As of today, UK companies can no longer use the “bastard defence” against claims of sexist abuse. The bastard defence rests on the claim that you’re not being sexist if you call a female colleague a silly cunt, because you’re just as likely to call a male colleague a stupid bastard. This “we’re just as [...]
Jamaican-Ghanain poet Kwame Dawes has been reporting on HIV in his Caribbean homeland, in poetry and prose. He reads his poems on a snappy website, supported by the Pulitzer Center. Annoyingly, the site doesn’t allow for linking to specific items. I commend to you the poem Making Ends Meet, which tells of the delicate relationship [...]
I’ve been slow to congratulate Jose Luis Zapatero on his success in Spain’s elections earlier this month. Zapatero has been a fierce defender of gay rights in the face of back-door action by the opposition to roll back gay marriage. For the Spanish speakers among you, this video reveals why. Thanks to Texma for forwarding. [...]
When I was working on the manuscript of The Wisdom of Whores, I got my knickers in a twist about what to call a girl’s nether regions. In Britain, “fanny” is a nice, friendly word, but in the States fanny means arse. So I asked a couple of American friends what friendly word they used [...]
Gay role models are hard to find. But just when we’ve got a vampire slayer that might fit the bill, we’re told she doesn’t. Buffy, Vampire Slayer extraordinaire, has ended up in the buff with another slayerette. Here’s what her progenitor Joss Whedon told The New York Times. “It puts the reader in this ‘Oh [...]
Since the mid 19th century, Ireland’s biggest exports have been brains and brawn. When the Celtic Tiger began roaring in the 1990s, the brain drain was reversed: the economic boom has sucked in people from all over the world. With them have come better food, an infusion of new music, decent plumbers and HIV. Ireland’s
Many of us were hugely disappointed when the Population Council announced last week that the microbicide they’d been testing in a huge trial in South Africa didn’t work. But buried in the trial results were some other shocking and hugely disappointing facts. Here’s the real shocker in my opinion: Only one woman in 10 used [...]
A new study in the UK inidcates that doctors aren’t doing very well at diagnosing HIV. The study looks at diagnosis in primary infection, the few weeks or months when a person first becomes infected with HIV, when the virus replicates like mad and people often feel fluey. It’s an important time to catch infection, [...]
A week ago, the outgoing executive director of the US’s National Gay and Lesbian Task Force Matt Foreman made a great speech in which he called for proper equality for all Americans, regardless of who they sleep with. He also said this: “Today, right now, more than 45 percent of African-American gay and bi men [...]
As the author of a (hideously technical) guide to coding of sexual behaviour data, I was intrigued by a recent excavation of the coded sex diaries of economist John Maynard Keynes. Keynes was married but enthusiastically pursued men for sex at any opportunity. He was also the consummate data nerd, so of course he kept [...]
How does alcohol affect male sexual performance? According to a new study, males consuming alcohol in a pub went through three distinct phases: “they became hyperactive (fast walking), lost motor control (infrequent movements and frequent falls during walking), and then were sedated (lying on their back)”. Other findings: getting all boozed up led to “enhanced [...]
In How to Be Good, Nick Hornby pretends to be a woman. Here she’s talking about her lover and her husband, who she’s just asked for a divorce. “The difference between sex with David and sex with Stephen is like the difference between science and art. With Stephen, it’s all empathy and imagination and the [...]
Feeling bereft of corporate bonhomie, I went last night to someone else’s Office Party. Star of the show was US Presidential candidate Tina C who thinks it’s time for trailer trash in the White House. (Again…?) Tina (aka Chris Green, but not that Chris Green) proves once and for all that no amount of sexuality [...]
One World AIDS Day, December 1, The Guardian published a piece in which I railed against leaving men out of our HIV prevention equation. (We can’t wait for equality) This rang bells with Michelle Kermode, from the University of Melbourne in Australia. Michelle is interested in focusing more attention on men in HIV prevention; so [...]
Commenting on Bullshit Bingo, Media Whore wonders what “LGBT” stands for. MW’s opening bid: Less Go Bed Togevver. Any better offers out there? As a hint, let me reproduce this gem from a recent UNAIDS publication on Men Who Have Sex With Men”: (pdf file, 703 kb) “While we use the term ‘men who have [...]
This morning, The Guardian newspaper published a commentary (We can’t wait for equality) that I had written about the role of the sexes (or the genders, if you’re coming over all PC) in the HIV epidemic. My point was that in most of the world, HIV is a man’s disease. The original version (and the [...]
