Neighborhood EventCastro Art Walk at the GLBT Historical Society Museum
Thursday, September 56:00–9:00 p.m.The GLBT Historical Society Museum4127 18th St., San FranciscoFreeThe GLBT Historical Society Museum is participating in September’s Castro Art Walk, a monthly event in the Castro neighborhood on the first Thursday of the month. Participating merchants extend their business hours to host special events and share artwork with the neighborhood. Drop by the museum during your self-guided tour of the Castro and enjoy our exhibitions at your own pace. Entry is free and the museum will remain open until 9:00 p.m. Light refreshments will be served. More information is available here.
Panel DiscussionQueering Familias: Building Latinx Resilience & Hope
Thursday, September 127:00–9:00 p.m.The GLBT Historical Society Museum4127 18th St., San Francisco$5 | Free for membersRooted in a history of resistance, LGBTQ Latinx people in the Bay Area have created numerous activist groups and institutions that have built a strong foundation for subsequent generations. Over time, they have forged personal and community bonds that create familias, or chosen families. This intergenerational panel brings together Latinx activists, artists, performers and community leaders to discuss the unique ways they have mobilized by building strong bonds of kinship. The event is being held in conjunction with the exhibition “Chosen Familias: Bay Area LGBTQ Latinx Stories,” now on view at the GLBT Historical Society Museum. Tickets are available online here.
Book LaunchIn Search of Stonewall: 25 Years of Scholarship
Thursday, September 197:00–9:00 p.m.The GLBT Historical Society Museum4127 18th St., San Francisco$5 | Free for members The year 1994 marked the 25th anniversary of the Stonewall Riots, and it was also the year in which a new journal, The Harvard Gay & Lesbian Review (known since 1998 as The Gay & Lesbian Review/Worldwide), published its first issue. In honor of its own 25th anniversary, the journal has released a book, In Search of Stonewall: The Riots at 50, The Gay & Lesbian Review at 25 (G & LR Books, 2019) collecting Stonewall-related articles published in the Review over the past quarter century. Join three contributors to the collection — Jewelle Gomez, Will Roscoe and Eve Goldberg — for a panel discussion about Stonewall scholarship and for readings from the collection. Copies of In Search of Stonewall will be available for purchase and signing. Tickets are available online here.
Living History DiscussionEnola Gay: The Birth of Militant AIDS Activism
Friday, September 207:00–9:00 p.m.The GLBT Historical Society Museum4127 18th St., San Francisco$5 | Free for members In September 1984, members of Enola Gay, a gay men’s direct-action affinity group, joined a blockade at the entrance to Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory during a large demonstration against the development of nuclear weapons. The activists poured real human blood at the entrance and chanted “Money for AIDS, not for war!” The protest called attention to government neglect in the face of a deadly epidemic and has been described by one historian as “the first recorded instance of civil disobedience to confront AIDS.” To mark the 35th anniversary of the event, Enola Gay members Robert Glück, Richard Bell and Jack Davis will share photographs and stories from the group’s history, discuss the shifting priorities for sexual politics during the 1980s and reflect on direct action and intersectional organizing during the early years of the AIDS crisis. Tickets are available online here.
Book LaunchThe Ventriloquists: A Novel of Queer Resistance
Thursday, September 267:00–9:00 p.m.The GLBT Historical Society Museum4127 18th St., San Francisco$5 | Free for members Author E. R. Ramzipoor will read selections from her new novel, The Ventriloquists (Park Row Books, 2019), a work inspired by the true story of a ragtag gang of journalists and resistance fighters who published a satirical fake edition of the Nazi-controlled Brussels newspaper Le Soir during World War II. Inviting the reader on a fast-paced, high-stakes caper featuring a diverse cast of queer heroes, the novel highlights the LGBTQ community’s role in reclaiming occupied spaces. Ramzipoor will supplement her talk by discussing stories of everyday queer heroes from World War II until the present, focusing on ordinary people who carried out daring feats of resistance. Tickets are available online here.
Current Exhibitions Front GalleryChosen Familias: Bay Area LGBTQ Latinx StoriesOpen through October 20, 2019More information Community GalleryThe Mayor of Folsom Street: The Life & Legacy of Alan SelbyOpen through October 20, 2019More information Main GalleryQueer Past Becomes PresentLong-term exhibitionMore information
Visit Us THE GLBT HISTORICAL SOCIETY MUSEUMExhibitions & Programs4127 18th St.San Francisco, CA 94114(415) 621-1107www.glbthistory.org/museum Monday–Saturday: 11:00 a.m.–6:00 p.m.Sunday: Noon–5:00 p.m. DR. JOHN P. DE CECCO ARCHIVES & SPECIAL COLLECTIONSResearch & Public History Center 989 Market St., Lower LevelSan Francisco, CA 94103-1708(415) 777-5455www.glbthistory.org/archives Call to schedule a research appointment or make an appointment online by clicking here.
Gonzalez said: “This defendant allegedly violated the sanctity and safety of this couple’s home when he showed up at their door spewing hate, then escalated it to a violent assault.”
According to the investigation, in the early morning of June 22, a man and his gender non-conforming partner were allegedly harassed by Dash outside their apartment, where he said: “I’m glad I know where you live, because I don’t like gay people.”
A 32-year-old man has been indicted on attempted murder and hate crime charges for allegedly stabbing a transgender Individual’s partner after harassing the couple outside their apartment in Bedford-Stuyvesant.
There is no place for such ignorance and intolerance in Brooklyn, where we celebrate our diversity. We will now seek to hold this defendant accountable for this very serious attack.
The stab wound in ‘hate crime’ resulted in a partial severing of the victim’s vertebral artery.
The defendant is then accused of knocking on doors until he found the apartment where the couple live, and when they answered the door he threatened them with a knife.
They said they closed the door on Dash, but later went to look for him, as they recognised him from the local area and wanted to speak with him.
As they returned to their building, Dash allegedly ran at them and began attacking them with the knife. The man was stabbed in the back of the neck, resulting in a six-inch would which partially severed the vertebral artery.
His gender non-conforming partner called 911 and he was taken to hospital. The defendant was arrested at his home on June 24.
The district attorney added: “There is no place for such ignorance and intolerance in Brooklyn, where we celebrate our diversity. We will now seek to hold this defendant accountable for this very serious attack.”
When Maurice “Reese” Willoughby died by suicide last week, it came at the tail end of months of cyberbullying after a video emerged of him defending his girlfriend — a transgender woman named Faith — to a crowd of people who were hurling transphobic and homophobic comments.
“You f— what?” shouts the person holding the camera, in a video that racked up millions of views.
Willoughby was an aspiring rapper from the Philadelphia area, and initial reports stated that he took his own life because of the bullying seen in the viral video. However his girlfriend, Faith Palmer, said on social media that he struggled with drug addiction and intentionally overdosed.
“Oppressors will always find a label for you, so it’s better to have your own that’s a positive word that puts you in a positive light.”
PIPER DAWES
For transgender activists, however, the viral video was a rare opportunity to shine a light on the harassment and violence inflicted on the cisgender (non-transgender) people who openly love transgender people.
Kiara St. James, executive director of the New York Transgender Advocacy Group, said this moment is a time to teach people about the concept of “transamory,” which she defined as people who are attracted to and seek out relationships with transgender people.
“Transamory has had many names,” St. James told NBC News. “One of the original names, which was more stigmatizing, was ‘tranny chaser,’ which we don’t use any more. But for a lot of community members, there were a lot of gentlemen who dated a series of trans women. The term was used to kind of say that they had a fetish for trans women.”
“I think that as we have evolved, we have understood that there are people out there who are transamorous, who intentionally seek trans women or trans men for relationships and, it’s something that’s ongoing,” St. James continued.
For viewers of the hit FX drama “Pose,” this will be familiar: The show features several transamorous story lines, particularly with Angel, a sex worker and model, played by Indya Moore.
Indya Moore as Angel and Evan Peters as Stan in “Pose” on FX.JoJo Whilden / FX
In a tweet posted Tuesday, transgender author and “Pose” producer Janet Mock shared the video of Willoughby being bullied and condemned his harassers.
“These men screaming at him are beyond fragile, standing on a shaky altar of masculinity, too insecure to do what Reese did: Unapologetically love a woman who everyone says is unworthy of love,” she wrote.
Mock later shared an image from “Pose” of transgender woman Angel and cisgender man Lil’ Papi, whose romance blossomed in season 2.
St. James said she has been using her platform as executive director of a trans advocacy group to draw attention to transamory, because the violence that is faced by so many transgender women is the same violence faced by those who openly love them.
“Over the past couple of years, especially around Trans Day of Remembrance, we talk about the number of especially black trans women who have been murdered. Oftentimes, they were murdered by someone who they were intimate with over a period of time,” St. James said. “One of the reasons for those types of incidents is fear from the transamorous man of being outed.”
Ashlee Marie Preston, a trans activist based in Los Angeles, echoed this sentiment on Twitter: “When trans attracted men kill us; it’s out of fear that this will happen to them if they are outed.”
St. James said one of the ways to fight back against the violence that so many trans women face is to “create spaces where we see transamorous relationships as normal and healthy.”
“Transamorous does not necessarily mean men who are attracted to women, it can be men who are attracted to men who are of transgender experience; it can be women who are attracted to trans women; it can be women who are attracted to trans men — it’s not just a cis male-trans woman situation; it really runs the gamut of sexual orientation,” St. James said.
Piper Dawes, a trans woman living in northern England, was one of the first people to coin the term “transamory.” Her 2013 blog post used the term after wrestling with more stigmatizing and cumbersome terms like “gynandromorphophilia.”
“Oppressors will always find a label for you, so it’s better to have your own that’s a positive word that puts you in a positive light,” Dawes told NBC News.
Dawes said she realized that some people she dated really preferred transgender people. “It’s not fetishized, but it is a specific love for people like me,” Dawes said.
So, she created the term so that people could find a better way to express their attraction. “I don’t think, really, that it’s necessary to delve deeper than that, because it’s such a personal thing,” Dawes said.
St. James said that showcasing positive transamorous relationships also works to dismantle the stigma felt by trans people themselves.
“Too often, trans women are socialized to think that we cannot be in relationships, so the only way that we can really express ourselves is through sex work and things of that nature,” St. James said.
“I’m in a relationship, so I’m always sensitive of where we go,” St. James said of her and her boyfriend. “Even though he is very comfortable being seen with me, I still have that reservation of making sure we are in spaces where no harm will come to either him or me.”
“I think that’s something that a lot of transamorous couples think about if we go out in public,” she added.
If you or someone you know is in crisis, call the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline at 800-273-8255, text HOME to 741741 or visit SpeakingOfSuicide.com/resources for additional resources.
“I’m a talented football player, a damn good writer, a loving son, an overbearing brother, a caring friend, a loyal lover, and a bisexual man.”
A three-year NFL veteran, now a free agent, says in a revealing and personal 2300 word ESPN interview he is bisexual. Ryan Russell, who played for the Dallas Cowboys for one season and the Tampa Bay Buccaneers for two seasons says he just interviewed with an NFL team but he knows that “truth is survival,” and he can no longer live his life in separate worlds – a word he uses 16 times.
“My truth is that I’m a talented football player, a damn good writer, a loving son, an overbearing brother, a caring friend, a loyal lover, and a bisexual man,” Russell tells ESPN’s Kevin Arnovitz.
“Have I lied to teammates, coaches, trainers, front-office executives and fans about who I am? Not exactly,” Russell adds. “But withholding information is a form of deceit. And I want the next part of my career — and life — steeped in trust and honesty. During the season you spend more time with your team than with your own family; truth and honesty are the cornerstones of a winning culture.”
He adds that he has “two goals: returning to the NFL, and living my life openly. I want to live my dream of playing the game I’ve worked my whole life to play, and being open about the person I’ve always been.”
“Those two objectives shouldn’t be in conflict. But judging from the fact that there isn’t a single openly LGBTQ player in the NFL, NBA, Major League Baseball or the NHL, brings me pause. I want to change that — for me, for other athletes who share these common goals, and for the generations of LGBTQ athletes who will come next.”00:3500:44
Russell tells Outsports he “has comfortably settled into the bisexual identity he feels is his true self, as he lives openly for the first time. Now he’s preparing to move in with his boyfriend, Corey O’Brien, as they launch a new YouTube channel together.”
And he adds, “I’ve been able to live this genuine existence and hold my boyfriend’s hand in public. For me now, there’s no going back.”
The Cayman Islands legalised same-sex marriage exactly five months ago, but a new government appeal could reverse the ruling.
Chantelle Day and her partner Vickie Bodden Bush applied for the right to be married in the Cayman Islands, a British territory, but had their application rejected because they are a same-sex couple.
The appeal from the government opened on Wednesday, August 28.
At the start of the three-day hearing, one of the couple’s lawyers, Jonathan Cooper, told Reuters: “Marriage is a fundamental human right.
“It feels highly inappropriate to force (the couple) through a further appeal process, when the chief justice in the case in the high court was clear that they were entitled to marry.”
Premier of the Cayman Islands called the legalisation of same-sex marriage “bad law”.
Premier of the Cayman Islands, Alden McLaughlin, made a statement about the planned appeal in April in which he said: “I and my entire government have great respect for the chief justice and indeed the independence of the judiciary.
“But even the best judges get it wrong from time to time. Hard cases make bad law. None of us who are human are infallible.”
The Cayman Islands constitution does not explicitly mention same-sex unions, and McLaughlin said that the territory’s bill of rights “deliberately” uses the words “man” and “woman” to define marriage.
He continued: “As premier I will state what I have said many times before – I have no doubt that the feelings of the majority of Caymanians are that marriage should retain its traditional and religious definition and meaning, the union of one man and one woman.”
There’s a new antiretroviral, from a new class of medication, currently being tested for both PrEP and HIV treatment. Named islatravir (formerly MK-8591), this Merck drug is showing promise as part of a novel drug delivery system and because of its long half-life, great potency and high barrier for resistance.
“It is clear that PrEP and HIV medication alternatives are evolving,” said Christopher Hall, MD, MS, AAHIVS, vice president of medical affairs at San Francisco AIDS Foundation. “More options are needed especially for PrEP, because a single agent will never meet the needs of all people. Personal choice certainly will take on greater significance as alternatives evolve.”
Islatravir in a PrEP implant
Based on a design similar to that used for the Nexplanon/Implanon birth control implant, the islatravir implant is a removable implant designed to be inserted under the skin in the upper arm for a year. In the study presented by Matthews, researchers tested the drug concentration levels delivered by the islatravir implant over 12 weeks in 16 individuals.
The implant device, with size shown relative to a penny. The implant is 4 cm in length x 2 mm. Photo courtesy of Merck.
In a double-blind, placebo-controlled study, the researchers tested two doses of the islatravir implant: 54 mg and 62 mg. Throughout the study, the researchers collected drug concentration levels in plasma and PBMCs, and were primarily interested in how much time the drug concentration levels fell below a threshold of 0.5 pmol/106 (a threshold which is believed to provide an adequate level of drug for HIV prevention based on animal studies).
At both doses, drug concentrations remained above the 0.5 pmol/106 threshold for the 12 weeks of the study, although the lower limit of the estimated range for the 54 mg dose dipped below the threshold for a brief period. The 62 mg implant delivered drug concentration levels well above the threshold for the duration of the study.
In a later analysis, the researchers projected that the 62 mg implant would lead to concentrations above the threshold for at least 12 months, falling below the threshold at around 16 months.
Slide: Randolph Matthews, MD, PhD
“This supports the potential of the islatravir implant as a once-yearly PrEP option,” said Matthews.
Future research, he said, will continue to test other prototype implants and additional doses.
“Just as in birth control, implanted, long-acting pharmaceuticals are likely to earn a place in the biomedical HIV prevention armamentarium,” said Hall. “While more study is needed, clearly the future of PrEP is one of greater alternatives, with agents that bring fewer side effects, are less susceptible to resistance, are easier to administer, and improve the experience of people who take them. The future promises a broader array of options than we have seen since the advent of FDA-approved Truvada for PrEP in 2012, and it is bright.”
Islatravir for dual-therapy HIV treatment
There are a few unique characteristics of islatravir that may make it suitable as part of a two-drug regimen, said Molina. In preclinical studies, islatravir showed more than 10-fold greater potency compared to other approved antiretrovirals. The drug is also known to act against a number of resistant HIV variants, has a long half-life and has a high barrier to resistance.
“This [two-drug regimen] may maintain efficacy comparable to a three-drug regimen,” said Molina.
To test this, a double-blind study involving 120 treatment naïve adults living with HIV randomized participants to receive islatravir 0.25 mg, 0.75 mg, 2.25 mg or doravirine plus 3TC (lamivudine)/TDF (tenofovir disoproxil fumarate). At 24 weeks, or once viral loads were suppressed to <50 copies/mL on the triple-therapy, 3TC was removed.
There were very high response rates to the dual therapy at every dose level of islatravir.
After 24 weeks on the dual therapy, close to 90% of people receiving either islatravir 0.25, 0.75 and 2.25 mg with doravirine had viral loads <50 copies/mL. (96% of people receiving the control treatment of doravirine, 3TC and TDF had viral loads suppressed to this level.)
There were very few adverse events during the study, with two out of 90 participants receiving islatravir discontinuing the study because of adverse events.
“These results are quite promising, and demonstrate that the dual combination of islatravir and doravirine has the potential to be a potent, two-drug regimen and supports its further exploration in Phase 3 trials,” said Molina.
More research on islatravir’s safety and efficacy is needed before the drug may be granted FDA approval and brought to market. Based on the results of these studies, Merck plans to continue Phase 3 research on islatravir for HIV treatment as part of a once-daily, oral two-drug regimen. Using islatravir for PrEP, Merck is pursuing a Phase 2 study, set to begin enrolling in September 2019, that will evaluate the safety and tolerability of once-monthly oral islatravir.
Friday Sept. 6 @ 8 pm. Occidental Center for the Arts. First Friday Live! The Dream Farmers. OCA’s local talent showcase presents The Dream Farmers. Headed by songwriter and multi-instrumentalist Randall Sequeira, this versatile band features mostly original and highly danceable roots, blues, soul, jazz, funk and world music with thoughtful lyrics and a positive attitude. Amanda Kirkland delivers the vocals. $15 at the door. Fine refreshments include wine and beer. www.occidentalcenterforthearts.org. 707-874-9392. 3850 Doris Murphy Ct. Occidental, CA. 95465.
Police have reportedly arrested two men for having gay sex in Lusaka, Zambia.
According to local media reports, police in the capital raided a property on August 22 after being tipped off by members of the public.
A 52-year-old man was arrested alongside a 21-year-old man after they were caught having sex.
A police spokesperson told Lusaka Times that the 52-year-old man had been charged with ‘having carnal knowledge against the order of nature’.
He said that Zulu is currently in police custody and that the 21-year-old man has been taken away for a medical examination.
One man is taken away for medical examination.
In Zambia, same-sex sexual activity is punishable with up to 14 years in prison under a section of a penal code originally imposed by the British Empire.
It states that “any person who has carnal knowledge of any person against the order of nature or has carnal knowledge of an animal” is guilty of a felony.
Zambian president Edgar Lungu , who has previously said that all those advocating for gay rights should “go to hell.” (DAWOOD SALIM/AFP/Getty Images)
Law enforcers in the country have periodically cracked down on same-sex sexual activity.
Police in Zambia crack down on same-sex sexual activity.
In August last year, two men were convicted for having a consenting same-sex relationship in the country.
Any person who has carnal knowledge of any person against the order of nature.
And, in February 2018, Zambia police called on the public to help them track down two women who they believed to be in a lesbian relationship.
Officers from the national cybercrime unit started an investigation after seeing photos of the pair on social media which implied they were together, according to Zambian news site Mwebantu.
President Edgar Lungu said in 2013 that “those advocating gay rights should go to hell”, adding that as far as he was concerned, “that issue is foreign to this country”.
Lil Nas X has made history by being the first-ever openly gay man to be nominated for a Country Music Award (CMA).
He was nominated for the Musical Event of the Year award for his song ‘Old Town Road (Remix)’ with collaborator Bill Ray Cyrus, with the awards ceremony taking place on November 13.
Although ‘Old Town Road’ was originally booted off the US Billboard country charts because the company said the song “does not embrace enough elements of today’s country music”, it made its way back into the charts after a remixed version featuring Cyrus was released.
The song then became the longest-running US number one of all time.
Country music has a reputation for being conservative, and the musician has previously spoken out about anti-LGBT+ stigma in country music, explaining: “Within the country and hip-hop communities, it’s not really accepting in either.”
He tweeted: “Thank you guys for this nomination!!”
The CMA nomination means Lil Nas X has made history twice this week, after becoming the first openly LGBT+ artist to take home Song of the Year at the VMAs on Monday, August 26.
Dressed in a red cowboy suit, he took to the stage with Cyrus to collect his first-ever award for his chart topping single.
The singer thanked Cyrus in his speech for helping him take his career to “the next level” and then he pulled out a fake scroll and became an instant meme on social media.
The awards highlight how much has changed for Lil Nas X in a year.
Last month the singer revealed that a year ago he had no money and was struggling to get his music played.
He wrote on Twitter: “Wow man last year i was sleeping on my sisters floor, had no money, struggling to get plays on my music, suffering from daily headaches, now i’m gay.”
Activists and academics who attended a gender and sexuality conference in Lebanon have been banned by the government from re-entering the country.
The NEDWA conference, organised for the fifth year by the Arab Foundation for Freedoms and Equality, aims to allow activists to share knowledge between countries and develop strategies on LGBT+ issues.
On the third day, General Security officers – the intelligence branch of Lebanese security forces – arrived at the hotel where the conference was held to question organisers and take down the details of everyone in attendance.
Now, those details are being used to impose a collective ban on people who were at the conference from re-entering the country, Human Rights Watch said.
Since the conference, six people who took part have tried to return to Lebanon and have been refused entry without being given a reason.
Lama Fakih, acting Middle East and North Africa director at Human Rights Watch, said: “The Lebanese authorities’ actions against the conference is a blatant attempt to restrict the space for free speech and assembly.
“These collective sanctions undermine the rights of advocates who are committed to advancing equality in Lebanon and in the region.”
A mural on a wall of a building in Ashrafiyeh, on the eastern outskirts of Beirut. The writing in Arabic reads: “I hear your silence”. (JOSEPH EID/AFP/Getty)
Lebanon said the ban will prevent “the dismal collapse of society”.
Three of the people denied entry have filed lawsuits to lift the ban, but Lebanon’s General Security has refused, and has confirmed that the ban is because of participation in the NEDWA conference.
The response letter from the director of general security Abbas Ibrahim, provided by Human Rights Watch, states: “The preservation of the security of family and society makes it imperative to take immediate and rapid measures to avoid the dismal collapse of society and prevent and confront any imported vice, and to grant the competent authorities, in particular the General Directorate of General Security represented by its director, the authority to take all required measures to prevent any act that irritates and disrupts the security and stability of society.”
There are no laws in Lebanon to protect LGBT+ people from discrimination. Section 534 of the Lebanese penal code prohibits having sexual relations that “contradict the laws of nature”.Read comments (0)
