The UK government’s leading body for public health has launched a new framework for improving the health of gay, bisexual and other men who have sex with men. Public Health England have identified research showing that men who have sex with men are twice as likely to be depressed or anxious as other men, are twice as likely to be dependent on alcohol as other men, are more likely to smoke, have higher rates of cardiovascular disease, asthma and diabetes and are less likely to seek help from health and social care services. Read More
'Dongle' turns smartphone into mobile lab to diagnose HIV, syphilis
Engineers have created a compact, handheld device that plugs into an iPhone and turns it into a mobile laboratory that can diagnose HIV and syphilis in just 15 minutes. “This kind of capability can transform how health care services are delivered around the world,” study leader Samuel K. Sia, a biomedical engineer at Columbia, said in a statement. Read More
Indonesia: AIDS activists use social media to reach gay community
Jakarta-based program "Scaling Up For Most-At-Risk Populations (SUM)", has launched a social media campaign called #GueBerani (I am brave) in order to encourage gay men to get tested for HIV.
Program leader Erlian Rista Aditya said he believed social media would become an effective tool in their public health campaign because 83 million people in Indonesia were active internet users and almost all of them used social media. Read More
Pope Francis strongly criticizes gender theory, comparing it to nuclear arms
Pope Francis has strongly criticized modern theories that consider people's gender identities to exist along a spectrum, saying such theories do not "recognize the order of creation."
Speaking of gender theory in an interview in a new book released in Italy, the pope even compares such theories to genetic manipulation and nuclear weapons.
Asked in the book about how important it is for Christians to recover a sense of safeguarding of creation and sustainable growth, the pope first speaks of the duty of all people to respect and care for the environment.
But he then says that every historical period has "Herods" that "destroy, that plot designs of death, that disfigure the face of man and woman, destroying creation."
"Let's think of the nuclear arms, of the possibility to annihilate in a few instants a very high number of human beings," he continues. "Let's think also of genetic manipulation, of the manipulation of life, or of the gender theory, that does not recognize the order of creation."
"With this attitude, man commits a new sin, that against God the Creator," the pope says. Read more
Fifth Transgender Woman Of Color Is Killed In Less Than A Month
Penny Proud was fatally shot Tuesday in New Orleans. Penny is the fifth transgender woman of color in the United States to be killed within the past month, according to anti-violence and LGBT organizations mourning her death.Media then misgendered her and dwelled on prostitution activity near the crime scene, despite being unable to provide evidence linking it to the homicide. Read More
Pope Endorses Referendum Denying Marriage And Adoption Rights To Same-Sex Couples
Pope Francis gave his blessing on Wednesday to a referendum that would ban marriage and adoption rights for same-sex couples in Slovakia, which will be voted on this Saturday.
Slovakia is the latest battleground over LGBT family rights in Europe, which is increasingly divided between east and west. Slovakia’s parliament actually added language denying marriage recognition to same-sex couples to the country’s constitution in June, making it one of four countries in Eastern Europe to do so since 2012. The first of three questions before voters on Saturday’s ballot, which asks if marriage should be defined as between a man and a woman, won’t change the legal status quo in Slovakia. But the second question would also ban adoption for same-sex couples, and the third allows parents to withdraw their children from sexual education classes.
It is not unusual for popes to comment on domestic political debates around the world, and these remarks are consistent with the church’s long-standing opposition to family rights for same-sex couples, which has not changed under his papacy even though he has generally sought a less confrontational tone to engaging with LGBT people. But his remarks come as the Slovakian church has been under criticism from the country’s LGBT rights supporters, who say the church is to blame for the recent push against LGBT rights in the country. Read more