Queen’s Brian May apologizes after defending Bryan Singer
Now, the 71-year-old is issuing a mea culpa.
Category Archives: MISC
One Out of Every 50 US Kids Identify As Trans Says CDC Study
One Out of Every 50 US Kids Identify As Trans Says CDC Study
Incredible new findings published in Centers for Disease Control’s Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report (CDC) says nearly two percent of high schoolers in America identify as transgender, and approximately 35 percent have attempted to end their life sometime in the last 12 months.
The data was culled from the 2017 Youth Risk Behavior Survey, which involved 131,901 high school students in grades 9-12 from 10 states—Colorado, Delaware, Hawaii, Maine, Maryland, Massachusetts, Michigan, Rhode Island, Vermont and Wisconsin — plus districts in Boston, Fort Lauderdale, Cleveland, Detroit, the District of Columbia, Los Angeles, New York City, San Diego, and San Francisco.
“Students responded to questions about violence, victimization, substance use, suicide risk, sexual risk behaviors. The survey also included an optional question regarding transgender identity.” said The Atlanta Journal-Constitution.
“This study is the first time this question was asked,” Caitlin Clark of GLSEN, a national nonprofit aimed at ensuring school safety for LGBTQ students, told NBC News. The CDC and GLSEN worked together “to figure out the best way to assess gender identity in a way that youth understand.” She hopes the YRBS question won’t remain optional for long.
Two percent who those who identified as transgender faced higher rates of victimization, substance abuse and suicidal thoughts, vis a vis their cis gendered peers according to the CDC.
CDC experts are calling for “coordinated intervention efforts in schools to create and enforce anti-bullying policy and implement training to ensure supportive school staff.”
The CDC’s announcement comes just days after the United States Supreme Court revived President Donald Trump’s transgender military ban, which blocks most trans people from serving in the military as cases challenging the policy make their way through lower courts.
Photos above: Trans writer Cole Haye‘s ten year challenge on Facebook.
The post One Out of Every 50 US Kids Identify As Trans Says CDC Study appeared first on Towleroad Gay News.
Nearly One Out of Every 50 US Kids Identify As Trans Says CDC Report
Roger Stone Tells Chris Cuomo He’s Never Discussed a Pardon with Trump: WATCH
Roger Stone Tells Chris Cuomo He’s Never Discussed a Pardon with Trump: WATCH
,Conspiracy theorist Trump ally and slippery person Roger Stone headed for the evening news shows following his release on $250,000 bond Friday morning.
Stone was arrested by the FBI at a dawn raid at his home in Fort Lauderdale, Florida. Stone was charged by US Special Counsel Robert Mueller on seven counts, including obstruction of an official proceeding, making false statements and witness tampering, according to the special counsel’s office.
Stone appeared on Chris Cuomo Prime Time on CNN to defend himself.
Said Stone of his arrest: “When you don’t have evidence, you use theatrics. I think this was an overreaction and the real proof of it was, the judge only hours later gave me a $250K surety bond on my own signature. So if you’re a flight risk, they wouldn’t do that.”
Replied Cuomo: “I’m actually surprised they have you out at all. But when you say they have no proof, Roger, to be honest with you I have not seen an indictment connected to this probe that has more proof than this one does of communications that you have had that prove that you didn’t tell the truth to Congress.”
Stone argued that he wasn’t arrested for anything that shows collusion with the Russian government or Wikileaks: “First of all, I always said that there could be some process crime. There’s still no evidence whatsoever that I had advance knowledge of the topic, the subject, or the source of the WikiLeaks disclosures. I never received any of the WikiLeaks disclosures. I never communicated with Assange or WikiLeaks other than the limited communication on Twitter on direct message, which I gave to the House Intelligence Committee last September, I guess it was.”
Cuomo told Stone he thought it was “ballsy” for Stone to come on TV so soon after the indictment, adding “It makes me think you must believe there’s a light at the end of the tunnel. You believe that light is not the train but that it is the president and he will pardon you for keeping your mouth shut.”
Said Stone: “I have never had any discussion with him or communication with him regarding that. I have no idea what he might do”
Asked if he would accept one, Stone replied that he doesn’t answer “hypothetical” questions.
Stone also went on FOX News with Tucker Carlson, and got a much different type of interview:
The post Roger Stone Tells Chris Cuomo He’s Never Discussed a Pardon with Trump: WATCH appeared first on Towleroad Gay News.
Roger Stone Tells Chris Cuomo He’s Never Discussed a Pardon with Trump: WATCH
NYC To Pay $3.3M Settlement Over Suicide Death of Kalief Browder The 16-Year-Old Who Spent 3 Years At Riker’s Island Mostly In Solitary Without Ever Being Charged With A Crime: WATCH
NYC To Pay $3.3M Settlement Over Suicide Death of Kalief Browder The 16-Year-Old Who Spent 3 Years At Riker’s Island Mostly In Solitary Without Ever Being Charged With A Crime: WATCH
The heart wrenching story of the life and death of Kalief Browder is indelible if you caught it first in The New Yorker in 2014 in a story called “Before the Law: A boy was accused of taking a backpack. The courts took the next three years of his life.”
The essentials of the case are this: Browder had been charged with grand larceny among other charges for taking a car on a joy ride.
A reasonable sounding judge gave “him probation and ‘youthful offender’ status, which insured that he wouldn’t have a criminal record.”
But, the story said “because Browder was still on probation, the judge ordered him to be held and set bail at three thousand dollars. The amount was out of reach for his family, and soon Browder found himself aboard a Department of Correction bus. He fought back panic. . . as the bus made its way across a long, narrow bridge to Rikers Island.”
He was 16 years-old at the time.
He would spend the next three years of his life incarcerated in one of the most notoriously over crowded prisons in the country.
In October 2014, said the New York Times after he was written about in The New Yorker, his case became a symbol of what many saw as a broken criminal justice system. “Mayor Bill de Blasio cited the article this spring when he announced an effort to clear the backlogs in state courts and reduce the inmate population at Rikers.”
Browder’s long periods of solitary confinement were defended by the correction’s department as the only way to protect the boy from the adult population which made Browder a frequent target of violence and sexual assaults.
Browder was released when the prosecutor’s “case was found to be lacking any evidence against Browder and the case’s main witness was found to have left the United States.”
After his release Browder was putting his life back together according to numerous sources: He earned a high school equivalency diploma and started community college. He even talked about his experience in a video (watch below).
On June 6th 2015 Browder committed suicide at his parents’ home in the Bronx after a long struggle with PTSD stemming from his experience.
According to Essence: “Browder’s story has been credited with making significant reforms to the criminal justice system. Since his story first appeared in the New Yorker, the use of solitary confinement for juveniles has been banned by federal prisons, New York’s “Raise The Age” policy went into effect making it unlawful for young people under the age of 18 to be tried as an adult. And the #CloseRikers movement scored a huge win when in June of 2017, New York City Mayor Bill DeBlasio pledged to close Rikers Island for good.”
This settlement is good and all, but ultimately won’t heal the crime that was committed against this boy.
WATCH: TIME: The Kalief Browder Story below.
The post NYC To Pay $3.3M Settlement Over Suicide Death of Kalief Browder The 16-Year-Old Who Spent 3 Years At Riker’s Island Mostly In Solitary Without Ever Being Charged With A Crime: WATCH appeared first on Towleroad Gay News.
Innovative Recovery High School Is Saving The Lives of Teen Age Drug Addicts
Innovative Recovery High School Is Saving The Lives of Teen Age Drug Addicts
It’s the last class period of the day. The students lean back on couches and take turns describing the most important day of their lives: the day they became sober.
For Marques Martinez, that date was Nov. 15, 2016. Until then, he had used OxyContin, Xanax and nearly every other drug he could get his hands on, he said. He had been suspended from school for selling drugs. “I knew what I was doing was bad,” he said. “But I didn’t think there was another way.”
Two years ago, Martinez’s parents sent him to an in-patient treatment center and then enrolled him in this unusual high school, Interagency at Queen Anne, or IQA. Martinez, 17, learned about the school from an alumnus and knew it might be his last option. He was skeptical at first, but he knew one thing immediately: “I felt safe here.”
Recent research shows that recovery schools — also known as sober schools — help keep their students off drugs and in class.
A 2017 study by Vanderbilt University associate professor Andy Finch and other researchers showed that students in recovery schools were significantly more likely than those not in such schools to report being off drugs and alcohol six months after they were first surveyed. And the average reported absences among the 134 recovery school students in the study was lower than the other students.
Recovery schools first appeared in the late 1970s and now about 40 exist nationwide, including in Minnesota, Texas and Massachusetts. More are likely to open as opioid overdoses continue to climb, said Finch, who is co-founder of the Association of Recovery Schools. “There has been a gap in adolescent treatment for many, many years,” he said. “The schools are one of the programs that fill in that gap.”
Finch said about 85 percent of the recovery schools are public or have some source of public funding, while some are private campuses or part of treatment centers. New sober schools are planned in New York, Delaware and Oregon, Finch said.
Starting any school can be complicated, but recovery schools have extra layers of complexity. They have to recruit their students, impose policies specific to them and fund the services they need.
Advocates and school officials in Delaware had hoped to start a public recovery school this year but couldn’t get the funding they needed, said Don Keister, who helps run Attack Addiction, an advocacy group he co-founded after his son died of a heroin overdose. Keister said a local school district offered to provide the space and the equipment but didn’t have the estimated $2 million needed to cover staff costs.
“There is a real need,” he said. “In Delaware, we don’t have any real help for adolescents.”
Nationally, illicit drug use among middle and high school students is at record lows. Still, nearly 1 in 5 10th-graders reported using an illegal drug in the previous 30 days, according to the annual nationwide Monitoring the Future survey.
Like Martinez, many of the Interagency at Queen Anne students go there straight from treatment programs. They say they encounter less temptation than at traditional high schools. “There, people offer you drugs every day,” said 15-year-old Coltrane Fisher, who regularly used heroin, cocaine and other illegal drugs before coming to the school last March.
The success of recovery high schools is partly due to the fact that the students are among sober peers, as well as teachers and counselors who all support their sobriety.
“Unless these kids get engaged with other young people in recovery, they don’t stand a chance,” said Seth Welch, a recovery support counselor at Interagency Queen Anne. “This becomes their new community.”
But the going is not always easy.
Teachers at IQA say they believe the environment has been critical to the students’ success, but it is sometimes a challenge to work there. Some students are way behind in their credits, and they don’t always respond well to authority. “The more we push them, the more they push back,” said one of the teachers, Phyllis Coletta.
Sometimes classwork must be set aside, Coletta said. On a recent school day, one of the newer students was so upset that she spent most of the day crying, clutching a blanket. Coletta hugged her and they took a long walk.
“Mental health and sobriety come first,” Coletta said.
Interagency at Queen Anne, which opened in late 2014, is part of a network of alternative public school campuses called Interagency Academy, which also serves homeless and incarcerated youths.
At first, the campus drew opposition from a group of elementary school parents who feared the students would sell drugs in the neighborhood. But Melinda Leonard, the former vice principal who helped found the school, said those fears have now given way to community support.
“The campus is the most sober school in the school district,” Leonard said.
Students at the school sign a sobriety pledge and agree to random drug testing. They aren’t kicked out for relapsing, but Welch, the support counselor, works to get them back into treatment if they begin actively using again.
Since the school opened, 21 students have graduated. Welch and the teachers help students plan for the future. Martinez, for example, will graduate this month and is taking community college courses.
On a recent morning, language arts teacher Heidi Lally played a song from the hit musical “Dear Evan Hansen” about loneliness and anxiety in high school. She encouraged the students to write about the song in terms of their recovery.
One student wrote, “I’ve had suicidal thoughts and attempts and these lyrics made me remember those times.” Another wrote, “Shadows crowd me / I’m lost / but what’s the cost to end this feeling.”
For Coltrane Fisher, the cost was hitting rock bottom. He began smoking marijuana at age 12 and then moved on to other drugs. Last year, he stopped going to school and didn’t come home for days on end. “Nobody grows up thinking you are going to become an addict,” he said. “It just happens.”
Fisher’s mother, Lisa Luengo, said she didn’t realize the extent of what was happening. “He derailed quickly and very deeply,” said Luengo, a community college teacher. She sent Fisher to a rehab program in Utah before enrolling him here.
Luengo knows the school is right for her son, even though she believes it is weaker academically than other schools. “If he was in a different school setting, he would crumble,” she said. “The school is giving him a future.”
Fisher agreed. “I can accomplish nothing in my life if I am not sober,” he said, “and I would not be sober if not for that school.”
KHN’s coverage of children’s health care issues is supported in part by the Heising-Simons Foundation.
By Anna GormanPhotos by Heidi de Marco
The post Innovative Recovery High School Is Saving The Lives of Teen Age Drug Addicts appeared first on Towleroad Gay News.
Innovative Recovery High School Is Saving The Lives of Teen Age Drug Addicts
Are Scruff’s New Photo Policies A Precursor To FOSTA/SESTA Legalized Censorship of LGBT Content?
Are Scruff’s New Photo Policies A Precursor To FOSTA/SESTA Legalized Censorship of LGBT Content?
In a statement this week Scruff CEO Eric Silverberg responded to criticisms that had been leveled at him from virtually every corner of the gay bloggersphere because of new restrictions on profile pics on the hook up app.
Out Magazine summed it up best: “The update is specific to profile photos (excluding private albums and photos exchanged in messages) and applies to all styles of apparel in which the crotch or groin area is highlighted or outlined. Pictures that violate these guidelines will be automatically converted into private album images and users will be prompted to select another profile photo. The initial alert was sent out Wednesday as Scruff had been contacted by app store distributors earlier this month with a warning, Scruff CEO Eric Silverberg tells Out in an email interview. Previously, certain photos in underwear and jockstraps were allowed.”
Sex columnist Alexander Cheves told Towleroad, “I predicted when Tumblr banned all adult content that hookup apps for queer men would go soon. They wouldn’t go immediately — first, they’ll change their image guidelines so that no lawmaker can accuse them of fostering sex trafficking.”
READ OUR INTERVIEW WITH ALEXANDER CHEVES HERE
When asked why Cheves said, “Because prosecutors like Kamala Harris and countless other left-leaning and self-described feminist celebrities refuse to see sex as something healthy and normal. If people are finding sex on the internet, or on an app, it must be wrong, they reason, and someone must be getting exploited or trafficked — never mind the countless people who exploit themselves for their own profit, and the people like me who like getting exploited and objectified, and all the people who consensually and happily meet and play online.”
Cheves thinks that, “lawmakers think all this is dangerous. And queer people, whose promiscuous sex lives still terrify them and always will, are automatic targets. Scruff’s new guidelines literally say “no men kissing” — on a gay app. I believe the intention for FOSTA/SESTA was to curb sex trafficking, but the lawmakers who passed it have no idea what sex trafficking is or how it happens and they refuse to listen to those who do. They refuse to listen to victims and the people (sex workers and service providers) who are put it harms way. Who cares if a bunch of fags lose their dating app?”
For those who don’t know, FOSTA-SESTA were bills President Trump signed into law that were intended to make it easier to cut down on illegal sex trafficking online. Both bills — the House bill known as FOSTA, the Fight Online Sex Trafficking Act, and the Senate bill, SESTA, the Stop Enabling Sex Traffickers Act — have been hailed by advocates as a victory for sex trafficking victims. However the broad language of the bill was criticized for being inherently problematic. Among other things the bill is most famously well known as the law that ended Craigslist’s hugely popular personals section.
Cheves was quick to add, “I know this was not Scruff’s choice. They would have gotten pulled from the App Store, and they exist solely as an app.”
“Porn bans are coming. It’s time to protest,” he concluded.
LA based psychiatrist Tim McCall told Towleroad “FOSTA/SESTA needs to be repealed. It was a badly written law to begin with, impractical to implement, and has the general effect of stifling freedom of speech and of association, particularly impacting sexual minorities, but it’s just generally a bad law. And it’s not just the left. It was crafted as a perfect storm of fundamentalists on left and right–like when the state mental hospitals were all shut down the 1970s and early 80s because the left felt that people with severe mental illnesses should be cared for in nicer, community-based organizations (that never materialized) and the right just wanted to stop paying for mental health services. FOSTA/SESTA was created by right-wing activists who want to shut down sex in general and LGBT sex in particular, combining with left-wing activists who see most sex as inherently exploitative; both cloaked the whole thing in “save the children” false colors and sold it to Congress.”
Britton Pentakill founder of the gay social network WooHim dot com said, “Having only gained approval for our WooHim app on iOS store last tonight, I can tell you that we went thru constant review rejections and had to moderate hundreds of thousands of photos to make sure underwear was not publicly visible. Android wasn’t as brutal. The law still protects private pictures… so… unlock 4 unlock? and media shouts just to approved friends are still permitted.”
“This isn’t lookin so good guys …” Is the message Amp Somers, host of Watts the Safeword, wrote on Twitter said Out: “hashtagged SESTA and FOSTA, legislation that legislators say was intended to crack down on internet sex traffickers but that has spurred a darkening “sex panic” across the internet causing censorship and erasure of spaces once thought to be sex-positive, queer sex havens.”
Craigslist. Backpage. Tumblr. Now even @scruffapp, a gay dating app you have to be of consenting age to use, is censoring how it’s users can post photos?
This isn’t lookin so good guys… #sesta #fosta pic.twitter.com/w8UjOUEjqX
— Amp (@Pup_Amp) January 24, 2019
Ultimately Silverberg told users, “Today most software is distributed via app stores, and consequently app content policies are a direct extension of app store content policies. Simply put, all gay and queer apps must enforce app store content policies or risk being removed from the app stores altogether, and this happened to SCRUFF earlier this year. Had this removal been permanent, it would have been devastating to our company and our community.”
He continued, “Moving forward, to comply with app store guidelines, the primary profile photo may not show jockstraps, underwear, or bikini-style swimwear. We have also clarified our policy by removing references to hugging and kissing – it is specifically sexually suggestive embraces that may not align with app store guidelines.”
The post Are Scruff’s New Photo Policies A Precursor To FOSTA/SESTA Legalized Censorship of LGBT Content? appeared first on Towleroad Gay News.
HRC Foundation to Honor E.J. Johnson For His LGBTQ Advocacy at Time to THRIVE Conference
HRC Foundation to Honor E.J. Johnson For His LGBTQ Advocacy at Time to THRIVE Conference
Today, HRC Foundation announced that it will honor LGBTQ advocate E.J. Johnson with the Upstander Award at the organization’s sixth annual Time to THRIVE Conference on February 15-17 at the Anaheim Marriott in Anaheim, California. E.J.’s commitment to the well-being of young people is a family tradition — five years ago at Time to THRIVE, he presented the same award to his parents, basketball legend Magic Johnson and Cookie Johnson, for being voices for equality and sharing their unconditional love for and acceptance of their son.
“E.J. is a powerful role model to LGBTQ youth everywhere — showing through his work to end LGBTQ homelessness that all young people deserve a safe and inclusive place to thrive, and an equal chance to succeed in all aspects of their lives,” said Vincent Pompei, Director of HRC’s Youth Well-Being Project and Time to THRIVE conference. “Time to THRIVE was founded to provide cutting edge training and resources to educators and other youth-service providers across the country who are committed to the success of all young people, and we are proud to honor E.J. for embodying the values of this inspiring event.”
E.J., a television and fashion personality and sought-after talent in Hollywood, made his television debut in 2014 on E!’s hit reality TV series Rich Kids of Beverly Hills. As a standout character, he won over viewers everywhere — and fans touted “EJ-isms” over social media. In 2016, his spin-off series EJNYC debuted on E!, with cameras following his bold personality and incomparable style to the Big Apple.
A vocal advocate for social causes, E.J. has partnered with True Colors Fund, an organization that is dedicated to ending homelessness among LGBTQ youth.
At Time to THRIVE, Johnson will join other special guests, including LGBTQ advocate and mother of Ellen DeDeneres Betty DeGeneres; President and Founder of the Dolores Huerta Foundation Dolores Huerta; parent-advocate, founder of FreeMomHugs and subject of an upcoming Jamie Lee Curtis project Sara Cunningham; transgender trailblazer Jazz Jennings and her mother Jeanette Jennings; Los Angeles Rams cheerleader Quinton Peron; and others.
HRC previously announced that it will honor advocates Judy and Dennis Shepard with an Upstander Award during the Time to THRIVE conference. The couple’s work through the Matthew Shepard Foundation continues to inspire, bringing hope and support to LGBTQ people around the world who are striving to be who they are, often in the most difficult of circumstances. Judy Shepard has served on the HRC Foundation Board of Directors since 2001. HRC’s Parents for Transgender Equality Council, HRC’s Youth Ambassadors and HRC’s Welcoming Schools Program will also be featured at the conference.
HRC’s Time to THRIVE Conference is the premier event addressing the safety, inclusion and well-being of LGBTQ and questioning youth. The event brings together a wide range of youth-serving professionals to discuss best practices for working with and caring for LGBTQ youth and their families in schools, community centers, health care settings and beyond. It is co-presented by the National Education Association and the American Counseling Association. BBVA Compass, AT&T and Toyota are presenting sponsors of the event.
The Time to THRIVE Conference features 65 workshops by more than 45 national and grassroots organizations dedicated to improving the lives of LGBTQ youth. HRC’s Youth Ambassadors and Welcoming Schools will also be featured at the conference. Additional speakers and honorees will be announced at a later date. To register, visit www.TimeToTHRIVE.org.
PHOTOS: Pro wrestler Anthony Bowens strips down and opens up
PHOTOS: Pro wrestler Anthony Bowens strips down and opens up
Instastud Anthony Bowens is foregoing his clothes.
Alyssa Milano, John Mulaney, Pete Davidson, Kanye West, David Beckham, A Sneak Peek of ‘Justice League Vs The Fatal Five,’ and More: HOT LINKS
Alyssa Milano, John Mulaney, Pete Davidson, Kanye West, David Beckham, A Sneak Peek of ‘Justice League Vs The Fatal Five,’ and More: HOT LINKS
ICYMI: Our new favorite Odd couple is Pete Davidson and John Mulaney. The two comedians who skewered Clint Eastwood’s latest movie The Mule on last weeks SNL are hysterical together. The two comedians are doing a limited tour together called “Pete Davidson & Friends.” They’ve got upcoming dates together in Kingston, NY, a few in New Jersey as well as Connecticut and Pennsylvania.
Watch them on SNL’s Weekend Update below.
AND THE AWARD GOES TO GLAAD reveals its full list of Media Awards 2019 Nominations. Bohemian Rhapsody is NOT among them after being pulled due to new sex assault allegations against director Bryan Singer.
COLLECTIONS Kanye West is being sued for not paying Japanese fabric company.
FLIRT LIKE BECKHAMS Victoria & David Beckham were allegedly “flirty & touchy” at her Reebok event. D-Listed says, “Victoria Beckham has been in New York for much of this week. She’s been promoting her collaboration with Reebok, and she and David even reunited for some kind of NYC event for Reebok. A big part of me still believes that what we’re seeing from Posh and Becks these days is the last gasp of their marriage. Last year, when the split rumors really started swirling, it seemed like Victoria was still doing the most to save her marriage or make it look like they were still a happy couple. I don’t think she’s still doing that – when they step out together these days, they both look so over it.”
WHAT’S COOKIN? Share your favorite recipes, solicit good recipes, share recipes you’ve recently tried, want to try, are trying to perfect, whatever! Whether they’re your own creation, or something you found elsewhere, share away.
NO APOLOGY Alyssa Milano won’t apologize for calling #MAGA hats the new KKK hood and nor should she. “The red MAGA hat is the new white hood,” she tweeted last weekend in response to a confrontation between Native American elder Nathan Phillips and a group of Catholic school students in Washington, D.C., that went viral. She added, “Without white boys being able to empathize with other people, humanity will continue to destroy itself.” In a commentary piece published by The Wrap on Wednesday, Milano explained her tweet and why she still stands behind it despite calls for her to apologize and death threats. “Here’s the thing: I was right,” she wrote.
“Some things in that video cannot be disputed – no matter what angle or how extended the cut is,” she argued. “These boys, who attend a religious school, were there on a school trip protesting against a woman’s right to reproductive freedom. Several of these boys were wearing red MAGA hats, a hat that has become synonymous with white nationalism and racism. Several were doing a ‘tomahawk chop.’ Several were laughing.”
TRUMP KEEPS ROLLING BACK THE CLOCK HIV care is threatened by proposed changes to Medicare Part D. “The proposed rule, ‘Modernizing Part D and Medicare Advantage to Lower Drug Prices and Reduce Out-of-Pocket Expenses,’ has the important aim of lowering drug expenditures for higher-cost conditions by increasing negotiating power. An estimated 25 percent of people living with HIV have access to care and medicine through Medicare. Lifelong treatment should be affordable for them and everyone who needs it according to Stat.
ON THE RAG What’s new on the gay magazine front? Ruth Ellis Center Development Associate Dwayne Cole Jr. was awarded $10,000 and received an all-expenses-paid trip to the 2019 Creating Change Conference sponsored by the National LGBTQ Task Force.
“I’m just excited about the experience because I hear a lot about Creating Change. I hear that people can get a lot of information from the sessions there and a lot of my colleagues at the Ruth Ellis Center are working some of the suites,” Cole Jr. said. “I’m excited to see what they have put together and to experience Creating Change for the first time.”
SNEAK PEEK The Justice League face off against the 30th Century foes of The Legion of Superheroes in this new sneak peek at Justice League Vs. The Fatal Five.
BOOK SMART A memoir is coming from the young, gay Mayor of South Bend running for President. The New York Times reviews Pete Buttigieg’s new tome saying “he has been the mayor of South Bend, Ind., since 2012. He went to Harvard, spent two years as a Rhodes scholar at Oxford, where he studied Immanuel Kant and John Rawls, and served as a Navy lieutenant in Afghanistan. He speaks Arabic. He plays concert piano. He is gay. And now, at the age of 37, he has written a memoir, Shortest Way Home.
REALLY?! Japan’s supreme court rules in favor of forced sterilization of trans people, according to Out Magazine. “The two year trial was brought by Takakito Usui as he sought to transition. Law 111 requires anyone transitioning and wanting to have their official documents changed to reflect their gender, must follow specific rules. Of those guidelines, they must have no children under 20, be single, and undergo a psychiatric evaluation. They also cannot have reproductive glands or their reproductive glands must “have permanently lost function.”
PREP RALLY PrEP promotion should be positive. Pre-exposure prophylaxis (PrEP) programs should adopt modern marketing strategies that are attractive to healthy individuals and that might promote an inclusive and holistic vision of PrEP, Dr. K. Rivet Amico and Professor Linda-Gail Bekker argue in an opinion piece published in the Lancet HIV. They note that the roll-out of PrEP has lagged in many settings – including most generalized epidemic settings. However, there are successes which can be learned from and the authors call for PrEP programs to change in three ways.
HARD WORK How Charles Hix & Ken Haak pumped up queer desire. Matthew Rettenmund over at Boy Culture says, “the book was ostensibly a guide for men looking to have supermodel bodies, subtitled The Total Shape-Up Guide for Men, but Haak’s sensual black-and-white photography owed more to the closety physique mags of the ’40s, ’50s and ’60s than to fitness. I believe it was late MuscleMag publisher Robert Kennedy who once identified how some fitness magazines seemed gay because of a subtle perception that the models were ‘seducible’ — by men; this is what Haak’s photography, like Bruce Weber’s before him, exuded.”
COVER STAR Choose Chaz first.
View this post on InstagramA post shared by Chaz Gioia (@choosechaz) on
The post Alyssa Milano, John Mulaney, Pete Davidson, Kanye West, David Beckham, A Sneak Peek of ‘Justice League Vs The Fatal Five,’ and More: HOT LINKS appeared first on Towleroad Gay News.
Congratulations to Maddie and Tyler from Georgia!
Congratulations to Maddie and Tyler from Georgia!
The best thing about memories…is making them. Maddie and Tyler sure agree. Maddie writes: “I had just moved to a new area and didn’t really know anyone. I kept seeing ads for Zoosk, so I decided to give it a try. After a day on Zoosk, I saw Tyler’s profile. I sent him a wink emoji, and then
The post Congratulations to Maddie and Tyler from Georgia! appeared first on Zoosk.
about.zoosk.com/en/blog/success-stories/congratulations-maddie-tyler-georgia/
