LGBT people are eight times more likely to be targeted by revenge porn, a study has revealed.
One in 25 Americans have either been threatened with or made the victim of revenge porn, but this includes just two percent of straight people.
On the other hand, a huge 17 percent of LGBT people have been targeted with threats or actual posts of pornographic images or videos of them which they did not consent to being online.
Amanda Lenhart, one of the report’s authors, said that the study – conducted by the Data & Society Research Institute and the Centre for Innovative Public Health Research – was crucial.
“Nonconsensual pornography can have a devastating and lasting impact on victims, so it’s vital that we understand how common this is and who is affected,” she said.
The news comes as YouPorn releases a powerful video to combat the dangerous phenomenon.
(Pexels)
In association with women’s rights organisation the Danish Women’s Society, the porn site has created a video which looks like an adult film – and that’s exactly the point.
The video, called “Ex doesn’t know I put this online!”, features a woman stripping while her boyfriend films her.
He asks her to take her trousers off, but she tells him: “I don’t like that you’re filming this.”
The faceless man asks why, to which she responds: “I’m just afraid that someone is going to see it.”
He reassures her, lying to her face until she smiles and goes along with his request.
But when she has removed her trousers, she straightens up, looks straight into the camera, and asks: “What the f**k do you think you’re doing?”
Shocked, he asks who she’s talking to, to which she replies: “I’m talking to the person who’s watching this.
“You know this is revenge porn, right? You saw the title of the video. You heard what my boyfriend just said – that no-one would see this.
Seething with completely justified anger, she continues: “What the f**k are you doing?
“You know I’m a human being, right? That I have feelings?
“Can you imagine what I’m going through, what victims of revenge porn go through every single day, and you are just sitting there watching this? Sharing this?
“You don’t even care. F**k you!”
She ends with the sobering fact that “victims of revenge porn, they suffer anxiety, they go through depression, and some have even killed themselves.”
Signe Vahlun, vice president of the Danish Women’s Society, said: “For the last year we have talked to victims and have come to understand how damaging being the victim can be.
“For several people, this literally destroys their lives. In order to avoid this, we need to put focus on the problem.
“The fact that YouPorn agrees with us on this issue and wanted to partner together to launch this campaign sends a clear message that revenge porn has to be stopped,” she added.
Two Indonesian men have been arrested for having gay sex.
The university students had their rooms raided by residents in Aceh, the only region of the Muslim-majority country where Shariah law is in effect and gay sex is illegal.
Condoms and mobile phones belonging to the 21 and 24-year-old were handed over to police.
Indonesian gay man gets caned for having sex (Getty)
If found guilty, the men face being sentenced to 100 lashes at a public caning.
Marzuki, head of the Aceh Provincial Sharia Law Department, told local reporters that one of the men had ‘confessed’ to the charges.
Gay men in Indonesia being led to be lashed 83 times (Getty)
Marzuki said then that residents in the local area had been suspicious of the men because they of their apparent intimacy, and deliberately set out to catch them having sex.
While homosexuality has never been illegal in Indonesia, attitudes towards LGBT people have become steadily more extreme across the country in recent years despite a growing gay population.
The Indonesian Psychiatrists Association classifies homosexuality, bisexuality and being transgender as illnesses.
The raid on salons was called “operasi penyakit masyarakat,” which translates as “community sickness operation”.
The police chief in Aceh said his officers also humiliated the trans women “by way of having them run for some time and telling them to chant loudly until their male voices came out.”
A bill with the support of most of the country’s main political parties is making its way through the legislative process.
Amendments have been accepted by the House of Representatives, but the whole Parliament must sign off on the bill before it makes its way to the President’s desk.
(Getty)
Andreas Harsono of Human Rights Watch said the new law “will create new discriminatory offences that do not exist in the current criminal code.
“It will slow down Indonesia’s efforts to develop their economy, society, knowledge [and] education … if law enforcement agencies are busy policing morality.
“It’s sounding like the Acehnese sharia code,” he added.
In the midst of a national opioid crisis, are gay men partying cleaner?
While this might seem like the conclusion of a new study by two Manchester Metropolitan University criminology employees, Drs. Rob Ralphs and Paul Gray, the actual data points to a less optimistic outcome.
Gray and Ralphs’ study, taking place over a period of six months, involved interviews with over 50 drug users and 30 staff members at Mancunian clinics and treatment centers.
What its findings showed was an overwhelming preference among gay males for trendier chemsex drugs and synthetic cannabinoids, such as the drug “spice,” resulting in a significant dip in crack, heroin, and ecstasy usage.
Although gay men are going for a more complicated high through the pursuit of drugs associated with luxury and expense, this doesn’t translate to a reduction in terms of dangerous drug use. Crystal meth is still popular via injection, or “slamming,” as well as other “party” drugs offering hallucinogenic or psychedelic effects. What Ralphs and Gray’s study shows is that these men are using their preference for luxury drugs as a reason to stay away from traditional clinics and treatment centers due to stigma and preconceived notions about treatment courses.
“Despite complex and often interrelated needs, it was apparent that users of Spice and chemsex substances had a lack of knowledge of existing service provision and, perhaps most concerning, outdated views and perceptions of who treatment services are targeted at and what services could offer,” Dr. Ralphs stated.
The study is interesting in light of West Hollywood’s own decision to legalize recreational marijuana use, potentially leading denizens of the city’s overwhelmingly gay male population to seek out legal highs in favor of synthetic ones. Amidst the criticism surrounding West Hollywood’s new “party city” reputation, there’s a streak of concern for how its gay male citizens will cope with newer, more experimental drugs like “Spice” coming on the scene. Although the idea of marijuana as a gateway drug is outdated and widely disproven, the sense of a city without limits could create new interactions between West Hollywood’s LGBTQ+ community and the chemsex drug wave. New research on why gay men pursue chemsex drugs was recently published in the academic journal “Cultural Studies,” pointing overwhelmingly to a sense of loneliness and isolation among the study’s London-based participants.
“I was feeling really lonely. I was looking for company. I was really depressed living in London…you don’t have friends, you don’t have family,” said one of the interviewees. “You’re living in a big city…you have the weekend to yourself and you don’t know what to do.”
Another participant in the study noted: “In a way, you’re enjoying a private club…everyone thinks the same as you think. You don’t have to worry about anything because you’re going to be in an environment where you feel safe and whatever you do, whatever you think, whatever you say you’ll be very much accepted.”
Drs. Ralphs and Gray’s study points, more than anything else, to a division of class and wealth when it comes to chemsex use in the gay community. The danger, as they see it, is in gay men foregoing free treatment or neglecting to seek help due to not wishing to be seen in the same light as the traditionally poorer populations of heroin and crack addicts are. While neither loneliness nor drug use will be going away anytime soon in the gay community, both new studies point to a trend that might benefit from a closer look in a local context.
Comedian Eddie Izzard has been appointed to the Labour Party’s governing body.
The comedian and political activist, who previously identified as a transvestite but has since started using the umbrella term “transgender”, has vowed to become one of the first trans people elected to Parliament.
Earlier this year he failed to win election to the Labour Party’s National Executive Committee, just missing out to candidates from the party’s hard left Momentum faction.
However, this week he landed a spot on the body after all, as Momentum director Christine Shawcroft stepped down over an anti-Semitism scandal.
Eddie Izzard sits on a bench (Photo by Matthew Horwood/Getty Images)In a statement Izzard said: “Although this isn’t the manner in which I had hoped to join the NEC I’m honoured to step up and represent Labour members at the heart of our Party.
“This is a very important time for the Labour Party and we must stamp out completely the stain of anti-Semitism from a minority of members.
“It has no place in our Party. I have campaigned against hate my whole life and will continue to do so wherever it rears it’s ugly head. We must make amends and repair the damage with the Jewish community as Jeremy Corbyn has promised to do.
“We must get past this, for the good of the people Labour seeks to represent. We must unite our Party around the platform of hope that Jeremy Corbyn has built so that we can kick out this terrible Tory government and build a Britain for the many not the few.”
The comedian had missed out in January’s election to the NEC, picking up 39,508. The three available spots went to the Momentum-backed candidates, who picked up 65,163, 62,982 and 68,388 votes respectively.
The NEC is a crucial body that effectively controls Labour Party rules and policy.
Izzard previously vowed: “I’ll continue to do all I can to campaign for an open and welcoming Labour Party and to campaign with fellow Labour activists across the country to help Labour win the next election and put Jeremy Corbyn in Downing Street.”
He added: “This election has been an opportunity to talk about some of the important issues facing our Party and country, and I’m proud to have run a positive, energetic campaign with ideas on how to open up politics and give excluded groups in society more of a voice in our Party and country.”
(Matthew Horwood/Getty Images)
Izzard had said previously: “Being an actor and performing stand-up is what I do for a living, but being an activist has been part of me for a long time.
“I have always fought for the campaigns that I believe in, even when they are unpopular or I’ve been advised against it.
“I came out in 1985, joined the Labour Party in 1995 and I have now campaigned for LGBT rights, for the Labour Party, for Europe and have run marathons for charities for many years.
“I have campaigned against racists and fascists all over our country and around the world and I want all of our members to feel welcome in the Labour Party.”
(Photo by Matthew Horwood/Getty Images)
Izzard has pledged to make Labour more diverse.
“I have been a Labour Party activist for many years,” he said in a video, “now I’m standing for an open and welcoming Labour Party to get people from many different backgrounds into the Labour Party, and to fight this narrow minded Tory government.
“To get the Labour Party in, winning at the next general election and Jeremy Corbyn as the Prime Minister.
“I have the energy and the drive to represent labour party members on the NEC.
“I believe in doing politics differently and I want people from diverse and different groups to be part of the Labour Party and part of our political system.”
The ambitious comic had previously teased a run as the Labour candidate for Mayor of London – but given the incumbent Labour Mayor Sadiq Khan is hugely popular, it’s highly unlikely there’ll be a vacancy in the post anytime soon.
In an interview in the Guardian, Izzard – who identifies as transgender – suggested he now plans to run for Parliament instead at the next election, currently scheduled for 2021.
He said: “The plan was always to run [for office] in 2020, though Theresa May has changed that with her failed power grab. So now it’s the first general election after 2020.”
The star added that he would give up performing entirely if elected.
The comic said: “I would. It’s like [former MP] Glenda Jackson; she gave up acting for 25 years to concentrate on it, then she turns up back as King Lear.”
In the same interview, Izzard opened up about coming out as trans.
The comic explained that coming out as trans was by far one of the scariest things he could do, and in turn that made other obstacles less threatening.
“I think coming out as transgender allowed me to put myself in other terrifying situations and work them out once I was in them.
“I knew I would get through the bad, terrifying bit – and there was a lot of that when I was a street performer – and eventually get to a more interesting place.”
Izzard sometimes presents as male and sometimes as female.
Eddie Izzard (Photo by Matthew Horwood/Getty Images)
Opening up about his gender in 2016 during a marathon challenge, he said: “I use it as a badge of identity – I am a transgender guy who came out 31 years ago.”
The star went on to explain that he often identifies as female and male – but that he felt society should not become so “obsessed” with gender.
“I’ve got boy genetics and girl genetics. We get obsessed by it in humanity. We’ve been obsessed for 5,000 years of civilisation and people are still being murdered – in Uganda they were trying to sentence people to death.
“If you look at a tiger, you go ‘ooh, tiger!’, we don’t go ‘girl tiger’ or ‘boy tiger’. We are obsessed by the genders because we grow up in one gender or another. No other animal is obsessed by our gender – they don’t give a monkeys about our gender.”
Izzard added that sexuality and gender identity should not matter, but rather what you do in life should be what defines a person.
“No matter what sex or sexuality, how you self-identity, or who you fancy, matters not one whit – what do you do in life? What do you make? What do you add to the human existence? That’s what’s matters.
“It all comes back to Nelson Mandela: Try and put something into the world, and leave something positive.
“The confidence that it has given me, coming out 31 years ago in 1985, is immense – but it was a very hard journey. Very hard.”
Gay dating app Grindr is sharing the HIV status of its users with outside firms, it has been revealed.
A Norwegian nonprofit has discovered that the information is being shared with two private companies that help “optimise” apps, Localytics and Apptimize.
The information also includes users’ screen names, GPS data, email address and phone ID.
“Thousands of companies use these highly-regarded platforms. These are standard practices in the mobile app ecosystem,” Grindr Chief Technology Officer Scott Chen told BuzzFeed, who verified the claims.
“No Grindr user information is sold to third parties. We pay these software vendors to utilise their services.”
“The limited information shared with these platforms is done under strict contractual terms that provide for the highest level of confidentiality, data security, and user privacy.”
Grindr’s privacy policy warns users that information shared on the platform can be disclosed.
James Krellenstein, a member of ACT UP New York, told BuzzFeed: “To then have that data shared with third parties that you weren’t explicitly notified about, and having that possibly threaten your health or safety — that is an extremely, extremely egregious breach of basic standards that we wouldn’t expect from a company that likes to brand itself as a supporter of the queer community.”
The company also shares users’ sexual orientation, relationship status, “tribe,” and ethnicity with the companies if the information is listed in their profile.
It is the latest Grindr security flaw to be exposed in the past month after it was revealed location data is being shared, even when users opt out.
The security flaws were discovered by Trevor Faden after he created C*ckblocked, a website that enabled Grindr users to find out who had blocked them.
In order to take advantage of the feature, users were made to enter their username and password.
Once they had, Mr Faden was able access a large amount of private data, including unread messages, deleted photos and user location data.
Allowing young transgender people to use their chosen name drastically reduces the likelihood they will attempt suicide, suffer depression or have suicidal thoughts, new research has found.
The study, published in the Journal of Adolescent Health, discovered that this simple act made a huge difference to the trans people they interviewed, who were between the ages of 15 and 21.
Researchers asked if these teenagers and young adults could use their chosen name at school, work, home and with friends.
When compared with trans youths who weren’t able to use their real names in any situation, respondents who could go by their chosen name anywhere experienced 71 percent fewer symptoms of severe depression.
They also reported 34 percent fewer thoughts of suicide, and – perhaps most notably – a 65 percent decrease in suicide attempts.
The researchers, led by a team at The University of Texas at Austin, conducted the study of 129 trans youths across the country ahead of yesterday’s Transgender Day of Visibility.
Around two-thirds had been bullied, and more than four in five had self-harmed.
Study author Stephen T. Russell, professor and chair of human development and family science, said: “Many kids who are transgender have chosen a name that is different than the one that they were given at birth.
“We showed that the more contexts or settings where they were able to use their preferred name, the stronger their mental health was.”
Russell expected to find a connection between whether trans youths could use their chosen name and their mental health, but still, he was shocked by his results.
“I’ve been doing research on LGBT youth for almost 20 years now, and even I was surprised by how clear that link was,” he said.
“It’s respectful and developmentally appropriate.”
Earlier this year, Sarah McBride, press secretary of the Human Rights Campaign, spoke out about the importance of embracing transgender children, saying that a family’s acceptance can be the difference between life and death.
She said: “I remember when a mom of a transgender daughter said: ‘When my child came out, I was faced with a decision — whether I wanted a happy daughter or a dead son.’”
Receiving an HIV diagnosis can change your life overnight and will probably stir up a cocktail of emotions. However, reading blogs written by other people who have HIV and healthcare professionals can help you understand you’re not alone.
HIV blogs, written by those with HIV and healthcare professionals, can provide coping strategies and support.
HIV now affects roughly 1.1 million people in the United States, and of these, roughly 1 in 7 won’t know that they have it.
Research and improved treatments are now enabling more and more people with HIV to lead better-quality lives and live longer than ever before.
Though therapies for HIV have come on in leaps and bounds, if the condition progresses, it is still a “significant cause of death” among specific populations.
If HIV is left untreated, it may develop into AIDS — which was responsible for around 6,721 deaths in 2014.
If your condition is properly managed by taking medication, avoiding illness, and making healthful lifestyle choices, you will be able to lead a near-normal life with HIV. Getting support from friends, family, and specialist organizations is also important.
Blogs written by medical professionals who specialize in HIV and those who have been through similar experiences as you are out there and may provide support and tips for coping with the condition on a daily basis.
Medical News Today have selected the 10 best blogs for HIV and AIDS.
BETA
BETA was first launched in 1988 as a community-based magazine that reported news on HIV treatment, prevention, and care. The magazine shifted to an online publication in 2013 to celebrate BETA’s 25th birthday.
BETA remains a leading source of information on new developments in preventing HIV, evolving therapies to treat HIV, and strategies to help those with HIV to live well with the virus.
POZ is an online and print publication for people affected by HIV and AIDS. POZ magazine and POZ.com are estimated to reach more than 70 percent of U.S. individuals who are aware that they have HIV.
POZ offers daily news on HIV, updates on the most recent treatment breakthroughs, investigative features, personal stories, and a social network that addresses the needs of those with HIV and AIDS.
Mark S. King is an author, HIV advocate, and the writer of the blog My Fabulous Disease. His blog has received numerous awards, including the National Lesbian and Gay Journalist Association’s “Excellence in Blogging” honor for the years 2014 and 2016.
My Fabulous Disease features snippets from King’s life living as a gay man with HIV and who is also recovering from drug addiction, as well as frank opinion, debate, and inspirational writing.
Josh Robbins learned in 2012 that he was HIV-positive. He created the blog I’m Still Josh to let the world know that while being HIV-positive is part of his life’s story, it is not what defines him as a person.
Through his blog, Josh hopes to help people who are HIV-positive and -negative to find hope through his experiences. He also aspires to help others avoid receiving the same diagnosis as him, and to help people who are HIV-positive to realize that their diagnosis is just the start of entering a new world.
Kenn Chaplin was diagnosed with HIV in 1989, has experienced many AIDS-related illnesses, and is the author of the blog My Journey with AIDS…and More!
His blog began in 1993 as a letter to a dying friend and morphed into the record of his thoughts, feelings, activities, and life that it is today. Kenn says that although HIV and AIDS are an important part of his journey, he has many other interests and goes off on tangents regularly.
The Body is an HIV and AIDS resource that uses information as a tool to lower the barriers between those with HIV and clinicians, and demystify HIV and its potential treatments.
The Body’s board of experts provides high-quality information to help improve the quality of life for those living with HIV and AIDS, and its mission is to “foster community through human connection.”
Positive Peers is a social media app that is designed for young adults, between the ages of 13 and 34, who are living with HIV.
Positive Peers was developed with the vision that their users will feel less isolation and stigma and have better health outcomes due to being able to use the app’s tools to self-manage their condition.
Justin B. Terry Smith has been living with HIV since 2005. He lives in Laurel, MD, with his husband and two sons, who are 18 and 20 years old.
Justin has been an HIV and Gay Civil Rights activist since 1999. He has written for many publications and created the blog Justin’s HIV Journal to share the trials and tribulations of living with HIV and advocating for HIV education, awareness, and prevention.
A Girl Like Me is an online blog from The Well Project, which is a non-profit organization devoted to changing the course of the “HIV/AIDS pandemic” with a specific focus on women and girls.
The Well Project was initially founded as a response to there being so little information designed for women and girls living with HIV. They focus on education through information, advocacy, and support.
Peter Scott founded NAM aidsmap in 1987, while he was working with a community affected by HIV. He wanted to address misinformation about HIV and AIDS, most of which was homophobic or inaccurate.
NAM believes that the key to fighting HIV and AIDS is having clear and accurate information available. Having concise information helps people to protect themselves, look after others, and challenge discrimination and stigma.
When it comes to aging-related concerns, older LGBT adults worry most about having adequate family and other social support to rely on as they age, discrimination in long-term care (LTC) facilities, and access to LGBT-sensitive services for seniors, according to a new AARP survey. Black and Latino LGBT adults report the greatest concern about future family and social supports, and greater worry about potential abuse in LTC facilities because of their race/ethnicity and sexual orientation/gender identity.
The survey, “Maintaining Dignity: Understanding and Responding to the Challenges Facing Older LGBT Americans,” found gay men and lesbians have similar concerns about whether they’ll have enough family and/or social support. However, gay men are more likely than lesbians to be single, live alone, and have smaller support systems, which may put them at higher risk for isolation as they age. Transgender adults also report smaller support systems and are at an increased risk of isolation, while bisexuals are least likely to be “out” within health systems.
“Older LGBT adults often have serious concerns about aging with dignity, compounded primarily by fears of discrimination and lack of social support,” said Nii-Quartelai Quartey, Ed.D., AARP Senior Advisor and LGBT Liaison. “LGBT adults are clearly saying that they want LGBT-sensitive long-term care and other services.”
Over half (52 percent) of LGBT adults said they fear discrimination in health care as they age. A majority are especially concerned about facing neglect, abuse, and verbal or physical harassment in LTC facilities, with Black LGBT adults reporting the highest level of concern.
Most LGBT adults (88 percent) want providers in LTC facilities who are specifically trained to meet LGBT patient needs. They also want some providers or staff who are themselves LGBT.
Nearly one-third of older LGBT adults were at least somewhat worried about having to hide their LGBT identity in order to have access to suitable housing options.
“With well over a million LGBT seniors in the US, a number that will double by 2030, this is an opportunity for the health care and housing industries to step up and meet the needs of this growing demographic that aspires to thrive not hide as they age” said Quartey.
Wendy Becker, who married her longtime partner, Mary Norton, in Massachusetts in 2006, told NPR that she welcomes the change.
“It really normalizes our experience on an American government form so that everybody looking at it and everybody filling it out sees that we exist,” said Becker, who is part of an early census test run in Rhode Island.
Article 1 of the U.S. Constitution requires that a population count be taken every 10 years. The first census was taken in 1790; the 2020 census will be the 24th count.
The data gathered in the census is used for reapportioning seats in the U.S. House of Representatives and calculating the distribution of federal funds to state and local governments. The number of representatives allocated to each state also determines the number of electors each state has in a presidential election.
By law, the Census Bureau cannot share answers from individual persons with the CIA, FBI, Internal Revenue Service or any other government agency.
Cecilia Chung, senior director of strategic projects for the Transgender Law Center, told NPR that she’d like to see the Census Bureau add additional questions about sexual orientation and gender identity.
“You know, these are all labels,” Chung said. “But if we don’t have the proper labels when we try to look at the picture, there will be a lot of missing pieces, like jigsaw puzzles.”
There is “no medically valid reason” to exclude transgender people from serving in the military, the nation’s largest medical organization told Defense Secretary Jim Mattis on Wednesday in a letter.
The American Medical Association said the Pentagon’s recent evaluation of the requirements to accommodate transgender personnel “mischaracterized and rejected the wide body of peer-reviewed research on the effectiveness of transgender medical care.”
The letter from CEO James Madara, first obtained by POLITICO, also slams the suggestion that the cost of providing medical care to transgender troops should be a reason to keep them out of the military.
“The financial cost is negligible and a rounding error in the defense budget,” Madara writes. “It should not be used as a reason to deny patriotic Americans an opportunity to serve their country. We should be honoring their service.”
A 2016 study conducted by the government-funded RAND Corporation estimated nearly 4,000 transgender troops are serving on active duty and in the reserves. Advocacy groups estimate the number is much higher, around 15,000.
The RAND study also estimated paying for the transition-related healthcare of transgender troops would cost between $2.4 million and $8.4 million each year, a less-than-1 percent increase in active-duty healthcare costs.
The Trump administration announced in March that it will follow through on the president’s controversial pledge to ban transgender troops from serving, but left many of the implementation details up to Mattis. The retired Marine general said in his recommendation to Trump that most transgender people who have been diagnosed with gender dysphoria — including those who required medical treatment or surgery — will be disqualified to serve in the military.
But the AMA strongly disputes the rationale being used.
“We believe there is no medically valid reason — including a diagnosis of gender dysphoria — to exclude transgender individuals from military service,” it says. “Transgender individuals have served, and continue to serve, our country with honor, and we believe they should be allowed to continue doing so.”
Several federal courts have issued temporary injunctions, preventing the Trump administration from implementing the ban until the courts rule on whether it is unconstitutional to bar a group of people from serving based on their gender identity.
