🇺🇸 Biden opens major push for LGBTIQ rights abroad
Source: https://www.channelnewsasia.com/news/world/...abroad-14130456



WASHINGTON: President Joe Biden has quickly launched a campaign to support LGBTIQ people abroad, putting their rights higher on the US foreign policy agenda than ever before.

Elevating a 2011 initiative launched by his former boss Barack Obama - and reversing a turnaround under Donald Trump - Biden is expanding the scope of US efforts on LGBTIQ rights while also adjusting based on lessons learned over the past decade.

In his first foreign policy speech, Biden announced Thursday (Feb 4) he was ordering all US government agencies active abroad to promote the rights of lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, intersex and queer people and to come up with plans within 180 days.

"All human beings should be treated with respect and dignity and should be able to live without fear no matter who they are or whom they love," Biden said in the presidential memorandum.

Biden, who plans a dramatic rise in US admissions of refugees, promised greater attention to LGBTIQ asylum seekers, including by ensuring action on urgent cases even when vulnerable people first flee to countries that are less welcoming.

The memorandum said that the United States would also combat discriminatory laws overseas and work to build international coalitions against homophobia and transphobia.

A senior State Department official said that Secretary of State Antony Blinken plans to name a special envoy on LGBTIQ issues.

"I think that when that envoy is appointed, that will help to elevate attention to these issues even further," the official told AFP.

SPEAKING OUT

The Biden administration has already incorporated its message in public statements. State Department spokesman Ned Price criticised Turkey after President Recep Tayyip Erdogan and his interior minister verbally attacked gay people, and Biden mentioned LGBTIQ rights in a message to an African Union summit.

Considering the outsized US influence on the world, activists expected Biden to set an example. They pointed to the rapid impact both at home and abroad when Biden, then vice president, in 2012 became the highest-ranking US official to back marriage equality - which became the law across the United States three years later.

After the gradual evolution on LGBTIQ rights under Obama, "we have a radically different opportunity today" said Jessica Stern, executive director of advocacy group OutRight Action International.

"To have President Biden issue this very holistic presidential memorandum so early in his administration is a clear indication that this is a political priority for him," she said.

Stern voiced hope for greater funding for non-governmental groups, which a number of European nations fund more generously.

But she cautioned that the solution was not always vocal US support at the local level.

"One of the most effective and consistent ways of discrediting LGBTIQ people and our movement is to say that they are the result of colonial and Western imposition -- they're getting paid by foreign donors," Stern said.

The State Department official said the United States would examine each country and decide case by case whether public diplomacy is the best approach.

"Our watch-word always is to work and listen to the activists on the ground working on these issues to get their best advice on how to move the ball," the official said.

BACKING LOCAL VOICES

The United States has plenty of case studies from the Obama years.

Obama slashed aid or trading privileges to Uganda and Gambia after the countries passed laws that authorised imprisonment for homosexuality.

The tough rebukes fueled a backlash in parts of Africa, whose most populous nation Nigeria defiantly pushed through its own draconian law.

But there has been steady progress, even in nations once seen as hotbeds of homophobia such as Jamaica. Gay sex is now legal in nearly two-thirds of all nations, and 28 countries allow same-sex marriage, according to the International Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Trans and Intersex Association.

Phillip Ayoub, an associate professor at Occidental College in California who has studied diplomacy and sexual minorities, said the key was to support local campaigners but to let them lead.

"There are activists on the ground who will say that it might not make sense to be fully visible right now because that can increase violence toward our communities," he said.

"This kind of foreign policy cannot be top-down. It has to be done carefully with civil society in different countries and I think empowering them is one way where we can be productive."

Trump reversed some LGBTIQ gains at home, particularly on transgender people.

Under Trump's secretary of state Mike Pompeo, an evangelical Christian, the United States limited visas for foreign diplomats' same-sex partners, stopped US embassies from flying rainbow flags and entered a joint declaration with countries including Uganda that promoted theb

Trump appointed an openly gay ambassador to Germany, Ric Grenell, who launched a campaign to end the criminalisation of homosexuality, although critics say the effort was aimed more at furthering other Trump goals such as pressuring Iran and discouraging immigration.

After Trump, Ayoub said, Biden's approach "is a monumental change".

Activist Maryam fights for hijab freedom
Source: https://www.freemalaysiatoday.com/category/...-hijab-freedom/



KUALA LUMPUR: Harassed and placed under investigation by religious authorities, activist Maryam Lee is a controversial figure in Malaysia.

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Down with the patriarchy!

You can hate me all you want but Maryam is just bunch of attention seeker actually.

I've seen her the way she posted on twitter, videos etc.

You don't want to wear tudung, just go ahead. I have few female friends that didn't wear tudung and they are totally okay with that and no one force them to wear it.

Even some of my kelantanese friends didn't wear tudung and their parents are okay with it. Their friends, surrounding are okay.
If she don't like the environment she's living in, just move out and find new environment and new friends circles.

About her point about muslim malaysian that is getting more and more conservative. Of course, the access to religious education is getting easier and more people is aware and knows deeper about their own religion. Last time many Bumiputera can't even afford to go school and get access to education.

It's their rights if they want to wear tudung. Why she feels "terbakar" seeing many muslim woman wearing tudung?

I'm seriously don't understand apa benda dia memekak sangat. Bagi aku tak ada point. Just bunch of an attention seeker girl that have nothing better to do in life.

As usual, the same old inane reasoning spat out by someone who's ludicrous. What irks me even more is that he has that audacity to tell the media all Malaysian cultures reject what he rejects. I wonder what he's doing all this time when there are so many research articles telling the methods he literally suggested are utterly useless in 'changing' one's sexual orientation.

So if I were to summarize your argument, you're basically saying since you don't see any discrimination against free-hair malay women then discrimination doesn't exist. 

I've seen first-hand how my female friends got called sluts and all kinds of names just because they made a concious choice not to cover their aurat. Throughout my life, girls in schools are also are forced to wear tudung as part of their uniform despite no wearing it elsewhere. Even Indonesia realises now that wearing headscarves is an individual choice. The fact that we are officially worse than Indonesia in this respect shows that we are indeed, becoming more conservative.

There had been surveys that show most women do not voluntarily choose to wear tudung. Celebrities who experimented with tudung and decided to take it off are often criticized on social media too.

Hi, do you mind to share the research articles?

Let's try to clear things up...

Is covering up obligatory in Islam? Yes

Is there a law that enforces it? No

So long there is no law to enforces, (e.g., like the law disallowing smoking and drinking alcohol in public, by Selangor, religious department), then you not violating any law.

And then, of course there is nothing Islamic or ethical, in calling names just to pressure others to wear tudung.

Hi, do you mind to share the research articles?

https://www.hrc.org/resources/the-lies-and-...arative-therapy

Above's link includes studies by various American scientific organisations as well World Psychiatric Association on the ineffectiveness of "reparative" or conversion therapies.
I agree although I want to point out that there is a growing number of muslim women themselves no longer subscribe to the idea that headscarves are necessary in order to be a good muslim. 

YouTube: _J5bDhMP9lQ

I think if someone gives a similar talk as above highlighting the true meaning of hijab in Malaysia, they would be hauled in jail already.

1. References to scholarly consensus

Despite Ali claiming that her position has the support of ‘early Islamic scholars”, she fails to name a single one in the entire 17 minute video. For a talk taking place at a university, her lack of referencing is surprising. Islam has a rich historical tradition of rigorous scholarship, which she acknowledges, but otherwise fails to cite adequately.

Whilst Islam does not have a determined category of the clergy that are on a different religious plane, as other faiths do, the respect and acknowledgement of the knowledge of scholars is integral to our deen. The Prophet Muhammad ﷺ said:

    The scholars are the heirs to the Prophets.[1]

In addition to this, the ijmaa‘ (consensus) of the scholars is taken by several scholars as determined source of Islamic rulings within the discipline of Usul ul-Fiqh (principles of jurisprudence)[2]. Consequently, to invent a supposed consensus is to introduce an abberation to the Islamic tradition.

2. Historical inaccuracy

Ali starts the video with a vivid telling of women in Madina making a dangerous journey to relieve themselves in the desert in the middle of the night. But in the rest of her 17 minute talk, she never actually ends the story. She says that then the women went to Rasulullah ﷺ and he allegedly gave them the verse from Surah Ahzaab regarding the jilbab, but then says that people were not happy with the ayah. So what did they do? Did they disobey the Prophet ﷺ and continue to dress as they had before?

Ali also makes the claim that “scholars” then decided that Muslim women must dress as custom dictates – but there were no scholars engaging in ijtihad at the time of the Prophet; he was the central authority. They were not needed when the Messenger of God ﷺ was receiving direct revelation. So who decided this, and when? All of these details have been conveniently left out.

🇮🇷 Iranian cleric bizarrely warns people against Covid vaccine saying it 'makes you gay'
Source: https://www.mirror.co.uk/news/world-news/ir...people-23469797



A controversial Shia cleric in Iran has bizarrely claimed coronavirus vaccines turn people gay, according to reports.

Ayatollah Abbas Tabrizian - who rejects academic medicine - made the unsubstantiated claim via messaging platform Telegram, where he has almost 210,000 followers, it has been claimed.

The Jerusalem Post reports the medical quack wrote: "Don't go near those who have had the COVID vaccine. They have become homosexuals."

Homosexuality is punishable by execution in Iran and it is thought thousands of gay people have been killed by the state since the Islamic Revolution in 1979.

Tabrizian, who has a history of deriding western health methods in favour of his own practice of 'Islamic medicine', has been slammed by LGBTQ campaigner Peter Tatchell.

He told the Daily Mail the cleric's words only served to demonise the gay community as well as inoculations against Covid.

"Ayatollah Tabrizian combines scientific ignorance with a crude appeal to homophobia," he said.

While Iranian dissident Sheina Vojoudi told the Post, much like other clerics in the governing regime, Tabrizian "relates all the shortages to sexuality".

She went on to disregard his claims as "nonsense" and completely contradictory in their attempt to scare people against getting inoculated while regime leaders have already had a Pfizer jab.

"They don't provide it for the people with the excuse that they don't trust the West," continued Ms Vojoudi.

"The clerics in Iran are suffering from lack of knowledge and humanity."

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🇮🇱 Ultra-Orthodox rabbi tells followers Covid vaccine ‘can turn people gay’
Source: https://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/mi...y-b1788543.html



An ultra-Orthodox rabbi has told his followers to avoid getting a Covid vaccine because it can “make them gay”.

Israeli media reported that Rabbi Daniel Asor, who has amassed a large online following, also claimed inoculation efforts were part of a “global malicious government“ trying to ”establish a new world order”.

While his claim of a link between the vaccine and homosexuality is factually incorrect, it also contradicts statements from leading orthodox rabbis who have called on their followers to come forward for a coronavirus jab.

According to news outlet Israel Yahom, Mr Asor used a recent sermon to claim: “Any vaccine made using an embryonic substrate, and we have evidence of this, causes opposite tendencies. Vaccines are taken from an embryonic substrate, and they did that here, too, so ... it can cause opposite tendencies," seemingly referring to homosexuality.

Responding to his comments, LGBT+ rights group Havruta joked that it was “currently gearing up to welcome our impending new members”.

🇨🇳 A 'masculinity crisis'? China says the boys are not all right.
Source: https://www.sbs.com.au/news/a-masculinity-c...e-not-all-right



Government officials in China believe that boys are getting more effeminate and want to toughen them up.

In the latest attempt to tackle what academics and news outlets call a “masculinity crisis,” the Education Ministry has proposed emphasising the “spirit of yang,” or male attributes, by hiring more sports instructors and redesigning physical education classes in elementary and secondary schools.

The plan, a response to a top official’s call to “prevent the feminisation of male youths,” was released last week. It included no timeline and few other details, but it prompted an outcry online and is still stirring fierce debate on social media. One hashtag has been viewed 1.5 billion times on Weibo, a popular microblogging platform.

Some social media users expressed support for the proposal, with one writing, “It’s hard to imagine such effeminate boys can defend their country when an outside invasion looms.” But others saw evidence of sexual discrimination and the perpetuation of gender stereotypes.

Even state news media seemed to question the ministry’s proposal. CCTV, the state broadcaster, wrote on its Weibo account Saturday: “Education is not simply about cultivating ‘men’ and ‘women.’ It’s more important to develop a willingness to take responsibility.”

The broadcaster also offered a loose interpretation of yang, writing, “Men show ‘the spirit of yang’ in bearing, spirit and physique, which is a kind of beauty, but ‘the spirit of yang’ does not simply mean ‘masculine behavior.’ ”

In recent years, as the country has sought to bolster its military and reckon with pampered children, mostly boys, born under its one-child policy, a more stringent idea of masculinity has emerged. Television censors have blurred the pierced ears of male pop stars. Well-groomed actors have been publicly derided as “little fresh meat,” and parents have enrolled boys in boot camps, hoping they will become “real men.”

The Education Ministry’s plan is in response to a proposal made in May by Si Zefu, a top delegate of the Chinese People’s Political Consultative Conference Standing Committee. Called a “Proposal to Prevent the Feminisation of Male Youths,” Mr Si’s proposal said that “many, many more” men should be hired as physical education teachers to exert a “masculine influence” in schools.

In a statement, Mr Si said the prevalence of female teachers in kindergartens and elementary schools and the popularity of “pretty boys” in pop culture had made boys “weak, inferior and timid.” He also lamented that boys no longer wanted to become war heroes, warning that such a trend could endanger the Chinese people.

Last year, Xinhua, a state-run news agency, reported on the gender imbalance of physical education teachers and the difficulties of luring men into the low-paying profession, which is currently dominated by women. In the past, state news media has also blamed video games, masturbation and a lack of exercise for making many young men unfit for the military.

Mark Ma, an 18-year-old high school student in Shenzhen, said that he welcomed an overhaul of physical education but didn’t think it would have a huge effect in shaping masculinity.

“Physical education at the junior high level definitely needs to be improved because a lot of people don’t care about this. They only care about academics,” he said. “I remember a lot of classmates sitting on the sidelines during PE lessons, doing their homework.”

He added that he did not believe that “physical education teachers are highly valued in schools; these new policies and better benefits may attract more people to this field.”

As for engendering “the spirit of yang” in boys, he said, “I think the main focus of this is about increasing physical strength, and what they mean by ‘masculinity’ is unclear.” He added: “I think it’s more important to come from one’s upbringing and daily habits. I personally don’t think using this label will have much effect on physical education habits.”

While the Education Ministry’s new plan did not explicitly propose different treatment for boys and girls, educators like Liu Wenli, a professor at Beijing Normal University and an expert in health and sex education, see some perils. Ms Liu said that even the reference to “feminisation of male youths” could lead to more bullying of students because of their gender expression, identity or sexual orientation.

“Educators cannot call for the prevention of bullying in schools while nurturing the soil for bullying in schools,” she wrote on Weibo.

While some Chinese high schools separate students based on physical ability and others allow them to choose their sports classes, most physical education classes at the elementary level are mixed. But fitness classes are increasingly seen by officials as a solution to the perceived problem of weak boys.

Chunxiao Li, a university researcher who studies inclusive physical education, said by telephone that it was important to create an inclusive environment.

“Overly emphasising masculinity, femininity or physical disabilities is actually detrimental to society’s diversity and inclusivity,” he said. “It can create a label or a stereotype.”

Ms Li said that, in the end, physical education teachers should instead focus on developing a well-rounded student.

🌎 Why Do Straight Women Trust Gay Men More Than Other Women?
Source: https://www.psychologytoday.com/us/blog/wom...ore-other-women



Straight women and gay men share something in common—both are interested in other men. This commonality may draw straight women and gay men together, but there are other factors that also influence these relationships.

Women appear to trust the opinions of gay men relatively more, trust sales associates more when they are gay men, and in fact, women who have gay male friends are more likely to have higher levels of self-esteem about their bodies. This isn’t merely a Western “Queer Eye for the Straight Gal” phenomenon either. In China, many women now seek out relationships with gay men, confidantes whom they call “gaymi.”

When straight women have friendships with other straight women, they may feel in competition with each other over men, or even fear potential mate-poaching by their friend. When straight women have friendships with straight men, there’s the potential for romantic feelings to develop, or for there to be a misperception of the potential for sexual attraction.

These competition issues appear to influence how much trust women feel for their friends. In a study examining other cultures, such as Samoa and Istmo Zapotec, researcher Scott Semenya previously found that women compete with fa’afafine and muxes (two forms of third gender, where individuals assigned male at birth dress as females and seek male sex partners) for male mates. In these cultures, straight women’s trust in gay males was affected by the degree to which the females may have to compete with them for other men.

However, in the United States, there is less cultural acceptance of both male bisexuality, and of straight men having sex with gay men. (That's not to say it doesn’t happen! It does, but there’s less overt social acceptance.) So, it makes sense that straight women would trust gay men more, in general, compared to other women. New research by Scott Semenya and Paul Vasey, from the University of Lethbridge, helps to unpack the complex dynamics which impact this phenomenon.

The researchers used a few sophisticated research strategies to assess how intrasexual competition can affect women’s feelings of trust for gay men. In a two-part study, Semenya and Vasey accessed a large pool of 1,847 female participants, with different sample sizes from this larger pool across different parts of their study. In the first experiment, the researchers asked the participants to consider the following scenario:

“Imagine that you have recently been invited to a party by your friend. It is the night of the party and your friend becomes ill. However, they suggest you attend the party with one of their neighbors, a [gay man] OR [heterosexual woman] who is 25 years of age and single. You do not know this person, but you decide to go to the party with them anyway.”

Then, the participants were asked to rate a number of questions about the trustworthiness of the neighbor, by asking things such as “You and your acquaintance see a good-looking man. You want to talk to him but need to go to the bathroom. How likely is it that your acquaintance will go and flirt with this man when you are in the bathroom?” Some of the participants were “primed” by first reading an article about how heterosexual men are increasingly likely to be willing to engage in same-sex sexual explorations (in order to create a feeling of potential competition with gay men). However, in this first experiment, the researchers found no significant effects, and that women didn’t appear to trust gay men more or less than other women, despite potential competition or not.

However, things got very interesting in the second part of this study. There, researchers looked specifically at women who were currently in a heterosexual romantic relationship. The women were asked to consider the following scenario: “Imagine that you and your boyfriend/husband have recently been invited to a party. It is the night of the party and you become ill. However, a [heterosexual woman] OR [gay man] who is your neighbor offers to go to the party with your boyfriend/husband. This person is 25 years of age and single. Your boyfriend/husband decides to go to the party with your neighbor, while you stay home sick.”

Again, the researchers used a priming strategy and an article describing men who’d left their wives to be with other men, to evaluate whether seeing gay men as a potential competitive threat, influenced the degree of trust the women felt for gay men.

In this second experiment, the researchers found significant results, in that partnered women were far more likely to trust a gay man with their male partner, than to trust another woman, even after the priming variable tried to compel the women to see gay men as a potential mating threat.

Personally, I do wonder how much potential displacement might be happening here. Are the women really that distrusting of other women and highly trusting of gay men, or is some of this effect driven by potential mistrust of their husbands, displaced onto those other women? It would be fascinating in future research to inquire of these women their level of trust for their partners, and any possible history of infidelity, and identify if these experiences influence their reported mistrust of other women and heightened trust of gay men.

Partnered women in Western societies are typically taught that they must guard their male partners from other women, who may attempt to poach or steal them. Even when they are encouraged to view the possibility of gay men as a potential threat to their relationship, straight, partnered, Western women just don’t seem to regard them as a real threat, and trust gay men much more than other straight women.

🇬🇧 Census 2021: England and Wales gender question 'a good first step'
Source: https://www.bbc.com/news/uk-wales-55721123



Inclusion of a question on gender for the first time in the UK census has been welcomed as a "good first step" by some in the transgender community.

The voluntary question in the 2021 survey reads: "Is the gender you identify with the same as your sex registered at birth?"

People over 16 can tick yes or no and specify their gender identity.

The Office for National Statistics, which will run the census on 21 March, said the details were clearly needed.

Owen Hurcum, 23, is the mayor-elect of Bangor, and due to take over the position in May.

They said they would fill in the form to say non-binary agender.

"I think it is great that we can finally put our real genders on the census," they said.

"I do see this as a token gesture from the government [but], it's at least a single step in the right direction and I for one look forward to putting my real gender on the census."

Owen said more change was needed: "As nice and as validating as that will feel for us to do, it really is only the tip of the iceberg for what the government can do.

"We need to be able to put genders other than M/F on our passports and they need to improve the access to gender identity clinics as well as moving towards legal gender self ID.

"Moreover, they need to reword the 2010 Equalities Act to unambiguously include non-binary identities as protected characteristics."

They also want younger respondents to be able to answer the question: "People begin to know their gender from way below the age of 16, so the fact this option won't be available and excludes trans and non-binary children is inherently discriminatory and feels a bit like Section 28."

'No legal recognition'

Shash Appan, 24, is a trans activist from Cardiff and said she would fill in the form to say "trans woman".

She also backs the idea of under-16s being able to answer the question.

"I definitely think it should be available to under-16s, because people do transition under that age," she said.

An ONS spokesman said the question was only being asked of people aged 16 and over because "we anticipate gender identity data collected from persons below this age is likely to be of low quality".

He said this was partly due to the likelihood of the information being supplied by a parent or guardian.

He said the "key data need" for gender identity was for information on those aged 16 and over.

Ms Appan welcomed the addition of the question: "It's a good first step forward, definitely and it's much-needed.

"It is very important because at the moment we don't have any kind of definitive stats in any way.

"It is especially important when it comes to things like NHS funding."

'Experiences hidden'

Stonewall, which campaigns for the equality of lesbian, gay, bisexual and trans people across Britain, said there was not currently an accurate figure for how big the trans community was because there has been no research done that covers enough people to be statistically significant.

Stonewall Cymru's campaigns, policy and research manager Iestyn Wyn said it was something the organisation campaigned for over many years.

"Previous statistics about LGBT+ people have been little more than estimates and the needs and experiences of our community have been hidden," he said.

"Census data on age, ethnicity and a range of other characteristics have been key to showing inequality and the need for support, and the same will be true for tackling barriers that LGBT+ people face."

The ONS said: "Three years of evidence gathering by the ONS to inform the 2021 census showed that there is a clear need for this information at both a national and local level.

"Without robust data on the size of the LGBT population at a national and local level, decision-makers are operating in a vacuum, unaware of the extent and nature of disadvantage which LGBT people may be experiencing in terms of health, educational outcomes, employment and housing, and unable to design and monitor the effectiveness of policies to address this."

🇺🇸 ‘Blue’s Clues & You’ new alphabet song gives nod to LGBTQ community
Source: https://www.nydailynews.com/snyde/ny-blues-...bmnu-story.html



Blue has a clue: P is for Pride.

Blue, the beloved puppy who likes to leave her paw prints everywhere, has come up with a brand new song to teach kids “how each letter of the alphabet is special.”

The four-legged star of Nickelodeon’s educational show “Blue’s Clues & You” — a reboot of the popular “Blue’s Clues” series — is featured in the new “ABC Song with Blue,” which was posted on the show’s YouTube page on Thursday.

In the 3-minute, 30-second homage to diversity, Blue finds colorful ways to teach kids about all the 26 letters of the alphabet-bet-bet.

“A is amazing, B is so brave, C is so comforting, and D likes to dance all day,” Blue, voiced by Traci Paige Johnson, begins her celebration of inclusivity, teaching young kids that “every single letter is unique,” and we need all of them “to make our alphabet.”

But one particular letter has caught the attention of social media users.

“P is full of Pride,” Blue sings, as the letter P is highlighted in the center of the screen, in all its rainbow glory, while eight flags representing different communities within the larger LGBTQ community wave happily in a confetti-drenched background.

They include Pride flags for the transgender community, the pansexual community, the intersex community among others.

“The alphabet helps me be me,” Blue sums it up at the end.

So far the song is exclusive to the show’s official YouTube channel, and it has yet to air on television, according to Entertainment Weekly.

🇺🇸 California ‘throuple’ opens up on parenthood after all three were named on children’s birth certificates.
Source: https://www.perthnow.com.au/lifestyle/paren...-ng-b881799397z



A ‘throuple’ in the US who created legal history in 2017 after all three dads were named on their child’s birth certificate has opened up on the triumphs and challenges of their unique family.

Doctor Ian Jenkins and his partners Alan Mayfield and Jeremy Allen Hodges, from San Diego paved the way for polyamorous families when a judge signed off on all of them being recognised on daughter Piper’s birth certificate.

Along with Piper, now three, the trio also have a son, 14-month-old Parker. The children are half-siblings, born using an egg donor and surrogate.

“We weren’t sure that we could have all three of us on the birth certificate so it became a court process,” Alan explained to The Morning Show.

“It was a pretty interesting, tense courtroom scene where at first it seemed we were not going to be granted that and we asked to speak in court and plead our viewpoint and the judge ultimately changed her mind and granted us legal parentage for our child before she was born.”

Jeremy said the trio “understand that we have an unconventional relationship”, adding the court battle was more than names on a piece of paper.

“If you’re not listed as your child’s legal parent then they’re not able to receive those benefits if our child, god forbid, was to end up in the hospital, one of the parents might not be able to go visit them.

“So it was really important to be recognised as the family that we are and thankfully we live in California which is a state that after some teeth pulling and fighting actually did then allow us to do that so it was amazing.”

The children are so lucky to have such caring, loving parents.

🇵🇷 Puerto Rico issues LGBTQ emergency declaration amid violence
Source: https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2021/2/18/lg...n-demand-action



Human rights defenders in Puerto Rico have welcomed a recent declaration of a state of emergency over gender violence on the island as a step in the right direction, but cautioned that real change can only come after a meaningful shift on the societal level.

Gender activists have for years been calling for the designation, but the year 2020 brought on an increased sense of urgency: the US territory had 60 femicides – a 62 percent increase over the year before, according to the Observatory for Gender Equity, a local watchdog.

On January 24, the island’s governor Pedro Pierluisi issued an executive order declaring a state of emergency for 18 months, in a move that directs resources to government agencies to combat violence directed at women and girls and members of the LGBTQ community.

The order also includes the appointment of a new government representative to oversee the implementation of the measure, and the launching of a phone app to report emergency situations and report aggressive people. It also includes a public awareness campaign about gender violence.

“It’s been too long, this pattern of male chauvinism-related violence, femicides, homophobic and transphobic violence,” Pierluisi said during an interview with ABC News on February 5. “We want to promote diversity, respect each other,” he said.

David Cordero, an investigative journalist for Puerto Rico’s el Nuevo Dia newspaper said much of the problem has to do with insufficient police training and institutionalised misogyny in policing.

Puerto Rico has had a hate crime law in place since 2002, which includes both sexual orientation and gender identity, but Cordero says police have not been applying it correctly.

“Most of these cases are connected to the fact that the police department, from the very beginning, didn’t investigate these cases as hate crimes,” Cordero told Al Jazeera’s The Take podcast, citing examples of police frequently misidentifying trans victims’ genders.

“They [the police] are not applying the right protocols from the very beginning that they arrive at the scene, they are not identifying the person as transgender,” he said.

On February 23, 2020, a shocking murder further highlighted the dangers that transgender people face, and the sense of impunity that attackers have when committing such crimes. It also sparked widespread outrage.

Alexa Negron Luciano, who was transgender and homeless, went to use a women’s toilet in a fast food restaurant in Toa Baja, Puerto Rico. A customer called the police, saying that Negron Luciano was peeping in the stalls.

After the police arrived, someone at the restaurant snapped photos of Negron Luciano being questioned by a police officer, and posted them on social media. The post went viral with what activists said had highly offensive homophobic and transphobic comments. That night, she was shot to death reportedly by a group of men who filmed her death as laughter could be heard.  Police believe the video was also posted on social media.

Negron Luciano’s case gained public attention after Puerto Rican rapper Bad Bunny appeared on the US TV talk programme, The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon a few days later, dressed in a long skirt and a pink jacket, which he took off to reveal a white shirt that read in Spanish, “They killed Alexa, not a man in a skirt.”

“She did nothing, she just went to the bathroom, she was hunted and then killed,” Pedro Luis Serrano, the founder of Puerto Rico Para Tod@s (Puerto Rico for Everyone), told The Take.

“This [killing] was a trophy to these transphobic horrible people, and then nothing was done in her case.”

Serrano says Negron Luciano’s killing highlighted the deeply seeded misogyny in society, one that could take years to rectify.

“I think it’s horrible, it tells a lot about our society and where we’re at,” Serrano said, adding that much more will need to be done in school curriculums to alter the mindset that permits acts of violence against women and transgender people.

“It takes all of us to change attitudes, perspectives and the education system to be inclusive of sexual orientation and gender identity,” he said. “It starts with schools and the upbringing.”

Offering some hope that policing efforts may be shifting, in May police charged two men under the federal hate crimes law for allegedly killing two trans women, Serena Angelique Velazquez and Layla Pelaez in April before setting their car on fire.

In January, Samuel Edmund Damian Valentin, a transgender man whose body was found on a highway outside of the capital San Juan, after being hit by a car, became at least the seventh trans person killed in Puerto Rico in a year. He had been shot several times. Police initially misidentified Damian as a woman.

Ivana Fred Millan, a Puerto Rican transgender activist, said she welcomes the governor’s initiative, which marked a meaningful change in the legal realm. But the challenge now remains to make a significant difference on the ground.

“I hope that this executive order, which is a new initiative by the governor, doesn’t remain on paper,” Millan told The Take, “that what is written can be implemented into work – that would be the most important.”

🇲🇾 MAC Disputes Malaysia’s Exclusion Of HIV Patients From Covid-19 Vaccination
Source: https://codeblue.galencentre.org/2021/02/22...19-vaccination/



KUALA LUMPUR, Feb 22 — The government should prioritise people living with HIV for Covid-19 vaccination, the Malaysian AIDS Council (MAC) said today, disputing the Ministry of Health’s (MOH) guidance that contradicted international advice.

MOH’s MyHealth portal earlier today tweeted, on its MyHEALTHKKM Twitter page, a video of Health Minister Dr Adham Baba saying: “Individuals that have a poor immune system like those infected with HIV cannot take the Covid-19 vaccine.”

Although MyHealth later deleted its tweet, MOH’s official guidance on its Covid-19 website listed a few groups it deemed are not suitable to receive Pfizer-BioNTech’s vaccine, including those with HIV with CD4 counts less than 200; women who are pregnant or planning to get pregnant; and cancer patients who are undergoing treatment like chemotherapy, radiotherapy, and immunotherapy, among others.

The Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine the government has procured for 50 per cent of the population is an mRNA vaccine, not a live attenuated vaccine, that simply gives instructions to the cells to produce the coronavirus’ signature spike protein, so that the body eventually recognises it and builds antibodies against it.

“As the Covid-19 vaccine is being rolled out in Malaysia under the National Covid-19 Immunization Program, the Malaysian AIDS Council stands by the current national and international exemptions made by medical experts that; People Living with HIV (PLHIV) can safely get the Covid-19 vaccinations,” MAC said in a statement.

MAC said that until further evidence shows otherwise, there should not be any discouragement for PLHIV to be vaccinated against Covid-19, as data has shown that people with underlying disease, including HIV, tend to develop severe Covid-19 once infected.

“It is recommended that all persons with HIV be vaccinated irrespective of CD4 count (protein found on immune cells) in line with international guidelines. The vaccines are safe in persons with HIV as they are not live vaccines,” the HIV group added.

MAC president Dr Christopher Lee emphasised that the immunisation programme is to ensure that herd immunity is built in the community to break the chain of Covid-19 transmission.

“I sincerely hope MOH (Ministry of Health) can clarify its position on the provision of Covid-19 vaccines for persons living with HIV (PLHIV),” Dr Lee tweeted separately.

“Based on international recommendations including from UNAIDS, PLHIV must be part of any national vaccination programs.”

International AIDS Society (IAS) president Dr Adeeba Kamarulzaman said that MOH’s guidance excluding people living with HIV from getting vaccinated against Covid-19 was contradictory to international guidelines.

“None of the vaccines that have been approved are live vaccines — which could be a relative contraindication for PLHIV,” Dr Adeeba told CodeBlue.

“Furthermore recent studies have shown that PLHIV with Covid-19 may have a worse outcome. So, in fact, they should be given the vaccine to prevent the development of severe disease.”

Dr Adham explained to CodeBlue that stable HIV patients, such as those undergoing ARB treatment for more than six months and with CD4 counts more than 200, can be vaccinated against Covid-19.

“Need to ask health experts at the HIV division for an explanation,” Dr Adham told CodeBlue earlier today, adding that compliance issues with HIV patients must also be addressed.

However, the health minister acknowledged that many societies are giving their opinion with regards to this issue.

The Joint United Nations Programme on HIV/AIDS (UNAIDS) has recommended that PLHIV take the Covid-19 vaccine, saying it is safe for them as none of the vaccines approved by regulators or under development are live vaccines.

Besides UNAIDS, the United States’ Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) said that people with HIV can choose to be vaccinated if they have not had any history of allergic reactions to any of the vaccine ingredients.

US infectious disease expert Dr Anthony Fauci previously explained that the Covid-19 vaccines produced are inactivated vaccines, hence are not contraindicated in those with poor immune systems. Only live attenuated vaccines are contraindicated (a situation where one shouldn’t take the vaccine) in those with poor immunity.

The Covid-19 vaccines approved by Western regulators include mRNA vaccines like Pfizer-BioNTech and Moderna, as well AstraZeneca-Oxford University’s vector-based vaccine.