Got an e-mail today from “Rethinking AIDS — an international group of more than 2,500 scientists, doctors, journalists, health advocates and others,” announcing that this group has “established April 23, 2008 as the first Rethinking AIDS Day.”

That’s tomorrow. It’s also the 24th anniversary of Dr. Robert Gallo’s announcement that he had discovered “the probable cause of AIDS.” That probable cause, of course, was the Human Immunodeficiency Virus, or HIV.

But the folks at Rethinking AIDS say that “no proof was presented, on that day or afterward, that this type of virus can cause or is actually present in AIDS patients,” and that the medical establishment’s blind acceptance of Dr. Gallo’s claim has caused “unimaginable devastation” ever since.

Rethinking AIDS President David Crowe asks: “What have 24 years and hundreds of billions of research dollars given us? Tests that don’t detect the virus, and toxic treatment drugs. Incorrect claims about HIV and AIDS have even included statistical predictions that have proved repeatedly to be wrong.”

Crowe and his Rethinking AIDS colleagues say they are establishing Rethinking AIDS Day to challenge the long-held belief that HIV causes AIDS and to invite “concerned citizens around the world to join it in questioning beliefs about HIV and AIDS that have no basis in science.”

I, personally, am pretty comfortable with the idea that HIV causes AIDS, even though I readily acknowledge that we have a long way to go toward finding good ways to combat the epidemic.

But everyone is entitled to their opinion, whether I agree with them or not, and just so you can make your own informed opinion about Rethinking AIDS, here’s their Web site: http://rethinkingaids.com.93.seekdotnet.com/

I’m all for saving a few bucks, but this just sounds nasty. [Might not be SFW.]

However, I have no piercings … Maybe Prince Alberts are easy to sterilize and trade.

The Dallas Morning News has a front-page feature story today on Jason Castro of Rockwall, who apparently will be singing again tonight on some show called “American Idol.” (Personally, I’ll be watching Game 7 of the Flyers and Capitals in the NHL playoffs.) But have you ever wondered what Castro would look like without those natty dreads? Or perhaps with the dreads but without a shirt? Well here you go:

The Washington Blade reports that charges have been dropped against a Georgetown University student from Southlake who was accused of assualting a fellow student last fall while shouting anti-gay epithets.

The suspect, then-19-year-old Phillip Anderton Cooney, is the son of a former White House official, so one can’t help but wonder whether this was a “presidential pardon” of sorts. Here’s a link to the original story about the assault that appeared in Dallas Voice. But here’s all you really need to know about this family:

“The senior Cooney resigned from the White House in 2005 to become an ExxonMobil lobbyist after it was learned that he had altered reports to cast doubt on the link between greenhouse-gas emissions and global warming, according to reports.”

The first thing I realized after looking at the list of plays that mark the first season of the Dallas Theater Under under its gay artistic director Kevin Moriarty was: Not a “Macbeth” or a “My Fair Lady” in the lot.

“If you had asked me at the beginning of the season, I would have expected a Shakespeare or a Rodgers & Hammerstein, too,” Moriarty confessed after the announcement. But there just wasn’t room.

Those of us who have been following Moriarty since his appointment wondered how he would find room for all he wanted to do. At the ceremony after his appointment was announced last June, Moriarty rattled off a list of all the things he wanted to accomplish: a new world premiere every year, classics, stories that speak to the community, musicals… just how many shows did he think he’d be putting on?

But he’s done just what he planned, and more.

The most significant development is his plan to institute a repertory company of nine actors who will perform in at least two shows every year. “Keeping it local” was a refrain that often seemed to fall on deaf ears with the DTC, which routinely casts its plays out of New York, despite the depth of talent in the Metroplex.

But it makes sense. In all the years I’ve been attending and reviewing theater in Dallas, I never once saw former DTC artistic director Richard Hamburger in the seats at any plays other than his own; in the last eight months, Moriarty has been a fixture time and again. He’s been absorbing the local theater scene, and he knows what it has to offer. This may be the greatest boon to the Dallas acting community in decades. (He’ll hold auditions and begin casting for the nine slots this summer, he said.)

The plays Moriarty has picked are risky — a collection of 15th century morality plays, two world premieres and one Dallas premiere, the raucous musical “Tommy,” which Uptown Players tried a few seasons back — but with that risk comes energy. You could tell everyone from blue-haired season subscribers to newcomers were excited by the ballsiness. And as one local veteran said to me after, referring to the impish Moriarty, “How can you not get excited when Peter Pan makes the announcement.”

We believe, Peter Pan; we believe.

This just in from Fort Worth: The Texas Wesleyan Gay Straight Alliance will be host for a presentation featuring a representative from MoSAIC — Methodist Students for an All-Inclusive Church — who will talk about giving full clergy rights to openly gay and lesbian clergy candidates, and Dr. Bruce McDonald, a religion professor at Texas Wesleyan, who opposes such action.

Organizers stress the event is NOT a debate but is simply an effort to “educate all those who attend on one of the most sensationalized dilemmas facing the UMC today.”

The event will be held at noon on Friday, April 25, on the first floor of West Library in the Orientation Room.

The university is at 1201 Wesleyan St. in Fort Worth. You can get directions at the Web site, www.txwesleyan.edu.

The following item will be in Friday’s paper, but since the event is Friday night, I thought I’d go ahead and post it here too:

More than 20 local organizations will host a rally Friday night, April 25, at Reverchon Park to culminate the National Day of Silence.
The first-of-its-kind rally, called Breaking the Silence, will be at 7 p.m. in the ampitheater and recreation center of the park, at 3505 Maple Avenue in Dallas. The rally is free and open to the public.
The National Day of Silence, sponsored by the Gay, Lesbian and Straight Education Network, is an annual event designed to raise awareness about anti-gay bullying in schools. Students from middle school through college are asked to remain silent for at least a portion of the school day.
This year’s National Day of Silence has been dedicated to the memory of Lawrence King, the 14-year-old from California who was shot to death by a classmate in February for being gay.
Beau Heyen, co-chairman of GLSEN Dallas, said Friday’s Breaking the Silence rally will feature refreshments, a DJ, a performance by a youth band, two youth speakers and informational tables representing the sponsors.
“I think it’s going to be very well attended,” Heyen said.
For more information on the National Day of Silence, visit www.dayofsilence.org.
For more information on the rally, visit www.glsendallas.org or call Heyen at (817)999-0199.

Jon Garinn, gay advertoriologist over at The Dallas Morning News, isn’t going to like this. Garinn’s nemesis, Dallas Voice Life+Styles editor Daniel Kusner, appears to be gaining notoriety as perhaps the only gay person who doesn’t like Chelsea Clinton.

As MSNBC reports, Chelsea was once again courting LGBT voters this weekend during a gay pub crawl in Philadelphia:
“Chelsea, the gays love you!” one fan exclaimed, as she took the microphone at Bump, a restaurant and bar that was her first stop. “Oh, gosh, I don’t know if everybody loves me,” she responded.

Queerty, which beat us to the punchline here, notes that Chelsea is right: Kusner once called her “an old fart.”

According to Garinn, though, that was just Kusner being Kusner (see the comments).

Kusner is on vacation today and couldn’t be reached for comment.

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Here’s Judy Shepard’s speech last week at the Human Rights Campaign’s fundraising gala in Houston. During the speech, Shepard appears to blame the press for giving HRC a bad name. “I commend all of you for understanding how important it is to support them (HRC) even when the press begins to rail at them for things they (the press) don’t understand,” Shepard says in the video.

Does Shepard think the folks picketing the dinner outside were members of the press? Does she think the more than 300 groups that oppose the trans-less ENDA are members of the press? And how much did HRC pay her to say this?

Also, here’s a link to a sermon by Mary Lowrance called “A Place at the Table.” Lowrance is the former Methodist minister profiled in today’s Voice who surrendered her credentials for fear of a church trial. Take a listen.

The Web site eQualityGiving.org uses an Equality Scorecard to rank the 50 states and D.C. on gay rights. Not surprisingly, Texas scores pretty low, just 1.5 points out of a maximum of six. Twenty-five states score higher than Texas, while 15 score lower and 10 have the same score. The 10 states that have the same score as Texas include Kentucky, Oklahoma, Kansas and South Dakota. Yikes!!!

But here is perhaps the saddest, most pathetic part: On the right side of the main page of the Web site, eight state-level LGBT equality organizations are listed as participating partners, and readers are asked to vote for one of the groups. Whichever group receives the most votes is to receive $1,000. In last place, with just 1 percent of the votes (despite mine this morning), is good old Equality Texas. C’mon now folks!!!