Tag Archives: gay men

IN LUXEMBOURG, GAY MEN RULE!

May 11, 2015 Pol Pinoy Leave a comment

: L-R: Luxembourg’s Prime Minister, Deputy Prime Minister, and First Gentleman?

LUXEMBOURG CITY, Luxembourg (The Adobo Chronicles) – Luxembourg is a small European country with a population of just 550,000. It is a founding member of the European Union, NATO and the United Nations. The city of Luxembourg, which is the capital and largest city, is the seat of several institutions and agencies of the EU.

In June of last year, Luxembourg’s Parliament legalized same-sex marriage by a landslide vote of 56-4. The new law went into effect last January.

That is not what’s amazing about the country. Rather, it is the fact that it is now ruled by gay men. Its prime minister, Xavier Bettel, is openly gay and so is its deputy prime minister, Etienne Schneider.

Luxembourg’s gayness will even be more prominent when Bettel marries his same-sex partner, architect Gauthier Destenay, this week. The couple has been civil partners since 2010.

It hasn’t been decided how Destenay will be called.

Could it be First Gentleman? First Man? First Spouse?

Law Enforcement, LGBT

SAN FRANCISCO BANS WIRE CLOTHES HANGERS

April 26, 2015 Pol Pinoy Leave a comment

Photo credit: Bobby Calvan — Photo credit: Bobby Caina Calvan

SAN FRANCISCO, California (The Adobo Chronicles) – Last week, The Adobo Chronicles reported that the San Francisco Board of Supervisors unanimously approved a proposal to ban wild and exotic animals from circuses, parades, film and television.

Considered the most liberal and radical in the country, the SF Supes have approved uber measures like banning plastic bags in groceries and supermarkets and outlawing kids’ toys in McDonald’s Happy Meals.

On Friday, the Board unanimously approved to ban the use of wire clothes hangers in the city and county, a measure that San Francisco’s gay community has been clamoring for in the last couple of decades.

Supervisor Scott Wiener said that the “use of wire hangers is contrary to best fashion and grooming practices, what with all those ugly protruding ‘bumps’ on shirt and coat shoulders resulting from wire hanging.”

In approving the measure, the Board also noted that the ban will also help reduce the number of car thefts, considering that wire hangers are a handy tool for thieves to pick car door locks.

The Human Rights Commision, the largest LGBT advocacy group in the country, immediately praised the new law and said it hopes that other cities and counties throughout the country will consider a similar proposal.

Health & Medicine, Politics

HETEROSEXUAL MEN MUST BE CELIBATE FOR A YEAR BEFORE DONATING BLOOD, FDA RULES

December 23, 2014 Pol Pinoy Leave a comment

Washington, D.C. (The Adobo Chronicles) – Federal health officials today issued two new rulings that would eventually lift the 31-year-old ban on gay and bisexual men donating blood while eliminating what many believe has been a discriminatory policy.

The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) implemented the lifetime ban on donations from men who have sex with men in 1983, when health officials were first recognizing the risk of contracting AIDS via blood transfusions. Under the policy, blood donations are barred from any man who has had sex with another man at any time since 1977 — the start of the AIDS epidemic in the U.S.

Now, the FDA said it favors replacing the blanket ban with a new policy barring donations from men who have had man-on-man sex in the previous 12 months.

The second ruling now requires heterosexual men who wish to donate blood to be celibate for 12 months. The FDA said this new policy would, in effect, make the playing field equal between gay/bisexual men and heterosexual men.

Both lgbt activists and the medical community immediately praised the new FDA rulings.