Monica Roberts Uses Her Blog to Bring Justice to the Trans Community

The journalist is one of the first people on the story when a killing strikes in the trans community, and she’s one of our “Women of the Year.” 

www.advocate.com/exclusives/2020/5/15/monica-roberts-uses-her-blog-bring-justice-trans-community

Hate Group Demands PBS Cancel LGBT Pride Month Series: ‘An Unjust Attack on Christianity’

The American Family Association is calling on PBS to cancel Prideland, the station’s recently announced digital series and one-hour special celebrating LGBT Pride Month.

Prideland, focused on LGBT life in the South, will be hosted by Dyllón Burnside of Pose, who hails from Pensacola, Florida.

“PBS’s decision to partner with Burnside to push the homosexual agenda is an unjust attack on Christianity and a mockery of the Bible and God’s design for human sexuality,” the AFA wrote on its website this week. “Sadly, PBS is proudly promoting a lifestyle that is unhealthy to both the individual who participates in the unnatural sexual behavior and to society as a whole. … In 2020, PBS received $445 million in taxpayer funding. This means you and I are directly paying for PBS to insult our faith and scoff at our God.”

As of Friday, 23,048 people had signed the AFA’s petition, according to the group’s website.

According to a news release on Prideland, the six-part digital series will premiere May 26 on the YouTube channel PBS Voices, followed by weekly episodes through June. A one-hour special will air on PBS on June 12.

Read more and view the full schedule here.

Episode 1: “Out, Proud & Southern: Dyllón Burnside’s Story”
Premieres:Tuesday, May 26 on PBS Voices
Description: Dyllón Burnside begins his journey by setting the stage of the series with his personal story of growing up in Pensacola, Florida. He explores what the South means to him, and why he left after getting fired from his church for coming out. He returns to discover that the South is home to more queer people than any other region in the U.S. with more than one-third of all LGBTQ+ adult Americans live below the Mason Dixon line. He also learns that the region has the most negative LGBTQ+ policies in the country and meets different people fighting for equal rights, starting with Carmarion D. Anderson, HRC Alabama State Director, the first transgender woman of color to hold such a leadership position. 

Episode 2: “An Openly Gay Pastor’s Journey to Acceptance in the Bible Belt”
Premieres: Tuesday, June 2 on PBS Voices
Description: The LGBTQ+ experience is as diverse and varied as the individuals who comprise it. While some still find rejection close to home, others are finding more and more acceptance in communities of origin or those they create. In this episode, Dyllón Burnside introduces viewers to Rob Lowry, an openly gay minister at a small, but mainstream church in Jackson, Mississippi. He was offered the job before the church knew he was gay, but they accepted him with open arms when he told them he would only take the position if he could lead while openly gay. Lowry is creating just that kind of community—open to all who take the command to “love thy neighbor as thy would thyself” to heart and in practice.

Episode 3: “Polyamory, Demisexuality, and Being Transgender in the South”
Premieres: Tuesday, June 9 on PBS Voices
Description: Dyllón Burnside sits down with a group of diverse LGBTQ+ members to learn how to embrace sex positivity and maneuver the modern dating scene. They talk candidly about asexuality, polyamorous relationships and how to manage diverging expectations in the queer community.

Episode 4: “The Heartwarming Story of One of Alabama’s First Same-Sex Adoptions”
Premieres: Tuesday, June 16 on PBS Voices
Description: Dyllón Burnside is invited into the home of a lesbian couple who wouldn’t let anyone or any law get in the way of them getting married and adopting the child of their dreams. He listens to how they’ve overcome the unique challenges of forming a family in the South, and learns what obstacles remain for other LGBTQ+ people in their home state of Alabama.

Episode 5: “Championing LGBTQ+ Healthcare in Mississippi”
Premieres: Tuesday, June 23 on PBS Voices
Description: Dyllón Burnside meets Scott Rodgers, M.D. and Lillian J. Houston, M.D., two doctors who founded the Center for LGBTQ Health at the University of Mississippi Medical Center,  one of the few LGBTQ+ clinics in Mississippi to provide quality healthcare without fear of discrimination. In many parts of the South it’s legal for doctors to deny services to LGBTQ+ people based on their religious beliefs. To make matters worse, the South has the highest concentration of people living with HIV/AIDS in the U.S. These doctors and their team are determined to address these issues head-on.

Episode 6: “The Bakery Battleground: The Mississippi Baker Standing Up For Gay Rights”
Premieres: Tuesday, June 30 on PBS Voices
Description: Dyllón Burnside examines the crucial role of allies in advancing LGBTQ+ rights and how religious beliefs have sometimes been used as a pretext for discrimination. In this episode, he visits Mitchell Moore, a baker in the heart of the Bible Belt who risks his business, Campbell’s Bakery, to take a stand for LGBTQ+ rights.

One-Hour Special: PRIDELAND
Premieres:  Friday, June 12, 9:00-10:00 p.m. ET on PBS
Description:  Follow Dyllón Burnside on a journey across the American South to meet diverse members of the LGBTQ+ community. From a lesbian rodeo champ in Texas to an African American mayor ally in Alabama, he discovers how LGBTQ+ Americans are finding ways to live authentically and with pride in the modern South.

The post Hate Group Demands PBS Cancel LGBT Pride Month Series: ‘An Unjust Attack on Christianity’ appeared first on Towleroad Gay News.

Hate Group Demands PBS Cancel LGBT Pride Month Series: ‘An Unjust Attack on Christianity’

HRC hablará en la vigilia honreando las vidas perdidas de personas LGBTQ en Puerto Rico

Este domingo, 17 de mayo, Alphonso David, presidente de la Campaña de Derechos Humanos, proporcionará comentarios en una vigilia virtual televisada en honor a las diez personas LGBTQ asesinadas en los últimos 15 meses en Puerto Rico. Otros oradores son Ricky Martin, Olga Tañón y Circo. La vigilia está siendo organizada por el Comité Amplio para la Búsqueda de la Equidad (CABE) y se transmitirá en Telemundo, domingo, 17 de mayo a las 10:30 p.m. en conmemoración del Día Internacional contra la Homofobia, la Transfobia y la Bifobia. El Americano co-transmitirá el evento en su página de Facebook.

“Durante los últimos 15 meses, Puerto Rico ha visto una epidemia de violencia contra la comunidad LGBTQ”, dijo el presidente del HRC, Alphonso David. “Neulisa. Yampi. Serena. Layla. Penélope. Estos son los nombres de algunas de las preciosas vidas que hemos perdido, sólo este año, por el odio y la intolerancia, la exclusión y la violencia. Y aunque tendremos sus nombres en nuestros corazones y recuerdos, tenemos el deber de poner fin al odio que alimenta la horrible violencia que nos los quitaron. Debemos estar unidos en nuestra lucha por la igualdad, nuestra lucha por la justicia y nuestra lucha por que cada miembro de la comunidad LGBTQ sea tratado con dignidad y respeto”.

“Toda la familia HRC está desconsolada por la epidemia de asesinatos que ha arrebatado a 10 de nuestros familiares elegidos en Puerto Rico en los últimos 15 meses”, Tori Cooper, director de participación comunitaria de la Iniciativa de Justicia Transgénero de HRC. “Hoy, en honor a las vidas perdidas, y en el Día Internacional contra la Homofobia, la Transfobia y la Bifobia, nos comprometemos de nuevo a la lucha por las políticas y protecciones para todas las personas transgénero, no binarias y queer en Puerto Rico y en todo el mundo”.

“Los líderes políticos y religiosos conservadores de la isla defienden el tipo de retórica que empodera a quienes odiarían y dañarían a las personas LGBTQ”, Pedro Julio Serrano, portavoz del Comité Amplio para la Búsqueda de la Equidad (CABE). “Y mientras que los que odian son los más ruidosos, hoy nuestro amor por nuestra comunidad, y con respecto a los que perdimos, nos mantenemos de pie y dejaremos que nuestro amor tome el día. Hoy en día, el amor gana y esperamos inspirar a los que están con nosotros a tomar una posición e inspirar a más personas a unirse a nuestra lucha”.

“Hemos perdido a 15 de nuestros hermanos por un odio que no reconozco”, Carlos Rodríguez, pastor, autor y fundador y director de The Happy Non-Profit. “Conozco a un Puerto Rico lleno de gente que ama las diferencias. Conozco a un Puerto Rico generoso lleno de gente alegre que se apresura a extender una mesa con el fin de hacer espacio para más personas en una cena. A través de mi trabajo, me he encontrado con muchas personas de fe que abrazan a las personas LGBTQ y condenan el tipo de odio que llevaría al asesinato. Somos más los que amamos que los que odiamos en la comunidad religiosa de la isla. Estos líderes odiosos no nos representan. Pero, en cuanto al resto de nosotros, no podemos permanecer en silencio, no hoy. Hoy tenemos que levantarnos y defender los principios religiosos de aceptación y justicia si queremos ayudar a poner fin a estos asesinatos. Si nos quedamos en silencio, el odio gana”.

“La violencia que estamos presenciando en Puerto Rico debería romper el corazón de todos los estadounidenses,” dijo Michael Vázquez, director del Programa de Religión y Fe de la Fundación HRC. “Lo que está sucediendo en Puerto Rico podría suceder en cualquier parte de los Estados Unidos si permitimos que la retórica religiosa anti-LGBTQ sin control empodere el odio y propague el terror. En el centro de toda tradición religiosa está una ética de justicia, y como tal estamos pidiendo a los líderes religiosos y políticos de fe en todo Puerto Rico que se pongan de acuerdo con una visión moral del amor, la justicia y la inclusión, y combatan el vitriolo fundamentalista que llevó a la muerte de nuestros hermanos y nuestras hermanas trans y no confirmadores de género”.

www.hrc.org/blog/hrc-hablara-en-la-vigilia-honreando-las-vidas-perdidas-de-personas-lgbtq-en?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss-feed

Transgender Navy Officer Wins Waiver to Serve Openly

Activist groups welcomed the waiver but emphasized that all trans military personnel deserve the right to serve.

www.advocate.com/transgender/2020/5/15/transgender-navy-officer-wins-waiver-serve-openly