Daily Archives: August 12, 2015
Charlotte Council, Mayoral Candidates Back LGBT Rights
Charlotte Council, Mayoral Candidates Back LGBT Rights
At a forum on LGBT issues, most candidates expressed support for an inclusive civil rights ordinance, after one failed in March.
Trudy Ring
www.advocate.com/politics/2015/08/12/charlotte-council-mayoral-candidates-back-lgbt-rights
Pretty Little Liars</em> Transphobic Writing Is Hackneyed, Harmful
Pretty Little Liars</em> Transphobic Writing Is Hackneyed, Harmful
For six seasons, the ABC Family tween-drama Pretty Little Liars has been leading up to a reveal of who the hiding-in-plain-sight-all-along arch-villain was. Wednesday, the show revealed the psychotic antagonist to be Charlotte “CeCe” DiLaurentis.
Born Charles DiLaurentis. Who is crazy, and transgender, and crazy because they’re transgender and spent time in an asylum because they’re crazy. Because transgender. While the show’s producers have done a hand wave saying that CeCe comes from a crazy family and that all this has nothing to do with her being transgender, this claim is simply not credible. The rest of the “crazy” family aren’t doing the things that make CeCe the “Big Bad” of the show.
First, this “twist” was already cliché when Ace Ventura did it in 1994 four years after Silence of the Lambs did it in 1991, 11 years after Dressed to Kill and 31 years after Norman Bates cross-dressed his way through Psycho. Using transgender people and their transitions as a twist, and a way to explain psychotic behavior, is just plain lazy writing and has been for 50 plus years. It’s the “big-bad unmasking” equivalent to revealing that all of the 9th season of Dallas was all just a dream.
If George Lucas had made Jar-Jar Binks a crack dealer, it still wouldn’t be as hackneyed and offensive as what Marlene King and her writers have created. Even the name they chose is insensitive: CeCe McDonald is a transgender woman of color who went to a men’s prison for 19 months defending herself against a drunken Neo-Nazi.
So let’s look at all the stereotypes they hit:
Transgender people are crazy. Check
Transgender people are deceivers. Check.
Transgender people’s identities aren’t real (because they’re crazy). Check.
Transgender people are dangerous. Check.
It’s impressive really. They managed to create a character that simultaneously exemplifies all the negative stereotypes that prevent transgender people from getting jobs, receiving health care, finding housing and being accepted as who they are by their families. It did manage to reaffirm the messages transgender people are probably dangerous, should be locked in asylums, are lying about who they are and are an acceptable target for violence.
The producers of the show managed to reinforce the talking points of every right wing, anti-LGBT hate group working against the basic human transgender people in the US.
Great job. Have a cookie.
What’s worse is that the producer should know better. From the 1870’s onwards, the concept of “female hysteria” was used to dismiss anything women thought, did or said, as well as their objections to being labeled as such. Donald Trump’s odious comments about Megyn Kelly echo those 19th century labels, and demonstrate that when you categorize an entire group of people as mentally incompetent, it sticks around for generations.
It’s also not as if the writers weren’t warned this was a really, really bad idea in feminist online media content months ago. It was noted that the show had already handled pronouns badly, and clearly had no idea how transgender people live, given the character they were speculating about.
And therein lies the problem. It isn’t as if there aren’t tons of transgender people to talk to. It’s not like transgender studies, journal articles, blogs, authors, actors, activists or reality TV shows are hard to find these days. The shows’ writers weren’t interested in telling a new or different story, they were telling the story that people want to hear; the story that they have heard over and over before.
There’s comfort in people who are different than you being uncomfortable and dangerous. Them versus us. It’s an easy narrative, and it’s one transgender people can’t fight back against. Everyone knows transgender people are mentally ill, right? Or are a threat to women and children. Of course crazy people deny being any of these things.
Is it any wonder we can’t find jobs when such stereotypes predominate and have been pushed out by lazy hacks for decades? Or can’t get housing? Or medical care? Or that our families forsake us? And when we’re broke, homeless and completely alone in the world when we choose to end our lives, you look at us and say, “Well that’s just what crazy people do.”
It’s this sort of crass logic that lets the privileged look at everyone else in America who is suffering from systemic violence, oppression and silencing and say, “they probably deserved it.”
Because looking at yourself in the mirror and saying “I’m part of the problem,” is much harder than labeling others whom you see as broken, inferior or deserving of what befalls them as a class.
And you, Marlene King, are a part of the problem.
— 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.
Defiant county clerk in Kentucky ordered to issue marriage licenses to same-sex couples
Defiant county clerk in Kentucky ordered to issue marriage licenses to same-sex couples
Kentucky’s anti-gay Rowan County Clerk Kim Davis had a bad day in court Wednesday (12 August).
US District Judge David Bunning ruled that Davis’ personal religious beliefs do not exempt her from from performing the duties of her public office.
That includes issuing marriage licenses to same-sex couples following the US Supreme Court’s ruling on 26 June that made same-sex marriage legal in all 50 states.
Bunning wrote in his ruling that Davis ‘is refusing to recognize the legal force of US Supreme Court jurisprudence in performing her duties.’
Davis, who has been married four times, was sued by the American Civil Liberties Union on behalf of four couples – two straight and two gay. She has refused to provide marriage licenses to any couple – same-sex or opposite sex – since the Supreme Court ruling.
‘Government officials have a duty to impartially administer the law. When a law is updated, they cannot refuse to provide essential public services simply because they object, for personal religious reasons,’ said Michael Aldridge, executive director of the ACLU of Kentucky.
ACLU of Kentucky Cooperating Attorney Dan Canon added: ‘The ruling represents a total victory for our clients.’
The post Defiant county clerk in Kentucky ordered to issue marriage licenses to same-sex couples appeared first on Gay Star News.
Greg Hernandez
News: China, Aaron Schock, Star Wars, Alexander Ludwig
News: China, Aaron Schock, Star Wars, Alexander Ludwig
> Massive warehouse explosion leaves at least 17 dead in China.
> Bernie Sanders overtakes Hillary Clinton in new poll out of New Hampshire.
> This modernist courtroom sketch of Tom Brady is not so flattering.
> Do not mess with Taylor Swift fans.
> Patti Smith memoir Just Kids to be Showtime series.
> First trailer for Quentin Tarantino’s The Hateful Eight drops.
> Aaron Schock locked in battle with Department of Justice over release of records.
> Former President Jimmy Carter has been diagnosed with cancer.
> Can you help crack the mysterious code encrypted on this medieval sword?
> Anti-gay former Virginia Governor Bob McDonnell to appeal conviction on corruption charges to SCOTUS.
> Military historian explains that the Civil War was primarily about slavery.
> Sneak peek at Adam Driver’s villainous Star Wars character Kylo Ren. And a first look at The Force Awakens.
> Hump Day Hotness: 31 of the world’s hottest male models.
> Poll: Black and White Americans have different perception of police.
> Twin Peaks is coming.
> Dallas, Texas businesses launch campaign to welcome LGBT customers.
> Alexander Ludwig is all grown up.
> Shooting guns with Ann Coulter.
> Donald Trump’s campaign store is open and it could be better.
> President Obama pens op-ed on the Voting Rights Act.
> Ohio State marching band song-parody book mocks gays, the holocaust.
The post News: China, Aaron Schock, Star Wars, Alexander Ludwig appeared first on Towleroad.
Sean Mandell
www.towleroad.com/2015/08/news-china-aaron-schock-star-wars-alexander-ludwig/
PHOTOS: 'Art AIDS America'
PHOTOS: 'Art AIDS America'
Uncomfortable, wistfully beautiful, and vitally important, the exhibit ‘Art AIDS America’ deals with the subjects we shy away from: sex, politics, and religion.
Uncomfortable, wistfully beautiful, and vitally important, the exhibit ‘Art AIDS America’ deals with the subjects we shy away from: sex, politics, and religion.
Christopher Harrity
www.advocate.com/arts-entertainment/2015/08/12/photos-art-aids-america
Kristen Stewart thinks in three or four years people won’t feel the need to identify as gay or straight
Kristen Stewart thinks in three or four years people won’t feel the need to identify as gay or straight
Twilight franchise star Kristen Stewart knows there has been a lot of speculation about her sexuality lately but she feels no need to set the record straight.
‘I live in the fucking ambiguity of this life and I love it,’ she tells Nylon magazine.
‘I don’t feel like it would be true for me to be like, “I’m coming out!” No, I do a job. Until I decide that I’m starting a foundation or that I have some perspective or opinion that other people should be receiving … I don’t. I’m just a kid making movies.’
Stewart famously was in a relationship with her Twilight leading man Robert Pattinson.
Then in June, a Sunday Mirror story quoted her mother, Jules Stewart as saying of her daughter’s personal assistant and rumored girlfriend Alicia Cargile: ‘I’ve met Kristen’s new girlfriend, I like her. … Yes, she’s a lovely girl.’
The mother has denied discussing her daughter’s sexuality while the reporter, Sharon Feinstein, stands by her story.
It doesn’t seem to phase Stewart one way or another.
‘I think in three or four years, there are going to be a whole lot more people who don’t think it’s necessary to figure out if you’re gay or straight,’ she tells Nylon. ‘It’s like, just do your thing.’
The post Kristen Stewart thinks in three or four years people won’t feel the need to identify as gay or straight appeared first on Gay Star News.
Greg Hernandez
HRC Condemns Mississippi Gov. Phil Bryant’s Statement of Support for LGBT Adoption Ban
HRC Condemns Mississippi Gov. Phil Bryant’s Statement of Support for LGBT Adoption Ban
Shameful position by governor harms families and children who need permanent, loving homes
HRC.org
Weather Forecast Shafts East Coast, Penetrates Canada; Expect Flooding
Weather Forecast Shafts East Coast, Penetrates Canada; Expect Flooding
The masters of meteorology over at AcuWeather.com alerted readers to some heavy weather patterns this week, predicting rain could reach “up to two inches.”
From where we sit, it looks like a hell of a lot more than two inches has extended up the eastern seaboard. In fact, much of the east coast got shafted during Tuesday’s forecast.
Cue inner child snicker
Batten down the hatches, fellas — it’s going to be a wet one:
Dan Tracer
Gay Basketball Player On Being Removed From High School Yearbook: ‘It Was Humiliating’ – WATCH
Gay Basketball Player On Being Removed From High School Yearbook: ‘It Was Humiliating’ – WATCH
Earlier, we told you about gay basketball player Dalton Maldonado whose rural Kentucky high school removed him from his team’s yearbook page. Dalton is now opening up about what it was like learning he was the only member of his team not pictured in the yearbook and how he was forced out of the closet by an opposing team after a game.
Maldonado told popular vlogger Raymond Braun he was looking forward to see his picture on his team’s page and alternately devastated when he saw he had been left off:
“It was humiliating and embarrassing at the same time…I even like double checked. I looked at it like four times at least to make sure that my picture was not in there. All of the underclassmen’s pictures were in there.”
Dalton had no warning that he would be omitted from the yearbook, telling Braun, “No one had hinted to me. I just opened it up and I was just like, wow, did this really just happen?”
Of his experience coming out, Dalton explains he didn’t have much of a say in the ‘how’ or the ‘when.’ After a basketball game a player from the opposing team “turned around and said, ‘Hey number 3, I heard you’re a faggot.” Dalton explains that he paused before saying, “Yeah babe, can I have your number?” But Dalton’s ‘joking it off’ couldn’t erase the hate that had been sent his way. After crying in the locker room he came out to his team. But the incident didn’t end there; instead, he was taunted by the opposing team as he boarded his team’s bus. The other team shouted, “Let the faggot off.” They then followed the bus and the police were eventually called.
Despite the awful moment that precipitated his coming out, Dalton says coming out brought him and his team closer together.
Of the yearbook controversy, Dalton says that the school’s superintendent is the only one to have acknowledged what happened. He reportedly told Dalton, “we didn’t mean to do this to you.” But Dalton is focused on the bigger picture, saying that school officials “don’t realize the damage they’re doing to other LGBT teens.”
“I want to make sure that no other teen has to go through this,” Dalton adds.
Watch the interview below:
The post Gay Basketball Player On Being Removed From High School Yearbook: ‘It Was Humiliating’ – WATCH appeared first on Towleroad.
Sean Mandell
Gay Basketball Player On Being Removed From High School Yearbook: ‘It Was Humiliating’ – WATCH
