Danny Pintauro commends Charlie Sheen: ‘We are on the verge of changing the way people look at HIV’

Former Who’s The Boss? star Danny Pintauro has commended Charlie Sheen’s recent announcement he is HIV positive.

Pintauro, 39, revealed that he has been living with the virus that causes AIDS for 12 years on Oprah last month.

THIS is EVERYTHING. HIV is the new CLOSET! @GreaterThanAIDS t.co/Ra9LPLo79Z t.co/31MGVJr7RN via @YouTube

— Danny Pintauro (@dannypintauro) October 13, 2015

‘This morning while I watched Charlie speak with Matt Lauer, my heart was racing. I have been there and I know that feeling. The sheer terror followed by sudden relief is powerful and life changing,’ he said in a statement to US Weekly.

‘To have Matt read those supportive tweets must have instantly affirmed to Charlie that he had made the right decision by sharing his truth.

‘It took me 12 years to get to a place where I was ready to tell the world, but in all of that time I worried that someone else would want to tell my story without my permission, which is why I decided it was time to take control of my story and sit down with Oprah.

‘I commend Charlie for realizing it was time to take control of his story.’

Sheen said he was diagnosed with HIV four years ago and has paid out ‘countless millions’ to women who threatened to reveal his status.

Pintauro lamented that the stigma around the disease prevents many people from getting tested, but he said that he believes that is about to change.

‘The effect stigma has on HIV has never been clearer – as Charlie’s story indicates, people will go to great lengths to keep others from knowing their status,’ he continued.

‘There are currently 1.2 million people living with HIV in the U.S. Sadly too many are afraid to share their status even with those closest to them. How many people are so terrified of the stigma surrounding “those three letters” that they can’t even bring themselves to get tested in the first place?

‘I believe we are on the verge of changing the way people look at HIV and I couldn’t be more fired up to do my part to affect that change.’

Sheen has also said he wants to help others living with HIV.

‘I accept this condition not as a curse or scourge, but rather as an opportunity and a challenge. An opportunity to help others. A challenge to better myself,’ he wrote in a open letter to the media.

‘My partying days are behind me. My philanthropic days are ahead of me.’

The post Danny Pintauro commends Charlie Sheen: ‘We are on the verge of changing the way people look at HIV’ appeared first on Gay Star News.

Darren Wee

www.gaystarnews.com/article/danny-pintauro-commends-charlie-sheen-we-are-on-the-verge-of-changing-the-way-people-look-at-hiv/

Is Colombia’s Constitutional Court about to legalize gay marriage?

Colombia’s Constitutional Court is about to rule on the legality of same-sex marriage and local media believe that six of the nine justices are likely to support gay couples being allowed to marry.

Noticias RCN are reporting that the court is hearing an appeal against a ruling by Judge Jorge Pretelt which found that, ‘In Colombia, the institution of civil marriage involves a concept collected from the foundations of Western civil law tradition, which is structured as a figure formed by the will of a man and a woman unit.’

However the court recently ruled 6-to-2 that gay couples can adopt children they aren’t related to and 5-to-2 that both same-sex parents’ names can appear on a child’s birth certificate even if the child was conceived using donor eggs or sperm.

Only five of the justices would have to support the legalization of same-sex marriage for it to be legalized and the court would likely instruct the reform to be implemented within a fixed period after the ruling.

The court gave Colombia’s civil registry only 30 days to update its paperwork so that both parents could be recognized on birth certificates so it is likely the court would set a similar deadline.

According to Noticias RCN the court could rule on the issue as soon as Thursday this week.

The post Is Colombia’s Constitutional Court about to legalize gay marriage? appeared first on Gay Star News.

Andrew Potts

www.gaystarnews.com/article/is-colombias-constitutional-court-about-to-legalize-gay-marriage/

Congress Holds First-Ever Transgender Forum

Members of Congress — all but one a House Democrat — launched a new congressional task force for transgender rights Tuesday by holding the first-ever congressional forum on transgender life in the U.S.

The Transgender Equality Task Force is chaired by Rep. Mike Honda of California, who held a news conference before the forum, alongside House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi. Other members include Reps. Mike Quigley of Illinois, Eleanor Holmes Norton of Washington, D.C., Raul Grijalva of Arizona, Chris Van Hollen of Maryland, Joe Kennedy of Massacusetts, Bonnie Watson Coleman of New Jersey, Jackie Speier of California, and Ileana Ros-Lehtinen of Florida, the last being the only Republican.

Honda has a transgender granddaughter and Ros-Lehtinen’s son is trans. 

The forum kicked off with two panels in which community leaders and advocates for transgender rights testified about the intersection of discrimination, violence, and policing and how this affect transgender and gender-nonconforming men, women, and children.

Lack of housing and employment were identified as two of the biggest problems facing transgender Americans, reported the PBS NewsHour, and Isa Noyola, program manager at the Transgender Law Center, called for more resources to be made available to transgender people.

“We must require social workers, counselors, medical professionals, case managers, and nonprofit leaders who provide direct services to transgender people to reexamine the ways they are engaging our transgender community,” she said.

Part of the problem, said Joanna Cifredo of Whitman-Walker Health, is that only 22 percent of people responding to a recent survey said they knew a transgender person. “Limited exposure” like this, she said, makes it easier for people to develop negative attitudes about trans people and for them to persist.

The problems, of course, are hardly limited to adults, said panelists. 

“Transgender youth must be protected in school so they have opportunities later in life,” said LaLa Zannell of the New York City Anti-Violence Project.

“When you parent a transgender child,” said Catherine Hyde, rrans parents forum facilitator for the PFLAG chapter in Columbia-Howard County, Md., “the fear for their physical and emotional safety is a constant anxiety. We need comprehensive legislation to protect our children.”

Establishing sufficient protections for all transgender people requires an increase in education of law enforcement as well as a building of bridges between officers and the transgender community, said Irene Burks, a police commander in Prince George’s County, Md.

“It must be done nationally, and with the support of our congressional leaders,” said Burks.

She bemoaned the absence of a national database to track violence against transgender people, given the epidemic in violence this year: 21 transgender women have been killed since January 1, almost double the number of known victims in 2014. Law enforcement, said Burks, needs a resource to track the increasing number of incidents of violence and to gather a more accurate understanding of violence of this kind.

Dawn Ennis

www.advocate.com/transgender/2015/11/17/congress-holds-first-ever-transgender-forum

Bolivia president apologizes for joking health minister could be a lesbian

Bolivian President Evo Morales has apologized to a member of his cabinet for joking that she could be a lesbian.

Morales interrupted his speech in the northern Beni province on Monday (17 November) to chide Health Minister Ariana Campero for talking to another woman and not paying attention.

‘I don’t want to think you’re a lesbian. Listen to me,’ he scolded.

Morales – who describes himself as a ‘feminist who tells macho jokes’ – has since apologized ‘humbly and sincerely’ following a backlash from LGBTI and women’s rights activists.

‘I wasn’t my intention to offend anyone,’ he said in a statement.

‘Calling someone lesbian or gay is not an insult or offense. The government and I do not have anything against anyone’s sexual choices.’

Campero, a 29-year-old doctor, has been the target of similar comments by other senior politicians.

The post Bolivia president apologizes for joking health minister could be a lesbian appeared first on Gay Star News.

Darren Wee

www.gaystarnews.com/article/bolivia-president-apologizes-for-joking-health-minister-could-be-a-lesbian/

It's Official: Salt Lake City Elects Lesbian Mayor, Jackie Biskupski

It’s official: Salt Lake City has elected a lesbian mayor.

Unofficial totals showed Jackie Biskupski besting incumbent Ralph Becker November 3, but the vote count wasn’t finalized until today, after a canvass — and it shows her with 51.5 percent of the vote to Becker’s 48.5 percent, The Salt Lake Tribune reports. Becker had refused to concede until the official count was announced.

While Salt Lake City is home to the headquarters of the famously conservative Mormon Church, its local politics trend progressive. While Biskupski is the first LGBT person to be elected mayor there, or in any major city in the state, she isn’t the first liberal Democrat — Becker also proudly claimed that designation, as did a previous mayor, Rocky Anderson. City races are nonpartisan.

During their campaign, Biskupski and Becker, who had served two terms, generally voiced agreement on their goals for the city, such as improving public transportation, fighting crime, and reducing homelessness, with some differences over how to accomplish them.

In a news conference today, Biskupski praised Becker, saying, “His actions and programs have benefited Salt Lake City,” the Tribune reports. She said she is forming a transition team that will take input from city employees to assure a smooth change in administrations when she is sworn in January 4.

“City employees wanted strong leadership that made them feel they were being listened to,” she said at the news conference. “We need to meet with existing staff and figure out how to move forward.”

This is the second “first” for Biskupski; she also was the first LGBT person elected to the Utah legislature, winning a seat in the House of Representatives in 1998. She ended up serving seven terms. Before entering politics, she was an insurance claims investigator.

Biskupski’s win is “historic,” said Equality Utah executive director Troy Williams. “Her victory sends a powerful message to all LGBTQ Utahns that their sexual orientation will never be a limitation to public service. We look forward to working alongside Mayor-elect Biskupski to advance policies that will benefit all Utahns.”

Today’s official vote count also affirmed Derek Kitchen’s election to a seat on the City Council. Kitchen was one of the plaintiffs in the lawsuit that brought marriage equality to Utah. He becomes the second openly gay member of the City Council, joining Stan Penfold.

Trudy Ring

www.advocate.com/politics/2015/11/17/its-official-salt-lake-city-elects-lesbian-mayor-jackie-biskupski

Anti-gay Louisiana Governor Bobby Jindal ends bid for Republican presidential nomination

Louisiana Governor Bobby Jindal on Tuesday (17 November) dropped out of the crowded race for the Republican Party presidential nomination.

‘I don’t think in a million years they would have ever imagined that I’d be governor or one day I’d be running for president of the United States,’ he said in a statement. ‘I’ve come to the realization this is not my time.’

Jindal’s poll numbers were consistently low and in four televised debates, he had yet to appear on the main debate stage with such contenders as Donald Trump, Ben Carson, Marco Rubio and Jeb Bush.

Jindal had been relegated to an earlier undercard debate with other low-polling rivals such as Rick Santorum.

When the US Supreme Court ruled last June that same-sex marriage would now be legal in all 50 states, Jindal blasted the high court and said: ‘Marriage between a man and a woman was established by God, and no earthly court can alter that.’

A month earlier, Jindal had issued an executive order allowing businesses to turn away LGBTI customers, two hours after a state House panel rejected a ‘religious freedom’ bill.

Jindal then became one of four presidential candidates to have signed a pledge last summer to overturn the Supreme Court’s landmark ruling on gay marriage if elected in 2016.

He had joined Ted Cruz, Santorum and Carson in signing the National Organization for Marriage’s pledge. In doing so they vowed to amend the constitution to ban gay marriage and reverse the US Supreme Court’s ‘illegitimate’ decision.

They also promised to ban the promotion of the ‘redefined version of marriage’ in schools, and direct the justice department to investigate cases where anti-gay marriage activists have been ‘harassed or threatened,’ proposing new protections if needed.

The post Anti-gay Louisiana Governor Bobby Jindal ends bid for Republican presidential nomination appeared first on Gay Star News.

Greg Hernandez

www.gaystarnews.com/article/anti-gay-louisiana-governor-bobby-jindal-ends-bid-for-republican-presidential-nomination/

Bobby Jindal Drops Out, Failing to Win Over Social Conservatives

Having never broke out of the bottom of polling, or out of the undercard debating group, Bobby Jindal dropped out of the race for president today. 

“This is not my time,” the Louisiana governor wrote in a goodbye letter on Facebook and elsewhere. 

During his short run, Jindal competed heartily to win the mantle of social conservatives. His state was among the last to issue marriage licenses to same-sex couples after the Supreme Court ruled in June, not relenting until ordered to by three separate courts. 

He also is one of three Republicans to appear at the Religious Liberties Conference — dubbed by some as the “kill the gays rally” — hosted in Iowa this month by antigay pastor Kevin Swanson. Along with Texas senator Ted Cruz and former Arkansas governor Mike Huckabee, Jindal shared the stage with Swanson, who pontificated enthusiastically about the extermination of gays and lesbians. 

Fighting for so-called religious liberty was a cornerstone of Jindal’s case for becoming president. 

After lawmakers in his state failed to pass a religious freedom bill akin to the one that failed in Indiana, Jindal went ahead on his own and issued an executive order barring Louisiana from penalizing any worker who acted in accordance with their sincerely held religious beliefs about marriage. He earned headlines early on for an op-ed in The New York Times that condemned changes made to the RFRA in Indiana, saying LGBT activists were trying “to bully elected officials into backing away from strong protections for religious liberty.”

In announcing his candidacy in June, Jindal warned that “Christianity is under assault in America.” Then on the campaign trail he touted the endorsement of Duck Dynasty family members. And in his note to supporters today, Jindal reiterated his concern that the United States is on the wrong track.

“Now is the time for all those Americans who still believe in freedom and American exceptionalism to stand up and defend it,” he said. “The idea of America — the idea that my parents came here for almost a half a century ago — that idea is slipping away from us. Freedom is under assault from both outside our borders and from within. We must act now, we do not have a moment to spare.”

Lucas Grindley

www.advocate.com/election/2015/11/17/bobby-jindal-drops-out-failing-win-over-social-conservatives

Yale President Unveils Plan To Deal With Racial Tensions On Campus

Yale University President Peter Salovey announced Tuesday a series of steps the Ivy League institution will take in an attempt to better support minority students.

Salovey further emphasized that responding to concerns from marginalized communities does not mean the university has to suppress free speech, and said that nobody’s going to be punished for sharing their opinion. 

It is clear that Yale needs to “reaffirm and reinforce our commitment to a campus where hatred and discrimination have no place,” Salovey said in a campus-wide email. But, he added, the institution also needs to lay to rest “the claim that it conflicts with our commitment to free speech, which is unshakeable.”

“The very purpose of our gathering together into a university community is to engage in teaching, learning, and research — to study and think together, sometimes to argue with and challenge one another, even at the risk of discord, but always to take care to preserve our ability to learn from one another,” Salovey wrote. 

Yale become a hotbed of protest this month following allegations that a fraternity discriminated against women of color — something the members vehemently deny. Tensions were further inflamed by an email from an administrator that questioned whether warning students not to wear offensive costumes was going too far, something some students felt was insensitive to minorities on campus.

Students demonstrated after the incidents, saying those examples speak to larger concerns about how marginalized students are treated at the New Haven, Connecticut, campus. 

“Yale’s long history, even in these past two weeks, has shown a steadfast devotion to full freedom of expression,” Salovey continued. “No one has been silenced or punished for speaking their minds, nor will they be. This freedom, which is the bedrock of education, equips us with the fullness of mind to pursue our shared goal of creating a more inclusive community.”

Salovey then laid out a series of steps the university will take. Here are some of them: 

• Yale will create a multidisciplinary university center supporting scholarship around race, ethnicity and other aspects of social identity. The university will add four additional faculty positions to contribute to existing research from Yale professors around “unrepresented” and “under-represented” communities. 
• Yale will launch a five-year series of conferences on issues of race, gender, inequality and inclusion.
• Yale will double the budgets for the four campus cultural centers. 
• All mental health professionals on campus will receive multicultural training.
• The university will announce new details on improving financial aid for low-income students, but in the meantime is making funds available for students in emergency situations.  
• All members of the administration, including Salovey, will receive training on “recognizing and combating racism and other forms of discrimination in the academy.”
• The university will continue with its $50 million effort to expand diversity among faculty.

Peter Salovey’s entire email can be read here.

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Caitlyn Jenner says she still plans to vote Republican

Caitlyn Jenner was in Iowa last weekend with camera crews for her reality show I Am Cait and wanted to get a ticket into the Democratic presidential debate.

But that doesn’t mean the transgender reality star is going to be voting for a Democrat in the next presidential election.

The Los Angeles Times reports that Jenner watched the debate with students on the campus of Drake University.

‘They didn’t convince me,’ Jenner said of Democratic contenders Hillary Clinton, Bernie Sanders and Martin O’Malley.

Jenner’s request for a ticket inside was unsuccessful despite it reaching CBS News President David Rhodes.

Rhodes tells The Times: ‘Our person told her person that we don’t have any tickets left, which happens to be factual.’

Jenner has been widely criticized by many in the lGBTI community for supporting a political party that has largely fought against equality and protections for people based on sexual orientation and gender identity.

The post Caitlyn Jenner says she still plans to vote Republican appeared first on Gay Star News.

Greg Hernandez

www.gaystarnews.com/article/caitlyn-jenner-says-she-still-plans-to-vote-republican/