Showing posts with label link. Show all posts
Showing posts with label link. Show all posts
Monday, November 9, 2009
Abstinence, Shmabstinence.
Tuesday, October 20, 2009
Weapons of Mass Distraction
Visit msnbc.com for Breaking News, World News, and News about the Economy
Wednesday, October 14, 2009
Tuesday, September 1, 2009
Queerty options?
Tuesday, June 30, 2009
Obama woos LGBT leaders
The president welcomes 300 prominent gays to the White House. But when will his rhetoric translate into action?
By Mike Madden
June 30, 2009 | WASHINGTON -- The last time the president of the United States marked gay pride month with anything official at the White House, it was June 2006. George W. Bush decided to throw the weight of his office behind a proposal to amend the Constitution to ban gay marriage. After all, the fate of Western civilization hung in the balance. "Our policies should aim to strengthen families, not undermine them," Bush said at the time. "And changing the definition of marriage would undermine the family structure."
On Monday, 40 years and a day after the Stonewall riots began to bring the gay rights movement into the mainstream, Barack Obama took a slightly different tack. The administration brought nearly 300 gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgendered guests -- and, in some cases, their partners or children -- to the East Room for an open bar and some hors d'ouevres. "Welcome to your White House," the president said. "We have made progress and we will make more. And I want you to know that I expect and hope to be judged not by words, not by promises I've made, but by the promises that my administration keeps. We've been in office six months now. I suspect that by the time this administration is over, I think you guys will have pretty good feelings about the Obama administration."
Of course, part of the reason he hosted the event at all is that it was starting to become clear that the gay and lesbian community may not have had such good feelings about the Obama administration so far. After winning broad support from gay voters last year, Obama had promised to push Congress to overturn the so-called Defense of Marriage Act, which makes it possible for states to refuse to recognize gay marriages performed in the increasing number of places that allow them. He'd sworn he would end the Pentagon's "don't ask, don't tell" policy, which has forced more than 13,000 people out of the military since 1993. But he followed up by inviting the Rev. Rick Warren -- a prominent supporter of California's ban on gay marriage -- to speak at his inauguration. And then his Justice Department filed a brief defending the DOMA, using language that some activists read as lumping homosexuality in with incest and child marriage (though that point has also been disputed). By Monday, Obama had some damage to repair.
"I know that many in this room don't believe that progress has come fast enough, and I understand that," he said. "It's not for me to tell you to be patient, any more than it was for others to counsel patience to African-Americans who were petitioning for equal rights a half century ago."
That may have helped buy him some, well, patience. "He acknowledged the sense of frustration and disappointment and disillusionment that many in our community have been expressing -- very justifiably so," said Kate Kendell, executive director of the National Center for Lesbian Rights, who attended the event with her 13-year-old son. By making clear he knew he had disappointed many supporters, Obama won a chance to persuade them that he'd follow through with action. The administration has also been more open to hearing from gay and lesbian activists in recent weeks, Kendell said. "He acknowledged without condescension, without defensiveness, the fact that there was a sense that we had expected and been hoping for more ... I do believe, and feel comforted, that part of his value system includes full equality for LGBT Americans."
Like every event it puts on, the White House carefully managed the stagecraft at the LGBT reception. Invitations went out about a week ago, shortly after aides began to realize the grumbling among gay activists was teetering on the edge of becoming a real political problem -- the reception was the second move to ease concerns, after an order Obama issued two weeks ago to give some domestic-partner benefits to some gay and lesbian employees of some federal agencies. Media access to the event was limited; a small group of reporters and a camera crew were allowed in, but officials directed attendees to leave through the White House's East Wing, which meant there was little danger they would wander past the press workspace attached to the West Wing on the other side of the building. Perhaps as a result, the media's interest was also limited -- cable networks didn't bother carrying Obama's full remarks live.
Still, Obama struck a sympathetic tone, frequently comparing the struggle for gay rights to the 1960s civil rights era. Before the reception, the president met privately with two men who were part of the Stonewall protests, and he mentioned them several times in his remarks. "When these folks protested at Stonewall 40 years ago, no one could have imagined that you -- or, for that matter, I -- would be standing here today," he said. "So we are all witnesses to monumental changes in this country. That should give us hope, but we cannot rest."
Whether that rhetoric translates into any meaningful change soon, of course, remains to be seen. Obama said he'd asked Pentagon officials to begin planning for how to end "don't ask, don't tell," but 77 House members have already asked him to eliminate the policy faster. Likewise, there's been no real movement on overturning DOMA, even though Obama says he wants it repealed.
And while those who were at the reception seemed mollified, other critics were still blasting away. The Servicemen's Legal Defense Network, which represents gay and lesbian troops, held a protest outside the White House over the weekend to urge faster action on "don't ask, don't tell." "We keep hearing that the noble people who are going on Monday are planning to talk about issues and really let the White House know we've got problems," wrote Joe Sudbay on AmericaBlog. "That's BS. Many of them had a chance two weeks ago in the Oval Office to tell the president what they thought, and how many of those groups let him have it?"
Still, the message Obama was trying to convey -- relax, I'm with you -- seemed to sink in. "He's been in office six months, and in six months, not much has happened to help us," said Jerry Hoose, one of the two Stonewall veterans who met Obama privately before the meeting, and a founder of the Gay Liberation Front in New York not long after Stonewall. "But again, six months. I mean, what do you expect? The man is president, not a miracle worker." If nothing has changed a few years from now, keeping gay and lesbian supporters in Obama's corner may indeed take a political miracle. For now, though, the White House is hoping some kind words will do.
Wednesday, June 17, 2009
Put your dancing shoes on!
This is the week to be queer in Boulder!
Tonight is our monthly Happy Hour at the Bside Lounge
Tomorrow (June 18) we are cosponsoring a small sampler of LGBT groups, A Fair to Remember, with PFLAG.
Saturday, June 20, start your evening off with a Bent Lens Summer Salute to Pride and then head over to the PWord Party, an all womyn's event in the heart of downtown Boulder!
(You can get discounted tickets in advance to Bent Lens and the PWord Party!)
Tuesday, June 2, 2009
Press Release from the White House on Pride Month
THE WHITE HOUSE
Office of the Press Secretary
___________________________________________________________
For Immediate Release June 1, 2009
LESBIAN, GAY, BISEXUAL, AND TRANSGENDER PRIDE MONTH, 2009
- - - - - - -
BY THE PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA
A PROCLAMATION
Office of the Press Secretary
___________________________________________________________
For Immediate Release June 1, 2009
LESBIAN, GAY, BISEXUAL, AND TRANSGENDER PRIDE MONTH, 2009
- - - - - - -
BY THE PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA
A PROCLAMATION
Forty years ago, patrons and supporters of the Stonewall Inn in New York City resisted police harassment that had become all too common for members of the lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender (LGBT) community. Out of this resistance, the LGBT rights movement in America was born. During LGBT Pride Month, we commemorate the events of June 1969 and commit to achieving equal justice under law for LGBT Americans.
LGBT Americans have made, and continue to make, great and lasting contributions that continue to strengthen the fabric of American society. There are many well-respected LGBT leaders in all professional fields, including the arts and business communities. LGBT Americans also mobilized the Nation to respond to the domestic HIV/AIDS epidemic and have played a vital role in broadening this country's response to the HIV pandemic.
Due in no small part to the determination and dedication of the LGBT rights movement, more LGBT Americans are living their lives openly today than ever before. I am proud to be the first President to appoint openly LGBT candidates to Senate-confirmed positions in the first 100 days of an Administration. These individuals embody the best qualities we seek in public servants, and across my Administration -- in both the White House and the Federal agencies -- openly LGBT employees are doing their jobs with distinction and professionalism.
The LGBT rights movement has achieved great progress, but there is more work to be done. LGBT youth should feel safe to learn without the fear of harassment, and LGBT families and seniors should be allowed to live their lives with dignity and respect.
My Administration has partnered with the LGBT community to advance a wide range of initiatives. At the international level, I have joined efforts at the United Nations to decriminalize homosexuality around the world. Here at home, I continue to support measures to bring the full spectrum of equal rights to LGBT Americans. These measures include enhancing hate crimes laws, supporting civil unions and Federal rights for LGBT couples, outlawing discrimination in the workplace, ensuring adoption rights, and ending the existing "Don't Ask, Don't Tell" policy in a way that strengthens our Armed Forces and our national security. We must also commit ourselves to fighting the HIV/AIDS epidemic by both reducing the number of HIV infections and providing care and support services to people living with HIV/AIDS across the United States.
These issues affect not only the LGBT community, but also our entire Nation. As long as the promise of equality for all remains unfulfilled, all Americans are affected. If we can work together to advance the principles upon which our Nation was founded, every American will benefit. During LGBT Pride Month, I call upon the LGBT community, the Congress, and the American people to work together to promote equal rights for all, regardless of sexual orientation or gender identity.
NOW, THEREFORE, I, BARACK OBAMA, President of the United States of America, by virtue of the authority vested in me by the Constitution and laws of the United States, do hereby proclaim June 2009 as Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, and Transgender Pride Month. I call upon the people of the United States to turn back discrimination and prejudice everywhere it exists.
IN WITNESS WHEREOF, I have hereunto set my hand this first day of June, in the year of our Lord two thousand nine, and of the Independence of the United States of America the two hundred and thirty-third.
BARACK OBAMA
http://www.whitehouse.gov/the_
T-Pride-Month/
Thursday, May 7, 2009
Monday, May 4, 2009
Transgender world sees hope
"I think we're making significant progress regarding basic understanding."
By Karen Auge
The Denver Post
The redhead in the brown T-shirt and strappy sandals doesn't want to give her name because at work — she's a mechanic — they think she's a guy.
Which, technically, she is. Straddling the gulf between what she has outside and what she is inside requires a juggling act whose toll is evident in the coins that jangle in her hands, in the crossed leg that never stops swinging.
Julie is fidgety too. In seven days, she'll board a plane for Philadelphia, where she'll be wheeled into an operating room and emerge a new person. But no one at this Tuesday-night "in transition" support group is more anxious than the youngster of the gathering, the college student with a habit of pulling one sleeve over her fist. She's afraid
For them, especially those going from male to female, stepping so young into high heels is no less risky than it was for the previous, hesitant generation.
But the risks are different.
Their older peers risked friends, families, careers. This generation risks beatings in high school and on dates. It risks being killed by the Allen Andrades of a world that is still squeamish, disapproving or downright hostile.
Zapata's murder — Andrade was convicted last week of killing the 18-year-old Greeley resident — is where the generations meet, at the intersection of the fear that kept one generation pretending for decades and the younger generation's fear of being the next victim. Despite fear, many young people are forging ahead with changes they say will make inside and outside match.
"The average age of a person I see has dropped by 20
Transgender person Christy McCleary in the workshop of her Parker home. McCleary, like many transgenders, served in the military, as a crew chief on B-52s in the Vietnam War.
years," said Karen Scarpella, a clinical social worker who treats those in transition.
Signs of acceptance? The aggressive prosecution and resounding verdict in the Zapata case may — or may not — signal that doors of acceptance may be opening a crack.
"I think we're making significant progress regarding basic understanding and education on transgender issues," said Kate Bowman of the Gender Identity Center of Colorado. "We're about 10 or 15 years behind gays, lesbians or bisexuals. Not that that community is accepted wholly." Transgender activists say that before acceptance must come understanding. Being transgender does not mean being gay or lesbian, said Mindy Barton, legal director at the Gay, Lesbian, Bisexual and Transgender (GLBT) Unity Center of Colorado.
"Transgender is the inner sense of being male or female, or that your gender expression differs from what was assigned to you at birth," Barton said.
As one transgender woman at the Tuesday support group put it: "Sex is what's between your legs. Gender is what's between your ears." And when the two don't match, transgender people say, life can be hell. How that happens is a mystery that science has yet to solve. "It certainly is biological," said Dr. Marci Bowers, who performs 140 to 160 gender- change surgeries each year at the Trinidad clinic founded by sex-reassignment pioneer Dr. Stanley Biber. About 80 percent of those procedures are male-to-female.
"What has not been clarified is where the biological effect is coming from," Bowers said. "Is there a component of nurturing? Is it all genetics? Is it hormonal?" Religious intolerance
Not everyone buys that, of course. Many religious groups assert that transgender people choose a deviant lifestyle. Even among those who treat them, debate rages over whether children can be "cured" of transgender feelings. As a boy of 5, Bowman had no clue what gender meant. "I just knew that I was different. I knew I wanted to live as a girl," she said. But when Bowman, 61, was a child, the word "transgender" didn't exist. "Then, if you told somebody, your parents would lock you up or get you shock treatments," she said. "Now, society has come to the point where youth is more open and parents are more educated."
Somehow, many kids seem to sense that and tell parents their bodies feel wrong. But if open-minded parents can make childhood less painful, they can make life challenging for schools. Last year, parents of an 8-year-old boy who wants to live as a girl approached the Doug las County School District about allowing the child to attend school safely. District spokeswoman Whei Wong said at first there was "negativity."
But, she said, the district did a lot of research and had a lot of conversations with the child's parents and teachers. "We had protocols in place to make sure our student knew who to contact if they felt in danger," she said. "We put in place process and procedure that will be a reference in the future."
That's a far cry from the experience Carol Ganow, who lived as a man until her mid-40s, had in high school. "I remember walking through the halls hoping not to get killed," she said. That sort of baggage has kept the volunteer gender-identity center, its support groups and education humming along for 30 years.
Inside its cozy basement, a pair of posters sum up the gamut of issues that clients grapple with, from the monumental to the mundane. On the mundane end of the spectrum: Bold words "how NOT to apply makeup" float over a picture of a trowel with a red slash through it. Of more importance: a flier announcing a meeting of "Trans And Sober."
Substance abuse is a problem, as is suicide. The GLBT's Movement Advancement Project estimates that as many as 51 percent of transgender people have considered killing themselves; 26 percent have tried. But these women didn't come this Tuesday to discuss the past. That's what months of therapy — required to begin the gender-change process — are for.
Advantages of youth
These women have more immediate concerns, such as how to help another young woman, Rachel, perfect the movements, walks and gestures that signal femininity. In one sense, Rachel is lucky. She's young; she won't have decades of working at masculine carriage to unload. And it typically is easier for those who transition younger to "pass," in the parlance of the trans world. But she's not as lucky as Stacy Kilpatrick. At 29, Kilpatrick has a lean body and a natural talent with an eyeliner wand any woman would envy. When she was in what she calls her "butch" phase, "trying to say this isn't real," she trained to be a firefighter and an EMT. That's a common thread in her patients' histories, Bowers said. A large number served in the military, like Christy McCleary, who was a crew chief on B-52s during the Vietnam War. Lately, Kilpatrick has done office work. Until she was laid off in January, she worked for a mutual fund. Now, with her new, legal name on her resume, with her hormone treatments in full swing, she's job-hunting for the first time as a woman. And she's desperate to fall from the ranks of the transgender unemployed, estimated at 40 percent.
A couple of weeks ago, a law firm called her for a second interview. That's when she told them about her background. "He said, 'Well, honestly, I'm not comfortable having you interface with my clients.' I was devastated. I really thought this could be the one," she said. The first time Kilpatrick went out as a woman, on Halloween in 2006, she wound up in the hospital, with a concussion and a shattered wrist.
She filed a complaint against the bouncers who beat her and hopes a settlement might someday pay for her surgery. The process isn't cheap. There are hormone treatments and therapy. For men becoming women, there are breast implants, electrolysis and maybe facial surgery to reduce manly browlines. Then there is the reassignment surgery, which can cost $20,000 in this country. Virtually nothing is covered by insurance. A week from her surgery, Julie estimates her transformation will cost $100,000. Still, Bowers has a 10-month wait for surgery — down from 14 months before the recession. But Julie feels she has no choice: "You reach a point where you have to do this. It's lifesaving."
Karen Auge: 303-954-1733 or kauge@denverpost.com
By Karen Auge
The Denver Post
The redhead in the brown T-shirt and strappy sandals doesn't want to give her name because at work — she's a mechanic — they think she's a guy.
Which, technically, she is. Straddling the gulf between what she has outside and what she is inside requires a juggling act whose toll is evident in the coins that jangle in her hands, in the crossed leg that never stops swinging.
Julie is fidgety too. In seven days, she'll board a plane for Philadelphia, where she'll be wheeled into an operating room and emerge a new person. But no one at this Tuesday-night "in transition" support group is more anxious than the youngster of the gathering, the college student with a habit of pulling one sleeve over her fist. She's afraid
For them, especially those going from male to female, stepping so young into high heels is no less risky than it was for the previous, hesitant generation.
But the risks are different.
Their older peers risked friends, families, careers. This generation risks beatings in high school and on dates. It risks being killed by the Allen Andrades of a world that is still squeamish, disapproving or downright hostile.
Zapata's murder — Andrade was convicted last week of killing the 18-year-old Greeley resident — is where the generations meet, at the intersection of the fear that kept one generation pretending for decades and the younger generation's fear of being the next victim. Despite fear, many young people are forging ahead with changes they say will make inside and outside match.
"The average age of a person I see has dropped by 20
Transgender person Christy McCleary in the workshop of her Parker home. McCleary, like many transgenders, served in the military, as a crew chief on B-52s in the Vietnam War.
years," said Karen Scarpella, a clinical social worker who treats those in transition.
Signs of acceptance? The aggressive prosecution and resounding verdict in the Zapata case may — or may not — signal that doors of acceptance may be opening a crack.
"I think we're making significant progress regarding basic understanding and education on transgender issues," said Kate Bowman of the Gender Identity Center of Colorado. "We're about 10 or 15 years behind gays, lesbians or bisexuals. Not that that community is accepted wholly." Transgender activists say that before acceptance must come understanding. Being transgender does not mean being gay or lesbian, said Mindy Barton, legal director at the Gay, Lesbian, Bisexual and Transgender (GLBT) Unity Center of Colorado.
"Transgender is the inner sense of being male or female, or that your gender expression differs from what was assigned to you at birth," Barton said.
As one transgender woman at the Tuesday support group put it: "Sex is what's between your legs. Gender is what's between your ears." And when the two don't match, transgender people say, life can be hell. How that happens is a mystery that science has yet to solve. "It certainly is biological," said Dr. Marci Bowers, who performs 140 to 160 gender- change surgeries each year at the Trinidad clinic founded by sex-reassignment pioneer Dr. Stanley Biber. About 80 percent of those procedures are male-to-female.
"What has not been clarified is where the biological effect is coming from," Bowers said. "Is there a component of nurturing? Is it all genetics? Is it hormonal?" Religious intolerance
Not everyone buys that, of course. Many religious groups assert that transgender people choose a deviant lifestyle. Even among those who treat them, debate rages over whether children can be "cured" of transgender feelings. As a boy of 5, Bowman had no clue what gender meant. "I just knew that I was different. I knew I wanted to live as a girl," she said. But when Bowman, 61, was a child, the word "transgender" didn't exist. "Then, if you told somebody, your parents would lock you up or get you shock treatments," she said. "Now, society has come to the point where youth is more open and parents are more educated."
Somehow, many kids seem to sense that and tell parents their bodies feel wrong. But if open-minded parents can make childhood less painful, they can make life challenging for schools. Last year, parents of an 8-year-old boy who wants to live as a girl approached the Doug las County School District about allowing the child to attend school safely. District spokeswoman Whei Wong said at first there was "negativity."
But, she said, the district did a lot of research and had a lot of conversations with the child's parents and teachers. "We had protocols in place to make sure our student knew who to contact if they felt in danger," she said. "We put in place process and procedure that will be a reference in the future."
That's a far cry from the experience Carol Ganow, who lived as a man until her mid-40s, had in high school. "I remember walking through the halls hoping not to get killed," she said. That sort of baggage has kept the volunteer gender-identity center, its support groups and education humming along for 30 years.
Inside its cozy basement, a pair of posters sum up the gamut of issues that clients grapple with, from the monumental to the mundane. On the mundane end of the spectrum: Bold words "how NOT to apply makeup" float over a picture of a trowel with a red slash through it. Of more importance: a flier announcing a meeting of "Trans And Sober."
Substance abuse is a problem, as is suicide. The GLBT's Movement Advancement Project estimates that as many as 51 percent of transgender people have considered killing themselves; 26 percent have tried. But these women didn't come this Tuesday to discuss the past. That's what months of therapy — required to begin the gender-change process — are for.
Advantages of youth
These women have more immediate concerns, such as how to help another young woman, Rachel, perfect the movements, walks and gestures that signal femininity. In one sense, Rachel is lucky. She's young; she won't have decades of working at masculine carriage to unload. And it typically is easier for those who transition younger to "pass," in the parlance of the trans world. But she's not as lucky as Stacy Kilpatrick. At 29, Kilpatrick has a lean body and a natural talent with an eyeliner wand any woman would envy. When she was in what she calls her "butch" phase, "trying to say this isn't real," she trained to be a firefighter and an EMT. That's a common thread in her patients' histories, Bowers said. A large number served in the military, like Christy McCleary, who was a crew chief on B-52s during the Vietnam War. Lately, Kilpatrick has done office work. Until she was laid off in January, she worked for a mutual fund. Now, with her new, legal name on her resume, with her hormone treatments in full swing, she's job-hunting for the first time as a woman. And she's desperate to fall from the ranks of the transgender unemployed, estimated at 40 percent.
A couple of weeks ago, a law firm called her for a second interview. That's when she told them about her background. "He said, 'Well, honestly, I'm not comfortable having you interface with my clients.' I was devastated. I really thought this could be the one," she said. The first time Kilpatrick went out as a woman, on Halloween in 2006, she wound up in the hospital, with a concussion and a shattered wrist.
She filed a complaint against the bouncers who beat her and hopes a settlement might someday pay for her surgery. The process isn't cheap. There are hormone treatments and therapy. For men becoming women, there are breast implants, electrolysis and maybe facial surgery to reduce manly browlines. Then there is the reassignment surgery, which can cost $20,000 in this country. Virtually nothing is covered by insurance. A week from her surgery, Julie estimates her transformation will cost $100,000. Still, Bowers has a 10-month wait for surgery — down from 14 months before the recession. But Julie feels she has no choice: "You reach a point where you have to do this. It's lifesaving."
Karen Auge: 303-954-1733 or kauge@denverpost.com
Thursday, April 16, 2009
Monday, April 13, 2009
Naughty by Nurture
Friday, April 10, 2009
Anecdotes and Facts.
Thankfully, we now have proof that being a gay teen carries with it extra burden. GLSEN recently released several reports documenting the struggles faced by the younger generation.
Friday, April 3, 2009
Marriage in IOWA!
I never thought I’d see the day when Iowa outpaced California in progressive legislation (maybe I need to examine my prejudices a little more closely). But just today, Iowa joins Massachusetts and Connecticut in providing full inclusion to same-sex couples in making civil partnerships!
DES MOINES, Iowa - The Iowa Supreme Court legalized gay marriage Friday in a unanimous and emphatic decision that makes Iowa the third state — and the first in the nation's heartland — to allow same-sex couples to wed. In its decision, the high court upheld a lower court's ruling that found a state law restricting marriage to between a man and woman violated Iowa's constitution.
"We are firmly convinced the exclusion of gay and lesbian people from the institution of civil marriage does not substantially further any important governmental objective," the Supreme Court wrote in its decision. "The Legislature has excluded a historically disfavored class of persons from a supremely important civil institution without a constitutionally sufficient justification."
Read more at: http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/30027685/
Monday, March 23, 2009
Challenge your mind!
Wednesday, January 21, 2009
Growing Up Gay?
So, nowadays kids are coming out in elementary school. I admire them, I couldn't even identify who I had a crush on (maybe because I had this whole queer thing going on) and ended up dating a guy for a few weeks in 6th grade because my friends thought I should. Turns out, that's a bad reason to date someone. (Or, as I learned later in life, to stay with someone. Don't avoid divorce just because your friends like your relationship-- they aren't living it!)
Recently I received a link to this blog. I haven't read much of it, but I really like the idea of someone working to understand this new phenomena of children developing in a healthy way that allows them to express their feelings without (as much) fear.
Recently I received a link to this blog. I haven't read much of it, but I really like the idea of someone working to understand this new phenomena of children developing in a healthy way that allows them to express their feelings without (as much) fear.
Monday, January 12, 2009
When Priests Can Love!
Colorado Episcopals end moratorium on gay priests ... what's next--- Letting people get married if they love one another?
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