Dr. Thomas Frieden has used his power as NYC Health Commissioner to push through some pretty controversial measures. Most notable are the recent trans-fat ban and the prohibitions on smoking in public. While both moves caused a stir, neither compare to his proposed HIV-test reform.

For years doctors have had to get written consent to perform the potentially life-saving test. While countless men and women agree, many more resist, thus missing crucial opportunities to detect the virus in their bodies. Frieden insists such measures only make it more difficult to monitor local infections. Thus, he's proposing a new law that woul do away with the signed consent form, allowing patients to verbally agree to the painless prick. The NY Times reports:

Dr. Frieden wants to change a 1988 state law that set up stringent rules protecting the privacy and confidentiality of patients tested for H.I.V. Those rules require doctors to get a signed consent form — separate from the general consent form used for an array of other tests — before giving an H.I.V. test. Dr. Frieden wants to give doctors the option of obtaining oral consent; they would be required to document it in the patient’s chart.

The law also now requires that before being tested for H.I.V., patients must be counseled extensively about the nature of AIDS, the risk of discrimination and the behaviors associated with transmitting the virus. Under Dr. Frieden’s proposal, pretest counseling would be simplified and post-test counseling would be strengthened.

Frieden insists that doctors would be more likely to test patients who agreed verbally, rather than going through the complicated and often politicized pre-test hoops. Some AIDS activists, however, hold that without the written agreement, many doctors would simply gloss over the issue, inhibited by their own discomfort with the virus. Others say that without the written consent, there's no way to prove a patient wanted to be tested for the virus. Elisabeth Ryden Benjamin of NY's Civil Liberties Union says,

Without a signed informed-consent form, there is no way for practitioners in busy health care settings to prove that a patient’s consent to H.I.V. testing was acquired.

It seems to us that Frieden's on the right track - why should someone have to sign a piece of paper allowing blood to be drawn. Not only does it add one more step in an already complicated process, but it further stigmatizes the virus - as if one's entering a rated X movie and needs to show an id. The test becomes shady, held away from other standard tests.

Rather than treating an HIV test as a special (read: freakish) test, it should be encouraged, just as one would encourage a patient to test their blood pressure or cholesterol. But, on the flip side, it does open the possibility of a doctor testing without actually asking the patient. Still, there doesn't seem like much harm there - if someone's HIV positive, they should know, rather than living a blissfully ignorant existence.

But, that's just our opinion. We're sure you kids have one, so let us have it.

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• Every time Pat Buchanan says flamer, a demon gets its horns. Also, makes a fun drinking game... [Wonkette]

• University of Minnesota joins Arizona on trannie talk. Everytime someone stands up for a trannie, Pat Buchanan feels a sharp pain in the chest. Keep talkin'! [Minnesota Daily]

• It's not gay, but we can't resist the sight of a model eating shit. Hurts so good... [Mollygood]

• Shocker! Not all hospitals able to test for HIV. Thanks, Congress! [Houston Chronicle]

What's better than a vodka tonic and CNN after work? Sure, there are some other things we can think of, but that was the name of the game last night. We needed a bit of Wolf Blitzer's authoritarian love in the preposterously staged Situation Room. Imagine our chagrin when it wasn't Wolf Blitzer at all, but that douche fill-in John King (whose practiced restraint seems evident in his wrists). But, we digress...

One of the stories that caught our eye focussed on ultra-dreamy politician and potential super hero Barack Obama's trip to his father's homeland of Kenya. A junior senator from Illinois, Obama holds the political eye these days [and can also be seen in the new issue of Men's Vogue]. After being greeted like a rockstar, Obama publicly received an HIV test. Sure, this may be - and should be - common practice for Americans, but in Kenya, where two million people have already died of AIDS, having a Black American male politician not only acknowledge HIV's existence but admit even he is vulnerable is quite a move. Another reason why we love Barack Obama.

If you don't know Barack Obama, you should. And you can, by clicking here.

Update: Here's a full-story on Obama's trip. We were clouded by lust. [The New York Times]

Our nation's capital has so far made little progress in the fight against HIV, and part of the problem has to do with testing. Either D.C. residents are more reluctant to get tested than residents of other cities (not likely) or the Administration for HIV Policy and Programs has bungled the process of gathering the numbers thus far despite receiving gobs of federal funding.

The group has announced that before the end of this year they will be launching an aggressive new campaign to test everyone in the city between the ages of 14 and 84 for HIV. They will be distributing 80,000 oral HIV testing kits to area hospitals, local health organizations, and schools, and will also be holding screenings in Freedom Plaza, which began on Tuesday.

If you live in D.C., please go to Freedom Plaza and get a test. The oral tests are easy, painless, take 20 minutes, and the AHPP will keep your results completely confidential.

Testing Away HIV [Washington Post]