Out Magazine Unveils 2014 Out 100 List

Out Magazine has unveiled this year's Out 100 list. The 2014 ranking features Buzzfeed's Chris Geidner (seated above) and New York Times writer Josh Barro (third from left.) Others on the list are Dan Savage, Larry Kramer, Andy Bell, Armistead Maupin, Jason Collins, Richard Chamberlain, Carmen Carrera, and the cast of Looking.  See the full list.

Quote Of The Day - Dan Savage

"Let's take [Ross] Douthat at his word and just accept that it didn't occur to him the event was a fundraiser even after the MC began soliciting donations from the stage during the event. Let's focus on this this instead: Douthat isn't apologizing for crawling into bed with the ADF, an organization that wants to send Douthat's colleagues Frank Bruni (gay), Josh Barro (gay), Charles Blow (bi), and Jennifer Boylan (a trans woman married to another woman) to prison. He's not apologizing for speaking before the ADF. He's only apologizing for appearing at a fundraiser for the ADF. (Accidentally!)

"So... it's fine for writers at the NYT to speak before hate groups—rabidly anti-gay orgs like the ADF, anti-Semitic groups, the reconstituted KKK, White Citizen Councils—so long as the event isn't a fundraiser? So... it would've been fine for Douthat to have a 'conversation' with the organization that wants to send Frank Bruni and Josh Barro to prison but a line was crossed when Douthat helped raise money for the organization that wants to send Frank Bruni and Josh Barro to prison. And let's end with followup question for Ross Douthat: We know that your pals at the ADF want to send Josh and Frank to prison—along with all the other gay men, lesbians, bisexuals, and trans folks who work at the New York Times—but do you? Do you believe that gay sex should be criminalized? And if you don't, Ross, what are you doing in bed with people who do?" - Dan Savage, writing for The Stranger.

NOTE: Savage is referring to Alliance Defending Freedom's opposition to the 2003 Supreme Court ruling in Lawrence V Texas, which struck down sodomy laws nationwide. Here's what the ADF wrote in March of that year.

Plaintiff’s arguments have serious problems, explained Jordan Lorence, senior counsel for the Alliance Defense Fund, a national legal organization based in Scottsdale, Arizona. "They are asking the court to convert itself into a national legislature and to determine state policy regarding marriage, family, and sexual conduct outside of marriage. They are asking the court to judge a case that has no court record on which to rule. The plaintiffs are asking the court to suddenly declare as unconstitutional certain laws which have existed in unbroken succession since before the founding of the country." The ultimate goal of this case is not simply to end sodomy laws, Lorence explained. "Advocates of homosexual behavior would like to use a win in this case to advance their ambitious agenda. They want a court win to change the definition of marriage, because the real goal is to legalize same-sex ‘marriage.’ They want a win that will lift restrictions on homosexual conduct in the military, to legalize adoption by same sex couples, and to restrict free speech rights of individuals who have faith-based objections to endorsing, funding, or supporting homosexual behavior," Lorence said.

NOT incidentally, quoted in that post is the ADF's archenemy, then Houston City Councilwoman Annise Parker.

HomoQuotable - Josh Barro

"I fly a lot. When I fly, I recline. I don’t feel guilty about it. And I’m going to keep doing it, unless you pay me to stop. [snip] Complaints about knee-room are not spread equally across our society. They are voiced mostly by the tall, a privileged group that already enjoys many advantages. I don’t just mean they can see well at concerts and reach high shelves. Tall people earn more money than short people, an average of $789 per inch per year, according to a 2004 paper in the Journal of Applied Psychology. The economists Anne Case and Christina Paxson advanced the theory that tall people earn more because they have higher I.Q.s. Taller men on the dating website OkCupid receive more messages from women and have more sex partners than their short counterparts. Instead of counting their blessings, or buying extra-legroom seats with some of their extra income, the tall have the gall to demand that the rules of flying be reconfigured to their advantage, just as everything else in life already has been." - Josh Barro, writing for the New York Times.

About That Truvada Study

Josh Barro writes for the New York Times:

The sample size (2,500 subjects, half taking a placebo) wasn’t large enough to establish that Truvada is 100 percent effective when taken daily, especially because only 18 percent of subjects who were given Truvada actually had the medication in their blood at levels that were consistent with daily use. But by looking at the handful of infections among people taking their pills less than daily, the iPrEx researchers were able to build a statistical model of how the risk of infection declines as the number of pills taken weekly rises. In 2012, they estimated that actually taking Truvada every day produces a 99 percent reduction in the risk of H.I.V. infection, despite not directly observing any such infections.

In an email, Dr. Robert Grant, a top H.I.V. researcher at the University of California at San Francisco and the lead investigator for the iPrEx study, called the 99 percent figure “our best estimate of the H.I.V. risk reduction when men and transgender women who have sex with men use PrEP daily.” (PrEP, or “pre-exposure prophylaxis,” is the practice of using antiviral medication like Truvada to prevent H.I.V. infection, rather than to treat it.) Dr. Grant noted that lower estimates, such as the 92 percent figure, include results for people who were not taking the drug daily.

Barro concludes: "Putting too much weight on the 99-percent figure may lead some PrEP users to perceive virtually zero H.I.V. risk when they should really be thinking about very low risk."

Josh Barro To Join New York Times

Yesterday openly gay commentator and business journalist Josh Barro announced that he was leaving Business Insider after nine months of writing (mostly) about economic issues.  Politico knows where Barro is landing:

Josh Barro, the outgoing Business Insider political editor, is joining The New York Times to take part in David Leonhardt's new policy venture, sources familiar with his plans told POLITICO on Monday. Barro, a former Bloomberg View blogger who writes frequently about economic policy, joined Business Insider in May 2013 and has since become a fixture on MSNBC's daytime programming. He announced his departure from BI on Monday but declined to share details about his next move. Leonhardt, the former Washington bureau chief at the Times, has been tasked with spearheading a new policy vertical in the wake of Nate Silver's departure to ESPN. He has described the vertical as an effort to "demystify politics, economics, health care and other issues." Laura Chang, the former Times Science editor, and Damon Darlin, the former Times Technology editor, have been tapped to assist with the project.

HomoQuotable - Josh Barro

"Being open and unashamed about being gay is just one small thing I can do to change the culture and make life easier for people who haven't had my luck. And that's why I'm mystified by prominent gay people in business and media and Hollywood who choose to be in the closet. They have the ability to help lots of people who don't have their advantages, and they're selfishly passing on it under the guise of 'privacy.' Often, they do this while living quite gaily in places like New York and Los Angeles and reaping the benefits of social acceptance in their non-professional lives.

"Imagine, for example, that you were a prominent daytime news anchor on a national cable news channel aimed at a conservative audience, and you were gay. You would have the potential, by coming out of the closet, to change millions of viewers' perspective on gay people for the better. You'd make it easier for your closeted gay viewers to love themselves, and easier for your viewers' gay children to come out. Or you could live a fabulous gay life with your boyfriend in New York City while staying closeted to the national audience. Wouldn't that be a pretty decadent choice?" - Josh Barro, in a Business Insider piece that continues his reactions to hateful emails from Duck Dynasty fans.

Brian Brown Appears On MSNBC

Brian Brown appeared on an MSNBC panel this weekend where he declared that if a constitutional ban on same-sex marriage were to make it onto the Indiana ballot, "We'll see North Carolina all over again." Josh Barro gets in some good shots.

Blind Link Of The Day

Just go read this.

HomoQuotable - Josh Barro

"The next mayor of New York, if he or she is to do a good job, will have to say 'no' a lot. Only Lhota gave the correct answer: No, you do not strand thousands of New Yorkers for 90 minutes in a futile effort to herd two cats whose lives we are inexplicably prioritizing over the rats who are run over, or drowned, or exterminated in the subways every day. The most terrifying aspect of this campaign is that New York is poised to elect its first non-asshole mayor since Abe Beame. There’s a reason big cities elect mayors like Mike Bloomberg and Rudy Giuliani and Rahm Emanuel and Richard Daley and Ed Rendell. The mayor’s main job is to say 'no.' Those guys are good at saying 'no.' Lhota is the only person in the field who resembles them." - Josh Barro, writing for Business Insider.

HomoQuotable - Josh Barro

"There are a lot of teenagers for whom, unlike Will Portman or me, coming out entails risk of familial rejection, homelessness and violence. There is a reason organizations such as the Ali Forney Center, which provides housing and support to homeless LGBT youth in New York City, need to exist. Making public policy less anti-gay will help these youth but arguably more importantly, demands for social acceptance of gays and lesbians at the elite level trickle down into mass attitudes and make it less likely that families will reject their gay children in the first place.

"At least half the members of the Senate still oppose gay marriage, and they are, by and large, a fecund bunch. That means there are more Will Portmans out there waiting to announce themselves. Republican Oklahoma Senator James Inhofe, who appallingly once took to the Senate floor with a photograph of his 20 children and grandchildren to brag that there are no gays in his family, might well have gay descendants that he doesn’t even know about. They owe it to the rest of us to follow Will Portman’s example and make their existence known." - Bloomberg economics writer Josh Barro, saying that Will Portman wasn't necessarily brave to come out to his father, but instead fulfilled his obligation to other gay kids.

Quote Of The Day - Josh Barro

"You can mark my prediction now: A secret recording from a closed-door Mitt Romney fundraiser, released today by David Corn at Mother Jones, has killed Mitt Romney's campaign for president. On the tape, Romney explains that his electoral strategy involves writing off nearly half the country as unmoveable Obama voters. As Romney explains, 47 percent of Americans 'believe that they are victims.' He laments: 'I'll never convince them they should take personal responsibility and care for their lives.'

"So what's the upshot? 'My job is not to worry about those people,' he says. He also notes, describing President Obama's base, 'These are people who pay no income tax. Forty-seven percent of Americans pay no income tax.' This is an utter disaster for Romney. Romney already has trouble relating to the public and convincing people he cares about them. Now, he's been caught on video saying that nearly half the country consists of hopeless losers." - Josh Barro, writing for Bloomberg.com.

Read the full essay.