SGN Mar 22, 2019 - Part 1

Seattle Gay News

Gilead set to introduce new PrEP drug

More expensive but better for patients with kidney problems

by Mike Andrew SGN Staff Writer

The pharmaceutical giant Gilead has announced successful clinical trials of a new PrEP drug called Descovy. Gilead also developed the standard PrEP medication, Truvada.

In a study of 5,387 Cis men who have sex with men and Trans women at risk of acquiring HIV through sex, the new drug proved just as effective in preventing HIV infection as Truvada.

see NEW PREP DRUG page 4

SCOTUS turns down freedom-of-religion appeal

B&B refused to book Lesbian couple

by Mike Andrew SGN Staff Writer

The US Supreme Court announced on March 18 that it would not hear the appeal of a Hawaii bed-and-breakfast that refused to accommodate a Lesbian couple on religious grounds.

In 2007, Aloha Bed and Breakfast refused to book Diane Cervelli and Taeko Bufford, a Lesbian couple. They filed a complaint with the Hawaii Civil Rights Commission, charging the B&B with discrimination on the basis of their sexual orientation, which is illegal under Hawaii state law.

see SCOTUS page 9

Palm Center responds to announcement that House will vote on transgender military service

Resolution condemns Trump ban, urges Pentagon not to discriminate

SAN FRANCISCO, CA – Palm Center

Director Aaron Belkin issued the following statement in response to reports that the House of Representatives will vote on a resolution opposing President Trump’s transgender ban next week:

“We commend the House of Representa-

tives on the important issue of inclusive military service. Congressional leaders of both parties, along with military leaders across the board, and 70 percent of the public, all favor letting patriotic transgender Americans see TRANS BAN page 9

HRC and UCLA to host 2020 presidential candidates forum

LOS ANGELES (March 19, 2019)

– The UCLA Luskin School of Public Affairs and the Human Rights Campaign Foundation, the educational arm of the nation’s largest lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, and queer civil rights organization, will co-host a forum for 2020 Democratic presidential candidates this fall.

The conversation will take place on Thursday, October 10, 2019 – on the eve of National Coming Out Day – in UCLA’s historic Royce Hall, and it will give candidates an opportunity to speak about their policy platforms and plans to move LGBTQ equality forward.

see FORUM page 3

FORUM

The forum will be part of UCLA’s Luskin Lecture Series, which enhances public discourse on topics relevant to the betterment of society. The series demonstrates UCLA Luskin’s commitment to encouraging innovative breakthroughs and creative solutions to formidable public policy challenges.

As in other presidential candidate forums and debates, Democratic candidates can qualify for the event by receiving one percent or more of the vote in three separate national polls or by receiving donations from 65,000 different people in 20 different states.

Today, in 30 states, LGBTQ people remain at risk of being fired, evicted, or denied services because of who they are. Thirty-five states have yet to outlaw the dangerous and debunked practice known as “conversion therapy.” LGBTQ youth continue to face elevated levels of bullying and rejection and many associated physical and mental health challenges. According to FBI hate crimes statistics from 2017, the most recently available data, the bureau reported a surge in hate crimes disproportionately affecting LGBTQ people, black people, and religious minorities, especially those living at the intersection of multiple identities. And at least 100 transgender people – most of whom are transgender women of color – have been murdered in the United States since the beginning of 2015.

“If any LGBTQ person were to take a cross-country drive from HRC headquarters in Washington, DC, to UCLA’s campus, their rights and protections under the law would change dozens of times at every city line and state border,” said HRC President Chad Griffin. “Millions of LGBTQ people will have their rights on the ballot in 2020 – but today we are also a powerful voting bloc that will help determine the outcome. We’re excited to partner with UCLA Luskin and create an opportunity to hear candidates’ agendas for moving equality forward.”

The forum will be held in the midst of UCLA’s centennial year, when the campus will recognize its many contributions to Los Angeles, the nation, and the world since its founding in 1919, as well as look-

ing ahead to another century of discovery and achievement.

“The Luskin School of Public Affairs is dedicated to enhancing the well-being of all Americans through an informed electorate and educated social leaders,” said Gary Segura, dean of UCLA Luskin. “We are beyond excited to partner with the Human Rights Campaign in raising LGBTQ issues and the policy stances of candidates to greater public attention in this cycle. UCLA is the perfect host for this conversation.”

On Election Day 2018, exit polling showed that more than seven million LGBTQ voters – six percent of total turnout – cast ballots, making the difference in key races from coast to coast. The new pro-equality majority in the US House of Representatives has already taken action: Speaker Nancy Pelosi has made it a top priority to pass the Equality Act, a federal LGBTQ civil rights bill that will provide consistent and explicit nondiscrimination protections for LGBTQ people from coast to coast. This legislation was introduced with unprecedented support from members of Congress, national advocacy organizations, and leading US companies.

The HRC Foundation last hosted presidential forums in 2004 and 2008. In 2004, the HRC’s forum included Sen. John Kerry, Rep. Dennis Kucinich, Sen. Carol Moseley Braun, Gov. Howard Dean, Sen. Joe

Lieberman, Rev. Al Sharpton, and Rep. Richard Gephardt. In 2008, the HRC’s forum included then-Sen. Hillary Clinton, then-Sen. Barack Obama, Sen. Mike Gravel, Rep. Dennis Kucinich, former Sen. John Edwards, and Gov. Bill Richardson.

The Human Rights Campaign Foundation is the educational arm of America’s largest civil rights organization working to achieve equality for lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and queer people. The HRC envisions a world where LGBTQ people are embraced as full members of society at home, at work, and in every community.

The UCLA Luskin School of Public Affairs identifies and develops emerging areas of research and teaching, cultivating change agents who advance solutions to society’s most pressing problems. Founded in 1994, the school incorporates the fields of social work, urban and regional planning, and policymaking. The unique intersection of these disciplines within one school allows for academic cross-collaboration and a rich education for students in the bachelor’s, master’s and doctoral programs, preparing them to take leadership roles and effect change as practitioners, researchers, and policymakers.

Courtesy of the HRC

Know the facts about HIV and cancer

by Colin Fields, MD Kaiser Permanente

When it comes to our health, I have some good news, and some bad news.

The good news? We’re doing a great job in King County at HIV treatment and prevention.

For over three years now, King County has met the World Health Organization’s 90-90-90 goal. The objective of this goal is to have 90 percent of persons living with HIV know their HIV status, 90 percent of these individuals prescribed life-saving antiretroviral therapy, and 90 percent of these prescriptions resulting in undetectable viral levels. This continues to be an astounding accomplishment for our region, one of the only places in the world to accomplish and maintain this goal. Since undetectable equals untransmittable, the hope is that this

NEW PREP DRUG

Mike Elliott, Gilead’s vice president of medical affairs in Europe, the Middle East, and Africa said the results were “quite exciting.”

“The study backs almost exactly what we expected,” he told the British publication Gay Star News

During the study, code-named DISCOVERY, seven people receiving a once-daily dose of Descovy acquired sexually transmitted HIV, compared to 15 control subjects given Truvada during the trial.

In other words, Descovy met the preestablished criteria for noninferiority to Truvada.

“It didn’t get to that superiority [over Truvada] but showed very good efficacy and numerically fewer transmissions than Truvada,” Elliott said.

“And then there are those important measures on renal and bone.”

achievement will also lead to success in decreasing the local transmission of HIV.

We can already see how the rates of HIV transmission are declining. According to the 2018 Washington State & King County HIV/ AIDS Epidemiology Report, “The number of new HIV diagnoses among King County residents is at its lowest level since 1994.” In addition, when people living with HIV use antiretroviral therapy it not only saves lives, it also increases life expectancy. King County has an estimated 6,907 residents living with HIV. Nearly half of all local people living with HIV are over the age of 50, a welcome and fortunate change from the early years of this epidemic. This means people living with HIV are becoming our elders.

At the same time, the effects of HIV on the aging body are presenting new medical challenges. Our community in King County lost 79 people who were living with

Patients receiving Descovy reportedly showed fewer negative side effects in kidney malfunction and bone density loss that Truvada patients might.

That improvement was welcomed by Matthew Hodson, executive director of National AIDS Manual (NAM)/aidsmap, a website that publishes HIV-related news stories.

“It’s really good news that there is a formulation for PrEP for people that have kidney problems,” he said.

“The number of people who are going to benefit [is] quite low, it’s maybe better for older people, over the age of 40 and is more likely to be recommended for people who have preexisting kidney problems.”

Skepticism

Dr. Will Nutland, co-founder of PrEPster, a program that seeks to “educate and agitate” for PrEP access in England, where PrEP is not paid for by the National Health Service, expressed reservations about the new medication.

HIV during 2017 with the leading causes of death being cancer and heart disease.

The bad news? Colorectal cancer continues to kill us.

March is Colorectal Cancer Awareness Month. The Colorectal Cancer Alliance reports that colorectal cancer is the “second leading cause of cancer death in men and women combined in the United States.”

Rectal and anal cancers disproportionately affect persons living with HIV. The immune systems of people with HIV struggle to clear infections from human papillomavirus (HPV), and we know that there are some strains of HPV which are more likely to turn into anorectal cancer. Half of men living with HIV and twenty percent of women living with HIV have cellular changes from HPV found in the anus. Women living with HIV who have abnormal pap smears are at even higher risk.

“The current formulation of PrEP (TDF/FTC) works incredibly well, with very few sides effects for the vast majority of people. TDF/FTC was the formulation of PrEP used in all other major international PrEP trials and is the formulation used in the England IMPACT Trial and by NHS Scotland,” he said.

“Given current patent issues on Descovy – and its relative high cost compared with current formulations of oral PrEP – its unlikely to be widely used in the near future.

“The generic versions of TDF/FTC PrEP (Gilead’s patented version is Truvada) are cheap [and] widely available, have very few side effects, and are expected to be the main drug of choice for oral PrEP into the foreseeable future. Current available versions of PrEP work very well.”

Gilead said it did not know what the market cost of Descovy would be. But Elliot denied its readiness for market coincided with the end of the US patent for Truvada.

We need to do more research about the screening, treatment, and follow-up of anorectal cancers in people living with HIV. Fortunately, three sites in the Seattle area are part of a national study called ANCHOR (Anal Cancer HSIL Outcomes Research) with the goal of the study being, “to find the best way to prevent anal cancer among HIV positive men and women.” Sites here in town are enrolling HIV positive patients, screening them for anal dysplasia, and randomizing them to different treatment groups followed by monitoring. If you’re HIV positive, you may be eligible to participate as a subject in this study (https://anchorstudy.org/) to better understand HIV and anorectal cancer. HIV care continues to evolve and address new challenges.

“Once we developed [the formulation for Descovy], we moved it rapidly through for treatment,” Elliot said.

“So it was not related on that patent expiry date; it was related on when we made the discovery and how quickly we could move through development.

“So I don’t think anyone would say we moved it slowly through development. From having the molecules and starting the study has been fairly quick.”

The Gilead statement noted that the patent for the tenofovir disoproxil fumarate component of Truvada expired in July 2017 and that Gilead retained exclusive rights for the drug’s pediatric use until January 2018. The patent for emtricitabine, the other medication in Truvada, does not expire until 2021, according to Gilead.

Gilead’s Descovy patent expires in 2022 in the United States and in 2021 in the European Union.

EEOC union condemns drastic $23.7M budget cut to civil rights enforcement in #MeToo era

WASHINGTON, DC (March 21, 2019)

– President Trump’s proposed budget for the fiscal year that starts Oct. 1 would slash the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission’s historically low budget by $23.7 million, which will make it harder for workers facing discrimination to get the help they need, the union representing EEOC workers said today.

“The EEOC enforces federal laws barring workplace discrimination, including sexual harassment, and cutting our budget frustrates those efforts,” said Gabrielle Martin, president of American Federation of Government Employees Council 216, the National Council of EEOC Locals. “Victims of workplace discrimination will feel the punch of this cut when they can’t get an appointment or an investigation of their complaint.”

The administration is proposing to slash the EEOC’s current budget from $379.5 million to $355.8 million in fiscal 2020, even while the agency is facing rising workloads.

The EEOC had a backlog of 49,608 cases in fiscal year 2018, and cases continued to pile up while the EEOC was closed during the 35-day shutdown. It takes workers months to get an appointment with the EEOC and over an hour to reach a live person by telephone. The EEOC’s workload this year included

200,000 inquiries, 76,418 charges, 40,000 interviews, and 105,600 calls.

Sexual harassment claims were up 13.6% in 2018. While Congress modestly increased the EEOC’s budget in response to the #MeToo movement, the agency still has not been able to keep up with demand. Last year, the EEOC’s workforce dropped below 2,000 employees for the first time since before 1980. The president’s budget plan would slash another 180 positions, including mediators, judges, intake representatives, and 50 inves-

Young adults with lesbian parents more likely to report same-sex attraction and experiences, study finds

LOS ANGELES (March 21, 2019) –

A new analysis finds that the 25-year-old children of lesbian parents are more likely than their peers to report same-sex attraction, sexual minority identity, and same-sex experiences.

The 25-year-olds are participants in the ongoing US National Longitudinal Lesbian Family Study (NLLFS), which has followed the same cohort of offspring from conception to adulthood. It has had a 92% retention rate since it began in 1986. The current analysis compared 76 offspring of lesbian parents and 76 demographically matched participants from the National Survey of Family Growth (NSFG).

“Our 2018 study in the New England Journal of Medicine revealed that adults who were conceived through donor insemination and raised by lesbian parents are as psychologically healthy as their peers,” said lead author Nanette Gartrell, MD, Visiting Distinguished Scholar at the Williams Institute. “Our current study suggests that being raised by sexual minority parents may lead to more diverse sexual expression for their adult daughters and sons.”

Key findings

31% of female and 73% of male NLLFS offspring reported being only attracted to the opposite sex, compared to 54% and 91% of NSFG females and males.

54% of female and 33% of male NLLFS offspring reported having a same-sex sexual experience, compared to 38% and 9% of NSFG females and males.

70% of female and nearly 90% of male NLLFS offspring identified as heterosexual or straight, compared to 88% and 98% of NSFG females and males.

Among the NLLFS female offspring, the percentage identifying as sexual minorities decreased from 49% to 30% between the ages of 17 and 25. In contrast, the percentage of NLLFS females who had engaged in

same-sex sexual behavior increased from 15% to 54% in the same period.

The percentage of NLLFS male offspring identifying as sexual minorities decreased from 22% to 10% between the ages of 17 and 25, and the percentage reporting samesex sexual experiences increased from 6% to 33%.

“The offspring of sexual minority parents may have more expansive perspectives on sexuality because they were raised by parents who are nonjudgmental about their exploration of non-heterosexual relationships,” said co-author Henny Bos, PhD, professor of child development and education, and chair in sexual and gender diversity in families and youth at the University of Amsterdam. “They may also be more attuned to their own same-sex sexual feelings because of the environment in which they were raised.”

This is the 24th publication from data collected in the NLLFS. The report, “Sexual Attraction, Sexual Identity, and Same-Sex Sexual Experiences of Adult Offspring in the US National Longitudinal Lesbian Family Study (NLLFS)” appears in Archives of Sexual Behavior and is co-authored by Nanette Gartrell, MD, Visiting Distinguished Scholar, along with Henny Bos, PhD, former Visiting International Scholar at the Williams Institute, and Audrey Koh, MD, Associate Professor, Department of Obstetrics, Gynecology, and Reproductive Sciences, University of California, San Francisco.

The Williams Institute at UCLA School of Law, a think tank on sexual orientation and gender identity law and public policy, is dedicated to conducting rigorous, independent research with real-world relevance.

Courtesy of the Williams Institute

tigators. The agency’s budget justification concedes there will be a “steady rise in pending inventory” as “there will be no replacement of staff.”

“In a time of rising awareness of sexual harassment in the workplace, it sends the entirely wrong message to cut funding and staff at the agency that handles those complaints,” Martin said.

One consequence of the massive workload and short staffing is a push by THE EEOC to swiftly close cases by tagging

TRANS BAN

continued from cover

serve their country. It’s only the smallness of Donald Trump’s political calculations that stands in the way.”

The resolution, which was authored by Rep. Joe Kennedy (D-Mass.) and has 187 co-sponsors, states that the House “strongly opposes President Trump’s discriminatory ban on transgender members of the Armed Forces” and “urges the Department of Defense to not reinstate President Trump’s ban on transgender members of the Armed Forces and to maintain an inclusive policy allowing qualified transgender Americans to enlist and serve in the Armed Forces.”

All five service chiefs have told Congress they experienced no problems with unit cohesion during the first two years of open transgender service, and senior and retired medical and military figures, including former Chair-

them as “C charges” under the agency’s triage system.

“Ravaging the budget will make matters worse,” Martin warns. “The vast majority of workers who come to the EEOC for help receive a dismissal with a ‘right to sue’ letter and are left to find help on their own. Likewise, federal employees with discrimination complaints are affected by the EEOC pressing a shrinking unit of administrative judges to hit unattainably high quotas by closing cases through summary judgment or without discovery.”

Martin called upon Congress, civil rights groups, and concerned citizens to take action. “Contact your lawmakers to save the EEOC from drastic cuts. Email the EEOC to request a budget in line with its workload. Tweet #StopEEOCbudgetcut. The #MeToo era is not the time to slash EEOC’s budget.”

The American Federation of Government Employees (AFGE) is the largest federal employee union, representing 700,000 workers in the federal government and the government of the District of Columbia.

Courtesy of the American Federation of Government Employees

man of the Joint Chiefs Michael Mullen, have said inclusive service promotes readiness.

Two recent polls, by Quinnipiac (https://poll.qu.edu/national/releasedetail?ReleaseID=2596) and Dalia Research, found that 70% of respondents favor allowing transgender Americans to serve in the military.

About The Palm Center

The Palm Center is an independent research institute committed to sponsoring state-of-the-art scholarship to enhance the quality of public dialogue about critical and controversial issues of the day. Our research has been published in leading social science journals and extensively consulted and cited by US military leaders. The Palm Center seeks to be a resource for scholars, policymakers, journalists, opinion leaders, students and the public at large. For more information, visit us at www.palmcenter.org

Courtesy of The Palm Center

The initial lawsuit, Aloha Bed & Breakfast v. Dianne Cervelli, was filed by Lambda Legal on behalf of the couple after they were denied service. The Hawaii Civil Rights Commission, which agreed with the couple, was listed as a co-plaintiff in the case.

Aloha B&B did not deny the couple’s claim but asserted that its discriminatory actions were protected under the First Amendment’s freedom of religion clause.

The Hawaii 1st Circuit Court ruled for the same-sex couple in April 2013. Although Aloha B&B appealed to the Hawaii Intermediate Court of Appeals, that court affirmed the lower court ruling. Last year, the Hawaii Supreme Court refused to review that decision.

The B&B then filed a petition for certiorari before the US Supreme Court, citing its First Amendment claims. The high court’s decision to “deny cert” – in other words, to refuse to hear the case – allows the lower court decisions to stand.

Peter Renn, counsel for Lambda Legal’s Western Regional Office, said the denial of certiorari affirms nondiscrimination laws for LGBT people in face of objections based on “religious freedom” claims.

“The Supreme Court’s decision to let the lower court ruling stand reaffirms that

the freedom of religion does not give businesses a right to violate nondiscrimination laws that protect all individuals from harm, whether on the basis of race, gender, or sexual orientation,” Renn said.

“The Supreme Court declined to consider carving out an exception from this basic principle when a business discriminates based on the sexual orientation of its customers. LGBT people deserve an equal right to go about their everyday life without the fear that discrimination waits for them around the corner.”

Although the anti-LGBT legal firm Alliance Defending Freedom initially served as counsel for Aloha Bed & Breakfast, a private attorney, James Hochberg, filed the unsuccessful appeal petition before the Supreme Court.

The Supreme Court’s decision to hear the Aloha B&B appeal comes nearly a year after justices issued a narrow ruling for Jack Phillips, owner of Masterpiece Cakeshop. Phillips was penalized under Colorado law for refusing to produce a wedding cake for same-sex couple.

In its Masterpiece Cakeshop ruling, the Supreme Court ruled for baker based on the narrow facts of the case, finding anti-religion bias on the part of the Colorado Civil Rights Commission, but stopped short of ruling there is a First Amendment right to discriminate against LGBT customers.

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