Even though, its high up on some of the advocacy groups, its still a problem.

Imagine not being able to see your loved one in their final moments because of your sexual orientation? Since when does a person’s sexual orientation matter when it comes to matters of the heart. Hospitals who practice denying people because they sleep with someone of the same sex are inhumane.

Luckily that all changed, when Obama recently issued a memorandum to the Department of Health and Human Services requiring hospitals to stop denying patients that have gay and lesbian partners visitation. Hospitals that receive federal medicaid and medicare will have to adhere to this new rule.

Of course, Obama is being criticized by a few conservatives on the matter. Surprisingly, a few gay rights groups are also criticizing Obama on putting this on the forefront instead of legalizing gay marriage. But is it really that serious to criticize him?

Below is a video of someone praising Obama’s new rule:

Photo Credit: NYC Magazine

More tuition hikes and budget cuts are on the way. Wait…again?!? National Day of Action was held on March 4th; where students around the country including (my school) Brooklyn College held protests about the budget cuts and increasing tuition hike. Other states such as, California, Washington, Nevada, and Florida are also facing tuition increases as high as 30 percent!

Governor Paterson is proposing $1.4 billion in cuts to help bridge New York state’s budget gap. That’s a lot of money and frankly it isn’t fair to the students.It’s bad enough that students are paying an extra $600 to get an education, but we might have to pay more! What happen to billions of dollars that people had to dish out to bailout banks, insurance companies, car companies and the MTA?

How is it that we “bailed out” a whole bunch of these companies but yet the MTA might cut student metro cards next year and cut service lines? How is it that colleges (even high schools and junior high schools) are the first to suffer? Majority of students who pay out-of-pocket for their education are struggling as is to pay the extra $600. But, does the politicians and the business people care? No, they don’t and that’s sad. Young adults in my generation are trying to make something out of themselves and raising the tuition and having budget cuts are hindering that.

Since when did getting an education and wanting to become something in life become difficult?

This nonsense needs to stop or the politicians will continue to try to raise the tuition! If the tuition increases, students might have to drop out and with the economy still in a recession, people need all the higher education that they can get so they can get a well-paying job.

I know, I certainly do not want to still be working a minimum wage job after I graduate from college and I know many of my peers feel share the same sentiment. This is why we go to college! So, we don’t have to still be working at McDonald’s or Burger King or have to see our friends out on the corner thinking selling drugs is a way to make a lot of money. We do not want that! And, if the ‘higher ups’ continue to do this to us, then nobody will be ever live out their dreams.

I think its time that  CUNY and the other colleges around the U.S. that are going through get a bailout plan.

Photograph by: Annie Leibovitz

Photograph by: Annie Leibovitz

The year has just recently started and the folks at Vanity Fair already have sparked up controversy over their latest issue. Every year Vanity Fair comes out with their annual “New Hollywood” issue, which features young, up and coming actresses, who are pre-destined to be the next generation’s Meryl Streep, Julia Roberts, and  Halle Berry. This year’s issue features nine breakout actresses (some familiar and some who are not so familiar) that starred in some of the most successful movies last year and are going to star in some of this year’s most anticipated films. The actresses that appear on the cover are (starting left to right) Abbie Cornish, Kristen Stewart, Carey Mulligan, Amanda Seyfried, Rebecca Hall, Mia Wasikowska, Emma Stone, Evan Rachel Wood, and Anna Kendrik.

Writer Evgenia Perez describes the women with “ivory-soap features”, “cupid’s-bow lips” and “downy-soft cheeks”. In one of the pictures within the issue, there’s a picture of all the women and  if you look closely at it, they all look the same way: same complexion and body figure. The only difference between them is the color of their hair.

Another problem is that two of the women featured on the cover (Stewart and Seyfried) were featured on the 2008 issue of Vanity Fair. Which means that Vanity Fair were having problems trying to come up fresh faces to fill up the slot. However, what happen to Oscar-nominated actress Gabourney Sidibe, who stars in one of the most successful films of the year, Precious or Zoe Saldana, who starred two of this years most successful movies, Star Trek and Avatar (which is a Best Picture nominee at the Oscars)? Or even Frieda Pinto from 2009′s sleeper hit Slumdog Millionaire? Instead of using past actresses, VF could have use any of these actresses to grace their covers.

Nevertheless, if you look at some of these actresses backgrounds, the only actresses that really have upcoming projects are Carey Mulligan, Rebecca Hall, Anna Kendrick, Abbie Cornish and Mia Wasikowska. Evan Rachel Wood’s next project is starring in the Broadway adaptation of Spiderman. Who cares about that? I know I don’t and I doubt a lot of people would.

Nonetheless, VF has a certain demographic of readers who are predominately Caucasian. And looking at past covers, the magazine usually have (in terms of women) women who fit a certain stereotype like the actresses featured on the cover of the issue. Which means, a woman like Gabourey Sidibe wouldn’t be featured on their cover because of here body type and possibly her dark skin complexion.

Unfortunately, that’s the business of being in Hollywood. You won’t be featured on every magazine because of how you look. My advice for the Editor-in-chief  of VF is to do some more research on who they think the next “rising star”, instead of basing it off of looks. Because the only thing that matters is talent and not what they look like. Also, surprisingly African-American women do read VF, however more African-Americans would pick it up if they see someone like themselves gracing the covers of this prominent magazine.