#Wejustneedtopee
Minnesota trans man Michael Hughes has joined in the selfie-based protest against laws in the US and Canada that would ban trans people from the washrooms of their choice. The protest started with Victoria, Canada’s Brae Carnes, who took selfies in men’s washrooms to protest a senate amendment. Hughes is taking pictures of himself in women’s washrooms to protest a series of US state Republican bills that would also ban him from men’s facilities.
FDA approves human trials for “functional HIV cure”
The US Food and Drug Administration has approved human trials for a technique that scientists hope could functionally cure HIV. The technique involves editing the genes of blood-producing stem cells to create a protein that prevents the HIV virus from entering cells. While HIV would still exist in the bloodstream, if the technique is a success the virus would float harmlessly without being able to reproduce.
Read more at the San Francisco Business Times.
John Aravosis quits
Blogger, political activist and gay rights advocate John Aravosis of AmericaBlog says he is quitting. Aravosis says he can no longer afford to run the blog, and that the work he intended to do is now finished. He writes at AmericaBlog: “We’ve won. The civil rights of gays are now an inevitability in America. Now, that doesn’t mean that eternal vigilance is no longer needed. It is… But the war is over, in the sense that the bad guys, and the issue overall, have passed a cultural tipping point from which they will, and can, never recover.”
A New Gay Fairy Tale
In the New York Times, Indian writer Sandip Roy tells the story of the gay man he met in San Francisco as a new immigrant, and how he taught Roy the value of going home. Roy’s story is a fairy tale about family, sacrifice, and HIV.
Lesbians in tech
Women are still a minority in science and technology, and lesbians are a small minority among women, so filling seats at a lesbians in tech group isn’t easy. Fortune Magazine looks at the lives of lesbians in tech, their special challenges — and advantages.
Three men fined in Germany for kidnapping gay relative
Three Lebanese men in Germany have been fined for kidnapping a 15-year-old gay relative and trying to force him into a marriage. The men tried to drive the boy to Turkey, but were intercepted. Each was fined about $1,800 Canadian by a German court.
Read more at the Washington Post.
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