AfterEllen shut down
After failing to become profitable enough for its new owners, Evolve Media, venerable lesbian website AfterEllen is being shut down. Editor in chief Trish Bendix gave a eulogy for the site, and for queer women’s spaces, at the Advocate.
Bisexual Visibility Day
Friday marks the 18th annual Bisexuality Visibility Day. Vice celebrated with an interview with bisexual author Kate Harrad, while the Advocate’s Lindsey Kirkham discusses the unique social challenges facing bisexuals.
Botswana kicks out US pastor already banned in South Africa
A second African country has kicked out notoriously anti-gay US pastor Steven Anderson. After South Africa banned him due to his views, he slipped into Botswana where he gave a radio address calling on gays and lesbians to be killed. President Ian Khama had him detained and deported, saying “We don’t want hate speech in this country. Let him do it in his own country.”
Russian gay site shut down
Russia’s largest gay news site, BlueSystem.ru, has been shut down by a court order. The court, in a small Siberian town, gave no reason or warning for the order to shut down the site, which hosts 100,000 visits daily.
Read more from the Moscow Times.
CDC issues STI warnings
The US CDC has issued two warnings on the STIs gonorrhea and syphilis. Gonorrhea, the agency reports, may be developing drug resistance to the last available antibiotics. Syphilis, meanwhile, has seen an alarming uptick among men who have sex with men, especially in the American South.