The FBI has released it’s hate crime statistics for 2007, and they say there were 1460 hate crimes based on sexual orientation. If you take out the 27 that were anti-heterosexual crimes, there were 1433 crimes against the LGB community last year (transsexuals don’t seem to be included as a category). That’s 3.9 every day…

The FBI statistics reveal that hate crimes against our community are on the rise, whereas other types of hate crimes are going down.

But I’m a little suspicious- the homicide numbers seem low. They say only 5 LGBT people were killed last year. But the video from FightOutLoud.org I mentioned back in early March documented 7 deaths in just the first two months of this year: Shanesa Stewart, Adolphus Simmons, Alexio Bello, Patrick (”Patricia”) Murphy, an unidentified transgender woman in Detroit, Lawrence King, and Simmie (”Beyonce”) Williams Jr. How can only 5 have been killed in all of last year when we had 7 die in just two months this year?

I haven’t been tracking the stats very well since then, but just the other day two elderly gay men were bludgeoned to death in their home - Milton Lindgren, age 70, and Eric Hendricks, age 73. I’m sure there are others as well.

I’m guessing the FBI’s standards for calling something a hate crime are a bit too stringent. Looking at who’s been killed so far this year it’s overwhelmingly black, hispanic and/or transgendered people getting killed. It makes you wonder if those killings are getting handled properly and correctly labeled as hate crimes.

Also, given how the campaigns have gone, it’s pretty clear which presidential candidate will be more likely to A) have the FBI report the data correctly, and B) take meaningful steps to reduce the violence against our community.

I’m swamped with work and it’s making me not so horny… Guys want to hookup and I just never seem up for it. I’ll get back in the swing of things in a couple days, but I thought I’d share a study I found through LifeLube (possibly the only pro-condom site I’ll say good things about).

The gist of the study is that repeated exposure to other strains of HIV maintains a strong anti-HIV immune response in the bodies of guys who are already poz. While super-infection is theoretically possible, it’s extremely rare. What’s more normal is for the poz bottom to actually benefit from the poz cum he’s getting in his ass…

We found that individuals, who regularly engaged in unprotected receptive sexual intercourse with an HIV-1 infected viremic partner, displayed higher T cell responses to HIV proteins compared to those who were not regularly exposed to a viremic partner. None of the individuals within this study showed evidence of systemic super-infection. Exposure had limited impact on general activation or poly-functionality. These results are clearly of importance for HIV-1 infected individuals who chose to engage in unprotected sexual activity with other HIV-1 infected individuals. These data also reveal a more general mechanism that occurs in infectious diseases: immune responses to chronic viruses are influenced not only by the virus within the host, but also by exposure to the virus from without.

So from an HIV perspective, poz guys apparently will stay healthier if they take loads up their ass from other poz guys, at least on average. Of course you also have to factor in the negative effect of the other STDs you’re likely to get - it’s not 100% beneficial.

Read the study

Get this one… A 23 year old DJ in Raleigh North Carolina named Josh Weaver is under house arrest for barebacking - complete with one of those electronic ankle bracelets. He had plead guilty earlier to having sex on three occasions without disclosing that he was poz and received probation that stipulated that he wasn’t allowed to have any unprotected sex. Well, he got an STD the health officials said could have been prevented with a condom and now he’s under house arrest for violating his probation.

Personally, I don’t get it. I can see criminalizing lying about your HIV status, but I don’t get how it’s the poz guy’s responsibility to tell if the neg guy doesn’t ask especially in anonymous situations. What happened to the concept of personal responsibility? NO ONE IS RESPONSIBLE FOR YOUR HEALTH EXCEPT YOU!

He’s living with his father, so if he’s really lucky his dad is cool with him having guys over. Once his probation is up I’d suggest he come to some place like New York where disclosure isn’t mandatory.

I mean, a guy who’s that hot should have all the sex he wants…  I know I’d fuck him 

ADDITION:

One thing I want to add here… If he’s on meds and has an undetectable viral load. He’s safer to have sex with than a “neg” versatile guy who’s running around barebacking and not getting tested regularly.

The laws were written in an era where poz guys were pretty infectious pretty much all the time. That’s not the case any more and I’d love to see one of these laws challenged on the basis of the person in question had an undetectable viral load.

To say that all poz guys have to disclose all the time and not require neg guys who haven’t been tested in say the last three months to disclose that their status is actually “unknown” simply makes no sense. The current policy is a lot like a scarlet letter.

Saw this video on Towleroad - it’s brilliant. It reminds us once again why it’s important to vote for gay and gay friendly candidates this year. It’s about giving future generations visible options, letting them know they can be who they want to be, achieve what they want to achieve.

Now compare that to this…

There’s so much I could say about that clip, but the point is many of us grew up around people like that (in my case they managed to state their bigotry a bit more tactfully, but the bottom line was about the same). It’s vital that young gay teens see that when they get the opportunity to get out from under those circumstances there’s a life waiting for them that’s worth living.

10 years ago today Matthew Shepard was beaten and left to die tied to a fence. Some things have gotten better in that time, but sadly many, many things have not. An LGBT person is getting killed every eight days - even teens who innocently give valentines to straight guys.

Here’s a clip with Matthew Shepard’s mom. Please be as vocal as this wonderful straight woman in protecting our rights.

And if you still don’t understand why it’s important to vote for Democrats this year - issues like this are where you see the clearest difference between Democrats and Republicans. Republicans are the ones who consistently vote against hate crime legislation for the LGBT community despite the fact they themselves are protected by hate crime legislation (for religion-oriented hate crimes). On the other hand Democrats consistently vote for hate crime legislation. Yes, there are good Republicans, and I’ve voted for them, but don’t think that just because both haven’t quite figured out that “separate but equal” is a bad idea in terms of gay marriage and civil unions, doesn’t mean there isn’t a very real difference between the parties in matter that can affect you personally.

And just a reminder it’s still going on 10 years later even in urban areas…

I’d like to compliment John McCain on his choice of running mate. He went with 44 y.o. Sarah Palin - the Governor of Alaska. I think it was a brilliant choice and will get insure him the election.

Things are close now and from what I can tell there are plenty of white people in the US who just won’t vote for a black guy as President. Hell, if we have gay guys who can’t understand why Obama is a better choice than McCain, Obama is shit out of luck.

Palin compensates for a lot of McCain’s shortcomings - she’s young, female, and vibrant. All those feminists that wanted a woman in the White House just might vote Republican. Who knew feminists would vote Republican?

To me this is just all really sad. I don’t get why people don’t understand that McCain is just 8 more years like Bush…

Oh well, at least I live in a wonderful liberal bubble called NYC, where even many of the Republicans are liberal (if you can find them).

UPDATE: So after a few days now it looks like Palin would be even less qualified than G.W. Bush to run the country should something happen to McCain (which is completely possible given his age). Apparently she left the little town she was mayor of in financial ruin and her being on the PTA is still consisdered relevant experience by the Republicans.The question will be who is more qualified - Palin or Quale?

So, any thinking person would never elect her to the #2 spot in the free world, but then again after the last two elections where Bush’s incompetance was so obvious, I don’t see the US electorate made up of thinking people anymore… So, all I can say is, if McCain/Palin win, the US derves every minute of misery they’re sure to heap on them - lost jobs, soliders dying in pointless wars, human rights restrictions, etc.