HEALTH Archives | Page 166 of 180

Nowhere to go…the challenges of being homeless and LGBT during a hurricane.

September 7, 2017 compassq Comments Off

There was nowhere for 19-year-old Sean Chavez to go when Hurricane Harvey thundered into Houston less than two weeks ago. The homeless teenager, who is bisexual, sat on a sidewalk drenched in rain. It came down with such fury that it got into his lungs. A sick feeling grew in his stomach. He was getting cold. “I couldn’t really breath,” Chavez told NBC News. “I was praying I could get a place to get out.” Then, he said, a car pulled over and a woman stepped out. She asked him if he had a place to go.

Transgender and homeless in Portland, a rising trend.

September 7, 2017 compassq Comments Off

When she first considered transitioning from a man to a woman, Sophia Conquest made a checklist of “bad and good things.” On the bad side: As a transgender woman, she’d essentially have a target on her back. “I knew it was going to happen,” Conquest says. The day before WW interviewed her last month in Pioneer Courthouse Square, Conquest says, a child threw rocks at her. Earlier that week, she adds, a woman physically assaulted her in a confrontation that began with the woman insulting Conquest with slurs, like “She Man.” Conquest eventually fended her off with her purse while running away.

Montrose Center reopens to help the LGBT community in Houston.

September 6, 2017 compassq Comments Off

As Hurricane Harvey began its punishing descent on Houston, Kennedy Loftin knew the LGBT community in the city would need to pull together to survive. “In the last two storms, in Katrina and Ike, a lot of our community fell through the cracks,” Loftin, chief development officer of the Montrose Center, Houston’s largest LGBT community organization, said on Monday.

Matching the voice with the appearance after transitioning.

September 6, 2017 compassq Comments Off

When a transgender person decides to transition from one sex to another, there are a lot of steps involved. They might change their appearance and their name. They might take hormones and have gender reassignment surgery. But after all of this is complete, many may find their old voice doesn’t match their new appearance.

PrEP helps keep gay and bisexual teens negative from HIV.

September 6, 2017 compassq Comments Off

A group of gay and bisexual teenage males safely used a medication that prevents HIV infection, though some failed to follow the drug regimen fully and became infected, researchers report. People at risk for becoming infected with the virus that causes AIDS can dramatically lower their risk of infection by taking the drug Truvada in what is known as the PrEP regimen, but its use is only approved for adults.

Elite women’s colleges welcome transgender students.

September 5, 2017 compassq Comments Off

Until last year, Ninotska Love would have been barred from attending Wellesley College. She’s an accomplished student who has persevered through hardship, but under longstanding rules, the college would have rejected her because she was assigned at birth as a boy. Now the rules have changed. This week, Love will become one of the first transgender women to attend Wellesley in the school’s 147-year history.

Higher rate of HIV infection among black gay and bisexual men in the south.

September 5, 2017 compassq Comments Off

Data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention state the south has the highest number of people living with HIV. Two of the groups most at risk are gay and bisexual black men. “It is not the end of the world in 2017 if people are diagnosed because they can live a long healthy life,” said Gary Jenkins with the AIDS Healthcare Foundation.