Category: Uncategorized

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Chairman Of Joint Chiefs Of Staff: Trans People Who Meet Physical/Mental Standards Should Be Allowed To Serve

General Joseph Dunford

You’ll recall that when Donald Trump announced the surprise news of his proposed ban on transgender folks serving in the U.S. military, it was “after consultation with my Generals and military experts.”

But it appears that may not be quite accurate.

The Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, General Joseph Dunford, recently appeared before the Senate Armed Services Committee and was asked whether transgender service members should be allowed to serve by New York Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand.

Via Pink News:

General Dunford replied: “I would say that I believe that any individual who meets the physical and mental standards and is worldwide deployable and is currently serving should be afforded the opportunity to continue to serve.”

Asked to give assurances to transgender troops, he said: “I can promise that that will be my advice. What I just articulated is the advice I provided in private, and I’ve just provided in public.”

Senator Gillibrand also asked Dunford if he had met with transgender troops to address their concerns about the potential new policy.

He said: “I have not since August when the announcement was made, but I will certainly do that, Senator.”

The Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff is the highest-ranking military officer in the United States Armed Forces.

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Alabama: Birmingham City Council Passes Anti-Discrimination Ordinance, First In State

Years in the making, the Birmingham City Council has passed a fully inclusive non-discrimination ordinance – the first in the state of Alabama – by a unanimous vote of 7-0.

Mayor William Bell has announced he will sign the ordinance into law immediately.

Via Equality Alabama:

“Today is a monumental victory for everyone who lives and works in Birmingham who are now fully protected from discrimination in employment, housing, and public accommodations. Before this ordinance was passed, you could get married on Saturday then on Monday be fired from your job, evicted from your home, or denied service because you’re LGBTQ,” said Alex Smith, executive director of Equality Alabama. “No one should be discriminated against because of who they are or whom they love, and Birmingham took action today to ensure that.”

“Today is a great day to be from Birmingham,” said Fran Hutchins, Deputy Director of Equality Federation. “I’m so proud of Equality Alabama and their partners on the ground to make this important policy possible.”

“Birmingham now joins more than 200 counties and cities in the United States that prohibit employment discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation and gender identity. Our neighbors in Jackson, MS, passed a fully inclusive non-discrimination ordinance over a year ago. In Alabama, both Huntsville and Mobile have human rights commissions, and Montevallo is poised to pass non-discrimination protections for its LGBTQ citizens.

The Human Rights Campaign issued this statement:

“Today, the City of Birmingham made history in Alabama by taking a crucial step toward ensuring LGBTQ residents are protected from discrimination,” said Chad Griffin, president of the Human Rights Campaign. “In doing so, Birmingham joins Jackson and Magnolia, Mississippi in setting an example for cities across the South to follow. Now, it is time for all southern cities to guarantee the right of LGBTQ people to live their lives free from discrimination.”

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Centers For Disease Control: STDs Cases Reached All-Time High In 2016

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention released its annual Sexually Transmitted Disease Surveillance Report today and the news isn’t good.

There were over 2 million cases of STDs reported in 2016 – the most ever reported in one year.

Via press release:

The majority of these new diagnoses (1.6 million) were cases of chlamydia. There were also 470,000 gonorrhea cases and almost 28,000 cases of primary and secondary syphilis – the most infectious stages of the disease. While all three of these STDs can be cured with antibiotics, if left undiagnosed and untreated, they can have serious health consequences, including infertility, life-threatening ectopic pregnancy, stillbirth in infants, and increased risk for HIV transmission.

“Increases in STDs are a clear warning of a growing threat,” said Jonathan Mermin, M.D., M.P.H., director of CDC’s National Center for HIV/AIDS, Viral Hepatitis, STD, and TB Prevention. “STDs are a persistent enemy, growing in number, and outpacing our ability to respond.”

Epidemic accelerating in multiple populations—impact growing in women, infants, and gay and bisexual men.

While young women continue to bear the greatest burden of chlamydia (nearly half of all diagnosed infections), surges in syphilis and gonorrhea are increasingly affecting new populations.

Syphilis rates increased by nearly 18 percent overall from 2015 to 2016. The majority of these cases occur among men – especially gay, bisexual and other men who have sex with men (MSM). However, there was a 36 percent increase in rates of syphilis among women and a 28 percent increase in syphilis among newborns (congenital syphilis) during this period.

More than 600 cases of congenital syphilis were reported in 2016, which has resulted in more than 40 deaths and severe health complications among newborns. The disease is preventable through routine screening and timely treatment for syphilis among pregnant women.

While gonorrhea increased among men and women in 2016, the steepest increases were seen among men (22 percent). Research suggests that a large share of new gonorrhea cases are occurring among MSM. These trends are particularly alarming in light of the growing threat of drug resistance to the last remaining recommended gonorrhea treatment.

MSM also bear a great syphilis burden. MSM make up a majority of syphilis cases, and half of MSM diagnosed with syphilis were also living with HIV – pointing to the need to integrate STD and HIV prevention and care services.

We know more and more gay men are using PrEP as a daily defense against HIV infection. But we also know that PrEP offers no protection against STDs.

Be careful out there, men.

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San Antonio Spurs Coach Gregg Popovich: Unless Race Is Talked About, It’s Not Going To Get Better

San Antonio Spurs head coach Gregg Popovich

During a press conference yesterday, San Antonio Spurs head coach Gregg Popovich shared his thoughts on the current #TakeAKnee protests by professional athletes regarding injustices and treatment of black Americans.

Popovich told the press, in part, “There has to be an uncomfortable element in the discourse for anything to change.”

Obviously, you know, race is the elephant in the room and we all understand that. Unless it is talked about constantly, it’s not going to get better. People get bored. ‘Oh, is it that again. They pulled the race card again. Why do we have to talk about that?’

Well, because it’s uncomfortable. There has to be an uncomfortable element in the discourse for anything to change. You know, whether it’s the LGBT movement, or women’s suffrage, race – it doesn’t matter.

People have to be made to feel uncomfortable, and especially white people, because we’re comfortable. We still have no clue what being born white means. And, if you read some of the recent literature, you realize there really is no such thing as whiteness. We kind of made it up. That’s not my original thought, but it’s true.

It’s hard to sit down and decide that, yes, it’s like you’re at the 50-meter mark in a 100-meter dash. You’ve got that kind of a lead, yes, because you were born white. You have advantages that are systemically, culturally, psychologically there. And they’ve been built up and cemented for hundreds of years.

But many people can’t look at it. It’s too difficult. It can’t be something that’s on their plate on a daily basis. People want to hold their position, people want their status quo, people don’t want to give that up. And until it’s given up, it’s not going to be fixed.

Watch those remarks below, and you can see the full 21-minute speech here.

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60 Years Ago Today: West Side Story Opens On Broadway

Sixty years ago today, a rumble began at the Winter Garden Theater on Broadway as West Side Story took the theater world by storm.

With a book by Arthur Laurents, music by Leonard Bernstein, lyrics by Stephen Sondheim, direction and choreography by Jerome Robbins, the edgy, urban musical has returned to Broadway several times and the movie adaptation went on to win 10 Academy Awards including Best Picture.

I made my debut as a professional actor in West Side Story back in 1984, and appeared in the show several times again. Along the way I played “Riff,” “Action,” “Snow Boy,” and “Baby John.” So the brilliance that is West Side Story resonates deeply for me.

My last experience with the show was choreographing a production in San Diego where I got to pass on some of what I learned over those years as a member of the “Jets.”

I don’t think there’s an actor/singer/dancer alive in the musical theater that isn’t inspired by the creative genius and visceral acting opportunities of WSS.

Me sitting in front rehearsing the Sharks in “Prologue” in 2016
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Sportscaster Dale Hansen: “All Of Us Should Protest How Black Americans Are Treated In This Country”

Dallas sportscaster Dale Hansen gets to the heart of the current #TakeAKnee movement in classic Hansen fashion.

Via USAToday:

Donald Trump has said he supports a peaceful protest because it’s an American’s right. But not this protest, and there’s the problem: Any protest you don’t agree with is a protest that should be stopped.

Martin Luther King should have marched across a different bridge. Young, black Americans should have gone to a different college and found a different lunch counter. And college kids in the 60s had no right to protest an immoral war.

[snip]

The young, black athletes are not disrespecting America or the military by taking a knee during the anthem. They are respecting the best thing about America. It’s a dog whistle to the racists among us to say otherwise.

They, and all of us, should protest how black Americans are treated in this country. And if you don’t think white privilege is a fact, you don’t understand America.

Hansen concludes with the suggestion that “maybe we all need to read the Constitution again.”

Yet again, Dale Hansen for the win.

Watch below.

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All 8 Seasons Of “Will & Grace” Available On Hulu

Getting excited for Thursday night’s premiere of the first new episode of Will & Grace in 11 years?

If you want to go back and relive the hilarity of those first 8 seasons, head over to Hulu. The streaming service has struck a deal to make all 194 original episodes available. The full 8 seasons are up and ready to be screened right now.

AND – Hulu will have the new episodes available one day after each show airs.

“Will & Grace” is back this Thursday, Sept. 28 at 9 p.m.

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Ellen DeGeneres: “Trump Is Dividing Us All And I Just Don’t Want Him On My Show”

Megyn Kelly (L) and Ellen DeGeneres (R)

Donald Trump will not be sitting for a chat on ELLEN – this we now know for sure.

Speaking with Megyn Kelly in advance of her new morning talk show Megyn Kelly Today, DeGeneres asked if she would want to interview Trump on her new talk show.

“I would not say no to the sitting president of the United States,” Kelly answered. “Would you?”

“Yeah,” DeGeneres said to a roar of applause. “He is who he is and he has enough attention and he has his Twitter account and he has ways to get his message across. There’s nothing that I’m going to say to him that’s going to change him.”

“I don’t want to give him a platform because it validates him and for me to have someone on the show I have to at least admire them in some way. And I can’t have someone that I feel is not only dangerous for the country and for me personally as a gay woman but to the world. He is dividing all of us and I just don’t want him on my show,” DeGeneres added.

During her time on the air, DeGeneres has hosted U.S. presidents Barack Obama and George W. Bush on her show.

Watch below.