My Inner Geek

First of all, I am an unapologetic GEEK, and I admit it.  If you’ve read my blog for a while, then you already know that I am a huge fan of “The Big Bang Theory.”  My inner geekiness goes far beyond “The Big Bang Theory” because I am a total Sci-Fi nerd.  I admit it.  It may not be very sexy to most people, but I am going to tell you why it is to me.  I really do love science fiction.  Had I gone to the right grad school and had the right advisor, I might have written my dissertation on the Representation of the Cold War in Science Fiction.  (Star Trek Example: Federation=The United States [with England as the Vulcans], Klingons=Soviet Union, Romulans=Chinese, etc.) It still might make a great book and research project one day if no one beats me to it.  It is not an idea original to me.

I love most things sci-fi: Star Trek, Star Wars, Stargate, and even Starship Troopers.  I love Babylon 5, Battlestar Galactica, and Buck Rogers.  I’m not a big comic book person, though I admit I do love the movies and TV shows that come from them, such as The Fantastic Four, X-Men, Batman, Wonder Woman, Daredevil, The Flash, Flash Gordon (and Flesh Gordon may come into this category, at least as a spoof).  I also have a long standing crush on Superman: Superman (Christopher Reeves), Lois and Clark (Dean Cain), Smallville (Tom Welling), Superman Returns (Brandon Routh), etc.  I also loved The 4400, great show.

So lets go through a few of the examples and let me explain why I find science fiction appealing (and even sexy). Let’s begin with the Star Trek franchise. The Star Trek captains have all been sex symbols.  Kirk was always the sexy womanizer,.Picard the reserved cultured captain. Sisko was also a bit of a womanizer, though in a reserved damaged sort of way (his wife had been killed in the Borg attack, and he later married a female freighter captain).   Captain Janeway was always a very butch female captain, bordering on lesbianesque.  Of course, you then have Captain Archer who returned to the more womanizing sex symbol type like Kirk.  Now with the new series of movies, we have the absolutely gorgeous Chris Pine as Captain Kirk, and he is surrounded by the best looking of all of the Star Trek casts.  In addition the original Sulu, played by George Takei, is an openly gay man, giving gay Star Trek fans someone to look to.  Of course, Star Trek has had a number of hot male stars:  Wesley Crusher (TNG), Dr. Julian Bashir (DS9), Tom Paris (VOY).  Dr. Bashir was made out to be the first real sex symbol in the new incarnations of Star Trek after the original series.  Enterprise ramped up the sexiness with Trip, who was often seen in his “star trek/space age” underwear.  Enterprise was actually expected to have a gay character, rumored to be the weapons officer Malcolm Reed, but it never materialized with the low ratings the show received.

Stargate has also had it fair number of sexy men.  Daniel Jackson was smart, cultured, and always on a moral crusade would have made the most likely gay man in the series, but since it began with him being married, that was unlikely to materialize.  In my opinion, he was always very sexy.  Stargate: Atlantis has Col. Sheppard who could just make me weak in the knees, but it was the short-lived Stargate: Universe that really ramped up the sex factor.  Matthew Scott, played by Brian J. Smith, who has been known for playing several gay-themed characters in the movies Hate Crimes and The War Boys, both of which are highly recommended.  Also, and just because he played the dorky and somewhat awkward character of Eli, I always found him attractive.  The character also had a mother who suffered from HIV contracted when she was a nurse and was attacked by a drug addict.

A few other science fiction movies and shows got my blood pumping, such as Starship Troopers  Who could forget Casper van Dien in the shower scenes showing off his lovely behind or the whipping scene, which I found oddly erotic?  Then in the new incarnation of Battlestar Galactica, you have the ever lovely Jamie Bamber, who has a particular towel scene that is amazing to watch. 

Most recently, we have several sci-fi/horror shows that give us just what we want with sexy guys.  True Blood has a host of sexy men, some of whom are gay, and MTV’s Teen Wolf has a host of sexy young guys, including the beautifully (and possibly gay) Colton Haynes (Warning: this link is NSFW).

And finally, a science fiction show has an openly gay character.  Warehouse 13 on the SyFy Channel has a new character Agent Steve Jinx, played by Aaron Ashmore, who admitted on last night’s episode that he is gay.  Ashmore also has played at least on other gay character when he played Marc Hall in Prom Queen: The Marc Hall Story. I wonder if they will give him a boyfriend.  All of the other major characters on the show have been given love interests through the course of the show, so I certainly hope that Jinx will be given one as well.

The Aftermath of the Repeal of DADT

Gay couples denied military spouse benefits

By Julie Watson - The Associated Press

SAN DIEGO — Gay service members from Army soldiers to Air Force officers are planning to celebrate the official end of the military’s 17-year policy that forced them to hide their sexual orientation with another official act — marriage.

A 27-year-old Air Force officer from Ohio said he can’t wait to wed his partner of two years and slip on a ring that he won’t have to take off or lie about when he goes to work each day once “don’t ask, don’t tell” is repealed. He plans to wed his boyfriend, a federal employee, in Washington D.C. where same-sex marriages are legal.

He asked not to be identified, following the advice of the Servicemembers Legal Defense Network, a national organization representing gay troops, including the Air Force officer, that has cautioned those on active duty from coming out until the ban is off the books.

“I owe it to him and myself,” the officer said of getting married. “I don’t want to do it in the dark. I think that taints what it’s supposed to be about — which is us, our families, and our government.”

But in the eyes of the military the marriage will not be recognized and the couple will still be denied most of the benefits the Defense Department gives to heterosexual couples to ease the costs of medical care, travel, housing and other living expenses.

The Pentagon says the 1996 federal Defense of Marriage Act — which defines marriage for federal program purposes as a legal union between a man and woman — prohibits the Defense Department from extending those benefits to gay couples, even if they are married legally in certain states.

That means housing allowances and off-base living space for gay service members with partners could be decided as if they were living alone. Base transfers would not take into account their spouses. If two gay service members are married to each other they may be transferred to two different states or regions of the world. For heterosexual couples, the military tries to avoid that from happening.

Gay activists and even some commanders say the discrepancy will create a two-tier system in an institution built on uniformity.

“It’s not going to work,” said Army Reserve Capt. R. Clarke Cooper, who heads up the Log Cabin Republicans, a gay rights group that sued the Justice Department to stop the enforcement of the “don’t ask, don’t tell” policy. “Taking care of our soldiers is necessary to ensure morale and unit cohesion. This creates a glaring stratification in the disbursement of support services and benefits.”

Cooper said he also plans to marry his boyfriend, a former Navy officer, in a post-repeal era.

The Obama administration has said it believes the ban could be fully lifted within weeks. A federal appeals court ruling July 6 ordered the government to immediately cease its enforcement. After the Department of Justice filed an emergency motion asking the court to reconsider its order, the court on Friday reinstated the law but with a caveat that prevents the government from investigating or penalizing anyone who is openly gay.

The Justice Department in its motion argued ending the ban abruptly now would pre-empt the “orderly process” for rolling back the policy as outlined in the law passed and signed by the president in December.

The military’s staunchly traditional, tight-knit society, meanwhile, has been quickly adapting to the social revolution: Many gay officers say they have already come out to their commanders and fellow troops, and now discuss their weekend plans without a worry.

The Air Force officer says he has dropped the code words “Red Solo Cups” — the red plastic cups used at parties — that he slipped into conversations for years to tell his partner he loved him when troops were within earshot. He now feels comfortable saying “I love you” on the phone, no longer fearful he will be interrogated by peers.

One male soldier, who also asked not to be identified, said after Congress approved repealing the law, he listed his boyfriend on his Army forms as his emergency contact and primary beneficiary of his military life insurance in case he dies in Afghanistan.

He said when he was transferred to South Korea, he and his partner had to pay for his partner’s move.

“But we were able to stay together,” the soldier wrote in an e-mail to The Associated Press from Afghanistan. “During the move, I realized I needed to make sure my partner in life was taken care of if something, the worst, ever happened to me, especially knowing I was about to deploy.”

The soldier said when he added his boyfriend’s name to the paperwork as a primary beneficiary and identified him as a friend, the non-commissioned officer in charge shut his office door and told him: “Unlike the inherent benefits to being married in the Army, such as housing and sustenance allowances, our life insurance and will don’t discriminate.”

Same-sex partners can be listed as the person to be notified in case a service member is killed, injured, or missing, but current regulations prevent anyone other than immediate family — not same-sex spouses — from learning the details of the death. Same-sex spouses also will not be eligible for travel allowances to attend repatriation ceremonies if their military spouses are killed in action.

Gay spouses also will be denied military ID cards. That means they will not be allowed on bases unless they are accompanied by a service member and they cannot shop at commissaries or exchanges that have reduced prices for groceries and clothing, nor can they be treated at military medical facilities. They also will be excluded from base programs providing recreation and other such kinds of support.

Military officials say some hardship cases may be handled on an individual basis. Activists warn such an approach will create an administrative nightmare and leave the military vulnerable to accusations of making inconsistent decisions that favor some and not others.

Military families enjoy assistance from the Defense Department to compensate for the hardship of having a mother or father or both deployed to war zones and moved frequently.

“It strains a relationship when you’re gone for over a year,” said Navy medical corpsman Andrew James, 27, who lived two years apart from his same-sex partner, who could not afford to move with him when he was transferred from San Diego to Washington. “But straight couples have support so their spouses are able to be taken care of, with financial issues, and also they are able to talk to the chain of command, whereas gays can’t. They don’t have any support at all financially or emotionally, and that is really devastating.”

He said he was lucky that his relationship survived and now that he is in the Reserves, they are together again in San Diego.

The benefits issue came up repeatedly during training sessions to prepare troops for the policy change.

“There are inconsistencies,” Maj. Daryl Desimone told a class of Marines at Camp Pendleton, north of San Diego, after being asked about benefits for gay military personnel. “Anyone who looks at it logically will see there are some things that need to be worked out in the future.”

The military’s policy denying benefits to same-sex couples could change if legal challenges to the Defense of Marriage Act prove successful. The Obama administration has said it will not defend DOMA in court.

Earlier this month, the Justice Department filed a legal brief in federal court in San Francisco in support of a lesbian federal employee’s lawsuit claiming the government wrongly denied health coverage to her same-sex spouse. The brief said the lawsuit should not be dismissed because DOMA violates the constitution’s guarantee of equal protection and was motivated by hostility toward gays and lesbians.

Taking a Break

Taking a bit of a break today, so get your cup of coffee and join me.  Truth be told, I sort of came up blank with an idea for a post today, so I just thought I would add this hot picture from Marlen Boro (NSFW).

If you want to know more about Marlen Boro or the model above, click "read more" below.

Moment of Zen: Beauty

This picture is almost too beautiful for words.  The color is blue and seemingly cold, but yet there is a certain warmth in the beauty of it.

How Ignorant Can Americans Be?

Rep. Michele and Dr. Marcus Bachmann

I love my country, but sometimes, I have to wonder just how ignorant many of my fellow citizens can be.  I thought this when George W. Bush was elected for a second time.  I thought this after the last midterm election, in which my state replaced all Democrats in state offices with Republicans and replaced my Democratic Congressman with a woman whose only platform was that she would personally would remove Nancy Pelosi as Speaker of the House (not that she alone would have the power to do so, but voters in my district apparently did not understand this).  And now, according to various new sources, the front runner of the 2012 Republican Presidential Nomination is Michele Bachmann.  Really America?

True to her recent form, Rep. Michele Bachmann kicked off her presidential campaign with a highly-publicized gaffe: She said the wrong John Wayne was from her hometown of Waterloo, Iowa. The iconic cowboy actor was not from Waterloo, but notorious serial killer John Wayne Gacy did live there--likely not who the presidential hopeful wants to be compared with.

Her gaffes, however, aren’t confined to misidentifying the state where the Battle of Lexington and Concord occurred, or misidentifying John Quincy Adams as a Founding Father.  Those are just two examples.  She claimed that the Founding Fathers "worked tirelessly until slavery was no more in the United States."  All of the Founding Fathers of this country had been long since dead when slavery was finally abolished.  One of her most recent controversies is her signing of the Marriage Vow, along with the ultra-homophobic Sen. Rick Santorum.   Part of that incredible document states:

Slavery had a disastrous impact on African-American families, yet sadly a child born into slavery in 1860 was more likely to be raised by his mother and father in a two-parent household than was an African-American baby born after the election of the USA’s first African-American President.

Fact-checking website Politifact.com has rated 23 of Bachmann’s statements since 2009 and found only one true, six half or barely true, and 16 false or “pants on fire.” 

But her popularity in Iowa and some national polls continues to grow, suggesting her base may not mind her historical misspeaking so much—at least not so far. And her admission on CNN Tuesday helped. “People can make mistakes, and I wish I could be perfect every time I say something, but I can’t,” Bachmann said. “One thing people know about me is that I’m a substantive, serious person.”  I tend not to consider someone as substantive when they make statements that an average fifth grader could dispute and correct.  Serious, she may be, but it is seriously ignorant.

Not only is she ignorant about basic knowledge of American civics and history, but she is also married to what I can best describe as a certifiable nutcase.  Bachmann’s husband, Marcus, turns out to not just think gays are “barbarians” who need to be disciplined and educated, but a clinical psychologist who runs two Christian-based therapy clinics in Minnesota that do a steady trade in homosexual conversion therapies. Marcus Bachmann’s clinics, which received more than $160,000 in tax dollars, try to set gays on the straight and narrow by getting them to see that God intends us all to be hetero. According to one former patient, who as an openly gay high-school student was forced to attend therapy sessions by his conservative-Christian stepfather, a therapist at Bachmann’s clinic tried to turn him straight by getting him to pray, read relevant (anti-sodomy) Biblical verses, and even tried to get him to date an “ex-lesbian.”

Since Bachmann declared her presidential candidacy, Dr. Marcus Bachmann—her gay-barbarian discipline-advocating therapist-husband—has been drawing heightened attention on his own. Some people, including famous-type ones, think maybe Bachmann's a gay barbarian as well.  Notable Bachmann sexuality commentators include:

• Cher, who used her Twitter the other day to riff on Bachmann (as the gay news website Towleroad noticed).
• Pundit Andrew Sullivan, who called Bachmann a "ssuper-sserial hunter of gays" and then compared him to Waiting for Guffman character Corky St. Clair.
• The Daily Show co-creator and satirist Lizz Winstead, who tweeted that Bachmann is "the white Al Reynolds."
• James Urbaniak of The Venture Brothers, who Tumbled: "It's pretty much a given that the most vociferously homophobic men are usually repressing something. But, oh Mary, Michele Bachmann's husband Marcus takes the ever-loving cake. He's a cure-the-gay therapist out of a John Waters movie. I haven't seen flames this high since the last California wildfire..."
• Kids in the Hall comic and television actor Dave Foley, who asked via Twitter: "How can Michele Bachman be opposed to gay marriage when she is married to gay man." Foley made a few other tweets about Bachmann, using "#MarcusBachmanIsSoGay"; the hashtag got a bit of traction.
• Keith Olbermann referred to Bachmann as a "bizarre-sounding man who's calling gays 'barbarians'" and wonders how you can "hide" him without putting him in some sort of closet.

Also, someone has created a @DrMarcusBachman Twitter feed. And at least one blogger believes Bachmann would make a "fine First Lady of the United States." Remember this post.

People started questioning Bachmann's sexuality well before his wife announced her presidential campaign. Back in September 2010, for example, Truth Wins Out—a nonprofit whose mission is to fight "anti-gay religious extremism"—posted on its website a YouTube of Bachmann with the comment, "Comment not necessary." That vid got people talking, but not at the level we're now seeing. Will his sexuality become a bigger issue as Mrs. B's campaign churns along? We'll see.

Why are so many Americans so politically ignorant?  Why can’t they see past her Tea Party rhetoric and realize that she is filled with pure ignorance?  One of the things that I teach my government students is how to research political candidates.  I have them download a voter’s guide and research each and every candidate on the ballot.  I have them do news searches of the candidates, so that they can see what the media is saying about a candidate, and I have them find the candidates websites, so that they can look at what the candidate says about his or her own political platform.  I, personally, do this for every election.  I want to be informed about the person I vote for.  I may most of the time end up voting for the Democratic Party candidates, but not all Democrats are progressive, especially in the South.  I, however, have never voted straight ticket without regard to the candidates.  I want to know what my candidate stands for, what he/she will do when in office, and how much I can trust what that candidate says.  They are politicians, so most of what they are saying is not true, but I at least want someone who will stand up for what is right, not what is politically convenient.  Americans need to wake up, quit listening to political spin doctors, and learn the truth about candidates.

 For further reading on the topic of Michele and Marcus Bachmann, click "read more" below.

Happy Bastille Day!

On this date in 1789, citizens of Paris rioted; they took over the Bastille prison, released the seven prisoners inside, and destroyed the fortress. Bastille Day (known in France as La Fête Nationale) has been celebrated on the event's anniversary ever since, with feasting, parades and fireworks. It was the second of two pivotal events that started the French Revolution. The first one had taken place three weeks earlier, on June 20, 1789, when all but one of the 577 members of France's Third Estate of the Estates-General — locked out of their meeting hall by Louis XVI's soldiers — convened on a nearby tennis court. There they signed a declaration renaming their body the National Assembly and vowing to continue to meet until a constitution was written. This declaration became known as the Tennis Court Oath.

Claude Monet, Rue Montorgueil, Paris, Festival of 30 June 1878. 

Brief History of GLBT Rights Around the World

Throughout history and across cultures, the regulation of sexuality reflects broader cultural norms.

Most of the history of sexuality is unrecorded. Even recorded norms do not always shed full light on actual practices, as it is sometimes the case that historical accounts are written by foreigners with cryptic political agendas.

Throughout Hindu and Vedic texts there are many descriptions of saints, demigods, and even the Supreme Lord transcending gender norms and manifesting multiple combinations of sex and gender. There are several instances in ancient Indian epic poetry of same sex depictions and unions by gods and goddesses. There are several stories of depicting love between same sexes especially among kings and queens.  Kamasutra, the ancient Indiann treatise on love talks about feelings for same sexes. Transsexuals are also venerated e.g. Lord Vishnu as Mohini and Lord Shiva as Ardhanarishwara (which means half woman).

In the earlier centuries of ancient Rome (particularly during the Roman Republic) and prior to its Christianization, the Lex Scantinia forbade homosexual acts. In later centuries during the Empire, men of status were free to have sexual intercourse, heterosexual or homosexual, with anyone of a lower social status, provided that they remained dominant during such interaction. During the reign of Caligula, prostitution was legalized and taxed, and homosexual prostitution was seen openly in conjunction with heterosexual prostitution. The Warren Cup (above left) is a rare example of a Roman artifact that depicts homosexuality that was not destroyed by Christian authorities, although it was suppressed. A fresco from the public baths of the once buried city of Pompeii depicts a homosexual and bisexual sex act involving two adult men and one adult woman. The Etruscan civilization left behind the Tomb of the Diver, which depicts homosexual men in the afterlife.

In feudal Japan, homosexuality was recognized, between equals (bi-do), in terms of pederasty (wakashudo), and in terms of prostitution. The Samurai period was one in which homosexuality was seen as particularly positive. In Japan, the younger partner in a pederastic relationship was expected to make the first move; the opposite was true in ancient Greece. Homosexuality was later briefly criminalized due to Westernization.

The berdache two-spirit class in some Native American tribes are examples of ways in which some cultures integrated homosexuals into their society by viewing them, not with the homosexual and heterosexual dichotomy of most of the modern world, but as twin beings, possessing aspects of both sexes.

The ancient Law of Moses (the Torah) forbids men lying with men (intercourse) in Leviticus 18 and gives a story of attempted homosexual rape in Genesis in the story of Sodom and Gomorrah, the cities being soon destroyed after that. The death penalty was prescribed.

Similar prohibitions are found across Indo-European cultures in Lex Scantinia in Ancient Rome and nith in protohistoric Germanic culture, or the Middle Assyrian Law Codes dating 1075 BC.

Laws prohibiting homosexuality were also passed in communist China. (The People's Republic of China neither adopted an Abrahamic religion nor was colonized, except for Hong Kong and Macau which were colonized with Victorian era social mores and maintain separate legal system from the rest of the PRC.) Homosexuality was not decriminalized there until 1997. Prior to 1997, homosexual in mainland China was found guilty included in a general definition under the vague vocabulary of hooliganism, there are no specifically anti-homosexual laws.

In modern times eight countries have no official heterosexist discrimination. They are Argentina, Belgium, Iceland, Netherlands, Norway, Sweden, South Africa, and Spain. This full non-discrimination includes the rights of marriage and adoption. Two additional countries have marriage rights for same-sex couples, namely Portugal and Canada, but in Portugal this right does not include same-sex adoption, and in Canada it varies by jurisdiction (it is legal everywhere except in Nunavut and Yukon). The Canadian Blood Services’ policy indefinitely defers any man who has sex with another man, even once, since 1977. LGBT people in the US face different laws for certain medical procedures than other groups. For example, gay men have been prohibited from giving blood since 1983, and George W. Bush's FDA guidelines barred them from being sperm donors as of 2005, even though all donated sperm is screened for sexually-transmitted diseases.

Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/LGBT_rights_by_country_or_territory

AIDS: The Thirty Years War

Thirty years ago, the AIDS epidemic began.  I was only a child then and it wasn’t until later that I came to understand what it was all about.  My mother was a public health nurse, and in the rural south there were few cases of it in those early years, though she of course understood (at least to some extent) what was going on. No one really thought it would reach us here, but it did.  I had a cousin who died of it in those early years, though he was gay, he probably contracted the disease from a blood transfusion.  It was shortly after the surgery that he received the transfusion, that he became sick.  He died shortly after that.  In the early days, the disease worked quickly.  His life partner died a year or so later.  It was not something that the family discussed much.  We were told by his parents that he had died of cancer.  However, once my mother heard who his doctor had been, it was no doubt he did not die just of cancer, but of AIDS.  This particular doctor only took AIDS patients and was the only doctor in the area who would. 

A few years later, a man who my aunt worked for contracted the disease.  He was a dentist, and at the time, they no longer allowed him to practice, so he had to retire a young man.  He was also gay, and though as a dentist he had money to allow him to survive for a while, he had one stroke of luck before he died.  He literally won the lottery.  With the treatment he could then afford, he was able to live several more years, but the drugs that now allow HIV positive people to live decades, were not around then.  He ultimately succumbed to the disease as well.  Since those early years, there have been major steps of improvement and life expectancy, but it is still ultimately a fatal disease.  Hopefully, one day it won’t be.  Until then, please remember to use a condom when you have sex, play it safe, and live a long and healthy life.

I saw the timeline below on the Advocate.com and wanted to share it with you. It is a timeline of the thirty years since the AIDS epidemic began in America.  There has been much speculation about when the disease first entered humans.  It is a date yet to be determined if ever.  In fact, we are not even sure that it first began in the US in 1981, but that is when it became known.  It would still be a number of years before healthcare officials really understood what it was they were dealing with, and there is much more work still to be done.



As AIDS enters its fourth decade, we look back at the events that changed the course of history

It's not a birthday to celebrate, but the 30th year of AIDS does remind us to appreciate how far we've come. From the early days of panic and paranoia to today's promise, the world has seen monumental advances in not only prevention and treatment but also acceptance and tolerance. A diverse group, including scientists, politicians, and reality stars, helped contribute to these sweeping changes and increased the odds of AIDS not living to 40. Here are some of the people and moments that brought us to now...


1981
June: Due to reports of unusual outbreaks of pneumocystis carinii pneumonia (PCP) and the rare cancer Kaposi’s sarcoma among gay men in New York City and Los Angeles, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention establishes a task force on Kaposi’s Sarcoma and opportunistic infections.
September: From his Manhattan apartment, activist Larry Kramer begins to mobilize gay New Yorkers with Kaposi’s sarcoma.


1982
June: The CDC reports that there have been several cases of a syndrome involving PCP, Kaposi’s, and other opportunistic infections among gay men in California’s Los Angeles and Orange counties. This suggests the infectious agent may be sexually transmitted.
July: By the beginning of the month, 452 cases of the syndrome, from 23 states, have been reported to the CDC. 


1983
January: The Red Cross and other blood banks propose banning blood donations from gay males.
May: San Francisco Mayor Dianne Feinstein (below) declares the first week of the month AIDS Awareness Week
August: Activist Michael Callen (below left) and others testify during the first congressional hearing on AIDS.
September: The ACLU brings attention to an “AIDS Alert,” a list of people with AIDS circulated among Seattle police.


1984
October: In an effort to stop the spread of AIDS, the city of San Francisco shuts down gay bathhouses. In three years, 817 cases of AIDS had been reported in San Francisco.
December: Ryan White, a 13-year-old hemophiliac in Kokomo, Ind., is diagnosed with AIDS, having contracted HIV through tainted blood.



1985
March: The U.S. Food and Drug Administration licenses the first blood test for HIV antibodies.
April: The Normal Heart, Larry Kramer's semiautobiographical play about the AIDS epidemic, premieres at New York City's off-Broadway Public Theater.
July: Ann-Margret and Los Angeles mayor Tom Bradley participate in the city's first AIDS Walk.
September: The American Foundation for AIDS research is formed with Elizabeth Taylor (left) as founding chairman.
October: Rock Hudson, 59, dies of AIDS complications at his Beverly Hills home.

1986
February: The Reagan administration proposes rejecting immigrants who test positive for HIV.
February: A witty look at gay life in 1980s New York, the low-budget but much-loved Parting Glances features Steve Buscemi as an unrepentant rock star losing his battle with AIDS.
June: The federal government commits $100 million over five years to evaluate promising AIDS medications.

1987
March: The FDA approves the first AIDS drug, AZT, marketed as Retrovir.
October: Congress overwhelmingly passes the Helms Amendment.
October: During the largest gay rights march in the nation's history, activist Cleve Jones's NAMES Project Memorial Quilt is unveiled to commemorate those lost to AIDS.


1988
May: The Centers for Disease Control and Surgeon General Koop distribute the pamphlet "Understanding AIDS" to each of the 107 million homes in America.
August: Presidential candidate George H.W. Bush endorses protections against discrimination for people with HIV/AIDS.
October: Congress passes an $800 million AIDS research package, with a provision from Sen. Jesse Helms requiring that testing confidentiality be dropped. 

1989
March: Three thousand AIDS demonstrators storm New York's City Hall to draw attention to the problems within the city's hospital system.
April: President George H.W. Bush is heckled for his inaction on AIDS at a nationally televised speech on the bicentennial of George Washington's inauguration.
September: The AIDS charity album Red Hot + Blue is released, featuring reworked Cole Porter classics sung by artists including Annie Lennox, Tom Waits, and Debbie Harry.

1990
February: Artist Keith Haring dies of AIDS-related complications at age 31.
May: Longtime Companion becomes one of the first American films to focus almost solely on AIDS.
August: Congress passes the Ryan White Comprehensive AIDS Resources Emergency Act, funding a variety of AIDS-related services.

1991
June: Jeremy Irons is the first celebrity to wear the red AIDS awareness ribbon publicly, at the 1991 Tony Awards. The Red Ribbon Project was conceived by New York's Visual AIDS Artists Caucus.
August: A major research study indicates that AZT can slow progression to AIDS in asymptomatic HIV-positive people.
October: A second anti-HIV drug receives FDA approval—didanosine, sold under the brand name Videx.
November: Freddie Mercury (right), the flamboyant lead singer of Queen, is the latest celebrity to die of AIDS-related causes. He was 45.

1992
January: To prevent the spread of HIV, the Los Angeles Unified School District approves the distribution of condoms in high schools.
August: Mary Fisher, an HIV-positive woman, addresses the Republican National Convention.
December: The Bush White House allows the Food and Drug Administration to fast-track experimental anti-HIV drugs.

1993
May: Tony Kushner's Angels in America: Millennium Approaches, the first part of his AIDS epic, opens on Broadway. It wins a Tony award for Best Play and the Pulitzer Prize for Drama.
September: HBO's dramatization of Randy Shilts's groundbreaking book And the Band Played On premieres.
December: The film Philadelphia tells the story of a gay lawyer (Tom Hanks, right, in an Oscar-winning role) who sues his former firm after he's fired for having AIDS.

1994
November: A study indicates that AZT can cut mother-to-child transmission of HIV by two thirds.
November: The Real World: San Francisco follows the trials of HIV-positive AIDS activist Pedro Zamora.

1995
June:President Clinton establishes the Presidential Advisory Council on HIV/AIDS by executive order.
December: The FDA approves saquinavir (brand name Invirase), the first in a new class of drugs called protease inhibitors, whose use with other drugs becomes known colloquially as a "cocktail." 

1996
July: Hopeful news emerges from the international AIDS conference in Vancouver. Scientists report that new drug combinations have dramatically improved the health of many people with AIDS.
September: On ER, heterosexual physician assistant Jeanie Boulet (played by Gloria Reuben, below) learns she has HIV.


1997
January: New York City health officials report the first documented drop in AIDS deaths—the number of city residents dying of the disease declined 30% from 1995 to 1996.
February: CDC officials say there were 13% fewer deaths in the first half of 1996 than in the same period in 1995. The trend is attributed to the new drug therapies.
June: The New York Times reports post-exposure prophylaxis, or PEP, medication is being offered to those who may have been exposed to the virus but have not tested positive for infection.

1998
February: Scientists announce that they detected HIV in an African man's blood sample preserved from 1959, making it the oldest documented case of HIV infection.
June: The FDA approves the first human trial of an AIDS vaccine, to involve 5,000 volunteers throughout the United States.
November: The Joint United Nations AIDS Programme announces that HIV infections worldwide rose 10% over the past year, with great increases among women and youths.

1999
February: New York City health officials announce that a study of young gay men in the city shows 12% of them are infected with HIV.
May: The World Health Organization's annual report says AIDS has become the fourth leading cause of death worldwide.
August: The CDC reports that deaths from AIDS continue to drop, but at a lower rate than they did immediately after the introduction of drug cocktails. U.S. AIDS deaths declined 42% from 1996 to 1997, but only 20% from 1997 to 1998.

2000
January: The CDC announces that 1998 marked the first time there were more AIDS diagnoses among black and Latino gay men than among white gay men.
February: New research indicates AIDS may have originated as far back as 1930.
November: The World Health Organization reports that new HIV infections rose during the year, but the infection rate stabilized in sub-Saharan Africa for the first time.

2001
February: Results from a study involving six large U.S. cities indicate that 30% of young black gay men are HIV-positive.
June: On the 20th anniversary of the epidemic, the United Nations devotes a special session to HIV and AIDS, the first for a public health issue. All 189 member countries sign a Declaration of Commitment on HIV and AIDS, which includes pledges to reduce HIV prevalence among young people by 25% in the hardest-hit nations by 2005, and to reduce it by 25% globally by 2010. 

2002
February: The American version of the British drama Queer as Folk introduces Robert Gant's Ben Bruckner as an HIV-positive love interest to Hal Sparks's HIV-negative Michael Novotny.
April: The World Health Organization outlines steps to make antiretroviral drugs more accessible to people in poor nations.
November The FDA approves an HIV test than can provide results within 20 minutes.

2003
January: President George W. Bush outlines what will become PEPFAR—the President's Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief, aimed at fighting AIDS in developing countries.
November: Results from a trial of the AidsVax vaccine show it failed to prevent HIV transmission. The trial was conducted among injection-drug users in Thailand.
December On World AIDS Day, the WHO announces its "3 by 5" plan, to have 3 million people in resource-poor countries on antiretroviral drugs by 2005.

2004
February: The first PEPFAR funds are distributed—$350 million to 14 countries, a month after congressional approval.
July: The Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation announces a $50 million donation to the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis, and Malaria.
December Designers Against AIDS launches with the mission of using pop culture components to raise media awareness of HIV/AIDS.

2005
September: GlaxoSmithKline's patent on Retrovir (AZT) expires, meaning any company can produce generic versions without paying royalties, and the FDA approves four generics.
November: The WHO announces that the 3 by 5 plan is far short of its goal, but it estimates that expanded access to treatment saved between 250,000 and 350,000 lives during the year.

2006
July:The FDA approves Atripla,the first once-daily single-tablet regimen. From Bristol-Myers Squibb and Gilead Sciences, it combines efavirenz, emtricitabine, and tenofovir.
December: Results are in from two African studies that indicate male circumcision can help prevent HIV transmission, although there are fears that some populations may not accept the procedure and that it could lead to a lax approach to prevention. 

2007
January: A large-scale trial of a vaginal microbicide is stopped because the product is not preventing HIV and may even be enabling it.
March: Due to the studies released the preceding December, WHO endorses male circumcision as part of a comprehensive AIDS prevention strategy.
April: WHO reports that 2,000,000 people in low- and middle-income countries are receiving HIV drugs—only 28% of those who need such treatment.

2008
August: The annual report from UNAIDS notes AIDS deaths worldwide dropped.
November: German doctors announce that they have essentially cured an American patient of HIV.

2009
January: Barack Obama is inaugurated as U.S. president. He immediately lifts an executive order that had denied U.S. aid to international family planning organizations.
March: Pope Benedict XVI reiterates the Roman Catholic Church's opposition to condom use, saying it may actually contribute to the spread of HIV.

2010
August: State and federal budget crises threaten AIDS Drug Assistance Programs in several states.
September: Project Runway contestant Mondo Guerra reveals that a design he created, featuring oversize plus signs, was inspired by his HIV-positive status.
November: The secretary of the Smithsonian, G. Wayne Clough, withdraws an edited version of A Fire in My Belly a silent film by artist David Wojnarowicz (who died of AIDS complications in 1992) from the exhibit 'Hide/Seek: Difference and Desire in American Portraiture' after complaints from the Catholic League.

2011
March: U.N. secretary-general Ban Ki-moon releases a report urging world leaders to take bold action against the AIDS epidemic, warning that recent progress is fragile.
March: Elizabeth Taylor dies of congestive heart failure at age 79.
April: Larry Kramer'slandmark 1985 AIDS play The Normal Heart gets its first Broadway production.

One Year Anniversary

One year ago today, I began writing this blog.  If you didn’t know, I have another blog, that is definitely NSFW.  I had started the other blog as a place to put all of the porn that had accumulated on my hard drive, and as I found that I enjoyed blogging, I started to do some (somewhat) intellectual posts about gay history.  Some people loved them, most who read that blog didn’t much care, they were only there for the pictures and other naughty stuff.  So I decided to start another blog, one dedicated to GLBT Studies: History, Art, Literature, Politics, and Culture, with a wide range of topics that interested me and hopefully you.  I started by transferring most of the old history and cultural posts from my other blog to this one, and then this one took on a life of its own.  I think that I have been somewhat successful in doing this.  I still get roughly a tenth of the readers on this blog than on my other blog, but even though some of you read both, mostly each blog is geared toward a different type of reader:  the smut set and the smart set.

So when my one year anniversary was pending, I asked my readers for suggestions for this post.  I got several awesome suggestions, some of which will be future posts.  The one that most agreed was the best was from Writer, who suggested that I do a post on important gay events that coincide with today.  So I did a little search and surprisingly found a number of things. First thing first, we will look at some important birthdates.  Not all of which are gay, but do have a gay theme to them.

George Washington Carver is believed to have been born on this day in 1864 (according to some sources; the year and date are often disputed).  Carver was known as a botanist at the Tuskegee Institute in Tuskegee Institute.  His most important contributions were in the field of sweet potatoes (at least 118 uses), peanuts (over 300 uses, one reputed to be peanut butter), and soybeans, and he was an early advocate of crop rotation in the South. Why is he on this list of GLBT important dates?  Carver never married, and there is little documented information about his private life. He is included in the encyclopedia glbtq: An Encyclopedia of Gay, Lesbian, Bisexual, Transgender, and Queer Culture and books such as Out in All Directions: The Almanac of Gay and Lesbian America. Carver never married or expressed interest in dating women. While he taught at Tuskegee, there were reportedly rumors about his sexuality. Late in his career, Carver established a life and research partnership with the scientist Austin W. Curtis, Jr. The two men kept details of their lives discreet.  Carver bequeathed to Curtis his royalties from an authorized 1943 biography by Rackham Holt. After Carver died in 1943, Curtis was fired from Tuskegee Institute. He left Alabama and resettled in Detroit. He manufactured and sold peanut-based personal care products

Next on the list of birthdays is Oscar Hammerstein II, who was born July 12, 1895.  Although he was married with children and there is no indication that he was gay, he is one of the greatest contributors to the classic American musicals of Rodger and Hammerstein.  Hammerstein contributed the lyrics to 850 songs, according to The Complete Lyrics of Oscar Hammerstein II, edited by Amy Asch. Some well-known songs are "Ol' Man River" from Show Boat, "Indian Love Call" from Rose Marie, "People Will Say We're in Love" and "Oklahoma" (which has been the official state song of Oklahoma since 1953) from Oklahoma!, "Some Enchanted Evening", from South Pacific, "Getting to Know You" from The King and I, and the title song, "The Sound of Music" as well as "Climb Ev'ry Mountain" and “Edelweiss", which was the last song he wrote before his death.  Yes, the love of musicals is a stereotype of gay men, but I do love musicals and couldn’t resist including him in this list.

The next GLBT oriented birthday is that of Cheyenne Jackson (born July 12, 1975), the  American television and Broadway actor and singer.  He is openly gay and an LGBT rights supporter, as well as an ambassador for amfAR (The Foundation for AIDS Research) and the national ambassador for The Hetrick-Martin Institute. Jackson's partner, Monte Lapka, is a physicist; they have been together since 2000.

And just as an aside, Julius Caesar was born on this day in 100 BC.  Some contemporary historians and political enemies claimed that he was “every woman’s man, and every man’s woman.” Also, Richard Simmons, the fitness and weight loss guru was born on this day in 1942.  Need I say why he is included on this list.

Other events today in GLBT History…

1730: In Frisia, a part of the Netherlands, Caspar Abrahams Berse is arrested after being accused of sodomy. He begged the policeman who arrested him to kill him, saying that he would later be executed.

1940: A directive from the Reich Main Security Office mandates that any homosexual who had seduced more than one partner would be put into protective custody (a concentration camp). Evidence of a sexual act was often absent in meeting the criteria.

1950: Elsie de Wolfe, socialite and premier designer, dies at age 85. She liked to call herself the first interior decorator, and actress, and madly in love with her husband, but was none of them. The interior arts had been developed long before her, her "modeling" of outrageous clothes on Broadway hardly made her an actress, and she was in fact in love with socialite Elizabeth Marbury. Elsie's husband didn't mind though, as he was gay, too.

1972: Jim Foster of San Francisco and Madeline Davis of New York become the first openly gay delegates at the Democratic National Convention.

1986: The International Lesbian & Gay Association votes almost unanimously not to revoke the membership of the South African Gay Association after testimony from a representative who stated that the organization is opposed to apartheid.

1998: The New York Times reports on the murder of Ali Forney, a 22-year-old homeless, black, gay transvestite who supported himself by occasionally working as a prostitute. He was the third transvestite prostitute to be murdered in New York City in 14 months.

1998: Poland's gay pride demonstration is cancelled because city authorities refused to issue the necessary permits.

1999: Miller Brewing Company cancels a beer ad featuring shirtless male models on San Francisco based gay cable show QTV's "Xposure" program.

2002: A Canadian court for the first time rules in favor of recognizing same-sex marriages when the Ontario Superior Court rules that prohibiting gay couples from marrying is unconstitutional. The court gives the province of Ontario two years to extend marriage rights to same-sex couples, but two weeks later the federal government steps in to appeal the ruling.

Today in LGBT History--July 12 - National Grassroots Equality | Examiner.com http://www.examiner.com/grassroots-equality-in-national/today-lgbt-history-july-12#ixzz1Rnylm9me