@gayletter pick for Sunday: "Are Queers Ageist?" with @scotteeisfat and @murray_hill at @bgsqd.

A photo posted by DAX MGMT (@dax_mgmt) on Sep 21, 2016 at 7:23pm PDT

The greatest gift of the season

First of all, I'm a few days late wishing you a happy 2016, everyone! But with over 360 days to go in the year, it still feels right to offer you joyous felicitations for the weeks and months ahead anyway. 

Despite my better intentions, I haven't written to this list since October. I thought at the time that I would be sending updates every so often about my progress through treatment for my Hodgkin's Lymphoma relapse that was detected by my doctors earlier in the fall. But here we are, several months later, and this is the one and only update on that subject that you'll be getting from me.

It's the only report you'll get ― I'm thrilled to say ― because I've made it through my treatment much more quickly than expected. Just about two weeks ago, my oncologist told me that I am officially in remission and that he does not see a need for me to continue with chemo or radiation therapy. In the spirit of spreading good tidings of great joy, as one does during the holidays, it feels quite apropos to share this news with you. This reprieve is after all the greatest gift I could have hoped for this season.

However, in the vernacular of cancer treatment remission is not equivalent to cure. As good as this news sounds at first, it comes with a caveat. From the moment the relapse had been detected, my doctors were completely confident that they would get me back into remission fairly quickly. As predicted, it took just about three months. The unexpected part is that this is where we will stop. We're ending this episode in my lymphoma chronicles ahead of schedule.

Beyond remission, the doctors' treatment plan for me included an additional three month process in the form of a full bone marrow transplant. This is how we would have gotten from remission to cure. Bone marrow transplants are done with very high dose chemotherapy, and sometimes with whole body radiotherapy. In the three months of treatment I had during the fall, I had both of these procedures already, just at lower doses. The higher dose therapies would have required me to be hospitalized to provide a highly controlled sterile environment so that they could completely kill off my lymph tissues (where the Hodgkin's cells "lived"). The doses would be high enough to also kill off my bone marrow where all the body's red blood cells are created.

In effect, by killing off all these cells at once, they would have annihilated the entire environment where any remaining Hodgkin's cells could possibly be hiding. It's a scorched earth strategy, and thus so effective I could be declared cancer-free with nearly 100% certainty.

The clincher here is that I did not, and shall not be going through this more rigorous round of therapy ― even though this leaves open the possibility that there may still be Hodgkin's cells left in my body. In remission, I may still have cancer, but just so little of it that it's "undetectable." I am going to be healthy and unaffected by cancer for many years to come. But we are much less certain (statistically speaking) whether I might have another relapse one day down the road.

Now, I have not taken the time to explain all this to you just to dwell on a negative hypothetical. I'm not living in fear of another relapse, nor do I want you to. I just wanted you to have a more clear understanding of my reality. I am deeply at peace with the facts I just spelled out. I'm still celebrating my good news to the fullest. And just as I said at the beginning of this update, I'm writing to spread this joyous celebration just a little further and farther afield into the year anyway.

 So please join me in taking a breath of relief and let's share in the gift of this moment. Enjoy! And may you carry with you the same gratitude I feel in my heart, for at least some moment every day of this coming year.


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Pay less attention to Michele Shocked and more attention to Kate Bornstein

From tylercoates:

Help Kate Bornstein Stay Alive

Kate Bornstein has cancer. The good news, direct from the team of skilled doctors on her case, is that the cancer is curable. However, the treatment plan that gives Kate the best chance of beating cancer is incredibly expensive. Kate has spent the past thirty years helping the rest of us Stay Alive—now it’s our turn to give back. Let’s HELP KATE BORNSTEIN BEAT CANCER AND STAY ALIVE!

Kate Bornstein is a major trans activist and author and here’s a fund to help with medical costs. It’s like Kickstarter, except an actual life depends on it. I know it’s more fashionable to write blog posts about some lesser-known folk singer ranting about gay people, but wouldn’t it be nice if we could share this instead and help someone who has done nothing but positive things? Think about who you’d rather pay attention to. 

Dixon Place Presents: A "Pre-Tax" Benefit for ACT UP

Please come this Sunday. ACT UP New York needs your support. Donations will be tax-deductible. Cash, checks or charge cards accepted. More info at: actupny.com

ACT UP & OCCUPY!
TAX WALL ST.!
END AIDS!

Tax Wall Street! END AIDS!

Speaking of the Occupy Wall St. phenomenon — allow me to draw your attention to something on the topic, something of global proportion and universal importance: the right of all individuals — of the 99%, not just the 1% — to lifesaving healthcare, especially in the case of preventable illness, including AIDS!

The AIDS Crisis isn't over. 
Don't know what you've heard, but it's not.
It isn't over — but it could be!

And so — the infamous and influential AIDS activist group ACT UP has called for a massive demonstration and march on Wall Street on Thursday, April 25. It is ACT UP New York's 25th Anniversary this month, and on this anniversary they are pulling out all the stops. They are joining forces with OWS to form a united front in calling for universal healthcare, and the END OF AIDS!

This is the Call-to-Action, as articulated thus far:

ACT UP & Occupy!
Tax Wall Street!
END AIDS!

For now, to stay abreast of developments, I recommend checking actupny.com for the latest. You can also follow @actupny on Twitter.

And needless to say, stay tuned right here for more as well! I am committed to see this call to action ECHO across the U.S. The action will be in New York but the need is global. America needs to lead, and the time is now. AIDS is now. END AIDS NOW!

ACT UP!
Fight back!

#OccupyAIDS! 

Re: #OccupyNightlife

Producer, promoter, and denizen of downtown NYC nightlife Earl Dax has just announced an upcoming event at the Parkside Lounge that he's calling #OccupyNightlife. The event announcement claims the following:

"Nightlife and club culture is arguably superfluous when contrasted with issues at the heart of the Occupy movement(s) and the thousands of protestors who have put their lives and bodies on the line.

That said, the majority of promoters, DJs, bartenders, door staff, gogo dancers, and performers are themselves part of the 99% economically. Moreover, not only are nightlife workers are just likely to suffer from the austerity measures and social spending cuts proposed by political and banking interests, but conservative forces historically have worked to place significant limitation on various aspects of nightlife as threats to civic quality of life and moral order. Furthermore, in the growing Occupy movements domestically and internationally, those involved in the cultural production of nightlife have many skills and resources that can aid these movements… extensive email lists; wide social networks; creative approaches to messaging; experience with event production, etc.

Join us in the back room of the Parkside Lounge for this preliminary forum highlighting the ways in which denizens of the night are already involved with Occupy movements and ways in which others can engage with these movements."

I have submitted to Earl a number of questions and comments about how messed-up these assumptions are and have asked him to explain how anyone can take such an event seriously when there are so many inherent conflicts of interest. My letter to Earl:

Earl, do you not see the implicit conflict in holding an "awareness building" event for the so-called Occupy movement within a bar/nightlife venue? Will any products from Anheuser-Busch InBev (NYSE:BUD), Molson Coors (TAP), Coca Cola (KO), Pepsi Co (PEP), or other multinational beverage giants be served, for profit, at this event? Who will profit and how will those profits be used?

What about the utterly non-democratic way in which nightlife social structures directly emulate the classic capitalist models for stratification of wealth. Cover-charges, drink minimums, VIP access, etc. Let's also not forget the blatant, egregious discrimination against people with disabilities, physical trauma and dis-figuration, and non-normative body types that is so commonplace in both gay and straight nightlife venues.

Will you be processing how small businesses like bars and clubs constitute quasi-public spaces subject to various laws and regulations, but which are also ultimately privately controlled? And how will you be processing these things? Is there an organizational and/or procedural model you will follow wherein everyone will have a voice and will be heard? What about age restrictions... will they be lifted? Or is the event only for people 21+?

By co-opting the nomenclature of the "Occupy" movement for a nightlife event in a nightlife venue, you immediately open the door to such kinds of questions, which you haven't yet addressed in your initial announcement of the event. HOW is it justifiable to do so, in the face of so many inherent conflicts of interest? WHY ISN'T this just an opportunistic marketing ploy to put money into the registers at Parkside?

Sorry if I am coming off as a skeptical arrogant prick. I guess I do support the notion that a critical political and social lens ought to be applied to the nightlife phenomenon both locally and on the largest scales. But for that to happen, I think you should be promoting your event as something DISTINCTLY different from just another downtown nightclub event. Perhaps that's what you have in mind. But it just isn't clear how it will be different, and how you can justify calling it an "Occupy" event when on the surface it just looks like it doesn't amount to much more than a blatant pastiche of anarchist, anti-capitalist trendiness."

I sincerely look forward to his response.

Hold Your Noses and Celebrate Anyway

by David Corn, Mother Jones

Democrats have been trying to pass a universal healthcare plan for nearly a century. But Woodrow Wilson dropped the ball on the first attempt, FDR gave up on the second, Harry Truman ran smack into the AMA on the third, Richard Nixon collided with Teddy Kennedy on the fourth, and Bill Clinton fell to Harry and Louise (and Bob and Newt) on the fifth.

Mark Fiore "Reform Madness"

Now we're on our sixth try, and the fight so far hasn't been a pretty one. The Republican side has been dominated by howling over death panels and socialism, transparently fake attempts at bipartisanship, and promises to filibuster and obstruct endlessly. On the Democratic side, activists have turned abortion funding and the public option into hills to die for, Olympia Snowe and Ben Nelson have become de factor kingmakers, and even at best none of the bills on offer will cover more than about two-thirds of the uninsured.

But you know what? This is still the farthest we've ever gotten, and with Democrats coming out of this week's series of negotiating sessions seemingly united behind a compromise plan, it looks like Harry Reid might actually get something passed through the Senate before Christmas. If that happens, a conference committee will likely report out a final bill sometime in January. And that will be the first time ever that Congress has even gotten to the point of voting on national healthcare.

The first time. So yes: It's not single-payer. The subsidies are inadequate. The public option, if there is one, will be so weak as to be a joke. Every interest group from insurers to doctors to seniors to pharmaceutical companies has been openly bribed to go along. Lots of people will still be left outside the safety net. It's a mess.

But so was Social Security when it passed. It left out domestic workers (because they were mostly black and Southerners demanded it), it left out farmworkers, and its payouts were pathetically small. But what it did do was establish the principle that the elderly should be taken care of. And eventually they were. The healthcare bill we're about to get is exactly the same: It does too little and it leaves too many people out, but it establishes the principle that everyone deserves decent healthcare. And eventually everyone will.

So hold your noses and celebrate anyway. It's taken us a hundred years, but if this messy, inadequate, infuriating healthcare reform passes it will be a historic occasion. FDR will finally be smiling.

Landrieu and Lieberman

Now, I know a lot of my friends and family who are reading this don't have much money. So, don't think this email is about money. It's not. It's about action and something you can do to help us get over the hurdles that the RIGHT WING have planned to block HEALTHCARE reform in the US Senate.

Make no mistake. The only way to get over these hurdles is to make sure a solid majority of Senators back the best healthcare reform bill that's available. (Not that the House bill makes me leap for joy, but it's the best we've got for now.) So we've got to overcome the right wing's CONSPIRACY by beating them at their own political game.

HOW? By convincing moderate DEMOCRATS & REPUBLICANS that they should stand on the side of the American public, not on the side of the establishment and SPECIAL INTERESTS. We need them to prevent a FILIBUSTER in the Senate.

WHO? There are several moderates who are teetering on the edge, but who need a push from the CITIZENS of this country, to remind them to DO THE RIGHT THING.

Mary Landrieu is a Senator from Louisiana. You may or may not know her. She's a Democrat. But she's already under enormous pressure by lobbyists and interest groups to OPPOSE healthcare REFORM. She needs more convincing that she has a duty to all Americans, especially those who voted for President Obama, and that duty is to PASS the Senate bill.

Joe Lieberman is someone else we need to DO SOMETHING ABOUT. He says he'll KILL THE PUBLIC OPTION and prevent a vote by caucusing with the Republicans on the bill. If you don't know, Joe is an Independent who used leverage and power to MANIPULATE his way back into the Senate when the people of Connecticut didn't support him in that state's 2006 Primary Elections. He's a dangerous threat to best healthcare bill we've got.

So you'd like to know "WHAT CAN I DO?" Tell Landrieu and Lieberman not to stand in the way of progress. Tell them they must not undermine this incredible opportunity to bring EQUAL ACCESS in healthcare to all Americans. Even if you're not from their states, you can still tell them. They need to know THE WHOLE WORLD IS WATCHING. They need to know they are accountable. Their constituents don't have to be the only ones giving them EXTRA PRESSURE. Any US citizen can make a difference by holding ALL our elected officials accountable.

Look, if Landrieu and Lieberman ABANDON reason, and BETRAY the electorate, you can bet that the citizens of those states will want revenge. But Louisianans and Connecticutians (yes, it's a word) won't have the only say in such matters of importance, either. The national political parties will come down on them, and ALL US CITIZENS will have a roll to play in bringing them down, too.

So GET IN THE GAME! How? Get on the phone. Start calling anyone you know in those states and remind them to raise hell until these two Senators are fully on board. And get on the Internet... you have REAL POWER there. You can LOG ON to senate.gov and communicate with any Senator you wish.

Progress on healthcare reform will not happen by itself. EVERYONE needs to do their part. It's not just the AMERICAN WAY, it's the ONLY WAY to bring about change on such a scale. Universal free healthcare does not have to be a myth. We can make it real. But only by doing REAL WORK. Only by taking responsibility, each one of us, can we establish real EQUALITY and JUSTICE for all.

Just my thoughts for the day. Here are some related links:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3PwiO44cGPY
http://www.slate.com/id/2233762
http://www.actblue.com/page/pressurelandrieu

Thanks,
Frank

P.S. One more thing you can do: FORWARD THIS EMAIL to others.