The news isn't good. It's a very sad but true fact that we don't want to hear. But, of all things, HIV is staging its own comeback.

Medpage Today reported (9.13.07) that young gay men are having a sharp increase in new HIV infections in New York City, according to health officials there.

Thomas Frieden, M.D., the city's health commissioner, has noted that over the past six years, the total number of new HIV diagnoses among gay men under 30 has risen 33%, from 374 in 2001 to 499 in 2006.

In 2006, 101 young white men were diagnosed with HIV, compared 232 African-American men and 157 Hispanic men in the city's official report.

City officials also reported that 81 of 87 (93%) of the gay men under 20 who were diagnosed with HIV in 2006 were African-American or Hispanic. The disparity was even larger among adolescents--81 of 87 (93%) of the gay men under 20 who were diagnosed with HIV in 2006 were African-American or Hispanic.

As a gay man who in the 80's and 90's watched many of his friends and even strangers, die off from HIV and AIDS related illnesses,  I am deeply saddened to see such a rise in this epidemic.

What's even sadder is that we have the ability to end this virus that has so viscously attached our community.

But what do we do?  How do we get our message across to the younger generation of gay men who seem to have either forgotten the first wave of HIV/AIDS or are just plain arrogant that they think they can beat this thing with a pill or two?

How do we remind and warn them that they are, indeed, placing their own lives and others in danger every time they have sex without a condom? 

What words do we use explain to them that if they don't play safe, it can--literally--become deadly?  How do we get them to listen to us when we try to tell them the fact that anyone who plays condom-less can never be sure of their HIV status and that at least 25% of those who think they are HIV negative are really positive?

I wish I had the answers but I don't, however, I am challenged by the questions. 

What do we do?  How do we turn the tide, attention, support, caring once again about HIV?  How do we protect the young members of our queer community from this virus?

I open this question up to our readers.  Please send your ideas and thoughts on how best we can get the truth out to our own young queers and again push back the rise of new HIV cases to info@QUEERtimes.net

Qt will publish them in our BackTalk section in upcoming newsletters.

So what's happening in your little world? Now that Labor Day has officially ended the hectic summer season, the fall is beginning to heat up with all kinds of events.

This weekend I'll be sharing the stage with queer funny man, Frank DeCaro, host of the ever-growing popular The Frank DeCaro Show, a live national talk show on Sirius Satellite Radio, who will be a special guest master of  ceremonies, with his talented writer and life partner Jim Colucci, author of Gay Guide to The Golden Girls, among other entertaining books for the Delaware Valley Legacy Fund community awards night.

You can catch DeCaro in 40 episodes, that he's just completed, for "I've Got A Secret" on the Game Show Network. "It's a hilarious take-off on the pioneer celebrity quiz show from the Golden Age of Television with an updated twist," he chuckled.