Legalized Hate in Uganda?

via HuffPost Gay Voices, by Kerry Kennedy

On Tuesday, Feb. 7, hours before the Ninth Circuit ruled "Prop 8" unconstitutional in the state of California, raucous cheers rang out in the Ugandan Parliament as legislators reintroduced a controversial bill that would in effect legislate hate against the Ugandan lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, and intersex (LGBTI) community.

The proposed bill, known as the Anti-Homosexuality Bill (AHB), would compel families, doctors, and counselors to report on all those suspected of being members of the LGBTI community, and would impose criminal sanctions, possibly even the death penalty, for those who fail to turn in their fellow citizens.

Combined with other proposed legislation before the Parliament, like portions of the HIV/AIDS Prevention Control Bill, the AHB would also hinder Uganda's HIV-prevention efforts, contributing to the alarming rise in HIV infection rates.

This poses a serious threat to the rights and freedoms of all Ugandans and is a clear violation of international law. It denies LGBTI citizens their rights to health care, education, and work.

It creates an atmosphere of hate, intolerance, and fear. It criminalizes the actions of civil society organizations and individual citizens who work to defend the legal rights of their fellow Ugandans.

And it puts the imprimatur of the law behind discrimination based on sexual orientation or gender identity.

This is a blatant suppression of the rights of all Ugandans and an attempt to curtail the freedoms of speech and assembly of a vibrant civil society in Uganda.

The bill's supporters claim to be acting in the name of protecting Ugandan children -- playing on the common prejudice that equates homosexuality with pedophilia.

In fact, the bill places children squarely in harm's way. The bill calls on Ugandan families to betray trust and turn in their siblings and children.

The bill would have doctors break confidentiality and deny care to Ugandans. In fact, this bill would disrupt Ugandan families, increase the HIV prevalence in the country, and set a frightening precedent for the silencing of rights advocacy of any group deemed undesirable by politicians.

Moreover, the bill's possible passage into law is not the only threat to Ugandans. The reintroduction of the bill imminently threatens the safety of the LGBTI community and the safety of anyone assumed to be LGBTI.

Vigilante violence and hate speech amplified by sensationalist media and homophobic rhetoric by religious leaders is all too real today in Uganda.

Across the country, LGBTI people already face physical attacks and rape, extortion by neighbors, and arbitrary arrest by police.

If we support the human and civil rights of our LGBTI citizens in the United States, we must also vigorously advocate against the passage of this bill and act to stop state-sanctioned homophobia from taking root in any country.

If we support human rights, we cannot ignore legalized brutality against any group of our global community.


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Ed Negron's Daily Motivation 2-10-2012

Friday, February 10, 2011

Today's Gift

A bird does not sing because he has an answer. He sings because he has a song. —Joan Walsh Anglund

Each of us has a song to sing, just as birds do. Part of knowing who we are is appreciating our own songs. Are our songs gentle like the robins, or are we brilliant leaders like the bluejay? Are we easy to be around like the sparrow, or do we radiate joy and laughter like the loon?

Each of these birds has something special to offer. So do we, with our own unique personalities and talents. What a waste it would be if the loon never dashed across the lake because he wanted to be a robin instead. It is important to learn who we are and to believe we are special in our own way. We give joy to the world around us when we sing our own songs.

Have I listened to my own song lately?

From Today's Gift: Daily Meditations for Families ©

Read more Daily Motivations at http://thework-in.blogspot.com

HIV/AIDS Activists Complain of Unfair Treatment by U.S. Attorney's Office

via HuffPost Gay Voices, by Arin Greenwood

WASHINGTON -- Last April, a dozen HIV/AIDS activists chained themselves together inside the office of House Majority Leader Eric Cantor (R-Va.) and were arrested on federal charges.

They were protesting cuts to HIV/AIDS programs and a proposal that would have prevented the District of Columbia from spending its own money for needle exchange programs. (The needle exchange restriction was ultimately dropped in the final budget deal.)

The same day, 41 D.C. voting rights activists, including Mayor Vincent Gray, also were arrested on Capitol Hill. They were charged with misdemeanors by the D.C. attorney general. Most, including the mayor, paid a $50 fine.

Some of the HIV/AIDS protestors, along with their supporters, gathered Wednesday on the steps of the D.C. government's Wilson Building in an effort to get the charges against them dropped by the U.S. Attorney's Office.

They complained that compared with the voting rights activists, the HIV/AIDS protestors have been treated harshly.

One of the HIV/AIDS activists is Antonio Davis, a paralegal from Philadelphia who said he's been subjected to especially punitive treatment by prosecutors.

Davis was diagnosed with HIV/AIDS in 2002. He was also recently diagnosed with a painful joint disease. His doctor recommends that he use medical marijuana to manage his pain and to increase his appetite, Davis said.

The first prosecutor handling the activists' case ordered each person who had been arrested to pass three drug tests as a condition for having charges dropped. Davis' tests showed the presence of marijuana.

There have been three prosecutors on the case by now, and the activists complained that each has set new conditions and failed to fulfill promises made by previous prosecutors.

The other activists have been offered community service in exchange for the charges being dropped -- though they complain that prosecutors have twice refused to recognize the service.


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Op-ed: Our Groups Need More Color in Their Rainbow

via Advocate, by Jimmy Nguyen op-ed contributor

The rainbow flag, the very the symbol of gay pride, represents both our aspirations and the diversity of our population. 

Yet the top of the gay community’s rainbow — the leadership tier of LGBT non-profit organizations — is more awash in white than any other color. 

At the executive director position, LGBT groups have historically been led almost exclusively by white men. 

A step down at the board level, gay non-profits have tried for years to recruit members who better match the racial diversity of America.

After all this time talking about the need for greater racial inclusion, it’s time LGBT entities did better in finding leaders who represent the full spectrum of colors.

The figures are troubling, especially at the very top.  In 2008, only 4% of executive directors of LGBT organizations were people of color.

That figure comes from The Pipeline Project, a group formed to develop LGBT leaders who reflect our multicultural, multiethnic community. 

It is a far cry from the 36% of the U.S. population who self-identifies as a racial minority.  And our 4% is one-third less than non-profit groups in general. 

While I have not come across more recent statistics, it’s hard to imagine racial diversity among executive directors has dramatically improved in the past few years.

Executive directors act as faces to the public of their organizations and the overall LGBT movement; it is critical that those faces be as diverse as possible.

Because the LGBT population is itself a minority group, it is sadly ironic that our organizations need their own diversity initiatives.

In the boardroom, the picture is better but still lacking.  At the major LGBT non-profit entities, only 25% of board members are racial minorities, according to the 2011 annual National LGBT Movement Report released by the Movement Advancement Project, which studies the health of LGBT organizations. 

Despite efforts to improve board diversity, the 25% figure has not materially changed from the prior year.  While the MAP study does not capture data from all gay non-profit entities, it represents a good cross-section.

The 2011 report (summarizing 2010 data) covered 40 of the most prominent groups that collectively control 71% of the budgets from known gay organizations. 

Luckily, LGBT non-profit entities are doing well at the staff level. 

MAP found that 32% of staff members at participating organizations identify themselves as people of color.

This more closely tracks with the 36% figure for the U.S. population.

Why is the leadership of our LGBT organizations so awash in white?  Let’s begin with the elephant in the room. 

The gay community needs to be more racially inclusive – not just in its organizational structures and political strategies, but in its social fabric. 

Ethnic minority groups still are not as integrated into the gay world as they should be. 

That isn’t to say Caucasian people have no racial minority friends, but it is a fair observation that their social circles tend to be less racially diverse. 

This spills over into the milieu of “A-gay” charity events, where the people who historically run the show (often gay white men) invite people they know (usually more gay white men than racial minorities) to attend, contribute money or support in other ways. 

Trust me, I’ve showed up at many gay fundraisers to find myself as an Asian man just one amongst a limited number of racial minority people in the ballroom.  That results in fewer people of color getting exposure to the good work of LGBT organizations.

In turn, this affects boardroom composition. With leaders of LGBT entities being less diverse, so too are their social circles, which they reach out to for recruiting prospective board members. 

This leads to a spiraling cycle that makes it difficult for non-profit groups to improve their ethnic diversity.
 
Adding to the challenge is the money factor. For executive directors and board members, a big part of their job is to solicit donations from people who have money or strong business relationships to leverage. 

That immediately starts filtering out some people of color from the contact list.  There are, of course, many LGBT racial minorities who are professionally successful. 

But it’s the cold hard truth that an income disparity still exists in America between whites and racial minorities (irrespective of sexual orientation) even with the same level of educational attainment. 

This monetary discrepancy leaves racial minorities less likely to be invited into LGBT leadership.  I’ve experienced this myself during my time on an LGBT board. 

I would look through my contact list to see who amongst my friends had the financial means to make a significant donation or had business contacts that would be valuable. 

Fewer of my racial minority friends fit that bill than my Caucasian colleagues.

Of course, there’s nothing wrong with having gay, white men at the top (just as there is nothing inherently wrong with straight, white male leaders). 

But we need more color not just for atmospherics; we need itto help win the gay civil rights movement. 


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A Flaming New Anthology

via HuffPost Gay Voices, by Emerson Whitney

A bathroom view of two side-by-side urinals is the book jacket graphic for Mattilda Bernstein Sycamore's new anthology, Why Are Faggots So Afraid of Faggots?

In a femme and fearless metaphor, one of the urinals is stuffed full of jewelry, flowers, and other colorful, queer-looking flotsam -- a nod to the book's anthological content, featuring "flaming challenges to masculinity, objectification, and the desire to conform," as the subtitle reads.

In anticipation of the book's official launch -- slated to take place, appropriately, on Valentine's Day -- Ms. Sycamore spoke with me while on her West Coast book tour.

"The book is dedicated to exposing hierarchies wherever they exist," said Ms. Sycamore of Why Are Faggots So Afraid of Faggots?

The book was born, she said, out of frustrations with the "gay male" sex scene that she inhabits, and the hierarchies within it: internet cruising, sexual commoditization, and assimilationist culture.

"It's about flaming challenges to all of that," she said. "Flaming as in flamboyant and queenie and outside the conventional binary, but also in the sense of lighting things on fire."

She paused. We laughed.

Since her first book, Tricks and Treats: Sex Workers Write About Their Clients, published in 2000, Ms. Sycamore's work has lit lots of us on fire.

Why Are Faggots So Afraid of Faggots? is her fifth anthology in a string of wildly popular works -- at least, in the queer scene -- including her much-acclaimed Nobody Passes: Rejecting the Rules of Gender and Conformity (2007) and That's Revolting! Queer Strategies for Resisting Assimilation (2008).

"Like always with my anthologies, the idea for this one stemmed from a question that's coming from my own life experience and the cultures I'm involved in," she said.

"In my life, I feel really inspired by trans/genderqueer and gender-nonconforming communities that I inhabit. But in a very personal way, I feel less and less hopeful in the sexual spaces I find myself. Gay male space often mimics the grossest norms of everything I hate."

Ms. Sycamore and I discussed cyber cruising scenarios, including the use of Grindr, a gay cruising app for the iPhone. (For further reading, visit a new website called "Douchebags of Grinder," aimed at exposing extreme examples of racist, ableist, classist, and other stereotypical gay male sexual exclusivity, as illustrated by profiles on Grinder.)

"'No femmes or fatties' is practically the mantra of gay cruising culture on the Web," she said. "This gross kind of hierarchical regimentation has become so normalized, to such an extent that most gays don't take the time to say, 'Oh, that's fucked up.'"

Ms. Sycamore described an experience she had attempting to say "that's fucked up" to a random cruiser.
"Someone had one of those standard posts with all the 'don'ts,' and this one was 'no Asians,'" she said.

"I wrote, 'I'd prefer no racists,' and the person responded by saying, 'Don't be sore just because you're Asian.'"

Ms. Sycamore is not Asian, and she was appalled at the expectation she shouldn't be offended by a racist comment if she is not member of the race the comment is perpetrated against.

"I wonder whatever happened to our dream of a world of sexual splendor?" she said. "The dream of a sexually inclusive utopia.

Today, instead of imagination, we just have regimentation. The gay culture started out so we'd have a place to express ourselves sexually. Where's all the glamor and joy and sustainability now?"

The stories of 31 different authors were compiled in Why Are Faggots So Afraid of Faggots? in an attempt to answer this question.

And according to Ms. Sycamore, the authors and their subjects are as varied as the alternatives to sexual assimilation.

"For example, there's a piece by a straight, female prison guard about the interaction between homophobia and male-on-male desire in prison," she said.

"And there's another story about how drag king culture sometimes takes on the same kinds of prioritization of masculinity as in the gay male and heteronormative communities.

Even in a performance that is based on gender fluidity, still there's a hierarchy. It's amazing!"


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Ed Negron's Daily Motivation 2-9-2012

Thursday, February 9, 2012
Today's Gift

We have seen too much defeatism, too much pessimism, too much of a negative approach. The answer is simple: if you want something very badly, you can achieve it. It may take patience, very hard work, a real struggle, and a long time; but it can be done . . . faith is a prerequisite of any undertaking. . . . —Margo Jones

How many dreams have we let die? How many projects did we start, only to leave them unfinished? How many times have we promised ourselves, "This time will be different," but then didn't work to make it so? Negativity breeds more negativity. Fortunately, its opposite does likewise. Our attitude will carry us a long way. And a positive attitude will make all things possible.

We are meant for good living. But we must seek it out and be open to its invitation, be willing to put forth the necessary effort. Our dreams are our invitations to move forward, to strive for a further goal. And having faith in our ability to achieve our dreams will make easier the necessary steps.

We have been blessed with dreams, all of us. They are gifts meant to stretch our capabilities.

I can trust my dreams and aspirations. They are mine, alone, and special to me. Achievement is possible; faith and a positive attitude will ease my efforts.

From Each Day a New Beginning: Daily Meditations for Women by Karen Casey©


Read more Daily Motivations at http://thework-in.blogspot.com

Ed Negron's Daily Motivation 2-8-2012

Monday, February 8, 2012

Today's Gift

Reaction isn't action - that is, it isn't truly creative. —Elizabeth Janeway

We must learn how to act rather than react. Unfortunately, we've had lots of training at reacting. And we're all such good imitators. We are a society of reactors. We let the good or the bad behavior of another person determine our own behavior as a matter of course. But the opportunities are unlimited for us to responsibly choose our behavior, independent of all others in our life.

Change is ours, if we want it. A scowl from a spouse need not make us feel rejected. Criticism at work doesn't have to ruin our day. An inconsiderate bus driver might still be politely thanked. And when we decide for ourselves just how we want to act and follow through, self-esteem soars.

If we are put-down, it may momentarily create self-doubt; but when we quickly reassure ourselves that all is well and respond with respect, we grow. A sense of well-being rushes through our bodies.

Being in command of our own feelings and our own actions, prevents that free-floating anxiety from grasping us. We are who we choose to be. And new adventures await us.

The opportunities to react will be many today. But each time I can pause, determine the action I'd feel better about, and take it. My emotional health gets a booster shot each time I make a responsible choice.

From Each Day a New Beginning: Daily Meditations for Women by Karen Casey©

Read more Daily Motivations at http://thework-in.blogspot.com