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Wednesday, December 2, 2015

Advocate.com Daily News

Advocate.com Daily News

Posted:
After her constituents rejected an ordinance that would have banned discrimation against several minority groups, including LGBT people, Houston Mayor Annise Parker told residents of Jacksonville, Fla., to not make the same mistake.
"We lost because fear, once it has taken root, can only grow," Parker told the Duval County Democratic Party Gala on Monday, according to The Florida Times-Union. "And a lie repeated and repeated and repeated sounds like the truth."
Parker was referring to the anti-transgender campaign waged against the Houston Equal Rights Ordinance, in which business leaders, ministers, and high-ranking politicians claimed the new law would allow men to dress up as women, inflitrate public bathrooms, and abuse women and girls. In reality, the law would have allowed transgender people to use the restroom of their choosing, not to mention ban discrimination in employment, housing, and public accomodations for over a dozen minority groups. The City Council passed the ordinance in 2014, but voters repealed it last month.
“The opponents didn’t really care that it protected veterans and pregnant women. … It was just about men in bathrooms,” Parker told the county Democrats.
Parker encouraged equality supporters to counter the lies of opponents, and for young voters to encourage the City Council to act on expanded protections.
But Jacksonville's nondiscrimination ordinance is proving just as controversia as Houston's. Jacksonville's mayor has not taken an official stance but instead called three community meetings to discuss it. The antigay Liberty Counsel, which had a hand in defeating HERO, is working to kill expanded protections in Jacksonville. It's working with a local attorney Joey Vaughn, who told the media, "There's no evidence of widespread discrimination" against LGBT people in northern Florida.
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It’s a reminder that “Christian” doesn’t have to mean “anti-LGBT”: A Texas school affiliated with the Episcopal Church has issued a message of support for a transgender student.
A longtime student at St. Luke’s Episcopal School in San Antonio will begin presenting as female after the holidays, and school administrators have taken the opportunity to reaffirm their commitment to diversity and equality, reports local TV station KSAT.
The school’s board of trustees met in November to reaffirm that policy, headmaster Thomas McLaughlin and board chair Peggy Pace said in a letter sent out to parents before Thanksgiving. The policy, adopted in 2011, states, “St. Luke’s welcomes diversity and respects differences in ethnic, cultural, and religious backgrounds; the languages we speak; our sexes, genders, and ages; the traditions we observes; the structures of our families; our financial and educational resources; and the special needs and gifts that we have. Welcoming people with diverse points of view and being sensitive to the interests and traditions of others emulates Christ-like principles of living and enhances the quality of the entire St. Luke’s experience.”
The letter also notes, “As some of you may already know, we have a transgender student in our community. In light of the trustees’ renewed commitment to inclusion, the administration will be working with the family on accommodations for the student over the next several weeks and we will keep you appropriately informed.”
Making accommodations will not be difficult, Pace told KSAT, as the school already has single-stall restrooms throughout campus and private changing rooms for physical education classes.
Of the 241 families with children at the school, which offers classes from pre-kindergarten through eighth grade, only three have removed their children in protest, McLaughlin told the station. “There have been some, based on this communication and the direction that the school is moving, that have concluded that this school may not be the right fit for them and their family,” he said.
But inclusiveness is an Episcopal tradition and value, McLaughlin said. “As a 68-year-old Episcopalian school, we’re standing in the company of Episcopal schools from around the world,” he said.
The Episcopal Church has an official policy against discrimination based on sexual orientation and gender identity.
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Though she lived long before me, I can honestly say Lili Elbe changed my life.
Elbe, who died in 1931, was a successful Danish artist with a bisexual wife, and has the distinction of being one of the first transgender people to undergo a surgical gender transition. I discovered Lili during the spring of my own awakening, nose down in a collection of transgender biographies and memoirs that led me to reexamine my own life and, not long after, come out as a man. Over six decades after Lili became a woman in the eyes of her peers, I made the transition from female to male.
Lili’s story held particular meaning for me and my wife. At birth, Lili Elbe was assigned male and given the name Einar Wegner. Married at 22, Einar and a 19-year-old Gerda Gottlieb, were both artists. Nearly a hundred years later, my wife and I married at 22 and were both writers. We fled to San Francisco, they moved to Paris. I started wearing men’s jeans and buzzed my hair into a high and tight military style flattop to signal my shift, while Einar began modeling for Gerda in women’s clothing.
Einar’s dressing en femme began as a bit of a lark. Gerda’s model hadn’t arrived and she persuaded Einar to put on a dress. By then Gerda was already emerging as one of the leading illustrators of the Art Deco movement for fashion magazines like Vogue.  Gerda gained a following for her sensuous artwork, which often featured a woman with short bob, full lips, small breasts, and beguiling brown eyes. (Ironically, some historians say that the small-breasted female body type that was popular and idealized in the 1920s was inspired by images of Lili that Gerda created.)
THE DANISH GIRL
In 1913, the couple publically announced that the mystery model was Einar in women’s clothing. Einar’s crossdressing seemed to awaken something in both of them. Gerda stopped using other models, Einar began identifying as a woman, as Lili, and the couple together began creating sexually explicit illustrations featuring two women together.
I was 37 and had been with Diane for 15 years when I came out and we began transitioning from a lesbian couple to husband and wife. That decision has created some unique challenges. When I suddenly became a man did it mean we’d become, gasp, straight? Neither Diane nor I identified that way. Diane still identified as a lesbian, albeit one who happened to have a trans man as her co-pilot. But we soon discovered that other people were all too happy to bestow other identities upon us.
The roaring '20s came to an abrupt close in October 1929 when the American stock market crashed, launching the Great Depression. It also marked the end of Einar. Already middle-aged, Lili was no longer willing to live a dual life. With Gerda’s support Lili underwent one of the world’s very first medical transitions — which involved a series of experimental surgeries.
Transitioning can put a huge strain on a couple. And that’s before you take into account how hormones change a person. Lili wrote of having incredibly soft skin. Going the opposite direction, I experienced a thickening of skin; I gained what Diane calls “man hands.” Worse, testosterone has wrecked havoc on my emotional availability and communication skills.
Some of the changes seemed thrust upon us by society or hormonal changes, which may have been why Diane took particular delight in establishing what kind of man I could be, from the type of clothes I should wear to whether I held the door for strangers. Gerda also played a part in establishing Lili’s personality. She spoke about “creating” and forming Lili after “enticing” her out of Einar.
THE DANISH GIRL
We all create ourselves. Whether transgender people do so more or less is debatable but many of us are certainly drawn to this notion that we can change from how others see us into how we see ourselves.
Lili may have lived a hundred years ago but she was, in this respect, very modern. A creation of her own (and Gerda’s) imagination, Lili emerged in portraits created for fashion magazines. In many ways, Lili had a public persona before she had a private one and the public self gave birth to the private self. Under Gerda’s tutelage, Lili transformed from a two-dimensional representation into a real three-dimensional flesh and blood woman.
I’m not trying to suggest that there was an artifice to Lili, at least no more so than there is an artifice to any of us, especially in our modern world of personal brands and augmented and edited “reality.” Musing about the post-transition life Lili was creating, she wrote words that still resonate with those of us on this gender transition journey.
 “Frequently the question plagues me: Have I had only a past, or have I had no past at all? Or have I only a future without a past?”
It’s a question I ponder as well. Was I female in my past or have I always been male? My mother feels guilty when she thinks with nostalgia about the little girl I once was. I played women’s basketball in college, but because my school has since changed my name and gender, I’ve been added retroactively to the men’s team. I’m still pictured with the women’s team but my name is now on the list of men’s basketball alums.
After the surgery Lili was pronounced legally female. After 19 years together, the king of Denmark declared Lili and Gerda’s marriage null and void, because marriage, after all, was something only possible between a man and a woman.
When I transitioned Diane and I suddenly gained the right to legally wed long before the Supreme Court ruled on same-sex marriage. It was a strange experience to suddenly have rights we’d been denied for so long. We’d been married before, we’d even had a legally obtained marriage license bearing our two female names. But that was before the state of California declared our marriage — and the marriage of dozens of other same sex couples who’d wed that Valentine’s weekend — illegal. Like Lili and Gerda, our marriage had been voided.
Transitioning can be very tough on a relationship and it takes a lot of adaptability to persevere through all the changes, and the societal pressures they engender. While Diane and I gained status as a perceived straight couple, I’ve heard that going the other way — from having heterosexual privilege to suddenly being seen as queer—can be very stressful.  Still, Gerda and Lili stayed together long after Lili began living as a woman.
THE DANISH GIRL
But that was before Lili underwent the medical transformation that involved hormone treatments. And switching hormones has a habit of changing us far more than we expect. I know trans guys and trans women alike who had always been attracted to women — until they transitioned and suddenly developed an interest in men. Maybe that’s why Lili began expressing a sense that being with a man was essential to her becoming a “real” woman.
That question of authenticity still hovers over trans people today. Am I a real man? What makes someone real? The pressure to feel real — to ourselves and to others — has pushed some trans people to extremes like illegal operations to be seen as more fully female or male
In words that seem prophetic, Lili wrote in a journal, “I cannot imagine what existence would be like if Lili were to one day vanish forever, or if she should no longer be young and beautiful. Then she would no longer have any justification for living at all.”
It’s easy to wonder what might have been, but the real miracle is that Lili and Gerda’s story has survived at all, much less that it has made it to the big screen. It’s a testament to the power of their love story that it escaped the World War II efforts of a brutally efficient regime to literally erase people like them, like me, from the earth, and from history.  
That’s why I’ll be going to see The Danish Girl in theaters.
Posted:
Adam Lambert isn’t going to let a petition signed by 20,000 people stop him from performing in Singapore on New Year’s Eve, reports Towleroad.
“I am a uniter, not a divider, and I believe in celebrating the human heart and spirit,” the out singer declared in a Facebook post.
His critics, including the antigay activist group Focus on the Family, launched the petition so that the residents of Singapore would not be “affronted by lewd acts in the name of entertainment.” It names concert organizers, the government of Singapore, Esplanade Theatres on the Bay, and others, demanding they stop Lambert from singing.
In turn, Warner Music started its own petition, in favor of Lambert performing, and garnered more than 24,700 signatures before it closed, at least 4,000 more supporters than the original petition.

Lambert addressed the issue in a statement on Warner’s Facebook page: 
 
“My performance at Celebrate 2016 will not only be a spectacular one, it will celebrate the entire human family in all...
Posted by Warner Music Singapore on Friday, November 27, 2015
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A Transgender Day of Remembrance marker at the University of Texas at Dallas was defaced Monday, with someone spray-painting “weird” over the memorial, Towleroad reports.
LGBT groups at the school decorate the campus’s “spirit rock” for various events, and for this year’s Day of Remembrance, November 20, they had painted the rock in the colors of the transgender pride flag, while placing flags nearby to represent each trans person murdered since 2012, Towleroad notes. The rock also bore the words “Transgender Day of Remembrance” and an explanation of the flags.
Monday, however, the spray-painted “weird” covered “Transgender Day of Remembrance.”
“To whomever vandalized the TDOR memorial today: hope you feel proud of yourself,” members of Rainbow Guard at UTD, an LGBT student group, wrote on their Facebook page. “Takes a real courageous person to anonymously insult a group of people who’ve been killed as a result of the bigotry you displayed.”
The person who spray-painted the memorial may be the same one who defaced various Black Lives Matter materials on campus, Rainbow Guard member Allen Smith told Towleroad.
Students were quick to restore the memorial. “The individual(s) who repainted the rocks are my favorite people. … This community will not remain silent,” Rainbow Guard wrote on Facebook.
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Just in time for World AIDS Day, a new study on teenagers in Asia has found smartphone dating apps complicit in the spread of HIV. Because the apps increase the opportunity for casual sex, researchers say, their growing use is a major factor in what is being dubbed a new HIV epidemic.
For example, in the Philippines alone, HIV infection rates among teenagers have reportedly doubled in four years, while in Bangkok, young gay men have a one-in-three chance of being infected.
These findings, unveiled after two years of research by the United Nations Children's Fund, were first reported Monday by U.K. newspaper The Guardian.
“With the rise of these apps, the probability and risk of infection will increase multifold because it makes it so much easier for [young gay men] to date other guys and hook up for sex,” Wing-Sie Cheng, HIV adviser for UNICEF in east Asia and the Pacific, told The Guardian.
While worldwide, HIV infection rates are decreasing generally, UNICEF found that infections among people aged 10-19 have increased in Asia and the Pacific region, home to more than half of the world’s adolescents.
Officially, there are at least 220,000 infected preteens and teens in the region, while the actual number is likely much higher, according to UNICEF.
Also, the U.N. believes doctors in that part of the world are treating fewer than half of those adolescents. And there has been a steady increase year after year in the number of AIDS-related deaths.
“We need to work better with mobile app providers to share information about HIV and protect the health of adolescents,” Cheng told The Guardian. 
But at least in the U.S., mobile apps Tinder and Grindr have bristled at such connections, such as the one made on billboards that went up in Los Angeles in September. The ads from the AIDS Healthcare Foundation suggested the apps were linked to the spread of STDs and offered free testing. In response, Grindr removed all of AHF’s ads and Tinder called its lawyers, who sent the group a cease and desist letter.
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During Project Runway's 12th season, Justin LeBlanc gave a very public face to two populations — LGBT people and the deaf/hard-of-hearing — while simultaneously showcasing his talent to the world.
The 27-year-old designer was noticed quickly by the judges for his use of exotic materials. In his pre-season interview, LeBlanc said that the first garment he ever made, a black cocktail dress, involved plexiglass. Refusing to be limited by his deafness, LeBlanc knew his presence on the show was important.
"I did feel a responsibility to maintain some sense of professionalism," LeBlanc tells The Advocate. "I was representing several communities, and I wanted to make them all proud. It was a struggle, but in the end I was proud of how I carried myself throughout the show."
LeBlanc says the response from viewers continues to be overwhelming. "I never expected that someone like me can make such an impact on someone else," he says.
LeBlanc made it to the final episode but lost the title to Dom Streater. "The show was an incredible experience," he says. "I never knew what to expect."
Two years after Runway, LeBlanc is still designing and fighting for deaf visibility. He speaks regularly at conferences and charity events that benefit the deaf and other groups faced with unique challenges, and he hopes to expand his efforts to address LGBT rights. "I recently became engaged to a wonderful person and I am thankful that we are able to marry legally in the USA," he says. "We must protect and expand those rights."
Although LeBlanc is proudly out, he has focused his publicity on deaf and hard-of-hearing people. "The [deaf] community is small, relatively speaking, and I have been part of that community for my entire life," he says. "Today, the LGBT community is more mainstream than the deaf community, so we feel more aligned to each another. There is still a lot of discrimination against the deaf with respect to equal access to education and job opportunities, even though the deaf are as capable as the hearing. It is a matter of educating and providing equal access."
Le Blanc says that although being a gay man has had the bigger impact on his career, his deafness has been the source of the harder lifelong struggle. LeBlanc remembers a blind date he had in college that a mutual friend set up.
"When I met the fellow, he thought I was a foreigner, since I had an accent, due to my deafness," LeBlanc says. "I told him I was deaf and he was dumbfounded. From that point, we knew it was not going to work out, and we went our separate ways. I was furious with my friend for setting me up with someone so ignorant, but I've learned and moved on."
It wasn't until graduate school in Chicago that LeBlanc met his first serious boyfriend. They met in Millennium Park, and although the guy was not deaf, he had learned sign language as an undergraduate.
"He took the challenge to communicate with me, and I thought it was freaking adorable," LeBlanc said. "We stayed in touch and now, over six years later, we are engaged." Even though his partner can sign, LeBlanc says it took an understanding of how important all communication — spoken, signed, or otherwise — is to a relationshp in order to make it work. "I am not saying it was easy, but it was worth it."
LeBlanc's focus has not always been on fashion. His undergraduate degree is in architecture. "I knew even as a kid that I wanted to be a fashion designer," he says. "I would play dress-up while watching The Wizard of Oz and design dresses for my sister’s Barbie dolls. But I didn’t feel comfortable since it was considered 'gay' for a man to be into fashion. So I began my career in architecture." LeBlanc received his BA in architecture from North Carolina State University.
Near the end of his undergraduate years, LeBlanc finally came out of the closet. Everything changed after that. He shifted his focus to fashion design and, following the completion of his undergraduate degree, enrolled in a master's of design program in fashion, body, and garment from the Art Institute of Chicago. While pursuing his master's, he was awarded a Louis Vuitton scholarship and landed internships with Rick Owens and Alexander McQueen.
Soon after, in 2013, LeBlanc auditioned for Project Runway. His family and friends had told him to apply many times, and one day the parent of one of his best friends emailed him the official application. The rest is Runway history.
Today LeBlanc is working on his autumn-winter 2016 and 2017 collection. He hopes it will debut during New York Fashion Week this spring. He also runs an online store where he sells a small number of garments and 3D-printed accessories.
LeBlanc's primary message for the LGBT rights movement going forward is one of inclusivity. "Through my personal experience, being a deaf person in the public eye, I’ve met such a diverse array of deaf people of varying colors, ages, genders, beliefs, and sexual orientations." he says. "Since the deaf community is very small, we cannot afford to exclude anyone. The gay community is relatively large, and at times I have felt that I was expected to meet a 'standard' to be fully accepted. I am nowhere close to a standard."
To a young designer hoping to follow in his footsteps, LeBlanc's advice is to be confident and celebrate your differences.
"To be unique and to have a fresh perspective is what art and fashion is all about," he says. "We need more artists to be confident, bold, understanding, and talented." Put those together, LeBlanc says, and you will be successful.
"Being deaf and gay gave me a sense of identity. I would change nothing about either, since it defines who I am and it makes me happy."
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Three years ago today, I revealed to my friends, my family, and the world, that I was a person living with HIV. I didn’t do it to help others, I did it to keep my sanity and help myself. I had been keeping my status a secret for about six months, and I could already see how it was changing me for the worse. I was depressed because of the assumptions I was making about other people’s fictitious opinions of me. I was scared because I didn’t have insurance and I didn’t know what to do. And I felt hopeless because I didn’t have my usual support system to lean on. But once I sorted out my medical care and realized my life would be a long one, I decided that a lifetime of living in fear wasn’t worth living at all.
After I revealed my status and unloaded the burden of my secret, I was utterly relieved. Yet, I was frustrated and surprised by two things.
First, I was surprised by the amount of people who contacted me privately and shared their stories of living for years with a secret that was eating them alive. So many men and women were compelled to reach out to a total stranger because they felt as if the people within their own lives would judge and reject them. So instead, they lived a lie, compromising their health and happiness along the way.
And second, I was frustrated at the amount of judgment and criticism that came from people within the LGBT community. The amount of vitriol and judgment from a community that has had the world judging them for decades was too much hypocrisy to bear.
Ever since that day, I have dedicated every word I wrote to help the first group and hold a mirror up to the second.
HIV may not be a gay disease, but it is an undeniable legacy of a community that fought back against the silence of a public who didn’t care about gay men dying en masse. It is a historic example of and unyielding strength and unquestionable compassion that served as the backbone for what the LGBT movement is today. Which is exactly why HIV stigma has no place within the LGBT community, because we know better.
To me, World AIDS Day is the time where we take a moment and reflect on the beautiful lives that we lost too soon. It is a time to pay respect to the men and women who passed by reigniting our efforts to combat ignorance, dispel the myths, and promote sex-positive prevention. It is a moment where we all can update our rhetoric and speak the language that reaches young LGBT youth who need it the most.
In HIV treatment and prevention, there are many obstacles we face; access to PrEP for people who are HIV-negative, access and adherence to care for people who are HIV-positive, and the elimination of stigma that keeps people from thinking that HIV doesn’t affect them. And in the U.S., this starts and ends within the community that HIV affects the most: the LGBT community.
People are always asking how they can take part in HIV activism and awareness. As much as we might think social media is a modern day nuisance — a distraction filled with ‘selfies,’ food pics and check-ins — lets take stock in the powerful tool that it gives us to reach thousands of our friends and followers with a touch of a button. Social media is activism, or it can be. Yet so many are reticent to hit the share button for fear that their network will make assumptions about their own status. I say, let them. If you are worried that someone might think you are HIV-positive just because you are sharing information that could help others, you are perpetuating the problem. Assumptions do not spread HIV, but ignorance and avoidance often does.
This World AIDS Day, ask yourself this. Do you want to stand with the people who make ignorant snap judgments? The people who make HIV jokes and perpetuate the silence that so many living with HIV are imprisoned by? Or do you stand with your brothers and sisters who want to spark the final movement that puts an end to the disease? If you give in to the fear of the former, you cannot stand with the latter.
Don’t let fear stand in the way of the fight. It isn’t enough for people with HIV to simply live anymore; we must create a world where they can live well.
#Forward
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Theodore Shoebat, an antigay Christian extremist best known for his horrific video rants and columns published by right wing blogs, called for the execution of gay church leaders on Friday. Shoebat focused primarily on gay priests, claiming the Vatican is riddled with “homosexual hornets nests.”
In a lengthy and rambling video blog post, Shoebat listed multiple times he has tried to imitate other right wing video makers who ask controversial questions of unsuspecting authorities in the hopes that they'll misspeak or say something that can be twisted to fit the filmmakers ideology. Shoebat's post is full of complaints about Catholic leaders who've ignored his antics or shut him down entirely.
Shoebat claimed that gay priests and ministers are "suicide bombers" intent on infiltrating the church as a way to discredit Christianity.
"Once they become a pastor or a priest, they begin their destruction. And they only do this for one reason, and that is to make the church look bad, to make the church evil," he said in the podcast. "It's obvious that Satan knows homosexuality is evil and it's also obvious to me that these very sodomites who enter the church, they as well know that homosexuality is evil because they do this so that other people can say, 'See, this is Christianity.'"
"Civilization has no room for homosexuality." Shoebat said in the video, as he pointed out that the Catholic Church once persecuted any priests discovered to be gay. They "would be delivered to the secular authorities and put to death," he said, lamenting "it's just too damn bad that we don't have these laws being enacted any more."
As Joe.My.God. blogger Joe Jervis points out, Shoebat is a darling of other religious opponents of LGBT rights.
"Shoebat currently appears in an anti-LGBT film created by hate group leader Janet Porter which also stars Porno Pete [Peter LaBarbera], Mike Huckabee, Rand Paul, and other anti-LGBT activists," Jervis wrote. "Shoebat regularly calls for the genocide of homosexuals, atheists, and Christians who support LGBT rights. It’s what Jesus would want."
Watch below as Shoebat tells his audience about his conspiracy theories and calls for the execution of church leaders. Video courtesy of Right Wing Watch.
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A United States Marine was convicted in the Philippines Tuesday of killing a woman after he discovered she was transgender, according to the Associated Press.
However, the court found Lance Cpl. Joseph Scott Pemberton of New Bedford, Massachusetts,guilty of homicide, and not murder, resulting in a far less severe punishment, reported the Philippine Star.
Witnesses testified that Pemberton strangled Jennifer Laude and dunked her head into a toilet bowl in a hotel room. They had met that night in October 2014 at a disco bar in Olongapo, a city northwest of Manila, according to the wire service. Two of Pemberton's U.S. Marine colleagues testified Pemberton used a slur when he told them what happened: "I think I killed a 'he/she,'" the Associated Press reported.
According to police, Pemberton became angry with Laude upon discovering she had male genitalia, CNN reported. In court, Pemberton claimed he acted in self defense and that Laude was not dead when he left her in the hotel shower, according to Reuters. 
The Filipino court rejected Pemberton's "trans panic" defense and convicted him of homicide.
For his crime, Pemberton was sentenced to 6 to 12 years in prison, but credited for the year he has already spent in detention. He was also ordered to pay Laude's family 4.6 million pesos ($98,000) in damages including burial costs, according to the wire service.
Laude's mother, Julita, told the Associated Press she was not pleased with the short jail sentence and had hoped Pemberton would be found guilty of murder, which could have resulted in a 40-year sentence.
"But the important thing is he will be jailed," she said, crying. In her grief, she misgendered Laude, saying "My son's life is not wasted."
In October 2014, Jennifer Laude's family climbed the fence of the military base where Pemberton was being held because they wanted to see the man accused of killing their loved one and were not allowed legal entry.
The Laude family's lawyer, Harry Roque, told the Associated Press "this is a bittersweet victory because it is not murder," adding that "if what he did isn't cruelty, I don't know what is."
Pemberton is temporarily being held in the New Bilibid Prison in Muntinlupa City, according to the Star. The U.S. Embassy is reportedly going to confer with the Department of Foreign Affairs about where Pemberton will ultimately be imprisoned.
The Star reported Laude family's lawyers claimed that the U.S. refuses to turn Pemberton over to Philippine authorities. Under the Visiting Forces Agreement between the United States and the Philippines, the confinement or detention of U.S. personnel shall be carried out in facilities agreed upon by authorities from both countries.
Near the courthouse, dozens of Jennifer Laude's supporters rejoiced when the verdict was announced and burned an effigy of Uncle Sam, screaming "Justice for Jennifer!" The demonstrators were held back by police, fire trucks and iron railings, according to the wire service.
The outrage surrounding the murder was heightened due to tensions regarding the United States military presence in the Philippines, which the Associated Press reported many Filipinos feel undermines the sovereignty of the country.
WATCH: Court narration reveals what happened on the night Pemberton killed Laude.
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You are so busy. You either just got back to the office from being out for almost a week or you worked while your colleagues were out. Either way, you are now dragging a bit. You are tired and maybe a little grumpy and overwhelmed by your to-do list.
And now here comes #GivingTuesday, the annual day of philanthropy — observed the first Tuesday after Thanksgiving (today) — that tells you that you should stop what you are doing and donate to any number of organizations doing work that yes, you care about, but you feel like you have too much going on to give. Someone else will do it. You will think all this, but then you will give.
You will give because you know that no matter how much is going on in your life there are many in this fabulous and wildly diverse LGBT community who suffer every day because of who they are or who they love. Yes. Still.
While we have momentum on our side, our work is far from over. The fight for lived equality continues every day for many of us in our community. Lesbians who can’t see their kids, gay youth who are shoved into lockers and tossed down stairs, transgender men who are fired as soon as they come out as trans, and transgender women who are subject to violent assault and even death. All this happens every day and you can’t do much about it, but you can give to organizations who will and who are.
And when you give, you will feel a little less tired, a little less grumpy and a bit more at peace because you will know that your support gets us all closer to the day when every LGBT person lives fully and freely. #GivingTuesday reminds us that we are all in this together. “None of us are free until all of us are free.” You know that. And so you give to make that freedom possible. Thank you.
KATE KENDELL is the executive director at the National Center for Lesbian Rights. Learn more about NCLR at www.NCLRights.org.
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Blue Ribbon Boys is a progressive, sex-positive, HIV viral suppression campaign that encourages dating/hookup app users to protect their sexual health. It's a forward-thinking partnership between the Global Forum on MSM and HIV and the gay app Hornet. It’s particularly innovative because it is inclusive of all men who have sex with men, regardless of HIV status. The campaign will reach 7.5 million MSM around the world using cutting-edge technology and modern messaging.
Blue Ribbon Boys prompts Hornet users to answer a short series of yes or no questions about their sexual health. Based on their answers, those who qualify receive a blue ribbon icon on their profile photo signifying their personal commitment to health and HIV viral supression, irrespective of their HIV status. Men who do not meet the standard are directed to information and ways to protect and improve their sexual health so they can become a Blue Ribbon Boy. Users will refresh their answers every three months.
This campaign is launched at a time when prevention messages for men who have sex with men urgently need refreshing. Past public health messages for MSM were typically framed as directives that utilize shame, blame, or fear tactics to motivate compliance with recommendations developed by officials with good intentions. Developed by and for men who have sex with men, Blue Ribbon Boys modernizes the message by reintroducing sex into the message and by informing men about the fuller range of prevention options available to them.  Those options now include the early and consistent use of antiretroviral medications. Blue Ribbon Boys actively promotes early initiation of antiretroviral medications for HIV-positive men and widespread use of pre-exposure prophylaxis among HIV-negative men. When these options are not easily available or accessible, Blue Ribbon Boys encourages men to demand them and to seek out other strategies.
Blue Ribbon Boys replaces directions with questions posed to users. Questions focus on HIV and STI testing, antiretroviral treatment, PrEP,  HIV status and viral load, disclosure, stigma, and other protection and prevention methods. The blue ribbon icon pays homage to the red AIDS ribbon combined with the color of the pill first approved for use as PrEP.
The goal of Blue Ribbon Boys is global HIV viral suppression. To accomplish this, Hornet users are reminded about the importance of:
• Regular HIV testing
• PrEP for HIV-negative men at “significant” risk for HIV infection
• Early and consistent use of antiretroviral medications for men who are living with HIV, with the aim of suppressing HIV viral load and maintaining “undetectable” status
• Condoms and lubricant during anal sex
• Up-to-date Information about local resources and services
Blue Ribbon Boys emphasizes HIV viral supression as everyone’s responsibility without passing moral judgment. It does not call out or differentiate between HIV-positive or HIV-negative men who have sex with men. It is inclusive, circumventing the stigma that is still associated with a positive HIV status or with taking PrEP. Guys who become Blue Ribbon Boys are standing proudly as advocates for global HIV viral suppression and sexual health. Individual HIV status is confidential and inconsequential for participation in the campaign.
Blue Ribbon Boys is globally ambitious because it reaches MSM in countries where basic services may not be available but the prevalence of smartphones is widespread. It also directly targets young MSM who are early adopters of technology and are often at highest risk for HIV. Young people (under 25) represent over 40 percent of new HIV infections worldwide. Hornet users who hit a roadblock in their attempt to access basic sexual health services will be directed to two global petitions. One is for HIV-negative men who want access to PrEP and other prevention services. The second is for HIV-positive men who demand unfettered access to antiretroviral treatment.
Globally, Hornet is the second largest MSM social app after Grindr, with over 7.5 million users, and is the leading gay app in many countries where HIV is concentrated among MSM. Hornet is the most popular gay app in Brazil, Turkey, Russia, Thailand, Taiwan, Egypt, and the Philippines. Hornet also has a large footprint in Latin America, Asia, and a small but growing member base in parts of Africa. Hornet prides itself on innovating the most advanced platform interface with constant updates to improve the user experience. It has been at the forefront of sexual health activism and has previously implemented several features and programs that provide information and sexual health services to their users.
As the climate of HIV is rapidly changing across the globe, mobile apps that can rapidly adapt are integral in the future of HIV and sexual health messaging. Wherever you are in the world, having clear and accurate information is vital in the fight against HIV and AIDS. It enables individuals and communities affected by HIV to protect themselves, care for others, advocate for better services and challenge stigma and discrimination.
Repositioning the global HIV prevention message to focus on viral suppression is a modern, empowering narrative that encourages community participation. It is not fear-based. It is inclusive and reminds us all that by protecting ourselves, regardless of our HIV status, we are also protecting the greater community.
Blue Ribbon Boys is now live and Hornet is offering free premium memberships for November and December to all new users here.
JACK MACKENROTH is an HIV activist and a former contestant on Project Runway. Follow him on Twitter @JackMackenroth.
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Pope Francis, on his way home from Africa, has admitted that the question of allowing condom use to prevent the spread of HIV is “complicated” for the Roman Catholic Church but he also said there are larger problems to address.
Francis, who was returning to Rome after visiting Kenya, Uganda, and the Central African Republic, faced a query about condoms during a press conference on the papal plane Monday. He allowed that condoms are “one of the methods” that can prevent transmission of HIV, which has devastated Africa, but said the issue is “morally complicated for the church,” Agence France-Presse reports.
He also appeared displeased that the question even came up. “When people are dying from lack of water and food ... your question seems too narrow,” he told the German journalist who brought it up, according to AFP. “The problem is bigger than that,” he added, noting that Africans face numerous difficulties, caused by arms trafficking and economic exploitation as well as the scarcity of food and clean water.
His predecessor, Pope Benedict XVI, received widespread criticism for his long-standing opposition to condom use to prevent HIV transmission, and he made a statement in 2009 claiming condoms could actually contribute to the spread of HIV. The church opposes condoms along with all other forms of contraception, and it opposes sexual relations between members of the same sex. But then in 2010, Benedict said using a condom was preferable to exposing a sexual partner to HIV, even if it also prevented pregnancy.
Pope Francis made few references to AIDS during his time in Africa, although he did visit children with HIV in a hospital in Uganda, the U.K.’s Guardian reports. He “kissed each one, listened to moving testimony from a girl born with the virus and thanked the church’s healthcare workers for caring for those infected,” the paper notes. Francis is shown above at a children’s hospital in Bangui, Central African Republic.
Sub-Saharan Africa has 25.8 million people living with HIV, or nearly 70 percent of the worldwide total of 36.9 million, according to the Joint United Nations Programme on AIDS.
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