Florida Agenda

FORT LAUDERDALE — An online fundraising effort has been launched to benefit local artist and photographer Valyn Calhoun, who was recently diagnosed with HIV, AIDS, and Hepatitis B.

The life-threatening experience of Calhoun, 29, began when he was molested by a staff member when he was in pre-school, an incident that Calhoun says had a lasting impact upon him and his life.

“I was a sex addict, plain and simple,” Calhoun admits. “Multiple different partners a day.”

Calhoun—who was the subject of a cover feature last year in our sister publication, Guy Magazine (May 17, 2012: “The Art of Valyn”)—says that memories of his childhood molestation returned to him like a blow from a hammer.

“One day while I was driving, I passed by a house that was familiar,” he recalls. “I realized it was my old pre-school, and that it has since been turned into a house. From there, things started to come back to me. The memories of my molestation had been repressed for so long.”

Calhoun says that when he discovered and understood the cause for his addiction, he immediately began to practice celibacy. But it was too late.

His health began to decline, and Calhoun started to exhibit symptoms including hair loss, skin rashes, vomiting, and hallucinations. In the throes of alarming weight loss, the 95-pound Calhoun checked into a hospital.

He says that the representative from his insurance carrier assured him that the eight-day hospital stay would be covered, but that somewhere between the hospital’s diagnosis of HIV, AIDS, and Hepatitis B, that decision quickly changed.

“I was told by my insurance rep that I was covered for hospital stays,” Calhoun wrote online, at a website dedicated to soliciting donations for those in his condition and circumstances. “I was admitted for eight days until we found out I was lied to and became ‘self-pay;’ they practically kicked me out with no treatment.”

Calhoun says that although he had been tested yearly using an oral swab test, those tests apparently aren’t 100 percent accurate, and that he is living proof; he was told that doctors estimate he contracted the virus between seven and nine years ago.

Discharged from the hospital within hours of the insurance denial, Calhoun is now bedridden. He is working with the Ryan White Foundation for help with his disability eligibility, doctor visits, and treatment, but says he is buried in hospital bills and a large debt to his family.

On his donation page (which can be found at giveforward.com/hivaidstreatmentforvalyn), Calhoun reports, “I have been unable to work for so long, and my parents have been doing everything in their power to support me. We are selling everything of value so I may have a chance for quality care. Savings have been depleted and I’m scared this will financially ruin my parents. I’ve never been the kind of person to ask for money or even help for that matter—I’m just terrified that I won’t get on the right meds in time to raise my t-cells over 200, [and] my current viral load is over four million.

“ANY help would be greatly appreciated. I am a fighter and know I can get through this. I just need some help right now. I put up a picture of my body. It may scare some but this is something I see every day.”

Calhoun says that he is trying to remain upbeat, and look to the future. “I’m really just looking forward to the day when I will have the energy to work on my art and photography again,” he explains. “I want to be able to help the community by showing that you can come back from the brink and still live a happy life.”

By Dale Madison

Just like Betty White in an episode of “Golden Girls” trying to hold her breath in a hospital elevator so she wouldn’t get sick, many of us disdain even the idea of visiting a hospital for fear we might catch something that’s airborne. It makes the fear of getting sick worse for some than the potential cure! Fortunately, times have changed, and hospitals are no longer the breeding ground for illness they once were. They have also changed when it comes to serving the disparate members of the community. One case in point is Imperial Point Medical Center (6401 N Federal Hwy, Fort Lauderdale).

Tom Kester, Regional Director of Surgical Services for Imperial Point—part of the Broward Health system—is a true friend to the LGBT community. He, along with Imperial Point’s new CEO, Abigail Fortey, have established meaningful ties to Greater Fort Lauderdale’s LGBT community, recognizing the relationship between community partnership and trust, and providing health care to that community. “One of the reasons that I joined Imperial Point was that we embrace domestic partnership rights,” notes Kester. “That is huge in the medical field. Of course,” he adds, “all of the Broward Health facilities recognize domestic partnerships.”

Kester points to the region’s changing needs in health care. “At one time we had a huge HIV/AIDS department. Now, thanks to medical treatment advances, we don’t see that need as it was 25 years ago,” he explains. “At that time, Father William Collins of The Poverello Center served as chaplain. He did so much good work, and he still does,” Kester adds, flashing a smile. He goes over some of the essential services Imperial Point provides.

“Women have so many services offered to them, such as mammograms and other health screenings.” And then there’s “the Man Van.”

“That is not the official name of the project,” Kester explains, laughing. “The idea behind it is that men have health issues, and this van will operate like some of the HIV screening vans do. We are eventually looking at the following tests to be done on site, or we will refer the patient to the proper specialist for further testing: Gastrointestinal/ colonoscopy and sigmoidoscopy, urology and prostate exams, cardiac screening, eye exams, diabetes screening, weight control, skin health, low testosterone, erectile dysfunction, and basic health education—and that’s just scratching the surface,” he adds.

Imperial Point is about to celebrate 40 years of providing uninterrupted service. The medical center plans to mark the occasion on Saturday, October 27, from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m., with something for everyone including screenings for blood pressure, glucose, cholesterol, and more. The event will also feature free therapeutic chair massages, a Halloween-themed corner and bounce house for kids, caricature artist and face painting, food, refreshments, all sorts of prizes and giveaways, live entertainment, and the blood bank bus.

For more information, call (954) 759-7400, or visit browardhealth.org/40years.

By Cliff Dunn

SUNRISE – A Sunrise man has been arrested and charged with attempted murder for having sex with a 15-year-old boy whom he infected with human immunodeficiency virus (HIV). According to the arrest documents, Keith “Keyoko” Sumlin met the victim through a “mobile phone app,” and invited him to his home, where they had sex.

The arrest documents note that, prior to their sexual encounter, Sumlin asked the victim, “Are you really 18 years old?” The teen told him that he was “younger” than 17. The affidavit graphically describes the encounter, including several instances of “sexual intercourse (no condom used),” and Sumlin’s alleged references to the teen as “my little slut.”

Sumlin—who is 30 years old, but claimed to be 21 during his alleged encounter with the victim—was arrested on September 5 by Pembroke Pines Police, after they were alerted by the victim’s mother that the man may have sexually assaulted her son. The teen confirmed the story of the encounter, and the alleged sex, to police.

Sumlin, who was held on $280,000 bond, faces seven counts, including attempted second-degree murder, lewd and lascivious molestation, and criminal transmission of the HIV virus. The teen learned of his exposure to HIV after revealing the encounter to a friend who had also been sexually intimate with Sumlin, and who later tested positive for HIV. The minor was taken by his mother to Memorial Regional Hospital, where he tested HIV-positive. His mother notified authorities.

According to the arrest affidavit, Sumlin posted on a “social networking” site, “I ****ed this little boy, videotaped it, and then added it to the online group,” adding, “I don’t use condoms when I have sex and you can call me sick, don’t worry about me, worry about who gave it to them.” The affidavit adds, “Additional videos of the [defendant] were viewed of him engaged in what appears to be unprotected sexual activity with other unknown males.”

Broward County Judge John Hurley cited concern about the defendant’s “intentional behavior.” “It seems like there was a high degree of recklessness, at a minimum, based on your alleged behavior,” said Hurley.

Authorities say that anyone who may have had sexual interaction with Sumlin should contact Pembroke Pines Police at (954) 431-2200.

By Dale  Madison

Since 1986, The Poverello Center has provided lifesaving food and living essentials to Broward County residents who are living with HIV/AIDS, and who meet basic specified qualifications.

For Tom Smith, CEO of Poverello, his service to the organization, and the clients whose needs it serves, has spanned more than 20 years. It started when Smith heard about a Roman Catholic priest named Father Bill Collins, who served at St. Coleman Parish in Pompano Beach. At that time, Collins was working to find sponsors to assist a needy family at Christmastime. Smith went to St. Coleman, banged on the door, and asked to speak to Collins, who explained the troubling circumstances: The distressed family had five children, and three were HIV-positive.

Although initially the plan for the assistance called for raising as much money as possible, and using it to purchase clothing and toys for the kids, enough was raised to get the family food, as well. After that inspiring success, the core group of volunteers decided that they wanted to keep the project going. The next year, Smith held a fundraising event at his home, and decided that it would benefit young men who were infected with what many called the “gay flu.”

“We realized that so many of these young men were being shunned by their families, and many were being abandoned by them,” Smith recalls. “That first year, we set up long banquet tables, and charged a minimum $25 per person donation, and each person had to bring a covered dish. About an hour in, there was a knock on the door, and a rush of drag queens poured in, shouting, ‘We’re here to perform and to help.’ We turned the living room into a dressing room with foam rubber, eyelashes, powder, lipstick, and make up of all kinds everywhere. At one point it looked as if a drag queen had exploded. We didn’t have a stage, so we took one of the banquet tables and collapsed the legs, laid it on the ground, and it became the stage. During the evening they blew out the speakers on my sound system, but they just kept going. We raised over $3,700.”

Smith had stumbled onto something: A formula for success. “The next year, Charlie Mielke and Tony Dee, the owners of Chardee’s restaurant in Wilton Manors, underwrote the entire evening. That year we raised enough money to help purchase a new truck for Poverello, because the one they had—you could sit in the cab, and see the street below you, sort of a ‘Fred Flintstone truck,’” he adds.

Times have changed, but the need hasn’t. Today, Poverello serves more than 3,000 clients. This month alone, the group will distribute over 3,000 boxes of food, with a bill running in the neighborhood of $96,000—an expensive neighborhood, as you can see. And next year, county budget cuts are likely to translate to a 50 percent reduction in funding for food banks. “It’s been a tough year so far, but we are doing everything we can to turn things around. Our 22nd Annual Bowl-AThon is coming up [this month], and we are hoping to have a stellar year,” Smith adds. (As a matter of fact, he roped me in to help get items for the event’s silent auction, as well as to emcee—my fourth year, so how could I say no?)

Smith is also proud that Poverello has a new home, located at 2056 North Dixie Highway, with expanded hours, which the upbeat CEO hopes—despite funding cuts from every level of government— will allow the organization to help more clients than ever before.

“The City of Wilton Manors has gone out of their way to help with the project,” he says, noting, too, that once completed, the project will be “green-friendly,” and ready to continue serving the community for many years to come.

For more information, visit Poverello.org.

KNOXVILLE, TN   – Tennessee state Sen. Stacey Campfield  received more than brunch on Sunday at The Bistro at Bijou restaurant in Knoxville, when the restaurant’s owner refused to serve him because she considers his beliefs to be homophobic.

Martha Boggs, the owner of the restaurant—located, coincidentally, on Gay Street—had heard a radio interview with Campfield in which the lawmaker made what she considered to be disparaging remarks about homosexuality.

Campfield, who recently sponsored legislation requiring elementary and middle schools to teach only heterosexually-based sex education, told ABC News that he was taken completely by surprise by Boggs’ actions. “We were just standing there waiting for a table, and this woman came up to me saying ‘I’m not serving you, I’m not serving you, you hate gay people,’” Campfield said. “‘I said ma’am I’m not a homophobe,’ and I offered to send her links from the CDC [Centers for Disease Control and Prevention] Web site to back up what I said about homosexuality being a dangerous lifestyle, and being a risky behavior.”

The CDC links that Campfield referred to include statistics from 2008 data which indicate that 54 percent of HIV cases diagnosed that year were from same sex contact among males, while 32 percent was contracted from heterosexual sexual contact. The data did not address female homosexual sex.

Campfield, however, was not as thorough during the radio interview, claiming that it is “virtually impossible” to contract HIV or AIDS through heterosexual behavior.

“My understanding is that it is virtually — not completely, but virtually — impossible to contract AIDS through heterosexual sex,” Campfield said.

Boggs said she has no regrets, despite some local backlash. “It was one of those spur of the moment things. I didn’t think about what I was doing, but all I did was look at his smug face, and told myself I do not want to serve him. His comments have gone from stupid to dangerous and I think someone needs to stand up to him,” Boggs told ABC News. “I think Mr. Campfield is a bully, so I just stood up to a bully.”

By Bob Kecskemety

Pride Pharmacy and Midland Medical in Fort Lauderdale pride themselves on providing a one-stop location dedicated to your good health. Midland Medical specializes in men’s health, including diagnostics with on-site labs, and HIV specialties, in addition to being AAHIVM-certified.

Pride Pharmacy is a specialty pharmacy that also provides free delivery to its customers. Co-owners Greg West and Steven Levin hope local residents will find all the medical services they need under one, convenient roof at 2701 E Oakland Park Boulevard, sharing the same strip mall as Lips Cabaret.

West is a co-owner, but he does more than just sit behind a desk. He also helps out in the pharmacy and works as patient liaison and advocate. “If anybody has a problem,” West said, “they come to me and I try to straighten out their problems.” West  also has been known to deliver prescriptions to customers.

West noted that Pride Pharmacy is not 100% gay-owned and operated: there is a mix of gay and straight principals. “But with a name like ‘Pride Pharmacy’, we would have to be very gay-friendly,” he added.

The price of prescription drugs is always of concern to customer, and West says that he and staff are sensitive to economic realities, and make every effort to keep prices for prescription medications as low as possible. “We’re here to help the community,” said West. “We are very much aware of other pharmacies’ prices on meds, and are very competitively priced. You won’t find medications priced higher here, and we will try everything we can to be less.”

West said that Pride Pharmacy uses co-pay cards to cover a patient’s co-pay drug expenses. This could save customers potentially hundreds of dollars a month. Some save as much as four or five hundred dollars monthly. West explained that by not being a chain pharmacy, they have the flexibility to adjust without corporate oversight from hundreds of miles away.

Through the door in the waiting area of Pride Medical is Midland Medical, a state-of-the-art medical clinic with the ability to serve most patients’ examination needs. Midland is a one-stop clinic for diagnostic, medical, lab, and chiropractic services, as well as immunizations, prosthetics, boosters, Botox, and much more.

“The one thing I really love about Midland Medical,” said West, “is the personalized service. The doctors actually know
your name.”

West explained that Midland is not an assembly line doctor’s office. Patients will experience a different approach to their medical needs. “This is not the sort of practice where you take a number, have a seat, be directed to the first room, and spend five minutes with a nurse, be directed to a second room, wait another ten minutes with a nurse, then be directed to the third
room where you actually see a doctor for about two minutes.”

“We are compassionate with our patients,” said Anetha Jones, the practice’s head medical assistant. “We personally sit down and consult with our patients. Sometimes we feed them, or bring them food, whatever it takes to make our patients happy and healthy.”

At Midland, West said, patients are seen by a doctor in a straightforward manner, and given their diagnosis “in plain English, not ‘doctor-eze,’ so the patient understands what the doctor is saying without a lot of medical jargon,” West added.

Trudy Zengler, Midland’s office manager, said that Midland is the most caring medical facility she has ever seen. “Everybody  here really cares about the patients. The patients are family,” she said. “I think we put forth the effort to make sure our patients are taken care of and provide the best  care we can.”

Zengler has firsthand knowledge of Midland’s care and practices from an outsider’s perspective. Prior to her employment, she owned a medical billing company, which gave her the opportunity to interface with the operations of many medical facilities, and Midland was a client of Zengler’s company. That changed in 2009 when Zengler was hired to work at Midland.

Zengler and the rest of the staff are well acquainted with West’s mantra about customer service. “Customer service is our top priority at both Pride Pharmacy and Midland Medical,” said West. “We are not your typical pharmacy. We are not your typical doctor’s office. We also have a very high ratio of keeping people healthy and
out of the hospital.”

West explained that recently he spent four hours helping a patient navigate his way through some insurance-related matters. The patient was talked out of his previous insurance plan by the insurance company’s representative. But his new insurance plan didn’t cover the cost of medication. The patient’s medicine bill was close to $3,000 a month.

“He couldn’t afford that. Who can?” sympathized West. “It took about four hours, but we got him back on his original insurance policy. We go out of our way to help people.”

Pride Pharmacy has been open for three years, and has Monday through Saturday business hours. Midland Medical has  been in operation for almost six years, and
is currently open from Tuesday through Saturday.

FORT LAUDERDALE, FL – Broward House, Broward County’s oldest and largest HIV/AIDS service organizations, hosted its annual “Hope’s Heroes” awards ceremony and luncheon on Tuesday, Jan. 17, at Dapur Restaurant in Fort Lauderdale. The event was held to induct the newest class of the honorees, those businesses and individuals who the service organization says “have gone above and beyond in their community to help those living with HIV/AIDS.”

Honorees included: John Zieba and Cliff Mulcahy of Rosie’s Bar and Grill; Karen Caroll and Julie Slater of Chic Optique; Drew Miller and Kevin Murdoch of the GLBX; Marc Silverstone of Equilibrium Events and “A Toy’s Story;” attorney and publisher Norm Kent; the Leather Men’s Brotherhood; and Hotspots Media Group.

By Rory Barbarossa

WASHINGTON, D.C. – The White House issued a document last week entitled “Two Important Developments that Impact the Health and Well-Being of LGBT People.” The document outlined a revision to the FBI’s definition of rape in order to encourage more comprehensive reporting of rape crimes nationwide, including male victims. It also detailed a major grant by the Centers for Disease Control (CDC) for high-impact HIV prevention.

Attorney General Eric Holder announced revisions to the Uniform Crime Report’s definition of rape last week.  The revised definition includes rapes committed against men, and encompasses a broader range of sexual acts understood to be rape. This revised definition will be used to collect data from local law enforcement about these crimes and will be published in the Uniform Crime Report.

The CDC announced that it has begun awarding almost $339 million to state and local health departments across the United States to fund HIV prevention activities this year. The awards are a component of CDC’s new approach to HIV prevention, designed to better align resources to reflect the geographic burden of the HIV epidemic, and achieve a higher level of impact with every federal HIV prevention dollar spent.

TUPELO, MS – Conservative talk show host and American Family Association (AFA) director Bryan Fisher said on his radio show last week that the HIV virus is not the cause of AIDS, but rather that AIDS is caused by recreational drug use.

FORT LAUDERDALE, FL – The Broward Sheriff’s Office has made a $10,000 donation to a start teen suicide prevention hotline run by Broward House. The money was donated from the Department’s Law Enforcement Trust Funds to support at-risk youth. Money from the fund comes from seized property that was used in criminal acts and the grants are controlled by governing bodies for the police agencies that acquire the property.

The gift to Broward House must still be approved by the Broward County Commission. Broward Sheriff Al Lamberti does not think that County Commissioners’ approval will be a problem.

Broward House, a 23-year old organization that serves more than 6,000 people who are living with HIV/AIDS, said they hope to have the help line operating by mid-January.