Hey, firecrackers! Let’s take a look at the stories we missed this week while my friends and family trolled my Facebook.
Are You Ready
Is NASCAR ready for a gay driver? Does anyone care?
ready for what
All Around the World, Gay Rights Crumble Just In Time For Me To Write About Them
Organisers say they are pleased with the turnout on Friday as more than 1,000 people took to the streets here to protest homosexuality and a proposal to legalize gay marriage in Haiti. The protesters carried anti-gay placards and chanted songs in which they threatened to burn down parliament if its members make same-sex marriage legal. A Haitian gay rights group has said it plans to submit a proposal allowing homosexuals to wed, but a coalition of religious groups said it opposed recent laws in other countries supporting gay marriage.
According to sources in Haiti, within the protest against marriage between persons of the same sex, individuals armed with knives (sticks, blocks and other objects) attacked several people.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q-u126Q3gHA
+ In Mexico, an openly gay mayor.
+ In Britain, people who watch porn need to ‘fess up. Or else they’ll lose their ability to watch it forever. No but seriously, everyone in Britain may soon have to inform their Internet providers if they want to continue accessing porn.
Keep On Keep On Keep On Journaling Through The Night
“Emotional writing heals physical wounds.”
All In The Family
Kids aren’t impacted by their parents’ sexualities – they’re impacted by their parents, period.
A second study in as many weeks has found that adopted children are not impacted by the sexual orientation of their parents. Instead, what matters is how well parents support each other and how satisfied they are with the division of childcare labor.
Epic Wins
+ Rachel Jeantel will go to the HBCU of her choice, for free.
+ Ohio must legally recognize one of the most deeply moving gay love stories of all time, according to a federal judge.
Women Reading Things, Not Reading Things
Why are women deserting newspapers? Does it have to do with the shitty trend pieces written about our lives?
A Republicanism Round-Up
+ House Republicans have thrown in the towel on DOMA.
House Republicans have been using taxpayer funding to foot the $2.3 million dollar billto defend the Defense of Marriage Act in a number of cases…Now that the Court has overturned DOMA, the House is abandoning its defense in the other cases…Thus, the federal government will no longer be spending taxpayer money to defend discrimination against same-sex couples, though the money already spent — which could have actually helped people — is lost forever.
+ Ken Cuccinelli, candidate for Governor in Virginia and man who shares a last name with a really terrible person I knew once, wants to ban oral and anal sex (FOR THE CHILDREN, OF COURSE) and is a straight-up, unabashed, incredibly douchey, homophobic asshole. I assume for those of us who live in Virginia this election is a no-brainer, right.
Trans* Women In 1950’s Paris
Fun fact: I wrote about the Christer Stromholm photos for my writing sample to get hired at AS last July. When I officially became a contributing editor, my girlfriend Abby gave me a copy of the book. Basically it’s beautiful and if photography is your thing, def get the book.
Good luck finding “Les Amies de Place Blanche,” Christer Stromholm’s book. If you buy it from used book sources it typically cost several hundred bucks. I’m kind of curious why these photos were recently linked to again in a number of sites? The book came out in the early-80s. Last summer, the International Center of Photography in NYC had an good exhibit of many of the photos (and one of the subjects who’s still alive gave a talk on Stromholm and her experiences with him. I kind of wish it had incorporated more of the images… it was limited to one fairly small gallery and was clearly the most popular exhibit in the museum when I saw it. The bookstore at the ICP was sold out of the book and said they weren’t ordering any more.
He’s a wonderful photographer. I do think some of his “explanations” of the women’s lives were objectifying and inaccurate but the images are terrific. If you’re interested in historic photos of trans women in France from this era, I highly recommend a French language site called “Bambi and the Sex of Angels” which is an amazing repository of images from the 1950s-60s similar to Chromholm’s. http://www.dianeetlesexedesanges.ch/3colset008/_page_album_stars.htm
Oh, we went to that exhibit. I kind of think she got it while we were there and I’m easy to fool? But if they were out, maybe she found it somewhere else.
Chromholm’s… augh, Stromholm. Fortunately, if you Google his name and ‘place blanche,’ and look at the images link, most of the photos can be found online.
It was a good exhibit, but would have benefitted from a lot more background info.
I’m probably the only person who cares, but thank you for the link about the NASCAR driver. I’ve been a huge racing fan my whole life and I believe that the racing community is an awesome one. It’s encouraging to hear that some of the top drivers are so supportive.
Made the mistake of reading the comments on that NASCAR article. Ugh, why do I do this to myself.
I try not to read comments anymore. I just get angry and bombard my girlfriend with ranty texts.