US: Intersex surgeries spark move away from drastic treatment

Efforts are underway to change the way intersex children are treated: "The way that we took care of things in the past ... where there was a fair amount of secrecy, where there was surgery done in the infant state, and potentially irreversible surgery, is probably not the best way to go about things," said Dr. Earl Cheng, who runs the sex development disorders program at Chicago's Ann & Robert H. Lurie Children's Hospital, one of several nationwide.

It's a fitful evolution and a sign of the times, perhaps the natural next step in the gender-blurring evolution. Intersex conditions are often confused with gender identity issues, but they're different. Gender orientation refers to whether someone identifies as male, female, or something else; intersex involves reproductive anatomy. Some affected children have typical male or female chromosomes, but genetic glitches and hormonal problems that begin in the womb, cause genitals to resemble those of the opposite sex. Others have a male-female blend of sex chromosomes and reproductive organs.

Prevalence estimates vary, from more than 1 in 1,000 newborns, including conditions that involve mildly atypical genitals, to about 1 in 5,000 for more obvious cases. Experts say there's no evidence numbers are increasing, although rising awareness has led more families to seek treatment at specialty centers. Read More

Australia: Unexpected challenges for LGBs in outer metropolitan areas

Lesbian, gay and bisexual Australians living on the outskirts of major cities experience similar levels of discrimination and social isolation to those living in rural and remote areas. This surprise-finding is from the first nationwide survey comparing the experiences of LGB communities in a range of metropolitan and rural locations.

The survey found those in rural-remote and outer metropolitan areas experienced similar levels of 'minority stress' such as internalised homophobia, concealment of sexuality from friends and concern regarding disclosure of their sexuality. Compounding this disadvantage, LGBs in rural areas and outer city areas also reported reduced social support relative to their urban peers, including less involvement in an LGB community. 

The findings reinforce those of past research, indicating that LGBs living in rural and remote Australia experience a greater likelihood of risk factors linked to adverse mental health outcomes including substance abuse and suicide.Those in outer metropolitan areas also reported increased social isolation, something not seen among the rural sample. Read More 

US: Lack of competent providers leaves many LGBTs uninsured & untreated

A new study published in the American Journal of Public Health indicates that LGBT people are twice as likely to be uninsured and even more likely to forgo and delay medical care, compared to straight people. Few such hospitals reported having ways to identify doctors knowledgeable about LGBT health, and only a few hospitals offered comprehensive LGBT-competency training to their staffs.

“As medical organizations we really should be making a better effort to identify providers that can provide competent healthcare,” said Dr. Allison Diamant, the study’s senior author from the David Geffen School of Medicine at the University of California, Los Angeles. LGBT people suffer from the same conditions as other people do, but their outcomes tend to be worse, according to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC).

“When organizations are seen as leaders for LGBT people, people will go there for care,” he said. “What people need to be thinking about is not only training people, but showing they’re welcoming of LGBT people.” Read More

India: Helpline flooded with gay sex issues and HIV scare

In an effort to offer some support to the LGBT community, a 24x7 helpline called the Sahaay Helpline was set up to answer queries on health and psychological issues. In 9 months the line received more than 100,000 calls from 39,800 callers.

According to the data, almost 70% of the callers did not report HIV testing in the year. When asked, 50.82% of callers said they did not get tested out of “fear”. In India, men who have sex with men often face physical violence and harassment from police and the society. Many such men do not disclose their sexual preferences, especially if they are married to women and have families. Nearly three-fourths of the callers identified themselves as belonging to this category. 

Several callers faced psychosocial problems like “self-identity crisis”, crisis in family relationships, violence and abuse, substance abuse, addiction, discrimination in workplace or educational institutions. Read More 

Kenya: MAAYGO brings HIV counseling openly and in secret

Men Against AIDS Youth Group founder Victor Shaaban speaks bravely alongside transwoman and member Lily Simon about the challenges of working in Kenya. Both are openly HIV positive and, through MAAYGO, look for new ways to reach out to stigmatized populations by holding open sessions as well as providing HIV testing at night. See more from Staying Alive Foundation 

Leave No-one Behind in the Post-2015 Health Agenda

In just a few months' time, the world will agree on a new set of global development goals which are expected to be more ambitious, more rights-based, and more sustainable than the preceding Millennium Development Goals (MDGs).

Proposed targets like "end the AIDS epidemic", "ensure universal access to sexual and reproductive health services" and "achieve universal health coverage", as well as a goal on reducing inequalities, give us a lot of reason for hope. Hope that this time we will get it right and not leave behind people who are marginalised, excluded, stigmatised or even criminalised. These include LGBTI people and other groups most at risk of HIV who can be denied access to life-saving health care for no other reason than their sexual orientation, gender identity, HIV status or trait that marks them as "different" from the majority.

Securing universal health coverage (UHC) is a key priority for the WHO. It's depressing to see that, despite the momentum that UHC has been gaining for a solid decade now, it's clear that it has not been reaching the most marginalised. The International HIV/AIDS Alliance has launched Write Us In, a new global campaign to ensure equitable access to healthcare for LGBTI people. Read More

Bangkok: UNAIDS holds civil society meeting on fast-tracking the end of AIDS

UNAIDS convened over 50 civil society leaders from around the globe to develop a plan detailing how the HIV community can best work together to advocate for accelerated, strategic, and equitable international and domestic responses to HIV. 

“Fast-tracking the AIDS response is about political mobilization,” said meeting moderator Chris Collins, chief of the UNAIDS Community Mobilization Division and amfAR’s former director of public policy. “A revitalized AIDS response won’t happen without civil society, and the reach to people who have been left behind has to come from the community.”

The Fast Track strategy calls for an increased focus on funding HIV interventions proven to have greatest impact and delivering them to most-affected key populations—men who sex with men (MSM), transgender individuals, sex workers, and people who inject drugs. Read More

Discriminated and made vulnerable: Young LGBT and intersex people need recognition and protection of their rights

The UN Committee on the Rights of the Child, a group of UN human rights experts, the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights, the Special Rapporteur on Human Rights Defenders of the African Commission on Human and Peoples’ Rights, and the Commissioner for Human Rights of the Council of Europe urge Governments worldwide to protect LGBTI young people and children from violence and discrimination.

Laws that criminalize people on the basis of their sexual orientation or gender identity exacerbate violence and discrimination. This includes ‘anti gay propaganda’ laws that arbitrarily restrict rights to freedom of expression and assembly and threaten the work of LGBT organizations and human rights defenders.  Although it is claimed that these laws protect children, the result is, typically, the exact opposite: they result in violence against children and young activists who speak up against abuses. These and other discriminatory laws go against international human rights standards and should be repealed. Read More

When a man asks people to translate a hate message he's received, their response is unforgettable.

As part of an experiment, a man asks for help translating a Facebook message he has received.
There's a man in Lithuania who speaks only English. The message is in Lithuanian. He can't read it, so he asks some locals to translate it for him. 

As he asks one person after another to translate the message for him, two things become obvious.
1. He's received a message full of hate speech.

2. Translating it for him is breaking people's hearts.

It's nearly more than these people can bear. Watch/Read More

‘Boys Love Manga and Beyond’ defends shifting sexual identities in Japanese media

The academics contributing to “Boys Love Manga and Beyond” come to the defense of the genre known as “boys love,” which first appeared in Japanese manga — involving male-male romantic and sexual relationships — but has now expanded into animation and games. 

Produced primarily by and for females, it has come under increasing attack over the past two decades, initially by gay male activists and later due to changes in government legislation that restricted its availability to minors in Tokyo.

A number of the essays take a dry approach, presenting the historical lineage of the genre — which can be traced back to texts such as “The Tale of Genji” — and meticulously outlining its many subgenres. Remaining chapters, however, present lively discussion that addresses the producers and consumers of boys love media in Japan. Read More 

Margarita, with a Straw: an Indian bisexual coming-out story

“I am naked in this film,” says director Shonali Bose.

It’s Bose’s unwavering commitment to vulnerability that makes her new film, Margarita, with a Straw, both tender and jubilant.

The film’s 19-year-old protagonist Laila (played by Kalki Koechlin, above) lives at home with two loving parents and an annoying little brother. She is mildly bored with school, writes lyrics for a band, and has an unrequited crush on the lead singer. But that’s where any resemblance to a John Hughes sleepover flick ends.

Laila has cerebral palsy and lives in India. A creative writing scholarship propels her across the globe to New York City where she discovers snow, central heating and her nascent sexuality. Read More

This LGBT Activist Shamed Her Trolls By Posting Their Pictures Online

This is Elena Klimova. She runs a support group for Russian LGBT teens online called Children-404, where she posts letters from young people about coming out and dealing with discrimination. 

The group’s name is a reference to the “page not found” online error and Russia’s law banning “gay propaganda” among minors. One of its slogans is “LGBT Teens: We Exist.”

Klimova gets lots of hate mail for supporting LGBT teens. Yesterday, she posted some of it, with photos of her detractors, in an album called “Beautiful People And The Things They Say To Me” on the Russian social network VKontakte. Read More