"There is no great difference in the reality of one country or another, because it is always people you meet everywhere. They may look different or be dressed diffrerently, or may have a different education or postition. But they are all the same. They are all people to be loved."
~Mother Teresa~

All quotes for this section are taken from: "A Book of Bliss: thoughts to make you smile." Sourcebooks, INC. Naperville, Illinois. 2002.

Green tip of the week:

Shop at your local farmers market..

Planet Orange
Topic: Queer representations in the media
Time: 7:30 pm
Day: Monday
Location: LGBT Resource Center

Planet Oranger is a weekly discussion group for undergraduate LGBT identified students and their allies. This is a safe space for participants to discuss a range of topics and socialize together. The group is facilitated by Adrianne Musu Jackson-Buckner and Sean Maloney. All are welcome and encouraged to attend. For more information please contact Sean at swmalone@syr.edu.

Cafe Q
Time: 8:00 pm
Day: Thursday
Location: LGBT Resource Center

Cafe Q is the place to be on a Thursday night. Open to all people it is far beyond any coffeehouse you have ever been to. With events ranging from spoken word to open mic, and from game night to guitar hero ... everyone always has a good time at Cafe Q. For more information contact Lauren at lgbt@syr.edu.

CNY Pride Families
A photo exhibit of Central New York Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transgender people & their famlies.

Opening Reception
Wednesday, March 26
5:30 - 7:00 p.m.
304 Schine Student Center
(Community members welcome)

Time: Thursday, March 27th
Day: 3:00 pm
Location: Hall of Languages 500

In this lecture Professor Cohan from the English and Textual Studies Department will discuss camp as a queer practice in its historical contexts, focusing on Hollywood musical productions during the 1940s.

University Union is pleased to announce openings for its Board of Directors. Letters of Intent and Resumes are due March 25 at 12 p.m. to uuelections@gmail.com

If you have any questions please contact Gustavo Melendez, Director of Operations at gemelend@syr.edu

This is the 3rd annual BGW at Colgate and is filled with lots of events that is sue to peak the interest of all that attend. To find out more information about the conference feel free to contact any one of the three organizers listed below.

Joe Madres: jmadres@mail.colgate.edu or 609- 315-6060
Emily Blake: lgbtqinitiatives@mail.colgate.edu 315-228-7279
Annette Goldmacher: agoldmacher@mail.colgate.edu 516-457-6121

Where: May Memorial Unitarian Universalist Society 3800 East Genesee St, Syracuse, N.Y. (just inside the Syracuse city limits from Dewitt)
When: Friday, April 4, 2008, at 8:00 p.m.
Admission: $10

Jamie Anderson describes herself as a "confused folksinger." Known for her expressive voice, solid songwriting and engaging stage presence, this feminist and and outspoken songwriter dabbles in many musical genres, journeying from country to harmony to rocking blues. Her songs span a wide range of contemporary themes as well, dealing frankly with families, divorce, cancer, and gay and lesbian issues. But laughter is a big part of Anderson's live show, too, with her offbeat song intros and amusing stories helping to keep the performance fun. Some audiences have been treated to baton twirling and belly dancing. But when she delves into more serious issues, there's a lot of love behind her writing, illuminating her subjects with hope and optimism.

The BASSically TREBLEmakers are an ALL- INCLUSIVE musical organization. They are open to all musicians (wind and percussionist) and anyone who has interest in performing with them. If you don't have musical experience, they are also looking to enlarge their Flag Corps (where you will receive training and instructions) and their support staff.

Their mission for 2008 is to reach out to the LGBT Community and offer a great way to represent our wonderful diversity and share in the joy of comradeship within their organization.

Upstate New York is the home of many World Class marching and musical organizations and they feel that the BASSically TREBLEmakers can be one of them. They are turning to their surrounding communities to help them become an even stronger musical family.

They hope you will give them consideration and share this information with others. Join them by becoming a member of the BASSically TREBLEmakers of Rochester, New York.

To respond: E-mail: bassicallytreblemakers@yahoo.com

CHICAGO, March 12 -- New cases of syphilis in the U.S. rose 12% from 2006 to 2007, CDC officials said here.

Most of the increase -- from 9,756 cases in 2006 to 11,181 a year later -- was attributable to new infections among men, especially those who have sex with other men, according to Hillard Weinstock, M.D., of the agency's division of STD prevention

The increase marks the seventh consecutive year the overall rate has climbed, Dr. Weinstock said at the 2008 National STD Prevention Conference.

Among men, he said, the rate climbed 14%, and in 2007, men who have sex with men accounted for about 64% of all cases.

The disparity raises "a major concern for the health of gay or bisexual men," Dr. Weinstock said. He noted that syphilis is known to increase the risk of HIV and for those already HIV-positive it can markedly increase the viral load.

Dr. Weinstock also said the CDC's figures show that the rate of new cases among women rose 10%, the third consecutive year in which the numbers rose.

That increase comes after more than a decade of declining rates, and Dr. Weinstock said the CDC is not certain what's driving the increase.

Racial disparities continue, he added. For the fourth consecutive year, rates of new cases among African Americans rose, with a 22% increase from 2006 to 2007.

The CDC has recommended since 2002 that men who have sex with men get annual testing for syphilis, gonorrhea, and chlamydia.

But this conference has heard disquieting information about how well those recommendations are followed, according to John Douglas, M.D., director of the CDC's STD prevention division:

• A study of STD clinics in eight cities found that as many as one-third of gonorrhea infections among HIV- negative men who have sex with men were missed because they weren't tested at all relevant anatomical sites. They were tested at all three sites -- oral, anal, and urethral -- only about 52% of the time.
• A 15-city survey, conducted from 2003 through 2005, of men who have sex with men found that 49% reported being tested for syphilis in the previous year. Only 35% reported being tested for gonorrhea and just 32% said they had been screened for chlamydia in the previous year.
• In an eight-city study, 82% of HIV-positive men who have sex with men were tested for syphilis in the previous year, but only 22% or fewer were tested for gonorrhea or chlamydia.

The officials said the public health message needs to be intensified to reach communities at risk, but "let's be honest, resources are a challenge," Dr. Douglas said.

Earlier this week, researchers at the conference reported that one in every four girls and young women ages 14 to 19 is infected with at least one of the four most common STDs -- human papillomavirus (HPV), chlamydia, genital herpes, and trichomoniasis.

Among African Americans, the proportion was nearly 50%, compared with 20% among whites, according to data from the National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey.

The most common STDs among those tested were HPV at 18% and chlamydia at 4%, and among those infected, 15% had more than one STD.

It was late on a rainy fall day, and a college freshman named Rey was showing me the new tattoo on his arm. It commemorated his 500-mile hike through Europe the previous summer, which happened also to be, he said, the last time he was happy. We sat together for a while in his room talking, his tattoo of a piece with his spiky brown hair, oversize tribal earrings and very baggy jeans. He showed me a photo of himself and his girlfriend kissing, pointed out his small drum kit, a bass guitar that lay next to his rumpled clothes and towels and empty bottles of green tea, one full of dried flowers, and the ink self- portraits and drawings of nudes that he had tacked to the walls. Thick jasmine incense competed with his cigarette smoke. He changed the music on his laptop with the melancholy, slightly startled air of a college boy on his own for the first time.

Rey's story, though, had some unusual dimensions. The elite college he began attending last year in New York City, with its academically competitive, fresh- faced students, happened to be a women's school, Barnard. That's because when Rey first entered the freshman class, he was a woman.

Rey, who asked that neither his last name nor his given name be used to protect his and his family's privacy, grew up in Chappaqua, the affluent Westchester suburb that is home to the Clintons, and had a relatively ordinary, middle-class Jewish childhood. Rey, as he now calls himself, loved his younger brother, his parents were together and he was a good student, excelling in English and history. But he always had the distinct feeling that he wasn't the sex he was supposed to be. As a kid, he was often mistaken for a boy, which was "mostly cool," Rey said. "When I was 5, I told my parents not to correct people when strangers thought I was a boy. I was never a girl, really - I questioned my own gender, and other people also questioned my gender for me." When Rey entered puberty, he felt the loss of the "tomboy" sobriquet acutely.

"My body changed in freshman year of high school, and it made me depressed," Rey said. That year, he started to wonder whether he was really meant to become a woman. His friends in high school were almost all skater boys and musicians, and he related to them as if he were one of them. He began to define himself as "omnisexual," although he was mostly attracted to women.

The idea that he might actually want to transition from female to male began to take shape for Rey when he was 14 or 15; he can't quite remember when exactly. "A transmale speaker guy" gave a talk at a meeting of his high school's Gay Straight Alliance, and Rey was inspired. Then he took a typical step for someone going to high school in the first years of this century. He went home and typed "transgender" into Google.

At the end of his freshman year in high school, he met Melissa, a student at Smith College who was back in Westchester for summer break and later became his girlfriend. During one of their days together, Melissa, who was immersed in campus gender activism, mentioned the concept of being a "transman" and spoke of her transmale friends. Rey confided his questions about his gender identity to her, and she encouraged him to explore them further. For most of high school, Rey spent hours online reading about transgendered people and their lives. "The Internet is the best thing for trans people," he said. "Living in the suburbs, online groups were an access point." He also started reading memoirs of transgendered people. He asked Melissa to explain the gender theory she was learning in college.

In his senior year, he took on the name Rey. At 17, he finally felt ready to come out as trans to his family, who according to Rey struggled to understand his new identity. Around that time, he also visited a clinic in Manhattan, hoping to start hormone therapy. He was told that unless he wanted his parents involved in the process, he'd have to wait until he was 18. In the meantime, Rey began to apply to colleges. He wanted to go to "a hippie school," as he put it, yet he felt pressure to choose a school like Barnard that hewed to an Ivy League profile. Though he decided on Barnard, he still planned to start on testosterone as soon as he turned 18. When I asked him why he wanted to start hormone therapy so soon, he replied simply, "You live your life and you feel like a boy." Of course, living life like a boy is not what an elite women's college has historically been about.

Finally the camp you have been waiting for! Campus Pride organizes the second annual Summer Leadership Camp for LGBT and Ally college students. The five-day camp experience works to develop stronger undergraduate student leaders and safer, more LGBT-friendly colleges and universities. Participants have the opportunity to learn valuable campus organizing skills, coalition building and strategies for creating change at colleges and universities. For undergraduate LGBT & Ally student leaders at colleges and universities across the United States. If interested, please contact lgbt@syr.edu

http://w ww.campuspride.org/camp.asp

(Northampton, MA) The organizers of the first New England Transgender Pride March and Rally have announced a change in location for the rally. The march, which will step off at noon on June 7, 2008 from Lampron Park/Bridge Street School in Northampton, MA will proceed, not to Veterans Field, but to a rally in the Armory Street Lot behind Thornes Marketplace in downtown Northampton.

Veterans Field is unavailable due to re-seeding this year. The Armory Street Lot is the same location where Northampton Pride is held each May.

"We're pleased with the new rally location, as it is more central in Northampton and more easily wheelchair-accessible than Veterans Field," said Justin Adkins, a member of the Trans Pride steering committee. "We'll be providing American Sign Language (ASL) interpreting for the entire event."

The rally, which will begin at 12:30 p.m. and end at 5:00 p.m., will be headlined by Leslie Feinberg, a pioneering transgender writer whose books include Stone Butch Blues, Transgender Warriors, and Drag King Dreams; and Miss Major, a veteran of the 1969 Stonewall Rebellion and Lead Community Organizer of the Transgender, Gender Variant, and Intersex Justice Project, which advocates for the human rights of transgender prisoners. Several activists are slated to speak who will address proposed gender identity/expression anti-discrimination legislation in MA and CT, and the civil rights needs of transgender people in employment, education, housing, healthcare, and public accommodations. Featured performers will include the Boston-based drag troupe All The Kings Men and Joe Stevens of Coyote Grace.

New England Transgender Pride is currently seeking volunteer workers and sponsors for the event. Interested individuals and organizations may sign up online at www.transpride march.org, and groups that wish to march with their banners may register there, as well.

By Eric Bailey, Los Angeles Times Staff Writer
March 16, 2008

FOLSOM, CALIF. -- One punch was all it took. One punch to forever divide. One punch to kill a young man.

On a hot summer afternoon along a placid lakefront in the Sacramento suburbs, Satender Singh had come with a group of fellow Fijians to celebrate his promotion at an AT&T call center. Three married couples and Singh, a lighthearted 26-year-old, drank and hooted and danced a crazy conga line to East Indian music.

An innocent outing? Not in the eyes of the Russian family a few picnic tables away.

Andrey Vusik, 29, fresh from morning church services with his young children in tow, stared with disgust as Singh danced and hugged the other men while their wives giggled. To the Russian, Singh seemed rude and inappropriate, a gay man putting on an outrageous public display.

Angry stares led to an afternoon of traded insults. As the long day slid toward dusk, the tall Russian immigrant approached with a friend to demand an apology. Singh refused. Vusik threw a single punch.

Logo launched a new public service announcement that will air on-line and on-air as well as make available to our sister brand s across MTV Networks. The spot is a call to action against hate crrimes and features a number of artists, actors and performers, including Janet Jackson, T.R. Knight, Portia de Rossi and Andre 3000.

To see the spot go to: http://www.LOGOo nline.com

National LGBT Health Awareness Week is a very visible way for you, and organizations that you are a part of, to promote lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender health in your community and across the nation.

The theme of the 2008 National LGBT Health Awareness Week is "TAKE ACTION!" This is a call to each of us to take action to keep ourselves, our loved ones and our community safe and healthy.

The 2008 National LGBT Health Awareness Week website , http://www.lgbthealth.net, has a ricj assortment of materials to guide you through the week. Please contact the National Coalitions for LGBT Health at 202-558-6828 or coalition@lgbthealth.net for more information.

Assistant Director reporting to the Director, LGBTA Student Resource Center. Responsible for the design and implementation of educational programming including special events, such as the LGBTA lecture and film series. Advise student groups and work on collaborative efforts such as Pride and NCOD week events. Supervise production of Center newsletter and other educational materials for publicity. Oversee the Center's information technology needs and Web page, provide current information and maintain links. Be available for crisis intervention as needed maintaining strict confidentiality of patrons and work. Develop training for students, faculty, staff, and guest lecturers on issues of concerns for the LGBTA community including health, discrimination/bias, interpersonal relationships, coming out, HIV, etc. Assist with outreach to Commonwealth locations. Assist units in development of supportive and safe environments. Provide reports and evaluations on events, activities, and incidents. Assist with teaching BBH251 Straight Talks class. Manage educational programming budget and help to secure funds through grants as needed. Requires Master's degree or equivalent, plus one year of work-related experience. A background in Student Affairs/counseling and experience with LGBTA students and programming preferred. Job available beginning July 2, 2008. Electronically submit a cover letter, salary requirements and resume at www.psu.jobs or mail to The Pennsylvania State University, Employment and Compensation Division, Job #B-27176, Fifth Floor, James M. Elliott Building,University Park, PA 16802 or fax to 814-865- 3750. Penn State is committed to affirmative action, equal opportunity and the diversity of its workforce.