The number of tourists taking international trips increased by 4.4% to 1.2 billion in 2015, according to new figures from the United Nations World Tourism Organisation (UNWTO).
This is an increase of around 50 million tourists, and the sixth year of growth in a row. Figures last declined in 2009, by 4%.
The top destination in the world last year was France, followed by the US, Spain and China.
The figures were influenced by exchange rates, oil prices and natural and man-made crises, the organization said.
UNWTO Secretary-General, Taleb Rifai commented: ‘The robust performance of the sector is contributing to economic growth and job creation in many parts of the world. It is thus critical for countries to promote policies that foster the continued growth of tourism, including travel facilitation, human resources development and sustainability’.
The organization predicts growth of 4% in 2016.
Rifai added: ‘As the current environment highlights in a particular manner the issues of safety and security, we should recall that tourism development greatly depends upon our collective capacity to promote safe, secure and seamless travel.’
He continued: ‘In this respect, UNWTO urges governments to include tourism administrations in their national security planning, structures and procedures, not only to ensure that the sector’s exposure to threats is minimized but also to maximize the sector’s ability to support security and facilitation, as seamless and safe travel can and should go hand in hand.’
This is the first of what I hope will be a forum for older LGBT adults. I hope you will share your thoughts and experiences about aging with me.
As some of you may know, I am passionate about the “conscious aging” movement and eager to share it with my LGBT community. This movement is all about changing “the aging paradigm” in a youth-obsessed culture and exploring how we can better prepare for the challenges and as well as utilize the opportunities afforded by our extended life span.
As part of a project sponsored by Adult and Aging Services and funded by the LGBTQI Giving Circle of Sonoma County, I am currently offering an 8-week series called “Aging Together With Pride!” that is being offered in four Sonoma County locations. In one of the early sessions, I was asked why I felt there was a need to focus on the LGBT community.
“Hidden, isolated, and underserved” is a phrase we often use to describe today’s LGBT seniors. Even though as LGBT seniors we are more at risk for loneliness, depression, disability, HIV/AIDS and alcohol or drug abuse, research shows that LGBT seniors are only 20% as likely as heterosexual elders to access services!
There are a couple of possible explanations. The first is that many of us quickly learned that our survival depended on staying closeted. For much of our lives being homosexual or transgender was a crime, a sin, and a mental illness. Many of us were alienated from our families, lost jobs, were victims of violence, and were incarcerated or institutionalized. We learned to be vigilant and our instinct to hide persists in spite of increasing social acceptance, often preventing us from seeking help when we need it.
The other reason is that individuals and agencies that provide the services we may need are not always sensitive to our history of being marginalized and the effects of our societal scarring. Their assumption is often that we are heterosexual, leaving us to wonder how we might be treated if we “came out” about our sexual orientation or gender identity. Fortunately the grant project also includes cultural competency trainings about these issues that are being provided to Sonoma County aging service providers by my former Spectrum colleague Nancy Flaxman.
Future blogs will explore optimal aging strategies that capitalize on our qualities and strengths as LGBT elders.
Buz Hermes is co-facilitator of the Sonoma Valley LGBT Seniors Group and a former staff member of Spectrum’s Senior Outreach Program. He has also provided supportive programs for caregivers of persons affected by HIV and AIDS and has been a coordinator of services for low-income seniors. He can be reached at [email protected]
As men age, their testosterone levels decrease, but prior studies of the effects of administering supplements of the hormone to older men have been inconclusive. Now, researchers at University of California, San Diego School of Medicine and 12 other medical centers in the United States have shown that testosterone treatment for men over the age of 65 improves sexual function, walking ability and mood.
The findings are published in the February issue of the New England Journal of Medicine.
Researchers across the nation have partnered with the National Institute on Aging to conduct the Testosterone Trials (TTrials), a coordinated group of seven studies to analyze the hormone. The first three studies that were conducted focused on sexual function, physical function and vitality.
“Low testosterone levels can result in excessive fatigue, weakness, depression and the loss of sexual drive in men over 65,” said Elizabeth Barrett-Connor, MD, study lead at the UC San Diego School of Medicine trial site and Distinguished Professor in the Department of Family Medicine and Public Health. “The results of the TTrials show for the first time that testosterone treatment of older men who have unequivocally low testosterone levels does have some benefit, including improved walking ability, sexual function and mood, with a decrease in depressive symptoms.”
The TTrials were led by researchers at the Perelman School of Medicine at University of Pennsylvania. Nearly 800 men enrolled in the study were randomized into two groups: one taking a daily testosterone gel for a year and the other a daily placebo gel. Efficacy was evaluated at months three, six, nine and 12.
In 2003, the Institute of Medicine reported that there was insufficient evidence to support any beneficial effect of testosterone in men age 65 and older. This report was the driving force for the TTrials, which are now the largest trials in the nation to examine the efficacy of testosterone treatment in older men whose levels are low, based on age alone.
Barrett-Connor adds that decisions about testosterone treatment for these men will also depend on the results from the remaining four studies in the TTrials, which include cognitive function, bone density, cardiovascular and anemia and have not yet been conducted.
The 13 medical centers involved in the TTrials are: UC San Diego School of Medicine, Perelman School of Medicine at University of Pennsylvania, Albert Einstein College of Medicine, Baylor College of Medicine, Brigham and Women’s Hospital, Harbor-UCLA Medical Center, University of Alabama at Birmingham, Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine, Puget Sound Health Care System, University of Florida School of Medicine, University of Minnesota School of Medicine, University of Pittsburgh School of Public Health and Yale School of Medicine.
The TTrials were supported, in part, by a grant from the National Institutes of Health (NIH) (U01 AG030644). They were also supported by funds from the National Heart, Lung and Blood Institute, National Institute of Neurological Diseases and Stroke and National Institute of Child Health and Human Development.
Today, Here Media, the world’s leading LGBT media and marketing strategy firm, and video streaming platform, Vimeo partnered on a new initiative to spotlight the groundbreaking work being created by LGBT filmmakers. The partnership extends Vimeo’s commitment to diversity in the LGBT space with an investment in quality LGBT programming. The deal also allows Vimeo to directly reach the influential LGBT consumer through marketing and advertising campaigns that will run across Here Media’s iconic brand platforms, including The Advocate, OUT, Pride.com, Here TV, and Plus magazine.
Paul Colichman, CEO of Here Media shared, “By partnering with Vimeo, Here Media further expands its community of storytellers, innovators and influencers and upholds its mission to give a creative voice to all people in the LGBT space, as well as bridging our brands’ audiences to these content creators.”
Sam Toles, Vimeo’s Head of Global Content Acquisitions and Distribution added “Vimeo has always been proud to support diversity in its programming. We are delighted to further our commitment to sharing the screen with the most talented LGBT creators through this exciting collaboration”.
The first Here Media film included in the partnership comes from Billy Clift, the director behind the critically-acclaimed feature film Baby Jane?. Written and directed by Clift, the comedic thriller, Hush Up Sweet Charlotte, premiered on Vimeo Feb. 15, 2016, and is available at https://vimeo.com/ondemand/hushupsweetcharlotte. Charlotte Holler is about to lose everything, especially her mind, in this parody of the Bette Davis cult classic Hush Hush Sweet Charlotte. The film stars Mink Stole, David Millbern and Varla Jean Merman.
Out West, the second Here Media film in the partnership, centers on celebutante Prissy Alcott, who leaves her luxe Reno life behind and returns to her childhood home in Colorado after learning that her family has gone broke and is selling their ranch. She tries to reboot the family enterprise as a dude ranch with the help of her three gay friends. Directed by Lee Brownstein, Out West stars Jennifer Elyse Cox, Sean Astin, and Daniel Baldwin.
As a full service marketing and media company, Here Media will cross promote the films and other LGBT Vimeo content across all of the touch points of the iconic LGBT brands in its portfolio, believed to reach a majority of adult LGBTs. With a combined audience of 10MM+ monthly unique viewers across digital, social, print and television, Here Media has unparalleled scale in the LGBT space.
“We’re thrilled to partner with Here Media as the brand begins to enter the LGBT space,” Toles continued. “We look forward to bringing the Vimeo audience thought-provoking films and continuing our on-going partnership with Here Media that will expand beyond the premieres of Hush Up Sweet Charlotte and Out West.”
Growing up in Algeria, Shaira had almost everything a young man could wish for. But he also had a big secret.
In a land where homosexuality is still a crime and a sin, he was forced to live a secret life, hiding that he was gay from everyone — even his closest family.
The 26-year-old Shaira, who asked that his last name not be used to protect himself from attacks, went to study in France four years ago and has never gone back to Algeria. His family still has no idea of his sexuality.
Now a gay imam from Algeria is working with a local lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender association to counsel and protect Shaira and other young gay Muslims who make their way to the ancient French port city of Marseille. The Le Refuge group says it has helped 26 gays find shelter and start a new life in Marseille last year. Some eventually go back to their families.
Homosexuality is a criminal offense in much of the Middle East — punishable by imprisonment or, in countries like Saudi Arabia, by death. In Algeria, homosexual acts are punishable by up to two years in prison and a fine.
Islam considers homosexuality a sin. Men having sex with each other should be punished, the Quran says, but it doesn’t say how — and it adds that they should be left alone if they repent. The death penalty verdict instead comes from the Hadith, or accounts of the sayings of the Prophet Muhammad. The accounts differ on the method of killing, and some accounts give lesser penalties in some circumstances.
The Islamic State group has taken this to an extreme. Videos the group has released show masked militants dangling allegedly gay men over the sides of buildings by their legs and dropping them head-first or tossing them over the edge.
It is believed that at least three dozen men in Syria and Iraq have been killed by IS over accusations of sodomy.
Ludovic-Mohamed Zahed is an imam born in Algeria who now works in Marseille and runs an association of French Muslims and gays. He has known the discrimination faced by the young people who come to Le Refuge for help.
“Personally I have received quite a lot of threats, but I saw more people come to encourage me … saying you are an embodiment of real Islam,” Zahed said.
The local head of Le Refuge in Marseille, Christophe Chausse, says the group tries to counsel young gays about how to cope with the constant conflict between their sexuality and their religion.
“For them, there is a real dilemma between — ‘I am or I feel homosexual, and I have my religion, my faith which prohibits it, so I cannot live this homosexuality,’” Chausse said.
Shaira cries as he talks about this conflict that he battles every day.
“Everybody is telling me — ‘you are gay, you are Muslim and this is not normal,’” Shaira said. “But I feel that I have the same right to have a religion as everybody else. Even if I’m gay.”
Out Leadership, a global business advisory organization, today announced the launch of OutWOMEN, an initiative that champions the success of senior LGBT women in business. Beth Brooke-Marciniak, global vice chair of public policy, EY and a member of Out Leadership’s Global Advisory Board, and Martine Rothblatt, CEO of United Therapeutics, will co-chair the inaugural OutWOMEN event in March.
OutWOMEN is an important new platform Out Leadership will build to bring together senior LGBT executives to create business opportunities and cultivate talent – and thereby drive equality forward.
“Leaders in the LGBT business space and people in the trenches, who are working to deliver on the business promise of LGBT inclusion, have long asked: ‘Where are the women?’” said Stephanie Sandberg, managing director of Advisory & Client Services, Out Leadership. “We’ve observed that LGBT women are often under-recognized and underserved in the conversation. OutWOMEN is our platform to serve this impactful network, and we couldn’t be more excited about the opportunity.”
“Being out, being senior and being seen to have succeeded nonetheless, makes a difference,” said Ms. Brooke-Marciniak. “There are precious few women role models in the upper echelons of leadership. Just five percent of Fortune 500 CEOs are women, and less than one percent of FTSE 250 CEO slots are held by women. Even fewer of these women openly identify as LGBT. Building this network helps each of us to visualize the path ahead to pursue executive leadership, leverage the full strength of our authenticity, and be the role models for tomorrow’s LGBT women leaders.”
OutWOMEN organizes global engagement opportunities for LGBT women in significant leadership positions at major companies. In its first year, it will convene a series of private, invitation-only salon dinners in New York, Washington D.C., Chicago, Atlanta, Los Angeles, London, and Hong Kong. These dinners will center on engaging conversation and facilitating cross-business opportunity among a curated cohort of senior LGBT women executives. OutWOMEN will also host breakfasts at Out Leadership’s 2016 summits in New York, Hong Kong and London, which will be open to younger women and allies of the group.
“There’s a real dearth of institutional and organizational support for successful LGBT women in business. OutWOMEN addresses a clear and present need,” said Ms. Rothblatt, “The women it will serve face unique opportunities and challenges as a result of their shared identities and experiences, and I’m delighted and honored to help guide the initiative forward. It is an awesome mission.”
The National LGBTQ Task Force has launched a groundbreaking income tax preparation guide for lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and queer (LGBTQ) people. The new taxpayer resource is intended to guide LGBTQ people with questions they might want to ask when sitting in front of their tax preparer or program. The first-of-its-kind guide translates complicated income tax form information in a way that is more understandable and accessible for LGBTQ people.
“LGBTQ people are disproportionally more likely to live at or below the poverty line—they are also often the most in need of income tax information and least able to access it. The straight forward information in this guide will empower LGBTQ people to get credits and deductions that lift millions of people out of poverty,” said Meghan Maury, Criminal and Economic Justice Director, National LGBTQ Task Force. “Most LGBTQ people don’t know that you can deduct out of pocket costs for transition-related care including surgery. Many of us also don’t know that you may be able to claim a large credit for adoption related expenses.”
The new publication is part of the organization’s “Queer Our Taxes” effort, a public education and advocacy campaign focused on securing economic justice for LGBTQ people. To learn more about Queer our Taxes, and to download the new taxpayer guide visit: http://queerourtaxes.org/
Let’s face it. Adulting is hard. But much more important than overcoming the Sunday Scaries and using Excel to keep track of just how bad you are at actually sticking to a budget is your health. There’s a good chance you’ve heard of PrEP, but how much do you really know about it? PrEP (pronounced “prep” and commercially known as Truvada) is an abbreviation for pre-exposure prophylaxis and it is an anti-viral treatment approved by the FDA in 2012 that your physician can prescribe to you in daily doses as a method of preventing new HIV infections.
Many people, with good reason, have lauded the development of this treatment as a modern miracle. So we should all be on it, right? Not so fast. From a public policy perspective, it makes a lot of sense to recommend the use of this drug to the masses. After all, HIV-AIDs is a terrible epidemic and there are positive network effects when entire populations become immune or resistant to infections, as with vaccines. But at a personal level, the decision to start PrEP is a bit more complicated. Let’s look at some of the key considerations, questions and implications.
Are there side effects?
PrEP has several known side effects to consider. Some, like headaches, nausea and problems sleeping are minor and tend to wear off. However, there are some potentially life-threatening complications including increased lactic acid in the blood, liver damage, kidney failure and decrease in bone density. In order to guard from all of these, it is mandatory for patients on PrEP to see a physician at least once every 3 months for a full panel of blood tests, according to Truvada.com.
Is PrEP common?
Increasingly so. Anecdotally, I can tell you that I see men on dating and hookup apps advertising their use of PrEP more and more. I also hear friends talk about it and admit to taking it on a fairly regular basis. It’s understandable that there may be some negative stigma associated with a gay man who chooses to take PrEP — it implies some level of promiscuity — but the community has gotten past that issue quickly, due to its important role in public health. In the way of more hard evidence, the following graph shows patient interest in PrEP at Kaiser Permanente San Francisco; it illustrates the same increased use.
Does it protect from other STIs?
No. This is actually a really interesting point to stop and look at a few recently published STI incidence statistics and consider their relation to the increasingly common use of PrEP amongst gay men. A few months ago, the Center for Disease Control (CDC) released its annual report on the incidence of several STIs. In 2014, there were increases in the percent of the general population diagnosed with chlamydia, gonorrhea and syphilis for the first time since 2006. As usual, women and people aged 15-24 are at higher risk than other cohorts, but there are some startling trends in the gay male population over the past few years too.
The graph below, also from the CDC, shows that the rate of syphilis infection amongst gay men is growing much more rapidly than it is in the general population. Add to that the fact that of all men with cases of syphilis, 83 percent of them are gay and you begin to better understand a dangerous unintended consequence of a drug that prevents new HIV infections — many patients on PrEP are having unprotected sex. This is not just an assumption based on the trends. According to Kaiser Permanente, mentioned above, 45 percent of surveyed patients on PrEP reported that they were having more unprotected sex.
Cast in a less alarmist light, consider that all 3 — chlamydia, gonorrhea and syphilis — are bacterial infections that can be cured with antibiotics. So does it really matter if the use of PrEP is positively correlated to rising rates of STIs other than HIV? I mean, they’re curable. It matters. And that’s simply because not all STIs are curable, including herpes, HPV and hepatitis — the latter two of which can be life-threatening. It’s also worth noting that the same CDC report showed that, of the gay men who were diagnosed with syphilis, 51 percent also were infected with HIV. This type of co-infection is common, given that those men were likely engaged in unprotected sex and syphilis can cause open sores, which are more likely to be infected by HIV.
Is there an alternative to PrEP?
Yep, there is. Before there was PrEP, there was PEP, which stands for post-exposure prophylaxis. This treatment is often used for healthcare officials who work with HIV-infected patients and their bodily fluids in case of emergency. It’s also nicknamed “the morning-after pill for HIV.” It is an antiviral regimen, just like PrEP, except that is has to be started within 3 days of the exposure and lasts one month. The same side effects are a concern with PEP, but because the treatment only lasts one month, there is less concern about long-term issues.
So should I be on PrEP?
I don’t have an answer on this one. It is a very personal choice that you should discuss with your physician. The decision I made for myself may not be the right one for you. To get started, consider the information above and ask yourself a few questions. Do you practice unprotected sex and, if so, how often? Are you in a committed relationship? Would you prefer to have peace of mind no matter what? Will taking PrEP change your sexual behavior and are you ok with the potential consequences?
Nate Warden is a regular contributor to The Huffington Post Gay Voices blog and founder of www.ComingOut.Space, an online library of diverse coming out stories.
“Internalized gay ageism,” or the sense that one may feel denigrated or depreciated because of aging in the context of a gay male identity, is associated with negative mental outcomes, according to a new study published in Social Science & Medicine.
Prior research has shown that youth, vigor and physical attractiveness are disproportionately valued in the gay male community, leaving many to experience a sense of “accelerated aging.” This study explores how ageism and homophobia are jointly internalized by gay men, whether these feelings affect their mental health, and whether a sense of “mattering” (the degree to which they feel they are important to others and a significant part of the world around them) offsets any mental health deficits associated with internalized gay ageism.
The study is based on data recently collected from 312 gay-identified men who have been participating in the Multicenter AIDS Cohort Study since 1984. The men ranged in age from 48 to 78 years (the average age was 61 years) and 61 percent were HIV-negative. Three decades of depressive symptoms data were included in the analysis to help strengthen the direction of the observed findings.
Key findings from the study include:
• Internalized gay ageism can reliably be measured among these men with a new scale that includes agreement/disagreement with statements such as, “Aging is especially hard for me because I am a gay man,” “As I get older, I feel more invisible when I am with other gay men,” and “As I get older I feel pressured to look younger than my age.”
• Internalized gay ageism is differentiated from both perceived ageism and internalized homophobia, meaning it is a stand-alone minority stress construct uniquely informative of the lived experiences of these men.
• Internalized gay ageism is positively associated with current depressive symptoms independent of an array of other factors that also may influence depressive symptoms, including depressive symptom history.
• One’s sense of “mattering” partially explains the association between internalized gay ageism and depressive symptoms.
Aging within the context of a gay male identity merits greater consideration in the development of clinical- and community-based efforts designed to support midlife and older gay men, whose numbers are increasing substantially as part of the aging baby boomer generation. Public health interventions that boost these men’s sense of mattering may offset the damaging effects of internalized gay ageism. Future research with large population-based samples is needed that expands how internalized gay ageism is measured and how it may be associated with other stress processes and health outcomes.
The lead author of the report is Richard G. Wight, a former Williams Institute Visiting Scholar and Researcher in the Department of Community Health Sciences at the UCLA Fielding School of Public Health. In addition to Wight, co-authors of the report are Allen J. LeBlanc, Professor at the Health Equity Institute at San Francisco State University; Ilan H. Meyer, Williams Distinguished Senior Scholar of Public Policy at the Williams Institute; and Frederick A. Harig, doctoral student in the Department of Community Health Sciences at the UCLA Fielding School of Public Health.
– See more at: http://williamsinstitute.law.ucla.edu/press/press-releases/new-study-of-midlife-and-older-gay-men-links-internalized-gay-ageism-with-depressive-symptoms/#sthash.uzO1uyHD.dpuf
Because the fitness industry is ever evolving with new trends/tips on how to stay in shape and keep fit, it’s always helpful to know what’s new. Here are some predictions for fitness trends I think are likely to be hot this year.
1. LISS training will make a come back. After years of HIIT or high intensity interval training being the quick fix to get a great workout and a short period of time, LISS or low intensity steady state training will once again become the trend. Why?
Recently a few studies, specifically one from the National Institute of Health, discovered HIIT workouts not only have a long-term negative impact or your joints and bones, they also make us feel bad emotionally. In short, people don’t like doing HIIT workouts. Therefore, it’s time to go back to that workout or piece of exercise equipment that you love and do it work for longer periods of time or increase the resistance or weight associated with it. You will be happy you did.
2. Two-in-one workouts. Long are the days of going to the gym and focusing one just one specific exercise or class like Zumba, boxing, HIIT, TRX or even Barre class. In 2016, you will continue to see a trends toward combining your favorite group classes into one amazing experience. You will do Barre classes paired with boxing and spin class paired with weight training.
I love this trend because it forces your body to do more work and burn more calories because you’re working in different planes of motions while simultaneously using both your cardio respiratory and musculoskeletal systems to produce energy.
3. Emotional experiences. More and more you will begin to see boutique gyms and fitness events pop up because they provide something greater more than what you get from group fitness class or 45 minutes of a treadmill. Ragnar, Tough Mudder, Spartan Race, SoulCycle and Pure Yoga all come to mind when it comes to providing a deeper emotional response.
These experiences allow you to connect with something larger whether it’s working with a group of people to accomplish a goal or connecting to your own frustrations, vulnerabilities, strengths and letting these emotions out through exercises.
4. Try a CSA. Community Supported Agriculture has been around since the 1980s but has been growing in popularity with advent of technology, making it more convenient, accessible and affordable. In short, CSAs are mostly run by local, organic and sustainable farms that allow folks to sign-up for memberships to share in the harvest of their in season crops.
CSAs have become so popular that you can now customize your order with your favorite fruits and veggies, have home deliver or even skip a week or two if you aren’t in the mood for your weekly delivery. CSAs have a myriad of benefits from reduced carbon footprint, supporting local farms, eating naturally grown foods without added hormones, chemicals or pesticides.
– See more at: http://www.washingtonblade.com/2016/01/22/reinventing-the-wheel/#sthash.YkquvNgb.dpuf
