Feds award $1.7m grant to Diverse & Resilient

The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention will give $1.7 million to Diverse and Resilient to coordinate a grassroots HIV-prevention campaign targeting gay and bisexual black men in Milwaukee. The grant it is believed to be the largest ever awarded by the government to an LGBT organization in Wisconsin, said D&R executive director Gary Hollander.

The CDC estimates that up to 40 percent of gay and bisexual African-American men in Milwaukee are HIV-infected. The transmission rate among young black men in the city tripled between 2001 and 2008, compared with a 143-percent increase among young non-black males. During the same period, the HIV-transmission rate for other demographic groups leveled off or fell.

The CDC came to Milwaukee in late 2009 to investigate the problem and concluded that the disparity was not based on behavioral differences such as condom usage but rather on social factors, including the stigma associated with homosexuality in the African-American community. That can lead to what Brenda Coley, D&R director of adult services, called a “don’t ask” policy when it comes to discussing HIV status with sexual partners.

“You have to ask and you have to tell,” Coley said. “Silence really is death.”

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Marquette settles with O’Brien

Marquette University has reached an undisclosed settlement with Jodi O’Brien after rescinding an offer to make her dean of the university’s College of Arts and Sciences.

O’Brien, the openly lesbian head of Seattle University’s sociology department, had signed a contract for the position before Milwaukee Archbishop Jerome Listecki and other Roman Catholic leaders complained that her academic writings on sexuality and marriage were inconsistent with the school’s religious mission. University president Fr. Robert A. Wild subsequently rescinded the offer, setting off a wave of protests by students, condemnation from faculty members and a firestorm of controversy throughout higher education.

The university’s action imperiled at least one state grant and could result in censure from numerous academic associations.

Wild disseminated a letter to Marquette’s faculty, students and supporters June 9 saying that the university had “apologized to Dr. O’Brien for the way in which this was handled and the upset and unwanted attention that we have caused to this outstanding teacher and scholar.”

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Building the future

The Milwaukee LGBT Community Center’s Hard Hat Party on June 27 drew 108 guests and raised $15,700 toward the renovation of the center’s new home in the Blatz Boiler House, 252 E. Highland Ave. The party featured a tour of the new space as well as a raffle.

“For our community, moving into a space that is so centrally located, in a historic building, is such a huge step forward from where we started 12 years ago in a windowless warehouse at 2nd and Seebooth,” said the center’s director of philanthropy Patrick Price.

Walker opposes partner registry, benefits

If elected governor, Republican Scott Walker would oppose the state’s domestic partner registry as well as benefits for the same-sex partners of state workers, he told the Milwaukee Press Club.

Appearing at the club’s June 11 Newsmaker Luncheon, Walker said he objected to the way Gov. Jim Doyle inserted the measure creating the registry into the state budget in order to get legislative approval. Doyle also used the maneuver to extend employee benefits to the same-sex partners of state workers, including those in the University of Wisconsin System.

“I vetoed a similar measure in Milwaukee County, and I would hold the same position as governor,” Walker said.

As Milwaukee county executive, Walker nixed an ordinance late last year that would have given domestic partner benefits to county workers. Walker cited budgetary concerns in rejecting the measure, saying it would cost taxpayers as much as $4 million annually. But similar benefits provided by the City of Milwaukee, which has a much larger workforce, cost $216,000, according to city officials.

Walker said he had no philosophical differences with his Republican primary opponent Mark Neumann. A former congressman, Neumann has said that he would never hire an open gay or lesbian to work for him. Walker later clarified that he did not agree with Neumann on that particular position, but he characterized the difference as “personal” rather than philosophical.

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