Thousands Rally in Kentucky for Antigay Clerks
Thousands of people gathered at the Kentucky state capitol in support of three clerks who refuse to issue marriage licenses to same-sex couples.
Bil Browning
www.advocate.com/marriage-equality/2015/08/24/thousands-rally-kentucky-antigay-clerks
When A Newborn's Sex Is In Question, Why Do Doctors Get To Decide?
Pam Crawford first saw M.C. nine years ago, on an adoption website for kids with special needs. The photo showed a toddler in a chair, curly black hair pulled tight into pigtails, staring at the camera with a dead-serious expression. A short bio noted that the 18-month-old didn’t like getting her fingers sticky and that she needed a family to help realize her full potential.
While many of the other kids on the site had visible health problems, Pam was unclear what this baby’s special needs could be. “Here was just this perfect little girl,” Pam said recently.
— This feed and its contents are the property of The Huffington Post, and use is subject to our terms. It may be used for personal consumption, but may not be distributed on a website.
Trans activist fears for her safety after false claims she tried to ban drag fun run
A trans activist has been left fearing for her safety after being accused of trying to block a fund-raising event for sick children.
Steph Holmes, who founded and runs the Chrysalis Trans Support Network in the north-west of England, believes the organization may have suffered lasting damage because of the claims.
On Saturday afternoon, the Telegraph reported Chrysalis had asked police to investigate a ‘Dames on the Run’ race, in which men were invited to run dressed as women to raise funds for Derian House children’s hospice.
The center in Lancashire, north-west England, helps children with life-shortening illness and their families, providing everything from respite care to bereavement support.
The story was taken up a few hours later by other publications, including the Mirror, which focused almost exclusively on Chrysalis organizer, Steph Holmes and said she thought the cross-dressing fun run was a hate crime.
Holmes told GSN before the story broke that neither she nor Chrysalis had raised this matter with the police.
She did not believe the proposed race was a hate crime. Instead she thought it was just insensitive and wanted to ask Derian House to do a different race theme.
It seems a Facebook conversation about the run, including Chrysalis members, was leaked to the press. And an individual who holds no formal position in Chrysalis referred the run to Lancashire Police.
But it is Holmes who has taken the blame.
She told GSN: ‘The response, as you can imagine, has been hostile in the extreme, and has left me feeling very down.’
One commenter wrote: ‘a trans charity that can’t distinguish between drag and trans really has no point having a voice at all’. Another added: ‘I suppose all we can do is to appeal to the board of Chrysalis to remove Steph Holmes.’ Yet another suggested that ‘the only people guilty of a hate crime’ were Chrysalis.
Holmes said: ‘I try to let such comments wash over me, but it is still distressing to hear such things, and hurtful that people think I am capable of taking this position.’
She is worried about the impact on Chrysalis.
‘Chrysalis is a trans support group, mostly funded out of my own pension, that runs events in Blackpool Preston and Blackburn. We offer a safe place for people to socialize, as well as help with coming out: not just transition, but all the paperwork involved as well.’
She advocates for trans people with family doctors, gender clinics, employment tribunals and local branches of the National Health Service. She provides presentations to schools, colleges and local businesses.
She added: ‘Over the years, we have helped hundreds of people. So I am very concerned that the claim that Chrysalis would have anything to do with banning a fun run will damage our reputation and result in fewer people getting support because some partner organizations seek to distance themselves.
‘That in turn could be very bad for the trans people concerned.’
A shaken Holmes had been planning to fly the Chrysalis banner at Manchester Pride – one of the UK’s biggest LGBTI events – this weekend. She is now considering if it would be safer for her not to do so.
The story was picked up and, it appears, first published by the Lancashire Evening Post (LEP).
The LEP is a syndication partner to the Ross Parry news agency, who provided the copy to national press, including the Telegraph and Mirror.
According to Ross Parry: ‘The LEP copy contained a full statement from Chrysalis which was extremely critical of the event.’
With the exception of Gay Star News, none of the media that ran with this story spoke directly to Holmes before doing so.
After speaking with Holmes and GSN correspondent, Jane Fae, the Mirror took the unusual step of taking their story down late on Sunday afternoon.
Jennie Kermode, chair of Trans Media Watch, commented: ‘This story has unfolded like a game of whispers when it should have been fact checked at every stage.’
Meanwhile, the fall-out is also damaging a completely unrelated trans charity.
Some people have confused Chrysalis with a transgender-support charity in Southampton, southern England. Their only crime – they happen to have the same name.
Hostile remarks naming and linking to that group have appeared on comment pages. And TV’s Channel Five’s Wright Stuff incorrectly displayed the banner of the Southampton Group and its registered charity number.
The post Trans activist fears for her safety after false claims she tried to ban drag fun run appeared first on Gay Star News.
Jane Fae
Straight White Man Says He’s The Victim Of A Hate Crime, Angry That Police Disagree
Tim Querengesser was peacefully minding his own business, meditating in his local park, when he says a rock “the size of an apple” went flying past his head.
“When it landed with a crack, a woman near me in the park screamed,” he writes in a new op-ed published in Toronto’s Metro News. “A girl, no older than three, playing about 10 feet from where the rock came to rest, just stared, confused.”
Related: Gay Man Left Paralyzed After Being Brutally Stabbed In Possible Hate Crime
Querengesser turned around to see who had thrown the rock. That’s when he saw the man he had been talking to not five minutes earlier.
“I had never met this guy,” Querengesser claims. “I was sitting on a park bench when he approached.”
“You know, you fags can’t take over this park,” the man allegedly said.
“He walked away, muttering things about ‘fags,’” Querengesser recalls. “Believing he was gone, I resumed meditating. Then, the rock.”
Related: Seattle Hate Crime Leaves Man Unconcious With Broken Bones, Fractured Eye Socket
Querengesser wasted no time calling police. But by the time they arrived, the man was gone. Officers proceeded to ask Querengesser a series of questions about the incident:
“I hate to ask you this, but, are you gay?”
Most of me wanted to rage at the question.
“No,” I said.
“Well, if you were, I’d be investigating the guy for a hate crime.”
I nearly lost it, but said nothing.
Querengesser is upset because, as he puts it, “a man had targeted me, believing I was gay. Had the big, heavy rock connected, my brain would have been damaged.”
Related: NY Gay Man Killed In Fifth Hate Crime This Month
“Because I’m not gay, however, to the cop this man wasn’t a potential hate criminal but just an annoying hooligan.”
Querengesser, furious that “cop’s suggestion that I needed to be gay for there to be a crime made,” went home and did some research on what constitutes a hate crime in Canada. From a report by the Department of Justice, he learned that the definition of a hate crime varies from place to place, and that most victims of hate crimes are ethnic minorities.
“The justice report notes most victims of hate crimes are ‘not comfortable approaching the police,’” Querengesser notes. “I felt no discomfort with approaching the police.”
Related: Two Men Set On Fire At British Gay Bar. Police Don’t Think It Was Hate Crime
Querengesser acknowledges that this could be a result of the privilege he enjoys as a heterosexual, white male, but he’s still upset about it all.
“Another hate crime went unpunished,” he concludes. “One can only imagine how victimizing that police indifference or ignorance would have been for someone who was targeted for who they really are.”
What do you think? Was Querengesser the victim of a hate crime? Sound off in the comments section below.
Graham Gremore
Australian PM Tony Abbott Is ‘Very Happy’ to Say ‘It’s OK to Be Gay,’ Just Don’t Ask Him for Marriage
Australia’s prime minister Tony Abbott says he’s “very happy” to say “it’s OK to be gay” but is still standing firm in his opposition to same-sex marriage.
“I think it’s absolutely clear that there are two different issues here,” Abbot explained in an interview with Australian radio station 2UE. “One is the rights and dignity of people regardless of their sexuality and the other is whether we want to move down the track of same-sex marriage and I think they’re two different issues.”
Earlier this month, Abbott shut down proponents of a parliamentary vote on gay marriage in a closed door meeting of the liberal party coalition. Abbott has said a public referendum on the issue may be held after the next election.
The Guardian adds:
When asked on Monday whether he would support the people’s decision if they voted to support same-sex marriage, Abbott said: “Obviously I’ll accept it wholeheartedly because that’s what you do in a democracy. When the people speak on something which has been rightly and properly entrusted to them you respect the decision.”
The post Australian PM Tony Abbott Is ‘Very Happy’ to Say ‘It’s OK to Be Gay,’ Just Don’t Ask Him for Marriage appeared first on Towleroad.
Kyler Geoffroy
What You Need To Know About The New Libido Pill For Women
By: Elizabeth Palermo
Published: 08/21/2015 10:58 AM EDT on LiveScience
Some health professionals are reacting with more enthusiasm than others about the first approved drug aimed at increasing women’s sexual desire.
Known generically as flibanserin and sold under the brand name Addyi, the medication could be prescribed as early as Oct.17, said Sprout Pharmaceuticals, the company that developed the so-called “little pink pill.”
Many have compared Addyi to Viagra, the medication for men with erectile dysfunction that increases blood flow to the penis. But the new pill for women aims to boost women’s libidos by affecting levels of brain chemicals, rather than blood flow. It doesn’t get ladies physically ready for sex; rather, it purports to get them mentally ready to do the deed by targeting neurotransmitters in the brain linked to desire, appetite and other sex-related emotions. [51 Sultry Facts About Sex]
But some experts aren’t sold on this neurological approach to curing low libido. The problem with focusing solely on neurotransmitters’ role in sex drive is that a woman’s desire to have sex isn’t linked only to chemicals in the brain, said Kristen Carpenter, a psychologist and director of Women’s Behavioral Health at The Ohio State University’s Wexner Medical Center.
Sexual desire is a “multifaceted phenomenon,” Carpenter said.
And although Addyi may help a subset of women, it won’t improve the sex lives of all women who have low libido, said Carpenter, who provides therapy for many women with low libido.
“I don’t think this will be a magic bullet,” she said. “Sexual desire is a largely psychological phenomenon, which is why it’s important that a [medication] that acts centrally on the brain be a part of treatment. But it is a nuanced experience, and a pill only addresses one piece of that.”
Not for everyone
Sprout Pharmaceuticals doesn’t claim that Addyi will amp up the libidos of all women, just certain women. The FDA approved the drug specifically for use by premenopausal women who have been diagnosed with hypoactive sexual desire disorder (HSDD), a condition that means they not only have low levels of desire, but also feel bothered by it.
According to the company, approximately one in three women in the United States has low sexual desire, and about one in 10 women feels distressed about it. That translates to 16 million ladies who potentially have HSDD, and the company says that Addyi could potentially help the 4.8 million of those women who are premenopausal.
Doctors screen women for HSDD using a test that has five basic questions, but in order to be diagnosed with the condition, all other potential causes of low libido must first be ruled out, said Dr. Risa Kagan, an obstetrician gynecologist and clinical professor at the University of California, San Francisco.
The list of other potential causes of low sex drive includes depression, use of certain medications (like antidepressants and painkillers), alcohol and drug use, pregnancy, pain during intercourse, stress, and dissatisfaction with one’s partner. These must all be crossed off before a diagnosis of HSDD can be made.
Still, other factors that contribute to low desire might not get ruled out during the screening process for HDSS. For example, aging, lack of sleep and headaches have all been shown in studies to decrease sex drive in women, and none of these causes of low libido is explicitly included in the screening questionnaire.
Carpenter said figuring out which women actually have HSDD is going to be tricky for doctors, who often fail to spend more than a few minutes with a patient at a time. In her own psychology practice, Carpenter said, she has assumed some patients had HSDD, but later learned (typically during therapy) that their low libido was actually caused by sexual trauma.
“That is something this medication won’t help with,” she said. If a doctor does not develop a relationship with a patient, or thoroughly learn their history, they may not know whether there is another cause of a woman’s low libido.
Indeed, Kagan, who was an investigator for clinical trials of flibanserin when the drug was in development, said that screening a woman for HSDD can take a long time — about 90 minutes, in her experience.
In an effort to help doctors diagnose women, Sprout has created a presentation about the condition that doctors must watch, and pass a test on, before they can prescribe or dispense Addyi , Kagan said.
But there’s one more problem: Not all medical professionals agree that HSDD is a condition that needs to be treated.
Dysfunctional disorder
“Sex is a very emotional response for women, and so we’ve gotten to the point where we’re developing emotional-response drugs to get women to have sex, and that’s a slippery slope,” Dr. Elizabeth Kavaler, a urologist at Lenox Hill Hospital in New York City, told Live Science.
Not being in the mood for sex, or not being that into sex in general, is perfectly normal, Kavaler said. Carpenter made a similar point, saying that low libido is not necessarily a medical condition that needs to be treated with medication.
“Maybe, for some subset of people, medication might be helpful. But it’s also the case that desire just doesn’t fall out of the sky,” said Carpenter, who added that she often instructs women on the other ways to increase sex drive without medication (like slipping on some sexy underwear or engaging in sexual fantasy).
Kagan said that women who don’t want to have sex — because they are exhausted, or have a headache or just don’t like having sex — should not be prescribed Addyi. A lack of desire is just one element of HSDD, the condition that Addyi is designed to treat.
“[HSDD] is a state of mind. It’s somebody who had an appetite, and they want to want it back again,” she said. Brain-imaging studies, including a small one published in the journal Neuroscience in 2009, have suggested that women with HSDD are wired a bit differently than women without the condition, Kagan said.
The 2009 study showed that the brains of women with no history of sexual dysfunction had a different way of processing “arousing stimuli” than the brains of women who had HSDD. Among the 36 participants, the researchers found that these two groups varied in how they remembered past erotic events.
But more research is needed in this area in order for scientists to figure out just how desire works in women’s brains. If researchers can get to the bottom of the mystery, then the little pink pill could become one of many treatment options available for women who want to increase their libidos.
Follow Elizabeth Palermo @techEpalermo. Follow Live Science @livescience, Facebook & Google+. Original article onLive Science.
Copyright 2015 LiveScience, a Purch company. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.
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Meet the Missouri transgender teen nominated to be her high school’s Homecoming Queen
Missouri teen Landon Patterson is making history as the first transgender person to be in the running to be her school’s Homecoming Queen – and is probably the first in her state as well.
(Note to readers: Landon is Patterson’s birth name but she remains comfortable using that name for the present time.)
Patterson revealed her true gender to her fellow Oak Park High School students in a YouTube video in May that has been watched by nearly ten thousand people.
She had previously presented to her peers as a gay male, so this was a second coming out for her.
She told Fox 4 News that she had been worried about how her peers would respond but to her surprise the reaction had been great.
‘It meant the world to me,’ she said.
However she never expected what her fellow students would do next.
A group of her school peers surprised her with some big news in the middle of the night recently – revealing they had nominated her to be this year’s Homecoming Queen.
‘People I never thought would vote for me did, congratulating me. I was so happy, it just made me feel like a normal girl,’ Patterson told Fox 4.
‘I just want everyone to know it’s okay to be you.’
School friend Josie Ballard told Fox 4 she wanted Patterson to know she was welcomed by her peers at school.
‘I wanted to support her. One-hundred percent,’ she said.
Patterson is one of six other girls competing for the title and she will find out on 12 September if she is to be crowned Homecoming Queen.
To GSN’s knowledge only one American transgender teenager has previously been nominated or elected Homecoming Queen – Cassidy Lynn Campbell of Marina High School in California.
Campbell probably became the first transgender American Homecoming Queen when she was chosen in Fall of 2013 – though she says being targeted by online bullies ruined the experience for her.
Homecoming is the traditional welcoming back of students in American schools, colleges and high schools and usually occurs during Autumn or Fall and typically includes activities such as dances and sporting events ad should not be confused with Prom celebrations which also include the election of a queen and king.
You can watch Fox 4 News’ story on Patterson and her coming out video below
The post Meet the Missouri transgender teen nominated to be her high school’s Homecoming Queen appeared first on Gay Star News.
Andrew Potts
In A Historic First, U.N. Security Council Convenes to Discuss LGBT Rights
HRC hails Ambassador Samantha Power, Chile’s U.N. Ambassador Cristian Barros Melet for addressing ISIS’s horrific violence against LGBT people in landmark meeting.
HRC.org
Marc Jacobs Wants Us To Stop Identifying People By Their Sexual Orientation
I think it was after the Caitlyn Jenner thing and I just said, like, can we just start calling people by their name? You know, not what they do for a living, not what their sexual preference is, not their age, not who they’re related to. It’s 2015. Just say, ‘Hi, I’m Caitlyn.’ ‘Hi, I’m Marc.’ It’s not like, ‘I’m Marc, homosexual Jew from New York. You know, ‘fashion designer.’”
— Fashion designer Marc Jacobs making a terrific point in a T magazine profile
Jeremy Kinser
What Happens When Gay Guys Come Face to Face with Rejection? – VIDEO
Actor/filmmaker Brian Jordan Alvarez is back with another humorous video exploring the hidden side of gay life, this time with everyone’s favorite ex-go-go boy Jimmy Fowlie.
See if Brian’s reaction to spurned love is similar to your own experiences in the video below:
The post What Happens When Gay Guys Come Face to Face with Rejection? – VIDEO appeared first on Towleroad.
Kyler Geoffroy
What Happens When Gay Guys Come Face to Face with Rejection? – VIDEO
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