FDA Continues Blood Libel of Gay Men
The new FDA rules on blood donations by gay men continue to perpetuate falsehoods. Euronews may call it “a major victory for gay civil rights” but it is NO such thing. Previously, any gay man who ever had sex with another man, no matter how “safe” the sex, was deemed too risky to donate blood. Now they are banned only if they had sex within the last year. These regulations were put into place during the height of the HIV/AIDS hysteria and represent precisely the kind of legislative overkill that happens when idiots pass rules or laws while panicking about something. Panics are the worst time to legislate, because people always get facts wrong.

Originally, the media and bureaucrats tried to label this disease “Gay Related Immune Deficiency Syndrome” or GRIDS but it soon became apparent that it wasn’t “gay-related” at all. Certainly, they noticed very quickly that the disease had spread within the Haitian community in the United States and among IV drug users-predominantly straight groups. Then it became apparent, when you broaden the picture to include the rest of the world, that gays are a minority of those with HIV.

Regulations were written with scant actual knowledge when people were fearful and certain groups were doing their level best to stoke the flames of fear and misinformation.

This is a disease with certain means of transmission that don’t discriminate. Sex is a factor, gay or straight, it’s a factor, but consider how the Red Cross lists risks for HIV. They claim you are at risk of HIV if you “are a male who has had sexual contact with another male, even once, since 1977.” Of course, they will now change that to say “any time in the last year.” So, that hand job from 1978 is no longer a threat–but, it never was.

It is a fact that MORE people worldwide have contracted HIV through heterosexual intercourse than any other mode of transmission, but it is not listed as a risk, while all gay sex, including absolutely safe practices, are deemed “unsafe.”

That isn’t science! That isn’t medicine! That’s panic politics at its worst.

Another major factor in this country has been the spread of HIV though sharing needles for IV drug use. Of course, one reason needles are shared is because may be difficult to obtain, thanks to that other paragon of panic politics: The War on Drugs. Bureaucrats and politicians aren’t talking about how their own hyperbolic hysteria contributed to the spread of HIV.

The reason is simple: Policies passed in panic, no matter how counterproductive or destructive, are sacred and never repealed. To undo the panic legislation is to admit politicians use fear to secure office for themselves and cater to panics. A panic, no matter how absurd, is just another political opportunity, one that can be used to further ones career. Politicians don’t like to admit that if you scare the shit out of the public, you can pass anything you want.

So they pass bad legislation or regulations, which fester in the body politic for generations to come. Even after the fear has abated, even after the hysteria is dead and forgotten, or widely disputed, laws and regulations maliciously linger on for generations to come. The political elite never admits errors. Better thousands or millions suffer than the illusion of political competency is exposed as a fraud.

The “Satanic Panics” of the 80s created laws on sex offenders that are doing far more harm than good. That grossly exaggerated panic regarding child abductions now has parents being threatened with arrest for allowing children to play in a public park without an adult to guard them from imaginary monsters. The HIV panic created regulations on blood donations do more harm than good. At best, politicians will tinker around the edges, but the detrimental effect of fear politics are still with us–and no doubt will be for some time to come.

For more than four decades, science has shown these regulations to be unwarranted and counterproductive, but even now the most the political process is willing to make them only slightly less harmful. This should be a warning to those who, in a moment of crisis or fear, yell, “There ought to be a law.” If anything, legislation during crisis should be banned. It’s bound to be ill considered, badly drafted, and often more destructive than the problem it was meant to solve–a problem that is often grossly exaggerated to begin with.

www.huffingtonpost.com/james-peron/fda-continues-blood-libel_b_6379016.html?utm_hp_ref=gay-voices&ir=Gay+Voices

31 Things You Didn't Know About Holiday Songs: VIDEO

Sean Mandell

www.towleroad.com/2014/12/31-things-you-didnt-know-about-holiday-songs-video.html

Blood Donation Ban Is Only The First Barrier To Medical Equality For Gay Men
Some gay and bisexual men who want to donate blood will be able to once the Food and Drug Administration’s new recommendations take effect. The revised policy will overturn the current lifelong ban on blood from men who have sex with other men and permit donations from men who have abstained from sexual contact with another man for at least 12 months.

Detractors argue that even this 12-month period is not medically sensible and potentially harmful to the large number of people who need blood donations. But the anticipated change in policy also highlights inequities in other areas of medical donation — namely, tissue and organ donation.

Per FDA guidelines, men who have had sex with other men in the last five years are among those currently ineligible to donate tissue and cells.

Now that blood donation by gay and bisexual men will be permissible after 12 months of abstinence, the five-year deferral period for cell and tissue donation doesn’t make much sense, said Ian Thompson, a legislative representative for the American Civil Liberties Union on lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender rights.

“The question has to be posed to the FDA now: If there is only a need for a one-year deferral for a blood donation, why does there need to be a deferral period significantly greater than that for these other areas?” Thompson told The Huffington Post. “Given their announcement [Tuesday], they certainly should review those other policies as well, with an eye on making them consistent with what we know today from a scientific standpoint, instead of relying on these outdated stereotypes and assumptions about gay men.”

An FDA spokeswoman told HuffPost that the agency couldn’t speculate on whether guidance around tissue donation would change in the future.

Organ donation is overseen by a different federal agency: the Health Resources and Services Administration in the Department of Health and Human Services. Gay and bisexual men are not excluded from donating, nor are they required to abstain from sex for a certain amount of time before donating. Organ samples from all donors are rigorously tested beforehand to screen for diseases like HIV and hepatitis. However, as TakePart notes, a patient receiving a organ will be notified if it comes from a man who has had sex with another man in the past 12 months.

This leaves individual risk assessment up to the receiving patient and his or her doctors or to the groups with the organ donation network — which has led to a tragic waste of potential organ donations. For instance, last year the eyes of a gay teen who had asked to be a donor were rejected, even though his heart, liver, lungs and kidneys were transplanted. And this year the Center for Organ Recovery and Education rejected the organs of a gay man who had been in a committed relationship for eight years before his death, citing FDA rules against tissue donation from men who have sex with men — even though the FDA doesn’t oversee organ donation. In the latter case, according to Think Progress, the organization later claimed that it had rejected the man’s organs because of the way he died — cardiac arrest — although his sister said she was told it was due to his sexuality.

It’s just these sorts of stories that have led Thompson and other gay rights advocates to push for screening methods based on individual risk, instead of a blanket ban or deferral based on sexuality.

“It makes no sense to exclude from the donor pool healthy, gay and bisexual men and other men who have sex with men who are in committed, monogamous relationships where neither partner is living with HIV,” said Thompson. “But I think the progress we’re seeing, however flawed it is on the blood donation end, is probably a good indication we may see progress on these other issues as well,” he added.

There is a dire need for organ donors in the U.S. According to the Health Resources and Services Administration, an average of 21 people die every day waiting for an organ, while one organ donor can save as many as eight lives.

www.huffingtonpost.com/2014/12/24/gay-men-organ-donors_n_6378658.html?utm_hp_ref=gay-voices&ir=Gay+Voices

The Sexiest Gay Kiss GIFs Of 2014

What’s in a kiss? Once you see these GIFs it won’t matter because they will render you speechless.  The folks over at grabhim.net scoured through thousands of kiss GIFs and came up with an Alzheimer’s inducing collage of hotness. Take a look at some of these samples…

Happy holidays from Queerty and our friends at Grabhim!

Category:  Sexiest Kiss

See the rest of the Top 10 Sexiest Gay Kiss GIFs of 2014 here.

Category: Most Romantic Kiss

See the rest of the Top 10 Most Romantic Gay Kiss GIFs of 2014 here.

Category:  Most Passionate Kisses.

See the rest of the Most Passionate Gay Kiss GIFs of 2014 here. 

mikealvear

feedproxy.google.com/~r/queerty2/~3/O_lISYrfbtc/the-sexiest-gay-kiss-gifs-of-2014-20141224

Pioneering Gay Activist Chi Chia-wei Seeks Constitutional Review Of Taiwan's Same-Sex Marriage Ban

John Wright

www.towleroad.com/2014/12/pioneering-taiwanese-gay-activist-chi-chia-wei-seeks-constitutional-review-of-countrys-gay-marriage-.html

The Top 10 Sexiest Men GIFs of 2014

You can clock a man’s sexiness in about two seconds flat. You don’t need a stopwatch when you can just take a look at the two-second captures in our Top 10 Sexiest Men GIFs of 2014.

We poured through thousands of GIFs (a thankless but rather moist job) to arrive at our top 10 selection. But before we did that, we had to define what we meant by “sexy.” Is it a handsome face? A strong body? That look in his eyes? The way he moves? The way he touches his hair? The way he walks? That knowing smile?

Yes, yes and Oh, God YES.

The GIFs in our top 10 list reflect what most people think of as sexy:

You Don’t Have To Be a Celebrity To Turn People On
Only one celebrity made our cut – – Jake Gyllenhaal. In the truest definition of sexiness, the man made our list and he wasn’t a) shirtless b) kissing a woman or c) diving into a pool of chocolate. The GIF is him simply leaning back in response to a question posed by a talk show host.

You Don’t Have To Be Real
One of our GIFs is actually an animation. And get this – – it’s only of a man’s mouth.

The Eyes Are the Windows to the Soul
Several of our GIFs are distinguished by a not so subtle look in the man’s eyes. It’s the kind of look that makes you want to take up smoking just so you can light one up in case you hook up with him.

The Way He Touches Himself
Whether it’s the GIF of the surfer brushing his hair back in the wind or the close-up of the diver touching the back of his bathing suit, the way a man touches himself can make the difference between saying “Badda Bing” and “Badda BANG!”

Washboard Abs Aren’t A Requirement But Boy, Do They Help
Some of the GIFs that made our cut were simply a paean to belly buttons. One guy takes his shirt off in a way that you can’t see his face. And you know what? IT DOESN’T MATTER. If you touched his stomach you’d get a paper cut.

We’ve listed our top ten list in descending order. Take a look at the #1 Sexy Male GIF of the year and you’ll understand why our assistant started answering the phone with, “Incontinence Hotline… Can you hold?”

www.huffingtonpost.com/mike-alvear/the-top-10-sexiest-men-gifs-of-2014_b_6377882.html?utm_hp_ref=gay-voices&ir=Gay+Voices

How The Future Of Drones Will Change Our Skies: VIDEO

Christian Walters

www.towleroad.com/2014/12/how-the-future-of-drones-will-change-our-skies-video.html