love-and-organizing is a queer, bbq-loving, relocated Miami-an who can't say no to a roadtrip. She is a board member of the Pro-Choice Public Education Project, and is on their Young Women's Leadership Council. love-and-organizing has done a bit of conference coordinating with Western Massachusetts Community Coalition for Teens and for CLPP's annual "From Abortion Rights to Social Justice" conference. By day, lani works for CLPP as operations assistant, and during the other parts of the day she is a collective member of Translate Gender. Also, she loves talking and writing about reproductive justice and all the amazing folks who make it happen in their communities.
Facebook
I'm excited to be returning to the community -- Amplify -- that helped foster my voice as an emerging blogger! (My only regret is that it's been so long since I've been active with you all!)
Still, I'm hoping you will welcome me back and help me with my request.
Here's the story: On November 27th, I will head to Strasbourg, France where I will be representing CLPP at the forum, “LGBTQI young people at the doorstep of health care: Understanding obstacles and increasing access”.
I'll be spending a week with 29 fellow queer youth activists from European Union countries and from around the world. Together, we will be building a shared understanding of our many contexts, the specific needs for the health of LBGTQI young people, barriers that LGBTQI young people face in our many health care systems, and how to successfully create change.
I bring my personal experience as a young queer femme, my work with local youth in Western Massachusetts, my work with Translate Gender, and all of the amazing resources and experiences I've gained from the New Leadership Networking Initiative and the CLPP annual activist conference, From Abortion Rights to Social Justice: Building the Movement for Reproductive Freedom.
I'm committing to documenting the international collective work and experiences during my time in France. Please check CLPP’s Facebook and Twitter for live-updates November 27th through December 5th.
But, in order to do this, I need your help in making sure that I can – to the greatest extent possible – represent the various United States contexts in which LGBTQI youth access health care.
Please share your stories and resources:
- What are your experiences, as queer and trans youth accessing health care?
- What laws and policies further your ability to access health care? Or prevent you from accessing healthcare?
- Who is providing you medical services?
love and organizing,
lani
I am not a policy buff. Which is why I think I'm a good person to try to explain what happened with healthcare reform this week.
While I was visiting Washington, D.C. this weekend for the Pro-Choice Public Education Project's Young Women's Leadership Council convening and the 5th Annual National Membership Meeting of SisterSong Women of Color Reproductive Health Collective, Congress democrats were fretting over whether or not their healthcare reform bill would pass. With a House majority, why were they so worried? They were worried that conservative democrats would not support the bill. So, at 1:30 AM, in the wee hours between Friday night and Saturday morning, the House Rules Committee announced that they would let Rep. Stupak (D-MI) introduce an amendment to the healthcare reform bill that would ban abortion coverage from federally funded or subsidized plans. If you are at all familiar with the Hyde Amendment - the Stupak amendment is Hyde's evil brother.
As Jessica Arons, Director of the Women’s Health and Rights Program at the Center for American Progress Action Fund, points out, the Stupak Amendment (1) effectively bans coverage for most abortions from all public and private health plans in the Exchange, (2) includes only extremely narrow exceptions, (3) allows for a useless abortion “rider”**, and (4) allows for discrimination against abortion providers.
Back in September, Amplify blogger michellemysistahs reported that an FDA panel recommended the use of the HPV vaccine in boys and men. On October 16th, the FDA approved the use of the HPV vaccine in boys/men. Then, on October 21st the Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices for the U.S. Center for Disease Control “stopped short of recommending the vaccine for boys as part of the approved childhood immunization schedule”
Questions still remain: why would boys and men want to be vaccinated from HPV? Will the HPV vaccine become accessible to men/boys? Should men/boys get the vaccine?
Why would boys and men want to get the HPV vaccine
If you ask the FDA panel that recommended the use of the HPV vaccine for use in boys and men they would tell you that it prevents genital warts. In her post HPV Vaccine for Men, Too!, michellemysistahs points out that the vaccine helps prevent certain cancers in men: those being penile, anal, and oral cancers.
If you ask the Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices for the CDC, they echo the findings of a study lead by Jane Kim, an assistant professor of health decision science: “including boys in an HPV vaccination program generally exceeds what the U.S. typically considers good value for money”.
The big news this week is that the AIDS Healthcare Foundation (AHF), whose tagline is "cutting-edge medicine and advocacy regardless of ability to pay", opened a Men's Wellness Center in North Miami! This clinic, dubbed the AHF “Magic Johnson” Healthcare Center, is located at Jackson North (for all my fellow Miami-ans) and it's a walk-in clinic that provides confidential sexual health services - including HIV and STD testing and treatment at no cost to clients. Awesome!
When I saw this healine, my interest was immediately peaked because I called Miami home for 18+ years. As I looked further, I discovered that AHF is one interesting org - that definitely does some creative outreach.
AHF has a number of consignment shops across California - and with a few locations in Florida - called Out of the Closet Thirft Stores. The name alone is enough to make my heart do a little happy dance, but there's more. "Ninety-six cents of every dollar raised goes directly to care and services provided to HIV/AIDS patients and clients at AHF facilities in the US and around the world," says AHF president Michael Weinstein. And! several AHF ‘Out of the Closet’ sites also serve as free HIV and STD testing centers (including the Miami location). Awesome!
But that's not all.
Towson University's newspaper editor resigned this week because some folks are afraid of The "M" Word.
Here are the facts:
- Towson University, in Towson, Maryland, has a student run newspaper called The Towerlight.
- A weekly column, entitled "The Bed Post", ran an article in late September about mutual masturbation.
- Some panties got bunched up.
- The editor-in-cheif of The Towerlight put out a statement of resignation in which she relates receiving an email from the university president that was written in an "intimidating, patronizing and bullying tone".
- In the post Editor Resigns over Masturbation Column, abc2 author writes: "The column spared no detail; and while many excerpts are too graphic for this story one sentence give you an idea: 'Regardless of how you do it, you should be aroused, pleased and totally safe.'"
- Why are we so afraid of masturbation!?
- Why are we so afraid of safer sex!?
- What's wrong with peer education!?
- Why are we so afraid of sex!?
What do you think?
I will be the first to admit it: I do not know enough about the global fight against HIV/AIDS epidemic. So when fellow blogger, AFY_EmilyB, alterted me to an article about PrEP, I knew I had to take the oppurtunity to educate myself. Needless to say, what follows is no where near an expert's account - and I will never pretend to be a scientist. To be honest, what I think is particularly interesting about this aspect of HIV/AIDS research is about society and our own personal values.
Two days ago, I had no idea what PrEP was. If you're in the same boat, here's a quick intro courtesy of PrEPwatch.org :
Pre-exposure prophylaxis (PrEP) refers to an experimental HIV-prevention strategy that would use anti-retrovirals (ARVs) to protect HIV-negative people from HIV infection. In this strategy, people would take the medications before they were exposed to HIV, in hopes that it would lower the risk of infection. PrEP is different from post-exposure prophylaxis (PEP), in which people who have been exposed through a needle, rape, etc., immediately begin taking ARVs in hopes of preventing infection.While contraceptive developments gave us birth control THEN the morning after pill, it seems like HIV/AIDS research is working in a different direction. There are anti-retroviral cocktails currently used by people who have been exposed to HIV that prevent infection (you can liken this to the morning after pill in the above proposed metaphor) and now some researchers are developing something that could be used before exposure (the birth control of HIV/AIDS infection). This is not to say that HIV infection is comparable to pregnancy. This is a way I was able to make sense of the science.
The are a sad few years in my past where I only went to movies a few times for only those huge movie events that absolutely could not be missed, i.e. Harry Potter. But I'm not writing this in search of your pity. Rather, I'm celebrating because the draught is over!
I have a really fabulous crew of folks that I've been going to the movies with regularly over the last couple of months. The group of people is always a little different, but the scenario is pretty much the same: we (1) pick a movie to go to, (2) watch it in theaters, and (3) talk about it until every angle has been excellently analyzed (or until the next screening starts and we decide we should leave the theater).
This is all to say that my love for and commitment to going to the movies has been renewed. And that the same old tired scenarios of stereotypical gender roles still goes unchallenged on the big screen. The following two examples come from my last two Friday night adventures (**spoiler warning**).
Tonight marks the one week anniversary of my latest obsession: The 2009 MTV Video Music Awards. The VMAs have really brought up a lot for me from thoughts about how technology has changed the way that we experience media to celebration and love for some of the most amazing pop performers to sadness and distrust in the racism that saturates our alleged post-racial society. What follows are some disclaimers about my personal opinions and biases, some descriptions of how the VMAs have shaped my life in the last week, and a little analysis.
Have you ever read News of the Wierd? Well you should, because recently, they printed an article that I really wanted to share with you all about sex education pamphlets produced by Britain's National Health Service of Sheffield. Now, I bet you're interested. Well, News of the Wierd is a syndicated column that is printed in my local community newspaper, The Valley Advocate (and probably in your local free paper too).
Here's the story:
This story was published under the heading "Questionable Judgment?". I say no! I think the U.S. can learn a lot from Britain about sex-positivity and healthy living. And I'm going to tell everyone I know about the preventative health benefits of orgasms. How about you?Britain's National Health Service of Sheffield issued a "guidance" to schools this summer to encourage teaching students alternatives to premarital sex, including masterbation. According to the Daily Telegraph, the leaflet (title "Pleasure") contains the slogan "(A)n orgasm a day keeps the doctor away" and likens the health benefits of eating fruits and vegetables, and excercising, to the benefits of masturbating twice a week. [Daily Telegraph, 7-12-09]
So, I may have just fallen in love with a blog. (Please keep this between you and me - I usually don't even let on that I know what 'blog' means...)
Check it: Pinko Magazine brings us: Five Things You Can Do About Healthcare, In Ascending Order of Difficulty and Commitment. With Q & A!
Now, I have to tell you - I'm a total cynic when it comes to political processes. I avoid DC at all possible costs, I constantly question if any of my representatives will ever truly represent me, and I mostly believe that petitions end up in the mystery world of single socks that never come out of the dryer.
That being said, Ben from Pinko Mag totally makes me want to:
1. Sign a Petition
2. Send an email
3. Call someone
4. Give someone some money
5. Get involved with events in my community
(and #6 that made it into the comments section:) Write a letter to the editor.
Now I know you may be thinking, these sorts of actions are so my grandma's generation of old bitties who sit at home and think they're changing the world - is this really going to make any difference. Well, actually I agree with you. These actions seem to me to be really passive and contigent on different levels of privilege (aka access to money, a weekly work/school schedule that allows you to sit on the phone with your congresspeople, etc.). And I have no idea how much of a difference that they make. But I do know, we can't sit around and wait for health care to show up on our door steps. Have you ever been uninsured? I have. And it's no fun getting sprained ankles, strep throat, pap smears, etc. when you may or may not be able to find a clinic that won't break your bank.
