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LGBT archivist in Northampton, MA, seeks space for collection
Mattachine Society and the Daughters of Bilitis before it. One archivist in Northampton, Massachusetts, has acquired a vast collection in his home and is looking for a space to house it. From MassLive.com: NORTHAMPTON – A newly formed foundation is hoping to bring information about the lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender worlds all the way out of the closet into a dedicated facility that will serve as a resource for the entire East Coast. The Sexual Minorities Educational Foundation Inc. already boasts one of the most extensive archives on gay life, history and art in the country, but since 1979 it has been confined to the Northampton home of Bet Power, the president of the foundation’s board of directors. With the recent establishment of the 12-member board and a pending application for nonprofit status, the foundation is hoping to take the long-awaited next step and set up shop in a new location where the archives can be readily accessible to the public. “It’s always been my intention to have it open to the public,” said Power, who has hosted a steady parade of students and scholars at his home for decades. “I wanted to organize and give it a structure.” Continue reading]]>
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After 50 years, Amnesty International sees much work to do on LGBT rights
As it passes its 50th anniversary, Amnesty International enjoys the success of being a household name. One area it has played an important role in (and, as you read the article, there are criticisms of that role) is in bringing LGBT rights into the consciousness of people fighting for human rights around the world.
From SoSoGay.com:
Amnesty International’s influence provides a lifeline for people who have been deprived of their liberty and dignity. As an organisation that fights against injustices of human rights, it is unsurprising that gay rights are also firmly on the charity’s agenda. Amnesty International’s LGBT network addresses injustice for people who are marginalised, or worse, due to their sexual orientation. It puts pressure on governments and leads campaigns in order to empower individuals and groups. Clare Bracey, LGBT Campaign Manager for Amnesty International tells So So Gay that ‘over 60 countries around the world criminalise homosexuality, and in eight of these countries the maximum penalty is death. The criminalisation of people based on their sexual orientation contravenes international and regional human rights treaties.’ Some of Amnesty International’s recent achievements include helping legalise same-sex marriage in Argentina, campaigning for Lithuania to have its first Baltic Pride, and helping Turkey keep open Black Pink, an LGBT organisation that had been threatened with closure.
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Housing a major concern for 1.5 million LGBT seniors
There has been encouraging news of late regarding housing specifically targeted for LGBT seniors, with a growing awareness of the need for it. One of my personal concerns is that we must keep in mind that a lot of us won’t be able to afford higher-end assisted living or complexes designed for LGBT people of means.
That said, a new survey reflects housing as a major concern for LGBT seniors and those on our way to being seniors.
From Senior Housing News:
As the Baby Boomer generation approaches retirement age, starting in 2011, the population of American seniors is expected to double from 37.9 million to 72.1 million. A study released by San Diego’s The Center, an organization devoted to housing and related needs of the LGBT community, says there are an estimated 1.5 million LGBT seniors currently, and that number will continue to grow. The study lists senior housing as one of the top concerns for the LGBT community as it approaches retirement age.
Members of San Diego’s LGBT Community Center have met during the last two years to discuss issues affecting LGBT seniors, including senior housing. “The guiding mission of the group was to help to facilitate the development of a long-term community vision for affordable housing and other living facilities,” the study says.
[SNIP]
In light of the survey’s findings, the Community Center’s report lists a series of recommendations in regards to senior LGBT housing, including identifying “a low-income, senior housing developer who may be willing to work in partnership with the LGBT community to develop subsidized, affordable, low-income senior housing for LGBT seniors; existing low-income, senior housing options for LGBT seniors, including existing landlords or property owners who may be willing to work inpartnership with the LGBT community to expand their affordable offerings to low-income LGBT seniors; and existing market-rate senior housing communities who may be interested in the further development of market rate housing or retirement communities for LGBT seniors.”
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New York City creates hospital training video on LGBT health issues
I reported yesterday that New York City hospitals are providing training on issues facing LGBT patients. Their training video is out, and it’s superb.]]>
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Gerry Hoose, Stonewall veteran, discusses first NY Pride march and SAGE
This came over in an email from SAGE. Gerry Hoose was one of the people there that night in 1969 at the Stonewall bar. He provides a glimpse into what it was like then for LGBT people, and what we should never forget. He was also a founding member of the Gay Liberation Front – something I remember reading about in my own gay youth in Indiana when I searched for proof I wasn’t alone.]]>
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NYC hospitals to provide training on issues faced by LGBT patients
Reflecting the growing awareness of health issues unique to the LGBT population, New York City hospitals are adopting competence training for their staff.
From Advocate.com:
The New York City Health and Hospitals Corporation, the nation’s largest urban healthcare agency serving 1.3 million patients, will adopt cultural competence training for staff members to help improve the health of LGBT people.
The launch of the mandatory employee training program will be announced Wednesday by HHC president Alan D. Aviles, deputy mayor Linda Gibbs and National LGBT Cancer Network executive director Liz Margoiles. Dozens of elected officials, community leaders, patients, and hospital staff members are expected to attend the announcement at Bellevue Hospital to include a screening of the new training video, “To Treat Me, You Have to Know Who I Am.”
The 10-minute video, produced in collaboration with the National LGBT Cancer Network, is part of a curriculum that will reach 38,000 physicians, nurses, technicians, administrators, and support services staff at new employee orientations, annual in-service programs and upcoming employee town hall meetings.
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Hudson Pride Connections Center launches LGBT senior program in Jersey City
From NJ.com: The Hudson Pride Connections Center, an advocacy group and service organization based in Jersey City, has launched a new program for gay, lesbian, bisexual, and transgendered persons who are 50 and older. The new program — Services And Advocacy for GLBT Elders (SAGE) — will provide social, recreational, educational and support services for a population that is historically underserved in Hudson County, Hudson Pride Executive Director Nancy Caamaño said. Funded by the Hudson County Division of Housing and Community Development, the program will provide local field trips and sponsor volunteering opportunities in an effort to decrease isolation and encourage civic involvement among this population, Caamaño said.
[SNIP] Caamaño explained that the SAGE affiliate, part of SAGE, a national social service and advocacy organization dedicated to LGBT senior citizens, is the first in New Jersey. Founded in 1993, Hudson Pride Connections Center is a community benefit organization that bridges gaps in services and responds to unmet needs of the LGBT community and people who are HIV positive. For more information, visit hudsonpride.org.
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MARK'S CAFE MOI: 'Senior' still a dirty word for many
I attended a workshop yesterday at the Blogworld & New Media Expo on writing for the over-50 market. One thing that was immediately clear was how averse people remain to the word ‘senior,’ and how we keep pushing its definition further and further up until being a senior these days means your aging adult children are about to pull the plug on you. A lot of people take offense at being called ‘senior’ and seem to think it’s literally the kiss of death.
I’m not one of them. IHOP and plenty of other places offer their senior discounts at 55, and damnit, I can’t wait. Give me that 20 percent off! And while you’re at it, call me Senior! Call me old! Call me anything but a ‘boomer,’ a word that now seems to be the favorite of marketers, consumers, and everyone else who likes the broadness of it. Personally I think it sounds like baby-talk for potheads. ‘Boomer.’ One of those awful cultural creations like ‘baby bump’ and ‘eighty-two years young.’ Infantilizing us all, prolonging our adolescence into our 60s – oh, wait, we’re still boomers then. Our 70s? Maybe we’re post-boomers then. Anything, please God, but the dreaded ‘senior,’ when, we imagine, we’ll be spoon fed by nurses before they prop us up in wheelchairs and park us in the hallway for the night.
Senior is an honorific. Like esquire, or doctor. We should treat it that way. We should be proud to be seniors, with our senior discounts and our senior power and, above all, our senior’s life experience. Let’s face it, if you’re thirty, I am your senior and I earned it.
When I started this site it was with the clear intention of embracing age. If you like calling yourself a boomer, go right ahead. But I am not afraid of the word ‘old,’ that once commanded reverence in a culture less youth-obsessed. To me senior means you know more than I do, your wisdom is greater, your experience something to defer to. Not blindly, but with due respect. Senior is not a dirty word. Let’s clean it up and return it to its shining essence.]]> -
Roger Ebert, Joan Rivers among best tweeters over 65
Contrary to myth, seniors are some of the earliest adopters of new technology and can be found across the social medial landscape. The Next Web has come out with its list of the best and worst tweeters over 65:
Among the best: Judy Blume (73), Roger Ebert (68) and Joan Rivers. Among the worst, for using Twitter to further their brand and being inauthentic: Barbara Walters, Larry King and Yoko Ono.
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Jewish Museum brings in-home series to homebound seniors
Believed to be the first of its kind, the Jewish Museum in New York City has collaborated with Selfhelp’s Virtual Senior Center to make it possible for homebound seniors to have a virtual museum experience. Selfhelp is providing ways for the homebound to connect to local senior centers via computers and the Internet to they can participate in live web-cammed classes.
From Broadway World:
For the country’s millions of homebound seniors, innovative collaborations like the one between Selfhelp’s Virtual Senior Center and The Jewish Museum may make staying at home a much more interesting proposition. The collaboration is believed to be the first in-home museum art series designed for homebound seniors allowing video interaction among senior participants and the museum’s educators. The June 1 program (which editors are welcome to attend by internet connection at 2:00 p.m., June 1) will focus on The Jewish Museum’s current exhibition, Collecting Matisse and Modern Masters: The Cone Sisters of Baltimore. Featured are over 50 works from The Baltimore Museum of Art’s internationally renowned Cone Collection including paintings, sculptures, and works on paper by such artists as Matisse, Picasso, Cézanne, Renoir, and van Gogh. The exhibition reveals Claribel and Etta Cone’s bold and idiosyncratic affinity for modern art which was indeed ahead of its time.
“We are thrilled to have the opportunity to collaborate with Selfhelp’s Virtual Senior Center to bring these exceptional works of art, and the inspiring story of the sisters behind the collection, to homebound seniors – a critically underserved, overlooked segment of our country,” said Nelly Silagy Benedek, Director of Education at The Jewish Museum.
[SNIP] The Virtual Senior Center has focused on providing innovative ways for homebound seniors to connect to a local senior center via computers and the Internet, so seniors can participate in live web-cammed classes. The VSC made its debut in New York about 15 months ago, as a test project developed by the City of New York, Microsoft and Selfhelp Community Services. Selfhelp, a nonprofit organization founded 75 years ago to help Holocaust survivors fleeing Nazi persecution, provides affordable housing and other services to a broad base of more than 20,000 seniors in the New York area.]]> -
Cathy's Wealth of Health: The magic of medical mushrooms
“Medical mushrooms are a true superfood.” – Cathy McNease, Herbalist
I first saw medicinal mushrooms being used in a family of Taoist healers with whom I was apprenticing in the early 1980’s. I had been asked to help the matriarch teach cooking classes, since she spoke very little English. Lily Chuang was a brilliant herbalist, but she preferred to prevent illnesses in her family rather than treat them. One of the tricks up her sleeve was regular use of SHITAKE MUSHROOMS (Lentinula edodes). She always had a jar of the dried mushrooms rehydrating in the refrigerator. Every meal included a small amount of these gems, cooked with eggs, in oatmeal, in soups and stir fries. She even made “burgers” out of the tough dry stems that she powdered in a coffee grinder and mixed with grated vegetables and eggs, and pan fried until brown. The soaking water from the rehydration process was used as a delicious addition to soups and grains.
Nowadays, SHITAKES are widely available in many forms – dried, fresh in the produce section and incorporated into capsules and tablets of medicinal mushroom blends. SHITAKES are one of the most flavorful mushrooms to use as food, while some of the others are too bitter or woody to use this way, and are better taken in capsule form. SHITAKE MUSHROOMS are very rich in a large sugar molecule called a polysaccharide, which has been found to show strong anti-tumor, anti-viral and immune enhancing effects, such as increasing macrophage and killer T-cell activity. SHITAKES have been shown to improve the health of chronic hepatitis, HIV and AIDS patients. Research also has shown their ability to lower both blood pressure and cholesterol. General dosage as food would be to eat 2-5 mushrooms daily, cooked in some form (or taken as directed in capsules). MAITAKE (Grifola frondosa), another delicious mushroom, but not as widely available, has been found to be even stronger in its action against cancer.
Two other woody textured medicinal mushrooms that are powerful healers are not eaten as foods, but taken in teas, tablets or capsules: CHAGA (Inonotus obliquus) and GANODERMA LUCIDUM (aka Reishi, Ling Zhi). CHAGA has long been used in Russia and Eastern Europe for treatment of cancers, gastritis and stomach ulcers. It has an enormously high level of anti-oxidants for reducing inflammation, fighting infections and promoting good health. CHAGA is available from Canadian suppliers in a powdered form which can be prepared as a pleasant tea (www.mitobi.com). With cancer on both sides of my family, this tea has become one of my staples.
GANODERMA MUSHROOM is used as an immune-modulator, which means that it normalizes both an overactive immune system (auto-immune conditions) and an underactive immune system (frequent or chronic infections). It is not generally used as a tea due to the bitter flavor, but is widely available in pills, capsules and tinctures (alcohol extracts). GANODERMA has been used in the Chinese pharmacopoeia for over 3,000 years. Its benefits include: anti-inflammatory, liver protective, anti-tumor, reducing altitude sickness (by improved oxygen utilization), anti-histamine, cholesterol lowering, and mental disease caused by environmental stress. With older patients, the research shows a marked benefit on the heart and lungs in conditions such as coronary artery disease, palpitations, dyspnea (difficulty breathing) and chronic bronchitis.
One of the most restorative mushrooms from the Chinese tradition is actually a combination of a fungus and a caterpillar: CORDYCEPS (Dong Chong Xia Cao=Winter Worm Summer Grass). This is a caterpillar that freezes just under the surface of the ground in winter and in spring a fungus grows out from its body. These are very expensive and are now being cultivated minus the caterpillar. This is considered in Chinese medicine to be a very powerful, deeply strengthening immune tonic, used in serious problems such as bone marrow failure, HIV-AIDS, Chronic Fatigue Syndrome and generalized weakness. They were made famous recently when a group of very successful Chinese female athletes credited their Olympic success to CORDYCEPS. They are often included in the medicinal mushroom blends that are prepared into capsules and available at your local health food stores. In traditional Chinese culture, CORDYCEPS are prepared into meat and poultry soups with other herbs like ginseng. A word to the wise…if you do this, crush up the CORDYCEPS first; otherwise, when it rehydrates into the soup, the caterpillar clearly become visible and may be staring back at you on your soup spoon.
For further information and research details, go to the following sites:
http://www.christopherhobbs.com/
http://www.drweil.com/
http://www.fungi.com/
Cathy McNease is a nationally certified herbalist with a Diplomate in Chinese Herbology from the NCCAOM, a B.S. in Biology and Psychology from Western Michigan University and two Master Herbalist certificates from Emerson College of Herbology in Canada and East-West Course of Herbology in Santa Cruz. You can view her bio here.]]> -
Illinois civil union law not just for same-sex couples
I was thrilled with the new Illinois civil union law. Not only am I among the minority who has no problem with getting a civil union instead of a marriage (neither is available in New York!), but I’d like to see civil unions available for any two people, as they now are in Illinois. It can benefit seniors, for instance, of same or opposite sex, who choose not to marry for whatever reason. Perhaps it’s an aging widow and widower who don’t want to re-marry but do want the legal protections. Or someone and their best friend who they plan to share their life with. There are any number of scenarios now available with the Illinois law I’d like to see expanded across the country. While I am a marriage equality advocate and would like nothing more than to see it pass in my home state so Frank and I could get married here, I would like just as much if not more to see civil unions for all – which, believe it or not, is even less likely than same-sex marriage to happen any time soon.
From TribLocal.com:
How often had I said “Not in my lifetime”, and yet, on June 1, 2011, Illinois will start recognizing LGBT families and other families who have previously been denied recognition via a civil union document issued by county clerks. Most who will get civil unions will be same-sex families, but there will be seniors and disabled families who couldn’t get married because of social security and pension “rules”.
The civil union law is a compromise that sets up a two-tiered system in Illinois law. Vermont was the first state to establish civil unions back in 2000. Since that lead, many states have passed civil union laws, domestic partnership laws, “everything but marriage” laws, and equal marriage laws. Other state legislatures continue to debate civil union and equal marriage laws. It’s an evolutionary process that will be resolved when the federal government decides equality is a good thing . For now, two tiers are better than total exclusion.
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Institute of Health seeks more data on LGBT patients
From the News Journal: Finding a doctor they’re comfortable with is a quest that many gay men face, said Seeley, program director of CAMPsafe, the HIV/AIDS prevention program of CAMP Rehoboth, an organization serving gays and lesbians. “It’s challenging for gay men to let doctors know that they’re gay,” he said. “But we need to disclose this.” Doctors don’t have much to go by. Comprehensive data on the particular health needs of lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender people — also referred to as the LGBT population — are scarce. So scarce, said the Institute of Medicine in a recent report, that researchers must start aggressively reaching out to the LGBT population to draw them into health studies. They say that will help doctors get a more precise snapshot of the types of health problems LGBT patients face. Continue reading]]>