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Labels: ENDA and employment issues, gender roles


Trump and Pence are likely to ignore LGBT rights overseas as an issue Samar Habib has a rather alarming story in the Washington Post Monday, Nov. 28, “The Trump/Pence Administration will likely switch sides on global LGBT rights”, link here.

Pence, who has attracted attention for talking about conversion therapy in 2000, is now quoted as saying that gays (LGTBQ) should be left alone as individuals but not singled out as a class for protection. Under Obama, the US has been able to promote the class idea in some marginal countries.

Nevertheless, Russia, for example, has become much more anti-gay under Putin, passing an anti-gay propaganda law in 2013 that seems motived not just by equating homosexuality to interest in minors, but specifically to fears about low birth rates.

Trump says that gay marriage is settled law and does not bother him, but that gays and lesbians, like anyone else, need security at home from militant violence from foreign sources, mostly tied to radical Islam.

Trump and Pence seem to suggest that involvement in anti-gay policies of some countries (like in Africa) could complicate other relations with those countries, but anti-gay policies overseas can seriously hamper business and charitable work now. It could lead to more asylum claims at home.

Posted by Bill Boushka at 6:29 AM No comments: Labels: gay rights overseas, Trump presidency


Mike Pence did advocate conversion therapy in 2000, it seems There’s some nasty stuff on Facebook right now claiming that Mike Pence wants to divert funding from AIDS vaccines and treatment research to “conversion therapy”.   Hopefully, he no longer believes this, but I can’t say we’re sure based on any recent statements.

Of course, mandatory and even voluntary conversion therapy is illegal now in a number of states.  But I did check around a bit.

Snopes has this article from Oct. 26, 2016 called “Shock Treatment”.

It does seem, according to the Internet Archive, that Pence had supported some sort of conversion therapy in 2000, before the 107th Congress, .

Towleroad reminds us of this history with this reference.

Buzzfeed also has the link, which accentuates the idea of changing sexual behavior (to heterosexual??) to reduce the risk of spreading or amplifying HIV (a right wing argument from hardliners in Texas in the early 1980s).

Politifact also has the story.
 Labels: conversion therapy ban, ex-gay


Soviet 1983 disinformation campaign on AIDS may have set up homophobia in Africa today A Washington Post story today by Adam Taylor describes the “disinformation” campaign by the Soviet Union during the Cold War, which included a story in July of 1983 (nine months before the HIV HTLV-3 discovery was announced) that AIDS was a manmade disease originating in the Pentagon.   The New York Native (Charles Ortleb’s paper) had augmented these claims with bizarre theories about an arbovirus, AFSV (African Swine Fever), and about a facility at Plum Island on Long Island.

A possible result is a survey on 2005 showing about half of Africans believe that AIDS is an American invention, which could help explain rabidly anti-gay attitudes (and their easy exploitation by politicians) in Africa.

An arbovirus would have made the disease politically even more dangerous, as insects could have spread the disease to other communities (maybe that was part of the thinking behind the draconian anti-gay law proposed in Texas in 1983).  Theoretically, the same claims could be made about Zika today.

New trials of a moderately successful HIV vaccine will start in South Africa soon (story ).  This may be related to recent advances in Australia. Labels: gay rights overseas, HIV issues


DC Center (including Global and Aging) hosts LGBT Thanksgiving dinner For Thanksgiving Day I did visit the DC Center in Washington DC for a seating at 2 PM for a family-style dinner sponsored by Center Global and Center Aging.
There were perhaps 40 people.  A few (including some women and all well known groups) did say they were asylum seekers.  The group went around with introductions and favorite holidays.  One woman, an area resident, said Ramadan, because of the contemplation and self-sacrifice involved.
I had brought a pie from Food and Friends, but so had a lot of other people.  There was plenty of turkey, dressing, sweet potatoes, regular potatoes, and kale. Before the dinner, people played Blokus in the public room.  The “Blues” (Hillary) won over the Reds, the Yellows (Libertarians) and Greens (Jill Stein),  So maybe that’s an omen for Hillary’s possibly doing a recount. (Read Tim Lee's article in Vox about Jill Stein's election recount fund-raising, which he says has some mathematical and ethical merit -- the writer, a libertarian-leaning socially liberal conservative, and probably, at 36, a pretty fit candidate for office if the GOP noticed, supports her effort to provide another check at least on the integrity of the election.)

Photo link from DC Center.

People had not seen the story about Tanzania (yesterday’s post).

There’s another op-ed in the Washington Post Friday morning that conceivably could bear on the asylum seeker situation, by Zachary Price, “Entrapping the Dreamers", The op-ed reassures that the INS cannot use information that undocumented children used in applying for Obama’s DACA program.

Generally, the mood of the group was good.  There seems to be a general impression that Trump is not likely carry out his early campaign threats of aggressive deportations (leading to more asylum claims), because it would be almost impossible to do, and because police departments and other law enforcement discourage the idea.

I spoke to one person quite privately about my own involvement. I am still playing “email tag” on this matter.  Nothing specific was said, but we will follow up in the week that starts with Monday November 28.  I got the impression that right now providing assistance or hosting outside of the District and the most accessible areas from Metro is quite difficult. There is another group called TASSC (Torture Abolition Survivors and Support Coalition) which has an outdoor run event Dec.4 in DC.   I have been told that they had operated a shelter.  There is an Asylum Women’s Empowerment Group in Baltimore  but I have little information and there seems to be a small shelter in Baltimore run by the Mennonite Church, but I have no other details right now. Labels: local gay organization events, political asylum and refugees


Tanzania suspends US-funded HIV program on grounds that it promotes male homosexuality (Yes, an African country has really done this!); arrests for Facebook friending of gays possible When it comes to anti-gay laws and culture, it seems like eastern Africa is now the absolutely bottom.

The Washington Post has a front page story Thanksgiving morning “Oppressed African gays now face loss of HIV aid”, or, online, “Tanzania suspends U.S. funded AIDS program in new crackdown on gays”, a story by Kevin Sieff.  The ban was announced in October (before the provocative US election) after the “health minister” Hamoso Kigwangalla, said that HIV treatment programs promote male homosexuality. Then in October Ummy Mwalimu stated that US HIV programs were suspended to examine whether they encourage same-sex relationships.

The program had been called PEPFAR, or the President’s Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief, actually instituted during the Bush administration.

The political situation for gays in Tanzania  has deteriorated since the election of Magufuli, through his political appointments.  One governor, Paul Makonda, threatened to arrest all those who friend or follow “known homosexuals” on Facebook.  This is the first time I have heard of social a draconian threat involving social media.  It isn’t hard to imagine how that could lead to more asylum claims in the U,S.  – men who had behaved “straight” but then self-outed on social media when on visas in the United States or western countries.

The article also mentions “anal tests” for past  receptive homosexual activity as being done in Uganda and upheld by the courts.  I had never heard ot this, The rhetoric reminds me of the extreme right in Texas in the early days of the AIDS epidemic, when a group called “Dallas Doctors Against AIDS”, seeing AIDS as driven by “conduct” within a circumscribed group,  tried to push a draconian enhancement of the sodomy law through the Texas legislature in the spring on 1983.  It did not get out of committee.

The rabidly anti-gay policies of some sub-Saharan countries (which seem like a political exploitation or religion and of certain beliefs about group fertility) would make it very hard for many western companies to send technical workers there, or for non-profits and churches to aid them.

Wikipedia attribution link of picture of Sar es Salaam, by Chin Hualin, link here
 Labels: gay rights overseas, HIV issues, political asylum and refugees
 

Mother who fought for end of DADT passes away Patricia Kutteles, who fought for the end of “Don’t Ask Don’t Tell” has passed away at 67.

Kutteles was the mother of PFC Barry Winchell, who was beaten to death by a homophobic soldier, now in prison, after taunts, at a post in Kentucky, in 1999.  The New York Times story by Sam Roberts is here.

Winchell’s murder was depicted in the 2003 Showtime film “Soldier’s Girl”.  SLDN (now Outserve) gave considerable coverage to the incident when it happened.

The Lifetime movie “Any Mother’s Son” (1996) had depicted the murder in Sasebo, Japan of Navy Sailor Allen Schindler in 1992 (before Clinton’s DADT) in another homophobic attack.  Scattered incidents happened throughout the 1990s, including one while I was on vacation in 1994 which, when I read about it in a local Colorado newspaper in a diner, inspired me to my first DADT book.
 

History professor questions whether "gay Republican" is an oxymoron Jim Downs, a history professor at Connecticut college, has created controversy by claiming that Peter Thiel is not “gay”, and then espouses his antipathy to “gay” Republicans (Log Cabin) and probably libertarians in a controversial Advocate article on Facebook this morning.

I have some antipathy to “identity politics” and behaving out of group “solidarity”.  I don’t get my sense of identity by belonging to a group, which makes both the Left and Right potentially dangerous to me.

Posted by Bill Boushka at 9:08 AM No comments: 

St. Johns Wellness Center in Los Angeles supports transgender programs 

The press release:

Facebook Transgender Day of Remembrance Photos here.
 

Nov. 16 


AIDSWalk and 5K run in Washington is protest-free, but now there is a protest near Trump Hotel This year, AIDSWalk (or Walk and 5K to End HIV) was held today, Nov. 12, 2016, after the change in time back to standard, meaning more daylight.

It was breezy and chilly in Washington, but still warm enough in the sun, for shorts.

Many participants ran a 5K race. There was one hiphop band at the finish line.

There were no protests near the Trump Hotel on Pennsylvania Ave during the walk, but there are Saturday night. Trey Yingst of OANN reports now.
 

AGLA 35th Anniversary Party in Arlington VA tonight The Arlington Gay and Lesbian Alliance (AGLA) held its 35th Anniversary reception and dinner tonight at the Hyatt Regency in Crystal City.

The menu included chicken and rice, no Cornish game hen (a past favorite of SLDN).

Speakers included someone who defended the necessity of drag as a political statement, then TJ Flavell (president), then a Virginia State senator (Ebbin), a transgender assistant Defense Secretary (for energy procurement), and Gavin Grimm, plaintiff in a major transgender case regarding school bathroom use, before the US Supreme Court (story).  There was also a telling of the sorry story of the Marshall Newman amendment, from 2006, which had tried to ban gay marriage in Virginia.

Early on, one drag queen definitely played the game of "reveal". Labels: local gay organization events, transgender issues


How will Trump behave on LGBTQ issues? How bad is it?  That is, Donald Trump’s upcoming presidency for LGBTQ people?  To be fair, off the bat, Trump has said very little about LGBTQ, although Peter Thiel spoke openly at the convention, and Trump (stumbling over the "Q") said that the greatest threat to gay people was crime and terrorism, like it is for everyone else, he claims.  He did discuss the atrocity at the Pulse in Orlando in graphic terms in one of his speeches at the convention. Vox has an alarming article by German Lopez, but the details aren’t quite as alarming as the hysterical title of the article.  Vox offers its usual card stack on trangender problems,

Slate has an article "Yes, Donald Trump would be a catastrophe for LGBTQ rights in America" by Mark Joseph Stern,  Most of the details are remote technical arguments related to federal funding that in practice rarely come up for many more affluent LGBT people (who may be more likely to identify with LCR, below, or with libertarianism).  Yet, I know of serious cases even in IT. In 2006, a contractor was fired because a client in Wyoming wouldn't work with LGBT people. ENDA would not get far in the new regime.

David Mariner of DC Center Global also as a nice article, “The New Normal”, emphasizing mental health, here.   He predicts the gay community will be playing defense.

Kevin Naff, editor of the Washington Blade, lists some predictions here .   He does fear that Trump could stop the integration of transgender into the military, if viewed as a frivolous complication for combat deployments.  (I'm not yet finding much concern that the repeal of "Don't Ask Don't Tell" could be undone, against the advice of military commanders now.)  Whether gay marriage would be undermined by a future Supreme Court sounds somewhat unlikely.  But religious freedom laws (by states) are likely to be upheld, although in practice relatively few employers and businesses ever try to use them, and there is tremendous practical pressure from big time sports (MLB, NFL, NBA) on states not to implement these laws.

And the “bathroom bill” matter is likely to stall.  I’ve never been personally too concerned about the bathroom issue, but a recent AGLA forum on the matter made it clear that some transgender teens feel that they cannot safely use any bathroom in public schools.

Log Cabin Republicans , on Sept. 30, maintained that Trump is not a threat to LGBTQ progress, although in some areas progress could stall.  One  point concerns “New York Values”, which Ted Cruz had accused Trump of having.

A few prominent LGBTQ people in sciences and in entertainment have expressed disgust at the election (with the four-letter word in tweets).  There is particular disgust at Trump’s implicit racism among young adult white gay men.  No one counts on remaining privileged forever.

Trump’s adult kids (especially the oldest, Donald Jr, who will run dad’s real estate empire) seem a lot more responsible and temperate in what they say than The Donald himself. Update: Nov. 10

The Washington Times claims that Trump actually held an LGBT flag in Colorado, brief story.

The National Organization for Marriage announced its agenda, which exposes its addiction to the idea of monopolizing and controlling other people's relationships.

Update: Nov12

A Facebook post that I am tagged in suggests the Pence has reaffirmed that LGBTQ rights will go (as Pence speaks to "homophobic" groups on the religious rignt.  If you read the actually ("US Uncut")  link, which indeed does pander to fears of the Christian right, all Pence really says is that he respect individual religious freedom. The headline as a lot of hyperbole.

The latest Blade list on XO's that Trump could undo is at the end of this article.  It would be possible to deny same-sex married partners equal immigration consideration.

Peter Thiel is part of the Trump transition team, but that's good mainly on the clean energy and power grid security issues (because Thiel has supported inventor Taylor Wilson).

Posted by Bill Boushka at 3:37 PM No comments: Labels: gay Republicans, gays in the military, transgender issues, Trump presidency


Technology enables female-to-male transgender people to have their own future children while female by storing ova I did get an email from the Southern California Reproductive Center (SCRC) , which offers the possibility for female-to-male trans people to freeze eggs and have their own children after becoming men.

Dr. Shahin Gadir has a transgender (female-to-male) client who used such a procedure.

Men could also save their sperm before transition to female.

I’ve always been morally skeptical of surrogacy and plans to intentionally bring children into the world if you know they will not have male and female parents in advance.
 Labels: surrogate parenthood, transgender issues


So, older LGBT adults don't need another "forum" David Mariner, from the DC Center for the LGBT Community, wrote a long piece on Facebook this morning about “forums” for LGBT older adults --  somewhat in reaction to an AARP proposal to hold a forum in Ward 4.  But this is really a piece about forums based on “identity politics”.

You may need to be logged on to Facebook to view the post.  It would be nice to see the Blade run this.

It’s hard for me to wrap around the idea of another “group” because I’ve stayed so independent.  But you go into any assisted living center, and find the ambition level for most residents very low, and the need for stimulation high – with the exception of a tech savvy elderly person with physical disabilities but a computer in his room (I saw that in a visit to Ohio in 2006).
 Labels: ageism, elderly LGBT people


Troubling (and very sensitive) news stories considering potential safety of people from Zambia and Venezuela Since I have considered the possibility of hosting an asylee and can’t say how this is going to turn out (I'll detail some considerations from my own situation angle on Wordpress soon), I was at least hesitant to report these stories immediately.

But I’ll pass along a couple links from the Blade without much comment.

One of them concerns the arrival of at least two activists from Venezuela, as reported by Michael Lavers in the Washington Blade here Monday.  The Washington Post has a story about Venezuela's barring of journalists.

The other is a story about the apparent disappearance of an asylum seeker and physician from Zambia, someone who had been working with the Global Health Corps .

The. Lavers story on this incident is here.  But there is a lot of background, much of it bizarre, in a Twitter index here.  Any visitor who know anything material about this matter is encouraged to contact the Washington DC Police Department at the number shown.

Update: Nov. 3

At midday Nov. 2, the Washington DC Police Department tweeted that the Zambian asylum seeker had been found and was safe.  The Blade just put up a story this morning here.
