Laverne Cox Revisits Katie Couric, Engages Second Productive Discussion This Week

Laverne Cox is emerging as the transgender voice of a generation, tackling the tough issues and representing an entire community in the way that trans pioneers before her — as products of their time — were never able to do.

The celebrated Orange Is the New Black actress and trans advocate appeared on Katie Couric’s show again this week for her first interview since the light controversy that spawned in the wake of her last visit. In January, Couric was lambasted on social media for asking Cox and Carmen Carrera insensitive questions about transitional surgery, even after she was informed that it was an offensive thing to do.

“The preoccupation with transition and surgery objectifies trans people,” Cox said in her January interview. “And then we don’t get to really deal with the real lived experiences.”

In a perfectly flaw-free interview (her second this week), Cox revisited the controversy to really drive home this “teachable moment” Couric so desperately wants. “Last time you were here, I got a lot of flack because I asked about the physical process [of transition],” said Couric.

“It’s only a mistake if you make it twice,” Cox responded.

Cox goes on to say that she believes the “transgender tipping point” is due in part to social media. “We have a voice now,” she says. “There are so many amazing trans folks out there who are telling their stories [right now]…I think when we get to know folks as human beings, our misconceptions about people who are different than us melt away.”

Check out the full interview below:

h/t BuzzFeed

Matthew Tharrett

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Rick Perry Says a Homosexual Deciding Not to Be Gay is Like an Alcoholic Deciding Not to Have a Drink

Andy Towle

www.towleroad.com/2014/06/rick-perry-says-a-homosexual-deciding-not-to-be-gay-is-like-an-alcoholic-deciding-not-to-have-a-drin.html

Blade wins 3 journalism awards

(Washington Blade photo by Michael Key)

The Washington Blade won three first-place awards in this week’s Dateline Awards competition sponsored by the Society of Professional Journalists D.C. chapter.

Blade features editor Joey DiGuglielmo won the award for best feature story in the weekly newspaper category for “Remembering Sean Sasser,” about the former “Real World” cast member who died last year.

“The piece goes beyond the usual ‘he was such a great guy and will be missed’ obit to include the significance of his TV appearance and the career he crafted for himself after the cameras move on,” the judges wrote. DiGuglielmo also won the award for best arts criticism for his piece on organ music in D.C. titled, “Dynamic differences.”

Blade editor Kevin Naff won his eighth SPJ award, taking first place in the editorial writing category for a piece titled, “Victory, vindication and tears” about last year’s Supreme Court rulings in the DOMA and Prop 8 cases. “The editorial has a sound analysis of the court’s opinion and asks readers to contemplate several ‘tantalizing questions for the future’ of gay rights in states without marriage-equality laws,” the judges wrote.

Publisher Lynne Brown noted the timing of the awards.

“The Blade is celebrating its 45th anniversary this year,” Brown said. “These awards demonstrate we haven’t let up in our commitment to quality journalism and to serving the local market.”

Staff reports

Blade wins 3 journalism awards

VOTE NOW: Who Is the Grandest Marshal of Them All?

Instead of one for each city, what if there was just one Grand Marshal for all of Pride? Vote now for your favorite.

read more

Advocate.com Editors

www.advocate.com/pride/2014/06/12/vote-now-who-grandest-marshal-them-all

Rick Perry Compares Homosexuality To Alcoholism
SAN FRANCISCO (AP) — Texas Gov. Rick Perry, during a visit that focused primarily on economic issues, drew on a reference to alcoholism to explain his view of homosexuality.

Perry’s comments to the Commonwealth Club of California came after Texas’ Republican Convention on Saturday sanctioned platform language allowing Texans to seek voluntary counseling to “cure” being gay. The San Francisco Chronicle bit.ly/1oWq0qR reports that in response to a question about it, Perry said he did not know whether the therapy worked.

Perry, a former and potential future GOP presidential candidate, was then asked whether he believed homosexuality was a disorder.

The paper says that the governor responded that “whether or not you feel compelled to follow a particular lifestyle or not, you have the ability to decide not to do that.”

He said: “I may have the genetic coding that I’m inclined to be an alcoholic, but I have the desire not to do that, and I look at the homosexual issue the same way.”

The Texas Republican platform stand on the issue is in contrast to California and New Jersey, which have previously banned licensed professionals from providing such therapy to minors.

During the bulk of his talk, Perry held up his own state as a model for responsible energy production and economic growth in California.

Perry said he believes Texas is leading the way in achieving energy independence by producing crude oil and electricity in many forms, including solar power.

Perry also suggested that deregulating electricity had started a boom for renewable energy in Texas, which he called the nation’s leading developer of wind energy.

Perry said shale drilling techniques had doubled oil production in Texas, and he urged Californians to tap the full energy potential in its Monterey Shale.

On Tuesday, Perry drove up to California’s state capital of Sacramento in a Tesla Model S electric car — underscoring his desire to lure a Tesla battery factory to Texas.

www.huffingtonpost.com/2014/06/12/rick-perry-homosexuality-alcoholism_n_5487314.html?utm_hp_ref=gay-voices&ir=Gay+Voices

Gay-hating Ugandan minister Sam Kutesa elected UN president

Several thousand LGBTI advocates and allies signed a petition calling for him to be blocked from taking the petition, but the UN failed to listen

read more

joem

www.gaystarnews.com/article/gay-hating-ugandan-minister-sam-kutesa-elected-un-president120614

Hillary Clinton Says She Got Into Shouting Matches With Russian Officials About Their Homophobia

Would you want to get into a shouting match with Hillary Clinton? Apparently, if you’re a homophobe, you might.

Appearing in Chicago to promote her new book, Hard Choices, the former Secretary of State spoke at some length about global homophobia, not least of all in Russia. According to Clinton, some countries “are just cynical” when it comes to LGBT oppression, most of all Russia.

Clinton said that “what Putin’s doing in Russia with all these laws against the LGBT community… is just a cynical political ploy.” Even more surprising, is how Clinton reacted to it: “I’ve gotten into shouting matches with top Russian officials.” Unfortunately, she didn’t provide names, although Putin has made his disdain for Clinton well known. 

Clinton made her comments in the context of a broader discussion about LGBT oppression. She said that she came to realize as Secretary of State that there was an “increasing backlash” against LGBT people. That led her to deliver her famous speech in Geneva in 2011, in which she declared that “gay rights are human rights.”

“I began to vigorously protest with governments in many parts of the world,” she said. Some countries just need to be “brought along.” Russia, of course, is a case unto itself.

The fight isn’t over, says Clinton. “We have a long way to go, I don’t want to mislead anybody,” she said. “This is going to be an ongoing struggle and the United States must be on the front lines.”

Of course, no fair speculating on who the next commander-in-chief might be for that particular battle. We’ll have to wait a while longer for that inevitable campaign announcement.

JohnGallagher

feedproxy.google.com/~r/queerty2/~3/NbBakU7qS3c/hillary-clinton-says-she-got-into-shouting-matches-with-russian-officials-about-their-homophobia-20140612

Jim Carrey Offers Some Words to Live By to a Graduating Class: VIDEO

Andy Towle

www.towleroad.com/2014/06/jim-carrey-offers-some-words-to-live-by-to-a-graduating-class-video.html

Lanier gives briefing on police-trans issues

D.C. Police Chief Cathy Lanier (Washington Blade photo by Strother Gaines)

D.C. Police Chief Cathy Lanier told a transgender community town hall meeting Tuesday night that her department is moving quickly to implement recommendations by an independent task force on ways to improve police response to crimes targeting the transgender community.

Lanier, who was joined by nearly a dozen high-level police officials, including a captain and sergeant in charge of the police Gay and Lesbian Liaison Unit, said the overwhelming majority of officers are sensitive to the needs and concerns of transgender citizens.

She said that in cases where members of the LGBT community in general and the trans community in particular encounter improper or abusive treatment by a police officer, such incidents should immediately be reported to the department through an established complaint process.

“If there is wrongdoing on the part of a police officer, we want to know about it,” she said. “We should address that, and we will.”

The town hall event was sponsored jointly by the D.C. Trans Coalition, Casa Ruby, Gays and Lesbians Opposing Violence (GLOV), the Gay and Lesbian Activists Alliance, the LGBT youth advocacy group SMYAL and the sex worker advocacy group HIPS.

The meeting was held in a community room of the D.C. Department of Employment Services on Minnesota Ave, N.E.

The sponsoring groups asked Lanier to discuss the department’s response to the findings and recommendations of a 41-page report prepared by the Hate Crimes Assessment Task Force, an independent body created by the Anti-Defamation League of Washington at Lanier’s request.

Among other things, the task force found that although the “vast majority of MPD leaders and personnel” are committed to the security and safety of the LGBT community, shortcomings exist in the department’s relations with the transgender community.

“With the exception of GLLU officers, most transgender people do not trust the police and believe that MPD officers too frequently see them as criminals because they are transgender,” the report states.

The report says the task force conducted its research between April 2012 and September 2013, which included “extensive interviews with LGBT leaders and advocates, LGBT community members, and MPD personnel of all ranks throughout the department,” with an emphasis on officers assigned to hate crimes, LGBT outreach and related duties.

In response to at least two-dozen questions from audience members, Lanier outlined the department’s efforts to address issues raised by the task force report, most of which are included as an addendum to the report.

The department has already taken steps to revamp the GLLU’s officer affiliate program to improve the training and selection of GLLU affiliate officers, who are assigned to each of the department’s eight police districts throughout the city.

The task force report says many in the LGBT community expressed concern that the GLLU became more distant and less visible to the community after the affiliate program was created by Lanier to expand the reach of the GLLU beyond its half dozen or so “core” officers.

Lanier said her supervisors in the police districts are now carefully assessing how the GLLU affiliate members are interacting with the community. Those found not to have a “good fit” for community interaction will be reassigned to other duties and officers more suited for the GLLU’s duties will replace them, she said.

“So we’ve come a long way,” she told the Blade after the meeting. “Are there individuals in the department — we have almost 5,000 employees — that may harbor a bias? Of course there are. But we can’t let that define our organization. We have to let the mass of the police define our organization and keep looking to get rid of people who don’t belong here,” she said.

Veteran transgender activist Earline Budd and Jason Terry, a member of the D.C. Trans Coalition, said they were optimistic that Lanier will carry out the task force report’s recommendations for improving the department’s relations with the trans community.

Lou Chibbaro Jr.

Lanier gives briefing on police-trans issues