Gay senior lives less openly in care facility
The love of Victor Engandela’s life was a Czech immigrant, an older, square-jawed man, olive-skinned and Hollywood handsome with a shock of white hair and an unfailingly gentlemanly manner.
Joseph was his name. There are pictures of him pressed in a yellowed photo album buried on a shelf in Engandela’s room at an Evanston home for seniors.
“I was with him,” Engandela said, “until he took his final breath.”
He shares these photos, and stories of a rich life, with no one but the occasional visitor, spending most of his days isolated from his past, surrounded by contemporaries born in an age when homosexuality was taboo.
“I’m one of the few people here that’s out, and I feel the weight of that,” said Engandela, 85. “I don’t advertise it, but I feel people know I’m homosexually oriented. They like me, but they don’t like me as a homosexual. I feel shunned.”
Engandela realized he was gay when he was about 13. His parents were Sicilian immigrants, and he was raised Catholic, one of four siblings.
Rather than play with other kids, Engandela preferred sitting on the porch in his Chicago neighborhood watching the older Italian men talk and smoke cigars.
As he got older he began going to Bughouse Square, listening to poets and Marxists atop soapboxes on hot summer nights. That spot in Washington Square Park was also a covert meeting place for gays, and it was nearby, under the elevated train tracks, that he had his first homosexual experience.
“It was, really, quite beautiful,” he said. “But at that time it was a real no-no. I couldn’t talk to anybody about it.”
See Gay senior lives less openly in care facility
Chicago Tribune
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Original source : http://gay_blog.blogspot.com/2009/06/gay-senior-li…
Heads up: U.S. Declares Health Emergency
From Huff Post:
U.S. Declares Health Emergency
Government takes the precautionary step in an effort to deal with emerging new swine flu.
From the CDC:
Note:
From the CDC web site (section for people who are traveleing to areas where acases of this flu have been reported, not suggested for people in areas where the flu has not been reported)
During your visit to an area affected by swine Influenza
Monitor the local situation
- Pay attention to announcements from the local government.
- Follow local public health guidelines, including any movement restrictions and prevention recommendations.
Practice healthy habits to help stop the spread of influenza
- Wash your hands often with soap and water. This removes germs from your skin and helps prevent diseases from spreading.
- Use waterless alcohol-based hand gels (containing at least 60% alcohol) when soap is not available and hands are not visibly dirty.
- Cover your mouth and nose with a tissue when you cough or sneeze and put your used tissue in a wastebasket.
- If you don’t have a tissue, cough or sneeze into your upper sleeve, not your hands.
- Wash your hands after coughing or sneezing, using soap and water or an alcohol-based hand gel.
- Follow all local health recommendations. For example, you may be asked to put on a surgical mask to protect others.
Seek medical care if you feel sick
- If you become sick with a fever plus a cough and sore throat or have trouble breathing, seek medical care right away. Tell the doctor if you have had contact with a sick person or farm animals while traveling.
- Antiviral Medications: You may want to ask your doctor for prescription antiviral medications to take on your trip as a precaution since the seasonal influenza vaccine is not expected to protect against infection with swine flu viruses. CDC recommends two prescription influenza antiviral drugs to treat and/or prevent swine flu. The drugs are oseltamivir (brand name Tamiflu®) or zanamivir (brand name Relenza®). Both are prescription drugs that fight against swine flu by keeping flu viruses from reproducing in your body. These drugs can prevent infection if taken as a preventative. If you get sick, they can make your illness milder and make you feel better faster. They may also prevent serious health problems from developing. For treatment, the drugs work best if started within 2 days of getting sick. Talk to your doctor about correct indications for treatment or prevention. Always seek medical care if you are severely ill.
- You should avoid further travel until you are free of symptoms, unless traveling locally for medical care.
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Original source : http://gay_blog.blogspot.com/2009/04/hewads-up-us-…
Queers Finally Do It on Daytime TV
“Back in August 1988 when I was managing editor of the Philadelphia Gay News, an historic thing happened on a daytime soap called As The World Turns: a character (an interior designer, no less) came out as gay.
“These days, that would be cause for a big yawn, but back then it was monumental. Hank Elliot was the first gay male character on a daytime drama. He was played by the handsome Brian Starcher. There had been a lesbian played by Donna Pescow on another soap (All My Children), but she was gone by that point, vanished like many a controversial character in soapland. … As The World Turns is once again making gay history, although he’d probably ask why it took the show so long to do it. In the new gay male storyline, Luke, the son of Lily and Holden (who were teens when Marland was writing the show) is having an affair with town heartthrob Noah, a new arrival to the cast.
While poor Hank Elliot couldn’t even kiss his lover, who was dying off camera of AIDS after being rejected by his family, Luke and Noah are pressing lips over the place, and now they’ve actually taken a roll in the hay. That’s right, Luke and Noah are soapdom’s first gay couple to actually do what birds and bees and straights have been doing all these years. They’ve even been seen the next morning frolicking around shirtless. Their adventures are displayed all over the Internet.“
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Original source : http://gay_blog.blogspot.com/2009/01/queers-finall…
Shortland St gay love scene ruled indecent
A complaint about a gay love scene on popular local soap Shortland Street has been upheld by the Broadcasting Standards Authority.
The contentious episode featured asexual receptionist Gerald in a sexual encounter with male friend Lindsay. They were undressing and kissing.
Gerald was wearing his underwear, while Lindsay was topless but wore pants.
The Authority described the scene in a statement issued this morning: “The two characters were shown lying in bed talking, covered up to their bare chests by blankets. Lindsay went under the blankets and Gerald nervously asked him ‘where are you going?’.
“Lindsay popped his head back up and replied ‘it’s a surprise’ before descending back under but came back up when a ticklish Gerald began giggling.
See Shortland St gay love scene ruled indecent
Stuff.co.nz, New Zealand -
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Original source : http://gay_blog.blogspot.com/2008/12/shortland-st-…
