Dole Ads Need AIDS Awareness
F
ormer Sen. Robert Dole's courageous and bold work to promote treatment for
erectile dysfunction has helped to reduce the stigma around this condition
and helped thousands of men to seek treatment that improves their sex lives. The Senator's ads for Viagra - on TV and in print media - are landmark promotions for a landmark drug.
Still, there is a contradiction in network TV policy that allows Viagra ads that promote sexual functionality but bans condom ads that promote sexual safety. At the same time, The Washington Post reported in a front-page story in the May 17 edition that older Americans - who are benefiting from Viagra - are a growing population affected by HIV. The paper reports that HIV awareness among older Americans and their physicians is extremely low.
AIDS Action on May 17 wrote to Sen. Dole hoping to enlist his help in undoing this dangerous situation. "While TV networks air ads promoting products to enhance sex lives, ads for products that promote safer sex lives are banned from the airwaves," AIDS Action Executive Director Daniel Zingale wrote to the former Senator. "Imagine if the networks aired commercials for faster motorcycles but banned ads for helmets."
Zingale urged Sen. Dole to make AIDS awareness, including condom usage, part of his efforts to promote Viagra. According to The Post article, "[t]he simplest message of prevention-using condoms-has been largely lost on senior citizens (according to) health experts."
AIDS Action informed the Senator of its efforts for condom ads on TV programs rated "S" for sexual content, which would allow parents with a V-Chip-equipped TV to block the ads from children.
Two Plead Innocent
in Murder of AL Gay Man
A
ccording to the Associated
Press, two men accused of
fatally beating an acquaintance and burning his body because he was a homosexual pleaded innocent on May 20.
Charles Monroe Butler Jr., 21, and Steven Eric Mullins, 25, could receive the death penalty if convicted on the capital murder charges in the death of 39-year-old Billy Jack Gaither.
The two are accused of beating Gaither to death with an ax handle Feb. 19 and burning his body atop a pile of kerosene-soaked tires after luring him from his home with a phone call.
Authorities have said Mullins and Butler confessed to killing Gaither because he made a pass at one of them. All three men lived in or near Sylacauga, a town of about 12,500 people about 45 miles southeast of Birmingham, AL.
At the arraignment, Butler pleaded innocent by reason of mental defect or disease. Mullins pleaded innocent.
Members of Gaither's family said they want both men put to death.
"They took my brother's life. Why can't the state take their life?" Randy Gaither said.
