Bill O'Reilly Confused by the Difference Between Gays and Child Molesters

Bill O'Reilly of Fox News seemed confused in an interview when told there's no basis for saying pedophilia is more of a gay problem than a straight one.
ThinkProgress points out that O'Reilly Monday night interviewed the Southern Poverty Law Center's Mark Potok, who leads its decision-making on which organizations should be labeled as "hate groups." SPLC had been the target of complaining by right-wing groups that the "hate group" moniker leads to attacks like a recent shooting at the Family Research Council.
Potok tried to explain to O'Reilly that FRC has a long history of distributing "flat-out lies" and "demonizing" information about LGBT people, including its regular conflation of gay people with child molesters.
"So they are pointing out that in this area, there is a higher percentage of gay pedophilia, homosexual pedophilia, than heterosexual pedophilia," O'Reilly said, as if he were citing a fact. "Are they a hate group for pointing that out?"
"But Bill, they’re not pointing something out that’s true," Potok said. "They’re making a false allegation."

Nurse Falsely Outs Gay Man as HIV-Positive to Patients

A gay man has received an apology after a nurse announced that he was HIV-positive in front of a crowded waiting room of other patients, as well as the man's boss.

Liam Taylor, of Christchurch, New Zealand, said that he had gone to his dentist's office for a root canal earlier this year, and during the procedure, a dental assistant pricked herself with a needle. According to The Dominion Post, Taylor was asked to take a blood test to ensure that he had not transmitted HIV or another blood-based illness to the dental assistant

When he arrived at St. George's Hospital for testing, Taylor went to a nurse supervising the desk to clarify the details on the incident report.

"I took it back up to the desk and the nurse said I had filled out the wrong section of the form," he said in the article. "She said I needed to fill out the 'source' section, not the 'recipient' section because I was 'the source of the HIV or AIDS.' I was just totally shocked when she said that."

Taylor's boss accompanied him to the clinic, and overheard the nurse's statement. "The nurse then said, 'sorry, I mean the potential source of HIV or AIDS.' I was so embarassed, All these people were in the waiting room, and she said it loudly...and the first thing that came to my mind was, 'is she just assuming that I have diseased because I'm gay?'

Taylor tested negative for HIV.

After he told the dental office what happened, they reduced his bill by $150. A staff person at the lab also called Taylor to apologize for the incident.

Transgender Zombies Take Manhattan in Music Video

Just in time for the Right Out TV Music and Video Awards, transgender cantador StormMiguel Florez has released first music video to celebrate his nomination. The video for Florez's popular song "I've Been To Manhattan" has a heartbroken zombie who finds his true nature in this ode to the legendary cocktail of the same name. Sounding like a sexier transgender answer to Johnny Cash, Florez is a Mexican-American folksinger to watch out for, and the video is chock full of of other trans pop-cultural cameos from other San Francisco-based artists including indie rocker Shawna Virago and dancer Sean Dorsey.

Florez is up for a Right Out Award in two categories: Best Video DIY (along with Blinded by Stardust, Charles K Brown, Kat Devlin, Brett Every, Sonasfly, Corday) and Fan Favorite (along with a number of other LGBT artists including Melange LaVonne, Ladi G, and Grrlz Will Be BoiZ).The awards are meant to honor the contributions of out LGBTI musicians and fans can vote on the latter category until tomorrow at RightOutAwards.com.Winners will be announced October 29.

Is James Bond Bisexual?

That's the question on everyone's mind after the flirtatious scene between Daniel Craig and Javier Bardem
Well of course the answer is yes. Haven't we always detected the crackle of sexuality in all his interactions—whether with a woman or a man? But to many, James Bond is seen as a heterosexual icon, as he womanizes his way through his many daring exploits. Now that the question as to whether Bond could be bi has become a big topic of discussion with the latest film in the franchise, Skyfall (out November 9), we wonder if it really is that surprising after all these years.
 In an early reaction to the film, Frank Digiacomo noted that Javier Bardem's villain Silva, a former MI6 agent, seems to have a thing for Bond. And when Bond and Silva meet, the latter "caresses the bound MI6 agent's chest. In response to Silva's attentions, 007 replies, 'What makes you think this is my first time?' "

So the Movieline writer asked Craig about it at a recent press conference, wondering if it was just a bluff.

"What are you going to do?" Craig replied breezily, getting a nice laugh from the crowd, but then he added: "I don't see the world in sexual divisions." He then changed the subject from Bond to to Bardem's wonderfully flamboyant character, Silva. "Someone suggested that Silva may be gay," Craig said with a big smile. "And I'm like, I think he'll fuck anything."

Bardem made some statements of his own—"It was part of the game, but it’s not entirely the game"—that seemed to reflect an idea that it wasn't about sex, it was about power.

But whatever the case, there's always been air of around Bond, and his ease with jumping into the sack with anyone, no matter what the consequences, seem to point more to his sexual slipperiness rather than any clearly defined roles.

In fact, the homophobic nature of the secret services was a reality and U.S. and U.K. secret agents were gay was often seen as a security risk. In Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy, the adaptation of John le Carré's novel, an agent is revealed to be gay, and he must break up with his partner due to a security risk. So even though it was a feeling that pervaded the Cold War era especially, now that Bond has been rebooted for a post-Cold War era, we should wonder: Would a bisexual Bond really change his image all that much?

New Study Says You Can Tell Sexual Orientation From the Eyes

Add this to your gaydar: a new report in Live Science says that you can tell a person's sexual orientation from their eyes. Pupils, that is. According to Stephanie Pappas, a new study finds that pupil dilation is an accurate indicator of sexual orientation. When people look at erotic images and become aroused, their pupils open up in an unconscious reaction, which gave researchers a much easier way to to study orientation and arousal without traditionally invasive blood flow to the genital measurements.
Researcher Ritch Savin-Williams, a developmental psychologist at Cornell University, says the new study is the first large-scale experiment to show that pupil dilation matches what people report feeling aroused by.
"So if a man says he's straight, his eyes are dilating towards women," Savin-Williams told LiveScience. "And the opposite with gay men, their eyes are dilating to men."
Savin-Willims told Live Science that the pupils dilate slightly in response to any exciting or interesting stimulus, a sign that the autonomic nervous system — the system that controls involuntary actions like pulse and breathing — is ramping up.
Savin-Williams and fellow researcher Gerulf Rieger had 325 men and women who idetified as gay, straight, or bisexual watch one-minute videos of a man masturbating, a woman masturbating, and neutral landscape scenes while a camera measured tiny changes in their pupil sizes.
The results, according to Live Science, showed that pupil dilation matches the pattern seen in genital arousal studies. In men, this pattern is generally straightforward: Straight men respond to sexual images of women; gay men to sexual images of men; and bisexual men to both men and women. But women's responses were more complex, said Savin-Wiliams, because while lesbians responded to images of other women, straight women "dilate basically equally in response to erotic images of both sexes, despite reporting feelings of arousal for men and not women."
Whether there's a host of closeted bisexual women or another evolutionary answer to this straight girl dilation, it gives researchers a complex result to try to unravel.

Physician Fails To Inform Transgender Man of Cancer Diagnosis

Transgender man Jay Kallio is shining a light on LGBT discrimination in the medical community -- after his own physician failed to inform him of a cancer diagnosis.
When Kallio, 56, underwent a medical exam at a major New York hospital, he claims that the surgeon appeared bewildered by his patient's body. Though the doctor ordered a mammogram, he failed to inform Kallio that the lump on his breast had tested positive for cancer.
Kallio, who transitioned from female to male six years ago, learned of his condition "accidentally" when a lab techician called to inquire about the diagnosis. "Which diagnosis?" Kallio asked, bewildered as well.
"I kept hitting this stone wall of non-acceptance," Kallio told the New York Daily News. "It's a systemic problem. It was at all levels of providers, from doctors to housekeeping to the nursing staff. People need to be aware that this discrimination will not be tolerated."
Although the doctor later apologized, Kallio told the Daily News that the time spent to find new physicians has put his health in greater danger.
"It delayed my care past the therapeutic window for chemotherapy," said Kallio. "You should have chemotherapy within three months of cancer therapy. Because I had to change providers and kept encountering discrimination, it delayed the care. So much of cancer care has to do with early treatment."
The Affordable Care Act, passed by President Obama in 2010, prohibits physicians from discriminating against LGBT patients. But according to activists, many medical centers are unaware of their lawful obligations.
"Our community needs medical providers to know what their obligations are and passing a law is the strongest and clearest way to do that," said Mara Keisling, director of the National Center for Transgender Equality, to ABC News.
"It's incredibly important to me that this not happen to other transgender people," said Kallio. "To have all this added stress and rejection and to be denied care from providers was daunting - it was awful."

Bisexual Women and Gay Men at Higher Risk for Intimate Partner Violence

Bisexual women and gay men face elevated risks of intimate partner violence, according to a new Williams Institute report published in the Journal of Interpersonal Violence.
“As Congress considers reauthorization of the Violence Against Women Act and we reflect on Domestic Violence Awareness Month, our report’s findings highlight that these issues also impact the LGBT community,” said Naomi G. Goldberg, MPP, who created the report along with Ilan H. Meyer, Ph.D., senior scholar for public policy at the Williams Institute.
Among the key findings:
* Bisexual women had elevated risks of experiencing intimate partner violence compared with heterosexual women, lesbians, and women who have sex with women over the course of the lives and in the past year. But significantly, in 95% of intimate partner violence annual incidents reported by bisexual women, the perpetrator was a male intimate partner, so the violence occurred outside a same-sex relationship.
* Gay men had elevated risk of experiencing intimate partner violence compared with heterosexual and bisexual men, as well as men who have sex with men but do not identify as gay or bisexual. Almost all (97%) of the annual incidents of intimate partner violence incidents occurring to male victims involved a male intimate partner.
* Binge drinking and a history of psychological distress predicted intimate partner violence, but these factors did not explain disparities between bisexual and heterosexual women or between gay and heterosexual men.
The researchers’ findings are based on a 2007-2008 sample of the California Health Interview Survey. The authors compared patterns of intimate partner violence among four groups: heterosexual men and women, bisexual men and women, gay men and lesbians, and men and women who have had sex with members of the same gender but are not identified as gay, lesbian, or bisexual. The study defined intimate partner violence as physical and verbal abuse, or threats of physical abuse, by a current or former wife, husband, boyfriend, girlfriend, or someone else an individual has lived with or dated.

A Drug That Prevents HIV?

The Food and Drug Administration in July approved the prescription drug Truvada for use in HIV prevention, making it the first medication OK’d for preventing, not just treating, HIV. Truvada is already widely used to treat HIV, but studies have indicated that it can help keep people from contracting the virus. The FDA approved its use by HIV-negative people who are at high risk of acquiring HIV.

“Today’s approval marks an important milestone in our fight against HIV,” said FDA commissioner Margaret Hamburg, MD. “Every year, about 50,000 U.S. adults and adolescents are diagnosed with HIV infection, despite the availability of prevention methods and strategies to educate, test, and care for people living with the disease. New treatments as well as prevention methods are needed to fight the HIV epidemic in this country.”

The FDA is changing the warning literature boxed with Truvada to emphasize that those using it for prevention need to be confirmed as HIV-negative and tested for the virus every three months. The agency is also starting a training and education program to help doctors inform their patients about the necessity of adhering to the recommended dose, engaging in safer-sex practices, receiving counseling, and getting tested regularly as well as their small but real risk of still contracting HIV while on the drug.

Some doctors have already been prescribing Truvada off-label for prevention to the HIV-negative partner of an HIV-positive person, but they did so at their own discretion. FDA approval now allows its maker, Gilead Sciences, to explicitly market the drug for the purpose of prevention. Truvada, a combination of the drugs Emtriva (emtricitabine) and Viread (tenofovir), is one of the class of drugs called nucleoside reverse transcriptase inhibitors, so called for the way in which it suppresses replication of HIV in infected people.

AIDS activists and service providers were not universally enthusiastic about Truvada’s approval for preventive use, expressing concerns about adherence, side effects, and declining condom use. Michael Weinstein, president of the Los Angeles–based AIDS Healthcare Foundation, issued a statement calling the action “completely reckless and a move that will ultimately set back years of HIV prevention efforts.”

Numerous others, however, said Truvada for prevention is a necessary additional weapon in the fight against HIV. It “won’t end AIDS by itself, but we certainly can’t end the HIV epidemic without it,” San Francisco AIDS Foundation spokesman James Loduca told the San Francisco Chronicle.

Couple Says They Were Beaten in Asheville for Being Gay

Mark Little and his partner Dustin Martin say they were walking down a street in Asheville, N.C. when they were attacked and beaten.

"I feel like that when the cop first came on the scene he just felt like it was just an ordinary crime," Little told WBTV, "but what had happened is we were hit just because we were gay."

Little told the station that people in a passing car began harassing them while walking through Asheville, which is normally known as gay friendly. When the couple told them to stop, one of the passengers got out of the car and beat them. No one has been arrested.

Body of Ambassador Used in 'Obscene' Ad By Gay Republicans

A print advertisement paid for by the Broward County chapter of the Log Cabin Republicans includes the body of the U.S. ambassador to Libya who was killed in what has lately been called a terrorist attack.

The ad was reported on by Bilerico Project and printed in an LGBT newspaper called the Florida Agenda. It attacks President Obama as unable to protect Americans.

"If the Obama Administration isn't going to protect Gay/Gay-friendly American citizens from the terror of Islamic radicalism," the ad asks, "what makes you think they will protect us from Shariah Law… ANYWHERE?"

The leaders of the national Log Cabin Republicans have already condemned the chapter's inclusion of Christopher Stevens' body in the attack ad as "obscene." "We reject it completely," wrote executive director R. Clarke Cooper in a letter to the newspaper's editor in which he described himself as "deeply embarrassed" by it.

It has never been confirmed whether Stevens is still alive in the photo, though he is unconscious. And several newspapers were criticized for including it in reports after the attack.

The advertisement implies Stevens was gay, which is an unsubstantiated rumor being circulated by the same oddball blog that claims President Obama is secretly gay. The Advocate contacted the State Department about the rumor some time ago and a spokesman opted against commenting on "the ambassador's personal life."

Cooper swatted down the idea that the attack on the consulate was related to Stevens' sexual orientation — a notion put forward in the ad.

"To suggest that the Al-Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb attack on the US consular mission in Benghazi was connected to homophobia is just as ridiculous as US Ambassador to the UN, Susan Rice, claiming the attack in Benghazi was prompted by a film critical of Mohammed," Clarke wrote. "Violence against the LGBT community is a challenge to civil society throughout the world, and America is a beacon for freedom for all minority voices. There are plenty of reasons to vote Republican to protect US interests and human rights abroad, but the obscene ad in this publication is fallacious, grossly inappropriate and irresponsible."
The National Stonewall Democrats countered with a comment calling the ad "shameless and callous," and they called on the local chapter to retract the ad an issue an apology.

"The confused hatchet men at Log Cabin are conflating a number of unrelated issues in order to attack Democrats and President Obama," said executive director Jerame Davis in a statement. "First, they latch onto right-wing rumors that Ambassador Stevens was gay and then they insinuate that President Obama is responsible for the attack because he did not protect the Ambassador from 'Sharia Law'…. It is simply unimaginable to me how any political message, let alone the muddy and ludicrous message of this ad, in any way justifies disgracing the memory of a man who gave his life in service to his country."

Another Big Name Company Supports Marriage Equality in Washington

The latest big company to support marriage equality in Washington is Nordstrom, the national high-end retailer.

The Washington-based company's president, Blake Nordstrom, sent a memo today to employees along with Pete Nordstrom, the president of merchandising, and Erik Nordstrom, president of Stores.
"It is our belief that our gay and lesbian employees are entitled to the same rights and protections marriage provides under the law as our other employees," the Nordstroms wrote. "We also believe supporting freedom to marry will help us create a more attractive and inclusive workplace for our current and prospective employees."

They conceded there are "differing opinions" on the issue, as Washington voters head to the polls in November to decide whether to uphold a marriage equality law signed earlier this year.

It is one of many Washington companies to join in supporting the bill, including Microsoft, Starbucks and Nike. Some have faced pushback from the religious right with threatened boycotts as a result.

Teacher Finally Resigns After Antigay Facebook Rant

A special education teacher who set off outrage last year when she posted antigay comments on Facebook has stepped down, a New Jersey newspaper reports.

Viki Knox complained about her New Jersey high school's recognition of October as LGBT History Month, and she reacted to another teacher's suggestion that Union High School launch a gay-straight alliance with, "Well, if I knew UHS was going to Hell in a handbasket before I know it for sure now!"

The Star-Ledger reports that Knox resigned over the summer and is pursuing a settlement. She is seeking in court a disability pension because of a back injury and "psychological" damage. Her supporters claim she is a victim of relgious-based discrimination.

But even Gov. Chris Christie, who passed one the country's toughest anti-bullying laws, had chimed in with condemnation of Knox's public statements. “I think that kind of example is not a positive one at all to be setting for folks who have such an important and influential position in our society. I'm really concerned about those kinds of statements being made.”
Among what is known that Knox said, "Homosexuality is a perverted spirit that has existed from the beginning of creation. … I know sin and it breeds like cancer!" And she claimed to be "pitching a fit" about a school photo display that included Virginia Woolf, Harvey Milk, and Neil Patrick Harris.

When "don't ask, don't tell" was being repealed, Knox wrote on Twitter, “DON’T ASK, DON’T TELL!?! ARE THEY SERIOUS? GOD IS NOT PLEASED AND NEITHER AM I!!! THE END IS NEAR!!!”