WASHINGTON, D.C. – The Dept. of Health and Human Services (HHS) ruled today that “sex reassignment surgery” and other transition-related medical care should no longer be automatically excluded from coverage. “As HHS appropriately points out, excluding coverage for transition-related surgery is unreasonable as viewed by the standards of the medical profession today – incomplete, unfair, and…
Today, the Colorado Civil Rights Commission upheld administrative law judge Robert N. Spencer’s ruling that Masterpiece Bakery in suburban Denver could not turn away lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) people seeking to purchase goods. Judge Spencer ruled in December of 2013 that the bakery would face fines if they continue to discriminate against customers…
http://youtu.be/YPgoLY7KmCE On the Heels of Laverne Cox’s Time magazine cover comes What’s the T? a documentary that explores the lives of five transgender women. What Paris is Burning was to drag balls – What’s the T? is to transgender life – a documentary that explores the challenges, successes and lives of five transgender women; a…
SAN DIEGO – San Diego Opera has announced the engagement of William Mason as artistic advisor, effective immediately. Mason will work closely with the production department on repertoire and casting, and work with the administrative staff exploring economies and efficiencies while setting the Company’s budget. Additionally, he will offer guidance in fundraising and corporate governance. Mason…
LOS ANGELES — The Hollywood Museum presents an exclusive new exhibition –Reel to Real: Portrayals and Perceptions of Gays in Hollywood – an entertaining and informative retrospective of LGBT images in film and television throughout the decades. The showcase will run from June 6 to July 21, coinciding with LGBT Heritage Month and Outfest LA (July 10-20). Featuring photos, costumes, props…
The X-Men storyline called Days of Future Past appeared in issues 141 and 142 of The Uncanny X-Men in January and February, 1980. I first read it in mid-1980s when I was 12 or so and had just discovered the comic about outcast mutant superheroes. The story has haunted me ever since. It is set…
Once, it was the most natural question in the world: why? With a child’s usual curiosity, you asked it incessantly. Why are dogs black? Why’s the sun hot? Why do birds fly away? Why? You drove your mother nuts. But as you aged, answers came easier and “Why?” grew faint. You didn’t need to ask…
When I nominated six-year-old Ryland Whittington and his wonderful parents for this year’s Harvey Milk Inspirational Award, I knew the 1,000+ people attending the Sixth Annual Harvey Milk Diversity Breakfast would react in the same way as I did when first meeting the Whittington family … I cried, getting emotional over this beautiful story of…
dvd of the week Neil deGrasse Tyson’s reboot of Carl Sagan’s iconic PBS series Cosmos is the best nonfiction on television this year, updating Sagan’s science and the show’s visuals and using Tyson’s remarkable explanatory power to make astrophysics, evolutionary biology, geology and the history of science as entertaining as most network dramas. Tyson, who…
dvr this AMC, Sunday, June 1, 10 p.m. In the early 1980s, the tech boom in Texas is seen through, as we’re told by AMC, a visionary (Lee Pace from Pushing Daisies and The Hobbit), an engineer (Scott McNary from Argo) and a prodigy (a punkish McKenzie Davis). The clips that have been making the…
