Obama Says Adviser 'Confused' on Marriage Equality 'Evolution'
Obama Says Adviser 'Confused' on Marriage Equality 'Evolution'
Just one day after reports that former Obama aide David Axelrod indicated that Obama’s supposed ‘evolution’ to support marriage equality was ‘bullshit,’ the president fired back.
Sunnivie Brydum
An Open letter to the LGBTQ Task Force: "Creating Change? For Whom?"
An Open letter to the LGBTQ Task Force: "Creating Change? For Whom?"
As Undocumented Queer & Trans* Youth of Color we noticed a repetitive theme in The National Conference on LGBTQ Equality. The conference created an environment where our experiences as youth of color are being told by people who don’t necessarily face our situations/struggles. The workshops titled and framed to address the issues of people of color merely give the illusion of inclusivity and in many occasions they force us into unsafe and emotionally violent spaces.
In the Queering Immigration workshop, for example, the fishbowl activity was used to force undocumented immigrants to participate in dialogue about traumas with complete disregard to their comfort level and safety in public settings. This was perpetrated by people who strayed away from disclosing their position of privilege as legal residents or citizens who continued to speak on traumas of undocumented people instead of leaving the fishbowl. In addition to that, at the “Our parents were the original DREAMers” workshop, the conversation about UndocuQueer was partly mediated by a CIS-gender straight male. Almost every workshop we attended, as youth of color, we had to take up an educator role for people who have access to privilege and power through white supremacy and patriarchy. The workshops in many cases were guided and were based on a white male lens which placed us in the position where we had to raise our voices and struggle to be validated then forced to defend our work in dismantling the system that we all say we work to change. We need to be acknowledged without feeling the need to be validated through affiliation to the mainstream groups that often exclude the fierce grassroots efforts with direct action that don’t get funded.
The conference organizers and budget did not take into account the access and equity that it takes to be present in these, some times unhealthy, environments. We were not given the options of accessing our daily nutritional routines as we did not have a microwave, a refrigerator or the option of cooking for ourselves; a $10 meal three times a day is a financial hardship we don’t have privilege to have. Our decision to be present at this year’s conference was intentional. We acknowledge those whose picket line we crossed: the hotel workers at Sheratons and Weston on strike over a wage dispute. Our purpose was to do our work but we were not met halfway by the organizers and participants of Creating Change. Creating Change does not respect the risks we take in order to be present at this conference. Financial hardships to travel, room and board; the risks of being detained and being held for immigration investigation; being racially profiled by the local police; being discriminated or fetishized by other conference participants; being studied and exploited as if we were topics of discussion and not actual participants; and other several life-threatening concerns for queer and transgender undocumented immigrants. As working class youth who did have the possibility to be present at this year’s conference, we must acknowledge those in our frontline communities who, due to financial hardships, were excluded from this space.
The same conversations are happening year after year, if these conversations do not change, we will not encourage undocumented people of color to attend this conference when it does not cater to us. Therefore, creating change needs to give Undocumented, Womyn, Transgender, Young People of Color and other frontline communities access and decision making power in how the conference is organized and who is being invited and making an effort to have meaningful participation from those groups of people.
We understand that our statement will be challenged by privileged people who are in decision making power.
We do not need you to agree or validate our statement, we just need you to listen and take action!
Regards,
Undocumented Queer, & Trans Youth of Color
The Immigrant Youth Coalition
#Not1MoreYear #CC15 #TheIYC #NothingAboutUsWithoutUs #IYC_UQT
Spot The Robotic Dog Is Here To Give You Nightmares About The Robot Uprising – VIDEO
Spot The Robotic Dog Is Here To Give You Nightmares About The Robot Uprising – VIDEO
Do you remember BigDog, Boston Dynamics’s terrifying (but also cool) quadruped robot designed to assist soldiers through unfavorably rough terrain? Of course you do; it’s been haunting your nightmares of the robot uprising. Never one to leave well enough alone, the Google-funded company is back with a smaller, more nimble version of its canine-like robot they’re calling Spot.
Spot, like its larger relatives, moves around using a system of four articulated legs, an on-board computer, and an array of sensors that allow the machine to adapt to its surroundings much in the same way that an actual animal would.
As uncanny as it is to watch Spot dressage-trot its way through Boston Dynamics HQ, it’s difficult not to be impressed at the moments in which its behavior very closely resembles that of a living animal.
As Neel Patel explains in Wired, much of the life-like behavior showcased in the video is a natural outgrowth of Spot’s programming that’s designed to allow it to respond to external stimulus. In those moments where the two Spot units bump into one another, the machines attempt to correct the collision by orienting themselves in relation to one another. Programmatically, Spot’s making sure to move unencumbered. Visually, however, it looks like they’re purposefully trying to move together.
If the Matrix has taught us anything it’s that we should all consider investing in handheld electromagnetic pulse devices.
Check out footage of Boston Dynamics’s newest four-legged terror AFTER THE JUMP…
Charles Pulliam-Moore
UNE realiza 1º encontro LGBT da história da entidade
UNE realiza 1º encontro LGBT da história da entidade
Os direitos LGBT foram discutidos na 9ª Bienal da UNE, no Rio de Janeiro. Centenas de estudantes participaram do 1º encontro LGBT da história da UNE.
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Damn, Sam: Reaction of a Kansas Activist
Damn, Sam: Reaction of a Kansas Activist
Several years ago, I committed my life to trying to make certain that it was more possible for more LGBT youth in Kansas to see a light in the darkness. To know that they are precisely and perfectly who they are supposed to be. There are many others who have made the same commitment.
In 2007 an executive order signed by then-governor Kathleen Sebelius provided protections for about 25,000 Kansas employees from discrimination based on sexual orientation and gender identity. On Tuesday, Sam Brownback issued his own executive order, repealing those protections.
In so doing, he took an action that extinguishes part of the light so many have worked to create. But the spark that is left will grow into a flame of truth and dignity. Why? Because the flame of truth and dignity is far more powerful than any amount of hate and discrimination.
My message to LGBT Kansans is this. DO NOT let him tell you who you are. DO NOT let him tell you who you have to be or who you can love. DO NOT let Brownback, or any other bigot, tell you what your value is. You are perfect. Not only is there nothing wrong with being lesbian, gay, bisexual, or transgender; it is beautiful. You are undeniably and exactly who you are supposed to be.
I am not frightened by this monstrous action, nor am I afraid of this man. He does not speak for Kansas. He does not speak for God. Hate is not a Christian value. Hate is not a Kansas value. Hate is not an American value. The greatest possible gift I can give to this world is to be my true, authentic self. Sam Brownback has no power to change that.
Ideologues like Brownback are a dying breed. The future belongs to equality. Legalized discrimination is breathing its last breaths. But those who would see the light extinguished, for young people who are lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender, are fighting the battle of desperation.
They are pulling out all the stops and clinging to the dying branches of a tree that no longer has roots. They are no longer able, will never be again be able, to stop the progression of human dignity and civil rights.
However, in this battle of desperation, there are and will continue to be the last desperate acts of hate. Absolute and indefensible by their very nature, carrying the despicable and desolate mark of inhumanity. These inexcusable acts are not all-powerful. In the movie Star Wars Episode IV: A New Hope, Princess Leia says, “The more you tighten your grip, Tarkin, the more star systems will slip through your fingers.” True that.
We must stand together against the immoral designation of LGBT people as second-class citizens. We must do this in Kansas, across America, in Russia and in Uganda. We must do it anywhere the ugly two-headed snake of homophobia and transphobia dares to make its nasty presence known.
We are going to fight tooth and nail. That is a promise.
So I will endeavour to shine my light even more truthfully, even more powerfully, and even more brightly than ever before. I do not stand alone. We will continue the fight until there is a light in the darkness that can not be extinguished; until the darkness is no more.
The day is coming, sooner that you might think. Don’t ask me what’s the matter with Kansas. This is a great state. This is my state. You might want to ask me what’s the matter with Brownback. He’s not looking too good.
Brutal Attack in Tacoma Leaves Community Stunned
Italy's Highest Appeals Court Rules Against Gay Marriage
Italy's Highest Appeals Court Rules Against Gay Marriage
Italy’s Supreme Court of Cassation, the country’s highest appeals court has ruled that same-sex marriage is not constitutionally required. However, the court did rule that same-sex couples in Italy were entitled to certain rights and protections which the state must guarantee. Italian news site Ansa reports:
Italy’s highest appeals court on Monday rejected same-sex marriage, saying there was nothing in the Constitution that requires the government to extend marriage rights to gays. However, the Cassation Court added that homosexuals have the right to a “protective” law that would ensure same-sex couples have the same rights as unmarried Italian couples. Neither same-sex marriage nor civil unions between same-sex partners are legally recognized in Italy but some cities, including Rome, have a civil union register.
In October, Rome’s Mayor married 16 gay couples in defiance of Italy’s laws on same-sex marriage. As the above report mentions, the eternal city created a register of civil unions for same-sex couples, a historic move. Bologna also came out in favor of recognizing same-sex unions in September.
Sean Mandell
www.towleroad.com/2015/02/italys-highest-appeals-court-rules-against-gay-marriage.html
DISCRIMINACION LGBT
DISCRIMINACION LGBT
LGBT.
www.youtube.com/watch?v=TXWKvLSyM-s&feature=youtube_gdata
