Vanderbilt research seeks HIV vaccine

Vanderbilt University’s HIV Vaccine Program has been researching the virus for 21 years now, but just last month opened a new study that will test vaccine trials in men who have sex with men, a demographic disproportionately affected.

This study is part of an international program called the HIV Vaccine Trials Network. Vanderbilt was the first test site to enroll a participant, and will enroll another 100 of the 1,350 men who have sex with men that will participate in the study, Out & About Newspaper reports.

Participants will be screened and then required to visit regularly for checkups and follow up exams. Vanderbilt program coordinator Kyle Rybczyk told Out & About that he doesn’t expect this study to end HIV, but that it’s a big step in the process.

“It’s a very exciting study, but we’re very frank about this — It won’t be the study that makes us say, ‘Yes! We’ve found it. We can now end HIV,’” Rybczyk said to Out & About. “It is a step in the process, but it is the first major study that we’ve done solely in men who have sex with men, and we look forward to the data we can learn in that population.”

Inside Higher Ed on the F-word and football culture

Insider Higher Ed has been tracking the story about Hawaii football coach Greg McMackin using the word “faggot” at a news conference. Opinion writer Kristine Newhall says that while McMackin must get his behavior in line, there is a larger problem underlying the story: the acceptance of homophobia in “football culture.”

McMackin is part of football culture. And in football culture, even football culture that exists within a university setting, homophobic comments are commonplace — and accepted, even today, and even as most know that “faggot” is a derogatory term.

Read more here.

Yale Alumni Magazine documents the ‘Gay Ivy’

Yale Alumni Magazine’s July/August edition features what is know as the “Gay Ivy.”

The cover story notes that Yale is by no means a heterosexual-minority school, but that it’s heavily believed that Yale has a higher proportion of LGBT students than other schools in the Ivy League.

Yale history professor George Chauncey ‘77 provides an interesting and complex history of LGBT life at Yale. It’s definitely worth a read from start to finish.

Campus Pride to release DVD guide for LGBT films

This film is just one of many that Campus Pride suggests in its LGBT DVD guide.

Campus Pride announced Monday that it will release a DVD guide for various colleges and universities that are looking for LGBT programming to bring to campus.

Campus Pride, an LGBT campus advocacy group, will release the DVD with Wolfe Video. The guide will provide suggestions for videos and other resources to bring LGBT films to campus.

“Seeing ourselves represented on the silver screen can be one of the most empowering experiences for LGBT people coming of age,” Wolfe Video President Maria Lynn said in a news release. “We’re so happy to have Campus Pride helping us reach the LGBT students who want and need to see these images of themselves.”

For more information or to see the guide, go here.

Student newspapers give ‘Bruno’ poor marks

Love it or hate it, Sacha Baron Cohen’s latest film “Bruno” has drawn a lot of reaction, including that from student newspapers. “Bruno” is about a gay Austrian TV reporter who travels around America looking to become famous and — as a disguised Baron Cohen — makes certain social commentaries. Here’s a quick rundown from a few student papers that have reviewed the movie:

• Daily Nebraskan (University of Nebraska): “Here you have it folks, 2009’s answer to ‘Milk.’…’Brüno’ tries to expose homophobia in the United States, but does so with an onslaught of gay stereotypes. Many of Brüno’s antics are so wild that anyone would be taken aback. He’s much different than your average gay man, who’s probably not going to force you to watch a video of his talking penis.” Read more here.
• Daily Bruin (UCLA): “Gay or straight, no sane individual acts in the manner that Cohen portrays Bruno, allowing the absurdity to speak for people’s deep-seated fears. Cohen brings up every completely irrational fear that some individuals hold about gays.” Read more here.
• The Daily Athenaeum (West Virginia): “Baron Cohen needs to elicit strong reactions, and the easy way to do that with straight men who are poorly acclimated to the gay community is to overtly come onto them …
  But instead of challenging the assumptions those people make about homosexuals, it reinforces them and has the same effect on viewers who don’t have the experience to know any better.” Read more here.

LGBT course at Indian university paves way for other schools

Indian Express is reporting that the academic atmosphere has improved since the abolition of Section 377, a change that the article says might have started with the University of Pune’s start of an LGBT course in 2007.

Two years since the course has been offered, and now with the absence of a law criminalizing same-sex marriage, professors are even asking Pune to teach LGBT workshops.

Princeton Review pegs NYU as most gay-friendly school

The Princeton Review says New York University is the country’s most gay-friendly college, according to its “371 Best Colleges,” which was released last week.

The review does not address the LGBT community and the various issues and aspects affecting it, but rather asks the question, “Is there very little discrimination against homosexuals?”

Thus, here are the 20 school The Princeton Review ranks:

1. New York University
2. Stanford University
3. New College of Florida
4. Swarthmore College
5. Emerson College
6. Simon’s Rock of College Bard
7. Prescott College
8. Wellesley College
9. Malboro College
10. Mount Holyoke College
11. Bennington College
12. Franklin W. Olin College of Engineering
13. Macalester College
14. Hampshire College
15. Grinnell College
16. Warren Wilson College
17. Reed College
18. Smith College
19. Pitzer College
20. Vassar College

U. Hawaii football coach fined, suspended for using gay slur

Last week, I blogged about some of the most LGBT-friendly football schools. That list didn’t include the University of Hawaii, and maybe for good reason.

Football coach Greg McMackin was suspended 30 days without pay and has now offered to take an additional 7 percent pay cut from his $1.1 million salary after he used the F-word, the gay slur, to describe a pregame dance the Notre Dame Fighting Irish did last season.

Hawaii and Notre Dame played each other in last season’s Hawaii bowl, where McMackin spotted the pregame dance. He has since apologized for the slur, but there’s been an uproar in both the sports world and the LGBT community, and that’s not limited to just the state of Hawaii.

More from ESPN

More from Hawaii’s student newspaper, Ka Leo O Hawaii

Football season is nearing…how LGBT-friendly is your team?

The Trojans are the most LGBT-friendly team to watch. Where does your school stack up?

With college football season close to beginning, you’ll likely see teams such as the University of Southern California and Ohio State University ranked in the top 10. But did you know they also might rank in the top 10 of LGBT-friendly football atmospheres?

Gay.com listed 10 colleges that are great for the LGBT community to attend a football game. Of the 10 schools, four are in California and in the Pac-10 Conference: USC, UCLA, Stanford and California. Some teams, such as USC, Ohio State, Michigan and Oregon, are perennial top 25 teams, while others, such as Duke, Middle Tennessee State and Florida International rarely crack the bowl eligibility line.

One commenter summed up the reasoning for some of these powerhouses with far reach in regard to fan base, perhaps even better than Gay.com could have:

Michigan is definitely a great place for football, despite our recent downturn. Gay, straight, whatever…everyone enjoys it together and no one cares as long as you are wearing Maize and/or Blue and screaming your lungs out.

Below is the top 10, according to Gay.com. Let me know what you think. Are some schools missing? Make a case for your school.

1. Southern California Trojans
2. UCLA Bruins
3. Ohio State Buckeyes
4. Stanford Cardinal
5. California Golden Bears
6. Michigan Wolverines
7. Duke Blue Devils
8. Oregon Ducks
9. Middle Tennessee State Blue Raiders
10. Florida International Golden Panthers

UMass takes steps toward gender protections

Starting in the fall semester, the University of Massachusetts will implement two helpful resources for transgender students — gender neutral residence hall rooms and class rosters with students’ chosen names.

The Amherst Bulletin reports that these steps will be taken to protect the gender identities of some students, something that has at times been a problem in the past.

Professors can at times out transgender people when reading a class roster of legal names. Thus, students will be able to submit the name by which they wish to be called, and professors will receive that list at the beginning of the semester.

“If you have the name ‘Sue,’ but you look like a guy, it’s really going to cause problems for that person,” UMass Stonewall Center Director Brett-Genny Janiczek Beemyn said in the Bulletin. “The concern was for students being outed to other people. I think you’re going to start seeing more schools doing this.”

I previously blogged about a new software program out of the University of Vermont that allowed for students to automatically access class rosters and enter their preferred name.

UMass as long been considered a leader in regard to LGBT accommodations on campus, but this will be the first year the school is allowing students of different sexes to share a room.