Introduction to STIs: HPV

HPV, or Human Papilloma Virus, is the most common sexually transmitted disease in the world. There are over a hundred different types of HPV; many cause skin warts, some cause genital warts, others can cause cancer.

Genital warts are a mild symptom that are nothing more than small lumps of wrinkled skin. They may be itchy or uncomfortable but they mean that you do not have HPV related cancer. Also in over 90% of genital wart cases the body's immune system will clear it up in under two years.

A more serious effect of HPV is cervical cancer. This cancer does not have symptoms until it is very advanced, so the mortality rate is very high. Over 12,000 women in the US alone are diagnosed with cervical cancer each year. To diagnose cervical cancer early, it is best for women to get frequent PAP tests.

Two vaccines are available to provide protection against the types of HPV that cause cervical cancer.These two vaccines are Cervix and Gardisil. The main difference between the two are the age ranges they were approved for. Cervix is approved only for females between the ages of 10 to 25; Gardisil is FDA approved fro both males and females ages 9 to 26.

The vaccines are available at many clinics so get vaccinated today.

For more information on HPV:
*http://www.kaiseredu.org/Issue-Modules/HPV-Vaccines-and-Cancer-in-the-US/Background-Brief.aspx
*http://www.cdc.gov/std/hpv/stdfact-hpv.htm

Religious Diversity in Salt Lake City/Utah by Amber Smith

Utah’s large population of “Mormons”, or people who adhere to the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints, is a well-known and unique characteristic of the state. But what other religions exist in Utah/Salt Lake City? According to USA Today, percentages of Utahans who adhere to various dominations are broken down as following:
57% Mormon/Latter-Day Saint
17% claims no religion
6% Catholic
3% Episcopalian/Anglican
2% Baptist
2% Christian
1% Methodist, Lutheran, Presbyterian, and Evangelical
1% Muslim
And less than .5% of the population claims Judaism, Buddhism, Hinduism, Non-denominational, or Pentecostal.
(USA Today. http://www.usatoday.com/graphics/news/gra/gnoreligion/flash.htm)

This, however, is Utah as a whole. We must consider that Salt Lake City, being more urbanized than the rest of Utah, would prove to be much more diverse.

Through this blog, I hope to familiarize myself, and you, with the less common religions of Salt Lake City, and help us gain insight into their communities. Some of the questions I will answer are: What do they believe? What background do the adherents come from? Where do they meet/worship in our community? What misconceptions are there about these religions? And what social issues concern them?
With knowledge about these communities, we can promote better understanding and cooperation in our society.

Chris Buttars Retires by Hector Zumaeta

During the closing stages of the 2011 Utah Legislative Session, a curious thing happened; an old political player in Utah turned in his resignation. I am talking about Utah State Senator Chris Buttars, who retired from the Utah Legislature on the final day of the Legislative Session. Buttars was 68 when he retired and throughout his career he has become well known for making very offensive comments on record and passing through legislation which was very prejudiced and outspoken. In his closing remarks before putting in his resignation, Buttars also said that he was very proud that throughout his career he “upheld Utah values”, and coincidentally, Buttars also retired after serving the required time on the state legislature to be eligible to receive President Obama's Health Care for life.

Buttars was first elected to the Utah Senate from District 5 in the 2000 elections. In 2004 Buttars ran for District 10 and won, and he did the same in 2008; but he retired before finishing his 4 year 2008 term. Buttars has represented South Jordan and West Jordan in those above terms. Since his election, the former senator has made it his job to stand against gay rights, and education, all while promoting religion (more specifically Christianity), as well as making racist remarks consistently along the way.

In 2010 Buttars spoke to the Public Education Appropriations Subcommittee in the hopes of convincing them that the 12th of public schooling was a waste of time. Thankfully his thoughts never materialized themselves into a bill and he dropped the subject, pledging to bring it up in 2011, which he didn't. His argument for such an idea was that too many kids wasted their senior year of high school, he assumed that instead of studying students spent their time pursuing other interests. What the ex-senator failed to notice was that the 12th grade is a big part of the transition between high school and college, and many students take college level classes during this year to get them more prepared for college, but without having to go through the full pressures of being a full time degree seeking student.

On gay rights, Buttars has said that the pursuit of rights for the LGBTQ community is, “probably the greatest threat to America.” An exaggeration at the very least! Buttars has constantly voiced his opinion about the gay community because he thought that homosexuality was “immoral”.

Buttars has also been very open about Christianity and promoting it. In 2009 Buttars also put the idea to the legislature that would encourage retailers to say “merry christmas” to their customers. He expressed his thoughts that the U.S was a Christian nation, and clearly ignoring the tenet that divorces church and state. Another of his ideas was teaching creationism in public school science classes. Many people were relieved when neither of these propositions became law.

Throughout his time serving the state of Utah, Buttars has made racist comments. At one point he referred to a bill as a black baby, a dark, ugly thing. He has also said that Brown vs. Board of Education was, “wrong to begin with.” Such a blatant use of language and ignorance was surprising to find in someone of power at the state legislature.

So when it came time for Buttars to give his last talk as a senator, it came as a surprise to my colleagues and I when he stated that he stood for Utah values, we had to ask ourselves which values he stood for? He stood for Racism, forcing religion on people who don't want it, oppressing the gay community, and devaluing education. All while being a hypocrite seeing as he spent enough time on the legislature (10 years and no more) to receive the current government health care for life (President Obama's Plan), something that Republicans like himself and his colleagues have long stood against.

Misrepresented by Amy Novoa, Amber Smith, Diana Ortega, Brianna Lewis and Gaby Rodriguez

We are interns with Mestizo’s Arts and Activism. As interns, we lobby, blog and interview community members to raise awareness on legislative and community issues. We spent the last two months at the Utah Capital and during the legislative session of 2011, we felt that we were misrepresented. As students, mostly women, of different backgrounds: Latina, Peruvian, Salvadorian, Caucasian; we felt like outsiders. We heard negative comments directed to us like, “well there’s some interesting people,” from Eagle Forum lobbyists.

Representatives Paul Ray and Stephen Sandstrom and Senator Margaret Dayton never came off the floor to speak with us, although we tried multiple times. These representatives sponsored anti-affirmative action resolutions, hard line immigrant deportation proposals, and a resolution to urge the US Congress to repeal the 14th amendment right for children born in the US to be US citizens. Whereas, a representative like Rebecca Chavez Houck, who voted no for a strict Freedom of Consciousness Provider anti-abortion bill, came out to speak with us, and openly answered our questions.

We saw a total of 502 bills pass the entire legislative process. And now, it is up to Governor Herbert to make them official laws. Many of these bills will change the lives of Utah residents, for good or bad. Here are some that we think will affect our communities most. Our first concern is bill HB497, Illegal Immigration Enforcement Act. This bill lets officers ask for verification of immigration status of a person detained for a class C misdemeanor or higher. We think this catch and release enforcement style will lead to racial profiling in our communities.

A law that will positively affect our community is HB 64; it will lower the blood donation age requirement to sixteen. Bill H.B. 64 increases the blood supply (ten to twenty percent) and establishes a lifelong habit of blood donating for Utah's youth. The law may also increase Utah teens' sense of community and purpose. Blood donations save thousands of Utahans lives; we are excited for this bill to contribute to the heath and well being of our community.

We are dissatisfied with the education budget passed for 2012, 96% of what it was last year, dropping millions of dollars from the education system. These cuts will lower the quality of education in Utah. As 1500 new students enter the school system this upcoming year, they will cost the school system 50 million dollars, which Utah cannot afford. With all of these costs, plus the cost of supplies and programs, the school system needs funds to be raised, not cut to support our youth’s education.

Utah has also become the first state in the country with it’s own guest worker program, allowing permits to undocumented immigrants to live and work in the state legally. H.B. 116, the guest worker program act, in theory, could be very beneficial to Utah’s 100,000 undocumented persons; but many flaws lie within it.

The measure passed the state legislature as part of a bipartisan deal that also included enforcement laws, similar to HB 497, that require police to check the immigration status of suspects in felony or serious misdemeanor cases. This type of guest worker program does not provide a path to citizenship or any other type of residency. Under this bill, workers who apply for a permit must already be living in the state, pass a background check, and pay a substantial fee. In any case, H.B. 116 relies on the federal government granting the state a waiver to operate this type of program. There is no mechanism within the federal government for such a waiver to be granted, making the program unconstitutional.

Lastly, we are concerned with the lack of representation of minorities in the legislative session. We asked ourselves why minorities don’t get involved, or educate themselves about the laws that are going to affect their lives. Our team unanimously agrees that the majority of elected officials underrepresent our communities, making minority members feel unwelcome in the capital. It feels like; the capitol is a building of power and privilege where our communities are unwanted. We feel some representatives’ work to serve themselves and not Utah community members. Some represent their ideology rather than their constituents. We believe all our representatives should be more involved on our communities, work with the people, and not discriminate against our heritage, age or gender. We want to thank Rebecca Chavez, Mark Alvaraz, Gina Cornia, David Litvack, Jennifer Seelig, and Matt Bradley for making us feel welcomed, wanted, and included in the legislative process.

Nonresident Tuition Waiver Amendments H.B. 191 By Mauricio Lopez

Representative Carl Wimmer was the chief sponsor of H.B. 191 (House Bill 191), called the Nonresident Tuition Waiver Amendments. The bill aimed to repeal H.B. 144, passed in 2002, which grants undocumented students the opportunity to pay resident-tuition at state universities under three conditions. The requirements to qualify for resident-tuition are: to attend high school in the state of Utah for three or more years, graduate from a Utah high school, and to plan on filing an application to resolve his/her immigration status as soon as he/she is eligible to do so. Wimmer’s intention was to repeal H.B. 144. He mentioned on several occasions that it was unjust that undocumented immigrants could qualify to pay resident-tuition in Utah universities. However, the current law hurts no one, and actually encourages undocumented students to make efforts to pursue a higher education.

Representative Bill Wright proposed H.B. 191 S01, which was the first substitute of H.B. 191. This substitute included a new requirement. Under this provision the student was required to prove that the student, or the student’s parent or guardian, paid Utah income taxes for one year to qualify for an exemption of the nonresident portion of total tuition. This was later amended by Rep. Kiser (R-Sandy), to require proof of state income tax for three years, not just one. Opponents of the substitute and amendment, however, point out that many people lost their jobs during the last few years as a result of the recession and may not have filed a tax return.

Language similar to the substitute HB191 was included in Sen. Bramble's omnibus immigration bill, SB288. According to Bramble's bill a student would have to meet the same requirements as outlined in HB191S!, but also required that only students enrolled in the Guest Worker Program would qualify for an exemption from the nonresident portion of total tuition. The Guest Worker Program is a non-existent program that would authorize undocumented individuals to work temporarily in the state of Utah if the state is granted a waiver for the guest-worker program from the federal government. However, their is a considerable amount of doubt that federal government will issue such a permit to the state of Utah since immigration is a federal matter. When most of the provisions of SB288 were folded into Rep. Wright's guest worker bill, HB116, however, the in-state tuition part was left out, leaving HB191 the only possible threat to the current law regarding in-state tuition for undocumented students.

During the 2011 session, Representative Wimmer devoted his time to threaten the dreams of many children who have grown in our communities, excelled in our schools, and who have overcome tremendous barriers (language obstacles, stereotypes, poverty, etc). Thursday March 10, 2011 was the last day of the 2011 legislative session. That night, the Capitol was full of community leaders, students, teachers, activists, etc. It was very emotional to see people uniting against proposals that only aim to obstruct and dissolve the progress of the state of Utah. On the last night of the session H.B. 191 was circled on the 2nd reading calendar in the Senate. As the final night progressed, HB191 was not uncircled, therefore, voting never occurred and in-state tuition for undocumented students was preserved for at least another year. It was exceptionally wonderful news to know that undocumented children won’t be punished by the Utah political system. I am very glad that the harmful intentions to marginalize undocumented students didn’t prevail, and that these admirable students still have the opportunity to achieve their goals.