All of us have struggled with how to spend our increased alone time during the pandemic. Remember back in March when everyone was baking, and flour became as coveted as male feminists on Tinder? Well, unlike those carb-loving hipsters, some people are actually using their time during lockdown wisely. And by wisely, I mean they are learning to do something new. And by learning something new, I mean they are learning to take it in the ass.
“I decided to use my time in quarantine to train,” an anonymous gay man in San Francisco told Dan Savage on the Savage Love podcast on Monday. In case you’re confused, this man was not calling into a sex podcast to report that he was amping up his cardio routine. What he meant was that he was stretching his anus to accomodate a girthy partner. Some people are, apparently, optimistically prepping for ass play once we’re not scared of each other’s germs anymore.
The man’s description of his process was downright inspiring. “I bought myself a medium-sized egg-shaped butt plug and worked with that for a while and then graduated up to a six-inch suction cup dildo — six inch girth, by the way,” he said. If you’ve ever experimented with butt stuff, I don’t need to tell you what a massive accomplishment this is. If you’ve never experimented with butt stuff, fears of what might happen if you plunge something six inches wide in your butt is probably why.
Karl Tapales/Moment/Getty Images
Savage is savvy, though, and he responded with the appropriate praise. “You trained your hole to take your fuckbuddy’s enormous dick,” Savage said. “Good for you for making productive use of your time in quarantine, just like Shakespeare, Boccaccio, and Sir Issac Newton,” referring to other men who have achieved monumental tasks during plague situations.
This is not the only instance I’ve heard about folx who are anal training during lockdown. You can judge, but to me, stretching your ass for the pleasure it can bring both now and in the future seems like exceptional self care. “This pandemic has given me time to explore anal stimulation on my own terms, separate from the pressure and insecurity of in-person encounters,” Bobby Box wrote in a personal essay on Xtra, a queer Canadian news outlet. Box said he wanted to reach some next-level orgasms and to proactively prep his body for when he could have sex with other people again.
In both of these cases, anal training gives people a way to feel good now and it also sets them up to receive new kinds of pleasure in the future. This is important because recent studies show that people who are trying new sexual things during the pandemic are happier than other people. This, in combination with the fact that the popularity of anal play has been on the upswing in the last ten years, made me wonder if anal training is a pandemic trend or if my thirsty ass just wants it to be.
While it does seem to be true that butt-stuff lovers the world over are using their time in lockdown to get ready for a new normal, it can be hard to quantify the popularity of sexual behaviors. Still, according to a study of pandemic sexual behavior, about 7% of people have newly experimented with solo anal stimulation during this time and it ranks ninth on the list of new sexual things people have tried by themselves. That is not an insignificant increase, since a study in 2017 reported that only about 40% of people were into anal.
Retail sales trends reports aren’t exactly clinical research, but they do provide some fascinating insight. In this case, they indicate that people have been getting more into butt stuff during the pandemic. Katy Zvolerin, a rep for sex retail giant Adam and Eve, told Mel Magazine 8 months ago that people were panic hoarding anal toys and planning to use lockdown to “explore some backdoor curiosities.” Maybe butt toy shortages didn’t make the news the way that other shortages did, but to be fair, unlike TP, buttplugs are reusable.
“Yes, we are selling more plugs,” say Carol Queen, co-founder of the Center for Sex & Culture in San Francisco, staff sexologist at Good Vibrations, an education-oriented sex shop chain in California, and co-creator of the anal instructional series Bend Over Boyfriend. Queen also wants people to know that folks new to anal play should get educated in addition to buying toys. “Stretching isn’t the full secret to anal and it can be harmful if not done with info and care,” she says.
Does that make anal training a pandemic trend or is it just something that already sexually adventurous folks are checking off their to-do lists? No one can say for sure if we, as a people, are newly ass-curious or if those who were already curious now have the time to stretch their sphincters. Either way, it’s heartening that people are achieving your sexual goals. Or, as the anonymous caller on Savage Love said, “If you can see it, you can be it.”
Since the first cases of HIV were reported back in 1981, an estimated 76 million people have been infected worldwide, resulting in over 22 million deaths and 13 million AIDS orphans.
Today, around 38 million people are living with HIV, and, despite advances in treatment and the widespread distribution of antiretroviral drugs, infection and death rates remain alarmingly high. In 2019 alone, an estimated 1.7 million people were infected with HIV—roughly 5,000 per day— while over 690,000 died of HIV-related complications.
Despite these grim statistics, there have been gains. Since the height of the pandemic in 2004, HIV-related deaths and have dropped by no less than 60%, while the rate of mother-to-child transmission has been cut in half.
BigFive Images / Gallo Images / Getty Images
Still, there are enormous gaps in the global response and challenges yet to be faced in the United States, where the poor, people of color, and gay and bisexual men are disproportionately affected.
HIV in the United States
Currently, in the United States, over 1.1 million Americans are living with HIV. After years of stagnation in the annual infection rate, which hovered at around 50,000 new infections per year, the rate has begun to steadily drop in recent years due to newer preventive strategies like PrEP (pre-exposure prophylaxis) and HIV treatment as prevention, the latter of which can reduce the risk of HIV transmission to zero.
According to data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), 37,968 new HIV infections were reported in the 2019 surveillance—a drop of nearly 8% since 2010.
Despite these gains, around 15,800 people with HIV died in the United States in 2019, and as many as 14% of those infected (roughly 161,000) remain unaware of their status. Of those who have been diagnosed, only 63% are linked to medical care, and only 51% are unable to achieve an undetectable viral load needed to ensure a normal to near-normal life expectancy.
HIV stigma and a lack of access to medical care, particularly among the poor and communities of color, are among the driving factors for these failures.
HIV Infections by State
In the United States, where you live plays a large part in how likely you are to get HIV. While it is clear that dense urban populations with high prevalence rates contribute to the risk, there are other unique factors that account for a growing disparity between U.S. states.
A prime example is the rate of infection in states that have either adopted or refused Medicaid expansion, intended to expand healthcare to economically disadvantaged people.
According to the CDC, the 13 states that refused Medicaid expansion account for 42% of all new infections. Florida, Texas, Georgia, and North Carolina represent the lion’s share of these infections.
Poverty remains a driving force for HIV infections, particularly in the South where the rates of poverty are highest. Moreover, nearly half of all Americans without health insurance live in the South.
With that being said, the Northeast has a higher prevalence rate overall, centered mainly in dense urban populations like New York City, Baltimore, and Washington, D.C.
These dynamics are reflected in the 10 U.S. states with the highest HIV prevalence rates, according to the CDC.
State/Area
New HIV Diagnoses
Washington, D.C.
46.3 per 100,000
Georgia
24.9 per 100,000
Florida
22.9 per 100,000
Louisiana
22.1 per 100,000
Maryland
17.0 per 100,000
Nevada
16.5 per 100,000
Texas
15.4 per 100,000
Mississippi
14.3 per 100,000
South Carolina
14.3 per 100,000
New York
14.1 per 100,000
United States (total)
11.8 per 100,000
By Age
In the United States, the primary mode of HIV transmission is sex. It can come as no surprise, therefore, that the rates of new infection are highest among younger populations that are not only more sexually active but also more likely to have STDs, multiple sex partners, and other risk factors.
According to the CDC, the rate of new infections is highest among people 13 to 29, declining steadily thereafter.
Age Group
New Infections, 2018
13-19
1,739
20-24
6,152
25-29
7,768
30-34
5,723
35-39
4,250
40-44
3,025
45-49
2,861
50-54
2,528
55-59
1,877
60-64
1,059
65 and over
900
Youth also accounts for the highest rate of undiagnosed infections. Today, nearly half of all HIV-positive youth between the ages of 13 and 24 are unaware of their status and, as a result, are more likely to infect others. The picture is little improved among adults 25 to 34, where one in three remains undiagnosed.
While HIV infection rates have begun to decline in all other population groups, the rate of infections among people 13 to 24 is climbing.
By Sexual Orientation
Gay and bisexual men account for the lion’s share of HIV infections in the U.S. This not only includes men who identify as gay or bisexual but the nearly one in 10 men who have sex with men (MSM) who identify as straight.
While MSM accounts for only 2% of the U.S. population, they represent 69% of all new infections and 55% of Americans living with HIV. In their 2018 surveillance, the CDC highlighted key disparities affecting MSM:
There are more than twice as many MSM living with HIV in the United States than heterosexuals (678,900 versus 304,800).
The number of new infections among MSM was nearly four times that of heterosexuals (24,933 versus 4,350).
While the HIV infection rate is declining among heterosexuals in general, the rate of new infections among MSM 24 to 35 is climbing.
MSM represented more than half of all deaths among people with HIV.
There are many reasons for these disparities, including stigma (especially high in many communities of color), biological vulnerabilities (including an increased risk of transmission via anal sex), and illicit drug use (especially among young MSM).
By contrast, women who exclusively have sex with women are considered to be at low risk of infection.
In fact, the only group with a higher prevalence rate than MSM are injecting drug users, who account for 186,500 of all U.S. infections. A third of these are MSM.
By Race
HIV and race are integrally linked, with people of color disproportionately affected. There are many reasons for this, not least of which are the economic disparities and lack of access to quality healthcare in many ethnic and racial communities. This is especially true among Blacks in the United States whose new infection rate outpaces that of Whites by 34%.
Currently, there are around 447,000 Black Americans living with HIV compared to 323,000 White Americans. And this, despite the fact that Blacks account for 13.4% of the U.S. population compared to Whites, who represent 60.1%.
The statistics are not much better for Hispanics and Latinos, of whom 242,500 currently live with HIV. Although the new infection rate among Hispanics and Latinos is more or less the same as Whites, they account for only 18.5% of the population.
Race/Origin
New Infections, 2018
Living With HIV
White
9,700
340,700
Black/African American
16,000
482,900
Hispanic/Latino
10,500
247,100
Asian
720
17,600
Native American
190
3,900
Multiple Races
1,300
52,900
Poverty, again, is a driving factor. According to the U.S. Census Bureau, the rate of poverty among Blacks and Hispanic/Latinos is more than double that of Whites and Asians (18.8% and 15.7% versus 7.3% and 7.3% respectively).
Race also plays an integral role in the risk of HIV among MSM. The vulnerabilities experienced by all gay and bisexual men are further exacerbated by high rates of stigma in many ethnic and racial communities. There is likely no better illustration of this than among Black MSM, who alone account for 26% of all new HIV infections.
Due to the multitude of intersecting risk factors, Black MSM in the United States have no less than a 50% lifetime risk of getting HIV, according to a 2018 study in the Annals of Epidemiology.
By Sex
Although men account for the majority of HIV infections in the U.S.—75% of whom are MSM—there are around 258,000 women living with HIV, the majority of whom were infected through heterosexual sex.
As the receptive partner in a heterosexual couple, women are twice as likely to get HIV as their male partners. This is reflected by data published by the CDC in 2018, wherein 5,900 women were infected as a result of heterosexual sex compared to only 2,900 men.
The risk is especially high among Black women due to socioeconomic and gender inequalities. As a result, a Black woman is 13 times more likely to get HIV than a White woman of the same age. (By contrast, White women are more than twice as likely to get infected as a result of injecting drug use compared to Black women).
Despite a woman’s inherent vulnerability to HIV, increased public awareness has lead to a 9% decline in new infections since 2010, including Black women and younger women.
None of this should suggest that heterosexual men have less to worry about. In fact, the low perception of risk among heterosexual men has translated to the highest rate of undiagnosed infections of all risk groups (17.1%). This not only increases the risk of a late diagnosis but also the chance that a man will unknowingly pass the virus to others.
Mortality Rates
HIV causes the depletion of immune cells (called CD4 T-cells) that, over time, reduces a person’s ability to fight otherwise harmless infections. When the immune defenses have been fully compromised, these infections can become life-threatening. It is these so-called opportunistic infections that are among the main causes of death in people living with HIV.
In the early days of the AIDS pandemic, most people died within two years of their diagnosis. With the introduction of combination antiretroviral therapy (CART) in 1996, the number of HIV-related death plummeted by an astonishing 47% in just one year.
In 2018, a total of 15,820 people living with HIV died in the United States. Of these, around a third were believed to have been caused by an HIV-related complication.
And, although this is only an eighth of the number of deaths reported back in 1996, the numbers remain unacceptably high given the efficacy of CART. Most occurred in the South and Northeast, accounting to the CDC.
U.S. Region
Number of Deaths
Percentage
South
7,435
47%
Northeast
3,481
22%
West
2,689
17%
Midwest
1,899
12%
U.S. Protectorates
316
2%
Global HIV Statistics
As with the United States, there have been impressive declines in global HIV infections and deaths since 2004, when over 1.7 million deaths were reported. Today, the annual number of HIV-related deaths hover around 690,000—a reduction of roughly 60%.
At the same time, there has been a leveling off of many of the early gains and an increase in infection rates in certain hotspots around the world. Stagnating economic contributions from developed countries are only part of the reason why.
The vast majority of people living with HIV are in low- to medium-income countries. Of the 38 million living with HIV today, more than half are in Africa where adults infection rates often exceed 10%, 20%, and even 25% in some countries. These are described in the latest surveillance report from the United Nations Programme on HIV/AIDS (UNAIDS).
Geographic Area
Living With HIV
Percentage
Southern and East Africa
20.7 million
54%
Asia and the Pacific
5.8 million
15%
Central and West Africa
4.9 million
13%
Western and Central Europe and North America
2.2 million
6%
Latin America
2.1 million
6%
Eastern Europe and Central Asia
1.7 million
4%
The Caribbean
330,000
Less than 1%
Middle East and North Africa
240,000
Less than 1%
Prevalence Rates
The rate of global HIV infections has generally been on the decline since the height of the pandemic in 2004. Much of the success has been attributed to the United Nations-led 90-90-90 campaign, a global effort to have 90% of the world’s HIV population diagnosed, 90% of those placed on HIV therapy, and 90% of those to achieve undetectable viral loads by 2020.
Although there remain questions as to how sustainable the goals truly are—considering that rich countries like the United States have yet to meet them—they have helped reduce the prevalence rate in hard-hit countries like South Africa, where infections have fallen by some 40% since 2010.
Countries With the Highest HIV Prevalence
Country
Adult Prevalence, 2003
Adult Prevalence, 2019
Living With HIV Today
Eswatini
(Swaziland)
38.8%
27.3%
210,000
Lesotho
28.9%
23.6%
340,000
Botswana
37.3%
21.9%
360,000
South Africa
21.5%
20.4%
7,700,000
Namibia
21.3%
13.8%
230,000
Zimbabwe
24.6%
13.5%
1,300,000
Zambia
16.5%
12.4%
1,200,000
Mozambique
12.6%
12.3%
1,800,000
Malawi
12.2%
9.2%
1,000,000
Uganda
6.7%
6.5%
1,400,000
United States
0.3%
0.3%
1,100,000
By contrast, there has been a steep rise in infections in places like Russia and Central Asia, where more than a third of all new infections is due, directly or indirectly, to injecting drug use. Government inaction and discrimination against gay men and other high-risk groups also help fuel the infection rates.
By Age and Sex
Unlike the United States, heterosexual sex remains the predominant mode of transmission in high-prevalent regions, such as sub-Saharan Africa. Within this context, younger, sexually active youth between the ages of 15 and 24 account for over a third of all new infections, while those aged 15 to 45 represent 60%.
Women are often disproportionately affected. In addition to biological vulnerabilities, gender inequality, unfair access to services, and sexual violence has led to higher rates of infection, often at a far earlier age compared to men.
A 2016 study in PLoS One reported that women in sub-Saharan Africa, the center of the global pandemic, are infected five to seven years earlier than their male peers, and today account for nearly two of three infections.
Due to the increased access to antiretroviral therapy, people with HIV are now living longer than ever, even in high-prevalence regions. Where only 8% of people with HIV lived beyond the age of 50 in 2010, now over 20% are in their 50s and older. That number is expected to increase as the 90-90-90 targets are met.
Antiretroviral Coverage
The impressive gains in the global fight against HIV could have not been achieved without the manufacture of low-cost generic antiretrovirals.
Around 80% of these are produced in India where the Indian Patents Act, implemented in the 1970s, allowed for the breaking of international patent laws on the grounds that HIV was a global health emergency. Because of this, HIV drugs like Odefsey (emtricitabine, rilpivirine, and tenofovir) that retail for $3,000 per month in the United States cost as little as $75 per year in Africa.
Globally, there are an estimated 25.4 million people on antiretroviral therapy, or roughly 67% of the world’s HIV population. Data from UNAIDS suggests that, of these, 59% achieved an undetectable viral load (more or less in line with U.S. rates).
Countries With Highest Antiretroviral Coverage
Country
Antiretroviral Coverage (%)
Eswatini
96%
Italy
90%
Latvia
90%
Lithuania
90%
Netherlands
87%
Rwanda
87%
Albania
85%
Armenia
85%
Namibia
85%
Spain
85%
Zambia
85%
Zimbabwe
85%
Burundi
84%
Cambodia
84%
Australia
83%
Botswana
82%
Comoros
82%
France
82%
United States
64%
Mother-to-Child Transmission
One of the success stories of the global fight against HIV has been the use of antiretroviral drugs to prevent mother-to-child transmission (MTCT). When used appropriately, the preventive strategy can reduce the risk of MTCT by 98% or more. Without treatment, the risk of transmission runs anywhere from 15% to 45%.
As a result of prenatal interventions, the rate of HIV transmission during pregnancy has dropped by 47% globally since 2010, averting nearly 1.6 million infections.
Even so, the rate of MTCT remains unacceptably high, with some countries reporting as many as one in four transmissions during pregnancy or as the result of breastfeeding.
Countries With the Highest MTCT Infections
Country
Rate (%)
Indonesia
26.6%
Angola
21%
Ghana
17.7%
Ethiopia
15.9%
Chad
14.2%
Côte d’Ivoire
14.1%
Democratic Republic of Congo
13.3%
Cameroon
12.8%
Mozambique
11.1%
Tanzania
11%
United States
Less than 1%
In 2016, Armenia, Belarus, Thailand, and, the Republic of Moldova were the first four developing countries to report the elimination of MTCT from within their borders.
Mortality Rates
HIV remains a leading cause of death worldwide and the leading cause of death globally of women of reproductive age. However, HIV-related deaths have dropped dramatically in recent years, from 1.1. million in 2010 to 690,000 in 2019. All told, the mortality rate is 59% less than it was at the height of the pandemic in 2004.
According to a 2019 study in TheLancet HIV, no less than 122 of 195 countries experienced a decline in HIV-related deaths. Some countries like Burundi, Ethiopia, and Zimbabwe have seen the death rate drop by as much as 20%.
Not every country is following this trend. Russia, a country often cited for its failure to address infection rates within its borders, accounted for more than 80% of new infections in the Eastern European and Central Asian regions from 2010 to 2015. A recent commitment to increase antiretroviral access to 75% of Russians living with HIV will hopefully reverse this trend.
A Greyhound bus driver wears a protective mask and gloves as he prepares to depart a station in San Antonio, Texas, on March 30. Bus companies are struggling amid the pandemic, cutting off travel options for lower-income Americans. Eric Gay/AP hide caption
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Eric Gay/AP
A Greyhound bus driver wears a protective mask and gloves as he prepares to depart a station in San Antonio, Texas, on March 30. Bus companies are struggling amid the pandemic, cutting off travel options for lower-income Americans.
Eric Gay/AP
The wheels on the nation’s buses aren’t going round and round very much these days.
Demand for bus travel has fallen by more than 80% during the pandemic as public health authorities urge people to avoid travel where possible.
That is raising concerns about the potential long-term damage to an essential transport method for millions of lower-income Americans even as air travel has shown signs of picking up since the Thanksgiving holiday period.
And those who have to take the bus, for whatever reason, are finding fewer options, and often higher prices as a result.
Feeling the pinch most are people such as Andrew Sarkis. He paid $97 for a one-way bus ticket from Hampton, Va., to New York City — a 12-hour journey that required two transfers.
“It’s expensive, man,” said Sarkis, while stretching his legs after his bus took a brief stop at Union Station in Washington, D.C.
“I used to go on another bus, for $45 a trip, that goes straight to New York,” he added.
Sarkis was on his way to visit family for Christmas but ended up with a half-day travel option on a Greyhound bus after finding his usual options in competing services pared down.
“The service is not bad,” he said. “It’s just long hours of traveling.”
Greyhound said it’s operating at less than half its normal bus routes during the pandemic, while revenues have fallen nearly 60%.
“Greyhound has been immensely impacted by the effects of COVID-19,” the company said in a statement. “From temporary and permanent closures of routes to sudden workforce reductions, our ability to provide critical service to communities — especially those that are underserved and/or rural — has been reduced.”
Industrywide, the service cuts are even deeper.
“We see the industry operating at about 10% capacity,” said Peter Pantuso, president of the American Bus Association.
And it’s hard to estimate how soon demand can pick up. Not many people are interested in riding the bus these days, which means spending hours with strangers in an enclosed space.
Unlike airlines, which saw an uptick in travel over Thanksgiving, demand for bus tickets remains severely depressed, according to Wanderu, a travel website.
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That raises concerns about the long-term health of a sector that generally operates on thinner margins and has less financial cushion.
Pantuso estimates that 85% of the 100,000 people who work in the bus industry have been laid off or furloughed — in most cases since March.
It’s not just long-haul services like Greyhound that are limping. Traffic on commuter lines that ordinarily ferry workers to and from the suburbs has also dried up, since many people are working from home.
Charter buses and specialty services are struggling as well.
The Nitetrain Coach Co. in Nashville offers tricked-out buses with bars and bunk beds for touring musicians. Since March, the company’s 120-bus fleet has gone silent.
“It’s been a hard time with concerts not happening,” said Nitetrain’s Angela Eicher. “No job. No income.”
The company has idled more than 200 drivers as well as mechanics and office staff.
“We’re at the mercy of the venues,” Eicher said. “When the venues allow the concerts to start happening, that’s when our buses will start rolling again.”
Nitetrain did send a few of its buses to the Gulf Coast this fall to house utility crews cleaning up after hurricanes. Elsewhere, buses have been used to evacuate people from the path of wildfires.
And with less competition among bus companies, the few people who are buying tickets are often paying more. The Labor Department reported an 18% jump in intercity bus fares last month, even as overall inflation was tame.
While bus travel is still cheaper than other options, the extra cost can be a hardship for many riders.
“This is a mode of travel that caters to people often who can’t afford cars — that need to go at the least possible cost from point A to point B,” said Joe Schwieterman, a transportation expert who directs the Chaddick Institute for Metropolitan Development at DePaul University. “If prices jump, it might be out of reach.”
But while Congress has offered billions of dollars in financial aid to airlines and Amtrak, bus companies have been overlooked.
New emergency aid passed by Congress this week provides help for airlines, though bus companies were largely overlooked.
Pantuso, the bus trade group president, said the lack of attention from Congress was a concern, calling his sector a critical piece of the nation’s transportation network.
“If more members of Congress took the bus on a more regular basis,” he said, “we’d probably be at the top of the list for funding.”
I keep hearing business travel may never return to pre-pandemic levels— Bill Gates suspects 50% of it will disappear—and it makes me sad. I should be grateful to have a job of any kind, and I am, but I miss those work escapes.
If I’m being honest, my family misses my business travel more than I do. My family has been saying polite things about how being stuck at home in 2020 has made us all closer, but I think they’ve had enough. They’d really prefer me out of the house. If I ever leave again, they’re going to celebrate like they won the Super Bowl.
I’ll be back in two days, I’ll say.
Take 20, my family will say.
I miss little things about work travel, like packing. I’d fold my clothing into a bag, and I’d think: I should bring my running shoes. Then I’d think: Who are you kidding? You’re never going to go running. Then: No, no, I really am going to go running.
So I’d always pack the running shoes. And I’d never go running.
I miss getting to the airport early. I got this habit from my father, the ultimate panicky early bird. My father wanted to get to the airport when the architect was still presenting the blueprints to build the airport. He liked to be the first person through the door, when the pilots were hitting the snooze button at the Hyatt. Even then, my father worried he was cutting it close.
“ I miss the hour it takes me to figure out how to turn on the hotel TV. ”
I don’t miss everything. I don’t miss the line for the only airport Starbucks. You could show up at 4:45 a.m., and there would be 80 people on line. And I’d always get stuck behind someone buying mochaccinos for an entire high school orchestra.
I admit: I kind of miss the Guy Doing a Long, Loud Conference Call That Everyone Can Hear. You know this guy. He’s pacing and gesturing at Gate 35D, bellowing away, like he’s doing Shakespeare in the Park. He’s got thoughts about the meeting. He’s got thoughts about the client. He’ll yammer away, straight through boarding, down the walkway, and right until takeoff, when the flight attendants beg him to hang up. I always think the other people on his call are thinking: I can’t wait for this guy to shut up.
I miss the pilot calmly talking about where we are on line for departure. I miss the boring testimonial for the airline featuring the airline CEO. I’m already on the plane, I think. I miss sitting next to a traveler who opens up a laptop and starts reading a big, complicated report, with lots of graphs. I’m always impressed: Wow, this person is really committed to their job. Then, 40 seconds later, they switch to a Bruce Willis movie.
I miss LaGuardia Airport. OK, that’s a lie. I don’t miss LaGuardia Airport.
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I miss getting to my hotel room and dramatically opening the curtain—to a view of pigeons playing poker in an abandoned parking garage. I miss the hour it takes me to figure out how to turn on the hotel TV. I miss the hotel water, which I drink, only to later discover a tiny sign telling me it costs $11 a bottle. I miss the rental cars, which were always dull. I miss the rental car agent trying to talk me into a PT Cruiser for an extra $7 a day. Come on. Do it. Live a little, man.
I miss almost all of it. I have a feeling we’re going to get at least partly back there, not just because of the hopeful news about vaccines but because we probably need face-to-face contact a little more than we think. I don’t think work travel will ever vanish. Mostly because our families want us out of the house.
Eating a healthy lunch? Check. Exercise? Check. Drinking more water, finding some quiet time to yourself, going to be early? Eh, those feel-good habits are a little harder to keep top of mind. While New Year’s resolutions will likely look a little different this year — who else put “travel more” at the top of their list for 2020? — many people want to make their mental and physical health a priority in 2021. And, since “be healthier” is a little vague, Wisconsin-based company Jack and Ella Paper has created a habit tracker to help you take small steps toward your goals every day.
The Jack and Ella 3-Month Habit Tracker ($0) is totally free! All you have to do is add it to your cart, then check out, immediately download it, and print it on a regular-sized, 8.5″x11″ piece of paper. After that, you’ll have access to this super cute habit tracker, with blank spots for you to fill in the name of the month, rows for up to five habits you want to track, and a checkbox for each day of the month, so you can see how often you’re completing those tasks.
Your habits can be as simple or as life changing as you want them to be — they’re your resolutions after all! For me, I want to read daily (so I can complete the 2021 POPSUGAR Reading Challenge, obviously), spend phone-free time with my kids, get eight hours of shut-eye, drink tons of water, and work out. Make your goals fun, so you’ll be excited to check items off your list every day. And feel free to switch it up! You don’t have to focus on the same habits every month if you don’t want to.
As the company explains, “Even though we’re all adults here . . . it is still pretty satisfying to check those boxes.” I couldn’t agree more!
In this episode of POPSUGAR’s House Call, Jeanette Jenkins – The Hollywood Trainer and Dance FitSugar host Deja Riley will teach you 10 exercises that will burn out that booty and strengthen those thighs without leaving the house! Tell us in the comments below which of these moves made you feel the burn! And be sure to keep watching for more episodes of POPSUGAR’s House Call as Jeanette helps you stay fit with help from more of her celebrity clients, trainers, and athletes.
Sometimes the best workouts are the short and simple ones, don’t you think? That’s why we’re loving this episode of POPSUGAR’s House Call, led by Jeanette Jenkins, creator of The Hollywood Trainer Club, and Dance FitSugar host Deja Riley. It’s 20 minutes long and consists of just 10 exercises, including squat thrusts, around-the-world lunges, and sumo squats, with plenty of thigh-burning pulses along the way. Get warmed up and join in the workout, starting at 3:30! And stay up to date with House Call for more workouts from Jeanette Jenkins, featuring trainers, athletes, and celebrities.
Love trying new workouts? Want a community to share your fitness goals with? Come join our Facebook group POPSUGAR Workout Club. There, you can find advice on making the best out of every sweat session and everything else you need to help you on your road to healthy living.
Do you feel moved by the beauty of music, feel extreme empathy toward animals, cry during touching commercials, hate loud nosies, are easily startled or overwhelmed, and need a lot of quiet alone time? If so, you may be a highly sensitive person or an HSP. Elaine Aron, who has a Ph.D. in clinical depth psychology, discovered the traits of HSPs and wrote the book The Highly Sensitive Person, in which she says 15 to 20 percent of the population are HSPs.
HSPs may have been called “too sensitive” or told their heightened sensitivity is a weakness. But once a person comes to the realization that they’re an HSP, they’ll understand themselves on a much deeper level. They’ll see their sensitivity, intuition, and conscientiousness as a strength and a gift, and they’ll feel happier and more confident because of it. Keep reading to learn about the traits of highly sensitive people; how being highly sensitive affects diet, workouts, and body image; how HSPs can practice self-care; and how to use sensitivity as a superpower!
Ten years after the military’s “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” policy began to phase out, gay and lesbian Airmen say there’s more the Department of the Air Force can do to support the LGBTQ community.
On Dec. 22, 2010, President Barack Obama signed legislation that led to the repeal of DADT, which for nearly two decades blocked openly gay personnel from serving in the military. The policy formally ended in September 2011 after months of preparation within the Pentagon.
“I became a better supervisor because I was able to live up to the core values of the Air Force at that time. It made me a better Airman because I was able to be open and transparent about my life,” said Jennifer Dane, an Air Force veteran who is now interim executive director of the Modern Military Association of America, the nation’s largest nonprofit advocating for LGBTQ service members and veterans.
“When you’re doing a mission together, you share a lot of yourself with your troops,” she said. “I wanted to show them I was a person just like they were.”
Several gay and lesbian Airmen who spoke to Air Force Magazine said they have become better wingmen since the fall of DADT, and are optimistic about a military where the LGBT community is better represented and accepted. All have served for more than a decade, including multiple deployments to the Middle East and elsewhere overseas.
Some wish the military health care system was better attuned to the needs of lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, and queer personnel, ranging from HIV prevention and treatment to pregnancy issues. Mental health care professionals who specialize in LGBTQ issues are hard to find as well, for both Airmen and their families, they said.
Following the Air Force’s 2018 approval of the pre-exposure prophylaxis (PrEP) treatment known as Truvada, health care workers sometimes aren’t familiar with the steps an Airman must take to refill their prescription for the HIV-prevention drug.
“When I had to go do the bloodwork, it was hard for the lady to understand what I was asking for,” said Tech. Sgt. Donald G. Goins Jr., an Airman with the 30th Space Communications Squadron’s cyber mission defense team at Vandenberg Air Force Base, Calif. “There should be three vials; there should be three blood tests that you have to perform.”
The Air Force offers an annual multi-day seminar where Airmen can get specialized care for living with HIV, with information on topics from diet to safe sex. While one HIV-positive Airman said that is helpful, they wish the service would take a new look at other requirements and restrictions for people with the virus.
“Every time I change a unit, I am required by [Air Force instructions] to sit down with my commander, and we have to sign a letter together about my sexual activity,” the Airman said. “Very invasive. … No one wants to have that conversation.”
Airmen have fought HIV-related issues in the courts. In early 2020, a federal appeals court sided with two Airmen who faced military discharge after testing positive for the virus in 2017. The Pentagon bars personnel with HIV from deploying to the Middle East, making them a target for discharge under the Defense Department’s “deploy or get out” policy. The Airmen argued they could deploy with medication or a policy exception, or take different jobs in the service.
Another federal judge recently ruled that DOD has “no rational basis” for blocking HIV-positive service members from commissioning as officers, another hurdle that persists for some Airmen. That limits their ability to pursue certain career moves like becoming a pilot.
Others in the Air Force pointed to progress made around in vitro fertilization and other specialized care that affects LGBT members.
Master Sgt. Kate Huguenin, the additional duty first sergeant for U.S. Cyber Command at Fort Meade, Md., noted that TRICARE now covers more of the cost of infertility clinics for same-sex couples. But if two women want to have a baby, she said, they have to pay for the sperm out of pocket.
While U.S. society has grown steadily more accepting of LGBTQ Americans over time, Airmen remain wary of setbacks to equal rights.
Huguenin recounted the night the late Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg died in September. Ginsburg, a liberal icon known for her work on gender equality, was replaced on the bench by the conservative Justice Amy Coney Barrett.
“My phone started blowing up, … [with] younger Airmen saying, ‘hey, if they overturn [Obergefell v. Hodges, the landmark 2015 Supreme Court decision to legalize same-sex marriage nationwide] because they’re talking about it, what do I need to do? How do I protect myself?’” Huguenin said.
She wonders if the Air Force can continue to recognize same-sex marriage and other LGBTQ protections even if they are no longer the law of the land. The service should be prepared to look at state policies and educate Airmen on how to protect their families in places where marriage equality is not enshrined in law, she said.
“The reason I can [permanently relocate] with my spouse is because legally, the federal government says you cannot separate legally married couples. But we legally separate significant others all the time,” said Huguenin, whose wife is in the Coast Guard. “I have absolute faith that [Chief Master Sergeant of the Air Force JoAnne S. Bass and Air Force Chief of Staff Gen. Charles Q. Brown Jr.] have my best interests at heart. Whether or not they have the legal sufficiency to protect that, I don’t know.”
Under DADT, Airmen shied away from connecting with their colleagues for fear of sparking suspicion that could lead to discharge. The years since repeal have strengthened personal and professional relationships, in ways as simple as being able to display a photo of one’s partner at work or to discuss parenting.
“It’s exciting that I’m going to retire from the Air Force and I am going to have a husband that gets to be there, literally there, in person,” said Master Sgt. Michael Burd, who works with the Rapid Capabilities Office at Kirtland Air Force Base, N.M. “When I was an Airman [under DADT] and I was winning awards, my partner couldn’t go to the award ceremonies … like the heterosexual couples.”
People said they’ve felt empowered and understood by LGBTQ commanders, and used their own stories to teach and guide others as well.
“It’s been a switch in focus away from the concept of political correctness. Now you’re not using inclusive terminology to be politically correct or, because you have to change something,” said Maj. John H. Nussbaum, an airfield assistant public works officer at Joint Base Pearl Harbor-Hickam, Hawaii. “You’re using it to ensure that when you speak, you speak to everyone, that you’re setting the same rules for everyone, the same expectations for everyone.”
Other policies and language can shift toward being more “family-neutral,” people told Air Force Magazine. Master Sgt. Ashley N. Grady, who works in administration at the Air National Guard’s 190th Mission Support Group in Kansas, said she’d like to see things like fliers for spousal retreats acknowledge same-sex couples alongside “husband and wife.”
Some also wish the military’s legal offices took claims of LGBTQ discrimination more seriously, and call for a more diverse and LGBTQ-friendly chaplain corps.
Many spoke of the need for broader education about the LGBTQ community, whether discussing its history during Pride Month activities each June or simply grabbing coffee with another Airman to dispel their misconceptions. Group conversations could also follow the same model some units have used to discuss racism this year.
Air Force culture will continue to evolve as leadership diversifies. DADT and other factors shrank the number of out Airmen now climbing the ladder, but some are optimistic that trend is being reversed.
Perhaps the most notable high-ranking gay military official in recent history is Eric Fanning, president and chief executive officer of the Aerospace Industries Association. Fanning, a former Army Secretary and Acting Air Force Secretary, is the only openly gay person to have held senior positions in the Army, Air Force, and Navy, as well as in the Office of the Secretary of Defense. That talent pool has to widen rather than rely on a few high-profile people, advocates said.
“You couldn’t get a clearance if you were gay until 1998,” said Luke Schleusener, president of the advocacy group Out in National Security and a former speechwriter to Defense Secretaries from 2012 to 2017. “There are people who could come over one way or the other, Hill staff, that sort of thing. But it’s hard, in part because the culture has to change.”
Airmen praised openly gay leadership at their local units but worried that Air Force efforts to embrace diversity in promotions will lead to tokenism.
“The person should be put there because they are the best person for that position,” Goins said. “To say that you’re just putting that person there because of ‘X’ demeans that position and demeans the community which they belong to.”
Other changes underway across the Defense Department can bolster the LGBTQ community as well. Hiding names and photos on candidates up for promotion—a move intended to avoid racial discrimination—can aid people across the sex and gender identity spectrum, too. Some noted that the Air Force’s recent decision to allow women to wear pants with their mess dress uniforms also helps those who aren’t comfortable in the typical long, feminine skirt.
Airmen are likewise encouraged by President-elect Joe Biden’s incoming administration and new Air Force leaders, which they believe will usher in more inclusive military personnel policies—starting with the so-called “transgender ban.”
When asked whether the Air Force is considering any policy changes related to the LGBTQ community, Department of the Air Force spokesperson Maj. Holly A. Hess referred Air Force Magazine back to the Pentagon’s guidance on transgender service.
Hess said the Air Force and Space Force follow DOD guidance and will comply if policies change in the future.
In April 2019, the Pentagon blocked employees from newly coming out as transgender, while allowing those already diagnosed with gender dysphoria to continue living in their preferred gender. Troops diagnosed after April 2019 must continue serving according to their birth sex and cannot receive transition-related care. Those with a gender dysphoria diagnosis cannot enlist or join a military academy. The Department of the Air Force does not tally its number of transgender troops.
In 2014, the Williams Institute on Sexual Orientation and Gender Identity Law and Public Policy at UCLA’s School of Law estimated as many as 15,500 transgender people were serving across the Pentagon’s Active-duty, Guard, and Reserve forces. A similar RAND Corp. study in 2016 estimated that more than 6,600 transgender troops were part of the Active-duty force, noting that not all of them would seek gender transition-related treatment.
RAND researchers found that allowing transgender personnel to access transition-related health care would increase Active-duty health costs by up to $8.4 million a year, an increase of less than 1 percent. They used private health insurance claims data to estimate military expenses.
“Even upper-bound estimates indicate that less than 0.1 percent of the total force would seek transition-related care that could disrupt their ability to deploy,” they said.
Anyone who is capable and qualified to serve should be allowed in, MMAA Interim Executive Director Jennifer Dane said.
“I think the biggest fear from ‘Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell’ was that we were going to be able to come out, and then have to go back in the closet because of a different policy,” she said. “The trans folks were able to come out one day, and the next day, they had to either go back in, or come really out and say, ‘Yes, I suffer from gender dysphoria.’”
The recent policy’s effects have trickled down to restrict care for service members’ children as well. “It really set back the progress we were making as an LGBTQ community,” Dane said.
The incoming Biden administration is expected to repeal restrictions on transgender service soon after taking office. Congress could go a step further and enshrine protections for transgender personnel in law.
Advocates urge DOD to roll back the ban in a way that doesn’t create further unintended consequences for military employees and their families. Intentional policymaking should carry over into other issues around gender identity and sexual orientation, they said.
For example, Generation Z—anyone born after 1997—appears set to break DOD’s male-female mold as the most gender-diverse group entering the military so far, Dane said. She knows of no policies or guidance addressing nonbinary service members and others in the queer community, but encouraged the Pentagon to be proactive.
“What do you do whenever you have recruits that don’t really fit into the standards that you have?” Dane said. “We’ve got to be ready for that, because there’s a lot of people that … do identify as such.”
Grindr has revealed the countries with the highest numbers of tops and bottoms. (Getty/MARTIN BUREAU)
Gays, get your passports ready for a post-pandemic trip – Grindr has revealed the countries with the highest numbers of tops and bottoms.
The global hook-up app is active in nearly every country in the world, but some regions have markedly different preferences than others.
Vietnam, Sweden Thailand, Peru and South Africa are home to the biggest proportion of users who list themselves as bottoms, according to the gay app’s 2020 Grindr Unwrappedroundup.
Meanwhile, Nigeria, where gay sex is illegal, is home to the one of the highest proportions of tops, behind only Morocco and India and ahead of Chile and Israel.
If you’re looking up for a man who is up for anything, South America is definitely your destination of choice, with men in Venezuela, Guatemala and Argentina most likely to list themselves as vers.
Grindr did add an important clarification: “This data only represents a subsection of our users (not all Grindr users include this information on their profiles), and Grindr itself only represents a subsection of the global queer community.
“So it’s important to note that this is not meant as a comprehensive or scientific report on global queer sex and dating behaviours.
“Instead, it’s meant as a fun and informal way to help our users get to know each other better, serve as an ice-breaker for conversations in the app, and provide some insights into Grindr activity trends from the year.”
Chile is top of the tops, according to Grindr (Rafael Henrique)
In more robust data, the United States remains the biggest market for the app, followed by Brazil, Mexico, India and the United Kingdom, with Brits admirably cracking the top five despite the UK’s smaller population.
Meanwhile, the holy day is looking more like the holey day, with Grindr revealing Sunday evenings are the most active time for users.
Breaking news: Gay people like Lady Gaga and Ariana Grande.
Grindr also revealed the most-listed songs of 2020, and we are stunned to report that gays love listening to Lady Gaga and Ariana Grande.
The pair’s collaboration “Rain on Me” topped the list, followed in short order by Cardi B and Megan Thee Stallion’s year-defining cultural phenomenon “WAP”. The jokes write themselves, really.
Grindr added: “It was a year unlike any other, and many of the usual ways people enjoy Grindr—in-person dates, hookups, tennis (yes, some of us use Grindr to find tennis partners)—were off the table in 2020 due to COVID-19.
“But that doesn’t mean people weren’t still connecting. This snapshot of activity shows that even in a year of quarantine and isolation, people still found ways to express themselves and connect safely from home.”
From left, Billie Jean King and Megan Rapinoe signed a friend-of-the-court brief urging judges to overturn an Idaho anti-trans sports law. (King photo by Andrew Coppa Photography; Rapinoe photo by Erica McCaulley)
Lesbian athletes, including tennis legend Billie Jean King and World Cup champion Megan Rapinoe, were among the 176 women who signed a legal brief submitted to a federal appeals court Monday calling on judges to overturn an Idaho law barring transgender girls from participating in school sports.
The friend-of-the-court brief, coordinated by the LGBTQ group Lambda Legal, urges the U.S. Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals to rule against the law, HB 500, arguing school athletic participation “provides unparalleled opportunities to forge a sense of belonging, connectedness, and contribution.”
“The benefits of sports extend to all aspects of school and throughout life. But these benefits are diminished when some athletes are excluded because of who they are,” the brief says. “Amici’s experiences in sports and in life are a testament to the value of inclusion in building powerful teams and social, societal, and business institutions.”
The attention to the experiences of women athletes is key to the context of the 38-page brief, which is filed amid debate on whether transgender girls should be allowed in school sports.
Rep. Tulsi Gabbard (D-Hawaii), who had apologized for her anti-gay past during her presidential run, has introduced in her remaining days in Congress legislation that would amend Title IX of the Education Amendments of 1972 essentially to prohibit transgender girls from school athletics. In a subsequent video, Gabbard justified this legislation by saying biological males have inherent physical advantages over women and would compromise paths to victory and scholarships for non-trans girls.
King, who won the “Battle of the Sexes” match against Bobby Riggs in 1973 and was ranked the world’s number one ranked tennis player six times, said in a statement “there is no place in any sport for discrimination of any kind.” (King was ostracized after coming out as a lesbian in 1981 and lost an estimated $2 million in sponsorships.)
“I’m proud to support all transgender athletes who simply want the access and opportunity to compete in the sport they love,” King said. “The global athletic community grows stronger when we welcome and champion all athletes – including LGBTQI+ athletes.”
Other women athletes who signed the brief in the case, Hecox v. Little, are Candace Parker, who was trailblazer in women’s basketball; Phaidra Knight; a former rugby player who was a member of the United States National Team from 1999 to 2017; and Esther Lofgren is an American rower and an Olympic gold medalist. Athlete Ally and the Women’s Sports Foundation also roles in coordinating the brief.
The case comes to the Ninth Circuit upon appeal after U.S. District Judge David Nye, appointed by President Trump in 2017, ruled in August against the Idaho law, conceding his order “is likely to be controversial.”
Carl Charles, staff attorney for Lambda Legal said, in a statement the dozens of athletes who signed the brief have “a deep understanding and appreciation of the life-long benefits that come from participation in sports.”
“They recognize the value of inclusive and welcoming sports environments and firmly believe laws like HB 500 that single out groups of women and girls from participation in sports harm the entire athletic community,” Charles said.
Prior to the enactment of HB 500, the Idaho High School Activities Association already had in its rules a requirement limiting transgender athletes access to sports, requiring boys who transition to girls “complete one year of hormone treatment related to the gender transition before competing on a girls team.”
According to the Idaho Statesman, IHSAA says as of March 2020 it had “received just a couple of inquiries about Idaho’s policy and has fielded occasional calls about potential transgender athletes over the past five or six years, but so far, Idaho has not had an athlete use the policy.”
A teacher works from her home due to the coronavirus outbreak on April 1, 2020, in Arlington, Virginia. (Olivier Douliery/AFP via Getty Images)
When the coronavirus outbreak led to widespread shutdowns and stay-at-home orders throughout the country in March, many Americans were forced to adapt and shift parts of their daily routines. Some of these adaptations have relied heavily on technology – including adults working from home and students engaging in online learning. Many other activities – like social gatherings, fitness classes, school activities and medical appointments – went virtual for a time, though some of these activities have resumed in person in many places.
Over the course of the COVID-19 outbreak in the United States, Pew Research Center has studied Americans’ attitudes about the role and effectiveness of various technologies and their views about digital privacy and data collection as it relates to the pandemic. Here is what we found.
The internet has been an important part of Americans’ lives
A month into the COVID-19 outbreak, 87% of U.S. adults said the internet had been at least important for them personally during the outbreak, including 53% who deemed the internet as “essential” for them personally, according to a survey conducted in April 2020. Americans’ views on the importance of the internet during that time varied greatly by age and educational attainment. Adults under the age of 50 were far more likely than those ages 50 and older to say the internet has been essential for them during the outbreak (63% vs. 41%). And while 65% of college graduates said that the internet had been essential for them during the outbreak, those shares dropped to about half or fewer for those with some college experience or high school education or less.
At the same time, roughly half of adults (49%) said that a major interruption in their internet or cellphone service during the coronavirus outbreak would be a very big problem for daily life in their household, according to a March survey. Another 28% said it would present a moderately big problem, and 16% said it would be a small problem.
Again, age and level of formal education are factors. Adults under the age of 65 were more likely than those 65 and older to say this type of outage would be a very big problem. And those with a bachelor’s or advanced degree were more likely than those with lower levels of educational attainment to say this.
Despite early fears about the internet buckling under pressure as traffic rose substantially since the beginning of the pandemic in the U.S., internet performance remained mostly stable and providers say speeds have decreased only slightly in some areas.
But even though the internet and mobile phones helped Americans fill the gap left by the decline in face-to-face contact with others, a majority of Americans (64%) said in March that the internet and phones would be useful but not be an adequate substitute for in-person interactions. On the other hand, 27% of adults said that conducting these everyday interactions online or by telephone because of recommended limits on social contact during the COVID-19 outbreak would be just as good as in-person contact. Roughly three-quarters of college graduates (73%) said that if their everyday interactions had to be done online or by phone, it would help but not be a replacement for in-person contact. That figure was lower among those who have some college experience (63%) and those with a high school education or less (56%).
Dependence on the internet and mobile phones raised concerns about affordability
Even as majorities deemed the internet important during the outbreak and described a potential disruption to their services as problematic, many Americans – particularly those with lower incomes – were concerned about paying for this connectivity. About three-in-ten broadband users (28%) said they worried a lot or some about paying their home broadband bill over the next few months, according to an April survey.Similarly, 30% of smartphone users expressed some or a lot of worry about paying for their cellphone bill over the next few months. Hispanics and adults who live in households with lower incomes were among those who were most likely to say they were worried about paying for these services. For instance, about half or more of broadband and smartphone users with lower incomes said they worried a lot about paying for both broadband and cellphone bills, compared with about one-quarter of those with middle incomes and roughly one-in-ten of those with higher incomes who expressed the same amount of worry.
Despite notable shares saying they were worried about paying their broadband and cellphone bills, a majority of adults overall said the government does not have a responsibility to ensure all Americans have a high-speed internet connection (62%) or cellphone services (65%) at home during the coronavirus outbreak, according to the same April survey. For both home internet and cellphone services, Democrats and independents who lean toward the Democratic Party were more likely than Republicans and their leaners to think the government should be responsible for ensuring access.
The pandemic highlighted concerns about the digital divide due to school closures and the shift to online learning
As schools around the country shut down due to the spread of the coronavirus, many parents were worried that the lack of a computer or high-speed internet connection at home would hinder their children’s ability to keep up with schoolwork. About six-in-ten lower-income parents with children whose K-12 schools closed in the spring (59%) said in an April survey it was at least somewhat likely that their child would face at least one digital obstacle while doing their schoolwork at home during the coronavirus outbreak. Three-in-ten parents who have middle incomes also thought it was at least somewhat likely this would be an issue, while 13% of those with a higher income said the same.
Across all parents whose child’s school was closed, roughly three-in-ten parents (29%) said it was very or somewhat likely their child would have to do their schoolwork on a cellphone. About one-in-five parents said it was at least somewhat likely their child would have to use public Wi-Fi to finish their schoolwork because they lacked a reliable home internet connection (22%) or would not be able to complete their schoolwork because they did not have access to a computer at home (21%) during the outbreak.
While most Americans (80%) said in the same April survey that K-12 schools should have a responsibility to provide computers to at least some students during the outbreak, there were differences in whether people said this should be done for all students or just those who can’t afford this technology.
Some 37% of Americans said schools should be responsible for providing laptops or tablet computers to all students in order to help them complete their schoolwork at home during the coronavirus outbreak, while 43% said schools should be responsible for providing this technology only for students whose families cannot afford it. Though Democrats and Republicans agreed that schools should be responsible for providing this technology to at least some students (44% vs. 42%, respectively), Democrats (45%) were more likely than Republicans (28%) to say schools should provide this technology to all students.
Some Americans were dubious about the effectiveness of technology for tracking the coronavirus and lacked confidence in others to keep their personal records safe
When it comes to data collection and digital privacy related to the COVID-19 outbreak, only a minority of Americans said in April that they thought cellphone tracking would be beneficial for curbing the spread of the virus. Some 38% said that if the government tracked people’s locations through their cellphone during the coronavirus outbreak it would help at least a little in limiting the spread of the virus. A larger share – 60% – said this type of tracking by the government would not make much of a difference in limiting the spread of the coronavirus.
In other efforts to slow the spread of the coronavirus, many states launched large-scale contact tracing programs, which public health officials use to trace the spread of the virus by connecting with those who have tested positive for COVID-19 or those who have been exposed to a positive case. Half of adults said in a July survey they would be not at all or not too comfortable sharing location data from their cellphone with a public health official during the coronavirus outbreak. A slightly smaller share of Americans (41%) said they would be not at all or not too likely to speak with a public health official who contacted them by phone or text message to speak with them about the virus.
In that contact tracing survey, Americans also were asked in July about their levels of confidence in different groups when it comes to keeping their personal records safe. Half of adults said they were not at all or not too confident that the federal government would keep their personal records safe from hackers or unauthorized users. About four-in-ten adults (41%) said they lacked confidence that public health organizations will keep their records secure. A smaller share, 19%, said they were not at all or not too confident that their medical doctors or health care providers would keep their records safe.
Brooke Auxieris a former research associate focusing on internet and technology at Pew Research Center.
Bisexual men are more likely to experience eating disorders than either heterosexual or gay men, according to a new report from the University of California San Francisco.
Numerous studies have indicated that gay men are at increased risk for disordered eating — including fasting, excessive exercise and preoccupation with weight and body shape. But the findings, published this month in the journal Eating and Weight Disorders, suggest that bisexual men are even more susceptible to some unhealthy habits.
In a sampling of over 4,500 LGBTQ adults, a quarter of bisexual men reported having fasted for more than eight hours to influence their weight or appearance, compared to 20 percent of gay men. Eighty percent of bisexual men reported that they “felt fat,” and 77 percent had a strong desire to lose weight, compared to 79 percent and 75 percent of gay men, respectively.
Not everyone who diets or feels fat has an eating disorder, said a co-author of the study, Dr. Jason Nagata, a professor of pediatric medicine at UCSF. “It’s a spectrum — from some amount of concern to a tipping point where it becomes a pathological obsession about body weight and appearance,” Nagata said.
Of all the respondents, 3.2 percent of bi males had been clinically diagnosed with eating disorders, compared to 2.9 percent of gay men. That stacks up to 0.6 percent of heterosexual men, according to research from the Yale University School of Medicine.
Nagata said the discrepancies highlight the need to conduct eating disorder research on various sexual identities independently. “Prior studies on eating disorders in sexual minority men have grouped gay and bisexual men together, so it was difficult to understand the unique characteristics in bisexual men.”
Several factors may be at play, he said, including “minority stress,” the concept that the heightened anxiety faced by marginalized groups can manifest as poor mental and physical health outcomes.
“LGBTQ people experience stigma and discrimination, and stressors can definitely lead to disordered eating,” Nagata said. “For bi men, they’re not just facing stigma from the straight community but from the gay community, as well.”
The bisexual advocate and author Zachary Zane said this “double discrimination” often leads to loneliness, depression and a fear of coming out.
“We face ostracization from both sides, or if we’re embraced by the LGBTQ world, it’s because we’re hiding our authentic selves,” Zane said. “When you feel everything is out of control, [food] is something you can have control over. I can understand how that would be appealing.”
Thirty percent of bi men in the survey reported being afraid of losing control of their eating, and nearly a third said they had difficulty focusing on work or other activities because they were thinking about food, eating or calories.
While binge eating was similar among gay and bi men in this report, a 2018 American Psychiatric Association study of university students found that bisexual men were three times as likely to binge eat as their gay classmates and five times as likely as heterosexual male students.
Subjects for the report were chosen from the Pride Study, the first large-scale, long-term national health study of sexual and gender minorities, sponsored by UCSF and other institutions.
It relies on self-identification for sexual orientation and allows respondents to choose multiple identities or even write in their own. For the sake of the report, Nagata’s team categorized cisgender men who identify as bisexual, pansexual, polysexual or otherwise attracted to more than one gender as “bisexual-plus.”
Bisexuals, the largest demographic in the LGBTQ community, face numerous health disparities, including higher rates of obesity, substance abuse, binge drinking, sexually transmitted illnesses, cardiovascular disease and even some forms of cancers. Thirty-nine percent of bisexual men say they have never told a doctor about their sexual orientation, three times the percentage of gay men, according to a 2012 study by the Williams Institute.
A recent study in JAMA Pediatrics found that, in the first three years after having come out, bisexuals were twice as likely to start smoking as lesbians or gay men.
Bisexual youth are at an elevated risk for self-harm: Forty-four percent of bi high schoolers have seriously considered suicide, compared to a quarter of gay teens and less than 10 percent of heterosexual students, according to a 2011 study from the University of IllinoisCollege of Education. And a 2013 report in the Journal of Adolescent Health found that suicidal thoughts did not decrease as they entered adulthood, as they did for gay and straight people.
But few diagnostic tools or treatment programs make adequate distinctions, Nagata said, even for gender: Most assessment tools for eating disorders, for example, were devised for cisgender women, and they can overlook behaviors more common among men, like eating more to gain mass. While only 3 percent of the bisexual male study subjects had been diagnosed with eating disorders by clinicians, nearly a quarter met the criteria based on their answers.
“Raising awareness of these differences is the first step,” he said. “Having tailored interventions for LGBTQ people, for bisexual people, is just common sense. It’s not a one-size-fits-all treatment program.”
Zane said that if researchers want to help bi men with eating disorders, they need to address the unique roots of bi men’s depression, anxiety and need for control.
“When researchers lump bi and gay men together, it not only contributes to bi erasure — implying that bi men have the same struggles and identity as gay men — it also leads to ineffective treatments,” he said. “If the goal is to actually help bisexual men, then all research needs to parse them out from gay men, period.”
One of my favorite things about living in Paris is the easy and inexpensive access to all of Europe. I could be on a gondola in Venice in 90 minutes, drinking a glass of Rioja in Spain in two hours, or skiing on the slopes of the Swiss Alps in three.
My partner’s birthday is at the end of August and we wanted to go to a beach destination that wasn’t a seasonal resort because it would be overcrowded and expensive. During my research, I found out that Valencia, Spain not only had a rich cultural center, as well as beautiful architecture, but also had beaches. I checked out prices of hotels and airfares, and it turned out that Valencia had a good choice of reasonable accommodations for under $150 a night, so it was Valencia here we come.
View of the sea from Pope Luna’s Castle Photo: karnavalfoto
We arrived around 11 A.M. on a hot, but not too humid, sunny day. We lucked out and found a one-bedroom Airbnb apartment for less than $100 a night. It was spacious, with a kitchen larger than ours in Paris, and the view from the fourth floor was a verdant garden. It was also a convenient location, right on the border of the newly revitalized historic district and a five-minute walk to a tram that went directly to the beach.
Hungry for lunch, we strolled through the old city, taking in the 15th and 16th century limestone buildings, grand fountain, and impressive Baroque churches. Our destination was the culinary jackpot of Valencia, the Central Market (Plaça de la Ciutat de Bruges, s/n, 46001. www.mercadocentralvalencia.es). The 80,000 square foot market, constructed in 1928, is an Art Nouveau wonder to behold with a marvelous mix of colored tiles, stained glass panels, and a soaring dome reaching 100 feet. Inside were rows upon rows of every type of food imaginable. Most impressive of all was the extraordinary number of fresh fish stalls, proving that Spaniards are crazy about seafood. The fresh anchovies, codfish,shrimp, squid, and octopus all looked so fresh, as though they were caught only minutes before.
Plaza de la Virgen and Fountain Rio Turia Photo: Razvan Ionut Dragomirescu
Another delicacy Spaniards can’t get enough of is Bellota ham, now known as one of the highest quality hams in the world. The stalls had dozens of legs hanging from the ceiling and one of the vendors fed us samples. The buttery and smooth texture had our taste buds begging for more, but we didn’t want to spoil out appetite for lunch.
Salivating over the irresistible foods, we headed to Central Bar, surprisingly the only restaurant directly in the market. It was about 2:30 P.M., the height of lunch hour in Valencia. We impatiently waited about 20 minutes until a table became available, as we were practically swooning from the aromas and looks of the dishes being served. We dove into a yummy selection of tapas, including marinated anchovies with passion fruit ceviche; chicken croquettes; pork ribs; and decadent fried potatoes.
Ciudad de las Artes y las Ciencias Photo: Tatiana Popova
Afterwards, we headed to La Malvarrosa, about 25 minutes from the center, located on the Gulf of Valencia in the Mediterranean Sea. As it was the last week of August, the beach was crowded but not packed. We were happy to dig our feet into the warm sand. We later discovered there’s a gay, clothing optional beach on the northern part of La Malvarrosa. Another day, we traveled a little further, about 45 minutes by bus, to a more tranquil, less populated beach, Playa de l’Arbre del Gos, which also had a gay section.
Chicago couple Adam Motz and Amadou “Tee” Lam have been together for more than five years. But they started talking about having kids on their second date.
“We were out to dinner and Tee brought it up,” Motz, 32, said. “Because for him — for both of us — having children was essential, and agreeing on that was the bare minimum before we could go any further.”
It was early to have the conversation, he admitted, “but we knew it wouldn’t work if we didn’t both feel the same way.”
Fortunately they did.
Motz and Lam, 38, were married last March. By the time the two men came back from their honeymoon, they were talking to potential egg donors. In June, they called a fertility specialist to discuss in vitro fertilization.
“When straight couples can’t conceive, we try to help. We deserve the same chance to build our family.”
Adam Motz
She warned them that, as a gay male couple, they might face pushback from their insurance company. Motz, a lawyer with the Cook County State’s Attorney’s Office, is covered by Blue Cross Blue Shield of Illinois. Like most carriers, BCBSIL doesn’t cover surrogacy. But Motz said when he called the company in July, an agent told him that the egg donation and fertilization would be covered.
“Then he called back almost immediately and said it wouldn’t be,” Motz recalled. “The reason he gave was because we were a male-male couple.”
Insurance mandates nationwide define infertility in heterosexual terms: Couples must try to conceive through sexual intercourse for a year before being covered. In most states, a woman without a male partner is mandated to attempt intrauterine insemination up to a dozen times before a plan covers egg donation.
But for Motz and Lam, their lack of a viable egg isn’t viewed by the insurance industry — or the law — as a medical problem. As a result, they had to pay close to $20,000 out of pocket for egg retrieval and prescriptions for their donor.
“We submitted the claims in October anyway,” Motz said. “Then, in November, a different agent left us a voicemail.” In that message, which Motz shared with NBC News, a BCBSIL representative states, “These services are not covered for male-to-male relationships, therefore they are being denied.”
Dr. Mary Wood Molo of Chicago’s Center for Reproductive Health told NBC Chicago she has seen insurance providers cover egg donor costs for patients of other sexual orientations.
“For hetero and lesbian couples, yes, but not for same-sex male couples — with any [kind of] insurance,” Wood Molo said.
Motz and Lam appealed the denial, with Wood Molo writing a letter they said BCBSIL requested, explaining why these two men could not become pregnant on their own.
“It was very obvious that Adam and I cannot have kids,” Lam said. “I mean, I don’t know how much more obvious it could be.”
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Since then, the couple said, BCBSIL has changed its story several times. Initially, according to Motz, it claimed the egg donor’s prescriptions, which ran into the thousands of dollars, should have been covered by Motz’s prescription carrier. It then, Motz said, told the couple those claims were denied because the donor, Motz’s high school friend, wasn’t on his policy. Then in September, in a letter shared with NBC News, the insurer said the denial of these costs was a mistake and the claims “should have been paid.”
“They’ve changed the rationale for denying coverage so many times,” Lam said. “We’ve heard so many different excuses. But the consistent message is that it’s because we’re a male-male couple.”
That’s when the company is actually talking to them: Lam said BCBSIL stopped communicating for months on end, only re-establishing contact after NBC Chicago ran its story on their situation.
In a statement to NBC News, Blue Cross Blue Shield of Illinois said it was committed to providing quality, cost-effective health care regardless of sexual orientation. “BCBSIL has a longstanding history and unwavering commitment to diversity, equity and inclusion across our company and in the communities we serve.” The company also has a page on its website about “LGBTQ inclusion,” where it states, “We work together with our lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and questioning/queer (LGBTQ) employees to better understand the health care needs of our LGBTQ members.”
It has agreed to cover approximately $2,000 in expenses relating to the egg-retrieval procedure, but Motz and Lam say they are still out $18,000 from their initial claims. By the time their surrogate gives birth, the medical expenses alone could reach $60,000. The couple’s situation is not uncommon, according to Victoria Ferrara, a Connecticut attorney specializing in assisted reproductive technology law.
“The problem is with how insurance companies define infertility,” Ferrara, who also runs a surrogacy agency, said. “You have to be trying to get pregnant for a year before they’ll cover you. Obviously, for a gay couple, that definition isn’t going to work.”
Most insurance plans don’t cover surrogates and many don’t cover egg donors. Because they have to work with both, gay men face the highest financial burden when it comes to creating a family. But lesbians and single people also run afoul of insurance mandates centered on heterosexual couples.
In 2013, California passed legislation guaranteeing LGBTQ people coverage for fertility treatments — but not IVF, which male couples inherently require. New Jersey and a few other states have similar laws.
Nationwide “it’s a real hodge-podge,” Ferrara said.
New York’s Fair Access to Fertility Treatment Act, which went into effect Jan. 1, requires insurance plans serving 100 or more employees to cover IVF. But same-sex male couples aren’t included in that mandate.
“It’s so expensive for LGBTQ couples to have kids to begin with, that this smacks of not just plain discrimination but exacerbated discrimination,” Ferrara said.
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Cathy Sakimura, family law director for the National Center for Lesbian Rights, helped draft California’s LGBTQ-inclusive fertility legislation. She said there needs to be a change in how we view helping people start a family.
“The language we use treats the situation like it’s an illness. In some cases, it’s just the physical circumstances of your body,” Sakimura told NBC News. “Why do we even call it ‘infertility’? It’s about fertility, about family coordination, about assisted reproduction.”
Reproductive justice, she said, is the ability to have or not have children in a way that makes sense for your family. She and other fertility advocates want egg and sperm donation, embryo transfer and, ultimately, surrogacy fees added to coverage plans.
It won’t be an easy battle: When advocates in California tried to pass a fertility preservation bill — which would have required carriers to cover egg and sperm freezing for people undergoing chemotherapy and other procedures — insurance lobbyists fought it so vigorously the measure was dropped.
“They’re going to fight really hard against this,” Rich Vaughn, founding partner of L.A.-based International Fertility Law Group, said. “It’ll take a lot of work to get this done in all 50 states.”
Vaughn said many of his clients inquire about coverage for fertility treatments and are turned down. “So the question becomes, ‘Do we fight the insurance company or do we just move on and start our family?’” he said. “Most just move on.”
Motz and Lam aren’t ready to give up just yet.
They’ve been in contact with the American Civil Liberties Union and are also working with a private attorney, not just for reimbursement of their claims but also on a possible discrimination suit.
“As a society, we’ve established that having a family is a priority,” Motz said. “If we really believe that, there’s no reason we should be deprived of the opportunity. When straight couples can’t conceive, we try to help. We deserve the same chance to build our family.”
Written by Oscar Holland, CNN (interview by Christiane Amanpour, CNN)
Contributors Henry Hullah, CNNEmmet Lyons, CNN
Editor’s Note: CNN’s Chief International Anchor Christiane Amanpour interviewed Cher in London. See more here.
Cher has opened up about her son’s gender identity, admitting that it “wasn’t easy” when Chaz Bono, now 51, announced he was transitioning in 2009.
The singer and Oscar-winning actress, who is considered an icon by many in the LGBTQ community, described the journey she went through as a mother, from when Bono — then known as Chastity — first came out as a lesbian.
“It was very unlike me to, in the beginning, have a problem with Chaz being gay, and it disappeared like that,” Cher said, recalling her initial reaction in an interview with CNN’s Christiane Amanpour. “Then we talked about (whether Bono was) transgender for many years. And (he) would say, ‘No, I don’t want to (transition). And then he went and said, ‘OK, I want to do this.’
Cher and Chaz Bono Credit: Jason LaVeris/FilmMagic/Getty Images
“But it wasn’t easy,” she admitted. “I remember calling, and the old (voicemail) message … was on the phone, and that was very difficult.
“But you don’t really lose them. They just are in a different shape,” she said. Bono, an actor and the first transgender person to appear on “Dancing with the Stars,” is now “so unbelievably happy,” she added.
Cher discusses gender, politics and her directorial comeback
Cher, now 74, rose to fame in a musical duo alongside her then-husband — and Bono’s father — Sonny. She has long had a loyal LGBTQ fanbase and traces her affinity with the LGBTQ community back to a childhood memory, saying that “at 9 years old, I knew.”
“One day I came home and there were these two men in my living room with my mom and my aunt. They were doing their hair and talking, and I was thinking, ‘Why haven’t we ever had these kind of guys around? Because these guys are the coolest.’
“That was my (introduction to) the gay world,” she said, adding that “gay people don’t feel like they fit in, and I never felt like I fit in.”
Cher attends the BAFTA Awards, London, March 25th 1984.
Talking politics
In a wide-ranging interview, Cher discussed her parents, Jack Nicholson and her high-profile efforts to rehome an elephant — dubbed the “world’s loneliest elephant” — through the charity she co-founded, Free the Wild.
Cher arrives in Pakistan to celebrate the departure of Kaavan, dubbed the ‘world’s loneliest elephant’ Credit: SOHAIL SHAHZAD/EPA-EFE/Shutterstoc
The star then offered her thoughts on President-elect Joe Biden, whom she has known for almost 15 years.
“I adore him, I love him,” she said. “And I am sorry that they are trying to hogtie him so that he can’t do anything, because he’s such a great man (with a) great heart. He wants to do so many things, and they’re all good.
She went on to compare Biden to former president Jimmy Carter, saying that both want to “help the American People.”
“When Joe says it, I think by hook or by crook, he’s going to get it done,” she said.
Cher speaks during the Women’s March “Power to the Polls” voter registration tour in 2018 in Las Vegas. Credit: Ethan Miller/Getty Images North America/Getty Images
Cher also revealed that she is returning to directing for the first time in over two decades. While she remained guarded about details of her new venture, she teased that it has “something to do with ‘The Rocky Horror Show.'”
It will be Cher’s first directorial effort since 1996’s, “If These Walls Could Talk,” a made-for-TV movie telling the story of three women’s experiences of abortion at different periods in post-war America.
“I’m really excited,” Cher said, adding that she “kept telling them get someone better… (because) I’ve only directed one thing.
“But they keep telling me that I’m the right person.”
Cher performs at Spark Arena on September 21, 2018 in Auckland, New Zealand. Credit: Hannah Peters/Getty Images AsiaPac/Getty Images
In the meantime, she is working on a new album — and her voice may be as strong as ever.
“My doctor said he was looking at my (vocal) cords and then he said, ‘I want to show you something.’ So he pulled up some cords and said, ‘OK these are your cords and these are 25- and 27-year-old girls’ cords,” she said.
“But it could be my last album because you never know when (your voice) is just going to go.”
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