U.S. Travel and Immigration Ban Still in Place for HIV-Positive People

Over the summer, the U.S. approved the Lantos/Hyde U.S. Global Leadership Against HIV/AIDS, Tuberculosis, and Malaria Reauthorization Act (S 2731) which contained a provision lifting a ban on travel and immigration to the U.S. by those who are HIV-postitive. Apparently there hasn't been any follow-through on the latter half.

Andrew Sullivan writes: "Yesterday, they simply reiterated their previous plans to "streamline" the process, which, in fact, does nothing but make it more bureaucratically cumbersome for temporary visitors with HIV to enter the country as tourists or for conferences. They have done nothing to end the ban as the law clearly asked for."

Under the current guidelines, Sullivan (and many others) would have to leave the U.S. for good in March.

Sphere: Related Content

Gay Eustace Sparks Debate on Gay Marriage and Overt Sexuality

I've brought up the Eustace Tilly cover illustration contest that The New Yorker magazine is running a couple times over the last two weeks. The contest generated at least one gay-themed entry which has generated some playful discussion between bloggers Andrew Sullivan and Dan Savage, both of whom are married.

Tilly is the magazine's mascot (see photo inset). He appeared on the magazine's first cover in 1924 and appears annually every year, sometimes in a slightly revised form. The contest has generated a lot of entries. The "Gay Eustace" entry (pictured), which features a 70's-style leather queen contemplating a gold wedding band is the one that has drummed up the dialog.

Sullivan's initial post on the cover entry described Gay Eustace as "suspended between the past and the future, like the rest of us," which Savage replied was too 'either /or' an analysis:

"Any fool can see what Sullivan means by that crack: Gay Eustace, in his leather vest, cap, arm bands, gloves, and dog collar, looks down his nose at a gold band. Gay Eustace contemplates the wedding ring and the future it represents, a future characterized by family and commitment. The leather gear Gay Eustice wears, of course, represents a past characterized by promiscuity and sexual excess. When Sullivan asserts that Gay Eustace is suspended between the past and the future, between the wedding band and the leather gear, he is arguing that commitment and dog collars are mutually exclusive. To move into the former you must, Sullivan would have us believe, unbuckle the latter. That is not the case. A man, gay or straight, can wear a wedding band and enjoy all it symbolizes—commitment, stability, family—and wear the fetishized skins of dead animals if that appeals to him. In fact, we should encourage him to do so. If we want to strengthen the institution of marriage—and that is what all in the gay family values movement want (although I’m starting to have my doubts about Mr. Sullivan)—we must fight with every tool at our disposal the pernicious notion that marriage, by definition, must always and everywhere signify the death of sexual experimentation and adventure. A man, gay or straight, can be married and trot about Manhattan in a dog collar, if it pleases him and his spouse. And he should be able to do without the depth or sincerity of his commitment being called into question. Just as we don’t presume that a man wearing a wedding band is incapable of adultery, Mr. Sullivan, we shouldn’t presume that man in a leather vest is incapable of commitment."

Sullivan replied to Savage's post by saying that they actually "almost" agree. Sullivan actually revised his post to exclude the line "Of course, there's no reason a leather queen shouldn't get married either."

Says Sullivan who wed his partner in Provincetown last summer: "Why did I delete the extra qualification? I guess what I was driving at in commenting on that image is that it represented some kind of collective cultural conflict, as much as a personal one. And while we'd like the conflict to be totally absent, it isn't. It's not either/or. But it isn't totally both/and either, is it? There is something about the most overt sexuality that isn't easily integrated into marriage in our culture. Maybe we need to adjust that, as Dan suggests. And maybe it isn't quite that easy, as my deletion implies."

A worthy conversation, one which says to me that the Tilly entry pictured here is a good one. Your thoughts on the collective cultural conflict, readers?

ADDENDUM: I did not mean to suggest by this post (but perhaps I framed it in too divisive a manner) that Sullivan and Savage are at war on this topic. They're not, and Dan's post was certainly meant as a humorous jab rather than an angry one.

Sphere: Related Content

Towleroad Guide to the Tube #191

BILL MAHER: Andrew Sullivan, General Wesley Clark, and Martina Navratilova appear on the show to talk about Bush, ruling through fear, Hillary Clinton, and Barack Obama's gospel tour. And Part Two, on being scared of the wrong things...

IAN MCKELLEN: His recent appearance on The Late Late Show with Craig Ferguson.

DUMBLEDORE: The right-wing flip-out. It's going to cause young boys to come down with STDs.

Check out our previous guides to the Tube here!

Sphere: Related Content

News: Lesbian Bishop, Mika, Iranian Gays, Daniel Radcliffe

Andrew Sullivan marries his partner in Provincetown.

Mika shows off his helium heels in new video for "Happy Ending". How appropriate!

Lesbian refuses to back down to conservative objections after being nominated to be a Bishop by the episcopal Church: "I am honored and humbled to be named a nominee for Bishop of Chicago and to be included in the company of my fellow nominees, all of whom are faithful, accomplished leaders in God's church. Since the day last winter when I was asked to make myself available to this nominating process, my discernment prayer has been that God would continue to lead me to serve God's new creation in the church. I believe that accepting this nomination is what God is asking of me, and I will strive to respond to that call faithfully and with grace."

At the Michael Sandy murder trial in New York, revelations that the killers joked about attack: "Some of the young men now accused of killing him gathered in an apartment and read newspaper accounts of the attack, the youngest one told investigators. In street slang referring to murder, the oldest one joked, 'So, do you want to catch a body today?'"

Fascinating interview with gay Iranian couple who fled to Turkey: "We do not ask for much in life. I want to have a 40 meter apartment in Iran where I can live with my partner, the person I love. Get up in the morning and go to work, work, and feel at peace when I return home. That’s it. Just a quiet life with my boyfriend. I’d like to reach this dream and not be hanged or stoned for loving someone."

What some gay men would do for Mariah.

Alleged photo of Pete Doherty abusing cat surfaces.

Daniel Radcliffe coming to Broadway with Equus. Nerves about "baring it all" remain..."It will be amazing, but I will be terrified because I was talking to Richard Griffiths about playing New York and he said the most stupid thing you can do is underestimate New York audiences."

Sphere: Related Content

News: Synthetic Life, Andrew Sullivan, Frozen Smoke, Jocks

Blogger Lane Hudson files FEC complaint against Fred Thompson: "It is my contention that he has violated the 'testing the waters' exemption of election law. He has been presenting himself as a candidate for President, he has been raising large sums of money beyond what would be required to explore a possible candidacy, and he has signed a long term lease on a headquarters for his campaign. He has even spent advertising dollars, which are specifically prohibited by the law."

Scientists on verge of creating form of synthetic life: "It's going to be a big deal and everybody's going to know about it. We're talking about a technology that could change our world in pretty fundamental ways _ in fact, in ways that are impossible to predict."

"Frozen smoke" is world-changing material, according to scientists: "It is expected to rank alongside wonder products from previous generations such as Bakelite in the 1930s, carbon fibre in the 1980s and silicone in the 1990s. Mercouri Kanatzidis, a chemistry professor at Northwestern University in Evanston, Illinois, said: 'It is an amazing material. It has the lowest density of any product known to man, yet at the same time it can do so much. I can see aerogel being used for everything from filtering polluted water to insulating against extreme temperatures and even for jewellery.'"

A briefing on the Democratic debate held over the weekend in Des Moines, Iowa.

The L.A. Daily News looks at gay sites and straight athletes: "When it comes to visuals in sports, gay men and straight men are very similar except for the genders that we look at.Men are more visual. So we are just doing what mainstream sites do but we are catering to our audiences. If you look at Sports Illustrated or ESPN magazines, they all have some kind of photo gallery of hot babes in sports, or cheerleaders of the week. In a sense, that is geared toward what their audience mostly is: heterosexual."

An update on Britney's hair growth.

Responding to Victor Juliet Mukasa's press conference last week pleading for human rights in Uganda, the government has said there's no chance for equal rights or the legalization of homosexuality.

In space, no one can hear you eat your vegetables.

Blogger Andrew Sullivan experiencing "jitters" over imminent marriage.

Oklahoma chooses not to appeal ruling striking down a state law refusing Oklahoma birth certificates to children adopted by out-of-state same-sex couples. Lambda Legal: "This is a monumental decision, not just for the couples involved in the case, but for lesbian and gay parents and their children nationwide. It means that when same-sex couples have an adoption decree recognizing both of them as parents, the adoption, and their status as their child's parents, must be honored no matter where they go."

Federal government to pay $80,000 to couple arrested for wearing anti-Bush T-shirts.

From the big house to the Big Brother house: Paris Hilton to join UK version of Celebrity Big Brother?

WaPo looks at Giuliani's retreat on gay issues. GOP Pollster: "Outside New York, the rest of America has this image of Giuliani as a tough, no-nonsense guy who cleaned up Times Square, closed sex clubs. And that Giuliani doesn't sound like the Giuliani who's pro-choice, pro-gay rights, et cetera. Until Republican primary voters are given information that counters the image they have of Giuliani, many of them will assume that he is who he says he is."

South African hospital to gay pregnant woman: "We don't help people like you."

Sphere: Related Content