Through its Administration on Aging, HHS will award a single resource grant in the amount of $250,000 annually, depending on the availability of funds.  According to HHS, the center will provide resources to LGBT organizations, as well assisting mainstream aging services providers in developing cultural competence in serving LGBT elders. 
 
“Despite the many advances our community has seen, LGBT elders face significant discrimination from senior care providers, including in places where we are most vulnerable, such as assisted living facilities and end-of-life care,” said Human Rights Campaign President Joe Solmonese.  “As more and more openly LGBT people reach their later years, it is incredibly important to ensure that we are treated with dignity, respect and fairness.  We applaud HHS for taking this important step on behalf of older LGBT Americans.”
 
HRC and Services and Advocacy for GLBT Elders (SAGE) host a collaborative forum on LGBT aging issues, available at www.hrc.org/issues/aging/.  As part of the New Beginning Initiative, coordinated by the National Gay and Lesbian Task Force, SAGE has advocated for policy changes that would benefit LGBT elders.  Earlier this month, the Administration on Aging issued the first-ever grant focused on LGBT aging to the Los Angeles LGBT Community Service Center.  

“SAGE, the entire LGBT aging field, and  all those who work with and care for LGBT older adults, are thrilled by this announcement,” Michael Adams, executive director of SAGE, said in a statement. “For too long, programs that serve LGBT older people have been ignored and shut out from most public funding, and there has been no federal funding to help mainstream aging services become educated about and sensitive to the unique needs of  LGBT older adults. This resource center is a truly historic recognition of the needs of LGBT older adults across the country  and will make a huge difference in the lives of so many seniors.”

Today, Secretary of Health and Human Services Kathleen Sebelius announced her intent to appoint Helene Gayle, MD, MPH to serve as the Chair of the Presidential Advisory Council on HIV/AIDS.  Secretary Sebelius made the announcement in Atlanta at the 2009 National HIV Prevention Conference.

“HIV remains a major threat to the health of our nation, and when one of our fellow citizens becomes infected with HIV every nine-and-a-half minutes, the epidemic affects all Americans,” said President Obama.  “As we organize numerous ways to engage the American people in confronting the HIV epidemic in our country, the Presidential Advisory Council on HIV/AIDS will play a critical role in developing and implementing a National HIV/AIDS Strategy.  Dr. Gayle brings an intense commitment to fighting HIV/AIDS and unique experience in advancing public health.  I look forward to her leadership and counsel.”

“Dr. Gayle is an internationally acclaimed leader with a long history of working to end the epidemic both around the world and here at home in the United States.  It is only fitting that we are announcing Dr. Gayle’s appointment today at the 2009 National HIV Prevention Conference since she sponsored the first HIV Prevention Conference when she was at the CDC,” said Secretary Sebelius. “We are hopeful that the Presidential Advisory Council on HIV/AIDS, under her leadership, will serve a platform to share our plans and insights with the public health community and the public and serve as a vehicle to carry their ideas and input back to the Administration.”

The Presidential Advisory Council on HIV/AIDS (PACHA) provides advice, information, and recommendations to the Secretary of Health and Human Service and the President regarding programs and policies intended to promote effective prevention of HIV disease, to advance research on HIV and AIDS, and to promote quality services to persons living with HIV and AIDS.

The role of the Council is solely advisory.

Helene D. Gayle is president and CEO of CARE USA, and is an internationally recognized expert on health, global development and humanitarian issues.  Dr. Gayle spent 20 years with the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), focused primarily on combating HIV/AIDS, in a variety of roles involving research, programs and policy.

She was appointed as the first director of the National Center for HIV, STD and TB Prevention and achieved the rank of Rear Admiral and Assistant Surgeon General in the U.S. Public Health Service.

On assignment from the CDC, Dr. Gayle also served as the AIDS coordinator and chief of the HIV/AIDS division for the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID).  Dr. Gayle then directed the HIV, TB and Reproductive Health Program at the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, where she was responsible for programs related to HIV/AIDS, sexually transmitted diseases, reproductive health issues and tuberculosis.

In April 2006, she joined CARE, an international humanitarian organization with programs in nearly 70 countries to end poverty.  Dr. Gayle earned a B.A. in psychology at Barnard College, an M.D. from the University of Pennsylvania and an M.P.H. from Johns Hopkins University. She is board certified in pediatrics, completing a residency in pediatric medicine at the Children’s Hospital National Medical Center in Washington, DC.

She has been honored with awards from Johns Hopkins University, Columbia University, Cable Positive, the Eleanor Roosevelt Center at Val-Kill, the Arthur Ashe Institute for Urban Health and the U.S. Public Health Service, among others. She holds faculty appointments at the University of Washington School of Public Health and Emory University School of Medicine.

I’ve been all fire and brimstone on the Obama administration lately– and, I think, my anger has been justifiable.

But my overarching disappoitnment with how the administration is handling most issues important to the LGBT community doesn’t mean I’m incapable of recognizing the small, positive steps they’re taking in the right direction. Last week’s ceremony offering official apology to Dr. Frank Kameny for his 1957 firing from the civil service was a nice symbolic step, for example. The administration’s decision to insist of counting same-sex marriages in the 2010 census was also a sign of progress.

And then at the end of last week, we got an action that was more than just symbolic.

The Obama administration has taken the first step toward lifting the ban on HIV positive foreign citizens from entering the United States. The administration’s Office of Management and Budget posted a notice on Friday indicating that the department of Health and Human Services should begin the work to reverse its regulation which disallows HIV positive foreigners from entering the US.

Congress passed the policy change last year, and though the bill was signed by President Bush, it has not been implemented at this point.

The implementation likely has wide-ranging effects on both travel and immigration policy. Under the current law, foreign citizens who are HIV positive canont travel to the United States and immigrants can be subject to HIV testing, and deportation if they’re found to be HIV positive. The exact changes to be made in curent regulation will be determined by the Department of Health and Human Services, but the bill passed by Congress grants broad authority to overturn the ban completely.

The groups, which include Lambda Legal and the National Coalition for LGBT Health, call the rules “unnecessary and confusing” and say they endanger public health.

The new regulations went into effect on Dec. 19, 2008.  At that time, HHS claimed they were needed to protect employees of organizations receiving HHS funds from having to perform procedures they find religiously or morally objectionable.

The 14-page letter submitted Tuesday to HHS says the regulations could give wide latitude to health care workers to discriminate against co-workers or patients who are lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender or living with HIV.

“Federal law already rightly guarantees workers broad protections against religiously motivated discrimination,” said Lambda Legal Senior Counsel Jennifer C. Pizer.

“But everyone would agree that those protections cannot be absolute – they wouldn’t allow a Jehovah’s Witness surgeon to withhold blood transfusions from patients based on the doctor’s religious objection, for example.  These regulations – which can be seen as expanding existing protections so health care workers can harass co-workers or choose to treat some patients, but not others – should be rescinded, as the government is now proposing to do,” said Pizer.

Studies show anti-LGBT bias is a persistent problem among health care providers, and religious disapproval of gay people frequently contributes to that.  In August 2008, the California Supreme Court ruled that religion cannot be used as a legal excuse for doctors to deny infertility treatment to Oceanside lesbian Lupita Benítez.  Her doctors had claimed that California’s constitutional protections of religion allowed them to refuse to inseminate her after 11 months of preparatory medications and surgical treatments, but the high court disagreed unanimously.

“If HHS’s new regulations are allowed to remain in effect, they will have a negative impact on health care for a great many Americans,” said Rebecca Fox, director of the National Coalition for LGBT Health.

“In a country where so many people struggle to access quality health care, HHS created another barrier. These regulations are particularly harmful for LGBT Americans, many of whom already fear being out to their healthcare providers and struggle to find and afford respectful, good quality medical care,” Fox added.

HHS has now proposed rescinding the regulations.  If that does not occur, the regulations could cause confusion in everything ranging from who receives care to which organizations can receive federal funding and may result in federally funded programs and health care providers inappropriately refusing to treat LGBT or HIV positive patients in a medically sound, respectful manner, the groups said.

“The Bush Administration put people with HIV at risk with these unnecessary regulations,” said Bebe J. Anderson, director of Lambda Legal’s HIV Project.  “Unfortunately, discrimination and ignorance towards people with HIV are still common. The government must not invite or sanction discrimination against people with HIV or LGBT patients.”

An attorney general or other high-ranking Justice Department official would have a great impact on federal law.

A presidential press secretary would be a highly visible representative of the LGBT community.

And the day we have an openly LGBT Secretary of Defense would be historic for so many reasons.

But most of these positions would be reflective of a pro-equality presidential administration. One place where an LGBT person could exercise a great deal of discretion in a way that would benefit the community in untold ways would be the Department of Health and Human Services.

He or she could direct resources to HIV/AIDS, enhance LGBT health at all ages, and make positive changes for LGBT families. He or she could also draw attention to LGBT aging issues, an area that has been largely unaddressed.

Joe Solmonese is the president of the Human Rights Campaign

Go back to the main story for more opinions on where we need LGBT officials.