The Associated Press reports on the release of the latest Human Rights Campaign’s Corporate Equality Index, which reveals that increasingly, large corporations, including Coca-Cola, Campbell Soup and Walt Disney, are expanding their insurance coverage to meet the needs of transgender workers. The trend follows a concerted effort by transgender rights advocates to get employers and insurers to see sex reassignment the way the American Medical Association does, as a medically necessity instead of an optional procedure. "We understand people simply get appendicitis, and it is something our community deals with through insurance," said Andre Wilson, who counsels companies on transgender issues as a senior consultant with San Francisco-based Jamison Green & Associates. "That's what we need to understand about transsexualism. Not everybody will be diagnosed with Gender Identity Disorder, and in fact, few people will be. But the people who are diagnosed with it really need treatment." Among the corporations providing transgender-inclusive health benefits are some leading Wall Street and Main Street brands, including American Express, Kraft Foods, AT&T, Yahoo!, Eastman Kodak, Sears, Morgan Stanley, Price Waterhouse, General Motors and State Farm are among 85 large businesses and law firms that cover the cost of at least one surgery, according to a 2010 survey by the Human Rights Campaign. The number is expected to increase this year, when HRC adds availability of surgery-inclusive medical benefits for transgender employees or transgender dependents to the criteria in its annual corporate diversity report card. To maintain the 100- percent rating when the next Corporate Equality Index is published in the fall, companies will have to offer at least one insurance plan that covers at least $75,000 worth of surgery and other treatments recommended by a patient's doctor. Deena Fidas, the associate director of the Human Right Campaign’s Workplace Project, says that "A lot of people are pretty surprised that alongside the cosmetic and experimental treatments that are excluded from mainstream plans, you can see very broad exclusions related to transgender care. In raising the bar...we are addressing the root cause of the problem."
NBC Bay Area reports that a proposed mural on Polk Street in San Francisco’s Tenderloin District has been rejected, although according to the report, the exact explanation for the opposition is difficult to determine. At a community meeting in January, attendees objected to the quality of the art, as well as to content that alluded to the neighbourhood’s gay history. But the artists point out that that is precisely what they were hired to depict, according to the BAR. The Lower Polk Neighbourhood Association hired the artists to paint a gay history mural, and that is exactly what they produced. Some residents consider it problematic that Polk's gay history is littered with conflicts, that although for decades, the neighbourhood has been a haven for disadvantaged LGBTs, but during the sixties and seventies, incidents of police harassment and brutality well well-documented. Even though things have since improved since then, some residents do not want to acknowledge that history, arguing it is too negative. Other opponents contend that the mural belongs in the Castro, not on Polk Street. But prior to the 1970s, the Tenderloin was San Francisco’s gay centre. Another proposed mural, which included a male hustler, was also rejected.
James Franco, the hardest working man in show business, has partnered with Gus Van Sant, reports the Los Angeles Times, a new exhibition created by the two men opening Sunday at the Gagosian Gallery in Beverly Hills. Titled Unfinished, and running February 26th to April 9th, the work will features two films, Endless Idaho and My Own Private River, created by Franco using dailies and other footage that Van Sant shot for his 1991 movie My Own Private Idaho. The gallery said that Endless Idaho runs a Warholian 12 hours and features edited outtakes, deleted scenes, alternate takes and behind-the-scenes footage from the movie. The score is by Luke Paquin and Tim O'Keefe. My Own Private River focuses on the late actor River Phoenix, who plays a narcoleptic drifter in the original movie. The film features edited footage of Phoenix to create a portrait of the young actor at work. Music for the movie is by Michael Stipe of R.E.M. The movies will be accompanied by eight works on paper by Van Sant, including watercolours. Gagosian said that the idea for the exhibition was born when Van Sant worked with Franco on the 2008 movie Milk. The director showed Franco unused footage from Idaho and the actor was inspired to turn it into works of art.
Kellan Lutz spotted sexy and sporty Wednesday in Los Angeles, pre-workout, the Calvin Klein underwear star sans underwear, again offering evidence he is, um, circumcised.
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