• Skip to main content
  • Skip to secondary menu
  • Skip to primary sidebar
  • Skip to footer
  • All Articles
  • Arts & Culture
  • Health
  • News
    • News
    • Announcements
    • Obituaries
    • The Official Dish
  • Opinions
  • Horoscopes
  • PODCAST
  • Subscribe

Ambush Magazine

The Official Gay Magazine of the Gulf South™

  • Read All Articles
  • Print Archive
  • Old Archived Site
  • Contact Us
  • Advertise

Commentary by Noel Twilbeck

February 21, 2018 By Noel Twilbeck

With our frozen temperatures hovering around in the third week of January and wreaking havoc on our city and in our lives, you may have missed a bit of chill coming from Washington. An icy front blew through that week aimed squarely at the LGBTQ community. CrescentCare, one of the largest nonprofit health care providers, cannot sit by in silence without responding to the current turn of events.

In late December we heard that leaders of the CDC told employees to nix using words like “transgender” and “diversity” and by year’s end that the President’s Advisory Council on HIV/AIDS was disbanded after almost a year into the Trump administration.

Certainly, it may seem like there is a progression of events happening that smack the face of the LGBTQ community, but the third happening is so disturbing (but not surprising) in this series which is cause to sound the alarm.

Advertisement

As the icy front started to pass through New Orleans, little did we know that Washington’s ice storm was brewing. On January 19th as we started to thaw, the chill descended from the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) in the form of the new Conscience and Religious Freedom Division(CRFD) in the HHS Of ce of Civil Rights (OCR). This entity is charged with “restoring federal enforcement of our nation’s laws that protect the fundamental and unalienable rights of conscience and religious freedom.”
The Trump Administration is providing federal cover for health care workers to deny care to the LGBTQ community and for any reproductive health procedures in which they object on “moral” grounds.

“We See You,” and we are here for you. For 35 years now, NO/AIDS Task Force, now known as CrescentCare, has been here for the LGBTQ community, and with greater force since becoming CrescentCare by offering comprehensive health care to all. This issue is important to us and we are on a vigilant watch. Too much progress has been made over the past decade not only in HIV advances, but also in the fight for equality across the country. Our message at CrescentCare has always been one of inclusivity and acceptance, and we will continue to see anyone and everyone for the multi-services our health care facilities provide.

In this issue of Ambush, we have begun a series of affirming ads called, “We See You” in response to this administration’s attempt to diminish us and push us back into the darkness of the past. While you may be able to erase words from being used, you cannot erase people, our place in society or the progress we have made!

Advertisement

We see you and we, at CrescentCare, will always be here for you!

Noel Twilbeck is the CEO of CrescentCare, a Federally Qualified Health Center that grew out of NO/AIDS Task Force.

Filed Under: Commentary Tagged With: CrescentCare, Volume 36 Issue 03

Related Posts

Mike Pence Goes to the Olympics
Budget Crisis Could Affect State Hospitals, Public Education
Fight Over LGBT Rights May Go to the Supreme Court

Primary Sidebar

Connect & Join the Conversation

  • Facebook
  • Twitter

Recent Print Editions

  • Volume 38 Issue 17
  • Volume 38 Issue 16
  • Volume 38 Issue 15
  • Volume 38 Issue 14
  • Volume 38 Issue 13
  • Volume 38 Issue 12
  • Volume 38 Issue 11
  • Volume 38 Issue 10
  • Volume 38 Issue 05
  • Volume 38 Issue 04

Recent Articles

  • Trodding the Boards March 21, 2023
  • Under the Gaydar (April 2023 Event Calendar)
  • Women Make History: Carnival 2023
  • An Interview with author Mark Chestnut
  • Trodding the Boards March 7, 2023

Experience Gay New Orleans

  • Gay New Orleans
  • Gay Mardi Gras
  • Gay Easter Parade
  • New Orleans Pride
  • Gay Appreciation Awards
  • Southern Decadence
  • Gay Halloween

Categories

  • A Community within Communities
  • Announcements
  • Arts & Culture
  • Bartender of the Month
  • Book Review
  • Business
  • Chop Chop
  • Commentary
  • Drag Queen Profile
  • Featured
  • Film Review
  • Financial
  • Geo Doing Geo Things
  • Health
  • Horoscopes
  • Interviews from Key West
  • Letter to the Editor
  • Moments in Queer New Orleans History
  • Museum Spotlights
  • Music
  • Musings by Catherine
  • New to New Orleans
  • News
  • Obituaries
  • Opinions
  • Pride Spotlight
  • Profiles & Spotlights
  • Sports
  • The Here and the Now
  • The Official Dish
  • The Real Cheese
  • The Rockford Files
  • Trodding the Boards
  • Uncategorized
  • Under The Gaydar

Footer

Ambush Magazine Logo

Ambush Magazine is New Orleans' and the Gulf Coast's Gay, Lesbian, Bisexual, Transgender, and Queer entertainment, news, and travel guide since 1982.

Publisher TJ Acosta
Editor-In-Chief Reed Wendorf
Founding Publisher/Editor Rip Naquin-Delain
Senior Editor Brian Sands
Distribution George Bevan Jr

Email info@ambushpublishing.com
Phone (504) 522-8049

Recent Posts

  • Trodding the Boards March 21, 2023
  • Under the Gaydar (April 2023 Event Calendar)
  • Women Make History: Carnival 2023
  • An Interview with author Mark Chestnut
  • Trodding the Boards March 7, 2023

Proud Member

Gulf South LGBT Chamber Logo

Let’s Get Social

  • Facebook
  • Twitter

Copyright © 2023 · Ambush Publishing LLC All Rights Reserved · Website Built by Reed Wendorf · Log in