🏳️‍🌈✝️ America's Government should NOT be using RELIGION to DISCRIMINATE against ANYONE!!!

I DESERVE MEDICAL TREATMENT FREE FROM RELIGIOUS DISCRIMINATION and I AM SPEAKING OUT!!! LET YOUR VOICE BE HEARD if this HATE has YOU IN MIND!!!

Rainbow Pastor David

01/31/2018

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Take a moment if you will to visit Conscience and Religious Freedom to see for yourself how our government in the USA has decided to use RELIGION to DISCRIMINATE against people living with HIV/AIDS and people in the LGBTQI+ Community. As an HIV Positive Gay Christian man I am absolutely appalled by this newest form of DISCRIMINATION.

As a Pastor I can NOT agree with this Administrations decision to DISCRIMINATE against people based on RELIGIOUS BELIEFS. I am a CHRISTIAN and I am thankful that I can worship GOD without looking over my shoulder hoping I am not put to death for doing so. This country was founded on the FREEDOM from RELIGIOUS RULE so people can believe whatever they believe in. It is NOT the FEDERAL GOVERNMENTS PLACE to regulate RELIGION or pass JUDGEMENT on an individual because of their SEXUALITY or their RELIGIOUS BELIEF or UNBELIEF. 

America is working towards exactly what our Fore Fathers  left Europe to  escape FROM!!! 

The AIDS Foundation of Chicago is taking action against this DISCRIMINATION and encourages everyone affected to let their VOICE BE HEARD. IT IS OUR RIGHT AS AMERICAN CITIZENS to BE PROTECTED from RELIGIOUS DISCRIMINATION as well as ANY other FORM OF DISCRIMINATION PERIOD!!! 

The Conscience and Religious Freedom Division is about protecting providers who discriminate

January 19, 2018

AFC and Pride Action Tank-strongly condemn the announcement by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) to create the Conscience and Religious Freedom Division (CRFD) in the HHS Office for Civil Rights (OCR).  The Trump administration and HHS announced the CRFD will be tasked with “restoring federal enforcement of our nation’s laws that protect the fundamental and unalienable rights of conscience and religious freedom.”

To those that work and promote health equity we know this act  is intended to roll back critical protections that ensured people living with and vulnerable to HIV, women, LGBTQ individuals and other marginalized populations could not be denied medical care. The Conscience and Religious Freedom Division will now use federal dollars to shield providers who choose to discriminate, instead of prioritizing  vulnerable patients and provide services to improve their health is counter to the mission of HHS, wasteful of scarce federal funds, and will result in delayed or lack of care for vulnerable individuals, threatening their health and lives. 

We call on the Trump administration and HHS to reverse this decision immediately!

We get it AMERICA, the TRUMP ADMINISTRATION wants to alienate the LGBTQI+ Community as if we are NOT HUMAN. WE ARE HUMAN and WE WILL FIGHT FOR OUR RIGHT TO NOT BE DISCRIMINATED AGAINST!!!

This ADMINISTRATION  has been touting RELIGIOUS FREEDOM from day one even though RELIGIOUS FREEDOM was established over 200 years ago by those who founded this country. If they really want to be like the GOD they claim they SERVE they need to follow JESUS' example doing EVERYTHING POSSIBLE to HELP the POOR, the SICK, and the OTHERS that the RELIGIOUS COMMUNITY deems "unworthy". JESUS continually REPRIMANDED the RELIGIOUS COMMUNITY because of their HATEFUL DISCRIMINATION!!!

JESUS commanded those who "FOLLOW" HIM to do this: "Heal the sick, raise the dead, cleanse the lepers, cast out demons. Freely you have received, freely give." Matthew 10:8  

JESUS also commanded HIS "FOLLOWERS" to: "Treat others the same way you want them to treat you." Luke 6:31

As a FOLLOWER OF JESUS CHRIST I STRONGLY URGE everyone who is being DISCRIMINATED AGAINST because of this HATEFUL LEGISLATION to LET YOUR VOICE TO BE HEARD!!!  

I pray that GOD will be with each person who will suffer from this DISCRIMINATION LAW!!

Blessings and Peace,

Rainbow Pastor David 

🏳️‍🌈✝️ HIV Linked to Condition That May Lead to Serious Cognitive Dysfunction

Middle-aged people living with the virus have a higher rate of silent cerebral small-vessel disease than their HIV-negative peers.

January 24, 2018 • By Benjamin Ryan 


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Middle-aged people living with HIV have a higher risk of silent cerebral small-vessel disease (CSVD), which is a key warning sign that an individual may progress to more serious neurocognitive conditions, aidsmap reports.

Publishing their findings in Clinical Infectious Diseases, French researchers conducted a cross-sectional study of 456 HIV-positive individuals age 50 and older and 156 matched controls who did not have the virus. They used MRIs to detect CSVD and severe CSVD. The participants were recruited between 2013 and 2016.

All the HIV-positive participants were on successful long-term antiretroviral treatment. The study excluded those who were coinfected with hepatitis C virus (HCV), had a substance abuse disorder and who had been diagnosed with a neurological disease.

Fifty-two percent of the people living with HIV had CSVD compared with 36 percent of the control subjects. One fifth of the group with HIV and 14 percent of the HIV-negative group had a severe case.

After adjusting their data to account for age, sex, alcohol use, blood pressure, blood lipids and cardiovascular disease, the researchers found that having HIV was associated with a 2.3-fold increased risk of CSVD. There was no such association between HIV and severe CSVD.

Among those living with HIV, having had a lowest-ever CD4 count below 200 was associated with a 1.5-fold increased risk of CSVD.

To read the aidsmap article, click here.

To read the study abstract, click here.

More from POZ,here

 

🏳️‍🌈✝️ Administration Attacks on Drug Pricing Program Have Advocates Worried

By Richard Sorian From AIDS United

January 25, 2018

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A program that lowers drug costs for Ryan White clinics, community health centers, family planning clinics, and hospitals serving low-income patients is under attack by Republicans in Congress and the Trump Administration. Efforts to reduce the scope of the program are being advanced on Capitol Hill by the pharmaceutical industry and its allies.

The 340B program requires drug makers to reduce their prices through discounts ranging from 20 to as much as 50 percent. Enacted in 1992, it has enjoyed strong bipartisan support for most of its history. But the last year has been marked by a series of attacks that have eroded the program's buying power and could threaten its future.

In November, the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) finalized regulations that will slash $1.6 billion from payments to many 340B hospitals by reducing what Medicare pays them for drugs. Hospital groups have gone to court to stop the cuts but have so far not succeeded. Legislation in Congress would roll back the cuts but, despite gaining 175 cosponsors in two months, it remains in limbo. Hospitals have said they will have to cut back on services, close some service sites, and lay off employees if the cuts remain in effect.

Related: HIV Activists Prepare for What Lies Ahead in 2018

On Capitol Hill, legislation has been introduced by Sen. Bill Cassidy (R-La.) and Reps. Larry Bucshon (R-Ind.) and Scott Peters (D-Calif.) that would freeze the addition of new Disproportionate Share Hospitals (DSH) participation entering into the 340B program and impose significant new reporting requirements. Advocates fear that will push some hospitals out of the program. In response to the Bucshon-Peters bill, the Ryan White Clinics for 340B Access issued a statement objecting to several provisions, saying the bill "set(s) a dangerous precedent for all health care providers in the 340B program."

Finally, the Republicans on the House Committee on Energy & Commerce released a report critical of the 340B program and promised to introduce legislation in February that would likely pare back the program.

It's not clear whether proponents of new limits on the 340B program will be able to move legislation through the closely divided Congress in 2018. But we certainly have not heard the last of this debate.

Richard Sorian is the Senior Vice President of Communications for 340B Health, which represents more than 1,300 hospitals and health systems participating in the 340B drug pricing program.
[Editor's note: An earlier version of this story indicated the Bucshon-Peters bill would impose new reporting requirements on Ryan White clinics. That is not correct.]

[Note from TheBody.com: This article was originally published by AIDS United on Jan. 19, 2018. We have cross-posted it with their permission.]

More from the Body, here

 

🏳️‍🌈✝️ AIDS Groups Condemn New Rule on Health Workers’ Religious Freedom

Pro-life demonstrators. The HHS rule protects health workers who object to providing abortion services and other care. Istock

The Trump Administration is protecting providers who deny medical care. This is “an attempt at state-sanctioned discrimination.”

January 19, 2018 • By AIDS United


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AIDS United, the National alliance of State & Territorial AIDS Directors (NASTAD), the National Coalition of STD Directors, the National Minority AIDS Council (NMAC) and The AIDS Institute jointly condemned the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) announcement today, January 19, of the formation of a new Conscience and Religious Freedom Division (CRFD) in the HHS Office for Civil Rights (OCR). The CRFD will be tasked with “restor[ing] federal enforcement of our nation’s laws that protect the fundamental and unalienable rights of conscience and religious freedom.” To those of us who work to promote the health of LGBTQ people, those living with HIV, including people of color, and other marginalized communities, we recognize this as dog-whistle politics and an attempt at state-sanctioned discrimination.

The Trump administration is extending federal, legal cover to providers who can potentially deny medical care for transgender individuals, women, or same-sex couples, including the full range of reproductive health services and any other procedure an employee or licensed health facility may object to, on so-called “moral” grounds. The new division will invite health professionals to misinterpret and ignore current legal and medical standards, putting the health and safety of patients at risk.

In its announcement of the office, HHS spokesperson OCR Director Roger Severino offered the false choice that “no one should be forced to choose between helping sick people and living by one’s deepest moral or religious convictions.” However, we contend that no one should be denied medical care because their doctor or provider objects to their sexual orientation, gender identity, or reproductive autonomy. LGBTQ and other minority and marginalized communities, especially those living with HIV, already face discrimination and significant barriers to accessing critical prevention and care services.

The Office of Civil Rights should focus its efforts on ensuring access to care, particularly for communities who suffer devastating health disparities because of the discrimination they face. In its denial of the experience of those whose very lives are endangered by provider discrimination, the CRFD makes a mockery of the Office of Civil Rights and we urge the administration to reverse course.

AIDS United (AU), NASTAD, the National Coalition of STD Directors (NCSD), NMAC, and The AIDS Institute (TAI) are national non-partisan, non-profit organizations focused on ending HIV in the U.S. They have been working in partnership to identify and share resources to sustain successes and progress we have made in HIV and STD prevention, care and treatment in the United States.

  

🏳️‍🌈✝️ A Letter To Transgender People About Dating

Photo Credit: Nick Kenrick.. Flickr via Compfight cc

This one is specifically for trans folks, but cis folks can listen in if they want (and they should).

Written by Shannon T.L. Kearns

01/15/2018

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My dear ones,

If I could tell you one thing and make you believe it it would be this: You are beloved and worthy of love. Not in spite of your transness or your body or your identity but because of it. Because you are amazing and whole just as you are. Because you are a gift to the world.

I know there are a lot of narratives out there about how hard we are to date. How hard our very existence is on the people around us. How difficult our living into our truth makes it for other people. But you know what? All of that stuff is bullshit. It is! It’s bullshit that is passed on and around in order to make cisgender people feel better about their transphobia. It’s designed to make us, an already marginalized people, continue to feel badly about ourselves so that we will give up our power.

These messages are designed to wear us down. They are designed to make us feel insecure. To make us feel unworthy. To make us feel less than. 

And these messages do real harm to our community. Because we hear them all over and we can’t help but to internalize them.

How does this play out?

We feel we are unworthy of love. That our bodies are disgusting and less than. That we are missing parts (or have extra parts) that no one will ever love.

We stay in relationships that are harmful or abusive or even just less than ideal because we feel that’s all we deserve. That if we leave these people that we will never find anyone else. That this is what we deserve because we are freaks after all. That maybe this is as good as it gets.

And cisgender people prey on our insecurities. They reinforce them. They tell us at every turn that we are lucky when our cisgender partners stay with us (even as they use a wrong name and pronoun for us, even as they dead name us, even as they tell us how hard our wholeness is on them). They tell us that since it’s so hard on them we need to be patient (even as they do nothing to get it right). They tell us that we have to stay, we have to be nice, we have to listen to them say hurtful things because after all we’re the ones who messed things up by transitioning. 

But what if it didn’t have to be like this?

What if you could really, truly believe that you are worthy and good? That there is someone out there who will love you for all of you? That there are people who won’t make you feel bad for living into your truth, for embracing your identity?

There are. Really truly. They are people who will love you and cherish you. There are people who will do their own work of healing, get their own therapists, and want you to be healthy and whole as they are healthy and whole.

What if you could stand up in your truth and say “I am worth more than this. I am worthy of love. I am worthy of being desired. I am worthy of having a partner who is moving toward wholeness as I am also moving toward wholeness. I am worthy of respect: of being spoken to respectfully, of having my name and pronouns respected, of having my boundaries respected.”

We don’t have to settle for less than. We don’t have to listen to these narratives that say we’re hard to deal with and hard to date. We don’t have to prioritize cisgender feelings over our own feelings, not even the feelings of our partners: not even if we’re married and have been married for years.

Look, might your cisgender partner have a tough time with your transition at first? Sure. Then they need to get a therapist and deal with that. They need to make a decision about whether or not they want to stay. And if they want to stay they need to get on board and quick. And if they don’t? If it’s clear that they are refusing to do the work necessary to love you really love you not in spite of your transness but because of it, then you have every right to leave them. No matter the length or the depth of the history between you. Because you do not deserve to be treated with disrespect. You do not deserve to be with someone who won’t work on their own trauma and toward their own healing. You do not have to be a caretaker for emotions that your partner refuses to deal with. You deserve better.

When you decided to embrace your truth and live into it, you took a step toward wholeness. You deserve to be with someone who is also taking those steps. You deserve to be with someone who celebrates you and your identity. You deserve to be with someone who thinks you are the bees knees. 

Because you are.

You deserve love and every kind of happy ending. You are worthy of it. Don’t settle for less.

Love,
Me

PS: Cisgender folks: Trans people are amazing. They are beautiful and funny and resilient and strong. They are loving and fierce. They are brilliant and sexy. They are the real deal and if you are lucky enough to date or marry a trans person? You have got to do right by them. Because this community is one of the most incredible anywhere and you are lucky to get to even be adjacent to it. And if you can’t celebrate that? If you can’t realize how incredible trans people are? Then you don’t deserve us. Because we are incredible.

More from Shannon, here

Follow Shannon on Twitter

 

🏳️‍🌈✝️ Growing Up Gay: In a Christian Home and In the Evangelical Church

By Rainbow Pastor David A. Moorman

01/10/2018 

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June 11, 1968 my mother gave birth to her first child. This child was me, David. Today I would like to share parts of my journey thus far in life with you. May you be blessed and enlightened by my PERSONAL EXPERIENCE with GOD.

My Mother and Father did their very best to instill “Christianity” into the hearts of me and my sister. I remember coming home from church when I was a young child and was so excited to tell my parents that I had accepted Jesus as my Lord and Savior. Of course this was exciting news and news that my Mother knew she would hear someday. You see, when I was still a young child my Mother knelt beside my bed and gave me back to Jesus before I even knew how to talk.

As I went into the first grade in school, I learned very quickly that I was not like all the other little boys. You see at that tender age, I knew I liked boys, the way we were taught to like girls. It did not get any easier once I realized I was different. I held many a crush on boys throughout my school years.

Just like any “good ole boy” was supposed to do, I tried with everything within me to like girls. I would lay in bed at night begging and pleading with God “to take away these feelings” that where surely going to send me straight to hell. As time passed and I entered my teenage years, it became more of a burden on my heart that I was NOT right and I needed to change. I talked with my closest “friends” about the way I felt, which only caused more hurt when I was made fun of, so I turned inward and began beating myself up with the thoughts that I was “DOOMED” to a life of unhappiness. I had lost me somewhere between about 13 and 19 years of age. 

No one really knew what was going on with me at that time in my life because I became a hard core “CHRISTIAN” that was going to change the world. I even got ordained shortly after graduation. I went to a Christian School so it was very hard to be me. I dolled myself up in expensive suits and ties, because I was working and spending all my money on trying to make the outside look so good that maybe, just maybe my inside would start to match. I became known as the “Class Preacher Man”. I was the Senior Class President, I was on the yearbook staff, I was the basketball manager because I could not play sports to save my life, and I began teaching and preaching to take my mind off of me. 

When high school was over; I finally “CAME OUT” to my family. Dad was not happy about it, however he told me he would always support me and love me no matter what. 

My Mom did not take it so well. We cried together for what seemed an eternity. I did my best to try and convince her it was NOT her fault or my Dad’s fault, it was just who I am and had always been. She could not understand because I had “Dated” so many girls. I explained to her that many of us in the “church” did that to cover up who we were because we knew growing up in an Evangelical Church that we would be disowned, shunned and even asked to leave the church. It took my Mom several years to understand that this was NOT a FAD and was not going away. It was a rough several years of bitterness, hatred, and crying but so happy to report that my Partner and I have a wonderful relationship with my Mom and also my Dad who was there for me through all the years of heartache and is still my Best Friend to this day. Let me back up because I need go back to the struggle of becoming who God had called me to be.

I had decided to make it my life’s mission to help other people. During this turbulent time in my life I could not even help myself, but I sure tried to be the “BEST CHRISTIAN” I could be. I went before so many “PREACHERS” during those years, and they tried to NO AVAIL to “cast out the HORRIBLE demons” that had possessed me as a child. You see this is what the EVANGELICAL churches do; if you were not living as they teach you to live it was because you were possessed or oppressed by demons. I have personally encountered dealing with demons, so I knew I was NOT possessed. I even put myself through the TORTURE of FIRST STONE MINISTRIES – TO BECOME STRAIGHT. Long story short on that one it did not WORK!!! I even got engaged to a beautiful girl, we all know how that turned out. It did not work. Don’t get me wrong, I loved her, I just could not bring myself to live a lie by marring her. Side note here: We have talked in recent years and I asked her to forgive me for running away and not explaining things to her at that time. She forgave me. All she ever wanted was to know why so it was a wonderful thing that God brought us together on Social Media so she could get the closure she needed. She will always hold a special place in my heart. She is happily married with wonderful step children and husband that adores her.

As I was beginning to grow into adulthood {19 years old}, I could no longer fight these feelings that I had been burdening over for all these years. I tried without succeeding of course to end my life because I did not want to displease God by acting on these feelings I had. Thank God He did not let me die that day. Shortly after that episode, I was attending a huge church here in Oklahoma City, called City Church, when our Pastor Richard Hogue had invited in some well known Prophets in the Evangelical World. I had a feeling something was going to change in my life that night. I just had no idea how RADICAL it was going to be.

One of the two prophets was explaining the role of the Prophet in the church. He walked by me, I always sat on the front row at church, and he touched my shoulder. It felt like a bolt of lightning shot through my body. He jumped back, looked at me, shook his head and said did you feel that son. I shook my head yes and he went on with his teaching. I knew at the very moment I was going to be called to the front of the church when he was done teaching. Sure enough when he was through with the teaching I was one of the first ones he called to the front. Remember just a short time before this I had tried to end my life so I would no longer be “gay”.

So there I was standing before the church in front of this Prophet of God with my Pastor letting out a few Hallelujahs. As I stood there before this man of God all the thoughts I had about not being good enough as a Christian, let alone a “MAN” came flooding in. Just like the enemy of God to try to bring you down right before God chooses to build you up. I was so lost and hurting inside and I desperately wanted to hear from God so I would know what to do with the rest of my life. It was in that moment as the prophet began to speak to me, that I finally realized that GOD truly did love me.

I want to preface the rest of this story with this: To ALL the EVANGELICAL – RADICAL – GOD FEARING CHRISTIANS, what happened that NIGHT FOREVER CHANGED MY LIFE and IT IS GOING TO GO AGAINST EVERYTHING YOU HAVE EVER BEEN TAUGHT TO BELIEVE!!! I want to say that NOTHING anyone could ever say to this day or even going on in my life’s journey, could take away the JOY I FOUND IN GOD THAT NIGHT!! I still to this day have the tape of that meeting as my PROOF of WHAT GOD SAID TO ME THAT NIGHT!! If you continue reading, I TELL YOU NOW, THE TRUTH OF GOD MAY JUST SET YOU FREE as YOU SEE HOW HIS WORDS forever CHANGED MY LIFE for the BETTER!!

I stood there frozen in almost disbelief as this man of God started telling me what God was showing him about my LIFE. NO ONE and I mean NO ONE knew about my late night talks with God. NO ONE KNEW that I CRIED MYSELF TO SLEEP many nights asking GOD WHY I WAS THE WAY I AM!!! The prophet looked me in the eyes and began telling me how GOD had seen my tears, how GOD had been there listening to me every night of my life to that point, begging HIM to change me. He said to me, son, you are exactly how GOD made you. God does not make mistakes. GOD loves you just as you are right now. At this time I could no longer hold back the tears. I was finally being comforted by the GOD who had created me with HIS unconditional love and acceptance. I was NOT an outcast or pervert or a disgrace. I was truly a CHILD OF GOD. He went on to tell me about how GOD had called me to be a GOOD SHEPHERD, a keeper of the sheep {HIS CHILDREN}, the one who goes out after the lost sheep. I knew this of course because I had felt that call on my life for a long time. He went on to say that I would be the GOOD SHEPHERD of people who were JUST LIKE ME. AWE yes, but, there always seems to be a “but” when GOD wants to mold you. He told me that in order to be that GOOD SHEPHERD that GOD was calling me to be; I would first have to EXPERIENCE everything that people like me EXPERIENCE. These were the people that had been rejected by the “CHURCH” for being like me. Wow, what a heavy burden was starting to lift. Then he said that I would go through a “WILDERNESS” period of unknown time {16+ years}, during which I would wonder away and ask GOD where He was, even though He was there all the time carrying me through those years. He then said something that I thought I would never forgot. It would not be until years down the road that this would happen so I eventually forgot about it. He said that I would know that my “WILDERNESS” period was almost up, when I looked up to the Heavens and said “THIS TOO GOD, REALLY, THIS TOO”. That was a night to remember for sure. He told me that this “Wilderness” period would not be an easy experience, however he reassured me God would have His hand on my life.

Several years past and I was ministering and laying hands on people even in the bars. OMG, you cannot do that in bars, you may be saying to yourself, but GOD will use you anywhere when you are devoted to LISTENING to His voice.  Word had gotten out that David, who sat in the far backroom of this one bar in particular had supernatural powers. Of course I DID NOT have supernatural powers, I had a SUPERNATURAL BEING using me as an instrument for HIS GLORY. God performed many miracles in that little old bar in the panhandle of Texas.

I won’t bore you with all the nasty details of what my life became over the next several years. Let me just say, if it were not for God carrying me through I would be dead by now. I will tell you that I was in a “BAD” three year relationship that ended badly. After that I moved back to Oklahoma from Texas. So yes, my one and only Ex lived in Texas. Just a little humor I like to throw out there sometimes. My Ex passed away in 2010 so I no longer have any ex’s living, however I have a wonderful life partner of 20+ years that has loved me through all the hard times.

In 1996, I moved home after being gone for three years. I was only home a short time before I met my spouse. We have been through so much together I could write a whole book about it, but I digress. So at this time I am still going through the “WILDERNESS” asking GOD if I am ever going to get through. Well, in 2007 I heard from GOD again. Scott and I were going through some tough financial times and we had no food to eat and I asked God for food. A friend of mine came by one day and said let me take you to a place where you can get some food. I had told no one about my need for food except God. So they took me to a place in Midwest City ran by Meadow Wood Baptist Church. I was so ashamed and did not want to be there. I thought I was at the lowest point in my life at that time. I did not think my life could sink any lower than the bottom of the barrel. There I was at this Food Bank ran by a Baptist Church. I was nervous because I had never seen myself getting to this point in life. My friend reassured me it was going to be okay and that sometimes people need a little help in life and that it was no big deal.

The time came, my name was called and off I went to a little small office at the end of a long hallway. Not really what I was expecting. The Elder Lady was so sweet and reassuring that everything was going to be alright. I had no problem with this because I love to talk about God. She said they like to make sure they minister to the spirit of a person as well as give them food. She said they usually ask people if they are saved, but then she paused. She put her fragile little hand on my knee and a huge smile came on her face. She said, “Son I can tell you are a man of GOD, a Good Shepherd.” NOT what I was expecting to hear. She said, “You were called from a very young age to be in the ministry.” I shook my head yes as tears began to well up in my eyes. With a sweet smile on her face she said so gently to me, “hold on a minute and she looked up at the ceiling.” With the sweetest voice she said, “Okay God I will tell him”. What? I thought only EVANGELICALS heard from GOD, I was taught that Baptist do not do that. Boy was I taught wrong. She looked back at me and began to speak in that same sweet voice. She said, “Do you remember back when GOD told you HE was calling you to be a “GOOD SHEPHERD”? I nodded as the tears were flowing so diligently now. She continued, “you know the “Wilderness Period” God told you several years ago that you we going to go through?” I just nodded because I could not speak. I was so overcome with joy and the presence of God. She continued, “Son God wants me to tell you that you’re “WILDERNESS” is almost over". Then a tear came into her eye as she said, “however you have ONE more thing to go through and it is NOT going to be easy. But know this my son, when you go through it "YOU WILL LOOK UP TO THE HEAVENS and SAY – THIS TOO GOD, REALLY, THIS TOO.” I was sobbing by this time. It was such a joyous thing to hear that GOD was REAFFIRMING through this stranger that I WAS ON THE RIGHT TRACK!!! For so many years I thought God has turned His back on me and all that time He was holding me in His tender care. I left that place that day with not only food for our nourishment; I left with a joyous heart, knowing that GOD was still on the THRONE looking out for me.

About a year went by with nothing more said or even thought, about what she had said to me and what had already been said to me so many years before. Around Thanksgiving and Christmas holidays in November/December 2008, my spouse and I broke up for about three/four months. It was all my doing because I did not think I wanted to be in a relationship anymore. I did things in that three/four month period that I would soon come to regret for the rest of my life. I can tell you now that if it had not been for GOD looking out for me, the love of my life NOT giving up on me, my parents loving me through it all, and my wonderful support group of friends, I would be dead.

In May of 2009 I got a call from one of the guys I had seen during that three months. He told me that I needed to be tested for HIV. I felt such heaviness come over me, but I thought to myself it is just a test to prove I was Negative. So on May 28, 2009 I went in for a HIV test. I remember sitting there waiting for the results talking to the young lady as if I were going to get a negative result. Then she asked me a question that shook me back into reality. She asked me what I would do if I found out I was Positive for HIV. I told her kind of laughing it off that I would just go on with my life. At exactly 10:15 am I was given the BLOW of my LIFE – I WAS INDEED HIV POSITIVE. She kept asking if I was alright and I said sure I just want to go home. After about 15 minutes of her probing me with questions to make sure I was okay and not going to harm myself or someone else, she let me leave. My life was never going to be the same after that day.

So on May 28, 2009, I sat on my front porch feeling ashamed, hurt, lonely, scared, and mad all at the same time. The more I thought about those words {YOU ARE POSITIVE} the angrier I became. And right there on my front porch I dropped to my knees, I looked up to the heavens, and I YELLED – “THIS TOO GOD, REALLY THIS TOO”!! 

At that very moment I was overcome with joy that far outweighed the anger, the hate, the shame, and the hurt that was piercing me to the core. I knelt there crying tears of joy, not over the fact that I had just found out I was HIV POSITIVE, but joy in the FACT that my “WILDERNESS” was almost over.

God has really been working on me the several years of my life. My spouse and I have renewed our commitment to each other. I have actually grown to love him more than I ever had before, because he has actually shown me TRUE – UNCONDITIONAL LOVE. I have been so blessed to have such a wonderful partner that loves the LORD as much as I do. God has been using me through my illness to reach out and help others through that rough time of learning you are HIV POSITIVE. God has been taking all the NEGATIVE things I have gone through the past 20+ years of my life and I am actually using those things as POSITIVE things to help others through the tough times in their lives. 

I know it is so hard for “EVANGELICAL CHRISTIANS” to understand how GOD can LOVE and USE someone from the LGBTQ community to show others in the LGBTQ community how much HE LOVES THEM and ACCEPTS them JUST AS HE MADE THEM. It is however a FACT not only in my LIFE, but in the lives of those GOD chose before me to do HIS WORK.

It is time the “CHURCH” itself wakes up and learns the truth about all those “SCRIPTURES” they try to use to condemn the LGBT community. It is time the “CHURCH” actually LISTENS for the voice of GOD and start acting like HIS CHILDREN. When you actually SHUT UP and be still before GOD, HE will reveal HIMSELF to you for who HE is and not what MANKIND has taught you to believe about GOD. Praise GOD that I AM A CHILD of THE MOST HIGH and I AM BLESSED and HIGHLY FAVORED. I will FOREVER be in the SERVICE of the MOST HIGH GOD. 

The GOD who created this world is THE GOD I have chosen to follow for the REST of MY LIFE. I will DO what HE has called me to do. HIS will for ALL HIS CHILDREN is that they be VESSELS of HONOR for HIM. I will continue to spread the GOOD NEWS of the GOSPEL to all the WORLD including the LGBTQ CHILDREN of GOD that have been shunned by the “TRADITIONAL CHURCH”.

May the ONE TRUE GOD bless each of you and help you to humble yourself before HIM so HE can TEACH you the TRUTH about who HE IS!! 

It is my prayer that, ALL who read my story, will come to know GOD and how much HE loves you. God’s gift to you for coming to know Him as your personal Savior is ETERNAL LIFE. The joy of the Lord truly has become my strength. May the sweet peace of GOD rest upon you today and everyday you bask in His LOVE!!

If you need prayer for anything in your life or you have a prayer request you would like others to agree with you about, please visit my prayer page. I post inspirational quotes, pictures and songs on this site. Along with others around the world, I join with them believing for miracles in people’s lives. GOD is still on the THRONE and HE HONORS HIS WORD. We are told in scripture to join together in agreement and Jesus will be there with us to perform greater things than even He did when He walked the earth. We have seen a lot of miracles in our group. GOD ANSWERS PRAYERS when we take time to give HIM PRAISE. 

I want to leave you with a word from GOD:

“Study and do your best to present yourself to God approved, a workman [tested by trial] who has no reason to be ashamed, accurately handling and skillfully teaching the word of truth.”

 2 Timothy 2:15 (AMP)

Blessings and Peace,

Rainbow Pastor David

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Originally published on June 11, 2015

Some revisions needed to be made.

🏳️‍🌈✝️ New Drug-Capsule Technology Could Permit Weekly Dosing of HIV Meds

The star-shaped structure is designed to unfold in the stomach and gradually release medications.

January 9, 2018

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Researchers have developed a drug capsule that could allow people with HIV to take just one dose of antiretrovirals (ARVs) per week.

Publishing their findings in Nature Communications, researchers built on a previous study in which they had designed a capsule that could remain in the stomach for two weeks, gradually releasing a malaria medication.

The research team’s capsule is star-shaped and has six folded “arms” covered in a smooth coating and loaded with medication. Once the capsule is swallowed, the arms unfold and gradually release the medication.

For the new version of this capsule, designed for use with ARVs, the investigators constructed the backbone of the star structure out of a strong polymer. Each of the structure’s six arms can be filled with a different drug-loaded polymer to allow for the drugs to be released at different rates. Once the drugs are released, the capsule disintegrates into smaller parts that can pass through the digestive tract.

The scientists conducted experiments with pigs and found that the capsules successfully lodged in the stomach and then released a trio of ARVs over the course of one week.

To read a press release about the study, click here.

More from POZ, here