Many advocates for HIV prevention are harshly criticizing a plan that would give elected state and local officials veto power over the content of HIV prevention messages funded by the federal government. Currently, organizations receiving federal funds for HIV prevention are required to run materials past a Program Review Panel (PRP), a group with expertise in disease prevention. But under a new plan being considered by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), that could change.

"The CDC has been operating under the same material guidelines for 12 years," said James Esseks, litigation director for the ACLU's AIDS Project, in a prepared statement. "Now, just months shy of the election, it is suggesting changes in the guidelines that could give elected officials the right to veto prevention materials and shut down HIV prevention organizations."

"Let's face it, abstinence until marriage isn't going to go over very well with gay teens who can't marry," Esseks added, referring to the CDC's "abstinence only" emphasis currently in place in many U.S. schools. The Gay Men's Health Crisis (GMHC), which depends on the CDC for money, sent a letter to the governmental organization, worried that the new guidelines would compromise the quality of the prevention information it could publish on its Web site and other Internet portals.

"Web sites allow us to update the public on important medical and policy issues that are time-sensitive and need to be disseminated quickly in order to have the greatest impact on those who are affected by this information," wrote GMHC Executive Director Ana Oliveira.

Oliveira also raised the question about how these new guidelines would be implemented. "The simple logistical question of how these panels, with no additional resources, will be able to deal with the deluge of new materials for review in a timely fashion, has not been addressed in the proposed guidelines," she wrote. Jason Schneider, a member of the board of directors of the Gay and Lesbian Medical Association (GLMA), called the new guidelines a problem of "mixed messages."

"Instead of focusing on the safety aspect of condoms, the new guidelines would inappropriately focus on their failure rate," Schneider said. "If you choose to have sex, condoms are the most effective way to prevent infection."

According to Schneider, the proposed guidelines were open to public comment until Monday. "The CDC is going to consider these comments and come up with its decision at some later point in time, but no one knows when," he said.