(The Sexist) Last week, the Centers for Disease Control released a new report on HIV in D.C. including numbers through 2008. Here’s a look at the extent of the epidemic, according to the CDC’s findings: * D.C.’s AIDS rate is higher than that of any U.S.

(HRC Back Story) Today, a million Americans have HIV/AIDS with one in five (230,000) unaware they are infected. Sixteen years ago today, June 27 th , the National Association of People Living with HIV/AIDS , LGBT groups, and public health professionals banded together to launch a nationwide effort to encourage individuals to learn their HIV status. Testing is a powerful prevention tool.

(365 Gay) First Lady Michelle Obama welcomed lesbian tennis star Billie Jean King to the President’s Council on Fitness, Sports and Nutrition. Mrs. Obama launched the newly revamped Council on Monday afternoon and introduced this year’s appointed members.

(GLAAD) GLAAD is reaching out to ABC’s “The View” following a problematic segment on the June 22 broadcast . During a discussion about the FDA ban on blood donation by gay and bi men, guest host D.L. Hughley and regular View host Sherri Shepherd communicated misinformation about the causes of increased HIV rates among African American women, essentially blaming gay and bi men for the trend.

(Lambda Legal) A new study co-authored by Lambda Legal and the UCLA School of Public Health finds a close correlation between state and federal marriage discrimination against same-sex couples and disparities in health coverage between married heterosexuals and partnered gay men and lesbians.

(HRC Back Story) Today, the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services’ Advisory Committee on Blood Safety and Availability begins a two-day meeting to review the scientific rationale for and societal implications of the current lifetime ban on gay and bisexual men donating blood. A full agenda and link to a streaming webcast of the meeting is available on the Committee’s website .

(Out and About) Vanderbilt to host event for community health providers, researchers. The NIMH Annual International Research Conference on the Role of Families in Preventing and Adapting to HIV/AIDS will be held at Vanderbilt University from June 16-18.

(Miami Herald) Three years after a lesbian complained she wasn’t allowed to visit her dying partner at Jackson Memorial Hospital, the South Florida healthcare center now ranks high in how it responds to gay patients and families, according to a report released Monday by the national Human Rights Campaign.

(The Sexist) The Human Rights Campaign has released its 2010 Healthcare Equality Index , which rates healthcare providers on their policies toward the LGBT community. The HRC’s press release was not impressed. It kicks off: “new healthcare equality analysis from the Human Rights Campaign (HRC) Foundation found that no healthcare facilities in the Washington, D.C., metro area reviewed for the Healthcare Equality Index (HEI) 2010 have fully inclusive non-discrimination policies for lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender ( LGBT ) people.” Let’s see how our local hospitals stacked up: Six hospitals included in the survey—Washington Hospital Center, Sibley Memorial Hospital, Howard University Hospital, Providence Hospital, the MedStar-Georgetown Medical Center, and the George Washington University Hospital—are located in the District of Columbia.

(HRC Back Story) A new analysis of healthcare equality by the Human Rights Campaign Foundation found that the vast majority of U.S. healthcare facilities don’t have fully inclusive policies toward lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender people, but that sweeping new changes will soon dramatically alter how LGBT people interact with the healthcare system. Kaiser Permanente – one of the nation’s largest not-for-profit health providers – updated its Patients’ Bill of Rights to fully protect LGBT patients and their families from discrimination.