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An App for That: MyFitnessPal
An App for That is a regular feature at LGBTSr highlighting useful apps and technology tips for our readers. Have an app to recommend? Email me at: Editor @ LGBTSr.com
On my recent podcast interview with Angelica Herrera Venson of Kapok Caregiving Resources, she mentioned MyFitnessPal when we talked about apps and technology for older adults. I know this app well, having had it on my phone for the past couple years. It offers a lot of data, tracking and helpful information, and can be a handy tool in our health routine, especially if we want to keep track of what we eat and lose a few pounds in the process. I use the free version, of course, and only recommend apps that offer one.
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The Weekly Readlines September 3
The Weekly Readlines is a feature at LGBTSr.com, offering news and views you can use every Friday morning. Subscribe here for virtual delivery.
BIG CUP: THE WEEK’S TOP STORIESAnd so it ends—the war in Afghanistan is over. Biden takes the hit, and he also takes responsibility, something we haven’t seen for, oh, four years or so.
Anti-vaxxers continue to ramp up their violent rhetoric, in futile rage against the nation’s attempt to stop a virus that doesn’t care about anyone’s civil rights. It just kills, and it has been on a spree. Welcome to Florida!
Texas made abortion all but illegal, with an assist from Supreme Court conservatives who have stopped pretending to be anything but enforcers for an extremist Republican agenda. Freedom flickers out one majority opinion at a time.
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EVENTS: Philly Pride Returns September 4
When: September 4, 2021
Where: Starts at the Grand Plaza at Penn’s Landing
Time: 12:00 pm kickoffAbout Philly Pride
Philadelphia is home to some of the oldest events associated with LGBTQ pride in the United States. One of those events is Pride Day, which takes place on the second weekend of June. It encourages guests to share their own stories and experiences about coming out and to help others in need. The Philly Pride Festival usually takes place from Friday to Sunday every year, and always promises a colorful scene!
The Lesbian and Gay Task Force established a small office in Love Park in the 1980s and decided to host a Philadelphia Pride event that was open to the public. Several hundred people came out for the first parade and festival in 1988. In 2018, the organization celebrated the 30th anniversary of the event. Philly Gay Pride Weekend is now one of the largest events of its type in Pennsylvania.
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Alzheimer’s Association Offers LGBTQ Community Resources for Dementia
I’ll be speaking with Stephen Dolainski soon on an upcoming One Thing or Another Podcast about his experience as a caregiver for a friend with dementia, and about Alzheimer’s Los Angeles’ support group for LGBTQ caregivers. – Mark/Editor
From the Alzheimer’s Association
The LGBTQ community may face particular challenges related to Alzheimer’s and dementia, including finding inclusive and welcoming health care providers, less ability to call upon adult children for assistance, concerns about stigma and higher rates of poverty and social isolation.
Dementia and the LGBTQ community
These documents from the Alzheimer’s Association describe the issues that members of the LGBTQ community and their loved ones experience and offer guidance for navigating these challenges.
- Issues Brief: LGBT and Dementia, a collaboration with SAGE, outlines specific issues of concern related to LGBTQ people with dementia, including stigma, family composition, poverty and social isolation.
- LGBTQ Older Adults and Dementia is a guide for LGBTQ community members living with Alzheimer’s or other dementia.
- This infographic on the LGBTQ community and dementia includes important information about the LGBTQ community and dementia, including data about the challenges members of the community face accessing care.
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EVENTS: Provincetown Events Calendar (Since We’re Here Anyway!)
We’re enjoying our annual trip to Provincetown, with a time share this week every year. This is one of my favorite vacation spots, even with the interminable drive from our home in New Jersey. There’s a lot going on in and around PTown throughout the year, so here’s a link to their events calendar. Check it out, sign up for something, and enjoy!
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Survey Says: It’s a Tie! LGBTSr Subscriber Email Results
The survey results are in: 40 percent of respondents would like to see the LGBTSr subscriber email delivered every two weeks. And the ones who’d like to see it every Friday? 40 percent!
What’s the editor and publisher of a popular website for the over-50 LGBTQ audience to do? I’ll be splitting the baby: sending out the newsletter every two weeks until I have a little more to offer you, then moving to the every Friday schedule I had in the beginning 10 years ago. Hopefully by the time I retire next April I’ll have lots to share with subscribers, and maybe another contributor or three. Until then, enjoy LGBTSr delivered to your virtual doorstep every two weeks. Subscribe here! And thanks for taking the survey.
Mark McNease, Editor
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Savvy Senior: How to Buy the Best Blood Pressure Monitor for You
Listen to my podcast interview with Savvy Senior’s Jim Miller here.By Jim Miller
Dear Savvy Senior,
I just found out I have stage 1 hypertension and my doctor recommended I get a home blood pressure monitor to keep an eye on it. Can you offer me any tips on choosing a good one?
Hypertensive Helen
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Ronni Sanlo’s This Day in LGBTQ History (August 13 – 19)
Ronni Sanlo’s This Day in LGBTQ History makes the past ever-present with daily rundowns of historic events and people.
Ronni Sanlo
This Day in LGBTQ HistoryAUGUST 19
1867, GermanyIn Munich, Karl Heinrich Ulrichs (28 August 1825 – 14 July 1895) is jeered when he attempts to persuade jurists that same-sex love should be tolerated rather than persecuted. He is probably the first to come out publicly in defense of what he calls “Uranism” (homosexuality). Ulrichs coined various terms to describe different sexual orientations, including Urning for a man who desires men (English “Uranian”) and Dioning for one who desires women. These terms are in reference to a section of Plato’s Symposium in which two kinds of love are discussed, symbolized by an Aphrodite who is born from a male (Uranos) and an Aphrodite who is born from a female (Dione). Ulrichs also coined words for the female counterparts (Urningin and Dioningin) and for bisexuals and intersexual persons. Ulrichs is likely the first true gay activist and is seen today as the pioneer of the modern gay rights movement. Published in 1870, Ulrich’s Araxes: A Call to Free the Nature of the Urning from Penal Law is remarkable for its similarity to the discourse of the modern gay rights movement. In it “the Urning, too, is a person. He, too, therefore, has inalienable rights. His sexual orientation is a right established by nature. Legislators have no right to veto nature; no right to persecute nature in the course of its work; no right to torture living creatures who are subject to those drives nature gave them. The Urning is also a citizen. He, too, has civil rights; and according to these rights, the state has certain duties to fulfill as well. The state does not have the right to act on whimsy or for the sheer love of persecution. The state is not authorized, as in the past, to treat Urnings as outside the pale of the law.” -
The Weekly Readlines August 13
BIG CUP: THE WEEK’S BIG STORIESNew York Governor Andrew Cuomo resigned rather than face impeachment over multiple allegations of sexual misconduct, paving the way for the state’s first female governor.
Coming to a bridge near you: President Biden’s ambitious infrastructure bill passed the Senate with significant bipartisan support, paving the way (pun intended!) for progress on his agenda.
And as the Delta variant spreads, some large school districts in Texas and Florida are defying their governors and instituting mask mandates. Now we see them, now we don’t.
NEWS FOR QsHow The LGBT + Community Helped Legalize Cannabis
Editor 99LGBTQ Adults Are Facing Hunger At Almost Twice The Rate As Others, New Data Shows
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Alzheimer’s Los Angeles Offers Virtual Support Group for Caregivers of LGBTQ Persons with Dementia (Second Monday of Each Month)
I was recently contacted by my friend Stephen Dolainski and made aware of the virtual support groups being offered by Alzheimer’s Los Angeles for caregivers of persons with dementia and/or Alzheimer’s. Steve was profiled in 2019 in Spectrum News for his experience with his lifelong friend Al. He’s a member of this virtual support group and we want to let any caregivers know it’s a vital source available for them, and they can join remotely via Zoom every second Monday of the month from wherever they live.
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Survey Says! How Often Would You Like to See Our LGBTSr Newsletter?
As I start to have more content available again at LGBTSr (travel, book reviews, columns, Savvy Senior, podcasts, and much more!), I’d like to know how often current and future subscribers would like to get the newsletter. I’ve been doing it monthly the last few months after getting the site up and going again. What do you think? Just click to take the survey, one question, easy peasy. Thanks! – Mark
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Gay Travelers Magazine: Pride Journey – Colorado Springs
This article first appeared at Gay Travelers Magazine and is reprinted with permission.
Pride Journey: Colorado Springs
By Joey AmatoDid you know that Colorado Springs is also known as Olympic City U.S.A.? Neither did I. Not only is the city home to the U.S. Olympic Training Center, but Colorado Springs recently celebrated the grand opening of the U.S. Olympic & Paralympic Museum, a stunning state-of-the-art building showcasing the history of the Olympic games as well as athletes that competed. The 60,000 square-foot facility focuses on the core values of the Olympic and Paralympic movements: friendship, respect and excellence, determination, equality, inspiration, and courage. The museum was voted “Best New Attraction” by USA Today and it’s easy to see why.
Visitors enter a grand lobby and take an elevator to the top level of the building where they can view a chronological history of the Olympic and Paralympic torches, medals, and other items. The museum is divided between the summer and winter games and the self-guided tour includes an emotional video highlighting the greatest U.S. Olympic triumphs as well as some struggles Team U.S.A. has faced along the way.