Diversity in Marriage Fight
Coalition seeks Greater
Visibility of People of
Color in Movement
By Bob Roehr
Contributing Writer
Five LGBT organizations have
launched a coalition effort to
increase the visibility of people of
color as supporters of marriage
equality.
It was launched in conjunction
with Freedom to Marry Week,
February 12-18, and will run indefi
nitely.
The organizations involved are
Lambda Legal, National Black
Justice Coalition, Asian Equality,
National Latina/o Coalition for
Justice, and Freedom to Marry.
The immediate focus is a $13,000
purchase of banner ads on websites
that serve people of color
(www.lambdalegal.org/mem) that
show the wide range of lesbian, gay,
bisexual, transgender, and allies
who support marriage equality.
The photos were taken at pride
events last summer.
Lambda held organizer Kene hull
said the goals are "to provide a
forum for people of color to share
their images" and to debunk the
appearance that marriage equality
is only a concern of white gays and
that people erf color either oppose
the idea or are not involved.
A second phase of the program
will take place in June with the
launch of traveling exhibitions of
many of those same photos along
with commentaries as to why mar
riage is important to them.
Public sendee advertising also
may be developed.
Andy Wong, coalition manager
with Asian Equality, said,
"Marriage equality Contes impor
tant protections for our families,
and nothing is more important to
our communities than making sure
our families are safe. For many
Asian/Padfic American same sex
couples, the struggle for equality is
as much about challenging our sec
ond class status as it is about safe
guarding our families and chil
dren."
He enumerated the many
Asian/Pacific American groups
that support same sex marriage
equality.
Alexander Robinson, executive
director of the National Black
Justice Coalition, outlined die long
struggle for justice and equality by
die African American community
within the United States.
He saw marriage equality as "a
logical extension" of that struggle.
"If we waited for society and
majority opinion to come around,
African Americans would still be
enduring the indignities of separate
but equal accommodations and
legal and political segregation."
Robinson said it is important to
change hearts and minds as well as
laws.
"Family comes above everything
else" for me Latino community, said
Marta Donsyie, with die National
Latina/o Coalition for justice. And
those "are not the same family val
ues that are being espoused by title
fundamentalist right wing. Strong
families imply die inclusion of all."
Lambda Legal executive director
Kevin Cathcart said their plaintiffs
in marriage lawsuits around the
country "are as diverse as the LGBT
community nationwide. It is impor
tant to break through the mytholo
gy that the LGBT community is a
white community and that people
of color don't support marriage
equality."
He said, Tart of the challenge has -s
been how small, understaffed, and
underfunded many of our commu
nity organizations, particularly
communities of color, have been."
Previous activity has focused on
states where there was an active
legal or ballot measure on marriage.
Robinson echoed that sentiment
He saw the effort as the start of an
ongoing national education cam
paign by the organizations of the i
coalition, working together and on i
their own.
People wishing to learn more
about scheduling the traveling exhi
bition should contact Rene Hill at
rehill@lambda.cng.
By Bob Roehr
Contributing Writer
The development of new drugs to treat HIV
continues at a torrid pace, unmatched in any
other area of disease. Ten drugs have been
approved over the last decade and more are in
the pipeline. That
was apparent at
the Conference on
Retroviruses and
Opportunistic
Infections (CROI),
the world's pre
HIV saence, in
Denver, February
5-8. .
Integrase
miuouors are mse
ly to be the next
major advance in
therapy. They stop
HIV from insert
ing itself into the
DNA of the cell.
HIV cannot repli
df....
Openly gay Orlando
physician Edwin De
Jesus presented a study
on one new HIV drug in
development at the 2006
CROI in Denver
cate by itself and ' v :
must hijack die cell's DNA in order to repro
. duce.
"The programs to discover integrase
: inhibitors began over ten years ago. Today we
saw the fruition of those efforts- in very
impressive results in both naive and experi
enced patients," said John Mellors. He is a
researcher at the University of Pittsburgh and
vice diair of the conference.
.The drug that is in die most advanced stage
of development is compound 0518 by me
pharmaceutical giant Merck & Co. Data in
naiVe patients, starting their first regimen of
therapy, showed a 1.7 to 22 log reduction in. •
HIV viral load in a short 10-day trial. The
reduction depended on the amount of drug
they received. That was first repented at a corner
teenoe in Europe late last year.
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