Politics, pop culture and entertainment news of interest to the LGBTQ community
Georgia Gov. Brian Kemp (R) has argued against healthcare mandates by mentioning the “failed campaign to vaccinate Americans against the AIDS virus.” Except – there has never been an AIDS vaccine. Continue reading “Georgia Gov. Points To “AIDS Vaccine Mandates” To Argue COVID Mandates”
In this week’s episode of The Randy Report podcast:
• Bryan Ruby became the first active professional baseball player to come out as gay Continue reading “Podcast: Pro Baseball’s 1st Out Active Player, Buttigiegs Become Dads & More”
Some news items you may have missed:
• Pink News: ABC News producer Tony Morrison (above) publicly shared his HIV status in a powerful, poignant essay written on the eight-year anniversary of his diagnosis. “Society told me to feel humiliation.” Continue reading “News Round-Up: August 27, 2021”
A new study shows a majority of Americans say they wouldn’t feel comfortable interacting with a doctor living with HIV while almost half would feel discomfort with an HIV+ barber. Continue reading “Survey: A Large Portion Of Americans ‘Uncomfortable’ Around HIV+ Folks”
Some news items you might have missed:
• Instinct Magazine: Moderna is using the same mRNA platform as its COVID-19 vaccine to create and test two possible HIV vaccines. Both vaccines have cleared initial safety testing and are moving on to human trials. Continue reading “News Round-Up: August 16, 2021”
Some news items you might have missed:
• Uncensored The Show: I hope everyone’s Hump Day was as fab as the woman above attending Uncensored the Show here in Las Vegas.
• Irish News: A gay rights group is planning a legal challenge to a ban on sex and condoms at Maghaberry all-male prison in Northern Ireland.
• NowThis News: Eric Adams has won New York City’s Democratic primary making him a near-guarantee to be the next mayor of the city.
• The Advocate: The Food and Drug Administration is warning gay men about potential adverse effects of poppers (aka alkyl nitrate). Typically inhaled and offering a short, intense high that often includes sexual arousal, using poppers may lead to severe headaches, dizziness, increase in body temperature, difficulty breathing, and/or extreme drops in blood pressure.
• LGBTQ Nation: A new study analyzed records for 83,000 adults being treated for HIV between 1999 and 2017 and compared them to a similar group of people without HIV. For those who started treatment from 2011 to 2017, the difference in early death rates for those with HIV has dropped to just 2.7%.
• Pink News: A gay son has shared a poignant tribute to his two adoptive gay dads, who both tragically died of AIDS just five days apart. “They never got a chance to see the men we are today but they cared for us very much and gave us a life that we wouldn’t have known otherwise. It’s incredible even now, after all these years, I can still feel what it felt like to be loved that much.”
Forty years ago today, the New York Times published its first report on a “rare cancer seen in 41 homosexuals” – the first mention of what would become the HIV/AIDS epidemic.
According to the author of the piece, Lawrence K. Altman, “gay” wasn’t yet approved by the Times‘ style manual.
The cancer was Kaposi’s sarcoma, and until then it had seldom been seen in otherwise healthy young men.
We all know what happened next…
Some news items you might have missed:
• NME: Former Teen Wolf star Tyler Posey says he’s still figuring out his sexuality. “I’ve been with everybody under the sun, and right now I’m in the best relationship that I’ve ever been in with a woman, and she’s queer too. She’s helped me realize that I fit under the queer umbrella and that I’m sexually fluid, I guess.”
• them: Around 1,000 people made history this week by taking part in the first-ever Pride event at one of America’s most conservative Mormon colleges. On Monday, current and former students of Brigham Young University (BYU) gathered at Provo, Utah’s Joaquin Park before walking a mile to Kiwanis Park, a grassy expanse just east of campus.
• PBS: New Jersey Gov. Phil Murphy announced Wednesday that Andrew Bruck would be appointed acting attorney general for the remainder of Murphy’s term. Bruck will be the first openly gay attorney general in state history.
• Instinct Magazine: Gilead Sciences is looking to get its ‘once every six months’ HIV inhibitor injection, Lenacapavir, approved by the FDA.
• The Advocate: Sha’Carri Richardson, who made headlines recently for thanking her girlfriend after qualifying for the Olympics, will now miss at least part of the games due to a positive marijuana test.
USA’s Sha’Carri Richardson won’t be allowed to run in the Olympic 100-meter race due to a one-month ban for a positive marijuana test, but she could compete in relays pic.twitter.com/UpqEguoT2f
— Bleacher Report (@BleacherReport) July 2, 2021
On the eve of the 40th anniversary of the first AIDS diagnosis, the world remains caught in the grips of another frightening health epidemic – COVID.
Today, June 24, from 6:00-8:30PM EST, activist and actor Billy Porter – who just recently shared his own HIV diagnosis with the world – will join Michael Sneed, Johnson & Johnson’s EVP of Global Cultural Affairs (which in addition to helping the world fight COVID, is currently working on a HIV vaccine) for a free special screening of the award-winning documentary 5B.
The acclaimed documentary chronicles the stories of the heroic nurses who risked their lives to found the World’s first AIDS Ward.
Following the screening, Porter will chat with 5B nurse Alison Moëd Paolercio, and author Rebecca Love RN to discuss the disproportionate toll that epidemics and pandemics take on at-risk communities, the parallels between the HIV/AIDS and COVID-19 crises, and the role of nurses in driving healthcare change.
People can register here for the webinar.
Not able to join the event? Visit 5Bfilm.com to find out where to stream the movie and, after the event, view the archived fireside chat at https://nursing.jnj.com/5B-fireside-chat-with-billy-porter.
Here’s the official trailer for 5B:
Some news items you might have missed:
• Revry: On May 6th, global LGBTQ TV network, Revry, will premiere it’s first original weekly news program CULTURE Q, an innovative entertainment, pop culture, lifestyle and politics news series. Emphasizing the queer milieu, CULTURE Q stands to be the leading, weekly forum for boundary-pushing LGBTQ discussions and commentary.
• OUT: A gay man in Latvia was reportedly set on fire by a homophobic neighbor and died from the burn wounds that covered over 85% of his body. The man and his roommate had reported the numerous threats they received from their neighbor to police, but to no avail.
• Pink News: Patrick O’Connell, a venerable AIDS activist who sought to smash stigma by creating awareness campaigns including the iconic red ribbon, has died. According to his brother, Barry, O’Connell passed away at age 67 of AIDS-related causes. RIP Patrick O’Connell.
AIDS activist and creator of the red ribbon, Patrick O'Connell, dies aged 67 https://t.co/dHIhY7ekYn
— PinkNews (@PinkNews) May 5, 2021
• Billboard Music Awards: P!nk will be honored with Billboard’s ICON Award at the 2021 Billboard Music Awards on May 23. The pop star will join the pantheon of previous honorees Garth Brooks, Cher, Neil Diamond, Céline Dion, Jennifer Lopez, Prince, Stevie Wonder, Janet Jackson and Mariah Carey.
• New York Daily News: Baseball fans can get free tickets to a Yankees or Mets game if they get vaccinated against COVID at either of the team’s facilities, Gov. Cuomo announced on Wednesday. The doses available outside Citi Field and Yankee Stadium will be the one-shot Johnson & Johnson vaccine.
• Fox News: After months of being banned from social media services like Twitter, Facebook and Instagram, ‘former guy’ Donald Trump has launched a “communications platform,” which will eventually give him the ability to communicate directly with his followers. The platform, “From the Desk of Donald J. Trump” is part of Trump’s official website. Folks, it’s a blog.
Um, this “new platform” is just a blog on a personal web site that doesn’t even have a comments section. It has changed the game back to before 2008.https://t.co/IgaF4ibVqh
— Domenico Montanaro (@DomenicoNPR) May 4, 2021