Members of the Islamic State terrorist group publicly beheaded four young people on charges of homosexuality in the northern Iraqi city of Mosul on Monday.
A local administration official, Mohamed al-Faris, said that the jihadis summoned the inhabitants of al-Rashidia district, located in northern Mosul, to watch the execution of 4 young people, all aged between 20 and 30 years. Read More
A major concern for health care providers is the large number of LGBT seniors who are already socially isolated and may be reluctant to seek out services due to past experiences with discrimination in a health care setting. If they are living with dementia, they may not be accessing the care they need. Read More
The government’s Dementia Strategy for England must include a “specific reference to LGBT issues”, the National Care Forum has warned. Dementia is at the top of the national agenda (by 2025, says the Alzheimer’s Society, there will be an estimated 1 million people with dementia in the UK), but there is no specific reference to LGBT issues in the National Dementia Strategy. Given LGBT older people may be estranged from their relatives and lack family support, formal care is likely to be even more important than it is for their heterosexual peers. Read More
Visiting American porn actor Blue Bailey is amongst those who advocate for more opportunities for at-risk gay and bi men to have anal sex without condoms, based on reducing the infectiveness of those with HIV and pre-priming HIV-negative people with medications to ward off infection.
“Blue Bailey seems to be a voice for the strand of American thinking that is militantly anti-condom, as if condoms are some kind of oppression of gay men,” says the NZAF's Executive Director Shaun Robinson. As for Bailey's claim in an interview with GayNZ.com that promoting condom use shames and stigmatises gay men, Robinson says HIV and gay men's sexual health “is not a product of oppression it's about simple biological risks - anal sex is 18x riskier than vaginal sex for HIV & has similar risks for syphilis, gonorrhea. Gay men need to protect themselves just as women need to protect from cervical cancer, it's a fact of life.” Read More
The New Zealand Medical Journal reports five gay men have been infected with Lymphogranuloma venereum (LGV), a rare STI. LGVis endemic in developing countries but is uncommon here.
It is sometimes caused by chlamydia, and symptoms include rectal pain, bloody discharge, cramping abdominal pain, constipation, lesion and ulcers, fever and headaches. All of the men reported high-risk sexual behaviour and all had also contracted either HIV or gonorrhoea, or both. Read More
Recent NSW public health surveillance data finds gonorrhoea rates among men who have sex with men are at a 4-year high.
Karen Price, the chair of STIGMA and ACON’s HIV and sexual health director, has expressed concern at the “continuing high rates” of STIs among gay and MSM residents in inner-Sydney.
“Gonorrhoea is a bacterial infection passed from penis to mouth or anus that can be easily treated. Condoms provide the most effective protection against gonorrhoea during anal sex. It’s also important for gay men to understand that the presence of STIs like gonorrhoea can increase the risk of HIV transmission. Read More
"Everyone wanted it,” Strong says matter-of-factly. He knows that might sound surprising—until he explains more. “Well, look, we pitched the show the week after The Butler was the No. 1 movie in the country, so the timing was pretty good.” But not just because of The Butler. “Scandal was a huge hit. Also, cable was killing the networks ratings-wise. People just felt open to something that felt new and original.”
A soap opera about a hip-hop record label owner battling ALS with a gay son struggling to come out, a son with bipolar disorder, and another who is dating a fashion designer played by Naomi Campbell certainly fit that bill. But also new and original, and certainly keeping with the philosophy preached by Shonda Rhimes’s dramas, was that TV shows should say something important, and have a social message. And Strong knew he wanted to do that with the gay son character, Jamal, played by Jussie Smollett.
“Attacking homophobia was in my original pitch to Lee,” he says. “Where I said the hip-hop mogul is going to have a gay son who is incredibly talented who should be the one who takes over the empire, but he hates him because he’s gay. And unflinchingly attack homophobia in this mainstream piece of material.” Read More
The Persons Deprived of Liberty Act 2014 is a first in Kenya to define who an intersex person is. Section 2 of the Act defines an intersex as a person certified by a competent medical practitioner to have both male and female reproductive organs. Although this is an extremely shallow definition, we must commend the legislators for this bold step towards embracing this unique member of the family.
In the spirit of equality and non discrimination as guaranteed by Article 27 of the Constitution, the Act makes no distinction between a child, the disabled, young, Muslim and an adult intersex person. They are to be looked at from a human beings perspective. Read More
Every year in Britain, 2,000 men are diagnosed with cancers caused by the HPV virus. The sexually transmitted infection lies dormant, showing no signs or symptoms for years, often decades, until cancer cells start multiplying. At that point, tumours can be found in throats, penises, mouths, anuses, tonsils, and tongues.
A simple, highly effective vaccine exists. It’s just not given to boys. Instead, since 2008, girls aged 11–14 are given the jab, to prevent the virus triggering cervical cancer. These girls are protected for life, and so too are the boys who have sex with them. But gay and bisexual men – or indeed any man who has sex with another just once – can become infected. Read More
When Brae Carnes, a trans woman from British Columbia, decided to post a selfie of herself in the men's bathroom earlier this month as a protest against transphobic legislation proposed in her Canadian province, she couldn't have known that she would start a powerful social media response to increasingly invasive laws around the country.
In the now-infamous selfie, Carnes can be seen standing in front of a line of urinals, carrying a sign reading "Plett put me here." The Plett she's referring to is Sen. David Plett, who authored an amendment to the Canadian Human Rights Act and Criminal Code proposed that would basically gut the trans-inclusive provisions of that act, known as C-279. In other words, Plett's legislation sought to overturn existing Canadian law that promised trans people equal protection and accommodation. Read More
In a landslide 63-31 vote, the Indiana House of Representatives alarmed LGBT advocates Monday by passing a sweeping religious freedom bill that allows private parties — including businesses open to the public — to invoke a religious defense in legal cases.
Gov. Mike Pence resisted calls to veto the bill, issuing a statement that said the measure “is about respecting and reassuring Hoosiers that their religious freedoms are intact. I strongly support the legislation and applaud the members of the General Assembly for their work on this important issue. I look forward to signing the bill when it reaches my desk.”
Critics had ramped up their campaign to defeat the measure in recent weeks, including delivering 10,000 letters of protest to the capitol Monday morning. Freedom Indiana and several national organizations argued the bill would create a loophole in civil rights laws & allow discrimination, particularly against LGBT people. Read More
The Church and other faith-based organisations have been targeted by the Ministry of Health (MoH) as part of a campaign to improve attitudes and behaviours among vulnerable high-risk groups such as homosexuals and prostitutes, and to reduce the spread of HIV/AIDS.
Approximately $298 million is to be spent next year on the programme, which is funded by grants from the United States Agency for International Development. At least 4,535 homosexuals are to be targeted for small-group level HIV preventable interventions. Additionally, 6,537 prostitutes will be targeted for similar interventions during the course of the fiscal year. Read More