& She’s Not Alone

In addition to Nancy Pelosi breaking “the marble ceiling” for women in US government, there are a few other women who were recently elected to history-making positions:

  • May Eljeribi was elected in late December to lead Tunisia’s Progressive Democratic Party, the principal opposition party in the North African country. She is the first woman party leader in Tunisia.
  • In Iran, Mehrnoush Najafi, a lawyer, women’s rights activist, and blogger, recently won a seat in the Hamedan City Council Elections.
  • Finally, in the United Arab Emirates, one woman was elected to office in the country’s first ever national election. Amal Abdullah al-Kubaissi, an architect, was elected to serve on the Federal National Council.

Gay Marriage Takes a Hit

In Massachusetts, the legislature voted against gay marriage, despite the state’s supreme court having ruled to the contrary. That said, this may only be the impact of outgoing Governor Mitt Romney’s last efforts, and there is hope on the horizon.

Incoming Governor Deval Patrick (D) is opposed to the ban. He lobbied throughout the State House and held a press conference to encourage legislators to cast a “No” vote on the measure. The New York Times reported that Governor-Elect Patrick strongly objected to the constitutional amendment process, saying, “I believe that adults should be free to choose whom they wish to love and marry,” and that an amendment should not be used “to give a minority fewer freedoms than the majority.”

52 Things

Here are the final entries into NCTE’s “52 Things You Can Do for Transgender Equality”:

  • #48 Collect and share stories of discrimination
  • #49 Set up a training in a hospital, nursing or medical school
  • #50 Help an organization become more trans-inclusive
  • #51 Write an op-ed
  • #52 Make a New Year’s Resolution to Advance Transgender Equality

It’s been 52 weeks; how many have you done? Did you do other things they didn’t list?

Upsetting

The Task Force recently issued a report about homeless youth: up to 42% of homeless youth are LGBT (even though only 3-5% of the population is).

While I’m glad to hear NYC has stepped up funding to help serve these kids, I wonder if a public education campaign isn’t also in order. That job, however, might need Federal support, which we certainly aren’t going to get just yet. Still, you’d think we could maybe let people know that throwing their LGBT kids out on the street is not a solution to anyone’s problem.

These throwaway kids are one of the ‘side effects’ of all the anti-gay rhetoric being thrown around, & that includes the anti-gay marriage rhetoric, in my opinion. Define a group of people as second-class citizens and this is what you get.

You can read the full report at The Task Force’s website.

Rock & a Hard Place

I’ll admit that I find it incomprehensible to remain part of a Church that didn’t want me as a member or that felt I was “less than.” When I found out at a young age that I wouldn’t be “allowed” to be a priest, I washed my hands of the Church, and while I still consider myself culturally Catholic*, I’m also an agnostic and don’t miss mass. & I was always allergic to the incense, so I don’t miss that either. But I do still go to Saint Patrick’s to light candles in my grandmother’s memory, and I like to think she’d be quite pleased knowing that she – even from the grave – gets me into a church at all. I still read The Lives of the Saints, and I love the peace I can achieve, easily, when I’m sitting in a Church between masses. The quiet, the art, the ritual, the iconography: all these things make me feel at home.

But queer folks often don’t feel at home if they actually believe in their faith and want to be committed members of a faith-based community. One of my fellow Catholics has joined the UU but I think misses something of the aesthetics of Catholicism (one of the few things, imho, the Catholic Church did right. If you don’t feel a sense of awe entering Saint Patrick’s, I’d be very surprised).

One of the things I see Betty struggle with is how the faith she was raised in might condemn her for who she is, and she’s the one who brought this article to my attention.

I applaud the way these folks have stuck to a faith they believe in, that they feel comfortable in, and have not backed down or compromised their beliefs. But at the same time I find it quite baffling: if literal and conservative interpretation of the Bible yields the label of “sinner” for any gay or lesbian, yet you know you didn’t choose to be gay, why stay? Jesus’ advice, that those who are without sin cast the first stone, might be the key. Because we are all sinners, aren’t we? In one way or another, we are. The man who casts homosexuals out of his church or makes them feel uncomfortable has masturbated once in his life, at least. Or maybe he’s gambled, or coveted his neighbor’s wife, or over-eaten, or blasphemed, or doubted, or lied, or eaten shellfish. There are plenty of ways to sin – especially if one’s going to be strict about Old Testament restrictions – other than having sex with someone of your own gender, and I find the current Christian obsession with homosexuality as the sin that inspires Christians to act in decidedly un-Christian ways quite baffling. I still don’t remember anything in the Bible that says human beings should be judging each other’s sinfulness; last I checked, a sinner’s sins are between him and his God.

As someone raised Catholic I can’t help but find it tragic; after all, one of the huge reasons the Protestant religions happened was because the Church on Earth was interfering in the way a sinner might know his God, so for me, this current revival of people thinking they know the mind of God is a little bit of (the worst of) history repeating itself.
Continue reading “Rock & a Hard Place”

Not A Passing Grade

The US was ranked 66th in women’s political empowerment, of 115 countries, because we’ve never had a female president and because only 15% of congressional positions are held by women.

Overall we were ranked 22nd, and we were 65th on educational attainment:

While fewer girls are enrolled in elementary school in the US, women far outnumber men in enrollment at the secondary and tertiary levels.

I’m sure it’s not a big surprise to anyone that the Nordic countries scored best, but considering recent news from Darfur and Afghanistan, I’ll stay put, thanks.

The World Economic Forum has the report available in .pdf format.

Wear White Tomorrow

from Amnesty International:

The Sudanese government and the government-sponsored Janjawid militia have used rape, forced displacement, abductions and mass murder as weapons of war for more than three years. Darfuri rebel groups have also committed serious human rights violations against civilians. Women and children are often driven from their homes with few or no possessions and continue to be in danger in refugee and displaced persons camps and settlements.

On December 10th, thousands of activists from more than two dozen countries will stand up for the rights of women and girls in Darfur. We hope you’ll stand with us and write in white. Wear white, a global color of mourning, in solidarity with Darfuri survivors of sexual violence and write letters calling for an end to rape as a weapon of war in Darfur:

http://www.kintera.org/TR.asp?ID=M7219332210661857438353065

Now is a crucial time for action on Darfur: funding for African Union peacekeepers in Darfur (AMIS) runs out at the end of December. Until the United Nations arrives, AMIS is the only available force that stands between Darfuri civilians and deadly violence.

Many of you have sent messages and placed calls to your Senators, urging them to help ensure the safety of civilians in Darfur. We are sincerely grateful for that. We hope you’ll continue to stand with us and write in white on December 10th:

http://www.kintera.org/TR.asp?ID=M7219332310661857438353065

You can help put an end to the ongoing violence against women and girls in Darfur. Thanks again for everything you do.

Sincerely,
Naoma Nagahawatte
Stop Violence Against Women in Darfur Project
Amnesty International USA

Not Just Killed

I reported recently on the attacks on Afghani girls’ schools, but now their teachers are being killed – and in brutal ways.

Mohammed Halim, a 46 year-old man from Ghazni, was taken from his home and partly disemboweled before his limbs were tied to motorcycles and torn off, according to the New Zealand Herald. Halim is the fourth teacher to be murdered by Taliban extremists in Ghazni, a center of violence among the Taliban, US, and Afghan militaries, reports The Independent.

He’s the fourth teacher who was killed for disobeying the Taliban’s orders because he continued to keep teaching girls, and the other teachers are fully aware of what they’re being told:

Fatima Mustaq, the director of education in Ghazni, says she has received many death threats, due to her gender and her unwillingness to stop educating girls, The Independent reports. “I think they killed him that way to frighten us, otherwise why make a man suffer so much?”

This kind of violence echoes the kind of violence used against trans people, and goes to show how deeply gender infractions upset jerks. In Afghanistan, a girl learing how to read is apparently at least as threatening as someone born male wearing a dress is here.

If the US could guarantee that I could work guard duty protecting these teachers’ lives, I’d sign up. Fatima Mustaq and Mohammed Halim are my new heros; I wish there were a way to let the Taliban know that every person killed for disregarding their orders would become a folk hero – maybe then they would quit creating more.