While the One Male Condom is not markedly different from the hundreds of other condoms on the market, it is the first that will be allowed to use the “safe and effective use” label for reducing sexually transmitted infections during anal sex. It is also approved for use as a contraceptive and as a means to reduce STIs during vaginal intercourse.
“This landmark shift demonstrates that when researchers, advocates, and companies come together, we can create a lasting impact in public health efforts,” Davin Wedel, president and founder of Boston-based Global Protection Corp, maker of the One Male Condom, said in a statement. “There have been over 300 condoms approved for use with vaginal sex data, and never before has a condom been approved based on anal sex data.”
Courtney Lias, director of the FDA’s Office of GastroRenal, ObGyn, General Hospital and Urology Devices, noted that the risk of STI transmission during anal intercourse is “significantly higher” than during vaginal intercourse.
“The FDA’s authorization of a condom that is specifically indicated, evaluated and labeled for anal intercourse may improve the likelihood of condom use during anal intercourse,” Lias said in a statement. “Furthermore, this authorization helps us accomplish our priority to advance health equity through the development of safe and effective products that meet the needs of diverse populations.”
Anal sex poses the highest risk for contracting HIV, with the risk of HIV transmission from receptive anal sex about 18 times higher than receptive vaginal sex. Gay and bisexual men accounted for 69 percent of the 36,801 new HIV/AIDS diagnoses in the U.S. in 2019, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Queer men of color were overrepresented within this group, with Black men representing 37 percent, Latino men representing 32 percent and white men representing 25 percent of these new diagnoses, according to the CDC.
One Male Condoms are available in standard, thin and fitted versions, and the fitted version is available in 54 different sizes.
A clinical trial of 252 men who have sex with men and 252 men who have sex with women found the One Male Condom has a failure rate of 0.68 percent for anal sex and 1.89 percent for vaginal sex, according to the FDA, which defined condom failure as condom slippage or breakage.
Dr. Will DeWitt, clinical director of anal health at the Callen-Lorde Community Health Center in New York City, said the newly approved condoms could be a helpful tool for HIV/AIDS prevention.
“The hope would be that people would be more willing to use condoms for anal sex and to have that direct encouragement would increase the rates of people using them,” DeWitt said. “Condoms still remain an important tool for people who don’t want to or can’t use PrEP.”
PrEP, or pre-exposure prophylaxis, is typically taken in the form of a daily pill to prevent HIV/AIDS in people who are not diagnosed with the virus. Last year, the FDA also approved an injectable PrEP shot that can be given every two months.
DeWitt did, however, add that he is worried the One Male Condom name and marketing could alienate those who engage in anal sex but do not identify as male.
“Anal sex really does belong to everyone,” DeWitt said. “Even if it’s the perspective of who has to wear the condom, it’s not just male bodies and male identified folks who need to use it.”
While health experts have long encouraged the use of condoms for STI prevention through anal sex, DeWitt said FDA’s official approval is long overdue.
“Here we are in 2022, and we are only now getting condoms approved for anal sex,” DeWitt said, noting that it’s been more than three decades since the start of the HIV crisis. “It’s a little frustrating that it’s taken this long to have this kind of official endorsement.
Some of the top companies in the U.S. that show public support for the LGBTQ community have donated thousands of dollars to the politicians behind a piece of Florida legislation opponents deemed the “Don’t Say Gay” bill.
The bill, which has versions in both the Florida House and Senate, would ban classroom discussions about sexual orientation and gender identity that are not “age-appropriate” in schools — though it is not clear what is considered “age-appropriate.” It also includes a provision that could effectively “out” LGBTQ students to their parents without their consent.
Despite opposition from Democrats and LGBTQ rights advocates, the “Don’t Say Gay” bill is gaining momentum in the Republican-controlled Florida Legislature.
Two weeks ago, Florida Republican Gov. Ron DeSantis appeared to voice support for the “Don’t Say Gay” bill, saying at a press event that it was “entirely inappropriate” for teachers and school administrators to have conversations with students about their gender identity.
“I know the ramifications of a bill like this could be detrimental to our LGBTQ youth,” out Florida state Senate candidate Eunic Ortiz told the Washington Blade.
Yet, a recent investigation from Popular Information, a political Substack newsletter run by veteran progressive journalist and political staffer Judd Legum, found some of the nation’s top companies — like Comcast/NBC Universal, UnitedHealth Group, Duke Energy, AT&T and Walgreens — have donated to the politicians behind the “Don’t Say Gay” bill.
Comcast/NBC Universal, for example, donated $1,000 to state Sen. Dennis Baxley, the main sponsor behind the bill in the Senate. In addition, the company gave a total of $28,000 to the top supporters of the anti-LGBTQ legislation since 2020, according to Legum and two other reporters, Tesnim Zekeria and Rebecca Crosby.
The Blade reached out to several representatives at Comcast but did not immediately receive a response, nor did Popular Information.
Comcast has publicly supported the LGBTQ community in recent years. “Some people may think the LGBTQ rights journey is done and the struggle is over, but it isn’t. Our job is to continuously educate,” said Yvette Miley, senior vice president of MSNBC and NBC News, on its website.
UnitedHealth Group has donated at least $200,000 to DeSantis since 2020 despite his public support for the “Don’t Say Gay” bill and other anti-LGBTQ legislation, according to the article.
The healthcare company has received perfect scores from the Human Rights Campaign, the nation’s largest LGBTQ organization, Corporate Equality Index. Its chief talent officer, Ryan Craig, has also said, “Strengthening the sense of community among our LGBTQ+ employees and allies” makes the company stronger. https://platform.twitter.com/embed/Tweet.html?creatorScreenName=WashBlade&dnt=true&embedId=twitter-widget-1&features=eyJ0ZndfZXhwZXJpbWVudHNfY29va2llX2V4cGlyYXRpb24iOnsiYnVja2V0IjoxMjA5NjAwLCJ2ZXJzaW9uIjpudWxsfSwidGZ3X2hvcml6b25fdHdlZXRfZW1iZWRfOTU1NSI6eyJidWNrZXQiOiJodGUiLCJ2ZXJzaW9uIjpudWxsfSwidGZ3X3NwYWNlX2NhcmQiOnsiYnVja2V0Ijoib2ZmIiwidmVyc2lvbiI6bnVsbH19&frame=false&hideCard=false&hideThread=false&id=1486716900079927308&lang=en&origin=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.washingtonblade.com%2F2022%2F02%2F19%2Ftop-lgbtq-supporting-companies-bankroll-dont-say-gay-bill%2F&sessionId=17ccd4a9af6d38b05809589364151bcde7d9ac4b&siteScreenName=WashBlade&theme=light&widgetsVersion=2582c61%3A1645036219416&width=550px
UnitedHealth Group did not immediately respond to the Blade’s request for comment. Public Information’s request also went unanswered.
Duke Energy, one of the largest electric companies in the U.S., has donated $34,000 to Florida legislators behind the “Don’t Say Gay” bill since 2020, including $25,000 to DeSantis and $1,000 to Baxley, according to the investigation.
“We are guided by our vision of an inclusive environment where employees feel a sense of belonging,” Cameron McDonald, Duke Energy’s vice president and chief diversity and inclusion officer, said in a statement. “We make sure to integrate diversity and inclusion into everything we do.”https://platform.twitter.com/embed/Tweet.html?creatorScreenName=WashBlade&dnt=true&embedId=twitter-widget-2&features=eyJ0ZndfZXhwZXJpbWVudHNfY29va2llX2V4cGlyYXRpb24iOnsiYnVja2V0IjoxMjA5NjAwLCJ2ZXJzaW9uIjpudWxsfSwidGZ3X2hvcml6b25fdHdlZXRfZW1iZWRfOTU1NSI6eyJidWNrZXQiOiJodGUiLCJ2ZXJzaW9uIjpudWxsfSwidGZ3X3NwYWNlX2NhcmQiOnsiYnVja2V0Ijoib2ZmIiwidmVyc2lvbiI6bnVsbH19&frame=false&hideCard=false&hideThread=false&id=1401954613226622982&lang=en&origin=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.washingtonblade.com%2F2022%2F02%2F19%2Ftop-lgbtq-supporting-companies-bankroll-dont-say-gay-bill%2F&sessionId=17ccd4a9af6d38b05809589364151bcde7d9ac4b&siteScreenName=WashBlade&theme=light&widgetsVersion=2582c61%3A1645036219416&width=550px
The Blade attempted to reach Duke Energy representatives by phone and email but have yet to receive a response. Legum’s team also couldn’t contact the company for comment.
AT&T has donated $86,000 to the politicians behind the bill, including $80,000 to DeSantis and $500 to Baxley, Popular Information reported.
The company has supported the LGBTQ community on social media, partnering with the national LGBTQ youth suicide group the Trevor Project during last year’s Pride month. https://platform.twitter.com/embed/Tweet.html?creatorScreenName=WashBlade&dnt=true&embedId=twitter-widget-3&features=eyJ0ZndfZXhwZXJpbWVudHNfY29va2llX2V4cGlyYXRpb24iOnsiYnVja2V0IjoxMjA5NjAwLCJ2ZXJzaW9uIjpudWxsfSwidGZ3X2hvcml6b25fdHdlZXRfZW1iZWRfOTU1NSI6eyJidWNrZXQiOiJodGUiLCJ2ZXJzaW9uIjpudWxsfSwidGZ3X3NwYWNlX2NhcmQiOnsiYnVja2V0Ijoib2ZmIiwidmVyc2lvbiI6bnVsbH19&frame=false&hideCard=false&hideThread=false&id=1401355695430291456&lang=en&origin=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.washingtonblade.com%2F2022%2F02%2F19%2Ftop-lgbtq-supporting-companies-bankroll-dont-say-gay-bill%2F&sessionId=17ccd4a9af6d38b05809589364151bcde7d9ac4b&siteScreenName=WashBlade&theme=light&widgetsVersion=2582c61%3A1645036219416&width=550px
“At AT&T we understand that unity starts in our own community, and we are committed to being a company that recognizes, embraces, and standings with LGBT+ people,” it said in a statement.
Warner Media, the company that owns AT&T, did not immediately respond the Blade’s request for comment.
Walgreens has donated at least $28,000 to DeSantis and four lawmakers who have voted in favor of the bill, according to Popular Information.
For Pride 2021, Walgreens Boots Alliance, its parent company, said it “created and encouraged everyone … to use a special Pride month background when they appeared on video during meetings to express their allyship.”
The company also did not respond to the Blade’s request for comment.
A beloved trans Latina woman allegedly killed in Lubbock, Texas, has become 2022’s third victim of an unceasing “epidemic of violence” in the US.
Cypress Ramos, a 21-year-old who could always be found smiling and cheering on her friends, was found dead in a storage unit on the morning of 12 February.
She died of blunt force trauma to the head after being struck by an unspecified hard object, according to the murder warrant for 32-year-old Allan Montemayor, who has been charged for Ramos’ murder, KCBD reported.
Ramos was found inside a locked container in the 2700 block of North Frankford Avenue after a fire was reported by a neighbour. Lubbock Fire Rescue put out the blaze only to discover a “dead body” inside at 11.30am.
As police arrived at the storage unit, officers elsewhere were dispatched to Montemayor who told cops he “f**ked up” and that there was a body in a storage unit set on fire.
Surveillance footage showed Montemayor’s pickup truck parked outside the unit. Both he and Ramos entered the unit – one hour and 20 minutes later, only he left and drove away.
When pressed by police about what took place inside, the warrant said he simply “shrugged and stated: ‘Isn’t it apparent?’” He alleged that Ramos has set a fire before coming at him with a bat and, “at this point, it was either me or [her],” Montemayor added, misgendering the victim.
Montemayor later told detectives that he believed a “song” had compelled Ramos to launch an attack against him in the unit. He also said, however, that the same song gave him instructions to kill the victim.
Lubbock County Sheriff investigators said that Montemayor had blood on his legs as well as his pants, said Ramos’ friend, drag queen Camilla Urbina, to KCBD.
“He tried to burn my friend, literally,” she alleged. “Like burn, burn them up.”
“There was blood on his pants, I believe that something else happened. And the truth will come out. And you will pay, promise.”
Montemayor is currently in the Lubbock County Detention Center where he is held on a $500,000 bond for a charge of murder.
Cypress Ramos was ‘always smiling’ and ‘loved everyone,’ friends say
According to the Human Rights Campaign, an LGBT+ campaign group that has been monitoring trans homicide rates since 2013, Ramos is “at least” the third trans, non-binary or gender non-conforming person violently killed in 2022.
It comes after last year’s record-breaking death tally of at least 56, many of them Black trans women, an already dizzyingly high figure that has continued to climb as more homicide cases emerge months after 2021 came to an end.
HRC has long warned that its own count is likely inaccurate, given that three-fourths of trans victims are misgendered and deadnamed by the police and press.
The American Medical Association has warned of an “epidemic of violence” against trans Americans – a statement repeated by president Joe Biden. The latest victim of this wave of violence, Ramos, was to those who knew her a “friend, a sister, a daughter”.
“Cypress was always smiling,” a friend of Ramos told Equality Texas in a statement on Saturday (19 February). “She was so tiny, so it felt like my arms wrapped around her three times.
“She just loved everyone,” the friend said before Equality Texas added: “A bright light like Cypress deserved to shine bright for much longer.”
The state-level advocacy group said a candlelight vigil in honour of Ramos’ life was held later that day at Tim Cole Memorial Park.
“Cypress Ramos’ death was an awful end to such a young life,” Tori Cooper, who leads HRC’s Transgender Justice Initiative, said in a statement.
“Her story highlights how trans women of colour are still devalued in our society.
“We must all work to end the epidemic of violence against transgender and non-binary people. May justice be served in this case.”
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 nevertheless so efficacious, Landovitz said, that the drug has “the potential to end the HIV epidemic, particularly for people who are challenged with taking oral PrEP.”
Landovitz, an infectious disease specialist at UCLA, said it might always remain unclear why the breakthrough infections among those receiving Apretude occurred. He and his colleagues already know that the blood concentrations of the drug in the first four people to experience such infections weren’t unexpectedly low.
The Food and Drug Administration approved Apretude for use as what’s known as pre-exposure prophylaxis, or PrEP, against HIV on Dec. 20. The long-acting drug, which is meant to be injected every two months by a health care worker, joined two daily pills — Gilead Sciences’ Truvada and Descovy — that were approved as PrEP in 2012 and 2019, respectively.
HIV advocates have looked to Apretude as a potential solution to this enduring medication-adherence problem. And yet, receiving Apretude requires a clinic visit every two months, compared with visits every three months to maintain a prescription to Descovy or Truvada as PrEP.
Men who have sex with men account for an estimated 70 percent of the approximately 35,000 HIV transmissions in the United States each year, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
Apretude vs. Truvada
One of the two double-blinded clinical trials that prompted the FDA to approve Apretude for use as PrEP included 4,566 cisgender MSM and transgender women in the U.S. and six other nations in Latin America, Asia and Africa. (A second trial included cisgender women in Africa.) Half of the 1,698 U.S. study members were Black.
The participants, who were all deemed at substantial risk of contracting HIV, were randomized to receive Truvada or Apretude, with each group receiving a corresponding placebo.
In 2020, Landovitz and his colleagues announced that after a median of about 17 months of follow-up during the study’s blinded phase, those who received Apretude had about a two-thirds lower HIV acquisition rate compared with those who got Truvada. This stark difference was driven by suboptimal adherence to the daily Truvada regimen and, by comparison, greater Apretude coverage of the participants’ sex acts.
Dr. Raphael J. Landovitz speaking at the International AIDS Society conference in Paris in 2017.Benjamin Ryan
During that period, the rate of new HIV cases rose in both the Apretude and Truvada groups. This phenomenon, Landovitz suggested, was likely driven by two factors. Firstly, participants’ adherence to both the injection schedule and the pill regimen was lower after the unblinding. Additionally, during this latter trial phase, a greater proportion of the participants were living in Latin America, where the background HIV transmission rates were relatively high.
Nevertheless, Apretude injections maintained about the same rate of superior overall protection against HIV compared with oral PrEP as seen during the trial’s blinded period.
During the combined study periods, 25 people in the Apretude group and 72 people in the Truvada group contracted HIV during a nearly identical amount of cumulative follow-up time.
Breakthrough cases
The seven breakthrough infections among people who received their injections on schedule occurred during a cumulative 4,660 years of follow-up among all those in the Apretude arm of the trial. (During that time, an additional 18 people contracted HIV who did not receive Apretude on schedule.) This means that if a group of 10,000 people in similar circumstances were given Apretude, about 15 of them would be expected to experience breakthrough HIV infections over one year.
Transmission of HIV that is resistant to Apretude’s antiretroviral class, Landovitz said, is “vanishingly rare.” So he said that drug resistance cannot explain breakthrough infections among those receiving the injectable as PrEP.
Breakthrough infections also occurred in at least one, possibly two, people in the Truvada group of the Apretude trial including trans women and MSM. One additional such breakthrough case occurred in the corresponding trial of cisgender women. Further analyses are needed to determine if after each trial’s unblinding, additional people contracted HIV while adhering well to the Truvada regimen.
Research has indicated that compared with concentrations of Apretude in the blood, concentrations of the drug are about 90 percent to 92 percent lower in rectal tissues but only about 80 percent lower in tissues in the vagina and on the cervix. Landovitz told NBC News that these disparities could possibly help explain the emergence of the seven breakthrough infections among those in the Apretude arm of the PrEP study including trans women and MSM. So far, ViiV is able to report that in the PrEP trial including cisgender women, there were no cases of Apretude failure during its blinded phase; further analysis is needed to determine if such breakthrough infections occurred after that study’s unblinding.
Cost and availability
Apretude is not yet widely available in the United States. ViiV is campaigning for insurers to add the injectable preventive to their lists of covered medications.
The pharmaceutical company is up against the fact that multiple generic versions of Truvada hit the market last year and now cost as little as $26 per month. Apretude is priced at the equivalent of $1,850 per 30-day period, similar to Gilead’s pricing of Descovy and brand-name Truvada. The CDC reported at this week’s retrovirus conference that during the first three quarters of 2021, about 42 percent of U.S. PrEP prescriptions were for generic Truvada.
In a paper that Landovitz wrote with Dr. Anne M. Neilan of Harvard Medical School and others and published in the Annals of Internal Medicine on Feb. 1, they conclude that Apretude would need to have a monthly cost no greater than $308 over generic Truvada’s price to remain cost-effective.
Due to the U.S. Preventive Services Task Force granting it an “A” rating in 2019, oral PrEP must now be covered by almost all private insurers with no cost sharing. That means both the medication and the quarterly clinic visits should be free to people with private health plans. Medicaid and Medicare also cover pill-form PrEP, but they may still demand out-of-pocket payments for the prescription.
In the meantime, ViiV will offer a copay card to people with private insurance that will cover up to $7,500 in out-of-pocket expenses related to the injectable drug each calendar year, plus $350 toward injection-administration fees.
Dr. Rupa R. Patel, the PrEP Clinic Lead atWhitman-Walker Health in Washington, told NBC News that Apretude’s considerable efficaciousness notwithstanding, the drug’s every-other-month dosing schedule “is still not ideal.”
“Something taken every six months or 12 months would be better, of course,” Patel said.
Multiple additional forms of long-acting PrEP, dosed as seldom as twice per year, are indeed in the pharmaceutical pipeline. However, Merck announced in December that the company was putting a hold on all clinical development of its experimental drug islatravir after the long-acting antiretroviral was linked to declines in some trial participants’ CD4 immune cells — white blood cells that provide a key indication of immune health. This trend occurred both among those receiving the drug as HIV treatment and in those receiving it as PrEP.
A trans teen died by suicide while waiting to access mental health care and a first appointment at a gender identity clinic, with a coroner warning that future deaths are possible unless action is taken.
Daniel France, a 17-year-old teenager from Cambridgeshire, killed himself during the first coronavirus lockdown in April 2020 while taking medication to treat depression.
He was trans, and had been referred to an NHS gender clinic – but, like thousands of others, faced several years of waiting before he would be called for his first appointment.
France, described as “extremely kind” and someone who had “many friends” by a local LGBT+ group, also had a history of suicide attempts, said coroner Philip Barlow.
In a report to “prevent future deaths” following an inquest into France’s suicide, Barlow told local agencies to address the delays in accessing mental health services for young adults, and noted concerns around the waiting times for NHS gender clinics.
“Danny was a vulnerable teenager,” Barlow wrote in his coroners report, adding that two separate safeguarding referrals to Cambridgeshire County Council about France had been “incorrectly” closed.
According to the report, France sought counselling from the NHS’ Improving Access to Psychological Therapies (IAPT) programme, but was deemed too high risk. When he was assessed by Cambridge’s First Response Service, which supports people experiencing a mental health crisis, it was decided he did not ‘require urgent intervention’. He had been referred to adult mental health services, having previously been under a young person’s service, but was still awaiting assessment.
The coroner noted that France “was repeatedly assessed as not meeting the criteria for urgent intervention” and that the “waiting list for psychological therapy was likely to be over a year from point of first presentation”.
The inquest also heard “evidence about the considerable delay in obtaining appointments for the Gender Identity Clinic, and about the shortage of availability for psychological therapies such as CBT”.
Barlow warned: “In my opinion there is a risk that future deaths could occur unless action is taken.”
A copy of Barlow’s coroners report has been sent to NHS England and the secretary of state for health, Sajid Javid “for information purposes only”. The local council and NHS trust have been given 56 days to respond to Barlow’s concerns on mental health care provision
The Kite Trust, a local charity that runs support groups for young LGBT+ people that France attended, warned about the “hostile society” that trans people, and especially young trans people, currently face in the UK.
“What Danny faced, and what trans people of all ages continue to face, is a society that is hostile to our very existence,” said Pip Gardner, chief executive of The Kite Trust, in an emailed statement. “Using the wrong name or pronouns for a trans person, is not just a spelling mistake – it causes emotional harm and breaks down trust.”
They continued: “The responsibility must be on those with statutory duties and in positions to safeguard young people’s welfare, especially crisis services, to take immediate action to ensure that other trans young people like Danny can access the care they are entitled to, without having to endure such harms.”
Suicide is preventable. Readers who are affected by the issues raised in this story are encouraged to contact Samaritans on 116 123 (www.samaritans.org), or Mind on 0300 123 3393 (www.mind.org.uk). Readers in the US are encouraged to contact theNational Suicide Prevention Line on 1-800-273-8255.
George M. Johnson’s young-adult memoir “All Boys Aren’t Blue,” about growing up Black and queer, appeared on The New York Timesbestseller list this month for the first time since its publication nearly two years ago. The spike in sales was undoubtedly fueled by the publicity the title received after being banned in public libraries and schools in at least 19 states, according to Johnson’s count.
“People were seeing me on list after list and congratulating me and being like, ‘Oh, my God, you must be so happy. This must be such a badge of honor. Your sales must be so great,’” author Mark Oshiro said of banned and challenged book lists. “That’s not how it actually works.”
When Oshiro, who uses gender-neutral pronouns, heard one of their books, “Each of Us a Desert,” a fantasy novel about two girls falling in love on a quest through the desert, was on Texas Rep. Matt Krause’s list of 850 books to be pulled from Texas schools, they didn’t realize how much attention this particular list would get. After all, their books had been on many such lists before. But even with all the publicity surrounding the Krause list — which included titles the lawmaker said could “make students feel uncomfortable” — because Oshiro’s book was just one of hundreds, they didn’t see a spike in sales, despite the many calls online to buy the banned books in support.
Since the list’s release in October, Oshiro has had multiple teachers cancel class visits, an immediate and significant loss of income for an author.
“That’s been a much more obvious barometer for me of what’s been going on for me than book sales,” they said.
Deborah Caldwell-Stone, director of the American Library Association’s Office for Intellectual Freedom, said book bans can indeed generate more demand for certain titles, as communities will often buy a copy of a book to donate to a public library when a school library bans it. However, she said, she is also concerned about quiet censorship, a term that includes instances when librarians or educators choose not to buy a book out of fear of potential challenges.
Book challenges doubled from 2020 to 2021, according to the association, and Caldwell-Stone said she is also concerned about what’s happening on the legislative front, with proposals such as Florida’s “Don’t Say Gay” bill and a bill in Tennessee that would prohibit any instructional materials that “promote, normalize, support, or address” LGBTQ people or issues.
Author Adib Khorram, whose young-adult book about a gay teenager, “Darius the Great Deserves Better,” appears on Krause’s list, said he is also concerned about so-called quiet censorship.
“I think the atmosphere of fear the bans create is actually far worse than the bans themselves,” he said. “On that list of 850 books, one or two of them are going to be very loudly talked about, and people are going to go check them out. But 848 are going to quietly disappear.”
Khorram is one of many LGBTQ authors and authors of color now weighing how this climate factors into their future work. When he was writing his biographical blurb for his next book, “Kiss & Tell,” that comes out next month, he said he paused when choosing whether to include that he is a queer Iranian American.
“There’s every chance that just having that in my bio will make people not stock the book,” he said. Ultimately, he did choose to include that personal information, saying he did not want to let the current climate affect his work.
“Adults fearing the discomfort of majoritized students is not going to stop me from writing books that uphold the lives and dignity of minoritized students,” he added.
Maia Kobabe, who uses gender-neutral pronouns, is also writing a new book without the bans in mind. In the meantime, Kobabe’s illustrated memoir, “Gender Queer,” has seen skyrocketing sales along with frequent challenges and bans. Already on its fifth printing, a new hardcover edition will come out in June.
While Kobabe acknowledges that “Gender Queer” being banned and challenged has led to a flurry of publicity that it would not have otherwise received, Kobabe worries about who is gaining access to the book through the increase in sales. Those who listen to NPR to hear an interview, read articles about book banning or have their own income to buy books are the ones increasing the sales, according to Kobabe, but the young people who don’t have money to buy books or who need the access at the library to read it there instead of bringing a book back to an unaccepting home will not be the ones contributing to the sales numbers.
“The part that really hurts is the fact that the people who might need this book the most are the people who are going to have less access,” Kobabe said. “So it’s just another case of the most marginalized readers being further marginalized.”
Kobabe added, “I would rather have the book not be banned and have it just quietly existing on library shelves where queer and questioning teens could discover it in a peaceful, quiet way and could safely read it on a shelf.”
As for Johnson, who uses gender-neutral pronouns, making The New York Times bestseller list is bittersweet. Having their book banned has not been easy, Johnson added, but they said they are the kind of person who isn’t afraid to fight back.
“It sucks. It is overwhelming. It’s heavy,” Johnson explained. “But at the same time, I’m witnessing parents buy this book for their teens. I’m witnessing parents and teens reading the book together. I’m also witnessing students find their agency and find their voice because I’m using mine.”
Editor’s note: The writer of this article is the author of two young-adult books on Texas Rep. Matt Krause’s list of 850 books to remove from Texas schools: “Queer, There, and Everywhere” and “Rainbow Revolutionaries.”
Sen. Rick Scott, R-Fla., laid out a conservative blueprint this week for a GOP takeover of Congress, and included in his “11-Point Plan to Rescue America” are a number of proposals that would limit the rights of lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and queer people.
The document outlines Republican policy objectives on everything from the economy to abortion, but the point that caused the most alarm to LGBTQ advocates was in a section titled “Gender, Life, Science.”
“Men and women are biologically different, ‘male and female He created them,'” Scott wrote. “Facts are facts, the earth is round, the sun is hot, there are two genders, and abortion stops a beating heart. To say otherwise is to deny science.”
In this section, Scott — who served as Florida’s governor from2011 to 2019 — called for nationwide bans on government forms that “include questions about ‘gender identity’ or ‘sexual preference’”; gender-affirming procedures on minors; and transgender women and girls participating on female sports teams.
“We will protect women’s sports by banning biological males from competing,” the policy outline states. “It is hugely unfair and would erase many of the gains women have made in athletics over the last 50 years.”
Scott’s proposals echo the ongoing nationwide push of anti-LGBTQ legislation by state lawmakers.
So far this year, conservative state lawmakers have filed more than 170 anti-LGBTQ bills — already surpassing last year’s 139 total — according to Freedom for All Americans. The majority of the bills target transgender minors’ ability to receive gender-affirming health care or participate in sports.
In the eighth point of Scott’s plan, labeled simply “Family,” he called out the “radical left” for seeking to “devalue and redefine the traditional family,” using language associated with activists opposed to same-sex marriage.
LGBTQ advocates slammed Scott’s proposals.
Brandon Wolf, the press secretary for advocacy group Equality Florida, said that Scott’s manifesto was “affirmation of what we’ve been trying to warn folks about.”
“What is happening in Florida isn’t isolated,” Wolf told NBC News. “It’s a test market for a national strategy by the extreme right to legislate this country back to 1960, mire us in culture wars and decimate the progress we’ve won.”
Scott, a first-term senator who is chairman of the National Republican Senatorial Committee, is not the only Republican to preview how the GOP would pursue anti-LGBTQ legislation should it regain power in Washington.
Last month, former President Donald Trump said he would ban transgender women from participating in women’s sports nationwide if he were re-elected.
“We will ban men from participating in women’s sports,” Trump said during a rally in Conroe, Texas. “So ridiculous.”
Aside from how the GOP should navigate LGBTQ rights, Scott’s manifesto called for Republicans to “eliminate racial politics in America,” finish building a southern border wall and name it after Trump, and battle “the new religion of wokeness.”
A study has found that COVID-19 vaccine rates in the United States are higher among gay and lesbian adults than in heterosexual adults.
The Centre for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) found that lesbians and gay men aged 18 and older reported higher levels of vaccine coverage (85.4 per cent) than their straight counterpoints (76.3 per cent).
It was found that bisexual (76.3 per cent) and transgender adults (75.7 per cent) had similar COVID-19 vaccine rates to heterosexual people.
The study authors explained that the data could help to “increase vaccination coverage”.
The authors said: “Understanding COVID-19 vaccination coverage and confidence among LGBT+ populations, and identifying the conditions under which disparities exist, can help tailor local efforts to increase vaccination coverage.
“Adding sexual orientation and gender identity to national data collection systems would be a major step toward monitoring disparities and developing a better-informed public health strategy to achieve health equity for the LGBT+ population.”
According to CDC researchers, people within the LGBT+ community “have higher prevalences of health conditions associated with severe COVID-19 illness compared with non-LGBT populations”, for example obesity, smoking, and asthma.
A previous study explained: “Because of their sexual orientation, sexual minority persons experience stigmatisation and discrimination that can increase vulnerabilities to illness…
“Persons who are members of both sexual minority and racial/ethnic minority groups might therefore experience a convergence of distinct social, economic, and environmental disadvantages that increase chronic disease disparities and the risk for adverse COVID-19–related outcomes.”
Sia Sehgal, a student at a private international school outside Mumbai, raised 200,000 rupees (£1,933) for the Maharashtra District AIDS Control Society (MDACS) to buy COVID-19 vaccines.
MDACS administered 120 first doses to trans people during a free vaccination drive in July last year.
Varshabhai Dhokalia, a trans woman, told the Hindustan Times after receiving the free vaccine: “We are always being mocked. While I was standing in the queue for the shot, people were staring and laughing at me. Someone even passed a comment that the vaccination was only for males and females.
“This discourages us from going to these centres for vaccination.”
Sehgal raised the money for the 120 first COVID-19 vaccine doses in two weeks, and planned to raise more funds so that the people who had their first vaccine could have their second.
Argentina, a traditionally conservative country, has emerged in the last two decades as a Queer Rights powerhouse. Since the early 2000s this country has legalized egalitarian marriage and introduced non-binary IDs, state-paid gender-affirming surgeries and IVF treatments. So how did this transformation come about in such a short time, you might ask? Join the first ever Argentine Queer History Tour and find out!
Lunfarda Travel, a boutique incoming agency based in Buenos Aires, launched the first – and so far only! – tour about the history of the Argentine LGBTQIA+ community, from pre-colonial times into the massive Pride demonstrations of 2021.
The tour was created by the founder of the agency, Mariana Radisic Koliren who said: “it feels like all LGBT+ tour products in Argentina are way too focused on the G. What about all the lesbians, trans people and non-binary activists? Our Queer history is so rich, fascinating and intersectional. It’s a story of resilience and pride and it has literally transformed our lives: it needs to be out there to inspire people around the world”
The tour starts at Plaza de Mayo, the foundational block of the city, where a member of the local community explains how different indigenous peoples understood gender and sexual orientation, and how all of that was erased to favor cis-heteronormativity after the Spanish Conquista. That same square would eventually become the gathering spot for Pride demonstrations, attended by hundreds of thousands.
Throughout the tour, you’ll explore the periods, landmarks, characters and events that forged Argentina’s current reality. Enjoy unique points of view, like the role of Evita Peron in the acceptance of Queerness, visit the first subway station to commemorate a Gay Rights activist and get the chills at the National Congress, the place where our community cemented our rights for future generations. In this tour, you’ll also get to visit a community center to have drinks, make new friends and check out some of the cool artwork and culture led by local porteñes.
This tour is about helping create a better future for our community, too. Despite all our strides, there are still lots of people who struggle to have long and fulfilling lives, which is why 10% of the profits of this tour are donated to Mocha Celis, a high school that caters specifically to trans and gender non-conforming students (you can donate to them here, which is always immensely appreciated!).
Thanks to generations of gritty, perseverant activism, our Queer community is increasingly thriving. This tour is a way of acknowledging and recognizing all the people who were trailblazers, and a way of showing all that’s yet to come for our community as this new generation takes up the baton.
Lunfarda Travel specializes in shedding light on the previously untold stories of Buenos Aires through an intersectional scope. The boutique incoming agency is proudly made of over 75% of women, POC and members of the LGBTIAQ+ community, and has a commitment to fair trade wages and environment preservation. Join Lunfarda Travel for the only tours in the city of Black History or on its Jewish Heritage Walks, Graffiti and Foodie Outings and family friendly tours. The agency also organizes tailor made itineraries across Argentina, and actively welcomes all human beings
The Church of England has launched an investigation after a gay man claimed he was subjected to a conversion therapy exorcism in a Sheffield church.
Matthew Drapper, 34, says he was “born into a Christian cult [and] was raised believing Satan is at war with Christians and God is at war with the gays”.
He told the Huddersfield Examinerthat he moved to Sheffield from Buxton in 2013, at the age of 25, and joined the Church of England church St Thomas Philadelphia.
Drapper said by that point he had come out as gay, but that he had vowed to remain celibate. In 2014, he claims, the church offered him a chance to “pray that away”.
“I had thought about whether it is even worth living if I’m going to be gay,” he said,
“So, it kind of was a last resort really. By that point, I was like, ‘Well, I’ll try anything.’”
St Thomas Philadelphia has a “belief in the supernatural” and “taught a lot of stuff to do with demons”, Drapper said.
He was invited to a prayer day to “go through our deepest fears”, but this soon became an “exorcism”, he alleged.
Drapper continued: “They told me to speak against the sort of demonic hold that being gay had in my life.
“I was told to renounce the belief system of homosexuality and to cancel my agreement with Satan and to break the power of homosexuality in my life through the blood of Jesus… They told me they could see demons leave my body and go out the window. It was terrifying.”
It took Drapper months to recognise that “something really bad had happened in that space”, and he eventually began accepting his identity.
He was a volunteer at St Thomas Philadelphia at the time, but when he told leaders that he was planning to start dating, he says they said he “wasn’t allowed to work with young adults or children, because I might influence them to become gay”.
The church has denied all of Drapper’s allegations, but finally, eight years on, the Diocese of Sheffield is launching an investigation.
The Diocese of Sheffield said in a statement to the BBC that it believes “conversion therapy is unethical, potentially harmful and has no place in the modern world”, and added that it would keep Drapper informed at all stages of its investigation.
Drapper said: “If conversion therapy had been illegal at the time, then hopefully people would have known enough to intervene and I wouldn’t have gone through that trauma and had eight years of recovering from it.”
St Thomas Philadelphia said in a statement: “St Thomas Philadelphia is a caring and generous church community which does not engage in conversion therapy.
“We welcome the independent investigation initiated by the diocese into these allegations of eight years ago and will participate in it.”
The church has a bizarre and dark history, having been opened in 1998 when it was “planted out” of a huge evangelical church St Thomas Crookes.
According to St Thomas Philadelphia’s website, this planting out was “in response to significant growth and also to a sense of call to the whole city”.
But St Thomas Crookes is also known for being the birthplace of Nine O’Clock Service, often described as a “cult” within the Church of England.
Nine O’Clock Service was an alternative Christian group launched in 1986, which focused on recruiting young people through rock concert-style services featuring lasers in the basement of Sheffield’s Ponds Forge complex.
The group was shut down by the Church of England in 1995 after the group’s leader, Chris Brain, admitted to having sexual contact with more than 20 young female members of Nine O’Clock Service.
A documentary was released chronicling the scandal, and shortly before its release, Brain admitted himself to a psychiatric hospital.
