Friday, March 4, 2011

[Peckers_Pics] Model Wars, PICS; Mar 5, 2011-Safe PICS For All Ages



Model Wars, PICS; Mar 5, 2011
Safe PICS For All Ages / Support Keith Olbermann who will be on "Current TV"

Updates on Keith Olbermann  @ ObamaBiden2008 (Update: Keith joined "CURRENT TV").  Check with your cable provider to see if you have "Current TV".  Current TV's website has option for you to request service from your cable provider.   Current TV's founder is Al Gore.  Charter Cable does not carry "Current TV".  Please Contact Charter now!  Keith is a man who stuck his neck out for progressives, as well as the LGBT community.

Updates on slain gay activist - David Kato of Uganda @ ObamaBiden2008

Boycott: "Chick-fil-a" as they are against gay marriage and donate to anti-gay causes.

Consider joining:

Diet & Fitness:

  • Reminder: Did you complete your Diet Journal today?
  • Did you do any physical activity?  If not, make a point of it by tomorrow! 
  • Perhaps our male fitness photos shall inspire you to get Fit!
Health - Wellness - Exercise - Reflections:  
AIDS gel shown to protect anal tissue from HIV
 
Feb 28 2011 / Reuters

LOS ANGELES - An experimental gel containing a prescription HIV drug has been shown for the first time to protect rectal tissue against the virus that causes AIDS, according to new research.

The gel, containing Gilead Sciences Inc's AIDS drug tenofovir, has previously been shown to sharply reduce HIV infections in women when applied inside the vagina.

The latest study, which involved rectal tissue biopsies taken from HIV-negative men and women who used the product daily for one week, provides the first evidence that tenofovir gel could help reduce the risk of HIV from anal sex.

The researchers, who presented the findings at a medical meeting in Boston, are reformulating the gel so that it is less harmful to the rectum than the original vaginal microbicide.

The risk of becoming infected with HIV from unprotected anal sex may be at least 20 times greater than unprotected vaginal sex, in part because the rectal lining is only one-cell thick compared to the vagina's multiple layers, making it easier for the virus to reach cells to infect, the researchers said in a statement.

Tissue samples obtained in the study were sent to a laboratory where they were exposed to HIV. The study found that the virus was significantly blocked in samples from participants who used tenofovir gel compared with samples from participants who used a placebo gel. An oral dose of tenofovir was not shown to provide protection from HIV.

Although the study found use of the gel generally safe, two participants had severe gastrointestinal side effects, including diarrhea and lower abdominal cramps.

Another study is under way using a formulation of tenofovir gel with less glycerin, an additive found in many gel-like products, in the hope that this will make it better tolerated.

A separate mid-stage study presented at the meeting compared the oral and gel forms of the drug in American and African women. It found that daily use of tenofovir gel resulted in a more than 100-times higher concentration of active drug in vaginal tissue compared with use of an oral tablet.

Compared with the gel, a daily tablet was associated with a 20-times higher active drug concentration in blood.

"How the differences between the gel and the tablet will translate in terms of protective effect, we can't say just yet," Dr. Craig Hendrix, a professor of medicine and pharmacology at Johns Hopkins School of Medicine in Baltimore and the study's leader, said in a statement.

Most American women studied in the trial favored the oral tablet. The African women favored the gel and tablet equally, although many of them said they liked the gel because it enhanced sexual pleasure, the researchers reported.
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And Now, Model Wars!

This group is called "Peckers Pics."  The English -  slang definition of "pecker" is to pluck at the truth. Therefore, we peck at items such as Gay Men's Health, Male Fitness, Gay (LGBT) Politics & Issues.  In this section you may peck at each photo in order to decide the winner of the "war of the fittest!"   Whereas, who is the model that may inspire you to exercise and "get fit?"  Warning: This may stoke you!
 
Your participation in discussion of health / news articles - appearing in this message is greatly appreciated.
 
Christian Monzon
 
VS
Justin Woltering
 
You Decide!
Play, San Fran, CA; March 2, 2011
Stoked?
Club Papi, Los Angeles, CA; Feb 25, 2011 
The Root: The Misjudged Black Vote On Gay Marriage
by David Kaufman / NPR / March 4, 2011

Tuesday's Washington Post article examining the response by African-American voters to President Barack Obama's new Defense of Marriage Act policy reveals what many in the black community already know: When it comes to the ballot box, marriage equality is mostly a nonissue. In interviews with black pastors, pollsters, churchgoers and professors, African-American voters explain that economic and social-justice platforms are of far greater concern than LGBT (lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender) issues.

Of course there are many African Americans -- particularly the religious -- for whom same-sex marriage will always be anathema. But the message is clear: Even voters who don't support marriage equality still appear willing to elect politicians who do.

"Black voters are well aware that we're dealing with complex issues that are not always a zero-sum game," says J. Cameron Carter, associate professor of theology and black church studies at Duke University. "What this article illustrates is that black voters are as sophisticated as anyone else," he adds, "and it's time the larger LGBT leadership began to recognize it."

While the Post article suggests this sophistication, its writers fail to give it the attention it deserves. Doing so would have offered not only a more nuanced analysis of DOMA's impact on black voters but also an entirely new take on their relationship with the larger LGBT movement itself.

The Misunderstood Black Vote
And the Post revisits -- yet again -- the blaming of black churchgoers for the passage of California's Proposition 8 during the 2008 election cycle. Indeed, even before that November vote, prominent white members of the LGBT community vilified religious African Americans for supposedly voting with a stridently anti-LGBT agenda. Indeed, church attendance has been called the main cause of black voters' support for Proposition 8, which banned same-sex marriage.

But the truth is actually reversed. Focused far more on job creation, health care and education than on gay marriage, black voters aren't supporting conservative candidates simply because they oppose LGBT rights. Instead, they are voting for progressive pro-LGBT candidates -- despite disagreeing with their pro-LGBT platforms.

"The truth is, we just don't see blacks voting against a candidate based on [his or her] support of gay marriage," says Patrick Egan, assistant professor of politics and public policy at New York University. "We actually don't see this becoming an important issue for voters of any race."

Nonetheless, African Americans do skew conservative when voting for explicitly anti-LGBT initiatives such as Proposition 8, Egan notes. "But once you take church attendance into account, the numbers are not all that different" for blacks and equally religious White voters. In fact, trade the word "marriage" for "civil unions/domestic partnerships," and blacks are actually slightly more favorable than the general population toward legal recognition of same-sex relationships, according to a 2009 poll by the Third Way, a centrist-progressive think tank in Washington, D.C.

As we shift into the 2012 election cycle, marriage equality is certain to play prominently on both party platforms. On a national level, President Obama's DOMA stance is already under attack by potential Republican candidates such as Sarah Palin and Mike Huckabee. On a state level, the almost certain passage of marriage equality in Maryland this month paves the way for an almost equally certain Proposition 8-styled battle to nullify it on the 2012 ballot.

White LGBT Leaders Must Make Room for Black Voices
The Maryland situation is particularly important for African Americans -- who make up 31 percent of the state's population, compared with barely seven percent in California. Four years after the "blame the blacks" debacle on the West Coast, can LGBT leaders learn from their mistakes and apply the lessons to the East Coast? Will they avoid the race-baiting that has so poisoned their progressive movement since 2008 and led to charges of racism, elitism and indifference to minority matters?

The answer remains murky. Already, white LGBT activists such as David Mixner are sending not-so-subtle signals that race will matter in Maryland. "Our national organizations must immediately line up the unshakable and unmistakable support of President Obama. Voters love him in this state especially in vote-rich Prince George's County and Baltimore," he writes in a Feb. 28 blog posting. With PGC nearly 63 percent African American, Mixner's message could not be clearer -- even if he wimps out on the clarifying.

With his history of race-baiting, patronizing tone and zero respect for African-American voter sophistication, Mixner is a dubious messenger. Yet his message cannot be discounted. Race will inevitably play a central role in any Maryland ballot drive -- with blacks the main protagonists.

As in Maine's successful 2009 marriage-equality repeal, national white LGBT leaders will undoubtedly "parachute" into Maryland to help direct the ballot battle. But this time, black voters -- and leaders -- must take central roles in defining the battle's narrative.

This was the case in the successful 2010 campaign to secure marriage equality in Washington, D.C.; pro-LGBT black voices and faces must now be front and center if a similar campaign comes to Maryland. And white LGBT leaders will have to step aside and let this happen.

"One of the reasons the D.C. campaign was so successful is that black voters -- including religious voters -- saw folks like themselves supporting marriage equality," explains Lanae Erickson, deputy director of the Culture Initiative at the Third Way. "Just as important: Many [white] LGBT leaders went out of their way to ensure that these [black] activists were heard."

Obama and the LGBT Vote
As for President Obama's re-election campaign, analysts like Erickson and Egan say that LGBT-voter support is inevitable. "Blacks and LGBTs historically vote the most Democratic of any demographic," Egan explains. But when it comes to gays and lesbians, at least, Obama has certainly earned those ballots.

With his new DOMA policy and ending of "Don't ask, don't tell," Obama has fulfilled many of his 2008 campaign promises. Yes, he still does not support full marriage equality, but there is every likelihood that he will do so during his second term. Members of the LGBT community seeking to "punish" the president for this act of realpolitik will only end up punishing themselves.

"Take a look at what's happening with women's reproductive rights, and it's very clear things could get a lot worse -- very fast," says Duke University's Carter. "Yes, Obama's LGBT record is not perfect, but it would be delusional to think nothing has happened just because every battle has not yet been won."

Still, as the experiences in both California and Washington, D.C., suggest, the most important change agents for black voters -- gay or straight, religious or secular, urban or suburban -- are black voters themselves. Stick to the sidelines, as in California in 2008, and risk being demonized by a disappointed white LGBT leadership. But claim the mantle that is rightfully yours, as in Washington, D.C., and lead the struggle for a more equitable nation for every citizen.

"The 2012 election is an opportunity for the black leadership, especially the black LGBT leadership, to stand up and take decisive roles," says Thomas Allen Harris, whose new film, Marriage Equality: Byron Rushing and the Fight for Fairness, explores the links between the African-American and LGBT civil rights movements. "If there's anything we've learned from President Obama, [it's that] politics can truly be a transformative experience."
"Every gay and lesbian person who has been lucky enough to survive the turmoil of growing up is a survivor. Survivors always have an obligation to those who will face the same challenges."
....Jake
 
Important Notice: Our ObamaBiden2008 Group works hand - in - hand with Peckers PICS. Both groups were co-created to work with each-other.  To prevent duplication of articles and questions, all members of this group MUST Join ObamaBiden2008. It is unfair for members that belong to both groups to hear members of just Peckers PICS (only) to make statements when the ObamaBiden2008 has covered such topics.  President Obama has dismissed the constitutionality of DOMA and stated he will no longer defend it this aspect of it.  However, the Republican House shall have the legal right to fight it.   A few members of this group do not read such articles that I placed in this group -and such articles were further discussed in ObamaBiden2008. Yet, such members state the opposite about our president.  Therefore, members must join ObamaBiden2008 within the next 2 days, or I shall go through our member list and remove any member that does not belong to both groups. This shall clear up communications and confusion.  If you send a letter of protest, than you are being apathetic, and shall be banned.  The LGBT cause is too important and beyond 1 person's need to just look at pictures.

The Yahoo Invite program advices me of who is not a member.  I shall start banning 50 members per day as of Sat. Mar 5, 2011. The ban shall be permanent. It takes me only 3 minutes to complete the process. Recommend you join ObamaBiden2008 now.  No you don't have to read every article! But, it covers the LGBT community and includes updates on Health insurance; LGBT boycott list; Westboro Church; and the end of DADT, etc...Also, updates with state gov't war against unions and people with disabilities.  The group is created for you!  There are gay teen suicides going on. There are Hate crimes against gay people.  There are gays who are fired over their sexuality.  There are gay people who died for our cause!  This is not asking you too much to do! 

 

 

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All members of "Peckers PICS" are requested to join our "Obama Biden 2008" group as it runs in conjunction to this group.  Both groups shall not repeat articles from one group to another.  However, to gain full knowledge of Gay rights, members must belong to the Obama group as well as this group.  Therefore, please accept your invitation to join. 

To join the Obama group please click (or copy and paste the link into your browser) @  http://groups.yahoo.com/group/ObamaBiden2008/join

Thank you!
 

"Every gay and lesbian person who has been lucky enough to survive the turmoil of growing up is a survivor. Survivors always have an obligation to those who will face the same challenges."

...Jake (Moderator)



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