Business and Technology

,

US: Researchers and iPhone launch landmark study of LGBTQ health

,

Researchers are preparing the largest national study of LGBTQ health ever. The Population Research in Identity and Disparities for Equality, or PRIDE, Study is the first study of this kind to better understand the health of LGBTQ adults in the United States. It’s a longitudinal cohort study that uses an iPhone app to connect with and track sexual & gender minority adults over time to understand factors related to health & disease in this population.  

The PRIDE Study app is based on ResearchKit, an open-source software framework developed by Apple, which helps researchers gather data more frequently and accurately from participants using mobile devices. For example, other researchers have created apps to measure dexterity and gait in Parkinson’s disease patients and blood glucose levels in diabetes patients. The PRIDE Study is the first to use this platform to study a population rather than a specific disease. Read More

For LGBT millennials, online dating apps are a blessing and a curse

In today’s app-happy world, finding love is as easy as the swipe of a finger. For a generation raised in front of LED screens, it’s only logical that technology now plays such a huge part in the adult love lives of millennials (and plenty of non-millennials as well). Conditioned to socialize online as young adults, these 18 to 34 year olds are now taking the same approach to finding partners.

Unlike their straight counterparts, LGBT millennials don’t always have the same opportunities for the traditional courtship behaviors the Times is so intent on eulogizing. Indeed, for LGBT singles in conservative families or communities, online dating may be the only safe way to meet potential suitors. Anxieties are amplified in countries where homosexuality is still illegal. Recently, creators of gay dating app Scruff created an alert for the 100 some countries where it’s dangerous to be openly LGBT. In these areas, LGBT visitors and longtime inhabitants end up using the app to find dates or sexual encounters. 

Furthermore, while some dating apps have developed something of a negative reputation for their emphasis on no strings attached sexual encounters, it’s not quite so black and white. Forced online, even those in favor of long-term relationship may change their minds after more traditional routes become inaccessible or uncomfortable. Read More

Apple launches new App Store section showcasing LGBT content to commemorate 1969 Stonewall riots

In the featured  App Store section, Apple is highlighting apps, movies, music, TV, podcasts, and books that represent the LGBT community. Selections include Milk, a 2008 drama based during the 1970s push for gay liberation, the HBO film The Normal Heart, the drama Brokeback Mountain, music from artists like Adam Lambert, Sam Smith, and Neon Trees, and various other TV shows, podcasts, books, music, movies, magazines, and apps. Read More

My name is only real enough to work at Facebook, not to use on the site

I always knew this day would come. The day that Facebook decided my name was not real enough and summarily cut me off from my friends, family and peers and left me with the stark choice between using my legal name or using a name people would know me by. With spectacular timing, it happened while I was at trans pride and on the day the Supreme Court made same sex marriage legal in the US.

This is a story that’s been told many times before. It is a story I’ve seen repeated time and time again as my friends have disappeared off the site, often never to return. This time there’s a twist: I used to work there. In fact, I’m the trans woman who initiated the custom gender feature. And the name I go by on Facebook? That’s the name that was on my work badge.  Read More 

Women, LGBT least safe on Facebook, despite 'real name' policy

Despite Facebook's insistence that its "real names" policy keeps its users safe, a new report reveals that Facebook is the least safe place for women online. And things are turning more explosive, as stories emerge that Facebook has been changing its users' names without their consent -- and the company isn't allowing them to remove their real names from their accounts. Meanwhile, a furious LGBT coalition has rallied around the safety threats posed to its communities by the policy. 

Facebook's ongoing war on pseudonyms became well-documented in 2011 when a blogger risking her life to report on crime in Honduras was suspended by the company, under its rule requiring everyone to use their real name on the social network. The Safety Net Project (at the National Network to End Domestic Violence, NNEDV) recently released a report based on results from victim service providers called A Glimpse From the Field: How Abusers Are Misusing Technology.

The report found that nearly all (99%) the responding programs reported that Facebook is the most misused social media platform by abusers. Facebook is a key place for offenders to access information about victims or harass them by direct messaging or via their friends and family. Read More

Argentina: LGBT tourism conference proves Argentina is doing it right

Argentina is once again dominating tourism within Latin America, not only because of its wide range of things to see and do throughout the entire country, but because they have cornered the market within LGBT tourism within the region. Clustered within a conservative continent, Argentina has always been many steps ahead when it comes to anything and everything related to the LGBT consumer, as well as their LGBT residents. 

The country's economic status is in current disarray, but with the incoming tourism influx from neighboring countries as well as from North America and the rest of the world, Argentina is continuing to cash in on the LGBT segment within tourism. But what they are not doing is just blindly marketing to LGBT travelers and raking in the cash, instead, they have strategically put in place, in collaboration with their Ministry of Tourism and private public relations firm, ways to attract the LGBT market while still genuinely taking into consideration every element necessary that comes with that specific travel market. Read More

UK: Business needs more LGBT role models – but allies also vitally important

LGBT role models are hugely important but imposing boardroom quotas is not the way forward. That was the overall message from a panel discussion entitled ‘Engaging across the LGBT spectrum to drive business results.’ 

The discussion, entitled ‘Engaging across the LGBT spectrum to drive business results’, was one of the first events to take place as part of the Pride in London festival – which will culminate with the annual parade through London next Saturday (27 June).

The event’s hosting at Thomson Reuters coincided with the launch of a special Pride London version of the Thomson Reuters Convene app.

Addressing an audience of approximately 60 guests, the panel offered some of their own insights into LGBTI visibility in the workplace and ways to initiate change.

Amy Stanning, a Shared Services Director at Barclays and co-chair of its LGBT network, spoke about how she felt bisexual and transgender people continued to be under-represented: ‘The challenge is to create an environment where they can be out at work.


Jan-Coos Geesink, the MD, UKI Legal Solutions at Thomson Reuters, identified as a ‘friend’ of the LGBT network, and talked about the importance of recruiting straight allies. ‘When I look around my colleagues in the workplace, it’s very easy to be a passive supporter. Most of my colleagues will nod and say they’re supportive, but what are you really doing? This is where friends come in if you want change.’ Read More via Gay Star News

,

Philippines: ‘Ang usaping manggagawa ay usaping LGBT’ – Claire

,

In Cabuyao, Laguna, the workers of Tanduay Distillers Inc. who were dismissed from their work continue to fight for their rights. But perhaps not as widely known is how this struggle also affects members of the LGBT community who also continue not to have secure employment because of a pervasive (even if illegal) practice. 

When both Claire and her partner were dismissed, their issue became part of the bigger issue on labor practices in the Philippines – particularly, the contractualization of labor in the country. As Claire said: “This is no longer just an issue of being LGBT. This is an issue of the lack of rights for LGBT & for non-LGBT people.” Read More

, ,

UK: Roses are red, condoms are blue... if you have syphilis

, ,

Three UK teens may have found a way to help couples test for STDs in the privacy of their own home. They've invented a condom called the S.T.EYE that changes color when it comes into contact with the pathogens -- green for chlamydia, yellow for herpes and blue for syphilis. The condom -- created by 14-year-old Daanyaal Ali, 13-year-old Muaz Nawaz and 14-year-old Chirag Shah from the Issac Newton Academy in London -- won top honors in the healthcare category at the TeenTech Awards.

The design is still in the conceptual stage, but the teens have already reportedly been approached by a condom manufacturer about improving their invention and possibly turning it into something headed to a drug store near you. This isn't the first we've seen of color-coded personal products. Last year, a nail polish company unveiled a product that could test for the presence of date rape drugs such as Rohypnol, Xanax and GHB in drinks.  Read More 

,

Japan’s bridal industry starts accepting LGBT couples

,

The bridal industry in Japan has started accepting lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) couples as understanding of sexual minorities increases in society.

Hotel Greges in the city of Munakata, Fukuoka Prefecture, which offers bridal services as part of its operations, has been conducting a training program for its staffers, inviting as a lecturer a transgender man who will marry this autumn.

In a survey of 70,000 people ages 20 to 59 conducted by the ad agency Dentsu in April, 1 in 13, or 7.6 percent, said they are lesbian, gay, bisexual or transgender.  Read More

, ,

UNAIDS: Using new media for the health and well-being

, ,

UNAIDS, in collaboration with the Global Forum on MSM & HIV, the USAID funded LINKAGES programme and Health Policy Project, hosted health and media experts, including representatives of private dating platforms, programme implementers, researchers, and advocates for a meeting on using new media and communication technologies to affect the health of gay men and other men who have sex with men (MSM). 

Participants consulted to develop a framework to engage the private and public sectors in using new media technologies for HIV prevention.

Geng Le, Chief Executive Director of Chinese app 'Blued,' said: “Undeniably, gay social networking applications can be a great tool. Blued, as a gay dating application with social responsibility, is keen to make our platform available for HIV interventions. We just need to learn how to work more effectively and innovatively.” 

Read More