Posted on

At Least in Death: Help Give Cemia Acoff a Respectful Funeral

Cemia Acoff

Cemia Acoff was murdered in a barbarous way, and now, multiple activists and organizations are working with her family, the funeral home and, yes, the morgue, to bring her home.

They need your help.

They have set up The Cemia Acoff Fund which will, literally, bring Ce Ce home and ensure that she receives a proper send off, full of love and support from the community – and that includes the love and support of her family.

You can donate to The Cemia Acoff Fund here.

The groups involved include:

TransOhio
Shane Morgan, Founder & Chair

Cleveland Trans Community Outreach
Jacob Nash, Chair

Equality Ohio
Elyzabeth Holford, Executive Director

LGBT Center of Cleveland
Phyllis Harris, Executive Director

AIDS Taskforce of Greater Cleveland / Beyond Identities Community Center (BICC)
Tracy Jones, Chief Executive Officer
Miquel Brazil, BICC

Posted on

RIP Cemia Dove or “CiCi” Alcoff

As I said on my FB page yesterday: I’m sorry, Ms. Alcoff, that we have not yet made the world a place that is safe enough for your beauty.

Rest in Peace.

(And journalists, and police, get your shit together already.  For those who are wondering, she felt forced to admit she was a man, which, if she hadn’t had her ID changed legally, she might have done in order to prevent more complications and charges. Trans women do not “admit” to being men because they “know” they are, but because they know that people are stupid and hateful and shitty to trans people.)

Posted on

Patrick Stewart: 1 Million Men Against Violence Against Women

“Every nine seconds in the United States a woman is assaulted or beaten,” Patrick Stewart said. “Every nine seconds.”

As if he weren’t cool enough already, it turns out he served as the host for the launch of “Ring The Bell,” a global campaign calling on one million men to make one million “concrete, actionable promises” to end violence against women.

“Violence against women is the single greatest human rights violation of our generation,” Stewart said.

“I became an expert,” Stewart said. “I knew exactly when to open a door and insert myself between my father’s fist and my mother’s body.”

He said his father was “an angry and unhappy man who was not able to control his emotions—or his hands.”

“The truth is my mother did nothing to deserve the violence she endured,” Stewart added. “She did not provoke my father—and even if she had, responding with violence is not an acceptable way with dealing with conflict.”

To his world where men promise to end violence against women: Make it so.

Posted on

It Was Rape

I was lucky enough to catch a screening of Jennifer Baumgardner’s new documentary It Was Rape. Eight women tell their stories about their experiences with sexual violence.

These experiences are so complicated, and even for these interviews you can hear all the women trying to make it less of a deal than it is and than it was. Why?

It’s entirely worth watching, but make sure you’re in an okay head space if you’re someone who has had this kind of experience – or even if you haven’t.

One of the women is told by one of her friends that “any time anyone has sex out of someone out of fear, it’s rape,” and that’s a good reminder, for everyone. And oh – this isn’t just for women. Men should watch this, too.

 

Posted on

Violence & Bisexual People

Via FORGE and Loree Cook-Daniels:

The recently-released National Intimate Partner and Sexual Violence Survey, 2010 Findings on Victimization by Sexual Orientation, held many surprises, not the least of which was that bisexual men and women are, overall, the most at risk. Here are some of those highlights, ordered to highlight highest rates:

Lifetime prevalence of rape (because of their definition of “rape,”
numbers were too small to report for gay and bi men, although heterosexual men reported a rate of 0.7%):
Bisexual women — 46.1%
Heterosexual women — 17.4%
Lesbian women — 13.1%

Lifetime prevalence of sexual violence other than rape:
Bisexual women — 74.9%
Bisexual men — 47.4%
Lesbians — 46.4%
Heterosexual women — 43.3%
Gay men — 40.2%
Heterosexual men — 20.8%

Lifetime prevalence of rape, physical violence, and/or stalking by an intimate partner:
Bisexual women — 61.1%
Lesbians — 43.8%
Bisexual men — 37.3%
Heterosexual women — 35.0%
Heterosexual men — 29.0%
Gay men — 26.0%

The full report (PDF) is available at
http://www.cdc.gov/ViolencePrevention/pdf/NISVS_SOfindings.pdf

Posted on

Dean Spade & Normal Life

The found of the Sylvia River Law Project talks abut his new book, Normal Life. He is, as ever, smart, compassionate, and earnest about providing some answers to how we protect the most vulnerable. Totally worth watching:

He is too cool. Here’s Part 2.

Posted on

Chan Lowe Cartoon

“Never has the dedication of the people who practice the teaching profession been spotlighted in the way it has over the past few days.We were shown, in dramatic terms, to what lengths teachers are willing to go to fulfill the crucial mandate they have been given: the education and welfare of the most precious members of our society. Yet they are so often treated with disdain.” – Chan Lowe

Be sure to read the blog post that goes with this amazing image.