US: Opt-out screening can improve acceptance of HIV testing

Compared with active choice testing, opt-out screening can substantially increase HIV testing, and opt-in schemes may reduce testing, a new study has suggested.

"Our study provides evidence that small changes in wording can significantly affect patients' behavior and thus our understanding of their preferences. Specifically, modifying HIV testing defaults led to clinically and statistically significant differences in test acceptance percentages." 

"We found that active choice testing, although previously considered a form of opt-in testing, is a distinct category: compared with a strict opt-in scheme informing patients that they can request a test, simply asking patients if they would like a test increased test acceptance by 13 percentage points," the authors write.

In an accompanying editorial, Jason S. Haukoos. MD, and Sarah E. Rowan, MD, both from the University of Colorado School of Medicine, Aurora, emphasize that, "the study by Montoy and colleagues represents one of the largest trials to evaluate consent for HIV testing among emergency department patients, and the only one to do it in a randomized fashion but with particular focus on the efficacy of the various consent options." Read more via MedScape

New stamps promoting LGBT equality worldwide unveiled at UN

The United Nations Postal Administration unveiled a set of six commemorative stamps to promote UN Free & Equal – a global UN campaign for LGBT equality launched and led by the Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR).

The new stamps mark the first time the United Nations has issued stamps with this theme. In an interview, the artist who designed them, Sergio Baradat said he was very influenced by art from the first quarter of the 20th Century. 

“One of the stamps represents someone who is transgender,” Mr. Baradat said, referring to the stamp that depicts a person with butterfly wings, an image he says represents a person “becoming who they really are, blossoming." "We live in a world where even though [developed] nations have embraced marriage equality [and] LBGT equality, we still have a far, far, far way to go, but we are making some strides,” he added.  Read more via the UN 

Manoj Bajpayee And Rajkummar Rao Are Urging India To Be More LGBT-inclusive

Aligarh actors Manoj Bajpayee and Rajkummar Rao, and director Hansal Mehta, released a video in support of the movement to slash Section 377 which criminalises homosexuality in India. 

They urged viewers to challenge the law, and to embrace open-mindedness about sexualities. Read more

German film: The first ever ‪Gay‬ Sex Commercial!

Russia: Watching the country's strangest documentary

When Boris Nadezhdin, a former Russian Duma deputy, suggested that homosexuality was biological, an audience member cried out, “that’s a lie!” reigning in the rogue guest. I watched “Sodom,” along with dozens of hours of Russian television, to try and understand the narrative on homosexuality being disseminated across the country. Major television networks, all of which are either state-owned or firmly under the influence of the state, spread a narrative that goes beyond homophobia into a surreal, parallel universe of logic. It is a world that has sprung up relatively recently. 

Four years ago, the idea that homosexuality was linked to pedophilia was something that only cropped up in news coverage of the handful of politicians who espoused that view. Now, across the full spectrum of Russian media, that theory is presented as scientific fact. TV hosts across the networks regularly discuss homosexuality as a problem that needs to be solved. Three quarters of Russians now consider homosexuality a psychological disorder, and theories for “treatment” are popular on-air conversation starters. 

Read more via Coda Story
 

Spain: Free metro passes for transgender people

Madrid's metro has announced it will give away a batch of free annual travel passes to transgender people in the city. Thirty-eight passes will be distributed as part of an effort to promote the social integration of transgender men and women across the Spanish capital, according to the metro's website. "Madrid Metro considers it a priority to raise awareness among the public so as to avoid any type of discrimination and prejudice," it says.

The scheme is a collaboration between the local government-run transport network and the non-profit Spanish Association of Transsexuals (AET), which campaigns for transsexual, transgender, gay and lesbian equality across Spain. The organisation doesn't specify how the recipients of the passes will be chosen, simply saying that they will be people "experiencing social exclusion".

Some social media users have reacted warmly to the plan, with one tweeting: "What a beautiful initiative! Everything that improves human relations is welcome!" But other comments are more negative. Some users think giving travel benefits to one group is unfair to everyone else, while others say that rather than being inclusive, the scheme singles out transgender men and women as different. Read more via BBC 

US: Religious Freedom Act cost Indy up to 12 conventions and $60M

The furor surrounding last year's Religious Freedom Restoration Act might have cost the city of Indianapolis as many as 12 conventions and up to $60 million in economic impact, the city's nonprofit tourism arm confirmed Monday evening.

Though they come with some caveats, the numbers from Visit Indy represent the most tangible effects yet of a controversy that city officials and business leaders long warned would cause real damage to Indianapolis' reputation. When Gov. Mike Pence signed RFRA into law last March, it was met with fierce backlash from civil rights groups across the country, who worried that it would allow Hoosiers to discriminate against LGBT people on the basis of religion. Days later, a so-called "fix" was signed into law to clarify that the state law was not intended to override local civil rights protections.

"It’s baffling how delusional Mike Pence is on his claim that there’s no direct correlation between LGBT rights and the Hoosier economy," Drew Anderson, spokesman for the Indiana Democratic Party, said in a statement. "In fact, Pence’s out-of-touch ideology comes from an ideologue — not a governor. When he signed RFRA last year, Mike Pence threw Indiana directly into a $250 million economic panic, including Indianapolis’ $60 million.” Read more via Indy Star  

Five things you can do for your intersex child

I was born with complete androgen insensitivity syndrome, an intersex trait that wasn’t discovered until I was a teenager. I’m externally female, meaning I was born with a vagina, so my parents had no reason or way to know that I was intersex. I was a teenager when doctors discovered, because of an unrelated event, that I had XY chromosomes, internal testes, and a blind-ended vaginal pouch.

When doctors told my parents I was intersex, they also instructed them to withhold the diagnosis from me in order to protect the development of my gender identity. My parents went along with the doctor’s recommendation, and a few years after my diagnosis, when doctors determined my breasts were sufficiently developed and I was of a reasonable height for a woman, my testes were surgically removed. At the time of the surgery, I didn’t know that the surgeon was removing my testes, because I didn’t even know I had them.

Given my experience as an intersex person, activist, and sociologist who studies intersex, I offer below a list of five things I hope you do for your intersex child.  Read more via The Parents Project 

US: List of schools allowed to discriminate against LGBT students will be published online

Religious schools that receive federal money yet obtain federal exemptions to discriminate against LGBT students and employees will have their waivers posted online for public view, under a decision by the Department of Education. Announced in a letter to lawmakers, the decision comes one month after eight U.S. senators requested more transparency into the practice of granting school waivers from Title IX of the Education Act.

The 1972 law bans publicly funded schools from engaging in sex-based discrimination — which the Obama administration has applied to protect LGBT students — but Congress also provided an exemption for religious schools.

The assistant secretary for civil rights at the Education Department, Catherine Lhamon, told the senators on Wednesday that her office is planning to post the waiver requests and the government’s reply letters “on our website with a basic search tool so that applicants, students, parents, and others can be better informed about which educational institutions have sought and/or received a religious exemption.”

Led by Sen. Ron Wyden of Oregon, the lawmakers said in December, “We are concerned these waivers allow for discrimination under the guise of religious freedom.” They continued: “At a very minimum, we believe that parents, students, and taxpayers have a right to know when institutions of higher education — as recipients of tax dollars — seek and receive exemptions under Title IX as well as the justification of those exemptions.”  Read more via Buzzfeed 

Iceland primary school introduces gender-neutral toilets

An Icelandic elementary school has removed gender signs from its bathrooms in an effort to become “gender neutral”. The principal thinks that other schools should do the same: “One simply has to be conscious about the fact that we are not all the same and everybody has the right to be as they are,” says Sigurbjörg Róbertsdóttir, principal of Reykjanesbær’s elementary school, Akurskóli, where school officials have had gender signs removed from the school’s restrooms.

And removing gender signs from restroom isn’t the only change the school has brought about this year. It has also changed one of the instructions regarding swimming lessons, in a memo that is sent home to parents. Instead of the typical phrasing of “girls should wear swimsuits and boys should wear swimtrunks”, it simply states that children should wear appropriate swim-attire, without categorizing which gender should wear what.

The procedure itself wasn’t explained specifically to the children. However the school asked Samtökin ’78, the national queer organization, to come and do a lecture on prejudice.  Read more via Gay Iceland 

Hong Kong: Majority now support anti-discrimination laws for LGBT people

A study commissioned by the Equal Opportunities Commission found that more than half of Hongkongers surveyed are in favour of legislation against sexual orientation, gender identity and intersex status discrimination, indicating a visible shift in public opinion over the past decade.

More than half – 55.7% – of the 1,005 surveyed agreed with enacting legislation – almost double the 28.7 percent who agreed in 2005. The shift was even more defined among young people – 91.8 percent considered legislation necessary, and nearly half – 48.9 percent – with religious views concurred. The findings of the Study on Legislation against Discrimination on the Grounds of Sexual Orientation, Gender Identity and Intersex Status were released on Monday.

The study also revealed the prevalence of discrimination against LGBTI in Hong Kong. In the study’s focus groups, LGBTI respondents feel that discrimination frequently takes place in areas of employment, education, provision of services, disposal and management of premises, as well as government functions. They also feel that they have little or no means of redress. They therefore saw legal protection from discrimination as the necessary first step in the protection of basic human rights and dignity. Read more via Hong Kong Free Press 

Germany: LGBT groups plan shelters for gay refugees amid attacks

The Lesbian and Gay Federation in Germany (LSVD) says several incidents of discrimination and physical assaults against gay refugees have been reported in the past year. "Berlin officials identified 95 cases in the German capital alone between August and December 2015, mainly in refugee homes," Markus Ulrich from the LSVD told NBC News.

Now LGBT communities in Berlin, Nuremberg and other major cities are now planning to set up special shelters exclusively for gay and lesbian refugees. "We have been alerted to a growing number of insults and violent acts against queer refugees, including cases of rape," Marcel de Groot, manager of Berlin's gay counselling centre, Schwulenberatung, said.

The support organization estimates that "between 5 and 10 percent of the 70,000 refugees that arrived in Berlin last year were gay, lesbian or transsexual," he added. Schwulenberatung has had to find emergency accommodation for up to 70 people, mostly gay men, in private Berlin homes because "they had strong fears in the refugee shelters or became victims of attacks," de Groot said.

Social workers and volunteers believe that the estimated number of unreported cases could be even higher. "Many homosexual refugees do not trust police," said de Groot, because authorities in their home counties "often persecute them for their sexual orientation." Read more via NBC