October 11, 2016

The Powerful Way Logo TV Is Censoring Itself On National Coming Out Day

Logo TV is set to honor National Coming Out Day... by going into the closet.

The television channel, which features LGBT-themed shows like “Cocktails and Classics” and “Finding Prince Charming,” will symbolically “censor” all of its queer-related content on National Coming Out Day, which is observed Oct. 11. The “censored” content will include digital pixelation, black bars and bleeped audio on any openly LGBT figures and messages, and will begin airing on the channel at 10 a.m. EST Tuesday during a scheduled marathon of “RuPaul’s Drag Race.” (See what episodes of “Drag Race” will look like above)

The “Day of Disruption” effort, which is part of the network’s Global Ally initiative highlighting LGBT stories around the world, will also impact content on LogoTV.com, its NewNowNext news site and Logo social channels, including Facebook and Twitter, through 9 p.m. The modified content will appear alongside facts about global LGBT issues as well as filmed appearances by Candis Cayne, Gus Kenworthy, Billy Porter and Geena Rocero, among other queer celebrities.

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http://media.mtvnservices.com/embed/mgid:arc:video:logotv.com:3373ffb6-a8ba-4fe6-b5d6-be736f74031e
(video featuring Omar Sharif Jr.)

http://media.mtvnservices.com/embed/mgid:arc:video:logotv.com:00917d6c-efb1-4e51-8071-da25eb905508
(interview with Kevin, an Iran-based activist)

October 11, 2016

Today is "National Coming Out Day"!

National Coming Out Day



The History of Coming Out

We are here! We are queer! Get used to it!

OH...and WE VOTE!

The lives of the LGBT community are as important as any other group of people, but there are those who see us as an easy target; for the most part, they are correct. Too many look the other way in regards to homophobia, but especially when it comes to heterosexism (heterosexual privilege)!

Currently there are 28 states which allow for LEGAL...let me say that again...LEGAL discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation, meaning one can be fired for simply BEING GAY, LESBIAN, BISEXUAL, or TRANSGENDER. In some states, it is LEGAL to discriminate against the Queer community by refusing them housing or removing them from housing. A few states are currently making it difficult to register to marry, then there is the adoption issues.

Marriage equality was not the end of our struggles.





Come out, come out, wherever you are!!! (This includes allies!!!!)

October is also Gay History Month. Do you know any gay history?

September 13, 2016

The Black Panthers and Gay Rights

In 1970 the Black Panther Party invited Jean Genet, the famous French gay writer and activist, to the U.S., as many black Americans already considered him an ally because of his play The Blacks. In 1991 in Paris, lesbian Panther Angela Davis spoke about this time, recalling her first meetings with Genet.

Davis also recalls a speech Genet gave at the University of California, Los Angeles, in support of releasing black political prisoners: “Genet had made some proposals 20 years before that we just started to develop — for instance, the white participation in the struggle against racism. After a quarter of an hour, many members of the audience started to get upset and to whisper and, suddenly, someone even interrupted Genet asking him to speak, at last, of himself and his work! Genet answered, ‘No, I'm not here to talk about literature or my books. I came to defend the Black Panther Party.’”

Angela Davis charted the important links between black political consciousness and gay rights in that same speech:

“One last important point: It was Genet who heightened the Black Panther Party awareness to the homosexual rights issue. David Hilliard told me that when they were traveling together from state to state, from one university to another, some members of the party were using very rude and homophobic words to insult Nixon or (U.S. Attorney General John) Mitchell. Genet was hurt by these words and told them they should not use such vocabulary.

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Angela Davis and Jean Genet

September 9, 2016

Lady Chablis, Transgender 'Midnight' Star, Dies at Age 59

Source: NBC News

Sep 8 2016, 4:09 pm ET

SAVANNAH, Ga. — The Lady Chablis, the transgender performer who became an unlikely celebrity for her role in the 1994 best-seller "Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil," died Thursday in Savannah, her family said. She was 59.

Chablis' sister, Cynthia Ponder, confirmed she died at Candler Hospital. A close friend, Cale Hall, said Chablis died from pneumonia and had been in the hospital for the past month.

A modern, nonfiction take on Southern Gothic storytelling, author John Berendt's "Midnight" thrust Savannah into the pop-culture spotlight. And the sassy, blunt-spoken Chablis rode the book's popularity to a level of fame that was rare for transgender performers at the time.

"The legacy that she wanted to leave was one of 'believe in who you are and never let the world change who you are,'" Ponder said. "Love yourself first and respect yourself first and others will love and respect you."

Chablis insisted on playing herself in 1997's "Midnight" movie directed by Clint Eastwood. That same year she published an autobiography, "Hiding My Candy."






Read more: http://www.nbcnews.com/feature/nbc-out/lady-chablis-transgender-midnight-star-dies-age-59-n645006

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She was my friend!!

August 23, 2016

Trans rights activist Hande Kader was raped and burned to death in Turkey

In Turkey, the LGBTQ community is mourning the loss of transgender rights activist and sex worker Hande Kader.

Kader's body was found raped and brutally burned on Aug. 12 in Istanbul and now activists across the world are demanding justice for her death and the greater violence inflicted upon the the LGBTQ community, BuzzFeed reported. According to Kader's friends, she was last seen in a client's car.

While homosexuality is not illegal in Turkey, according to BuzzFeed, discrimination and violence against the LGBTQ community is staggering.

Kader, who was 22 years old, was a big voice in bringing awareness to the violence against sex workers and the LGBTQ community in Turkey. She made multiple appearances throughout the country, like the Gay Pride parade in Istanbul in 2015, where police opened fire at protesters with rubber bullets and water cannons.

more....

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Does it have to come to this in the US before people realize what is happening to transgender people?! Oh wait...

In the first eight months of 2016, the murders of 19 transgender people have been reported.

http://www.advocate.com/transgender/2016/8/11/these-are-trans-people-killed-2016#slide-0

August 8, 2016

Bill Maher: Trans equality must wait until after presidential election

THIS IS THE LGBT GROUP!

In his “New Rules” segment Friday night, Bill Maher called for “boutique issues” like transgender equality to be put on hold until after the “Armageddon” presidential election, Yahoo! TV reports.

The “Real Time” host said that defeating Trump must be the top priority.

“From now until Election Day, everything else — every issue, every fight, every cause — has to take a backseat to defeating Trump,” Maher said. “We all have our issues that are important to us, and so just to lead by example, let me say I will take my own close-to-the-heart pet cause — pot legalization — off the table. And you know me: I have seeds in my urine!”

Twitter wasn’t having it. Some called out his characterization of the issues liberals and progressive are fighting for, as well as the privileged lens through which he views them:

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[hr]

Well, we have certainly heard this before. Even now we are being told we are being "selfish", I was told I was stupid and ushering in a Trump presidency, and "cultural issues" aren't important. A commenter to this article wrote:

Yes, after the election, then after the innaugaration, then after the first 100 days, then maybe after the mid term elections, then after the first manned trip to mars and the building of a colony on a planet in the Alpha Centauri system, then in 3535.....

Dr. King said: In the end, we will not remember the words of our enemies, but the silence of our friends.

August 6, 2016

Pride Uganda raided by police as LGBT activists arrested

A Pride event in Uganda has been broken up by police as at least two LGBT+ activists are arrested.

Pride Uganda tweeted that the small gathering in Kampala had been raided by police, as prominent LGBT+ activist Frank Mugisha also tweeted that he had been arrested.

---snip---

Adamantly homophobic Ugandan President Yoweri Museveni remained in office for a fifth term, as he won a general election earlier this year, amid accusations of corruption.

President Museveni signed the draconian Anti-Homosexuality Bill in February 2014. The law called for repeat offenders to be sentenced to 14 years in prison and to make it a criminal offence not to report someone for being gay.

However, the country’s Constitutional Court later struck down the bill, finding that the speaker of parliament acted illegally by moving ahead with a vote on the law despite at least three lawmakers objecting to a lack of quorum.

Despite this, it still remains illegal to be gay in Uganda.

---snip---

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[hr]



UGANDA LGBT BROTHERS AND SISTERS

July 20, 2016

Will You Stop Being Mean to Log Cabin Republicans? (Spoiler: No, I Will Not.)

---snip---

As for the rank and file of the LGBT community, Paul, we're mad at LCR and our anger is not misplaced.

This is the worst GOP platform ever. That’s all LCR has to show for nearly forty years of what exactly? Forty years of trying to change the GOP from within? No. Forty years of lying to the LGBT community about the Republican Party and forty years of complicity in Republican attacks on the LGBT community.

I'm not just talking about LCR's long and ignominious history of endorsing anti-LGBT politicians. It's worse than that. LCR isn't just guilty of endorsing shitty anti-gay bigots — George W. Bush over Al Gore 2000; John McCain (and Sarah Palin!) over Barack Obama in 2008; Mitt Romney over Barack Obama in 2012 (despite Romney's support for a constitutional amendment banning same-sex marriage, his opposition to gays and lesbians serving openly in the military, and his support for discrimination against LGBT people in employment and housing) — LCR is also guilty of providing cover for anti-LGBT Republicans. While anti-LGBT bigotry still plays well with the "rank and file" of the GOP base, it doesn't play well with moderate and independent voters. Log Cabin Republicans and other gay Republicans are used — they allow themselves to be used — the same way Ben Carson and Herman Cane allow themselves to be used and Colin Powell once allowed himself to be used. ("Our policies can't be racist! We aren't the party of white grievance, deafening dog whistles, Lee Atwater, Willie Hortan, "welfare queens," Donald Trump, and the Southern Strategy. Look! Over there! It's Ben Carson!&quot

---snip---

Read the whole thing! (ETA: Guess it would help if I added a link!)

July 3, 2016

Anti-Semitism Is Back. Will You Stand By Or Stand up?

THIS IS THE JEWISH GROUP!

Erin Schrode, a promising 25-year-old Jewish woman, announces her candidacy for U.S. Congress. In response, she is bombarded by hundreds of anti-Semitic messages: “Fire up the oven.” “Kike.” “Get out of my country, kike. Get to Israel where you belong. That or the oven. Take your pick.” This did not happen in the 1930s. It happened last month in California.

An Oberlin College professor, Joy Karega, posted a photo of Jacob Rothschild, a member of a well-known Jewish banking family, which read: “We own nearly every central bank in the world. We financed both sides of every war since Napoleon. We own your news, the media, your oil and your government.” This was not published in Gleichschaltung, a Nazi newspaper. This was on her Facebook page.

Students at UC Berkley woke up one morning this past year to the words, “Zionists should be sent to the gas chamber” painted on a building.

--snip--

Suddenly, mainstream culture is finding cover for the age-old hatred of Jews. They’ve figured it out. So long as the attack is lightly-battered and flash fried in a light coat of anti-Israel sentiment, and as long as you pretend you are fighting for “human rights,” the rise of anti-Semitism is socially acceptable. It shouldn’t be. It’s can’t be. Not again.

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July 3, 2016

"The opposite of love is not hate, it's indifference." Elie Wiesel

The secure world of Wiesel's childhood ended abruptly with the arrival of the Nazis in Sighet in 1944. The Jewish inhabitants of the village were deported en masse to concentration camps in Poland. The 15-year-old boy was separated from his mother and sister immediately on arrival in Auschwitz. He never saw them again. He managed to remain with his father for the next year as they were worked almost to death, starved, beaten, and shuttled from camp to camp on foot, or in open cattle cars, in driving snow, without food, proper shoes, or clothing. In the last months of the war, Wiesel's father succumbed to dysentery, starvation, exhaustion and exposure. source