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.
In From Disgust to Humanity, Nussbaum, a prominent professor of law and philosophy at the University of Chicago, explains that much of the political rhetoric around denying equal rights to gay Americans is rooted in the language of disgust. Their activities are depicted as "vile and revolting," threatening to "contaminate and defile" the rest of us. Looked at starkly, she argues, much of the anti-gay argument is bound up in feces and saliva, germs, contagion and blood.
The philosophical question for Nussbaum is whether disgust of this sort is a "reliable guide to lawmaking." She cites Leon Kass, head of the President's Council on Bioethics in the George W. Bush administration, who has argued that it is; that visceral public disgust contains a "wisdom" that lies beneath rational argument. Then she proceeds to annihilate that argument by offering example after example of discarded disgust-based policies, from India's denigration of its "untouchables" to the Nazi view of Jews, to a legally sanctioned regime of separate swimming pools and water fountains in the Jim Crow South. Time and again, Nussbaum argues, societies have been able to move beyond their own politics of disgust to what she calls "the politics of humanity," once they have finally managed to see others as fully human, with human aspirations and desires.
We must remind ourselves that civil rights never came to anyone who just meekly asked for them.
Gays, increasingly frustrated by Democrats' inaction on their civil rights issues, are pushing back and setting a new standard for what is acceptable in their political leaders.
It all started with whose campaign promises included ending "Don't Ask, Don't Tell," pushing for the Employment Non-Discrimination Act, overturning the misnamed Defense of Marriage Act and addressing other lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender priorities. Gay people, already strongly Democratic, jumped aboard with much campaign support. "The fierce urgency of now" suggested the end of advising gays to exercise infinite patience.
More than a year later, the president has signed only one piece of LGBT legislation, the hate crimes bill, which was part of a must-have war funding bill.
by Lorenzo Herrera y Lozano
Read more LifeLube musings from Lorenzo here
Now underway - a 2 – 3 week hearing on the constitutionality of Prop 8.
I am hopeful that this step will take us closer to a Supreme Court hearing that might lead to a sweeping demise of marriage inequality in the country. However, we might be paying a high price for such a victory.
In reading what the judge has asked both sides to speak to, I saw the opening for the exploration as to whether gayness is a choice.
I haven’t a clue what scientific, psychological or sociological arguments will be presented. Although, in 2010 I imagine the argument as to whether sexual orientation is a matter of choice or biology will be answered rather easily. With a number of respected and well-regarded associations, institutions, organizations and experts agreeing that sexual orientation is not a disease or a result of a series of unfortunate circumstances, the question might be answered with some ease.
My concerns do not stem from the argument of biology versus lack-of-a-father-figure. I am concerned, however, with basing an argument about sexual orientation on biological predetermination and removing any semblance of choice, preference (god forbid) or desire (yikes!).
I understand the strategic argument for god (the Christian god, of course) and/or biology making us this way. After all, if I were born this way it would be unconscionable to deny me the basic rights that others (born the other way) have. While I get this, I don’t get how being a "biological error" (to quote Dr. Laura) or "blessing" (to quote queer revolutionaries) should be the primary reason(s) why I must be afforded the right to marry, to access health care or to stay alive.
I am not naïve; I know what country I live in, what decade I am in and what generation I was born into. Still, I can’t help but mourn the fact that I deserve these fundamental rights, not because I was born a certain way, but because I was born, period. I would much prefer to witness the realization of rights based on my humanity and not on the possibility that some divine being or mix matching of chromosomes or elongated index fingers “made me this way.”
I’m a little old school when it comes to sex and gender. I am an adamant believer in the fundamental right and necessity for choice. When I hold my partner in my arms, I am reminded not of how my mother’s womb made me gay, but how from the deep, sacred and evolving parts of my humanity I have come to desire, adore and build a life with another brown man. In the end, choice might be the one thing that keeps me queer.
I bow my hat to those working tirelessly to make marriage equality a reality. I only hope that our trade-off does not send us so far back that we cease to be queer and become normal.
Two years ago in Paris I proposed to José Maria. We joined together as a couple to win marriage. Marriage is not necessarily what Jose Maria and I want in life as a couple. We want the right to marry as activists. There are many couples in Argentina who have this urgent need.
There's a swimwear round and a talent section where contestants can show off their singing and dancing. But organisers insist the contest to be held this Friday is a serious business. It is China's first gay pageant.
The event is a striking sign of how far attitudes in China have changed and of gay people's increasing confidence. Gay sex was illegal until 1997. Homosexuality was classed as a mental illness for four years after that. Now an emerging gay community is busting stereotypes.
"We are intelligent, we're professionals, we're gorgeous – and we're gay," said contestant Emilio Liu, from Inner Mongolia. "I want the audience to know there are a whole bunch of people like us living in China. It's a wonderful life and it's not hidden any more."
When Iceland installed Johanna Sigurdardottir (pictured) as Prime Minister last February, newspapers around the globe printed variations of the same headline: ICELAND APPOINTS WORLD'S FIRST GAY LEADER. Everywhere, that is, except Iceland. The Icelandic media didn't mention Sigurdardottir's sexuality for days, and only then to point out that the foreign press had taken an interest in their new head of state — a 67-year-old former flight attendant turned politician whom voters had consistently rated Iceland's most trustworthy politician. Sure, she was gay and had entered a civil partnership with another woman in 2002. But Icelanders hardly seemed to notice. "The media silence echoed the sentiment of the public. Nobody cared about her sexual
orientation," says Margret Bjornsdottir, the director of the Institute for Public Administration and Politics at the University of Iceland. "Being gay is a nonissue here. It's considered unremarkable."
Buoyed by liberal attitudes such as those, politicians across Western Europe are stepping out of the closet and into their country's highest political offices. Eleven openly gay men and women now serve in the British Parliament, including two in the Cabinet. Last June, Nicolas Sarkozy appointed Frédéric Mitterrand, a gay television presenter, to the post of Minister of Culture. Paris' Mayor Bertrand Delanoë (pictured), tipped by some to contest the 2012 presidential race, is gay. And Guido Westerwelle, chairman of Germany's Free Democratic Party, has just become his country's Foreign Minister, joining a gay élite that includes the mayors of Berlin and Hamburg, Germany's two largest cities. Klaus Wowereit, Berlin's mayor, says coming out ahead of the 2001 mayoral race while under pressure from tabloids strengthened his campaign. "My confession might have contributed to my popularity," he says. "Many people appreciate honesty."
It's crazy – the U.S. Census Bureau wants an accurate count of everyone in the country – but there's no question in the survey that asks if you are lesbian, gay, bisexual or transgender.
You read that right: LGBT people are basically invisible in the survey that is supposed to reflect the diversity of America's population – and that's a big problem.
The data collected impacts issues critical to every American – like our health care, our economic stability, and even our safety. And when LGBT people aren't counted, then we also don't count when it comes to services, resources ... you name it.
It's past time to Queer the Census! Sign the petition to demand that the census ask the question and count everyone!
In my experience I’ve seen a lot of gay men who are still suffering from their experiences growing up. We feel wounded, and that woundedness is something we still carry around, and still endure. It leads us to take measures to try and make the hurt stop. This means doing drugs, spending excessive amounts of money on cars, vacations and clothes, and pursuing whatever diversions make us feel better the fastest. Marketers love gays because they don’t watch their pocketbooks as much as most people do . . . we don’t have the financial responsibilities to the same degree . . . but of course with this parenthood trend, that’s changing.
I also think we gays have been repressed for such a long period during our youth that there’s some “catching up” we feel we need to do. That’s why you see such juvenile behavior among men my age . . . I think they feel like they missed out on a lot of social enjoyment and fun and camaraderie by being in the closet earlier on and they’re making up for lost time. Unfortunately this often leads them to engage in risky behaviors. The idea that you’re defying danger and risk can be -- dare I say it out loud -- sexy. . . and that’s one of the most overlooked aspects of this disease. Too often we are subconsciously thinking, “Can I get this thrill without paying the consequences?”
Next year, for the first time, the United States census will count same-sex couples who identify themselves as spouses. Previously these people were identified as unmarried partners. Guest host Jennifer Ludden discusses the effort and its implications for the gay rights movement with demographer Gary Gates; he's a senior research fellow at the UCLA School of Law, and a member of "Our Families Count," a census advocacy campaign for the lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender community.
The 22nd National Conference on LGBT Equality: Creating Change is being held in Dallas, Texas, Feb. 3-7, 2010. Go to http://www.creatingchange.org for more information and to register!
For one thing, he's smart. Scary smart. A student in the West Fork School District in Washington County, he skipped a grade this year, going directly from the third to the fifth. When his family goes for a drive, discussions are much more apt to be about Teddy Roosevelt and terraforming Mars than they are about Spongebob Squarepants and what's playing on Radio Disney.
It was during one of those drives that the discussion turned to the pledge of allegiance and what it means. Laura Phillips is Will's mother. “Yes, my son is 10,” she said. “But he's probably more aware of the meaning of the pledge than a lot of adults. He's not just doing it rote recitation. We raised him to be aware of what's right, what's wrong, and what's fair.”
Will's family has a number of gay friends. In recent years, Laura Phillips said, they've been trying to be a straight ally to the gay community, going to the pride parades and standing up for the rights of their gay and lesbian neighbors. They've been especially dismayed by the effort to take away the rights of homosexuals – the right to marry, and the right to adopt. Given that, Will immediately saw a problem with the pledge of allegiance.
“I've always tried to analyze things because I want to be lawyer,” Will said. “I really don't feel that there's currently liberty and justice for all.”
by Ed Negron, a former drug user, turned gangbanger, turned drug dealer, turned own best customer, turned addict, turned recovering addict (still there), turned activist, turned business manager, turned student, turned Substance Abuse Counselor, turned better and happier person, turned someone who can love and be loved (Love you Patrick), turned blogger. Check out Ed's own blog here.
This post is dedicated to
Jorge Steven Lopez Mercado,
(August 13, 1990 – November 13, 2009)
and every other victim of a hate crime.
Today I will share my personal "Work-In" with you. I am writing this with feelings of anger and sadness. I am angry because I live in world where some people think that it’s ok to hurt another person because they don’t like them. The sadness is that we are losing too many young lives to volience.
On November 13, 2009, 19-year-old, openly gay Jorge Steven Lopez Mercado’s body was found on the site of an isolated road in the city of Cayey in Puerto Rico. His body was partially burned, decapitated, and dismembered, both arms, both legs, and the torso.
A suspect has been arrested for the murder. According to Telemundo and other local reports, the 28 year old father of four Martinez Matos confessed to authorities that he picked Lopez Mercado up from the street, thinking that he was a woman. When he realized that Lopez Mercado was a man, Martinez Matos said he regressed to an incident when he was sexually assaulted during a prison term. He then attacked Lopez Mercado, separating his arms from his torso. Again this is all hearsay. I have been reading articles all over the web with varying version of the story. The bottom line is this is just so wrong on many levels. As I read all the news stories and what his friends on Facebook are saying about Jorge Steven my tears start flowing.
Today I just heard of Jason Mattison Jr,s. death. Jason was 15, an openly gay sophomore at the Vivian T. Thomas Medical Arts Academy in Baltimore. He was found dead last week at his aunt’s house. He had been raped, gagged with a pillowcase and stabbed repeatedly in the head and throat. Then his body was shoved into an upstairs closet at the house. Full story at baltimoresun.com.
As I write this my tears are flowing. Why is there so much hate in this world?
No child is born a bigot. Hate is learned.
I will only speak for myself. I was born into this world as a blank slate. I would image that the only thing I knew was that when I was hungry I cried and mom fed me. So I learned that to get fed, I had to cry. As child, I watched and learned from this big world around me. I saw how adults looked at and treated each other. I listen to every word they said. I mimicked their every move because they were adults and I wanted to be just like them.
The earliest lesson I remember about hate came from my family and every other Puerto Rican I new. I wasn’t supposed to like Mexicans. Back in the day, there was the big feud between Puerto Ricans and Mexicans. No one knew why we hated each other. We just knew we were supposed to hate each other - just because. I always love it when adults say, “just because” when they don’t have answer to a question.
Then I learned I was supposed to hate gay people because the Bible says so.
But it really doesn’t. Ok, so now I have to hate myself because I like boys to. Then my hatred grew into rage because, as much as I wanted to like myself, all I heard was hatred towards people like me. My rage then turned into self-destruction. I began to do harm to my body through drugs and alcohol. Some of that rage was turned outward toward everyone else. I grew hatred towards everyone who hated gays.
Fuck those homophobes. I was going to make their lives just as miserable as they made mine. But I did it mentally. I got into peoples heads and mind fucked them. I said and did things for the shock value. The look on their faces was priceless. But at the end of the day, I still felt the same about myself. It was a “lose-lose” situation. I became tired of hating. It takes to much negative energy.
I had to unlearn hate. Yes, it’s possible.
Ending my hate takes a lot of conscious thinking. I have to keep an awareness of how my actions and words impact other people, intentional or unintentional. I’m not perfect, I still have my moments, but I try to catch myself. People may still hate me because of who I am, but that doesn’t mean I have to hate them in return. Yes, I may get mad at them, but I won’t hate them. Again, it’s not always easy, but it can be done.
Here is a good example of how people change hate into something beautiful. This past Tuesday morning I read on Facebook that there was going to be a vigil for Jorge Steven Lopez Mercado in New York. I immediately thought that Chicago, having the second largest population of Puerto Ricans outside the island, has to have one as well. I sent an email out to a hand full of friends at 9:15a.m., and by the end of the day these individuals put it together.
Now my tears are of joy.
My community yet again modeled want community is truly about. I know I can lean on them when I’m not strong, and visa versa. When one of us is hurt we must put all our differences aside and come together to provide support and strength for one another. We will mourn together. We will show the world that the BGLTQ Community will not be defeated by hate or any other injustices!
I invite you to join us in solidarity as we to honor the life of Jorge Steven Lopez Mercado. On Sunday, November 22, 2009, vigils will be held in cities across the U.S. Visit http://mercado-vigil.tumblr.com to find a city near you.
If you cannot join us in person I ask that you hold Jorge Steven Lopez Mercado, Jason Mattison Jr. and all other victims of a hate crime in your heart on Sunday and always.
Chicago Vigil DATE: Sunday, November 22. TIME: 4pm-6pm LOCATION: Convene at 4p.m, at the corner of Division & California, Procession & Vigil towards the Humboldt Park Boat House, upon arrival program will commence.
We are asking organizations/community members to:
-post the save the date on their website/facebook/listerv (facebook event to come)
-call their contacts and encourage them to attend (allies as well!)
-ask orgs/individuals to bring candles for themselves and others
Please contact Dulce at quintero.dulce@gmail.com with questions or if you would like to help or contribute to the vigil organizing efforts.
Black people need to stop treating homosexuality as if it's a white man's disease. We need to embrace the vibrant presence of gays and lesbians in our community and stop siding with bigots and racists.
Over the past few weeks the homophobic murder of Ian Baynhamin Trafalgar Square and the assault on PC James Parkes in Liverpool have shocked the gay community. Every anti-gay opinion adds strength to their attackers and supports other gay bashers.
Whenever the subject of homosexuality is raised in the black community there is hysteria and denial. We who are black and lesbian or gay are considered at best a joke and at worst just plain wrong, weird or dirty. Many think we are somehow infected with a western decadent ifestyle and are undermining our race.
The American Medical Association on Tuesday voted to oppose the military's 'don't ask, don't tell' policy, and declared that gay marriage bans contribute to health disparities.
The nation's largest doctors' group stopped short of saying it would seek to overturn marriage bans, but its new stance angered conservative activists and provides a fresh boost to lobbying efforts by gay-rights advocates.
"It's highly significant that the AMA as one of this country's leading professional associations has taken a position on both of these issues," said Rea Carey, executive director of the National Gay and Lesbian Task Force, a Washington-based advocacy group.
The health disparities measure "in the long run, will certainly help efforts to win marriage equality," Carey said.
Often when I have these discussions in the Black community, someone gets up talking about reproduction. To reproduce or to not reproduce being the measure of who deserves the most rights or respect. This is not logical because most sex that people have, including heterosexual sex, is not to reproduce.
-- Cleo Manago, founder AmASSI Health & Cultural Centers
MINNEAPOLIS — The nation's largest Lutheran denomination took openly gay clergy more fully into its fold Friday, as leaders of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America voted to lift a ban that prohibited sexually active gays and lesbians from serving as ministers.
Under the new policy, individual ELCA congregations will be allowed to hire homosexuals as clergy as long as they are in a committed relationships. Until now, gays and lesbians had to remain celibate to serve as clergy.
The change passed with the support of 68 percent of about 1,000 delegates at the ELCA's national assembly. It makes the group, with about 4.7 million members in the U.S., one of the largest U.S. Christian denominations yet to take a more gay-friendly stance.
"I have seen these same-gender relationships function in the same way as heterosexual relationships — bringing joy and blessings as well as trials and hardships," the Rev. Leslie Williamson, associate pastor at Trinity Lutheran Church in Des Plaines, Ill., said during the hours of debate. "The same-gender couples I know live in love and faithfulness and are called to proclaim the word of God as are all of us."
After incidents in San Antonio, TX, El Paso, TX and Salt Lake City, UT - where different gay and lesbian couples were harassed or detained by law enforcement for the simple act of kissing in a public place - we need to make a strong statement to everyone everywhere: kissing is not a bad thing, nor has it ever been.
It's not vulgar or inappropriate. It's a sign of affection that is as old as time itself. Kissing is a beautiful thing that we share with our loved ones every single day.
Cities across the country will be simultaneously holding "kiss-ins", which will simply be rallies focused on our freedom to kiss in public regardless of sexual orientation or gender identity.
Come with your loved ones to share kisses in any form, or bring some candy kisses to hand out to passerby's! Your show of affection can be anything you wish. Give out hugs and smiles, or kiss up a storm.
Chicago's Kiss-In will happen at the Bean in Millenium Park on Saturday, Augusat 15 at 1:00pm, coinciding with kiss-ins happening in more than 30 other cities around the country!
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.
