I made it to page 9 of this New Yorker article about Tyler Clementi and Dharun Ravi and stopped reading. It was so sad, so difficult to read. I did finish it later, and it’s still so fucking sad.
What a waste.
Category: LGBTQ
Seven + D.C.
Posted by – February 2, 2012
Washington state’s Senate just passed a bill to make same sex marriage legal. It’s expected to pass all the way through to the Governor’s office, who is expected to sign it.
Washington will mean that seven states and D.C. have made it legal, folks. (Only 16 states had full suffrage for women before the Federal Government gave women the right to vote, and I don’t think there will be even that many before same sex marriage becomes legalized on the national level.)
HUD: Equal Access to Housing Rule Trans-Inclusive
Posted by – January 29, 2012
Wow. Housing non-discrimination for trans people? Really? What amazing news. Via NCTE:
“I am proud to announce a new Equal Access to Housing Rule that says clearly and unequivocally that LGBT individuals and couples have the right to live where they choose [...] If you are denying HUD housing to people on the basis of sexual orientation or gender identity, actual or perceived, you’re discriminating, you’re breaking the law, and you will be held accountable. That’s what equal access means, and that’s what this rule is going to do.”
The new rule makes several urgently needed changes to current federal housing and housing-related programs including: prohibiting owners and operators of federally-funded or federally-insured housing, as well as lenders offering federally-insured mortgages from discriminating based on gender identity or sexual orientation;and clarifying the definition of “family” to ensure that LGBT families are not excluded from HUD programs.
Read the whole article. Honestly, when i first started doing advocacy around trans issues, I didn’t expect to see these kinds of rules put in place by 2012.
Obscenity Trial
Posted by – January 12, 2012
On this day in 1928 police seized 800 copies of Radclyffe Hall’s lesbian novel The Well of Loneliness. It would be put on trial as obscenity later in 1928 under the Obscene Publications Act of 1857; Virginia Woolf came to the trial but wasn’t allowed to provide testimony — nobody was.
Interestingly, 1928 was the same year women got the right to vote in the UK.
Coincidence?
(h/t to The Progressive’s “Hidden History” calendar, via FW)
Christmas Present: Radical Inclusion
Posted by – December 25, 2011
This letter from local clergy in Appleton is pretty much the best Christmas present I didn’t even imagine getting:
Jesus not only preached about but a lived a message of radical inclusion. He saw God’s realm as including everyone — and especially those who were despised or downtrodden or oppressed.
That’s why we and many other Christians believe that our values are best expressed when all people and all families are treated with fairness and loving support.
It was written in response to a letter from Appleton Taxpayers United which appeared a few weeks ago, which I won’t honor by quoting. It’s lovely to read Christians who sound like Christians.
Fair Wisconsin Leadership Conference Jan 13-15
Posted by – December 10, 2011
The Fair Wisconsin Education Fund is hosting its first ever Leadership Conference, to take place in Milwaukee from January 13th – 15th. Why go to a Leadership Conference?
1. Meet other LGBT and allied leaders from around the state. The Leadership Conference will be a wonderful opportunity to connect with LGBT and allied people working to advance equality in their local communities. Share your experiences and gain support from people just like you who care about building a fair and just Wisconsin.
2. Learn new information and skills from local and national leaders. The Leadership Conference will offer an array of interesting and useful workshops to broaden your knowledge and help you to acquire new skills and tools to become a leader in the LGBT equality movement in Wisconsin.
3. Be a part of something new. This conference is a new opportunity that we have never seen before. Don’t miss out on being the first to participate in what is poised to be a hugely successful program!
4. Strengthen the movement. The Leadership Conference is a prime opportunity to build a strong base of support for the LGBT movement in Wisconsin. Join us as we build a fair Wisconsin together.
5. Celebrate and have fun! No conference is complete without some fun and celebration! Work hard and play hard at the first ever Fair Wisconsin Education Fund Leadership Conference!
Student registration is only $35! I’ll be there, and Chaz Bono is doing the keynote speech.
Russia To Make Speaking About Being LGBT Illegal
Posted by – November 21, 2011
Russia wants ot make it illegal to write, speak or publish anything about being LGBT. Sign the petition, and sign it fast.
Tonight in Appleton
Posted by – November 10, 2011
Tonight, progressives in Appleton faced the possibility that the position of Diversity Coordinator and the Diversity program would be cut or not funded. Also, there was a possibility that the domestic partner benefits for Appleton city employees might not make it through the budget process, too.
But tonight we kept a priority on diversity and equality.
And while I’m pleased – this is the 4th time (?) I’ve testified before Appleton’s Common Council, and I’m sure they’re tired of me by now – it was pretty rough sitting and listening to a bunch of people who don’t know me call me a moral stain and tell me I’m going to hell. It’s not something I haven’t heard before – as a feminist, as a green, as a queer – but there is something particularly painful to me when I hear that kind of rhetoric coming from Christians, and who say those things because they’re Christians.
It makes me wonder if I missed the part about the Good Samaritan asking first if the guy was gay.
I also wonder – when I hear haters stand behind their status as tax payers – if it ever occurs to homophobic types that LGBTQ people pay taxes too, and into a government that doesn’t treat them as equals. I wonder how well that would sit with people who don’t understand but who – for other reasons – are of a more libertarian stripe.
I pointed that latter piece out tonight, because I think that’s at least some of who I’m talking to here in Appleton.
But “moral stain” I really can’t get past. There’s something so dehumanizing and miserable about that one.
My other bit of wonder is how it is that people who think homosexuality is immoral – and they’re free to think it is – somehow think that justifies treating LGBTQ people as less than citizens. I mean, it’s not like queers have the corner on immorality, right? So do we stop paying health insurance for the partner of a man who commits adultery? I mean, which sins count, exactly, when it comes to citizenship? Which morality matters?
Eh, the whole process makes me sad, but I’m thankful for the other progressives who came tonight, and other nights, to speak truth to power. I’m thankful to all the common council members who are still there, at midnight, wrestling with a budget for this city I live in. I feel thankful that I’ve been given at least some skills to fight for justice.
WI LGBT Survey
Posted by – November 7, 2011
Fair Wisconsin and Our Lives magazine need to hear from LGBT people – & their straight allies – who live in Wisconsin. Please fill out this survey for them, as both the organization and the magazine rock.
We are fighting some uphill battles here.
Anniversary
Posted by – October 7, 2011
It’s been 13 years since this young man was left for dead in Laramie, Wyoming. I’m sure he’d be proud that his death was turned into a force for good, especially through his mother Judy Shepard’s efforts. We can hope that, anyway.
Alert: Westboro Coming to Appleton
Posted by – September 29, 2011
They are hateful, disrespectful, un-Christian bigots who bring their hatred of homosexuality into the private and traumatic grief of the families of fallen soldiers.
It’s unconscionable.
I want a counter-protest. I want love.
Their flier is below. More
Appleton Domestic Partner Benefits
Posted by – September 25, 2011
I just got this note from Katie Belander of FAIR WI. As you all know, I was one of the “local LGBT leaders” who spoke at this Appleton Common Council meeting in favor of the city granting domestic partner benefits.
Earlier this month, I was proud to stand with local LGBT and allied leaders when the Appleton Common Council granted health care and related benefits to the registered domestic partners of city employees by a vote of 10 to 6. This is a major step forward for Appleton, the Fox Valley and Wisconsin.
But anti-fairness forces are already gearing up to try to undo the progress we have made together.
Saturday morning, the Appleton Post Crescent ran a citizen’s letter calling domestic partner benefits a “cancer [that] must be killed before it spreads” by overturning “this immoral and fiscally imprudent policy through direct legislation by referendum.”
As we learned with the state domestic partnership registry, no victory will go unchallenged. And at Fair Wisconsin, no victory will go undefended.
If you can, please make a donation to FAIR WI so we’ve got the resources to fight this one.
Artist’s Statement
Posted by – September 22, 2011
How do you not love artists?
A sculptor has created a sculpture of her and her wife, in bed naked and embracing, as their headstone in Woodlawn cemetary. She said:
“Since all we were legally afforded was death, I was going to make the most elegant statement on our government not allowing us to marry as I could muster.”
What an amazing statement and an amazing response to discrimination.
