Category Archives: Sexuality

Jun 22 1 comments
Anti-LGBT, Health, LGBT, Sexuality

Domestic violence: ‘keep it quiet’

The mayor of Mulberry, Fla., was attacked by his partner in the early morning hours of Friday, June 19.

According to news station WTSP Channel 10, 29-year-old Eugene Ornelas came home at 5 a.m. in the morning with someone he met at a local bar. Ornelas is Mayor Julian Mullis’ partner. The couple has two children.

From the story:

The attack allegedly happened on a peaceful street in Mulberry early Friday morning inside the home of Mayor Julian Mullis. It’s a home he shares with his two kids and 29-year-old Eugene Ornelas.

Mullis told police that he and Ornelas are in a relationship and live together as a family unit.

Things got heated, though, when Ornelas brought a stranger home from a club at five in the morning. Steve Peacock is the Interim Chief of Police in Mulberry and says, “It was Mr. Ornelas, who I guess lost his cool somehow, and began throwing articles inside the residence and attempted to strike Mr. Mullis at one point but missed.”

Mullis told police that Ornelas swung at him and has Jeckel and Hyde type episodes.

Ornelas was arrested and charged with domestic violence. It’s not the first time he’s been in trouble with the law. He’s faced a DUI, possession of a controlled substance and battery charge in the past.

Some nitwit, probably slightly anti-gay, told the news station that Mullis should have “kept it quiet.”

Reaction from people who live in Mulberry is mixed. Nancy Ladner says, “I don’t have a problem with homosexuality. I don’t. Everybody has their thing they have to do. But, he is a public image in our town and he needs to keep it quiet.”

Yeah… domestic violence should be kept quiet. My god, where do these people come from?

At least some level of sanity was collected by reporters:

Heidi Strickland says, “They need to concentrate on the problems of Mulberry, not the problem of Mr. Mullis and his family, okay? They’re going to have to deal with that. Just like you have to deal with your family and I have to deal with my family. But, as long as he’s performing his job to the means that he’s supposed to be doing which, so far I haven’t seen any disagreements, then that should be the issue.”

It is quite saddening that their mayor becomes the victim of a domestic violence situation and all folks care to look at or talk about is their mayor’s sexual orientation. Sad, sad, indeed.

Double-whammy: WTSP Channel 10 wasted no time playing on the public’s anti-gay, anti-transgender emotions. Their headline for the story: “Mulberry mayor attacked by live-in cross-dresser.” Shouldn’t the headline have been, “Mulberry mayor victim of domestic violence,” or something?

Jun 11 4 comments
Anti-LGBT, Politics, Sexuality, United States

National Right to Life holds convention in Charlotte

The National Right to Life Committee, the nation’s largest anti-choice organization, will hold its annual convention in Charlotte June 18-20 (Charlotte Observer story here).

The group’s annual convention, being held at the Blake Hotel in Uptown Charlotte, will feature dozens of speakers, including anti-choice and anti-gay activists and leaders.

Get the whole story »

Mar 19 1 comments
Health, Sexuality

On N.C. sex ed, AFA-run ‘news’ site sheep break with the flock

All is not calm on the American Family Association front. Their “news” website, OneNewsNow.com, published a “story” (read: horrible piece of journalism) on the issue of comprehensive or abstinence-only sex education in North Carolina.

While the writer, Charlie Butts, gives plenty of speaking time for the N.C. Policy Research Council’s Jere Royall (nice guy, by the way) to spout out some talking points, Butts fails to mention why the story is even a story: The N.C. General Assembly is currently hearing a bill called the Healthy Youth Act. It has already passed through some preliminary committee hearings. If it becomes law it will replace North Carolina’s abstinence-only education with abstinence-based comprehensive sex education.

But, the real story of the OneNewsNow.com piece lies in the comments. It seems all the blind sheep at AFA’s propaganda machine aren’t all blind:

Preaching abstinence is not education, it is preaching. And it does not work. All the information that is available needs to be supplied to children. The role of the parent and educator is to supply information and teach them to make good decisions, not to withhold information.

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More sticking their heads in the sand as states with abstinence only educations have the highest teen pregnancy rates.

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In Gaston County, North Carolina, 500 teens became pregnant 2007. Gaston County students are only exposed to abstinence education, and contraception options are not added to the curriculum. Even the Gaston County Health Director, Colleen Bridger, admits that without better sex education, teen pregnancy numbers in the county will not drop. Bridger goes on to say: “Counties in North Carolina that teach comprehensive sex education have lower teen pregnancy rates than Gaston County. Research shows abstinence-only education doesn’t work, and I think it is time for Gaston County to try what the research shows works.”

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Oddly enough, 9 out of the top 10 states with the highest teen pregnancy rates were red states which leaned heavily on abstinance-only education. They also were southern “Bible-belt” states.

There’s really no way to know if these are conservative folks making comments or progressive folks. I’m just suprised they haven’t been censored away yet.

Mar 18 0 comments
Health, LGBT, Sexuality, United States

D.C.’s HIV blame game

Two D.C. bloggers are battling it out over the new HIV number released for Washington, D.C. Three percent of the total population there is now living with HIV.

Black Informant says the cause is risky sexual behavior among the gay and lesbian community. The Washington City Paper’s Sexist blogger says the cause is more complex than that, pushed upward by increasing rates of new infections among heterosexuals.

I wonder how Black Informant would feel if someone took these numbers and twisted them to say African-Americans were to blame:

And continuing a grim trend from the 2007 report, African Americans are bearing the brunt of this epidemic: 4.3 percent of African Americans in the District are living with HIV/AIDS; 6.5 percent of black men in the city have the disease, and African Americans account for 76 percent of HIV/AIDS cases in the District.

This HIV blame game is stupid and dangerous. It is the reason why the federal government ignored the crisis for so long in the 1980s. Anyone can find a number or statistic, put it in bold text, twist it and use it to attack a minority or community. But that’s not being brave, as Black Informant suggests. Being brave would mean actually doing something to end the crisis, not increase paranoia and prejudice.

While Black Informant is busy trying to find a scapegoat, people are getting infected and infecting others. His energy would be better spent finding a way to end the crisis.

Mar 16 2 comments
Anti-LGBT, Health, LGBT, Politics, Religion, Sexuality, United States

N.C. Christian Action league foaming at the mouth over proposed youth bills

The radically conservative Christian Action League continues to foam at the mouth, lying through their teeth in order to scare the jeepers out of their blind followers.

In a “news” piece on their website, the League claims that the North Carolina School Violence Prevention Act (a.k.a. “the anti-bullying bill”) will require schools to teach that homosexuality is normal:

The bill requires local school boards to amend their existing bullying policies to include “sexual orientation” and “gender identity or expression.” The measure would not only create a protected status in North Carolina’s public schools for homosexuality, bisexuality, cross dressing and other alternative sexual behaviors, but would also require schools to teach that these behaviors are normal and acceptable.

Although I’d certainly have no problem with such a bill, the cold, hard truth is none like that exists. The School Violence Prevention Act in no way mentions anything about teaching students about homosexuality or LGBT issues. Read the bill for yourself.

On the Healthy Youth Act, a bill that would implement comprehensive sex ed in schools, the Christian Action League claims, erroneously, that the bill would require students to learn about homosexuality. Why on earth are us queer folks always the punching bag for these blowhards?

It’s sad, really, that groups like the “Christian” Action League have to resort to lies in order to prove their case. I’m pretty sure that lying was one of those commandments from God Moses delivered to the people. Maybe the Christian Action League got an abridged version.

Jan 07 2 comments
Health, LGBT, Sexuality

Merck seeks Gardasil approval for boys

Reports yesterday noted that drug company Merck will be approaching the U.S. Food and Drug Administration to get approval for the use of Gardasil in boys.

The Associated Press reported:

The U.S. Food and Drug Administration has two months to decide whether the application for use in males meets its standards. Reviews can then take 10 months or more.

The application includes research data from a Merck study including about 4,000 males, ages 16 to 26; Gardasil prevented 90 percent of cases of penile cancer and genital warts caused by the four common virus strains targeted by the vaccine.

The agency approved use of Gardasil in females ages 9 to 26 years old in June 2006, but last June rejected expanding that to include women ages 27 to 45. The vaccine has since been approved for use by young women in dozens of foreign countries.

And why is this important, especially for gay, bi and MSM male youth? The CDC says (emphasis mine):

Other HPV-related cancers are much less common than cervical cancer. The American Cancer Society estimates that in 2008, there will be:

  • 3,460 women diagnosed with vulvar cancer;
  • 2,210 women diagnosed with vaginal and other female genital cancers;
  • 1,250 men diagnosed with penile and other male genital cancers;and
  • 3,050 women and 2,020 men diagnosed with anal cancer.

Certain populations may be at higher risk for HPV-related cancers, such as gay and bisexual men, and individuals with weak immune systems (including those who have HIV/AIDS).

I hope the FDA doesn’t drag its feet and I hope new tests and trials will extend Gardasil’s effective use in boys to a similar age range as girls (9-26 years old). There’s no reason whatsoever to keep an effective, preventative drug off the market if we know it will help keep young men safe.

Photo credit: istockphoto

Jan 06 1 comments
Health, LGBT, Sexuality

Oh, no they didn’t!

Devon is a good friend of mine. He’s an exotic dancer in and around the Carolinas and I’ve known him for a while. He’s got a hell of a lot more balls than I do (no pun intended); I don’t think I could ever take my clothes off in public. He does it like it’s no big deal.

Yeah… he’s the guy with the ad over on the right, in case you hadn’t noticed by now.

But I respect Devon, despite the fact that I don’t think I’ve ever truly felt comfortable in the places he works.

He’s also doing some great blogging over at devonhunter.info (NSFW).

Get the whole story »

Dec 31 0 comments
Global, Religion, Sexuality

Squandering nature’s knowledge

What happens when you take one of the most powerful, most influential world-wide “governments” with unfettered access to all the accumulated knowledge of Western Civilization and allow them to speak on the environment, nature’s “law,” sexual orientation and gender?

They ignore it, trash it, squander it — and sound like they’ve never taken a serious look at human biology in their entire 2,000 year existence.

Recently, Pope Benedict XVI said, “[The church] must defend not only the earth, water and air as gifts of creation that belong to all. It must also defend the human person against its own destruction. What’s needed is something like a ‘human ecology,’ understood in the right sense. It’s not simply an outdated metaphysics if the church speaks of the nature of the human person as man and woman, and asks that this order of creation be respected.”

Get the whole story »

Dec 01 0 comments
Health, LGBT, Sexuality, United States

Fighting AIDS in the South

I don’t know if everyone saw it, but there was a great profile of North Carolina HIV/AIDS pioneer Evelyn Foust in Sunday’s Raleigh News & Observer:

Evelyn Foust would have been happy to be out of her career by now.

As North Carolina’s chief HIV and AIDS fighter, Foust has seen firsthand how the virus has morphed from seemingly isolated cases among gay men to a worldwide epidemic that infects 33 million people. In North Carolina, an estimated 31,000 people have HIV or AIDS.

Evelyn Foust

Evelyn Foust

On Monday, World AIDS Day focuses a passing spotlight on the disease. For Foust, who heads the state’s Communicable Disease Branch, the disease is a daily pursuit.

For Foust, the disease became concrete one day in 1985, when a young man walked into the public health clinic in Charlotte where she worked. Sitting knee-to-knee with him, she broke the news that he faced a fatal infection.

“I remember his face to this day,” she says. “Beautiful big brown eyes. He said, ‘My test result is positive, isn’t it?’ And I said it was positive. And he looked at me, and I looked at him, and I didn’t have anything I could offer. The only thing I knew to do was reach over and squeeze his hand. And I said I was sorry.”

Too many similar conversations followed.

Foust and other HIV/AIDS workers and organization heads are now working together in the Southern AIDS Coalition. As HIV/AIDS has slowly become a life-long disease, instead of an almost immediate, fatal one, cases in the South continue to rack up. The disease still disproportionally infects Southerners, especially in communities of color and among men who have sex with men.

HIV/AIDS disproportionally affects Southerners, especially men who have sex with men and in communities of color.

HIV/AIDS disproportionally affects Southerners, especially men who have sex with men and in communities of color.

Today is World AIDS Day — a day to remember, but also a day to act. I know the economy is bad, but if you have the extra funds, donate to a local AIDS service organization. Or, commit yourself to volunteering or raising awareness of the issue in your own unique way. Remind your friends of the importance of protecting their health by making wise, safe-sex decisions. If you haven’t been tested, or can’t name the place and time when you last were, commit yourself to going for another test as soon as you can.

“Diagnosing and fixing was an old model,” Foust says in the News & Observer piece, regarding HIV/AIDS responses. “It worked for other sexually transmitted diseases, but this was a disease where there was no cure, so you had to work on prevention and testing. People had to protect themselves.”

Taking care of your own health is paramount. Being a part of a community and helping your friends and neighbors do the same thing is just as paramount.

Nov 23 2 comments
LGBT, Sexuality

Performing live: ‘acts’ of homosexuality

Students at Murray State University, the “public ivy university” of Kentucky, held a truly unique event recently.

In the campus “free speech zones” (something that’s likely totally unconstitutional, by the way), students involved with the campus’ LGBT organization hung out, read stories and chilled with friends during an event dubbed “Live Homosexual Acts.”

On Friday, members of the Murray State Alliance performed live homosexual acts on campus in the Free Speech Zone. Many students were shocked, but not necessarily as the name the event implies.

Students performed acts such as reading, studying and hanging out to raise awareness about the lifestyle of gay members of the Murray State campus.

Chris Morehead, junior from Paducah, Ky., checked out Friday’s event after hearing about it through a Facebook message. He said the event was sort of ironic because the name of the event is shocking, but the activities are normal.

Morehead, who is gay, said while hanging out at the event he was pleased to see several of his straight friends were comfortable enough to stop and speak to him. He said he also had friends who walked by and waved but did not stop.

More from the Murray State News… (h/t PageOneQ)