Results tagged “San Francisco Chronicle” from A Swede in SF

Today, my thoughts go to friends and former patients that are living with the disease. I also get reminded of the men that I interviewed for my pilot study during the past year and the experience they had when HIV/AIDS hit the gay areas of San Francisco and New York City.

On a day like this I cannot help to think that HIV has been one "part" of my (sex) life from the age of 12 (well, 9 if one thinks of the first publications). From even starting thinking about other men, the reality of HIV has been around. The scare tactics have left me with an in-erasable awareness of a potential third party being involved.

In today's SF Chronicle there is an article about "Ward 86" that was the first ward for patients with AIDS in San Francisco that opened at the San Francisco General 25 years ago. It reminds me of the ward 53 at South Hospital in Stockholm that was closed after the introduction of the new, anti-retroviral combination treatments.

The treatments has allowed HIV/AIDS to be illnesses also for the older adult. Some of the problems regarding that was described in an article in the New York Times three weeks ago: "Speaking Out for a Group Once Unheard-Of: Aging With AIDS". That the medical community recognizes this - albeit gradually - is evident in that NIH has several research grants now that deal with the medical care for the older, HIV-infected adult.

The results finalized a lot during the day today, and Prop 8 passed with 52.2% against 47.8% - a difference by 400,000 votes.

The consequences of this are both hard to foresee and estimate. The immediate result was that no more same-sex marriages will be performed. The question about the more than 16,000 marriages that have been performed remains to be decided - from that they are valid to that they should bee annulled. At the same time, the opponents of Prop 8 have sued to block the measure to take effect [SF Chronicle].

Tonight, a crowd of 2,000 women and men of all ages, queer and straight gathered outside San Francisco City Hall to hold a vigil over the lost vote. But the fighting spirit was there: "Yes we will!". [SF Chronicle]

I know, I have a black soul - no, not in the Bill Clinton way! - but I cannot help feeling a bit... No, make that VERY affected by schadenfreude. The lipstick bulldog's church is offering to convert gays into heterosexuals [SF Chronicle]. That is an evangelium in its truest sense - this is crazy! But on the other hand, just because I think so, doesn't mean that enough US voters feel the same way...

In an article in the SF Chronicle there is a critique of the "gawking" tourists, looking at the people living in the are like they were at animals in a zoo.

It is interesting when the gay life becomes the exciting and adventurous to come and see... What will be the next: safaris to the Folsom Street Fair?



On the other hand, gay marriages have become so mainstream in San Francisco that my local grocery store sells cards with same-sex couples in their wedding section.