Tag Archives: gays

Culture, human rights, Politics

Do you know what the colors in the rainbow flag stands for?

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The rainbow flag that has turned out to be a worldwide icon of hope for LGBTQ individuals around the world, first flew in San Francisco bay area’s United Nations Plaza for Gay Pride Day, on June 25, 1978.

It had eight colors — two more than today’s version — and was created by Gilbert Baker, an openly gay artist, and activist. He has previously been accredited to develop an icon for the LGBTQ people by his associate Harvey Milk, the initial openly gay chosen official in California.

Baker drew motivation from the US national flag, which had commemorated its bicentennial in 1976, and a real rainbow, which showcases the colors of the light spectrum in approximately precisely the same sequence since the flag. He assigned a meaning to every one of this colors: hot pink for sex, red for life, orange for healing, yellow for sunlight, green for nature, turquoise for magic, blue for harmony and violet for spirit.

The first flag measured 30 by 60 feet and Baker, who was then 27 yrs. old, had sewn it by hand.

Reference
Pride flag: A history of the Gilbert Baker rainbow design …. https://www.cnn.com/style/article/pride-rainbow-flag-design-history/index.html

disease, Health

People need access to all options in HIV testing

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Usage of HIV testing is a fundamental human right that may only be met with an international commitment to eliminate the obstacles that reduce the risk of people from testing for HIV. Those hindrances consist of reducing HIV-related preconception and discrimination, making sure privacy in HIV testing and treatment services and implementing an optimum mixture of HIV testing techniques to attain the populations most in need, amongst others.

However, in most regions, more recent testing technologies are nevertheless not widely available. Among countries that documented all about available HIV testing modalities to UNAIDS in 2018, just 32 countries permitted lay providers to execute HIV testing, 14 offered HIV self-testing, and 18 offered home-based HIV testing. Helped partner notification was more common, with 54 out of 140 reporting countries reporting that taught service providers can be provided to assist newly identified people in revealing their HIV status to partners.

Reference
HIV testing: people need access to all options | EATG. http://www.eatg.org/news/hiv-testing-people-need-access-to-all-options/

disease, Health

Millions of people in the United States live with HIV

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Although HIV/AIDS has mainly faded from the headlines, the disease continues to be infecting millions. When looking at the United States, about 1.1 million people age 13 and older are living with HIV, the virus which causes AIDS, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. A decade ago, the sheer number of U.S. infections was declining substantially every year, but that stopped in 2013. Since that time, about 39,000 individuals have become newly infected each year, which prompted the CDC this present year to declare the nation’s progress in preventing HIV has stalled. Current commentary by four top public health insurance and AIDS experts, published within the New England Journal of Medicine, reports that a lot more than two-thirds of new infections occur those types of who will be poor or who are ethnic, racial or sexual minorities. The CDC did note locales which have enacted plans to eliminate HIV epidemics within their communities have observed some success in prevention, with new HIV infections down 40 percent in Washington, D.C., and 23 percent in New York City from 2010 to 2016. No cure exists for HIV or AIDS. (AIDS itself will not kill; nonetheless, it allows other diseases to kill.) Nearly 16,000 people into the United States diagnosed with HIV died in 2016, the newest data available. However, antiretroviral therapy — an HIV treatment regimen that has been introduced into the mid-1990s — can keep HIV controlled, preventing it from progressing to AIDS. Individuals who begin this treatment early and take it regularly as recommended can reduce, and possibly eliminate, their odds of transmitting HIV to others and generally can live long healthy lives.

Reference

The Big Number: 1.1 million people in the U.S. live with …. https://www.washingtonpost.com/national/health-science/the-big-number-11-million-people-in-the-us-live-with-hiv/2019/05/10/f9f74338-726c-11e9-9eb4-0828f5389013_story.html

Culture, disease, Health

Looking at the new HIV map that offers a detailed look at the epidemic

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The United Nations has established a target of ceasing the global HIV/AIDS epidemic by 2030.

The tide, in other areas, is slowly turning in southeastern Africa — which involves international locations like South Africa, Mozambique, Lesotho and Botswana — and which remains the epicenter associated with the epidemic and home to over fifty percent the 36.9 million people living with the disease. The rates of fatalities and infections one can find declining overall. However, a July 2018 report through the United Nations’ AIDS agency found a $5.4 billion shortage in international financing needed to accomplish ultimate triumph.

A first-of-its-kind new map can help boost the precision associated with HIV/AIDS response as some data-savvy scientists narrow their focus on the continent’s worst-affected areas — into the size of a tiny town.

Research published presents what these scientists explain as the most step-by-step map ever produced of HIV prevalence across sub-Saharan Africa. The group behind the map is a global consortium of epidemiologists led by the University of Washington-Seattle’s Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation. Their work appears when looking at the peer-reviewed journal Nature.

The researchers do not just go country by country. Researchers break down the continent into a grid of tens and thousands of 9.6-square-mile squares. The effect is a view of HIV distribution that is more fine grain compared to general national or province level statistical data, and that could have a significant effect on how resources are assigned to diagnose, treat and stop new infections.

Reference
Fan, Yaxin, Xinyan Zhu, et al. “Network-Constrained Spatio-Temporal Clustering Analysis of Traffic Collisions in Jianghan District of Wuhan, China.” PLoS One, vol. 13, no. 4, Public Library of Science, Apr. 2018, p. e0195093.

New HIV Map Offers Most Detailed Look Yet At The Epidemic …. https://www.tpr.org/post/new-hiv-map-offers-most-detailed-look-yet-epidemic

Ethics, Politics, Social Justice

Supreme Court will hear LGBT staff member discrimination cases term that is next

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The Supreme Court consented Monday to think about whether national employment discrimination legislation that bans discrimination centered on sexual orientation encompasses discrimination considering one’s sexual identification.

Lower courts have actually split from the pressing issue that is of critical relevance to LGBT legal rights supporters who are seeking broadened defenses. The Trump management has actually stated that Title VII for the Civil Rights Act doesn’t supply protections that are such.

The court will hear arguments from the instances next term.

The situations are now being closely watched by LGBT rights groups that are wanting to broaden defenses. The Trump management, on the other hand, does not believe the law currently includes those defenses.

More information discrimination of LGBT in the workplace

 

Philosophy and Religion, Social Justice

Pope Francis: Church Should Apologize To Gays And Other Marginalized Groups

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pope-1

Aboard a flight home from Armenia, Pope Francis fielded a pointed question from reporters: Did he agree with German Cardinal Reinhard Marx, who, during the wake associated with Orlando shooting, said gays deserve an apology from the Church?

His answer was frank.

“I think that the church not just should apologize to the person who is gay whom it has offended,” the pope told reporters, “but has got to apologize to your poor, to exploited women, to children used for labor; it’s got to inquire of forgiveness for having blessed many weapons.”

Resource:

Pope Francis: Church Should Apologize To Gays And Other Marginalized (nd) Groups http://www.npr.org/sections/thetwo-way/2016/06/26/483630582/pope-francis-church-should-apologize-to-gays-and-other-marginalized-groups?utm_source=facebook.com&utm_medium=social&utm_campaign=npr&utm_term=nprnews&utm_content=20160626

Culture, Philosophy and Religion, Politics, Social Justice

Watch out the Laws You Pass to Discriminate, Could these Laws Come Back to be Your Nightmare?

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gay1As a blogger, I know that some may not share my thoughts and belief, however, I believe whether we agree with people or not, that we should have a love for our neighbor. I might not agree with my neighbor, but love is what brings us together. I overheard a conversation about the LGBT community, and while listening to the statements, I was applaud of what was coming out of Christians mouths. I was asked for my response; I said answered with a question, who in the shop has a perfect life? The shop went quiet. Who has committed sin in their mind while being angry with another person? How many have lusted after a woman? Still no answer. I responded, “Do not use God as a pon because God is not a Pon. Using the Bible to an AK47 to shoot people down does not give you that right to do unjust drive-by shootings with your lips. The same Bible used to enslave, was the same Bible used to kill millions of Jew, the same Bible used to oppress women was that same Bible that was used to deny rights to individuals who are different, and this was the same Bible used to write a constitution that excluded American Indians. Then I processed to say; there is a difference between reading the Bible and Studying the Bible. Studying means that you struggle with text and critically break that text down using the actual language, Hebrew, Greek, and Aramaic. If one is not critically translating this text in its original form, I have questions. So, before quoting scripture make sure you know what you are saying because King James I was a homosexual and murderer.

Anti-gay religious community heads in Kokomo, Indiana, are getting down on their knees to pray that they will remain to enjoy the privilege to discriminate against
LGBT persons.

Kokomo’s Common Council voted 5-4 to approve an LGBT-inclusive nondiscrimination ordinance. The ordinance is a response to the Indiana Legislature’s failure to pass statewide law that would protect LGBT persons.

if the council approves the ordinance about second reading this evening, Kokomo will become one of regarding Indiana cities which may have approved LGBT protections.

About Thursday, 100 religious leaders opposed the ordinance gathered to pray that one council member will change their vote while on their knees inside Mount Pisgah Missionary Baptist Church.

However, organizers of the rally insisted they were acting out of love, not hate, and merely following “God’s word. ”

“It is never right for a man ever to be in a the female bathrooms, (or) locker rooms in Kokomo, Indiana, ” noted Eric Miller, the founder of Advance American, an Indianapolis-based anti-LGBT group.

Sadly, Tribune reporter Cara Ball did not bother to contact anyone who supports the ordinance for her story. She did nothing also to table the false, fear-mongering declaration that the ordinance can in some manner lead to possible sexual predators going into women’s restrooms and so preying on young girls.

Soon after Improve America’s Miller got dealt with the council carry on Mon, officials began offering inclination to speakers who are in the populous metropolis.

Some of those speakers were Aleczander Leader, an 18-year-old trans scholar at Kokomo High school graduation who have refuted the trans bathroom myth poignantly.

“I simply want to know why most people fellas think we are going to end up being potential predators, seeing as how the washroom can be our worst problem? ” Dean told that authority.

Mount Pisgah Pastor L. E. Anderson mentioned that he did not have a problem with LGBT people.

“God loves them as he loves us, ” Anderson told the Tribune. “It is not about LGBT. It is not about heterosexual. It is not about homosexual. It is about God’s word, and that trumps everything. ”

Councilman Stephen Whikehart, the author of the ordinance, told The New Civil Rights Movement he is confident it will pass on the second reading.
“The five of us our firm and adamant on the subject of creating a complete part of legislation that expands city rights protections to add: era, marital status, expert level, sexual orientation and male or female identity, ” this individual explained. If our community strategies to remain competitive nearby, and so nationally globally, we must entice and retain households, quality professionals, and hard-working people. Part of this kind of interest comes with creating a secure and so inclusive environment. We can not end up being influenced by misguided beliefs plus the propagation of dread.

Reference

Anti-Gay Religious Leaders Pray for Legal Right to .., http://www.thenewcivilrightsmovement.com/johnwright/anti_gay_christians_pray_for (accessed March 20, 2016).