have been infected with HIV and approximately 30 million people have died of AIDS.
As a person with AIDS since 1995 who has lost more than 400 friends to the disease, I can tell you that one cannot reduce this disease to just symptoms and prescriptions. While AIDS may be considered a “manageable” disease in the developed world, it is complicated, expensive, and takes a toll on emotional, physical, and psychological levels. For many of us long-term survivors, it can feel like living in a constant state of alert and in limbo about your health, income, emotional stability and future.
As of 2011, the World Health Organization estimated there were 34.2 million people living with HIV, of which 3.4 million are under age 15. Deaths last year alone numbered 1.7 million lives. In spite of decades of education and prevention efforts, 2.5 million people were newly infected in 2011. What the numbers don’t reflect is the exorbitant amount of human suffering this disease has brought. Young people in the Western world who did not witness the harsh symptoms of wasting syndrome, Kaposi sarcoma, blindness, pneumocystis (continued on page 2)
January 1: Civil Unions become legal in Delaware and Hawaii. February 7: A three-judge panel of the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals rules 2–1 that the ban on same-sex marriage in California is unconstitutional. Fe b r u a r y 1 3 : G o v e r n o r C h r i s Gregoire from Washing ton sig ns a same-sex marriage bill into law. M ay 9 : B a r a c k O b a m a b e c ome s the first sitting president to publicly announce support for same-sex marriage. Oc tobe r 18: I n W in d sor v. Unit e d S t a t e s, t he US 2nd C i rc u it C ou r t
of Appea ls st r i kes dow n Sect ion 3 o f t he D e fe n s e o f M a r r i a g e A c t ( DOM A) as unconstitutional, holding sexual orientation to be a quasisuspect classif ication, and determining that laws that classify people on such basis should be subject to intermediate scrutiny. N o v e m b e r 6 : Vo t e r s i n M a i n e , Mar yland and Washington approve ba l lot mea su res to leg a l i ze sa me sex m a r r i a g e, becom i ng t he f i r st states to legalize same-sex marriage through popular referendum. Voters in Minnesota reject a state constitutional amendment that would have banned same-sex marriage. November 30: Supreme Court just ices w i l l consider whet her or not to hear an appea l of t he Febr uar y Circuit Court of Appeals decision to strike down Prop 8. If the Supreme Cour t decl i nes to t a ke up t he ap peal, gay marriages could resume in California. The Justices will also address several challenges to DOM A.