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The Food and Drug Administration announced on their website that the current lifetime ban on donating blood will remain in effect for gay and bisexual men. In March of 2006, the American Association of Blood Banks, America's Blood Centers and the American Red Cross testified before the FDA that the lifetime ban for men who have sex with men "is medically and scientifically unwarranted" and that "it does not appear rational to broadly differentiate sexual transmission via male-to-male sexual activity from that via heterosexual activity on scientific grounds." They don't know if it will stop them from getting cancer, but gay and bisexual men in San Francisco are taking a vaccine meant to prevent cancer in females. Gardasil is the controversial vaccine that protects against certain strains of the human papilloma virus, which can cause cervical cancer. Now, some gay and bisexual men are asking their doctors for the vaccine in the hope that it will ward off anal and penile cancer which are also caused by HPV. Organizers of a new medical clinic in Cleveland say their center is the first of it's kind in Ohio. The Pride Clinic, which is dedicated to serving the gay, lesbian and transgender community, had two patients on its opening day last week. Senator Edward Kennedy and Representative Rosa DeLauro introduced the Healthy Families Act, a bill that guarantees American workers seven days of paid sick leave to recover from their own illness or to care for a sick family member, including families headed by same-sex couples. A bill that would extend health coverage to the unmarried partners of state and county workers who are part of the state health fund has been passed by the Hawaii House. The Gay and Lesbian Medical Association released a report that contradicts the widely held perception that addiction to crystal methamphetamine is essentially untreatable, a misunderstanding shared by some health professionals. The Human Rights Campaign and the Gay and Lesbian Medical Association announced a first-of-its-kind tool to rate the healthcare industry on how it treats its gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender patients and to educate the GLBT community about what to expect from healthcare providers and facilities. As conservative groups push for a constitutional amendment that defines marriage as a union between a man and woman and lesbians and gay men initiate lawsuits to overturn state bans against same-sex marriages, several psychiatrists are researching and discussing how denial of same-sex marriage impacts mental health. The American Psychological Association issued a stinging rebuke of the so-called "ex-gay" movement following a demonstration by members of several organizations that claim homosexuality is a choice that can be cured. |
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