Sunday, July 13, 2014
Via JMG: World Health Organization: ALL Gay Men Should Be On Anti-Retroviral Drugs
The World Health Organization has suggested for the first time that all men who have sex with men should take antiretroviral medicine, warning that HIV infection rates among gay men are exploding around the world. In guidelines published Friday, it said that it “strongly recommends men who have sex with men consider taking antiretroviral medicines as an additional method of preventing HIV infection.” Similar guidelines were issued by the U.S. in May.In May, the CDC expanded its own recommendations, saying that anybody at risk for HIV, not just gay men, should be taking Truvada.
JMG Editorial Of The Day
From the editorial board of the New York TImes:
President Obama should resist a pressure campaign by some religious groups to weaken a promised executive order that would prohibit federal contractors from discriminating against gay men, lesbians and transgender people in their hiring practices.(Tipped by JMG reader Win)
Emboldened by the Supreme Court’s addlebrained Hobby Lobby decision, several groups wrote to Mr. Obama on July 1 asking him to allow federal contractors to fire or refuse to hire workers based on their religious objections to a person’s sexual orientation or gender identity.
This is not a question of religious freedom. It is a question of whether to allow religion to be used as an excuse to discriminate in employment against a particular group of people. Many states already have laws protecting gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender workers. There is no such federal law, so the presidential order (promised but not yet produced) would extend those rules to companies that receive federal contracts in states without those kinds of anti-bias laws, protecting millions more people.
Mr. Obama’s resolve is being tested. There is no good reason to give religious employers a special privilege to inflict undeserved pain by, for example, refusing to hire someone to work on a government-backed project just because she happens to be a lesbian, or firing a capable employee who marries someone of the same sex.
Labels: Barack Obama, Christianists, employment, executive orders, feds, Hobby Lobby, LGBT rights, New York Times, Obama administration, religion
Via JMG: Ian Thorpe On Coming Out
Via the Guardian:
On Sunday night on Australian television Thorpe faced Sir Michael Parkinson to overturn what he said had become the "big lie" in his life. "What happened was, I felt that the lie had become so big that I didn't want people to question my integrity and a little bit of ego comes into this," Thorpe said in a 90-minute interview on the Ten network. "I didn't want people to think that I had lied about everything." Now 31, the swimmer said the words he had been avoiding: "I'm not straight and this is only something that very recently – we're talking in the past two weeks – I've been comfortable telling the closest people around me." His mother was shocked; his friends less so. But everyone had embraced him and he was relieved. When the interview goes to air in Australia, he said, I can finally "breathe out".
(Via Towleroad)
Reposted from Joe Jervis
Via Robert Reich / FB
The
real dividing line in America today isn’t between conservatives and
liberals or between Democrats and Republicans. It’s between the haters
and the big-hearted. The haters direct their venom not just at child
refugees seeking asylum from the drug war we created, but also at gays
who want to marry, African-Americans who want to vote and exercise their
other rights of citizenship, women who seek abortions, or even women in
general, Latinos who want their children to be taught in Spanish,
immigrants in general, Muslims, Jews, government “bureaucrats,” the poor
and needy, anyone who dares suggest a required background check before
buying guns, people they call “liberals” or “socialists” or
“communists,” even the President of the United States. The haters are
enflamed by hate-mongers in the media who blame the nation’s troubles on
“them.” The haters are loud and angry; they yell and wave their signs
before the cameras. But the haters are not America. They are a small and
vocal minority. Most Americans are generous and welcoming, decent and
kind-hearted. We are the silent majority, who have been silent too long.
- Robert Reich
Via Daily Dharma
Room for Everything | July 13, 2014
Noticing the space around people and
things provides a different way of looking at them, and developing this
spacious view is a way of opening oneself. When one has a spacious mind,
there is room for everything.
—Ajahn Sumedho, “Noticing Space”
Flower of the Day: 07/13/14
“It
is important to differentiate between vertical and horizontal
religions. Vertical religion is spirituality, the path towards
enlightenment. It represents the deepest meaning of the word ‘religion,’
which is the reconnection of the individual soul with the Absolute.
This union is only possible when one is able to follow the orders given
by one’s own heart. Horizontal religion is a creation of the human mind
in order to meet a social need. In this sense, I do not work with
religion. I never say do this or that. I simply suggest that you become
silent, receptive and increase your perception enough to notice the
commandment that comes from within.”
Sri Prem Baba
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