In Brief

FIRST BLOOD IN HIV CASES

The chief medical officer in Victoria, Robert Hall, has been sacked by the state’s health minister Bronwyn Pike for not taking enough action in the Michael Neal case and other health-related bungles, The Age reported this week. In addition, Pike announced a review of all known cases of HIV-positive people engaging in risky behaviour. Meanwhile in South Australia, reporting of the local HIV case of Stuart McDonald has concerned the state’s AIDS Council. Adelaide’s Advertiser ran a photograph of a playground near McDonald’s home. The South Australian Aids Council has written to Media Watch to complain. The image has nothing to do with the story, I can only assume the image has been put there to link HIV-positive men, or gay men in general, and pedophilia, executive director Kate Hartwig said.

MEN WOULD -˜RATHER DIE’ THAN ADMIT GAY AFFAIR

A study by the University of Sydney has found some married men who have sex with men would rather commit suicide than risk losing their families by admitting it, News.com.au reported. The study queried 240 men either married or in heterosexual de facto relationships recruited through sex-on-premises venues or the internet, all living in western Sydney. Researcher Jeff Hudson said a lot of men did not see any other way out. They can’t see exposure to their wives as being a solution because they don’t want to hurt their wives, they want to protect their wives, he said.

A THIRD OF US LESBIANS HAVE CHILDREN

A major research project in the United States has revealed more than 35 percent of lesbians aged between 18 and 44 have given birth, and 16 percent of gay men have a child. The Williams Institute and the Urban Institute released a study on adoption and foster care by lesbian and gay parents, using census data and other government surveys to explore the characteristics of out lesbians, gay men, and bisexuals who are adoptive or foster parents. The Williams/ Urban study estimates there are 65,500 adopted children currently living with a lesbian or gay parent, amounting to four percent of all adopted children in the United States. In other findings, 52 percent of gay men and 41 percent of lesbians want to have a child, and 23 percent of lesbian or bisexual women are living with and caring for someone else’s birth child. Additionally, the study found that 10,300 foster children are living with lesbian or gay parents.