GayTalk-Milk, Dybul, Polygamy, AIDS, Catholic, Iran, Academy Awards

1/23/2009 - 1 hr

GayTalk at 9 AM (PST). Call in during the live show (347) 237-5246 otherwise call voicemail at (360) 283-5052 or send me email tom@2015Place.com . Today I'll talk about the Academy Awards, Obama axing Dybul, polygamy in Canada, Catholic taxes in San Francisco, gays in Iran
and more.

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I have started a new project to create a dedicated LGBT Channel/Station. To hear more about this, click here. Donations and or sponsors are welcome. Please click here to donate.

All the best to you and yours.

GayTalk - LGBA, Barney Frank, AIDS, Jim Carrey, Shaun Dykes, Abstinence

1/21/2009 - 1 hr

GayTalk at 9 AM (PST). Call in during the live show (347) 237-5246 otherwise call voicemail at (360) 283-5052 or send me email tom@2015Place.com . Some of the topics today include AIDS activist in Senegal arrested, Barney Frank speaks, Jim Carrey plays gay man and Abstinence doesn't work.

Click here to listen.

I have started a new project to create a dedicated LGBT Channel/Station. To hear more about this, click here. Donations and or sponsors are welcome. Please click here to donate.

All the best to you and yours.

Gaytalk-AIDS, DALLAS, TN, ACLU, CATHOLIC, SCIENTOLOGY, OBAMA

1/15/2009 - 1 hr 30 min

GayTalk at 9 AM (PST). Call in (347) 237-5246. 1996 Obama supported gay marriage. Scientologists Targeting HIV-Positive Protesters. Atlanta protest Rick Warren. ACLU sues Health and Human Services. Dallas County overturns condom ban.

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GayTalk-Dr. Phil, Noah and Luke, Gay Marriage, Seattle, AIDS, Oprah

Gaytalk Internet Radio Talk Show, daily at 9 AM (PST)

1/14/2009 - 1 hr 30 min

Dr. Phil puts mother of transgender on the spot. Luke and Noah finally do the nasty. Maine legislature to consider gay marriage. Seattle Rev. Ed Bacon tells Oprahs gays are Gods gift... and more

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Video: HIV/AIDS is still a big deal

HIV/AIDS is still a big deal.

Spread the video.

http://www.hivbigdeal.org

Uganda refuses HIV assistance for "outlawed homosexuals"

By Frank Nyakairu Reuters

KAMPALA (Reuters) - Uganda's government said on Monday it would not focus any of its HIV/AIDS prevention and treatment programmes on outlawed homosexuals because the east African country is short of funds.

"Gays are one of the drivers of HIV in Uganda, but because of meagre resources we cannot direct our programmes at them at this time," the chairman of the Uganda AIDS Commission, Kihumuro Apuuli, told reporters in the capital Kampala.

He said the government planned to focus its work on other high risk groups such as sex workers, truck drivers, remote fishing communities and members of the armed forces.

full article

Fort Wayne AIDS Memorial Damaged By Vandals

by 365Gay.com Newscenter Staff

(Fort Wayne, Indiana) Sections of a memorial to people in the Fort Wayne area who have died as a result of HIV/AIDS have been toppled and badly damaged.

A stone pedestal that supported a statue of an angel was pushed over, and the statue smashed.

The vandalism was discovered by Otis Vincent who created the memorial after his son died of AIDS in 1995. He has spent the past four years working on the memorial in Lindenwood Cemetery.

full article

Activist Brian Watson honored by GLAA, along with five others

Brian Watson likes to fix things.

But a decade before making Washington his home and establishing himself as one of the city's most prominent young GLBT activists, the Oklahoma native was battling his own personal demons that had set his life on a dangerous path.


''[A friend] had died from AIDS and when I saw him in the casket, I got a reality check,'' Watson, now 26, says of the ''darkest period'' of his life. It was a rebellious time of partying, skipping school, and avoiding routine that sparked from the rejection he faced as a gay teen from his beloved local church.


Today local D.C. residents and activists know Watson as the Director of Programs at Transgender Health Empowerment (THE) and president of the D.C. Coalition of Black Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transgender Men and Women. He is a proactive member of a handful of other GBLT, HIV/AIDS and health-related organizations, and serves on the Advisory Committee to the Mayor's Office of LGBT Affairs.


full article

China's Anti-Gay Crackdown

The wave of repression and intimidation of human rights activists and dissidents in China in advance of the Beijing Olympics has also targeted homosexuals, according to China's best-known gay and AIDS activist.

In an email, Dr. Wan Yanhai reported that the month of March saw numerous police raids on gay gathering spots in Beijing and Shanghai, and he said that the evidence of a new pre-Olympic crackdown on gays is so widespread it is clear it is being orchestrated "at the national level."

Wan is not just anybody. A former official of China's Ministry of Public Health, he was fired in 1994 for his participation in AIDS information and prevention campaigns and for his support of full equal rights for homosexuals.

After being purged from the ministry, Wan founded the AIDS-fighting Aizhixing Action Project (the Chinese characters for "Aizhixing" represent love, knowledge, and action, and are a play on the Chinese word for AIDS). The association also works for freedom of expression on the Internet and is active on behalf of LGBT rights.

In 2002, Wan was kidnapped by the authorities and then arrested for having disseminated an internal government report on the contaminated blood scandal in China, in which some estimates say as many as a million people were infected with HIV through transfusions in 23 of China's 30 provinces. Wan was freed after a month in prison following a worldwide campaign for his liberation that received enormous publicity.

In 2006, Wan was again arrested for having accused the Chinese government of "falling asleep" in the face of the mushrooming AIDS crisis. An international AIDS conference he organized in China for that time was canceled on the government's order.

South African Nobel Peace Prize Laureate Bishop Desmond Tutu, in San Francisco to receive an award on April 8 from the International Gay and Lesbian Human Rights Commission (IGLHRC) for his work on behalf of lesbian and gay rights, used the occasion to call on world leaders to boycott the opening ceremonies of the Beijing Olympics. Tutu praised the willingness of people around the world to protest China's repression of Tibet and on its own soil.

full article

Police Detain Gay Rights Campaigner As Olympic Torch Is Paraded Through London

LONDON, April 6, 2008 – Peter Tatchell, the gay human rights campaigner, was detained by police this afternoon in London as the Olympic torch was controversially paraded through the capital on its way to Beijing. He was held briefly before being released with a warning.

Mr. Tatchell was protesting the arrest and imprisonment last week of Chinese human rights activist Hu Jia, an Aids activist working in China’s gay community and beyond, who was convicted for ‘inciting subversion of state power’ by the Beijing Municipal No 1 Intermediate People’s Court and sentenced to three and a half years imprisonment.

It was in Oxford Street that Mr. Tatchell jumped in front of the slow-moving VIP bus accompanying the torch.

He jumped into the road carrying a placard: “Free Tibet; Free Hu Jia”.

full article

Conviction of Human Rights Activist Betrays China’s Olympic Promises – Amnesty

Hu Jia, an Aids activist working in China’s gay community and beyond, was convicted for ‘inciting subversion of state power’ by the Beijing Municipal No 1 Intermediate People’s Court early this morning.

Hu, 34, has repeatedly criticised the Chinese authorities’ failures to deliver an effective AIDS prevention and care programme.

“This verdict (a 3 year imprisonment) is a slap in the face for Hu Jia and a warning to any other activists in China who dare to raise human rights concerns publicly,” said Mark Allison, Amnesty International’s East Asia Team Researcher.

“It also betrays promises made by Chinese officials that human rights would improve in the run-up to the Olympics."

full article

CDC report release slow and underhanded

On Wednesday the CDC finally released data it had long held internally that demonstrates an alarming increase in the number of HIV/AIDS cases among young African-American men who have sex with men (MSM).

No one seems to know why it took more than a year for the data analysis to become public -- the data itself is now three years old -- or why it was released by email as a "slide set" with little fanfare or press attention.

What the analysis shows, however, should be cause for great alarm.

CDC HIV/AIDS Update: New Surveillance Slide Set on Men Who Have Sex with Men (MSM) reports that of the almost one million AIDS cases reported through 2005, 81 percent were in males.

Perhaps the reason the Administration delayed the release of the data is because the majority of AIDS cases among men can be attributed to male-to-male contact (59 percent). In fact, from 2001 to 2005, the number of HIV/AIDS cases increased among adult and adolescent men who have sex with men (MSM) in all age groups. The largest proportional increase occurred among MSM ages 13-24, with young African American/black MSM in this age category suffering the largest increase -- up almost 80 percent from 2001 to 2005!

Is homophobia fueling an irrational and dangerous response to a public health epidemic that has plagued us for more than 25 years? I wouldn't be surprised. After all this is the administration that has poured more than $1 billion into abstinence-only-until-marriage programs-programs that at their best ignore the existence of gay youth and at their worst demonize homosexuality.

Isn't it time we demanded a rational and more urgent public health response to an epidemic that has killed so many? Young men who have sex with men are becoming infected with HIV at an alarming rate. They need information. They need services. They have the right to respect and acceptance.

Until honest education and access to services become common, the lion's share of the blame for the increase in HIV/AIDS among young MSM will continue to rest squarely with the President who has championed failed abstinence-only programs, the legislators that have funded them, and all those who perpetuate or tolerate homophobia.

full article

Barcelona Mayor officiates gay marriage

Legendary international and Spanish LGBT rights advocate Jordi Petit has tied the knot with his partner of seven years, Frenchman Yves Bohic, in a ceremony held yesterday in Barcelona that was officiated by the city's mayor, Jordi Hereu.

Jordi has been in the trenches as back as the 1970's when Spain was still under dictator Francisco Franco's rule and gays and lesbians were being persecuted (Jordi had already been arrested a few times for his political involvement by the time he became active in the LGBT-rights in the late 1970's).

His unwavering commitment to LGBT rights and HIV/AIDS activism brought him acclaim that led to increasing international involvement. From 1995 to 1999 he was elected as the Secretary General of the International Lesbian and Gay Association (ILGA) through which he used his formidable talents to address worldwide LGBT human rights violations.

CALIFORNIA: Free counseling around Salinas

For people impacted by HIV/AIDS, a new program called CATS - Counseling and Therapy Services - has been developed by Community Human Services, a nonprofit agency focused on mental health issues and recovery from substance abuse.

CATS provides psychotherapy in both English and Spanish to individuals with, at risk of or impacted by HIV/AIDS. It also offers counseling for lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender individuals, as well as those questioning their sexual orientation, couples and families. Counseling is free for Monterey County residents who meet the eligibility criteria.

The program offers support and counseling services by a staff affirmative to those with sexual orientation issues, including a therapist, in five clinics throughout the county. Two are in Salinas and one each in Seaside, Monterey and King City. Community Human Services has its main office at 1083 S. Main St. in Salinas.

Xavier Schmetz, a master's in social work intern, is a program coordinator who became motivated to provide mental health assistance to the lesbian-gay-bisexual-transgender-questioning community after his own coming-out experience.

http://thecalifornian.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20071207/LIFESTYLE07/712070318/1031

Eye on the world: Uganda

Anytime I see Bush shake the hand of a foreign politician I wonder, how much of the tax payers money did that cost?

So when I saw him praising the much talked about president of Uganda I had to wonder what was going on.

There is a lot of money going into Uganda that is ear marked for AIDS. There has been previous donor controversy.

In 1999, President Yoweri Museveni declared that he had ordered the police to detain and charge any homosexuals that they came across. This was an ultimate show of the defiant nature some leaders exhibit in regards to the denial of a group of people the protection that they deserve under the law, and an outright denial of basic human right principles that ought to be enjoyed equally by all people."

Authoritarian leaders like Museveni demonize homosexuality hoping to shore up their political support. This intolerance will spread until it is recognized for what it is—a threat to democracy and fundamental human rights."

According to the law, religion and culture in Uganda, homosexuality is strongly criminalized. The official maximum penalty is life imprisonment. Yoweri Museveni, the President of Uganda, once proposed the arrest of all homosexuals - though he subsequently modified his position and called for a return to the good old days when "these few individuals were either ignored or speared and killed by their parents".

In 2005 Ugandan President Yoweri Museveni signed into law constitutional amendments allowing him to stand for re-election (removing term limitations) and banning gay marriage in the east African nation.

In 2006 the Uganda Witch Hunt Escalates. A newspaper publishes names of gays/lesbians and appeals upon readers to call in more names.

In 2007 Bush meets with and praises Museveni. The two emerged from the meeting to appear for a camera opportunity with Bush praising Museveni for his push to lower the AIDS rate in the African nation by emphasizing abstinence until marriage.

Speaking of abstinence in the region. "In the first two years since the U.S.-funded focus on abstinence Uganda's rate of HIV infection has nearly doubled."

Los Angeles AIDS walk raises $3.9 million

The 23rd annual AIDS Walk Los Angeles held on Sunday set records raising more than $3.9 million. Thirty thousand walkers and volunteers participated.

TR Knight of "Grey's Anatomy," Michelle Bonilla of "ER," Andrea Bowen of "Desperate Housewives," and Kelly Carlson of "Nip/Tuck" are just a few of the celebrities who attended the event. West Hollywood mayor John Duran also welcomed the crowd that helped raise $3,905,723.

AIDS Walk Los Angeles benefits AIDS Project Los Angeles as well as 21 other AIDS organizations in L.A. County. To get involved, visit www.aidswalk.net/losangeles for more information.