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The USA has just gained marriage equality in all 50 states! SO happy for the USA and proud of you all, too. Congratulations on marriage equality! This is truly love winning and not hate. We are inching towards #LGBTQ equality! This is a huge step forward, and something to celebrate.
Now we need even more countries to give queer people the right to marry (it shouldn’t be something that has to be given; it should be a basic right) and an end to homophobia and hatred! An end to LGBTQ hate crimes–murder and bullying and rape–and an end to LGBTQ suicide. It’s still a crime in at least 70 countries to be queer. We can’t stop fighting for equality and justice for all. For all LGBTQ people to live in safety and be able to be out and who we are.
Today is a huge mile stone for the US. So happy for you USA! Happy, happy Pride to you all.
0 Comments on What a gift for Pride Week! USA Gains Marriage Equality In All 50 States! as of 6/26/2015 12:54:00 PM
Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, and Transgender Pride Month (LGBT Pride Month) is celebrated each year in the month of June to honour the 1969 Stonewall riots in Manhattan. This commemorative month recognizes the impact that lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender individuals have had on history locally, nationally, and internationally.
At Oxford University Press we are marking Gay Pride month by making a selection of engaging and relevant scholarly articles free to read on Oxford Scholarship Online. These chapters broaden the scope of LGBT scholarship by taking a psychological approach to sexuality, examining the arguments of biological difference, and generating important debates on the psychological impact of society’s treatment of minority sexualities.
What determines an individual’s sexual orientation? Is it biological, environmental, or perhaps a combination of the two? This chapter analyses the argument that sexuality is biologically-determined, carefully weighing the purported evidence, whilst still giving due respect to the often-fluid spectrum of human sexuality throughout the history of our species.
Being “different” at school can often single a student out for harassment and abuse from their fellow pupils – whether they be of a “different” religion, race, sexuality, or special needs. Setting out the ethnic and cultural factors which influence young people’s aggressive toward behaviour at school, this chapter goes on to a detailed examination of homophobia in educational contexts.
Examine the school climates out of which bullying can develop. It argues that an understanding of this is absolutely crucial for analyzing policy innovations and student wellbeing, and goes on to suggest progressive changes in school policies that could create a more positive school climate for LGBT students.
‘Gay-Friendly High Schools’ in The Declining Significance of Homophobia: How Teenage Boys are Redefining Masculinity and Heterosexuality
What makes a high school gay-friendly? Positive changes have occurred not because of institutions, but because of the increasingly-progressive and inclusive attitudes of the students themselves. Whilst this chapter links the findings with other research that documents decreasing homophobia in the Western world, it also urges continual challenging of the victimization of gay youth, and sets out a masculine identity based on inclusivity, and not heteronormative exclusion.
Marriage equality is one of the most hotly-contested social topics currently being debated in Western society, and stirs up passionate arguments from both camps. In ‘Same-Sex Romantic Relationships’, the arguments used by the Conservative Right to prevent marriage equality are examined with empirical evidence. Stereotypically, same-sex relationships are portrayed as being unhappy, maladjusted and promiscuous – is this really the case? Does the legitimizing of same-sex relationships truly have negative social and psychological impacts on society, as opponents of marriage equality often argue?
Trace the conception of prejudices and stereotypes which LGBT people still face today. Providing a useful and contextual history of modern and contemporary depictions of homosexuality, this chapter reviews the changing narratives of queer sexuality – from Cold War fears of communism and sexual perversion, to the move toward liberation and acceptance during the 60s and 70s, right through to the AIDS pandemic of the 1980s and the association of homosexuality with illness and death, and the subsequent panic narratives of the 1990s.
Oxford Scholarship Online (OSO) is a vast and rapidly-expanding research library, and has grown to be one of the leading academic research resources in the world. Oxford Scholarship Online offers full-text access to scholarly works from key disciplines in the humanities, social sciences, science, medicine, and law, providing quick and easy access to award-winning Oxford University Press scholarship.
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Subscribe to only psychology articles on the OUPblog via email or RSS. Image credits: Flag LGBT pride Toulouse by Léna, CC BY-SA 3.0 via Wikimedia Commons
Usually I let the comic do the talking. Today, in the last week of LGBT Pride Month, I want to proclaim our unwavering support for the LGBT community. Everyone has the right to live, love and look the way they feel is right, without fear of retribution or judgment.
The growing support for same-sex marriage rights represents an important shift in the everyday lives of lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, and queer (LGBTQ) people in the United States today. However, the continued focus on same-sex marriage in the media, by states, and by local governments, and by scholars and researchers leaves other arenas of the family lives of gay and lesbian adults reletively unexplored.
Of course, like all other Americans, gay and lesbian adults have primary relationships outside of their romantic partnerships. The adult child-parent tie is one of the most enduring and central of our social relationships, with most parents and children having weekly contact, exchanging support and love, and of course experiencing conflict. Indeed gay and lesbian adults keep in steady contact with their family of origin members–most especially parents–as they age into adulthood. Yet, we know virtually nothing about the nature of these intergenerational ties for gay and lesbian adults. While some attention has been paid to the importance parents for LGBTQ adolescents, what happens to the adult child-parent relationships of gay and lesbian adults as they age into mid- and later-life? Do they remain intact? Or are they estranged? Do adult children experience conflict or support? What do these relationships look like?
It is important to pay attention to the adult child-parent relationships of gay and lesbian adults. A child’s non-heterosexual identity has been shown to be associated with negative interactions with later-life parents; later-life parents may be especially unable to accept their gay or lesbian child because they grew up in a sociopolitical era where a gay or lesbian identity was unspeakable at best and pathological at worst. As a result, gay men and lesbian women appear to have fewer family confidants than heterosexuals, and tend to rank social support from friends as more consistent and important than support from family. Yet, gay men and lesbians do maintain contact with parents, even if parents are disapproving of children’s’ sexual identity. How, then, are these relationships negotiated and understood by adult children?
In a recent study on gay men and lesbians in long-term intimate partnerships, I show that there are specific markers of support and strain in gay and lesbian adult child-parent ties. For example, parents demonstrate their support of a gay or lesbian adult child by inclusion through language such as “in-law,” affirmations of support by joining gay rights advocacy groups, and via the integration into every day and special events in ways similar to other adult children. I also found that gay and lesbian adult children know their parents are accepting because parents rely on adult children and their partners for social support and caregiving. While providing social support to parents may be time-consuming and stressful, it is critical for parental well-being and provides an important opportunity for parents to demonstrate trust in gay and lesbian adult children.
The picture, of course, isn’t entirely rosy. The gay and lesbian intergenerational tie is embedded within broader institutional norms of heterosexuality and homophobia, and these broader structural constraints of homophobia and heterosexism contour these negative family interactions–with implications for both generations well-being. It appears, in the present study, that conflict is experienced in ways that are similar to when conflict is experienced in other central aspects of identity or life circumstances, such as religious values, finances, and unemployment. For example, adult children might experience significant rejection in their everyday encounters with parents and experience traumatic events of disownment by their parents. Moreover, adult children suggest that they are scared that their property may be usurped by a parent, rather than be taken care of by a partner, if something were to happen to them.
There’s hope for people who have strained relationships with their parents, however. Key moments, such as family death, illness, or injury, were described as transformative in ways that altered the structure of the adult-child-parent tie from negative to positive. Also, there has been remarkable legal and social change over the past decade, including the federal and state-level legalization of same-sex marriage and decreased public and institutional stigma against gay and lesbian identities. Given this social change, there is strong potential for changing the nature of conflictual intergenerational relationships. Clearly, the years after these social and legal changes may provide new opportunity for supportive intergenerational relationships for adult children coming of age in a new social and political era.
The Journals of Gerontology® were the first journals on aging published in the United States. The tradition of excellence in these peer-reviewed scientific journals, established in 1946, continues today. The Journals of Gerontology, Series B® publishes within its covers the Journal of Gerontology: Psychological Sciences and the Journal of Gerontology: Social Sciences.
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Real, old-fashioned mail can brighten even the gloomiest of days. The parcel that arrives is the size of a record album, the weight of a sturdy book. It’s traveled all the way from Mexico City to Lincoln Heights. It’s littered with cool rows of orange Día de Muertos stamps and numerous black postal seals, faded and smeared. The envelope is made of brown paper bag, its edges beaten and gnawed. It's obviously been "manhandled" on both sides of the border. The calendars inside, though, are remarkably unscathed.
This is Rotmi Enciso and Ina Riaskov’s 2014 calendar project, VIVAS, where women who love women and women who love words are featured in every month of the year. The cover of the calendar is a lucha-libre-masked mujer running in a blur. She's zooming by in a white nightie, hot pink fishnet stocking, a black and gold cape, matching botas and fingerless arm-length gloves. Me gusta. Run, Lucha Libre Mujer, Run!
I open up the calendar to February. A black and white profile of an older woman stares back. There is some kind of fierceness in her face. No Botox. No airbrush. No commercial standards of youth and beauty. Yet, she’s beautiful, her skin weathered and sculptured by time--the same way wind and sun carve out the face of the earth.
When I turn to March, I see that my friends in Mexico have gifted one of my poems a page, “Vuelo.” It’s a poem close to my heart, about my maternal grandmother, who many moons ago in Mexico is said to have lost her mind. “Perdió la razón” is how the story goes. I like to envision it as a wondrous flight instead of madness. Vuela, abuelita, vuela!
In August, cumulous clouds and a poem by tatiana de la tierra greet me, “Prisionera de tu perro.” My heart warms and I laugh aloud, remembering this querida amiga, bloguera, escritora. It’s a true story, the poem. tatiana once got dumped for a dog. She was indignant when it happened. “Can you fucking believe it? A dog! A cat maybe, pero un perro comemerida?” Her revenge was to write a poem-song (with a loud barking chorus) to the ex-lover. “You don’t seem too heartbroken,” I said to her once while she was practicing the poem with a yowling gusto. She barked, and then kept on singing. Gracias Ina and Rotmi. Your international parcel is greatly appreciated. Las mujeres en este calendario están VIVAS. Calendario de mujeres opportunity: I have two extra VIVAS calendars to share. It's bilingual queer word and mujer visual art to hang on a wall porque every day is a good day to celebrate International Women's Day. If you'd like a calendar, email me at [email protected] and I'll send the first two people who respond a cool parcel in the mail.
Although there has been much progress in many European countries regarding social acceptance of LGBT individuals in recent decades, much discrimination, social injustice, and intolerance still exists with adverse consequences for both physical and mental health in these populations.
Awareness of health disparities in specific populations, in particular based on ethnical background, gender, age, socioeconomic status, geography, and disability has increased during the past decades. And lately, public health policy and research have begun to address the issues of lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender (LGBT) populations, and many official public health agencies call for programs addressing the specific needs of LGBT individuals.
An increasing number of studies, although still limited, points to a higher prevalence of certain conditions among LGBT people that call for the attention of public health researchers and professionals. The most significant area of concern is the increased prevalence of mental health disorders. Recent studies show that LGBT youth are at greater risk for suicide attempts than non-LGBT youths and have higher prevalence of depression and anxiety diagnoses. Studies also show that transgender individuals are regularly stigmatized and discriminated against both in the health care sector and in the society as a whole.
Traditionally LGBT public health research has almost exclusively focused on sexually transmitted diseases. In particular, the start of the HIV/AIDS epidemic in the 1980s brought visibility to the LGBT population as a group with specific health needs. However, the public health consequences of discrimination of LGBT individuals have only recently been focus of greater attention.
The level of acceptance for minority sexual orientations differs greatly between countries. In the European Social Survey 2010, a question was used to assess level of acceptance of gay men and lesbians. The proportion of respondents that agreed to a statement that ‘Gay men and lesbians should be free to live their own life as they wish’ varied greatly between countries, from around 90% in the Netherlands, Sweden, and Norway to about one third of the respondents in Russia and Ukraine.
These results indicate that in many countries LGBT people still live in communities where a majority of the population supports discrimination and inequality for sexual minorities. In many countries, LGBT people are also subject to legal discrimination concerning basic civil rights, e.g. regarding recognition of same-sex unions.
But are these large differences in acceptance and legal discrimination influencing the health of LGBT individuals, and what needs to be done to overcome inequality in Europe’s health based on sexual orientation and gender identities? These questions are difficult to answer in the absence of sufficient data.
In a recent commentary in the European Journal of Public Health, we argue for greater awareness of these issues, and the need for more knowledge about the public health situation of LGBT populations through improved data quality and well-designed studies. Systematic data collection regarding sexual orientation and gender identity is required to better understand factors that can help us reduce and better understand disparities, as well as increase quality of health care provision for LGBT individuals. In addition to working towards greater acceptance to end discrimination and social injustice, greater efforts from public health researchers and policy makers are needed to reduce health disparities among LGBT populations.
Richard Bränström is a health psychologist and researcher. He is currently associate professor at the Karolinska Institute, Sweden, and he works with public health analyses at the Swedish National Institute of Public Health. His main research interest concern health inequalities, predictors of physical and mental health, and health related behaviors. He is the author of the commentary ‘All inclusive Public Health—what about LGBT populations?’, which is published in the European Journal of Public Health.
The European Journal of Public Health is a multidisciplinary journal in the field of public health, publishing contributions from social medicine, epidemiology, health services research, management, ethics and law, health economics, social sciences and environmental health.
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Image credit: Gay Pride. By chatursnil, via iStockphoto.
In the video below, I talk about Scars being challenged, why I wrote Scars, and the need for “dark” books – for Banned Book Week. I read banned and challenged books, and I hope you do, too!
Here are some of my favorite quotes about banning books and censorship:
“Books and ideas are the most effective weapons against intolerance and ignorance.”
- Lyndon Baines Johnson
“There are worse crimes than burning books. One of them is not reading them. ”
- Joseph Brodsky
“If all printers were determined not to print anything till they were sure it would offend nobody, there would be very little printed.”
- Benjamin Franklin
“Where they have burned books, they will end in burning human beings.”
- Heinrich Heine
“Think for yourselves and let others enjoy the privilege to do so, too.”
- Voltaire
Do you have a favorite quote about banned books or censorship? How about a favorite banned or challenged book? Let me know!
0 Comments on Cheryl Rainfield on SCARS being challenged, and the need for “dark” books – for Banned Book Week as of 10/2/2012 7:52:00 PM
Everyone did a brilliant job, and now you can see for yourself. I'm so pleased with everyone's work, the production crew, director, the actors were just brilliant ... they make me look good. Please feel free to leave any comments here, or at youtube. I'm sure the actors and crew especially would love to hear what you think of their work. If you have feedback about the script, come back and tell me. I'm always open to feedback, to doing better. Also, to hearing about YOUR work.
0 Comments on Video is up: Singer Clashes with Cougar as of 1/1/1900
Iceland’s Siguroardottir Becomes the First Openly Gay World Leader
On February 1, 2009, Johanna Siguroardottir made double history: she became the first woman to serve as Iceland’s prime minister and she became the first openly gay person to become leader of any nation.
Siguroardottir’s rise to the premiership resulted from several factors. She had a long career in politics and was the longest-serving member of the Iceland’s parliament, the Althing, having first been elected in 1978. She also had experience in government positions, serving four times as Minister of Social Affairs, overseeing Iceland’s social welfare programs. Siguroardottir was a member of Iceland’s middle class, working as both a flight attendant and an office worker before entering politics. Her understanding of the basic concerns of ordinary people appealed to many Icelanders.
The other factor contributing to her achievement was Iceland’s economic mess. The island nation’s banking industry collapsed in 2008 and 2009. That crisis brought down the conservative government of Prime Minister Geir H. Haarde and caused Icelanders to favor the leftist views of the socialist Siguroardottir.
Two years after taking office, her government seems to have stabilized Iceland’s economy. Inflation had been surging above 18 percent a year at the end of 2008, just before she took office. By 2011, it had fallen under 4 percent. The growth rate of the nation’s gross domestic product, which had been negative in 2009 and 2010, in the wake of the economic collapse, was expected to reach 2.5 percent in 2011. The banking sector has been overhauled.
Success was not complete, however. Icelandic voters rejected a government-backed plan to reimburse British and Dutch depositors in Icelandic banks for lost deposits. Voters also seem not to favor Siguroardottir’s desire to enter the European Union.
Siguroardottir did enjoy a great personal moment from her premiership. When Iceland’s new law that allowed gay marriage took effect in June 2010, she married her longtime partner Jonina Leosdottir, a writer.
“This Day in World History” is brought to you by USA Higher Education.
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28 years ago today I began my longest relationship. We were together almost 19 years, meaning we broke up in June of 2002. We stayed together about 17 years too long for our mental health. But we are still friends, still bound together in deep ways. We were friends for 3 years before we became lovers, and we would have married had marriage been allowed between two women. And now we would be divorced. Divorced friends. We share the same values, same politics, same ideals. We kept house alike, both love animals, enjoy the same movies. And we make each other laugh. We had many good times, unfortunately they were outweighed by the anger. We never cheated on each other. There was no alcohol, or drugs. No physical abuse. Well, almost, a couple of times, but we got that in check. But there was emotional abuse and plenty of it. So we saw couple counselors for years. We learned all the communication devices. We tried living apart. For years. And finally I called an end to trying. After a couple of years I tried with someone else for a few months -- and got my heart broken. I don't want to try again. I think I'm too old. Or maybe I tried too long and too hard for too many years. So today, I'm going to celebrate the anniversary of the day I embarked on a great adventure of love. It was a rocky road, and it didn't last as a marriage, but the friendship endured. That in itself is worth celebrating. Cheers!
0 Comments on Anniversary of an Adventure in Love as of 1/1/1900
I am busy lining up a director for my New York reading of Blue Roses at the Dramatists Guild Friday Night Lights series on October 28, 2011 at 6pm. Stop by if you are in Manhattan that evening. The play runs between 60-75 minutes. You can still make your 8pm show. I will have finished a first draft of the sequel to Blue Roses by then, which I can pitch at will to anyone who shows interest, and maybe to strangers who will listen, just for practice. (Pitching your story is critical if you're a writer who wants to get produced.) On the poetry front: I received a late night email from Binge Press and Productions. They want to publish my mini-chapbook "Invert Sugar" of lesbian poems. I'm quite happy about it. They produce these minis, not to make money, but to promote poets. I'll receive 50, fifty!, of these little charmers, plus 100 broadsides of one of the poems from the book to promote myself, and they will sell as many as they can at places like the AWP, book fairs and readings. Serendipity much? I'll be giving away books and broadsides at my reading, won't I? And handing out business cards, of course. Speaking of which, my new cards sport ALL my social network info: google+, Twitter, blogspot, Facebook, website, email and cell. What do you include on your card?
2 Comments on Blue Roses news and Poetry news. NEWS in other words., last added: 8/4/2011
“Growth of Overt homosexuality in City Provokes Wide Concern”
-New York Times (headline in 1963)
The world recoiled when the gay community started receiving credit for its influence in fashion and culture, but at least, according to Christopher Reed, they were being acknowledged. In his new book Art and Homosexuality: A History of Ideas, Reed argues that for some time the professional art world plain ignored the gay presence.
We had the chance to speak with Reed recently at his Williams Club talk, where he laid out the tumultuous relationship between art and activism. Below we present a few of the controversial things we learned.
1.) Art that didn’t get a chance…
During the most formative years of the gay rights movement in the 70s and on through the late 80s, arts publications and professionals, and even museums like the Museum of Modern Art, ignored imagery associated with gay and lesbian identity. Imagery like the graffiti pictured below which emerged in urban areas during the 70s:
Grafitti on “The Rocks,” Lincoln Park, Chicago, mid-1990s.
According to Reed, “These sites of visual history were destroyed with no organized documentation when rising property values prompted local governments to reclaim these areas.”
2.) Censorship…
Is right for people to ban art today? Even if it’s in the imaginary town of Pawnee, Indiana? Reed surprised us with his answer, making us consider that there’s actually a worse kind of censorship. Listen below to hear what he said.
Transcript:
Censorship is an interesting question because there are overt examples of censorship like what just happened with the Hide/Seek show and the David Wojnarowicz piece, where particular politicians make a statement to their constituency by removing something that’s on exhibition. And then the kind of thing that you’re talking about where institutions simply don’t show things or don’t buy things – in the case of libraries – or don’t do things or don’t let particular people in, which often doesn’t read as censorship because people never realize what they could be seeing or could be reading, or could be going on, because the institution has already created a kind of logic in which that kind of thing doesn’t exist.
And so in a lot of ways I actually think that’s the most dangerous kind of censorship because people aren’t aware of it and they can’t make a
Someone, after watching my It Gets Better video, asked me if it was okay to use the word queer. I appreciated the question. I know it’s not always easy to know what is “right” or politically okay–AND it also varies from person to person, depending, of course, on their experiences, their backgrounds, their ways of thinking.
I self-identify as a lesbian woman, as queer, as a dyke. I’ve preferred “lesbian” for a lot of years. I am lesbian. I don’t identify as “gay” because to me that means a gay man–and I feel like, as so often happens in our society, women are left out of the picture. It took me many years, but I finally reclaimed the word “dyke”, and, years after that, “queer.” I think of it as reclaiming–loving and embracing words that other people have used to hurt me (and others). Knowing that if, to me, they simply mean I’m a woman who loves women (or one woman) then it doesn’t have the same power to hurt me, and can be healing. They feel like positive words to me now–and I’m glad of that.
That’s my personal take on it. It will vary among others.
What’s your take on it?
P.S. Thank you so much everyone who’s been sharing my It Gets Better video! It’s very important to me, and I really appreciate your helping to spread the word!
3 Comments on Is it okay to say “queer”? My opinion on it., last added: 10/27/2010
I appreciated you using queer in your video and inferred it was inclusive of other ways of naming yourself. I don’t know what teens use now.
I notice my language changes with audience. In mixed company with not very political straight friends I’ll say “as a gay woman I think…” when responding to what they ask re. DADT or marriage whositswhatchamacallit pundit people. With hipster (not that I’m that, lol) LGBT friends and radical allies I’ll use queer because I am mindful to be inclusive of gender queer and trans friends. When talking with older lesbian mentors 50+ I’ll only use lesbian in reference to reading or others. When checking a box I’m lesbian but feel funny saying that word to say this is what I am because for some reason it tangles and connects to coming out re. race, too. So I could say I’m biracial and also black but some would challenge that but no one could challenge my queerness. I fit because I say I do and we all cocreate queer culture without third party narrative. I use dyke only very rarely in relation to style and self conciously because of historical use.
Soo maybe that is way too long and confusing answer, but thanks for posing question. I’m not in queer community right now and it was nice to think about when/how we name.
Cheryl Rainfield said, on 10/24/2010 6:39:00 PM
Martine, thanks so much for your thoughtful answer! I liked reading what you had to say. I don’t use dyke very much myself, either–but I actually like it in the Dyke March (separate march from Gay Pride Day), and sometimes as a strong word.
Reading over what you said, I think I sometimes, too, change what I call myself according to the audience. I also feel that more hip, aware people are open to/understand/like “queer”. And I like what you said about it including gender queer and trans friends. I like lesbian a lot, too.
And–that sucks that anyone would question black! I think how we self-identify is important and should be respected (unless we’re putting ourselves down….)
Sarah Parks said, on 10/27/2010 11:31:00 AM
Great question to put out there!
It’s up to the individual to self identify with whichever word they want. For example I usually go with “bent” or “gay”.
Never cared for “lesbian” and I dislike the word “queer” though respect those that use it and will use it from time to time in regards to the community as a whole. Straight people shouldn’t use the word “queer”- the word is reserved for those of us in the community. I prefer it is they used “LGBT” or “gay”.
Yup I agree- how we self identify is important and should be respected…. and I love your little aside “unless we are putting ourselves down”.. I laughed as my LGBT friends and I can use some non PC words to describe ourselves and the community from time to time. All in good fun and because we all speak the same language!
You’ve probably seen or heard about the It Gets Better Campaign in response to all the recent gay suicides resulting from homophobic bullying? I hope you have, any way.
I know what it’s like to be bullied, abused, and hated–and to want to kill myself. But I am so grateful I didn’t. There is so much good in my life now!
I hope you’ll consider watching and/or sharing my It Gets Better video for queer youth, anyone who’s been bullied, harassed, or abused and is thinking of suicide.
3 Comments on Cheryl Rainfield’s It Gets Better video for queer youth & anyone thinking of suicide, last added: 10/25/2010
Tricia (Miss Rumphius) said, on 10/22/2010 4:33:00 PM
Thank you for sharing this heartfelt message. It is inspiring and so important. If it helps just one teen who is questioning the value of his or her life, it’s worth it.
Cheryl Rainfield said, on 10/23/2010 4:29:00 AM
Thank you so much, Tricia! (hugging you) I really appreciate hearing that. I hope it does reach people who need it.
Ten Honest Things: Blog Links | Erin Thomas said, on 10/25/2010 11:08:00 AM
[...] plain honest sharing that she offers, you’re missing out. For example, she recently posted this video as a response to the It Gets Better campaign, aimed at offering support to gay and lesbian youth [...]
3 gay teens committed suicide in the past year at the same school–Anoka-Hennepin School District–because of homophobic bullying and harassment. I can’t believe teachers!–and students–think that’s okay.
Please, sign the petition to ask for change and a safe school atmosphere for all students.
0 Comments on 3 gay teens committed suicide at same school because of homophobia. Sign petition as of 1/1/1900
School Library Journal has the story that the 2010 Lammy Award Finalists have been announced. The Lambda Literary Award is given to books that show excellence in the field of gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender literature. The nominees for children’s and teen literature are:
Martha C. Nussbaum is the Ernst Freund Distinguished Service Professor of Law and Ethics at the University of Chicago, and is appointed in the Law School, Philosophy Department, and Divinity School. She is the founder and coordinator of the Center for Comparative Constitutionalism. Her book, From Disgust to Humanity: Sexual Orientation & Constitutional Law argues that disgust has been among the fundamental motivations of those who are fighting for a variety of legal restrictions affecting lesbian and gay citizens. In the excerpt below Nussbaum uses religious history as a metaphor to inspire us to treat all citizens as equals regardless of sexual orientation.
Many of the first American colonists came to the New World in search of religious freedom. Dissenters of many types from the Anglican orthodoxy of Britain…they sought both the freedom to express their beliefs without penalty and the freedom to practice their chosen forms of worship. Often, they failed to connect their search to politics of respect and toleration inclusive of those who disagreed with them…
Gradually, however, the very experience of living – often in taxing physical conditions – with people whose religious convictions differed from their own led many colonists to the realization that a good common life, and perhaps survival itself, required protecting religious liberty for all, and doing so with an even hand. Such policies had practical sources: people needed one another’s help if they were going to flourish in the new land…They began to notice that it was possible to live together on the basis of a moral consensus about values such as fairness, honesty, and impartiality, without necessarily agreeing on theological principles…
The trend in favor of religious liberty emerged, then, from the very experience of living together. It also had a theoretical foundation, in the idea of conscience that many if not most of the new settlers brought with them…According to this view, all human beings have a capacity for searching for life’s ultimate significance and moral basis – for the meaning of life, we might say. This capacity is a key part of what constitutes our dignity as human beings. Conscience is present in all human beings, regardless of their beliefs, and it is present equally…
The early settlers were very far from having a view that many if not most Americans now have – namely, that many, or even all, religions are legitimate paths to salvation. Virtually none of the early colonists accepted such a view. They all though that many of their fellow citizens were damned…We should not delude ourselves into thinking, then, that the policies of religious respect and fairness that gradually came to dominate in the colonies, shaping our Constitution, were inspired by respect for differing religious beliefs and practices. Rather, they were inspired by a more basic underlying idea of respect for persons, for our fellow citizens as bearers of human dignity and conscience…Because human beings are of equal worth, conscience is deserving of equal respect.
…The American tradition…argues that respecting conscience involves granting ample liberty to each person to pursue his or her own way in matters of conscience. Roger Williams used two illuminating metaphors. Conscience, he said, must not be imprisoned – meaning that people must be given plenty of space to practice their religions, including acts of worship that
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oooh, delicious! I heard the play read aloud last night by a table full of actors, playwrights, the director and other readers. Tomboy, Corker, Black Walnuts, Uppity, Billy, they all jumped to life right there in the director's dining room. Scary, funny, and exciting all at once. I will tweak the script a bit over the next 10 days before the next rehearsal so the cast will have a clean script going into the days before performance of the staged reading. I hope we have a standing room only audience and just pack that mezzanine full of folks ready and waiting for this sassy young butch lesbian taking over her crime family as well as the stages of first Portland and then -- who knows?
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A joyous look at a family with two mothers and children of all different colors, this book is filled with laughter and love. Children who live in all sorts of families will find themselves at home here as we learn about favorite sun-filled rooms, the surprise of puppies, building a treehouse, and a colorful blockparty. The book basks in normalcy, family and everyday moments that mean so much to children. There is a moment when a neighbor expresses her fear about their lifestyle, but that incident too is handled with a gentleness and grace that marks this entire picture book. As the children grow into adulthood, we get to see the wonderful job of parenting come to fruition. Most picture books would not need this button at the end, but in this case, it was important to underline this.
Polacco has created a complete vision of a family here. Readers get to see them be together for important events and everyday moments. Her writing invites us into their lives, demonstrates their love for each other and their children, and leaves us hoping that we as parents can do this well. Children of gay and lesbian parents will find this book a wonderful mirror of their lives, celebrating what two parents of any sex can create in a family. Polacco’s art enhances the story, underlining the warmth and love that is inherent in the book.
An important book to have in public libraries, this is a real celebration of families and the many forms they come in. Appropriate for ages 5-9.
Mayra Lazara Dole’s first young adult novel, Down to the Bone, was published earlier this month by HarperTeen. It’s a surprisingly funny story about what happens after a 16-year-old Cuban-American girl is publicly outed and ostracized by most of her family and friends. Mayra has a unique ability to make us laugh through tragic circumstances, without making light of them, and she is definitely a rising star in the field of young adult literature. She was born in Cuba and now lives in Miami with her partner, Damarys.
What inspired you to write Down to the Bone?
My inspiration came from my teen experiences and also from a deeply rooted love for my Cuban heritage/culture and a desire for Miami Cuban homophobia to be exposed so it can be discussed openly. After being chemically injured by pesticides which destroyed my immune system at the time, I felt an overwhelming need to leave behind a book that inspired and moved others to promote free thinking, love and tolerance, and that would motivate straight, gays, monkeys, whatever… to stomp on hate.
Are there parts of the book that are autobiographical?
Yes. At fourteen, my first love and I were thrown out of high school due to a muy caliente love letter she sent me detailing our first time making love (too juicy to recount!). Much like Laura, I had a boyfriend but my heart beat passionately only for my one special girl. As a teen, I was a mix of Laura and Soli’s personality (I didn’t sleep around like Soli, though). The rest is realistic fiction motivated by emotions ranging from deep loss to extreme joy.
There are a lot of painful and tragic events that happen in your book. How did you manage to make your book so damned funny?
I haven’t a royal clue! Cubans are a fun, gregarious lot. We could be chopped into pieces after a tragic accident, eyeless, toothless, and pushing in our bleeding liver and we’d manage a final whisper, “Don’t worry. I’m fine. I’ve always wanted reconstruction organ surgery.” In my early teens, my closest friends were drag queens and gay guys. I’m still close with one of my first drag queen friends. We destroy each other via email with outrageous comedy skits that nearly burst our spleens. I do have a pensive, deep side which Laura also shares. It’s about being both extremes and workin’ it ’cause if you don’t, you’d die of the pain…
I was intrigued by the trans character Tazer, and was secretly hoping that Laura would get together with him. Can you tell us a little more about him?
In my first draft, Laura had fallen for Tazer but as I revised, Laura Rumba’d me into another direction: Miami Cuban lesbos’ true life experiences (they’d be terrified to be seen with a girl who looks like a boy, thus why most lesbos here look femme even if they’re butch under the sheets). In other words, in writing Down to the Bone, I stayed true to my culture. On the other hand, if Laura had been an adult, she’d have probably gone for Tazer, the handsome, sensitive, intelligent playwright. Wouldn’t everyone?
I know I would! Another colorful character was Viva, the mother of Laura’s best friend who took her in. I hope every queer kid has an adult like Viva in their lives. Can you tell us a little bit about where her character came from?
Viva’s loving heart was created from the love gifted to me by my now deceased paternal aunt, Nina. Nina raised my brother and me after my father died and my mother took on three factory jobs. Unfortunately, I was too terrified to come out to her and wish I would have. Once, out of nowhere, she said to me, “No matter what, I’ll always love you.” Down to the Bone is truly a tribute to her unconditional love. Viva’s quirky personality was inspired by Beba, my funny/wacky/metaphysical mother-in-law. Earlier today, Beba left us 12 consecutive messages on our phone machine of Walter Mercado’s entire astrological forecast for each sign (he’s an infamous sort of drag queen and celebrity astrologer Cubans adore). She then left her own voice message, scolding me in Spanish, “You’ve never had a cavity yet, so don’t forget to cut your fingernails on Fridays or you’ll start getting them!” She ended the message in her beautiful, broken English. “Me is gonna go to Miami Bitch’s (Beach’s) gay club wiss your book on Saturday night to sell to la familia.” (familia, in Cuban gay circle means, “gays”) I’m not exaggerating–I know I exaggerate for fun, but this is real.
Did you have any difficulty finding a publisher for the book?
At first, yes. I wrote Act Natural!–now Down to the Bone–in Cuban Spanglish and received a barrel of rejections! I quickly deleted the Spanglish, changed the title, and rewrote the novel on fire, with intense vigor and a new set of vibrant characters. Every moment alive counted and I zoomed through the writing while my health allowed, my fingers and brain worked, and with an oxygen tank by my side. Unlike many editors I encounter/ed, I lucked-out that mine wholeheartedly understands Latina/o culture (she speaks Spanish and is married to a Colombiano) or Down to the Bone would still be homeless.
Your bio on the Harper web site says you have worked as a drummer, dancer, landscape designer, Cuban chef, hairdresser, and library assistant. Which of these was your favorite job?
Hairstylist and landscape designer (like Soli and Laura). Creating “art” while having a blast, truly satisfies me deep, deep, down to the… to the what? To the marrow!
How old were you when you realized you were a lesbian?
I was fourteen, 100 percent heterosexual–what a disgrace!–and crazy about boys when a close girlfriend first kissed me (I still remember where we were standing, her rose talcum powder scent, and how I melted). It was so delicious, that I swear, I saw birds flying, heard elephants stampeding, and couldn’t see straight for years thereafter! Our relationship grew in depth until the infamous love letter. I had kissed with a boy I’d had a huge crush on but nothing compared to the one with my first love. Due to having been expelled from school, not ever being allowed to see each other again, the ostracism etc., I became terrified to come out, thus I went back into the closet. I was still physically attracted to guys, but I only longed for my first love. I had a good relationship with an Argentino for a year. Physically, I liked him, but emotionally? Nothing. Niente. Nada. I longed to fall in love with him to no avail. Finally, we ended it.
How do gays, lesbians, and trannies in the Miami Cuban community survive the homophobia?
Most Latinas/os are closeted due to extreme homophobia. Your “married-with-kids” Latina friend just might have a secret female life-partner on the side and her lover is dating a man for pretense. Miami is much looser now. Lots of teens are bisexual and don’t give a flying fricassee what others think. But traditional, religious Cuban-American teens attending Catholic and Christian schools (very high percentage) are still closeted and doomed to live a lie. Older lesbians tend to be closeted and married to men or end up living a celibate, lonely life. Survival for most Latina lesbians everywhere depends upon lying and never coming out.
When did you officially come out?
When I couldn’t take the homophobia in Miami, I split to Boston for nine years. Most of my haircutting clients called themselves, “Lesbian”–yes, the lesbos followed me everywhere!–and I couldn’t relate. I hated the word. Looking back, I realize that “Lesbian” reminded me of “Tortillera” a word that made me feel severely unsafe and disgusted. I shunned those words until recently. In Down to the Bone, Tortillera is used as both derogatory and powerful and ends in a word of empowerment. Miami Cuban lesbians will take issue. One friend exclaimed that Tortillera is, “So disgusting!” She yelled at me. “How could you use it?! No one will be caught dead reading your book! You’re crazy! People are going to think Cuban women are grotesque!” Insulted? I think so. But hey, she’ll get over it if she reads my novel, or she can just write her own! Writing Down to the Bone helped me come to terms with the fact that it’s important to come out when one feels safe in order to fight for your birthright to be who you really are. So finally, I’m an “out” er… l… l… See? Although I’m “out and proud” I still have trouble stating that word when it pertains to moi. Ok! Faked you out! I’m a total Tortillera!
If you’re a Latina reading this and cringing, just try using the word for fun. Call up your friend, “Hey Tort, what’s up?” They’ll laugh and it’ll catch on. The more you use it, the less the word will ever hurt us.
The book is dedicated, in part, to your mother. Has she read it yet?
If my mom reads Down to the Bone she’ll instantly die of a patatú! She speaks zero English, has never read a book in her life, and doesn’t have a computer (don’t get me wrong. Mami is brilliant, just not traditionally educated). I dedicated my novel partly to Mami not only because she’s ill now, and I adore her, but because she’s grown tremendously. She now accepts Damarys and me as a couple. This, of course, is beyond miraculous!
I know the book hasn’t been out long, but have you heard anything from teen readers yet?
Yes! I’ve gotten notes stating how much they love my novel, relate to Laura, and want a friend like Soli. Some quote their favorite scenes which melts my heart. Many express having cried and laughed their heads off. Some proclaim my story is also their own. Just yesterday, surprisingly, a Miami Cuban lesbian in her thirties stated that as a teen, she’d been through “most everything Laura went through emotionally.” My book moved her deeply. I can’t even express how much these responses mean to me. A great surprise is that straight teens and adult LGBTQ’s also love my book. Gay guys go nuts, but mostly, it touches lesbians of all colors, classes, and ages, in ways I dreamed it would.
What are you working on next?
I have many projects going on at once, but the one that’s just finished is a tranny story set in Miami with an all “out” Latina/o cast of LGBTQ characters.
I can’t wait for your next book to come out. When can we expect it?
Thanks KT. That means a lot to me. I’ve finished my next YA novel and would love for editors to be knocking on my door, but that will only happen if Down to the Bone is a success story and it’s too soon to know. I need to work harder than all authors put together at book promotion due to my being a Latina lesbo who lives in a “bubble.” Please, root for me. Ask your libraries to order and carry my book. I’m keeping my fingers crossed!
Speaking of that bubble, if you don’t mind me asking about your health, are you okay now?
I’m trying hard to get better. Thanks for asking. I still must live sealed in a specially made room, but this past month I was able to go outdoors a few times using precaution. My immune system can no longer handle even the most benign chemicals until I get stronger. I was able to pick tiny flowers and made my first bouquet in 4 ½ years. It was a miracle neighbors weren’t spraying pesticides in their lawns and the builders next door weren’t working (they use all toxic chemicals that come my way due to wind direction). I just became a columnist for a Latino gay magazine, Ambiente, where I explain my plight in an empowering column titled, “The ‘N’ Word.” Don’t miss it. Leave me an email if you wish. I’d love to hear from everyone.
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Apparently you have to go all the way to Spain to find good board books about kids living up in gay or lesbian families. There is much to admire in Lucía Moreno Velo’s appealing series of three square-shaped board books about Manu, a toddler with two moms. The bilingual text in each volume deals with every-day things in the life of a small child: bedtime, helping out with family routines. and being told no.
When Manu tries to help set the table, for example, he manages to carry the table cloth for one of his moms with no problem, but is less successful with the basket of dinner rolls, which he drops en route, causing him to cry. The story concludes with hugs and reassuring words from his two moms.
In tone, the books remind me of Barbro Lindgren’s wonderful Sam series from several years ago. Like Sam, Manu behaves like a typical two year old, determined to do things in his own way.
The spare and spirited illustrations show Manu as a large-eyed toddler. His two moms are distinct enough from each other that even small children will be able to tell them apart.
As an added bonus, the text appears in both Spanish and English. The English translation is not literal, but it aptly captures the way in which Manu and his moms interact with each other.
The books can be easily purchased directly from the publisher, Topka (I did, and they arrived in about a week). Whether you’re building a library collection or a personal one, you’ll want to have them. They’re sure to become favorite baby gifts for lesbian moms.
Taken from his adult biography of Harper Lee, Mockingbird, published in 2006, Charles J. Shields’ work is edited for young readers. As with the adult version, his focus is on her early life, the only book she ever published, and on her lifelong friendship with Truman Capote.
Harper Lee (known as Nelle to her family, friends and Mr. Shields) is famously reclusive. That that she has never married and has always maintained a fairly butch persona, have led to speculations about her sexuality. But someone as private as Harper Lee is unlikely ever to talk about this aspect of her life when she won’t even talk about why she’s never published another book.
Contrast this with her friend Truman, the inspiration for Dill in To Kill a Mockingbird, who as an adult was always flamboyantly and unapologetically open about being gay, even in a time when most gay men and lesbians were closeted.
Both Harper Lee and Truman Capote realized as children that there was something different about them that gave them a special bond. Young Truman even made up a word for it: apart people.
Although no overt mention is made of the sexual orientation or gender identity of either one, Shields’ frequent descriptions of Lee’s masculinity and Capote’s effeminate characteristics may cause young readers to wonder. Concerning Lee, it seems to be the only thing people in her hometown of Monroeville, Alabama, recall about her, or at least the only recollection Shields finds worth reporting. Here’s a small sampling of how she is described:
p. 1: Nelle had a reputation as a fearsome stomach-puncher, foot-stomper, and hair-puller who “could talk mean like a boy.”
p. 2: She was a “sawed-off but solid tomboy with an all-hell-let-loose wrestling technique,” wrote Truman of a short story character he later based on Nelle.
p. 2: Her eldest sister, Alice, 15 years older, later admitted that her little sister, the youngest of four children, “isn’t much of a conformist.”
p. 3: It was true she was tough and independent. She preferred wearing a scruffy pair of overalls to a dress and hanging upside down from the chinaberry tree in her yard to sitting quietly in church.
p. 19: So if Nelle — the tomboy, the roughhouser — resisted the normal expectations for her gender, perhaps it was because they seemed too limiting. “She was just like a boy!” enthused Taylor Faircloth, a resident of Atmore, Alabama, where Nelle spent summers. “She got rid of all her surplus hair in the summer time, and she could climb tall trees. When we played ‘capture the flag’ at night, she held on longer than anybody!”
p. 22: “Whatever his imaginative gifts, however, at first glance Truman hardly seemed the ideal candidate for friendship with a girl like Nelle. She was a female Huck Finn, with large dark brown eyes and close-cropped hair. Whereas he — as surely as every kids at Monroe County Elementary knew that night followed day — was a sissy, a crybaby, a mama’s boy, and so on.”
And so on, indeed. These sorts of descriptions of Lee and Capote continue throughout the first two chapters that describe their childhood in Monroeville. Even in her college years, Harper Lee was remembered mostly for her unconventional masculine attributes:
p. 53: And to many of the girls in Massey Hall, Nelle’s appearance was the last straw. She did not wear an ounce of makeup, only brushed her hair instead of curling it, and evinced no interest in indulging in any kind of beauty regimen.
p. 54: “I didn’t have anything in common with her because she was not like most of us,” said Catherine [a college classmate]. “She wasn’t worried about how her hair looked or whether she had a date on Friday night like the rest of us were. I don’t remember her sitting around and giggling and being silly and talking about what our weddings were going to be like — that’s what teenage girls talked about. She was not a part of the ‘girl group.’ She never had what we call in the South ‘finishing touches.’”
p. 54: “I noticed her physically,” said Mary Benson Tomlinson, another freshman. “She had a presence. I remember her better than I do anyone else at Huntington, except my roommate and maybe one or two other people. Everything about her hinted at masculinity. I think the word ‘handsome’ would have suited her.”
p. 63: On Friday and Saturday nights, when the other Chi O girls were bustling around, trying to be ready for dates or dances, Nelle never had any plans. No one recalled seeing her with a boyfriend. Practically every weekend, she tromped through the living room, golf clubs slung over her shoulder, heading out for a few rounds. The way she dressed for the golf course, just jeans and a sweatshirt, raised a few eyebrows. “That wasn’t the way we dressed,” said Jane Benton David. The pronouncement on Nelle’s outerwear was that it was “very different.”
“I am ashamed to admit that we made fun of her,” said Barbara Moore, a member of Phi Mu soroity. “Never around her, but behind her back.”
Okay, my gaydar is registering off the charts reading about what Harper Lee was like in college. Such descriptions are bound to lead to speculation but it can never be more than that. It strikes me as odd, however, that the author places such an emphasis on Lee’s boyish/mannish characteristics without ever uttering the L-word or, for that matter, when it comes to Truman Capote, the G-word. Instead, the author would have us believe that they were both somehow damaged psychologically because of their distant, uncaring mothers.
What year is this again?
To me, that’s a far more malicious speculation in a book for teens than one about sexuality would be.
Take a look at these two as young adults and see if they look like family to you. The photo of Harper Lee appeared on the book jacket of the first edition of To Kill a Mockingbird. It was taken by the person who probably knew her best, Truman Capote.
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Mark speaks with Heather Jopling, author of Ryan’s Mom is Tall and founder of Nickname Press, about the challenges of bypassing the traditional publishing industry to introduce ideas of inclusion to the next generation.
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coordinator of the 
Mayra Lazara Dole’s first young adult novel, Down to the Bone, was published earlier this month by HarperTeen. It’s a surprisingly funny story about what happens after a 16-year-old Cuban-American girl is publicly outed and ostracized by most of her family and friends. Mayra has a unique ability to make us laugh through tragic circumstances, without making light of them, and she is definitely a rising star in the field of young adult literature. She was born in Cuba and now lives in Miami with her partner, Damarys.
When Manu tries to help set the table, for example, he manages to carry the table cloth for one of his moms with no problem, but is less successful with the basket of dinner rolls, which he drops en route, causing him to cry. The story concludes with hugs and reassuring words from his two moms.
Shields, Charles J. 
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Mark speaks with Heather Jopling, author of
I had my cards made 'afore Google+ so I have my FB Writer page, my web site and email...
Congratulations on the publishing news and I hope everything else goes swimmingly for you.
mark
Thanks, Mark. I appreciate the good wishes. I hope Google+ lasts as long as my new cards!