Deaf Gay Man's Video Project 'I’m From Driftwood'

Monday, March 30, 2015

Deaf Gay Man's Video Project 'I’m From Driftwood'

VIDEO [CC] - A Deaf man has shared his story of learning to embrace his identity, to encourage others to come forward.



Richard Mesich, from Portage, Indiana, shared his story via American Sign Language for LGBTQ video project "I’m From Driftwood"



Mr Mesich explained how he “felt like the only Deaf Gay in the world” after coming out and struggled to find a place where he could fit in.



He explained how he came out to his mother over instant messanger, saying: “Before my 21st birthday, I was talking to my mum on AOL instant messenger. We were talking and my mum asked me, ‘Are you gay? Are you interested in boys?’

“I was thinking and realized it is time for me to open up, so I told my mom, ‘Yes, I am gay.’



“She said, ‘Okay, that’s good I am happy to hear that from you. I knew you were gay since you were a little kid’.



He continued: “Years later, after college, I started dating. I dated a few guys on and off. It was good and enjoyable.



“I met this one person and he was hearing. We went out for dinner, and we could communicate a little but sometimes it’s hard with a hearing person. Mostly I would text on my phone to communicate.



“It was a very nice time, as he was very patient and understanding. But I realized that being Deaf and gay can be difficult with gay hearing people that I had dated.



“Sometimes they don’t understand about Deaf Culture or know about Deaf Culture. Also they don’t know that sign language is my first language. Some of them understood, but some of them didn’t fit in with Deaf culture.



“Comparing high school to where I am now, I used to feel lost and isolated. I didn’t know who I was.



“Now I feel confident, happy and know who I am. I’m comfortable with hearing and Deaf people, it doesn’t matter to me.



“Now I know who I am but I am not in a rush to look for love. All that matters are my family and friends who I enjoy being with.



“Whoever is out there will be very supportive and love who I am. I want it to be something that lasts.”



He added: “That’s the reason why I want to tell my story. If someone out there is Deaf and gay, I want them to know that there are other people who are Deaf and gay... Read more: pinknews.co.uk/2015/03/29/watch-deaf-gay-man-shares-his-journey-to-find-acceptance/

Have You Annoy Deaf LGBT Today ?

Monday, November 17, 2014

Have You Annoy Deaf LGBT Today ?

ASL VIDEO: Deaf vlogosphere responses in #Marriage Equality after the NAD published a video.

The last several days, some Deaf and Hard of Hearing uploaded the video about the Marriage Equality after the National Association of the Deaf published a video #MarriageEquality in which possibly lead to marriage between adults with animals or underage. Ridiculous!



Most of the United States of America population including straights and LGBT will not accept or allowed anyone taking advantage of animals or underage. They'll go to prison. The real argument is consent is required. Can animals consent to marriage? NO!



Can underage consent to marriage? Of course not! The parents of underage will not allowed it. They also talked about LGBT not be able to have children and they will be the end of their generations. Not really. It is not that LGBT don't know about it if they realized they're gay and have relationship with their lovers. They knew that when they have relationship with their lovers. They can adopt or have someone carry their babies.

Some lesbians like the straight females go to sperm bank to pick a donor and they can have babies. It's not the end of their generation .



The vloggers' arguement have flaws. It's senseless since all of them are anti-LGBT just like what some conservative Republicans talked about. It's plain stupid!



Deaf community concerns and responses has reacted to a video showing, #comments

Deaf LGBT Filipinos Sees Rise In HIV Cases

Tuesday, October 7, 2014

Deaf LGBT Filipinos Sees Rise In HIV Cases

EXCLUSIVE VIDEO: [CC] - Deaf Rainbow's petition asks the government to provide the program called "Deaf-Friendly HIV" services in prevent booming of HIV cases in Philippines.



MANILA, Philippines - Today, 16 new HIV (human immunodeficiency virus) cases are recorded in the Philippines. It is likely to continue increasing in the coming years.



Most of the new HIV cases are among men who have sex with men and transgenders, and due to inaquate HIV services in the country, we fear that more and more Filipino gays, bisexuals, other men who have sex with men, and transgender people will be vulnerable to the epidemic.



TLF Share collaborated with Pinoy Deaf Rainbow to produce Bekitaktakan 3, The Deaf Edition, where Deaf and Hearing Impaired transgenders advocate tackles issues around gender identity, HIV, and the need for Deaf-Friendly HIV services.

To support Pinoy Deaf Rainbow's petition for Deaf-Friendly HIV services, please sign this Change.org petition by Bibo Lee Perey of Pinoy Deaf Rainbow - https://www.change.org/p/sec-enrique-ona-department-of-health-provide-deaf-friendly-hiv-services.



Translate Filipino to English:



I am Bibo Lee Perey, and I am writing this petition on behalf of the Pinoy Deaf Rainbow, an organization of Deaf LGBTs in the Philippines.



The current HIV epidemic heightens the vulnerabilities of Deaf gays, bisexuals, other men who have sex with men, and trans people. Our exclusion has many layers: we are stigmatized and discrimination because of our disability, our sexual orientation, and our gender identity.



Some of our friends have already been infected by HIV, and yet there are no deaf-friendly HIV services in the country that could help us protect ourselves from HIV and access testing and treatment, care, and support.



We have already sent a request for deaf-friendly HIV services to the Department of Health on June 2013, but we did not receive any response.



Through this online petition, we hope to reiterate our appeal for deaf-friendly HIV services. We hope to remind Secretary Ona of Article 25 of the UN Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (UNCRPD), which encourages Member-States to:



• Provide persons with disabilities with the same range, quality and standard of free or affordable health care and programs as provided to other persons, including in the area of sexual and reproductive health and population-based public health programs;



• Provide those health services needed by persons with disabilities specifically because of their disabilities, including early identification and intervention as appropriate, and services designed to minimize and prevent further disabilities, including among children and older persons;



• Require health professionals to provide care of the same quality to persons with disabilities as to others, including on the basis of free and informed consent by, inter alia, raising awareness of the human rights, dignity, autonomy and needs of persons with disabilities through training and the promulgation of ethical standards for public and private health care



We need to have access to HIV testing. One concrete step that DOH can immediately do is to include in the guidelines for HIV testing the possibility of deaf client signing a waiver form to allow a Sign Language interpreter, with the client indicating informed consent for the presence of the interpreter during voluntary HIV testing and counselling and the interpreter bound to maintain confidentiality.



We are willing to work with the Department of Health to improve our access to health services. We need access to HIV services now! Please sign this Change.org petition by Bibo Lee Perey of Pinoy Deaf Rainbow - https://www.change.org/p/sec-enrique-ona-department-of-health-provide-deaf-friendly-hiv-services.



Director: Jedd Rommel

Talent: Disney Aguila

Writers: Jonas Bagas, Angelo Esperanzate, Disney Aguila, Bibo Perey, MJ Cenidoza

Production team: TLF Share staff with Ms. Pat Bringas and Santi Obcena



This video was produced by TLF Share for Dangal Pilipinas with the support of the ISEAN-Hivos Programme in the Philippines.

Why Don't People Believe In Bisexuality ?

Thursday, September 4, 2014

Why Don't People Believe In Bisexuality ?

VIDEO: [CC] - Why Don't People Believe in Bisexuality ? Sexuality is more about just being gay or straight.



This post is purpose for education and awareness of Bisexuality. New research shows that many Deaf and Hard of Hearing people ignore or don't believe in bi and a sexuality - this despite the fact there's scientific evidence supporting the existence of both. Laci Green looks at why this is, and the groups most likely to hold this line of thinking.



Considerable gender, racial and sexuality differences in attitudes toward bisexuality

http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2013-11/uops-cgr103113.php

"Men who identify themselves as heterosexual are three times more likely to categorize bisexuality as "not a legitimate sexual orientation," an attitude that can encourage negative health outcomes in people who identify as bisexual, according to an analysis led by University of Pittsburgh Graduate School of Public Health researcher Mackey Friedman, Ph.D., M.P.H."

Turn "Closed Captioned" On

Study: Straight Guys Don't Believe in Bisexuality

http://nymag.com/thecut/2013/11/straight-guys-dont-believe-in-bisexuality.html

"Straight men are three times more likely to categorize bisexuality as "not a thing," according to a University of Pittsburgh study."



Sexual arousal patterns of bisexual men revisited.

http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/21763395

"Men who identify themselves as bisexual report feeling sexually aroused by both men and women. However, past research has not demonstrated that such men exhibit substantial genital arousal to both male and female erotic stimuli, suggesting that they identify as bisexual for reasons other than their genital arousal pattern."

How many people are lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender?

http://williamsinstitute.law.ucla.edu/wp-content/uploads/Gates-How-Many-People-LGBT-Apr-2011.pdf

"Increasing numbers of population-based surveys in the United States and across the world

include questions that allow for an estimate of the size of the lesbian, gay, bisexual, and

transgender (LGBT) population."

Watch More:

An (A)Sexual Orientation

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Qk74Gj5hXZI



TestTube Wild Card

http://testtube.com/dnews/dnews-263-can-you-sneeze-without-closing-your-eyes?utm_source=YT&utm_medium=DNews&utm_campaign=DNWC



Born Gay

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=70I7Nag4Eu8



DNews is dedicated to satisfying your curiosity and to bringing you mind-bending stories & perspectives you won't find anywhere else! New videos twice daily. Watch More DNews on TestTube http://testtube.com/dnews

Deaf Gay Man Sues D.C. Jail For Mistreatment

Thursday, February 7, 2013

Deaf Gay Man Sues D.C. Jail For Mistreatment

VIDEO: Deaf gay man alleges mistreatment at D.C. jail.



WASHINGTON, DC - A former inmate in the District of Columbia correctional system is suing the city for alleged mistreatment. The D.C. man is Deaf, and the lawsuit claims he was unable to effectively communicate during his period of confinement. It also alleges his treatment got worse when he complained.



44-year-old William Pierce is profoundly Deaf. He wound up with a 60-day sentence in the city's correction system after an altercation with his partner resulted in a conviction for simple assault.



At the order of the judge, Pierce actually wound up in the Correctional Treatment Facility to get help. The CTF adjoins the city jail.

Arthur Spitzer, an attorney for the American Civil Liberties Union of the Nation's Capital, said in an interview: "There was no interpreter there for [Pierce] at intake, or at any of his medical appointments, he had some medical problems or at any of his classes. He was taking an anger management class, and he didn't know what was going on. He didn't know what people were saying. He couldn't participate in the group discussion(s)."



The lawsuit says, under the Americans with Disabilities Act, accommodations for the Deaf must be made so inmates can communicate. Things got worse for William Pierce when he complained, according to his attorney. ... Read more: http://www.myfoxdc.com/story/20943928/deaf-man-alleges-mistreatment-at-dc-jail#axzz2KD4UbjPN



Washington Blade - Gay Deaf man sues city for mistreatment.



WASHINGTON, DC - In a lawsuit filed in federal court on Feb. 1, a former D.C. jail inmate who’s Deaf and gay, accuses the city’s Department of Corrections of engaging in disability-related discrimination by refusing to provide him basic services required by the Americans with Disabilities Act.



William Pierce, 44, who was sentenced to two months in a city jail for an assault conviction, charges in the lawsuit that jail officials repeatedly refused to provide a sign language interpreters as required by law and retaliated against him for complaining about his conditions by placing him in solitary confinement.



Pierce, who has HIV, was given only three of the four HIV medications he had been taking at home and was unable to understand why prison doctors changed his medication regimen because of the lack of a sign language interpreter, the lawsuit says.



It says the emotional distress Pierce suffered due to the alleged discriminatory treatment was heightened when jail guards handcuffed him shortly before his mother arrived for a visit, preventing him from communicating with her in sign language.



“The District of Columbia needs to be held accountable for its outright discrimination and reminded that people with disabilities cannot just be locked away and ignored,” said Arthur Spitzer, legal director of the ACLU of the Nation’s Capital, which filed the lawsuit on Pierce’s behalf in U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia.



Spitzer said most of the alleged discriminatory actions against Pierce took place at the D.C. Jail’s Correctional Treatment Facility. The CTF is operated by the Corrections Corporation of America, a private company under contract with the city.



“D.C., in turn, needs to hold the Corrections Corporation of America accountable for its continued disregard for the wellbeing of the individuals the city has placed in its care,” Spitzer said in a statement. ... Read more: http://www.washingtonblade.com/2013/02/06/gay-deaf-man-sues-city-for-mistreatment/