A white supremacist has been sentenced to life in prison for the murder of a black trans woman.
Brandon Michael Tyson murdered Brooklyn BreYanna Stevenson in Oklahoma City in 2017.
Tyson, a member of the white supremacist group, the Aryan Brotherhood, will serve his sentence without the possibility of parole.
Judge Amy Palumbo condemned Tyson as she sentenced him on Wednesday (24 April).
‘Your actions show that you’re a liar, a thief, and a murderer,’ Judge Amy Palumbo said. ‘You are a danger to the public. You have been given chance after chance after chance.’
The authorities did not say if they though Stevenson’s gender identity or race were motivating factors in the murder, the Advocate reports.
‘He has no justification’
Stevenson was fatally shot at an Oklahoma City motel on November 27, 2017. Tyson pled guilty to the murder of Stevenson in February.
The defendant had initially claimed that the 31-year-old trans woman had attacked him, though police officers said there was no evidence of a struggle.
Gary Higginbotham, Tyson’s defense attorney, said his client’s drug use was to blame for his actions.
‘Mr Tyson has nothing but remorse for what he’s done to the victim, the victim’s family, and his family,’ Higginbotham told The Oklahoman. ‘He has no justification. It’s just the effects of drug addiction.’
Tyson had numerous past convictions, which include burglary and illegal possession of a firearm.
‘Burying a child is nothing that a parent should have to do’
Several of Stevenson’s friends and relatives attended the sentencing hearing.
Her mother, Vivian Stevenson, described her daughter as someone who ‘lit up a room whenever she entered it’.
‘Burying a child is nothing that a parent should have to do, so with that being said, I never wanted the death penalty for you because I did not want your parents to have to go through what I am having to endure,’ the victim’s mother told Tyson.
‘I do pray that you get life without parole, though, because you have proven by your actions that you do not deserve to be free ever again,’ she added.
According to The Advocate, 27 trans individuals were murdered in the US in 2017. This was on par with 2016 for the deadliest years on record for trans people in the US.
However, the media site says the actual number is likely higher, as many of the victims’ deaths are not reported by the media, or they are misgendered by police.
A state bill designed to provide intersex individuals with informed consent for medical treatments regarding their sex characteristics has been pushed to a vote in 2020- Advertisement –
Last week, Senator Scott Wiener (D-San Francisco) announced that legislation to ensure intersex individuals—a term used often used by people born with variations in their sex characteristics, including genitalia—can provide informed consent before any medical treatments or interventions that could irreversibly affect their fertility or sexual function, will be pulled from the 2019 legislative session and pushed to 2020. After hearing testimony on the bill last Monday, the Committee decided to postpone the vote to see if consensus could be reached between the bill’s supporters and medical associations that had previously refused to negotiate with Senator Wiener.
Senate Bill 201 would give individuals the opportunity to delay medically unnecessary, potentially harmful, irreversible procedures until they have the ability to make an informed decision for themselves.
“SB 201, at its core, is about giving people born with variations in their sex characteristics autonomy over their own bodies and lives. When it comes to choosing deeply personal interventions for an individual when they may not be wanted, acting is risky, while waiting costs nothing,” a press release stated. “Delay gives individuals and their families the most options, including access to future medical advances once the patient can understand the risks and their own priorities. Senate Bill 201 would not have prohibited treatment or surgery when medically necessary; it simply prohibited medically unnecessary surgeries on babies that are purely elective and based on a desire to “normalize” a child’s genitals. Some of these surgeries include invasive procedures such as reducing a clitoris, creating a vagina, or removing healthy gonadal tissue. They can also lead to assigning a gender before an individual has the opportunity to express a gender for themselves.”
Comprising approximately 1-2 percent of all people, those born with both with variations in their sex characteristics, sometimes referred to as intersex traits, aren’t rare—they are just invisible. A subset of these variations are recognized at birth, while others may go unnoticed until later in life, if ever. Although a very small percentage of intersex infants may require immediate surgical intervention—for example some are born without the ability to pass urine—the vast majority are born with no health issues related to their genitals and are able to live rich, fulfilling lives without any modification.
“We’ve made significant strides in California to protect the right of sexual minorities to determine our lives and make decisions about our own bodies, but much work clearly remains to raise awareness and educate about this important civil rights issue, both in the Legislature and in the medical profession,” Wiener said. “Progressive California should not be denying individuals the basic human right to decide what happens to their own bodies, yet that is exactly what is happening as surgeons and parents assign genders to babies without any actual input from that child. SB 201 stands for a very basic and common-sense notion: That individuals should choose for themselves if and when to undergo life-altering and gender-assigning surgeries that aren’t medically necessary. Our broad coalition of intersex advocates, medical professionals, LGBT advocacy organizations, parents, civil rights organizations, and affected individuals look forward to the day when this basic human right is respected and protected by law, and we will continue to fight to make this vision a reality.”
Beginning in the mid-twentieth century, physicians began modifying the genitals of infants they considered atypical. These treatments and interventions have included infant vaginoplasties, clitoral reductions, and removal of gonadal tissues, and may result in extreme scarring, chronic pain, incontinence, loss of sexual sensation, post-traumatic stress disorder, and incorrect gender assignment. While a number of doctors continue to perform these irreversible procedures in infancy based on the theory that they will help intersex people feel more “normal,” no research definitively proves that claim, or the assumption that conformity is more important than autonomy over their bodies. All major groups led by affected adults condemn the practice when performed without the consent of the individual involved.
Three former Surgeons General, who were appointed by Presidents of both parties, oppose medically unnecessary genital surgery on intersex babies stating, “When an individual is born with atypical genitalia that pose no physical risk, treatment should focus not on surgical intervention but on psychosocial and educational support… [I]ntersex persons routinely face forced medical surgeries that are conducted at a young age without free or informed consent. These interventions jeopardize their physical integrity and ability to live free.”
“SB 201 has not only already raised tremendous intersex visibility in California and national media, it has given our entire community hope that compassionate and ethical care for children born with intersex traits is on the horizon,” said Kimberly Zieselman, Executive Director of interACT: Advocates for Intersex Youth, an intersex woman herself affected by the surgeries.
“At its core, SB 201 is about the State of California respecting each and every person’s autonomy over their own body and their own gender identity,” said Equality California Executive Director Rick Zbur. “California has led the way in protecting the civil rights of LGBTQ people over the last 20 years, and the fundamental principle underlying those protections has been respect for an individual’s own sexual orientation, gender identity and autonomy over their body. The bill’s delay today means that thousands more Californians will be subjected to medically unnecessary and often irreversible procedures aimed at ‘normalizing’ their bodies—without their consent and before they have any sense of their gender Identity.”
“We are proud that SB 201 has brought awareness of this marginalized population of children to the legislature. California already prohibits certain other practices with high risks of irreversible harm from taking place during childhood. SB 201 is in line with this approach and will help ensure that care is centered on the needs of patients themselves, not the ‘normalization’ of their bodies,” said Becca Cramer-Mowder, Legislative Coordinator and Advocate for the ACLU of California.
SB 201 builds on Senator Wiener’s Senate Concurrent Resolution 110, passed in 2018, which called on the medical community to delay performing medically unnecessary sex-assignment and genital “normalization” procedures until an individual can provide informed consent. The resolution was the first of its kind in the nation, and called on the medical community to create clear guidelines to protect this population of vulnerable children. Unfortunately, the California medical community failed to act, and it became clear that SB 201 was needed to drive this next step. The bill was opposed by the California Medical Association, the American Association of Clinical Urologists, the American Urological Association, the California Society of Plastic Surgeons, the California Urological Association, the Pediatric Endocrine Society, and the Societies for Pediatric Urology.
First meeting of people who want to set up a support ‘accompaniment’ team to help LGBTQI asylum seekers and detainees. There has been calls from immigrant support networks along the border to find sponsors and support to allow asylum seekers to get out of detention centers. Come to a meeting Thursday, May 2nd at 6pm to talk about what we can do. Contact stormsx11@yahoo.com for more info. Meeting will be at 5037 McFarlane ROAD, Sebastopol….cross street Hessel Road….2nd driveway on left on McFarlane Road.
Living History DiscussionTwo-Spirit Voices: Still Here, Still Queer
Wednesday, May 17:00–9:00 p.m.The GLBT Historical Society Museum4127 18th St., San Francisco$5.00 | Free for members For 20 years, Bay Area American Indian Two Spirits has been committed to activism and service for the Two-Spirit community. This program offers a look at the history and activism of the organization over the past two decades. Founding members of BAAITS, including Randy Burns, who also founded Gay American Indians in 1975, will engage in a dialog with current board members and community leaders. BAAITS is the subject of the ongoing exhibition “Two-Spirit Voices: Returning to the Circle” at the museum. Tickets are available online here.
Book LaunchCalifornia and the Stonewall Riots
Thursday, May 97:00–9:00 p.m.The GLBT Historical Society Museum4127 18th St., San Francisco$5.00 | Free for members The 1969 Stonewall riots, when LGBTQ people fought back against police harassment at a New York bar, are often described as the starting point of the modern LGBTQ rights movement. In this presentation, San Francisco State University professor Marc Stein, who also serves as vice chair of the society’s board of directors, will discuss his new book The Stonewall Riots: A Documentary History(NYU Press, 2019),which situates Stonewall in a broader perspective. After reviewing pre-Stonewall LGBTQ protests in California, Stein will explore how news about the riots reached the West Coast, how Californians viewed the uprising and how Golden State residents responded. Tickets are available online here.
Exhibition OpeningThe Mayor of Folsom Street: Alan Selby’s Legacy
Thursday, May 167:00–9:00 p.m.The GLBT Historical Society Museum4127 18th St., San Francisco$5.00 | Free for members An opening reception for our new exhibition, “The Mayor of Folsom Street: The Life and Legacy of Alan Selby,” which uses photographs, artifacts, fine art and digital displays to document the life of Alan Selby, also known as Mr. S, who opened the iconic leather and kink retail store Mr. S. Leather in San Francisco’s SoMa district in 1979. One of the city’s longest-lived and best-known queer retail establishments, Mr. S. Leather grew into a de facto community center as well as an international destination. Curated by Jordy Jones, Jeremy Prince and Gayle Rubin, and drawing on the Alan Selby Papers preserved in the society’s archives, this transdisciplinary exhibition situates Selby’s life within the context of a changing SoMa neighborhood, AIDS charities and the emergence of a distinct queer leather and kink culture. Light refreshments will be served. Tickets are available online here.
Walking TourThrill Spot: A Lost Queer History Walking Tour
Sunday, May 192:00–4:00 p.m.Meet in Jack Kerouac Alley (behind City Lights bookstore)261 Columbus Ave., San FranciscoFree The 1954 police raid on Tommy’s Place, a lesbian bar in San Francisco’s North Beach, is the stuff of legend. Lurid headlines describing the seduction of teenage girls in a “vice academy” were followed by sensational stories teeming with swaggering butches, police graft and political intrigue. Lambda Award–winning author and visual artist Katie Gilmartin leads this literary walking tour that explores the raid through performance, music and visits to key historical sites, including the infamous “happy hunting ground for adult debauchees.” The tour covers 10 blocks with two steep grades. Cosponsored by the GLBT Historical Society, this program is offered in collaboration with Openhouse and is made possibly by grants from the Queer Cultural Center and the Creative Work Fund. More information is available here.
Fighting BackUnions, Workers and Queers: An Enduring Alliance
Thursday, May 237:00–9:00 p.m.The GLBT Historical Society Museum4127 18th St., San Francisco$5.00 | Free for members The latest in our monthly “Fighting Back” series exploring contemporary queer issues in a historical context, this panel will discuss connections between organized labor and the LGBTQ community in the San Francisco Bay Area. Organized labor and LGBTQ activists have made common cause in San Francisco since the mid-1970s, when Harvey Milk helped create the coalition. Panelists will consider how workers, unions and members of the LGBTQ community have built a worldwide relationship based on shared struggles, similar goals and common values. Tickets are available online here.
PerformanceGay in the Great War: A Dramatized Reading
A post published on the website Medium accusing Democratic presidential hopeful Pete Buttigieg of sexual assault was fabricated as part of a smear campaign led by two right-wing agitators.
Republican lobbyist Jack Burkman and provocateur Jacob Wohl had been looking for young men willing to accuse Pete Buttigieg of sexual misconduct as part of their plan to stop the candidate’s momentum, The Daily Beast reported.
Buttigieg, an openly gay veteran who serves as the mayor of South Bend in Indiana, was given little chances to win the Democratic nomination when he first announced the creation of an exploratory committee in January. But the 37-year-old’s star has kept rising, landing him among the top polling candidates in the crowded Democratic presidential field.
“It’s important for everyone to know that I was not sexually assaulted and would never falsely accuse anyone.”
— Hunter Kelly
The Medium account that posted the false accusation bore the name of Hunter Kelly, a 21-year-old gay Republican college student who told The Advocate he was flown to Washington, DC, by Burkman and Wohl.
Kelly said he landed just past midnight on Monday (April 29) and stayed the night at Burkman’s place. After waking up in the morning, he discovered Burkman and Wohl published a statement accusing Buttigieg of sexually assaulting him in February via a Medium account named @RealHunterKelly, and spread it on Twitter after creating an account under the same name. Both accounts have since been suspended from their respective platforms.
Hunter Kelly denies sexual assault claims against Pete Buttigieg
Kelly gave statements to both The Daily Beast and The Advocate denying he had any role in concocting the false allegations against Buttigieg, and later published a statement via his Facebook account bearing the headline: “I WAS NOT SEXUALLY ASSAULTED.”
The post reiterated the version of events shared with the two publications. It read: “It’s important for everyone to know that I was not sexually assaulted and would never falsely accuse anyone. To keep it brief for now- I was approached by a political figure to come to DC to discuss political situations from the standpoint of a gay Republican.
“When I arrived they discussed Peter Buttigieg and started talking about how they would be working a campaign against him. I went to bed and woke up to a fake Twitter @RealHunterKelly and an article that I in no way endorsed or wrote.
“I have since left and am working on a formal statement to give to everyone including the Buttigieg family. Thank you for standing behind me and knowing that I would never accept or allow any of this.”
Speaking to the press on Monday, Buttigieg commented: “I’m sure it’s not the first time somebody is going to make something up about me.”
He added: “It’s not going to throw us. Politics can be ugly sometimes but you have to face that when you’re in presidential politics.”
Wohl’s Twitter account has since been suspended, while his father David Wohl, who prominently displays a picture of him, President Donald Trump, and his son on his Twitter account, has deleted a tweet in which he shared news of the Medium post.
Jack Burkman stands by the fake sexual assault claims against Pete Buttigieg. (@Jack_Burkman/Twitter)
Burkman stood by his version of the story, posting pictures of a statement he said Kelly signed, attesting to his accusations, and a picture of Kelly showing his student ID. “MSM [mainstream media] bullied him & his family into submission,” Burkman claimed in his post.
But Kelly told The Advocate Wohl and Burkman forced him to sign and and take the photo. “I had no say in either. In the photo you can clearly see I had been crying,” he said.
Another young man, who asked for anonymity for fear of reprisal, told The Daily Beast he had been contacted by Wohl and Burkman him last week with a plan to accuse Buttigieg of sexual assault.
The man provided the publication with a recording of the encounter which was not published to protect his identity, but was independently examined by an expert in audio forensics who confirmed Wohl was one of the speakers recorded in the conversation.
Canada has unveiled a new coin to mark 50 years since the decriminalisation of gay sex.
The $1 coin depicts two overlapping faces with the word “equality” written in both English and French and also features an engraving of the years 1969 and 2019.
Randy Boissonnault, special advisor to the Prime Minister on LGBT+ issues, said it was “an important day” for LGBT+ people in Canada.
“It is an opportunity to reflect on a landmark event in our country’s history, and a reminder of the progress still to be made as we work toward inclusion and equality for all LGBTQ2 Canadians,” he said.
Equality coin marks ‘a process of legal reforms’
Meanwhile, Marie Lemay, president of the Royal Canadian Mint, said: “The Mint plays a significant role in celebrating Canada’s culture, history and values through coins.
“Marking 50 years since a landmark decision that began a process of legal reforms to recognize the rights of LGBTQ2 Canadians is a powerful way to recognize Canada’s profound belief in equality and inclusion.
“The Mint constantly strives to live these values, and our employees are proud to share the message of equality through this new commemorative circulation coin.”
“It is an opportunity to reflect on a landmark event in our country’s history, and a reminder of the progress still to be made as we work toward inclusion and equality for all LGBTQ2 Canadians.”
– Randy Boissonault, special advisor to the prime minister on LGBT+ issues
The coin was designed by Vancouver-based artist Joe Average. Average was diagnosed with HIV in 1984 which led to him dedicating his life to art. The image of the two intertwined faces is intended to reflect gender fluidity and the spectrum of genders.
Canada’s equality coin (Royal Canadian Mint)
The equality coin was announced last December
Details of the equality coin were announced last December, with CBC reporting that the design had been approved by Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau.
Trudeau’s father, former Canadian leader Pierre Trudeau, proposed changes to the Criminal Code in 1967 that would decriminalise gay sex.
“I think the view we take here is that there’s no place for the state in the bedrooms of the nation. I think that what’s done in private between adults doesn’t concern the Criminal Code. When it becomes public this is a different matter, or when it relates to minors this is a different matter,” he said at the time.
However, the equality coin has been criticised by some historians and LGBT+ activists who say it commemorates a “myth.”
Activists with the Anti-69 group say that the $1 coin—which will depict two overlapping human faces along with the dates 1969 and 2019 and the word “equality”—ignores harsh realities for LGBT+ people in the years afterwards, according to CBC.
Historian Tom Hooper—who researches LGBT+ history—said that the coin commemorates a “myth” as changes to the Criminal Code in 1969 only decriminalised gay sex between men aged 21 and over in a private setting.
As Barack Obama’s former Vice President Joe Biden announces his own run for US president, we look at his LGBT rights record.
The candidate launched his long-rumoured campaign for President on Thursday (April 25), with polls making him the immediate favourite to clinch the nomination, ahead of Bernie Sanders and gay candidate Pete Buttigieg.
Serving as vice president of the United States between 2008 and 2016, Biden earned a reputation as a solid supporter of LGBT+ rights, advocating for equal rights in the US and around the world.
In his book Promise Me, Dad, Biden admitted that his comments caught the president and his entire team off-guard.
US President Barack Obama and US Vice President Joe Biden attend a reception in honor of LGBT Pride Month in the East Room of the White House in Washington, DC, June 24, 2015. (SAUL LOEB/AFP/Getty)
He said: “I went into the Oval Office the day after and the president just stood up and walked around his desk with a big grin on his face.
“‘Well, Joe,’ he said, ‘you told me you weren’t going to wear any funny hats or change your brand.’
“He joked that I had sent everybody into an uproar and said the campaign did have some work to do, but he didn’t take me to task for speaking my mind about an issue I cared about deeply.”
Within days of Biden’s interview, Obama had also come out in favour of same-sex marriage.
Lightning struck again in 2014 when Biden backed an executive order banning anti-LGBT workplace discrimination before the president responded to calls for action.
White House staffers Brian Mosteller and Joe Mahshie asked Biden to preside over their wedding ceremony at his Washington, DC residence and he happily obliged, obtaining a temporary certificate from the District of Columbia in order to perform the wedding.
He posted a photo of the ceremony on Twitter, with the message: “Proud to marry Brian and Joe at my house. Couldn’t be happier, two longtime White House staffers, two great guys.”
Joe Biden officiates the wedding of White House staffers Brian Mosteller and Joe Mahshie (Official photo)
The wedding led to attacks from anti-LGBT activists.
Franklin Graham, who would later preach at Donald Trump’s inauguration, said: “Sadly, as a nation we have a reputation for celebrating what God has defined as sin, and there will be a price to pay.
“Our country may have made same-sex marriage legal in the eyes of man, but that doesn’t make it right in the eyes of God… He is clear in His Word that marriage is between a man and a woman and that homosexuality is wrong.”
Speaking at the World Economic Forum in Davos in 2016, Biden attacked the arguments that some ‘cultures’ don’t accept homosexuality, saying: “LGBT people face violence, harassment, unequal treatment, mistreatment by cops, denial of health care, isolation… always in the name of ‘culture.’
Joe Biden LGBT rights record: US Vice President Joe Biden and Kenya’s President Mwai Kibaki give a joint media briefing on June 8, 2010 at state house in Nairobi. (SIMON MAINA/AFP/Getty)
“I’ve had it up to here with ‘culture.’ I really mean it. Culture never justifies rank, raw, discrimination or violation of human rights. There is no cultural justification. None. None. None.
“How can countries still be hiding behind ‘This is our culture?’ People used to be cannibals, that was part of the ‘culture.’ People used to do terrible things as part of the ‘culture.’
“The progress of humankind has been a steady progress towards acknowledging the basic fundamental rights of other people.”
After leaving office, Biden opened the Biden Foundation to carry on his work advocating for equality.
The former vice president made “ensuring LGBTQ equality” one of the key planks of the organisation, working to bolster inclusion across the US and challenge the “vile practice of conversion therapy.”
The foundation teamed up with the YMCA for an LGBT inclusion programme, working “to ensure that each local Y is serving its LGBTQ members and surrounding community in the best possible way.”
Accepting the award, Biden said: “Over the years, many of you have thanked me for stating the obvious. Some of you credit me with taking a political risk.
“From the bottom of my heart, there was no risk. I took no chance. I was just answering what I’ve known all my life, that everyone is entitled to be treated with dignity.”
Joe Biden LGBT rights record: Joe Biden officiates a same-sex wedding in 2017.
Biden’s support for LGBT rights also led the homophobic Westboro Baptist Church to picket the funeral of his late son Beau Biden in 2015.
Biden’s son served as Attorney General of Delaware, and like his father was a staunch defender of LGBT rights, fighting for equal marriage and introducing non-discrimination laws in the state while battling cancer.
Five men beheaded in a mass execution conducted in Saudi Arabia were gay, a Sharia court heard.
One of the men executed had allegedly confessed to having sex with four of his co-accused ‘terrorists’.
The five men were among 37 who were beheaded in the cities of Riyadh, Mecca, and Medina last week. They were executed for conducting acts of terrorism or working as spies for Iran.
The mass execution was met with widespread international condemnation. Human rights groups have said it is likely the men’s confessions were obtained through torture.
Homosexuality is also punishable by death in the ultraconservative Islamic kingdom.
Doubts about the executed mens’ cases
The unnamed man allegedly confessed to homosexual acts and for hating the majority Sunni sect, a court document obtained by CNN states.
‘He said that he did all this because he belonged to the Shia sect and because he was against the Sunni sect and because of his hate for the state and its men and its security forces,’ the document reads.
According to the man’s lawyers, he denied all the charges against him and said his confession was a fabrication.
There have been extensive doubts about a number of the executed mens’ cases.
Those executed included Shiite religious leader Sheikh Mohammed al-Attiyah, who in the past had preached about peace and called for unity among the Sunni and Shia sects.
Two other men to be executed were Mutjaba al-Sweikat, 23, and the youngest of the group, 21-year-old Abdulkarim al-Hawaj.
Human rights campaigners said that al-Sweikat was severely beaten prior to ‘confessing’ to attending a protest in 2012, the Metro reports.
al-Hawaj, who was accused of spreading information about protests on WhatsApp, was arrested when he was only 16. He was denied a lawyer when he was arrested.
al-Sweikat and al-Hawaj were held in solitary confinement and their ‘confessions’ which were extracted through torture, according to human rights group Reprieve.
Following the executions, one of the men’s body and severed head were hung from a pole in a public square.
The United Nations condemned the executions and questioned the validity of the prisoners’ convictions.
The largest mass execution in Saudi Arabia’s history
The Saudi authorities justified the executions as a means of deterrence and in line with Islamic law. Some commentators believed the executions were also a political intended move to impress the US.
The Saudi government under King Salman has become emboldened during the presidency of Donald Trump, which has sought to strengthen financial ties with the kingdom.
The two governments have also expressed unity in their opposition to Saudi Arabia’s regional rival, Iran.
According to official announcements, Saudia Arabia has executed around 100 since the start of the year.
In 2018 there were 149 people executed in the kingdom. According to Amnesty, most of those executed were for non-violent crimes such as drug smuggling.
HIV preventative medication could become more easily accessible thanks to Senate Bill 159 – a piece of legislature that authorize pharmacists to provide pre-exposure prophylaxis (PrEP) and post-exposure prophylaxis (PEP) to patients without a prescription. – Advertisement –
Last week, the bill who was authored by Senator Scott Wiener (D-San Francisco) and Assemblymember Todd Gloria’s (D-San Diego), passed out of the Senate Business and Professions Committee by a vote of 6-0. It will now head to the Senate Health Committee for a vote. The legislation also prohibits insurance companies from requiring patients to obtain prior authorization before using their insurance benefits to obtain PrEP or PEP.
“While many still do not know about PrEP, its ability to prevent HIV transmission has been well proven,” Gloria said. “It is imperative we reduce barriers and increase accessibility to this live-saving medication. Not only can we save lives with PrEP, but we also have a real chance to end new cases of HIV for good.”
PrEP is a once-daily pill for HIV-negative people that almost entirely eliminates the risk of contracting HIV. PEP, on the other hand, is medication that a person takes after being exposed to HIV, in order to prevent the virus from taking hold. PEP is a 28-day course of drugs that, if started within 72 hours after exposure to HIV, significantly reduces risk of infection. Both PrEP and PEP are critical strategies to prevent new HIV infections and to ultimately end the epidemic.
In 2014, Wiener said that he takes PrEP as an HIV prevention strategy.
“We must do more to increase access to revolutionary medicines that help keep people HIV negative, and that’s exactly what SB 159 does,” Wiener said, according to a press release. “By allowing pharmacists to furnish PrEP and PEP, we will help more people, especially low-income people and people of color, stay negative. California has some of the highest disparities between communities of color and white communities around HIV infections. SB 159 will help close that disparity by increasing access for everyone.”
For years, medical and public health professionals, as well as HIV advocates, have demonstrated the efficacy of PrEP and PEP in dramatically reducing the transmission of HIV. A 2011 study of gay men and transgender women, found that drug levels corresponding to daily use of PrEP are associated with 99% protection against HIV. The more individuals who are able to access these medicines, the fewer new HIV infections we will see throughout California. The California Department of Public Health, Office of AIDS (OA) estimates there are 220,000 to 240,000 Californians with an indication for PrEP, but data suggest that only 9,000 people were taking PrEP in late 2016. Additionally, a recent report found that while new HIV infections have decreased, we still see a large disparity between black and Latino gay men and their white counterparts. Latino men were almost twice as likely to contract HIV as white men, and black men were over 3 times as likely. Increasing access to PrEP and PEP is particularly important to reduce new HIV infections in all communities.
Despite their effectiveness, several barriers limit access to PrEP and PEP. These barriers include stigma, medical mistrust and judgment by some healthcare professionals, high costs for patients, scarcity of facilities, challenges getting appointments with physicians, burdensome prior authorization requirements, and an insufficient number of providers who are comfortable prescribing PrEP and PEP. Although some local health departments have implemented programs to increase access to PrEP and PEP, many parts of the state do not have sufficient resources to effectively reach all those who could benefit from these interventions. Further, several California health plans now require documentation to request prior authorization every three months for PrEP. The three-month cycle for prior authorizations puts patients at risk of delays and medication interruptions – thus increasing the risk of HIV infection – and creates unnecessary burden to providers.
“While the Trump-Pence Administration cuts funding for HIV/AIDS research and treatment, California is once again leading the way by working to increase access to life-saving HIV prevention medication,” said Equality California Executive Director Rick Zbur. “We are grateful to Senator Wiener, Assemblymember Gloria and those who voted yes today for helping us take another critical step toward zero new HIV transmissions, zero HIV-related deaths and zero stigma for those living with HIV.”
Same-sex couples can now book their marriage registration in Taipei, Taiwan, the city announced on Tuesday (April 23).
According to a press statement by the city’s Department of Civil Affairs, the government has decided to take in-person and phone bookings for marriage registration ahead of same-sex marriage being legalised on May 24.
Excluding same-sex marriage is unconstitutional
In mid-2017, Taiwan’s constitutional court decided that the articles in the Civil Code which prohibited same-sex couples from marrying were unconstitutional.
The court asked authorities to change its laws within two years of the date of the decision.
Over 150 people will be married on the first day of gay marriage being legal. (DANIEL SHIH/Getty Images)
Despite the ruling by the Constitutional Court, two referendums in the country last November showed that the Taiwanese population is still largely against gay marriage.
The referendum asked “Do you agree that the right to marriage of persons of the same sex should be protected by legislation under the chapter on marriage of the Civil Code?” Some seven million people voted against the plan while three million voted for it.
The referendum sought to place a wedge between reforms that would see existing marriage laws reserved for heterosexual relationships, instead creating a new form of legal union for same-sex couples.
The Taiwan Alliance to Promote Civil Partnership Rights said in a Facebook post that it is estimated that just over 150 same-sex couples plan to register to get married at registration offices on the day it is legalised.
The LGBT+ rights organisation also hopes to mark the historic day by having a traditional wedding banquet outside the Presidential Office Building in Taipei on May 25.
