Chicago HIV report sparks reaction
The Chicago Public Health Department’s alarming report, released Friday, that suggests the HIV infection rate among gay men in Chicago is nearly 20% has drawn varied responses from Chicago’s gay and lesbian community.
ChicagoPride.com surveyed a number of gay men on a busy Saturday night in Boystown.
From Waveland to Buckingham, the responses were varied with one common undertone that gay men no longer think HIV is a death sentence. And despite extensive media coverage on the recently release report, many were unaware of the report and its contents.
“I’m not at all surprised by these statistics.” Said thirty-something Al joined by Jared and Jamie outside of the Center on Halsted. “The fact that a lot of our own community members are not aware of their status is probably because of their fear of knowing.”
“We are very closeted in the U.S. regarding educating our youth,” added Jaime.
Some do not believe the numbers and conclusions published in the report.
“You can work the numbers however you want,” said Matthew a bartender at Buck’s. See Chicago HIV report sparks reaction
ChicagoPride.com -
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Original source : http://gay_blog.blogspot.com/2009/07/chicago-hiv-r…
Too Gay in Amsterdam?
It’s no secret that Amsterdam is gay-friendly, but in case that slipped under anyone’s radar, Dutch tourism officials have launched a micro Web site this month proclaiming that “Everyone’s Gay in Amsterdam.”
The Web site, which is geared for American travelers, offers a “gay list” that features places like Pric, described as a “relaxed and funky gay-friendly bar” that “serves up unusual cocktails concocted by its highly-trained staff of bartenders.”
But a closer look reveals that not everyone in Amsterdam is, in fact, gay. A photograph of a seemingly happy straight couple biking along a canal? The Van Gogh Museum? A “gay locator” that doesn’t turns the entire city into an orange dot?
Turns out, “gay” doesn’t just reefer to sexual orientation, but “the attitude of the people in this grand European city,” according to the VisualMerc, a New York-based interactive agency that created the micro-site.
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Phillipsburg resident Dale Rissmiller draws three-year sentence in for gay bashing
A Phillipsburg man convicted in a 2006 gay-bashing case drew a three-year state prison today in state Superior Court.
Dale Rissmiller, 27, apologized to the judge before sentencing.
“I’m sorry for what happened to the victim,” he said.
Rissmiller — who has a history of assault convictions — pleaded guilty in February to bias intimidation and aggravated assault. “I clotheslined him,” Rissmiller told Superior Court Judge John Pursel during the plea hearing.
The term refers to striking someone on the throat with a forearm.
Rissmiller admitted he attacked Bryan Wesselius because the victim is gay. The clotheslining incident occurred after Rissmiller launched a 1:46 a.m. barrage of anti-gay comments at Wesselius and the victim’s two gay companions in the bar, authorities said.
Drunk and angered after a bartender bounced him, Rissmiller attacked Wesselius at the door, followed him outside and punched him, authorities reported.
Phillipsburg resident Dale Rissmiller draws three-year sentence in …
The Express Times - LehighValleyLive.com* Tags = gay men gay news lesbian newstransgender bisexual
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Vandal Who Allegedly Desecrated Gay Icons’ Trees Arrested, Charged
Sheriff’s detectives found the man they say desecrated a pair of tribute trees honoring pioneers of the gay rights movement in the center of West Hollywood this week, say officials S
The incident occurred Thursday night, March 26, with a second on Saturday night, the result of which left the trees, one a flowering Chinese Magnolia and the other a California Live Oak, suffering from considerable damage.
A transient named Bruce Bartmann, age 47, who is known to make WeHo his tramping grounds, was captured by a Sheriff deputy who spotted him in the Beverly Hills Court hallway on Wednesday; recognizing him from a photo that had been making the rounds, he arrested him on the spot.
ee Vandal Who Allegedly Desecrated Gay Icons’ Trees Arrested, Charged WeHo News
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Political Notebook: BART relocates ads featuring gay supervisor
Ads promoting a study for an HIV prevention pill that feature District 8 Supervisor Bevan Dufty have been tagged with graffiti at such a rate that BART officials recently relocated the posters at four Muni stations to better protect them.
The paid advertisements plug the Department of Public Health’s research into whether Truvada, an HIV medication, can keep HIV-negative men from contracting the virus. Dufty, who is openly gay and single, appears in one version of the ads dressed in a shirt and tie, sans jacket, but is not identified by name.
That hasn’t stopped his critics, or mere pranksters, from defacing the posters by writing in black marker “I’m easy” or “I killed Halloween,” referring to Dufty’s helping to scuttle the annual street party in the Castro on Halloween night in order to end the violence that has marred the event in past years.
See Political Notebook: BART relocates ads featuring gay supervisor
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Original source : http://gay_blog.blogspot.com/2009/02/political-not…
