Tongqi, straight women who are married to closeted gay men in China

The growing number of Tongqi,straight women who are married to closeted gay men, has become a social problem in China. Just give you a general idea, about 90% of gay Chinese men marry a heterosexual woman. Sexologist and sociologist Li Yinhe believes there are 20 million male homosexuals in China, 80% of whom marry a woman. 
Compared with the US, I think East Asian countries care more about families and offspring. Many parents, even when they know their sons are gays, will force their sons into marriages to have grandchildren. There are also many cases that gay men use sham marriages to have kids. Vice has a comprehensive report on the topic. In China, millions of straight women have married deeply closeted gay men–and many only find out about their partner's sexuality after the wedding. What is life like for tongqi and the men that they marry? 

An advertisement that you may enjoy during the final week

Vicks, a pharmaceutical company, makes an advertisement to show supports for the LGBT community. It's really short and please watch it. I almost cried when I saw the ad for the first time.

By the way, the mum in the ad is Gauri Sawant, a famous Indian transgender activist. Here is her story if you are interested. The real story of Gauri Sawant, the trans ‘mommy’ from the Vicks video, is even more extraordinary

For all non seniors in the class, good luck on your finals. 

Why the GOP Health Care Plan is a Disaster for People Living with HIV

Health care is in jeopardy for many who depend so greatly on Medicaid and other forms of affordable care. For those with HIV, being denied this access to care is incredibly dangerous. It happened in the Reagan era and it can happen again in the Trump era.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/why-the-gop-health-care-plan-is-a-disaster-for-people_us_5909fc3ce4b05279d4edc1aa

Chechen authorities tell parents: 'Kill your gay sons or we will', survivor claims

 Here is a news story to another horrifying revelation from a survivor of the Chechen violence against gay men. I would have expected this story to have received more attention in mainstream news, but I hope we can remain vigilant on what is happening there.

http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/europe/chechnya-parents-kill-gay-sons-russia-region-government-chechen-leader-ramzan-kadyrov-a7714591.html

Asian-American Queer Podcast: "Nancy"

Tobin Low and Kathy Yu created a new WNYC Studios podcast titled, "Nancy", that launced on April 9th.  This 12-episode show explores queerness and LGBTQ issues through an Asian-American lens.  The title, "Nancy," is an effort to reclaim a derogatory term used to refer to gay men. The podcast has been featured in The Guardian, NBC, New York Magazine's Vulture Blog, and The Huffington Post.

For me, I always find it refreshing to see queer Asian-American voices being represented and easily accessible.  I am interested to see what these podcasts will have and hope to recommend them to my friends who I know actively enjoy and listen to podcasts.

To see more, check out this HuffPo article HERE!

To hear their first podcast, "Nancy", click HERE :)

CA (still) Bans Gay Conversion Therapy!!

A case was sent to the Supreme Court, trying to take down California's ban on Gay Conversion Therapy. The Supreme Court refused to overturn it by refusing to hear the case.

Although this is a victory for the gay community, the case is far from over. Proponents to Gay Conversion Therapy have said they will continue fighting the case, supposedly believing that it is a beneficial medical practice that is being denied to gay individuals.

http://www.pbs.org/newshour/rundown/supreme-court-turns-away-challenge-california-ban-gay-conversion-therapy/

Trump administration will gut transgender healthcare protections

Trump administration will gut transgender healthcare protections

Here  is a link to the full original article posted today by Jeff Taylor. 

Below is a little snippet to summarise the crux of the article:

The Trump administration appears poised to gut protections under the Affordable Care Act (ACA) for transgender individuals and pregnant people.

This would be yet another attack on transgender rights from a White House that backed away from trans student rights protections, reversing course on an Obama directive to public schools requesting they honor gender identity in bathroom and locker room usage.

LGBT Rights Bill Re-Introduced

This week Democrats re-introduced the Equality Act, which would ban discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation nationwide. However, it is unlikely to pass given Republican control of the House and Senate as well as Trump's anti-LGBT agenda.

The article also includes a short video on Carter Brown, a transgender man who was fired when his employer found out he was transgender.

Link:http://www.advocate.com/politics/2017/5/01/dems-re-introducing-lgbt-rights-bill

Gay Men Tortured with Electricity in Chechnya

An update on the situation in Chechnya. 

As a Government/IR major, I have been thinking about how our discussions on Russia can be situated within conversations of nation-building and policymaking as it pertains to the collapse of the Soviet Union and the creation of the Russian Federation. In a lecture by Professor Hilary Appel, I also remember her discussing how Russia utilizes the media to portray Putin as hypermasculine and (thus) extremely successful. Super interesting to think about how authoritarian regimes use notions of masculinity to reinforce power and oppression!

Here's another video on the rise of Putin.

Some questions to consider:

Are lesbian women similarly persecuted? If not, it is because they do not threaten the masculine image of Russia that is so quintessential to maintaining its authoritarianism? Furthermore, Chechnya has been in opposition with Moscow because of its desire to declare independence. Does its current persecution of gay men actually align itself with Russia more than it should if it wants to declare independence? What are the political implications of that?

New Policy Created to Eliminate AIDS by 2030 in San Francisco

Produced by PBS, this video/article highlights the new public health program "Getting to Zero" aimed at eliminating AIDS in San Francisco by 2030. The news segment highlights many different aspects of the policy including rapid treatment programs and encouraging PREP medication for those not infected. This video also sheds light on the reality that those most in need of these programs, the homeless population, present the most challenges in actually attaining 'zero' by 2030. The final scenes consist of shots of the Gay Pride parade in San Francisco. Through these scenes, the news anchor illustrates a tension we discussed in the context of the Netherland article: despite major successes in the gay rights movement (gay marriage, anti-discrimination laws, etc) many challenges continue to exist, especially for homeless individuals with HIV/AIDS. Even though the news segment follows the struggles of a homeless straight couple with HIV, this depiction remains relevant because it displays the challenges of homelessness in eliminating AIDS.

Link: http://pulitzercenter.org/reporting/san-franciscos-bold-aids-mission-getting-zero-2030

The Onion - "Trump Voter Feels Betrayed By President After Reading 800 Pages Of Queer Feminist Theory"

This Onion video (joke/satirical news) plays on the the unlikeliness of this man's change of heart and his readiness to adopt and use the language of queer-theory.  It reminded me of Lisa Duggan, who argues that the language of queer theory is inaccessible to the public. I think that the Onion agrees with Duggan, and made this video to highlight this reality.

https://www.facebook.com/TheOnion/videos/10155397968279497/?hc_ref=NEWSFEED

CMC Dean featured in Hillary Clinton Campaign Video on LGBT Equality!

When I watched Hillary Clinton's historic 2012 speech on LGBT equality at the United Nations, I recognized the speech from a video called "Equal" that was put together by her 2016 presidential campaign. The video uses the audio from her 2012 speech, and illustrates her (current) stance on LGBT issues. In the video, CMC Dean Devon MacIver's wedding ceremony is featured.

Take a look for yourself!

Op-ed: The Gay Truth About Ronald Reagan

For our fourth paper assignment, I decided to write about the AIDS crisis. As we already know President Reagan during the time did little to help during this epidemic. Below is an article from a very popular gay news source that I, myself trust, so you can only imagine how surprised I was when I came across this article. The writer asks, "Ronald Reagan failed to successfully combat the AIDS crisis, but does that make him antigay?" I honestly think it does. After reading the article, I was still not convinced. What are your thoughts? I thought this was worth sharing because it's always good to listen to differing opinions. I also thought it was interesting that it made it on Advocate and thought it might be worth checking out.

Click here to read the article! 

"Bill Nye Uses Ice Cream to Show How Ridiculous Gay Conversion Therapy Is"

This Huffington Post article has a clip from the Netflix series "Bill Nye Saves the World" where he discusses "ice cream conversation therapy" as an analogy for gay conversation therapy.  The article reports that the video had over 164,000 views by Thursday morning, but received a lot of negative backlash.  A few of these opinions are also displayed in the article.