When flawless “Golden Girls” star Bea Arthur passed away, she left a bucket of money to the Ali Forney Center in New York City, a shelter for LGBTQ teenagers. Ali Forney was a drop-in day center for kids who were thrown out of their homes or ran away from home when their families would not accept their sexual orientation. It had food, showers, HIV testing, and mental health services, among other services.
Hurricane Sandy destroyed the Ali Forney Center last week. Keep reading »
I can’t change / even if I wanted to
Such is the chorus for “Same Love,” by Macklemore and Ryan Lewis, featuring Mary Lambert, a new song released this summer which was released in a short film today. I want to say the rap is pro-gay marriage or even pro-gay rights, but really both the song and the incredibly touching video are really just pro-human decency. Keep reading »
“I think that gay marriage is going to happen. It must. We are not actually equal — humanity — if we are not allowed to freely love one another. What the Pope thinks of being gay does not matter to the world. It matters to the people who like the Pope and follow the Pope. It is not a reflection of all religious people.”
– Lady Gaga on a French radio show spit some truth that the Vatican probably found hard to hear. But I like the way Gaga said this: she didn’t say the Pope is wrong, she just said his opinion doesn’t matter to people who don’t follow him. We can fight all we want about who’s right and who’s wrong about the “morality” of homosexuality and gay marriage, but you can’t really argue with the fact that the opinions of other people’s religious leaders don’t matter to most of us. That is precisely why when bigots try to explain to me that their anti-gay beliefs are just religious, I immediately invoke my all-loving, all-accepting deity, the Flying Spaghetti Monster. [Fox News]
Let me tell you a story about “bi invisibility.” A few years ago, at my first full-time job – which, I should clarify, was at an LGBT nonprofit organization – I was chatting with a gay male co-worker about a conversation he had with an acquaintance of ours. Apparently I had come up in their conversation, and he had referred to me as “straight.” As in “heterosexual.” I don’t know where the rest of the story was going, because I stopped my colleague right there.
“Actually,” I interjected, “I’m not straight.”
He seemed genuinely baffled. “You’re not?”
“Well … no. I can see why you thought I was, but I’m not. I’m bisexual.”
His eyes widened and he smiled. It was like a light bulb had gone off in his head and everything suddenly made sense. Meanwhile, I walked back to my cubicle, shocked that, at an LGBT organization, anyone would assume that anyone else was straight. It surprised me that, in a space where identity politics and queer issues were discussed regularly, being in a relationship with a man would automatically signify me as a hetero. I suddenly realized that my identity as a bi woman would always be invisible. I would always be invisible. That is, unless I found a way to combat that invisibility. Keep reading »
It’s a sad statement on society when we have to issue advertising campaigns to remind people to treat their fellow human beings “with courtesy and respect.” But whatever, I’m not going to complain! This rad ad campaign by the District of Columbia Office of Human Rights is the first-ever campaign to focus on treating trans folks with the same dignity and humanity that everyone deserves. There’s a bunch of other ads with trans men and women sharing the so-totally-normal-they’re-practically-boring stuff they like to do, like “listening to Adele” and “playing basketball.” Other human beings — they’re just like us! [ColorLines]
“One of the defining conversations that I had with myself was that absolutely no good can come from me staying quiet about [my sexuality]. Literally, no good can come from it. But if I take the step to make the acknowledgment and be honest, so much good could potentially come from it. … It boggles my mind that there are so many extreme, Christian organizations that are adopting a stance against homosexuality with such vitriol and hatred and targeted aggression that goes against the tenets of the Christian faith. The hatred that people are leading with in this discussion is really, for me, the biggest symptom of how sick we are. It’s the thing that makes me look at our culture and think, ’We are so far afield of any sort of connectivity or truth in relationship to one another.’
– Zachary Quinto from “American Horror Story” (or the nerds amongst us, “Star Trek”) tells Out magazine about why he chose to come out of the closet last year in New York magazine and why he’s been campaigning for Obama 2012 on LGBT rights. The vitriol, hatred and aggression against lesbians and gays boggles my mind, too, Zach. Now forget about your boyfriend Jonathan Groff and come make out with meeeeeee. [Out]
Well, it finally happened. Months in the making, Dan Savage and Brian Brown battled it out in “The Dinner Table Debate,” discussing LGBT issues and Christianity and moderated by Mark Oppenheimer.
First, some background. In April, Savage, a sex columnist and originator of “It Gets Better,” an anti-bullying campaign, gave a speech in April to 3,000 high school students, during which some of his comments led to 24 high schoolers walking out. During his speech, Savage said that the origin of much anti-gay bullying comes from the Bible. Keep reading »
“Personally, for me, I like people I have a connection with. I’m not the type of girl who will date someone that I don’t really like just so I’m not lonely. So the people I always end up being with are people I have a big-ass connection with, and that could be with a boy, that could be with a girl. It could be with someone who’s 40-years-old, it could be with someone who’s 18, you know what I’m saying? I don’t want to put those boundaries on myself because that’ll limit the kind of people that I attract. I don’t go searching for girls and guys, I just take whatever comes my way and that’s just genuine.”
– Rapper Kreayshawn spoke with Salon.com about Frank Ocean’s coming-out and her own sexuality, namely how she herself doesn’t label it. This bit reminded me of an article I read yesterday in New York magazine. They interviewed a bunch of bisexuals — rather, more accurately, people who have been attracted to both men and women throughout their lives — and I was surprised at how many of them used the label “gay” or “straight” or no label at all instead of saying “bi.” For myself I prefer to just say “straight-ish” … or “slut.” [Salon.com]
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