Please enter your date of birth to proceed.
Ashley Diamond, Black Trans Woman Suing for Safety, Allegedly Raped in Ga. Prison Again
Ashley Diamond, 36, has called the repeated rapes she’s allegedly endured in men’s prisons ‘torture.’ Despite her other legal victories, she’s still not safe.
Mitch Kellaway
Harlem Archive Collects Past Stories of Those Who Wrestled With Their Sexuality
By the time Nora-Ann Thompson fell in love with a woman, she was 45 years old and had three failed marriages behind her. The daughter of a black pastor in the Bronx, she had grown up in a family and a church that did not talk openly about sexuality, let alone homosexuality.
When she finally told her father, all he could say was “that cannot be; you need a man to take care of you and protect you,” she recalled. They never spoke of it again.
— This feed and its contents are the property of The Huffington Post, and use is subject to our terms. It may be used for personal consumption, but may not be distributed on a website.
Punjabi mom who’d never heard of being gay has incredible chat with son
When Manjinder Singh Sidhu came out to his mom, she had never heard of homosexuality.
After a trip to the doctor, she was told that her son’s orientation was God-given and could not be changed – and now she and her son have created a YouTube video to educate other parents about accepting their children for who they are.
‘The advice we give is that if your child tells you [they are gay], you should accept it and not tell them to change,’ she said, speaking in the video uploaded last month.
‘It’s OK what they are, God has given it, and you should accept them as it is.’
‘Trying to change your child, or your child trying to change himself can have a negative effect.’
Sidhu, an LGBTI activist based in the UK, posted the video in Punjabi with English subtitles, so children could share it easily with their parents.
As well as touching on Sidhu’s coming out, the pair discuss important issues relevant to LGBTI children, including conversion therapy and same-sex marriage, which is currently illegal in India.
In an attempt to hide or change their children’s sexual orientation, parents often encourage their offspring to marry someone of the opposite sex.
‘I can say that some people like this deceive others and marry their sons off to girls,’ Sidhu’s mother explained.
‘They ruin their lives. The ones who marry their daughters off, their life is ruined too. Girls and boys.
‘If they were to listen to the issue then nothing would go wrong.’
Before closing the video with an affectionate hug, Sidhu’s mother offers three key pieces of advice to parents who feel uncertain when their kids come out to them: listen to your child, don’t pressure them to change, and be happy in your child’s happiness.
‘Whatever your child says, support them,’ she said.
‘If the world laughs, let them laugh. If the world says something, let them.
‘Don’t listen to the world. The world says a lot of things.’
Watch the full video below:
The post Punjabi mom who’d never heard of being gay has incredible chat with son appeared first on Gay Star News.
Mel Spencer
www.gaystarnews.com/article/punjabi-mom-whod-never-heard-of-being-gay-has-incredible-chat-with-son/
No Hate in the Diamond State
Each year at the National Education Association (NEA) Representative Assembly, Little Rock Education Association (LREA) delegates wear a local association’s tee shirt for a group photo.
HRC.org
www.hrc.org/blog/entry/no-hate-in-the-diamond-state?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss-feed
Professor Urges People To “Pray For His Job” After Saying “Queers” Should Be Hanged
Rick Coupland, a business professor at at St. Lawrence College in Kingston, Ontario, is asking everyone to “please pray for me and my job” after a complaint was filed against him for saying gay people should be hanged.
The comment was made on Coupland’s personal Facebook page earlier this month when he shared a link to a story about the city of St. Petersburg, FL raising a rainbow flag for in celebration of Pride along with the caption: “It’s the queers they should be hanging, not the flag.”
Related: Back To School Nightmare: The Professor Who Thinks Being Gay Is Like Smoking Or Obesity
A former student saw the post and contacted Coupland’s employer. Later that day, the professor wrote a post saying he had been called into work and advised to “bring a representative” to discuss the comments.
Kelly Wiley, director of marketing and communications at St. Lawrence College, confirmed that the school is investigating the incident.
“We have several policies that apply to the conduct of our employees,” she told the Whig-Standard. “This includes the fact that we adhere to the Ontario Human Rights Code, we also have harassment policies, a policy around outside activities of college employees, and our collective agreement.”
Related: Law Professor Tries Nailing Ex-Porn Star Student For Violating Penal Code
No word yet on whether Coupland will face any formal disciplinary action for the comments, but it’s pretty clear how folks on social media feel:
I hope @whatsinsideslc will take swift and immediate action to terminate Rick Coupland , a sad and horrendous waste of budget dollars.
— Paul William Tye (@PaulWTye) July 19, 2015
There is no place in this world for #Haters. Hope this idiot #RickCoupland gets toasted. t.co/uo4o6eNIqC #homophobia #LGBTI
— Trevor Kleinhans (@secretsmakeusic) July 21, 2015
WTF #Rickcoupland says “its the Queers that should be hung, not the flag” I hope this is tried as a hate crime t.co/q4VlZhjCg4 — Juniper (@SuzySuffragette) July 20, 2015
Sorry #rickcoupland for the shame and ridicule you are experiencing, but if you express hate and violence, you ought not to be an educator. — Tom Zoltan B (@TomZoltan) July 21, 2015
I have faith that @gvollebregt will deal with #rickcoupland appropriately and swiftly. Unacceptable. — Jaye Burke (@jayedeebee) July 17, 2015
What do you think? Does Coupland deserve to lose his job over comments made on his personal Facebook page? Sound off in comments.
h/t: Huffington Post
Graham Gremore
Can New York State End Its AIDS Epidemic with NYC’s Largest Clinic Closed?
Earlier this month, New York Governor Andrew Cuomo announced that the state had earmarked $3 million toward a program to offer the HIV-prevention drug Truvada, known as “PrEP” free to at-risk New Yorkers who can’t access the drug (or the accompanying doctor visits and labs) via their work insurance, Obamacare or Medicaid. The announcement was part of New York’s very ambitious plan, unveiled earlier this year, to reduce new HIV infections to negligible levels–and hence “End the Epidemic” in New York. The plan envisions a coordinated program of expanded HIV testing; treatment, care and wraparound support like housing for those diagnosed positive; and prevention (including condoms, Truvada, and better sex-ed) for those most at risk–namely, young gay and bi men of color, the only group in the state whose HIV rates have not decreased in the 2000s.
According to Dan O’Connell, director of the state’s AIDS Institute, New York hopes to have about 1,000 people enrolled in the free-PrEP program by next year–and will roll out ads for the program on buses and in subways and other public areas in coming months.
But New York City HIV/AIDS activists are saying there’s a giant hole in the program: the closing of the city’s longstanding Chelsea STD Clinic on West 28th St.. The nearly 80-year-building–apparently the most-visited STD clinic in the city among gay and bi men, with about 20,000 visits a year, or 25 percent of all visits to city STD clinics–closed in March for much-needed repairs. And, say activists, the city has put in place no acceptable substitute to serve gay and bi men from all over the city who are showing up at the clinic only to find occasional limited-service vans provided by nonprofits, or perhaps someone there to direct them to the newly renovated Riverside clinic 70 blocks uptown, or to local nonprofits such as Callen-Lorde that may charge for services and take personal information (whereas city clinics are free and anonymous).
“The sloppiness of that is just crazy,” says Jim Eigo, a member of ACT UP, which has been protesting the situation and demanding that the city install a full-time, full-service mobile care unit at the site until the renovation is completed–and also install health staffers at the local nearby nonprofits (which also include Chelsea’s Spencer Cox Center and the Lower East Side’s Community Healthcare Network) to help workers there serve folks streaming in from the closed Chelsea site. Additionally, ACT UP wants the city to earmark more funds to hasten finishing renovations at the Chelsea Clinic.
“The amount of people coming in for testing has dropped off dramatically,” says Mark Harrington, the head of Treatment Action Group, which is one of many nonprofits playing a role in the shaping of the state’s plan to end AIDS. “It’s the biggest missed opportunity,” he says, in terms of capturing new HIV infections that need treatment and care or folks, or still-negative guys who could benefit from PrEP. “Syphilis rates in Chelsea are sky-high compared to the rest of the city,” he said. (The disease is a marker of HIV risk.) Moreover, he said, “young queer guys of color from all over the city went there because it was a safe place”–it being outside neighborhoods where they were known.
The city’s health department paints a different picture. On a phone call, a rep there disputed the notion that the Chelsea clinic was all-important in terms of stopping HIV/AIDS in the city, calling it “a fraction of the story” and insisting that gay and bi men of color had no problem going to clinics throughout the city, which he called LGBT-friendly. Yet reps also said that within the next month or two, the city would indeed have its own full-service van in front of the Chelsea site and that it would install city-paid helpers in the nonprofit clinics to absorb visitors diverted from Chelsea. It acknowledged, however, that this hasn’t happened yet even though the Chelsea clinic has been closed since March, and also that vans at the site from various nonprofits, such as APICHA, have been there on erratic hours. (Go here for a PDF of where else to go while the Chelsea clinic is closed.)
Reps said the Chelsea clinic wouldn’t reopen for two to three years–and that money considerations kept the city from setting up a full-service mobile site there from the moment the actual clinic closed. Repeatedly they said that HIV/STD services citywide were constantly improving. “The HIV/STD universe in New York is going to be really strong,” said a rep. They also promised a subway campaign starting around December 1 (World AIDS Day) to let the city know about the free PrEP program…and the roll-out of what they called a new prevention “device,” though they wouldn’t reveal specifics. (This writer guesses it might be free packs containing condoms, lube and perhaps a starter dose of PEP, in which a 28-day course of HIV meds started within 72 hours of possible HIV exposure can prevent infection from taking hold.)
But activists still worry that, even in the past few months, the city has lost valuable opportunities to test or treat thousands of gay men who came to the Chelsea clinic and, finding it closed, didn’t bother to go elsewhere. And, says Eigo, the city misstepped by not providing a full-service mobile alternative from the get-go. “The health department doesn’t like to admit to making a mistake,” he said.
Meanwhile, at the AIDS Institute, charged with rolling out the state’s big End AIDS plan, O’Connell acknowledged that the city having all its HIV/STD ducks in a row was an important piece of the plan, as the city accounts for 80 percent of new HIV cases in the state among gay and bi men. “My conversation with the city suggested that they understand there’s an issue” with the gap left by the closing of the Chelsea clinic “and they’re trying to fix it,” he said. “They know it’s not a good thing.”
(image google)
The post Can New York State End Its AIDS Epidemic with NYC’s Largest Clinic Closed? appeared first on Towleroad.
Tim Murphy
Can New York State End Its AIDS Epidemic with NYC’s Largest Clinic Closed?
Perez Hilton On the Gawker Scandal: 'Aspire Higher'
Once the king of outing celebs, gay blogger Perez Hilton tells The Advocate he agrees that Gawker needed to pull its recent story outing a media executive.
Perez Hilton
www.advocate.com/commentary/2015/07/21/perez-hilton-gawker-scandal-aspire-higher
27 Women On The Vulnerabilities That Don't Define Them
“I am not my bulimia.”
“I am not my panic attacks.”
“I am not my sexual assault.”
These are just a few of the deepest, darkest thoughts that people have revealed to photographer Steve Rosenfield in his photo series “What I Be.”
Over the past five years, Rosenfield has asked 2,5000 people to share some of their most “intimate insecurities” with each participant finishing the sentence: “I am not my ___ .” Participants share insecurities that stem from a range of personal issues, qualities and experiences that include mental illness, sexuality, body image, sexual abuse, gender identity and skin color.
“By stating ‘I am not my ___,’ [participants] are claiming that they do in fact struggle with these issues, but it does not define who they are as a person,” Rosenfield wrote on his website. “They are not denying their insecurity, they are owning it.”
The result of people owning their insecurities is undeniably powerful.
Although the project includes people of all genders, the gender that’s most highly represented is women. The women featured share experiences of body image, sexual assault, eating disorders and countless other intimate anxieties.
“I am not my skin.”
Eighty percent of the 2,500 participants are women Rosenfield told The Huffington Post. “I definitely think that women are more accepted in society to share their feelings and vulnerabilities where as for men, we are taught to ‘be tough’ or ‘suck it up,'” he said. “One of the biggest insecurities a man has is sharing his insecurity.”
“What I’m out to accomplish with the project, is to show we are all struggling with something,” he said. “Doesn’t matter if we are male or female, famous or not, we all have insecurities and vulnerabilities.”
Rosenfield created the project in 2010 and has been photographing people of all ethnicities, genders and ages across the U.S. He visits colleges, music festivals, yoga studios and more, looking for people to photograph. As the project has grown, more and more people have reached out to Rosenfield to get involved.
“We all have a story to tell and we all want to share it without being judged,” Rosenfield said. “I want to show as many people as possible that it’s OK to be us and comfortable in our own skin.”
Take a look at 26 women owning their deepest, darkest insecurities, by sharing them.
Head over to Rosenfield’s website to see more of his work.
Also on The Huffington Post:
— This feed and its contents are the property of The Huffington Post, and use is subject to our terms. It may be used for personal consumption, but may not be distributed on a website.
Paris’s 18th arrondissement is all effortless elegance and Belle Époque charm
In 2001, Amélie Poulain, title character of French hit film Amélie, took cinema screens and the world by storm with her quirky life in the Parisian district of Montmartre.
The film painted Montmartre, and the whole city, as a classic picture of the French capital: stunningly beautiful, yet charming and quirky at the same time.
Part of the 18th arrondissement, on the northern border of central Paris, the area didn’t become popular through the film – it only helped disperse tourists to more destinations.
Sitting on the highest point of the city, Sacré-Cœur Basilica can be widely seen; in summer, despite a growing number of pickpockets, tourists and locals alike flock up the stairs – some to bask in the sun while enjoying the view over the sprawling metropolis, others to satisfy their curiosity for the city’s history.
The view from Sacré-Cœur is more than worth the long climb up the stairs.
The Belle Époque has left its mark on the area, not just in the form of cabaret and other entertainment: Haussmann’s restoration of Paris, changing the city as a whole and giving it its distinct look, was still ongoing, and artists and intellectuals moved their lives to Montmartre.
Probably the world’s most famous cabaret: Moulin Rouge, at the heart of the Pigalle quarter.
With its number of tourist attractions, including the red-light district of Pigalle – home to the popular Moulin Rouge and the Place Pigalle, known for its adult shows – the area is always bustling with life.
But stray off the beaten track and discover an arrondissement full of hidden gems – like Clos Montmartre, the small vineyard on Rue Saint-Vincent yielding about 500 liters a year – and Parisian elegance.
An unexpected sight: at the heart of Montmartre rises a small vineyard.
Follow the winding roads further to the east and you’ll encounter the Goutte d’Or and its large North African community; with its name translating as drop of gold, the district’s gem is the popular, and mostly tourist-free, open-air marché Dejean.
Throughout the arrondissement, cozy cafés and boutiques line the street, the multicultural influence always obvious; surprisingly, only a few of them are heavily frquented by tourists.
Living in the 18th arrondissement doesn’t come cheap – a studio flat clocks in at a minimum of €215,000 (£150,247, $233,799), with three bedroom apartments easily breaking the €455,000 (£317,964, $ 494,785) mark; building and development are also heavily restricted.
No matter where you are, the Metro station is never more than 500 meters away.
Transport links are, as per usual in Paris, more than just good: true to the thought behind it, no point is further than 500 meters away from a metro station, with Anvers, Pigalle, Blanche, Abbesses, Lamarck-Caulaincourt and Jules Joffrin offering links to the whole of Paris.
An electric bus, the Montmatrobus, runs every 10 – 12 minutes from Place Pigalle to the Place Jules Jofferin and the arrondissement’s City Hall, via Place du Tertre and even going up to Sacré-Cœur.
The post Paris’s 18th arrondissement is all effortless elegance and Belle Époque charm appeared first on Gay Star News.
Stefanie Gerdes
You must be 18 years old or older to chat
