https://www.latestly.com/world/winston-churchills-policies-to-be-blamed-for-death-of-3-million-indians-in-1943-bengal-famine-study-726601.html

New Delhi, March 30: A fresh study conducted by a lead researcher at the IIT-Gandhinagar has pinned the blame on former late UK prime minister Winston Churchill for the death of nearly 3 million Indians in the 1943 Bengal famine. The tragedy, found the research, was exacerbated by the policy measures enacted by the then colonial regime on Churchill's directions.

Vimal Mishra, an associate professor at IIT-Gandhinagar, headed the study which analysed weather data to gauge the amount of soil moisture between 1870 to 1943 -- the period in which India faced six major famines. Amal Hussain, Malnourished Yemen Girl Whose Famous Photo Turned World’s Eyes to Famine, Is Dead.

Mishra said the need for his study stemmed from the fact that India has faced no major famine after independence. To ascertain the proposition that the lack of irrigation facilities were reason behind the severe droughts, a study was undertaken by him.

During the course of the research, it was found that policy measures enacted to combat drought play a major role in determining the number of fatalities.

https://www.advocate.com/business/2019/3/27/grindr-will-be-auctioned-due-national-security-concerns

A Chinese company that owns Grindr is being forced to sell the popular dating app following pressure from the U.S. government due to security risks.

Grindr, the world's largest app for queer people, will now be auctioned off, according to Reuters. Investment firm Cowen has already started shopping for buyers at Grindr executives’ request.

Sources say that the Committee on Foreign Investment grew agitated at Chinese ownership in part because the international sale skirted the committee’s review. Gaming company Beijing Kunlun bought a majority stake in Grindr, which operates out of West Hollywood, in 2016, and then acquired the entire company in 2017.

However, the federal agency immediately raised national security concerns about the financial situation. Now the committee is sounding the alarm over Chinese ownership of applications that track information on U.S. citizens through a forced sale.

https://www.out.com/health/2019/3/27/gilead-made-3-billion-truvada-2018-and-its-raising-price?utm_source=facebook&utm_medium=social&utm_campaign=health

Many people know Truvada as the sky blue, 500mg tablet that people take daily to prevent HIV. But it’s something else all together: a cash cow for Gilead, the drug company that distributes the pill.

According to a new report in the Washington Post, Gilead Sciences earned $3 billion in sales from Truvada in 2018.

That’s an awful lot of profit, but here’s the catch: Gilead didn’t actually put up the money to prove Truvada could prevent HIV infection. You did. The research that went into making the drug, the Post reports, was done by Thomas Folks at a federally-funded U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention lab. Using $50 million in federal grants, Folks proved that Truvada could prevent HIV infection in people who were exposed to HIV.

The U.S. government owns the patent for Truvada as pre-exposure prophylaxis. The patent was filed in 2007 and approved in 2015. Truvada itself has been used as a drug to fight HIV since 2004 and was approved by the Food and Drug Administration as PrEP in 2012. Despite owning the patent, the U.S. government gets no share of the profits, which it could use to find ways to get PrEP to the people who paid for its development.

https://www.advocate.com/transgender/2019/3/23/hospital-canceled-hysterectomy-trans-man-minutes-surgery

A transgender man is suing a Catholic hospital in Northern California that canceled his hysterectomy minutes before the surgery was to begin.

Oliver Knight was scheduled to undergo the procedure in August 2017 at St. Joseph Hospital in Eureka. Knight, then 27, had experienced misgendering at the hospital and had been told to wear a pink gown rather than a blue one (which he preferred) because he was having “female” surgery, according to his lawsuit, which is being handled by the American Civil Liberties Union and was filed Thursday in Humboldt County Superior Court. But it is the only hospital in the area, and he hoped to receive his gender-confirmation surgery there.

After Knight went through three hours of pre-operative procedures, his doctor, Deepak Stokes, informed him that the hospital had canceled the surgery and would not reschedule it. Knight asked Stokes if it was canceled because he is transgender, and Stokes said yes. The Roman Catholic Church opposes “direct sterilization,” but the hospital routinely allows Stokes and other doctors to perform hysterectomies on cisgender women for a variety of conditions, the suit says. Hospital officials objected, however, to the surgery as a treatment for gender dysphoria.

Knight’s medical records show that the decision to cancel his surgery “was initiated by an ‘Ethics Assessment’ completed by David Groe … a reverend, with no medical training or medical licensure,” according to the suit, which goes on to say the cancellation of the surgery was in accordance with Catholic beliefs about gender.

https://www.advocate.com/politics/2019/3/22/middle-finger-gays-alabama-pushes-bill-end-marriage-licenses

Even though major homophobe Roy Moore is off the state Supreme Court, same-sex marriage remains controversial in Alabama, to the point that lawmakers are trying to eliminate marriage licenses altogether.

Under a bill approved 26-0 by the Alabama Senate Thursday, couples who want to marry would obtain and fill out a form at their county courthouse, but it would not be called a marriage license, the Associated Press reports. Probate judges, the county officials who have traditionally granted licenses, would simply record the form rather than issue a license.

The bill, which now goes to the state’s House of Representatives, is an accommodation to conservative probate judges, some of whom have ceased issuing marriage licenses to any couples in order to avoid approving them for same-sex couples.

Republican Sen. Greg Albritton, the measure’s chief sponsor, has put it forth in several sessions since the U.S. Supreme Court’s 2015 marriage equality ruling. The Senate has passed it previously, but it has always died in the House. Albritton expressed optimism that the House will pass it this year. He said it will get the state out of people’s private lives and assure that same-sex couples won’t face discrimination. Some House members have wondered if the elimination of marriage licenses would create problems for couples applying for federal benefits, but Albritton has said it would not.
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Democrats voted for this bill as well?

https://www.lgbtqnation.com/2019/03/trump-smirks-brazils-far-right-president-says-united-lgbtq-people/?utm_source=LGBTQ+Nation+Subscribers&utm_campaign=b75a1b4ebe-EMAIL_CAMPAIGN_2019_03_22_04_58&utm_medium=email&utm_term=0_c4eab596bd-b75a1b4ebe-429855713

President Jair Bolsonaro said that the U.S. and Brazil are united in their efforts to undermine and erase LGBTQ people while Donald Trump stood beside him.

Bolsonaro and Trump delivered joint statements at the White House yesterday to kick off the Brazilian president’s visit to the U.S.

At the end of his statement, Bolsonaro said, “In conclusion, may I say that Brazil and the United States stand side by side in their efforts to ensure liberties and respect to the traditional family lifestyles and respect to God, our creator, against the gender ideology and the politically correct attitudes and against fake news.”

“May I voice my admiration and recognition to president Donald Trump on this beautiful day where we seal the promising alliance between the two most promising and largest democracies in the Western hemisphere,” he added.

https://www.lgbtqnation.com/2019/03/houston-drag-queen-story-time-organizers-quit-death-threats-loving-christians/?utm_source=LGBTQ+Nation+Subscribers&utm_campaign=b75a1b4ebe-EMAIL_CAMPAIGN_2019_03_22_04_58&utm_medium=email&utm_term=0_c4eab596bd-b75a1b4ebe-429855713

The organizers of Houston’s Drag Queen Story Time project are calling it quits after intimidation and death threats by conservative Christians and nonstop harassment by a religious right leader. Earlier this year, an armed man burst into a Houston library and was arrested after he refused to leave.

Directors Trent Lira and Devin Will wrote a piece for Houstonian that describes the hell they’ve been going through since a local news report spotlighted the children’s reading initiative and why they’ve decided to “step aside.”

“The segment coincided with a City Council meeting at which at-large member Michael Kubosh condemned our program,” the two wrote. “We got our first protesters that same month, July 2018. Texans Against Transgender Tyranny, they were called.”

“They were peaceful and civil. No one inside the Freed-Montrose Library knew there were protesters outside until a patron came in and told us. It continued like this through August and September. It disturbed us, but what could we say? They were standing outside and politely informing the public that there were drag queens in there reading to children. It was their right. It was not a threat.”

https://www.lgbtqnation.com/2019/03/roseanne-barr-says-cant-forgive-sara-gilbert-destroying-life-racist-tweet/?utm_source=LGBTQ+Nation+Subscribers&utm_campaign=b75a1b4ebe-EMAIL_CAMPAIGN_2019_03_22_04_58&utm_medium=email&utm_term=0_c4eab596bd-b75a1b4ebe-429855713

In a long and winding profile in the Washington Post, Roseanne Barr reflected on the fallout over her racist tweet about former White House advisor Valerie Jarrett – and the grudges she holds over it.

But one person in particular stands out – out actor Sara Gilbert can’t be forgiven according to Barr.

Shortly before ABC axed the reboot of Barr’s iconic sitcom, Roseanne, Gilbert joined the chorus of Americans condemning the comedienne for the tweet, saying it was “abhorrent and do not reflect the beliefs of our cast and crew or anyone associated with our show.”

“She destroyed the show and my life with that tweet,” Barr says. “She will never get enough until she consumes my liver with a fine Chianti.”

https://www.queerty.com/dame-edna-doubles-anti-transgender-comments-20190318

Barry Humphries–better known as his drag alter ego Dame Edna–has refused to apologize for comments he made about transgender people, even after a public backlash.

Humphries, who began performing as Dame Edna in the 1950s, claims comments he made in 2016 deriding transgender women were misinterpreted, though he did not offer further clarification. “Nothing has been more grotesquely interpreted,” Humphries told The Sunday Times Magazine. “Edna carefully said she thought that men who had themselves castrated did not become women, and that got taken the wrong way.”



The defense came in regards to a 2016 interview in which Humphries–in his Dame Edna persona–agreed with Australian writer Germane Greer that transgender women are merely castrated men. “I agree with Germaine,” Humphries said at the time. “You’re a mutilated man, that’s all. Self-mutilation, what’s all this carry on? Caitlyn Jenner—what a publicity-seeking ratbag.”

In a 2018 interview, he described transgenderism as “a fashion,” further elaborating “how many different kinds of lavatory can you have? And it’s pretty evil when it’s preached to children by crazy teachers.” He also commended Donald Trump for “stirring up politics.”

https://taskandpurpose.com/military-white-nationlist-groups-charlottesville

Seven U.S. service members have reportedly been identified as members of Identity Evropa, a white nationalist group founded by a Marine veteran and tied to the 2017 Charlottesville rally, according to leaked online chat logs examined by HuffPost.

The logs — which originated from the group chat app Discord and were leaked by the media collective Unicorn Riot —contain messages that, per HuffPost, "indicate that they hold deeply racist and anti-Semitic views and participate in Identity Evropa propaganda campaigns, posting stickers and flyers in cities and on college campuses."

The service members identified by HuffPost include a soldier, two Marines, an airman, a member of the Texas National Guard, and two Army ROTC cadets; each branch of the U.S. armed forces confirmed their respective service.

Identity Evropa, founded by Marine corps veteran Nathan Damigo, was one of several white nationalist groups involved in the violent clashes at the the 2007 'Unite The Right' rally protesting the removal of a statue of Confederate general Robert E. Lee in Charlottesville in 2017.