AfterEllen, drug resistance and bisexual visibility

Your Daily Package of newsy and naughty bits from around the world


AfterEllen shut down

After failing to become profitable enough for its new owners, Evolve Media, venerable lesbian website AfterEllen is being shut down. Editor in chief Trish Bendix gave a eulogy for the site, and for queer women’s spaces, at the Advocate.

Bisexual Visibility Day

Friday marks the 18th annual Bisexuality Visibility Day. Vice celebrated with an interview with bisexual author Kate Harrad, while the Advocate’s Lindsey Kirkham discusses the unique social challenges facing bisexuals.

Botswana kicks out US pastor already banned in South Africa

A second African country has kicked out notoriously anti-gay US pastor Steven Anderson. After South Africa banned him due to his views, he slipped into Botswana where he gave a radio address calling on gays and lesbians to be killed. President Ian Khama had him detained and deported, saying “We don’t want hate speech in this country. Let him do it in his own country.”

Read more from Reuters.

Russian gay site shut down

Russia’s largest gay news site, BlueSystem.ru, has been shut down by a court order. The court, in a small Siberian town, gave no reason or warning for the order to shut down the site, which hosts 100,000 visits daily.

Read more from the Moscow Times.

CDC issues STI warnings

The US CDC has issued two warnings on the STIs gonorrhea and syphilis. Gonorrhea, the agency reports, may be developing drug resistance to the last available antibiotics. Syphilis, meanwhile, has seen an alarming uptick among men who have sex with men, especially in the American South.

Niko Bell

Niko Bell is a writer, editor and translator from Vancouver. He writes about sexual health, science, food and language.

Read More About:
Power, News, Blog, The Daily Package

Keep Reading

Job discrimination against trans and non-binary people is alive and well

OPINION: A study reveals that we have a long way to go to reach workplace equality for trans and non-binary people

The new generation of gay Conservative sellouts

OPINION: Melissa Lantsman’s and Eric Duncan’s refusals to call out their party’s transphobia is a betrayal of the LGBTQ2S+ community

Over 300 anti-LGBTQ2S+ bills have been introduced this year. This doesn’t mean we should panic

OPINION: While it’s important to watch out for threats, not all threats are created equally. Some of these bills will die a natural death

Xtra’s top LGBTQ2S+ stories of the year

The best and brightest—even most bewildering—stories from a back catalogue brimming with insight