The Homo Politico is moving to a new address. The new blog will be much more user-friendly and dynamic, so be sure to stop by and check it out. The webaddress www.thehomopolitico.com will now take you to the new site!
Click here to see my new home!
The Senate is expected to debate the ban on HIV+ travelers this month as part of Bush’s global AIDS relief package. The United States remains one of only 13 nations — including Iraq, Qatar and Armenia — to ban HIV+ foreign visitors and immigrants.
The U.S. has faced harsh criticism internationally for having one of the most restrictive immigration policies for HIV+ foreigners. It prompted a boycott of the U.S. by prominent AIDS advocacy and research groups, which have not held a major international conference in the U.S. since the early 1990s.
Even if Congress removes the anti-HIV language from the immigration law, it would fall to Health and Human Services to decide whether HIV should remain on the list of diseases that bar entry to the U.S., which include tuberculosis, leprosy and gonorrhea.
This story is truly amazing. Thomas Beatie, a transgender man, has decided to carry his child. He is quoted in a recent column as saying, “Wanting to have a biological child is neither a male nor female desire, but a human desire.”
Beatie is transgender, legally male, and legally married to his wife Nancy. His wife had undergone a hysterectomy and was unable to carry a child, so Beatie stopped taking his testosterone injections and got pregnant.
The situation has sparked legal, political, and social opposition. The couple has been turned away from doctors due to religious objections. Even family and friends have abandoned them, with Beatie’s brother even telling him after his first pregnancy turned out ectopic, “It’s a good thing that happened. Who knows what kind of monster it would have been.”
And the right-wing bigots keep coming to McCain’s side…
The latest fundie to join the McCain bandwagon is Janet Folger, the former national director of the Center for Reclaiming America, the ultra right-wing religious group started by the late Rev. James Kennedy. She is currently head of Faith2Action, whose focus is “stopping the criminalization of Christianity by the homosexual agenda.”
Let’s take closer look at crazy-bigot Folger, shall we? Pander away, McCain!
IN THE LIFE, the three-time Emmy Award nominated program documenting the lives and experiences of gay people nationally and abroad, presents its new episode, “Challenging Convention.” I was lucky to get a preview of the April episode (one of the perks of blogging for The Bilerico Project) and wanted to share my review with all of you.
To put it simply: It is a must see.
While I have always been a fan of ITL, this episode is especially interesting and timely. I found myself glued to my computer watching the entire show.
It is another example of why the Advocate no longer represents or advocates for the LGBT community. The magazine ran a ridiculous article in the latest issue by Jamie Kirchick, an editor at the New Republic, stating that the LGBT community should “take a second look” at McCain.
It was called “A President to be Proud of.” Ugh.
I’ve been doing research for an educational project on LGBT activism and came across this picture. I get goosebumps every time I see it. I wanted to share it, especially in light of Women’s History Month.
Four years before the Stonewall riots, in 1965, Barbara Gittings and 25 other gays and lesbians marched in front of the White House to protest employment discrimination in the federal government. The sign she carried — “Sexual preference is irrelevant to federal employment” — is now at the Smithsonian, a gift to the nation last October by fellow activist Frank Kameny.
Gittings passed away in 2007, but her memory and drive lives on. A special thanks to those who have come before us and continue to set an example of how we should continue to fight for our rights…
A group of around 30 LGBT activists and supporters carried picket signs with pictures of hate crimes victims and bearing placards that called for an end to hate speech by public officials outside of the March 13 prayer breakfast hosted by Fort Lauderdale Mayor Jim Naugle. The protest was organized by the activist groups Fight OUT Loud and Gay American Heroes.
The keynote speaker at the prayer breakfast was Jim Daly, president of the ultra right-wing religious organization Focus on the Family. FOTF is among the most aggressive opponents of the gay rights movement and one of the primary backers of an expansive anti-gay marriage amendment that goes before voters this November in Florida.
Ellen DeGeneres is on a roll! First, she comes out against the murder of Lawrence King on her day-time talk show. Now she’s taking on Sally Kern, the hate-spewing Oklahoma Legislator.
Check out the video HERE…
So I’ve been watching the Logo reality show, A Transamerican Love Story, which is a bachelor-style dating show featuring Calpernia Addams, a transwoman looking for love. The show is super-queer, with every sexual orientation and gender identity under the sun. There are straight men, gay men, and transmen, all fighting for Calpernia’s affections.
I have actually enjoyed the show. It is very light-hearted and doesn’t seem to care who a person is, as long as they give good TV. There are the same silly challenges and fights that make other reality shows so addicting, but with a new, gender-queer bent. Sexuality and gender are literally thrown to the wind, something I always think is a great message.
I wanted to blog about it because I am curious as to what everyone else thinks. Some of my thoughts after the jump…
