Quickies: Advances in HIV Research, Golden Girls Lego Set, Tax Tips for Same-Sex Spouses

• “New Gilead Drug May Help Body Kill HIV” – “The new drug appears to be able to bring HIV out of a latent state so the immune system can fight it.”
• Researchers Successfully Excise HIV from DNA in Cultured Human Cells – “When deployed, a combination of a DNA-snipping enzyme called a nuclease and a targeting strand of RNA called a guide RNA (gRNA) hunt down the viral genome and remove the HIV-1 DNA. From there, the cell’s gene repair machinery takes over, soldering the loose ends of the genome back together – resulting in virus-free cells.”
• Virgenes de la Puerta Documents Lima’s Transgender Community – “As part of their ambitious project called Virgenes de la Puerta(“Virgins of the Door”), Mroczek and Barboza-Gubo are photographing several transgender women — many of whom have never been photographed in a positive, respectful way — in order to present them as honored role models, examples of leadership in the country’s burgeoning transgender pride movement.”
• The Trans Community’s Substance Abuse Problem – “In 2010, a survey found that over 25% of trans respondents misused drugs, including alcohol, specifically to cope with the discrimination they faced due to their gender identity or expression... And despite substance abuse disproportionately impacting the trans community, many treatment programs fail to recognize trans folk, instead practicing the discrimination and harassment that prompted many of us to use drugs in the first place.”
• “Meet the First Out Trans Soldier in the U.S. Military” – “Army Sgt. Shane Ortega, a transgender man currently serving in Oahu, knows that ‘administratively, I shouldn’t exist.'”
• “It Is Now Illegal For A Federal Contractor To Fire Someone For Being LGBT” – “President Barack Obama signed the order in June 2014 banning workplace discrimination against lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender employees of federal contractors and the federal government.”
• Golden Girls LEGO Set – The Golden Girls Living Room and Kitchen Modular Set with Dorothy, Rose, Blanche, Sophia, and Stan LEGO set has accumulated the 10,000 supporters it needs to move forward to the Review stage. The review process begins next month, and is the last stage before LEGO makes its final decision whether to produce the product.
• “Enormous Same-Sex Marriage Mural Appeared Overnight In Dublin” – “A massive four-story mural of two men embracing appeared on the side of a building in downtown Dublin this morning. Irish artist Joe Caslin created the art as a “poignant representation of same sex love in the city” in anticipation of the Irish marriage referendum on May 22.”
• Gay Rape Slave Ring Busted in Florida – “A Hungarian national is facing up to 155 years in prison after his conviction this week for keeping young gay men as “sex-slave” prostitutes inside a North Miami-Dade home.”
• “HBO’s VICE Uncovers Gay Iranians Forced to Surgically Change Gender” – ” It’s an astonishing tale about how gay men who are not transgender are compelled to have what would normally be gender-affirmative surgery if they were indeed trans. For many if not all of these men, it’s a matter of living as someone they are not for the rest of their lives following surgery — or facing execution.”
• Eleven Tax Tips for Same Sex Couples – With Tax Day swiftly approaching, the Huffington Post has 11 tax tips for same-sex couples.
• 2015 Hunky Jesus Contestants: Every Easter, the Sisters of Perpetual Indulgence in San Francisco hold a Hunky Jesus contest. Here are some of this years contestants.

Featured image: Golden Girls LEGO