People still think of [AIDS] as a shame-based disease … and so a lot of people are still very bigoted about this disease, and it’s our biggest opponent, trying to break these people down. It’s such a treatable disease … [and] the end is in sight … medically. But if we don’t go hand in hand with the stigma problem, along with the medical advancement, then we’re never going to defeat it … And the way we do that is to be more compassionate, more understanding, more loving towards each other. We have to change attitudes.
Snapshots of Our Work
Wonder what we’re up to at GLAAD?
Be sure to check out GLAAD Blog each week for updates about our latest work to build support for LGBT equality through news, entertainment, and online media.
NLGJA Awards Recognize Steven W. Thrasher, Chris Geidner, Anderson Cooper and More
On Tuesday the National Lesbian & Gay Journalists Association (NLGJA) announced the recipients of its 2012 Excellence in Journalism Awards. Steven W. Thrasher of the Village Voice, The New York Times, and Outwill receive NLGJA’s Journalist of the Year Award while GLAAD Media Award recipient Chris Geidner who formerly wrote for Metro Weeklywill receive the Sarah Pettit Memorial Award for Excellence in LGBT Media.
Introducing “Familia Es Familia”: A Groundbreaking Latino & LGBT Public Education Campaign
Yesterday at the National Council of La Raza (NCLR)’s annual conference, twenty-one leading national Hispanic/Latino organizations announced their endorsement of a first-of-its kind, comprehensive public-education campaign called “Familia es Familia,” which aims to strengthen Latino voices to build support within the Latino community for acceptance of their LGBT family members.
Frank Ocean opens up about his first love, gets support from hip-hop community
Odd Future’s Frank Ocean posted an emotional letter on Tumblr on Wednesday in which he revealed that his first love was a man. Ocean wrote in the post:
“4 summers ago, I met somebody. I was 19 years old. He was too. We spent that summer, and the summer after, together. Every day almost. And on the days we were together, time would glide. Most of the day I’d see him, and his smile.“
Ocean also wrote that he "couldn’t imagine keeping up my life without him,” and added that he shared the story of his first love with some of the people he is closest to, including his mother. The artist ended the letter with, “I feel like a free man. If I listen closely.. I can hear the sky falling too.”
Gay Senior Centers Growing in Number Around the Nation
A group of friends and acquaintances, most of them getting up in years, sit around a long table, drinking coffee, eating cookies and chatting.
It could be the scene at any senior center — which is exactly what the Gay Alliance of the Genesee Valley was going for last month when it opened its gay senior center, one of a growing number of such centers opening across the USA .
“We knew there was a need,” said Gay Alliance interim Executive Director Anne Wakeman. As the U.S. population ages, “we’ve got senior programs in every town and this huge shift in our population,” she says. “These services are absolutely necessary.”
The White House in May convened in Miami a first-ever conference on aging in the gay community. New York City-based SAGE (Services and Advocacy for GLBT Elders), an advocacy group for lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender older adults, earlier this year opened the nation’s only full-time gay senior center.
And Chicago’s gay social service agency Center on Halstead earlier this year unveiled plans to renovate an old police station in Chicago and create the nation’s first affordable housing complex for older gay adults. The 79-unit complex, the second such housing project in the nation (the first is in Los Angeles) is due for completion by late 2013.
Snapshots of Our Work
Wonder what we’re up to at GLAAD?
Be sure to check out GLAAD Blog each week for updates about our latest work to build support for LGBT equality through news, entertainment, and online media.
Click on the source link below to see what we’ve been up to!
