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 News on Capitol Hill Wednesday morning suggested there was little hope for keeping pro-LGBT provisions in the health care reform legislation Congress hopes to pass. But Rep. Barney Frank says he’s still “somewhat optimistic.” 
According to The Hill, a newspaper that serves Capitol Hill readers, leaders of the House and Senate decided Tuesday evening to stick with the Senate version of the health care reform bill –the one without any pro-gay provisions—rather than go through a conference committee negotiation to merge the two versions. The paper said the decision was made on Tuesday night in a meeting that included only President Barack Obama, Vice President Joe Biden, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, and Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid.
The pro-LGBT provisions include:
ending the current tax inequity for gay employees who cover their partners or spouses on their work health insurance coverage;
prohibiting discrimination in health care based on “personal characteristics”; 
and launching studies to end health disparities for people based on their sexual orientation and gender identity.
If Congress decides not to merge the bills, the House would be able to amend the Senate bill and send it back to the Senate for a final vote, but the likelihood of pro-LGBT amendments being accepted onto a bill that has already been ravaged with controversy –over how and whether abortions could be covered and the exclusion of a government-run option for insurance— seems small.
But Rep. Frank says there’s still plenty of room for negotiation with the Senate over the legislation to keep some of the pro-LGBT provisions passed as part of the House bill. 
“There will still be negotiation between the House and the Senate over what’s in the bill,” said Frank, adding that, because the House will apparently have to make some concessions on major issues, it may have some leverage to keep the pro-LGBT provisions.
Meanwhile, Republicans are reportedly still trying to kill the bill, whatever form it takes, by persuading conservative Democrats to vote against it. Frank says it will be important for LGBT people and their supporters to lobby these conservative Democrats to continue supporting the legislation.
The vote margins in both the House and the Senate were very narrow on initial passage, leaving the effort to pass a bill without a conference fight a still uncertain future. In addition, legal challenges are brewing over enticements that were added to the Senate bill in order to win enough votes for passage there.
Rep. Tammy Baldwin , an openly gay representative and strong advocate for both health care and LGBT civil rights, did not respond to a request for comment on the status of the overall bill and the pro-gay amendments she helped champion.
The Human Rights Campaign, in response to a request for comment, issued this statement suggesting it is not yet giving up:
“The decision to forgo a traditional conference does not change the fact that the negotiations between House and Senate leadership to complete health care reform will undoubtedly be complex and difficult on a range of issues.  We will continue to strongly push the congressional leadership to ensure that critical protections for LGBT people included in the House-passed bill are part of the final measure.”
© 2010 Keen News Service

Looking back on my week, I realize I spent a crazy amount of hours doing Lost-related activities and maybe not enough time on things like personal grooming and calling my grandmother.
So while I go wash my hair and make sure my family is OK, here are my pop-culture picks. Please share your own!
Best TV show I saw: You know what I'm gonna say before I even say it ... I mean, does anything even come close to Lost? That two-hour premiere gave us so much to ponder that we could almost go a couple weeks before another episode. Almost.I also enjoyed: Big Love, Damages, Be Good Johnny Weir, Parks and Recreation , Kitchen Nightmares, The InbetweenersSwing and a miss: How I Met Your Mother's "perfect week" episode just rubbed me the wrong way. I adore Barney, but what happened to the slightly more mature, more complex Barn we were learning to love last season? And also, I just can't wrap my mind around the fact that a group of 30-ish friends fully supported -- celebrated, even -- their pal bedding a different woman seven nights in a row. Heck, Ted even helped him pick out the "dumbest-looking" one in a bar. Usually, this show makes me laugh. This week, it grossed me out.
Best movie I watched: Hmm, I don't think I've seen anything great lately. I tried to watch Couples Retreat, and that was the worst movie I've watched in a long time. I still recommend the Sundance short Mr. Okra -- only 12 minutes, so you should just take a break and see it right now!Eager to see: Fish Tank and An Education, one of my Oscar oversights. I'm also curious about The Road, but my spouse insists it will throw me into a massive state of depression.Recommended: Youth in Revolt, A Single Man
Best thing I heard: Can I recommend everything in this week's podcast? I honestly just threw a bunch of my favorite songs in there, so I hope you like it. That Fredrik record is good, I might go check them out live soon. And Allison Moorer's voice, holy cow. I remember seeing her when I was 21 and spending the summer in Manhattan . I've been a fan ever since.I'm also listening to: The new Midlake album has been getting mixed reviews, but I'm not giving up yet. Still streaming on NPR.
Best thing I read: I've been enjoying reading all of the J.D. Salinger-related pieces; the one about answering his mail is great. Also, my friend Frank Portman addressed his death, since King Dork contains so much anti-Catcher talk. I'm also reading: I don't have it yet, but I really want a copy of Dodgem Logic, Alan Moore's zine . If anyone has it, let us know if it's as incredible as it sounds.
OK! Holler back with your top choices so we can take them for the weekend.

Today begins Day 10, Week 3 of the federal trial challenging the constitutionality of California’s ban on same-sex marriages, Proposition 8.
The day will begin with the final presentations from the Ted Olson-David Boies legal team. They plan to present some documents and videotape. So far, they have used the introduction of videotaped evidence to great effect in the trial, showing expert witnesses from the other side making statements that undermine the other side’s case.
The other side, led by conservative Charles Cooper, will then begin to present its case in defense of Proposition 8.
While the Olson-Boies team called 17 witnesses to the court before U.S. district court Chief Judge Vaughn Walker, Cooper – at this point – has indicated he will bring only two or three.
One, who will likely take the witness stand this afternoon, is Kenneth P. Miller, an associate professor in the Department of Government at Claremont McKenna College. The second witness will be David Blankenhorn of the “Institute of American Values,” an organization that describes itself as “contributing intellectually to the renewal of marriage” and “key American values.”
Miller’s testimony is expected to try and persuade the judge that gay men and lesbians are a politically powerful group. One of the criteria for deciding what level of scrutiny to apply to a law is whether the group the law targets for disparate treatment is a group that has little political power of its own to seek redress, such as at the ballot box.
Blankenhorn’s testimony is reportedly focusing on a key question in the case: What’s the purpose of Proposition 8? Laws have to have a purpose, although previous U.S. Supreme Court cases have signaled that the courts must give the legislatures and the voters considerable deference – they laws just need to have some simple rational justification. Blankenhorn is expected to say that justification is to promote procreation among straight couples and to “protect the children.”
Boies, who executed a stinging cross-examination of adverse witness William Tam last week, will cross-examine both of the defense’s experts this week.
On Sunday night, there was a report circulating that the defense might call a third witness – Frank Shubert, the Yes on 8’s paid campaign consultant and the man credited with constructing the successful anti-gay ballot campaigns in both California in 2008 and in Maine last November. The courtroom will, no doubt, be very crowded should Shubert take the stand.
The judge announced last Friday that the trial would not move straight into closing arguments after the evidence is presented. Instead, he will take “several weeks” to review the testimony and documents and formulate questions to pose to the legal teams during those closing arguments.
Olson said last Friday that he would be delivering the closing arguments for the plaintiffs, two same-sex couples who seek to obtain a marriage license. Also delivering a closing argument on behalf of the city of San Francisco, which is also a party to the case challenging Proposition 8, is Therese Stewart, the Chief Deputy City Attorney for the city. Cooper is expected to do so for the Yes on 8 team defending the law.
© 2010 by Keen News Service. All rights reserved

When Robin Webb lived in New York City, he was treated by HIV specialists and had access to counseling and nutritional programs. Now he lives in Mississippi, where few of those services exist.
Mississippi is just one of several mostly rural states across the South with a dearth of resources for HIV and AIDS patients.
“Here, there’s no support group, no case management. There’s no daily reinforcement,” said Webb, 52, who has been HIV-positive for two decades.
Activists and the health care providers cite a need for more federal and state funding for outreach and drug assistance programs, as well as transportation for patients who have to travel from small towns to get care. That’s the message they’ll deliver when a top White House aide holds a rare community discussion Monday in Jackson.
Jeffrey S. Crowley, director of the White House’s Office of National AIDS Policy, said the meeting will highlight two realities of the national epidemic – the significant number of cases in the South, and how the disease disproportionately affects minorities.
The spread of the disease in the South has been attributed to numerous factors, including poverty and a social stigma that discourages many from getting tested or seeking treatment.
Patrick Packer, executive director of the Southern AIDS Coalition and a moderator for the discussion, wants to pose this question: “Why is it that the South is not getting its fair share of federal money based on the epidemic?”
The South leads the nation in the percentage of AIDS-related deaths. Yet, the region ranks last when it comes to overall federal dollars spent on an HIV-infected person at $6,565 a year, according to the coalition.
Forty-six percent of new AIDS cases in 2007 were in the South, according to the latest figures from the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Twenty-five percent of the new cases were in the Northeast, and 17 percent in the West, two regions with the nation’s largest metropolitan areas that have for many years received most of the federal money.
However, the South stands to get more funding.
President Barack Obama signed the $2.2 billion Ryan White HIV/AIDS extension act last month, which continued funding for rural areas, putting the South second in federal money behind the northern region. Activists said it’s still not enough to keep pace with the new cases.
Debbie Konkle-Parker, a nurse practitioner in Jackson, said the act also added federal money to the South in 2006, but didn’t put rural areas on the same level as big cities.
“The inequities were pretty huge,” she said. “People were spending money in New York City to do journal writing conferences, and in Mississippi, we couldn’t even get people to the clinics.”
Konkle-Parker said Mississippi has about eight public clinics to treat the majority of the 9,000 HIV patients in the state.
The current economic crunch has exacerbated the situation. Some states, like Kentucky, have cut funding for HIV/AIDS programs. The state had been contributing $250,000 a year prior to 2007, but now almost no state money is set aside for the AIDS Drug Assistance program, said Sigga Jagne, a program manager for the Kentucky Department of Health.
There are 1,277 enrolled in Kentucky’s program with 100 more on a waiting list, she said. Arkansas and Tennessee also now have waiting lists for the program, which is mostly federally funded but receives some state money. Packer said funding cuts have led to the waiting lists.
“We’re already disproportionately impacted by poverty and high rates of umemployment. It’s important for people who are HIV positive to be provided with life-sustaining drugs,” Jagne said.