Occasionally, we do some things around here to increase queer visibility.
Shoulders of Giants
To all the people who started this fight but especially to those who didn’t get to see it end the way it has. So many. Too many.
Thank you.
SCOTUS: DOMA Sucks and So Does Prop 8
Which many of us knew already, but which the SCOTUS has now, finally, ruled on.
So DOMA is no longer Constitutional – equal protection and all that – and the previous ruling that Prop 8 was unconstitutional has been upheld, too.
It’s a good day to be same sex married.
Even for those of us who are same sex married with hetero privilege – we got married when she was still a boy one – it’s a huge relief. It’s not just about the law – it’s about the message: our marriage is equal.
(The rest of us who live in suck states with DOMAs or superDOMAs in the state constitutions have to move next. That includes Wisconsin.)
Filibuster In Progress: Texas
Ann Richards would be proud.
RIP Richard Matheson
I’m not a real science fiction junkie, but I am a Twilight Zone nerd; those shows were some of the first ways I started thinking about things in a more complicated, maybe even existential, way. & Matheson wrote some of the best of them: Nightmare at 20,000 Feet (which was in both the TV series and in the movie), The Invaders (one of the very few TV shows with no dialogue at all), Little Girl Lost (which is basis for Poltergeist), Death Ship (super creepy, and starting Jack Klugman), and to me, the very special Once Upon a Time, which starred none other than Buster Keaton.
Here’s one of my all-time favorites, A World of Difference. It brought what Pirandello was after to the American TV audience, imho.
You can watch all of the episodes he wrote or which were based on his stories for free on hulu.
Coming Out as a Bisexual Man
It’s so rare to read a coming out narrative by someone coming out as bi, much less as a bisexual man, but this one covers a lot of interesting ground, including why it took him so long to come out. But these two paragraphs – and sexual orientation and self determination, and about the fluidity of orientation over time, are particularly fascinating:
If you search the internet for “self-identified bisexual men,” you mostly get results questioning (or validating the question, which is almost as bad) of whether they even exist. Even Savage validated this bullshit at one point, though he doesn’t seem to be doing so any more, and since he’s Dan Savage, maybe I want to forgive him more than I should. It’s hard for me to read these things without wanting to break out into tears — it’s taken me a long time to figure out my identity, and to have someone casually take that away from me as if I’m lying…that isn’t ok. Just to pretend that the question of whether bisexual men exist is a legitimate one to ask is abhorrent — to come to the conclusion that we don’t is nothing less than a self-aggrandizing denial of reality. I know who I am now, and who I’ve always been, and no one has the right to take that away from me. No one ever has the right to tell anyone else who to be.
It’s certainly possible for a person to change their position on the spectrum over time. When talking about this with a friend of mine who only recently came out as gay, he freely admitted that earlier in his life, he had absolutely been attracted to both genders, and was never forcing it for the sake of acceptance. As time has gone on, he’s become less attracted to women, and more to men (he currently put himself at a 5 on the Kinsey Scale, but said that in 6 years it’s likely he will have moved even further). That’s not the case for me, though. I’m not “transitioning” to being gay — I will always, always, ALWAYS be attracted to women. I can’t express strongly enough that the day I stop being attracted to either gender is the day my heart stops beating. I’m at the exact same point on the Kinsey Scale (a 2) that I always was. For anyone to insist that I’m just pretending to be one or the other for the sake of acceptance is the height of arrogance and idiocy.
Coy Mathis Wins
At long last, great news: Coy Mathis was being discriminated against when her school stopped allowing her to use the girls’ room as she had been all along.
According to TLDEF:
This is the first ruling in the nation holding that transgender students must be allowed to use bathrooms that match who they are, and the most comprehensive ruling ever supporting the rights of transgender people to access bathrooms without harassment or discrimination.
Great, GREAT news.
Allyson Robinson Fired from OutServe
A mere nine months into her position, Allyson Robinson was forced to step down as a result of what Bilerico is calling a “board coup”. There does seem to be evidence of board manipulation, but more than anything is the evidence that quite a few other board members – now a third of the board – have resigned in protest.
Because trans military were not included in DADT, and the US military still doesn’t accept openly service trans people, Robinson’s leadership was necessary. We in the trans community will keep watching this closely to see what happened, and where the organization – and the political mission of trans inclusion in the US military – will go from here.
Allyson is both a friend and colleague, and I have no doubt she will go on to do even more amazing things than she has already.
Fund Seattle’s Trans Pride
It hasn’t happened since 1997, and now Seattle is having a Trans Pride March & Rally, but they need a little bit more funding.
From their website:
Why Give to this Campaign:
Gender Justice League was excited to receive a $15,292.00 grant from the City of Seattle’s Neighborhoods Department match-grant program on April 15th for Trans* Pride Seattle! However, to receive these funds we must raise half of this amount by our event date of June 28th, 2013! With your help we can do it! Double your money by donating, for every dollar you give up to $7,500, the City of Seattle will give us two dollars!! Please check out our video, visit the Trans* Pride Seattle website, and share this campaign with your friends, families, and allies!
Even a small donation will help, so help if you can.
Welcome Newbies
I’m noticing a lot of newbies reading and commenting here, so I just wanted to say hello, and maybe add a caveat: this blog is 10 years old, & there’s plenty I’ve written here that I don’t even agree with anymore. So do keep that in mind as you read, or not. I don’t like editing/changing history, so I leave it as is, but do please ask for an update if you find yourself reading an old post & wondering why I’m such an asshole.
Otherwise, welcome!