Bob Citron

Robert A. Citron, often called Bob Citron (September 14, 1932 – January 31, 2012) was an American entrepreneur and aerospace engineer who was born in Brooklyn, New York, and educated at the University of the Philippines (liberal arts) and aeronautical engineering from Northrop University (1953–1959). Citron helped establish and manage the Smithsonian Astrophysical Observatory’s Operation Moonwatch and Precision Optical Satellite Tracking Programs (STP) after the launch of Sputnik I in 1957. He founded or co-founded five companies dealing with documentary film production (Limpopo Films Pty. Ltd. – 1964), publishing (Adventure Travel, Inc. – 1976), space research and space logistics support (SPACEHAB, Inc. – 1983), reusable satellite launch systems (Kistler Aerospace Corporation – 1993), and Lunar transportation and logistics (Lunar Transportation Systems, Inc. – 2004). Citron also started three nonprofit foundations dealing with scientific field research (Educational Expeditions International with Clarence Truesdale, superintendent of Vermont public schools, in 1971, which became Earthwatch, short-lived phenomena (Center for Short-Lived Phenomena – 1975), and the study of the long-term future of humanity Foundation For the Future – 1996). He died on January 31, 2012, at his home in Bellevue, Washington, at the age of 79, due to complications from prostate cancer.
Early career.
Citron worked for the Smithsonian Institution for 17 years, establishing satellite tracking stations around the world, and creating and managing scientific field research projects. While at the Smithsonian he built and managed astrophysical research observatories in the USA, Spain, Norway, Ethiopia, South Africa, and India (1959–1968) and founded the Smithsonian Institution Center for Short-lived Phenomena (CSLP) in 1968. The purpose of the Smithsonian Satellite Tracking Program was to track satellites to determine their precision orbits in order to better understand the Earth’s atmosphere and to better define the geodesy of planet Earth. Citron created and managed the Smithsonian Transient Lunar Phenomena (TLP) program for NASA during the Apollo Program (1968–1972) and established the NASA/Smithsonian Skylab Earth Observing Program (1973–1974) during the post-Apollo period. He established a global Student Environmental monitoring network (1974), involving high school students from 20 countries, to report on significant environmental events (1974).
While at the Smithsonian, Citron was a consultant to a number of United Nations organizations including UNESCO and the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP). As a consultant to these organizations he was involved in helping to define the goals and operations of UNESCO’s “Man and the Biosphere” Programme (1973) and he helped develop requirements for UNEP’s “Global Environmental Monitoring System” (1974). Citron also participated in a number of other United Nations programs involved with global environmental monitoring and assessing the human effect on planet Earth (1972–1975).
Companies.
Citron founded or co-founded five companies: Limpopo Films, Pty. Ltd. (1964); Adventure Travel, Inc. (1976); SPACEHAB, Inc. (1984); Kistler Aerospace Corporation (1993); and Lunar Transportation Systems, Inc. (2004).
Limpopo Films Pty. Ltd..
In 1964, while living in Africa, Citron founded Limpopo Films, Pty. Ltd. to produce documentary films for television. Limpopo Films produced a wide variety of films from 1964 to 1968 including "Man in Ethiopia" (which won numerous national and international awards), "Vigeland on Life", "Ten Thousand Mile Safari", "From Zululand to Zambia", "The Lions of Gorongoza", "The Crocodiles of the Nile", "The Elephants of Wankie", "Meteorite Hunt", "The Mystery of Zimbabwe", and many others.
Adventure Travel, Inc..
In 1976 Citron founded the American Adventurer’s Association (AAA), which was an international organization for adventurers. The American Adventurer’s Association eventually grew to a membership of over 10,000 and published a monthly national magazine, "Adventure Travel"; a monthly newsletter on worldwide adventure, "Adventure Travel Newsletter"; and an annual "Worldwide Adventure TravelGuide" (1978–1981). "Adventure Travel" magazine eventually reached a national circulation of over 100,000 and was distributed on half a dozen major international airlines. Citron sold his company to the Ziff Davis Publishing Company in 1981.
SPACEHAB.
In 1983 Citron founded SPACEHAB, Inc., which designs, builds, and operates space research laboratories and space logistics modules that fly aboard the Space Shuttle fleet. It began its space commercialization roots through the development of privately owned, pressurized modules that fly in the shuttle’s cargo bay and double the amount of working and living space available to the astronaut crew.
Citron incorporated the company in 1984 and the company made its initial public offering in 1995. The company flew its first module on a Space Shuttle mission on June 21, 1993. The SPACEHAB modules that Citron and Tom Taylor invented have been the primary payload on 17 Space Shuttle missions, including research missions on board the fleet of orbiters, and resupply missions to both the Russian space station MIR and the International Space Station (ISS).
Kistler Aerospace.
In 1993 Citron and Walter Kistler founded Kistler Aerospace Corporation to develop fully reusable, low-cost rocketships to take commercial satellites to Low Earth and Geosynchronous Earth Orbit as well as provide logistic support for the International Space Station.
The K-1 is the world’s first fully reusable aerospace vehicle, designed to deliver payloads to orbit and provide a low-cost alternative to single-use launch vehicles. The company intends the K-1 rocketships to become the reliable, low-cost providers of launch services for commercial and government payloads destined for Low Earth Orbit (LEO), Medium Earth Orbit (MEO), and Geosynchronous Earth Orbit (GEO), as well as for cargo resupply and recovery flights to and from the International Space Station (ISS).
Kistler Aerospace Corporation has raised over $600 million in private financing and, in 2006, received a NASA contract for $207 million to further the development of the K-1 launch vehicle fleet.
Lunar Transportation Systems, Inc..
In 2004, after NASA announced plans to return humans to the Moon and build a lunar base, Citron and Walter Kistler founded Lunar Transportation Systems, Inc. (LTS).
Lunar Transportation Systems, Inc. is developing a new lunar architecture that has a number of advantages over current known and evolving architectures. The LTS architecture uses new innovations for modularity and flexibility, leading to reduced development cost, a faster development schedule, and better evolvability.
LTS architecture will enable NASA to meet its near-term strategic objectives, including sending small payloads to the lunar surface in a few years, sending larger payloads to the lunar surface in succeeding years, and sending crews to the Moon and back to the Earth by the end of the next decade. In addition, the LTS architecture can provide routine logistic support for the lunar base now being planned by NASA.
LTS is a privately financed company that requires cooperation from NASA in order to raise the private capital required to design, build, ground test, flight test, and operate its Earth-Moon transportation system.
Nonprofit Foundations.
Citron founded or co-founded three nonprofit foundations: Educational Expeditions International with Clarence Truesdale, superintendent of Vermont public schools, in 1971, which became Earthwatch, the Center for Short-lived Phenomena (spun off from the Smithsonian Institution in 1975), and Foundation For the Future (with Walter Kistler in 1996).
Center for Short-Lived Phenomena.
The Center for Short-Lived Phenomena was a global wire service that included a network of over 3,200 scientists and scientific institutions in 34 countries that reported on and undertook field research on short-lived phenomena such as volcanic eruptions, earthquakes, tidal surges, oil spills, meteorite falls, unusual animal migration, insect infestations, moonquakes, and other short-lived events worthy of scientific investigation. The Center was involved in NASA’s Apollo Program (1968–1972), NASA’s Transient Lunar Phenomena Program (1969–1972), and NASA’s Skylab Earth Observing Program (1973–1974), and established the global Student Environmental Monitoring Network (1973–1975). Citron spun off The Center for Short-lived Phenomena from the Smithsonian Institution in 1975 and established it as a nonprofit organization.
Earthwatch.
Earthwatch Institute is an international nonprofit organization that brings science to life for people concerned about the Earth’s future. Founded by Citron and Truesdell in 1969, Earthwatch supports scientific field research by offering volunteers the opportunity to join research teams around the world. This unique model is creating a systematic change in how the public views science and its role in environmental sustainability.
Today, Earthwatch recruits close to 4,000 volunteers every year to collect field data in the areas of rainforest ecology, wildlife conservation, marine science, archaeology, and more. Through this process, it educates, inspires, and involves a diversity of people who actively contribute to conserving our planet.
Currently raising approximately $15 million a year from the generosity of institutions, individuals, governments, and corporations, Earthwatch has a global reach. Earthwatch is currently supported by more than 150 staff, located in our headquarters in Maynard, Massachusetts, USA as well as in offices in Oxford, England; Melbourne, Australia; and Tokyo, Japan.
Foundation For the Future.
Citron co-founded (with Walter Kistler) the nonprofit Foundation For the Future (FFtF). The foundation awarded the annual Kistler Prize, provided grants, and arranged events to discuss the long-term future of humanity. According to the Southern Poverty Law Center (SPLC) in 2008, "the foundation's main undertaking is holding several seminars a year on such things as climate change, energy security, and other important matters."
Film and television production.
1964 – present
Citron began making films in 1964 while living in Africa and founded a film production company, Limpopo Films Ltd., which produced a series of documentary and travel films for television. These films included "Zululand to Zambia", "Ten Thousand Mile Safari", "Europe North", "Africa South", "An American Boy in Russia", and others.
In the 1960s, while with the Smithsonian Institution, Citron made a series of films in Africa on field research expeditions including "The Wama Pygmies of the Congo", "The Borana Tribe of Ethiopia", "The Meteorites of Southwest Africa", and others.
In the 1970s Citron and National Geographic made a series of television documentaries and educational films based on his EARTHWATCH field research expeditions, including "The Search for Fossil Man", "The Day the Sun Died", "The Violent Earth", "Earth, the Restless Planet", and others. During this period Citron was also a consultant to a number of film projects for the National Geographic Society, David Wolper Productions, and MGM Documentary Films.
Recently Citron created a 15-minute film entitled "Cosmic Origins: From the Big Bang to Humanity" as a showcase for the work of the Foundation For the Future. He also supervises the production of a series of short films for the Foundation, including "Where Does Humanity Go from Here?", "Visions of the Future", and "The Young Scholars Inquiry Program". Citron created a television series called "The Next Thousand Years", now in development, for public television distribution.
Scientific field research expeditions.
Citron has organized, managed, and/or participated in more than 60 scientific field research expeditions in Europe, Africa, Asia, South America, and the South Pacific in fields that include volcanic eruption research, paleoanthropology, archaeology, anthropology, ecology, ethology, zoology, astronomy, meteoritics, and geophysics. He has participated in eight total solar eclipse expeditions in the Philippines, Mexico, Canada, Turkey, Mauritania, Ethiopia, India, and the Libyan Sahara between 1956 and 2006.
Citron has organized, managed, and/or participated in more than a dozen archaeological excavations in Africa and Europe, including excavating early hominid and iron-age sites in South and East Africa with prominent archeological teams (1964–1974).
While working for the Smithsonian, Citron also organized and managed and was the principal cinematographer on 18 volcanic eruption expeditions in Africa, the South Pacific, North and Central America, Hawaii, the Philippines, and New Guinea (1968–1974). He recently donated 40 hours of volcano expedition films to the Smithsonian Institution archives for research and education.
In 2001 Citron organized a major expedition to the South Pacific to observe the reentry of the Russian MIR Space Station in a remote area of the Pacific Ocean. That expedition included chartering two aircraft from Fiji with 31 observers on board. The observers included the Russian Chief Designer of the MIR Space Station as well as three cosmonauts who lived aboard MIR for lengthy durations.
Memberships.
Citron was a member of many professional organizations and special-interest groups, including the American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics, British Interplanetary Society, The Planetary Society, African Wildlife Federation, Friends of the Earth, Greenpeace, Sierra Club, Union of Concerned Scientists, Seattle Astronomical Society, The Nature Conservancy, The Wilderness Society, American Film Institute, Seattle Film Society, Space Frontier Foundation, and the National Space Society.
Awards.
Citron has received numerous awards for the projects he’s created and managed, and the films he’s made. He was a two-time recipient of the Smithsonian Institution Outstanding Achievement Award for his management of the Smithsonian Astrophysical Observatory Satellite Tracking Program and for founding and managing the Smithsonian Institution Center for Short-lived Phenomena. He also received the Space Pioneer Award from the National Space Society for his invention of the SPACEHAB modules that fly on the Space Shuttle, and he received the Space Entrepreneur of the Year Award from the Space Frontier Foundation for his contributions to the development of space tourism. In 1967 Emperor Haile Selassie presented Citron with the Haile Selassie Gold Medal for his contributions to the people of Ethiopia.
Publications.
Citron has published over 200 articles and has written, and/or edited dozens of books and reports dealing with short-lived phenomena, adventure travel, space exploration, meteorite distribution, global environmental monitoring, and the future of humanity.


Testosterone phenylbutyrate

Testosterone phenylbutyrate, also known as testosterone phenylbutanoate, testosterone 17β-phenylbutyrate, and androst-4-en-17β-ol-3-one 17β-phenylbutyrate, is a synthetic, injected anabolic-androgenic steroid (AAS) and an androgen ester – specifically, the C17β phenylbutyrate (phenylbutanoate) ester of testosterone – which was never marketed. It is a prodrug of testosterone and, when administered via intramuscular injection, is associated with a long-lasting depot effect and extended duration of action.


James Bopp

James Bopp Jr.. is an American conservative lawyer. He has repeatedly been named one of the 100 most influential lawyers in the United States by the "National Law Journal", and is most known for his work associated with election laws and campaign finance.
Bopp served as Indiana's Republican National Committeeman on the Republican National Committee, and was the RNC's Vice Chairman from 2008 to 2012.
Early life.
Bopp is a native of Terre Haute, Indiana, and holds a bachelor's degree from Indiana University and a J.D. degree from the University of Florida College of Law.
Legal career.
He has been the general counsel for National Right to Life since 1978, the James Madison Center for Free Speech since 1997, and as the special counsel for Focus on the Family since 2004. Bopp was the editor of "Restoring the Right to Life: The Human Life Amendment".
A study conducted in 2014 showed that Bopp was one of a comparatively small number of lawyers most likely to have their cases heard by the Supreme Court.
Bopp represented a group of plaintiffs, including Senator Rand Paul (R-KY), Republicans Overseas, and current and former U.S. citizens living in foreign countries, in a legal challenge to the Foreign Account Tax Compliance Act (FATCA) filed in 2015. The plaintiffs in the lawsuit, "Crawford v. U.S. Department of Treasury", alleged that a number of provisions of the act unconstitutionally violate privacy rights of U.S. citizens, while burdening both private individuals and the financial institutions that they patronize. In April 2016, U.S. District Judge Thomas M. Rose of the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Ohio dismissed the suit for lack of standing.
Republican Party membership and activism.
Bopp is known for his staunch social conservatism, and his past and present clients are "a who's who of social conservatism," including the Traditional Values Coalition, the Home School Legal Defense Association, Concerned Women for America, and the Federation for American Immigration Reform.
Bopp is particularly known for his opposition to all forms of limits on money in politics and his role as counsel for groups seeking to strike down campaign-finance limitations.
He became Indiana's Republican National Committeeman on the Republican National Committee in 2006, and became the RNC's Vice Chairman in 2008. His tenure on the RNC ended in 2012 when he was defeated for another term by John Hammond at the state Republican convention. Bopp said after the convention that he was defeated because he supported Richard Mourdock over incumbent Richard Lugar for the Republican nomination for U.S. Senate in 2012.
In 2009, Bopp was the lead sponsor of an RNC resolution that initially called on the Democratic Party to change its name to "Democratic Socialist Party". A compromise resolution was passed instead, condemning President Barack Obama and the then-Democratic congressional majority for "pushing America toward socialism and more government control."
During a 2010 RNC meeting, he was the chief sponsor of a resolution covering financial support of candidates. The "purity test" resolution (titled "Proposed RNC Resolution on Reagan's Unity Principle for Support of Candidates") names ten public policy positions that are important to the RNC and stipulated that public officials and candidates who disagree on three or more of the ten positions would be ineligible for financial support or endorsement from the RNC. The resolution was defeated.
Bopp clashed with Michael Steele during Steele's term as chairman of the Republican National Committee; after Bopp criticized Steele, Steele called Bopp an "idiot."
During the 2012 Republican presidential primaries, Bopp initially stayed neutral in the race because he was part of a committee charged with setting the number of Republican primary debates. However, three attorneys in Bopp's office left to work for Herman Cain. In February 2012, Bopp endorsed Mitt Romney.
Marriage.
Bopp has repeatedly represented Indiana on the Republican Party's platform committee, including in 2016. On the committee, Bopp pushed for a socially conservative platform, advocating platform language stating that children "deserve a married mom and dad" and referring to "natural marriage" as between a man and a woman. Bopp opposed efforts by billionaire Republican Paul E. Singer to add a statement to the party platform committing the party "to respect for all families," a signal of openness to LGBT Americans; Bopp called the proposed language "redundant and superfluous." Bopp also opposed efforts by delegate Rachel Hoff (the first openly gay member of a Republican platform committee) to include a reference in the platform to the 2016 attack on a gay nightclub in Orlando; Bopp stated that including such language (which was ultimately voted down) would be "identity politics."
Bopp opposed an effort by some delegates to replace the 60-page platform that the committee had adopted with a simplified two-page "statement of principles" that excluded any mention of contentious issues, such as same-sex marriage. Bopp write in opposition to the alternative proposal that: "Obviously, the adoption of this statement of principles would be a major defeat for those of us that want the Republican Party to promote traditional marriage since the minority report wipes out our current platform language that supports traditional marriage."
Voting Rights.
During the 2020 election, Bopp represented Republicans in lawsuits to hinder voting rights. Bopp claimed, without evidence, that proactively mailing ballots to registered voters would lead to voter fraud.
Notable cases.
In "McCutcheon v. Federal Election Commission", Bopp successfully represented "McCutcheon". The Supreme Court struck down section 441 of the Federal Election Campaign Act, which imposed a limit on contributions an individual could make over a two-year period to national party and federal candidate committees, is unconstitutional.
In 2011 in "Susan B. Anthony List v. Driehaus", Bopp successfully defended the Susan B. Anthony List against a defamation lawsuit by Steve Driehaus, a former Democratic congressman who claimed that the SBA List had made false statements regarding taxpayer funding of abortion in the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act. The court ruled "We do not want the government deciding what is political truth — for fear that the government might persecute those who criticize it. Instead, in a democracy, the voters should decide."
In "Citizens United v. Federal Election Commission", Bopp represented Citizens United, drafting the complaint and handling the early stages of the litigation. Bopp did not argue the case in the Supreme Court, having been replaced by Ted Olson.
In "Wisconsin Judicial Commission v. Gableman" (2010), Bopp successfully represented Wisconsin Supreme Court Justice Michael Gableman in a case alleging he broke the Wisconsin Judicial Code of Conduct during his successful run for the state supreme court. The case was presented before the Wisconsin Supreme Court and resulted in a 3-3 deadlock decision.
In "ProtectMarriage.com v. Bowen", Bopp represented ProtectMarriage.com in a lawsuit challenging the finance limit required for reporting campaign donations and the open way in which information on such donations is shared in California. This lawsuit was filed after the identities of people supporting California Proposition 8 were revealed as a result of disclosure laws.
In "Kurita v. Tennessee Democratic Party" (2008), Bopp represented former State Senator Rosalind Kurita, a Democrat, in her suit against the Tennessee Democratic Party for removing her as the Democratic nominee in her State Senate district after she had won the primary.
Other cases in which Bopp was counsel for a party or parties are:


Fine by Me (organization)

Fine By Me was an organization in the United States, and now a project of Atticus Circle, with a mission to give voice to friends and supporters of lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender (LGBT) people. The organization developed a project to print T-shirts bearing the phrase "gay? fine by me" and then worked with communities to distribute and wear the T-shirts to show acceptance and support for LGBT people and publicly demonstrate against homophobia.
The organization began at Duke University in spring 2003 after The Princeton Review's college guide ranked Duke number 1 in the category of "Alternative Lifestyles not an alternative." Fine By Me started when, during a dinner conversation, ten friends, both gay and straight, came up with the idea to distribute free T-shirts with an anti-homophobic message The T-shirts were order and distributed by Lucas Schaefer, a junior, and Leila Nesson Wolfrom, a graduate student both at Duke University, and their friends. In less than two weeks, the group distributed nearly 2,000 T-shirts to students, faculty and staff. Even then university president, Nannerl 'Nan' Overholser Keohane, wore a T-shirt.
Within two years, Nesson Wolfrom had coordinated the distribution of more than 14,000 "gay? fine by me" shirts.
The idea continued to spread by word of mouth to schools all over the country including to traditionally conservative and religious institutions. When the student government backed by the board of trustees for the University of Notre Dame denied recognition of a gay straight alliance on campus, the students responded by pulling together the resources to purchase and hand out 3000 orange gay? fine by me t-shirts. Joe Dickmann, who was a board member of the unrecognized OutreachND said, "[The] administration...gave us no support and repeatedly tried to sabotage our efforts...so we worked through email and word of mouth [to] deliver.. 2300 T-shirts by years end." Of the decision Nesson Wolfrom would say that the students "couldn't change the rules, but they could completely overwhelm as a visible presence."
Other traditionally conservative and religious institutions such as Boston College, and Texas A&M University would follow suit.
Since its founding in 2003, the organization has expanded its focus to include churches and synagogues, local civic groups, PFLAG chapters, businesses, and other community groups and organizations. For groups wanting to show support, custom T-shirts are printed with a custom organizations name in place of "us" in "gay? fine by us".
In September 2008, Fine By Me became a special project of Atticus Circle.


Marjorie Dannenfelser

Marjorie Jones Dannenfelser is the President of the Susan B. Anthony List, an American political organization that seeks to advance anti-abortion women in politics. She was brought into the organization as its executive director in 1993, shortly after its founding.
Activism.
Pro-abortion rights as a college student, Marjorie Jones was the "pro-choice chair" of the Duke University College Republicans. But a summer spent in a Heritage Foundation house for Republican interns changed that, when a "bitter schism erupted between social conservatives and libertarians over a pornographic video". This dispute led to her conversion to Catholicism and the founding of the Susan B. Anthony List, according to a 2010 "Washington Post" profile.
Prior to founding the Susan B. Anthony List, Dannenfelser was the staff director of the Congressional Pro-Life Caucus, and worked for U.S. House Representative Alan Mollohan (D-WV), whom the SBA List later worked to defeat in the 2010 Democratic primary. Mollohan was defeated in the primary by the anti-abortion Mike Oliverio.
Dannenfelser began running the SBA List in 1993 out of her home in Arlington, Virginia, after SBA List founder Rachel MacNair brought her on board as the first experienced political activist to join the group. Soon afterwards, Dannenfelser was joined by Jane Abraham, and the two led SBA List from 1993 to 2006, when Dannenfelser assumed both the chairman and president positions. The organization, headquartered in Washington, D. C., lobbies law-makers, and spends millions of dollars per year supporting candidates.
In September 2016, Dannenfelser agreed to become Donald Trump's campaign "Pro-Life Coalition" leader.
Personal life.
Marjorie Jones was born and raised in Greenville, North Carolina. She grew up as an Episcopalian, and attended Duke University. She later converted to Roman Catholicism. She says her conversion was partly motivated by the Catholic Church's emphasis on the Virgin Mary, and the "feminine genius" she represents.
She and her husband, Marty Dannenfelser, live in Arlington, Virginia, with their five children.


Noel Howell

Noel Howell M.D. is an Antiguan pediatrician, filmmaker, producer and director based in New York City.
Howell received his M.D. from the University of Miami School of Medicine in 1994, and began working in Bronx, New York as a pediatrician. In 1998 he formed the not-for-profit group "Children Living With Aids, Inc.", motivated by his discovery that HIV-positive children were being barred from the entertainment sessions that he, his son and his daughter were providing to hospitalized children.
Howell also graduated from the Film School of New York University. His 2009 film "Redemption of Paradise" was named best Caribbean film at the 2010 Jamaica International Reggae Film Festival.
In February 2010, he was appointed roving film ambassador for the Motion Picture Association of Antigua & Barbuda. Upon the release of "Redemption of Paradise" shortly afterwards, it was rewarded Special Honor Award for Best Caribbean Film and two other awards at the Reggae Film Festival.
In 2014 Howell established a mathematics award with the Ministry of Education in Antigua and Barbuda, providing nine outstanding public school students with $500 each for outstanding performance in mathematics.


International AIDS Society

The International AIDS Society (IAS) is the world's largest association of HIV/AIDS professionals, with 11,600 members from over 170 countries , including clinicians, people living with HIV, service providers, policy makers and others. It aims to reduce the global impact of AIDS through collective advocacy. Founded in 1988, IAS headquarters are located in Geneva, and its president since July 2020 is Adeeba Kamarulzaman.
The IAS hosts the biennial International AIDS Conference, the IAS Conference on HIV Science, and the HIV Research for Prevention Conference.
History.
The IAS is a non-profit organization founded in 1988, with a mandate to organize the International AIDS Conference. Initially, the IAS headquarters were in Stockholm, and Lars-Olof Kallings was the secretary general from 1988 until 2003.
In 2004, the IAS restructured its organization, expanded the number of professional staff and moved the headquarters to Geneva. The move was intended to strengthen organizational links with other health NGOs and (United Nations) multilateral agencies.
Mission and Office-bearers.
The IAS is an advocacy body, using its large membership base and scientific leadership to drive action. It is the world’s largest association of HIV professionals, with 11,600 members from over 170 countries . Among its members are researchers, clinicians, people living with HIV, community advocates, policy makers and others.
The IAS President is Adeeba Kamarulzaman of Malaysia, who succeeds Anton Pozniak. Kevin Osborne is Executive Director. Past presidents have included Helene D. Gayle, Joep Lange, Peter Piot, Linda-Gail Bekker, Chris Beyrer and Françoise Barré-Sinoussi.
Conferences.
International AIDS Conference.
The International AIDS Conference (abbreviated AIDS 2012, AIDS 2014 and so on) is the world's most attended conference on HIV and AIDS, and the largest conference on any global health or development issue in the world. First convened during the peak of the AIDS epidemic in 1985, they were held annually until 1994 when they became biennial. Each conference continues to provide a unique forum for the intersection of science, advocacy and human rights, as well as to strengthen policies and programmes that ensure an evidence-based response to the epidemic.
The 2006 World Aids Conference was held in Toronto, Canada.
The 22nd International AIDS Conference (AIDS 2018) was held in Amsterdam, the Netherlands, on 21-27 July 2018. Primary topics of note included: Use of Dolutegravir as an antiretroviral medication was reported to result in increased rates of birth defects where the brain and spinal cord have openings - Neural tube defects. Particularly of note was that an HIV infected person on treatment with undetectable virus does not spread it to an uninfected partner.
The 23rd International AIDS Conference (AIDS 2020) will be held in San Francisco and Oakland, United States, on 6–10 July 2020.
IAS Conference on HIV Science.
The IAS also organizes the IAS Conference on HIV Science (abbreviated IAS 2013, IAS 2015 and so on) (formerly called the IAS Conference on HIV Pathogenesis, Treatment and Prevention). This conference, the largest open scientific conference on HIV- and AIDS-related issues, occurs biennially and focuses on the biomedical aspects of HIV. The conference brings together professionals from around the world to examine the latest scientific developments in HIV research, prevention and treatment with a focus on moving science into practice and policy. It was held in Buenos Aires in 2001, Paris in 2003, Rio de Janeiro in 2005, Sydney in 2007, Cape Town in 2009, Rome in 2011, Kuala Lumpur in 2013, Vancouver in 2015 and Paris in 2017. IAS 2019 will be held in Mexico City, Mexico on 21–24 July 2019.
The conference was called the IAS Conference on HIV Pathogenesis, Treatment and Prevention until a name change after 2015.
Publications and other resources.
The society financially supports the publication of the "Journal of the International AIDS Society (JIAS)", an online, open-access, peer-reviewed medical journal covering all aspects of research on HIV and AIDS.
The IAS Online Resource Library is an online collection of abstracts and other resources from international conferences, as well as numerous other materials produced by the IAS launched in January 2010.
Other activities.
The IAS works with other regional HIV/AIDS societies and networks to strengthen the capacity of HIV professionals to respond to the epidemic at the regional level. The society runs the Industry Liaison Forum, whose mission is to remove barriers to research investment by the pharmaceutical industry in resource-limited settings. The IAS also provides professional development and training opportunities for HIV professionals at both international and regional AIDS conferences through its education programme.


Sister Spit

Sister Spit was a lesbian-feminist spoken-word and performance art collective based in San Francisco, signed to Mr. Lady Records. They formed in 1994 and disbanded in 2006. Founding members included Michelle Tea and Sini Anderson, Other members included Jane LeCroy and poet Eileen Myles. The group were noted for their "Ramblin' Roadshow", performing at feminist events such as the Michigan Womyn's Music Festival. The "Boston Phoenix" described it as "the coolest (and cutest) line-up of talented, tattooed, pierced, and purple-pigtailed performance artists the Bay Area has to offer".
The "Independent Weekly" magazine described the group as a "literary celebration of outspoken and courageous feminists". Sister Spit performed on numerous occasions at the Michigan Womyn's Music Festival, as well as on multiple tours across the United States, chiefly to LGBT audiences, including the Castro Street Fair, Pride and Ladyfest in San Francisco. They played at such locations as Boston, Cambridge, Massachusetts and Buffalo, New York.
Michelle Tea revived the tour in April 2007, calling the new incarnation Sister Spit: The Next Generation. The new group includes original Sister Spitters Eileen Myles and Ali Liebegott, as well as younger writers such as Cristy Road, Nicole Georges, and Rhiannon Argo.
For a month on the road, Sister Spit: The Next Generation traveled across the U.S. and Canada, and occasionally through Europe, performing mainly at universities and art centers. In order to reflect changes in gender identity and sexual orientation, the line-up no longer includes only women. Performers have included Nicole Georges, Cristy Road, Eileen Myles, Beth Lisick, Blake Nelson, Justin Vivian Bond and Ariel Schrag.
In 2017, the 20th Anniversary Sister Spit tour included Denise Benavides, Virgie Tovar, Maya Songbird, Celeste Chan, Cathy de la Cruz, Juliana Delgado Lopera and Joshua Jennifer Espinoza.
Sister Spit and City Lights Publishers.
In 2012 Sister Spit made the long-desired leap from promoting and supporting up-and-coming queer, feminist writers to actually shepherding them into print via a collaboration with City Lights Publishers. The new imprint, City Lights/Sister Spit, began by publishing the anthology "Sister Spit: Writing, Rants and Reminiscence from the Road". Subsequently, it has published works by Ali Liebegott, Beth Lisick, and others. In their 40th-anniversary issue, "Ms." magazine named the anthology a "great read" of the season that honors the cultural institution that is the Sister Spit roadshow.
The mission of the City Lights/Sister Spit imprint is to publish primarily but not exclusively writings that are informed by a queer, feminist outsider perspectives. Editor Michelle Tea wishes to nurture work from people who struggle to find a place.
Membership.
Sister Spit had a rotating membership. Members for many or all shows included


Testosterone hexahydrobenzylcarbonate

Testosterone hexahydrobenzylcarbonate (brand name Lontanyl), or testosterone cyclohexylmethylcarbonate, is an androgen and anabolic steroid and a testosterone ester.


James DeAnda

James DeAnda (August 21, 1925 – September 7, 2006) was an American attorney and United States District Judge of the United States District Court for the Southern District of Texas, noted for his activities in defense of Hispanic civil rights, particularly as a plaintiff's attorney in Hernandez v. Texas.
Early life and education.
Born in Houston, Texas to Mexican immigrants, DeAnda's attendance at Texas A&M University was interrupted by World War II service in the United States Marine Corps in the Pacific. Graduating from Texas A&M with a Bachelor of Arts degree in 1948, he then received a Bachelor of Laws from the University of Texas School of Law in 1950. He was in private practice in Houston from 1951 to 1955, and in Corpus Christi, Texas from 1955 to 1979. In the early 1950s, he was on the plaintiff's team in Hernandez v. Texas, writing most of the briefs. In the late 1960s, he was among those who organized the Texas Rural Legal Assistance Organization and the Mexican American Legal Defense and Education Fund.
Federal judicial service.
On February 13, 1979, DeAnda was nominated by President Jimmy Carter to a new seat on the United States District Court for the Southern District of Texas created by 92 Stat. 1629. He was confirmed by the United States Senate on May 10, 1979, and received his commission on May 11, 1979. He served as Chief Judge from 1988 until retiring from the bench on October 1, 1992. After retirement, he returned to private practice in Houston until 2005.
Discrimination.
DeAnda reported later in life that he had not faced much discrimination during his schooling, possibly due to his more Mediterranean-sounding surname and light complexion. However, upon graduation from the University of Texas, he discovered that initially promising interviews with elite law firms led to no follow-up once the potential employers learned that his parents were from Mexico. As a result, he ended up practicing law alongside other Mexican-American lawyers in Houston like John J. Herrera, working to provide counsel to Hispanics up and down the Gulf Coast who could not find equitable representation elsewhere. It was in this capacity that he came face to face with the discrimination Mexican-Americans faced daily in the 1950s.
Death.
DeAnda died of prostate cancer at his vacation home in Traverse City, Michigan, on September 7, 2006, aged 81.


Baan Gerda

BaanGerda is a humanitarian non-profit organization that looks after AIDS orphans in Thailand. It is a project of the Bangkok-based Children's Rights Foundation. The small village community cares for over 70 children that were born with HIV and whose parents died of Aids. The organization has no political or religious associations.
The children's homes have been built on land donated by a famous monk in the Lopburi province, approximately 230 kilometers north of Bangkok, Thailand. Unlike a state orphanage, BaanGerda has a unique operating model that provides family-style homes for orphans with foster parents looking after the children. All of the parents are HIV positive, thus ensuring they are sensitive to the needs of HIV infected children. It is the only one of its kind in Thailand.
Founders.
The founders of BaanGerda are Karl and Tassanee Morsbach, who were originally involved in building schools along the Thai and Burmese border. In total, five schools were built and are now operated by the border police, under the patronage of the King's daughter, Princess Sirindhorn.
They turned their attention to the growing problem of Aids orphans and opened the first family home at BaanGerda in 2001. It was built with their own money and the intention was to ease the children's suffering in whatever life they have left. When ARV medicine became available, their focus changed as the children were able to live with the disease and lead a relatively normal life. Over the next five years, several more homes were constructed as they were able to raise funds from within Thailand and abroad. In 2006, Germany honored Karl and Tassanee Morsbach for their humanitarian work by awarding them the Grand Cross of the Order of Merit.
Facilities.
As well as the family homes, BaanGerda comprises an infirmary center with six beds, a guesthouse, an administrative building, and an activities building. One of the most important features is called the “Kinderstern”, which is a multi-purpose building used for eating, a reception center for guests and other events. It was built with the financial support from the artwork Kinderstern (Children's Star), a social sculpture which stands since 1988 for the Children's rights and is made by the German artist Imi Knoebel.
Workshops and vocational training.
The recently constructed carpentry and sewing workshops were built to offer the parents a worthwhile job which could boost their confidence and earn them extra money. Many people infected with HIV in Thailand are excluded from jobs, as companies routinely screen potential employees. The production facilities play a vital role in the BaanGerda concept as it provides a vocation for residents and develops their self-esteem. There is also the opportunity for the children to take part in training, which is particularly useful for those that do not attend college later.
Medical.
Comprehensive medical treatment is available for all of the adults and children. This includes first and second line ARV medicine and regular blood testing to measure their CD4 count.
The nearest hospital is located 35 kilometers from the village so everyday medical requirements are taken care of by the resident staff. The medical team distribute ARV medicine to each house and the parents are responsible for ensuring that their children take it at regulated times. Medical records are meticulously kept for each child including weight changes and lab results.
Education.
It is common for children infected with HIV to be excluded from school. However, the children of BaanGerda were fortunate to be accepted at a local school and follow the national standard curriculum. It is part of the King's Project and provides education for those from disadvantaged backgrounds.
Documentary Film.
"HEAVEN'S MEADOW. THE SMALL WONDERS OF BAAN GERDA" is a 90 min. documentary by German film director Detlev F. Neufert. It had its premiere in 2005 in Bangkok and shows the beginnings and the 'wonders' of this Aids-village in Thailand. It combines the personal lives of the children with BAAN GERDA as a model for the world and a greater view into the wheel of life. It has been screened internationally in cinemas, schools and universities and TV, even in Bhutan and in China where some billions saw it in CCTV. Hollywood director Wolfgang Petersen names it "a masterpiece".
"DANCING ON HEAVEN'S MEADOW". 2009. A 30 min. follow-up by film director Detlev F. Neufert about the life in the Aids orphan village Baan Gerda in Thailand. Ben, one of the leading kids in "Heaven's Meadow. The small wonders of Baan Gerda" is now 16 years old. How does he face his life as an Aids orphan and how does the development of Baan Gerda can help him and the other children to lead a normal life. The film has been screened in international TV stations.
BaanGerda features in the 2010 documentary Living with the Tiger. The film focuses on two of the children over a period of 3 years, and highlights the problems they encounter as they try to re-integrate back into their communities. The story is set in the context of their preparations for an ambitious performance in an opera.


Kirvan Fortuin

Kirvan Fortuin (10 August 1991 – 13 June 2020) was a South African dancer, choreographer and LGBT activist.
Career.
Born in Macassar, Fortuin joined the Cape Whalers Field Band in 2002, which prompted their interest in dance. They began formal dance training at the University of Cape Town in 2010, studying classical dance, contemporary dance, African dance and other dance forms. Fortuin qualified with a dance teacher's diploma in 2012 and performed that year at the International Theatre School Festival in Amsterdam, the Netherlands. They received a BMus (Hons) in choreography from University of Cape Town, and a Bachelor of Dance from Codarts University for the Arts in Rotterdam.
Fortuin choreographed works for the Cape Town City Ballet, Dance Umbrella Johannesburg, Vrystaat Kunstefees, Artscape Theatre Centre, Suidoosterfees, Afrovibes NL & SA and the Afrikaanse Kultuurfees. They founded House of Le Cap, South Africa's first ballroom house, in 2017. As an LGBT activist, Fortuin hosted Africa's first Vogue Ball on World AIDS Day to raise awareness and fund for the LGBT community affected by HIV.
Awards and recognition.
In 2012, Fortuin received the Best International Production (Guest Award) at the International Theatre School Festival in Amsterdam. University of Cape Town recognised them with an award for Meritorious Achievement in the Performing and Creative Arts in 2012. From 2014 to 2015 Fortuin was recognised by Krisztina de Chatel's foundation, Stichting Imperium, and received a stipend from the organisation. Fortuin was the recipient of the Dance Award for Modern Dance from the Pierino Ambrosoli Foundation in Zurich. In 2019 Fortuin was awarded the Ministerial Award for Outstanding Contribution to Preservation and Promotion of an Indigenous Art Form from the Western Cape Government.
Death.
Fortuin was fatally stabbed on 13 June 2020 in their hometown of Macassar. A fourteen-year-old girl was arrested in connection with their death.


Kelda Roys

Kelda Helen Roys (born June 24, 1979) is an American tech entrepreneur, business owner, attorney, and Democratic politician. She currently serves in the Wisconsin State Senate, representing the 26th senatorial district. She succeeded Fred Risser in 2021, who was the longest-serving state legislator in American history. She previously served two terms in the Wisconsin State Assembly, was a candidate for the U.S. House of Representatives in 2012 and for Governor of Wisconsin in 2018.
Early life and education.
Roys was born in Marshfield, Wisconsin, and raised in Medford and Madison. Her mother was a social worker, her stepfather was an environmental lawyer, and her father was a retired prosecutor and law enforcement officer. Roys graduated from Madison East High School in 1997.
Roys attended New York University, where she designed her own major in politics, drama, and cultural studies, and received a B.A., magna cum laude, in 2000. In 2004, she received a J.D., "magna cum laude," from the University of Wisconsin Law School, focusing on civil rights and international law, and was a participant in the Wisconsin Innocence Project. During and after college, Roys worked full-time as a real estate agent at The Marketing Directors, Inc.
Community involvement.
Roys has served on the boards of Clean Lakes Alliance, TEMPO Madison, Citizen Action of Wisconsin, Wisconsin Women's Council, ACLU of Wisconsin, Madison Repertory Theater, Dane County Democratic Party, Sherman Neighborhood Association, Wisconsin Public Interest Law Foundation, Citizen Action of Wisconsin, and the State Bar of Wisconsin's Legal Services Committee.
Political career.
Law and Advocacy.
During law school, she worked at the Wisconsin Innocence Project, as well as several international law firms. After law school, she served for four years as the executive director of NARAL Pro-Choice Wisconsin, where she successfully advocated for passage of the Compassionate Care for Rape Victims Act. She currently practices real estate law and serves as CEO and Founder of her real estate startup, OpenHomes.
Politics.
Wisconsin State Assembly (2009-2013).
In 2008, Roys won election to the Wisconsin State Assembly representing the 81st Assembly district, filling the seat left vacant by the retirement of David Travis, who had held the seat since 1983. She won a six-way Democratic primary with 30% of the vote and was unopposed in the general election.
After being reelected in 2010, Roys was chosen by her peers to serve as the Democratic Caucus chair in the Assembly. Roys served as vice-chair of the Committee on Health and Healthcare Reform, and later served as ranking member on the Committee on Elections and Campaign Finance Reform and the Committee on Consumer Protection & Personal Privacy.
Roys authored numerous pieces of legislation during her time in office, including public breastfeeding protections, additional income tax deductions for families, expanded college savings programs, reproductive health access, expanding health care coverage, increased training and data collection for law enforcement officers, expansion of AODA treatment services and prevention programs, and a successful statewide ban of Bisphenol A, or "BPA." Roys also publicly fought against 2011 Wisconsin Act 10, and had pledged to repeal the law if elected governor.
2012 congressional election.
In 2012, when Congresswoman Tammy Baldwin ran for the U.S. Senate seat being vacated by Herb Kohl, Roys left her Assembly seat to run for office in the open 2nd Congressional district. She lost to Mark Pocan in a four-candidate Democratic primary.
2018 gubernatorial election.
Roys declared her candidacy for governor of Wisconsin on December 7, 2017.
Roys gained national attention when a campaign ad in which she breastfeeds her infant daughter went viral. She was endorsed by EMILY's List, NOW, NARAL Pro-Choice America, Feminist Majority Foundation, former gubernatorial candidate Andy Gronik, former State Senator Jessica King, Representatives JoCasta Zamarripa and Amanda Stuck, and Kate Michelman, Nancy Keenan, Jehmu Greene, Ruth Messinger, Robert Lopez, and Sarah Silverman.
Roys won first place by 12 points in the Democratic Party of Wisconsin State Convention straw poll. In July 2018, the Roys campaign announced that she had raised over $800,000.
Roys came in third in the eight candidate Democratic primary on August 28, 2018, with Tony Evers winning the nomination.
2020 state senate election.
In March 2020, Fred Risser, the longest-serving legislator in American history, announced he would retire from his seat in the Wisconsin State Senate at the end of the current term. Roys immediately announced her candidacy to run for the vacated seat. The race, in the heavily Democratic region of Dane County, Wisconsin, attracted six other candidates in a crowded Democratic primary, which was also defined by the COVID-19 pandemic in Wisconsin and the protests against institutional racism prompted by the killing of George Floyd. In the August primary, Roys prevailed over her six competitors, winning 40% of the vote. She was unopposed in the November general election, and assumed office in January 2021.
Business career.
In 2013, Roys founded a venture-backed real estate tech company, OpenHomes, a virtual real estate agency that helps people buy and sell homes more efficiently and affordably.


Meem (group)

Meem (in Arabic language م ) is a Lebanese LBTQ women group that was founded in August 2007 as the first ever lesbian organization established in the Arab World. The full name is مجموعة مؤازرة للمرأة المثليّة, pronounced /Majmou3at Mou'azara lil Mar’a al-Mithliya/ (translated as Support Group for Lesbian Women).
Membership has risen above 200.
The group was formed as an offshoot of Helem, the general GLBT organization started in 2002 in Lebanon, again the first-ever gay organization established in the Arab World.
Origin of the name.
The name “Meem” is derived from the Arabic letter “m” (Meem) which stands for "majmouaat mou'azara lil-mar’a al-mithliya" (a support group for lesbian women). In Arabic, the letter looks like this (in Arabic م ). The letter "meem" as an initial for the word lesbian (in Arabic مثليّة pronounced /mithliya/) also symbolizes the anonymity of lesbians in the Arab world.
Aims.
The group offers community support, psychological counseling, an activity center, legal support, social events, and the opportunity to work on social change. Meem also hosts a Womyn House that serves as an activity and resource center in Beirut.
The goal of Meem is to create a safe space in Lebanon where lesbians can meet, talk, discuss issues, share experiences, and work on improving their lives and themselves.
Membership.
Membership in Meem is restricted only to LBTQ women who are Lebanese (anywhere in the world) or living in Lebanon (of any nationality).
Publications.
In 2009, "Bareed Mista3jil" is a book published by the Lebanese lesbian Meem organization in Beirut. Available in both English and Arabic versions, the book is a collection of 41 true and personal stories from lesbians, bisexuals, queer and questioning women, and transgender persons from all over Lebanon.


Day Gardner

Day Deborah Rica Lipford, now known as Dr. Day Gardner, is a former Miss Atlantic City, (1974) who served as Miss Delaware 1976 and made history by becoming the first African American contestant to place as a top ten semi-finalist at the Miss America 1977 pageant.
Raised in the Elwood section of Mullica Township, New Jersey, graduated from Oakcrest High School in Hamilton Township, Atlantic County, New Jersey in 1973.
She was President and Director of Lipford Corporation. Her main achievement was the thematic and interior design the SandCastle Entertainment Complex, a $40 million dinner theater and nightclub facility located in the center of Guam's thriving tourist district.
Gardner worked as a media consultant KUAM Broadcasting in Ordot, Guam and upon returning to the U.S. Mainland was an on-air personality and producer with African Broadcasting at the World Trade Center in New York City.
She is the former National Director of Black Americans for Life, in Washington, D.C., (an outreach of National Right to Life Committee).
In 2017, she was nominated by Maryland Governor Larry Hogan to be a consumer member of the Maryland Board of Physicians. On March 15, 2017, she was pressured by the Maryland Senate over her pro-life views. The governor's office withdrew the nomination due to criticism from Democrats the Governor received regarding Gardner's pro life stance and how doctors should face the issue.
Presently, Gardner is the founder and President of The National Black Pro Life Union and Associate Director of National Pro-Life Center on Capitol Hill.
She was also the anchor for the 'Daily Life News with Day Gardner' program for NPLR.net online and later host of 'The Day Report' for American Family Radio.
In January 2011, Day Gardner received a Doctorate Degree from the Faith Evangelical College and Seminary in Tacoma, Washington.
Dr. Gardner's first novel, "If Not For Grace" was published in the spring of 2011 and is available in book stores and online.
The 60s Soul singer Hoagy Lands was her uncle, and her first cousin is the mother of singer Jaheim.


Tibor Feheregyhazi

Tibor Feheregyhazi, CM (February 14, 1932, Budapest – July 10, 2007, Saskatoon, Saskatchewan) was a Hungarian-Canadian actor and director. He attended the National Theatre School in Montreal, Quebec. Feheregyhazi went on to become a resident director at the Manitoba Theatre Centre in Winnipeg, Manitoba, as well as artistic director of Magnus Theatre in Thunder Bay, Ontario and lastly, artistic director of the Persephone Theatre in Saskatoon, Saskatchewan.
Background.
Tibor Feheregyhazi grew up in Budapest. Feheregyhazi's parents worked for the Hungarian National Radio. His mother was executive producer of music programming and his father was an economic journalist. When Feheregyhazi was 4 years old, he had his first radio performance at the station where his parents were employed. He attended a private Jesuit school in Danube before switching to a public high school. He enrolled at the National Hungarian Film and Theatre Academy and acted on stage and radio while at school. He graduated from high school in 1956.
In 1956, Feheregyhazi was one of thousands of young Hungarians who fought in the Hungarian Revolution, which failure forced him to flee Hungary, first to Italy and then to Canada. In 1957, Feheregyhazi went to Canada where he worked in a camera shop, cleaning floors in a hospital and also worked part-time in a theatre. After three years in Ottawa, he moved to Montreal and studied at the National Theatre School. After graduating, he was a stage manager for the Canadian Players Company in Toronto. In 1969, he joined the Royal Winnipeg Ballet as a production manager.
He then worked freelance before going to Thunder Bay in 1978 as an artistic director of the Magnus Theatre. Four years later, Feheregyhazi went to Saskatoon to join the Persephone Theatre. In 2004, he was made a member of the Order of Canada in recognition of his work at the Persephone. He celebrated the 50th anniversary of his arrival in Canada on July 1, 2007.
Death.
Tibor Feheregyhazi died on July 10, 2007, in Saskatoon at age 75, following a lengthy battle with prostate cancer. He was married twice and was survived by a wife and five children. Following his death, the City of Saskatoon named Feheregyhazi Boulevard in the Aspen Ridge neighbourhood in his honor.


Christine Kafando

Christine Kafando is a Burkinabé HIV/AIDS activist. Since the 1990s, she has been active in HIV/AIDS prevention and response efforts. For her work, she has been recognized by Burkina Faso's Order of Merit and France's Legion of Honour.
Biography.
Kafando was born in Ivory Coast. She moved to Bobo-Dioulasso, Burkina Faso, in 1994. She married her husband in 1997, at age 25. That year, they both attended an HIV screening; Kafando was HIV-positive, while her husband was not. After the couple divorced, Kafando adopted two children, in 1999 and 2002.
Kafando decided to devote her efforts to HIV/AIDS-related work. As a volunteer for a local organization, she advocated for HIV testing and acted as a liaison between patients and physicians. In 2001, as part of her activism work, Kafando became the first Burkinese woman to publicly disclose her HIV-positive status. She is credited with encouraging then-president Blaise Compaoré to declare his support for HIV/AIDS-related efforts, and to publicly announce that he himself would be tested for HIV.
Kafando founded and serves as president of Espoir Pour Demain (Hope for Tomorrow), which serves children with HIV/AIDS in Bobo-Dioulasso, raises awareness on mother-to-child transmission of HIV, and trains youth to become peer educators. She also coordinates the organization Maison des Associations de Lutte Contre le SIDA (House of Anti-AIDS Associations).
In 2004, Kafando was decorated with Burkina Faso's National Order of Merit. In 2011, she was named a Chevalier of the French Legion of Honour, by the French ambassador to Burkina Faso. In 2014, she was awarded the International Prize by Sidaction, a French HIV/AIDS charity.


Jim Dowson

James Dowson (born September 1964) is a far-right political activist from Airdrie, North Lanarkshire, Scotland. Dowson has been active across the United Kingdom, Europe and the United States. He has been described by "The Times" as "the invisible man of Britain's far right".
After joining and falling out with the Orange Order, Dowson was active as an anti-abortion militant. He joined the far-right British National Party and was in charge of the party's financial affairs. He later helped found and worked as the main source of funding for Britain First from which he resigned in 2014. He was arrested for his participation in the Belfast City Hall flag protests in late-2012 and was also involved in the Protestant Coalition, a party formed by some involved in the protests. Subsequently, he has also been active in the anti-immigrant Knights Templar International and supporting Donald Trump's 2016 election campaign.
Activities.
Anti-abortion activism.
Dowson was a Calvinist minister before entering politics. He was for a time a member of the Orange Order and was associated with a controversial flute band accused of glorifying Michael Stone during parades. Dowson subsequently fell out with the Orange Order after he was forced to leave the movement, even taking part in protests against it where he denounced the group as being filled with "atheists and boozers".
He came to wider attention for his campaigning against abortion, establishing his own group, the UK Life League, in 1999 after meeting with the leaders of Youth Defence, a militant anti-abortion group active in the Republic of Ireland. He courted controversy by setting up a website that published the personal details of sexual health workers, as well as encouraging supporters to bombard Paul Goggins with messages after the Northern Irish Health Secretary had mooted the possibility of relaxing Northern Ireland's tough anti-abortion laws. When the Marie Stopes Clinic (a family planning clinic denounced by its critics as pro-abortion) opened in Belfast in 2012, Dowson took a leading role in the protests that followed. Dowson has also stated that he worked as part of the United States anti-abortion movement and used much of what he learned there as part of his career in public relations.
It has been reported that during his campaigns Dowson has picked up several criminal convictions, notably for breach of the peace in 1986, possession of a weapon and breach of the peace in 1991, and criminal damage in 1992. Dowson has, however, denied all of these claims apart from the conviction for breach of the peace, which he insisted was for an incident in his youth.
British National Party.
Dowson joined the British National Party at an unspecified date and became a leading figure within the group, rising to take charge of the BNP's financial affairs. He has claimed that in this role he raised £4 million for the party. Dowson's financial role with the party began in late 2007.
Having relocated to Ballygowan from Glasgow, Dowson set up a BNP call centre at the Carrowreagh Business Centre in Dundonald on the outskirts of Belfast. Dowson ran the centre under the name of Adlorr-ies.com Ltd, a Leicestershire-based company he had established.
Dowson announced his departure from the BNP in 2010 and stated that he intended to start an anti-Islamic Christian group. According to a report in the "Daily Record", Dowson had also faced an allegation that he had groped a female BNP worker.
Britain First.
Dowson's involvement in Britain First, a far-right party led by the former BNP councillor Paul Golding, first came to light in 2012 when the English Defence League repudiated any connections to the group on the basis that Dowson was involved and they considered him financially untrustworthy. In 2014, it was publicly revealed that Dowson was the main source of funding behind the group. According to a report on the Channel 4 news programme, Dowson was the "ideological guru" of the group. In fact, Dowson had been a founder of the group in 2010 but did not take a public role. According to the anti-fascist group Hope Not Hate he had been the driving force behind the group's foundation and had used it to attack the BNP leader Nick Griffin, with whom he had had a bitter falling-out.
Dowson announced his resignation from Britain First in July 2014 after the group, under a policy initiated by Golding, started launching "invasions" of mosques. Dowson described the initiative as "provocative and counterproductive" as well as "unacceptable and unchristian". The story about the mosque attacks had been broken by Channel 4 on the same news programme that named Dowson as the group's leading figure.
Northern Ireland.
Dowson became a leading figure in the Belfast City Hall flag protests that broke out in late 2012 after Belfast City Council voted to only fly the Union Flag from Belfast City Hall on seventeen designated days a year rather than all the time as had previously been the practice. In March of the following year, Dowson was arrested for his part in the protests. He was charged with encouraging or assisting offenders and five counts of taking part in an unnotified public procession due to his part in the protests. At a subsequent court appearance Dowson and some of his co-defendants dressed in Islamic-style clothing.
Dowson joined Willie Frazer at the 2013 LaMon Hotel press conference at which the Protestant Coalition, a political party launched on the back of the flag protests, was officially established. He subsequently claimed that he left the party to Frazer and Rab McKee after a few months and bemoaned the failure of the group to make any impact on local politics.
Eastern Europe and Knights Templar International.
Dowson relocated to Budapest, Hungary, and has been observed in several eastern European countries with his latest venture, the Knights Templar International (KTI), along with the former BNP leader Nick Griffin and a Hungarian anti-abortion campaigner Imre Teglasy. Dowson's last sighting, according to the "Daily Mirror", was on the Turkey-Bulgaria border with the KTI supplying equipment to a vigilante paramilitary group, the Shipka Bulgarian National Movement, to hunt down asylum seekers. Dowson was subsequently reported as having developed close links with Russian extremist Aleksandr Dugin, with Dugin aiding Dowson in the establishment of a Belgrade office for his internet activity in support of the "alt-right".
In May 2017, it was reported by Hope not Hate that Dowson had been stopped from entering Hungary after the Hungarian Immigration Authority declared him an "undesirable individual" and barred him from entering the country in future. The move came as part of a wider crackdown by the Ministry of Interior on far-right individuals from across Europe using the country as their base, after Horst Mahler had been arrested trying to escape charges of Holocaust denial in Germany by entering Hungary.
In May 2018 BBC News reported that Dowson has been fronting the Knights Templar International company with Dowson's sister-in-law Marion Thomas named as one of its directors.
Donald Trump.
In July 2016, Dowson established the "Patriot News Agency" to help elect Donald Trump as President of the United States. Dowson described his strategy as spreading "devastating anti-Clinton, pro-Trump memes and sound bites into sections of the population too disillusioned with politics to have taken any notice of conventional campaigning." The site published an article alleging that Trump's opponent Hillary Clinton was involved in "Satanism, pedophilia," murder, and "other conspiracies." According to the "New York Times", postings on this site and others connected to Dowson, as well as Facebook pages "linked to him", were "viewed and shared hundreds of thousands of times".
Scottish independence.
Whilst attending a far-right conference in Budapest in March 2017, Dowson announced his support for Scottish independence, despite his earlier unionist stances. Dowson stated "England is stuffed, England is stuffed totally" and advanced his belief that an independent Scotland "would protect us from the excesses of Muslim domination".
Kosovo military equipment.
In May 2018 the BBC reported that Knights Templar International had claimed to have supplied ballistics vests and communications equipment to Kosovo. It also reported that Dowson had told Kosovan TV that he had personally taken such equipment there.
Scottish parliamentary plection 2021.
In Glasgow, on polling day for the Scottish parliamentary election, Dowson was heard accusing Nicola Sturgeon of the SNP of attempting to "change the country" to a socialist republic, following her comments accusing Jayda Fransen and Britain First of being racists and a fascists before declaring that the South Side of Glasgow would reject them.
Personal life.
Dowson is the father of nine children.


Queer Women of Color Media Arts Project

The Queer Women of Color Media Arts Project (QWOCMAP) is a non-profit organization based in San Francisco. It aims to promote the creation, exhibition, and distribution of films that address social justice issues of concern to “address the vital social justice issues that concern LGBT women of color and [their] communities, authentically reflect their life stories, and build community through art and activism.” It provides training, screening opportunities, and resources to filmmakers from underserved communities.
QWOCMAP was founded in 2000 by San Francisco filmmaker Madeleine Lim, using funds from the California Arts Council to run a series of free workshops serving emerging queer women of color filmmakers. Since then, more than 200 new films were created through QWOCMAP’s training program. Films created through the program have been showcased at QWOCMAP’s annual screening, which began in 2003 with the inaugural screening in the San Francisco LGBT Community Center.
Participants' films have screened at the San Francisco Asian American Film Festival, the SF Latino Film Festival, the SF LGBT Film Festival, the Oakland Black LGBT Film Festival.


Ezra Dangoor

Hakham Ezra Reuben Dangoor (1848–1930) was the Chief Rabbi of Baghdad from 1923 to 1926, and the founder of the first publishing company in Baghdad.
Early life.
Ezra Sasson ben Reuven Dangoor was born in 1848 in Baghdad, Iraq. He was educated in Baghdad, where he studied under Rabbi Abdallah Somekh.
Career.
Dangoor worked as a ritual slaughterer and ritual circumciser, before from 1880 to 1886 working as the scribe in charge of writing documents issued by the Baghdad's Bet Din.
Dangoor was the Chief Rabbi of Rangoon, Burma from 1893 or 1894, but had to return to Baghdad in 1895 due to ill health.
In 1904, Dangoor opened the first printing press in Baghdad, which printed Arabic textbooks as well as books in Hebrew. Dangoor was the author of several books and commentaries on the Torah.
From 1923 to 1926, Dangoor was Chief Rabbi of Baghdad.
Personal life.
Dangoor had five children: Sion, Abdulla Joseph, Farha (who married Shaul Basri), Eliahou and Moshe.
Death and legacy.
Dangoor died in 1930. He was the grandfather of Sir Naim Eliahou Dangoor (1914–2015), and of the wife of the latter and Iraq's first beauty queen, Renée Dangoor, and also the great-grandfather of the philanthropist David Dangoor.


Michael Dively

Michael Dively (born 1938) is an American politician and philanthropist. He served as a Republican member of the Michigan House of Representatives from 1968 to 1975, representing Traverse City, Michigan. He has supported LGBT rights in Key West, Florida and public education in Michigan.
Early life.
Michael Dively was born in 1938 in Cleveland, Ohio, U.S. His father was the chairman of the Harris Corporation.
Dively was educated at the University School and graduated from Williams College. He received a law degree from the University of Michigan Law School and another graduate degree from American University.
Career.
Dively worked as a lawyer in Traverse City, Michigan from 1964 to 1968. He served as a Republican member of the Michigan House of Representatives from 1968 to 1975, representing Traverse City. The seat was previously held by Arnell Engstrom, and he was succeeded by Connie Binsfeld. He subsequently served as Deputy Director of the Michigan Department of Commerce, until he was appointed as Director of the Energy Administration. He later served as the Chair of the Michigan Civil Service Commission.
Dively taught Government at Albion College and American University.
Philanthropy.
Dively served on the board of trustees of Hiram College. He was a co-founder of the Community Foundation of the Florida Keys, the Gay Lesbian Community Center of Key West, and the Key West AIDS Memorial.
Dively endowed the Michael Dively American Government Award Endowment at the Grand Traverse Regional Community Foundation, which supports public schools in Traverse City, Michigan.
Personal life.
Dively was engaged to a woman, Charlotte Lyeth, in 1978. He is now openly gay. He was in the closet while he held public office. He resides in Winter Park, Florida.


Pam Stenzel

Pam Stenzel (born 1965) is an American speaker known for lecturing to young people about abstinence-only sex education. She has been described as "one of the country’s most established abstinence-only lecturers," and speaks to more than half a million young people every year around the world.
Education.
Stenzel was conceived when her mother was allegedly raped at the age of fifteen. Her mother then gave Stenzel up for adoption. She attended Liberty University, from which she received a degree in psychology.
Career.
Stenzel began her career counseling young women at crisis pregnancy centers, and served as the director of Alpha Women's Center in Prior Lake, Minnesota for years. Her website states that after working at these centers, she realized that many of the women who came there were unaware of the risks associated with sex, and birth control, and so decided to become a public speaker.
Controversy.
In 2013, Stenzel spoke at George Washington High School in Charleston, West Virginia. Her talk there generated controversy when a seventeen-year-old student, Katelyn Campbell, complained about Stenzel's talk, which she described as "slut-shaming". Allegedly, the school's principal responded to this by threatening to tell the school Campbell wanted to attend, Wellesley College, about her "bad character". Campbell appeared on "20/20" to criticize Stenzel's talk, saying that Stenzel's tone was "combative" and that "I think there's a better, more scientific way to address sex than saying, Just don't do it."


Bernardo Bernardo

Bernardo C. Bernardo (January 28, 1945 – March 8, 2018) was a Filipino veteran stage actor, comedian, and film director. He was known for his role as a supporting actor for the blockbuster film "Invisible", which is also known as Imbisibol in the Philippines. Bernardo was awarded the Gawad Urian Award for his Best Supporting Actor role for the film, "Invisible" at the 39th Gawad Urian Awards in 2016 and was also nominated for Best Supporting Actor at the 2016 FAP Awards in the Philippines. Bernardo Bernardo died on March 8, 2018 after suffering from a tumor in his pancreas.
Biography.
Bernardo C. Bernardo was born on 28 January 1945 in Santa Ana, Manila. He achieved the Degree of Bachelor of Literature in Journalism from the University of Santo Tomas. Bernardo also received the theatre training at the University of California and graduated with a Master of Arts Degree at the London Academy of Music and Dramatic Art under a British council grant. He also taught Theater Arts at Meridian International College, also known as MINT College.
Career.
He rose to prominence as a respectable theatre actor and gained fame as a supporting actor in the Philippines when he transitioned to film industry in the mid-1970s. He went onto win the Gaward Urian Award for Best Actor at the 5th Gawad Urian Awards in 1981 for his role as "Manay Sharon in Ishmael Bernal" for the film, "Manila By Night" which is also commonly known as City After Dark.
He also acted in few Filipino comedy series including the role of the antagonist (as Steve Carpio) in the comedy series, "Home Along Da Riles".
Death.
Bernardo Bernardo had been undergoing treatment since January 2018 after suffering from a potentially life-threatening tumour in his pancreas, which was later diagnosed as pancreatic cancer. He died on March 8, 2018. Actors, directors in the Philippines and other countries paid tribute. Several critics pointed out that the death of Bernardo is a loss to the film industry as he had contributed to the film industry immensely during his lifetime.


Children with AIDS Charity

Children With AIDS Charity was a national UK charity to help children infected or affected by HIV/AIDS maintain a good quality of life. CWAC was set up in 1992 with the aim of "working towards a future without poverty or prejudice for these children and their families". CWAC closed in 2014.
Founding.
Children With AIDS Charity was founded in October 1993 by Rebecca Handel, Jo Dodge, and the paediatric team of St Mary’s Hospital in Paddington. Together they decided that a charity should be formed that could respond to the specific practical, emotional and educational requirements of children and their families infected and affected by HIV.
Rebecca contracted HIV through a blood transfusion in her second pregnancy, before blood was screened for the virus in 1981. Since she was white, middle-class and Jewish, Rebecca did not meet any of the HIV-positive stereotypes at the time. Bonnie Handel, Rebecca’s daughter from that pregnancy, died in St Mary’s Hospital the following December; Rebecca Handel died on 1 January 1995.


Wanda Nowicka

Wanda Hanna Nowicka (born 21 November 1956) is a Polish activist and politician, Member of Parliament of Poland during 7th (2011–2015) and 9th terms (2019–2023). She served as the Deputy Marshal of the Sejm of the Republic of Poland from 8 November 2011 to 11 November 2015.
Born in Lublin, she attended the University of Warsaw, graduating with a degree in classical philology, and worked as a teacher of Latin and English from 1985 to 1993. In 1990, Nowicka co-founded Neutrum, the Association for State Neutrality, an organization focused on the separation of church and state in Polish public life. She was also one of the founders of the Federation for Women and Family Planning in 1991, a non-governmental organization which is the alliance of Neutrum and four other organizations. She led the Federation as its President for 20 years, from 1991 until 2011 when she resigned having got elected to Sejm. In the 9th term of Sejm she is a Chair of the Parliamentary Committee on National and Ethnic Minorities. She is also a founder and a Chair of the Parliamentary Group for women's rights.
Protection of women's rights - International activities.
Nowicka was a cofounding member of Polish Committee of NGOs - Beijing 1995 which organized active participation of Polish activists in the famous United Nations conference known as Fourh World Conference on Women in Beijing (FWCW). The activities included the presentation of NGOs' report on the situation of  women in Poland. At this UN conference Nowicka made a well-known "Statement of Non-Region"  on behalf of women from Central and Eastern Europe. In 1999 Nowicka co-founded and was the first coordinator of ASTRA (Central and Eastern European Women's Network for Sexual and Reproductive Health and Rights). From 1995 to 2002 she served as an expert of the World Health Organization and a member of its advisory body called Gender Advisory Panel. Wanda Nowicka has been also a member of the  Congress of Polish Women and board member of the association Congress of Women which is the operational body of this movement. She spoke on women/human rights on numerous occasions at international forums (UN, EU, Harvard University, Columbia University, New School, CUNY, University of California). She wrote numerous reports to the UN and the European Union on violations of human rights, including women's rights.
In 2003, Nowicka invited Women on Waves to Poland. Their ship, the "Langenort", arrived for two weeks to Władysławowo at the Polish coast to organize together with Polish women's activists, actions to rise awaress about repressiveness of the anti-abortion law in Poland and to provide early abortions in extraterritorial waters. These actions were violently attacked by extreme right nationalist groups such as the All-Poland Youth and the League of Polish Families, who seriously intimidated women in order to stop them from boarding the ship.
Activity in Polish politics.
Politically, Nowicka has allied herself with various parties, but has remained unaffiliated outside of briefly joining the Solidarity movement in 1980 and 1981. After 1989, she became involved in politics, cooperating with left-wing groups, but remaining independent. Several times she unsuccessfully stood in various parliamentary elections. In 1991, she ran for the Sejm from the list of Labour Solidarity, in 1997 she ran for Senator's seat on behalf of the Labour Union with 190,000 votes. In 1998-2002, she was elected to the first Masovian Regional Assembly with SLD on the recommendation of the Polish Socialist Party (PPS). In the 2011 parliamentary elections, she allied herself with Palikot's Movement, and she won a parliamentary seat, gaining 7065 votes. On 8 November 2011 she was elected Deputy Speaker of the Sejm for the 7th term. In February 2013 she split with the Palikot's Movement and remained independent member of the Sejm till the end term. She ran with the  Europa Plus coalition to the European Parliament in 2014 in Warsaw district, and she received 7479 votes (second result), however, Europa Plus failed to gain any seats in the elections. On 21 February 2015 she announced her participation in the presidential election on behalf of the Polish Labour Party. Her candidacy was also supported by four political parties: the Polish Left, the Social Democracy of Poland, Polish Socialist Party and Union of the Left. She collected 91,000 out of 100,000 signatures required to be registered.
In 2015 Nowicka ran to Sejm with the United Left coalition in Masovian district. She received 20,503 votes, which did not qualify her for a seat, because the United Left did not pass the 8% threshold required for the coalition of parties.
In the 2019 she unsuccessfully ran to the European Parliament in Kujawy-Pomerania district with the Spring (Wiosna) party, newly formed by Robert Biedroń. She received 21,993 votes.
In 2019 parliamentary elections, running from the first place on the list of the Left alliance in Silesia (29th district), she received 25,767 votes, achieving a third place in the constituency and obtaining a seat as a 9th-term MP. In the Sejm, she was elected Chair of the Committee on National and Ethnic Minorities. She founded and has been ecected as a Chair of the Parliamentary Group on Women's Rights.
Education, teaching activities.
She graduated in classical philology at the University of Warsaw. In 1985-1993 she worked as a teacher of Latin, Greek and English in high schools in Warsaw. In 2007-2008, she taught at the University of Rutgers in New Jersey, USA at the Faculty of Women's Affairs and Gender Studies on Reproductive Rights Activism with Focus on Central and Eastern Europe. In 2016-2017 she lectured Gender Studies at the Institute of Applied Social Sciences (University of Warsaw and Polish Academy of Science) In 2016-18 she studied bioethics at the University of Warsaw and philosophy at the Sorbonne in Paris.
Private life.
Daughter of Kazimierz Nowicki, former prisoner of German Nazi concentration camps Auschwitz and Buchenwald, and Irena Witkowska. Her stepfather was Kazimierz Albin, the former prisoner of Auschwitz. Her husband was Światoslaw Florian Nowicki, with whom she has three sons: Florian, Michał and Tymoteusz. Florian, a doctor of philosophy, was a politician of the Polish Labour Party, Michał, historian, as a student was a well-known leftist activist, and Tymoteusz, kick-boxer won the world cup in kick-boxing twice.
She declares her knowledge of classical languages (Latin, Greek) and English, Russian and French, as well as the ability to communicate in German and Italian.
Decorations and distinctions.
Wanda Nowicka became Honorary Citizen of Spartanburg, South Carolina, USA in 1992. In 1994 she was a laureate of the Polish edition of the Woman of Europe competition. In 2000, she received the Rainbow Laurel award. In 2005, she received a £100,000 award from the Sigrid Rausing Foundation for the ASTRA network for outstanding leadership (the award was used to make the film "Breaking Silence"). In 2008, she won the University-In-Exile Award from New School for Social Research in New York, in recognition of her contribution to the struggle for women's rights in Poland and internationally. For active support of international cooperation and chairing the Polish-Greek parliamentary group, the Government of the Hellenic Republic awarded Wanda Nowicka the Order of Honor of the second class at the rank of Grand Commander.


Brickhouse Brown

Frederick Seawright (August 11, 1960 – July 29, 2018) was an American professional wrestler, better known by his ring name Brickhouse Brown. He was a top heel in several Southern promotions in the 1980s and 1990s.
Professional wrestling career.
Early career (1982–1987).
Brown's first matches in professional wrestling were for Southwest Championship Wrestling, under Joe Blanchard in San Antonio, Texas. He had no training prior to his first match in 1982 against Bobby Jaggers, but was later trained by Terry Funk.
In 1983, he joined the National Wrestling Alliance, and for the next four years, he competed in various territories, especially within the Southeast. In September 1985, he won the NWA Southeastern Tag Team Championship with Norvell Austin, defeating The Nightmares. They lost the title back to The Nightmares a week later. In the summer of 1986, Brown worked for World Wrestling Federation where he scored upset victories over Moondog Rex and Tiger Chung Lee. He would lose to The Iron Sheik, Bob Orton Jr, Harley Race and Hercules Hernandez.
Prime career (1987–1997).
In March 1987, Brown went to Memphis to wrestle for Championship Wrestling Association. In July 1987, he won his first singles title, the AWA Southern Heavyweight Championship, defeating Jerry Lawler. He lost the title back to him a week later. In May 1988, he defeated Maxx Payne to win the CWA Heavyweight Championship. He held this top title for nearly two months, before losing it to Phil Hickerson. In August 1988, Brown got involved in a racially-charged angle with Robert Fuller and the Stud Stable, wherein Fuller gave Brown a watermelon as a gift, and beat him with a leather strap. Because of the co-promoting with the American Wrestling Association and World Class Championship Wrestling, he also had a chance to wrestle in the AWA and WCCW.
After SuperClash III, the AWA pulled out, and the CWA-WCCW cross-promotion continued, as Jerry Jarrett bought Fritz Von Erich's majority stake in WCCW. In February 1989, Brown won the WCCW Texas Heavyweight Championship, defeating Iceman King Parsons. He was champion for over a month, before losing to Gary Young. In late 1989, he briefly returned to Florida for Professional Wrestling Federation and the Gulf Coast for Continental Wrestling Federation. Back in Memphis, in April 1990, he won the USWA World Tag Team Championship with Sweet Daddy Falcone, defeating The Southern Rockers. They kept the belts for nearly a month before losing them back to the Southern Rockers. In November 1991, he went to Portland for Pacific Northwest Wrestling. His run in Portland ended in June 1992.
Back in Memphis, in April 1995, Brown won his second USWA World Tag Team Championship with The Gambler, defeating PG-13. They held onto the belts for over two weeks before losing them back to PG-13. In July 1995, Brown competed in the World Wrestling Federation as enhancement talent and worked two TV tapings, one against Hunter Hearst Helmsley and the next night against Henry O. Godwinn. In August 1995, he wrestled in Ozark Mountain Wrestling, which was the USWA's developmental territory. In May 1996, he won the USWA Television Championship, defeating Jesse James Armstrong. A month and a half later, he dropped the belt to Wolfie D. In July 1996, he quickly rebounded and won his third and final USWA World Tag Team Championship with Reggie B. Fine, defeating Bart Sawyer and Flex Kavana. They held onto the title for three weeks before losing it to The Moondogs. Brown left USWA in January 1997 before the company folded later that November.
Later career (1997–2017).
After leaving the USWA, Brown remained active in the independent scene for twenty years, mainly in Tennessee and Mississippi, until his cancer diagnosis in 2017. At Juggalo Championship Wrestling's 2011 internet pay-per-view Legends and Icons, he was one of four USWA alumni who lost a five-way match to Austin Idol.
Personal life.
In April 2017, Brown announced his diagnosis of stage 4 prostate cancer. In May 2018, he said the cancer had spread to his brain, despite treatment that impaired his eyesight and reduced his weight to . Several Southern promotions held benefit shows to help pay his medical bills, and the Cauliflower Alley Club's Benevolent Fund helped him pay his rent.
Brown was reported dead on July 20, 2018, from prostate cancer. The next day, Cauliflower Alley President B. Brian Blair said Brown was still alive after waking up in the night and telling his mother, who thought he was dead and was awaiting the coroner, that he was hungry.
Brown died on July 29, 2018. His funeral took place in Florida on August 11, which would have been his 58th birthday.


LGBT Detroit

LGBT Detroit is a Michigan nonprofit organization serving the African American lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) population of Detroit, and nearby communities.
LGBT Detroit's mission is "to increase awareness of and support to Detroit's dynamic LGBT community through education and advocacy with integrity and pride." Their aim is to implement LGBT affirming programs, services, projects and special events; and to partner with other social justice organizations and allies with similar beliefs.
The organization is a member of CenterLink, Midtown Detroit, Inc., the National Black Justice Coalition, Center for Black Equality, and the Detroit Regional Chamber of Commerce.
History.
LGBT Detroit began as Kick Publishing Company (a for-profit business) in 1994 by Curtis Lipscomb. The publication was created to inform the LGBT community of issues relative to LGBT African Americans. Kick Publishing Company was the third black LGBT media company created in America. The publication and various other publications were distributed to national gay and straight retailers. The publishers of magazine soon got involved in sponsoring many LGBT events, and ultimately in 1996 members of the staff of "KICK! Magazine" created and formed the non-profit Detroit Black Gay Pride, Inc., the organizers of Hotter Than July!, which is Detroit’s black LGBT weekend pride celebration.
The organization was founded as a nonprofit organization, known as KICK – The Agency for LGBT African Americans, in 2003 with the help of Detroit LGBT residents. The organization moved into an office in Midtown Detroit in 2007.
In 2011, The Center in Detroit opened to provide the LGBT and allied community a safe meeting space in Detroit.
The organization began discussing its name and brand in June 2013, and in May 2015 changed its name from KICK to LGBT Detroit.


EMPOWER

EMPOWER ("Education Means Protection Of Women Engaged in Recreation"), also known as Centre for Sex Workers' Protection or Moolniti Songserm Okard Pooying (), is a non-profit organization in Thailand that supports sex workers by offering free classes in language, health, law and pre-college education, as well as individual counselling. The organization also lobbies the government to extend regular labor protections to sex workers and to decriminalize sex work. The organization maintains centres in Patpong (Bangkok), Chiang Mai, Mae Sai and Patong, Phuket.
Philosophy.
EMPOWER is an organization that represents and provides services exclusively to sex workers. Unlike some Thai organizations operating in this field, EMPOWER's guiding principles include a non-judgmental stance on sex work and the belief that sex workers should not be pressured to leave the trade. Partly because of this, EMPOWER receives minimal financial support from the Thai government; the bulk of donations come from abroad.
History.
After graduating from the Faculty of Sociology and Anthropology at Thammasat University, Chantawipa Apisuk commenced work at the Southeast Asia Resource Center in New York to further her studies and work on human rights issues. Following her return to Thailand in 1984, Apisuk and a group of sex workers in Patpong, Bangkok, Thailand founded EMPOWER that same year. Apisuk continues to serve as the organization's director and manages the head office in Nonthaburi Province.
As of 2012, the organization operated centers in eleven provinces and reached over 20,000 sex workers on a regular basis. Over the 27 years that EMPOWER has existed, over 50,000 sex workers have been involved with the organization.
At the 2004 International AIDS Conference in Bangkok, EMPOWER set up a mock go-go bar complete with a dancer to highlight efforts to increase condom use among sex workers. This was criticized by then Health Minister Sudarat Keyuraphan.
Shortly after the tsunami of December 2004, EMPOWER opened an office in Patong, Phuket. The organization published a report that estimated a death toll of over 2,000 sex workers and lamented the lack of support for migrant sex workers affected by the flood.
In September 2005, EMPOWER broadcast a radio program for sex workers in Phuket, Chiang Mai, and Mae Sai to educate sex workers on their rights.
"Can Do" bar.
In 2006 EMPOWER opened a worker-owned bar in Chiang Mai named "Can Do". It was designed to be a model of exemplary working conditions in the industry, which include giving workers a day off per week and providing social security benefits. Lek, part-owner of the bar and a Thai sex worker of six years at the time, stated in 2011: "I am very happy here. I practice my profession in a safe and protective environment". In 2009 the Director of Empower Bangkok at the time, Noi Apisuk, explained:
We created the Can Do bar as a model for business – an "experitainment": an experiment in entertainment. We are providing a safe and inspiring workplace environment for our workers. We want to demonstrate that even—or especially—in sex work, occupational and safety issues exist and there should be compliance with Thai labour laws. And if so, the employees and the management benefit.
"This is Us" museum.
Chantawipa opened "This Is Us", an appointment-only museum that celebrates Thailand's centuries-old tradition of prostitution. Housed in an anonymous building on the outskirts of Bangkok, it attempts to show a different perspective on sex work. Placards dotted around the museum claim that sex work has played an integral role in Thailand's economy since an elite brothel was first opened and placed under royal control in 1680. The fee for services then started at 50 satang, a single coin that would be worth US$28 today. Chantawipa notes that, "it costs about the same" now.
Of interest are the papier-mâché dolls named "kumjing". Each doll was crafted by a real woman who is working in Thailand's sex industry. Each doll symbolized the aspirations of a migrant with dreams of sex work leading to a better future.
Publications.
Publications in Thai and English are available at empowerlibrary.online In 2003 the organization published a report that stated that many anti-trafficking organizations failed to recognize the important difference between migrant sex workers and women forced to undertake sex work against their will. The report documented a "raid and rescue" operation on a Chiang Mai brothel in May 2003 that was carried out by TRAFCORD, with support from the International Justice Mission (IJM). The operation was completed without the consent of the sex workers in question and, according to EMPOWER, resulted in numerous human rights violations. IJM subsequently ended its counter-trafficking work in Thailand. Apisuk has said that these raids and subsequent arrests only worsen the situation of most prostitutes.
In 2012 EMPOWER published a report, "Hit and Run: The impact of anti-trafficking policy and practice on Sex Workers' Human Rights in Thailand" in which regional sex workers were surveyed over the course of one year to assess the state of the profession. The report prompted Apisuk to state: "We have now reached a point in history where there are more women in the Thai sex industry being abused by anti-trafficking practices than there are women exploited by traffickers."
EMPOWER published 26 issues of a Thai-language newsletter called "Bad Girls", in which sex workers could express themselves. The final edition was published in 1991.
Awards.
UNAIDS and UNDP announced at the XVII International AIDS Conference, 2008 in Mexico City, Mexico that EMPOWER was the recipient of one of 25 Red Ribbon Awards. This award, designed to celebrate community leadership and action on AIDS, included a US$5,000 stipend that allowed EMPOWER to participate in the conference.