How Rick Warren Is Undermining AIDS Prevention in Africa

Rick Warren has been lauded for his work on AIDS in Africa, but what has he done? According to Max Blumenthal, Warren's AIDS work in Africa is horrifying!

Condom Burning and Anti-Gay Witch Hunts: How Rick Warren is Undermining AIDS Prevention in Africa

Blumenthal's investigation into Warren's involvement in Africa reveals a web of alliances with right-wing clergymen who have sidelined science-based approaches to combating AIDS in favor of abstinence-only education. More disturbingly, Warren's allies have rolled back key elements of one of the continent's most successful initiative, the so-called ABC program in Uganda. Stephen Lewis, the United Nations special envoy for HIV/AIDS in Africa, told the New York Times their activism is "resulting in great damage and undoubtedly will cause significant numbers of infections which should never have occurred."

Warren's man in Uganda is a charismatic pastor named Martin Ssempa. The head of the Makerere Community Church, a rapidly growing congregation, Ssempa enjoys close ties to his country's first lady, Janet Museveni, and is a favorite of the Bush White House. In the capitol of Kampala, Ssempa is known for his boisterous crusading. Ssempa's stunts have included burning condoms in the name of Jesus and arranging the publication of names of homosexuals in cooperative local newspapers while lobbying for criminal penalties to imprison them.

Dr. Helen Epstein, a public health consultant who wrote the book, The Invisible Cure: Why We're Losing the Fight Against AIDS in Africa, met Ssempa in 2005. Epstein told me the preacher seemed gripped by paranoia, warning her of a secret witches coven that met under Lake Victoria.

"Ssempa also spoke to me for a very long time about his fear of homosexual men and women," Epstein said. "He seemed very personally terrified by their presence."

When Warren unveiled his global AIDS initiative at a 2005 conference at his Saddleback Church, he cast Ssempa as his indispensable sidekick, assigning him to lead a breakout session on abstinence-only education as well as a seminar on AIDS prevention. Later, Ssempa delivered a keynote address, a speech so stirring it "had the audience on the edge of its seats," according to Warren's public relations agency. A year later, Ssempa returned to Saddleback Church to lead another seminar on AIDS. By this time, his bond with the Warrens had grown almost familial. "You are my brother, Martin, and I love you," Rick Warren's wife, Kay, said to Ssempa from the stage. Her voice trembled with emotion as she spoke, and tears ran down her cheeks....

In August 2007, Ssempa led hundreds of his followers through the streets of Kampala to demand that the government mete out harsh punishments against gays. "Arrest all homos," read placards. And: "A man cannot marry a man." Ssempa continued his crusade online, publishing the names of Ugandan gay rights activists on a Web site he created, along with photos and home addresses. "Homosexual promoters," he called them, suggesting they intended to seduce Uganda's children into their lifestyle. Soon afterward, two of President Museveni's top officials demanded the arrest of the gay activists named by Ssempa. Terrified, the activists immediately into hiding...

When Uganda's Anglican bishops threatened to bolt from the Church of England because of its tolerant stance towards homosexuals, Warren parachuted into Kampala to confer international legitimacy on their protest.

"The Church of England is wrong, and I support the Church of Uganda on the boycott," Warren proclaimed in March 2008. Declaring homosexuality an unnatural way of life, Warren flatly stated, "We shall not tolerate this aspect [homosexuality in the church] at all."

Wonder if the Obama people looked into this?

World AIDS Day

Today is the 20th Anniversary of World AIDS Day.

Here's a wake-up reminder:
AIDS: A Stigma Endures


Why Is George W. Bush getting the "International Medal of PEACE" for his contribution to the fight against AIDS?

CDC Underestimates New HIV Cases by 40%

CDC Underestimates New HIV Cases by 40%: About 56,000 cases, up from previous estimates of 40,000 cases.
Judging by the new calculations, officials believe annual HIV infections have been hovering around 55,000 for several years.

"This is the most reliable estimate we've had since the beginning of the epidemic," said Dr. Julie Gerberding, the CDC's director. She said other countries may adopt the agency's methodology.

According to current estimates, around 1.1 million Americans are living with the AIDS virus. Officials plan to update that number with the new calculations but don't think it will change dramatically, a CDC spokeswoman said.

The new infection estimate is based on a blood test that for the first time can tell how recently an HIV infection occurred.

Past tests could detect only the presence of HIV, so determining which year an infection took place was guesswork — guesswork upon which the old 40,000 estimate was based.

The new estimate relies on blood tests from 22 states where health officials have been using a new HIV testing method that can distinguish infections that occurred within the past five months from those that were older.

The improved science will allow more real-time monitoring of HIV infections. Now, CDC officials say, the estimate will likely be updated every year.

Yearly estimates allow better recognition of trends in the U.S. epidemic. For example, the new report found that infections are falling among heterosexuals and injection drug users.

Some experts celebrated that finding, saying it's a tribute to prevention efforts, including nearly 200 syringe exchange programs now operating in 36 states despite a federal ban on funding for such projects.

But they also lamented the CDC's finding that infections continue to increase in gay and bisexual men, who accounted for more than half of HIV infections in 2006. Also, more than a third of those with HIV are younger than 30.

Some advocates say that suggests a need for more prevention efforts, particularly targeting younger gay and bisexual men.

For years, AIDS was considered a terrifying death sentence, and since 1981, more than half a million Americans have died. But medicines that became available in the 1990s turned it into a manageable chronic condition for many Americans, and attention shifted to Africa and other parts of the world.

Last week, President Bush signed a $48 billion global AIDS bill to continue a program that he called "the largest commitment by any nation to combat a single disease in human history."

But some advocates complain that CDC's annual spending on HIV prevention in the United States has been held to roughly $700 million since 2001, while costs have risen. (That's about 3 percent of what the federal government spends on AIDS; much of the rest is on medicines, health care and research.)

The new estimate is "evidence of a failure by government and society to do what it takes to control the epidemic," said Julie Davids, executive director of the Community HIV/AIDS Mobilization Project.

Whether more funding comes or not, the revised estimate clearly is a "wake-up call to scale things up," said Dr. Kevin Fenton, who oversees CDC's prevention efforts for HIV/AIDS.

Some said more attention needs to focus on prevention among blacks, who account for nearly half of annual HIV infections, according to the new CDC report.

A recent report by the Black AIDS Institute concluded that if black Americans were their own nation, they would rank 16th in the world in the number of people living with HIV.

"We have been inadequately funding this epidemic all along. We need to step it up," said former U.S. Surgeon General Dr. David Satcher, who is now an administrator at Atlanta's Morehouse School of Medicine.

World AIDS Day: Are We Losing the Fight?

Saturday (Dec. 1) was Worlds AIDS Day. For a thought-provoking look at the state of the crisis, go read this speech by Charles King. Has the "gay community" given up on the fight against AIDS? In addition to AIDS fatigue, and the growing numbers of bisexual and African-American AIDS cases, take a look at the growing popularity of "bareback" porn

Another Right-Wing Hypocrite

Bush AIDS Abstinence Appointee Quits State Department In Hooker Scandal

Bush AIDS Abstinence Appointee Quits State Dept. In Hooker Scandal
by 365Gay.com Newscenter Staff

Posted: April 29, 2007 - 12:00 pm ET

(Washington) Randall Tobias, the head of the US Agency for International Development and President Bush's former coordinator for global AIDS relief, has quit amid allegations he was a client of a high-priced DC call-girl ring.

In announcing his resignation the State Department said on that Tobias was resigning for personal reasons.

ABC News was given the names of clients of what has been described as an exclusive escort service in the capital by Deborah Jeane Palfrey, the owner of the service who has been charged with running a prostitution ring.

Palfrey, who is 65 and married, maintained in an interview with the Washington Post that her service provided university educated women to engage in legal game-playing of a sexual nature at 275 dollars an hour for a 90 minute session.

Tobias' name was among those clients. He submitted his resignation a day after being confronted by the network.

In an interview with ABC he confirmed that he had called the Pamela Martin and Associates escort service to have women come to his condo and give him massages. But he denied there was any sex involved.

Tobias, 65, who is married,

In 2003 Bush appointed Tobias as the first global AIDS coordinator. For three years he promoted abstinence over the use of condoms, and fidelity in traditional marriage, to fight HIV/AIDS in Africa and was blamed for tying abstinence programs to aid to foreign countries.

His agency also funneled money to faith-based groups that not only preached abstinence, faithfulness, and denounced sex between men or ignored male-on-male sex altogether in AIDS educational programs.

In 2006 Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice named Tobias to head USAID.

Before joining the Bush administration Tobias was chair, president and chief executive of the pharmaceutical giant Eli Lilly. In addition, from 1997-2000, he was chair of the board of trustees at Duke University.

©365Gay.com 2007