NEW YORK -- Just as the new coronavirus was declared a global pandemic, gym members in New York City frantically called the fitness center where Rahmell Peebles worked, asking him to freeze their memberships.

Peebles, a 30-year-old black man who’s skeptical of what he hears from the news media and government, initially didn’t see the need for alarm over the virus.

“I felt it was a complete hoax,” Peebles said. “This thing happens every two or four years. We have an outbreak of a disease that seems to put everybody in a panic.”

Peebles is among roughly 40 million black Americans deciding minute by minute whether to put their faith in government and the medical community during the coronavirus pandemic. Historic failures in government responses to disasters and emergencies, medical abuse, neglect and exploitation have jaded generations of black people into a distrust of public institutions.

“I’ve just been conditioned not to trust,” said Peebles...

Children kept at home due to the coronavirus pandemic may be putting them at greater risks of harm from both accidents and - tragically - abusive parents, according to a doctor.

In Fort Worth, Texas, a sudden surge of child abuse cases has raised red flags for doctors at the facility.

Speaking to Newsweek, Dr Jamye Coffman, the medical director of the Child Advocacy Resources and Evaluation team at the Cook Children's Hospital, said a rise in child-abuse related injuries could be the result of children spending greater time at home with parents amid increased stress levels caused by coronavirus fears.

"I can't say for sure that this is related to [COVID-19]" she said. "I can't say for sure that this isn't just a fluke, but we know that when there's increased stress ... within families there's an increased risk of abuse to children."

Your family has a huge influence on your politics — whether you like it or not. It’s well established that the political values of parents hugely influences their children’s party affiliation. Now, a new study reveals that family influence goes beyond if your parents lean blue or red: It’s the size of a family — how many kids there are, as well as how many siblings you grow up with — that is positively correlated with how conservative your family values trend.

Political polarization is a defining feature of American politics — and polls indicate that negative feelings directed at opposing parties have increased in recent years. Despite this, the trend towards liberalism has been slowly but steadily gaining traction over time, with the American political mood now thought to be the most liberal it has ever been.

However, the findings of this new study suggest that a specific form of conservatism — one that is interested in family values, called “traditional-family conservatism” — still persists generation after generation, despite generally increasing liberalism. The BIGGER YOUR FAMILY, the more likely you are to UPHOLD THESE VALUES, the research suggests.

There’s been a lot of people testing positive for COVID-19, also known as the novel coronavirus. A whole lot of people. So many that the World Health Organization has deemed it a pandemic. As a result of how rapidly things are spreading, there’s been a bit of a run on testing as there is still a lot of uncertainty around things, and you can be infected without showing symptoms for days, sometimes even weeks. But even though actor Nyle Dimarco has been showing almost all of the symptoms having contracted COVID-19, he refuses to be tested.

“I’ve been really sick and am now on the mend,” the actor wrote in an Instagram post. He also signed the entire message. “It is very possible I contracted coronavirus and I have access to get tested but I do not want to. The reason is because there is a shortage of COVID-19 test kits in the U.S. and the sick patients need it more than I do.”

An LGBT+ ER nurse has begged gay men to stop going out and bragging about it on social media and said they should protect themselves and others from coronavirus.

While many around the world are following government advice to stay at home and avoid unnecessary socialising, others are ignoring the rules.

If they catch COVID-19 they may get seriously sick themselves – even young people are ending up in hospital. But even more importantly, they will inevitably spread the coronavirus to more people who may be vulnerable and could die.

Meanwhile, others responded to the ER nurse, saying people are still hooking up on apps like Grindr and having sex parties. Because people during sex swap saliva, semen and sweat, it is high risk for passing on coronavirus.

Gay and bi men should be cautious about sex – particularly with multiple partners – if they want to avoid catching and spreading coronavirus.

Leading LGBT+ health charity GMFA has issued the advice, along with information on mental health and for people with HIV.

It comes as one gay porn studio in the US halts production due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

Charged Media produces the Say Uncle network of titles including Family Dick, Brother Crush, Latin Leche, Young Perps, Missionary Boys, Black Gods, and Yes Father.

A court has ruled that people cannot define themselves as gender-neutral on passports.

Christie Elan-Cane, who identifies as non-gendered, brought a challenge to the Court of Appeal arguing that passports should include an “X” category for individuals who identify as gender-neutral, non-binary, intersex or other.

They believe that the UK’s current passport application process, which requires individuals to identify themselves as either male or female, is “inherently discriminatory” and infringes the right to privacy.

But the appeal was dismissed by senior judges, who said the policy is not unlawful. It’s a decision Christie has described as “devastating”.

A new study from the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) says that nearly 90 per cent of both men and women still hold biases against women in some form.

“The world is not on track to achieve gender equality by 2030,” the report states, referring to goals the UN had adopted in the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development.

The 2020 report sheds light on how the invisible barriers keeping women from achieving equal opportunities and treatment in society are supported by negative biases ingrained in both men and women.

Equality for women remains a distant goal: UN report

Using the Gender Social Norms Index, (GSNI), which looks at data collected by the World Values Survey from 75 countries, which accounts for 81 per cent of the global population, the report found that “91 percent of men and 86 percent of women show at least one clear bias against gender equality in areas such as politics, economic, education, intimate partner violence and women’s reproductive rights.”

It added that “almost 30 per cent of people agree it is justifiable for a man to beat his partner.”

Queer people -- and particularly trans people -- are often introduced to sex in a way that can skew their relationship with it later down the line. For trans people that can manifest in the form of relationships with “chasers”: cis men who see trans bodies as a purely carnal, rather than emotional thing to engage with. Heteronormative and cis-Eurocentric ideals of dating often make it feel like if you’re not in a relationship, you’re not worthy of one. As a result, you end up reaching out to whoever is willing to give intimacy as a way to feel like you are, too, part of the expected normality.

At this point in my life, my relationship with sex is skewed. Fucked, if you will. As I lay on my back looking into the mirrored ceiling, wondering whether or not dinner is going to be fish and chips or the leftover stir-fry from the night before, I forget that there’s a person in between my legs. Another late night turned into a hook-up that means nothing. Another person to avoid when trotting around the supermarket next week. It makes me ponder whether or not celibacy could be the answer to my problems. Like many people who have negative or harmful relationships with sex, I’ve been asking myself: is going cold-turkey the best way to sort it out?

A lot of young queer people are switching up the way we see casual sex. Research in the US of LGBTQ+ students at college saw that they were more likely to ensure their 'hook-ups' were the antithesis of heteronormative: focusing more on communication and discussion and sometimes not even including sex at all. Celibacy is often confused with asexuality, an orientation in which someone may experience romantic feelings -- but not physical, sexual attraction. Voluntary celibacy, however, is something that queer people actively choose to partake in, as a reaction to their complex sexual history.

Keira Bell is taking the Tavistock and Portman NHS Trust to court over the treatment she received for gender dysphoria, a condition where a person experiences distress due to a mismatch between their biological sex and their gender identity.

The 23-year-old, who used to identify as a boy, said the puberty-delaying drugs and testosterone prescribed to her have irreversibly damaged her physical and mental health.

Ms Bell started receiving treatment, including hormone blockers, after "roughly three sessions" at the Tavistock Centre. She says at the time she had "no doubt" she wanted to become a boy.

Ms Bell described her decision to transition as a teenager as a "coping mechanism" and says there was "no real investigation" into the other mental health issues she was going through at the time.

In this clip, Pat Gray played a video of a "lesbian YouTuber" who has decided the time is now to remove herself from the LGBTQ community. Watch the video below for the full story.

But the “born this way” narrative doesn’t resonate with everyone, and some doubt whether it’s a useful basis on which to advance the rights and freedoms of sexual minorities. In their research on this topic, Lisa M. Diamond and Clifford J. Rosky concluded that advocates shouldn’t use the idea of sexual immutability to advance the rights of sexual minorities for three reasons:

They’re unjust, because they implicitly accept that same-sex attractions and relationships are inferior (“I can’t help but be like this”).

They’re unnecessary, because judges have used grounds other than immutability to protect the rights of sexual minorities, like anti-discrimination, privacy and the harm caused by laws targeting same-sex couples.

They’re unscientific, i.e. it’s just not true that all people experience their sexuality as fixed — it can change and be chosen.

A group ostensibly representing Christian lawmakers launched a poll on Twitter over the weekend asking if America would be better off with more Christians in elected office.

It didn’t go well:

After more than 16,000 replies, the answer was an overwhelming “no,” which received 95.8% of the vote. In response, the group accused “atheists and Satanists” of “religious persecution” for voting in the poll.

The U.S. embassy in Madrid has warned American citizens of the rising number of sex attacks in Spain.

The diplomatic office issued the alert on February 3. According to the embassy, the decision was taken in response to the Spanish Ministry of Interior’s report over a “steady increase in the number of sexual assaults over the past five years.”

The embassy has urged U.S. citizens visiting and living in Spain, including the international students based across the country, to “take precautions against sexual assault” during their stay.

Among the recommendations, the office has suggested drinking responsibly and using “the buddy system,” consisting of traveling with a friend or family member. In case of assault, people are advised to call 112–Spain’s emergency number—immediately.

Virginia is set to become the first Southern state to ban LGBT discrimination, after both the House and Senate approved the Virginia Values Act on Thursday.

The Washington Post reports: A sweeping LGBT-rights bill banning discrimination in employment, housing and public accommodations sailed out of the Virginia Senate on a bipartisan vote Thursday. … The bill also would for the first time apply Virginia’s civil rights protections to public accommodations like restaurants and stores — not just for the LGBT community but also for racial minorities, women and religious groups. The House of Delegates was poised to approve an identical bill later Thursday. The Senate and House bills have to cross over to the opposite chamber and win passage again before Gov. Ralph Northam (D), who requested the legislation, can sign them into law. But those steps were regarded as mere technicalities by advocates cheering what they regard as landmark human rights legislation.