NewsWrap for the week ending July 13th, 1996 (As broadcast on THIS WAY OUT Program #433, distributed 07-15-96) [Compiled & written by Cindy Friedman, with thanks to Brian Nunes, Bill Stosine, Jason Lin, Greg Gordon, Ron Buckmire and Ross Stevenson] The 11th International Conference on AIDS was held this week in Vancouver, British Columbia, with about 15,000 people attending. The general tone of the gathering was more upbeat than its predecessors as a result of reported successes in treating the disease with combination drug therapies, although demonstrations by members of ACT UP, the AIDS Coalition To Unleash Power, made it clear that much remains to be done. Just before the Conference opened, the United Nations AIDS Program issued its semi-annual report on the pandemic. The rate of new infections has been dropping in the U.S., Australia, New Zealand, and Northern European countries, which the UN program attributed to increased condom use and reduced numbers of sexual partners. But new infections continue to spread among large numbers of younger gay men in Western countries, according to a report at the Vancouver Conference by psychologist John de Wit of the University of Utrecht. Those who came of age during the epidemic are less likely to have anal intercourse without a condom and have lower rates of infection than young men 10 years ago ... but in various studies, anywhere from one-third to nearly one-half report having had unprotected intercourse ... and HIV continues to spread, peaking with a rate of HIV infection of almost 1 in 5 among young gay men in San Francisco. The answer lies in peer support, according to a report at the Conference of the first controlled study of the effectiveness of prevention programs. Dr. Susan Kegeles of the University of California at San Francisco Center for AIDS Prevention Studies said, "We have found it is far more effective for peers to support and encourage each other in spreading the HIV prevention message through young gay men's social networks. Furthermore, we found that to most effectively reach young gay men who are engaging in high risk activities, programs need to go beyond traditional health education approaches. HIV prevention efforts need to be conducted within the context of broader issues of importance to young gay men, such as meeting social needs and having a place to get support from each other." A recently-published study by University of California at Los Angeles psychologist Steve Cole has found that being in the closet can be deadly. In a 9-year study of 80 gay men with HIV, Cole found that those who were most determined to hide their sexual orientation developed AIDS more quickly and died sooner than those who were open. In a related study, Cole had found an increasing frequency of infectious diseases and all types of cancers as gay men tried harder to conceal their sexuality. While Cole had no explanation for his findings, he suggested that it reflected an ingrained inhibited temperament, so that coming out would not necessarily improve anyone's health. ILGA, the International Lesbian and Gay Association, is apparently ready to drop the requirement that its member organizations sign a statement that they do not condone pedophilia. ILGA had instituted the requirement in hopes of regaining its briefly-held consultative status with the United Nations. ILGA is the only gay and lesbian organization ever to have been granted that recognition by the UN. But, as a result of pressure by U.S. conservatives, the UN suspended ILGA's consultative status until such time as the organization could prove that none of its member groups supported pedophilia. ILGA -- which had long taken a strong position against sexual exploitation and child abuse -- responded by expelling 3 member groups and instituting the pledge against pedophilia. That led to the resignation of a major ILGA contributor, the Canadian gay and lesbian newspaper Xtra! ... and after almost 3 years, more than half of ILGA's membership has failed to sign the pledge. The ILGA Secretariat has now told Xtra! that it is suspending the requirement, and expects it to be officially repealed at ILGA's next World Conference. There have been several developments in t he struggle of U.S. gays and lesbians to serve openly in the military. The U.S. Senate this week authorized defense spending for 1997 without the riders in the House-passed version -- to expel servicemembers with HIV, and to reinstate the pre-1993 outright ban on gays and lesbians in the military. When a House-Senate conference committee meets to resolve the differences in the two versions, it's anticipated that the riders will be deleted, as they were in a previous defense spending measure. The first draft of the Democratic Party Platform was approved this week with no mention made of the issue of gays and lesbians in the military. Gay and lesbian advocates within the Platform Committee did not object to the omission. Last week a federal appeals court rejected a lower court's decision in a key case testing the Clinton Administration's so-called "Don't Ask, Don't Tell" policy. U.S. District Court Judge Eugene Nickerson had struck down the policy as unconstitutional on free speech grounds, in the case called "Abel versus U.S.A.". The 3-judge panel of the U.S. 2nd Circuit Court of Appeals vacated Nickerson's ruling, and sent the case back to him for reconsideration. The panel believed Nickerson had erred in dismissing the gay and lesbian plaintiffs' challenge to the military ban on homosexual acts, and asked him to consider whether treating gay and lesbian sex differently than heterosexual acts could be constitutionally justified. If so, the panel said, the free speech issue could be justified as well. Openly-gay Lieutenant Richard Selland will continue his legal battle against the U.S. military ban, but will be retiring from the Navy with an honorable discharge and some benefits, under an agreement worked out with the Department of Justice. Then-submariner Selland came out to his colleagues after Clinton's election, but before "Don't Ask, Don't Tell" had been drafted. The Navy moved to discharge him, but a federal judge had ordered the Navy to retain him in service until "Abel versus U.S.A." was decided. Selland plans to go to law school. Another gay sailor, Lieutenant Paul Thomasson, has filed an appeal of his discharge with the U.S. Supreme Court. It could become the first challenge to "Don't Ask, Don't Tell" to reach the High Court, but it won't be known until October if the Court will agree to review it. While New Zealand gays and lesbians celebrated the 10-year anniversary of sodomy repeal this week, the Presbyterian Church General Assembly there decided against ordaining them. The decision came in a close vote, and will not be binding for individual churches unless it is passed again by the General Assembly in 1998. The Presbyterian Church in the U.S. decided last week that it would ordain gays and lesbians --but only if they abstain from sex and repent the sin of their previous sexual activities. The Church of England officially refuses to ordain gays and lesbians, but a recent poll of the Church's governing body by the mainstream London newspaper The Guardian found that more than half knew of clergymembers who were gay or lesbian. Nonetheless, two-thirds of them believed gays and lesbians should not be ordained. .. even though just as many found the Church's current policy to be incoherent and confusing. When the Cyprus Church began a trial in February accusing popular cleric Archimandrite Pangratios Meraclis of homosexuality, it set off riots that left 80 people injured. That trial was cancelled, and this week so was the criminal trial for defamation of the two men who brought the allegations against Meraclis, when he refused to testify against them. An impersonator of Pope John Paul led about 80,000 gays and lesbians in London's 25th annual Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transgender Pride March on July 6th. Organizers released 26,000 balloons to represent the number of people in Britain infected with HIV. Three out of four feminine-acting little boys grow up to be gay, but only 10 percent of "tomboy" girls become adult lesbians, according to research by Northwestern University Professor of Psychology Michael Bailey, reported at this month's meeting of the American Psychological Society in San Francisco. The so-called gender atypical behaviors can be recognized as early as age 4. However, Bailey also found that gay and lesbian relationships usually don't have one partner playing a feminine role and the other playing a masculine one ... and that in dating, gay men tend to seek masculine men and lesbians tend to seek feminine women. He believes he's found that gay and heterosexual men are equally interested in casual sex and pornography, but while lesbians are like heterosexual women in generally rejecting casual sex, lesbians have a greater interest in visual erotica. Bailey noted the need for better definitions of masculinity and feminity if further study is to increase understanding of sexual differences. And finally ... a recent item from the Chicago Sun-Times sure to please bears and their fans: At a meeting of European psychiatrists, Dr. Aikarakudy Alias reported finding a positive correlation between hairiness and academic performance among males. Those with hairy chests, and to a lesser degree those with hairy backs, had more education and better grades than their smoother counterparts. However, Alias refused to open his own shirt. --------*---------- Sources for this week's report: Reuter News Service; Rex Wockner International News Service; Business Wire; Science News; The New York Times; The Associated Press; The New Zeland Press Associated cited in The New Zealand Herald; The Guardian/London; United Press International; The Chicago Sun-Times; and cyberpress releases from the Human Rights Campaign; the American Civil Liberties Union; and the Lambda Legal Defense & Education Fund.