Stonewall Begins Work On Trans Inclusion, Asks for Your Feedback

On Saturday, Stonewall, the UK’s largest LGB charity, made its first steps towards redressing its long-standing exclusion of the trans community by hosting a conference attended by around 50 transgender activists and community members. Participants discussed what trans inclusion could or should look like as the start of a three-month consultation period around trans issues, which will culminate in a preliminary report in January 2015 and decisions on how to move forward from April 2015.

Fox Fisher (@SaluteHQ), co-director of My Genderation, produced a video summary of the day’s events featuring interviews with participants:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Wd14bixutu8

Stonewall Chief Executive Ruth Hunt began the meeting by acknowledging the harm Stonewall in England and Wales has inflicted upon or has otherwise been complicit in causing to trans people, including honouring TERF journalist Julie Bindel, using a transphobic slur in their anti-homophobia film Fit and collaborating with Paddy Power, which recently ran a transmisogynistic ad. (The group’s northern counterpart, Stonewall Scotland, already includes trans people in its activism and research.) She added that she believes the consultation process should not be guided by cis people.

According to detailed accounts by Jane Fae (@JaneFae, Gay Star News) and many others as collected by UK Trans Info, participants discussed three possible ways in which Stonewall could work with trans people:

1. Stonewall becomes a full LGBT organisation
2. Stonewall helps set up a sibling (linked but autonomous) organisation led by trans activists, providing it with initial resources and training
3. Stonewall remains an exclusively LGB charity but provides grants to existing trans organisations

Most rejected option 3, favouring instead the possibility of combining the best of options 1 and 2: allowing trans activists full access to the resources and lobbying power of the country’s most successful and visible LGB rights group to date while also ensuring autonomy and equal participation. The objective of the conference was not to come to any conclusive decisions; instead, participants outlined their visions and flagged areas of concern, including the need to recognise the heterogeneity of trans people and narratives as well as safeguards to ensure trans inclusion in Stonewall isn’t merely contingent on the beliefs of whoever happens to be in charge at any one point in time.

Unlike his successor Ruth Hunt (left), who took the reins earlier this year, previous Stonewall CEO Ben Summerskill (right) did not believe the interests of trans people fell under the remit of the charity.
via The Mirror / The Guardian

Prior to the meeting, Ruth Pearce (@NotRightRuth, Writings of a Trans Activist) highlighted some of the specific concerns trans people in the UK face, including access to healthcare resources (transition-related or otherwise), the impacts of austerity, and lack of important localised data. Trans activists, she notes, severely lack funding, resources and knowledge to do research and lobbying work at a level comparable to Stonewall.

Participants were generally optimistic about the outcomes of the conference.

CN Lester (@cnlester, a gentleman and a scholar) and Kat Gupta (@mixosaurus, mixosaurus) raised the issue of the lack of diversity of the participants in terms of race, class, age, ability and so on — a concern the latter brought up even before the conference happened given its closed door, invitation-only status — as well as the lack of intersex participants and information on accessibility provisions. Far from being exclusive to trans organising, however, these problems are endemic in LGBT activism in the UK. While Stonewall stressed that this meeting was the first of many and that it remains open to all feedback from trans people, the demographic make-up of its first conference belabours the point that intersectionality requires proactive effort, not simply lip service: it’s not enough to expect marginalised people to participate in open calls; organisations need to seek them out and consciously create welcoming spaces for them.

There are further concerns about Stonewall’s broader politics and actions, which include honouring the Home Office as a Top 100 LGBT-Friendly Employer despite them routinely deporting LGBTQI asylum seekers and hosting champagne gala fundraisers that are a far cry from the material realities of most queer people in the country. Yet this too is an issue that extends beyond trans activism and illustrates how there is no single vision for trans involvement in Stonewall: while some may have very good reasons to continue to distance themselves from the charity, others like Paris Lees make the case that “trans people need Stonewall, and they need us too.”

Stonewall now wants to hear from everyone who has a view on its future engagement with trans issues and people, whether positive or negative. They’ve committed to holding more group meetings, particularly with underrepresented groups within the trans community, and are willing to host one-on-one conversations with those who’d be most comfortable with this arrangement. E-mail trans@stonewall.org.uk, fill in the feedback form on their website or call 08000 50 20 20 to participate in the consultation process.

Asylum Seekers and “Dishonest” Sexualities: Bisexuality at the Border

32-year-old Orashia Edwards, a bisexual man and long-term resident of Leeds, was denied asylum yesterday by the UK Home Office as Judge Clive Heaton QC declared that Edwards was being “dishonest” about his sexuality. No justification was given for this verdict, but Edwards has a 14-month-old child in the UK and has expressed frustration at the assumption that he could “fit in” with straight people in Jamaica.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vVib2Hh6Oog

Edwards was scheduled to be deported this morning but his flight was cancelled at the last minute. While this has granted him temporary reprieve, his future remains uncertain; without refugee status, Edwards could still be detained and/or deported at any time. He has no family in Jamaica and is likely to face violence and discrimination on the basis of his sexual orientation and now public persona.

Edwards’ relatives and supporters in Leeds, UK
via Yorkshire Standard

The failures of the UK immigration system to protect vulnerable LGBT asylum seekers from persecution are well-documented: LGBT asylum claims have a 98-99% failure rate (compared to 73% for claims in general), some asylum seekers have been driven or coerced to go as far as submitting home sex tapes to “prove” their sexuality, and Yarl’s Wood Detention Centre in particular has come under scrutiny for abuses committed against women asylum seekers. The Home Office denies that it is biased, though Home Secretary Theresa May called for a review of officers’ handling of asylum claims made by gay and lesbian applicants earlier this year. This review has yet to materialise.

Edwards’ case, however, highlights the specific concerns bisexual asylum seekers face at the border. While the European Court of Justice (ECJ) has ruled that LGB asylum seekers cannot simply be told to go home and “be discreet,” the difficulties of “proving” one’s sexuality remain as difficult as ever — if not even more so now — in a climate of institutionalized disbelief and public scaremongering about “illegal immigrants” and “fradulent asylum claims.” The dominance of assumptions of binary monosexuality and the “born this way” narrative, assessing the legitimacy of asylum seekers’ sexual orientation based on their sexual behaviour and relationship history, and disproportionately white, male and straight judges mean that bisexual people are far less likely to pass the “gay enough” test to qualify for asylum.

In January, Colin Yeo of the Free Movement blog revealed questions posed by immigration officers to a bisexual asylum seeker in detention.

What did you do with x?
Did you do anything other than kissing x?
Where did this happen?
How often did you have intercourse together?
Is that every day?
Did you put your penis into x’s backside?
When x was penetrating you did you have an erection?
Did you ejaculate?
Did x ejaculate inside you?
Why did you use a condom?
How do you show your sexuality when you are in the UK?
How does that display you are bisexual?
Why have you got to behave as a bisexual in [country]?
That was with x only and he initiated the contact you claim. Why can’t you return and live a full life there?

Can we really expect the UK Home Office to believe the stories of bisexual asylum seekers (and others who deviate from expected gay narratives, including those who came out later in life and asexual people) when gay activism and media coverage often replicate similar dynamics of biphobia and bi invisibility? Non-monosexual asylum seekers are not only interrogated on their sexual and relationship histories but are expected to “display” their sexuality in rigid, restricted ways even while in the UK, when it is exactly scrutiny of their sexual orientation and lives that they are escaping. At the intersections of biphobia and sexism, queer women, who often experience different forms of violence and discrimination (particularly with regard to domestic and sexual violence) and are more likely to have been married to men before or to bring children with them into the country, are especially vulnerable to being dismissed by the Home Office.

Activists rallied in May in support of Aidah Asaba, a Ugandan woman whose asylum application failed because courts did not believe she was a lesbian, with her having been married to an abusive male partner
via The Guardian

Edwards is being supported by his family and immigration justice groups Leeds for Change and No Borders Leeds. There has been an online petition directed at the Home Office to keep him here, a fundraiser for his legal fees, and the hashtag #DefendOrashia to keep track of updates on his case.

The fate of LGB asylum seekers, Edwards included, cannot be contingent on fickle media attention and Twitter mentions. Without a more comprehensive overhaul of the asylum system — and an acknowledgement of and move to redress the wider queer community’s complicity in biphobia and bi invisiblity — vulnerable people will continue to be sentenced to the very real risk of violence and harm.

EUROVISION! Drag Artist Conchita Wurst Wins World’s Queerest Song Contest

Eurovision results are in: Austria’s Conchita Wurst wins!

“This night is dedicated to everyone who believes in a future of peace and freedom. You know who you are… we are unstoppable.”

For the unacquainted, Eurovision is a yearly celebration of pop, camp and sometimes confusion, and this year’s in particular was slated to be a “hotbed of sodomy” because of Wurst’s participation. Wurst was a clear crowd favourite going in, but – surprise! – some people in Russia and Belarus petitioned to have her performance cut from their national broadcasts.

AND THEN SHE WON.

YOUR QUEEN HAS ARRIVED.

Coming in second was the Netherlands’ The Common Linnets with one of the safest, most heterosexual (but okay, good) performances to have ever graced Eurovision. I’m also just gonna go ahead and give shout-outs to Iceland’s deliciously ridiculous “No Prejudice” by Pollapönk, and Germany’s Elaiza for the dykey vibe I’m getting from their lead singer.

Eurovision, as always, was super fun; choice highlights include Ukraine putting a man in a hamster wheel and Belarus singing something about cheesecake and also Patrick Swayze. At the same time, the international contest is nothing if not an awkward political mess so there were also more uncomfortable moments than I could count: France slapping faux-tribal face paint onto their one black performer, a really elaborate running racist joke by the Copenhagen hosts at the expense of Chinese people, the incessant booing at the two 17-year-old girls who represented Russia, Poland’s “we’re Slavic girls, we’re traditional and we’re sexy” song, and – this one I still can’t really decide how I feel about – Hungary singing (and dancing) about domestic violence.

But anyway, tonight we crowned Conchita Wurst queen of Europe (that’s how it works, right?) so good job, everyone.

The Complex Paradox of Transgender Rights in India

After its regressive ruling last December, when it recriminalized homosexuality, the Indian Supreme Court recognized the rights of transgender persons on 15 April 2014. The ruling, which recognizes the legal rights of the Indian transgender community, is currently making its larger queer community hopeful. The recognition of the “third gender” on one hand, and the recriminalization of homosexuality on the other, makes queer rights in India a complex paradox, where alternative gender is recognized but alternative sexualities are not.

Via newsfirst.lk

The Indian Supreme Court however has agreed to hear a curative petition in open court to revisit the IPC 377– the colonial era British law that forms the basis of the recriminalization of homosexuality. Following the December 2013 ruling, which was challenged by the Indian government but overruled by the court in late January this year, a curative petition is now the only option left to the Indian queer community to win back its rights. As the matter now stands, it is not the “right to marry” or immigration reform for binational queer couples that Indian queers are currently grappling with, but merely the right not to face police harassment with up to 10 years in prison.

With the 15 April ruling, India will join Germany and some other very select group of countries in the world that allow individuals to tick “other” in the gender box. That the ruling covers pre-operative, post-operative and non-operative state means that it touches the lives of a large proportion of alternative gender identities in India. Yet, as this Guardian piece notes, the third gender ruling, albeit positive for transgender rights, is probably not progressive on queer issues overall because of the complicated history of hijras in the Indian society and their place in Hinduism.

A closer look at the Indian Supreme Court ruling demonstrates that it has probably more to do with the economic and social injustices meted out to trans-identified people over centuries – many of them forced out of schools and compelled to beg and/or engage in sex work for a living – than with a legal recognition of their gender per se. Among the steps for redressal that the Court enlisted are the issue of voter’s ID card, passport, and reservation of seats for transgender people in education and employment. It is the issue of affirmative action that generates concern here. India, being a diverse country, already has reservations in education and employment in the public sector for backward castes, scheduled castes and tribes, and in some cases, for individuals with physical disabilities. When transgender persons are offered reservations, to my understanding, it tends to equate them with “another oppressed caste” instead of offering them due recognition of their genders.

The economic and social oppression of transgender people in India is indisputably real, as is their taste of victory in the court ruling. India now has its first transgender candidate at the ongoing parliamentary elections, which is not of little significance. And yet, the reason for the legal recognition of the transgender people in India is not really about their selves or gender, but the violation of their human rights because of their gender. By tying legal recognition to reservations, it neither stimulates debate on queerness in India, nor does it question the practice of “quick fixes” like affirmative action to solve centuries-old systematic repression. Frustrating as it may be, this is probably the least harmful way in which a conservative postcolony can act.

10 LGBT Women Kicking Ass in Politics Worldwide

Last week, I wrote about Jóhanna Sigurðardóttir, the former Icelandic prime minister who was the first out LGBT person in the world to be elected a nation’s head of state. When I was writing it, I realized that Sigurðardóttir had had this whole fascinating political career I never knew about, both before and after she came out a decade ago. That made me curious how many other awesome LGBT women have come out and been successful politicians, only to go unnoticed by most people outside their home country. So I did some digging, and it turns out there are a lot of them! Here are 10 who were the first out women to hold their particular seat, and just a few of the cool things they’ve done since then.

1. Anna Grodzka, Polish parliament member

via Wikimedia Commons

Grodzka became an activist with the Polish United Workers’ Party as a student in the 1970s, and was married and had a son before transitioning in 2007. When she was elected to the Polish parliament in 2011, it caused a huge uproar in the traditionally Roman Catholic nation. Since then, she’s used her seat as a platform to fight for trans rights, calling out international LGBT groups for neglecting their trans members and educating members of the media who mischaracterize the surgery she underwent in 2010. She is currently the only out trans MP in the world.

2. Ulrike Lunacek, Austrian Member of the European Parliament

via Die Grünen Linz/Flickr

Lunacek entered politics in 1995 after a career in social work and women’s organizing. She has been out since the 80s, and LGBT rights have been a big component of her activism and politics. In December 2013, she weathered controversy over her support for a bill focused on reproductive and sexual health because it required, in part, age-appropriate sexual education for children. After that effort failed, she compiled a document called the Lunacek Report, which calls for protections for LGBT people throughout all the European Union member states. That faced similar public backlash, but passed the parliament in February.

3. Katherine Zappone, Irish senator

via Senator Katherine Zappone

The American-born Zappone moved to Ireland in 1983 to be with her partner, Ann Louise Gilligan. Zappone became an Irish citizen in 1995, and in 2004 the couple sought to have their Canadian marriage from the year before recognized in Ireland for tax purposes. Their case has evolved through the years in response to Irish legal changes, and a new version currently awaits a court date. Since her appointment to the Seanad in 2011, Zappone has focused on issues of diversity, education, immigration, social welfare, LGBT rights, prostitution, and human trafficking.

4. Georgina Beyer, former member of the New Zealand parliament

via Wikimedia Commons

In 1999, Beyer became the first out trans person in the world to serve as a member of parliament. She had previously worked as a singer and drag performer, and spent time as a sex worker before becoming a successful film and television actress. She surprised political analysts by winning the conservative vote in Carterton, where she served two terms as mayor, and then rising to Parliament. She held her seat for eight years before retiring. Since then, she has admitted to struggling financially, and most recently has reentered the spotlight because of her failing health.

5. Aya Kamikawa, Tokyo municipal official

via Wochi Kochi magazine

When Kamikawa submitted her election application papers in 2003 without listing her gender, election officials had to decide whether she would be allowed to run as anything other than the male gender listed in her family registry, which was legally nearly impossible to change. Though a committee advised that she should run as male, they allowed her to make the final decision. Kamikawa ran as a woman, prompting other electoral authorities to remove the gender field from their candidate registration forms altogether. She won two four-year terms on a platform of rights for women, the elderly, the handicapped, and LGBT people. So far, she is the only out trans official in Japan.

6. Kanako Otsuji, former member of the Osaka Prefectural Assembly

Otsuji (left) and her partner, Maki Kimura, at their wedding in 2007.
via Roberto Maxwell/Flickr

Otsuji was elected to the Osaka Prefecture in 2003 without ever being asked about her sexuality. After the election, however, she made being gay a central part of her platform. In 2005, she published an autobiography about her sexuality and became Japan’s first out lesbian politician. In Osaka, she helped same-sex couples gain access to public housing previously reserved for married couples. During her term, she was invited to several international LGBT organizations and events, including a 2006 trip to the U.S. She had a non-legal wedding ceremony with her partner Maki Kimura, in 2007. Later that year, she lost a bid for the Japanese national legislature, for which she was the first openly gay candidate.

7. Penny Wong, Australian senator

via NCCARF/Flickr

Malaysian native Wong was the first Asian-born and the first lesbian member of the Australian Cabinet, and in June 2013 she became the first Asian person to become Leader of the Government in the Senate. She is a member of the Australian Labor Party, which put her on the ticket for the 2001 election. As a senator, Wong has addressed climate change and energy conservation and finance, and in 2013 she was appointed Leader of the Government in the Senate. She came out after her election to parliament, and she and her partner, Sophie Allouache, have been open about their use of in vitro fertilization to conceive their daughter, Alexandra.

8. Carina Vance Mafla, Ecuador’s Minister for Public Health

via Pan American Health Organization/Flickr

Vance was born in the U.S. but attended high school in Ecuador, and she returned to the country in 2004 after earning her master’s degree at the University of California. At age 13, she and her first girlfriend were attacked in Europe. Since then, she has worked to further LGBT rights, focusing specifically on the ex-gay “treatment” clinics prevalent in Ecuador. As executive director of Fundacion Causana, a lesbian rights organization, she pressured the government to shut down hundreds of the illegal clinics; when she became Minister for Public Health in 2012, she was able to raid more clinics and rescue dozens of women.

9. Nikki Sinclaire, Member of the European Parliament for the West Midlands

via Wikimedia Commons

Sinclaire has come out twice during her political career: first, in 2004, when she wrote a letter to the LGBT newspaper The Pink Paper announcing that she was a lesbian. Then, in November 2013, she came out as transgender, becoming the first out trans member of parliament in the United Kingdom. She joined the European Parliament as a member of the UK Independence Party but has since formed her own single-issue party to demand the UK decide by referendum whether to continue its membership in the European Union.

10. Patria Jiménez, Mexican congresswoman

via RF Kennedy Europe/Flickr

In 1998, Jiménez became Mexico’s first openly gay member of Congress and the first gay member of any legislature in Latin America. Jiménez had left home young to avoid backlash from her family after coming out, instead joining lesbian activist groups to protest around Mexico. As a politician and as head of women’s rights group El Clóset de Sor Juana, Jiménez has advocated for LGBT and civil rights. She has fought back against the anti-gay and domestic violence prevalent in the country and worked to defend women in prison, missing children and indigenous communities. She and other female members of Parliament helped create the legislature’s first Commission of Equality and Gender.

Jóhanna Sigurðardóttir, Iceland’s Former Prime Minister, Proves Lesbians Can Rule the World

There are a lot of things you’re not supposed to be able to do when you’re gay: get married, have children, be the head of a national government, etc. But stereotypes exist to be broken, at least when you’re former Icelandic Prime Minister Jóhanna Sigurðardóttir. A profile published yesterday in the Telegraph  shares the truly touching story of the former prime minister and her partner of  30 years, Jónína Leósdóttir.

The cover of Leósdóttir’s new book about the couple’s life together.
Via LOTL

The couple met while working on a political committee in 1983 and later left their husbands to be together. But Sigurðardóttir’s political career meant they lived in fear, and they didn’t move in together until 2000. Sigurðardóttir was elected prime minister nine years later, and the couple traveled the world together on official business without much trouble (or fanfare, which is why I hadn’t heard of them until now). In addition to being the first out gay head of state in the world, Sigurðardóttir was also Iceland’s first female prime minister. During her tenure, she was relatively well liked, and she was able to advance LGBT rights in Iceland while also pulling the country out of a huge economic hole. She and Leósdóttir were among the first to wed when the country passed a same-sex marriage law in 2010.

My favorite part of this story (aside from THE WHOLE THING) is how aware the pair seems to be of their privilege. This is a couple who spent two decades in the closet because of political pressure, and now that they’re out they’re reminding us that they could have had it much worse. They were never really harassed or mistreated, and the media respected their right to have a private family life after they moved in together. Leósdóttir’s perspective, as shared with the Telegraph, is that there wasn’t a huge public uproar when they came out because they were older white women who had grandchildren from their previous marriages. Had circumstances been different, she says, they wouldn’t have been so lucky as to get a “non-reaction” from the public. “I think people see white women grandmas as rather harmless so maybe [being gay is] not so threatening,” she said.

The other big takeaway here is that, despite the difficulties of advancing in politics as a non-straight person in much of the world, there are places where being gay doesn’t exclude you from something huge like being prime minister. A conversation about this happened last month in the United Kingdom, and more politicians in the United States are coming out as LGBT rights battles crop up across the country. The fact that Leósdóttir’s and Sigurðardóttir’s lives and political careers have happened means that the door is that much more open for the next LGBTQ politician. At least in some parts of the world, we’re getting there.

Feature image via Wikimedia Commons.

Canadian Inuit Respond to Ellen DeGeneres’ Famous Selfie with Sealfies and Tradition

Canadian Inuit are using sealfies — photos with seal skins and meat — to demonstrate the role the seal hunt plays in their lives and protest Ellen DeGeneres’s Oscars-selfie-related donation to the Humane Society of the United States, an organization that loudly opposes it.

After DeGeneres’s Oscars selfie with Jennifer Lawrence, Meryl Streep and others became the most retweeted photo ever, Samsung, which made the phone she took it with, donated $1.5 million each to two charities of her choosing: St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital and the Humane Society.

This week, concerned Canadian Inuit have responded to that donation with sealfies to bring positive attention to indigenous seal hunting.

Rebecca Mearns via her twitter, by Fred Cattroll

According to Nunatsiaq Online, Iqualuit, Nunavut-based filmmaker Alethea Arnaquq-Baril started the idea:

“[Arnaquq-Baril], who is now working on a documentary about the seal hunt, said she hoped Degeneres would make ‘a little bit of effort to understand where we’re coming from.’

If she did, ‘she’d realize that Inuit are the ultimate animal rights activists and environmentalists. And we need to find some common ground.’

Arnaquq-Baril said she and many supporters of sealing are actually ‘big fans’ of the talk show host.

‘But I would be surprised if she knew anything about our land and culture,’ she said. ‘If she did, she wouldn’t be donating $1.5 million to an organization that’s worked very hard to crush our culture, and our economy. She probably hasn’t been exposed to too much media on the subject, and that’s what we’re trying to do is raise some awareness in the media, from an Inuit point of view.’

‘I care about my society, the place I live in,’ Arnaquq-Baril said.”

There does not seem to be any statement directly linking Samsung’s donation to the Humane Society with the seal hunt, and the widely media-quoted statement from DeGeneres, in which she says “seal hunting is one of the most atrocious and inhumane acts against animals allowed by any government,” seems to be from 2011. However, the Humane Society is still an outspoken voice against the seal hunt, and the donation has sparked discussion. (According to the Globe and Mail, The Ellen DeGeneres Show has not yet commented.)

In a video response, Killaq Enuaraq Strauss, a young Iqualuit resident, discusses why anti-seal-hunt sentiments are problematic, including issues such as food insecurity and cultural tradition:

“We’re a culture that’s still so alive, so thriving, but also so challenged. We face challenges such as people who think they have the right to impose on us their beliefs by calling us ‘savages,’ ‘vicious,’ ‘barbarian,’ just because we did what we had to do in order to survive. So when someone like you, someone who I look up to, tells me that my way of life is inhumane, I’m bound to get a little bit defensive […] To take away such a vital part of who we are is detrimental. We’ve suffered under the Canadian government, the Canadian people, and now even worldwide […] If Canada were to ban the seal hunt, so many families would suffer, would face harsher forms of malnutrition, wouldn’t be able to afford proper clothing for the Arctic environment we live in, and even more so, another part of our culture would have been killed.”

Additionally, 35% of Inuit households in Nunavut face severe food insecurity, according to a report released yesterday by the Council of Canadian Academies. The average cost of groceries for a Nunavut household is $19,760 a year, while 45% of Inuit adults earn less than $20,000 a year. Essentials like a bag of flour can cost over $33.

via the Council of Canadian Academies

The authors of the report note, “Traditional knowledge represents a way of life, but traditional knowledge of the local environment, combined with the related skill sets for harvesting, travelling on the land and water, and food processing, can also be understood as a set of cultural practices necessary for food security and food sovereignty.” Or as Strauss says:

“Yeah, I own seal-skin boots, and they are super cute and I am proud to say that I own them, but I also eat seal meat more times than I can count, and I can’t apologize for that. Even though we’ve been assimilated into a Western society, traditional food is still the thing that is sustaining families that cannot afford to go to the grocery store.”

What The Headlines Missed: Landmark Ruling In Lebanon Advances Trans* Rights Too

Earlier this year, a ruling in Lebanon advanced the cause of LGBT citizens by simultaneously addressing sexuality and gender identity. On January 28th, Judge Naji al-Dahdah terminated a case involving an unnamed, self-described trans woman accused of having a same-sex relationship with a man. The judge’s decision was made public in a report this month.

The defendant argued that she was born with “incomplete genitalia“, but her personal status registry described her as male. She further explained that she transitioned in the 1990s, undergoing bottom surgery. Prosecutors, who clearly conflated gender identity and sexual orientation, sought to use Article 534 of the Lebanese Penal code, which criminalizes “unnatural sexual intercourse,” punishing offenders with up to a year in jail.

via iloubnan.info

In spite of prosecutors’ attempts, al-Dahdah rejected this argument, referring to a court case in 2009 that negated the legitimacy of Article 534. In 2009, Judge Mounir Suleiman from the Batroun court district decided that consensual homosexual relations are not unnatural, and thus not prosecutable. Resulting from a legal campaign launched by Helem (Arabic acronym for “Lebanese Protection of Lesbians, Gays, Bisexuals, and Transgenders”) that sought to annul Article 534, Judge Suleiman stated that “man is part of nature and is one of its elements, so it cannot be said that any one of his practices or any one of his behaviors goes against nature, even if it is criminal behavior, because it is nature’s ruling.” In this 2013 case, Judge al-Dahdah found that Article 534 does not clearly articulate what constitutes as “unnatural.”

While wonderful that al-Dahdah’s order legalized homosexuality, the judge’s final ruling made really significant strides for the recognition of trans* rights. Also influenced by Helem’s previous legal campaign, Judge al-Dahdah pronounced in his final ruling that, “Gender identity is not only defined by the legal papers, the evolution of the person and his/her perception of his/her gender should be taken into consideration.” This resolution expands upon definitions of gender in a legal context, demonstrating that an individual’s gender identification is not as simplistic or reductive as what that person is assigned at birth.

Protestors gathered in Beirut, Lebanon at the International Day Against Homophobia in 2010. Their sign reads, “What do you know about normal?”
via muftah.org

It’s important to celebrate this victory for trans* communities as well as LGB people in Lebanon, but this case did not progress without any pitfalls. Even though al-DahDah’s statements about gender identity reimagined trans* rights in the legal sphere, he did refer to the defendant as “male” before switching to “he/she”, which blatantly ignored how the defendant identifies. Furthermore, various news outlets like PolicyMic, Daily Star, and the HuffingtonPost (all referenced throughout this piece), disregarded the crucial role of a trans individual in this case in the headlines, reducing this triumph to a homo-centric victory for LG (and maybe B, if you want to assume these news sources thought that far) people.

Keeping in mind that the legal dispute made a lot of basic errors in treating the defendant’s gender identity, this trial in Lebanon perhaps does suggest a different framework for LBGT rights. As Erin Kilbride discusses in her piece, “Lebanon Just Did a Whole Lot More Than Legalize Being Gay,” in the West, we often approach LGBTQ rights in a hierarchical way. When white cis-gay men and cis-lesbian women gain rights, then cis-gay men and lesbians of color can talk about their issues; once cis-lesbians and gay people gain their rights, we maybe can consider the issues bisexual people face; if we successfully touch upon LGB concerns, then we finally will have time to address difficulties trans* communities deal with. This “trickle-down” idealization of progress doesn’t actually change the game because it depends on prioritizing certain identities over others.

The Lebanon case presents us with legal proceedings where the sole focus and settlement did not reside on decriminalizing homosexuality but also on recognizing the nuances of gender identities. Of course the court case reminds us that our communities have a long way to go in properly respecting identities that don’t fit neatly into heteronormative and even homonormative gender constructs, but I think it also opens up the possibilities for simultaneous LGB and T work, instead of creating hierarchies of equality rights.

Equaldex: Exploring the New Virtual Information-Sharing Network for Global LGBT Rights

Equaldex, a new resource which launched last week, has the power to redefine how LGBT activists from around the world keep each other posted in their parallel movements for equality.

The new website, which launched last week with over 4,000 people on a waiting list to register as users, allows users to view maps, historical timelines, and major survey data relating to the status of queer people in law books spanning the globe. A quick glance at the website can give a user an overview of where the world stands on equal marriage, housing and employment discrimination, military service, the recognition of gender confirmation, and more. Users are also able to participate in discussions with one another, modify and challenge information on the website, and add links and statistics of their own, making Equaldex a community that is “crowdsourcing every LGBT-related law around the world.” The site’s public launch marked the work of about 500 Alpha Testers who input data, tested the features, and gave feedback.

Dan Leveille, the founder of Equaldex, has been working on making it a reality since 2009, when the movement for marriage equality began to pick up speed. “As I began following LGBT rights, I noticed that there wasn’t really a solid, comprehensive resource of laws in each country and state,” he told me. “I decided to build a site that would just be a map of LGBT rights.”

Realizing early on that no site of that scope could remain accurate without the help of a vigilant team of researchers, Leveille decided to crowdsource the information for his project a la Wikipedia. The result is that he is giving LGBT folks around the world the ability to define and explain their own movements for the rest of us.

“A lot of people – especially those who don’t actively follow the LGBT news – don’t really realize what the LGBT rights movement looks like outside of their country,” Leveille told me. “I’m hoping Equaldex can provide a more global and realistic view about the legal issues LGBT people in other countries face. Some people [in the US] worry about losing friends when they come out, but in other countries, if someone finds out that you’re gay, it could cost you your life. People can learn about what areas of the world are really falling behind and see how they can help, whether it’s donating to a regional LGBT organization or just getting the word out.”

At the heart of Equaldex is information – data which is meant to dispel myths, give users a platform for their stories, connect LGBT activists, and, ultimately, help to educate queer people around the world about their counterparts in other countries. “Information is powerful,” Leveille told me, “and I think Equaldex can help make compelling statements about the global LGBT rights movement.”

Leveille’s original vision – a world map showing the status of various LGBT rights – is just the beginning. What began as a search for up-to-date news about LGBT rights is expanding into a larger, more specific, informational database, story-sharing, and cultural conversations between users.

“There’s so much more I want to do with Equaldex,” Leveille told me. “Laws are just the start. In the near term, I want to pull in more data sources and public opinion surveys so that people have a better insight into how the general public of a region feels about LGBT issues. Eventually, I want Equaldex to collect some public opinion data itself to give a better understanding about the social climate of places around the world. In the future, I have plans for Equaldex to become a global knowledge base for everything related to LGBT rights.”

Register today.

Loretta Saunders Found Dead; Epidemic of Violence Against Canada’s Indigenous Women Continues

Communities across Canada gather every year on October 4th for “Sisters in Spirit” vigil, an event to commemorate the lives of missing and murdered Aboriginal women of Canada and to demand justice in the face of stubborn indifference from both government and police. This indifference appears despite a very clear pattern of racist-misogynist violence under which Indigenous women in Canada are five to seven times more vulnerable than non-Indigenous women according to the government’s own statistics; however, Amnesty International speculates that even this may be understating the problem as a result of deficiencies in state reporting.

Loretta Saunders, a 26-year old Inuk woman who was studying Criminology at St. Mary’s University, turned in her 28-page thesis proposal in late January of this year in which she intended to detail the cruel violence faced by Canada’s Indigenous women. Yesterday, her body was found in a wooded median along a New Brunswick highway. She was pregnant before her murder.

Viat theglobeandmail.com

Her roommates, 25-year old Blake Leggette and 28-year old Victoria Henneberry, had already been arrested by police on charges related to her Feb. 13 disappearance. On Feb. 18 the pair were arrested on charges of fraud and possession of stolen goods — Loretta’s car.

Police have stated that they have identified suspects in the homicide case and that they are not presently seeking any further suspects.

Her thesis advisor Darryl Leroux had given her glowing remarks in response to her thesis proposal (detailed in his own words here), which sadly she will never be able to complete.

Cheryl Maloney
Via cbc.ca

At a press conference held within hours of the discovery of Loretta’s body, Cheryl Maloney, President of the Nova Scotia Women’s Association, stated

“I’m never going to let Stephen Harper or Canadians forget about Loretta and all the other missing or murdered aboriginal people.”

and further,

“She wasn’t what society expected for a missing aboriginal girl. Canadian society, and especially our prime minister, has been able to ignore the reality of the statistics that are against aboriginal girls… This is not what everyone expects, but she is at risk. Every aboriginal girl in this country is vulnerable. For Canada to be ignoring it for so long, it’s disheartening. How many more families does this have to happen to before they take seriously the problem?”

Loretta joins a staggering number of other Indigenous women whose families are left grieving and wondering if they’ll ever see change or accountability. We can only hope that her tragic death will serve as a wake-up call to the Canadian government and police forces to take action to prevent violence against vulnerable women in Canada, but as the content of Loretta’s thesis proposal demonstrates, the wait’s already been a long one.

Ugandan President Signs Anti-Gay Bill Into Law and the U.S. Might Be Making Things Worse

On Monday, February 24th, the President of Uganda, Yoweri Museveni signed the now infamous anti-homosexuality bill into law. Although homosexual acts were already illegal in the country, the law officially sentences any people convicted of sodomy, same-sex marriage, or even promotion of homosexuality (such as LGBTQ activists who encourage people to come out) to life imprisonment. Noticeably, this piece of legislation includes lesbians in the indictment for the first time.

Interestingly, Ugandan lawmakers have watered down some provisions of the law. The anti-homosexuality bill previously proposed a sentence of up to 14 years for first-time offenders and also made it a crime to not report anyone whose heterosexuality is suspect. This legal distinction would have made it impossible to be openly gay. However, even without a clause demanding that citizens report any queer members of their communities, LGBTQ folks in Uganda now face an even more dangerous and fearsome epoch in their nation’s history. A press statement reviewing U.N. Ambassador Samantha Power’s meeting with the Director of Sexual Minorities, Frank Mugisha mentions that “the recent publication of a list of the country’s “200 top” homosexuals… raised concerns for the safety of LGBT individuals inside Uganda.”

President Museveni signs the Anti-Homosexuality Bill into law on Feb. 24th, 2014
via Daily Monitor

The United States has wasted no time responding to President Museveni’s actions. In a statement issued the same day as the law’s initiation, Secretary of State John Kerry condemned Ugandan lawmakers’ decision.

The United States is deeply disappointed in the enactment of the Anti-Homosexuality Bill in Uganda. For the four years since the bill was introduced, we have been crystal clear that it blatantly violates human rights obligations that Uganda’s Human Rights Commission itself has recognized are enshrined in Uganda’s Constitution. Today’s signing threatens a dangerous slide backward in Uganda’s commitment to protecting the human rights of its people and a serious threat to the LGBT community in Uganda. We are also deeply concerned about the law’s potential to set back public health efforts in Uganda, including those to address HIV/AIDS, which must be conducted in a non-discriminatory manner in order to be effective.

The United States has already begun examining its relationship to the Ugandan Government, with whispers about this new law compromising the U.S. aid budget to Uganda. In the press statement, Secretary Kerry concluded, “From Nigeria to Russia and Uganda, we are working globally to promote and protect the human rights of all persons. The United States will continue to stand against any efforts to marginalize, criminalize, and penalize vulnerable persons in any society.”

President Museveni’s actions may be a direct response to Western leaders who have criticized Ugandan policies. Ofwono Opondo, a Ugandan government spokesperson, asserted that President Museveni signed the anti-homosexuality bill into law “with the full witness of the international media to demonstrate Uganda’s independence in the face of Western pressure and provocation.” President Museveni himself also attacked the way the U.S. has initiated more of a diatribe than a dialogue by insisting, “[we] “never seek to impose our view on others; if only they could let us alone.”

The speed and intensity with which anti-gay sentiments have influenced Ugandan politics seriously brings attention not only to the United States’ imperialist methods of condemning certain countries for “backwards politics” without examining how backwards U.S. politics can be, but also to the influence of the U.S. evangelical right, who has played a significant role in implanting homophobic sentiments in Ugandan communities and has advocated for the incorporation of legal measures that would threaten “homosexual activity” within the country. Most notable is Scott Lively, a U.S. evangelical who delivered a neo-colonial white saviorist address at an anti-gay conference in Kampala, Uganda in March of 2009 that he deemed his “nuclear bomb against the gay agenda in Uganda.” Lively also discussed legislation that would target LGBTQ peoples in Uganda, and called the LGBTQ movement “an evil institution [whose] goal is to defeat the marriage-based society and replace it with a culture of sexual promiscuity in which there’s no restrictions on sexual conduct except the principle of mutual choice.” Cool guy.

Scott Lively, center, enters U.S. District Court in Jan. 2013, when first sued by Ugandan activists for his hateful speech
via Slate

Lively and his Abiding Truth Ministry, as well as his Defend the Family Ministry, have a legacy of preaching anti-LGBTQ rhetoric in Uganda as far back as 2002, as described in a comic by Andy Warner about Lively’s hate speech. While conservative Christian groups in the United States have not issued many public statements about Uganda’s new law, Lively did choose to comment:

“I would rather the Ugandans had followed the Russian anti-propaganda model which reflects my philosophy of preventing the mainstreaming of homosexuality with the minimum limitation on personal liberties for those who choose to live discretely outside the mainstream.”

Thanks for clearing that up for us.

In August of 2013, an Atlanta federal judge permitted Ugandan LGBTQ activists to proceed with a lawsuit against Lively, an act that may serve at least to dissuade U.S. evangelicals from imposing their hate rhetoric abroad if not punish them. Still, the fate of LGBTQ Ugandans hangs in the balance as the country comes to term with this new piece of legislation.

Nicaraguan Lesbians Make Visibility Dreams Come True With “Cuando Las Lesbianas Hablamos”

Editor’s note: All quotes are translated from Spanish by the author.

Lesbian activism in Nicaragua has often been subsumed by feminist and gay activism, so a group of badass lesbians are making themselves heard in a new way with a project called “Cuando Las Lesbianas Hablamos” – When Lesbians Speak.

La Corriente, a feminist organization based in Managua, produced the qualitative study with funding from Oxfam and the Basque government. On Wednesday, the organization presented the resulting short film and book for the first time to a crowd of about 75 lesbian, bisexual and trans women and our pals. It features the stories of four lesbian women: Jennipher Ellis, a black woman from the mostly-Afro-Carribean Atlantic Coast of Nicaragua; Tania Irías, a lesbian activist and mother; Geni Gómez, a Spanish feminist activist who calls herself “Nicaraguan not by the grace of God but by choice;” and Gaby Baca, Nicaragua’s only openly lesbian singer-songwriter.

In the film, they talk frankly about their experiences as lesbians in Nicaragua – coming out, experiencing discrimination and rejection, falling in love, and working as activists. Nicaragua decriminalized sodomy in 2008, but gay and lesbian families don’t have legal protections and benefits. Lesbians exist in a weird limbo between visible and invisible because, as Corriente projects director Cristina Arévalo told me, most lesbians are at least partially closeted, “but everyone knows where we go dancing, where we go to drink a beer, they know we’re here.”

The project provides a new avenue for people to understand the experiences of Nicaraguan lesbians.  Ellis talks about the dual discrimination of being black and lesbian, as well as being rejected by most of her family. For the book, she writes: “Although people are becoming more sensitive, there is discrimination, and I don’t know when it’s going to end. If I could turn back time, maybe I would be hidden. I would be safe in the closet.”

Jennipher Ellis and Tania Irías, photo courtesy of Programa Feminista La Corriente

They each share their dreams – to have their families recognized legally, to live without social and legal discrimination, and for Irías, that her 5-year-old son “will never be made to feel ashamed to have a lesbian mom.” Goméz says:

“It’s fundamental that the mentality of everyone changes… In our schools, we need a sexual education that is really liberated and that contributes to the development of a person, of their relationship with their body, to their experience with sexuality, without fear, without shame, without blame, without norms. This is the greatest that we can aspire to.”

This film and the accompanying report has the potential to push us closer to those dreams. Baca, the songwriter, asked after the showing, “This is a great tool, now what are we going to do with it?”

“Share it as much as you can,” Arévalo replied.

So here I am on Autostraddle, where most of our readers don’t speak Spanish and will never visit Nicaragua, urging you to watch this film. There are no subtitles, but I hope you can see from the urgency in these four women’s voices and eyes that their struggles mirror our struggles as queer women all over the world. You know those moments when you can feel a palpable shift in the air that signals change and hope and possibility? That’s how it felt in the auditorium of the Catholic university where we watched the film. I forgot about the sour look I got from the security guard at the entrance when I asked where to find the event after I saw the smiles on every face in that room.

During the question and answer period after the presentation, my friend Katya got emotional when she said, “I’m so thankful to you all for making this. I’m thinking about the young girl in Estelí, like I once was, who will have access to this.”

The presenters spoke a lot about the threats people face when they come out and their reasons for not doing so and emphasized that it’s not right to pressure people to come out when they aren’t ready to. But for people who can take the risks, coming out helps destroy the closets of others until one day, we can live hand in hand in the dream world these women envision.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h1AusTu5mkw

Also.Also.Also: Laverne Cox Needs Our Help and Other Stories We Missed This Week

Hello, Seahawks! I’m calling you that because you’re winners or something. I don’t really get how football works, but let’s take a peek at the stories we missed this week while I was trying to figure it out. (I didn’t.)

Pee Wherever The Fuck You Want, Y’all

Maine: The Bathroom Equality State.

The Maine Supreme Court has delivered a significant victory for transgender students. In its interpretation of the Maine Human Rights Act (MHRA), the Court ruled that trans students have the right to use the bathroom with which they identify and cannot be forced to use a separate restroom.

The case involved a fifth grade student who had already been fully identifying as a girl for several years and was using the girls’ restroom at Regional School Unit 26. Another student’s guardian objected, and a media firestorm prompted the school to begin forcing her to use a solitary staff unisex restroom. Eventually, the student’s family had to remove her from the school and move to another part of the state so that she could go to school safely.

Though the decision was not unanimous because of one justice’s concerns about how the law was written, the court did unanimously agree that the student deserved equal access to the girls’ restroom.

Don’t F*ck With Panti

Don’t ever tell a drag queen that you know homophobia better than they do.

A video by Rory O’Neill – also known as drag queen Panti – on homophobia in Irish society has gone viral, with more than 100,000 views in less than two days… In the video, Panti fights back over the use of the word ‘homophobia’ which he says has been appropriated by other groups since The Saturday Night Show interview.

“For the last three weeks, I have been lectured to by heterosexual people about what homophobia is and who is allowed to identify it,” he told the audience. “People who have never experienced homophobia in their lives… have told me that unless I am being thrown into prison or herded onto a cattle truck then it is not homophobia – and that feels oppressive.”

Vanity Fair’s Best Cover Yet

Vanity Fair’s 20th annual Hollywood Issue has a three-panel gatefold cover, and unlike every other year in their history, a black person is on the actual cover of the issue this year rather than folded inside the magazine for second glimpses. OUT OF THE FOLD AND INTO THE STREETS, Y’ALL.

Jerry Seinfeld is The Least Funny or Aware Person on Earth

Jerry Seinfeld, the man who thinks his own life is funnier than anyone else’s, just doesn’t get why comedy needs to be diverse. I mean, don’t we all relate to him and his weird-ass life? ISN’T IT ENOUGH THAT HE GAVE US A SHITTY SITCOM LIKE TWENTY YEARS AGO?

In a recent sit-down with  BuzzFeed Brews with CBS This Morning, Seinfeld said it is “anti-comedy” to approach the genre like it’s “the census.” Seinfeld was asked why he featured so many white men in his web series Comedians in Cars Getting Coffee and seemed to become irritated at the question.

“It really pisses me off,” he said. “People think [comedy] is the census or something, it’s gotta represent the actual pie chart of America. Who cares?”

 ”Funny is the world that I live in. You’re funny, I’m interested. You’re not funny, I’m not interested,” he said. “I have no interest in gender or race or anything like that.”

It Ain’t Easy Being Queer Anywhere

+ But it might be a little better in Latin America:

Latin America’s gay rights revolution has highlighted the ingenuity of gay activists and the leadership of politicians like Argentina’s president, Cristina Fernández de Kirchner. In July 2010, she became a gay rights heroine when she signed Latin America’s first same-sex marriage law, over vigorous opposition from the archbishop of Buenos Aires (today Pope Francis). But the celebration of activists and politicians has overlooked another hero in this campaign: the region’s high courts. Their embrace of gay rights has been nothing short of audacious, especially in contrast to recent decisions by the U.S. Supreme Court.

+ In Russia, 77% of LGBTQ people don’t trust the police – and the queer community is being overwhelmed by violence that no cop seems to care about. But Happy Olympics!

+ For queer folks coming to seek asylum from South Africa in America, safety isn’t always that easy to come by.

For The Marriage Crowd

+ Next up in the #MarriageEqualityWars: Wisconsin.

+ Gigi Chao doesn’t wanna marry a man – and since her dad doesn’t get it, she appealed to him in public. (He has since rescinded his dowry offer.)

A week after Hong Kong tycoon Cecil Chao doubled his 2012 offer of $64 million to any man who could marry his gay daughter, Gigi Chao has publicly rebuked him and urged her dad to accept her partner of nine years.

“There are plenty of good men, they are just not for me,” she wrote in an open letter published by two Hong Kong newspapers on Wednesday. “It would mean the world to me if you could just not be so terrified of [girlfriend Sean Eav], and treat her like a normal, dignified human being.”

+ DOMA being struck down didn’t just change one moment in history; it continues to change our history.

+ Blue Cross Blue Shield is really sorry to all the North Carolina homos who waited too long for family coverage health insurance.

+ In Oregon, gay marriage is one thing. But helping make gay weddings awesome? That’s another.

Free CeCe: The Documentary You Could Make Into A Thing

Just f*cking do it.

I began researching this story with Laverne Cox when I was the Series Producer of the public television show, In The Life. When In The Life ended, in December 2012, this project stayed with me. It seems each month there is a new headline of a bias crime against a transgender woman of color. I became committed to producing and directing this powerful, feature-length film that confronts transgender bias crime with both rigor and humanity. I wanted to hear the voices of victims who were all too often silenced by brutality; I wanted to produce a useful film that sensitizes the audience and amplifies the authentic voices and lives of trans people.

Acabeymia

Rutgers is offering a class on Beyonce. I have no words for this situation as it leaves me blindingly optimistic for our world.

We Won A Thing: Scotland Legalises Same-Sex Marriage, Braces For Bad Weather

Scotland is famous for many things, including Alan Cumming, Alan Cumming’s accent, and Alan Cumming’s accent in a kilt.

HEY it’s that guy from The L Word!

And now! Now Scotland can also proudly declare itself the 17th(-ish) country to tell its rainbow-flavoured citizens, “Go forth and marry the f*ck outta each other, queermos.” Today, the Parliament passed the Marriage and Civil Partnership (Scotland) Bill with an overwhelming majority (105 to 18) as MSPs were given a free vote unconstrained by party loyalties.

I’m not sure what’s going on here but I like it.
via Reuters

In our UK LGBT Politics Crash Course, we highlighted three areas of concern with regard to the England and Wales Marriage (Same-Sex Couples) Act. Here’s how Scotland fares on the same scorecard:

• Transphobia: No spousal veto for Scotland! With the hard work of the Equality Network and Scottish Transgender Alliance, MSPs voted unanimously to remove the clause that required married trans* people to obtain the permission of their spouse to have their gender legally recognised.
• Religious Exemptions: As in England and Wales, religious bodies can “opt in” to perform same-sex wedding rites (the Quakers, Buddhists and Pagan Federation have said they will), and an amendment to the Equality Act 2010 has been agreed upon to ensure no “persons who play an integral part in the religious or belief [i.e. not commercial] aspects of the marriage or civil partnership” can be punished for refusing to participate in a same-sex wedding. The Scottish Catholic Church and Church of Scotland have opposed this legislation every step of the way and have no plans to conduct same-sex marriages, but there is no legal ban barring them from doing so as is currently in place for the Church of England and Church in Wales.
• Neoliberalism: Sorry, radiqueers, our time is yet to come.

The next step lies in debating whether civil partnerships (currently a UK-level policy, unless Scotland gains independence in September this year) should be open to opposite-sex couples as well. In the meantime, go forth and marry the f*ck outta each other, queermos.

Jacqueline Nantumbwe Must Stay: Why the Current UK System For LGB Asylum Seekers is Broken

On Friday, 24 January, Ugandan asylum seeker Jacqueline Nantumbwe was detained by the UK Border Agency. She is currently being held in Yarl’s Wood Immigration Removal Centre in Bedfordshire, which is known for abusing its detainees and has been described as a site of “second torture,” while her legal team works to bail her out and make a Fresh Claim for asylum.

via RT

Nantumbwe fled Uganda in 2006, where she had been forced into marrying a man. Under the country’s increasingly draconian anti-gay laws, she had been imprisoned, tortured and subjected to “corrective” rape upon being discovered with her girlfriend, Rose. Rose has not been heard from since.

In 2012, Nantumbwe’s first appeal for asylum was rejected and she was relocated to north-west England, away from her partner of 5 years who was forced to stay in London.

The judge hearing her case didn’t believe either of them was gay.

Technically, the UK – which is deeply implicated in many of the anti-gay laws that lead to LGB persecution abroad in the first place – adheres to European Union directives that recognise LGB asylum seekers as a protected class, but this translates poorly into reality. There is no time cap on how long asylum seekers can be kept in detention and LGB asylum seekers in particular face tremendous hurdles in “proving” their sexuality. Even being actively involved in LGBT organisations or having been imprisoned for being gay, as in Nantumbwe’s case, is not evidence enough. Many asylum seekers are subject to a humiliating process that requires them to describe sexual encounters in detail to UKBA authorities, with some having gone as far as submitting video or photographic evidence of them having sex with their partners.

via Asylum Seekers in Bristol

The Manchester-based Metropolitan Church, which Nantumbwe is part of, is currently coordinating efforts for her release and asylum application. Here are some ways in which you can help:

• Text Nantumbwe at 07979 477999. Not only will your words reach her directly, the Metropolitan Church believes that this number is being monitored by the UKBA and so plenty of activity will show them that she has strong support on the outside. (Don’t expect a reply though!)
• E-mail Home Secretary Theresa May at mayt@parliament.uk, citing Home Office ref. N1178674/002. With the attention that her case has been getting this past week, her MP Sir Gerald Kaufman is now looking into it so the next step is to engage UKBA authorities directly. The Church has provided some pointers as to what to include, and requests that Andy Brauston be bcc’d at pastor@metropolitanchurch.org.uk so they can keep track of how many messages have been sent.
• Sign the Change.org petition directed at the UK Home Office. The 3,000+ signatures on this petition and a paper one have already been included as evidence in support of her Fresh Claim that was submitted on Wednesday, but it won’t hurt to show that support for her is still going strong as her case is now being considered.

Nantumbwe will be held in Yarl’s Wood until she is either released on bail (depending on how the Fresh Claim goes) or deported to Uganda. The UKBA relies on public ignorance to allow deportations to fly under the radar – don’t let them do that to another person.

UK LGBT Politics Crash Course: What Austerity and the Far Right Mean For Queers

The UK might be seeing the end of its worst economic downturn in modern times, but austerity is here to stay. Economic justice affects everybody, but what does it especially mean for LGBT people? In this last installment of a three-part crash course on UK LGBT politics, we’ll look at the impacts of austerity and the rise of far-right parties in the lead-up to the 2015 General Elections.

What’s happened?

At the start of 2013, the UK lost its triple-A credit rating* and was on the brink a “triple-dip recession”** (the first being in 2008 and second in 2011-12) after negative GDP growth through most of 2012. The economy surpassed expectations, however, and grew steadily in the first three quarters of 2013.

* A credit rating indicates the ability of countries to pay back their debts.
** A recession is defined as negative GDP growth for two consecutive quarters.

Despite the unexpected positive news, Chancellor George Osborne has stressed that the government will not ease up on austerity measures, which have thus far included slashing the welfare and NHS budget, raising student fees, privatising the Royal Mail, implementing the bedroom tax and so on. The independent Office for Budget Responsibility (OBR) estimates that “by 2019 the share of national income spent on the day-to-day running of the state would be the lowest since at least 1948 when modern records began.”

George Osborne
via The Mirror

The 2013 local elections saw the far-right “non-racist” UK Independence Party (UKIP) make its largest gains to date, going from 8 to 147 seats overnight and earning 23% of the projected national vote share, ahead of the Liberal Democrats. Euroscepticism is still a core tenet of the party, though it has broadened its policy positions to include opposing same-sex marriage, banning An Inconvenient Truth in schools and abolishing “politically-correct things like diversity monitoring” in local government.

Nigel Farage, leader of UKIP
via VoxVictims

What’s coming up next?

Taken with a healthy dose of caution, the UK appears to be (finally!) on track for economic recovery. The welfare state, on the other hand, is going to take far longer to bounce back – if it ever does at all. While some of the battling about benefits spending has been practical (“what can we pay for?”), plenty has been ideological (“what should we pay for?”), and the Tories have made clear where they stand on this.

Three significant votes are coming up this year:

• European Parliament Elections (22 May): UKIP, which has no seats in the House of Commons, has been steadily gaining ground in the last two EU elections and is aiming at first place this time round. Voting intention polls so far show them coming in second behind Labour. Beyond the UK, while there have been fears of a pan-European alliance of homophobic and xenophobic far-right parties, academic Cas Mudde argues that the data shows otherwise.
• UK Local Elections (22 May): This year’s elections are larger than the last, particularly as all of London’s council seats will be up for election. UKIP (and the Greens) might gain more ground, but all this will likely be overshadowed by what will feel like a year-long lead-up to 2015.
• Scottish Referendum (18 Sept): Members of the Scottish Parliament (MSPs) have frequently voted to the left of their Westminster counterparts on austerity measures. While same-sex marriage legislation is already under Scottish jurisdiction (and is also being considered this year), independence would allow the country to go its own way on civil partnerships as well.

The General Elections are slated for 7 May 2015 and pollsters currently predict a Labour majority government, though Conservatives are banking on improved economic performance to persuade voters that austerity is working and David Cameron is still more popular than Labour’s Ed Miliband and Lib Dem’s Nick Clegg. The Lib Dems have shouldered most of the backlash against the current government’s policies.

David Cameron and Nick Clegg, who are currently in power
via The Daily Record

PinkNews polls of readers and LGBT voters indicate increased support for both Conservatives and Labour at the expense of the Liberal Democrats.

What’s at stake?

Recessions and austerity measures disproportionately affect marginalised populations, and LGBT people (particularly those who are young, disabled and/or BME) are no exception to this. There are three key areas in which support for LGBT people has been compromised:

• Healthcare: The Equality Act 2010 made LGBT equality a priority for healthcare service providers, but in the years since there have been “savage cuts to HIV prevention, sexual health work and LGBT youth work.” With the rollback of the NHS, public service union UNISON highlights that the particular health needs of LGBT people – including mental health, fertility services, gender-confirming surgeries and so on – will (continue to) be overlooked.
• Homelessness: Statistics on homelessness in the UK are hard to come by, but Crisis reports that numbers of those sleeping rough in England saw a 31% rise (62% in London) from 2010 to 2012. (These statistics only capture those sleeping on the streets and not those in temporary accommodation or living with friends and relatives.) LGBT monitoring is even shoddier but homelessness among LGBT youth is a particular concern, with UK studies indicating that as many as 30% of homeless youth – a figure that is suspected to be too low – in urban areas are LGBT. Homeless LGBT people face increased levels of violence, harassment and sexual assault.
• Unemployment: Overall levels of unemployment rose rapidly after the 2008 crash and peaked in 2011, recently falling to 7.1%. Again, unemployment data specific to the LGBT population is hard to come by, but 2010 census data reported higher levels of unemployment (9.6%) for those who identified as LGB over those who said they were straight (8.6%), even though LGB people reported higher levels of qualifications (likely because socio-economic class identification affects who would come out in a national census). Formal protections exist for LGBT people in the workplace, but trans* people in particular continue to fear being out at the workplace, are paid lower wages, and experience day-to-day transphobic comments from employers and colleagues.

With mainstream gay activists focused on same-sex marriage legislation, issues of economic justice and social mobility have been conspicuously absent from LGBT movements in recent years. Yet unexpectedly, 2013 saw a twin champion of poverty rights and LGBT politics in Jack Monroe, author of the blog A Girl Called Jack and now a freelance writer and Guardian columnist.

Jack Monroe (centre, in yellow hat) with food bank petition boxes
via The Mirror

When you’ve got to the point where you have unplugged your fridge and you have unscrewed your light bulbs and you have sold everything you own and you are eating value kidney beans out of the pan, or using the child’s formula milk that the food bank gave you. Where was I supposed to find £14 [for the bedroom tax] back then?

[…]

Until people realise benefits doesn’t mean scrounger, and austerity isn’t a fun middle-class way to grow your own vegetables, there’s still a lot of work to do.

– Guardian interview, 23 July 2013

Jack Monroe with her Small Boy
via The Mirror

If I get asked any question most, it’s how have you got a kid if you’re gay. I didn’t hand my womb in when I came out. A lot of people have relationships with men before they realise they’re gay. I was in a relationship, had my son, and it was only afterwards that I realised that this wasn’t right.

– Evening Standard interview, 11 Nov 2013

Naturally, the Daily Mail loathes Monroe, and the popularity of shows like Benefits Street indicates a revitalised interest for “poverty porn” and new targets for public loathing and fury. UKIP and other far-right campaigners are unlikely to wield any real power in the political process – which has long been the reign of white upper middle-class men in the right proper parties and will continue to be – but it is the change in public sentiment that their increasing popularity signals that is worrying.

The 2013 British Social Attitudes Survey might have revealed an unprecedented level of acceptance for LGBT people, but that doesn’t make us immune to the growing hostility against the poor, hungry and homeless – not because bigots can’t tell the difference between “benefits scroungers” and “immoral homosexuals,” but because LGBT people are disproportionately the poor, hungry and homeless. An LGBT movement that does not recognise this reality cannot adequately serve the needs of the community it deems to represent, and it is time now more than ever to recognise that queer liberation cannot be disentangled from economic justice.

This has been the last installment of this mini-series on UK LGBT politics. Read earlier posts on Same-Sex Marriage Legislation and Homophobia in the Commonwealth.

UK LGBT Politics Crash Course: 2013 Was A Real Banner Year for Colonially-Influenced Homophobia in the Commonwealth

Despite significant strides being made in domestic UK politics, the Kaleidoscope Trust‘s annual report notes that the “year [was] marked by a series of serious challenges to the dignity, rights and freedoms of LGBT people around the world,” particularly in the Commonwealth. In this second of a three-part crash course on UK LGBT politics, we’ll consider the history of institutionalised homophobia and British colonialism, and whether the Commonwealth can or should do anything about it now.

What’s happened?

Of the 78 countries in which same-sex sexual behaviour is criminalised, 42 of them are in the Commonwealth of Nations, mostly made up of former territories of the British Empire. The anti-gay laws in these countries take different forms and are prosecuted to different extents – from being merely “symbolic” to carrying prison sentences – but are deeply rooted in a colonial past, with most laws specifically modelled after Section 377 of the Indian Penal Code. (The UK only repealed its own sodomy law, under which Oscar Wilde was prosecuted and Alan Turing prosecuted and then recently pardoned, in 1967.)

Summary map of LGBTI persecution, recognition and protection worldwide (as of May 2013)
via ILGA

While far from a comprehensive list, here are some key events that happened in the Commonwealth in 2013:

• Cameroon: As conservative groups have sought to increase already existing penalties for both male and female same-sex sexual activity, the country has seen an increase in anti-gay violence, notably the murder of activist Eric Ohena Lembebe.
• India: The Supreme Court struck down a 2009 Delhi High Court ruling decriminalising homosexual acts, upon which the government filed a review petition that is still pending. The Supreme Court is also currently reviewing if trans* and/or gender nonconforming citizens, particularly hijras who identify as neither male nor female, can be legally recognised as having a “third gender.”
• Nigeria: While sodomy is already illegal, the House of Representatives passed the Same-Sex Marriage (Prohibition) Bill 2011 to further criminalise same-sex relationships and LGBT activism. It is unclear whether President Goodluck Jonathan plans to sign it into law.
• Singapore: The Supreme Court struck down a challenge to Section 377A, which criminalises sex between men. A statement from the Attorney-General’s Chambers on the same case warned of an “incrementalist homosexual agenda” while a nation-wide survey revealed widespread hostility to “gay lifestyles.”
• South Africa: LGBT citizens and rights organisations mourned the passing of Nelson Mandela, still facing an uncertain future and dealing with “corrective rape” years after legal protections for LGBT people was enshrined in the country’s Constitution.
• Uganda: The Parliament passed the Anti-Homosexuality Bill 2009, popularly known as the “kill the gays” bill, which no longer imposes a death penalty but still calls for “imprisonment for life for the offense of aggravated homosexuality.” President Yoweri Museveni, however, “won’t be pressured” to sign (or repeal) the bill.

On a slightly different level, gay marriage was legalised in New Zealand while Australia‘s High Court said no to the same, passing the buck instead to the federal government to legislate on the issue.

Anti-Section 377 protest in India
via Think Progress

According to the Institute of Commonwealth Studies in their 2013 report Human Rights, Sexual Orientation and Gender Identity in The Commonwealth: Struggles for Decriminalisation and Change, “in recent years many states have seen the emergence of new sexual nationalisms, leading to increased enforcement of colonial sodomy laws against men, new criminalisations of sex between women and discrimination against transgender people.”

The Queen maybe kinda sorta cares about the gays and David Cameron wants to “export” gay marriage around the world. However, despite lobbying by activists and a promise from Downing Street to raise the issue, any discussion of LGBT rights was conspicuously absent from the agenda for the 2013 Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting held in Sri Lanka.

What’s coming up next?

The UK government has not demonstrated a consistent policy position on LGBT rights abroad, whether in the Commonwealth or elsewhere, but this shouldn’t come as a surprise – foreign policy always centres national interests. For instance, threatening to cut bilateral aid, as Cameron did to countries like Ghana and Uganda as anti-gay laws gained traction in 2011, not only shaves millions of pounds off the Foreign and Commonwealth Office (FCO)’s budget but leaves the UK emerging as morally superior to boot.

So what the UK does in 2014 (or whenever) will be guided by what’s best for the UK, not a kumbayah global community. In this economic climate, this might simply mean more sanctions in the name of human rights.

People protesting against the Commonwealth Heads of Government meeting
via Demotix

Commonwealth scholar Frederick Cowell is mostly pessimistic about the potential for LGBT-related human rights advocacy, noting that “the states actively opposing the decriminalisation of laws criminalising same-sex sexual conduct are the numerical majority in the Commonwealth” and that the authority of the international organisation is necessarily restricted by its voluntary nature and colonial past. Other scholars, however, are working to identify effective, replicable strategies across the Commonwealth nations or taking more in-depth country-to-country approaches to distill what can and should be done. It is overall a positive sign that human rights in the Commonwealth is an emerging area of scholarship and activism.

What’s at stake?

The Commonwealth is a tricky entity. Some see it as a crucial body through which states’ sovereignties are recognised and realised, both in securing independence from European colonial masters and through the aid/trade opportunities facilitated by membership. Others see a rather unabashed institution of neocolonialism – that is, the replacement of formal empire occupying lands and peoples through force and bureaucracy with a “softer” power expressed through economic and cultural hegemonies.

Commonwealth flags
via Shutterstock

The Gambia, one country which was facing increasing pressure from the UK to stop restricting the rights of its LGBT population, left the Commonwealth in 2013 citing exactly this:

“The government has withdrawn its membership of the British Commonwealth and decided that the Gambia will never be a member of any neo-colonial institution and will never be a party to any institution that represents an extension of colonialism.”

– Gambia President Yahya Jammeh

What’s particularly contentious here is that the Commonwealth holds its members to a shared (albeit notional) standard of “human rights.” South Africa was banned from 1961 to 1994 during the period of Apartheid, while Fiji’s membership is still suspended due to a “lack of progress towards democracy.” International activists have agitated to have LGBT rights more explicitly recognised as part of this conception of human rights – no country has ever been suspended for state homophobia – but more fundamentally, we need to ask: whose “human rights” are these? Who gets to decide, and who enforces them?

In theory, what Commonwealth nations have in common is mutual respect for each other and this code of human rights. In reality, what Commonwealth nations have in common is British colonialism. The UK still dominates the political and moral leadership of the Commonwealth, and in particular, Cameron wants the UK to be a “global beacon for reform” on LGBT rights. There is a special kind of irony in taking the cue on “human rights” from a leadership that not too long ago considered most of the population of the Commonwealth to be literally sub-human. That irony deepens when the same power that now wants to “save the gays” was historically responsible for much of the institutionalised discrimination that LGBT people in the Commonwealth face in the first place. Thus, tasking UK leadership in the Commonwealth with promoting LGBT rights is not only hypocritical but risks “pinkwashing” the harm that has been caused by colonialism, using queer causes and bodies as justification for continued imperialist rhetoric and actions.

It is, of course, more complex than that. There are different reasons for why anti-gay sentiment has swelled, to different extents and in different forms, in Commonwealth countries: some political (see the prosecution of Anwar Ibrahim in Malaysia), some religious (gays and lesbians as “against Christianity” in Uganda or “anti-Allah” in the Gambia), and some nationalistic or cultural (homosexuality as “un-African”). Neither is the UK the only imperialist power implicated in these struggles: US evangelicals are backing some of the most vicious laws in Uganda and elsewhere.

David Kato, a Ugandan activist murdered for his LGBT activism
via CNN

From both a foreign policy and activist perspective, international intervention can go horribly wrong. We see this pattern over and over again, from KONY to V-Day to FEMEN: white saviours descend upon faraway communities with crowd-sourced funds and catchy slogans, backed by governments wielding economic sanctions and “name and shame” tactics in international diplomacy. International groups too often pay little heed to what local people want or need in the name of saving brown people from their oppressive brown leaders and backward practices – in the process overriding or undermining the efforts of local activists and leaving them to deal with the backlash. LGBT human rights activists in the Commonwealth are constantly attacked for importing “Western” behaviours and inviting unwelcome interference, which will only intensify as international interest picks up.

There is a grain of truth in accusations that LGBT issues are “Western.” Colonial legacies did not only impart anti-gay legislation but disrupted native communities, kinship networks and cultural identities and practices in order to impose colonialists’ standards of “civility” and more neatly incorporate dominated populations into their capitalist projects. It is not only homophobia that was exported but specific – and now dominant – understandings of gender and sexual identity, such as the “born this way” narrative, sexuality as identity instead of behaviour, and binary, biology-dependent conceptions of gender. Some communities have embraced these ideas and politics, while others haven’t, which is something to always be conscious of – any activism that seeks to impose monolithic narratives of the queer experience and struggle, prioritising a “global LGBT community” over local nuances and sensitivities, is in itself part of the problem.

Anti-gay protesters frequently conflate LGBT movements with Western imperialism
via The Atlantic

What can the UK and the Commonwealth do, then? A recognition of its complicity in anti-LGBT discrimination and violence would be a start. Would an apology from Cameron, as some have been calling for, do any real good? Probably not. It gets even trickier when you try to conceive of what form this “apology” would take, and whether it’d really be able to capture the complexities of past and present LGBT rights struggles in the Commonwealth. But if the UK wants to be a “global beacon for reform” in any of this, leading the way in bettering the lives of LGBT people at home and abroad, these are fundamental issues that need to be considered – and I won’t be holding my breath waiting for the current government to.

There is no easily generalisable way to map the terrain for LGBT activists and people in each Commonwealth country, and no clear indication of where we go from here. As setbacks in India, Uganda and elsewhere showed us in 2013, it is too easy to fall into the trap of thinking that LGBT rights and recognition are an inevitable reality. We don’t get to just choose which side of history to be on – we need to actually be making that history happen, and it’s likely to be a long, difficult path ahead.

Stay tuned for the next installment of this mini-series on UK LGBT politics!

Feature image via YEMMYnisting / Free Thought Blogs

UK LGBT Politics Crash Course: One Same-Sex Wedding Ring to Rule Them All

2013 brought equal marriage to the shores of the UK, and the gays were saved! Well not really. Or not much at all? Same-sex marriage legislation was a momentous achievement last year, and in this first installment of a three-part crash course in UK LGBT politics for 2014 we’ll explore what’s happened, where we go from here and why it matters.

What’s happened?

In England and Wales, the Marriage (Same Sex Couples) Bill passed with significant majority votes in both the House of Commons and House of Lords and was granted Royal Assent on 17 July 2013. In Scotland, the Marriage and Civil Partnerships Bill passed Stage 1 (of 3) on 20 November. In Northern Ireland, however, the Assembly has repeatedly voted against marriage rights for same-sex couples and the Democratic Unionist Party has made clear that it does not intend to legislate on same-sex marriage in this term.

Celebrations outside Westminster Parliament as the marriage bill passed its Third Reading
via Wikimedia Commons

Same-sex civil partnerships, which offer similar legal protections to marriage, have been recognised under the Civil Partnership Act in all four countries in the UK since 2005. With the legalisation of same-sex marriage, the government has promised a full review and public consultation of this Act, including whether it should be extended to opposite-sex couples.

What’s coming up next?

Same-sex marriages in England and Wales will be able to take place from 29 March 2014, while those with existing civil partnerships will be able to “convert” them to marriages by the end of the year.

The next stage of Scotland’s Bill will take place on 16 January. While the Bill is backed by a majority of MSPs and the Scottish population, the earliest it is hoped to come into effect is 2015.

What’s at stake?

The England and Wales Act leaves much to be desired with regard to:

• Transphobia: The “spousal veto” requires that a married trans* person obtain the consent of their spouse to “continue” their marriage upon applying for a Gender Recognition Certificate. This places trans* people at the mercy of spouses who are frequently hostile: a 2013 survey that found that 44% of trans* respondents have had their partners or spouses actively attempt to prevent them from transitioning, while 29% stated that a spouse has made divorce difficult. Why the spousal clause, then? The government argues that it would be unfair for a marriage to be converted from an opposite-sex one to a same-sex one without the spouse’s consent. This isn’t only an ethical issue but a legal one: opposite-sex marriages, governed by the Marriage Act 1949, are still legally distinct (and thus accorded different rights) from same-sex ones covered by this new Act. But the “veto” exists also simply because of transphobia – clearly the sanctity of the institution of marriage trumps trans* people’s right to self-determination.
• Religious Exemptions: Outside of grousing from Tory backbenchers, opposition to same-sex marriage legislation came mostly from religious factions (with the exception of Quakers and the Liberal and Reform synagogues). While religious institutions are now free to choose whether or not they wish to perform same-sex marriages, the Church of England and Church in Wales are explicitly banned from doing so. Ministers cannot be punished for refusing to wed same-sex couples, but can be punished for agreeing to do so. This not only continues institutionalised homophobia, particularly penalising Anglicans, but is a rather bizarre take on “religious freedom.”
• Neoliberalism: It is not a happy coincidence or surprisingly progressive that a Conservative government passed same-sex marriage. Marriage is in itself a conservative ideal, tied to one dominant idea of what relationships and families should look like and a particularly useful tool to privatise systems of care when the government is simultaneously attempting to withdraw state provision of welfare. What’s been missing from the debate on same-sex marriage is how the benefits of civil marriage are often strongly demarcated by class: what’s celebrated as “equality” in immigration rights for LGBT people, for example, is only open to same-sex couples in which the citizen spouse earns at least £18,600 a year, which 47% of people in employment in the UK do not. The problem is not just that pension payments are unequal between opposite-sex and same-sex couples – it’s that these provisions are linked to marital status at all.

“I don’t support gay marriage despite being a Conservative. I support gay marriage because I am a Conservative.”

— UK Prime Minister David Cameron

The Peter Tatchell Foundation and Equal Love Campaign have promised to lobby against some discriminatory aspects of the existing legislation if/when the government’s review of the Civil Partnership Act begins, but since same-sex marriages are a done deal at this point, it’s hard to imagine a strong, coordinated reform movement any time soon. It’s also unlikely that we’ll see the fervour of the gay marriage lobby transferred to other LGBT causes, such as homo/transphobic bullying and youth homelessness.

Stonewall campaigners outside Westminster Parliament
via Japan Times

However, there is perhaps hope to be found in similar debates in Scotland. Unsurprisingly, the Church of Scotland and Catholic Church stand opposed to same-sex marriage legislation. As in England and Wales, religious bodies can “opt-in” to perform same-sex wedding rites and will not be coerced to do so, but thus far there is no indication that there will be a blanket ban similar to the one placed on the Church of England and Church in Wales. Additionally, the Equality Network believes that there is strong support among MSPs for five proposed amendments to the Bill that would more fully realise the rights of trans* and intersex people.

Stay tuned for the next installment of this mini-series on UK LGBT politics!

Also.Also.Also: CeCe McDonald Gets Free While Issa Rae Gets Famous and Other Stories We Missed This Week

Hello, perfectly cut slices of my favorite pies! This week I went back to DC, got extremely sick, and still went to work during the #polarbearvortex. I am legend.

Here are the stories we missed this week while I was making soup.

Issa Rae Rules and Other Celebrity News

+ Issa Rae made the Forbes’ “30 Under 30” List!

+ Robin Roberts isn’t the first gay news anchor and she’s hopefully not the last. The NY Times took a look back at how other news stars broke the news about the sexuality.

CeCe McDonald Will Be Released Later This Month

YOU HEARD ME.

You Should Go / You Should Submit

+ Storm Large is coming to New York City!

Storm Large: musician, actor, playwright, author, awesome. She shot to national prominence in 2006 as a finalist on the CBS show Rock Star: Supernova, where despite having been eliminated in the week before the finale, Storm built a fan base that follows her around the world to this day.

Storm spent the 90s singing in clubs throughout San Francisco. Tired of the club scene, she moved to Portland to pursue a new career as a chef, but a last minute cancellation in 2002 at the Portland club “Dante’s” turned into a standing Wednesday night engagement for Storm and her new band, The Balls. It wasn’t long before Storm had a cult-like following in Portland, and a renewed singing career that was about to be launched onto the international stage.

+ The hoax zine submission deadline has been extended! You haven’t missed your chance… yet.

as the thrice-changed submission date for #9 comes to a final close, we have chosen to start cultivating submissions for our next issue in order to save us both badly-needed time due to our very hectic personal lives. we are totally ecstatic to announce that the topic for hoax #10 will be feminisms and EMBODIMENTS, and we are eager for feminists of all backgrounds and genders to submit!

Tel Aviv to Commemorate the Gays of the Holocaust

We were here.

The Tel Aviv-Jaffa Municipality will unveil a monument to commemorate members of the LGBT community who were persecuted by the Nazi regime for their sexual orientation and gender identity on January 10.

The new monument will be mounted outside the Municipal LGBT Community Center in Meir Park (Gan Meir) which serves as the city’s main hub of activity for the LGBT community.

The monument will be shaped in the form of a pink triangle, reminiscent of the pink triangles LGBT community members were required to attach to their clothes in the concentration camps, and will feature short texts in Hebrew, English and German.

F*ck You, Linda Harvey, and Also This Other Sh*t

+ Linda Harvey’s new anti-gay book, Maybe He’s Not Gay, was pulled from Amazon. Maybe she’s not happy, but I don’t give two f*cks, really.

+ Ma’Lik Richmond, Steubenville rapist, was released early from juvenile detention. And the worst part is how grossly obvious it is that he ain’t learned shit.

A statement was also released from Richmond’s attorney and it reads:

“Ma’lik Richmond recently completed his designated time at the Cuyahoga Hills Juvenile Detention Facility. The past sixteen months have been extremely challenging for Ma’lik and his extended family. At sixteen years old, Ma’lik and his family endured hardness beyond imagine for any adult yet alone child. He has persevered the hardness and made the most of yet another unfortunate set of circumstances in his life, as with each other obstacle, Ma’lik has met it squarely, lifted his chin, and set his shoulders; He is braced for the balance of his life. While away, Ma’lik has reflected, learned, matured, and grown in many ways. He is a better, stronger person and looks forward to school, life, and spending time with family. At this point, Ma’lik wants most to be a high school teenager in conjunction with his release, Ma’lik, his family, and guardians ask that the media respect their privacy in this matter, as we all need to heal and move on with our lives. We will have you know that Ma’lik will be taking all the time necessary to focus on his academic and personal goals. We ask for your support and prayers as we move forward, thank you.”

+ How do y’all feel about queer lady business in luxury ads?

“Being queer has become trendy,” Vuillemin notes. “On one hand this can be a plus. If you are a kid trying to come out you can feel that you will have support from your peers. On the other hand it can trivialize the importance of LGBT rights no matter what is trending.”

+ Until women are safe on the Internet, they’re not gonna be safe in the real world.

Two hours later, a Palm Springs police officer lumbered up the steps to my hotel room, paused on the outdoor threshold, and began questioning me in a steady clip. I wheeled through the relevant background information: I am a journalist; I live in Los Angeles; sometimes, people don’t like what I write about women, relationships, or sexuality; this was not the first time that someone had responded to my work by threatening to rape and kill me. The cop anchored his hands on his belt, looked me in the eye, and said, “What is Twitter?”

+ Surprise, surprise! Nobody’s leaving the Boy Scouts en masse just because they accept gay kids now. Take that, God!

+ The documentary Queer as Pop completely ignored the contributions queer women have made to pop music. Thus, it is fatally flawed and probably really boring.

LDR Realness: First Comes Visa, Then Comes Marriage

Maria, a Filipino immigrant, and Carla, her American partner, after ten years of a long-distance relationship, were the first to marry after receiving a historic fiancee visa. May they bring honor to us all.

Microsoft Loves Women

How brave.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZyB7bzYRoqY

Also.Also.Also: Why We Really Need Gay Bars and Other Stories We Missed This Week

Hello, tiny furniture! HAPPY NEW YEAR! I’m 99% sure this will be the cutest year yet; here’s the news we missed while I was romping around Vancouver this week making sure of it.

Why We Need Gay Bars

A Texas town’s ban on gay folks dancing to country music reminds us why we need safe spaces for everything – even listening to country music.

F*ck This Sh*t

+ The Pacific Justice Institute is LGBT Misinformer of the Year because it “set a new standard for dishonesty on LGBT issues” in 2013.

+ Destin Holmes is speaking out against her homophobic school:

Destin Holmes, 17, said her principal called her “a pathetic fool” and said he did not “want a dyke in this school.”

One teacher allegedly forced her to use the boys’ bathroom and another refused to let her participate in a boys vs. girls quiz game — forcing her, instead, to sit in the middle of the room.

“I actually cried during that class,” Holmes told The Huffington Post. “And what was running through my head was, ‘Why would a professional teacher say that to a student. Why?’ I’m still human. I’m not an alien.”

Being LGBT in Uganda

It’s not easy being queer in Uganda.

CNN this week takes a deep look at what life is like for people with a big secret in the nation:

Kasha Nabagasera peers warily from behind the slightly cracked gate to her home.

“People don’t know I live here,” she explains, smiling half-heartedly. “I’ve been kicked out of so many apartments, this is the longest I have stayed in one place, a year. It’s rented in someone else’s name.”

Nabagasera is one of the few gay rights activists who speaks in public in Uganda, a deeply conservative Christian nation that is rabidly homophobic.

Evidence of that is everywhere. At Christmas Mass a few hours earlier, Anglican Archbishop Stanley Ntagali praised the country’s Parliament for passing the anti-homosexuality bill.

“We love everybody. The homosexuals, the lesbians are children of God. We want them to repent.” He preached to the congregation as it broke out in applause, his voice growing increasingly animated.

“But to say we accept and then tomorrow you begin to see a man bringing a man. Can you imagine that?”

Nabagasera, like many other members of the LGBT community, rarely goes to church, and it’s not because she’s lost her faith.

Gay in America: The Round-Up

+ Gay marriage in Utah looks a helluva lot like a turning point.

+ 2013’s DOMA decision did everything folks thought it would do for gay marriage in America.

+ The Log Cabin Republicans are pissed off by sexy Obamacare ads.

+ For LGBTA people protesting the Sochi Olympics, being heard is awfully difficult.

+ LGBT people love Barack Obama, Sochi or no Sochi. Always have.

The Pew Research Center’s survey of 1,197 LGBT adults, conducted this spring, found that Obama enjoyed significantly higher favorability ratings among LGBT adults than the general public. And according to the national exit polls, lesbian, gay and bisexual voters supported Obama 76% to 22% over Mitt Romney in the 2012 election.

The survey also found a widespread belief among LGBT adults that the Obama administration, and the Democratic Party, are generally supportive of LGBT people: 63% said the Obama administration was generally friendly toward lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender people; while just 6% said the administration was generally unfriendly (30% said it was neutral).

+ The more we talk about rape culture, the more we see people coming forward about rape. Case in point? Sexual assault reports rising in the military.

On Trigger Warnings

2013: Year of the Trigger Warning.

The trigger warning became a mainstream concept in 2013. Whether or not this is a good thing will continue to be hotly debated. But even if trigger warnings become as ubiquitous as many feminist bloggers want them to be, odds are that most people will end up tuning them out like we do similarly intended parental warnings slapped on movie posters and TV shows. As for me, I write often about difficult subjects like rape and abortion, but I never use trigger warnings. My experience is that the audience can do a better job than I can at figuring out what kind of content will upset them by reading the headline than I ever could randomly guessing what blog posts count as triggering.