Just as the old saying goes;  “Happiness is found in good health and a bad memory.”

But for those who need to be reminded in order to be more compassionate and helpful to those who have yet to reach that stage in life, or for those who are still struggling with coming out, there’s a great blog that is well worth the read.

From one post on The DL Dude:

Anonymity protects me from having my secret identity  revealed to my friends, family, colleagues and adversaries; however, at the same time it also forces me into an emotional solitary confinement of sorts.  Indeed I embarked upon this journey understanding that secrets bring isolation, loneliness, and anxiety; however, I did not know just how difficult it would be to remain in the shadows.   I did not know that I would have so many unanswered questions.  I did not know that I would have so many hopeless moments.  I did not know that I would struggle so much through this journey.  Life has spoiled me rotten!  I have never struggled in the way that I struggle now; how sad is it that I feel as if I am struggling in solitude.

Read more at: The DL Dude!

According to a post on: The Vital Voice -

At this meeting, Sherrill Wayland, Executive Director of SAGE Metro St. Louis, introduced the new SAGE Care Partner Program.   The Care Partner Program is designed to work with health, social service and business organizations to implement policy and procedures that reflect ‘LGBT Community Standards of Care.’

Read more here!

And when Robin Deane was asked recently about the Governor and his stance on LGBT equality, according to a post on Richmond Times-Dispatch she stated:

“What do I make of what he is doing?  I think he’s caught in the politics. I believe there’s hope there. He’s not a stupid man.”

Read more here!

Yes, I can put up shelves correctly if the need arises, and they will be straight and level, if I have one of those bubble things! I can clean, cook, sew, do laundry, plant flowers, dig vegetables, wire a plug, bake a cake and make guacamole. I can do all these because I’ve taught myself to to do them, I’ve had to. However, real technical or mechanical issues and things, well they kinda passed me by. It is not, you might say, my area of expertise, my field of knowledge, my bag of spanners.

I’m not good at fixing things, I’ve tried, oh do believe me when I say, I’ve had a go at most things! Jason is, well, I am as they say in those kind of circles – NFG! I heard a joke the other day about what’s in a gay mans tool box (seriously an actual tool box, not a euphemism !). and that was a can of WD40 and a roll of duct tape. If it moves and it’s not supposed to – use duct tape. If it doesn’t move and it is supposed to, then use WD40. And that’s that! Simple. I pretty much live by that philosophy ! Oh alright, yes I do have a screwdriver and a hammer as well, but you get my point. But it did take me a few tries to learn you can’t really hammer in a screw!

I think perhaps my lack of ability in the fixing things, making things work is what drove my brother to look sympathetically upon me the other day when I was struggling to fix something that had gone amiss on the bike.

He took over, fixed it in a fraction of the time it would have taken me even to figure out what was really wrong. He’s manual and I’m not. He can do things like that and I, well I just can’t, as I say my mind doesn’t work that way. Sure I can make a blog, edit HTML and CCS and stuff but manual labour, I just well don’t.

It has also given birth to a new nickname that my brother has started to call me, this incident with the bike and a few other things, like my appalling memory, my inability to get the right word and my habit of dropping things has all lead him to slap the name of Calamity Jay on me! It’s my new nickname, new Monika, new handle! I could have been offended, hurt and saddened by such a title. But, looking into it, thinking about it, it’s pretty much true, I am a bit of a calamity. I try not to be, but I can’t help it, I am, so now just call me Calamity Jay!

Jason’s blog The Seafront Diaries includes tales of this that and pretty much anything!  But of course,  there is no DIY, fixing or technical things to confuddle this little English guy!

Don’t forget,  you’ve still got time to enter his little competition,  show some love and possible get yaself £100!    Become a Seafront Fan.

From March 1-5, 16% of the week’s links in the blogosphere were about gay rights issues in the news, according to the New Media Index from the Pew Research Center’s Project for Excellence in Journalism. This is the second time in a month when the topic has been among the most discussed subjects. During the first week of February, gay issues including the military’s policy of “don’t ask, don’t tell” were a major subject of discussion. It is also the sixth time the subject finished in the top five since PEJ began its New Media Index in January 2009.

More here!

This week, the New York Civil Liberties Union gives us another reason why we should all be concerned with the “protect children” crowd’s dangerously willful oversight.

Read more at: Good As You!

This study http://userwww.service.emory.edu/~hmialon/Tolerance_and_HIV.pdf, by Assistant Professors of Economics Andres Francis and Hugo Mialon of Emory, has not yet been published in a peer-reviewed academic publication, but because of the potential impact of their findings on policy decisions related to current discussions about same sex unions, Emory University has decided to promote the findings in a press release http://www.emory.edu/home/news/releases/2009/06/study-links-gay-marriage-bans-to-rise-in-hiv-rate.html.

The findings suggest:

1. Where tolerance of gays is higher, HIV rates are lower
2. Where tolerance is low, there is a higher rate of men having sex with men in underground “cruisy” areas, such as parks, beaches, restrooms and other public areas
3. Levels of tolerance did not effect more formal gay establishments like gay bars, bookstores, gay restaurants and GLBT churches
4. Higher levels of tolerance are positively associated with men reporting having had male partner in the last year.

In the press release, Mialon and Francis were quoted:

“We found the effects of tolerance for gays on HIV to be statistically significant and robust – they hold up under a range of empirical models,” says Hugo Mialon, an assistant professor of economics.

“Laws on gay marriage are in flux and under debate,” added Andrew Francis, also an assistant professor of economics, citing the recent decision by the California Supreme Court to uphold a ban on same-sex marriage. “It’s a hot issue, and we are hoping that policymakers will take our findings into account.”

Francis and Mialon theorize that the explanations for this correlation may be that higher tolerance induces more low risk gay men to come out, and that tolerance may cause gay men to shift away from anonymous encounters with high-risk individuals in secret venues to less risky sexual behaviors.

Detractors are suggesting this research is nothing more than propaganda and snake oil used to encourage the “disease rich act of sodomy.”

Loren A. Olson MD DLFAPA

www.MagneticFire.com

The wide range of concerns vary from same-sex marriage to hate crimes to more financing to combat AIDS to a possible gay person for the Supreme Court to succeed the retiring Justice David Souter.

Read the rest of this post at UPI!

Get the answer to this and more at Ask Gay Dr. Bill!

Read the rest at GayTwogether!!