Sunday Funday is Packing for Hawai’i and Fighting Discrimination at Home

Today I had popcorn and cake and coffee for breakfast and, while not great for my blood sugar, it was an excellent choice and I have NO REGRETS. I’m not going to lie to you. Finding not-horrible news wasn’t an easy task this week, but I’m here to hold onto as much of that sweet silver lining as possible, for all of us.

Rural Conservative Cities Throw Down for LGBT Rights

Wheeling, West Virginia recently passed a LGBT nondiscrimination ordinance (via Reuters/Letitia Stein)

You might be surprised to learn that more than 50 municipalities across 15 states have added LGBT nondiscrimination measures in the almost two years since marriage was legalized nationwide. More than half of these are in places where Trump won in the 2016 election and all 15 in states that voted for Trump. More than half of the cities and towns have populations of less than 35,000.

One of these towns is Columbus, Indiana, the hometown of Mike Pence, where a Republican city council unanimously passed protected for LGBT people in response to then-Governor Pence’s discriminatory “religious freedom” law in 2015. Said Columbus Mayor Jim Lienhoop:

Republicans don’t speak with one voice on this issue. In a small town, you really do live with the laws that you create. It makes it all a little bit more real that we see some people—we actually know them—who might be affected.”

Hawai‘i Wants LGBT Travelers to Say, “Aloha!”

The Hawai‘i Tourism Authority recently completed a study into LGBT travel trend to Hawaii from tourists from the United States, Canada, China and Australia. Two additional studies by HTA evaluating LGBT travel to Hawai‘i from Japan and Taiwan are in progress and will be issued within the next couple of months.

Estimates are that LGBT travel to Hawai‘i can be up to 6 percent of total visitors from both Japan and Canada, up to 7 percent of total visitors from the U.S. West, and up to 9 percent of total visitors from the U.S. East. LGBT Millenials and Generation X tourists offer the greatest potential for new tourism dollars, while LGBT Baby Boomers are the most likely to travel to Hawai‘i.

Apparently, 70% of LGBT people in the U.S. think of Hawai‘i as a friendly destination, but only 27% of us travel there. So, like, let’s pack some bags, is what I’m saying!

They Bruise Features Soccer Superstar With Great Hair Joanna Lohman

Joanna Lohman, an openly gay midfielder for Washington Spirit, is one of the favorites of the National Women’s Soccer League. Her story is featured on the premier episode of new webseries about female athletes, They Bruise.

“In a sport that has so many LGBT fans, they see me out in the field as an LGBT athlete, proud of who I am, and that gives them confidence to be who they are. The most important thing for me is to expand expectations on what a woman should look like. I do it for someone who comes behind me, who won’t get the same looks or the same stares I do.”
– Joanna Lohman

Lifestyles of the Queer and Famous

Photographer Tom Atwood’s new portrait series, Kings and Queens in the Castles captures queer icons in their homes and private spaces. It will be published as a book later this spring.

Lydia Brown by Tom Atwood

Elizabeth Streb & Laura Flanders by Tom Atwood

Bills, Bills, Bills

+ Congressional Democrats are planning to reintroduce the Equality Act, a measure that would ban LGBT discrimination nationwide. It doesn’t have a chance of passing, but Democrats hope to put anti-LGBT lawmakers on blast. “It’s important for Americans to know whether members of Congress support full equality for our community or whether they support continued discrimination against LGBT Americans,” said Rhode Island Democrat, David Cicilline.

+ The Nevada State Senate will consider a bill that would protect LGBTQ youth in the foster care system by affirming foster kids’ gender identity and sexual orientation and requiring mandated competency training for foster organizations. According to a 2014 report by the William Institute of Law, there are more LGBTQ youth living in foster care than LGBTQ youth living outside of it.

+ Utah legislators voted to repeal a law that would prohibit teachers from “promoting” homosexuality which not awaits their governor’s signature. In the majority Republican legislature, the repeal of the law was supported 24-1 in the Senate and 68-1 in the House.

Get Your Stabbing On at Buffy Bootcamp

This is admittedly a little old news, but I just saw this clip playing in a NYC cab yesterday and we just celebrated the 20th anniverary of Buffy the Vampire Slayer, so I’m counting it as new news!

Apparently, you can sign up for Buffy Bootcamp, a training and martial arts class for female vampire-hunters which ends in a vampire-hunting expedition to earn your “Slayer Certification” and it’s probably the gayest thing I’ve ever seen. Enjoy!

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KaeLyn

KaeLyn is a 40-year-old hard femme bisexual dino mom. You can typically find her binge-watching TV, standing somewhere with a mic or a sign in her hand, over-caffeinating herself, or just generally doing too many things at once. She lives in Upstate NY with her spouse, a baby T. rex, a scaredy cat, an elderly betta fish, and two rascally rabbits. You can buy her debut book, Girls Resist! A Guide to Activism, Leadership, and Starting a Revolution if you want to, if you feel like it, if that's a thing that interests you or whatever.

KaeLyn has written 230 articles for us.

24 Comments

  1. omg i was so confused by the statistic that there are more LGBTQ youth living in foster care than out of it. really? more than 50% of LGBTQ youth are living in foster care?? so, i chased it down, and i believe a more accurate interpretation of the data is that youth in foster care are 1.5-2 times more likely to identify as LGBTQ than youth not in foster care (though the source i found also drew the hazy conclusion that there are more LGBTQ youth in foster care than out of it).

    just in case anyone else was confused.

    • I was! Thanks for chasing it down.

      I’m really hoping to be able to foster and/or adopt some queer tweens and teens someday (in a magical future where I can afford more than one bedroom), but I live in Texas, where it’s legal for foster/adoption agencies to discriminate against LGBTQ folks, so I guess we’ll see.

      • My wife and I just started fostering three or four weeks ago. We now have two 4-year-old girls staying with us. Part of the reason my wife agreed to go through the long training, invasive questions, and back ground checks was the thought that there are queer and trans* kids out there who need safe families.

        • More power to you both. I know I couldn’t do it, I’ve not got any patience with kids but I’m so pleased that some people are able to do this really important work.

          • Thanks, Diane N! I’m not sure how we’ll do when one of them leaves, but it is important and I don’t want to not do it just because of fears and what ifs.

          • Thanks @kaelynrich! It still seems a bit crazy and terrifying that we have two random kids staying with us. I remember as a teenager sitting in my room and writing about how I was going to have two girls, one who was more outgoing and one who was more reserved. And as I got older and didn’t have any kids full time, I was patient for a while, remembering about the two girls. And then though all of the fertility attempts, it seemed like maybe the story had been just a story. And now we have two girls. One who is more outgoing and one who is more reserved. We will see how long they are with us, but for now, even if it makes me worry, I can’t complain.

          • Also, the “crazy and terrifying” part rings true even if you’re bringing your kid home from the hospital, IMO. I imagine if you bring your child home from the airport, too (like I was brought home). No matter how they enter your family, bringing a kid into your home is like, “WOW THIS IS REALLY HAPPENING! UH UH UH AM I DOING THIS RIGHT?”

  2. What is with that front graphic? Are we going to Hawaii by way of Florida in the 80’s? Are Crockett and Tubbs going to be there?

  3. I think it’s possible that the other 43% of us aren’t going to Hawaii because it’s really, really expensive.

  4. OMG the Slayer Training Camp sounds super gay and super amazing! Would love to do that with my girlfriend =^.^=

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