01.17.08
Posted in D's Thoughts, E's Thoughts at 1:49 pm by pikapp44
Pink Banana World is a new GLBT website that’s the best. It offers, Blogs, Podcasts, GLBT News and lots more.
Pink Banana World focuses on the more advanced features of the Internet including blogs, social networking sites, online video and more, helping companies navigate this ever-changing world from both a mainstream and a GLBT outreach.
The company’s flagship website, PinkBananaWorld.com, and it’s companion site PinkieB.com, are new sites launching in January 2008 designed to bring the best of today’s Internet technologies and experiences to GLBT users worldwide, including integrations with Flickr.com, MySpace.com, FaceBook.com and more… integrations with a distinct gay & lesbian flair!
Permalink
01.16.08
Posted in Gay Portal at 9:10 am by pikapp44
A new variety of staph bacteria, highly resistant to antibiotics and possibly transmitted by sexual contact, is spreading among gay men in San Francisco, Boston, New York and Los Angeles, researchers reported Monday.
The study released online by the journal Annals of Internal Medicine found the highest concentrations of infection by the drug-resistant bug in and around San Francisco’s Castro district and among patients who visit health clinics that treat HIV infections in gay men in San Francisco and Boston.
The culprit is a form of MRSA, or methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus, a bug that was once confined to hospitalized patients but, since the late 1990s, has been circulating outside medical settings, afflicting anyone from injection-drug users to elementary school students. A strain called USA300 has been a leading cause of MRSA infection in this decade, and an exceptionally drug-resistant variant of it is now on the loose, researchers say.
“We probably had it here first, and now it is spreading elsewhere,” said Binh An Diep, a researcher at San Francisco General Hospital and lead author of the report. “This is a national problem, and San Francisco is at the epicenter.”
The germ typically causes boils and other skin and soft-tissue infections and, despite its resistance to some drugs, is still treatable by surgical drainage and several classes of antibiotics. What is unusual in this case is the high percentage of infections - up to 40 percent - occurring in the buttocks and genitalia.
Although researchers have stopped short of declaring this form of staph a sexually transmitted disease, the infections are found where skin-to-skin contact occurs during sexual activity.
Most of the infections are limited to the skin surface, but the bacteria can invade deeper tissues or disseminate through the bloodstream. According to the federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, various forms of MRSA are causing 95,000 of these more costly and potentially life-threatening infections - and 19,000 deaths - annually in the United States.
“Taking a shower after sexual contact may minimize contamination,” said Dr. Chip Chambers, director of infectious diseases at San Francisco General, a co-author of the study. “Ordinary soap will do. It dilutes the concentration of bacteria. You don’t need antibacterial soap.”
Chambers stressed that some people, no matter how fastidious, could be more prone than others to staph infections. They could have unknown genetic traits or a history of antibiotic use that raises the risk.
“Despite one’s best efforts, it is still possible, of course, to get a staph infection,” he said. “This is why if one has a cut or open wound that it is important to clean it out and keep it clean.”
Researchers at San Francisco General have shown that many skin sores and boils caused even by these drug-resistant strains of staph often can be treated without any antibiotics, just by surgical drainage of pus.
One of the paradoxes of bacterial infections is that using antibiotics to treat them is one of the quickest ways to promote antibiotic resistance. Although the drugs sometimes are essential, overuse is weakening their effectiveness worldwide.
Permalink
01.14.08
Posted in Gay Rights at 3:04 pm by pikapp44
The Mautner Project, a national lesbian health organization, has named Dr. Leslie J. Calman as its new executive director.
The Mautner Project describes its mission as to help educate lesbians, bisexual and transgender women about their health and train health care providers about their lesbian patients.
Calman said she sees no need to change any part of the organization and will work to strengthen its two-pronged focus.
“On one hand, the organization has an important local presence and has done great work with client services and outreach,” she said. “On the other hand, the organization has a national presence that I’d like to grow and sustain.”
Though no radically different programming will be inaugurated when Calman takes her position, she said that she will make sure the resources needed to sustain current programming are available. Growth, she said, is another priority.
“I think we ought to be twice as big as we are,” she said. “The organization’s done great work; it could do more of the same.”
The Mautner Project receives funding from foundations like the Center for Disease Control as well as from corporations, in addition to unrestricted funding from individual donors.
Calman says that she has heard horror stories of lesbians being told that they do not need regular gynecological care. She hopes to debunk that myth while combating discrimination in reproductive health so that lesbians do not feel ostracized. Financing women’s health is another area of concern for the organization.
Permalink
01.12.08
Posted in Gay Rights at 8:19 am by pikapp44
Anthony Niedwiecki addressed the Oakland Park City Commission in support of adding gender identity to the city’s antidiscrimination ordinance.
Waymon Hudson and Anthony Niedwiecki used to lead a private life in Oakland Park. Now they’re leading the campaign against Fort Lauderdale Mayor Jim Naugle.
Hudson and Niedwiecki, a couple for nearly six years, say their lives changed May 1 when a skycap broadcast an anti-gay Bible message over an airport loudspeaker.
”We heard over the PA system that a man who lies with a man as he would a woman will be subject to death,” said Niedwiecki, 40, a Nova Southeastern University associate law professor who was returning with Hudson from a trip to Chicago.
”It frightened me,” said Hudson, 28, a JetBlue flight attendant and personal trainer. ”When someone says you should be put to death at 1 a.m. in a deserted airport, it perks your ears up.” A contractor quickly fired the Fort Lauderdale-Hollywood International Airport skycap.
Four months later, Hudson has become one of Broward’s most vocal gay activists and Niedwiecki is mulling a 2009 run for Oakland Park city commission. They came forward after Naugle said he wants to stop gay men from having sex in public places, like restrooms.
”The mayor likes to refer to Anthony and me as militant homosexual activists,” Hudson said. “I don’t like the homosexual part, but I’m not offended by that. When it comes to defending my rights and fighting back from bigotry, I am militant, as we all should be.”
Quite a switch for a man who worked five years as a Walt Disney World performer. Hudson, who grew up in Orlando, majored in musical theater and business at New York University.
In New York, Hudson met Niedwiecki, who was then living in Philadelphia, on Gay Pride Day. ”Bad gay fiction,” Hudson said. “That was it. We were just meant to be.”
Niedwiecki grew up outside Detroit. He attended Tulane Law School and earned an advanced degree from Temple University in Philadelphia. He later landed a teaching job at Temple.
Hudson moved to Philadelphia and they lived together there until Niedwiecki got the Nova teaching assignment.
The airport incident turned them into instant local celebrities.
”A woman came up to me [in Publix] and asked if she had seen me on the news,” Hudson said. “I said possibly. She looked at me right in the face and said, `You two deserve what that man said to you.’
”The next day I was at the gym,” Hudson said. ‘A large-size note that had `fag’ scrawled across it was stuck in my windshield. At that point I started to take side roads going home. It was a weird way to live. A few days later, a woman came up to me and spit in my face in the grocery store, with her 6-year-old son in hand. I said to her, ‘What a great lesson to teach your son.’ ”
Hudson has taken a leave from JetBlue and turned full-time gay activist.
”It wakes you up — that even in a modern cosmopolitan community there is hate and we’ve come a long way, but we have a way to go. We can’t be complacent,” said Hudson, 28, who with Niedwiecki started a gay-rights group called Fight OUT Loud.
”Waymon and Anthony’s group does more hate crime and political action stuff,” said Jeff Black, a founder of another Broward gay-rights group, UNITE Fort Lauderdale, which specializes in “community service and community building.”
Five weeks after the airport incident, Fight OUT Loud took on its first cause: two 14-year-old Portland, Ore., lesbians kicked off a public bus June 8 for kissing.
”The bus driver called them sickos,” Niedwiecki said. “We worked with the mothers, worked with the girls. Waymon had several conversations with the mayor’s office.”
In mid-June, the Portland transit department apologized to the girls.
THEN CAME NAUGLE
Then, an incident much closer to home: Naugle said the city should buy a $250,000 self-cleaning, locking toilet to stop men from having sex in public restrooms at the beach.
”The mayor thing happened and that quite honestly consumed our lives,” Niedwiecki said. “Fighting bigotry and hate in this city seems to be a full-time job.”
Fight OUT Loud has a mailing list of 2,200 and recently applied for nonprofit tax status. It and other gay groups have held several anti-Naugle rallies in Fort Lauderdale.
Hudson and Niedwiecki give out bumper stickers that read “Save Fort Lauderdale. Dump Naugle.”
No problem, says the mayor. “It’s free speech.”
Naugle has had several close encounters with Niedwiecki.
”I tried to have a conversation the other night at the meeting,” Naugle said. “Anthony was very confrontational. I tried to answer him. He kept interrupting me and I finally gave up.”
Permalink
01.11.08
Posted in Advocate Articles, Gay Rights at 3:10 pm by pikapp44
New policy gives ‘latitutde’ to gay employees without officially recognizing partnerships
The Florida Attorney General’s Office has agreed to allow employees to use sick leave to care for their ailing domestic partners.
Florida Attorney General Bill McCollum, a Republican, approved the policy in December. While gay rights activists celebrated the move as a progressive step in a conservative state government, the policy falls short of fullfledged recognition of domestic partnerships.
Rand Hoch, president of the Palm Beach County Human Rights Council, sent letters to McCollum and other state officials asking that they enact policies allowing sick leave to be used to care for ill domestic partners. In October, Alex Sink, the state’s chief financial officer, who is a Democrat, became the first state constitutional officer to enact a sick leave policy for domestic partners.
In a letter addressed to Hoch, Cathy Christensen, human resources administrator for the state Attorney General’s Office, explained that the new policy gives “enough latitude” for employees to use their sick time to care for their partners. The policy, however, does not specifically mention domestic partners because the state does not officially recognize domestic partnerships.
“We are aware of the issues surrounding benefits for ‘domestic partners,’ which may affect our employees,” Christensen wrote. “However, until Florida law recognizes domestic partners as a legal relationship, as the state’s law firm, we have a responsibility to ensure that our policies reflect the intent of the state’s laws and rules.”
For gay and lesbian employees with domestic partners who work in the attorney general’s office, the new policy is seen as a pragmatic step that addresses some of their concerns.
“I can live with that,” Hoch said. “I’m not looking for something symbolic. I want something that can actually be used.”
In the public realm, the measure is a major step forward in advancing equality for gays and lesbians, especially considering the conservative nature of the state government under Republican Governor Charlie Crist. In the private sector, an increasing number of Fortune 500 companies extend full benefits to domestic partners.
Hoch said he is waiting to hear whether Charles Bronson, the head of the state’s Agriculture and Consumer Services, approves a similar sick leave policy. Meanwhile, Hoch continues to lobby Crist to approve fully inclusive non-discrimination policies that would cover all state employees. Getting Crist’s administrative officials to approve domestic partnerfriendly sick leave policies is a step toward the equality.
“It’s the first step,” Hoch said. “They’re baby steps, but they’re significant. We now have two state cabinet members recognizing our families.”
Permalink
01.10.08
Posted in Gay Rights at 6:58 pm by pikapp44
A group of Christian clergymen flocked to the side of Mayor Jim Naugle on Tuesday, saying the depth of sexual sin in Broward County necessitates an old-fashioned spiritual revival.
The African-American church representatives said the gay community misunderstands Naugle’s stance toward them. He is here to help, they said.
“Mayor Naugle is not your enemy, AIDS is,” said Jerry Newcombe of Coral Ridge Television Ministries. He said he’s working on a television story about the mayor and Fort Lauderdale’s culture war about homosexuality.
The group of clergy met with Naugle privately Tuesday in City Hall, then made public statements. They did not say when, where or how long the revival would be.
The mayor incited a fight with gays in gay-friendly Fort Lauderdale in July when he commented that he uses the term “homosexual” because many of them aren’t gay, he said, “they’re unhappy.” He also alleged they frequent public bathrooms in Fort Lauderdale to have sex, and supported purchase of a single-stall supertoilet for $250,000 because its security features and lack of multiple stalls would deter “homosexual activity,” he said. As the fight wore on, Naugle pointed to the high rate of AIDS in Broward County and said the county has a “dilemma” because it markets to gay tourists but its health department has a public health crisis on its hands. Broward health officials said HIV/AIDS is not solely a problem for gays. Black women are among the fastest growing group of new infections.
Naugle’s public supporters have been relatively few, while his public opponents have been many. Tuesday’s event was meant to help turn that around.
Elder Mathes Guice of the Koinonia Worship Center in Pembroke Park said the county tourist council’s targeted marketing to gay visitors “led the spiritual community on a collision course with Satan.” He said “we have no other choice but to step up and do the right thing” by holding the revival.
“We love the homosexual people,” said the Rev. O’Neal Dozier of Pompano Beach. “We find them to be precious people. We want them saved.”
One clergyman was not impressed.
“I’m going to be ill if we don’t get out of here soon,” said Archbishop Bruce Simpson, who traveled from Pennsylvania to talk about the mayor at a news conference scheduled Wednesday evening at City Hall. Simpson is the author of “The Gay Face of God.”
Permalink
Posted in Advocate Articles, Gay Rights at 2:31 pm by pikapp44
Even if no one is asking, Army sergeant Darren Manzella has been telling anyone who’ll listen that he’s gay — without serious retribution so far from the military. Manzella, a medic who served in Iraq and Kuwait, has acknowledged his sexual orientation in national media interviews and again on Tuesday in a Washington news conference.
”This is who I am. This is my life,” said Manzella, who received a combat medical badge for his service in Iraq. ”It has never affected my job performance before. I don’t think it will make a difference now. And to be honest since then, I don’t see a difference because of my homosexuality.”
Aubrey Sarvis, executive director of Servicemembers Legal Defense Network, said Manzella’s case demonstrates the military is arbitrarily enforcing its ”don’t ask, don’t tell” policy now that the country is at war.
The ”don’t ask, don’t tell” policy prohibits active-duty service members from openly acknowledging that they are gay or lesbian.
Manzella still could be investigated now that he has left the battlefield. Every time he has said he is gay publicly can be counted as a violation of the policy, one of his attorneys said.
A bill to eliminate the military’s sexual orientation policy, filed by Rep. Ellen Tauscher, a California Democrat, is pending in Congress. Sarvis said the bill is unlikely to get out of committee during this election year, but hearings could be held.
Elaine Donnelly, president of the Center for Military Readiness, said Manzella’s commanders should have discharged him when they learned he was gay. Her group opposes allowing gays to join the military.
Permalink
01.09.08
Posted in Advocate Articles, Gay Rights at 10:22 am by pikapp44
The California supreme court declined to review an appeal challenging basic property tax protections for domestic partners, according to a joint statement released Thursday by advocacy groups the National Center for Lesbian Rights, Lambda Legal, and Equality California. The decision is a major victory for same-sex couples because no further appeals are possible.
“We are grateful to the board and the legislature for protecting same-sex couples,” Shannon Minter, legal director for NCLR, said in the release. “Today’s ruling by the supreme court ensures that this protection is secure.”
“The board of equalization has the authority to grant gay and lesbian couples the same protections in a time of grief as everyone else,” Brian Chase, Lambda Legal senior staff attorney, said in the statement. “No one should lose their home after the death of a partner.”
Thursday, the California supreme court denied the assessors petition to review the case, securing the tax protection for same-sex couples.
“We are very pleased with the court’s ruling today,” Geoff Kors, executive director of Equality California, said in the release. “The fact that this lawsuit moved forward in the first place further illustrates the need to grant same-sex couples the ability to marry in California. Then we would not have to waste time and taxpayer money to defend these kinds of very sensible and vital protections.”
Permalink
01.08.08
Posted in Gay Rights at 8:57 pm by pikapp44
Tennessee lawmakers returned to the legislature Tuesday with Republicans threatening to take up a bill that would bar gays and lesbians from adopting or serving a foster parents.
Permalink
Posted in Gay Rights at 8:56 pm by pikapp44
Conservative groups that boycotted legislative hearings on a proposed gay marriage bill in Vermont accusing it of being pro-gay announced Tuesday they have set up their own commission to “set the record straight”.
Permalink
« Previous entries · Next entries »