Favorite Moments of 2014: Ten Years of Marriage Equality in Massachusetts

This year, the Bay State celebrated ten years of marriage equality.
HRC.org

www.hrc.org/blog/entry/favorite-moments-of-2014-ten-years-of-marriage-equality-in-massachusetts?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss-feed

Eleven Homophobic Holiday Horrors Reveal The Darker Side Of Winter Travel

For those of us who have moved far away from home in search of a more accepting community, the holidays can be a weird slingshot back into the lives we intentionally parted from.

Awkward family dynamics, small towns with no gay bars and that feeling you’re 17 again can all be uncomfortable reminders of why you moved away in the first place.

Still, you only get one family. We wanted to hear from those heading back homo for the holidays, so we asked Whisper to give us the rundown on what they’ve been seeing.

Anything sound familiar?

Dan Tracer

feedproxy.google.com/~r/queerty2/~3/NPv9ivjrPZA/eleven-homophobic-holiday-horrors-reveal-the-darker-side-of-winter-travel-20141228

The Best Fails of the Year 2014 – VIDEO

Kyler Geoffroy

www.towleroad.com/2014/12/the-best-fails-of-the-year-2014-video.html

ACLU Challenges Virginia School for Barring Trans Boy from Bathroom

On behalf of a trans high schooler, the ACLU argues “privacy” in bathrooms can easily be handled without being discriminatory.

read more

Mitch Kellaway

www.advocate.com/politics/transgender/2014/12/28/aclu-challenges-virginia-school-barring-trans-boy-bathroom

Shape Up! Your SMART New Years Game Plan

If you’re like millions of Americans, you’ve set fitness resolutions in the past and haven’t been as successful as you have wanted.  Many times, this is because goals were unrealistic, not specific, or there was no mechanism in place to track your progress towards your goals.

Before I became a trainer and owner of The Phoenix Effect, I worked as a project manager at a microfinance bank.  If I learned one thing from my office days, setting SMART goals was the most valuable lesson. SMART stands for Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Realistic and Time-Bound. 

When setting fitness goals, we should always try to make them as SMART as possible.  For example, saying “I want to get fit,” is not a SMART goal and you’ve just set yourself up for failure.  However if you say, “I’d like to improve my body image by working on my fitness and losing four percent of body fat in two months by doing bootcamp at The Phoenix Effect three days a week and tracking my nutrition,” you’re way more likely to succeed. Let’s talk a little more in depth about SMART goals.

Be Specific. Start painting a picture of what you want, where and how you will do it, and why you want to do this.

Make sure your goals are Measurable. Sure, you want to get more fit, but what does that mean to you? Do you want to set a personal record for your deadlift? Do you want to lose body fat? If so, by how much?

Are your goals Achievable and Realistic? Perhaps if you’ve never done a squat in your life, setting a goal of squatting 300 pounds in a month is a bit unrealistic. Same goes for weight loss and muscle gain. Most athletes can hope to lose or gain 1-2 pounds per week. Anything more than that is a stretch. Setting goals requires a bit of self-awareness and knowing your starting point/baseline measurements.  If you’re unsure how to do this, contact a fitness professional who can help you out!

Finally, make sure your goals are Time-bound. Set a date. Work towards that date. Write those goals down and post them where you can see them.

Now that you have your goals set, figure out how you will track and monitor your progress instead of forgetting about them.  Some people like to set alerts every so often on their calendars. For others, putting the goals on the fridge or their cubicle is enough. Again, this is where self-awareness comes into play. If your methods didn’t work in the past, try something else this time.

I wish you all the best of luck and here’s to a SMART 2015!

Jeremy Kinser

feedproxy.google.com/~r/queerty2/~3/snk9ryc_QzU/shape-up-your-smart-new-years-game-plan-20141228

Anti-Gay Law In Indonesia's Aceh Province Forces LGBT People Into Hiding

By Gayatri Suroyo and Charlotte Greenfield
BANDA ACEH, Indonesia/JAKARTA, Dec 28 (Reuters) – Overwhelmed by fear, members of the main gay rights group in the Indonesian town of Banda Aceh started burning piles of documents outside their headquarters in late October, worried that the sharia police would raid them at any moment.
Indonesia’s northernmost province of Aceh had weeks earlier passed an anti-homosexuality law that punishes anyone caught having gay sex with 100 lashes. Amnesty International criticized it, saying it would add to a climate of homophobia and fear.
“We are more afraid, of course,” said a 31-year-old transgender person who, along with three other members of the lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) group, Violet Grey, burned the pamphlets, group records and other papers.
“As an institution, Violet Grey went as far as removing all documents related to LGBT. We burned them all,” said the group member, who declined to be identified out of fear of being arrested.
The province’s tight-knit gay community, estimated by some at about 1,000 people, has become increasingly marginalized since Aceh was allowed to adopt Islamic sharia law as its legal code.
Aceh was granted special regional autonomy as part of a 2005 peace agreement ending a three-decade old separatist insurgency.
After the anti-homosexuality law was passed in September, Violet Grey began warning its 47 members to keep a lower profile and for gay and transgender people to avoid going out together as couples in public.
No one has been arrested under the law, which Aceh officials say will not be enforced until the end of 2015 to allow residents time to prepare for it. But this has not eased the fear in the gay community.
Even before the law, life was not easy for gay people in the most religiously conservative part of Indonesia, the north of Sumatra island where Islam first arrived in the archipelago.
The gay community is a target of regular harassment from sharia police and residents. Transgender people are particularly vulnerable because of the difficulty of concealing themselves in public.
In 2011, a transgender make-up artist was stabbed to death in Banda Aceh after she held up a stick in response to a man’s taunts.

OTHER PROVINCES TO FOLLOW?
Aceh authorities defend the law, saying it does not violate human rights because gay people are free to live together but just can not have sex.
The law also sets out punishment for various acts apart from gay sex including unmarried people engaging in displays of affection, adultery and underage sex.
“It is forbidden because in the sharia context, the act is vile,” Syahrizal Abbas, the head of Aceh’s sharia department, which drew up the law, told Reuters.
“It brings unhealthy psychological impact to human development, and it will affect the community.”
Outside Aceh, Indonesia is generally tolerant of gay people, particularly in urban areas like Jakarta.
Engaging in homosexual acts is not a crime under Indonesia’s national criminal code but remains taboo in many conservative parts of the country, which has the world’s largest Muslim population.
Gay rights groups fear other conservative provinces, such as South Sumatra and East Java could follow Aceh’s lead if Indonesia’s new president, Joko Widodo, does not step in and overturn the law.
Widodo’s administration is reviewing the law to see whether it violates human rights but it can only request changes and cannot overturn it, said Teguh Setyabudi, the home ministry’s head of regional autonomy.
The Violet Grey member hopes the law will eventually be overturned so she can walk home without watching her back in fear.
“Being like this is our fate, not a choice,” she said.
“What makes people wearing a jilbab and peci feel so righteous that they can condemn other people as sinful?” she asked, referring to a woman’s veil and a traditional Muslim cap worn by men.
(Additional reporting by Reza Munawir in Banda Aceh; Editing by Randy Fabi and Robert Birsel)

www.huffingtonpost.com/2014/12/28/indonesia-aceh-anti-gay-law_n_6385720.html?utm_hp_ref=gay-voices&ir=Gay+Voices