This first story comes from LA, where interior designer David Phoenix is designing an after-school space for LGBTQ youth. His typical clients usually include multi-millionaires, but he was eager to lend his hand to the project after becoming involved with the LGBT youth-mentoring organization Lifeworks. As a runaway teen, he was mentored by someone and attributes much of his success to them. The space will have a large seating area, a computer area, a TV nook, a kitchenette, an office area, and a game room. With an estimated 3,000 LGBT homeless teens in LA, Phoenix says it will be "great to have a place to hang out after school - from 6 o'clock to 9 o'clock. You can get off the streets, and I think by reducing people on the streets, we'll be able to keep them out of trouble." You can click here to read the full article.

In my last blog I mentioned a bill that was passed in Lithuania that censored information (on HIV, on homosexuality, transgenderism, bisexuality) on the internet from minors. Well, the Lithuanian President Dalia Grybauskaite has come out against it saying, "I'm very much upset that such kind of laws in Lithuania are possible." She went on to say that she will propose amendments to the bill, and said that the "human rights of all of society" will be important during her Presidency. I sincerely hope she can water this bill down with enough amendments to limit it's damage to young people.

The Massachusetts Department of Public Health released a report on LGBT people in their states. Here is a summary of the findings from the report.



These results are not surprising, but certainly are dismal. If a national study were ever done, I imagine we'd see similar results. You can read the full report here.

This next article caught my attention as a Psych major. A social work Professor named Hyeouk Chris Hahm has created new framework for understanding identity formation in LGBT Asian & Pacific-Islander youth raised in America. Here's a quote from the article that explains it pretty well.



The Asian & Pacific-Islander communities have particularly rigid expectations when it comes to gender roles. Moreover, when I came out, I didn't have as much pressure to pick which of my identities (ethnic, sexual) would take precedent in social situations. It's an interesting model that combines culture with identity formation. It was published in the Journal of LGBT youth. If anyone can find the actual study, please email it to me at rickweber@student.com- I'd love to read it or have the link so others can read it too. For those LGBT ethnic minorities who read this blog, what unique pressures do you face? What cultural expectations are you expected to adhere to? Have you ever had to pick your ethnic identity over you sexual identity in social situations? In what situations did you have to do this?

This story comes from the land of One Love, Jamaica. I have read several stories about anti-gay violence in Jamaica, and it seems as bad as ever. Victims of anti-gay violence in Jamaica often have little resource because gay sex is criminalized and because of the social stigma. What makes this environment particularly toxic is the low visibility of LGBT people, the political oppression in Jamaica, dehumanizing concepts about masculinity, and public figures (including musicians Elephant Man, Bounty Killer) that often call for the exclusion and occasionally violence against LGBT people. You can read more about it here.

The last story comes from the NY state legislature where the floor debated a bill that would cap shelter costs at 30% for those who have symptomatic HIV or AIDS & receive shelter assistance. One of the people present was state senator Tom Duane who gave a passionate speech reminding the senate of the horrors of the AIDS crisis in the 1980s. Here's some of what he had to say.



"Visiting friends in hospitals. We'd go in. We'd go in one night, in the morning they'd be dead. I'd bring them food. My family, bring them food. My friends bring someone food. But whoever was in bed would be dead before they could eat it. We'd leave it - maybe the nurses would take it home. No! They wouldn't eat it! 'Cause it's contaminated. Contaminated! Wouldn't touch it. Wouldn't go into the room. Wearing masks. Gloves! Gowns! Someone gets sick in the afternoon. They'd be dead the next day. Dead! And that went on for months, and then years. Dead! Dead! You think if you got sick and your friends were dying that I would sit there and do nothing? No. But that's what happened. That's what happened. Every cold. Every virus. Every temperature. I thought I'd be dead, and so did so many people that I knew. Dead! You think you scare me? You think you can make be back off? Nothing scares me."

The bill passed 52-1.

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