Ted Cruz Responds to Caitlyn Jenner With Transphobic Fearmongering
The Republican candidate said it’s ‘common sense’ to pass legislation that forbids trans people from using bathrooms that correspond with their gender identity.
www.advocate.com/politicians/2016/5/01/ted-cruz-responds-caitlyn-jenner-transphobic-fearmongering
Austin May Become 1st Texas City to Boycott North Carolina, Mississippi Over Anti-LGBT Laws
Austin may become the first municipality in Texas to join dozens of cities and states across the country that have banned taxpayer-funded travel by public employees to Mississippi and North Carolina.
Austin’s Human Rights Commission endorsed a resolution this week recommending that the city join at least 17 others that are boycotting the two states in response to recently enacted anti-LGBT legislation.
The move could be particularly important symbolically for a city in Texas, given that similar bills are expected to be introduced here next year.
From The Austin Statesman:
The resolution “asks the Austin City Council to boycott both Mississippi and North Carolina by banning official travel to and business with these states, except in cases where the public health and safety are concerned” until the laws are changed.
The advisory board’s recommendation also said that if the City Council approves the resolution, Mayor Steve Adler should write a letter encouraging the NBA to move the 2017 All-Star Game away from Charlotte, N.C.
“What these states have passed is not what this city is about,” said Human Rights Commission member Paula Buls, who co-sponsored the resolution. She added that if similar state legislation is passed in Texas, Austin’s own ordinances protecting its LGBT community would be affected, such as the gender-neutral bathroom ordinancethat went into effect in January 2015.
“I am saddened when lawmakers in other states decide to do things that I believe to be discriminatory and contrary to my point of view,” Rawlings told me for a story in The Texas Observer. “I also wouldn’t want to unfairly punish the good mayors in states like North Carolina who are fighting for LGBT rights.”
The post Austin May Become 1st Texas City to Boycott North Carolina, Mississippi Over Anti-LGBT Laws appeared first on Towleroad.
Idina Menzel: Adele Dazeem Was 'Best Thing That Ever Happened to Me'
The Frozen singer praised John Travolta’s mispronounciation of her name at the Oscars as a turning point in her career.
www.advocate.com/theater/2016/5/01/idina-menzel-adele-dazeem-was-best-thing-ever-happened-me
This Major Relationship Step Has Caused Countless Feelings Of Panic In Gay Couples
It could be you have a fantastic family, but it was still a bit of a process for them to come to terms with you coming out.
Even if they seem far along on their journey of embracing you, introducing them to your partner can sometimes feel like two steps back.
Awkward conversation, long silences and faked smiles aren’t how you’d have liked it to go down, that’s for sure.
But including your family in your life is the best way to show them what a loving gay relationship looks like up close, and letting them get the opportunity to know more of the real you is a blessing that they’ll soon realize. We hope.
Below, guys share their feelings surrounding this important step on Whisper:
Bernie Sanders, Justin Bieber, BYU, Dallas, Ivory Stockpile, Grindr, Janet Jackson, Target, Sunday Stud: NEWS
LAWSUITS. Bernie Sanders drops his lawsuit against the DNC: “The move came Friday after an independent investigation into Democratic presidential campaigns’ handling of party voter data. The Sanders team said the investigation vindicated them and showed no evidence that they improperly accessed information belonging to Hillary Clinton‘s campaign. ‘An independent investigation of the firewall failures in the DNC’s shared voter file database has definitively confirmed that the original claims by the DNC and the Clinton campaign were wholly inaccurate,’ the campaign said in a statement.”
$$$ DOWN. Sanders fundraising totals drop: “Sen. Bernie Sanders’ presidential campaign raised $25.8 million in April, a notable decline from a month earlier when he raised $44 million. The Sanders campaign reported the latest fundraising haul on Sunday, noting that it surpassed ‘the campaign’s average monthly total of $17 million.’ Still, what was far more conspicuous was the decline in the most recent fundraising numbers from a month earlier.”
TARGET. Pro-Target petition reaches 100,000 signatures. “We need to stand up for transgender people and stand up for those who support transgender people. The AFA pledge to boycott Target currently has over 600,000 1 million signatures. Let us show Target that we stand with them for fair treatment of all of our citizens.”
TOILET TALK. Ted Cruz using “bathroom bills” to his benefit in Indiana: “With polls showing a narrower lead for Mr. Trump in Indiana than in the five Eastern states that he swept on Tuesday, the Cruz campaign’s private polling indicates that the bathroom issue has the power to help close the gap. Moreover, it is fresh in Indiana voters’ minds because of high-profile battles in the state in recent years over gay rights.”
THE TERRIBLE TWOSOME. Ted Cruz and Carly Fiorina release first ad:
MISSISSIPPI. Grammy Museum director and father of gay son Bob Santelli urges state to repeal anti-LGBT “religious freedom” law HB 1523: “Organizers chose Cleveland, Mississippi, for the $20 million project because of the state’s music heritage, something Santelli, a music historian, said he enjoyed during his many visits to the state over the years. The Mississippi museum opened in March, and he said he was excited to share the state’s culture and history with his son. But plans changed after Gov. Phil Bryant signed House Bill 1523. The measure, which becomes law July 1, will let government and business workers cite religious beliefs against same-sex marriage to deny services to people.”
UTAH. Feds exempt BYU from protecting trans students from discrimination: “In a March 15 letter to Gilbert, the U.S. Department of Education agreed that BYU-Idaho should not have to enforce some provisions of Title IX. An education department spokeswoman confirmed Friday that civil rights investigators subsequently stopped their inquiry into the student’s complaint, which was related to classes and housing.”
DALLAS. Self-appointed bathroom cop catches woman using women’s restroom: “…the man who, um, heroically barged into a women’s restroom at Baylor Medical Center in Frisco on Thursday to make sure that Jessica Rush, who manages a local health-food takeout place, was peeing in the proper place. She was, for the record, and her situation isn’t particularly complicated. Rush was born and identifies as female and has no plans to change that. “I look very much like a girl,” she says. “I’m not trying to transition, nothing like that.”
BUZZED. Justin Bieber ditched his dreadlocks:
WASHINGTON. Secretary of State forbids travel to conference in Tennessee: “The Washington secretary of state says no one from her office will attend a national conference in Tennessee in part because of a bill signed by the governor there allowing counselors to refuse to treat patients based the therapist’s religious or personal beliefs. Secretary of State Kim Wyman, a Republican, said in a statement Wednesday that after consideration she will not go to the National Association of Secretaries summer meeting.”
KENYA. Massive ivory stockpile burns to thwart poaching market: “There were huge plumes of smoke and ash over Nairobi National Park on Saturday as Kenya sent a message to poachers. The country burned its biggest ever stockpile of elephant and rhino tusks.”
NEW ZEALAND. Man robbed by Grindr hook-up: “Auckland City police are currently investigating the aggravated robbery, Detective Senior Sergeant Paul Newman said. The robbery appeared to be linked to the connection made between the parties through the app, he said. ‘We are currently following lines of inquiry and therefore cannot provide specific information at this stage. However, we remind anyone who uses apps, like Grindr, to be aware of their personal safety.’”
MUSIC. Janet Jackson’s latest lyric video “Damnn Baby”.
STUD FOR SUNDAY. Toronto’s Brandon Wickens.
The post Bernie Sanders, Justin Bieber, BYU, Dallas, Ivory Stockpile, Grindr, Janet Jackson, Target, Sunday Stud: NEWS appeared first on Towleroad.
Ted Cruz Continues False Smear Campaign Against Transgender Americans
Today, HRC released the following statement after Senator Ted Cruz continued his transphobic attacks on NBC’s Meet the Press and CNN’s State of the Union this morning.
“After invoking the importance of the Bill of Rights, Ted Cruz had the gall to spread vicious lies about transgender people and laws that deny us critical freedoms,” said HRC Communications Director Jay Brown. “Ted Cruz’s fear-mongering campaign about attacks in restrooms has never been documented in the decades that more than 100 local non-discrimination protections have existed. The reason we need these local laws in the first place is because Congress has yet to pass a federal law protecting LGBT people, who are at risk of being fired, evicted or denied services in a majority of states because of who they are. Ted Cruz showed us firsthand today how important it is that we elect Hillary Clinton to fight for full federal equality in November.”
Fact checkers have found “there’s no evidence of dangerous predators pretending to be transgender in American bathrooms…” while Politifact rated Ted Cruz’s ad attacking Donald Trump on this issue as “mostly false,” saying “the overall message is highly distorted to scare voters.”
Cruz’s comments this morning are part of an ongoing pattern of anti-transgender rhetoric on the campaign trail. He recently suggested transgender people should “only use restrooms at home and avoid public facilities.” In addition to his recent ad smearing transgender people, his campaign threw a transgender teenager out of a campaign event. At prior campaign events, he launched a bigoted rant against the Obama Administration’s decision to support a transgender student, falsely accusing officials of forcing the school to “let a little boy take showers with junior high girls.”
Elsewhere on the campaign trail, Cruz has decried efforts to lift the ban prohibiting transgender Americans from serving openly in the military, even though the American Medical Association approved a resolution last year that said there is “no medically valid reason to exclude transgender individuals from service in the U.S. military.”
For more on Cruz’s anti-LGBT record, click here.
Why I Wiped HIV Off My Face
Queerty contributor Mark S. King gets candid about the physical effects of long-term HIV survival – and the lengths he has gone to correct them. He chronicles his treatments and their results in a video, below.
Some years ago, I told someone that I was HIV positive before I agreed to his invitation for a date. “Yeah, I know,” he casually replied, and then he looked a little embarrassed, as if he shouldn’t have said it. It was too late. I knew exactly what he meant. He could tell my HIV status by my face.
I had The Look. The sunken, wasted cheeks of someone living with HIV. It became a common manifestation in the 1980s and persisted until the medications that caused the condition, known as facial lipoatrophy (or facial wasting), were changed or abandoned for better treatments.
Today, facial wasting is almost exclusively limited to long-term HIV survivors who used medications like d4T and DDI more than 20 years ago.
I’m one of those long-term survivors. When my symptoms began to appear, it meant that the choice whether to share my status, as an activist or on a personal level, had been taken away. My HIV was written across my face for all to see.
I am proud of my history advocating for and living with HIV. But as uncomfortable as it may be to admit, it’s a lot easier to live openly as a person with HIV when you don’t look like it.
I felt ashamed of my appearance, and then conflicted. For someone who has been fighting so hard to reduce HIV stigma, what was there to be ashamed of, exactly? Many of the physical signs of HIV – from weight loss to fat redistribution to facial wasting – are worn as battle scars, if not badges of honor, by thousands of people living with HIV. My very survival is mirrored in my physicality. What’s wrong with that?
Related Post Also By Mark King: What Poz Guys Need Negative Guys To Know
Eventually, I realized that correcting my facial wasting was no different from improving my T cell counts. I wasn’t making a political statement; I was improving my health and well-being.
And so, I began a journey of multiple visits to Dr. Gerald Pierone in Vero Beach, Florida, to have various “facial filler” products injected into my face. It wasn’t easy trusting a physician with this. My face may have been sagging, but it’s the only one I have. And God knows I didn’t want to end up looking like a Real Housewife.
It was only after careful research that I felt comfortable in having found an experienced and empathetic specialist in Dr. Pierone. (I encourage anyone interested in facial fillers to do their homework before choosing a provider.)
I chronicled my journey through video blogs that span more than six years. They include the treatments available for facial lipoatrophy, information about patient assistance programs for temporary fillers, and the dramatic results of permanent fillers, with plenty of “before and after” footage along the way.
I realize that the answer to HIV stigma is not to simply wipe away any evidence that we may be living with the virus (beauty may be skin deep, but stigma runs far deeper). This has been an exercise in healing for me, and not an effort to escape the realities of my life and my health.
And although no one loves the aging process, mine is tempered by the knowledge that I have survived when many have not.
It is gratitude, nothing more, that is written across my face.
feedproxy.google.com/~r/queerty2/~3/05xkNCrThrI/why-i-wiped-hiv-off-my-face-20160501
How To Keep Fit After The Big 5.0
Getting older is part of life. It is no secret that an aging population is one of the fastest growing demographics in the health and fitness industry. “Baby Boomers” comprise the generation born between 1946 and 1964 — a generation that is living longer and more productively, making a stronger investment in their health and well-being, and staying active well into their golden years.
Many of my clients who are over 50 train with me for a myriad of reasons, but one of the biggest is to “feel better.” Quality of life is a big motivator for this group of individuals, and staying active is a big part of that equation. The old adage “use it or lose it” hold true in this case. Daily trips to the gym may no longer be a necessity, but its good to stay active by engaging in activities like walking, hiking, tennis, swimming, or dancing. Being active keeps your body and mind working as a team. Activities that increase your heart rate will build a strong cardiovascular and respiratory system, and help release endorphins to improve your mood. Activities that challenge your coordination and balance will excite your neuromuscular system, and keep your brain functioning as well as your body. Staying active is one of the most important factors in keeping your body functioning properly, however, as we age we must consider some additional important factors.
Years of sitting at desk jobs or heavy labor work can wreak havoc on the body from a structural standpoint. Postural correction and corrective exercise are large parts of my programming with clients over 50. Making sure the body is mobile and in proper postural alignment can make a world of difference in overall well-being and injury prevention. Simple and effective exercises that help increase joint mobility and return the body to its natural state of posture will allow a person to feel stronger, move better, and proceed with activities with less worry of injury. Corrective exercise techniques can often alleviate knee, hip, lower back, shoulder, and neck pain. Anyone who has ever experienced these can attest to the fact that they can be debilitating and frustrating. Exercises that increase deep core strength and strengthen weak muscles (often associated with poor posture) will make a client more functional and lead to a better quality of life.
Increasing joint mobility also increases range of motion, and allows clients to perform movements better and without pain. Tools such as foam rollers, lacrosse balls, and mobility bands can help release tension in over-active muscles, thus allowing the joint to perform in its proper range of motion. Overactive muscles in areas around a joint can often lead to tendonitis of a joint, which can be exacerbated by everyday activities and movements. Spending 5-10 minutes a day using mobility tools can make a world of difference.
Incorporating weight-bearing exercises helps to increase lean muscle tissue as well as increased bone density. As we age, this is important because maintaining muscle mass keeps both our metabolism and our bodies strong. Decreased bone density makes people susceptible to broken bones, which can result in a temporary or even permanent ability to stay active and makes someone more injury prone as they continue to age. Adding resistance to a workout can be done via body weight exercises like push-ups, with dumbbells, resistance bands, or any other tool that increases the load on a movement.
Balance and stabilization is something that we lose as we age. It’s always shocking to many of my clients how hard it can be to perform simple balance exercises. When the body is able to balance properly, it is less likely result in a fall. From an injury prevention standpoint, this is imperative for an aging client base. In the unfortunate event of a fall, a client with a better sense of stability and balance is less likely to sustain injury. Incorporating balance and stability into a workout is quite simple: performing exercises on 1 leg instead of 2, or using balance boards and foam pads add a safe amount of instability to a movement, and allow a client to enrich an exercise safely and slowly. Using single arm movements and performing exercises that would traditionally be done on machines in a standing position are all ways to increase the stabilization requirement of a movement.
As you can see, there are just a few simple things that athletes over 50 can incorporate into a lifestyle that can keep them active and healthy for years to come. By adding these simple steps into one’s daily life, a person over the age of 50 can continue to be an all-star at the gym, lead a pain-free active lifestyle, reduce chronic pain, be healthy, “feel better,” or all of the above. I have clients who boast that they are in the best shape of their lives now, versus when they were in their twenties. Who says you can’t be 50 and fabulous? Or 60, or 70 or 80 or… well, you get the point!
For more information or to book a class, visit www.phoenixeffectla.com.
The Phoenix Effect, a functional group fitness studio that gets you in shape fast, is offered exclusively at 7264 Melrose Ave., Los Angeles, CA.
feedproxy.google.com/~r/queerty2/~3/MaL8pLLdDMA/how-to-keep-fit-after-the-big-5-0-20160501
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