Gardasil for Anal Cancer

I am not a Gay Man, but I as a child of the theatre and a man of the moment, I certainly appreciate and understand the human struggle for Gay equality and equity in America — and while my support has not always been perfect, I appreciate the dedication and vision of Gay Men’s Health Crisis and the work they do to serve and educate all the people of the world.

GMHC, in case you don’t know, is a politically active organization that tries to make us all healthier by counseling and advising and trying to set a daring, but rational, national health policy.

From my Inbox today:

Today Gay Men’s Health Crisis (GMHC) issued the 2009 Federal Policy Agenda. The agenda provides concrete, science-based recommendations for improving the federal government’s response to the HIV/AIDS epidemic.

The top priorities in GMHC’s 2009 Federal Agenda include:

• Development of a U.S. national AIDS strategy
• Repeal of the federal ban on syringe exchange
• Defunding abstinence-only-until-marriage programs
• Funding and implementation of comprehensive, age-appropriate sex education in schools
• Lifting the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) blood-donation ban on men who have sex with men (MSM)
• Complete repeal of the HIV immigration and travel ban

Also included is a call for the FDA to trial and, if appropriate, approve Gardasil for use with boys and men to reduce anal cancer rates among gay men. Currently, Gardasil is approved for girls and women ages 9 to 26 to prevent cervical cancer.

Gay men are 20 times more likely than the general population to develop anal cancer, and HIV-positive men who have sex with men are up to 40 times more likely than the general population to develop anal cancer.

GMHC does the necessary dirty work — that no one else will do — on a national stage, and I publicly celebrate their worldly effort here and I privately praise them with my own money; I invite you to do the same so that we all may become more caring and more aware of the suffering around us.