August 2017 | Page 46 of 71

Strength in numbers for LGBT refugees at border.

August 12, 2017 compassq Comments Off

Moments before presenting themselves at the border in Nogales, Arizona, 16 gay and transgender refugees from Central America stood hand in hand for a moment of reflection. The journey to this point had been long, and it wasn’t over yet. Most of them had met each other for the first time on their way to Mexico, and all of them had faced persecution in their home countries. Some of them fled violence by police and gang members. Others fled violence from their families. They’d all heard stories of being turned away at the border, and so they banded together in a caravan.

Huge demand prompts gender reassignment surgery training

August 12, 2017 compassq Comments Off

The surge in demand for transgender surgeries in the United States has triggered a New York City hospital to launch a program to train doctors to perform gender reassignment procedures. Mount Sinai’s Center for Transgender Medicine and Surgery opened early last year in Manhattan and has since operated on roughly 350 patients. Dr Jess Ting, the center’s director of surgery, said the team operates on nearly four patients a week.

LGBT inclusion is good for the economy.

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Though it might surprise some to learn that 65 percent of Americans feel that LGBT inclusion is good for the economy, it was what Ogilvy’s Bill Berman suspected his agency’s most recent LGBT marketing survey would show. “We had a sense that the cultural landscape is shifting to be more inclusive,” said Berman. “One of the reasons why we wanted to do the survey was to learn more how that shift pertains to brands and businesses. We had this inclination that because advertising doesn’t exist in a vacuum, there must be some sort of effect on non-LGBT audiences when a brand’s advertising is LGBT-inclusive.”

“The Gay Man’s Guide to Open and Monogamous Marriage.”

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I had the opportunity to talk with psychotherapist and author, Michael Dale Kimmel, about his new book, “The Gay Man’s Guide to Open and Monogamous Marriage.” Having written a book of my own on modern marriage, I am particularly interested in how Kimmel not only provides a necessarily specific guide for male-male marriages, but also how this wisdom can be utilized by all couples, regardless of gender.

HIV vending machine testing in Brighton.

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An innovative vending machine for HIV tests being piloted in Britain aims to help in the fight to end the epidemic by encouraging more people to find out whether they have contracted the virus as a first step to seek treatment, a doctor said. Installed at a gay sauna in the southern seaside city of Brighton, the first-of-its-kind machine distributes free fingerprick self-testing kits that can be collected anonymously and used at home, providing results within minutes.

Has-been model in Kyrgyzstan wants to blow up LGBT community.

August 12, 2017 compassq Comments Off

A Kyrgyz fashion-world celebrity has drawn criticism after apparently calling for the mass execution of “nontraditional” sexual minorities and prostitutes in the Central Asian republic. In a Facebook post on August 10, Amina Yusurova, a fashion model and national director of the Kyrgyzstan World Beauty Congress, wrote: “Round up all the people of nontraditional orientation and blow them all up on one island.”

Nigerian gay rights activist granted asylum in the UK.

August 12, 2017 compassq Comments Off

A Nigerian gay rights activist who was told by a judge that she was faking her sexuality has won a 13-year battle to be granted asylum in the UK. Aderonke Apata feared being killed or imprisoned if she returned home, but her application for asylum was rejected for a second time in 2015 after the judge said he did not believe she was a lesbian.