Quickies: Queen Latifah as Bessie Smith, NYPD Editing Wikipedia, Jazz Jennings Fronts Clean&Clear Ad Campaign

• “Boston St. Patrick’s Parade To Include Gay Groups For First Time” – Boston Pride and OutVets will march in this year’s St Patrick’s Day Parade.
• Study Documents Challenges of LGBT Women – Among those, “trans women are 3.8 times more likely to live in poverty than cisgender women.”
• Queen Latifah to Play Bessie Smith in HBO Special – “[Smith] became the highest-paid black musician of her day, earning the moniker ‘Empress of the Blues’ before her death in a car crash in 1937. The drama also stars Mo’Nique as fellow singer Ma Rainey, who openly sang about her sexuality in song ‘Prove It on Me’.”
• Six Facts You Should Know About HIV Prevention – Number 1: 60% of young people who are HIV+ don’t know they’re infected. Combine that with knowing that those who are under treatment are much less likely to infect others and can live a normal life span. Take away: know your status, get tested!
• NYPD Caught Editing Wikipedia Articles About Victims – “Computer users identified by Capital as working on the NYPD headquarters’ network have edited and attempted to delete Wikipedia entries for several well-known victims of police altercations, including entries for Eric Garner, Sean Bell, and Amadou Diallo… NYPD IP addresses have also been used to edit entries on stop-and-frisk, NYPD scandals, and prominent figures in the city’s political and police leadership.”
• State Senator Seeks Bar Review of Attorney Who Submitted Sodomy Death Penalty Initiative – After Matthew McLaughlin submitted a California ballot initiative proposing to execute LGBTs and jail their supporters, State Senator Ricardo Lara is calling for the CA State Bar to investigate whether McLaughlin is in violation of the “good moral character” clause.
• “Ikea Closes Website in Russia Over ‘Gay Propaganda’ Fears” – In the statement (in Russian), Ikea said: ‘When we do business, we observe the legislation of the countries where we work, therefore to avoid violations, we have taken the decision to stop publishing the magazine in Russia.’ It said [Ikea Family Live] – which is published in 25 countries – ‘shows different aspects of people’s lives at home, regardless of their age, gender, sexual orientation, nationality and religion’.”
• “Transgender Teen Jazz Jennings is the New Face of Clean & Clear” – “Aside from her awesome new gig, the aspiring model was also named one of Time magazine’s 25 most influential teens of 2014; published a book for trans children and their parents and just landed a TLC docuseries called ‘All That Jazz’.“

Featured image: Queen Latifah via Pink News