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(03/18/16 4:03pm)
In 1981, the first reports of HIV/AIDS came forward, and at that time the disease did not yet have a name. By the end of that year, more than 270 gay men had experienced a severe immune deficiency, and 121 had already died. But this was just the beginning of the tragedy. Over the course of the 1980s approximately 687,507 people with AIDS perished in the United States. At former First Lady Nancy Reagan’s funeral on Friday March 11, 2016, Hillary Clinton credited the Reagans for conducting a “very effective, low-key” awareness and fight against HIV/AIDS. Clinton’s statement was followed by a firestorm of angry comments calling out her error as the Reagans did very little to help during the AIDS epidemic. Clinton took to Twitter quickly, saying, “While the Reagans were strong advocates for stem cell research and finding a cure for Alzheimer’s disease, I misspoke about their record on H.I.V. and AIDS. For that, I’m sorry.”
(03/18/16 3:59pm)
“Oh my god, he’s so fluffy!” I was excited to meet his dog. I had been friends with Dustin since junior high school yet this was my first time to his house.
(03/18/16 3:51pm)
In a time when so few stories are told truthfully, it’s hard to learn about your roots. With movies like 2015’s Stonewall, the whitewashing of LGBT history has created a narrative that places white people at the forefront of all of our movements. Paris is Burning is a 1990 documentary that highlights ball culture, a subsection of queer culture that is often forgotten. Balls are contests featuring participants displaying outfits and looks that fulfill a fantasy of theirs. According to Dorian Corey, “at a ball, you can be anything.” Instead of making a white person the face of the movement, director Jennie Livingston spotlights the gay men and trans women of color who created this scene.
(03/07/16 6:03pm)
Two years have passed since the CDC issued guidelines stating that thousands of people (particularly those at high risk) start taking pre-exposure prophylaxis (PrEP) to prevent HIV infection. PrEP has been shown to be 99 percent effective at preventing HIV transmission among those who take it as prescribed. The CDC also reports that PrEP has the potential to reduce HIV infections in the US by 70 percent. Nearly 2,500 people in the US are reported to be using PrEP and numbers are slowly rising.
(03/07/16 5:46pm)
I stood in the dressing room of JC Penney’s staring at my reflection. It was a nice dress; dark blue with an asymmetrical pattern of green flowers that started on the bottom right hem and spread across the middle, up toward the left hip. I hadn’t purchased an item of clothing at full retail price – ever. Yet there I stood, in a dress that was priced at a little over what I earn in a day, seriously considering making it mine. My 9-year-old daughter stood on the dressing room bench looking at me thoughtfully. I couldn’t tell if she thought I looked acceptable, or if she was trying to think of a kind way to express her concern for my lack of fashion sense.
(03/07/16 5:29pm)
When I came out, nobody was surprised. Even by modern-day standards, I was an effeminate child. I had a passion for Britney, Christina, The Spice Girls and anything flashy. I take a strange sense of pride in knowing that I somehow dodged a childhood Golden Girls obsession, but I can feel it forming as I write this. I am more of a Degrassi: The Next Generation type of gay.
(03/07/16 5:24pm)
The fate of privilege and sexuality in the 1800’s unfolds itself in Carmilla, a novella written by J. Sheridan Fanu. Published in 1872, this novella portrays Laura an 18-year-old girl and her father who live in Styria, Austria. Shrouded in solitude, Laura’s life has been lonely as she was isolated from other girls her own age.
(02/29/16 4:31pm)
Having never felt much inclination toward the graphic novel genre, I accepted a copy of Fun Home by Alison Bechdel on loan only because a coworker promised that I could finish it in one hour and forty minutes--almost precisely the amount of time it would take to travel from Muncie to my hometown, where I was being driven for the weekend.
(02/29/16 4:28pm)
LGBT citizens have been a protected class in Evansville, Indiana for four years. Yet sexual orientation and gender identity discrimination allegations were investigated on a voluntary basis per city ordinance. This meant that if an individual were to be fired, denied housing, or refused service based on their sexuality that the case could be closed if the investigator encountered an accused company or individual who refused to comply with an investigation. This left an entire group of individuals open to discrimination without any guarantee backing those protections.
(02/29/16 4:28pm)
Frank started very simply: a white dress and a pair of nude two-inch heels. There was nothing remarkable about the dress; it had a wide, open neck that just touched his shoulders. There was a defined waist, but not much of one, and no lace or design of any measure. It was just as much a dress as it was a nightgown, a dress just safe enough for Frank to feign buying for his “wife.” The heels were much of the same: beige, just one shade off of his skin-tone, a heel high enough to make him soar, but still low enough to be modest.
(02/22/16 6:34pm)
Written and Directed by Eric Schaeffer, Boy Meets Girl offers a twist on the traditional romantic comedy. Ricky, a twentysomething small town girl is torn between the love she has felt toward her longtime friend, Robby, and the developing love she has for her new friend, Francesca. Though it may seem like Ricky is facing a dilemma that has been addressed in a few mainstream films in the past, what makes this film different than many of the romantic comedies that came before it is that the main character, Ricky, is a transgender young woman. As the storyline unfolds, the audience witnesses the awkwardness that often accompanies young love, as well as the complexities that surround discovering love as a transgender individual in a heteronormative society.
(02/22/16 6:33pm)
I don’t know why I’m afraid.
(02/22/16 6:30pm)
I do not dwell on your dislike of me,
(02/16/16 3:51pm)
When it comes to looking the best you can, the
amount of products to choose from can be overwhelming. Some people tend to get
lost throughout aisles and aisles of beauty products and can’t seem to know what they actually need. Sometimes you need a guide to help figure out what
beauty products you should be using.
(02/14/16 3:15pm)
After watching Bavo Defurne’s 2011 film North Sea Texas, I was left wanting more than had even been offered to me. There is both so much missing and so much happening at the same time that it’s hard to appreciate what the film does right. The movie’s romantic plot falls flat by never leaving too much at stake; Pim and Gino’s relationship doesn’t feel real enough to actually matter, and the crush that Sabrina, Gino’s sister, has on Pim is unrealistic and unnecessary. North Sea Texas is full of heavy-handed, superficial metaphors. The film tries to discuss sexuality, romantic love, gender identity, and the idea of belonging, but few of these topics feel resolved by the end. The setting is stunning, and the cast play their roles well. The film’s problems are not in the technical details but instead the narrative and storytelling.
(02/13/16 2:26am)
LGBTQIA+ - this long stream of letters has been seen in many different ways. Lesbian, gay, bisexual, trans, questioning, intersexual, and then there’s the “A.” This letter is meant to signify asexuals, but there has been confusion that has led to the “a” marking a place for allies.
(02/13/16 2:17am)
This past weekend, New York Governor Andrew M. Cuomo is joining four other states in announcing several regulations that will discourage the practice of conversion therapy. This therapy is aimed at changing a person’s sexual orientation or gender identity. The practice has been denounced by many leading scientists, gay rights activists and medical groups including the American Psychological Association; but it is still being perpetrated on many young adults. The American Psychological Association states, “such efforts [conversion therapy] have serious potential to harm young people because they present the view that the sexual orientation of lesbian, gay and bisexual youth is a mental illness or disorder, and they often frame the inability to change one’s sexual orientation as a personal and moral failure.” The Association explains the side effects of conversion therapy as, “The potential risks of reparative therapy are great, including depression, anxiety and self-destructive behavior, since therapist alignment with societal prejudices against homosexuality may reinforce self-hatred already experienced by the patient.”
(02/08/16 4:48pm)
A transgender woman shot and killed in January is the first known trans homicide victim of the new year, activists report. 2015 marked the record high for homicides of transgender women of color with 22 victims, although this total does not account for individuals whose deaths were not reported or investigated, nor for victims who were misgendered or not regarded as trans women in death. Of those 22 victims, 19 were trans women of color. The Austin Chronicle reports that Monica Loera is the first to be killed in 2016. Loera was shot in the doorway of her home in Austin, TX on January 22nd.
(02/08/16 4:52pm)
A quick scan of current television shows will demonstrate the plethora of heteronormative storylines that bombard everyone every day. Our media has taught queer individuals to not expect representation and has reinforced heterosexuality as the default setting for fictional characters. However, the media are not naïve and they know that queer people want to see storylines that are relatable. They engage in a balance of heteronormativity and “throwing a bone” to the queer community in the form of a marketing strategy coined as “queer baiting.” The media wants to pull in the queer demographic since they don’t have a preference between queer money and ‘straight money’. But they don’t want to upset the default status of heteronormativity.
(02/08/16 4:45pm)
I wonder what a cherry pie tastes like
