Neurosyphilis in gay men: Review of 170 possible cases sheds new light on risks

Published in the San Diego Gay and Lesbian Times, Thursday, July 12, 2007

By Bob Roehr 

The increase in syphilis cases among gay men, particularly among those who are HIV positive, has been a concern for years. Most troubling is the occurrence of early neurosyphilis, when the infection spreads to the central nervous system and the brain.

Now a review of 170 possible neurosyphilis cases in four cities – Los Angeles (74), New York (47), Chicago (32) and San Diego (17) – has shed new light on the risks for HIV-positive men who have sex with men (MSM). The review was published in the June 28 issue of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s (CDC) “Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report.”

The report looked at cases over a 30-month period, January 2002 to June 2004, and narrowed them to 99 patients who had evidence of syphilis in their blood and physical symptoms compatible with neurosyphilis. Of the total, 57 self-identified as MSM, while 49 were HIV positive.

About 75 percent of the patients reported visual disturbances or new onset of headaches, while 12 percent had symptoms of acute meningitis. About half had no other clinical symptoms of the infection, while almost a quarter did not know they were infected with HIV.

The findings come as no surprise to Christopher Hall, chief of clinical affairs for the California Sexually Transmitted Disease Control Branch of the Department of Public Health. He sees them as an indictment of medical providers for not routinely screening gay men for syphilis. That practice would catch syphilis soon after infection, before it could develop more serious manifestations in the brain.

“Gay men who are sexually active with more than one partner should be screened for syphilis at least every six months, and those who are more active should be screened as frequently as every three months,” he says, citing guidelines issued by the CDC…

…About half of the cases of syphilis in California are among persons who are HIV positive. Hall sees three major reasons for this. First is serosorting: Persons who are HIV positive seek out sexual partners of the same status and decide not to use condoms. This facilitates the transmission of all sexually transmitted diseases, including syphilis.

This feeds on itself, creating a higher prevalence of the infection within a relatively closed pool of people having sex with each other. Finally, there is the likelihood that these persons have more sex with different people and hence increase their risk of exposure.
Gonorrhea is a localized infection but syphilis is a systemic one that can affect all parts of the body. Hall says syphilis can be found in the central nervous system and brain of about 30 percent of recently infected persons, regardless of their HIV status.

Oral sex is a route of infection that many people often do not consider. A 2004 study from Chicago attributed 13.7 percent of syphilis infections to oral sex, as the participants claimed to only engage in that practice. Most persons have a wider sexual repertoire, and so the true number of transmissions through oral sex is likely to be higher.

Click HERE to read the full article in the San Diego Gay & Lesbian Times

Reprinted with permission from the website of Concerned Women for America; published July 5, 2007

__________________________________________________________________________________

Homosexual “Marriages” in Massachusetts  

2004                        2005                      2006                     2007 (through April)  

6,121                      2,060                     1,427                              87 

__________________________________________________________________________________

By J. Matt Barber 

Getting married isn’t even on the radar screen for the vast majority of homosexuals. 

The homosexual lobby has fine-tuned its rhetoric in recent years. Through the hyperbolic and repetitive use of such concocted expressions as “marriage equality” and “gay rights,” the left has dishonestly but effectively framed the debate over homosexual behaviors.

By co-opting and misapplying the language of the genuine civil rights movement, homosexual activists — along with kindred leftists in the media, government and elsewhere — are making considerable strides toward reshaping our culture. They’ve enjoyed much success in attaining official government recognition of a disordered and empty, though demonstrably mutable, sexual lifestyle.

They yearn for a society created in their own secular humanist image wherein all are compelled to not only accept, but to celebrate high-risk, unnatural and fruitless homosexual behaviors as both normal and equal to natural expressions of human sexuality. Their ideal is a society in which inherent gender distinctions are eliminated and God’s express design for human sexuality is replaced by morally relative and surreal notions of sexual androgyny.

Nowhere are the dumbing-down of sexual morality and the blurring of gender lines more evident than in the left’s effort to radically redefine marriage. Massachusetts is the only state that currently allows “same-sex marriage.” Nine other states permit some form of “civil unions” or “domestic partnerships,” which, in truth, are simply “gay marriages” by another name. (Those states are Connecticut, Vermont, New Hampshire, New Jersey, Maine, California, Oregon, Washington and Hawaii.)

But despite the feigned and fevered cries of liberals for “marriage equality,” it’s becoming abundantly clear that the arguments conservatives have been making against “gay marriage” are spot-on. The vast majority of homosexuals don’t desire “marriage;” rather, militant homosexual activists desire to use “same-sex marriage” as both a tool to normalize homosexual behaviors and as a weapon to tear down the institution of legitimate marriage.

 Former lesbian Linda Jernigan was asked to speak at a Chicago-area public school suffering from lesbian assaults on innocent girls, but she had to turn it down because the school wanted her to ‘de-Christianize’ her testimony.

By Peter LaBarbera

Lesbian gangs are raping and bullying girls and engaging in criminal activity, but you probably haven’t heard about this story, right? Now a Memphis TV station and FOX News’ Bill O’Reilly have broken the silence:

Click below to watch two video links that homosexual activists with the group GLAAD (Gay & Lesbian Alliance Against Defamation) desperately tried to prevent the public from seeing:

1. The original Memphis TV news report on lesbian gang violence, including school washroom rapes of female students;
2. O’Reilly’s follow-up report on the lesbian assaults

Lifesite.net news — an excellent, Canada-based pro-family website that we highly recommend — has picked up on the Bill O’Reilly segment with the story below. 

I heard about this lesbian bullying phenomenon from former lesbian turned Christian evangelist Linda Jernigan, who a few years back was contacted by a teacher about speaking at Rich East High School in Park Forest, Illinois (a south suburb of Chicago), where this sick behavior was occurring. 

Jernigan said she was told that lesbian girl gangs would drag a targeted female into the school restroom, hold her down, and perform oral sex on her to “turn her out” — i.e., forcibly “seduce” the poor girl through lesbian rape.

‘Vagina Monologues’ condoned lesbian predatory rape

Maybe the young lesbian thugs got some inspiration from “Vagina Monologues,” the vulgar feminist-lesbian play celebrated by liberal elites and performed by many female Hollywood stars. Did you know that the original Vagina Monologues book by Eve Ensler contains a chapter about a 24-year-old lesbian woman who plies a 13-year-old girl with alcohol to seduce her? Ensler turns this pedophile rape into a sort of feminist-lesbian “moral good” by having the girl victim end up as a happy lesbian who says, “I’ll never need to rely on a man” — don’t you just love liberal morality?

Please take a few minutes to watch both the Memphis TV video and the O’Reilly video and ask yourself: where is the rest of the media on this story? We hear from the pro-homosexual Left about “bullying” in schools — as if it’s mainly an “antigay” phenomenon. Now we learn that lesbians are doing the bullying — is the educational establishment taking action to prevent this? Have politically correct, pro-“gay” pandering and the ubiquitous glamorization of homosexuality — in the schools, media, and in pop culture — contributed to this crisis?

How many liberals have joined lesbian “conservative” Tammy Bruce in condemning “Vagina Monologues'” pedophile lesbian rape-seduction chapter? Evidently not enough to stop this lewd play from being celebrated by the cocktail set and from now moving from colleges to high schools. I suppose rape and pedophilia are vile crimes except when performed by lesbians on girls…. 

 Michael Glatze with pro-homosexuality activist Judy Shepard in his former life as a “gay” activist, speaking at a 2005 Kennedy School forum. Glatze can be reached at michaelglatze@gmail.com.

By Peter LaBarbera 

Today, when Americans celebrate their freedom and independence, a man living in Canada is cherishing a more profound liberty — from spiritual bondage to homosexual sin. Michael Glatze, a former rising star in the “gay” movement — and co-founder of “Young Gay America” magazine — publicly “came out” of homosexuality on the web pages of WorldNetDaily yesterday. Click HERE for WND’s breaking news story about Glatze.

Concerned Women for America has a wonderful online interview with Michael Glatze, which you can listen to by clicking HERE. (The set-up page for the CWA interview is HERE. Glatze can be reached at michaelglatze@gmail.com.)

In his WorldNetDaily column, “How a Gay Rights Leader Became Straight,” Glatze writes:

Part of the homosexual agenda is getting people to stop considering that conversion is even a viable question to be asked, let alone whether or not it works.

 

In my experience, “coming out” from under the influence of the homosexual mindset was the most liberating, beautiful and astonishing thing I’ve ever experienced in my entire life….

 

I believe that all people, intrinsically, know the truth. I believe that is why Christianity scares people so much. It reminds them of their conscience, which we all possess….

 

As a leader in the “gay rights” movement, I was given the opportunity to address the public many times. If I could take back some of the things I said, I would. Now I know that homosexuality is lust and pornography wrapped into one. I’ll never let anybody try to convince me otherwise, no matter how slick their tongues or how sad their story. I have seen it. I know the truth.

I suspect that most people — Christian and non-Christian alike — would cheer Glatze’s transformation, if the dominant media would dare report it fairly. But the pro-homosexuality crew at ExGayWatch is all in a tizzy. For them and all homosexuality advocates, Michael’s rejection of their lifestyle poses a problem, as it undermines the central “gay” lie (myth) of our age: that “being gay” is intrinsically “who a person is,” and that homosexuality is morally neutral. (Most argue that it is innate, and now the homosexual “christian” movement mischievously asserts that this “orientation” is a gift from God.) 

Glatze’s story is more evidence that homosexuality is what a person does, and how he lives, and that lifestyle/behavior can be changed. If God through Jesus Christ can rescue sinners from drug, alcohol and pornography addictions, how can we deny His power to rescue homosexuals?

I and others have warned Glatze of the hateful, not-so-“gay” attacks that will be coming his way, now that he’s defected from the “gay” lobby’s team, as it were, to God’s. Sure enough, in one of the posts about Glatze on Warren Throckmorton’s blog, ExGayWatch’s Timothy Kincaid uses Glatze’s Christian transformation to recollect the 1978 Jonestown, Guyana mass murder (think Kool-aid and crazed cultist Jim Jones). Thanks for that helpful insight, Tim. 

Michael Glatze told CWA that he left an outgoing message on his computer at “Young Gay America” (the magazine’s website, www.ygamag.com, was down at press time): “Homosexuality equals death. I choose life.” He made the right choice, but God, it seems, was also doing the choosing. Pray for this young man as we thank God for His gracious work in one repentant sinner’s life — a testimony of what He can do in this nation if we as a people humble ourselves, reject worldly agendas, and return to following Him.

 Whoever heard of a sex club float at a parade? Proud homosexuals, that’s who. Above, a bus float for “Steamworks,” a 24/7 bathhouse in Chicago’s (“gay”) Boystown neighborhood — where men go to commit anonymous sodomies with other men — rides in the Chicago homosexual “pride” parade June 24. Many young children watched or participated in the Chicago parade. 

The lawless hate God. The name of Jesus is an affront to sinners. The [Columbus “gay pride” parade] crowd cheered the apostate churches as they displayed their man-made signs declaring their man-man opinion of Jesus’ acceptance of sin. They cursed and spat upon those who held a sign that displayed the Word of God, “If a man also lie with mankind, as he lieth with a woman, both of them have committed an abomination.”

 

Christian men are afraid to stand up for Jesus. They act just like women, striving to be “nice” to everyone. They won’t fight for their communities, won’t protect their children from indoctrination, and won’t storm the gates of hell.
— Coach Dave Daubenmire, “Have You Visited a Gay Pride Parade?” 

TAKE ACTION: Send Americans For Truth a $10 donation (postpaid) or make a $10 gift online and we will send you a “Truth Packet” that reveals some cold, hard realities about the homosexual agenda — including our booklet, “The Homosexual Agenda Targeting Children.” The Truth Packet will guide you on simple steps you can take to start standing up for truth against the pro-homosexual issue in your community. You’ll be shocked to see how the “GLBT” lobby is converting the next generation to their ungodly cause. Send $10 (postpaid) to AFTAH, P.O. Box 5522, Naperville, IL 60567-5522, or go online to give HERE. 

___________________________

By Peter LaBarbera

I’d like to call your attention to a wonderful call-to-arms from Coach Dave Daubenmire, who is a great American and a spiritual treasure for this deeply troubled nation. As one who has observed a bunch of “Gay Pride” parades over the years — they now call them just “pride” parades to mask their real purpose: celebrating homosexuality (perversion) — I echo Coach Dave’s call for Christian men to get off their comfortable keisters and observe firsthand the moral disintegration of this country.

Coach Dave is a man’s man, and his frank observations are, well, too gut-real for some even in the “pro-family” movement. American Christianity has been feminized, or perhaps emasculated — or even “psychologized” — to such a degree that we shy away from bold truth-telling. We rationalize our withdrawals from the culture wars, sometimes using theology to justify our cowardice. In his article, “Have You Visited a Gay Pride Parade?”, the Coach shows us the end-game of “tolerance” and “diversity”: the glorification of sin, churches parading in support of behavior that God condemns, and the promotion of ungodly lifestyles to innocent kids. 

Do we hate sin?

It’s funny. Guilt-ridden Christians talk a lot about how they don’t hate “gays.” That should be a given: we are commanded to love sinners supernaturally — even to suffer for the sake of the Gospel, as my friend Dan Musick and Joe Christopherson did at Chicago “Pride” last Sunday.  But I’m wondering: do we hate homosexual behavior like God does? (Can I say that? — alert the Thought Police immediately.)

No, we don’t. The result is that men who should be out contending with the evils of the day — and surely this is one — are instead fretting over not appearing “intolerant,” overly “judgmental,” or too radical. Or they withdraw into the business world and reading their stock reports, to prepare for a retirement in which they can retreat even further from the culture wars that we are already losing, badly.

Why is it that the wicked (in this case, homosexual activists) can give 150 percent to their their cause, but we who claim the “Truth” adopt a defensive posture and are saddled with doubt and apathy in the fight for godly values?

Guys, Jesus was radical. He was a man’s man. If you can’t bring yourself to join Americans For Truth in confronting the homosexual lobby in the culture and public policy, then get out on the streets and witness the Gospel to people headed for hell in the name of “pride” (oops, I said the H-word: another speech code violation…).

By Allyson Smith 

Dear Friends,

The notorious pro-homosexual parish of Most Holy Redeemer did it again this year: It marched in the San Francisco “gay shame” parade. And thus far no public statement has been issued by San Francisco archbishop George Neideraurer or the archdiocese condemning MHR’s participation and promising to put a stop to their abominable participation.

Watch the following video clips, from the QDomine website, of Most Holy Redeemer marching in the debauched spectacle, and then contact the offices below to voice your outrage. Demand immediate, public disciplinary action and a commitment by Archbishop Neideraurer to put a stop to MHR’s homosexual-affirming antics.  — Allyson

http://www.qdomine.com/Morality%20pages/GayPride2007.htm

Write to Archbishop Niederauer at info@sfarchdiocese.org.

Please cc the following people on your email to the Archbishop:

Auxiliary Bishop Ignatius Wang at wangi@sfarchdiocese.org
The Archbishop’s secretary at MillerL@sfarchdiocese.org.
The editor of Catholic San Francisco at morrisyoungd@sfarchdiocese.org
Communications Director at the Archdiocese of San Francisco at healym@sfarchdiocese.org

Or write to:

The Roman Catholic Archdiocese of San Francisco
One Peter Yorke Way
San Francisco, CA 94109
(415) 614-5500

His Excellency The Most Reverend Pietro Sambi
The Apostolic Nuncio to the United States
The Apostolic Nunciature
3339 Massachusetts Ave., N.W.
Washington, D.C. 20008-3687
phone: 202-333-7121
fax:     202-337-4036

Cardinal William J. Levada
Prefect
The Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith
[Secretary: Most Rev. Archbishop Angelo Amato, S.D.B.]
Piazza del S. Uffizio 11
00l93 Rome, Italy
Europe
phone: 011.39.06.69.88.33.57
phone: 011.39.06.69.88.34.13
fax:      011.39.06.69.88.34.09
email:  cdf@cfaith.va
http://www.vatican.va/roman_curia/congregations/cfaith/

Allyson Smith is a writer for Americans For Truth, based in San Diego.

So much for the First Amendment. Bob Schwartz of the leftist Chicago homosexual group Gay Liberation Network, who opposed government censorship in a previous AFTAH story, defends a vigilante type of oppression — of ideas and religious speech — in typically nasty fashion below. Schwartz compares the two peaceful Christian men assaulted by a mob of “gay pride” celebrants in Chicago Sunday to “racist scum,” the KKK, and fascists, while commending the mob that set upon them (for details of the “pride” day assault, click HERE).

Sorry, Bob, Christians are not “hate merchants,” but it seems pretty clear that what you’re selling here isn’t even close to the tolerance that you demand of others. — Peter LaBarbera 

Here’s Schwartz’s Stalinesque rant: 

Bigots were “bullied,” and subjected to “sinister laughter and jeering” but they get out alive.  What would happen to the KKK if the racist scum tried to protest at the Bud Billiken parade at 43rd and King Drive?  Wouldn’t this threat be met by Malcolm’s dictum, “Liberation by any means necessary.”

 

Why do Chicago Pride parade organizers defend the “free speech” rights of bigots, rather than advocate for those who object to their presence? Three years ago when anarchists protected the parade from fascist street thugs, Richard Pfeifer condemned the anarchists and praised the cops who arrested them!  This year Pfeifer was quoted as saying that our “diversity” allows for bigots expressing antigay messages.

 

Those LGBTs and others who stood up to the fascists this year, whether at Cambridge and Diversey, or before the two hate merchants quoted below [reprints AFTAH story about mob attack] are to be commended.

 

Those who dare to come onto our streets to preach hate should face the consequences meted out to them by lesbians and gays who will not stand by and be degraded by bigots masquerading as kindly people of god.

 

Bob

Photo taken at New York City’s homosexual “pride” parade Sunday:

“But among you there must not be even a hint of sexual immorality, or of any kind of impurity, or of greed, because these are improper for God’s holy people.” — Ephesians 5:3