On April 22, the Equal Opportunity Commission ordered Cirque du Soleil to pay HIVer acrobat Matthew Cusick the maximum fine of $600,000, ruling that the big-toppers had discriminatorily grounded him (see “Cirque du So Lame,” POZ, April 2004).

President Bush named Carol J. Thompson director of the Office of National AIDS Policy. His first two directors were both gay and MDs; Thompson is neither.

South African DJ Fana Khabzela Khana—who traded his AIDS meds for olive oil, as recommended by Health Minister Manto Tshabalala-Msimang —died of AIDS shortly before the minister’s April reappointment.

At his April 8 campaign fundraiser, Democratic New York state legislator Kevin Parker offered condoms, fruit-flavored lube and Altoids à la Monica Lewinsky.