Quickies: NJ to Ban Gay Panic, Trans Restroom Challenge, FDA Blood Ban Change
By - NJ State Lawmaker Introduces Bill to Ban Gay Panic Defense – Currently, only California bans the use of the “gay panic” defense. Assemblyman Tim Eustace hopes to make New Jersey safer for LGBTQs by banning the defense in his state.
- Legal Confusion Leaves Same-Sex Marriage Stalled in FL – Due to legal ambiguity over whether the case which ruled Florida’s same-sex marriage ban unconstitutional applied to the entire state or only to Washington County, most clerks outside of Washington County will not start issuing marriage licenses to same sex couples on Jan 6.
- “ACLU Challenges Virginia School for Barring Trans Boy from Bathroom” – Gloucester County School Board voted in December that all students must use the restroom aligned with their genitalia, with private restrooms made available for those with “sincere gender identity issues.” Transgender student Gavin Grimm and the ACLU are challenging this policy.
- “Gay Conversion Therapy” is Illegal in China, Survivor Spreads Word – Yang Teng was recently awarded compensation after Xinyupiaoxiang Counseling Center subjected him to hypnosis and electrical shocks in efforts to “cure” his homosexuality. Now he’s trying to get the word out, especially to the parents of gay children, that “gay conversion therapy” is not only ineffective, but also now illegal in China.
- “Swiss Film Fest Fires Egyptian Journalist for Role in Bathhouse Raid” – “Journalist Mona Iraqi is accused of setting up a raid on a gay bathhouse in Cairo that has 26 men now facing prison sentences.” That involvement has cost Iraqi her contract with the Swiss Film Festival Shnit.
- FDA Proposes Lifting Lifetime Ban on Blood Donations from MSM – The FDA is proposing new rules which would allow MSM (men who have sex with men) to donate blood after a year of abstaining from homosexual activity. The FDA currently imposed a 1 year ban on donations from individuals who have had sex with IV drug users, sex workers, or partners who are HIV+.
Featured image: AFP/David Ebener/Getty Images
Didn’t the blood ban initially exist because we had no reliable way of detecting the virus? The logic at the time was more “If _endogamous group_ is more prone to HIV infection, we should just cut off blood from _endogamous group_ to the rest of the population.” But since we can test the blood today, and have been able to since the 80s…
It gets even more ridiculous when you consider that I could go out, sleep with a dozen (cis female) prostitutes, and they wouldn’t ban me. But if I slept with one dude, even if he had never slept with anyone else…yeah.
And of course, not all gay and bisexual men engage in penetrative sexual activities. Even those who do may be completely monogamous.
Yeah, ‘gay conversion therapy’ is just medicalized child abuse, in addition to being pure quackery. I imagine in the States, they might mount a religious defense; you don’t know what the Supreme Court’s going to do. (As I said after Hobby Lobby, most religious freedom cases in America involve Indians, Jews, or Muslims. The Supreme Court has decided religious freedom doesn’t matter to Indians. Nor does it to Muslims or Jews, but apparently corporate golems have religious freedom.)