Behind the Aegis
Behind the Aegis's JournalEllen Page's Big Queer Trip Around The World Is Finally Here
The first episode of "GAYCATION," one of VICE's new shows on their television network VICELAND, dropped today. The project that follows out actress Ellen Page and best friend Ian Daniel on a queer trip around the world. The official release date is March 2.
"GAYCATION" will allow viewers to tag along as Page and Daniel visit locations as varied as Brazil, Jamaica and The United States to learn more about queer life and culture around the world.
This first episode, which you can watch above, focuses specifically on queer culture in Japan, where same-sex marriage is still illegal and identifying as queer can still carry a heavy social stigma.
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I highly recommend this program. So far, I have only seen Japan and Brazil, (Jamaica was tonight, but didn't get to it yet). I thought it was just a "gay oriented travel program" but it is so much more! They discuss the climate for LGBT people, including homophobia, transphobia, and some of the interviews are very, very disturbing, some are really uplifting.
'When You're Accustomed to Privilege, Equality Feels Like Oppression'
I've never been punched in the face. Not in an actual fight, at least. I'm not much of a fighter, I suppose... more of an "arguer." I don't think I'm "scared" to get into a fight, necessarily -- there have been many times I have put myself in situations where a physical fight could easily have happened.
I just can't see myself ever being the guy who throws the first punch, and I'm usually the kind of guy who DE-escalates things with logic or humor. And one of the things about being that sort of person, is that the other sort of guy -- the sort who jumps into fights quickly -- tends to not really be a big fan of me. Not when he first meets me, at least. They usually like me later. Not always. You can't win 'em all...
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And things started making a little more sense to me. All this anger we see from people screaming "All Lives Matter" in response to black protesters at rallies. All this anger we see from people insisting that their "religious freedom" is being infringed because a gay couple wants to get married. All these people angry about immigrants, angry about Muslims, angry about "Happy Holidays," angry about not being able to say bigoted things without being called a bigot...
They all basically boil down to people who have grown accustomed to walking straight at other folks, and expecting them to move. So when "those people" in their path don't move -- when those people start wondering, "Why am I always moving out of this guy's way?"; when those people start asking themselves, "What if I didn't move? What if I just kept walking too?"; when those people start believing that they have every bit as much right to that aisle as anyone else -- it can seem like their rights are being taken away.
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Catholic League Tries to Shame ABC into Canceling The Real O'Neals in NYT Ad
You know how crazy, crackpot, Bible-thumping conservatives love to jump down the throat of a network about a show that has yet to premiere because of its perceived attacks on their cherished morals and values that they only use to apply to themselves and not to the world at large? Well, it's happening again: the Catholic League is facing off against Disney/ABC over its new LGBT-themed sitcom The Real O'Neals, which premieres this week.
The show, based in part on executive producer Dan Savage's life, follows a Catholic Irish-American family with a gay son, played by newcomer Noah Galvin. But Savage's track record—this is the man that gave us the gift of the Santorum, after all—didn't sit well with the Catholic League, so they came out swinging.
And how did the Catholic League launch its strike on the as-yet aired show? Why, with the time-tested, always successful and completely still relevant medium of print. The Catholic League took out a full-page ad in The New York Times denouncing The Real O'Neals, Dan Savage and his "maniacal hatred of Catholicism."
Well, they tried to take out a full-age ad, but it was "turned down" by The Times because the "obscenities" that they quoted from Savage were "deemed too incendiary" for readers—"even with the use of asteriks in place of letters." That italicized emphasis is all theirs. Though the only thing the NYT deprived us of was the chance to fill in the blanks, à la Wheel of Fortune. One guess what's missing from "************* Power-Hungry, Self-Aggrandized Bigot."
The Catholic League argues, with no trace of irony or...sanity, that Dan Savage producing a show about a Catholic Irish-American family is akin to former KKK leader and Donald Trump bestie David Duke producing a show about African-Americans. Actually, it's worse, because Savage is a potty mouth, while Duke is just a raging white supremacist. So he gets a pass because his hatred is family friendly.
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Anyone in the least bit surprised?!
New Polpular Idol Rises in Bavaria (Published: 11-21-1922)
Hitler Credited With Extraordinary Powers of Swaying Crowds to His Will.
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FORMS GRAY-SHIRTED ARMY
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Armed With Blackjacks and Revolvers and Well Disciplined, They Obey Orders Implicitly.
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LEADER A REACTIONARY
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Is Anti-Red and Anti-Semitic, and Demands Strong Government for a United Germany
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Chief Points of His Program.
Hitler's program is of less interest than his person and movement. His program consists chiefly of half a dozen negative ideas clothed in generalities. He is "against the Jews, Communists, bolshevism, Marxian socialism, Separatists, the high cost of living, existing conditions, the weak Berlin Government and the Versailles Treaty." positively he stands only for "a strong united Germany under a strong Government."
He is credibly credited with being actuated by lofty, unselfish patriotism. He probably does not know himself just what he wants to accomplish. The keynote of his propaganda in speaking and writing is violent anti-Semitism. His followers are nicknamed the "Hakenkreuzler." So violent are Hitler's fulminations against the Jews that a number of prominent Jewish citizens are reported to have sought safe asylums in the Bavarian highlands, easily reached by fast motor cars, whence they could hurry their women and children when forewarned of an anti-Semitic St. Bartholomew's night.
But several reliable, well-informed sources confirmed the idea that Hitler's anti-Semitism was not so genuine or violent as it sounded, and that he was merely using anti-Semitic propaganda as a bait to catch masses of followers and keep them aroused, enthusiastic, and in line for the time when his organization is perfected and sufficiently powerful to be employed effectively for political purposes.
A sophisticated politician credited Hitler with peculiar political cleverness for laying emphasis and over-emphasis on anti-Semitism, saying: "You can't expect the masses to understand or appreciate your finer real aims. You must feed the masses with cruder morsels and ideas like anti-Semitism. It would be politically all wrong to tell them the truth about where you really are leading them."
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Also see: The New York Times' first article about Hitler's rise is absolutely stunning here at DU for the modern implications.
The New York Times' first article about Hitler's rise is absolutely stunning
On November 21, 1922, the New York Times published its very first article about Adolf Hitler. It's an incredible read — especially its assertion that "Hitler's anti-Semitism was not so violent or genuine as it sounded." This attitude was, apparently, widespread among Germans at the time; many of them saw Hitler's anti-Semitism as a ploy for votes among the German masses.
--snip--
But the really extraordinary part of the article is the three paragraphs on anti-Semitism. Brown acknowledges Hitler's vicious anti-Semitism as the core of Hitler's appeal — and notes the terrified Jewish community was fleeing from him — but goes on to dismiss it as a play to satiate the rubes (bolding mine):
He is credibly credited with being actuated by lofty, unselfish patriotism. He probably does not know himself just what he wants to accomplish. The keynote of his propaganda in speaking and writing is violent anti-Semitism. His followers are nicknamed the "Hakenkreuzler." So violent are Hitler's fulminations against the Jews that a number of prominent Jewish citizens are reported to have sought safe asylums in the Bavarian highlands, easily reached by fast motor cars, whence they could hurry their women and children when forewarned of an anti-Semitic St. Bartholomew's night.
But several reliable, well-informed sources confirmed the idea that Hitler's anti-Semitism was not so genuine or violent as it sounded, and that he was merely using anti-Semitic propaganda as a bait to catch masses of followers and keep them aroused, enthusiastic, and in line for the time when his organization is perfected and sufficiently powerful to be employed effectively for political purposes.
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This is the link to the actual NY TIMES 1922 article (It is a .pdf.)
Banning homosexuality fosters hate crime and homophobia, says UN report
Men suspected of same-sex relationships in countries that outlaw them are subjected to examinations which ‘amount to torture’
Criminalising homosexuality amounts to torture in many of the 76 countries where same-sex relationships are outlawed, a United Nations report has declared.
Prof Juan Mendez, the organisation’s special rapporteur on torture, has called for decriminalisation in his latest submission to the UN’s human rights council on the grounds that the bans – which sometimes carry the death penalty – legitimise homophobia and hate crimes.
In one of the strongest denunciations of laws that are enforced in many African, Asian and Middle Eastern states, Mendez, a former Argentinian political prisoner, urges governments to reconsider their statute books.
“A clear link exists between the criminalisation of lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender persons and homophobic and transphobic hate crimes, police abuse, community and family violence and stigmatisation,” his report says.
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Seems like a "water is wet" type of story, the problem is it seems few are willing to speak up and condemn these things on a regular basis. We also see this is true in our own country (the US) especially when it comes to new laws regarding transgender rights, and even supposed liberals pitch a fit. We also see the continuing of attempts at laws to deny marriage equality, as well as the laws which currently exist in many states which actively and legally deny LGBT persons from employment and housing.
Survivors of 1980s AIDS crisis reveal what happened to them
From the role of lesbians to the vanishing of whole neighborhoods, real LGBTI people share their experiences
Survivors of the 1980s AIDS crisis have shared accounts of their experiences.
As the UK celebrates LGBT History Month, users of Reddit revealed what it was like to be living in what felt like a constant state of tragedy.
Real LGBTI people remember the confusion, the lack of information, the lack of support from the government because of the suffering from the virus known only at the time as GRID (gay-related immune deficiency).
‘I’m a 62-year-old gay man. I thankfully made it through the epidemic that started in the early 80s and went right through the mid-90’s. You ask what it was like? I don’t know if I can even begin to tell you how many ways AIDS has affected my life, even though I never caught the virus,’ one user said.
‘By the early 80s, I had what I would consider a really large circle of friends and acquaintances and once the epidemic really started to hit, it was not uncommon to find out three, four or more people you knew had died each month. We set up informal and formal support groups to look after our friends who took sick. Feeding them when they would eat. Changing them. Washing them. Acting as go-between with families who “were concerned” about their sons, nephews, brothers, etc., but wouldn’t lend a hand to help because AIDS was, you know, icky.
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Russia fines gay activist for giving advice to LGBTI teens on social media
Russia has fined a gay rights activist the maximum fine just for giving advice to LGBTI teens on social media.
Sergei Alekseenko, director of the LGBTI group Maximum, was found guilty of violating the country’s ‘gay propaganda’ law in Murmansk, north-western Russia.
He was ordered to pay 100,000 rubles ($1,300, €1,200).
Alekseenko was found guilty of posting on Maximum’s web page that presented homosexuality in a positive light to children.
In one, he was trying to combat the myth that to be gay meant being evil, or wrong, or disgusting.
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Sergei Alekseenko
The Architecture Genius: Frank Goldberg
Professor Henry Louis Gates, Jr. has a wonderful program on PBS (you can find past episodes on Hulu and YouTube) called "Finding Your Roots." It is a genealogical program that explores the family history of three individuals. This week's episode focused on "Visionaries". The are Richard Branson, of Virgin Enterprises, Maya Lin, creator of the Vietnam National Memorial, and Frank Goldberg, or as he is better known, Frank Gehry! The entire episode was interesting; it usually is. But what was interesting was the exploration of Gehry's Jewish past to the "Settlement of the Pale" and a cousin who survived three concentration camps! The DNA profile ( a feature of the program), showed he was 98% Ashkenazi Jew!
Here is a clip: http://www.pbs.org/video/2365656530/
And here is the profile: http://www.pbs.org/weta/finding-your-roots/profiles/frank-gehry/
I don't know when the actual program will be available on YouTube (usually takes a couple of days). But, if you have the PBS app or Hulu, you should be able to view it tomorrow!
"Finding Your Roots" has a past episode titled: Our People, Our Traditions, which explores the Jewish histories of Carole King, Tony Kushner, and Alan Dershowitz. There is a YouTube version, but it is $1.99. Check your PBS app!
As someone currently involved in tracking down Jewish ancestors, let me just say, it is not very easy if your parents, grandparents, or Great-grandparents were not from this country. Many records were destroyed in their native lands (for me Ukraine and Russia), or were lost to the Holocaust, but it is interesting when you stumble across the passenger list of a ship which brought your relatives to the US.
The Latest Anti-Gay Oklahoma Bills Are Almost Too Crazy to Believe
Outrageous anti-LGBTQ bills are now a fixture of the American legislative landscape. At the start of each year, extremist legislators come forward with a slew of discriminatory proposals, ranging from cleverly underhanded to openly deranged. Oklahoma’s latest bills fall on the latter side of that spectrum. In addition to some typical “religious liberty” legislation that would let businesses refuse service to gays—par for the course at this point—Oklahoma Republicans have cooked up some fascinatingly cruel bills. Let’s examine them one by one, ranked in terms of sadistic ingenuity.
1. HB 1598: Protecting ex-gay conversion therapy.
2. HB 3044: Preventing depressed and suicidal queer youth from seeing a gay-affirmative therapist.
3. SB 733: Forbidding HIV-positive people from getting married.
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A reminder: Gays, Lesbians, Bisexuals, and Transgender are people too! Marriage equality is wonderful, I should know! However, it was not the last fight for LGBT people.
29 states do NOT prohibit housing discrimination based on sexual orientation and gender identity.
15 states do NOT record hate crimes against GLBT persons.
29 states do NOT protect LGBT in regards to public accommodations.
The lists go on!
GLBT rights are human and civil rights!
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