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Archive for the ‘lgbtq’ Category

No offense to anyone out there*

Posted in gone too soon, homophobia, just stop, lgbtq on April 21, 2009 |

*Miss California

I do not want to talk about beauty pageants. I want to say I’m surprised they still happen but I’m not… I don’t care about them, I don’t pay attention to them and I think they are a stupid waste of time; I think they are demeaning and sexist and again… usually don’t pay attention.

But.

Because I listen to the radio and hang around on teh internets, I know there was a pageant and a contestant who did not win, and feels she lost “her” crown because of being honest about her feelings about same sex marriage.

Whatever.

Another 11 year old boy killed himself this week. Another one.

He was bullied at school.

It seems he also was accused of being gay. (Whether or not either of these boys identified as gay is not the point, the point is that the focus, or at least a focus of the bullying is a gay identity or suspicion of being gay is worthy of harassment.)

No one did anything to stop the bullying.

After all, they were just being honest about how they felt, weren’t they?

Weren’t they?

***

What I hear people talking about is whether or not a person can say how they feel about an issue.

What I don’t hear people talking about (in MSM) is the distinction between about the way people “personally feel” about an issue and how public policy gets shaped around the way people “personally feel” and as a result, other people’s real life circumstances are affected. It’s not just that people have a “feeling” about someone’s “preference” or “lifestyle” (and if I never hear those words again in this context, it’s okay by me). It’s that people don’t think, or don’t care that negative feelings get translated into policies and laws that dictate whether or not a person has health insurance, gets tax benefits, is able to inherit from or leave an inheritance to someone they love, raise children, visit a hospitalized spouse, be a member of a faith community, etc etc etc.

Or be safe from bullies – young and old.

Or feel as if life is worth living.

No offense to anybody out there.

ETA other voices:

It is not enough to simply say ‘be kind,’ put up a “No Bullies Welcome Here” poster or encourage the golden rule, like Carl Joseph Walker-Hoover’s school did. We have to acknowledge and take action to address the fact that students are targeted because they defy gender norms. We have to stop acting as if it is generic meanness that causes so much pain, and confront the fact that all too often, it is very specifically anti-gay hostility that is the root of the problem.

http://elleabd.blogspot.com/2009/04/again.html

http://suburblezmom.blogspot.com/2009/04/another-boy-kills-himself.html

http://www.feministe.us/blog/archives/2009/04/21/another-11-year-old-boy-commits-suicide-after-homophobic-bullying/

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Wow

Posted in intersectionality, lgbtq on January 14, 2009 | 1 Comment »

“There is something immoral and sick about using all of that power to not end brutality and poverty, but to break into people’s bedrooms and claim that God sent you,” Sharpton told a full house on Sunday.

“It amazes me,” he said, “when I looked at California and saw churches that had nothing to say about police brutality, nothing to say when a young black boy was shot while he was wearing police handcuffs, nothing to say when they overturned affirmative action, nothing to say when people were being [relegated] into poverty, yet they were organizing and mobilizing to stop consenting adults from choosing their life partners.”

h/t Pam’s House Blend

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‘Nuff said

Posted in black women, lgbtq on November 18, 2008 | 2 Comments »

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Thursday, November 20 – A Day to Remember

Posted in intersectionality, lgbtq, transgender on November 18, 2008 |

This Thursday is the Transgender Day of Remembrance.

The Transgender Day of Remembrance serves several purposes. It raises public awareness of hate crimes against transgender people, an action that current media doesn’t perform. Day of Remembrance publicly mourns and honors the lives of our brothers and sisters who might otherwise be forgotten. Through the vigil, we express love and respect for our people in the face of national indifference and hatred. Day of Remembrance reminds non-transgender people that we are their sons, daughters, parents, friends and lovers. Day of Remembrance gives our allies a chance to step forward with us and stand in vigil, memorializing those of us who’ve died by anti-transgender violence.

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Also known as “Injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere”

Posted in intersectionality, lgbtq, memory, racism on November 17, 2008 | 1 Comment »

TerranceDC writing at Pam’s House Blend:

If you think for one minute that the people who have been against civil rights from the beginning will stop with same-sex marriage or with gay people, you may be surprised. What they did in California was to establish a beachhead as a basis for overruling almost any established civil right on nothing more than a simple majority vote. In other words, they got a foothold for establishing majoritarianism.

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Two of the best things I’ve read today

Posted in just stop, lgbtq, racism on November 12, 2008 |

Open letter to white activists.

I find it curious that African-American women are all lazy unwed welfare-cheating baby-making machines and African-American men are all violent drug-abusing absentee fathers RIGHT UNTIL they are standing in the way of gay rights, at which point they become socially conservative homophobes who can’t see past their religious family values. If you’re going to scapegoat people of color for all the world’s problems, at least make your stereotypes consistent, ya know? C’mon.

Duanna Johnson has been murdered

Posted in intersectionality, just stop, lgbtq, transgender on November 10, 2008 | 1 Comment »

Duanna Johnson was beaten by police officers in Memphis last June.

Now she is dead.

h/t Pam’s House Blend, where Autumn Sandeen, who posted this story, asks:

I’m trying to keep this all in perspective, but it’s hard. Thousands of people have been marching over Proposition 8 passing in California; who remembers — who marches for — our dead?

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In the midst of celebration….

Posted in election, homophobia, intersectionality, lgbtq on November 5, 2008 | 2 Comments »

There is still work to be done on behalf of equality and fairness, and rights for everyone. The No on Proposition 8 campaign (California) looks more and more as though it has been defeated. There is work to be done in our communities, all of them… reaching across and around boundaries – both perceived and real.

Pam Spaulding writes:

I feel that a giant snowball of blame game is about to roll over and crush me as we wait for the final count in California on Prop 8. Who voted for Yes on 8 is clear now, as exit polls show 70% of blacks, (with black women at 74%) voted for the amendment. That’s about 20 points higher than any other racial group. But the blame needs to be put into perspective – blacks represent only 6.2% of of California’s population. There’s a lot to discuss in the post-mortem regardless of the outcome.
For those of us who are black and gay, a group too often marginalized within a marginalized community, I see this as a clear signal to the LGBT advocacy community. There hasn’t been enough outreach to those groups who voted against us. We haven’t reached them; there hasn’t been enough effort expended.