HRC Honors Senator Tammy Baldwin for Women’s History Month

During Women’s History Month, HRC honors Senator Tammy Baldwin for her tireless work in advocating for LGBTQ rights.

Senator Baldwin broke two barriers the night she was elected to represent Wisconsin in the U.S. Senate in 2012. Not only was she the first woman elected from the Badger State, she was also the first open lesbian elected to serve in the upper chamber of Congress.

Baldwin’s achievement garnered her The Advocate’s Person of the Year in 2012. She told the magazine that she found inspiration in Geraldine Ferraro, who in 1984, became the first woman ever nominated for vice president on a major party’s ticket. Just as the nomination of Ferraro inspired women like Baldwin to serve in public office, the Wisconsin senator’s win is sure to have a ripple effect for women and LGBTQ people across the country as well.

Since her historic election to the Senate, Baldwin has been one of Capitol Hill’s most progressive voices and has championed LGBTQ legislation during her tenure in office. She co-authored The Equality Act in 2015, which provides basic non-discrimination protections against discrimination based on sexual orientation or gender identity in employment, access to public spaces, housing, education, jury service, credit and federal funding.

Baldwin knows that inclusion and fairness for LGBTQ people only helps strengthen our nation. “With each passing year and each generation, our country must become more equal, not less,” she said during the 2012 Democratic National Convention.

Baldwin has consistently received a perfect score on HRC’s Congressional Scorecard, which scores elected officials on how they have voted on issues of equality.

Despite the setback of this past election, it’s now more important than ever we rely on trailblazers like Senator Baldwin and other female endorsees to continue to move us forward and to fight back against discrimination and hatred in all of its forms.

Baldwin will be facing re-election in 2018. 

www.hrc.org/blog/hrc-honors-senator-tammy-baldwin-for-womens-history-month?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss-feed

Lenten Devotional: Carry Your Own Water

This year for the season of Lent, HRC Foundation launched a campaign that aims to tell the stories of LGBTQ people of faith. The Lenten season marks the days which lead up to Jesus’ crucifixion and subsequent resurrection.

For Christians, the resurrection is both a reminder and celebration of life, yet people continue to suffer, including members of the LGBTQ community.

“A central and inspiring part of my ministry has been working to make sure the institutional church — and religion in general — is affirming and inclusive of LGBTQ persons,” said the Reverend Dr. J. Edwin Bacon, author and reverend in the Episcopal Church. “I am a more joyful and faithful priest because of that part of my work.”

We hope the meditations offered every day from Ash Wednesday to Easter on April 16, will bless souls, revive spirits, renew minds and strengthen bodies. These stories will be hosted on the HRC website and on Twitter and Facebook.

The Lenten Devotional is a faith-filled resource that compiles meditations written by 47 faith leaders from across the United States. This project and other public education work with faith leaders in HRC Alabama, HRC Arkansas and HRC Mississippi is made possible in part by the generous support of the  E. Rhodes and Leona B. Carpenter Foundation.

As we engage in the process of reflection, recommitment and renewal attendant to the Lenten season, I want us to focus on one of the two essential elements of life. In this instance we will not consider the air we breathe (as important as it is) but rather we will consider water.

Water is understood in some ways to define human experience, nourishing and sustaining all life on planet Earth. Water is indeed a gift of nature. Water is a product of imagination and an inescapable part of the ecological reality of life. Our very bodies are comprised of and dependent upon water.

Water is precious and we have come to understand ever more profoundly since the lead- poisoned disgrace of Flint, Michigan and the unethical, immoral threat to the Mississippi River posed at Standing Rock that “Water Is Life!”

In recent days I spent time on the continent of Africa and there the bare essentials of life are more clearly visible in daily existence. Among the common experiences of living is the requirement of water. I cannot count how many times throughout the day I witnessed the process of either people carrying water from one place to another or pumps and wells being accessed to draw water.

In my quiet moments, it occurred to me that in truth, one cannot expect someone else to carry the water. In many regards, each of us should carry our own.

Consider the phrase, “to carry someone’s water.”

As a former high school basketball team manager, I know something about the position of “water boy” who is charged with catering to the players’ comfort. Often, people view serving as water boy is the lowest job in the team hierarchy. Yet, without the water provided by the waterboy, dehydration, cramps and the inability to perform are guaranteed results.

In these future-defining times, we ought endeavor to imagine and embrace new possibilities to creatively carry our own water. To carry water is to take on primary responsibility, to ensure something is accomplished, to resist and to take action – even though the people elected, appointed and others holding positions of authority should be the ones doing the work.

I pray that a renewed internal urgency will arise in each of us to be responsible agents in justice-making. All persons are diminished when any one person, group or segment of our society is diminished. Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. was correct in 1963 and even more correct today,  “No, no, we are not satisfied and will not be satisfied until justice rolls down like water and righteousness like a mighty stream.”

Oh, Holy One and Creator, grant us more grace and divine fortitude to unceasingly pursue your kin-dom here on earth. Remind us always of your requirements to do justice, love kindness and walk humbly with you, our God.

Reverend Cedric A. Harmon

Executive Director, Many Voices A Black Church Movement for Gay and Transgender (LGBTQ) Justice

www.hrc.org/blog/lenten-devotional-carry-your-own-water?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss-feed

Getting Frisky Down Under (Photos)

www.advocate.com/photography/2017/3/19/getting-frisky-down-under-photos

Marine Corps' Nude Photo Sharing Scandal Expands to Include Gay Porn Sites

A scandal that began with hundreds of Marines caught sharing nude photos of fellow female servicemembers on social media has expanded to include sharing of photos of males servicemembers on gay porn sites. 

www.advocate.com/politics/2017/3/18/marine-corps-nude-photo-sharing-scandal-expands-include-gay-porn-sites

Jessica Lange Discusses Her Imaginary Feud with Kellyanne Conway

The star of Feud: Bette and Joan had some strong words for Donald Trump’s advisor Kellyanne Conway. 

www.advocate.com/arts-entertainment/2017/3/18/jessica-lange-discusses-her-imaginary-feud-kellyanne-conway

Sorry guys, science confirms ‘gaydar’ isn’t real

This just in: Gaydar is not a real thing. At least, according to researchers at the University of Wisconsin-Madison Department of Psychology.

William Cox is an assistant scientist at the university. He and his colleagues recently conducted a social experiment to try and get to the bottom of the whole gaydar phenomenon and whether some people really do have a “sixth sense” when it comes to detecting gay people.

Participants in the study were then told to look at the social media profiles of several different men (half of whom were gay and the other half of whom were straight) and determine their sexuality.

“Some of the men had interests (or ‘likes’) that related to gay stereotypes, like fashion, shopping or theater,” Cox explains. “Others had interests related to straight stereotypes, like sports, hunting or cars, or ‘neutral’ interests unrelated to stereotypes, like reading or movies.”

The end result?

Surprise! People assumed the “gay-seeming” men were gay and the “straight-seeming” men were straight, with an accuracy rate of around 60%. Not just that, but the researchers admit the basic premise of the study flawed, because the men they used were  an even 50/50 gay and straight. In the real world, it’s estimated only around 3-8% of adults identify as LGBTQ.

Cox writes:

What does this mean for interpreting the 60 percent accuracy rate? Think about what the 60 percent accuracy means for the straight targets in these studies. If people have 60 percent accuracy in identifying who is straight, it means that 40 percent of the time, straight people are incorrectly categorized.

In a world where 95 percent of people are straight, 60 percent accuracy means that for every 100 people, there will be 38 straight people incorrectly assumed to be gay, but only three gay people correctly categorized.

OK, so what exactly is the takeaway from all this?

Basically, Cox says, the whole idea of gaydar is bologna. Really, people are just relying on deeply-engrained stereotypes to make assumptions about strangers. This isn’t good because, as most people would agree, stereotypes often have negative consequences.

“First, stereotyping can facilitate prejudice,” Cox explains.

And prejudice can lead to aggression, as anyone who’s been to or seen videos from a Donald Trump rally can tell you.

“They can justify discrimination and oppression, and, for members of stereotyped groups, they can even lead to depression and other mental health problems,” Cox continues. “Encouraging stereotyping under the guise of gaydar contributes–directly or indirectly–to stereotyping’s downstream consequences.”

In other words, stop claiming to have gaydar. You don’t. Because it doesn’t exist.

And for those who still insist that, yes, they have the magical ability to intuitively pinpoint gay people in a crowd, Cox has this to say:

If you’re disappointed to learn that your gaydar might not operate as well as you think it does, there’s a quick fix: Rather than coming to a snap judgment about people based on what they wear or how they talk, you’re probably better off just asking them.

Related: Is Your Terrible Gaydar Making Life A Challenge? You Are Not Alone.

www.queerty.com/sorry-guys-science-confirms-gaydar-isnt-real-20170318?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+queerty2+%28Queerty%29