The National LGBT Chamber of Commerce is among the chambers of commerce that have launched a new initiative that seeks to provide additional support to business owners around the country.
The U.S. Black Chambers Inc., the United States Hispanic Chamber of Commerce and the U.S. Pan Asian American Chamber of Commerce Education Foundation, along with the NGLCC, are behind the Chamber Leadership Development Program.
A press release notes the initiative “is aimed at educating and developing leaders of diverse state and local chambers of commerce to support diverse entrepreneurs.” The press release also says the initiative will work with universities and target “more than 400 chamber leaders through innovative programming designed to empower chamber leaders to better serve their local communities of diverse businesses.”
Wells Fargo has made an initial investment of more than $800,000.
NGLCC President Justin Nelson on Tuesday said during a press conference at the National Press Club the initiative plans to work with groups that represent women, veterans and people with disabilities “so that all of our chamber leaders have the skills that they need to be the best they can be and to empower their businesses and their communities.”
Scientists have developed an all-in-one immunotherapy approach in a bid to ‘cure’ HIV.
University of Pittsburgh researchers say they have developed a way to ‘kick’ HIV cells hiding in the immune system. And not only does it kick it out of hiding, the approach also kills it.
No clinical trials have taken place yet.
However, researchers say this is an exciting step to one day developing a vaccine.
New all-in-one approach that ‘kicks and kills’ HIV
(Photo: rawpixel | Unsplash)
Robbie Mailliard, assistant professor of infectious diseases and microbiology, said it was ‘promising’.
‘A lot of scientists are trying to develop a cure for HIV. It’s usually built around the ‘kick and kill’ concept,’ he said.
‘There are some promising therapies being developed for the kill, but the Holy Grail is figuring out which cells are harboring HIV so we know what to kick.’
Antiretroviral therapy controls HIV infections so the virus is virtually undetectable and cannot infect others.
However, people living with HIV must take a daily regimen of medications. The virus goes into a latent, inactive phase that is hidden in the DNA of certain immune cells.
Nearly two dozen participants living with HIV donated a large amount of blood for the exciting study.
Men would sit for as long as four hours hooked up to a machine that processed the blood.
Inspired by cancer immunotherapy
The team used dendritic cells, used in cancer immunotherapies, to induce the immune system to kill HIV.
Resarchers then engineered these cells to seek out and activate the cells in which HIV was hiding, and also kill it.
Mailliard described it as the ‘Swiss Army knife of immunotherapies’.
The team is now pursing funding to begin clinical trials to test on humans.
But be cautious
HIV rates in China have surged 14 percent in the last year (Photo: Mil.Army)
Matthew Hodson, HIV advocate and sexual health expert, called the study ‘exciting’.
‘It’s exciting that there are a number of studies underway at the moment that are aiming towards a cure,’ he said.
‘This new work seems promising but it is very early days yet, as human trials have not yet started.
‘Last year’s RIVER study, which followed a broadly similar strategy, ultimately failed to reduce HIV DNA in the body, beyond the level provided by HIV treatment.’
Kat Smithson, Director of Policy and Campaigns at NAT (National AIDS Trust) said: ‘Developments in cure research are always exciting and welcome; in the future it will be interesting to see how these developments might continue in human trials.
‘But while we do still have a long time to wait when it comes to finding a cure for HIV, there are a great deal of technological innovations in treatment and prevention that are having an impact right now.
‘We have excellent available treatment for HIV, which suppresses the virus and stops onward transmission.
‘And we can even prevent acquisition of HIV using the drug PrEP. These innovations have led to a reversal of the epidemic in the UK.’
Chinese gaming company Beijing Kunlun Tech Co Ltd is seeking to sell Grindr LLC, the popular gay dating app it has owned since 2016, after a U.S. government national security panel raised concerns about its ownership, according to people familiar with the matter.
The Committee on Foreign Investment in the United States (CFIUS) has informed Kunlun that its ownership of West Hollywood, California-based Grindr constitutes a national security risk, the two sources said.
CFIUS’ specific concerns and whether any attempt was made to mitigate them could not be learned. The United States has been increasingly scrutinizing app developers over the safety of personal data they handle, especially if some of it involves U.S. military or intelligence personnel.
Kunlun had said last August it was preparing for an initial public offering (IPO) of Grindr. As a result of CFIUS’ intervention, Kunlun has now shifted its focus to an auction process to sell Grindr outright, given that the IPO would have kept Grindr under Kunlun’s control for a longer period of time, the sources said.
Grindr has hired investment bank Cowen Inc to handle the sale process, and is soliciting acquisition interest from U.S. investment firms, as well as Grindr’s competitors, according to the sources.
The development represents a rare, high-profile example of CFIUS undoing an acquisition that has already been completed. Kunlun took over Grindr through two separate deals between 2016 and 2018 without submitting the acquisition for CFIUS review, according to the sources, making it vulnerable to such an intervention.
The sources asked not to be identified because the matter is confidential.
Kunlun representatives did not respond to requests for comment. Grindr and Cowen declined to comment. A spokesman for the U.S. Department of the Treasury, which chairs CFIUS, said the panel does not comment publicly on individual cases.
Grindr, which describes itself as the world’s largest social networking app for gay, bisexual, transgender and queer people, had 27 million users as of 2017. The company collects personal information submitted by its users, including a person’s location, messages, and in some cases even someone’s HIV status, according to its privacy policy.
CFIUS’ intervention in the Grindr deal underscores its focus on the safety of personal data, after it blocked the acquisitions of U.S. money transfer company MoneyGram International Inc and mobile marketing firm AppLovin by Chinese bidders in the last two years.
CFIUS does not always reveal the reasons it chooses to block a deal to the companies involved, as doing so could potentially reveal classified conclusions by U.S. agencies, said Jason Waite, a partner at law firm Alston & Bird LLP focusing on the regulatory aspects of international trade and investment.
“Personal data has emerged as a mainstream concern of CFIUS,” Waite said.
The unraveling of the Grindr deal also highlights the pitfalls facing Chinese acquirers of U.S. companies seeking to bypass the CFIUS review system, which is based mostly on voluntary deal submissions.
Previous examples of the U.S. ordering the divestment of a company after the acquirer did not file for CFIUS review include China National Aero-Technology Import and Export Corporation’s acquisition of Seattle-based aircraft component maker Mamco in 1990, Ralls Corporation’s divestment of four wind farms in Oregon in 2012, and Ironshore Inc’s sale of Wright & Co, a provider of professional liability coverage to U.S. government employees such as law enforcement personnel and national security officials, to Starr Companies in 2016.
PRIVACY CONCERNS
Kunlun acquired a majority stake in Grindr in 2016 for $93 million. It bought out the remainder of the company in 2018.
Grindr’s founder and chief executive officer, Joel Simkhai, stepped down in 2018 after Kunlun bought the remaining stake in the company.
Kunlun’s control of Grindr has fueled concerns among privacy advocates in the United States. U.S. senators Edward Markey and Richard Blumenthal sent a letter to Grindr last year demanding answers with regards to how the app would protect users’ privacy under its Chinese owner. FILE PHOTO: An unidentified man using a smart phone walks through London’s Canary Wharf financial district in the evening light in London, Britain, September 28, 2018. REUTERS/Russell Boyce/File Photo
Kunlun is one of China’s largest mobile gaming companies. It was part of a buyout consortium that acquired Norwegian internet browser business Opera Ltd for $600 million in 2016.
Founded in 2008 by Tsinghua University graduate Zhou Yahui, Kunlun also owns Qudian Inc, a Chinese consumer credit provider, and Xianlai Huyu, a Chinese mobile gaming company.
For the first time, doctorstransplanted an organ from an HIV positive donor to an HIV positive recipient.
Surgeons at the Johns Hopkins Hospital, a research university in Baltimore, Maryland, undertook the medical breakthrough. They transplanted a kidney from Nina Martinez, 35, to an anonymous recipient.
With the successful operation on Monday (25 March), from which both patients are recovering, the recipient is free of kidney dialysis for the first time in a year.
‘Society perceives me and people like me as people who bring death,’ Martinez, who acquired an HIV positive status due to a blood transfusion as an infant, told The Washington Post before the surgery.
‘And I can’t figure out any better way to show that people like me can bring life.’
This could combat stigmas agains the disease the more than 1.1 million people who live with it in the US.
Both Martinez and the recipient will remain on antiretroviral treatment indefinitely. Martinez is in ‘excellent’ health according to Christine Durand, an associate professor of medicine at Hopkins, and her viral load is undetectable.
How did we get here?
In 2016, a law was passed allowing organ transplants from deceased HIV positive people to HIV positive recipients.
This, however, was the first known transplant from a living HIV positive person.
Doctors previously believed leaving HIV positive people with only one kidney was too dangerous for a transplant due to the disease. A 2017 study of 42,000 people by researchers at Hopkins, though, discovered that the risk of developing kidney disease for healthy HIV positive people is not significantly greater than HIV negative people.
‘People with HIV today can’t donate blood. But now they’re able to donate a kidney,’ said Dorry Segev, a professor of surgery at the Hopkins School of Medicine. He also led the research team and removed Martinez’s left kidney.
Currently, more than 113,000 people are on the waiting list for organ transplants in the US. Most of them need kidneys.
Segev added of his breakthrough and HIV positive people: ‘They have a disease that 30 years ago was a death sentence. Today they’re so healthy they can give someone else life.’
misterb&b (misterbandb.com), the world’s largest short-term rental marketplace dedicated to the Gay community, has launched a Wefunder campaign to give guests, hosts, and the public the opportunity to invest in the company to help launch expansion to hotels.
Homosexuality is illegal in a third of the world, and in 8 countries, it is punishable by death. In the U.S., hate crime incidents increased by 17% from 2016 to 2017, as reported by the FBI’s yearly “Hate Crime Statistics” report, with 20.6% due to sexual-orientation — the largest increase since 9/11.
Not knowing whether a host will be welcoming makes “traveling while gay” for men, women, and gender non-conforming people around the world dangerous – and potentially life-threatening.
At hotels, global gay travelers have been rejected or forced to book separate rooms. The only solutions available to them are third-party, unverified, user-generated reviews.
misterb&b was created to give its community the freedom to book an entire home or rent a private room at the home of a gay or gay-friendly host, and with many located in gay-friendly neighborhoods.
Now, after verticalizing the short term rental industry, misterb&b wants to build equality into the sharing economy and give back to a community that’s been historically economically marginalized, by providing the misterb&b community with the power of part ownership of the company.
The funds, raised through Wefunder, which reached half a million dollars in just 7 days, will be used to provide gay and gay-friendly hotel rooms on the platform.
This new offering curates gay-friendly and welcoming hotels that have been hand-selected by the company’s editorial team, with high quality, exclusive, and verified reviews from LGBTQ travelers. What’s more, misterb&b travelers will be able to discover and connect with others from the misterb&b community staying at their hotel, and to explore the city together – especially because there’s truly safety in numbers.
Crowdfunding provides a way for all individuals (even non-accredited investors) to participate in investment opportunities and reap the benefits.
Matthieu Jost did not want to go the traditional route of investment for this round because he wanted to extend the opportunity first to the misterb&b community, many of whom may not be accredited investors.
“This is a unique opportunity to own a part of misterb&b and help us create a more welcoming world. We are reaching out to the most passionate people in the community: our hosts and our guests, as well as LGBTQ allies,” said Matthieu Jost, founder of misterb&b. “We want to provide the opportunity to financially benefit from our successes – giving back to a community that’s been historically economically marginalized.”
While the sharing economy for short-term rentals has increased, it has been difficult for gay hosts and travelers to feel secure and welcome. misterb&b is a response to strong demand for collaborative tourism in the booming niche of global gay tourism, a $100B market. The gay market is also a premium segment, traveling twice as much as other travelers.
“The online travel industry is already generating massive business worldwide and innovation keeps on thriving in this sector,” said Jean Bourcereau, managing partner at Ventech, a member of misterb&b’s board of directors. “misterb&b’s early commercial traction and tremendous growth over the past two years have proven the huge value of their differentiated offer for both hosts and guests.”
misterb&b is a graduate of 500 Startups and have raised US$13.5M from institutional investors like Project A and Ventech, and from angels like Joel Simkhai (founder of Grindr, sold for $300M USD).The marketplace has310,000 hosts in over 135 countries.
“We have a penchant for companies with strong growth and revenue. Not only does misterb&b have both, but they also have a stellar team,” said Christine Tsai from 500 startups
misterb&b is the world’s largest short-term rental marketplace dedicated to the Gay community. Matthieu co-founded misterb&b after he and his partner booked a room in Barcelona through a third party rental website, and were faced with a homophobic host, which prompted them to cut their trip short. The company was then incubated in Silicon Valley by 500 Startups and raised $13.5 million in venture capital. Today, misterb&b operates out of 3 offices on 3 continents, providing it’s community with access to more than 310,000 properties in 135+ countries. The marketplace is open to everyone across the spectrum of gender & sexual orientation. In the media, misterb&b has been recognized by CNN as being integral to ‘The Gay Travel Revolution’, has received coverage in Forbes, Forbes Travel, New York Business Journal, USA Today, Logo, and was the very first gay “App of the day” on the Apple Store.
The Texas-based group claim LGBTI ‘lifestyles’ are harmful and compare it to an ‘addiction,’ ‘sickness,’ and ‘sexual sin.’
They also claim LGBTI people can ‘walk out of false identities.’
In one advice page, the author said they are ‘confident’ their advice is ‘accurate.’
The advice included ‘getting plugged into church’ and to ‘let go of the lie that you’re different.’
Google removed from HRC’s Corporate Equality Index
Human Rights Campaign has now chosen to remove the tech giant from its Corporate Equality Index.
A spokesperson said: ‘We have been urging Google to remove this app because it is life-threatening to LGBTQ youth and also clearly violates the company’s own standards.’
Microsoft, Apple and Amazon have also all removed the Living Hope Ministries app for violating terms of service.
Wayne Besen, executive director of Truth Wins Out, started the petition.
Besen said: ‘Google has failed to return any of our emails, phone calls or tweets and seems to think they can just pray away the gays.
‘Google is allowing a homophobic app to ruin lives at the click of a button.’
A separate petition, calling on Apple to reinstate the app, has 47 signatures.
A political cartoonist whose cartoons are syndicated by The Washington Post Writers Group published his most recent cartooon, and it’s drawing criticism for being transphobic.
Mike Lester is a conservative illustrator and his drawings appear on The Washington Post’s website. His most recent political cartoon is about the newly completed Mueller Report.
Robert Mueller conducted an investigation looking into possible collusion with Russia during the 2016 presidential election. He recently published the report of his findings.
In the cartoon, a group of men sit at a table celebrating in front of a large, three-tiered cake. The cake reads ‘The Mueller Report’ in red frosting and a woman in a bikini bursts out of it.
Behind the table are two waiters. One of them states: ‘Wait till they find out that’s a dude…’
The cartoon, which can be see on the Post’s website and in tweets below, suggests the Mueller report, like trans women, are deceptive.
This isn’t the first time a political cartoon has come under fire for discrimination.
Last July, a New York Times cartoon about Donald Trump and Vladimir Putin was widely criticized as homophobic.
What is syndication?
The Washington Post Writers Group is a division of The Washington Post News Service & Syndicate.
A press syndicate is an agency that offers content such as columns, cartoons, articles, and more to newspapers and magazines. It grants the newspapers and magazines the right to republish.
The Washington Post operates their own syndicate.
When reached for comment by GSN, a Washington Post spokesperson clarified the cartoon ‘did not appear’ in the paper, but was syndicated.
‘We give cartoonists wide latitude in what they present,’ they further explained. ‘While we may not agree with some perspectives, cartoons serve a role in generating conversation and debate.’
The Post’s embedded audience editor Gene Park also responded to criticism of this cartoon on Reddit.
‘Thanks to everyone for sounding off on this offensive piece,’ he wrote. ‘Mike Lester is not technically an employee of ours, although we do run and administer The Washington Post Writers Group, a group of syndicated outside (and inside) columnists and editorial cartoonists.’
Park reiterated that Lester’s cartoons do not appear in the paper itself. He also confirmed the Post only employs two full-time cartoonists, Ann Telnaes and Tom Toles.
In another comment, he said he is ‘not at all acquainted with how the syndication side of the business operates’.
‘I’m trying to navigate what to do and I intend to speak up. Thanks all for your patience in light of this,’ he concluded.
President Trump’s recently selected choices to the fill the Presidential Advisory Council on HIV/AIDS are rankling some observers.
Critics say the appointments fail to address social determinants of health, including homophobia and transphobia, rely too heavily on the pharmaceutical industry and leave out Republicans with records of fighting HIV/AIDS.
The nine members were selected last week — joining co-chairs Carl Schmid and John Wiesman — in the aftermath of Trump announcing in his State of the Union address a pledge to end new HIV infections in the United States by 2030.
Scott Schoettes, HIV project director for Lambda Legal, said he’s “glad to see” the posts filled, but had concerns about addressing the social determinants of health and the Trump administration waiting to make the choices until after the plan was unveiled.
“I have some concerns that they really came up with their plan, and then chose the people to be on the council sort of after the fact,” Schoettes said. “It seems to be you would want those people in those advisory positions as you develop your plan, and it seems like the people they’ve picked are, so far, reflective of that plan in that it’s very focused on finding everyone, getting them tested, getting them treated and not really thinking much about the social determinant of health or the things that we know drive the epidemic in a significant way in the United States.”
Schoettes is a former member of PACHA who was appointed during the Obama administration, but was among six members who resigned in June 2017 over Trump’s perceived inaction on HIV/AIDS.
“I’m hopeful that the administration will pay more attention to these individuals than they did to the members while I was serving, but I’m not sure that they will,” Schoettes said.
In December 2017, Trump sacked the remaining remembers of PACHA without explanation via letter from FedEx, as first reported by the Washington Blade. It wasn’t until 15 months later that Trump would finally restaff PACHA with the nine new members.
Schoettes said the social determinants PACHA should be able to address include “housing instability and access to care, income insecurity, food insecurity.”
“All of those things drive the HIV epidemic in addition to things like homophobia, transphobia, racism, gender inequality,” Schoettes said. “And so, unless you are addressing those other factors, you’re not really going to get at the sort of entrenched people living with HIV and the people that are out there that are not currently diagnosed. Those folks are living in a swirl of other social determinants of health that are preventing them from getting tested, from accessing care and you got to address those things as well as just the biomedical side of it.”
The nine new PACHA members come from variety of backgrounds , including the pharmaceutical industry, activism and academia:
Gregg Alton, chief patient officer for Gilead Sciences, Inc.;
Wendy Holman, CEO and co-founder of Ridgeback Biotherapeutics;
Marc Meachem, head of External Affairs North America for ViiV Healthcare;
Rafaelé Roberto Narváez, co-founder and director of Health Programs for Latinos Salud;
Michael Saag, professor of medicine and associate dean for global health at UAB School of Medicine and director of the University of Alabama at Birmingham Center for AIDS Research;
John Sapero, office chief for the HIV prevention program at the Arizona Department of Health Services;
Robert Schwartz, head of Dermatology at Rutgers New Jersey Medical School;
Justin Smith, a Ph.D. candidate at Rollins School of Public Health at Emory University; and
Ada Stewart, lead provider and HIV specialist at Eau Claire (South Carolina) Cooperative Health Centers.
Created in 1995, PACHA has provided advice to U.S. presidents on policy and research to promote effective treatment and prevention for HIV — maintaining the goal of finding a cure.
Asia Russell, executive director of the New York-based Health GAP, said the appointments demonstrate Trump “doesn’t give a damn” about PACHA being truly diverse, citing in particular the appointments from the pharmaceutical industry.
“His appointment of representatives of pharmaceutical companies that profit directly from government refusal to address price gouging is unethical,” Russell said.
Gay Republicans with records of working on HIV/AIDS were also critical of what they perceived as a lack of Republican appointments to PACHA. (Schmid was once a Republican, but told the Blade he’s now a registered independent and has been so for about the last decade.)
Jim Driscoll, a Nevada-based HIV/AIDS advocate who supported President Trump in the 2016 election, was among those dissatisfied with the apparent lack of Republicans.
“Politically the group is very one sided,” Driscoll said. “Members appear to be chosen more to forestall community blow back than for their ability to aid, advise or influence President Trump.”
Driscoll, who served as a PACHA member during the George W. Bush administration and applied for membership in the Trump administration, also said other key groups were absent, such as AIDS patients in treatment, registered nurses and older patients “despite elders being the fastest growing group and too little is being done about AIDS among the elderly.”
“Gay Republicans are wondering, who actually won this election?” Driscoll said. “Gays are well represented, except there appear to be zero gay Republicans. The council needs at least two credible gay Republicans who supported Mr. Trump and at least three or four more Trump supporters. I expect that even VP Pence and his evangelical supporters would want this.”
Jerri Ann Henry, executive director of Log Cabin Republicans, said she knows Republicans who have been involved with her organization and “unhappy to have been passed over,” and echoed the concerns about no Republicans.
“It’s very disappointing for me to see there are, I don’t think, any Republicans on PACHA at all under a Republican administration,” Henry said. “And I think this is one of those committees that most administrations have tried to make overly partisan. That’s not a top criteria that should be used in selecting people, but under a Republican president, it would be great to see some Republicans there, especially the people who have worked in the past under less friendly administrations to make things like this happen.”
Schmid, who in addition to serving as PACHA co-chair is deputy director of the AIDS Institute, said in response to criticisms Secretary of Health and Human Services Alex Azar is responsible for the appointments, but in defense of the appointments said the claims were off base.
With respect to addressing the social determinants of health, Schmid said during the PACHA meeting last week — the first meeting after the new appointments were made — those issues were discussed “along with other non-medical issues were highlighted and discussed throughout the meeting.”
“Seems people are quick to criticize without knowing the facts,” Schmid said, “And comments such as these ignore the leaders in the community who are members of PACHA and the work they are doing to end HIV in their respective communities.”
In response to the lack of Republicans on PACHA, Schmid said people making the criticism do not have their facts correct and “probably should do some more research before making such a claim.”
“I tend to think people keep their party affiliation private and it is not my business, it is their private personal matter,” Schmid added.
In terms of diversity, Schmid said six out of 11 of the members are gay, including two black gay men and one Latino gay man.
Schmid said during the PACHA meeting last week he announced the new appointments were just the first round and more should follow in the aftermath of Trump unveiling a plan to beat HIV/AIDS by 2030.
“I listed a number of people we are looking for: More people living with HIV, more women, younger people, trans people, injection drug users, reps of tribal and faith communities, local government, philanthropy, community health centers, people who focus on Hepatitis, STDs, different disciplines and geographic diversity,” Schmid said.
The Department of Health & Human Services didn’t respond to the Washington Blade’s request for comment on the criticism of the PACHA choices.
Among the first orders of business for the newly appointed PACHA was approving a resolution in support of the Trump administration’s “Ending the HIV Epidemic” plan.
Cited in the resolution is how HIV/AIDS “disproportionately impacts certain populations, including gay and bisexual men, in particular among those who are black, Latino, and young; black women, transgender women and those who inject drugs.”
The resolution concludes with commending the Trump administration’s “bold initiative” to end new HIV infections and pledging to dedicate resources to make it happen, but also to “ensure that proper accountability and metrics are in place.”
“As part of this assistance PACHA will focus on reducing the stigma often associated with HIV, as well as the numerous disparities and social determinants of health that impact HIV in the United States,” the resolutions says.
The resolution says PACHA will work with the administration to ensure the plan is sufficient not just for the first year, but for future years until meeting the goal of no new infections by 2030.
The PACHA members will have their work cut out for them. In addition to advising Trump on HIV/AIDS as he pursues his goal, PACHA is charged with providing counsel on the National AIDS Strategy, which is due for an update in 2020.
It remains to be seen what recommendation PACHA will make. A progress report from the Trump administration last year on the National AIDS Strategy adopted Obama-era goals in combatting HIV/AIDS, which includes reducing the rate of new diagnoses among gay and bisexual men.
The observers critical of the PACHA choices, however, raised questions about whether the administration was making a serious commitment to achieve its goal in stopping HIV/AIDS.
Cited as evidence of concern was Trump’s fiscal year 2020 budget request. Although the request calls for $300 million to beat HIV/AIDS, the budget slashes global HIV programs and cuts Medicare and Medicaid, programs on which many people with HIV/AIDS rely.
Russell was particularly critical of the budget’s request to cut global programs, saying they’re “threatening the lives of people with HIV worldwide.”
“For example, the White House just requested Congress pass $1.742 billion in killer cuts to global AIDS, tuberculosis and malaria programs for FY 2020, when those programs actually need $1.39 billion in funding increases to accelerate life saving service delivery,” Russell said. “Even drastically improved PACHA representation would not correct the impact of President Trump’s deadly decisions.”
Schoettes had concerns about the budget’s proposed cuts to programs on the domestic side, saying the administration has made an “ambitious goal” but he hasn’t “seen the actions or the steps that would be necessary to achieve the goal.”
“While there was an increase in HIV spending proposed in the president’s budget, there were a bunch of cuts to other really critical programs,” Schoettes said. “They’re going to undermine that goal. So, for instance, cuts to NIH that really dwarf the increases that we saw with respect to HIV. Cuts to Medicaid and attempts to move that into a block grant program. The continued efforts to undermine the ACA. You can some funding that’s going to specifically address HIV, you are actually undermining the goals of health for those communities if you’re not providing comprehensive access to health care.”
United Airlines has become the first major US airline to introduce non-binary options on its booking forms.
The airline announced on Friday (March 22) that in addition to ‘male’ and ‘female’ booking options, customers will now also be able to pick either U (Undisclosed) or X (Unspecified), corresponding with markers available on passports and IDs in some areas.
Customers will also be able to use the gender-neutral ‘Mx’ title.
United Airlines ‘will train staff on preferred pronouns’
United also announced partnerships with LGBT+ rights groups Human Rights Campaign (HRC) and The Trevor Project to provide training to staff on “preferred pronouns and the persistence of gender norms.”
United chief customer officer Toby Enqvist said: “United is determined to lead the industry in LGBT inclusivity, and we are so proud to be the first US airline to offer these inclusive booking options for our customers.
“United is excited to share with our customers, whether they identify along the binary of male or female or not, that we are taking the steps to exhibit our care for them while also providing additional employee training to make us even more welcoming for all customers and employees.”
Beck Bailey of HRC said: “At the Human Rights Campaign, we believe being acknowledged as the gender you identify with is part of treating everyone with dignity and respect.
“By providing non-binary gender selection for ticketing and the gender-inclusive honorific ‘Mx’ in user profiles, United Airlines is taking an important step forward for non-binary inclusion.”
Amit Paley of The Trevor Project added: “The Trevor Project is grateful for United Airlines’ support of our life-saving work on behalf of LGBTQ youth.
“We are thrilled to bring Trevor’s expertise on the mental health of LGBTQ people to United to ensure its employees maintain safe and inclusive spaces for LGBTQ employees and guests.”
US airlines agreed new industry standard to support non-binary people
The change is expected to be mirrored by many other major US airlines in the coming months, after the Airlines for America trade association comprised of the nation’s largest airlines agreed a new industry standard to end the practice of forcing passengers to pick between ‘male’ or ‘female’ on booking forms.
The new standard comes into effect from June 1, though it will be up to each airline to update their individual booking platforms.
Alaska Airlines, American Airlines, JetBlue, Southwest Airlines and United Airlines are among the companies who form Airlines for America.
Delta Air Lines is not part of the grouping but has confirmed it will also introduce the change.
Delta confirmed: “As part of Delta’s ongoing efforts to accommodate the needs of diverse customers throughout our business, we are planning to offer a non-binary gender option during the booking process.”
British Airways and Air New Zealand are among other airlines who have said they will offer extra gender options.
A British Airways spokesperson confirmed last month: “We know how important it is for all of our customers to feel comfortable and welcome no matter how they self-identify.
“We are working to change our booking platform to reflect this.”
The National Christian Foundation reportedly raised over $1.5 billion in tax-exempt donations in 2017 and a lot of that money is being devoted to groups which advocate for imprisoning LGBT persons around the world.
The nation’s eighth-largest public charity is pouring tens of millions of dollars each year into a number of mostly anti-LGBT hate groups, a Sludge investigation shows. According to the three most recent available tax filings — which cover 2015-17 — it has donated $56.1 million on behalf of its clients to 23 nonprofits identified by the Southern Poverty Law Center as hate groups.
By far the biggest recipient of NCF donations is Alliance Defending Freedom, a large network of Christian extremist lawyers who have supported criminalizing homosexuality, sterilizing transgender people, and claimed that gay men are pedophiles. The group recently came out against congressional Democrats’ Equality Act, which would ban discrimination against LGBTQ Americans.
Alliance Defending Freedom took in $49.2 million from NCF from 2015-17. ADF received $46.3 million in contributions and grants during the 2016 fiscal year (from July 1, 2015 to June 30, 2016). It got $16.8 million from NCF in the calendar year of 2015, meaning that, if these years were aligned, NCF’s donations would have represented over one-third of ADF’s annual contributions.
At the link you’ll see that the NCF also gave over $1.2M to the Family Research Council and smaller amounts to Liberty Counsel, the American Family Association, and other anti-LGBT hate groups. And do hit that link, this is an important exposé, particularly regarding where the NCF gets their money. (Via The Friendly Atheist)