The Movement: May 2011
(Un)heard: Transmasculine People of Color Speak
Filed by Jason Tseng | May 31, 2011 3:30 PM |Black, trans, and living in rural Ohio is not what you usually think of when you think of the LGBT movement. Read More
An Extraordinary LGBT Community Possible
Filed by Dr. Jillian T. Weiss | May 31, 2011 1:30 PM |What if the LGBT community stood for the context of a world of love and respect for all? Read More
The Asian Pride Project Needs Your Help
Filed by Jason Tseng | May 31, 2011 11:30 AM |The prevailing discourse in the media regarding people of color & queer issues is that people of color are more homophobic or that parents are more likely to have a negative reaction to their children coming out.Read More
Moscow Pride Revitalizes Talk of Community Alliances
Filed by Adam Polaski | May 31, 2011 11:00 AM |A new editorial in The Moscow News suggests mismanagement of the LGBT movement by gay rights leaders in the country.Read More
Take Action: Dan Choi Arrested in Moscow
Filed by Dan O'Neill | May 28, 2011 5:30 PM |Dan Choi was arrested by Russian authorities earlier today along with several dozen other LGBT-rights activists who clashed with both Moscow police and religious/neo-Nazi opponents after attempting to proceed with a peaceful Pride celebration that inevitably morphed into yet another violent protest.Read More
Going to the White House for AAPI Heritage Month
Filed by Guest Blogger | May 28, 2011 2:00 PM |Guest blogger Ben de Guzman writes about attending the White House's Asian Americans and Pacific Islanders LGBT Youth Pride and Heritage Event this week.Read More
Transvestic Disorder: The Overlooked Anti-Trans Diagnosis
Filed by Kelley Winters | May 28, 2011 10:00 AM |The new edition of the American Psychiatric Association's Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders features two entries regarding the trans community. While Gender Dysphoria is already well-known, Transvestic Disorder is less discussed. Both merit attention and action from advocates. Read More
Why You Should Do A Rural Pride Event This Year
Filed by D Gregory Smith | May 27, 2011 2:30 PM |We want to know you have our backs when we're working to educate legislators and local politicians and school boards and businesses. We want to know that it's okay to stay here, even when it's hard.Read More
Gays Distrust Blacks?
Filed by Bil Browning | May 27, 2011 12:45 PM |Watch as the Family Research Council's Peter Spriggs tells a rapt audience of sheeple that gay people distrust African-Americans. Be warned, that's not the only outrageous bullshit he spews.Read More
Hotel Silver Spring: Always a Repeat Performance
Filed by Lisa Weiner-Mahfuz | May 27, 2011 8:00 AM |Ten years ago my partner and I moved to Silver Spring MD. We were intentional about choosing a neighborhood that was multi-racial, multi-generational, mixed class and was not a gentrified gayborhood. We landed in our street and the story simply begins there.Read More
Widow Araguz Denied Death Benefits by Texas Court
Filed by Dr. Jillian T. Weiss | May 26, 2011 11:00 AM |In a perhaps unsurprising development, a Texas court ruled yesterday against Nikki Araguz, an intersex transsexual woman married to firefighter Thomas Araguz, who was killed in the line of duty.Read More
EQCA Town Hall in WeHo Split on Prop 8 Repeal
Filed by Karen Ocamb | May 25, 2011 7:30 PM |By the time the Equality California organizers took a final vote on whether the LGBT community in Los Angeles wanted to go back to the ballot to repeal Prop 8 in 2012, two hours had elapsed and about half the crowd of about 100 people had left.Read More
Why Is Equality Virginia Promoting an Anti-Gay Law Firm?
Filed by Michael Hamar | May 25, 2011 5:30 PM |Equality Virginia's promotion of a law firm with a horrible track record of LGBT discrimination makes me question whether I should support the organization. Read More
Future of Equality Maryland In Doubt
Filed by Bil Browning | May 25, 2011 9:30 AM |Equality Maryland's board of directors released a statement yesterday admitting the group is in serious financial peril after the org suffered humiliating defeats this legislative session.Read More
Should We Boycott Straight Weddings?
Filed by Father Tony | May 24, 2011 8:00 PM |The LGBT community is divided over whether a boycott of heterosexual weddings is a worthwhile demonstration.Read More
Largest Trans Fundraiser. Ever.
Filed by Dr. Jillian T. Weiss | May 24, 2011 5:00 PM |The Transgender Legal Defense and Education Fund raised over $100,000 in a single night. Read More
Trevor Project Opens Call-In Center on Milk Day
Filed by Bil Browning | May 23, 2011 12:00 PM |Projector Sean Chapin sends in this video montage featuring speeches from Harvey Milk's campaign manager Anne Kronenberg and The Trevor Project co-founder James Lecesne. It includes the ribbon-cutting ceremony and everyone singing happy birthday.Read More
Trevor Project Opens Call-in Center at Old Harvey Milk Camera Store
Filed by Karen Ocamb | May 22, 2011 5:30 PM |There are a lot of events happening this weekend commemorating Harvey Milk Day. And while I didn't know Harvey Milk - I imagine this one would warm his heart. On at 11:00am on Sunday, May 22, the Trevor Project will...Read More
The Amazing Pace of Chip Arndt, Co-Founder of CouplesforEquality.org
Filed by Father Tony | May 22, 2011 1:00 PM |To say that Chip Arndt is excited about his new project, CouplesforEquality.org (C4E) is an understatement. Just get him started. Passionate about it, he will not stop talking about C4E until there is no oxygen left with which to build...Read More
Action Against Corrective Rape in South Africa
Filed by Jake Weinraub | May 19, 2011 3:00 PM |Protesters gathered outside of Parliament in Cape Town, South Africa on Sunday to put pressure on the South African government to directly address lesbian "corrective rape" - the idea that rape will 'fix' a woman's lesbianism, or 'show her what...Read More
ACLU Files Suit On Illinois Refusal To Correct Birth Certificates
Filed by Dr. Jillian T. Weiss | May 19, 2011 8:30 AM |The American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) is suing the Illinois Department of Public Health for refusing to correct birth certificates of transgender and transsexual people, requiring proof they have undergone a series of sex-reassignment surgeries before they can change the...Read More
Roland Palencia: Equality California's New Executive Director
Filed by Karen Ocamb | May 18, 2011 5:00 PM |Many in LGBT California wanted the board of Equality California to make a bold choice in replacing Geoff Kors as the new executive director of the important statewide lobbying organization. Sunday night, May 15, of the four finalists - they...Read More
"Into The Light," A 6000 mile walk to end gender discrimination
Filed by Dr. Jillian T. Weiss | May 18, 2011 12:00 PM |At the end of this month, Alan Bounville will begin walking. He is embarking on a journey from the Pacific Northwest of the United States, walking 6,000 miles, to Washington DC. His goal is to bring an end to gender...Read More
Harvard LGBTQ Policy Journal on Trans Identification
Filed by Dr. Jillian T. Weiss | May 17, 2011 12:00 PM |Harvard University's LGBTQ Policy Journal at the Kennedy School of Government recently published an article by Harper Jean Tobin, Fair and Accurate Identification for Transgender People. Ms. Tobin, a lawyer who works for the National Center for Transgender Equality as...Read More
Uncensored: The Collective History of HIV/AIDS
Filed by Michael Emanuel Rajner | May 16, 2011 7:00 PM |This past March, I shared a video message from Butch McKay on the annual Positive Living Conference in Fort Walton Beach, Florida hosted by the the Okaloosa AIDS Support & Informational Services, Inc. (OASIS). Each year, this conference serves as...Read More
Seattle Mayor Says Transitions Should Be Covered for Employees
Filed by Alex Blaze | May 12, 2011 10:30 AM |The Seattle LGBT Commission has an effective way of talking about how some healthcare providers deny medical treatment related to transitioning. From The Slog: When most of the city's approximately 10,000 employees seek mental health care, steroid treatments, or a...Read More
The Nuptial News
Filed by Leslie Robinson | May 10, 2011 11:30 AM |There's been a lot of marriage news lately. But enough about the Royal Wedding. On these shores, the struggle for same-sex marriage has been as wobbly as a tipsy bride. Look at Rhode Island. Hopes were high that Little Rhody...Read More
Freethinking 1940s: Queer Studies
Filed by Gloria Brame, Ph.D. | May 09, 2011 9:30 AM |A fascinating eBay find, these three pamphlets (known as "blue books") from E. Haldeman-Julius, a socialist reformer and atheist who published several radical works on sexuality by freethinkers in the 1940s....Read More
NY Governor Paterson To Be Honored At Trans Event. Why?
Filed by Dr. Jillian T. Weiss | May 06, 2011 12:00 PM |The progress of transgender and transsexual civil rights has been slow and halting in New York State, but there is no surer mark of progress than when the powerful bend to notice our struggles. On Monday, May 23, 2011, the...Read More
Your Husband Will Be Deported Tomorrow
Filed by Dr. Jillian T. Weiss | May 05, 2011 12:00 PM |BREAKING NEWS: MetroWeekly: Attorney General Holder Vacates Immigration Decision Based on DOMA The Velandia case has been stayed until mid-summer. Imagine that your beloved were being deported tomorrow. He is not being deported because he is a criminal, or entered...Read More
A Gay Alum Has Words for Mt. Markham High School
Filed by Drew Cordes | May 04, 2011 5:00 PM |Jen Grygiel, a lesbian who was bullied during the time she attended Mt. Markham High School (class of '97) in West Winfield, New York, recently was inspired by the Back to Your School program to write to the principals in...Read More
Transgender Law Institute 2011 Schedule Announced
Filed by Dr. Jillian T. Weiss | May 04, 2011 12:30 PM |Soon, it will be time again for the Transgender Law Institute at the National LGBT Bar Association Conference and Career Fair. Last year's TLI, our first, was a great success, with over 75 lawyers in attendance. Our planning committee has...Read More
Making a Change at Change.org
Filed by Joe Mirabella | May 04, 2011 9:30 AM |I have a change in my life that I am incredibly excited to share with you. Today, I will join the Change.org team, as the Organizing Manager for LGBT Rights. I am thrilled to join Change.org because they are working...Read More
LGBT- Friendly Justice Sotomayor To Speak At Ramapo College Commencement
Filed by Dr. Jillian T. Weiss | May 03, 2011 12:30 PM |Justice Sonia Sotomayor is coming to give the commencement address at my college, Ramapo College of New Jersey, on Friday, May 14. I am especially pleased about Justice Sotomayor because of her positions on LGBT issues. Are you listening, LGBT...Read More
LGBT Org Closes Its Doors
Filed by Alex Blaze | May 02, 2011 6:00 PM |The recession has claimed another LGBT organization. This time it's the National Youth Advocacy Coalition, which was mostly funded through federal grant money. From their press release: This is a very difficult decision and was not made lightly. The organization...Read More
Netroots Nation Scholarships
Filed by Mike Rogers | May 02, 2011 4:00 PM |So, you've always wanted to take your blogging up to the next level... You've wanted to meet lots of other bloggers like yourself... You'd like to be a part of the largest online activist/blogger/journalist conference... This just might be your...Read More
Man Attacks a Log Cabin Republican at a Bar
Filed by Alex Blaze | May 02, 2011 1:00 PM |Some Log Cabin Republicans were at a bar, and the visit turned violent in an altercation with another, presumably heterosexual patron. In Dallas for their yearly convention, police say that some of the Log Cabin Republicans started cat-calling a straight...Read More
Prolonged Adolescence
Filed by Anthony Carter | May 01, 2011 1:00 PM |Six pack abs, huge cocks, all night sex parties, and drug-induced orgies are now officially over. We are now officially required to man up and grow up and take our rightful place in society as responsible, trustworthy citizens. I want...Read More
Aaron Hicklin: Editor of Out on the Power 50
Filed by Phil Reese | May 01, 2011 11:30 AM |Our newspapers and magazines love making lists and ranking famous people. We see it every day: from Cosmo to USA Today - lists are it. One list made a surprising uproar in the LGBT community recently. Out Magazine's Power 50...Read More
Claiming Rainbow Pride
Filed by Jake Weinraub | May 01, 2011 10:00 AM |The following post is from my paper "Claiming Rainbow Pride," a continuation of ideas I was exploring in a post by the same name back in March. While browsing the internet the other day, I came across a blog entry...Read More
