Key Issues

US Congress Expands New Anti-Protest Law

(También en Español) News of Note: US Congress expands authoritarian anti-protest law A bill passed Monday in the US House of Representatives and Thursday in the Senate would expand existing anti-protest laws that make it a felony—a serious criminal offense punishable by a lengthy prison term—to “enter or remain in” an area designated as “restricted.” The bill—H.R. 347, or the “Federal Restricted Buildings and Grounds Improvement Act of 2011”—was passed by unanimous consent in the Senate, while only Ron Paul and two other Republicans voted against the bill in the House of Representatives (the bill passed 388-3). Not a single ...

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in Key Issues / News of Note  by Jack Diehl 0 comments

Santorum backs nullifying existing gay marriages

(También en Español) News of Note: Santorum backs nullifying existing gay marriages There are 18,000 married gay and lesbian couples in California and at least 131,000 nationwide according to the 2010 census, conducted before New York state legalized same-sex marriage in July. Rick Santorum says he'll try to unmarry all of them if he's elected president He would "unmarry" all same-sex marriages? Instead of listing reasons why gay marriage is a good thing and why it should have nothing to do with politics, I'd rather emphasize how terrible Rick Santorum is. I would normally disregard his comments as impossible or beneath ...

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in Key Issues / News of Note  by Jack Diehl 0 comments

Romney, Santorum, and Gingrich All Promise To Ban Porn

(También en Español) News of Note: Mitt Romney, Rick Santorum, and Newt Gingrich All Promise To Ban Porn The top three Republican presidential candidates pledged a war on porn today which means that they have promised more action to ban porn than to create jobs. The conservative group Morality In Media is head over heels today after all three top Republican candidates promised to go war against the distribution of porn. In a written statement, Rick Santorum said, “Federal obscenity laws should be vigorously enforced. If elected President, I will appoint an Attorney General who will do so.” Not to ...

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in Key Issues / News of Note  by Jack Diehl 0 comments

February 2012 Newsletter

(También en Español) Hundreds rallied around our message, “Sexual Freedom – You Are Born With It” at the National Gay & Lesbian Task Force’s Creating Change conference a couple of weeks ago in Baltimore, which brought together 3000 equality rights activists and allies. Many made videos about what sexual freedom means to them and you will be seeing them here in the coming months. Most of the VenusPlusX crew were out in force and brought an exciting presence to the Creating Change Exhibition Hall. And, we supported the Bi/Alt/Kink Hospitality Suite, and the Trans Hospitality Suite, where ...

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in Events / Key Issues / Public Information  by Alison Gardner 0 comments

Russian cities introduce baby ‘drop boxes’ to stop unwanted children being left in bins

(También en Español) News of Note: Russian cities introduce baby 'drop boxes' to stop unwanted children being left in bins Anonymous baby drop boxes have been introduced for the first time in Russia. The Krasnodar Territory in south Russia bought five of the so-called baby drop boxes in the beginning of November so mothers could drop off unwanted children anonymously. The first three were installed in Sochi, Novorossiysk, and Armavir, and by the end of the month one child had already been left. The move was aimed at providing sanitary conditions for unwanted children, instead of 'having them left in garbage ...

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in Global Sexual Freedom Watch / Key Issues / News of Note  by Jack Diehl 0 comments

Bill Gates gives $750 million to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria

(También en español) News of Note: Gates Foundation gives $750 million to Global Fund The Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation gave $750 million Thursday to the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria to help assure that the organization can keep supplying AIDS drugs while it seeks to adjust to the economic downturn. The Global Fund, which has disbursed $15.1 billion to low-income countries over the past decade, said in November that it would not award any new grants until 2014. Nearly all of the fund’s money comes from governments in the industrialized world, many of which were unwilling to increase ...

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in Global Sexual Freedom Watch / Key Issues / News of Note  by Jack Diehl 0 comments

Afghan woman slain for giving birth to daughter

(También en Español) News of Note: Afghan woman slain for giving birth to daughter KUNDUZ, Afghanistan — An Afghan man killed his wife for giving birth to a third daughter rather than the son he'd hoped for, police said Monday. The 28-year-old victim, who was known by the one name of Storai, was strangled by her husband — a local militia member — and his mother on Saturday, authorities said. Storai had given birth to the couple's third daughter three months ago in Mohasili village in Afghanistan's northern Kunduz province. Police said they arrested the victim's mother-in-law in connection with her death, ...

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in Global Sexual Freedom Watch / Key Issues / News of Note  by Jack Diehl 0 comments

Iran confirms death sentence for ‘porn site’ web programmer

(También en Español) News of Note: Iran confirms death sentence for 'porn site' web programmer Iran's supreme court has upheld the death sentence for a web programmer who faces imminent execution after being found guilty of developing and promoting porn websites. Saeed Malekpour was picked up by plainclothes officers in October 2008 and taken to Evin prison in Tehran, where he spent a year in solitary confinement without access to lawyers and without charge. A year after his arrest, the 35-year-old appeared in a state television programme confessing to a series of crimes in connection with a porn website. On the ...

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in Global Sexual Freedom Watch / Key Issues / News of Note  by Jack Diehl 0 comments

Sweden’s “Forcible sterilization” and Creating Change

Sweden: Transgender actress mourns her "forcible sterilization" - "Many countries typically seen as progressive on LGBT rights continue to mandate the practice." “'Forcible sterilization' has been quietly practiced for decades in countries typically cast as progressive on LGBT rights: France, the Netherlands, Australia and a number of U.S. states still require it. Italy and Germany have just recently overturned similar legislation." Having just returned from Creating Change (3000 Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, and Transgender activists and allies, annually), I found this coverage of actress Aleksa Lundberg, a well-known Swedish transwoman, particularly ridiculous. Although Swedish actress Aleksa Lundberg made her complete transition in her late teens, ...

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in Global Sexual Freedom Watch / Key Issues / Transunity & Transleadership  by Kushaba Moses Mworeko 0 comments

Get a Second Life

Have you ever dreamed of flying naked high above a city? Or making love to an eight-foot-tall humanoid? If you've netflixed James Cameron's Avatar some lonely weekday night in the past few months, chances are you have. Imagine and experience a virtual reality where you are free to privately and anonymously explore your sexuality and gender, to understand all the possibilities without any judgment, limitations, or consequences. On Friday and Saturday, February 4 and 5, 2011, at The Hotel Ivy in downtown Minneapolis, VenusPlusX.org is sponsoring a 90-minute workshop and two noontime demonstrations all about the alternate universe of Second Life, ...

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in Cosmic Citizenship / Events / Key Issues / Public Information / Sex Education / Transhuman Erotic Freedom  by Alison Gardner 0 comments