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As the omicron variant of the coronavirus continues to surge onboard cruise ships, forcing several cruise lines to cancel and postpone voyages, Atlantis Events, a gay and lesbian tour operator, is preparing to launch one of its biggest events Sunday: a 4,700-person Caribbean cruise marking the company’s 30th anniversary. Even as the pandemic is raging around the world and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has issued a stark warning telling Americans to avoid travel on cruise ships, regardless of their vaccination status, Atlantis insists that its vaccination mandate, testing requirements and health protocols are enough to provide a...

Ernest Hemingway look-alikes are being used by the Florida Keys tourism council to encourage visitors and residents to wear masks to protect against COVID-19. The men, a former winner and five regular contestants in Key West’s annual “Papa” Hemingway Look-Alike Contest, appear in a short video that debuted Monday evening on Keys’ social media outlets, urging compliance with coronavirus health protocols. “We look at Key West as being our adopted town,” said longtime contest entrant Dusty Rhodes in the video. “Help keep it safe. Wear your mask, socially distance, wash your hands.” The piece was shot in front of the...

Long before the final countdown to the new year, the party was raging in the Mexican resort city of Puerto Vallarta."Ring in the New Year at White Party Puerto Vallarta: UNITY where restaurants, gyms, bars and clubs are open and ready to welcome you to the ultimate New Years weekend getaway!!!" read the online invitation for American party promoter Jeffrey Sanker's annual New Year's Eve circuit party, a large all-night dance event for gay men. Local officials were putting pressure on Sanker as the party neared, according to the Los Angeles Blade. Puerto Vallarta hospitals were at or near 100...

Record-breaking coronavirus rates can’t stop these partiers from continuing to rage. Despite surging COVID-19 cases, Florida beaches were packed with maskless revelers over New Year’s weekend. Photos of Fort Lauderdale Beach show nary a face covering and many a bikini as people continued to party despite the ongoing pandemic. On Jan. 3 at Miami’s Fontainebleau pool area, heavy daytime partying was photographed despite the state’s coronavirus dashboard reporting another 10,603 cases that day — the fifth consecutive day it reported more than 10,000 cases.

Students in Tuscaloosa, Alabama, who have been diagnosed with COVID-19 have been attending parties in the city and surrounding area as part of a disturbing contest to see who can catch the virus first, a city council member told ABC News on Wednesday. Tuscaloosa City Councilor Sonya McKinstry said students have been organizing "COVID parties" as a game to intentionally infect each other with the contagion that has killed more than 127,000 people in the United States. She said she recently learned of the behavior and informed the city council of the parties occurring in the city.

Gay Pride was held today in Chicago. Hundreds, if not thousands, flocked to the annual party in downtown Chicago. Of course, the media cheered this crowd since it was not a Trump rally.

Law enforcement in Ewing, N.J., reportedly broke up a party Friday night among 47 people in a small apartment, despite recommendations from health officials amid the coronavirus pandemic. The department confirmed they received an anonymous call about the alleged party Friday evening. Officers immediately dispersed the gathering that "the renter of the apartment called a 'Corona Party,'" according to a Saturday statement. The apartment renter, Wade E. Jackson, 47, was issued summonses for allegedly obstructing the administration of law or other governmental function, and violating the "Emergency and Temporary Acts," according to the statement. New Jersey Gov. Phil Murphy (D)...

Eight alleged gay men have been arrested by Spanish authorities after being accused of having a cocaine-fueled orgy during the coronavirus lockdown. An invitee reportedly snitched on the homosexuals who were partying it up in violation of the mandates issued by law enforcement. The cops showed up and allegedly caught the individuals in the act. In addition to finding cocaine, the cops also reported that ecstasy, speed and crystal meth were found at the sinful shindig. The hosts reportedly invited up to 30 people to attend the orgy and thought the officers would be joining in the action when they...

Just hours before San Francisco Mayor London Breed issued a citywide ban on all events with 1,000 attendees or more, Hunky Jesus hopefuls were sadly setting aside their loin cloths and crowns of thorns. The Sisters of Perpetual Indulgence are postponing their 41st annual Easter celebration in Dolores Park as a result of the current threat of coronavirus.

Cases of some sexually transmitted diseases, including chlamydia, gonorrhea and syphilis, are rising in the U.S. armed forces, a trend that mirrors the general population but alarms military health officials who treat affected troops. According to a report released earlier this year by the Armed Forces Health Surveillance Branch, incidence rates of chlamydia in service men and women more than doubled from 2013 to 2018, gonorrhea infection rates also doubled for men and rose by 33 percent for women, and diagnoses of syphilis were nearly three times the number just 10 years ago. In a press release Wednesday, Defense Department...

he teenagers tucked their hands into their sweatshirt pockets as they shuffled to form a circle. Some gazed at the asphalt, trying to avoid the game they had been drafted to play. “It’s like hot potato/musical chairs, but with a penis,” said the girl leading the group. The kids gathered on a spring morning in South Los Angeles were about to get a hands-on lesson in sex education. Many health experts say that public health problems are best tackled outside the doctor’s office — that fixing the culture that perpetuates them is more effective than changing a single patient’s behavior....

Gay bathhouses that once remained in the shadows to stay in business are now seeking attention to keep their doors open. Some are doing aggressive online advertising and community outreach. Others tout their upscale amenities like plush towels and marble baths. A bathhouse in Ohio has even added hotel rooms and a nightclub. […] In the heyday of bathhouses in the late 1970s, there were nearly 200 gay bathhouses in cities across the U.S., but by 1990, the total had dropped to approximately 90, according to Damron, the publisher of an annual gay travel guide. In the last decade, bathhouses,...

A push by activists to ease the 30-year-old blanket ban on blood donations from gay and bisexual men faces a key test this week as a federal panel hears results of the latest research. The findings will be released amid growing pressure from politicians and advocates, including college students, to change the policy. Critics say the ban is a hangover from the early, fear-filled days of AIDS, stigmatizing gay men and ignoring advances in treatment and detection in the decades since...

After Marshall Duer-Balkind, 30, exited a blood donation center on Friday morning, he held up a long green form as evidence that he had been rejected as a blood donor. On the form Duer-Balkind pointed out that section that disqualified him from being a blood donor because of a U.S. Food and Drug Administration policy that bans men who have sex with men from giving blood. After Duer-Balkind showed the form to two volunteers from the National Gay Blood Drive demonstration, the volunteers pulled out a red ink pad and stamped “Rejected” on his forearm. The stamp was proof that...

In the name of public health Nanny Bloomberg in New York City won't let his subjects gulp down a 16-ounce soda or light up a cigarette at a bar but as the HIV epidemic continues unabated it's apparently still okay to cruise for anonymous sex among the maze-like corriders of the East and West Side Clubs where gay men can rent claustrophobic cubicles for their presumed hookups. A new study released by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention concludes that "one in five gay men in the United States has HIV, and almost half of those who carry the...

If a Marine spots two men in his battalion kissing off-duty at a shopping mall, he should react as if he were seeing a man and woman. If he turns on the television news to see a fellow Marine dressed as a civilian and marching in a parade with a banner that reads, "Support Gays and Lesbians in the Military!" he should accept it as a free right of expression. Prescriptions for those possible scenarios are being played out at Marine bases as the military prepares to allow gays to openly serve, ending a 17-year-old policy commonly known as "don't...

San Francisco health officials reported an alarming increase in new syphilis cases last year after years of declines. New syphilis cases rose 55.8 percent in 2008 over the previous year, San Francisco public health officials reported. The increase was significantly lower than the dramatic spikes reported early in the decade, when new infections increased 167 percent from 2001 to 2002. But last year's rise would seem to indicate an increase in unsafe sexual practices, which could lead to a rise in HIV infection rates.

A Melbourne man who fantasised about contracting HIV before actually being infected by the virus has spoken of a gay subculture in which infection is seen as "desirable". The 20-year-old man, who does not want to be named, told Fairfax newspapers both complacency about the virus and the wish to have unprotected sex with an HIV-positive man he was in love with led him to become infected. "I wasn't actively seeking it, but maybe there were parts of me, dark corners, that wanted it, that were thinking, 'Let's just do it and get it over and done with and then...

Britain's Conservatives winning greater share of gay vote: poll LONDON (AFP) - The election of David Cameron as leader of Britain's main opposition Conservative Party has delivered it a significant boost among the gay community, according to a survey. The poll for website PinkNews.co.uk suggested that 29.7 percent of lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgendered (LGBT) voters in England said they would back the Tories under Cameron in the forthcoming local elections on May 4. That figure compares with just 19.2 percent who voted for the party under its previous leader, Michael Howard, at the 2005 general election. Prime Minister Tony...

Leading US critics have questioned whether Hollywood is yet ready to give its biggest prize to a gay love story after the race drama Crash grabbed the Best Picture Oscar at the 78th Academy Awards last night. Brokeback Mountain, the story of unfulfilled love between two gay cowboys that was nominated in eight categories, had been the runaway favourite for the award after cleaning up in the Golden Globes and Baftas. But although it won three Oscars, including the Best Director award for the Taiwanese Ang Lee, the year's most talked-about film ended up losing on the final prize of...