Benjamin Ryan

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Nursing home settles historic transgender discrimination complaint

In a landmark settlement, a Maine assisted living facility has agreed to establish policies and procedures to ensure it is a welcoming place for LGBTQ seniors, after a 79-year-old transgender woman levied an accusation of discrimination. When Marie King filed her complaint with the Maine Human Rights Commission in October, alleging that the Sunrise Assisted Living facility in the town of Jonesport refused her admission as a resident because she is transgender, it was believed to be the first complaint of this kind in U.S. history. The settlement does not set a binding legal precedent. But legal experts nevertheless expect it to […]

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Judge strikes down military’s limits on service members with HIV

In a landmark ruling, a federal court has ordered the Defense Department to end a long-standing Pentagon policy forbidding enlisted military service members from deploying in active duty outside the continental U.S. and being commissioned as officers if they have HIV. Supporters hailed it as overdue legal affirmation that people receiving effective antiretroviral treatment for HIV are essentially healthy and pose no risk to others. The judgment topples one of the country’s last major pillars of HIV-related employment discrimination. Federal law has for decades barred employers from discriminating against people with HIV under the Americans with Disabilities Act of 1990. The […]

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Transgender woman, 79, can claim Maine nursing home discriminated against her

A 79-year-old woman has reasonable grounds to claim that a Maine assisted-living facility discriminated against her for being transgender when it rejected her as a potential resident, the Maine Human Rights Commission found.  The commission’s 3-2 vote on Monday sets in motion a process that could result in a lawsuit being filed against Sunrise Assisted Living in the town of Jonesport on a claim of violating state nondiscrimination law by denying Marie King’s application for residency. King’s attorneys say the case has already made legal history as the nation’s first known discrimination complaint filed by a transgender person against a […]

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While straight men face educational crisis, gay men excel academically, study finds

“I love gay people,” activist and playwright Larry Kramer proclaimed at the outset of a 2004 speech in New York City. “I think we’re better than other people. I really do. I think we’re smarter and more talented and more aware.” A new study making waves among LGBTQ-focused academics lends empirical credence to the iconic Act Up co-founder’s prideful claims — not to the supposed sweeping superiority of gay men, rather to the more narrow assertion that this group is remarkably inclined to excel academically. But the paper, which was published in the American Sociological Review on Feb. 20, comes to starkly opposing conclusions […]

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Breakthrough HIV reported in injectable PrEP trial; experts say drug still very effective

In a large clinical trial assessing Apretude, ViiV Healthcare’s recently approved injectable drug, as a form of HIV prevention, seven participants contracted the virus despite receiving their injections on schedule. The new findings indicate that, just as with those who take daily pills to prevent HIV, breakthrough infections are possible among people receiving Apretude. Dr. Raphael J. Landovitz, who led the Apretude clinical trial in question, told NBC News that he expects such cases of PrEP failure to remain what he characterized as rare, regardless of which form of preventive antiretroviral medication people at risk of HIV receive.  Apretude is […]

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Meth has devastated the gay community for decades. A new treatment offers hope.

“Do you want to be a 50-year-old meth addict?” For Roger, the enormity of what he had lost during his nearly two decades of off-and-on methamphetamine use — and what more he had to lose — hit home hard when a man he was dating asked him that question. Roger, who was 47 at the time, had already suffered a major ischemic stroke thanks to meth, the powerfully addictive stimulant that had long since taken over his life. So when Roger, who is from Dallas and asked that his last name not be published for fear that meth’s stigma could […]

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