Last week the HHS Advisory Committee on Blood Safety and Availability held a two-day talk to reconsider the 1985 ban on accepting donations of blood by men who have had sex with men since 1977. The US' ban has repeatedly been criticised by blood banks, medical experts and various associations as being based on no science but simply paranoia. Even though it's come up for reconsideration a few times, the ban has never been removed and sadly last week's attempt was no different. Despite soliciting opinions over the issue, the committee voted 9-6 to leave the ban in place, ignoring the advice from people who know what they are talking about who said such a ban was discriminatory and worthless.

Read the rest of this entry »

BioWare is again being questioned about the lack of same-sex love interests in the Mass Effect franchise. When 1UP writer Tracey John spoke with project lead Casey Hudson and BioWare head Ray Muzyka, she just wanted to know, in a game built so much around choice, why couldn't her female Shepard have a romance with the female quarian Tali'Zorah vas Neema. This is the paradox that studios like BioWare find themselves in: the more choices you give players, the higher expectations those players have that more and more diversity will be available as a choice.

Read the rest of this entry »

A thread was recently started at the GayGamer.net forums around the following rant about modern gay rights, implicitly blaming the fact that we don't have gay marriage and full equality on things like the overt sexuality demonstrated at pride parades or the effeminacy of some gay men. The latter I have complained about here a few times already, but I added a wall of text to the discussion thread after the majority of comments amounted to "I think this guy is completely right." Sadly the guy isn't completely right and most of his perspective is incredibly nasty and self-hating, but as I've lamented before, it's a perspective shared by most gay people my age and younger. As the GayGamer.net forums require a registered account to read, I was asked if I could post my "essay" someplace else so it could be linked to.

Read the rest of this entry »

Again in keeping with my previous post, the entry below was a re-print of a letter-to-the-editor I sent Bruce Steele at The Advocate; coming off of the previous entry about this subject, I contacted him with my concerned over an image I felt that his magazine and much other popular gay media was perpetuating. This entry was dated May 13, 2006. Unfortunately I don't feel that the particular situation has gotten any better in the time since.

Read the rest of this entry »

As per this earlier post, the entry below was originally dated February 26, 2006. Although the article mentioned in the first sentence is no longer available online, it pertained to a group advocating the repeal of Don't Ask, Don't Tell and I found some of their marketing to be a bit offensive and marginalizing towards gay people who happen to be effeminate, thus the inspiration for this entry. Yes, the title was a Kelly Clarkson song lyric.

Read the rest of this entry »

Australia's Office of Film and Literature Classification has had a contentious history when it comes to handling violent video games. Unlike the United States' ESRB, video games require a mandatory rating before they're qualified for sale in this country and many of the more "adult" titles routinely come into problems when they skirt too close to the line. The most recent title to come under fire is Valve's gratuitous zombie action/thriller Left 4 Dead 2. Although the original was classified without incident, its sequel has been denied at present.

Read the rest of this entry »

Shadow Complex, a new release to the Xbox Live Arcade, has generated a bit of controversy since its debut last week. The Super Metroid-inspired sidescroller is set in the universe of Orson Scott Card's Empire series and opposition to the game has been brewing by gamers unhappy with the controversial author's political views– specifically regarding [...]

Read the rest of this entry »