HIV Still Seen as the ‘Gay Man Disease’
I thought that the whole ‘only gay men have HIV’ hysteria had passed in the late 1980’s; that someone had educated the obviously sex-education-sheltered population at some point letting them know that sexually transmitted diseases and infections affect well, sexually active people… Male, female, of all sexual orientations. However, I recently learned that in the United States, Canada, UK, Germany, and Hong Kong, discrimination is still going strong–Even to the point of being eligible to advance the health of others.
If you are a gay male living in any of the above countries, you are prohibited from donating blood. Why? Because if you’re a gay male, you have HIV… And if you don’t have HIV, it will be a mere matter of time before you realize that indeed, you do.
I had no idea that this was going on. I have never donated blood in my life due to a severe, life-long phobia of syringes. You couldn’t pay me to go anywhere near a syringe for any reason short of laying on my death bed in need of a blood transfusion. And if it was suggested that I needed blood for any reason but would not die… Yeah, you’re going to have to convince me further because there is no way anyone is coming near me with a syringe. When I was a child, you had to promise me that we weren’t going to the doctor’s pretty much any time I had to leave the house during the day for a reason other than needing to go to school and if we did wind up at the doctor’s, I have been known to walk into the office, see the syringe, and immediately flee the building and refuse to go back in, clinging and grabbing onto anything as I was carried against my will back into the doctor’s office. This situation has not gotten any better in the years of adulthood.
While the United States, Canada, UK, Germany, and Hong Kong prohibit gay males from donating blood, even if you have not been sexually active in years, other countries are not doing much better on the discrimination poll. In South Africa and New Zealand, gay and bisexual men cannot give blood up until they have not been sexually active for five years, whether it was protected sex or not and in Argentina, Australia, Japan, and Hungary, the ban on gay blood resides until after one year of not being sexually active.
The reasoning behind this ban is said to be due to practicality and not intended to be discriminatory in a malicious manner.
“All donated blood is obviously tested carefully – but it can take a few months for the HIV virus to show up. So if you only recently contracted HIV and you then give blood, you can unwittingly inject the virus into the blood bank. Gay men are seven times more likely to contract HIV than straight men. So it has been judged that the risk is simply too great.”
Even given the statistics used here, there are so many statistics out there done by so many different organizations giving completely different information so what this could have been a product of is simply picking the statistic tha best fuels your reasoning for needlessly discriminating against a group of people for the sake of discrimination. Bottom line, people are dying because there are not enough people willing to donate blood and instead of taking the blood of the people who are giving it, health industries around the world are still fueled by bigoted politics, especially given the fact that all blood banks test the blood they receive. All of them. No matter what. Not one drop of blood comes from a blood bank to a person in need of that blood without it having been tested. Why? Because sometimes people honestly don’t know that they have contracted a sexually transmitted infection and HIV is not the only STI that can be passed through blood, there is also hepatitis B, syphilis, and herpes.
The only answer to this blatant discrimination of gay males is education. It is so important to be educated and to educate those around you in whatever way you can to raise awareness about important issues like safe sex, blood donation, and STIs. The more people who become educated about these issues the less people we will have still believing that HIV is strictly the gay male disease.
h/t Amplify
The GOP’s Campaign Against Sonia Sotomayor
Sonia Sotomayor was originally nominated to federal court by George Herbert Bush; a fact that Obama mentioned in his speech to nominate Sotomayor for the US Supreme Court and a fact that the entire GOP and its supporters have conveniently ignored for the sake of having something else to bitch and complain about.
The Guardian’s Scott Lemieux has put together an article on Sotomayor’s qualifications for the job she has been nominated for and has discovered that Sotomayor’s qualifications mirror those of current Justice Samuel Alito; a man who the GOP has fawned over and that John McCain wholeheartedly supports and name-dropped all over the place during the last presidential election. But given the fact that Sotomayor is obviously qualified and possesses the same qualifications of a man supported at large by the GOP, they aren’t going to let her confirmation go without a fight… And the only reason why several smear campaigns have already started against her is because she is not a white, privileged male.
Did you know that all Latina women are named Maria? Well according to Mike Huckabee, the nomination of Maria Sotomayor “will likely leave us with something akin to the “Extreme Court” that could mark a major shift” because she is so “far left.”
The appointment of Maria Sotomayor for the Supreme Court is the clearest indication yet that President Obama’s campaign promises to be a centrist and think in a bipartisan way were mere rhetoric. Sotomayor comes from the far left and will likely leave us with something akin to the “Extreme Court” that could mark a major shift. The notion that appellate court decisions are to be interpreted by the “feelings” of the judge is a direct affront of the basic premise of our judicial system that is supposed to apply the law without personal emotion. If she is confirmed, then we need to take the blindfold off Lady Justice.—
I’m sure Maria Sotomayor will be displeased to learn that Mike Huckabee is not a fan of her, but I wonder how he feels about Sonia Sotomayor… And um, Lady Justice!? I don’t think so. Does the GOP refer to Justice Alito as Mr. Justice Alito? No, I don’t think they do.
Newt Gingrich, who apparently took Meghan McCain’s advice to start Twittering, joined his fellow fraternity brothers Republican colleagues Sen. James Inhofe and Rep. Lamar Smith in calling Sotomayor racist for claiming that judicial diversity is important when determining “race and sex discrimination cases.”
So apparently Gingrich believes that an out of context remark made during a speech on race and sex discrimination cases that appeared in print in the Berkeley La Raza Law Journal in 2002 is proof that Sotomayor is a racist… Because no one knows what it’s like to be a woman of color more than a white male, right?
Karl Rove jumped on board calling Sotomayor an “intellectual lightweight,” obviously encouraged by Jeffrey Rosen’s New Republic article which allowed unnamed sources to attack Sotomayor as “not that smart” and lacking “penetrating” questions on the bench.
Because nothing shows someone’s lack of intellect than graduating summa cum laude from Princeton University as well as attending Yale Law School and holding the job of editor of the Yale Law Journal.
The attacks against Sonia Sotomayor are in bad taste and fueled by nothing less than racism and sexism… Pot calling the kettle black, anyone?
Oral Sex and Reciprocity
Sex, Sex, Sex and more Sex. We are so obsessed with sex that we often attach it to things that it has no relation to and when it comes to the actual conversations about intercourse, we use ridiculous euphemisms to highlight our supposed discomfort. Speaking directly is something that is often discouraged in women and yet we are expected to be overwhelmed with our lovers prowess even when they leave us wanting to reach for a vibrator.
Sexually, men are understood as predatory and in constant search of sex and this dynamic is routinely played out in the bedroom. No man is ever too shy to say suck my dick and often fellatio is perceived as a necessary prerequisite to copulation. A woman that does not enjoy giving head or finds it repulsive, is deemed to be sexually repressed. When it is about a man’s pleasure suddenly the idea of female sexual purity dissipates… Erections often lead to a loss of supposed sexual morality; orgasms before slut shaming.
Many men hump under the false assumption that their dick is the key to multiple orgasms and sexual bliss for women. How many times have you had a dick waved at you like it was this long awaited prize that you had been dreaming about forever? Oh yeah a dick, like they aren’t readily available for the asking.
I am going to let all the men reading this in on a little secret. A guy that is good with his hands and his tongue is a KEEPER. If you can polish a pearl until a woman’s eyes roll back in her head, then you my friend will always be invited into a bed. Don’t be a selfish lover.
I cannot tell you over the years how many times I have heard women complain that their lovers won’t go down. Seriously WTF…enough with men going down 3 times for every ten blowjobs they get. That stat is worse than the pay inequity between men and women. Where is the equality and reciprocity in that bullshit?
Even worse than that disgusting statistics are the weak ass reasons why men refuse to put their tongues into service….It either “smells down there”, (note suddenly they can’t say pussy or vagina), or they just “don’t like it”. Try telling a guy you don’t like giving blow jobs and set the stop watch because it will be seconds before he starts explaining to you that you have sexual issues.
Telling you that you smell, is just a way to shame you into accepting his failure to be a considerate partner. It is common knowledge that the vagina is often constructed as dirty and to tell a woman that she smells “down there”, preys upon this meme and unnecessarily shames her. I don’t know where men image got the idea that their crotch smells like a bed of roses. The crotch is not a sweatless, odourless area and whether male or female, there is an odour. Call it body musk, call it crotch rot but no genitals smell like a 500 dollar bottle of perfume.
Even when some give in, it is often a case of “if you really want me to”, accompanied by a childish whine. Socially we still view sex as something men do to women, and orgasms as something men give to women. We fail to understand that this false meme is centered solely on the penis entering the vagina, rather than a sexual act that is meant to specifically pleasure a woman. As womanist/feminists ,we long ago claimed a right to our orgasms and so I must image ask why the hell are so many women still putting up with this bullshit? To me it seems really simple; if you want head give head and if the man you’re fucking cannot agree to that, wouldn’t a hot bath, a shower nozzle and a good book be less frustrating for all?
Cross Posted from Womanist Musings
Obama Nominates Sonia Sotomayor for Supreme Court
I apologize for not getting this up yesterday, but I sleep sometimes.
Yesterday morning Obama announced his nomination of Sonia Sotomayor for Supreme Court to replace Justice Souter.
Sotomayor would become the second woman on the court, only the third female justice in the history of the Supreme Court, and the first Hispanic justice to serve on the Supreme Court.
She is obviously qualified for the job, having graduated from Princeton University summa cum laude, she attended Yale Law School, where she was an editor of the Yale Law Journal. She spent five years as a prosecutor with the Manhattan district attorney’s office before entering a private practice. She currently serves as an appeals judge for the US Court of Appeals for the 2nd Circuit, covering New York, Vermont, and Connecticut.
Even with all of her extensive experience and qualifications for the job, conservatives have already started showing us how rocky the road to her confirmation will be, calling her a “judicial activist”
Conservatives argue Sotomayor has a “hard-left record” and believes that judges should consider experiences of women and minorities in their decision-making.
Here is President Obama’s introduction of Sonia Sotomayor:
And here is her speech:
First Door on the Left went over to an extremist conservative blog to see how the conservatives were reacting to this nomination and of course, as you may have suspected, they were full of hate speech, racism, and sexism. Check it out if your stomach can handle it.
Prop 8 Decision Day: California Upholds Discrimination
The California Supreme Court upheld the discriminatory Proposition 8 and has yet again told its same sex citizens that they are not worthy of equal protection under the law. While the 18,000 same sex marriages that were performed in the short amount of time that the state recognized gay marriage in 2008 will be upheld, the option of marriage for thousands of other same sex couples in the state will not be able to become a reality–At least not until Prop 8 is overturned.
While Prop 8 has won this battle, we cannot (and will not!) let it win the war. All couples deserve the same fundamental civil rights regardless of sexual orientation. Plans are already being formulated to overturn Prop 8 by bringing the question of same sex marriage back to the ballot in California.
The Courage Campaign is scheduled to hit the California airwaves within the next 72 hours with a 60 second television advertisement of Fidelity–The most-watched video ever in the history of California politics. They are also launching a new television ad in the spirit of Harvey Milk’s call to come out, wherever you are, and proudly tell the stories of the people most affected by the passage of Prop 8.
To find out where the Day of Decision rally is tonight in your town, text “RALLY” and your zip code to 27336 and you will immediately receive a text message with the event closest to your neighborhood.
The Feminist Majority Foundation has also put together a petition and needs supporters of equal rights to take the love and equality pledge that says we refuse to quit until all people are equal under the law.
Edited to Add: I was on my laptop when putting this up and didn’t get to see the video for the new Fidelity television advertisement from the Courage Campaign. Watch it below:
Disney is Robbing Your Daughters
The princess mentality has become nothing less than a rite of passage for many young girls today and at the front of the line for whom to blame, is Disney.
Disney’s international (and internationally accepted) multi-billion dollar Disney Princess brand has been around for many generations of young girls. I remember my childhood days, planted in front of the television while I watched Belle fall in love the Beast and because of her love, he turned into an oh so dreamy prince; I watched Ariel lose her voice in return for a pair of legs in order to appeal to the oh so dreamy prince; I watched Cinderella watch her two evil stepsisters try to force their fat feet into the beautiful glass slipper Cinderella had lost while fleeing from the ball and from the oh so dreamy prince. Are we noticing a trend here?
Today, young girls are still living in the land of Disney Princess make believe and while we encourage young children to explore their imaginations, they are but taking the imaginations and age old gender stereotypes from the many Disney animators that we have given permission to parent our young daughters in what really matters in life, as truth. We all know that to a certain degree, the media will do their part in raising young children, but not only has the princess phenomenon withheld the test of time, it is continuously growing, and due to our own childhood memories attached to these stories that we are now sharing with our children, it has proven to be a bit harder to ween ourselves away from the princess phenomenon, and thus Princess Parenting was born.
While it is natural to a certain degree to place your kid up on a pedestal and tell them that they can be anything that they want to be and do whatever they wish to do with their lives as long as they are safe and happy, coupled with the princess phenomenon, you can very well have a bigger problem on your hands than you may have initially thought. Because of the extravagant lifestyles that the princess roles play in Disney’s imagination, if your daughter plays into these stories enough, you may see an increase in an instilled sense of self entitlement that may very well last longer than acceptable princess-believing age.
When young girls are carrying your living room rug to the top of the staircase and banking on the fact that instead of plummeting to the bottom of the stairs wrapped in a rug, the rug will suddenly take on a pseudo-human identity and bring them on a magical tour of the royal surroundings they will one day reign over while at the side of “the bad boy” that she can’t help but fall for, I think it’s about time that we stop letting a multi-billion dollar brand tell our children what their futures hold.
Last May I posted a book review of a children’s book, Princess Bubble, that put a refreshing spin on the princess fairy tale story. Princess Bubble lives in a castle of her own, decorated just the way she likes it; she has friends that she loves and a career as a flight attendant. Already Princess Bubble has more true-to-life features than many of the princesses Disney is forcing into the mainstream! As she watches her friends find their princes and move into castles to live happily ever after, Princess Bubble realizes that she likes her life just the way it is and by the end, she decides not to marry a prince and live happily ever after because happily ever after can be attained all by herself. Now there’s a fairy tale story that I can get behind!
I think the time has come where we need to stop feeding our children stories that embrace gender stereotypes and glorify the princess brand to such a degree where girls approach adulthood and still maintain that self entitlement that will ultimately hurt them and hold them back from what they can truly accomplish in their lives. Girls can do and become whatever they want and what they want to become does not have to include stifling gender roles.
Prop 8 Decision Day
The California Supreme Court has recently announced that it will release its decision on the fate of Proposition 8–Whether it will uphold the Constitution and recognize equal protection under the law, or uphold discrimination by taking away fundamental civil rights from a minority–at 1pm on Tuesday, May 26.
At 1pm on Saturday, May 30, thousands of supporters of marriage equality for everyone, rather than just the majority of the Californian population–Both LGBT people and their allies–will “Meet in the Middle 4 Equality” to either celebrate the decision to give all people the same right to marriage, or to protest the ruling that in the eyes of Californian government, LGBT people are not the same as or as deserving for their marriages to be recognized by their state.
You can sign up to receive an email about the California Supreme Court’s decision the moment it is announced from the Courage Campaign by clicking here or you can get the Supreme Court’s decision texted to your cell phone. To sign up just text “DECISION” to 27336.
Victory for Reproductive Rights in Nepal
The Supreme Court of Nepal recently ruled in favor of expanding abortion access throughout the country for all women in need of reproductive health services. The legislation requires that the government create a fund that will cover the costs of abortion services for low income women in the country who could not otherwise afford access to a safe abortion procedure. The new fund will also be used to educate health providers as well as the public about the country’s abortion laws, since 80% of rural women in the country are not even aware that abortion is legal.
Abortion only became legal in Nepal in 2002, before then it was common for women to be imprisoned for abortion-related offenses. Abortion is now legal in the country during the first 12 weeks of pregnancy and up to 18 weeks of pregnancy in cases of rape, incest, fetal impairment, or risk of maternal mortality. It is increasingly important that the population of Nepal be educated about the country’s abortion laws and their commitment to providing abortion services to all women of all financial classes because it is common for the women of Nepal to suffer extreme health complications and even die due to receiving unsafe and damaging abortion services.
Melissa Upreti of the Center for Reproductive Rights in Asia has stated that this new ruling is one of the most important legal victories for women in Nepal in almost a decade. The country’s decision to expand abortion access shows that Nepal is committed to protecting the health and the lives of the women who reside there. Many women have been forced to suffer in silence before this ruling due to their inability to pay for safe abortion services as well as their lack of information. This new legislation means more than merely keeping reproductive health services legal–It means that every single women in need of those services are able to receive them regardless of financial means.
Happy Memorial Day Weekend!
While I am not at all excited about the beginning of summer (I hate loathe despise hot, sweaty, absolutely disgusting weather that makes it hard to breathe and makes you feel like you woke up in the largest oven in the world,) I do happen to enjoy long weekends (now that I work for a company that recognizes weekends and national holidays.)
I hope everyone out there has a great time hanging out with their friends and family, enjoying refreshing cold beers (and other drinks of the higher alcohol content variety if that’s what you’re into,) and delicious food on the grill. Many other blogs I regularly read have already put up posts about the long weekend, canceling regularly scheduled blog-related events, and warned that posting will be limited due to the majority of people taking time away from the internet world and spending more time in you know, reality. However, posting on Menstrual Poetry will not only continue regularly throughout the weekend, but just may pick up a bit because as I mentioned previously, I have a job that recognizes weekends and national holidays, so I just may be a little bored and keep my mind busy with blogging. So for those of you who do not celebrate Memorial Day or have no plans for your long weekend, I highly recommend you frequent Menstrual Poetry and keep me company!
Laundry, the Woman’s Drug of Choice
Notice how there are never men in any commercials or advertisements for laundry; or in that case any household chores? Well that’s because women love doing household chores, but our favorite is most definitely laundry! It’s the woman’s drug of choice; we just can’t help ourselves!
Get Social
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Out Campaign
The OUT Campaign allows individuals to let others know they are not alone. It can also be a nice way of opening a conversation and help to demolish the negative stereotypes of atheists. Let the world know that we are not about to go away and that we are not going to allow those that would condemn us to push us into the shadows.
