Random acts of guyness

Tropical sex disease surfaces in Toronto

An outbreak of a sexually transmitted disease usually seen only in the tropics has public health officials worried it is yet another signal that HIV infections are about to rise.

Lymphogranuloma venereum (LGV), caused by a bacteria that is part of the chlamydia family, is normally confined to the tropics of Africa, South America, Asia and the Caribbean. By the end of 2005 there were 30 recorded cases of LGV in Toronto.

"This is a new thing," said Dr. Robert Remis, a University of Toronto HIV/AIDS researcher. "It's hard to diagnose and it's a rather painful condition."

The city is already in the grip of a syphilis outbreak, and both diseases are associated with an increased risk for HIV and AIDS.



Dr. Kelly MacDonald, chair of the Ontario HIV Treatment Network, said the two outbreaks are a serious concern.

"It's a marker for high-risk sex and partner change," she said. "In every study with explosive rates of HIV you see syphilis."

And LGV is a "tropical disease we shouldn't see" in Toronto, she added. "It means the rate of partner change is extremely high. Things like syphilis and LGV should be the first things we get under control," said MacDonald, a microbiologist at Mount Sinai Hospital.

LGV symptoms appear three to 30 days after exposure. It starts with a painless sore on the vagina, penis, rectum or oral cavity. The condition can be cured with three weeks of antibiotics, but left untreated it can cause scarring, deformity and, in rare cases, hepatitis and meningoencephalitis (infection of the brain and spinal cord tissues).



China Shuts Down Gay Web Sites

he Chinese government has begun a "clean-up" of gay Web sites an English language Chinese newspaper reported Friday.

The Hong Kong-based South China Morning Post says that China's internet domain-name registration company has shut down several popular gay Web sites under what the paper said was pressure from police.

The registration company is controlled by the government.

All of the sites were forums where people could post information. One of the sites, tzgay.ful.cn received 100,000 hits per day. It was frequently used by people to discuss coming out.

Another of the closed sides, chinagay.ful.cn, disseminated information on safe-sex. Since it opened last February it has had about 400,000 the Morning Post said.

Following the crackdown other forums sites have begun purging LGBT content.



In Toronto, all but one of the 30 cases were found in gay or bisexual men, said Dr. Rita Shahin, associate medical officer of health. Cases of LGV have been recently reported in gay men in the Netherlands and other European countries.

The current syphilis outbreak started in May 2002, mostly in gay or bisexual men, and peaked in 2004 with 368 cases. Last year there were 241.

"It's a true epidemic and related to an increasing rate of unsafe sexual behaviour," said Remis.



QM2 sets course for all-gay cruise

THE Queen Mary 2, the world's largest ocean liner, is chartering a cruise for gays and lesbians only.

The 2,620-capacity liner will depart New York next year for a six-day cruise to Southampton.

A spokesman said it was "a onceina-lifetime trip that takes the best the straight world has to offer and makes it even better".




Judge calls men 'salvageable,' sentences them to 90 days in jail, year of house arrest, five years of probation, 500 hours of community service

State District Judge Michael Vigil declined Friday to send the two men most culpable in the beating of two gay men last year to the state penitentiary.

"You both would be ruined if I sent you to prison," Vigil told Isaia Medina, 20, and Gabriel Maturin, 21. "I would be throwing you away. I don't want to do that."

Instead, Vigil sentenced Medina and Maturin to 90 days in the Santa Fe County jail, followed by a year of house arrest during which they will have to spend weekends in jail. After that, each man will spend five years on probation and have to perform 500 hours of community service, which will include completing a curriculum on tolerance, talking to high school and college students about tolerance and working with the group, Parents and Friends of Lesbians and Gays.