Sydney Convicts gay rugby union footballer Kevin Perry became the first person tossed out of this season’s Masterchef after admitting to having “stuffed up” in a pasta challenge overnight.

In what is described as a first for the aged care industry, UnitingCare Ageing has taken the step of appointing an LGBTI project officer to liaise with community and health organisations to help gain a better understanding of the challenges facing older LGBTI people.

The Australian Medical Association (AMA) has distanced itself from a doctors group who claim children are better off with heterosexual parents while the Greens as well as human rights experts have also blasted the controversial Doctors for the Family group led by a one-time candidate for the Christian Democratic Party.

Australian authorities are being urged to put in place trials to test the efficacy of offering a HIV prevention pill after a panel of experts advising the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) backed the use of Truvada for people who are not HIV-positive but at high risk of contracting the virus.

Openly gay Brisbane resident Margie Cummins has been named the winner of The Biggest Loser: Singles with the former pizza shop owner walking away with $220,000 following the show’s finale on Network Ten last night.

A new national multi-media campaign launched today in Sydney by the National Association of People living with HIV/AIDS (NAPWA) urges people living with HIV to get up to date about the latest advances in HIV treatment, with new more effective and better tolerated treatments also capable of significantly reducing the risk of transmission to others.

A new African-led initiative to be launched at a HIV conference in Sydney later today will ask African leaders to accept that people of diverse sexualities are engaging in anal sex and it is time to integrate messages promoting safe anal sex into HIV prevention programs.

A major conference on HIV, hepatitis and other related diseases in Sydney next week will hear from former NSW Health Minister John Della Bosca while a planned symposium will also look at the potential impacts of new laws to licence sex work in the state.

A follow-up study to a major national survey first conducted six years ago on the health and wellbeing of GLBT Australians has found that almost 80 per cent of GLBT people have experienced at least one episode of intense anxiety in the past 12 months and that many of them continue to face higher levels of abuse and discrimination.

Homophobic bullying in schools and the risk of HIV cases in miners has been pushed into the spotlight in Western Australia this week.

ACON has reiterated its position to not support the implementation of male circumcision as a HIV prevention strategy in Australia, after a call last week by a number of local experts for public hospitals to perform infant circumcisions.

Some of the world’s leading HIV experts will be in Sydney next month for a major conference looking at how newly created pharmacologic agents known as microbicides could potentially change the face of HIV prevention, particularly in areas such as southern Africa with high rates of HIV/AIDS.

Somebody once said to me that both health promotion and community development were both a bit like herding cats – it’s a tough job that never seems to be complete. Nevertheless it doesn’t stop us from promoting health and making a difference within the community.

If there’s one message to remember during this weekend’s Sydney Mardi Gras parade and festivities it is ‘Play Safe, Stay Safe’ with the likes of ACON, City of Sydney and local police coming together to urge partygoers and revellers to look after themselves as well as their friends so that everyone can have a great time. 

SYDNEY: ACON’s decision to close the Luncheon Club’s larder service and cut back its weekly meals has provoked strong reactions among clients, volunteers and long-time members, with many expressing anger and disenchantment over ACON’s management of the long-running service.