LGBT Reproductive Health Disparities
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Playlist Live Tri-State LGBT Panel (part 1)
Playlist Live Tri-State LGBT Panel (part 1) videolarını izlemek için Bizi Takip Edin Hey! So here is the first vlog from playlist(business day) the internet wasn’t that good so I couldn’t.

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Second Transphobic Ad Hits Press as Minn. Debates Student Athlete Policy

The ad is designed to stoke the unfounded fear that transgender athletes will take cisgender (nontrans) girls’ places on school teams.

read more

Dawn Ennis

www.advocate.com/politics/transgender/2014/12/01/second-transphobic-ad-hits-press-minn-debates-student-athlete-policy

Drug Smuggling During Early Years Of AIDS Epidemic Is Depicted In New Graphic Novel

Like a graphic novel companion to the film Dallas Buyers Club, Joyce Babner’s Second Avenue Caper: When Goodfellas, Divas, and Dealers Plotted Against the Plague ($22.00, Hill and Wang) chronicles how an experimental AIDS treatment from Mexico, Ribavirin, was smuggled into New York during the 1980s.

Brabner, widow to American Splendor legend Harvey Pekar, and artist Mark Zingarelli based their graphic novel on the experiences of Brabner’s longtime friend Ray, a producer of drag shows and nurse, whose smuggling operation — driving an RV with compartments to stash the experimental drugs — was financed by selling marijuana with help from the mafia. It was a pursuit filled with hazards and, of course, friends that depended on its success.

“It was one of the bravest things I had ever seen,” Brabner told the NY Daily News, “and I didn’t want the story to die with Ray,”

At one point, a gay couple experience a final road trip together during a drug run — it’s a shattering, moving episode.

Although Brabner changed names and details to protect survivors from legal wrath, her otherwise accurate graphic novel offers a rare glimpse into yet another incredible, important, and little-known chapter in the history of the AIDS Crisis. This is a must read.

Lawrence Ferber

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What To Watch This Week on TV: Franco Fans Rejoice; Get Ready to Pan 'Pan'

Bobby Hankinson

www.towleroad.com/2014/12/what-to-watch-this-week-on-tv-franco-fans-rejoice-get-ready-to-pan-pan.html

WATCH: AIDS-Free Generation Within Reach, Says Obama

But for this to be realized, more work must be done, the president said today.

read more

Trudy Ring

www.advocate.com/world-aids-day/2014/12/01/watch-aids-free-generation-within-reach-says-obama

A Santa Cause
Dear Santa,

I saw you a few weeks ago at the mall and I waved, and you gave me a really big wave and smile back. I thought that was great, always making time for your fans. Listen, I know you get pretty busy this time of year, so I don’t want to take too much of your time. I want to let you know that my husband Dominic and I have been really good this year, and we think we’ve earned a place on your Nice List. I know a lot of people only reach out to you during the holidays, or when they need something. And like that other bearded guy who gets a lot of attention this time of year, I hope you know I’m a fan year-round.

I’m sure you know about our Christmas In July party, where we have our friends and family over for Christmas movies, a Secret Santa gift swap, and a fully decorated house, complete with inflatable lawn ornaments, a blasting air conditioner, and a Yule log DVD. Why should the most wonderful time of the year only happen in December, right Santa? Like they sing on Sesame Street, it’s important to “Keep Christmas with you all through the year.”

This year, we’ve helped our neighbors, Paul and Donna, whenever they needed an extra set of hands or pair of eyes on their baby, Rocco. We’ve grown to learn more about being dads than we ever thought we could. That was quite the sneaky play there Santa, giving us next-door neighbors who have a baby born on the day we move in, to help us learn about raising a baby. Even though we saw your magic all over that one, we still appreciated it so much.

I’ve been busy at work, creating experiences for kids to come and see that big Christmas show in the city. It’s great to know that we’re showing kids not just a spectacular show, but also showing them the world outside of their small towns. Dom’s also been really busy, preparing his students for newer and tougher state tests, wrapping up the Fall play and prepping for the Spring musical at school, and training for and completing our Half Marathon together.

So it’s been a bit of a hectic time for us, Santa. But I want to take a moment to give you our Christmas list. It’s not big this year, really. I’ve decided to stop asking for a sequel to Jingle All The Way, because as serious as I was about that, you gave me a sequel starring Larry the Cable Guy. I think you and I know that maybe you’ve got a bit of apologizing to do. Give me a train with square wheels or a Charlie-in-the-box any day, instead of the guy from the heartburn commercials ruining my Christmas.

Dom and I need your help this year, Santa. When Britney Spears sings “I want my baby baby” in her song, “My Only Wish This Year,” we get it. We also want a baby baby this year. Or maybe just one baby; we’re not really clear on how these things work. Now, we recognize that it would be irresponsible for you to leave a baby in a stocking for us, or to drop one off under the tree. Our cat Stoli would think the baby was a gift for him, and we’d never get any time with him or her.

Instead, we want to make it very easy for you to help out, and to help us get the most amazing gift you’ll ever be able to give someone, and that’s the gift of parenthood.

As hard as it is to ask for help, there’s no amount of pride worth more than our desire and need to be parents. When you’re up on those rooftops this year, do you think you’d be able to tuck a tiny slip of paper into those stockings? It’ll just have this link written on it: “A Baby For Dom and Ant”.

It’s a small link, Santa, but it’s got the potential to change our lives forever. It gives people an opportunity to get on the Nice List for quite a long time. And it’s got the power to give a tiny baby the opportunity to join two dads who are going to give him or her the very best life they possibly can.

I’m not going to make you any promises Santa, about how we’ll be better next year if we just get this one thing, just this once, and how we’ll never ask for anything ever again for as long as we live. We really try, all year long, to be the best people we can be, and to work every day to be even better. And we know you see that. We just hope you’ll help other people see it too.

I promised we’d keep this short Santa, I know you’ve got lots of boys and girls to see through the holiday season, and the last thing we want to do is monopolize your time; selfish boys end up on the Naughty List. Yet somehow, Larry the Cable Guy gets to keep making movies … but I digress.

All right Santa. That’s all I’ve got. It’s Christmastime in the city, and we’re going to wait with fingers crossed to see what Christmas magic you can pull out of that sack this year. It’s got the potential to be the most wonderful time, not just of the year, but of our entire lives.

Stay jolly, Sir. The world can always use a little more magic in it, especially during the holidays.

Yours Most Truly,

Anthony

—

This post was originally written for Gays With Kids, in a series chronicling the author and his husband’s road to becoming first time dads. Read more on the author here, and be sure to follow Gays With Kids on Twitter.

www.huffingtonpost.com/anthony-romeo/a-santa-cause_b_6247858.html?utm_hp_ref=gay-voices&ir=Gay+Voices

Communities, Businesses and Individuals Come Together to Observe World AIDS Day

In honor of World AIDS Day, various companies, organizations, leaders and celebrities worldwide have come together to unite in the fight against HIV/AIDS.
HRC.org

www.hrc.org/blog/entry/communities-businesses-and-individuals-come-together-to-observe-world-aids?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss-feed

Grieving Mother Says “Gay Conversion Therapy Killed My Son”

Linda and her husband, Rob, at Ryan’s gravestone.

When Linda Robertson’s son, Ryan, came out to her over instant messenger when he was 12, she was “completely shocked.”

It was November 2001. Linda was on the computer in her home office when she received an instant message from Ryan, who was on the computer in his bedroom.

“Can I tell you something?” he asked.

“Yes, I am listening,” Linda replied.

“I am gay,” Ryan said.

At first, Linda wasn’t sure how to respond.

“[My] only brother had come out to us several years before, and we adored him. But Ryan? He was unafraid of anything, tough as nails, and ALL boy,” Robertson writes on her blog justbecausehebreathes.com. “We had not seen this coming, and the emotion that overwhelmed us, kept us awake at night and, sadly, influenced all of our reactions over the next six years, was FEAR.”

Linda and her husband, Rob, gave Ryan an ultimatum: “Basically, we told our son that he had to choose between Jesus and his sexuality.”

For the next several years, Ryan was forced to attend weekly “reparative therapy meetings” with the family’s pastor. He grew depressed, even suicidal. Finally, after six years, he hit his breaking point. Just before his 18th birthday, Ryan ran away from home.

“He decided to throw out his Bible and his faith at the same time, and to try searching for what he desperately wanted — peace — another way,” his mother says. “And the way he chose to try first was drugs.”

He started with marijuana and alcohol, but within six months was also doing cocaine, crack, and heroin.

After 18 months, Ryan moved back home. Things between his parents improved slightly. But within 10 months, he was back into drugs. In the spring of 2009, he overdosed. He slipped into a coma, and 17 days later, he was dead.

He was 20 years old.

Linda kisses Ryan on the cheek just days before he died of a drug overdose.

“What we had wished for … prayed for … hoped for … that we would NOT have a gay son, came true,” Linda writes. “But not at all in the way we used to envision. Suddenly our fear of Ryan someday having a boyfriend (a possibility that honestly terrified me) seemed trivial in contrast to our fear of Ryan’s death.”

She continues: “When I think back on the fear that governed all my reactions during those first six years after Ryan told us he was gay, I cringe as I realize how foolish I was. I was afraid of all the wrong things. And I grieve, not only for my oldest son, who I will miss every day for the rest of my life, but for the mistakes I made. I grieve for what could have been, had we been walking by FAITH instead of by FEAR.”

Now, Linda has made it her mission to share her story with other Christian parents, in hopes of dissuading them from making the same mistakes she did. Both she and Rob have spent the past few years traveling around the county, speaking on behalf of the gay community and hoping to convince Evangelicals to support their gay children.

“Whenever Rob and I join our gay friends for an evening, I think about how much I would love to be visiting with Ryan and his partner over dinner,” Linda writes. “But instead, we visit Ryan’s gravestone.”

“We celebrate anniversaries,” she continues. “The would-have-been birthdays and the unforgettable day of his death. We wear orange — his color. We hoard memories: pictures, clothing he wore, handwritten notes, lists of things he loved, tokens of his passions, recollections of the funny songs he invented, his Curious George and baseball blankey, anything, really, that reminds us of our beautiful boy.”

“That is all we have left,” she says, “and there will be no new memories.”

h/t: News.com

Related stories:

The Horrors Inside A Christian Conversion Cult Are Exposed First-Hand

How This Young Gay Man Forgave His Father For Forcing Him To Endure Hell Of Conversion Therapy

Steve Grand Says His Ex-Gay Conversion Therapist Is A Good Man

Graham Gremore is a columnist and contributor for Queerty and Life of the Law. Follow him on Facebook and Twitter.

Graham Gremore

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