HRC Alabama on MSNBC
On Sunday, HRC Alabama field organizer Tori Sisson, and her wife, Shante’ Wolfe, appeared on MSNBC with national host Melissa Harris-Perry to remember the 50th anniversary of Bloody Sunday.
HRC.org
www.hrc.org/blog/entry/hrc-alabama-on-msnbc?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss-feed
Jui-Jitsu Pro Christopher Garcia Is In Swimwear Fighting Shape
ST33LE Swimwear is designed with two things in mind that don’t often go hand-in-hand: athletic performance and fashion. Photographed again by Adrian C. Martin, the ST33LE swimwear briefs and trunks all have a fit that stays close to the body and allows for increased mobility and freedom in the water. The cuts are also rather revealing, and all the better to be modeled by Christopher Garcia.
We personally think Christopher, a 28-year-old professional Jui-Jitsu fighter, looks best in the Paradiso Trunks (though he really looks fabulous in any style). Worn in their tan color options, they make the most of a color that is seldom seen in underwear, let alone swimwear. The tan comes close to reaching a military-esque tone that emphasizes the look’s masculinity as well as the model’s. The Belmare Briefs look great on him for a similar reason, modeling their military green color options. Of course if “masculine” and “reserved” aren’t on your swimwear checklist, both swim styles are available in bright red looks and summery prints.
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Photo Credit: Adrian C. Martin
Underwear Expert
feedproxy.google.com/~r/queerty2/~3/6pY-03Hn7yc/christopher-garcia-has-a-bulge-of-st33le-20150309
Insane Anti-Muslim Texas Lawmaker Files Anti-Gay Bill Hoping to Block Future Same-Sex Marriages
Last month we told you about Texas GOP state Rep. Molly White (shown above with Sen. Ted Cruz), who posted an Islamophobic rant to mark Muslim lobby day at the Capitol.
“Today is Texas Muslim Capital day in Austin,” White wrote on her Facebook page. “The House is in recess until Monday. Most Members including myself are back in District. I did leave an Israeli flag on the reception desk in my office with instructions to staff to ask representatives from the Muslim community to renounce Islamic terrorist groups and publicly announce allegiance to America and our laws. We will see how long they stay in my office.”
We also told you that Equality Texas responded to White’s rant by delivering a gay Pride flag to her office (right).
“There are many flags that celebrate the diversity and unity of TX,” Equality Texas wrote on Twitter. “We decided to help build Rep White’s collection.”
Apparently, the group’s attempt to educate White about diversity didn’t work. Last week, White filed a bill that seeks to uphold Texas’ ban on same-sex marriage regardless of any federal court ruling to the contrary. From White’s HB 2555:
White’s bill is at least the fourth anti-gay marriage bill filed in the current Texas legislative session. As we mentioned last week, if and when a federal court brings marriage equality to Texas, expect an Alabama-style fight.
John Wright
www.towleroad.com/2015/03/anti-muslim-texas-lawmaker-files-anti-gay-marriage-bill.html
PHOTOS: Florida Kisses for Equality
Florida residents celebrate a triumph for equality.
Sarah Kilborne
www.advocate.com/politics/marriage-equality/2015/03/09/photos-florida-kisses-equality
Intersectionality, Women's Rights, LGBT Rights and Moving the Conversation Forward
A woman — I will call her Mrs. D. — seeks asylum from her native Sub-Saharan African nation in a Western country. Her family, her community and her country have brutalized her. She was imprisoned for over a year without trial under something called “suspicion of homosexuality”.
A group trying to assist Mrs. D.’s asylum request contacted me.
There are a lot of hearings to be heard, scheduled intakes, a review of evidence, etc., etc. There are hoops — lets say that. Here is what I know: Mrs. D. is a lesbian. Like many LGBT persons she married and had children (keeping up appearances). Mrs. D. fell in love with a woman and began a relationship. Her husband found and beat her to a pulp. Repeatedly. She was subsequently jailed for over a year without trial.
As is often the case in these situations, the husband managed to turn her three children against Mrs. D. undoubtedly with horrible claims, slanderous bile and disgusting, lurid details of mother’s so-called crimes. She is seeking asylum now in a country that doesn’t really believe that she could have been held in prison for over a year without a trial.
Those who approve asylum in this Western nation say according to her home country’s laws (setting aside the mere fact that homosexuality is a jailable offence) she must have had a trial — been afforded some due process — prior to her imprisonment.
I have some unfortunate expertise in this area. This from my visit to a prison in Cameroon. It is Cameroon but it could be one of any of the nearly 80 countries that criminalize homosexuality.
Mrs. D. is a perfect example of the intersectionality of LGBT and women’s rights. Women (gay or straight) and LGBT persons are at a significant risk every day of their lives compared to straight men. Women and LGBT persons suffer more violence, poor access to reproductive healthcare (or health care at all), little or no access to education and are at increased risk of contracting HIV.
This week the UN Commission on the Status of Women will meet in New York City. The gathering will bring together women and men from around the world to talk about the progress made — and the arduous work ahead — in women’s rights internationally.
Women are at higher risk of everything: domestic and sexual violence, rape, poverty, little or no access to reproductive (or any kind of) health care, women and children are more likely to flee conflict and become either IDPs (internally displaced persons) or refugees facing further abuses within so-called friendly camps. Women don’t have equal access to education and economic opportunities. On a global scale, women are at high risk for contract HIV.
Last month I attended the UN Security Council Open Debate on Protection of Civilians in Armed Conflict: “protection challenges and needs faced by woman and girls in armed conflict and post-conflict settings.” I was lucky enough to be a guest of Ms. Ilwad Elman of the Elman Peace Foundation and Sister Somalia — the only rape crisis center in her native Somalia. She made this in her opening statement to the chamber:
Just days ago in Mogadishu the mother of a 14-year-old girl called me. Her daughter was raped two years ago by a Ugandan Soldier in the African Union Mission to Somalia (AMISOM). The soldier returned to Uganda, where he remains in detention awaiting trial. The mother often calls me, not to get an update on the case but to help her daughter, who has been labeled the ‘girl who was raped by the infidel’ and has been ostracized by her community.
This is the truth of what happens to women and girls around the world. We are brutalized and then re-victimized because in some way the violence visited us was “our fault.” We see this in the United States and around the world.
LGBT persons face many of the similar atrocities. Last year I was lucky to attend the International AIDS Conference in Melbourne, Australia. A topic I hear over and over again was the alignment of women’s and LGBT communities to fight for common rights to dignity, life, safety, education, access to healthcare and economic empowerment.
The challenge is maintaining autonomy of the individual while aligning to face down deadly and common foes. There are numerous side events buzzing around the UN CSW in the next couple of weeks. Many amplify the need to work on understanding intersectionality of issues of LGBT persons and women in order for us all to move forward.
It is a difficult task. I think of the comparatively simplistic way the abuse felled upon Patricia Arquette at the Oscars (backstage comments not withstanding). Her words illuminated the danger in leaving someone out. And for better or worse, she did deserve an education — not necessarily a pummeling.
Intersectionality — inclusion of women of all stripes and strata — no matter color, sexual orientation, gender identity or economic status or physical ability — can ever be left back from the table when talking women’s rights. But intersectionality is not on the tip of everyone’s tongue. Yet.
If we can learn something from these failing — intentional or unintentional — then we have a shot.
Building a bridge — one that has already been started in many areas — between the causes of LGBT persons will be no easier. We will make mistakes, learn a lot, perhaps take some scoldings or get a wee bit of praise for a twinkling of understand. But we have to start if we hope to move forward post CSW 2015.
I am lucky to be a part of a side event on Friday, March 13 at the historic Riverside Church. Titled Women of Faith, Women of Doubt our challenge is to discuss the positive and negative role of religious traditions and gender norms are causing international conflict and threaten to erode recent gains for women and LGBT people around the world. With 80 countries still discriminating against the legal and constitutional rights of significantly poor populations, what advice can this expert panel bring to the discussions on gender and LGBT equality for the next 20 years?
The panel will include the following amazing women:
Maxensia Nakibuuka, Catholic Archdiocese of Kampala
Angeline Jackson, Quality of Citizenship, Jamaica
Dr. S. N. Nyeck, Clarkson University, NY
Please join us if you are able. Let’s talk.
How you can 'pass' as straight
This is according to new Tina Fey comedy Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt
joem
Kramer on Kramer
On the publishing of his magnum opus, The American People, famed author Andrew Holleran asks our angriest activist all that he has learned.
Andrew Holleran
www.advocate.com/arts-entertainment/people/2015/03/09/kramer-kramer
Alabama Goes Rogue on Marriage
The Alabama Supreme Court just went rogue on marriage, and that has George Takei pretty annoyed. Hundreds of Republicans just asked the U.S. Supreme Court to enact full federal equality. And the National Organization for Marriage’s losing streak continues with yet another slapdown in court.
Well, it seemed like marriage was safe in Alabama, but the state Supreme Court still had a one weird trick up its sleeve. Even though a federal court ordered marriage to begin, the Alabama Supreme Court has now ordered it to stop. The state justices claim that their interpretation of federal law trumps a federal judge’s.
Can they do that? Not really, no. This breaks all kinds of rules about jurisdiction and authority. The legal term for this is … well, there isn’t one, because it really isn’t a thing that’s done. It’s basically the state giving the finger to the country. Which is why George Takei has flipped it around by encouraging folks to show the state their wedding finger.
What happens next? Lawyers rack up a ton of hours filing motions, and and maybe marriage can start back up again sometime soon. Or we might just have to wait until the U.S. Supreme Court resolves things once and for all.
Speaking of the Supreme Court, last week was the deadline for amicus briefs in the marriage cases. Almost 400 companies submitted briefs in favor of marriage equality, including Coke, Delta, Apple, Nike, Amazon, GE, and many many more. Also of note: a pro-equality brief from over 300 Republicans. That includes several current and past senators, governors, mayors, White House officials, and even a Koch brother. This is more than double the number of Republicans who signed a similar brief for the DOMA case in 2013.
The Supreme Court won’t rule on marriage until sometime after oral argument on April 28. But they did just deliver some more bad news to the National Organization for Marriage. For years, NOM has been fighting to keep their donor identities secret, and last week the Supreme Court denied their request for a hearing, which puts an end to the case once and for all. It is weird that NOM stalled for this long, since the donor names have been available through the state since 2008. Essentially NOM just spent seven years and a ton of money on a fight that they lost a long time ago.
Watch the highlights of the 2015 Sydney Mardi Gras Parade
Australia’s SBS public broadcaster put together a highlights show of the best of this year’s Sydney Gay and Lesbian Mardi Gras Parade and you can watch it here
andrewp
www.gaystarnews.com/article/watch-highlights-2015-sydney-mardi-gras-parade090315
Three Reasons Homosexuality Is Not A Choice And That Gay Men Exist (And One Myth)
YouTubers Alex and his alter ego Xander want to know why feeling good often means being “bad.” So they’re going to use science, sketch comedy and a little skin to get at the core of taboo topics and pleasures. Introducing the new Queerty column, The Science of Sin.
Aspiring GOP presidential candidate Ben Carson thinks homosexuality is a choice (before he changed his mind). John Enslen, an Alabama judge, wrote in a Facebook post that “Homosexual marriage is on the wrong side of morality. Unlike skin color, homosexuality is not an immutable physical character trait disconnected with our moral agency.”
Come on, dudes, we can all at least agree that homosexuality is hardwired biologically, right? After all, that’s the scientific consensus–much like the fact that global warming is caused by humans.
Let’s review the facts.
To give the antigay wing nuts the benefit of the doubt, it can be hard to understand from an evolutionary, biological context why homosexual men exist (other than to create great outfits and run Apple). If gay men aren’t driven to procreational sex, how are gay genes passed on from generation to generation?
The Myth
At the turn of the 20th century, researchers like Sigmund Freud believed absent fathers made boys gay. They thought that since many gay men reported distant relationships with their dads, homosexuality arose because these men had not been properly “masculinized” by their aloof fathers.
But experts now believe it wasn’t the fatherly distance that caused homosexuality – but rather the homosexuality that caused the distance. In other words, the father withdrew from the homosexual child–if he was even around at all.
Today we know for a fact that homosexuality endures and even flourishes in every culture and throughout the animal kingdom. This means that being gay likely is the result of some biological and evolutionary mechanisms.
Here are the leading hypotheses as to why we have homos…
1. A lot of older brothers
Multiple studies have confirmed that the more older brothers a man has, the more likely he is to be gay. That might be because a mother’s body develops antibodies to male hormones the more boys she has. The antibodies then influence the development of any future sons, making them homosexual. Why would this happen? Maybe because the less heterosexual men that are born, the better chance a society has of avoiding overpopulation.
2. Fertile Females
Studies show that compared to families with no gay men, some families with a lot of gay men have women that give birth to many more babies. This leads scientists to think that perhaps the genes that make these women extra fertile make men … extra gay. So even though some men might be taken out of the gene pool, their sisters (and mothers and cousins) more than make up for them.
3. Kin Selection
Finally, in the hypothesis we like the best, studies on cultures that still live tribally show that having gay men around add to a family’s fitness. The idea is that gay genes stick around because having homosexual, non-reproducing members of a family are crucial for survival. Gay uncles without children of their own can help take care of their nephews and nieces along with the elderly. This added support ensures their kin will grow healthy and strong and pass on their genes by having children of their own.
There’s still a lot we don’t know about the biology of homosexuality (or sexuality for that matter). But it seems there are probably many different pathways to becoming gay. Woohoo!
Wanna learn more? Click the video to see Alex and Xander grapple with the existence of gay men…
Chris Bull
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