Get Ready! It’s “Time to THRIVE”

Post submitted by Kimmie Fink, Welcoming Schools Consultant

The fourth annual Time to THRIVE conference is just around the corner, and you can be a part of it! In partnership with the National Education Association and the American Counseling Association, the HRC Foundation hosts this annual national conference to promote safety, inclusion, and well-being for LGBTQ youth everywhere. Whether you’re new to Welcoming Schools or already using our resources in your classroom or school, there’s much to be gained from attending this year’s conference, April 28-30, in Washington, D.C.

Time to THRIVE provides a “one-stop-shop” opportunity to build awareness and cultural competency, learn current and emerging best practices, and gather resources from leading experts and national organizations in the field. This year’s incredible speakers include The New York Times’s Charles Blow, the first out lesbian Miss America contestant Erin O’Flaherty, and transgender activist Jazz Jennings, not to mention the always inspiring HRC Youth Ambassadors. Receiving the 2017 Upstander Award is journalist and icon Katie Couric, who recently executive produced National Geographic’s Gender Revolution.

The agenda is full of timely, relevant workshops for caring teachers. Make sure you don’t miss the Welcoming Schools-related sessions. Join Director of Welcoming Schools Johanna Eager and Nationally Certified Facilitator Todd Rosendahl for their presentation on “Creating Gender Inclusive Schools for All Students.” Eager will also facilitate a workshop on “The Teachable Moment:  Responding to LGBTQ and Gender Comments and Questions” as well as open and close the conference with a workshop focused on “Intersectionality and Privilege.”  Welcoming Schools Deputy Director Cheryl Greene lends her expertise in bullying to her session, “An Intersectional Approach to Proactive Measures that Prevent Bias-Based Bullying.”

There are limited number of hotel rooms at the discounted rate of $159 per night. This rate expires on Tuesday, April 11, 2017, or sooner if the limited number of rooms at this rate sell out.  To reserve your discounted hotel room today, please click here.

If you still need convincing, check out the highlights of last year’s amazing conference. Ready to register? Click here. Can’t make it? Bring Welcoming Schools to your district. You won’t regret any time you spend making sure your students aren’t just surviving, but thriving.

HRC’s Welcoming Schools is the nation’s premier program dedicated to creating respectful and supportive elementary schools in embracing family diversity, creating LGBTQ-inclusive schools, preventing bias-based bullying, creating gender-expansive schools, and supporting transgender and non-binary students.

www.hrc.org/blog/get-ready-its-time-to-thrive?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss-feed

When Pearl-Clutching Goes Wrong

Some people are more shocked over a word than the fact that gay and bisexual men of color continue to contract HIV at alarming rates.

www.advocate.com/commentary/2017/4/06/when-pearl-clutching-goes-wrong

Khloe Kardashian: Bruce becoming Caitlyn was a “huge blow”
“”I don’t think Caitlyn is a bad person at all,” she sniffs dismissively.

www.queerty.com/khloe-kardashian-bruce-becoming-caitlyn-huge-blow-20170406?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+queerty2+%28Queerty%29

Designs for Trump’s Border Wall are Here. They Fall into 4 Categories.

Imagine the Great Wall of China along the banks of the Rio Grande. Or maybe an animal-friendly barrier that keeps migrants out but lets roadrunners in.

These are some of the designs contractors submitted this week in the first round of bids to build President Donald Trump’s promised 2,000-mile wall along the Mexican border.

Chicago Tribune architecture critic Blair Kamin took a look at some of the designs and has divided them into four categories.

Category 1: Perfuming the Pig

“Some of these are what I would call the ‘perfuming the pig’ border wall designs,” Kamin says. In other words, designs that distract from the intent of the wall — which is to keep people out.

First up in this category is the solar panel design from Gleason Partners LLC.

Solar panel wall Credit: Gleason Partners

This wall would generate 2 megawatts of electricity an hour. The contractors say the power could be sold to Mexico or to utility companies, and the profits could fund construction of the wall.

Another example in this category is an animal-friendly wall.

Animal-friendly wall Credit: Black Security Products

Black Security Products wants to build the wall with a 4-inch slit along the bottom to “I don’t know, let little desert rats pass through,” laughs Kamin.

Category 2: Bad Neighbor

The second category, Kamin says, is the “bad neighbor designs.” These project the message: “Attempt to climb me and die!!”

Take, for instance, the nuclear waste wall.

Nuclear waste wall Credit: Clayton Industries

Clayton Industries wants to build a wall with a series of barriers to deter illegal border crossers. There’s a chain-link fence, sensor panels, a railroad, a 30-foot-high wall and then … wait for it … a 100-foot-deep trench with nuclear waste at the bottom.

“It essentially sends the message: ‘Hey immigrants from Mexico and Central America. If you want to try to take a risk and find a better life in the United States, take your kid through a nuclear waste dump.’ That’s what we’re talking about,” says Kamin.

Category 3: The Fortress

“The fortress design is quite straightforward,” says Kamin. And there’s no better example of this than the Great Wall of China rip-off.

Great Wall of China rip-off Credit: Crisis Resolution Security Services

The Crisis Resolution Security Services design might look familiar. It has a castellated top, a pedestrian walkway, and supposedly it could double as a tourist attraction.

“I’m sure that the Chinese president in his discussions with Trump is going to be horrified by this,” jokes Kamin. “He’ll probably ask for royalties or something.”

Category 4: Can’t We All Just Get Along?

The “can’t we all just get along” designs are “more whimsical” says Kamin. These designs are intended more as cultural commentary than an actual plan.

Hammock wall Credit: J.M Design Studio

Case-in-point: JM Design Studio’s hammock and pipe organ walls.

One sketch from this group of women artists shows 3 million hammocks strung across the border, suspended between 30-foot-tall trees. Another design has a wall of 10 million pipe organs, with openings every 20 feet allowing for people to pass through.

“I don’t think the Department of Homeland Security is going to go for that one,” Kamin says.

The next step is for the government to select finalists. They will be announced in June. About 10 companies will be chosen to build prototypes of their designs in San Diego.

This article first appeared on PRI The World.

The post Designs for Trump’s Border Wall are Here. They Fall into 4 Categories. appeared first on Towleroad.

Designs for Trump’s Border Wall are Here. They Fall into 4 Categories.

Russland hat ein Foto von Putin verboten – jetzt wird es im Internet verbreitet
Ein Bild des russischen Präsidenten Wladimir Putin ist nun in Russland verboten worden, weil es den Staatschef als Homosexuellen zeigeIm Internet tei…

Weiterlesen: Nachrichten, Politik, Russland, Wladimir Putin, Homosexualität, Gay, Lgbt, Germany News

www.huffingtonpost.de/2017/04/06/russland-putin-foto_n_15847182.html

HRC Condemns Senate Leaders for Going Nuclear to Guarantee Appointment of Anti-Equality Neil Gorsuch

Today, the Human Rights Campaign strongly condemned the move by Senate Republicans to deploy the “nuclear option” to hand anti-equality Judge Neil Gorsuch a lifetime appointment to the Supreme Court of the United States by shamefully changing Senate rules and bypassing the historic 60-vote threshold for high court nominees.

“We are deeply disappointed by the Senate Republicans’ decision to pave the way for the confirmation of Neil Gorsuch, who throughout his career has dismissed the role of the courts in protecting individual and civil rights,” said Chad Griffin, President of the Human Rights Campaign. “He does not believe the Constitution protects marriage rights for same-sex couples. He has twice ruled in cases that undermined equality for transgender people. In his Senate testimony, he repeatedly dodged answers about the fundamental equality of LGBTQ people. If you harbor any remaining doubt about his dangerous worldview, consider for a moment that Judge Gorsuch’s idol is none other than Antonin Scalia.”

Gorsuch’s history of opposing civil rights for the LGBTQ community triggered historic opposition from HRC and many civil rights organizations. HRC previously took unprecedented action by opposing Gorsuch prior to his confirmation hearing, calling for a filibuster on the Senate floor, and testifying against Gorsuch before the Senate Judiciary Committee. Judge Gorsuch’s record, coupled with Trump’s discriminatory executive actions, his other anti-LGBTQ appointees, and the campaign promise to appoint a justice in the mold of Antonin Scalia leave no room for anyone to doubt that as an Associate Justice on the Supreme Court, Gorsuch will be dangerous for the LGBTQ community.

Gorsuch has a long and troubling career opposing civil rights, including for LGBTQ people:

• Gorsuch’s 2004 dissertation from Oxford University revealed that he did not think the United States Constitution protected the right to marriage equality.
• Gorsuch called marriage equality part of the liberal social agenda, saying, “American liberals have become addicted to the courtroom… as the primary means of effecting their social agenda on everything from gay marriage to assisted suicide…”
• He joined the Tenth Circuit’s decision in Hobby Lobby v. Sebelius, which asserted that  that some private corporations are “people” under federal law and have a right to deny basic healthcare coverage if it violates their religious belief. This expansive ruling could allow employers to deny transgender employees access to hormone treatment, access to birth control and other crucial health care for LGBTQ people.
• Hobby Lobby could have negative long-term consequences beyond health care for the LGBTQ community. There are those who are already trying to use the decision to advance discrimination against LGBTQ workers.
• In 2015, Gorsuch joined a ruling against a transgender woman who was denied consistent access to hormone therapy while incarcerated. The ruling dismissed the prisoner’s claims that the denial of care amounted to cruel and unusual punishment under the U.S. Constitution.
• He has advocated for eliminating Chevron deference, a critical administrative law doctrine that allows our federal system of regulations to function, which could result in the significant loss protections for LGBTQ people. 

www.hrc.org/blog/hrc-condemns-senate-leaders-for-going-nuclear-to-guarantee-appointment-of-a?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss-feed

These pics of Riverdale’s KJ Apa demand your undivided attention
Not surprisingly, the actor’s Instagram account has become insanely popular.

www.queerty.com/pics-riverdales-kj-apa-demand-undivided-attention-20170406?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+queerty2+%28Queerty%29

NBC Just Ordered Up Even More Episodes of the ‘Will & Grace’ Reboot

You’ll be able to see even more Will & Grace, which is returning in January to NBC, after the network upped its order for 12 new episodes rather than 10, according to Deadline:

Shepherding the new episodes, which are expected to pick up the characters’ stories a decade after the 2006 finale, are Will & Grace creators/executive producers Max Mutchnick and David Kohan as well as director/executive producer James Burrows.

Co-creator/executive producer Mutchnick was behind the Will & Grace reunion mini-episode, bringing the cast together and getting the original set re-assembled in the basement of the lot where the NBC series filmed. He and Kohan wrote the script, with additional punch-up work by Will & Grace alums Gary Janetti and Bill Wrubel.

The post NBC Just Ordered Up Even More Episodes of the ‘Will & Grace’ Reboot appeared first on Towleroad.

NBC Just Ordered Up Even More Episodes of the ‘Will & Grace’ Reboot