GLBTQIA: Combined Gay News Headlines (T5T-1)

In most of the poses Jarad Bryan melts into, he's showing off a "Too cool for you, step off" look. And then there's this photo of him in a red Speedo, just begging you to challenge. Who's game? CONTINUED Â» CONTINUED Â» Permalink | Post a comment | Add to del.icio.us Tagged: jarad bryan, Models, Morning Goods, Photos, risque

Delta charges you $15 to check a single bag bag (and up to $200 for a fourth, though it doesn't even list that fee on its website). American, Continental, and even JetBlue are adding nickel and dime charges. But Air New Zealand insists it's different — and its new "Nothing to Hide" ad isn't just an [...]

What to do when you awkwardly find yourself in a makeshift circle jerk and suddenly realize you're involved in some major homoerotics? Just shout "No homo!" and you're good. CONTINUED Â» Permalink | 2 comments | Add to del.icio.us Tagged: Comedy, homoerotics, Video

My really good friend Susan, a lesbian makes the most delicious brownies and mini loaf cakes around and sheâ€™s been selling them around town and other places for awhile now. Itâ€™s been a struggle lately though since the economy took a downturn, so did her business.Â She still plugs away though and has aspirations of [...]

No lies, Integration was spectacular last night. See for yourself.

Joe.My.God has coverage of yesterday's bible-beater rally against marriage equality at Gov. Paterson's office, featuring, as Joe calls him "Homophobe #1 state Sen. Ruben Diaz." Joe said that the out-of-state buses drove in about 10K of the die hard bigots:

The evangelicals stayed mostly very positive, I will say, delivering nothing by smiles and heavily-accented "Jesus loves you" type messages as they passed the 50-60 LGBT activists waving "Thank You, Governor" placards and banners. Only the men shouted "REPENT!!", which I found interesting. The NYPD had set up eight block-long pens along Third Avenue, six for the evangelicals - which were full - and two for the good guys (which was about 1.75 more pens than we needed.)

To counter that drivel, Joe has a slideshow of Gov. David Paterson, Mayor Mike Bloomberg and Broadway stars...

Look at this unbelievable flaming pile of crap - Donald Rumsfeld had Bible quotes on secret military intelligence briefings for Dear Leader. WTF?

Top secret military intelligence briefings prepared by former Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld and often hand-delivered to George W. Bush featured Crusades-like Bible quotes above triumphant photos of the U.S. military effort in Iraq.
Less than one month after U.S. and coalition forces invaded Iraq in March 2003, a "Worldwide Intelligence Update" reached then-President Bush with the following quote on the cover of the briefing, above photos of jubilant Iraqi crowds in newn newly liberated Baghdad: "Behold, the eye of the Lord is on those who fear Him...To deliver their soul from death."

One week earlier, on April 3, 2003, another of these reports reached Bush, and its cover contained a passage from the book of Proverbs: "Commit to the LORD whatever you do, and your plans will succeed."

This coming Monday, GID Reform Now is protesting at the American Psychiatric Association 2009 Annual Meeting in San Francisco, California.

The reasons why there is a protest by those who identify as transgender, transsexual, or both is regarding the DSM-V-TR diagnosis of Gender Identity Disorder (GID), how GID is being dealt with in DS M-V.

This fight over GID is much like the lesbian, gay, and bisexual fight over the DSM-I and DSM-II inclusion of Homosexuality. When one's sexuality was listed as a mental health disorder, then there is stigma attached -- Homosexuality was not included in DSM-III and beyond.

But, GID may be included in DSM-V. Many trans activists believe this is wrong.

This is what GIDReformNOW, a group of GID Reform Activists, want:

We call for:
1. A more representative Work Group
The APA Work Group on Sexual and Gender Identity Disorders is currently compromised by some members who have clear conflicts of interest in retaining and expanding specific diagnoses they have been involved in creating or promoting.
We urge the APA to expand the Work Group to represent more diverse views from behavioral science, bioethics, and philosophy of science.
2. A p. A published position statement from APA
APA has often shifted public policy and perception through the publication of approved position statements. We urge the APA to state that diagnosing normal variants of human gender identity and expression as psychiatric disorders encourages an adversarial relationship between psychiatry and sex and gender minorities. We also urge the APA to state that these diagnoses are misused by some people outside of psychiatry who wish to deny civil rights to trans and gender-variant people.
What we advocate
Transgender health services should be viewed as a medical necessity. Published outcomes from the past 50 years show that access to trans health services and harm reduction initiatives improve trans people's lives and mental health.
Trans health services can be provided without diagnosing gender identity and expression as disordered. We believe any clinical distress may arise from attempts to suppress, shame, or "cure" social or somatic gender expression.
Evidence-based medicine and long-term outcome data related to sexual and gender minorities should be the focus of any diagnostic revisions. Discussions should include published work in related fields, including behavioral science, bioethics, and philosophy of science.
To learn more about these important issues, please visit GIDreformNOW.com.

The American Psychiatric Association can view sexual and gender minorities as having psychosexual pathology (i.e. Erotomania, Paraphilia, Fetishism, etc.), psychopathology (i.e. Gender Identity Disorder, etc.), pathology (i.e. birth defect, etc.), or natural human diversity (gender variance, neurological variance, etc.).

Personally, I believe in embracing the concept that sexual and gender minorities are part of natural human diversity, and the treatment model should look similar to what Kelley Winters has proposed on gidreform.org.

I'll be posting a diary or two related to the protest event over the next few days.

May 16, 200910am to 4pm at the QCenter4115 N Mississippi