Lady Gaga’s performance of Imagine at HRC’s National Dinner last year.
Thanks to Jenny for passing on the link.
Under current FDA guidelines, gay men are not allowed to donate bone marrow unless they have been celibate for at least five years.
In 1985, when AIDS was perceived as a “gay disease,” the Food and Drug Administration enacted a requirement that men who had sexual relations with a another man after 1977 would not be allowed to donate bone marrow. The policy was later revised so that gay and bisexual men who had been celibate for five years would be allowed to donate bone marrow, a policy that is still in place to this day. But HIV testing procedures have improved dramatically since 1985.
The FDA has certified that approved laboratory HIV tests have a 100% chance of detecting HIV infection if performed after a three-month incubation period, and there are tests that only need an 8-9 day incubation period.
This means that you can be tested for HIV today and get a useful result as long as you abstain from risky behavior for two weeks prior to testing.Bone Marrow Transplant is the only effective long-term treatment for tens of thousands of people, world wide.
These patients have leukemia, lymphoma and other life-threatening diseases that can be treated by a bone marrow or cord blood transplant. For many of these patients, a transplant may be the best and only hope of a cure.
For a patient’s body to accept these healthy cells, the patient needs a donor who is a close match.
But finding a well-matched marrow donor can be very difficult.
Patients need donors who are a genetic match. Even with a registry of millions, many patients cannot find a match. Seventy Percent of patients do not have a donor in their family.
Eliminating men who have had sex with men from the potential bone marrow donor pool has caused needless death for patients who might otherwise have been matched. Today, in 2010, this senseless and discriminatory policy must be changed.
Help increase life saving bone marrow transplants and equal treatment towards all those who give of their hearts and bodies to help others.
(Source: queerwatch)
Pride Hilo Weekly Announcements
The following is a list of upcoming events and activities at University of Hawai’i at Hilo.
Next official meeting: Monday, September 27th at 5:00 PM in EKH 105.
Next informal activity meeting: Wednesday, September 29th at 5:00 PM outside Campus Center.
We are still seeking support, volunteers, and donations for National Coming Out Day on October 11th. Any way you would like to contribute is welcome. Pride would like to make this year’s event the largest ever, but we can’t do it alone. We are looking for individuals to help with decorations, advertising, fundraising, face painting, silent auction donations, audio visual materials, and entertainment. Please contact pridehilo@gmail.com or let us know through the “ask” feature here if you are interested. For more information of NCOD visit http://www.hrc.org/issues/3338.htm
- On Monday, September 27th there will be an Eia Hawai‘i lecture offered on Hawaiian sexuality at noon in UCB 127. The lecture is open to the public and sponsored by Kipuka. Plan on arriving early if possible as a large audience is anticipated.
- The donation raffle is now open in addition to the attendance raffle. For $1 you can enter to win a sporty, environmentally friendly rainbow water bottle. There’s no limit on how many times you can enter. Tickets can be purchased during Pride events or from any of the Pride officers.
- The contest for Pride Hilo’s new logo is now open. Let your creativity run wild and submit your art. There is no limit on the number of designs you can submit so feel free to try different options. All entries are due by November 29th.
- We are seeking fundraising suggestions from the community. In order to continue our work both on and off campus, as well as our LGBTIQ scholarship fund Pride needs to continue to raise money. If you have any ideas or would like to help, please contact us.
Remember, every time you attend a meeting or activity you will be able to enter your name in a raffle for a $20 Starbucks gift card to be drawn at the end of the semester. The more you participate the more times you can enter!
A bit old, but a helpful resource.
(Source: pansexualpride)
Two men break record for longest continuous kiss: 33 hours
Matty Daley and Bobby Canciello broke the Guinness World Record for the longest continuous kiss on Sunday. The 33-hour kiss was steamed live at the College of New Jersey in Ewing, New Jersey.
As the timer counted down to the 33-hour mark, the crowd counted down and cheered as Lady Gaga played in the background. The live stream and archived videos are currently at a total of 337,939 views.
“I hope this helps in terms of equality for everyone in the future, to understand that no matter who you are, love is universal.”
Official rules state that the two had to be standing the entire time and were not allowed to take any breaks. The rules also state that they’re not allowed to wear diapers.
Guinness officials will be reviewing the tape to confirm that the record has been broken.
Equalitopia interviewed Matty and Bobby before they attempted they broke the record.
(video via Passport Magazine)
Via Equalitopia
A Christian “charity” called the Hawaii Family Forum – which helped lead the fight against civil unions – now owes the government $20,741 in taxes for “excessive lobbying,” says the IRS.
The nonprofit group reported spending $125,695 on lobbying last year, a huge jump over the zero dollars it said it spent on lobbying in 2008. The change comes after at least two complaints were filed with the Internal Revenue Service about the forum’s extensive political activities.“This tax form just confirms what we had suspected, and that is that they engaged in excessive lobbying, that they have no charitable programs, that they are 100 percent a lobbying organization,” said Holly Huber, who filed a complaint with the IRS in June on behalf of Hawaii Citizens for the Separation of State and Church. “They should not be a tax-exempt nonprofit charitable organization. They are a political action group.”
Sometimes, justice comes in small packages. Step in the right direction.
(Source: queerwatch)
If anyone knows a way to make this a permanent part of our homepage, I’d love to know.
Thanks to queermovieman for creating this.
This is a picture of Sir Ian McKellen at a gay-rights march in UK that has been timed with the Pope’s visit.
Sometimes the world can be a really extraordinary place.
Hope this brings a smile to everyone’s weekend :)
Pride Hilo Weekly Announcements
The following is a list of upcoming events and activities at University of Hawai’i at Hilo.
Next official meeting: Monday, September 20th at 5:00 PM in EKH 105.
Next informal activity meeting: Wednesday, September 22nd at 5:00 PM outside Campus Center.
- On Monday, September 27th there will be an Eia Hawai‘i lecture offered on Hawaiian sexuality at noon in UCB 127. The lecture is open to the public and sponsored by Kipuka. Plan on arriving early if possible as a large audience is anticipated.
- We are looking for volunteers to help with National Coming Out Day on October 11th. Some ways to get involved include advertising, fundraising, silent auction donations, drag performances, and tabling to name a few. We will be spending the day in Campus Center Plaza providing information and other activities. For more information see the previous post.
- If you would like to get involved with PFLAG and help them to determine both issues that need to be addressed around our island and fun activities and outreach, contact Phill at phillip.russell@doane.edu. His contact information has also been added to our “resources & support” page.
- The contest for Pride Hilo’s new logo is now open. Let your creativity run wild and submit your art. There is no limit on the number of designs you can submit so feel free to try different options. All entries are due by November 29th.
- We are seeking fundraising suggestions from the community. In order to continue our work both on and off campus, as well as our LGBTIQ scholarship fund Pride needs to continue to raise money. If you have any ideas or would like to help, please contact us.
Remember, every time you attend a meeting or activity you will be able to enter your name in a raffle for a $20 Starbucks gift card to be drawn at the end of the semester. The more you participate the more times you can enter!
About me
Pride Hilo is a registered independent student organization at the University of Hawai'i at Hilo. Over the past 20 years, Pride has given a voice and offered support to the LGBTIQA community, both on campus and off. It is our hope that by extending our reach to the internet we will be able to help more people on our island and elsewhere.Alphabet soup:
For those new to the community, all the acronyms can be confusing.
LGBTIQA stands for Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender, Intersex, Queer/Questioning, and Asexual. The 'A' often represents "Ally" (straight supporter) depending on the source. There are many more classifications, too, but these are the basics.
Legal stuff:
This site is not funded or endorsed by the University of Hawai'i in any way, shape, or form and is run by the officers elected by Pride Hilo members as part of an independant outreach effort.
![Take a step onto my HONUA [world]](http://25.media.tumblr.com/avatar_95dabc06b7de_30.png){kind=avatar}
