How Ex-NFL Star Ryan O’Callaghan Found the Courage to Come Out

The former football player opens up about being gay in the NFL, why he hid his sexual orientation, and how addiction treatment saved his life.

www.advocate.com/sports/2020/2/01/how-ex-nfl-star-ryan-ocallaghan-found-courage-come-out

Chicago trainer Sam Cushing on the power of a backwards hat at the gym

This post is part of a series of Queerty conversations with models, trainers, dancers, and, well, people who inspire us to stay in shape–or just sit on the couch ogling them instead.

Name: Sam Cushing, 27

City: Chicago

www.queerty.com/chicago-trainer-sam-cushing-power-backwards-hat-gym-20200201?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+queerty2+%28Queerty%29

U.S. Bans Tanzanian Official Who Launched Surveillance Squad to Hunt Down Gays

The State Department has banned Paul Makonda, regional commissioner for Dar es Salaam, the most populous city in Tanzania, from visiting the U.S..

Said the State Department: “These actions against Paul Christian Makonda underscore our concern with human rights violations and abuses in Tanzania, as well as our support for accountability for those who engage in such violations and abuses.  We call on the Tanzanian government to respect human rights and fundamental freedoms, including the freedom of expression, association, and the right of peaceful assembly.”

In November 2018, Makonda  launched a crackdown on gay people, announcing a surveillance squad to identify them on social media so they can be arrested. He has also appealed to the public.

The Guardian reported on the crackdown: “By Tuesday, he said he had already received 5,763 messages from the public, with more than 100 names. A 17-member committee will also be established to identify gay people on social media and arrest them. Many LGBT activists, who fear violent attacks from police and members of the public, have either fled their area or remain shut in their homes.”

ALSO: LGBTQ World News Digest: 12 Stories from Around the Globe You Should Know About

Said Makonda to reporters: “I have information about the presence of many homosexuals in our province. These homosexuals boast on social networks. Give me their names. My ad hoc team will begin to get their hands on them next Monday.”

Asked about criticism from outsiders, Makonda said “I prefer to anger those countries [instead of] angering God. [Homosexuality] tramples on the moral values of Tanzanians and our two Christian and Muslim religions”.

Said Geofry Mashala, a Tanzanian LGBT activist now living in California, to the Guardian: “Every gay person is living in fear. Even the parents of gay children are also living in great fear.”

Same-sex acts are punishable by life in prison.

In 2017, twenty people attending a training seminar for HIV/AIDS relief work were arrested in Zanzibar.

The post U.S. Bans Tanzanian Official Who Launched Surveillance Squad to Hunt Down Gays appeared first on Towleroad Gay News.

U.S. Bans Tanzanian Official Who Launched Surveillance Squad to Hunt Down Gays

HRC Marks Black History Month and Celebrates Black LGBTQ Leaders

Today, HRC marked the beginning of Black History Month — and a celebration of the long history of Black leadership in the LGBTQ movement, including the ways in which Black LGBTQ and allied trailblazers have been and remain at the center of the fight for equality. 

“As we mark the beginning of Black History Month, we celebrate those who made enormous sacrifices in their own lives to blaze a trail toward greater freedom and equality. At the same time, we must also confront the barriers that continue to exist for Black people and Black LGBTQ people,” said HRC President Alphonso David. “Black LGBTQ people were key leaders in the civil rights movement, and Black leaders have been at the forefront of the struggle for LGBTQ equality from the very start. At this juncture in our ongoing struggle to realize America’s promise of equality and justice for all, we know that our work is not complete until the most marginalized within our LGBTQ community have achieved equality. This Black History Month and beyond, let us celebrate our progress, let us be inspired by our history and let us recommit to the work ahead.”

Throughout this month, HRC will lift up the history of Black leadership within the LGBTQ community and highlight a new generation of Black leaders who are fighting violence, discrimination and injustice and building a brighter, more inclusive and healthier future for all. 

On February 7 in honor of National Black HIV/AIDS Awareness Day, HRC’s HIV and Health Equity team is hosting an event at HRC’s D.C. headquarters with author and activist George Johnson, The Body editor Kenyon Farrow and journalist and LGBTQ advocate Emil Wilbekin for a discussion about health, faith and relationships in the Black LGBTQ community. Joining the conversation will be J. Maurice McCants-Pearsall, director of HRC’s HIV and Health Equity Program, Tori Cooper, director of Community Engagement for HRC’s Transgender Justice Initiative and Michael Vazquez, director of HRC’s Religion and Faith Program. Those interested in this event may RSVP here:  hrc.im/HRCVoices.

In a recent op-ed in USA Today, David wrote, “racial equity and inclusion cannot simply be a sliver of our work — it must be the core of our work.” Building on HRC’s 40-year history in the fight for equal justice and opportunity, HRC is committed to ensuring that the organization is living into its principles on racial equity and inclusion and delivering on our mission of achieving full equality for all. 

That fight to protect and uplift LGBTQ people of color must include intensifying efforts to address major health and safety injustices the community faces — from the disproportionate impact of HIV and AIDS on people of color, particularly Black and Latinx LGBTQ people, to the epidemic of violence targeting the LGBTQ community, especially Black transgender women.

• One in two gay and bisexual Black cisgender men will be diagnosed with HIV in their lifetime, and almost half of Black transgender women in the U.S. are living with HIV. 
• In the United States in 2019 alone, at least 25 transgender and gender non-conforming people, mostly Black transgender women, died due to fatal violence.

To address these injustices, HRC has deepened its efforts around combating the HIV and AIDS epidemic, and recently launched the Transgender Justice Initiative, which is informed, built and led by transgender and non-binary people. The initiative will advance new HRC projects and resources that address the urgent needs of the transgender and non-binary community. 

HRC is also working to protect one of the most fundamental rights of our democracy — the right to vote. Ahead of the critically important upcoming 2020 election, HRC and Stacey Abrams’ Fair Fight are partnering to help combat voter suppression — which all too often target members of the LGBTQ community, including people of color. This partnership is bringing together the organizations’ expertise in voter protection and voter mobilization to ensure fair and open elections in 2020 and beyond.

www.hrc.org/blog/hrc-marks-black-history-month-and-celebrates-black-lgbtq-leaders?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss-feed