Check out photographer Tatjana Plitt’s series of portraits titled “Gay Warriors,” a look at LGBT members of the armed forces and their families in the aftermath of Don’t Ask Don’t Tell and in the ever-present shadow of DOMA. This one’s called Idalia & Angelie. Full interview here.
Posts tagged lgbtq.
The deadline is January 18, 2013 for undergraduates. Scholarships are up to $10,000. Apply!
The Trevor Project has given an award to Katy Perry. Yes, you read that correctly. The Trevor Project, the organization whose aim is to prevent LGBTQ youth suicide, is giving an award to Katy Perry to honor her for “inspiring LGBTQ youth to find their spark through her video ‘Firework’” and ”increasing visibility and understanding of the LGBTQ community.”
I wonder which acts of visibility and understanding they’re referring to exactly. Was it the time she made heaps of money for celebrating the stereotype that girls kissing girls is an act done for attention? You know, the song Kathleen Hanna called “straight-up offensive,” P!nk said “trivializes lesbianism” and Beth Ditto noted was indicative of Perry ”just riding on the backs of our culture, without having to pay any of the dues and not being actually lesbian or anything at all”?
Or was it the time she peppered a song with effeminate gay male stereotypes so she could insult an ex-boyfriend, equating queerness with negativity and encouraging bullying against gay people? Did the fact that she opened that song with the lines “I hope you hang yourself with your H&M scarf /While jacking off listening to Mozart” really seal the deal for a LGBTQ youth suicide prevention group?
Maybe it was the time she talked about looking like a “tranny” in Rolling Stone? Or when she mocked trans* people on twitter, inspiring a condemnation from GLAAD? Those don’t seem like moments when queer visibility was improved, nor were they stellar examples of helping other to “understand” our community any better. Those seem like moments when some homophobia slipped through the cracks, and no one listened when queers called it out. After all, Perry herself has declared that “certain parts of the world — especially in the U.S. — are just dying to be offended” and that it “won’t change how I express myself as an artist.”
Being pissed off at Katy Perry isn’t anything new for the queer community, which is why it seems strange for us to be giving her some kind of award, although it’s certainly not the first time we’ve been baffled by Perry’s inclusion and celebration in a queer space. In 2008, Perry made the cover of the OUT 100, earning the coveted honor of “Musician of the Year,” inspiring lesbian entertainment blogger Dorothy Snarker to ask OUT, “What the fuck? Katy Perry? Katy fucking Perry? This is a joke, right? What you meant to do was pick an actual lesbian to pose amid the gay men, right? Right?”
Autostraddle pretty much nails it with this article.
Aya Kamikawa: Why she kicks ass
- She is the only openly transgender official in Japan at this point, and the first to seek or win elected office in Japan.
- She won a four-year term as an independent under huge media attention, placing sixth of 72 candidates running for 52 seats in the Setagaya ward assembly, the most populous district in Tokyo. In April 2007, she was re-elected to her second term, placing second of 71 candidates running for 52 in the same ward assembly.
- While the government announced that they would continue to consider her male officially, she stated that she would work as a woman.
- She is devoted to work for various groups, the disabled, single-parent families, homeless people to evening junior high school students, LGBT people and to improve rights for women, children, the elderly. She strives to give support for these people and bring positive changes which would help them in society.
- She was also a committee member for Trans-net Japan (a self-support group for transgender people) and organised meetings and social events to give support and symposiums to raise the public awareness.
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It’s 2012, and we are just now electing our first openly gay US Senator. As ridiculous as that is, I’m glad we’re finally making progress.
A quick list of reasons why the mainstream ‘gay’ rights movement isn’t doing its job properly….
(In response to anon asking if there were any groups I like/didn’t like)
1. “Gay” Rights – The mainstream movement is focused almost completely on the concerns and problems of cisgender gay men, cisgender lesbian women and that’s pretty much it. These concerns are obviously of importance but the fact that everyone else is ignored and deleted is not okay. The ‘gay’ rights movement will not actually be serving the purpose for which it was created until it is working for everyone under the LGBTQ+ umbrella.
2. Assimilation and the ‘right’ way to be gay - The gay rights movement can be defined by this:
The mainstream gay rights groups want everyone to believe that that is what being gay looks like. For many, that is indeed the life of choice, but what about the people who, like me, have absolutely no intention of choosing that life?
The gay rights movement tries to hide us from view, it pretends we don’t exist and then, when forced to acknowledge our existence, they just shit all over us, shaming us and telling us that we’re hurting their cause. This is a view that has wormed its way into the collective consciousness of many in the gay community; it’s dangerous and damaging to EVERYONE – I can’t count the number of times I’ve been told that I should ‘act straighter’ because I might be ‘supporting the stereotype’. FUCK THAT!
3. Racism – White people run the gay rights movement and focuses almost completely on the problems faced by other gay white people. Everyone else is pushed out, ignored and shouted down and drowned out.
4. Dan Savage – and everything Dan Savage related.
5. Marriage Equality – Marriage equality is a very important issue. It affects a massive part of our community however it’s certainly not the be all and end all and I wish the mainstream movement would stop pretending like it is. It’s understandable why it was chosen to be the staple of the movement – it’s a quantifiable thing, it presents clear victories and losses depending of legislative change. When same-sex marriage is legalised, a part of me worries that, due the movement’s focus on it, there will be an idea that homophobia and heterosexism no longer exist and they most certainly will.
Personally, I have absolutely no intention of ever getting married (seriously, it will never ever ever happen) and, just occasionally, I would like to here someone from the mainstream talk about people like me.
6. ‘Debates’ with homophobes – Everyone’s opinions are not equally valid. My opinion on being gay is infinitely more important than anything a heterosexual has ever said on the topic. Let’s acknowledge this.
7. It’s okay to tell homophobes to go fuck themselves – Let’s acknowledge this.
8. If you believe homosexuality or homosexual acts are sins, you’re just wrong – There’s nothing else to it. There is no problem with saying this. Why does the gay rights movement insist on saying ‘you are entitled to your belief, you just shouldn’t put it into law’?
9. Shitty catchphrases – For example, “Homosexuality exists in 450 species; which one is unnatural now?” No one should ever need to justify their existence by comparing themself to a wild animal. Besides natural does not mean something is okay.
These are the ones I could think of in 10 minutes. There are many, many, many more.
All of this is not to say that the mainstream gay rights movement has not had victories and is not doing some good work, but it needs to get its act together!!!
Macklemore and Ryan Lewis - Same Love
They finally released a video for this amazing song.
Macklemore Releases ‘Same Love’ Video In Support Of Gay Marriage.
There continues to be erroneous implications in the media that Chick-fil-A changed our practices and priorities in order to obtain permission for a new restaurant in Chicago. That is incorrect. Chick-fil-A made no such concessions, and we remain true to who we are and who we have been.
—
Dan Cathy, in a statement posted to Mike Huckabee’s website clarifying that the restaurant didn’t really change any of its values or practices.
Huckabee responded: “I talked earlier today personally with Dan Cathy, CEO of Chick-fil-A about the new reports that Chick-fil-A had capitulated to demands of the supporters of same sex marriage. This is not true.”
Good to know some things will never change. More.
(via gaywrites)
We’re on our way.
In Washington, DC’s Congressional Cemetery, a new memorial thought to be the first of its kind will honor the contributions of LGBT veterans.
The board of directors for the National LGBT Veterans Memorial have already bought the plots and are currently seeking design submissions from artists nationwide. They’re hoping to unveil the monument on Memorial Day 2014.
Russell, a retired Army LTC and chair of the NLGBTVM board of directors, said, “The time has come for those of us who were forced to serve in silence to honor our fellow veterans with a dignified and impressive memorial in our national capitol. The National LGBT Veterans Memorial will provide a fitting resting place where our veterans may, as Leonard Matlovich urged us to do, ‘leave a lasting record of our accomplishments.’”
Four million for you, DC. You go, DC.
This isn’t about mutual tolerance because there’s nothing mutual about it. If we agree to disagree on this issue, you walk away a full member of this society and I don’t. There is no “live and let live” on this issue because Dan Cathy is spending millions to very specifically NOT let me live. I’m not trying to do that to him.
Asking for “mutual tolerance” on this like running up to a bully beating a kid to death on the playground and scolding them both for not getting along. I’m not trying to dissolve Mr. Cathy’s marriage or make his sex illegal. I’m not trying to make him a second-class citizen, or get him killed. He’s doing that to me, folks; I’m just fighting back.
All your life, you’re told to stand up to bullies, but when WE do it, we’re told WE are the ones being intolerant? Well, okay. Yes. I refuse to tolerate getting my ass kicked. “Guilty as charged.”
But what are you guilty of? When you see a bully beating up a smaller kid and you don’t take a side, then you ARE taking a side. You’re siding with the bully. And when you cheer him on, you’re revealing something about your own character that really is a shame.
— Wayne Self, Chick Fellatio (via 3dela)
Google has officially launched an international campaign to legalize marriage equality worldwide.
The “Legalize Love” campaign was announced in London yesterday and launched in Singapore and Poland, where it will begin its focus. Google will eventually expand to every country in which it has an office, focusing on cultures that are homophobic or include anti-gay laws.
They will develop partnerships with companies and organizations to start grassroots campaigns in support of marriage equality across the world.
Google’s Mark Palmer-Edgecumbe outlined the initiative at a Global LGBT Workplace Summit in London earlier today. “We want our employees who are gay or lesbian or transgender to have the same experience outside the office as they do in the office. It is obviously a very ambitious piece of work.
Their strategy involves developing partnerships between companies and organizations to support grass-roots campaigns.
On the decision to launch the initial phase in a country like Singapore, Palmer-Edgecumbe says, “Singapore wants to be a global financial center and world leader and we can push them on the fact that being a global center and a world leader means you have to treat all people the same, irrespective of their sexual orientation.”
SO AWESOME. Google is the coolest. This is such great news.
Genderqueer Links and Books
Please see this post for the AMAZING updated list.
Hey everyone! This has been in circulation for a while. Please click through for the June 2012 version and don’t forget to check out the permanent home and origin of this amazingness. :)
LGBTQ/Christian film
I was recently contacted by a christian and gay rights supporting student filmmaker who is looking to create a change in the way churches and religious households view and respond to children coming out as gay.
He hopes to closely examine both views, the view of the person coming out to an un-supportive household and the views of parents who were once not supportive. He wishes to create a film that highlights both mental states of the parent and the child to show the church and others the emotional process of being gay in hopes of opening a door to acceptance from the church regarding homosexuality.
If you know of someone, or have a story of your own to share that would help the film better portray the emotional process, please contact the film maker at oolongtea.story@gmail.com. Feel free to e-mail him with a written story, a time for a Skype interview, or a video/audio recording of your story. He will not be using your story in his film, he will only be examining the emotional process.
This type of activism is ALWAYS helpful, and if you are able to provide some insight for him about what it’s like being a queer person in a religious household or coming out to religious friends or family, I know he would greatly appreciate it.
Also, we welcome all submissions and stories here at The New Women’s Movement, so SHARE YOUR EXPERIENCES AND BE HEARD!
