Gay Man Convicted of Killing
HIV Poz Partner with a Golf Club

 (The late Stuart Mark. Credit: The Winnipeg Sun.)

Earlier this month in Canada, a jury found a gay man guilty in the brutal killing of his HIV positive partner. The case has received minimal attention here in the United States, with the POZ magazine newsfeed being the only domestic outlet to report on it. 

I want to say how important it is for HIV positive people to disclose their sero-status to all potential sex partners before engaging in sexual activities. At the same time, it's equally important for HIV negative individuals to practice safe sex, regardless of whether they know their sex partner's HIV status.

While the dead man's behavior was irresponsible, it was no excuse for his lover to end his life. A tragic situation all around, and if there is any good to come of it, let's hope it leads to better disclosure practices by HIV positive folks and enhanced education for HIV negative individuals to engage in sexual intimacy that does not place them at-risk for contracting HIV, regardless of their partner's disclosure or lack of it, or his sero-status.

Everyone needs to have sexual risk boundaries and take personal responsibility for not transmitting or contracting HIV.

From the Winnipeg Sun story about the conviction:

A jury has convicted Michael Pearce of manslaughter in the beating death of his gay lover Stuart Mark.

Jurors deliberated less than three hours before reaching a verdict about 3 p.m. Thursday.

Mark, 36, was found beaten to death in his Alfred Avenue home in January 2007. Jurors clearly rejected Pearce’s claim police coerced him to falsely confess to the killing.

Prosecutors alleged Pearce beat Mark to death with a golf club after Mark disclosed he was HIV positive.

Jurors heard police had no forensic evidence connecting Pearce to the killing. Pearce was interviewed several times and passed a polygraph test before he came to police in July 2007 and said he might have more information about the killing. It was during that final lengthy interview — recorded on video — that Pearce told police he may have attacked Mark with a golf club. [...]

Crown attorney Dale Harvey said Pearce clearly identified where police found Mark’s body — something only his killer would know.

If Pearce wasn’t responsible for the killing, he had no reason to approach police for that final interview, Harvey said. [...]

There is no minimum sentence for manslaughter. The maximum sentence is life in prison. Pearce remains free on bail. He will return to court for sentencing July 3.

An earlier Winnipeg Sun article provided additional details, including the injuries that lead to the demise of the death man:

"I was just so angry that he didn't tell me, 'cause we fooled around. And then he tells me he has AIDS," Pearce tells Winnipeg police Detectives John O'Donovan and Chad Depencier. "I was just kind of terrified at that whole fact and angry. We got into an argument," Pearce said. "I can't believe that my actions actually killed somebody," he later says.

Prosecutors allege Mark, 36, was beaten to death after telling Pearce, with whom he had been in a "casual homosexual relationship," that he had HIV. The Crown contends Mark was beaten on his head with a golf club and stabbed, but concedes there are no witnesses, DNA or forensic evidence linking Pearce to the killing.

SF Supes Public Comment Vid:
Kill Homos, a Tinfoil Hat & Jesus

One of the highlights of the weekly Board of Supervisors' Tuesday meetings is the time reserved for public comment. Citizens are given two-minutes to address the politicians, and everyone watching on the city's cable access channel or via the web. The majority of speakers are smart, make cogent points and use their two-minutes wisely.

The meeting this past Tuesday had only three or four intelligent speakers, with a few very wacky and entertaining people getting up at the microphone to address the Supervisors at the end of public comment. Here's the pertinent vid excerpt from SF Gov TV:



Among the goofballs was a man who talks about the Ethics Commission hearing on Monday regarding the removal of Ross Mirkarimi as sheriff, and segues into how two supervisors should also be brought before that commission for ethical violation. Does he name the supervisors? No, but he assures everyone that watching the old TV show "The Untouchables" will provide clues. For extra chuckles, he requests a sympathy statement regarding the passing of Davey Jones from the Monkees.

The next speaker was a Christian fundamentalist labeling the supervisors "ministers of God" and says they're all pro-homosexual. He then lambastes them for being pro-homosexual and reminds everyone that the Old Testament called for executing homosexuals. Who knew America's Bible belt extended to San Francisco?

After this guy, a young woman tried to talk about benefit corporations or districts, a matter previously voted on at the board, so the president kept interrupting her to say since they had already dealt with the issues, the rules disallowed her to speak on the matter.

The following speaker wore a tinfoil hat and posed the question of why this was so. He said it was the only way he could object to medical experiments that were being forced upon him. His photograph alleging showing dangerous lesions at the center of his brain was projected for all to see, before he ended with a demand for police action about the wrongs done to him.

Our final member of the public to address the supervisors told how a judge had denied his request to change his name. What new name did he want? None other than that of Jesus Christ. Oh, brother.

Only in San Francisco, kiddies. Only here can you watch and listen to such nutty and laughable comments from the general public on a weekly basis.

NYT: What Fierstein Wore at His
First Meeting With 'Torch Song' Director

Whenever the credits rolled at the end of an episode of "All in the Family", I always wondered if the director Paul Bogart was related to Humphrey Bogart. He wasn't. Paul Bogart passed away on Sunday in North Carolina at the age of 92, and the New York Times obituary said he was born with the surname Bogoff, which his family had previously changed from Bogoslavsky to sound more American.

If gays remember him at all it may be as the director of the film version of drag artiste, writer and actor Harvey Fierstein's Tony Award-winning play "Torch Song Trilogy". I had the distinct pleasure of catching the show early in its Broadway run at the Little Theatre, which I think is now named the Helen Hayes Theatre. If memory serves, the cast at the time included Estelle Getty and Fisher Stevens.

Bogart helped bring "Torch Song" to the screen, with the pre-AIDS backroom sex included and a fine cast that included high-wattage names Anne Bancroft and Matthew Broderick, not to mention a black gay character and an aging drag queen, played by Ken Page and Charles Pierce respectively.

The Times relates the amusing tale of Bogart's initial interaction with Fierstein, that illustrates while Bogart may have been straight he had the necessary moxie to deal with the diva at the center of the story they were to put up on the silver screen:

Newsweek in 1989 reported on a meeting he had with Harvey Fierstein about possibly directing Mr. Fierstein’s “Torch Song Trilogy” as a movie. It had been a success on Broadway, where it ran from 1982 to 1985, but Mr. Fierstein, who both wrote and starred in the play, had delayed making a movie version. “Torch Song” told of the life and loves of a New York drag queen, and no director had seemed quite appropriate, until he met Mr. Bogart, who he said “seemed so naturally unafraid” of the material.

Mr. Fierstein may have been persuaded by what happened when they first met. He was wearing a see-through, floor-length black bathrobe. Mr. Bogart took one look and said, “This is our first meeting; don’t you think you should cover your breasts?”

SF Ex: Union Rules Jeopardize
Pro-Gay Flag Lowering on May 17?

Last week, Dan Schreiber of the SF Examiner penned an excellent story about efforts by the small and no-budget Gays Without Borders to participate in a global day of LGBT solidarity and activism, by lowering the United Nations and American flags at the centrally-located UN Plaza, pictured above.

Schreiber reports that a spokeswoman for the Department of Public Works told him the fee to lower the flag was due to union rules. I'm as pro public union as the next guy, but reading how union rules mandate hefty costs and a required number of hours in order for the public to access flagpoles on public property disgusts me. It's this kind of crap that creates animosity toward public unions.

Our plan to lower the UN Plaza flags would take no more than 10-20 minutes for a DPW worker with a key to insert into the control box, bring the UN flag down half-way, then another 10-20 minutes to do the same with the Stars and Stripes. Twenty-four hours later, the process would repeat itself to raise the flags back to their normal positions.

I'm pleased that DPW's spokeswoman says there's potential wiggle room on the fee. Let me also say that my member of the Board of Supervisors, Jane Kim, in whose district lies UN Plaza, is assisting us with finding a way around the four-figure cost. My hope is that Supervisor Kim and her colleagues will collaborate with Gays Without Borders, DPW and union representatives to fly the flags at half-mast without gouging activists.

From the Examiner, bolding added:

If you want to fly a flag at half-staff for an occasion in San Francisco, it could cost up to $1,500. Local blogger and LGBT activist Michael Petrelis found that out the hard way when he asked The City’s Department of Public Works to do that [UN Plaza] to commemorate the International Day Against Homophobia and Transphobia on May 17.

“I mean, c’mon,” Petrelis said. “If San Francisco, of all cities, can’t find a way to lower two flags for 24 hours to honor dead gay people from around the world, what does that say about San Francisco?”

Gloria Chan, a spokeswoman for Public Works, said union contracts require station engineers to lower the flags and be compensated at $90 per hour for a minimum of four hours, no matter how long the task actually takes . . . [that] could be up to $135 per hour for two four-hour sessions — one to lower the flags, and one to re-raise them — for a total of $1,080. What makes up the remaining cost is unclear.

Chan said Petrelis was provided with a fair, “across-the-board” cost for the activity, but considering the circumstances, the department plans to work with the inquiring group — Gays Without Borders — to lower the final bill.

Petrelis . . . noted that the Board of Supervisors unanimously approved a resolution in March to recognize the day. Chan said it remains unclear if Gays Without Borders would still have to cover the cost of the flag lowering in the case of a citywide recognition of the day, but that details are still being considered.

On the Mend:
Pneumonia, Levofloxacin and Me

It's been a week since I was released from the respiratory ward at Davies Hospital and you can imagine how much pleasure it gives me to report that I am truly on mend. After a week of the levofloxacin antibiotic regimen, and using the albuterol inhaler, this nasty bout of pneumonia is practically all gone.

I want to share ten random thoughts generated from this health scare episode, before slowly getting back to normal blogging, political advocacy and living the gay life in San Francisco.

1. Many thanks to all of you who either sent emails or old-fashioned get well cards on recycled paper, or left voice mail messages wishing me a speedy and fully recovery. Receiving all that love and goodwill greatly helped elevate my mood.

2. My boyfriend Mike deserves a medal, maybe two, for his not just his unstinting tending to my needs but also for his natural upbeat nature. He found ways to make me laugh and smile, even when the pneumonia was kicking my tush.

3. I spoke with my regular physician yesterday. The results of the regular blood draw from early April, about nine-days before I went to the emergency room, showed a slight increase in t-cells, up to 425, my HIV viral load remained undetectable and all other reading were good to excellent. So how the hell did I catch pneumonia? 

The hospital physicians and my doctor said as bad as this regular pneumonia was, it was not pneumocystis carinii pneumonia (PCP), now known as pneumocystis jiroveci pneumonia. They say I had community acquired pneumonia, meaning I didn't get infected in a healthcare facility.

As a person with AIDS, even with good blood numbers, I was still at-risk from factors such as the weather and being around people with pneumonia germs.

4. I count my blessings that during my hospitalization, every time the nurses or doctors came into my room, before they touched me they either donned gloves or used Purell on their hands. Let me express gratitude to the staffers for doing all in their power to prevent me from getting a staph infection.

5. During one unpleasant coughing fit, I thought about my old friend and fellow activist Tommi Avicolli Mecca. He suffers from asthma and I experienced a small bit what he and other asthmatic folks endure. I wouldn't wish that frightful gasping for air on anyone.

6. Before I turned the corner and genuinely felt improvement, Mike claims he came home from work and found me watching the 1960s "Beach Blanket Bingo" movie on TV and I was mumbling, "Forget Fellini, Kurosawa and Bresson!" What I said over the bongo-playing was "Pasolini, Truffaut and Dreyer forever!"

7. It was beneficial to regaining my wellness to Skype with my blood family back East. Is it just me, or do you also find it easier to laugh when looking at people on the screen and not just speaking on the phone?

8. Today is my final day of levofloxacin and I can't wait to start drinking eating probiotic foods such a cabbage and yogurt, most likely not at the same time. ;-)

9. Just a reminder that May 17 is IDAHO, International Day Against Homophobia and Transphobia, and I expect to soon help my colleagues in Gays Without Borders make this year's event in San Francisco our best yet. 

10. My doctor says I can begin to ride my bike again at the end of the week, as long as I continue to improve. The first place I want to go to on my bike is to an acupuncture clinic.

Let me end by wishing you and yours the best of health, and a joyous spring.

Greetings from the Pneumonia 
Ward at Davies Hospital

Forgive the gallows humor of my headline, but after the past 7-8 days of battling pneumonia I need to give myself even a small reason to laugh at the medical situation challenging my immune system.

Last Saturday, after a few days of what I thought was just a spring cold and nasty bout of laryngitis making it near impossible to speak above a raspy whisper, I was online for barely an hour, grew so bored and tired I shut off the computer. Today is the first time since then that I've had any interest communicating via the web or reading my favorite news sites.

Late Sunday morning my partner Mike took me to the emergency room at California Pacific Medical Center's Davies Campus in the heart of the Castro district. I was quickly examined by a few nurses before getting chest x-rays and having blood drawn, and Mike and I waited for the doctor on duty to deliver the results.

When the doctor told us the diagnosis was pneumonia and that he wanted me checked into the hospital for two-nights, my fevered brain was scared. I thought hospitals were reluctant to admit patients for overnight stays in these cost-cutting healthcare times, and that hospitals would rather load patients up with treatments and send them home.

I was soon put on intravenous antibiotics and a saline solution, as the doctor for the third floor of the North Tower where respiratory patients are treated and housed interviewed me. She slowly explained the treatment and care protocol to Mike and me, and assured us the pneumonia would be cured in due course.

For three days, the doctor and caring, dedicated nursing and housekeeping staffers tended to this "problem patient" who complained when necessary. Every effort was made to lessen the fevers, coughing and frightening wheezing, and thankfully there was no other patient sharing the room, enduring my medical problems.

Much of the time an oxygen tube pushed air up my nostrils, and I was given frequent treatments of Albuterol inhalation aerosol. What a trip that was! They place a green mask over your nose and mouth, you breathe in the Albuterol and get a few hour of breathing without a hacking cough.

There were a few occasions when I thought about the foolish bug-chasers, men who actively seek to contract HIV. What the eff is wrong with them? Who in his right mind would want to be infected with HIV and place themselves at higher-risk for even the "regular" pneumonia attacking my lungs? If you know such a man, smack him upside the head until he gets some sense.

Now that I'm back at home, taking everything slow and easy, and again amazed at my wonderful companion Mike and his healing love, I want folks to know my body and mind are on the mend. I am taking my drugs as instructed and heeding Mike's advice.

And now, it's time for a bowl of Mike's vegetable soup and nap. All prayers and wishes for wellness are welcomed and appreciated. Be sure to take care of yourself and your health too.

FEC File:
Ann Romney = Executive of Romney for President

Longtime Democratic strategist and former chair of the board of directors for the Human Rights Campaign Hilary Rosen sparked a controversy last night on CNN, when she said Ann Romney had "never worked a day in her life." The Mitt Romney campaign wasted no time firing back, saying the presidential candidate's wife worked plenty as a mother of five boys.

Yes, every mother is a working woman just raising a kid regardless of having work outside of the home and I think Rosen has given the American electorate another chance to debate women's issues, while comparing the Democratic and Republican policies that affect women.

I want to add my two cents about Ann Romney and how in addition to being the mother of her boys, she's also been an executive for a short time in recent years according to Federal Election Commission records.

During 2007, she made two donations to Republican James Ogonowski's bid for the U.S. Congress and the FEC records show she listed her occupation as an executive of Romney for President. For all of her many other donations, her occupation is given as homemaker.

I'm pointing out what Ann Romney's FEC file shows regarding her having two occupations listed so we all have a fuller picture of the woman who wants to be First Lady in January 2013.

SF Wants $1,500 to 
Lower UN Flag for Day Against Homophobia

(United Nations Plaza, with San Francisco's City Hall in the background.)

If I weren't still suffering laryngitis from a nasty spring cold, I would have screamed like a queen when reading how much the San Francisco Department of Public Works wants to charge Gays Without Borders to lower the United Nations and American flags at UN Plaza on May 17, which is International Day Against Homophobia and Transphobia, IDAHO.

In late March, I blogged about a unanimous vote at the Board of Supervisors backing a resolution from openly gay Supervisor David Campos directing DPW to lower the flags and to also have IDAHO officially recognized for the first time by City Hall as a day of significance.

Yesterday, I received this email from DPW's community liaison Greg Crump regarding who would be the point-person on the project, the cost involved and whether we could tape a sign to the flagpoles explaining why the flags were lowered, bolding added:

I have the information that you are asking for:

1. Yes, please contact me with questions leading up to your event. I will do my best to assist with your inquiries in a timely manner.

2. The costs incurred by DPW for raising and lowering the flags at UN Plaza amounts to $1,467.90 ($733.95 to lower the flags and the same to raise them again).

3. I do not believe it is permissible to affix signs to the flag poles on public property. [Public Works Code 5.6 link to code] Perhaps there are other messaging options to help explain why the flags have been lowered.

Hope this helps. Thanks for your patience, Michael. 

Almost $1,500 to lower and raise two flags? Seems an excessive amount to pay to have a DPW employee show up at UN Plaza on May 17, spend a few minutes inserting a key into the control boxes and lowering the UN and American flags to half-staff, then elevating them the next day.

I will get in touch with Supervisor Jane Kim today because UN Plaza is in her district and she is also my supervisor. Maybe she can lobby DPW to waive that four-figure fee. With IDAHO a little more than a month away, I am cautiously optimistic that a resolution can be worked out among the stakeholders - Gays Without Borders, DPW, the Board of Supervisors - that lowers the flags without gouging activists.

Full Text: 
Russian Federation's Anti-Gay Statute in English

Last week I asked the good people at Coming Out in Saint Petersburg about their local anti-gay law and the text of it in English. They shared the actual language and I posted it here. I also requested the text of the national anti-gay statute, and Coming Out's Polina Savchenko sent the English wording of it, which I'm posting today.

Many thanks to everyone in Coming Out for their continuing efforts challenging these laws, and for providing social services and cultural events for the LGBT people of Saint Petersburg.

Here's the full text of Russia's anti-gay law:

FEDERAL LAW
On Introducing Amendments to the Code of the Russian Federation on Administrative Offences

The Code of the Russian Federation on Administrative Offences (Collection of Laws of the Russian Federation, 2002, No. 1, Article 1, No. 30 et al.) shall be amended as follows:

1) add Article 6.13.1 reading as follows:

"Article 6.13.1. Propaganda of homosexualism among minors

Propaganda of homosexualism among minors -

is punishable by an administrative fine for citizens in the amount of four thousand to five thousand rubles; for officials –forty thousand to fifty thousand rubles; for legal entities – four hundred thousand to five hundred thousand rubles";

2) in Article 28.3, Section2, Clause 1 figures “6.13” shall be changed to “6.13.1”.

President of the Russian Federation


EXPLANATORY NOTE
to the Draft Federal Law “On Amendments to the Code of the Russian Federation on Administrative Offences”

Propaganda of homosexualism in Russia took a wide sweep. This propaganda is delivered both through the media and through active social actions that promote homosexualism as a behavioral norm. It is especially dangerous for children and youth who are not yet capable of a critical attitude to the avalanche of information that falls upon them every day. In this regard, it is necessary to primarily protect the younger generation from the effects of homosexual propaganda, and the present bill pursues this goal.

Family, motherhood and childhood in the traditional, adopted from the ancestors understanding are the values ​​that provide a continuous change of generations and serve as a condition for the preservation and development of the multinational people of the Russian Federation, and therefore they require special protection from the state.

Legitimate interests of minors are an important social value, with the goal of the public policy toward children being to protect them from the factors that negatively affect their physical, intellectual, mental, spiritual,and moral development. Paragraph 1 of Article 14 of the Federal Law № 124-FZ of24.07.1998 “On Basic Guarantees of Child Rights in the Russian Federation” directly states the obligation of public authorities of the Russian Federation to take measures to protect children from information, propaganda and campaigning that harm their health and moral and spiritual development.

In this connection it is necessary to establish measures to ensure intellectual, moral and mental security of children, including the prohibition onto perform any act aimed at the promotion of homosexuality. By itself, the prohibition of such propaganda as an activity of purposeful and uncontrolled dissemination of the information that could harm the health and moral and spiritual development, as well as form misperceptions about the social equivalence of conventional and unconventional sexual relationships, among individuals who, due to their age, are not capable to independently and critically assess such information cannot be regarded as violating the constitutional rights of citizens.

Given the above, a bill suggesting amendments to the Code of Administrative Offences was prepared to introduce administrative responsibility for propaganda of homosexuality among minors. In this case, administrative responsibility is established not for the sheer fact of the person’s homosexuality, but only for propaganda of homosexualism among minors.

This bill imposes the right to make records of administrative offences for public actions aimed at propaganda of homosexualism among minors on the law enforcement officials (the Police), and trial of cases of administrative offences– on the judges.

FL Prosecutor
in Trayvon Case = McCain & Rubio Donor

(Screen capture of Corey's FEC file. Click to enlarge.)

Angela B. Corey, the state special prosecutor investigating the death of Trayvon Martin at the hands of George Zimmerman in Sanford, Florida, announced today she is not using a grand jury in the case. The arrest and charging of Zimmerman, along with not facing any charges, are all options Corey has at her disposal after concluding the investigation.

For what it's worth, Federal Election Commission records reveal Corey in 2008 donated $500 to John McCain's presidential campaign, and $250 in 2010 to Marco Rubio's senatorial bid.

The donations are in no way a disqualifying factor, neither do they raise alarms just because Corey gave to two Republican candidates, but they nevertheless deserve some attention because the key law enforcement figures in the Martin murder should be thoroughly vetted and all potential conflicts of interest or overt bias need much sunshine.