In 29+ states, your friends can be evicted just for being gay.

It might not make the news very often, but housing discrimination against gay people is a huge problem in the US: In 29 states, there are absolutely no laws protecting your gay friends from being evicted or denied access to housing just because of who they are. A whopping 35 states don’t protect your trans friends either.

Worse still, imagine getting kicked out of an apartment where you’ve lived for years because the landlord finally realized you and your boo weren’t “roommates.” Married to your sweetheart? Still not in the clear. Even though it’s been illegal to practice housing discrimination on the basis of marital status since the federal government passed the Fair Housing Act in 1968, you have no basis to fight the injustice because that same federal government won’t recognize your marriage.

That’s exactly what happened to one North Dakota couple, whose story is unfortunately far from unique:

Gina Powers has her own example of why North Dakota needs anti-discrimination protection for gays and lesbians. She and her partner, Steph Rindy, were booted from their West Fargo apartment once their landlord discovered Steph wasn’t a man.

It was just before Christmas, about seven years ago, Powers said.

“He literally came to our door, knocked on it, and said, ‘Yeah, you guys are out of here,’” Powers said. “I contacted my attorney, who assured me we had, really, no rights because we were being told to leave with no reason other than our orientation.”

(via The Bismarck Tribune)

This landlord was acting legally. The law says he can kick Gina and Steph out for absolutely no reason except their orientation. Despite admitting his discrimination outright, he’s within the bounds of the law.

There are few human needs more basic than the need to have a safe, warm roof over one’s head. The UN even includes housing as part of its Universal Declaration of Human Rights. Right now, 29+ states aren’t treating your gay friends as fully human.

Take Action: “Like” and share this article. Raise awareness about the widespread housing discrimination your gay friends face. If enough of us make noise about this, we can make real change happen faster.

For more information on the real-world effects of housing discrimination against LGBT Americans, the Center for American Progress has wonderful resources on “Gay and Transgender Discrimination Outside the Workplace.”

UK Softens Restrictions on Gay Men Donating Blood

Did you know that in the US there’s still a total ban on gay men donating blood? Well, men who have slept with another man since 1977… which adds bisexual men to the no-go list, but I suppose frees up those celibate since the death of disco.

In any case, the United Kingdom is taking a step in the right direction on their blood donation ban. Donations will be permitted from men who have not had sex with another man in the past 12 months. A year waiting period still places gay men in the same category as “people who have slept with prostitutes” and, confusingly, “women who have slept with a man who has had sex with another man.”

You're invited to give blood, gay friend! Well, in a year or so.

A lifetime ban on blood donation by men who had had sex with another man was put in place in the UK in the 1980s as a response to the spread of Aids and HIV.

But following a review by the Advisory Committee on the Safety of Blood, Tissues and Organs (Sabto), men who have not had homosexual sex within a year will be able to donate if they meet certain other criteria.

… The announcement was welcomed by human rights campaigner Peter Tatchell, but he said it fell short of lifting the ban on gay men who always use condoms. He said: “Although the new policy is a big improvement on the existing discriminatory rules, a 12-month ban is still excessive and unjustified.”

(via Google)

The original bans on gay men donating blood were an understandable if over-reaching response to the terrifying and confusing onset of the AIDS epidemic. Now we know so much more about transmission and prevention: there’s no reason gay men who practice safe sex are any more at risk than straight folks doing the same. In fact, straight folks who don’t practice safe sex can still donate without a waiting period. The final nail in the “this is totally just discrimination” coffin? All blood is tested before heading to hospitals for use. It makes sense to be double cautious about the safety of the blood supply, but current policy just doesn’t make sense.

Take Action: “Like” and share this article to raise awareness about the existing US policy that bans gay men donating blood, and to applaud the UK’s step in the right direction on the issue.

Gay Health glossed over by Med Schools

Your first reaction here may be that good health care is good health care, but suspend disbelief and read a little further: gay health issues are in many ways unique. Your friends are at risk if doctors aren’t being properly trained to deal with the particular issues affecting the gay community.

The obvious element of gay health that probably springs to mind is HIV prevention for the male community which, although in much better shape than it was during the initial AIDS scare of the 80′s, is still a major problem. Especially in queer communities of color. There are countless other ways in which being gay means you need different care, many of them mental-health related. And the folks running the med schools know it:

More than a quarter of the medical school deans said their school’s coverage of 16 related topics was “poor” or “very poor.” The topics included sex change surgery, mental healthissues and HIV-AIDS.

While nearly all medical schools taught students to ask patients if they “have sex with men, women or both” while obtaining a sexual history, the overall curriculum lacked deeper instruction to help “students carry that conversation as far as it needs to go,” said lead author Dr. Juno Obedin-Maliver of the University of California, San Francisco.

Without such education, doctors are left guessing and can make faulty assumptions, Obedin-Maliver said. For instance, lesbians need Pap tests, which screens for the sexually spread virus that causes most cervical cancer, as often as heterosexual women do. But some doctors assume they don’t need them.

On average, the schools devoted five hours in the entire curriculum to teaching content related to lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender patients, according to the survey results appearing in Wednesday’s Journal of the American Medical Association. A third of the schools had none during the years students work with patients.

(via The New York Times)

The high response rate of the study and the deans’ willingness to admit that gay health issues are being handled poorly are good signs. They indicate change may be on the way. But in the mean time, the onus still lies on your gay friends to make sure they’re getting the care they need, since chances are their doctors aren’t properly trained to provide it.

Take Action: ”Like” this article to support medical schools’ honesty in admitting this training gap, and to encourage them to make gay health a priority for doctors in the future.