Reuters

/ /

FDA Backs Gilead’s HIV Prevention Drug Descovy for Use as PrEP

An FDA advisory panel on Wednesday voted in favor of Gilead Sciences Inc’s combination drug to reduce the risk of sexually acquired HIV infection in men and transgender women who have sex with men.

The treatment, Descovy, is a combination of emtricitabine and tenofovir alafenamide, and is already approved to treat chronic HIV.

When asked to assess the efficacy of Descovy for pre-exposure prophylaxis (PrEP) of HIV in men and transgender women who have sex with men, a patient population that forms the largest component of the PrEP market, the panel voted 16-2 in favor.

Related

NBC OUT

Generic HIV prevention drug coming in 2020, Gilead says

The recommendation is a shot in the arm for Gilead as its third best-selling HIV drug, Truvada, faces exclusivity loss in the United States, beginning 2020.

Truvada is largely boosted by its PrEP use, SVB Leerink analyst Geoffrey Porges said in a note ahead of the committee’s discussion. “Truvada grew at 15% last year, entirely due to PrEP.”

Descovy’s entry into the still underpenetrated PrEP market is vital to Gilead’s attempts to retain its Truvada patient base after the drug goes off-patent, he said.

Truvada accounted for 20.5% of the drugmaker’s total HIV franchise sales in 2018.

The panel’s backing also comes as a possible launch of Descovy for PrEP faces opposition from patient advocacy groups.

Related

NBC OUT

CEO behind HIV drug Truvada grilled on $3B in profits

They cite the scheduled U.S. launch next September of a generic version of the only currently approved prevention pill, Truvada, that could lower costs.

The panel, however, said there was not enough data to support the expansion of Descovy’s label for use as a preventive HIV drug for cisgender women. The panel voted 10-8 against its approval in this patient population.

Cisgender women form less than 7% of PrEP use and the prospect of Descovy’s label not including the population is not likely to impact the drug’s sales, Jefferies analyst Michael Yee said in a note ahead of the panel’s decision.

The FDA is yet to make a final decision on Descovy’s approval for PrEP. While the agency is not bound to follow the advice of its advisory panels, it usually does so.

/ /

Unrest Feared as Poland Catholic Church Doubles Down on Anti-gay Rhetoric

Poland’s Catholic Church has doubled down on the anti-gay rhetoric that has become the nationalist ruling party’s dominant theme in recent weeks, drawing a rebuke from liberal politicians who compared an archbishop’s remarks to incitement to genocide.

In a sermon given to mark the 75th anniversary of the Warsaw uprising by Polish resistance fighters against Nazi occupation, the archbishop of Krakow, Marek Jedraszewski, described Poland as under siege from a “rainbow plague” of gay rights campaigners he compared to Poland’s former Communist rulers.

“Our land is no longer affected by the red plague, which does not mean that there is no new one that wants to control our souls, hearts and minds,” he told a mass in the medieval St. Mary’s Basilica, one of the most important churches for Poles.

“Not Marxist, Bolshevik, but born of the same spirit, neo-Marxist. Not red, but rainbow,” he was quoted as saying by private TVN24 broadcaster.

Related

NBC OUT

Polish opposition rallies to condemn attack on LGBTQ march

Robert Biedron, an openly gay politician from the progressive Wiosna party, denounced the sermon.

“We already had such people, politicians who used similar words and that lead to huge slaughters, genocide. This is an incitement to crime, to hatred,” he told news website wirtualnapolska.pl.

Ahead of parliamentary elections expected in October, the ruling PiS party has made hostility to gays a central focus of its campaign, depicting LGBTQ rights as a dangerous foreign idea that undermines traditional values in staunchly Catholic Poland.

The issue spilled onto the streets in July when thousands of demonstrators went on a rampage through the provincial city of Bialystok to block the city’s first ever LGBTQ pride parade.

Video showed anti-gay demonstrators, who vastly outnumbered those attending the pride event, chasing people through the streets and beating them. Thirty people were arrested.

RE-ENERGIZING THE BASE

PiS has launched its anti-gay campaign in an apparent attempt to re-energize its mainly rural base, with hostility to LGBTQ rights partly supplanting the anti-immigrant rhetoric that formed the party’s core message in previous elections.

A conservative magazine distributed “LGBT-free zone” stickers last week, while a number of towns have declared themselves “LGBT-free.”

Unlike nearly all Western European countries, which have legalized same-sex marriage and the adoption of children by same-sex couples in recent years, the former Communist countries of the EU’s east have mostly held back on expanding gay rights. Same-sex marriage and adoptions are both illegal in Poland.

Related

NBC OUT

Following transgender remarks, Mario Lopez faces critics on the left and right

The Catholic Church has unusually strong influence in Poland, having been a focus of resistance to Communist rule for decades. One of Jedraszewski’s predecessors as archbishop in Krakow, the Polish Cold War-era Pope John Paul II, remains a beloved national hero.

Nevertheless, Church influence has declined since its heyday in the 1990s, hurt by polarizing political battles over abortion and more recently by a documentary film on priestly sex abuse.

“I have nothing against LGBT people. What the archbishop has said should not be said in a Church,” said Jaroslawa Szczerbinska, 55, pre-school worker in Warsaw.

According to a survey published by state pollster CBOS on Thursday, the share of Poles criticizing the Church rose last month by 4 percentage points to 38 percent while those who asses it favorably fell by 5 points to 48 percent.

Related

NBC OUT

Oregon teen turns homophobic graffiti into teachable moment

A CBOS opinion poll released in April showed that 54 percent of Poles think homosexuality should be tolerated. Less than a quarter think it is abnormal and unacceptable.

The violent Bialystok anti-gay demonstration has energized some liberals, with hundreds of people demonstrating in favor of LGBTQ rights in Polish towns in days that followed.

Agnieszka Kwiatkowska, a sociologist at Warsaw’s private SWPS University, said the Church’s strident anti-gay position “mobilizes radical church supporters but may discourage moderates who are believers, but tolerant.”

“It will also discourage young people who are tolerant of LGBT,” she said. As Church support becomes less universal, its polarizing rhetoric can backfire: “Such a strategy of a besieged fortress works only as long as the fortress is large.”

/ /

U.N. Wants More Urgency in AIDS Fight as Gains and Funding Fade

The global fight against AIDS is stalling due to lower investment, marginalized communities missing vital health services, and new HIV infections rising in some parts, the United Nations warned on Tuesday.

More than half of all new HIV infections in 2018 were among sex workers, drug users, men who have sex with men, transgender people, prisoners and the sexual partners of these groups, according to a report by UNAIDS. Many of those populations did not get access to infection prevention services, it said.

Progress in some countries has been “impressive,” the U.N. body’s report said, but others are seeing rising numbers of HIV infections and AIDS-related deaths.

Related

NBC OUT

Gay man killed, another critically injured in Grindr meetup

It noted “worrying increases” in new infections in eastern Europe and central Asia, where HIV cases rose by 29 percent, as well as in the Middle East, North Africa and Latin America.

“Ending AIDS is possible if we focus on people not diseases,” said UNAIDS Executive Director Gunilla Carlsson.

She said now was the time to “create road maps for the people and locations being left behind (and) take a human rights-based approach to reaching people most affected by HIV.”

This would need greater political leadership, she said, starting with adequate and well-targeted investment.

Global funding for the AIDS fight dropped off significantly in 2018 – by nearly $1 billion – as international donors gave less and domestic investments did not grow fast enough to plug the gap. Around $19 billion was available for the AIDS response in 2018, UNAIDS said – falling $7.2 billion short of the total $26.2 billion it says is needed by 2020.

Globally in 2018, some 770,000 people died of AIDS and almost 38 million people were living with the human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) that causes it.

HIV cannot be cured but the infection can be kept in check by AIDS drugs known as antiretrovial treatment.

Related

NBC OUT

U.S. national team star accuses another soccer player of being ‘homophobic’

Around 23.3 million of the 37.9 million people with HIV worldwide currently get the AIDS drugs they need.

Around 1.7 million people were newly infected, the UNAIDS report said, a 16% decline since 2010, driven mostly by steady progress in parts of eastern and southern Africa.

South Africa, for example, has cut new HIV infections by more than 40% and AIDS-related deaths by around 40% since 2010.

But the report warned there is still a long way to go in many parts of eastern and southern Africa – the regions most affected by HIV.

/ /

Amnesty International Calls on South Korea to End Discrimination against Gay Soldiers

Amnesty International on Thursday called on South Korea to decriminalize same-sex relationships for men in the military, warning current laws fuel violence, discrimination and stigmatization against gay soldiers.

The human rights group said South Korea’s military code “does not comply with the international human rights obligations the state has signed on to.”

“By institutionalizing discrimination, laws criminalizing sex between men reinforce systematic prejudices toward gay men, bisexual men, transgender people and non-binary people, whether in the military or in the street or in the home,” Amnesty said in a report released on Thursday.

The South Korean ministry of defense did not immediately respond to a request for comment, but in the past South Korea has defended the code as necessary to maintain discipline.

The Amnesty report comes as South Korea engages in a broader debate over the future of its conscript military force – with recent court rulings clearing the way for conscientious objectors and political leaders promising to shorten service commitments – as well as controversy over changing social norms.

Amnesty urged South Korea to repeal Article 92-6 of the Military Criminal Act, which it said effectively prohibited and punished sex between men in the military.

“The military code in South Korea allows the invasion of privacy of soldiers alleged to be engaging in sex between men both on and off base, and on or off duty,” the report concluded.

“Decriminalization does not solve the entire issue, but it is a crucial first step toward respecting, protecting and fulfilling the human rights of LGBTI people.”

Recommended

BUSINESS CULTUREWorking with friends and family: What to know BEFORE starting a business together

NBCBLKCelebrities demand ASAP Rocky’s release from Swedish detention center

Homosexual activity is not criminalized for South Korean civilians, but same-sex couples do not have the right to marry of adopt.

In March, the U.S.-based Human Rights Watch (HRW) submitted an amicus brief in a challenge to the military code now before South Korea’s Constitutional Court, alleging that the code “violates many norms of international law”.

“South Korea’s military sodomy law is a blight on the country’s human rights record and multiple human rights bodies have called for its abolition,” Graeme Reid, the LGBT rights director at HRW, said at the time.

A survey of South Koreans released in March by the Academy of Korean Studies found about 45 percent of respondents were comfortable working around gay people, while less than 16 percent said they would be comfortable with an gay person in their family.

/ /

U.S. Not Where it Needs to be on LGBTQ Employment, Fed Policymaker Says

The United States is “not where we need to be” on increasing employment levels of lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender people, a top economic policymaker said on Tuesday.

Federal Reserve Bank of New York President John Williams said at an LGBTQ finance industry event that unemployment rates are nearly double the national average for sexual and gender minorities.

“As President of a Federal Reserve Bank, I am focused on two vital economic goals: maximum employment and stable prices for the U.S. economy,” Williams said in remarks prepared for delivery in New York. “These statistics paint a clear picture of why conferences like this one are so important: We are not where we need to be.”

Related

NBC OUT

Kansas to allow trans residents to change birth certificates

Williams’ comments come as celebrations take place around the world to mark the Stonewall uprising in New York 50 years ago when patrons of a gay bar fought back against police harassment, which is seen as the fuel that sparked the modern LGBTQ rights movement. Gay pride marches will also be celebrated around the world on June 30.

Williams did not comment on his economic or policy outlook less than a week after the Fed signaled it could cut interest rates by as much as half a percentage point over the remainder of this year in response to increased economic uncertainty and a drop in expected inflation. Yet one argument for keeping rates lower for longer is that doing so can bring more marginalized people into the workforce.

/ /

U.K. Lawmakers Approve Bid to Legalize Gay Marriage in Northern Ireland

Britain’s parliament voted on Tuesday in favor of a plan that would compel the government to legalize same-sex marriage and extend abortion rights in Northern Ireland, if the province is unable to re-establish its own devolved government.

The changes passed with a large majority in parliament in London on Tuesday and turned a routine, technical piece of legislation into a vehicle that could enact major social reforms in Northern Ireland.

The province is the only part of the United Kingdom where same-sex marriage is not allowed, and laws there forbid abortion except where a mother’s life is at risk.

To the south, once staunchly conservative Ireland legalized same-sex marriage in 2015 and liberalized its abortion laws in a separate referendum last year.

Related

NBC OUT

Madrid high heels run defies gravity, homophobia

The legislation has several stages to pass before it creates a legal duty on the British government to amend Northern Ireland’s laws. That duty only comes into effect if the Northern Irish assembly, which collapsed in 2017, has not been re-established by Oct. 21.

Earlier this year, thousands of people marched through Belfast to demand the recognition of same-sex marriage.

Previous attempts to legislate for same-sex marriage have been blocked by the Democratic Unionist Party (DUP), a key ally of British Prime Minister Theresa May, despite opinion polls in recent years showing most in the region are in favor.

Advocacy groups have called on the government to bypass the frozen local assembly and introduce legislation in the British parliament in Westminster.

Last year, Britain’s Supreme Court found Northern Ireland’s strict abortion law was incompatible with the European Convention on Human Rights but said it did not have the powers to make a formal declaration that the law should be changed.

Related

NBC OUT

U.S. women’s team boldly embraces off-the-field activist role

Northern Ireland has been without a devolved executive for 2.5 years since Irish nationalists Sinn Fein withdrew from the compulsory power-sharing government with the pro-British DUP.

On-off talks to restore the executive resumed in May after a hiatus of more than a year but have made no obvious progress. Ireland’s government said last week key differences remained.

Sinn Fein, which has consistently raised the DUP’s stance on same-sex marriage as a major stumbling block in the political talks, said the issue should be addressed by the local assembly but that it was inevitable that the British government’s failure to defend “basic rights available everywhere else on the islands would be confronted”, as it was by parliament on Tuesday.

/ /

U.S. Psychoanalysts Apologize for Labeling Homosexuality an Illness

The American Psychoanalytic Association apologized on Friday for previously treating homosexuality as a mental illness, saying its past errors contributed to discrimination and trauma for LGBTQ people.

It may be the first U.S. medical or mental health organization to issue such an apology. Although psychiatrists declassified homosexuality as a disorder in 1973 and psychologists came around nearly 20 years later, the APsaA says it is unaware of any related professional group to have apologized.

“It is long past time to recognize and apologize for our role in the discrimination and trauma caused by our profession and say, ‘We are sorry,'” according a statement by Dr. Lee Jaffe, president of APsaA. The group uses that abbreviation to distinguish it from the American Psychiatric Association (APA).

Jaffe told Reuters he will deliver the apology on Friday at the opening session of the group’s 109th annual meeting in San Diego. Jaffe said his group has long been active in promoting LGBTQ rights but had yet to put its contrition into words.

“It’s hard to admit that one has been so wrong,” Jaffe said.

Related

NBC OUT

When it comes to Stonewall, the myths are as famous as the riots

The change in the medical community’s thinking about homosexuality and Friday’s apology both stem from a seminal event in LGBTQ history 50 years ago: the Stonewall uprising.

Patrons of a New York City gay bar called the Stonewall Inn fought back against police harassment in the early morning hours of June 28, 1969, triggering the start of the modern movement for the rights for lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and queer people.

New York police recently apologized for the raid and discriminatory laws of the time, which prompted APsaA to issue its apology, said Dr. Jack Drescher, an APsaA member and leading authority on the history of psychiatric and psychological treatment of LGBTQ people.

New York is expecting as many as 4 million people for the 50th anniversary of Stonewall next week, and gay pride parades will be celebrated around the world on June 30.

LGBTQ activists disrupted the annual meeting of the American Psychiatric Association in 1970 in San Francisco. The protests upended convention so much, Drescher said, that by December 1973 the APA’s board removed homosexuality from the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM).

But APsaA did not change its position until 1991 when, under threat of an anti-discrimination lawsuit, it allowed the training of gay and lesbian psychoanalysts, Drescher said.

Related

FEATURE

NBC Out presents Pride50: LGBTQ people who are making the community proud

APsaA went to become an early supporter of same-sex marriage and opponent of “conversion therapy” aimed at changing a person’s sexual orientation.

In 2012, psychiatrist Dr. Robert Spitzer on his own apologized for authoring an influential study 11 years earlier that supported reparative therapy to “cure” homosexuality.

Today, APsaA and other professional organizations view being gay as a normal variant of human sexuality but until now have yet to express how wrong they were before, Drescher said.

“They did the work of apologizing but they did not say the words,” Drescher said. “If the police commissioner of New York City could do it, why couldn’t we do something similar?”

/ /

AIDS Drugs Prevent Sexual Transmission of HIV in Gay Men, Study Finds

A European study of nearly 1,000 gay male couples who had sex without condoms — where one partner had HIV and was taking antiretroviral drugs to suppress it — has found the treatment can prevent sexual transmission of the virus.

After eight years of follow-up of the so-called serodifferent couples, the study found no cases at all of HIV transmission within couples.

The study proves, the researchers said, that using antiretroviral therapy to suppress the AIDS virus to undetectable levels also means it cannot be passed on via sex, the researchers said.

“Our findings provide conclusive evidence for gay men that the risk of HIV transmission with suppressive ART is zero,” said Alison Rodger, a professor at University College London who co-led the research.

Related

NBC OUT

Massachusetts tops LGBTQ business index, Mississippi last

She said this “powerful message” could help end the HIV pandemic by preventing the virus’ transmission in high-risk populations. In this study alone, for example, the researchers estimate that the suppressive antiretrovial treatment prevented around 472 HIV transmissions during the eight years.

The study, published in the Lancet medical journal on Thursday, assessed the risk of HIV transmission between serodifferent gay male couples – where one partner is HIV-positive and one is HIV-negative – who do not use condoms.

Its findings add to an earlier phase of the study which looked at HIV transmission risk for serodifferent heterosexual couples in the same circumstances. It also found zero risk.

While 15 of the men among the 972 gay couples in this phase did become infected with HIV during the eight years of follow-up, genetic testing showed their infections were with strains of HIV acquired from another sexual partner.

Since the start of the AIDS epidemic in the 1980s, more than 77 million people have become infected with HIV. Almost half of them – 35.4 million – have died of AIDS.

Related

NBC OUT

U.S. health agency finalizes controversial ‘religious freedom’ rule

Global health experts say the fight against HIV is at a precarious point, with the annual number of AIDS deaths falling and the number of people getting antiretroviral treatment rising, but the number of new infections is stubbornly high at around 1.8 million new cases a year worldwide.

Rachel Baggaley, the World Health Organization’s coordinator for HIV prevention and testing, said this latest study “adds to the clear and consistent evidence” that HIV transmission to sexual partners does not occur when someone with HIV is on antiretroviral therapy (ART) and their virus is suppressed.

“Increasing access to HIV testing (and) ART … remains critical for individuals and is central to the HIV public health response,” she said.

/ /

Transgender Adults Have Higher Risk of Poor Health, U.S. Study Finds

Transgender adults may be more likely to have unhealthy habits and medical issues that negatively impact their quality of life than people whose gender identity matches what it says on their birth certificates, a U.S. study suggests.

Researchers examined survey data from 3,075 transgender adults as well as 719,567 adults who are cisgender, meaning their gender identity matches the sex they were assigned at birth.

Compared to cisgender Americans, transgender individuals were more likely to be sedentary, current smokers, and uninsured, researchers report in JAMA Internal Medicine.

Related

NBC OUT

Michigan adoption agency reverses LGBTQ policy

Transgender people were also 30 percent more likely to report being in “fair” or “poor” health over the past month than cisgender adults, as well as 66 percent more likely to report experiencing severe mental distress.

“The U.S. has made a lot of progress over the last several years toward acceptance and celebration of natural human diversity in gender identity and expression,” study author Kellan Baker said by email. But between 2014 and 2017 – the period when the survey was done – attitudes shifted and treatment of transgender often got worse, said Baker, a researcher at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health in Baltimore.

“This study shows that being a transgender person in the U.S. today – being transgender in a society that you know doesn’t fully accept you – is hard,” Baker added. “It affects your health in negative ways, and that’s why issues such as nondiscrimination protections for transgender people are public health issues.”

An estimated 0.55 percent of the people in the survey identified as transgender, which suggests there may be about 1.27 million transgender adults in the U.S.

Survey participants were asked if they considered themselves transgender and were given four options to categorize their identities: trans male (people who identify as male but were assigned female at birth); trans female (individuals who identify as female but were assigned male at birth); gender non-conforming; or not transgender.

Overall, about 19 percent of transgender respondents were current smokers, compared with roughly 16 percent of cisgender people.

About 35 percent of transgender individuals were inactive, compared with nearly 26 percent of cisgender adults.

And, almost 80 percent of transgender participants had health insurance, compared with 85 percent of other people in the study.

Transgender adults also reported more days in the previous month when they felt physically and mentally unhealthy or felt unable to do all of their usual daily activities.

Related

NBC OUT

Gender ‘X’: Nevada to allow nonbinary people to self-identify on IDs

The study wasn’t a controlled experiment designed to prove whether or how gender identity might directly impact health. Another limitation is that researchers lacked data on how differences within the transgender population such as gender, race and sexual orientation might influence the results.

“I think the take-home message for transgender adults here is clear, which is that transgender adults face additional mental and physical health disparities when compared to cisgender individuals,” said Xiang Cai, a researcher at the Columbia University Mailman School of Public Health in New York City who wasn’t involved in the study.

Cai attributes the higher risks for poor health in trans people to “multiple levels of transgender-specific stigmas.”

“However, I think it is important to note that adults in the transgender community are capable and resilient,” Cai said by email.

The study also didn’t look at whether transgender individuals had gender-affirming surgery or were able to make their outward appearance match their gender identity, Cai said.

“Gender-affirmation treatments may be associated with higher levels of quality of life among those who desire them regardless of age,” Cai noted.

/ /

Philadelphia Can Exclude Foster Agency that Won’t Work with Gays, Court Rules

Philadelphia can exclude a Catholic foster care agency from a program for placing children with foster families because it refuses to work with same-sex couples, a federal appeals court ruled on Monday.

In a 3-0 decision, the 3rd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals said Catholic Social Services failed to show that the placement freeze amounted to religious persecution or bias, violating its First Amendment rights to free speech and religious freedom.

Circuit Judge Thomas Ambro said Philadelphia was trying merely to stop what it considered a “clear violation” of a city anti-discrimination law covering sexual orientation, making a preliminary injunction inappropriate.

“The question in our case is … whether CSS was treated differently because of its religious beliefs,” Ambro wrote. “Based on the record before us, that question has a clear answer: no.”

Catholic Social Services is part of the Archdiocese of Philadelphia.

Related

NBC OUT

New hope rises for would-be LGBTQ parents in New York

Lori Windham, a lawyer from the Becket nonprofit representing the agency, called the decision “devastating” to hundreds of foster children waiting for placements and parents waiting to foster a child. “We will continue this fight.”

Jim Kenney, Philadelphia’s mayor, welcomed the decision.

“Philadelphia is a welcoming, inclusive city that values the diversity of its residents,” Kenney said in a statement. “This policy is the embodiment of those values.”

The case reflects persistent tensions in the United States between advocates for religious groups seeking exemptions from anti-discrimination laws, and civil rights advocates who call exemptions a license to discriminate.

Ten U.S. states let state-licensed child welfare agencies refuse placements and services that conflict with their religious beliefs, according to the nonprofit Movement Advancement Project. (here)

The Philadelphia dispute arose in March 2018 when the city suspended referrals after a newspaper report about Catholic Social Services’ policy of turning away same-sex couples.

U.S. District Judge Petrese Tucker in Philadelphia refused last July to issue an injunction.

Related

POLITICS

Supreme Court to rule whether civil rights law bans discrimination against LGBTQ employees

The next month, U.S. Supreme Court without explanation denied the agency’s request to intervene, after Catholic Social Services warned that a freeze threatened its closure.

Justices Clarence Thomas, Samuel Alito and Neil Gorsuch, all from the Court’s conservative wing, said they would have granted the agency’s request.

The agency drew support for Monday’s appeal from Texas and seven other Republican-led states, and from 42 Republican lawmakers including Senator Ted Cruz and House Minority Whip Steve Scalise.

Massachusetts and 16 other mostly Democratic-led states, as well as Washington, D.C., supported Philadelphia.

The case is Fulton v. Philadelphia et al, 3rd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals, No. 18-2574.

«‹ 10 11 12 13