— @MichaelEDyson on religion being used to against equal rights
Feminist Griote:
With everyone talking about same sex issues and the rights of LGBTQ persons, I am still not fully satisfied, with where the conversation is going. As a lover of pop-culture, I would love to see Beyonce, Rihanna, and Niki Minaj come out and support same sex issues, and all issues that plague the LGBTQ community. There is no question that these ladies music and style is heavily influenced by gay culture and that gay culture is also influenced by these pop-stars.
After all when Bey says, “snap for the kids” we know exactly who she is referring to. Interesting that Beyonce’s husband has verbalized his support, but not Bey herself. Minaj and RiRi definitely like to give the allure that they can be swayed into bisexuality with their risque lyrics and well photographed girl-on-girl antics, but yet and still those antics never translate into political action.
the rest is at the link!
Asked by Anonymous
Its frustrating and infuriating. Both struggles are worth time and attention, but forcing a comparison between the two is NOT any type of way to do justice to EITHER movements.
1. It implies that race issues are resolve and LGBT is the “new black” umm no.[post-race my ASS]
2. It ERASES the reality that there are POC. Who are also LGBT who are quite vocal about how disrespected they feel hen “their” movement does things like that. That’s what happens when white LBGT activists forget that POC exist in ther movement. It happens way to often and needs to stop.
3. Conflating the two just shows how little one actually knows about race issues and civil rights. It’s like, you only care about the aspect the you think relates to you and you ignore everything else.
4. Seriously though, POC in the LGBT movement actually exist and say this shit every. single. day.
5. I get tired of the “but we’re oppressed too!” response when POC do point this out. No one is denying your experience, we just ask that you be respectful in the ways you articulate it. People stay trying to appropriate the realities of racial oppression like its a freaking trend.
6. Intersectionality people. Oppression intersects whether we admit it on a national scale or not. Denying it only makes shit worse for ALL of us.
Asker is referring to this comment. Go through and also read what dopegirlfresh,thegoddamazon,dumbthingswhitepplsay,volviomarilia,angrybrownbaby,sooolondon,blackridinhood, &dionthesocialist had to say about this
Lesbian couple kicked out of resturant for kissing
A manager approached the ladies and informed them that their behavior “was inappropriate and we needed to leave the establishment,” because they were making others uncomfortable, but they could return the next day for free drinks.
you’re sexual deviance is upsetting and offensive to the moral patrons at this restaurant, but you are welcome to free drinks… TOMORROW
Lately, I’ve been getting asks asking me to detail why some of the more radical queers are so “anti-marriage equality”. Well, first off, I can’t really speak for everyone in the community, so I’m just going to give my perspective on it. A lot of radical queers aren’t the biggest fans of marriage equality for a number of reasons. Some aren’t seeking state sanction of their lives. Some aren’t interested in what is perceived as a perpetuation of a capitalist, sexist institution under the guise of a union. Some don’t see much legitimacy in marriage equality when there are a number of other issues affecting queers that marriage equality won’t fix.
For me, I think a lot of the issues with the excessive promotion of marriage equality is when people try to make it the main issue of the queer community. It’s when people think that our happiness or our struggle as a community ends when we achieve marriage equality that it becomes a huge issue.
Why?
It implies that achieving the right to marry will somehow erase all of the other struggles we face. It implies that we’re a one-issue movement, which is not the case. I think that’s where the issue arises, which is something I agree with because it’s a foul assumption to make that the right to marry will be the panacea to all of the prejudices we face as a community.
dez-ray, this might help.
— Judge Stephen Reinhardt, in a federal appellate court’s majority opinion overturning the notorious California anti-gay marriage law. (via motherjones)
An interesting list of progressive and LGBT friendly cities lol
it goes into the climate and culture of different cities across the country, and most importantly it details what organizations & resources are available in each place.
I thought it could be a helpful guide =)
file under “things that should have been done a long time ago, because that’s the decent fucking thing to do”
I still get angry when I think about how Mayor Bloomberg was all a part of the “it will get better” campaign with his disingenuous ass video clip that he made TWO days after cutting funding for homeless LBGT youth. Can we start taking the rhetoric we use to get votes and start applying much needed services that can save lives please? GEEZEEE
Shaun Donovan, the Secretary of Housing and Urban Development, just attended the National Conference on LGBT Equality in Baltimore on Saturday. While there, he made the announcement that HUD would be specifically increasing protections for LGBT people in terms of housing. Especially for trans people, housing discrimination can be one of the biggest day-to-day problems facing the community, and like many other problems, is often compounded when an individual is poor, of color, or both. In 2011, the National Center for Transgender Equality reported that:
+ Only one in four respondents reported being satisfied with his or her housing situation.
+ One in five did not have stable housing.
+ 13% of respondents reported not feeling safe in their current housing.
+ One third of transgender people were earning $10,000 or less per year (making the housing search especially difficult).
—
Hillary Clinton
related: U.S. makes first-ever push for gay rights abroad
WAIT. WHY ARE WE PUSHING FOR GAY RIGHTS ABROAD? WHAT? THAT MAKES NO SENSE. THAT’S LIKE A CHILD ABUSER STARTING AN ANTI CHILD ABUSE CAMPAIGN. GAY RIGHTS IN THE UNITED STATES SHOULD PROBABLY BE ADDRESSED FIRST, NO? THAT’S SO TYPICAL OF OUR GOVERNMENT. “OH, NUCLEAR WEAPONS ARE BAD AND NO OTHER COUNTRIES SHOULD HAVE THEM, BUT IT’S OK IF WE DO.” HOW ABOUT SETTING A GOOD EXAMPLE AND GIVING ALL PEOPLE IN THE UNITED STATES THE SAME RIGHTS BEFORE WE GO STICKING OUR FUCKING OPINION UP EVERYONE ELSE’S ASS LIKE WE ALWAYS DO? LEAD BY EXAMPLE, NOT BY FORCE.
(via canthemannons)
Woah there. Way to have a gut reaction to an issue you seem to know little about.
I’m in Serbia right now. For those of you who can’t find it on a map (I’d estimate most Americans), it’s a small country on the Balkan peninsula, two countries north of Greece.
Serbia had its first ever gay pride parade last year. It consisted of a couple hundred marchers, a thousand or more riot police protecting them, and a couple thousand rioters who wanted their heads. Fortunately none of the protesters were killed.
This year the parade was cancelled because of safety concerns. The police simply didn’t have enough manpower to stop the predicted violence.
One of my friends here told me about being chased by skinheads, running for her life, when they saw her kissing another girl. This is a sadly common occurrence.
Gay rights in the United States still needs a TON of work— don’t get me wrong. It’s tough to be gay nearly anywhere in the US.
But believe it or not, it’s worse elsewhere. Like here.
So, President Obama can’t fix everything in the US. He can’t stop the Republican effort to make gay marriage unconstitutional in my home state, North Carolina. He can’t force Texas to legalize gay marriage. We’re called the “United States” for a reason— sadly, this is a state-level issue.
But what *can* the President do? He can end DADT (check!). He can promote hate crime legislation on a federal level.
And he can use our cultural capital and our soft power to push for the improvement of gay rights everywhere in the world, like in Serbia, where the Gay-Straight Alliance already receives support from the Netherlands, Germany, the UK, and the European Commission.
The President isn’t omnipotent. He does what he can where it’s feasible. To get outraged that Mr. Obama isn’t perfect is to overlook all the good that this policy will do.
(via tuckarchist)
interesting discussion that sprung from a quote I posted earlier today
Rick Perry’s politics of hate:
Investing tax dollars promoting a lifestyle many Americas of faith find so deeply objectionable is wrong. President Obama has again mistaken America’s tolerance for different lifestyles with an endorsement of those lifestyles. I will not make that mistake.
investing tax dollars in promoting Human Rights is objectionable to Americans? Well, at least Perry is being honest…
seriously though, you could find a million other ways to critique this. Does the world need more American intervention? SHould the west keep acting like it has a perfect human rights record while painting the non-western world as uncivilized and barbaric? Is there any evidence that this new dedication to human rights around the world is actually going to translate into US foreign policy?
But no, the first critique I hear is America shouldn’t invest money in promoting a lifestyle that many Americans of faith find wrong.
-_-’ I’m glad Rick Perry jumped on the first chance he could at using today’s headlines to try and reenergize his dying campaign…
So i’m a huge Staceyann Chin fan, and I’ve been tracking her posts/updates on her recent decision to become a single lesbian parent through IVF. Here are a few interesting parts of her latest post on HuffPo - go read the whole thing! Because one of my sociology professors is currently pregnant with her second child, I hear a lot about the politics of pregnancy.
I am on bed rest, and don’t get out that often, so it’s always a shock to me, to have folks respond so strongly to my pregnancy. And now that my belly is miles ahead of the rest of me everybody knows on sight about my condition, which means I have no control over people’s reactions. Old women smile and ask how far along I am. Touchy-feely, granola types touch my belly uninvited and offer to give me reiki to open some chakra or other. Strangers assume me heterosexual and ask me about my husband, or “the father.” They are quite confused when I say I used a donor, that this kid does not have a father. Even in my obstetrician’s office I have to constantly correct the nurses who insist on calling me, Mrs. Chin. One day I got so tired of it that I sat up in my chair, and from the back of the room I shouted, “Nurse, I have told you a hundred times. I am not married. I am a single lesbian who got pregnant by artificial insemination. I don’t have a husband. I don’t have a boyfriend. I don’t even have a girlfriend. I’m doing this solo, so I’m definitely not a Mrs. anything. So could you please remember to say Ms. Chin?”
She mumbled an apology and handed me my receipt. As I walked back to my chair I reveled in the discomfort of the “legitimately pregnant” heterosexual women squirming in their chairs and avoiding my eyes. Later that day I got an email from a woman thanking me for speaking out. She is 44 years old, a lesbian and she did an IVF pregnancy. She said she could never be that out about her process, but that it made her feel visible to hear me articulate it in that space, with such pride. Her note brought home the irony of me assuming everyone in that waiting room heterosexual while I was protesting others doing the same to me.
—
I find myself saying, over and over again, “No. I’m lesbian, so I don’t have a male partner. And yes, I’m single, so I will be doing this alone. And I must point out that ‘alone’ does not mean I don’t have help. I expect my vast village of friends to be a part of our lives. But there is no father, no partner, no husband, no lover. Legal responsibilities are solely mine.” Everyday, I find myself needing to affirm that this was a willing choice, that though I may have moments of doubt or loneliness, I’m largely at peace with my path. I have to assure all sorts of people that this baby is wanted, and loved and will be amply provided for with respect to diapers, and discipline and encouragement and the space to be whatever he or she can be in our not-so-traditional family.
Because difficult or not, shared joy or sweet sorrow in solitude, I am awaiting his arrival, preparing for her presence, knowing with everything in me, how proud I am, how lucky I am, to be a single, Black, self-employed, radical, progressive, lesbian artist who is 31 weeks pregnant with a child she has wanted for more than a decade. That miracle is in itself a thing to celebrate, even if the experience has sent me back, reeling, to traverse the coming out process yet another time.
This website is dedicated to AS WE ARE: LGBT Voices From the Bible Belt - a collection of personal essays by LGBT Southerners. The book is currently in editing, but we’re still looking for a couple more top notch essays! If you’re interested in submitting, please visit the submissions section of this website and send in your essay ASAP! I look forward to reading it!
Within the next month, I will be launching a kickstarter.com campaign to fund the first round of printing for As We Are. Even if you can’t contribute monetarily, just sharing the link for the campaign will help out so much! Many thanks!
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