Enter our Animal Month Competition to WIN an IFAW soft cuddly toy
To celebrate Animal Month, in partnership with IFAW, we are giving away 25 soft cuddly toys for the cutest selfies of you and your beloved pets!
danb
www.gaystarnews.com/article/enter-our-animal-month-competition-win-ifaw-soft-cuddly-toy281014
Partnering Up for Change in Mississippi
Mississippi was proud to be a part of Jackson State University’s Homecoming.
HRC.org
www.hrc.org/blog/entry/sharing-spaces-with-hrc-mississippi?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss-feed
PHOTOS: The Stunning Male Portraits Of David Armstrong Are Remembered
Photographer David Armstrong may have passed away over the weekend, but he certainly left behind an enduring legacy. Born in Arlington, Massachusetts, Armstrong attended the prestigious Boston Museum School and Cooper Union. He received critical attention for his intimate portraits of handsome men. His work has been shown at the 1995 Whitney Biennial, Emotions and Relations at the Hamburger Kunsthalle, and appeared in French Vogue, L’Uomo Vogue, Arena Homme+, GQ, Self Service and Japanese Vogue. His book, 615 Jefferson Avenue gave us a unique glimpse into the eyes of some of the gorgeous men Armstrong photographed in his upstate farmhouse and turn-of-the-century row house in Bed-Stuy, Brooklyn. The photographer had been suffering from liver cancer and passed away in Los Angeles on October 26.
Images by David Armstrong/615 Jefferson Avenue
jjkeyes
UN Urges Kyrgyzstan To Reject Russian Style Anti-Gay Law
Following an overwhelming vote by Kyrgyz lawmakers in favor of a Russian-style ban on the promotion of positive attitudes towards so-called “non traditional sexual relations”, Pink News reports that the United Nations has urged the former Soviet Republic to abandon the discriminatory law:
Spokesperson for the Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR)Ravina Shamdasani said: “We call on the Kyrgyz Parliament and authorities to refrain from passing draft legislation that would embed in law discrimination against people who are lesbian, gay, bisexual or transgender (LGBT).”
She added: “The proposed law would also violate fundamental human rights, including the rights to liberty, security and physical integrity and to freedom of expression, peaceful assembly and association. These rights are protected by human rights treaties ratified by Kyrgyzstan.”
[…]
Ms Shamdasani’s statement highlights the concern expressed by the UN with regards to previous incidents of violence and discrimination against LGBT people in Kyrgyzstan. She said:
“The draft law adds to those concerns and may lead to further violations.”
Ms Shamdasani further pointed out that: “The adoption of this law would also go against the commitments made by Kyrgyzstan during its Universal Periodic Review in the UN Human Rights Council in 2010.”
The bill still needs to pass two more readings before lawmakers can send the bill to President Almazbek Atambayev for his signature. The U.S. Embassy in Kyrgyzstan has also condemned the law.
Sean Mandell
www.towleroad.com/2014/10/un-urges-kyrgyzstan-to-reject-russian-style-anti-gay-law.html
BRUXELLES SCALFAROTTO ITALIA INDIETRO SU DIRITTI LGBT IN EUROPA 28-10-14
(Agenzia VISTA) – BRUXELLES , 28 ottobre 2014 – Il sottosegretario alle Riforme, Ivan Scalfarotto, a margine della conferenza di alto livello "Tackling sexual orientation and gender identity…
On the Closing of the Last Lesbian Bar in San Francisco: What the Demise of the Lex Tells Us About Gentrification
The only bar dedicated to serving lesbians in San Francisco, the Lexington Club, announced that it is closing after 18 years. You may be shocked that the bar is closing and/or that there is only one lesbian bar in that gay metropolis. As a researcher of lesbian-queer spaces and economies, I am not surprised at all.
The bar’s sole, long-time owner, Lila Thirkield, shared the news on Facebook and cited the Mission District’s changing neighborhood demographics, increased rents, and the bar’s decline in sales as reasons for its demise. Women from around the world who’d visited the Lex noted their shock, outrage, and sadness at the event in blog posts and on all types of social media. But how can anyone really be surprised? Sisters Restaurant & Nightclub in Philadelphia, T’s Bar & Restaurant in what was once the “Girl’s Town” area of Chicago, and the Egyptian Club in Portland, Oregon, all closed for similar reasons between 2010 and 2013. Rather than succumb to shock or a narrative that this is merely gentrification at work, it is time to recognize the difference that gender plays in the supposedly universal experience of lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, and queer (LGBTQ) spaces, and how gender shapes cities more broadly.
What is the landscape in the rest of the country and beyond, and where do gay men fit into this? Since the 1980s, it has become common knowledge that gays and artists are evidence of a city’s burgeoning economy and culture. Many not only extol the creative class as proof of a growing city but maintain that by marketing to and bringing in gays and artists, gentrification will transpire and the economy will boom. Philadelphia’s “City of Brotherly Love” campaign played a role in the city’s resurgence. At the same time, the working and working-middle class, most often people of color, are forced to move out of these same areas while condos replace smaller housing for more affluent, white residents. Left out of this narrative is women’s stories, which the closing of a lesbian bar in a supposedly LGBTQ hub like San Francisco amplifies.
It is common to have only one lesbian bar in a major city, even if it does not meet everyone’s needs. D.C., Atlanta, and Northampton each have only one dedicated lesbian bar, all of which continue to run. New York City hosts a total of three full-time lesbian bars, two in Manhattan and one in Brooklyn. This is the largest number of lesbian bars in any U.S. metropolis. Based on my research, New York City has always had more devoted lesbian bars than any other U.S., Canadian, or European city, with the exception of Toronto, Montreal, and Berlin at various times in recent history. This is not a recent phenomenon. At its Amazon apex in the late 1990s and early 2000s, there were as many five dedicated lesbian bars open at the same time in the city. In the 2008 NYC Pride guide in Next Magazine, there were nearly 60 bars and events listed for gay men under 57th Street in Manhattan, and only three for women alone. In the previous years, there were at least three times as many men’s spaces as women’s in LGBTQ newspapers since the 1980s. The City of New York has taken note, recently rebranding their Gay Guide to NYC page to offer the “free insider’s guide” ManAboutWorld; no such offering from women is available.
Many have made conjectures about this statistical unevenness, and research has given its best as well. Studies show that, unlike men, women drink less, age out of using bars, and are also less comfortable with meeting and interacting with other women in these spaces. However, no one has done the math, with the exception of branding agencies targeting city leaders. Given the gender pay gap, with women averaging $0.77 for every $1 that men earn, we can guess that, on average, dual-income lesbian couples earn less than dual-income straight couples, who in turn earn less than dual-income gay couples. The differences would be slight but still meaningful if not staggering when added up over time. And this may explain why lesbians tend to rent longer and buy homes later than gay men do.
In parallel, lesbians not only do not maintain large numbers of bars but are less able to secure property ownership and therefore form long-term neighborhoods. Scholars argue that gay men are prone to territorialize and need to do so in order have public spaces where they feel safe; women have long been associated with more private spaces like the home and are often linked with a sense of fear in public urban life. On the flip side, lesbians have been sexualized and commodified so that two women kissing on the street is not only more acceptable than two gay men holding hands but is sometimes applauded. Lesbians and gay men still seek out their safety if not survival in cities and wind up playing key roles in creating the gentrified cities we have today. Looking back over the massive changes in the everyday lives of LGBTQ people in New York and other cities, it is clear that the lesbian role in gentrification is not identical to that of gay men.
Apparently, in San Francisco, lesbian bars are no longer needed or, rather, no longer possible. Over time, cities began to search out the next hot groups: techies and creatives. More diverse than artists, these populations have even greater capital. As reports from the leading tech companies and the art world show, these industries remain dominated by men. Thirkield wrote of her reasons for closing the Lex:
When a business caters to about 5% of the population, it has tremendous impact when 1% of them leave. When 3% or 4% of them can no longer afford to live in the neighborhood, or the City, it makes the business model unsustainable.
Two other queer bars have closed in San Francisco: a bar catering to trans women and their admirers and a bar that served Latino gay men. Recent media reports highlight the large number of younger people leaving New York City, queers and artists among them. Swaths of the same group are being forced from the San Francisco peninsula, yet to make room for the equally youthful employees of Google, Apple, and Dropbox. Even before some select gay bars and San Francisco’s only lesbian bar began to ebb from the horizon, other hubs of working-class people and people of color were the first to go, slowly pushed out by the technological wunderkind. Now it’s the end of another era, and we can see the beginning of yet another form of gentrification that most urban dwellers will not get to take part in or afford.
In the end, what the Lex’s closing and the gender pay gap make clear are that not only lesbians but all women bear the greater brunt of gentrification today, alongside people of color and the poor. While less data is available on transgender people, this group also identifies with the spaces that are disappearing and is often economically and socially disadvantaged; therefore, transgender people are also more likely to experience these shifts as the gentrified rather than then gentrifiers. When bars close, however, women and other marginalized groups do not stop going out or revert to OKCupid. Lesbians, bisexuals, and queer women, as well as transgender people, rely on parties to meet one another and connect. Thirkield writes that her “faith in queer San Francisco still runs deep.” How true. If any population will never be stamped out, it is the queers of our fair cities, including the women among them.
www.huffingtonpost.com/gay-voices/?utm_hp_ref=gay-voices&ir=Gay+Voices
UK police on the hunt as sinister anti-gay monk strikes again
Monk moves beyond messages of hate to contacting the LGBTI community directly
joem
www.gaystarnews.com/article/uk-police-hunt-sinister-anti-gay-monk-strikes-again281014
Apple CEO Tim Cook Criticizes Alabama For Being Slow To Ensure LGBT Rights
Apple CEO Tim Cook Criticizes Alabama For Being Slow To Ensure LGBT Rights.
www.youtube.com/watch?v=pcpZXcb22d0&feature=youtube_gdata
You and Your Partner: Having the Conversation About PrEP
Talking about PrEP with your partner can open up a can of worms. Here’s how to make the conversation as smooth as possible.
Gary McClain, Ph.D.
www.advocate.com/31-days-prep/2014/10/28/you-and-your-partner-having-conversation-about-prep
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