Have compassion for all beings, rich and poor alike; each has their suffering. Some suffer too much, others too little. - (सिद्धार्थ गौतम)
Sunday, October 3, 2010
Quote of the day via HimalayaCrafts:
All that we are is the result of what we have thought. If a man speaks or acts with an evil thought, pain follows him. If a man speaks or acts with a pure thought, happiness follows him, like a shadow that never leaves him. - (सिद्धार्थ गौतम)
Saturday, October 2, 2010
Via JMG: NOM Fires Back At HRC
In response to the Human Rights Campaign's NOM Exposed website, NOM has created Exposing NOM Exposed. NOM's Brian Brown cackles: Sometimes you just have to have a good belly laugh. Don't get me wrong—the work we are doing is serious and important. But when the largest same-sex marriage group in the nation, with its annual budget of $40 million, decides to launch a new website to "expose" NOM and the work we are doing together, I have to wonder what they were thinking. Seriously. Go visit the site for yourself: NOMExposed.org.
When I first went to the site, I half-expected Vincent Price's voice to start streaming from the site at any moment because it looked like a fan-site for the "Thriller" video. It is seriously the most over-the-top, ghoulishly designed, hilariously campy website I have ever seen. Ever. While the site itself is a joke, the reasons behind it are not: Intimidation, bullying & religious bigotry. But we will not be silenced. Will you stand with us to protect marriage and religious liberty?
Via Teaching Tolerance: 'It Gets Better' Can Help LGBT Kids Survive
Billy Lucas grew up an Indiana farm boy in Greensburg—halfway between Indianapolis and Cincinnati, Ohio. He grew up winning blue ribbons for his prized and much loved horses and lambs. He also grew up enduring taunts, threats, and physical abuse from bullies. He grew up with those bullies telling him he should kill himself because they thought he was gay. Whether he was or not, Billy never said.
In early September, Billy Lucas stopped growing up. He tied a horse’s lead around his neck and hanged himself in the barn. He was 15. Reports from friends and fellow students described a pattern of harassment at Greensburg High that had been escalating. The day he died, Billy had been suspended for lashing out verbally at those who were tormenting him. Administrators claimed ignorance of any problems. Sadly similar stories have been cropping up in the media lately.
News like this especially grieves members of the adult LGBT community, many of whom remember their own trauma and tribulations running the gauntlet of high school hallways. Studies repeatedly show that gay and questioning teens are much more likely to attempt suicide than their straight peers, especially if they come from families who strongly disapprove of homosexuality. While many progressive communities have had the guts to battle homophobia in their schools, that awareness rarely extends beyond the ring of a city’s suburbs.
How to reach LGBT youth as well as others perceived as “different” trapped in insulated communities? Dan Savage, the Seattle-based advice columnist and LGBT activist, is going straight to the besieged kids themselves via the Internet.
In response to Billy Lucas’s death, Savage has created the “It Gets Better Project.” “I realized that with things like YouTube and social media, we can talk directly to these kids,” Savage told The New York Times. “We can make an end run around the schools that don’t protect them, from parents who want to keep gay kids isolated and churches that tell them they are sinful or disordered.”
The “It Gets Better” website features video clips of LGBT adults sharing their own high school horror stories, while telling kids to stay alive because brighter days are coming. So far, there have been 131 videos posted and more than 300,000 views. “Honestly, things got better they day I left high school,” says Terry Miller at one point. Miller is Savage’s long-time partner, and together they have a 13-year-old son.
The testimonials do not downplay the bigotry and abuse the LGBT teen audience may be facing. But the Web channel’s overall message is one of hope and “don’t give up.” Some clips include the occasional four-letter words, but nothing kids don’t hear 100 times a day at school. Teachers and Gay-Straight Alliance coordinators should always keep this valuable resource in mind.
“If my adult self could talk to my 14-year-old self and tell him anything … I’d tell him there really is a place for us, a place for you,” Savage says to the camera, quoting a lyric from West Side Story. “You will have friends who love and support you. You will find love … and community.”
For LGBT youth, that message can be the difference between giving up and growing up.
McCollum is a Teaching Tolerance blogger and children’s author living near Boulder, Colo.
In early September, Billy Lucas stopped growing up. He tied a horse’s lead around his neck and hanged himself in the barn. He was 15. Reports from friends and fellow students described a pattern of harassment at Greensburg High that had been escalating. The day he died, Billy had been suspended for lashing out verbally at those who were tormenting him. Administrators claimed ignorance of any problems. Sadly similar stories have been cropping up in the media lately.
News like this especially grieves members of the adult LGBT community, many of whom remember their own trauma and tribulations running the gauntlet of high school hallways. Studies repeatedly show that gay and questioning teens are much more likely to attempt suicide than their straight peers, especially if they come from families who strongly disapprove of homosexuality. While many progressive communities have had the guts to battle homophobia in their schools, that awareness rarely extends beyond the ring of a city’s suburbs.
How to reach LGBT youth as well as others perceived as “different” trapped in insulated communities? Dan Savage, the Seattle-based advice columnist and LGBT activist, is going straight to the besieged kids themselves via the Internet.
In response to Billy Lucas’s death, Savage has created the “It Gets Better Project.” “I realized that with things like YouTube and social media, we can talk directly to these kids,” Savage told The New York Times. “We can make an end run around the schools that don’t protect them, from parents who want to keep gay kids isolated and churches that tell them they are sinful or disordered.”
The “It Gets Better” website features video clips of LGBT adults sharing their own high school horror stories, while telling kids to stay alive because brighter days are coming. So far, there have been 131 videos posted and more than 300,000 views. “Honestly, things got better they day I left high school,” says Terry Miller at one point. Miller is Savage’s long-time partner, and together they have a 13-year-old son.
The testimonials do not downplay the bigotry and abuse the LGBT teen audience may be facing. But the Web channel’s overall message is one of hope and “don’t give up.” Some clips include the occasional four-letter words, but nothing kids don’t hear 100 times a day at school. Teachers and Gay-Straight Alliance coordinators should always keep this valuable resource in mind.
“If my adult self could talk to my 14-year-old self and tell him anything … I’d tell him there really is a place for us, a place for you,” Savage says to the camera, quoting a lyric from West Side Story. “You will have friends who love and support you. You will find love … and community.”
For LGBT youth, that message can be the difference between giving up and growing up.
McCollum is a Teaching Tolerance blogger and children’s author living near Boulder, Colo.
Via JMG; HomoQuotable - Dan Savage
"The religious right points to the suicide rate among gay teenagers — which the religious right works so hard to drive up as evidence that the gay lifestyle is destructive. It's like intentionally running someone down with your car and then claiming that it isn't safe to walk the streets."Which is why I argued that every gay teen suicide is a victory for the religious right. Because, you see, your side does use those suicides to 'perpetuate [your] agenda.' Tony Perkins and all those other oddly effete defenders of 'Christian values' and 'traditional marriage' will point to this recent spate of gay teen suicides to argue against gay marriage, anti-bullying programs, against allowing gay people to serve in the military—basically, they'll gleefully use these tragedies to justify what they like to call the 'Christian, pro-family agenda.'" - Dan Savage, responding to a woman who wrote to say that her feelings were hurt by his claim that Christians are responsible for gay teen suicides.
Read Savage's complete response. It begins: "I'm sorry your feelings were hurt by my comments. No, wait. I'm not. Gay kids are dying. So let's try to keep things in perspective: fuck your feelings."
Friday, October 1, 2010
Via JMG: ACLU Staffers - It Gets Better
Just in from the ACLU:
We made our own videos to contribute to the It Gets Better Project, featuring several LGBT staffers from the national ACLU's New York and Washington, D.C. offices. Staff from many different departments — including fundraising, database, and human resources — stepped up to contribute. The ACLU's executive director, Anthony D. Romero, joined in the effort as well. Learn more about the ACLU LGBT Project's work on behalf of students and youth at www.aclu.org/safeschools.Watch both of these.
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| Dear Daniel, Equality California’s 72nd and arguably most important sponsored piece of legislation passed by the Legislature was signed into law yesterday by Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger. SB 543 -- Mental Health Services for At-Risk Youth -- is an historic bill that allows youth 12 to 17 years old to receive mental health care without requiring their parents’ consent. LGBT youth across California who are fearful that their families could become abusive or kick them out if they come out -- or refuse to consent to their obtaining mental health services -- will now be able get the help they need, before it’s too late. Equality California and Senator Mark Leno made this bill a priority to address the hostile environment too many of California's young people find themselves dealing with everyday, the kind of environment that has led to bullying, hate crimes and several recent tragic and heartbreaking suicides. This bill is one critical step to provide support for LGBT and questioning youth. But we have a long way to go to end the climate of terror that those who oppose equality and promote hatred have created. Equality California is already working on new legislation to provide greater protection for LGBT youth. Please help us continue making California a safer place for all LGBT people. The governor also signed AB 2199 (Lowenthal) – Repeal of Discriminatory Code; AB 2700 (Ma) – Separation Equity Act; and AB 2055 (De La Torre) – Unemployment Benefits Equality. These critical bills advance equality and end discriminatory treatment for many LGBT Californians, and we are grateful to the bill’s authors for their leadership and to the Governor for signing these bills into law. Unfortunately, the Governor vetoed AB 633 (Ammiano), the LGBT Prisoner Safety bill, leaving corrective institutions free to continue their outrageous policy of placing LGBT prisoners in solitary confinement as a first step in supposedly protecting them from rape and other violence. He also vetoed AB 1680 (Saldaña), the Hate Crimes Protection Act, which would have prohibited contracts requiring mandatory arbitration of hate crimes, and SB 906 (Leno), the Civil Marriage Religious Freedom Act, which would have affirmed that clergy are not required to solemnize any marriage that goes against their faith, taking an argument away from opponents of marriage equality. We will continue working to enact these protections through legislative and administrative means. Your support can help us enact these and other critical protections moving forward. This was our busiest legislative year ever. In addition to the Equality California bills that passed the Legislature, six resolutions passed that have become California’s official policy. These resolutions include support for repealing the Defense of Marriage Act; overturning Don’t Ask Don’t Tell; passing the Uniting American Families Act; lifting the Food and Drug Administration ban on accepting blood donations from gay and bisexual men; urging the 2020 Census to collect data on sexual orientation and gender identity; and requesting the IRS to accept joint returns from same-sex married and registered domestic partner couples. Our work would not have been as successful without the support from our members who helped elect fair-minded legislators; who called, wrote letters and emails, and signed petitions to their elected officials to help us get these bills passed; and, of course, donated the money that funds our legislative work in Sacramento. With your support, we will continue to change the laws and policies in California until we achieve full equality and acceptance for every LGBT person. Please give today to support this work. We have much left to accomplish. Your support and advocacy are more critical than ever to achieving full equality. In solidarity,  Geoff Kors Executive Director Equality California  |
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| Our work depends on individual financial contributions. Donate now using our secure website or download a donation form to send via fax or mail. Donations to EQCA support our political work and are therefore not tax-deductible as charitable contributions. | ||||
Thursday, September 30, 2010
Via HimalayaCrafts:
You can use your life in a very useful and intelligent way. You can very well transform that negative energy into a positive energy that empowers you and makes life meaningful. -- Zen Buddhist Monk
Via HRC:
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Dear Daniel,
This is an epidemic. Last week, Rutgers University freshman Tyler Clementi killed himself by jumping off a bridge after his roommate secretly recorded him with another male student, then broadcast the video online. I wish I could tell you this was an isolated incident. But Tyler's death as a victim of anti-gay harassment was just one of a number of recent suicides among teenagers who were ruthlessly "bullied to death." Our schools and our nation cannot sit back and wait for the next tragedy. So today, we're calling on Secretary of Education Arne Duncan to speak out immediately – and to push every school anti-bullying program in the nation to include sexual orientation and gender identity like HRC's Welcoming Schools program. Please stand with us. Tyler wasn't the only one. After months of relentless bullying, 13-year-old Seth Walsh hung himself from a tree outside his California home this week. Billy Lucas of Indiana was 15 years old when he hung himself after being called a "fag" over and over again. Asher Brown's classmates teased him without mercy and acted out mock gay sex acts in class, and last Thursday he shot himself in the head. He was only 13. And a single district in Minnesota has seen seven suicides in the last year by young victims of intolerance. As a virulently anti-LGBT candidate seeks the governor's chair (a man who could decide the fate of anti-bullying measures), it's clear that the very lives of Minnesota's children are at stake. This isn't a new problem. It's been happening for decades. And too often, administrators fail to act, even after parents complain about the bullying at school. That's why HRC developed Welcoming Schools, an innovative program that gives elementary school teachers, parents and students across the country the tools to help stop the name-calling, bullying and gender stereotyping that so many students face every day. It helps kids learn respect and tolerance early on, to prevent violence later in middle and high school. But it's up to those who run our schools – from Secretary Duncan down to every local school board – to act to end the bullying. Once you take action, I hope you'll write a letter to the editor of your local paper. I hope you'll also let educators and administrators in your local school district know about www.welcomingschools.org and explain why you want to see Welcoming Schools in elementary schools near you. The more we spread the word, the better our chances of preventing another tragedy. If school officials don't act, more young lives will be tragically lost. We can't let that happen. Sincerely,  Joe Solmonese | |
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Via JMG: WISCONSIN: Man Attacks 14 Year-Old Girl Carrying Gay Pride Flag
La Crosse, Wisconsin police are investigating an incident in which a man shoved a 14 year-old girl in an attempt to wrestle away a version of the gay pride flag the teen was going to carry in the city's Maple Leaf Parade. The teen was rollerblading and carrying a flag pole with two rainbow flags — one a hybrid of the American flag and the gay pride flag — as members of 7 Rivers LGBT Resource Center’s float prepared for the parade about 9:45 a.m. Saturday on Rose Street, said Roseanne St. Sauver, the center’s executive director. Commodore Mark Schneider, who was on a float nearby, approached the girl and put his hands on the flagpole, St. Sauver said. St. Sauver walked over, placed her hands on the pole and told him, “Please stop, she’s a 14-year-old child." “He said, ‘I do not care. Look what you are teaching them,’” St. Sauver said. That’s when, St. Sauver said, Schneider shoved the girl with his body. St. Sauver said Schneider told the girl: “Go to a country where they will hang people like you.“ The incident left the teen crying, and others upset, St. Sauver said. This is the first year the center has participated in the parade. “I had tears in my eyes,” she said. “He specifically targeted us and made statements about our sexual orientation.”Schneider says he was upset about the alteration of the American flag and not anybody's sexuality. Yeah, right. Yesterday he issued an apology to the girl and his family, presumably in return for assault charges being dropped. Here's the asshat in a news story about his being named "commodore" of Riverfest 2010.
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