At the Task Force we insist that systemic racism is an LGBT issue – as is immigration, housing, health care, fair wages, Social Security and sexism. That’s why our work every day of the year reflects our deep and central commitment to racial justice.
As Black History Month comes to a close, we’re reminded of the determination and tirelessness with which those who have come before us have worked to create a more just and equal society. The Civil Rights Movement and all of the anti-racist organizing that has come after have created frameworks through which LGBT people and their families have organized to demand our rights.
New York Times, El Pais, The Economist, Alternatives économiques, Jeune Afrique… Every year, ILGA’s maps on Gay and Lesbian rights and the State-Sponsored Homophobia report are getting more and more visibility in the media or in institutions such as the OSCE and the United Nations. Numerous local organizations also use this material for their local advocacy.
This year again ILGA will be launching its report and maps in 4 languages. As in previous years, African, Asian and Latin American maps will be produced along with the world map in partnership with ILGA-Asia, ILGA-Asia and Pan Africa ILGA.
2/ Notify us of legal changes that have occurred since March 2011. The authors of the State Sponsored Homophobia will use your contributions to complete their work. Send information at information@ilga.org by March 31 2012.
Harvard group seeks degrees for gay students expelled in 1920, plans rally for Lady Gaga visit
By Associated Press, Published: February 28
BOSTON — Students and faculty at Harvard University are calling on the school to award posthumous degrees to seven students expelled nearly a century ago for being gay or perceived as gay, and they’re timing a rally for their cause to coincide with a visit by Lady Gaga.
But Harvard says it doesn’t award posthumous degrees, except in rare cases where students complete academic requirements but die before degrees have been conferred.
I think that my biggest fears in life pool around the prospect of failure. As a small girl, I was constantly terrified of getting in trouble. My parents believed in giving spankings. I can’t say that I don’t agree with that either, but, looking back, it wasn’t the prospect of “getting beat” that put the fear of God in me; rather, I was a goody-two-shoes because I didn’t like messing up. This helped because I grew up in the Adventist church. Rules were part of our everyday life; they embedded themselves in our lingo, the way we played, the way we worked, and so on.
As a teenager, it was frustrating to be pent up in my religion; however, as a rule follower, Adventism afforded me the luxury of seeing the world in black and white with no gray in between. I have to give it to them though – as a distinguished religious group, Adventists have managed to carve out an understanding of the Bible that allows life and all of its many intricate problems to be ironed away into yes or no answers. Religion as logic or a mathematical approach to life is safe. Given this set of rules, I never had to really think for myself.
Looking back, I realize that is probably why it was so hard for me to come out. My “homosexual” factor—the gay lesbian queer me—didn’t fit into the finely tuned, well working, mathematical understanding of life. If the Adventist church were a chocolate cake, I was the single ingredient that would never fit in with the flavors of the decadent dessert. I could have been an onion or garlic clove and the remaining question would have been—how to fit in the queer? And the answer would always be simply—you don’t.
A few months ago, I had coffee with a mentor, Reverend Beverly Dale. Our discussion about Jesus turned into an examination of the risks I was willing to take for my project, The IDentity Kit. She said that I was standing in the way of its success. Symbolically, we had envisioned my hesitancy to move forward with the project as a child standing on a landing, holding onto a railing. I was the child; the railing was my fundamentalist understanding of God and religion. Rev Bev asked, “What happens if you let go of the railing?”
“Rev Bev” had been pushing all of my spiritual buttons. In a previous discussion, she had asked me to approach God as if she were a woman. That suggestion alone blew my mind. It also made me even more afraid of the rule bending mayhem that was on the other side of that railing. I couldn’t imagine letting go of my mathematical approach to life, and so, over my coffee, I avoided eye contact with her. Tears pooled in my eyes as she pushed again, “What happens if you don’t need the railing to stand at all?”
It really did take me a while to work my way through that. I found that the Bible wasn’t full of comfortable moral endings like the ones I saw on TV. Instead, the Bible was one fascinating, fabulous scandal after another. This new view of the Bible meant that its ancient characters were every bit as passionate, confused and real as I am today. What’s beautiful is that God had a way of offering grace to each of their situations, and, contrary to the Adventist belief, his grace has just enough reach to cover my humanity too—my orientation, my gender identity, my me. With God at the center of my life instead of religion, I no longer believe in failure – only in progress.
I see now that the right way to live life is not one-dimensional or black and white. It’s not even muddied in shades of gray. I know it sounds cliché given that queer culture marches under the rainbow flag, but life is what it is—a spectrum, a multitude of colors, ideas, orientations, gender identities, and faith traditions.
That’s what this Ride is for me. I have broken through the crust of my childhood religion and I’m going to tell the whole world what it’s like to see the Bible in full color. My mission is to spread this light, this spectrum of colors. Adventism introduced me to the Bible and I’m excited to share with them what else I’ve learned. The Bible does include me, and, in including me, it also allows for all of us to enjoy a slice of equality.
About the Blogger:
Crystal Cheatham is a local Philadelphia singer/songwriter. Also look for her written work on gender identity and faith principles at www.YourIDK.com
The documentary film “Corpus Christi Playing with Redemption” explores one of the central issues facing the LGBT community- religion based bias- as anti-gay religious groups meet “the gay Jesus play.”
The producers of Corpus Christi…Nick Arnzen and James Brandon (plays Jesus) have joined with The Church of Uncommon Hope (Rev. Joshua Love, Senior Pastor) and Soulforce to support the Hit the Road campaign for the 2012 Ride. The play and documentary film at the Castro Theatre and other Bay Area locations will run on the weekend that the Ride makes its final stop in San Francisco. (Visit the Official Website
Rev. Dr. Cindi Love, Executive Director of Soulforce, appears in the documentary and will be at the performances in San Francisco to answer questions about the path of non- violent resistance to oppression of LGBTQ people by the Church. She says, “Soulforce & the Equality Ride and our friends and allies with 108Productions and Corpus Christi:Playing with Redemption have a common bond of love and understanding that sustains us in our work. We have been blessed to know the real story of Christ’s redemptive suffering as Ghandi and Martin Luther King, Jr. Came to know that story—we are free only if all are free and no institution can take that freedom away from us.”
Children whose activity choices, interests and pretend play don’t conform to expected gender roles face an increased risk of abuse and future trauma, a new study finds.
The increased risk for non-conforming kids vs. conforming kids was similar in both sexes for physical and psychological abuse.
One in 10 kids display gender non-conformity before age 11 and, on average, are more likely to experience physical, psychological and sexual abuse and experience post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) by early adulthood, says the study of nearly 9,000 young adults published online Monday in Pediatrics.
We encourage productive dialogue which we believe to be a path to healing & reconciliation. We also intend to cultivate a safe space for LGBTQ people, as well as women, people of color, non-Americans, and all other groups & individuals experiencing oppression.
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