Former Senate Majority Leader Tom Daschle of South Dakota will the Obama's Secretary of Health and Human Services Secretary according to Democratic officials. The department is responsible for a national strategy on AIDS research and prevention.

Daschle has an excellent record on combating HIV/AIDS. He's the co-chair of the ONE Foundation and in July led a delegation of policymakers to Rwanda, where he visited with HIV patients in clinics to highlight the suffering caused by AIDS in that country and some of the efforts being made to combat it. At the time he told reporters:

“We have a moral obligation to assist those suffering from abject poverty and disease. Investments in the development of our world’s poorest nations must be a pillar of our foreign policy going forward, no matter who is leading the next administration.  I am encouraged by the tremendous impact that these programs have had in fighting the spread of disease across Africa. Over the last four years, two million more people living with AIDS now have access to lifesaving medication."

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A new landmark Australian Study shows that circumcision can protect against HIV in gay men who are tops. "We have shown for the first time that men who predominantly take on the insertive role in sex are less likely to contract HIV if they've been circumcised," said Dr David Templeton. Men who were mostly tops had an 85% reduced risk of getting HIV if they were circumcised.

The study followed 1,400 HIV-negative guys (two-thirds were circumcised) for fours years and tracked their HIV status. 53 Developed HIV. Of those 53, only 7 were tops. The results of the study suggest 5 could have been avoided if they had been cut.

Gay educators worry that the results will lead gay men to "throw out their condoms if they've had the snip, wrongly believing they are naturally protected." That seems unlikely, we're not that stupid.

On Monday, we told you that at least 15 percent – still a significant portion – of reported AIDS-related deaths were from contracting HIV through gay sex.

On Tuesday, we told you U.N. officials reported that "despite a stepped up global battle against AIDS, the numbers of people newly infected with HIV are far and away outpacing the numbers beginning antiretroviral drug treatments."

Today, it's time for a little more school. The web video series HIV is Still a Big Deal, debuting today, is an attempt to bring HIV/AIDS education to the web. The hope? That the only thing spreading virally is the video. More about the series below:

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When it comes to gays and Hollywood, what needs to change? With Fox News' John Gibson making it clear that not everybody is okay with gay plotlines, let alone gay actors, Queerty editorial director David Hauslaib sat down with BigThink.com to discuss that issue.

Also touched upon, in the clip below: what David believes to be the most important issues facing the gay community today, as well as the responsibility gay men and women have toward the younger generation.

Spoiler alert!

Anonymous sources claim one of Project Runway's many gay stars, Jack Mackenroth, got booted after developing an HIV Staph infection. Mackenroth, who will be making a cameo in the Sex and The City movie, claims otherwise.

One snitch tells Gatecrasher Mackenroth told them he gets booted in the fifth episode after developing the infection:

He is saying he got kicked off not because he lost a challenge, but because he got a 'staph' infection and said his face blew up like the kid from Mask.

That would have to be a pretty nasty infection.

Mackenroth, meanwhile, told Bravo he didn't spill the unsavory beans. A flack sent out "his words": "People will say things about me whether they know me or not. Those were not my words and are fictitious." We'll just have to wait until episode five to find out…

Rarely will you find us weighing in on gay porn – we relegate those depths to our more equipped friends – but a recent debate that just arrived in our inbox caught our attention.

Gay British porn review outfit (which wins the award for most aptly named site) GayBritPorn.com recently posted a review of English Lads, a Sean Cody-esque "amateur" porn site that delivers your typical assortment of handicam videos serving the English accent-inclinded niche. But English Lads seems to go one step further in its offerings than, say, Corbin Fisher: its "models" perform bareback. In reviewing English Lad's "Action" department, GayBritPorn.com had this to say:

But when it comes to unsafe sex, many of us would draw the line. A recent set is advertised as "bareback", the blurb stating that the models wanted to do it like this. Now, I know one of the models, and he told me that it wasn't his idea. I don't know wheter they had thought thruogh the risks or had sexual health checks. The point is that an activity regarded as unsafe sex is portrayed on the site as highly errotic and desireable, with no mention of risks or precautions. Personally, I think this isn't innovative or sexy, its irresponsible.

So, this is a site that will deliver a tried and tested formula, but is willing also try something new sometimes - for better or worse.

Fearing reprisal from an audience of credit card clickers who likely wouldn't give their last names to the press, English Lads' purveyor Nick Baker fired back, defending his video.

In response, Nick Baker of Englishlads emailed the review site defending the video. "I don't believe by having this shoot on my site it will result in a change of anyone's attitude and influence them to having unsafe sex" he said. "These two lads decided to do the shoot bareback, taking appropriate precautions. I strongly believe in the use of condoms, though a significant amount of gay porn both for dvd and for websites is shot without condoms and I guess myself and other porn producers will get accused of being irresponsible. I think porn is understood to provide a world of safe fantasies and not to portray or influence real life."

In a heated exchange of emails, the pornographer goes on to accuse the review of being "tabloid" - with no apparant hint of irony. However, he states that after the controversey, Englishlads will not be doing anymore bareback shoots, and will be providing safe sex information.

Gaybritporn said "Providing links to safe sex sites and undertaking to do no more bareback shoots is a partial victory. But its about responsibility, not censorship. We want an admission that he was wrong to hype bareback".

In the same way we don't fault Law & Order for promoting violence, we're not going to fault English Lads for promoting bareback sex just by offering those types of videos — though certainly, at least ethically, Baker should be protecting his models by informing them of the risks of bareback sex and making sure they've been satisfactorally tested for HIV and other STIs. When it comes to the porn industry, self-policing seems to have worked best; it's up to industry players to make sure the rules are followed. At the end of the day, if you don't agree with what English Lads is doing, don't buy their videos. Though you're probably stealing them on BitTorrent anyhow.

Englishlads defends unsafe sex video [GayBritPorn - NSFW]
English Lads Review [GayBritPorn - NSFW]

• Word comes via press release that HX Media, publisher of gay rag HX and the New York Blade, just purchased Gay & Lesbian World Travel Expo, the 13-year-old consumer show. Meanwhile, LPI Media completes its intergration of its gay properties Out, The Advocate, Gay.com, and RSVP Vacations. Media synergy at its gay best. [Advocate]

• A new Malaysian law will make it a crime if HIV-positive blood donors fail to disclose their status. Damn the cost-benefit analysis of giving away platelets! [Malaysian Star]

• The real uproar over Superman Returns shouldn't be whether Brandon Routh's character (or the real-life actor) is gay, but how the hell a journalist affords a house on the water and a sea plane. [Straighten Out]

• A five-year-old gay murder case sees justice nearing in: The suspected killer of a Queens, New York man was placed in handcuffs when he stepped off the plane. [365 Gay]

Without a doubt, AIDS is still a hot charitable topic in Hollywood. But it used to be the hot charitable topic. Now the A-list aren't just competing for roles in Ron Howard pictures but for charity dollars for their own causes. Cancer. MS. 9/11. Africa. The environment. Hurricane Katrina. Angelina Jolie, Barbra Streisand, Ellen DeGeneres, and Leonardo DiCaprio are becoming just as famous for their outreach as they are for their screen time.

Maybe it's the burnout factor. Or perhaps it's because Hollywood has a short attention span. But as AIDS enters its 25th year, it is no longer The Cause among celebrities. There is also the perception that AIDS now affects only developing nations instead of the U.S., where ever-improving medical cocktails are helping those with HIV live longer.

We can always count on Elton John and Liza Minelli to bring in the bucks for AIDS research and treatment. And keeping CO2 emissions down is a worthy cause. So is finding a cure for prostate cancer, helping Katrina victims find new homes, and making sure the people on the poorest continent in the world have enough food to eat.

But decreasing attention from celebrities seems to coincide with less funding for HIV/AIDS. Gone are the red ribbons from the Academy Awards red carpet, and gone too are budget increases for AIDS shelters. Choosing a charitable cause is quickly becoming a decision on which color ribbon or arm band matches you dress.

Goodbye AIDS. Celebs Move on to New Causes [LAT]

If Rent was the 80's answer to telling gay life in New York's Lower East Side, then Christopher Street might be the answer to telling 2000's gay life in the West Village. Christopher Street, named after Manhattan's famed homo boulevard, is a new straight-to-DVD series that tells the interconnected stories of four gay young adults living in the heart of New York's (original) gay district. That is, a gay version of Friends without the obnoxious Ross character. From the press release:

The series follows the truth that hides within the Village. From the perspective of four young gay adults. Each dealing with their own individual trouble. Whether its being in the closet, dealing with relationships, abuse, identity, self-love, HIV/AIDS, and the harassment that lies with in a homophobic society. Christopher Street never fails to examine the reality of what goes on with today's younger gay generation.

We're told the DVD installments will hit Amazon.com this summer — and it couldn't come sooner, with our The L Word fix wearing off. It couldn't be as bad as Noah's Ark, could it?

• Gays may receive inheritance rights in Israel, but no marriage. Does this mean that they will have special rights that unmarried hetero couples lack? We hope so, just because it would be funny. [365 Gay]

• HIV tests will be part of a standard check-up at the doctor as early as next year if the CDC has their way. We think this is great news, but suspect it will lead to a dramatic drop in doctor's visits. [SeattlePI]

• The gays are making a push to elect more gays on the state level. This will result in gayer state legislation, making every state nicer for gays. Nice strategy. [USA Today]

• Illinois voters will vote on an anti-gay-marriage amendment this November, so don't forget to go to the polls. [Chicago Tribune]

• Sec. of State Condi Rice is getting sued by an extrememly qualified candidate who got rejected in his application to become a foreign service officer solely because he is HIV+. A 20-year-old government forbids people living with HIV from serving in the State Department. [365 Gay]

• Furry heartthrob Robbie Williams is planning to record a dancepop album just for the gays under a different name. We hope that he takes his new assumed identity seriously and reaches out to the gays in more tangible ways. [Pink News]

• Anti-gay activists in Washington State are having trouble getting the 112,000+ signatures necessary to get an initiative on the November ballot to repeal the new statewide gay rights law. They sent out a desperate e-mail plea for signatures the other day that Democrats think could be political trickery. [Washington Blade]

• Circumcision could help prevent the spread of HIV, according to a new African study. The cells on the underside of the foreskin are an easy entry point for the virus, and circumcision may soon be recommended for all men in South Africa to try and stem the infection rate. [NY Times]

• Two Albanian lesbians, one 54 and the other 24, who met while living illegally in the UK, are now applying for asylum as committed partners who want to raise the younger woman's child. Call us cynical, but this whole situation seems odd and a little too convenient. [365 Gay]

• Even though it may be the next country to legalize gay marriage, South Africa still has major civil rights work to do. In a new report it's been revealed that 1 in 5 gay schoolchildren in Pietermaritzburg and Durban are raped or sexually assaulted, either by other students, or by teachers and principals. The statistics are higher among gay black students. [News24]

• HIV can be more virulent depending on the virus subtype. Africa is home to many cases of subtype D, the most virulent, which could be contributing to the pandemic there. [BBC]

• Someone on the island of St. Maarten has finally expressed some sympathy for the homophobic attack on Ryan Smith and Dick Jefferson. An apology is nice, but we are still waiting for the police to do their job. [Pink News]