For World AIDS Day today, since so many other LGBT sites are ably covering how HIV/AIDS continues to impact the LGBTQ community, I want instead to highlight once again some statistics about HIV/AIDS and children. There has been a drop in new infections over the last few years, but even so, the numbers are still sobering.
Shortly after a transgender woman was named “Working Mother of the Year” by Working Mother magazine, a new report finds — not surprisingly — that the children of transgender parents are doing well.
LGBT students in the United States report high levels of victimization and discrimination, although things are slowly getting better, according to a new report.
Gerry Orz is a 12-year-old living with his two moms and older brother. He’s just made a short film about a boy with two moms who is bullied by a classmate — a reflection of his own experience. This is the second such film he’s made — the first was when he was only nine! Watch a trailer and learn more about his ongoing activism.
The Mormon Church has been among the institutions least accepting of LGBT equality. It played a big role in the 2008 success of California’s Proposition 8 that banned marriage for same-sex couples. One social worker and researcher, however, has been working with Mormon families who have LGBT children to show them that their acceptance can have a powerful positive impact.
Most of you likely know the story of Matthew Shepard, the University of Wyoming student brutally murdered in 1998 for being gay. Cathy Renna was working for GLAAD at the time, and was asked by the LGBT student group at the University to help manage the overwhelming media attention in the wake of the attack. She recently gave a TEDx talk on her experience, the impact of Matthew’s death, and the power of stories.
My thoughts go out today to the community of Troutdale, Oregon, where a student and a suspected shooter are both dead after the later opened fire at Reynolds High School. When 27 people died after a school shooting in Newtown, Connecticut two years ago, ABC News reported that there had been 31 school shootings since the one in Columbine, Colorado in 1999. Now, we learn that there have been 74 school shootings since Newtown. How many is too many?
Today is the Day of Silence, when students from middle school to college take some form of a vow of silence to call attention to the silencing effect of anti-LGBTQ bullying and harassment. Once again, the day reminds me both of the challenges that still remain for LGBTQ youth and those with LGBTQ parents and of the amazing strides they’ve made since I was that age.
This Monday, March 31, is the deadline for enrolling in health insurance through the marketplaces at Healthcare.gov. Did you know that insurance providers in the marketplace are prohibited from discriminating based on sexual orientation or gender identity? And that coverage for same-sex partners is available in many states (and where it is not, families are eligible for tax credits to cover the costs of a plan)?
Michael Morones is an 11-year-old boy living in North Carolina. He loves My Little Pony, in part because he has ACHD and relates to the character Pinkie Pie, an excitable pony. Schoolmates bullied him and called “gay” for liking a “girls'” program, however. He is now in critical condition in the hospital after a suicide attempt.
