Daily Archives: July 23, 2015
WATCH: The Gay-Centric Fashion Palace That Shocked NYC
WATCH: The Gay-Centric Fashion Palace That Shocked NYC
Recently-deceased designer Elio Fiorucci was much-loved for his disco-era fashions, as well as his free-wheeling stores, which served as incubators for Andy Warhol, Klaus Nomi, and Marc Jacobs.
Neal Broverman
www.advocate.com/fashion/2015/07/23/watch-gay-centric-fashion-palace-shocked-nyc
How Ritual Baths Present Obstacles Of Inclusion For Transgender Jews
How Ritual Baths Present Obstacles Of Inclusion For Transgender Jews
(RNS) Converting to Judaism about a year ago, a transgender man in Washington, D.C., asked his rabbi a pointed question about the last step in the process, which calls for dunking naked in a ritual bath.
Could he locate a transgender man to serve as the required witness for this immersion?
Dozens of Jewish leaders in the region, including Rabbi Laurie Green, got the email asking if they could produce such a witness, who, according to Jewish law, would have to be Jewish.
“We were looking really hard to find someone,” said Green, who presides at Bet Mishpachah, a gay congregation in the nation’s capital. “It was a problem that we couldn’t meet this reasonable request.”
But it wasn’t just this man’s request. Rabbis across the nation have noted the trend. Green alone is helping three transgender people to become Jewish.
“There’s a particularly high percentage, it seems, of people who are transgender who are also converting to Judaism,” said Carrie Bornstein, the executive director of Mayyim Hayyim, a mikvah — or Jewish ritual bath — outside Boston.
In response, Jewish leaders for the past several years have been trying to welcome transgender people — those born Jewish and converts — into their Jewish communities. These efforts often focus on mikvah, where conversion is completed and gender is on full display.
It shouldn’t be too surprising, said Rabbi Micah Buck-Yael, a transgender man and the chaplaincy director at St. Louis’ Jewish Family & Children’s Services, that people transitioning in one part of their lives are often transitioning in another.
Rabbi Micah Buck-Yael, a transgender man and the chaplaincy director at St. Louis’ Jewish Family & Children’s Services.
“Once you start to ask serious questions about whom you are in the world and how your core sense of self interacts in the world, it makes sense that everything is subject to question,” he said.
The mikvah — most commonly used by traditional Jewish women to mark the end of their menstrual periods — is where a transgender person may first discover how a Jewish community treats its transgender members.
“The body is an area of particular vulnerability for transgender people, because so much of our identities is inextricably intertwined with the nuances of our physical appearance,” said Emily Aviva Kapor, a transgender Seattle rabbi who has written about transgender issues and Jewish law.
As difficult as it may be for anyone to disrobe at mikvah, the transgender person may struggle with a far more intense anxiety, she said.
Emily Aviva Kapor, a transgender Seattle rabbi who has written about transgender issues and Jewish law.
And while transitioning to a different gender raises a slew of questions in Judaism — what should be done, for example, about the rite of circumcision? — Kapor and Buck-Yael both note that rabbis have grappled with transgender issues before.
While most of traditional Judaism divides the Jewish people into one of two genders, ancient Jewish texts include passages that speak of people whose physical characteristics don’t match the gender they identify with.
“There was a very early recognition that there are individuals who do not fit into a simple, neat, cut and dried, binary definition of gender,” said Buck-Yael.
What is new is the awareness that the world has plenty of Jewish Caitlyn Jenners, and the willingness to help them feel at home in Jewish communities.
The director of the mikvah at Adas Israel Congregation, for example, where the Washington man had hoped to convert using a transgender witness, now keeps a list — five people long and growing — of transgender Jews willing to serve as witnesses.
Last year the largest American Jewish newspaper published an e-book of essays called “Transgender and Jewish.”
And Jewish religious scholars are gathering for conferences such as one held in Los Angeles in May called “In God’s Image: Transgender Folk in the Conversion Process.”
At Mayyim Hayyim, the mikvah outside Boston that has explored modern uses for the ancient Jewish ritual bath, about 20 transgender people have submerged in its waters. Many used the mikvah not only to mark their conversion to Judaism but also to mark various stages in their gender transition, said Lisa Berman, the facility’s education director.
And because those who use mikvah utter blessings after their immersions, most often in Hebrew, Mayyim Hayyim staff members are writing a new blessing for people who use it to celebrate a gender transition. The staff has partnered with Keshet, an organization of Jews that advocates for LGBTQ people, to make sure mikvah staff are sensitive to the particular concerns of transgender clients, including the pronouns they use to identify themselves.
We want to make sure that each of our mikvah witnesses is a supportive person, said Berman — someone who “isn’t going to flip out when they see a body that might look different from what they would have expected.”
Also on HuffPost:
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Hillary Clinton says it is ‘past time’ for Equality Act
Hillary Clinton says it is ‘past time’ for Equality Act
Hillary Clinton gave a shout out to The Equality Act which was introduced in both houses of the US Congress on Thursday (23 July).
T’he Equality Act will mean full federal equality for LGBT Americans & stronger anti-discrimination protections for everyone. Past time,’ Clinton wrote on Twitter.
The proposed legislation is the most expansive for LGBTI people in the nation’s history.
is sponsored by senators Jeff Merkley, Tammy Baldwin and Corry Booker and representatives David Cicilline and John Lewis (D-GA).
It seeks to prohibit discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation or gender identity in employment, housing, credit, education and jury service. It also seeks to prohibit discrimination based on sexual orientation, gender identity, and sex by those receiving federal funding and in public accommodations.
In her first official campaign rally for president last month, Clinton made a case for LGBTI rights.
‘We should ban discrimination against LGBT Americans and their families so they can live, learn, marry, and work like everybody else,’ she said then.
Clinton served in the US Senate representing New York from 2001-09 before becoming Secretary of State under President Barack Obama.
The post Hillary Clinton says it is ‘past time’ for Equality Act appeared first on Gay Star News.
Greg Hernandez
www.gaystarnews.com/article/hillary-clinton-says-it-is-past-time-for-equality-act/
Charlotte, North Carolina Sports Venues Clarify Transgender Policy for Public Bathrooms
Charlotte, North Carolina Sports Venues Clarify Transgender Policy for Public Bathrooms
With just a few emails, a local trans activist in this North Carolina city was able to get clarity — and equality — from major sports venues.
Dawn Ennis
Press Conference Displays Wide Support for The Equality Act
Press Conference Displays Wide Support for The Equality Act
Earlier today, HRC President Chad Griffin joined individuals who have been victims of discrimination and several prominent members of Congress at a press conference on Capitol Hill to introduce The Equality Act.
HRC.org
WATCH: Trailer For Olympian Greg Louganis Biopic ‘Back On Board’
WATCH: Trailer For Olympian Greg Louganis Biopic ‘Back On Board’
A new biopic on four-time gold medal Olympian and gay athlete Greg Louganis called Back on Board is airing on HBO in August, with a new introspective on Louganis’ time in the Olympics, the homophobia he dealt with from fellow teammates, his HIV disclosure controversy and mentoring the next generation of Olympic-American divers.
In a press release issued to the public, Louganis expressed why he decided to participate in the documentary that filmed over a span of three years of Louganis’ life:
“I think it is awesome that Back on Board has found a home with HBO Sports. At times, it’s awkward and a little bit embarrassing to reveal so much of myself – it’s a true documentary. I am honored and humbled to share my story.”
Back on Board airs Aug. 24 on HBO and HBO2. Meanwhile, watch a short trailer of the film and a segment from the film where Louganis discusses how his American-Olympic teammates ostracized him using a combined xenophobic and homophobic slur, below:
The post WATCH: Trailer For Olympian Greg Louganis Biopic ‘Back On Board’ appeared first on Towleroad.
Anthony Costello
#leoSEASON KICKS OFF THUS WEEKEND WITH @tmsentertainment_dc 👌👌👌👌👌 ••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••• DONT FUCK UP THE LINE UP!!! ••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••• #Girlcodefridaze IS FREEEEEEEE TIL 1A
WATCH:Erotic Gay Jurassic Park Parody Raises Deep Existential Questions
Just as the U.S. Legalized Gay Marriage, I'm Getting a Divorce
Just as the U.S. Legalized Gay Marriage, I'm Getting a Divorce
The Good News:
I was sitting on my back porch, wrapped in a hoodie to ward off the early morning chill. A freelance writer and solo parent, this summer I’ve been avoiding childcare costs by waking up at 5:45 a.m. and cranking out a few uninterrupted hours’ work before my kids need me.
But on the morning of June 26, I was interrupted. At 7:17 a.m. my phone pinged. I ignored it. Then it pinged again. And again. A rush of anticipation charged through me: SCOTUS.
I grabbed my phone, read the string of messages:
“SCOTUS rules marriage bans unconstitutional!”
“Marriage Equality for All!”
“Happy day!”
“OMG! Just hear the Supreme Court Decision!”
“Yes!!!”
Sitting on my back porch, phone in hand, tears welling in my eyes, I experienced–physically–the sensation of my body pushing against a brick wall, and finally, brick by brick, feeling the wall crack, crumble, give way.
All. Fifty. States.
My Activist Family:
For ten of the past eleven years, my family stood on the front lines of the marriage equality movement. Starting with my marriage to Tracie–with our first-born attending in my belly–at San Francisco City Hall, during the Winter of Love 2004; through the ups and downs of California’s Proposition 8 campaign; to the celebration of our legal marriage, with our two children as witnesses, in 2008; to this final SCOTUS decision–we have marched, campaigned, donated, and spoken with media, domestic and international, radio, film, and print.
And now marriage equality is the law of the land.
And Tracie and I are starting divorce proceedings.
In the Shadows:
The need for legal relationship recognition among same-sex couples came to national attention during the height of the AIDS crisis. Gay men not only were losing their beloveds to a terrifying epidemic, they were barred from hospital rooms and treatment decisions by unsympathetic medical staff; they were banned from memorial services by homophobic family members; they were losing their shared homes and belongings because no laws protected their rights to community property, to pensions, to death benefits for grieving spouses.
These end-of-life protections held center stage in the SCOTUS decisions both to dismantle the Defense of Marriage Act in 2013 and to affirm marriage as a civil right this past June. SCOTUS has made it clear that all loving couples deserve access to the dignity and the legal protections of civil marriage, in life and after death.
But standing in the shadows next to happy couples celebrating their love and marriage benefits is something no one wants to talk about: in establishing a legal foundation for marriages that last, the marriage equality movement also has laid a safe, clear, and legal path for those people like Tracie and me, who have decided to divorce.
The “Failure” Stage:
As a media point person in the marriage equality movement, in the aftermath of major losses and wins, I got used to answering reporters’ most common question, “How do you feel?”
Today’s answer: It’s complicated.
When Tracie and I first decided to separate a year ago, I felt an acute sense of failure. This is a common “stage” in the divorce process. The “till death do us part” societal expectation, along with the individual hopes and dreams newlyweds carry into marriage–they can lead people to experience divorce as a deep, personal failure. A few months after Tracie and I separated, that feeling of failure faded to the background, but the SCOTUS announcement brought it back, front and center.
For some gay and lesbian couples, this failure stage is compounded by social circumstances. Whether we have chosen to participate in the LGBT rights movement in a public way or not, everywhere gay and lesbian families go, we become, de facto, representatives of all same-sex parents. At the taqueria, at the beach, at the public library, Tracie, our boys, and I were never just “the Dumesnil-Vickers family,” we were an in-person example of those gay families people were talking about on the news.
I didn’t mind that, really. If the presence of our family at the local park somehow contributed to a larger positive narrative about gay families, so be it. But now that Tracie and I are moving toward divorce, I feel not only as though I have failed to realize my own hopes for my marriage and family, but also that I’ve failed to uphold the “happy, healthy lesbian family” image that has helped open the hearts and minds of the American public to LGBT people.
Of course, I would never consider someone else a failure for choosing divorce; I do that only to myself. This sense of failure is nothing more than an ego-driven form of self-criticism. Intellectually, I understand that. I also understand that the mind’s logic does not heal the heart’s pain. So the best thing I can do right now is to acknowledge my emotional truth: at this moment in time, in the face of arguably the biggest win yet for gay rights, I feel like a failure. And that hurts.
Clearly, I still have some healing to do.
Marriage Equality Benefits All of Us:
In the weeks following the SCOTUS decision, I’ve noticed a distinct difference between the political wins of my married past–wins that were simultaneously “for our family” and “for all loving couples”–and this final marriage equality win. According to my pouting, petulant inner child, today’s win is for “loving couples who are still together,” who still have hope for “happily ever after.”
But the SCOTUS ruling is not just for same-sex couples who are still together. The impact of the decision extends far beyond the lives of the couples now queuing up for marriage licenses around the country. The marriage equality movement has created a significant, positive shift in public attitudes toward the LGBT community. The momentum from this win will fuel ongoing fights for federal non-discrimination legislation, for transgender rights, for safe schools, and ultimately for true equality for all LGBT people, including the divorced and solo parents among us.
As I see it, the power of the win extends even beyond the LGBT community. The success of the marriage equality movement has shown my children’s generation, unequivocally, that hard work, resilience, and an unrelenting belief in fairness really do lead to dramatic and lasting social change. How better to empower young people to continue bending the long arc of history toward justice? How better to empower our children to persist in the face of challenges?
Reason to Celebrate:
A couple years ago, when marriage equality states started springing up across the country, I printed out two blank United States maps and gave them to my boys. Together we marked all the marriage equality states: nine, at the time. Then we started a tradition: when a new state welcomed marriage equality, we would fill in that blank on the map and celebrate with ice cream.
This morning, when the boys woke up, I told them about the SCOTUS decision by handing them my phone, this image emblazoned on the screen:
“Really?” they asked. “All the states?”
I smiled and nodded. “You helped do this, you know. You helped make this happen.”
The looks on their faces–the wonder, the pride–those are reason enough to celebrate this win.
Image Credit: Movement Advancement Project
This post originally appeared on ESME: Empowering Solo Moms Everywhere.
— This feed and its contents are the property of The Huffington Post, and use is subject to our terms. It may be used for personal consumption, but may not be distributed on a website.
