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live de l'#Existrans avec les ami-e-s de @mobilisnoo #LGBT #Paris #LGBTI #LGBTQ“>
live de l'#Existrans avec les ami-e-s de @mobilisnoo #LGBT #Paris #LGBTI #LGBTQ“>
Daily Archives: October 17, 2015
Gay People In Myanmar Can't Live Openly. Here's Why
Gay People In Myanmar Can't Live Openly. Here's Why
This is the seventh part of a 10-part series on LGBT rights in Southeast Asia, which uncovers the challenges facing the LGBT community in the region and highlights the courageous work of activists there.
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When a group of transgender women was arrested by police officers in the city of Mandalay, Myanmar, in 2013, they were allegedly forced to strip in public, before being taken to a nearby police station where they were “repeatedly punched and kicked.”
“They were then forced to parade naked as if on a catwalk, while being photographed, as well as made to hop like frogs, clean the shoes of the police and answer demeaning questions about their sex lives,” The Telegraph reported .
A police spokesman said at the time that the cops had been performing a “public service” by preventing the group from congregating.
Hla Myat Tun, a human rights activist with the Burmese LGBT group Colors Rainbow, tells The Huffington Post that such “state-sponsored discrimination” is a grave concern for the LGBT community in Myanmar, where homosexuality is criminalized.
Earlier this year, Myint Kyu, a politician in Mandalay, came under fire from human rights groups for “making misinformed, discriminatory, and potentially inflammatory statements about gay and transgender people.”
During an August parliamentary debate, Kyu, who is the city’s border and security affairs minister was quoted as saying that the government was “constantly taking action to have the gays detained at police stations” before “educating” them.
Like Malaysia, Myanmar — also a former British colony — still has Section 377 of the penal code on its books. The law criminalizes “carnal intercourse,” which includes same-sex intercourse. It is punishable by 10 years to life in prison. (Myanmar’s famous politician and human rights activist Aung San Suu Kyi has called for the repeal of Section 377 in the past.)
Under the rule of an oppressive military junta from 1962 to 2011, Myanmar was long considered to be a “pariah state,” until widespread reforms prompted an increase of political freedom within the country and a partial thawing of relations with the outside world.
Tun says that although the LGBT community has had “greater visibility” since these reforms were put in place, it still isn’t treated with respect.
“[LGBT persons] dare not live openly … in the society,” she says. “They are seen as a group of morally wrong people fighting for sexual freedom.”
LGBT people are often targets for abuse and discrimination in Myanmar. According to Civil Rights Defenders, the legal limitations make it “difficult for LGBT persons to live openly and without fear of persecution.”
Limited public awareness about LGBT issues is another major problem facing the community, Tun says, as is a dearth of activists.
In a 2013 interview with the Myanmar Times, a 28-year-old gay man named Phyo described the invisibility of LGBT people in Burmese culture.
“When I was growing up, we didn’t know about homosexuals,” he said.
His only exposure to the LGBT community was “when he saw them being treated badly in the community.”
“I felt unsafe because of that,” Phyo said. “Sometimes I would cry alone.”
A 2014 Guardian report discussed how hostility against homosexuality was undermining the fight against HIV/AIDS in Myanmar — which, according to the World Health Organization, has one of Asia’s highest HIV prevalence rates.
Stigma is keeping gay men hidden, making them “hard to reach in the most extreme sense,” Eamonn Murphy, a UNAIDS country representative, told the news outlet.
Myanmar’s National AIDS Programme said at the time that fewer than 30 percent of the estimated 240,000 gay men in Myanmar had received HIV prevention services.
Political reforms have been slowing in Myanmar since 2014, according to Human Rights Watch. In some cases, “reversals of basic freedoms and democratic progress” have been observed, the group said this year.
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Also on HuffPost:
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Open Question: What is Muslims saying on LGBT community?
Open Question: What is Muslims saying on LGBT community?
Transgender Woman Steps in Front of Truck After Leaving Heartbreaking Suicide Note on Facebook
Transgender Woman Steps in Front of Truck After Leaving Heartbreaking Suicide Note on Facebook
Ashley Hallstrom, a 26-year-old transgender woman, took her own life on Wednesday morning in south Logan, Utah, after leaving a suicide note on her Facebook account asking people to work for acceptance of trans people. Hallstrom stepped in front of a truck and was pronounced dead at the scene.
Wrote Hallstrom on Facebook:
These are going to be my final words. I can’t stand to live another day, so I’m committing suicide. The reason why I’ve decided to do this is because I’m transgender. For those of you that unsure of what that means, it means that even though I was born in a male body, I am and have always been female. I’ve known I was female for as far back as I can remember. This caused me to become severely depressed from a very young age. From a very young age I was told that people like me are freaks and abominations, that we are sick in the head and society hates us. This made me hate who I was. I tried so hard to be just like everyone else but this isn’t something you can change.
It wasn’t until I was 20 that I found out I wasn’t alone. I had hope that I would finally be able to live as and love who I am. I finally came out as transgender and began transitioning. For the first time in my life I could say I was genuinely happy. Despite this huge change in my life I never completely got over the depression being trans caused me. Everywhere I’d turn I’d see the hated that society had for us. I had already been poisoned by a society that didn’t understand us and, even worse, didn’t want to even try. I saw the pain it caused to people like me and going though this same hurt myself it has just become to much for me to take anymore. I wanted so much to help those going though what I had to because nobody should ever have to feel that they hate their life so much that they want to end it all just so they won’t have to experience another moment of this sadness. I’m not the first to feel this way and sadly I know I won’t be the last.
I’m writing all of this because I’ve need my story to be shared. I don’t want to be just another number of a tragic statistic. People need to know that I’m not just another face of someone they never met. I was alive. I have a family and friends that I love very much and I’m so sorry to them for the hurt this will cause them. I loved being around those that I love. I loved listening to music and singing. I loved going out to eat with friends and enjoying good food. I was a real person. I still want to help people and I believe I still can. Please share my final words. I believe my last words can help make the change that society needs to make so that one day there will be no others like me. Please help make this change because trans people are everywhere. You may never know who you’re hurting until it’s too late. Please help fix society.
Ashley Hallstrom
While not much is known about Hailstorm’s family life, her death is reminiscent of that of Leelah Alcorn, who took a similar path in December 2014.
Hallstrom also published her note to Reddit.
Hallstrom was a frequent Reddit contributor in TwoXChromosones and asktransgender as LittleCollette. In the last few weeks, she complained that her therapist’s methods were outdated, but mentioned that, after 6 years of living full-time as a woman, she had “passed all the requirements needed for her to write me letters” to go through sex reassignment surgery.
Two months ago, she pleaded with a fellow Redditer not to take her own life.
“Please talk to us. Look at all these people who love you and will miss you. We all want to help you. Don’t give up on us and I promise we won’t give up on you,” she advised. “We will help you get to were you want to be in life. There are many of us that have been were you are now. I am one of them. My dysphoria nearly killed me to but I’m still here and I’m glad I am. We will help you get to where you want to be in life and all you have to do is let us help you.”
She went on her first date with a man only three months ago but, and though her date said he was fine with dating a trans* woman, by the end of the date he said there was no physical attraction due to Hallstrom’s masculine features “coming through.”
Many Reddit users expressed deep sadness for another trans* member committing suicide, wishing that they had been able to talk her out of it.
The website Planet Transgender says that Hallstrom’s is the 20th trans suicide they have recorded this year.
If you are a young person in crisis, feeling suicidal, or in need of a safe and judgment-free place to talk, Trans Lifeline’s number is (877) 565-8860. More information about the hotline can be found at www.translifeline.org. Trans Lifeline is volunteer-run and supported by community contributions. You can contribute here.
Resources are also available at the Trevor Lifeline now at 866-488-7386.
The post Transgender Woman Steps in Front of Truck After Leaving Heartbreaking Suicide Note on Facebook appeared first on Towleroad.
Andy Towle
Transgender Woman Steps in Front of Truck After Leaving Heartbreaking Suicide Note on Facebook
Russia Jails Six for Torturing Gay Youth
Russia Jails Six for Torturing Gay Youth
A group of people who physically tortured gay men in Russia has been jailed.
Gay Star News reports that Russian police have finally arrested members of Occupy Pedophilia—a Neo-Nazi vigilante group known for luring gay teens and young men through dating ads with the intent of abusing them.
When the teens responded to the ads, they were captured, often bullied and tortured, then forced to come out as gay on videos intended to be shared with their friends, family, and community members. After this abuse and humiliation, many were driven to suicide.
Nine members have been found guilty of torture, death, threats, and inflicting “moderate damage to health” to at least 19 people. The Sinarsky District Court Kamensk-Ural has sentenced six members to prison for three to six years. Three others received suspended sentences.
The Advocate first reported on the group in July 2013, shortly after Russian president Vladimir Putin signed into law a ban on so-called “homosexual propaganda,” which prohibited demonstrations and discussion of “non-traditional sexual relations” with minors.
Led by Neo-Nazi Maxim Martsinkevich, who is currently serving jail time for “hooliganism,” Occupy Pedophilia claimed its aim was to “identify and report pedophiles,” and that it was protecting children through its acts of humiliating and often brutalizing the young men captured.
Daniel Reynolds
www.advocate.com/world/2015/10/17/russia-jails-six-torturing-gay-youth
Bernie Sanders Refuses Donation From CEO Who Raised Drug Price
Bernie Sanders Refuses Donation From CEO Who Raised Drug Price
Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) declined to accept a maximum campaign donation from the CEO of a company that increased the price of a drug used by HIV and AIDS patients by hundreds of dollars, choosing instead to donate the money to a Washington health clinic.
Martin Shkreli, CEO of Turing Pharmaceuticals, donated $2,700, the maximum allowed for individual donors, in September, he told Stat. While the Sanders campaign initially thanked Shkreli for his contribution, a campaign spokesman told Stat this week that it would donate the money to Whitman-Walker health clinic.
Shkreli, who raised the price of Daraprim from $13.50 to $750 per tablet after acquiring it in August, told Stat that he donated in part to get a meeting with Sanders to explain how drug prices were set. Sanders has refused to meet with him.
After backlash over the sudden increase, Shkreli said in September that the company would lower the price. At the beginning of October, ABC News found that the price still remained extremely high.
As part of his presidential campaign, Sanders has pushed to lower the cost of prescription drugs. His proposals include allowing Medicare to negotiate with pharmaceutical companies on drug prices, allowing the import of drugs from Canada and requiring more transparency on how drug prices are set. When he served in the House, Sanders was also the first member of Congress to lead a group of seniors on a bus trip to Canada to buy cheaper prescription drugs.
Shkreli’s maximum donation to Sanders also puts him in the minority of Sanders’ campaign donors — only .039 percent of them have given the maximum $2,700. While Sanders raised $27 million in the third quarter of his campaign, the average donation was $30.
Also on HuffPost:
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Open Question: How can we split American ideals?
Open Question: How can we split American ideals?
I think increasing sexism, racism, Lgbt hate and setting up a scenario where we increase hate between religion and atheism is a good start. We could than have a hero and villain scenario in our own country like we did between the USA and the Soviet Union.
Colton Haynes Gets A Poolside Trim; Hugh Jackman Feels Like A Natural Woman
Colton Haynes Gets A Poolside Trim; Hugh Jackman Feels Like A Natural Woman
This week, George Takei destroyed an internet troll, Stephen Colbert called out the ridiculous One Million Moms and Victor Garber married his longtime partner.
Chris Hemsworth can’t take his eyes off a giant snake.
Hangin’ with the locals in my backyard… the real Jurassic Park!
A photo posted by Chris Hemsworth (@chrishemsworth) on
Steve Grand is anything but basic.
Pumpkin Spice on the way! #praisebe for filters, Greenroom photoshoots, and being #notbasic Lighting credit: Lawd Gawd Jesus A photo posted by Steve Grand (@stevegrandmusic) on
Please join Sachin Bhatt in mourning the loss of his chest hair.
Mourning the loss of my chest hair. ??: @timothyjoelwright A photo posted by s a c h i n b h a t t (@sachinbhatt) on
Usher found the ideal role model.
Derek Hough can’t stay awake.
Sleeping on the job A photo posted by Derek Hough (@derekhough) on
The two Andys can’t keep away from one another for very long.
Marlon Texeira doesn’t know any homely people.
— “Invest your time to profit from good memories.” ?? — “Invista o seu tempo para lucrar boas lembranças.” ???? — ?…Peace&Light…?? — #SmilesForFree #Mustique #Island #FriendsOntheJob #MyWorld MyLife #OldSeas #BeAlive #BeGood #BeYou #MeninoDoMundo #WalkingAround #Caribbean #GoodVibes #ChoraMiLiga A photo posted by Marlon Teixeira (@marlontx) on
Lady Gaga is a total pinko.
A photo posted by The Countess (@ladygaga) on
Rocco Ritchie is just a boy who loves a fat burrito.
Me and my bori A photo posted by @tryadum on
Eliad Cohen just made Miami more caliente.
A photo posted by Eliad Cohen (@eliad_cohen) on
Don’t dream it’s over, Ryan Lochte.
I use to read Word Up magazine…… You guys finish the rest. Thanks @dreamhotels with my boi @cullenjones A photo posted by Ryanlochte (@ryanlochte) on
Don’t let that tiger scratch your perfect face, Jesse Metcalfe.
Easy with the straight razor, Luke Casey.
I always have my essentials when I take my @gentsac with me… Personal favorite, the shaving cream #proraso – gotta stay sharp #gents #gentsac A photo posted by @luke_casey on
Nev Schulman wore purple (and his usual sweater) to show his support for Spirit Day.
We always suspected Max Joseph would be on the bottom and Zac Efron would be on top.
Robbie Rogers and Greg Berlanti continue their relationship and their love of tanning.
Colton Haynes got a poolside trim.
Finally @angeloevans is avail to cut my damn hair. Why not do it by the pool. #HeIsTooFamousNow #ImadeHisCareer hahaha! A photo posted by Colton Haynes (@coltonlhaynes) on
Michael B. Jordan went for the presidential cut.
A photo posted by michaelbjordan (@michaelbjordan) on
Jake Shears got splattered.
Splatter?? A photo posted by @jakeshears on
Someone is making Hugh Jackman feel like a natural woman.
A video posted by Hugh Jackman (@thehughjackman) on
Jeremy Kinser
Sir Elton John: My greatest wish is to see the end of AIDS in my lifetime
Sir Elton John: My greatest wish is to see the end of AIDS in my lifetime
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Sir Elton John: My greatest wish is to see the end of AIDS in my lifetime
byu/stopthemadness2015 inlgbt
Right-Wing Pastor Tells Christians To Boycott Same-Sex Weddings. These Christians Disagree.
Right-Wing Pastor Tells Christians To Boycott Same-Sex Weddings. These Christians Disagree.
Prominent Southern Baptist leader Rev. Al Mohler is calling on evangelical Christians to boycott same-sex weddings — even among their loved ones — saying attending them only serves to celebrate the “sinfulness of homosexuality.”
But for many of Mohler’s fellow Christians, his defiant stand against marriage equality is already falling flat.
Mohler, who serves as president of Southern Baptist Theological Seminary in Louisville, Kentucky, recommends skipping out on same-sex nuptials in his forthcoming book We Cannot Be Silent, scheduled to hit bookshelves on October 27. According to the Religion News Service, he argues that attending such services is tantamount to an endorsement of same-sex marriage, which the Southern Baptist Convention (SBC) officially opposes.
“At some point, attendance will involve congratulating the couple for their union,” he writes. “If you can’t congratulate the couple, how can you attend?”
Mohler parrots several common conservative tropes used against LGBT people in the book, which is subtitled “Speaking truth to a culture redefining sex, marriage & the very meaning of right and wrong.” He contends that same-gender relationships are sinful even if science proves people are born with different sexualities, because “even the natural world” is “tainted by human sin.” He also calls for transgender people to consult with their pastors about having surgery to revert back to the gender they claimed before transitioning.
Mohler said he wouldn’t even attend a same-sex wedding that involved one of his children or grandchildren, and encouraged others to follow his example.
“I don’t want to underestimate the difficulty of these questions, but I don’t think a faithful Christian can recognize or celebrate … what we don’t think is a marriage,” Mohler told RNS.
Mohler, a famous conservative hardliner who also decries the Catholic Church as preaching a “false gospel,” is hardly new to anti-LGBT advocacy. Although he recently condemned ex-gay therapy, the 55-year-old pastor and seminary president has spent years decrying marriage equality, opening a major 2014 conference on homosexuality in Nashville by insisting that Southern Baptists should never recognize or tolerate same-sex relationships.
He also accused megapastor Joel Osteen of “ministerial malpractice” in 2011 for saying he would attend a same-sex wedding even if he disagreed with LGBT relationships.
“You cannot celebrate what you say you know to be sin,” Mohler wrote at the time. “You cannot honestly say that same-sex marriage defies the law of God, and then join in the celebration of that ceremony.”
Yet even as the Baptist preacher turns up the volume on his anti-LGBT rhetoric, his message appears to be increasingly less effective. His latest clarion call to avoid same-sex espousals is already receiving pushback from pro-LGBT Christians, a rapidly-growing subset of American Christianity that includes several major denominations. Groups such as the Presbyterian Church (USA), Episcopal Church, Evangelical Lutheran Church in America, and United Church of Christ (UCC) now ordain people who are openly LGBT and allow ministers to perform same-sex weddings, and a 2015 Public Religion Research Institute survey found that the better part of most major American religious groups now embrace marriage equality.
These progressive faithful include Bishop Gene Robinson, the first openly gay man ordained as an Episcopal bishop. Although he took issue with Mohler’s theology of marriage, he theorized that Mohler’s stance against wedding attendance may be more about strategy and psychology than spirituality — namely, keeping people from experiencing a joyous LGBT wedding.
“In my experience as a pastor, parents who refuse to attend their gay child’s wedding do virtually irreparable harm to that relationship, and often come to regret it later,” Robinson, who is also a fellow at the Center for American Progress, told ThinkProgress in an email. “Those who do attend are often struck by the intentionality of the ceremony’s words and actions, in contrast to the taken-for-granted nature of some heterosexual weddings.”
“Perhaps Rev. Mohler is worried that if parents attend such a wedding, all they will see is a sacred and holy commitment being made between two people and an invitation to God to be present in the couple’s relationship — as Christian as any marriage could be,” he said.
Alex McNeil, head of pro-LGBT advocacy group More Light Presbyterians, also noted the transformational impact same-sex weddings can have on attendees. McNeil’s denomination, the Presbyterian Church (USA), boasts around 2 million members nationwide.
“Jesus called us to love one another, not boycott our friends and family,” McNeil said. “Perhaps Rev. Mohler is concerned that if he attends a same-sex wedding, the real miracles won’t be Jesus turning water into wine, but hatred into compassion.”
Rev. Jasmine Beach-Ferrara, a UCC minister and head of marriage equality advocacy group Campaign for Southern Equality, said Mohler’s comments fail to account for the caused by skipping out on the wedding of a loved one. Beach-Ferrara, who works out of a church, argued that Mohler and other Christians who oppose marriage equality should spend more time considering Jesus Christ’s teachings on reconciliation than pushing for exclusion.
“As a minister, I have officiated weddings that parents do not attend because they disapprove of the marriage, and I can tell you first hand about the heartache this causes a couple,” Beach-Ferrara said. “But those who are absent also miss out — on the joy of celebrating love and family, on all that can happen when we open our hearts to the Holy Spirit, which is surely present when two people take sacred vows to commit their lives to one another. And these great costs are exactly why God urges us toward reconciliation instead of alienation, connection instead of estrangement.”
Granted, Mohler’s comments are primarily directed at fellow evangelical Christians, not liberal mainline denominations who long ago distanced themselves from the Religious Right. But even among theological conservatives, the movement for LGBT equality is on the rise: Evangelical leaders such as ethicist David Gushee and activist Matthew Vines have both come out in favor of LGBT rights and marriage equality, and several SBC churches are starting to embrace LGBT members.
The SBC has generally responded to LGBT-affirming congregations by kicking them out of the church, and the denomination’s new stance against “ex-gay” ministries is largely perceived as a half-measure at best. But with so many American Christians embracing same-sex unions — and attending same-sex weddings — it’s an open question as to how long Mohler and others can ignore calls from fellow Christians to treat LGBT couples the same as everyone else.
“So many American families include LGBT people and are finding a way to stay together, to grow in their love,” Beach-Ferrara said. “I pray that, in time, Rev. Mohler can open his heart to all that happens when we show up for those we love instead of condemning them.”
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The post Right-Wing Pastor Tells Christians To Boycott Same-Sex Weddings. These Christians Disagree. appeared first on ThinkProgress.
Jack Jenkins
thinkprogress.org/lgbt/2015/10/17/3713009/al-mohler-dont-go-to-weddings-because-jesus-or-something/
