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NEWS BRIEFS

National Coming Out Day merges into HRCF

Washington--National Coming Out Day, the six-year-old group known for organizing events around the country each year on October 11, will merge with the Triangle Institute, the non-profit organization affiliated with the Human Rights Campaign Fund. National Coming Out Day will continue to operate as a primarily volunteer organization.

Rob Eichberg, co-founder and former co-chair of National Coming Out Day, called the merger "a synergistic combination that will consolidate our resources and allow us to move forward as a stronger force in the 1990's."

The Campaign Fund, with more than 65,000 members nationwide, will integrate National Coming Out Day into its existing membership network to increase the number of volunteers available for NCOD's annual events. NCOD will continue to provide coming out resources to individuals and groups and to market merchandise using the familiar logo designed by the late Keith Haring

UCC supports lifting ban

Cleveland--Explaining that sexual orientation does not determine fitness for military service, leaders of the 1.6-millionmember United Church of Christ sent a letter in March to President Bill Clinton supporting his call to end the ban on gays and lesbians in the military.

United Church president the Rev. Dr. Paul H. Sherry, other national church officers, the ten chief executives of the church's program units and 32 of the denomination's 39 regional conference ministers including Rev. Zoltan Szues, of the Calvin Synod in Lorainexpressed appreciation for Clinton's "courageous stand in our policy."

Here is the text of the letter sent from the denomination's national offices in Cleveland to President Clinton:

"We, the undersigned persons who serve in leadership positions of the United Church of Christ, wish to express our appreciation for your leadership in the area of civil liberties during these early weeks of your Presidency.

"We do not believe that sexual orientation, in and of itself, should be a factor in determining and individual's fitness for service in the United States Military and we fully support your courageous stand on this policy. Action on this basic issue of civil liberties has been long overdue, and we are very grateful for the steps you are taking to rectify this injustice.

New CDC definiton makes AIDS cases jump

Reflecting the new federal rules for defining AIDS as a disease, the number of new cases rose 63 percent nationwide in January and February compared to 1992, the New York Times reported on March 21.

However, the 1993 figures are incomplete because states are still adjusting to the increased reporting workload under the new definition, the Times said, citing officials from the federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

In New York City--which reported a total of 47,185 AIDS cases by February, the largest number in the country--Health Department officials estimate that more than half the existing cases have yet to be counted because additional staffers to do the work are still being hired.

The expanded definition used to classify an HIV-infected person as having AIDS now includes three additional illnesses-pulmonary tuberculosis, recurrent bacterial pneumonia and invasive cancer of the cervix. These conditions are commonly seen in HIV-infected intravenous drug users and women.

Under the latest federal definition, those who have a count of fewer than 200 CD4

cells per cubic millimeter of blood--as opposed to 800 to 1,200 in healthy people-also are classified as having AIDS.

Study: alcohol may impair body's ability to fight AIDS

A new AIDS study published in March suggests that drinking not only lowers a person's inhibitions about unsafe sex or intravenous drug use, but impairs the body's ability to fight the AIDS virus as well.

"Alcohol intake is something to worry about if you are a healthy person engaging in a high-risk activity, or if you are already HIV-positive," the researchers from Thomas Jefferson University warn.

In the study, the researchers combined in a test tube white blood cells of 60 healthy

people and the AIDS virus, HIV. The volunteers had been drinking up to 10 cocktails or the equivalent over a weekend.

The researchers found the HIV quickly replicated and invaded the "helper❞ cells, the CD4 lymphocytes. It also prevented "killer" cells, the CD8 lymphocytes, from attacking infected cells and halting the disease.

The effect did not vary with the amount of alcohol the subjects drank.

Alcohol apparently plays two roles in HIV infection, said study co-author Dr. Roger Pomerantz. Alcohol may make people more likely to engage in risky behaviors and also knocks out the body's defense against HIV.

Domestic partners are no problem for Ben & Jerry's

Waterbury, Vt. (AP)--While cities like nearby Burlington anguish over whether to offer health benefits to employees' unmarried partners, Ben & Jerry's Homemade Inc. workers have had that benefit for three years.

And company officials say it's been little burden on the bottom line, with only about 5 percent of the firm's 470 workers taking advantage of the benefit.

“We really believe the family is who you love and who you live with," aid Liz Lonergan, human resources manager for the premium ice cream maker.

She added that she wasn't surprised that the company had been named recently by the Advocate, a national gay magazine, as one of the ten best employers of gays and lesbians in the country.

"There are definitely gay people in our company," Lonergan said. "There are in all companies. The difference is that it's okay at Ben & Jerry's. We're trying to provide dignity and respect to our employees. Being gay and [acknowledging it] in corporate America isn't easy. But I think it's easier here."

Lonergan said the company's management was nervous when it first decided to provide health coverage to unmarried partners of both gay and heterosexual workers.

"Like most of the companies doing this, we had all sorts of fears about people signing up everyone they knew.”

But Lonergan said abuses have occurred rarely if at all. Employees have to sign forms saying the partner to be covered is the sole partner and has been so for at least six months.

New AIDS drug to be tested

The National Institutes of Health is recruiting people infected with the AIDS virus to test a new drug that has been shown in test-tube experiments to be a potent weapon against HIV.

Up to 80 patients are to be enrolled in two clinical trials of a drug called U-90,152, the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Disease announced in late March. The institute is leading the campaign against AIDS at the NIH.

Officials said U-90,152 has shown it can sterilize cell cultures that have been in-