In framing the title/subject of this piece it is not my intent to spell out a detailed critical analysis of an LGBTQ movement in this brief essay, though rather, as best as I can from my perspective, initiate a framework for such an analysis and most importantly hopefully engender a collaborative dialogue on this subject.

The basic premise of this analysis frames itself around the value and effectiveness of a lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, queer (add your own other labels) community to rally around the implicit connotation of a full LGBTQ equality movement.  Is this a movement to secure full equality for all diverse genders and sexualities? Is this a movement demanding true sexual and gender revolution or simply sexual and gender reforms?  Is this a movement that truly represents all peoples and diversities within the LGBTQ communities? Or is this a movement to assure full equality within the heterosexual framework of western culture?

I hear many times and from many people that yes the LGBT Equality movement stands for full and diverse equality.  Sadly after many years as a minority trans activist working within this LGBTQ equality movement, I have come to learn that the answer for me is no.  From my perspective, it is by no stretch of the imagination an LGBTQ equality movement in the sense of any true revolutionary movement. [Read more →]

The Boston Anti-Authoritarian Movement’s 23rd Monthly Newsletter is now
available for PDF Download. Hard copies will soon be distributed to
community centers and newspaper boxes.

This month’s issue:
-The American Revolution Failed, pg 2
-Dyke March, pg 3
-Dissent and Repression in Iran, pg 4
-The MTA is Dead, Long live the MTA, p 6
-Protesters Voice Concern for Indigenous Massacre
in Peru, p 8
-Technological Emancipation, p 9

Download PDF HERE:
http://boston.indymedia.org/newswire/display/207899/index.php

See also:
http://BaamBoston.org
http://NeAnarchist.net

SEND SUBMISSIONS TO: anarchoqueer@gmail.com
AND PLEASE FORWARD WIDELY!

As Radical Queers, we are in a constant war against the HRC. Our frustrations run much deeper than ENDA or any other single issue. However, I have often found myself unable to substantiate my frustrations when talking with more mainstream “LGBT” folks. So, me and a friend are planning to compile and edit a zine on why we hate the HRC. We are looking for more radical perspectives written in a language that would be accessible to more mainstream “LGBT” folks.

Talking points could/should include, but are not limited to:

Racism, Classism, Assimilation, Militarism/Imperialism, Transphobia, The Prison-Industrial Complex, The Non-Profit Industrial Complex, Immigration as a Queer Issue, Public Sex/Sexuality and Pleasure (and how the HRC tries to hide that as a part of our identities), The culture of respectability, Healthcare.

Or maybe, even more fundamentally, why there are no “separate issues.”

We would also be interested in writings on things people have done, actions that have been taken against the HRC, and why we don’t need the HRC. (We can do this shit ourselves!)

Remember, the intended audience is mainstream “LGBT” folks who aren’t already radical– this is an attempt to radicalize them!– so please make sure submissions are written in a way that will make sense to these folks. (I.e. don’t assume somebody knows what the prison industrial complex is or why we don’t like it.)

PLEASE EMAIL SUBMISSIONS, QUESTIONS, COMMENTS, SUGGESTIONS TO: anarchoqueer@gmail.com.

AND PLEASE FORWARD WIDELY!

Thanks!

Solidarity and Sodomy,
~Saffo

 Full text can be found at IllVox

Reclaiming Choice for Native Women

By Jessica Yee, Racialicious

June 22, 2009 – 8:00am

I am Native. And I’m pro-choice. Many people seem to think this is an oxymoron – but to me, it makes perfect sense. I have unraveled much of the oppression I was forced to swallow and internalize over the years, which obstructed my ability to wholly see that concepts of “choice” and having “options” in our sexual and reproductive lives are really not new things at all. Moreover, I am entitled to advocate for choice from within my culture, which has always valued women’s choices and decision-making.  First and second wave feminism did not “give” my people reproductive rights; in fact those of us in Native communities had them a long time ago. And how “pro-choice” identities play out in our communities now probably looks a lot different than what most people think. [Read the rest here]

From “Notes From Hel,” by Helen Ubinas

Be sure to read the comments for a more thorough, but still incomplete, fleshing out of the issue. The flag was raised again yesterday, June 24th.

If you were at Thursday night’s LGBT event at city hall, I hope you got a good shot of the pride flag.

Because it was abruptly taken down Friday afternoon.

Want to know who to thank, city hall sources said?

Find the rest of the entry here. *For “allies” and “advocates” (and apologists): how to avoid screwed up conversations like that in the comments section here.

Updates here and here.

And, on a related note, check out the Jamaica Forum for Lesbians, All-Sexuals and Gays here.

I think the way a number of (but not all) QWB members feel about the marriage equality movement is either known or easy to intuit, with the same applying to Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell. There are also few amongst our ranks deluded by the inauthenticity of hope here. However, bullshit is bullshit, anticipated or not, and the latest bullshit is Obama’s justice [little j] department’s ruling on DOMA. Check it out: in the immortal words of Ice Cube, “Here’s what they think about you.“

You can find further commentary at Queers Against Obama. Yes, it is quite rude, but that’s much better than quite quiet, right?

Bonus Bullshit! From Pam’s House Blend- More on fair-weather progressive ‘friends’ selectively defending DOMA

Originally posted at http://nyc.indymedia.org/en/2009/06/105851.html

Gang of queers force Nazi out of Albany Pride march.

We found 41 year old “Spanish Blue Blood,” a self proclaimed
“stormtrooper” of the National Socialist Movement and senior moderator
of the NSM’s official party forum, sitting on a bus bench waiting for
a crew that never showed. The second he saw us he split for the street
but didn’t get far til we caught up with him and gave him what he
deserved.

“Spanish Blue Blood,” who lives in the Colonie area of Albany, had
been trying for weeks to draw up enough people to stage a counter
protest of Albany’s Capital Pride march but apparently he couldn’t
even get a single person out. He recently celebrated his 41st birthday
on June 9th so we delivered some belated gifts-in the form of tightly
balled fists. The gang beat him until the cops showed and we made our
way back into the park with no arrests.

-A motley crew of queers, anti-fascists, and anarchists

Chicago Police Attack Queers at Bash Back! written by Max Montana

Chicago Police attempt to re-enact Stonewall by rioting against queers. On Saturday night, May 30th, a group of approximately 100 queers disembarked the red line train at the Belmont stop into Chicago’s Boystown area. Intending to march around a bit, the crowd found themselves too large to fit on the sidewalk (especially in an area where bars are frequent and patrons and tables spill out the front doors). Most of the crowd moved into the street, walking around cars and allowing cars to pass in the middle.

A few blocks down, the crowd took a left turn, and the police showed up from behind. In attempting to get their cars around the crowd, they repeatedly ran into people’s legs, in some cases knocking the victim onto the hood of the car, then slamming on their brakes to cause the person to fall to the ground.

During this time a few queers at the back of the crowd moved one newspaper box and one trash can (without spilling the trash) into the road in front of cop cars. A few other queers, yelling things like “no!” and “this is nonviolent!” moved the items back to the sidewalk (see sibling article, “What Happened at BashBack?” for more details on this incident).

[ Kristin’s note: In my opinion this was fucked up and endangered people in the street by providing a clearer path for the cops to attack and target people from behind, which is what happened. Discomfort with certain tactics is totally okay, but in these situations please disengage and direct your energies to something you feel more comfortable with, separate from the other action!!! Damn. ]

As a few cop cars got to the front of the crowd. The first car in the line stopped and the cop jumped out and ran at the crowd, which parted down a residential side street. The cop stopped, shook his baton at the crowd, then went back to his car. The first few cars followed the crowd onto the side street. More cops parked and began running into the crowd, grabbing queers seemingly at random (although they did catch a high percentage of non-gender-conforming folks) and proceeding to beat them with batons and extendable asps. At this time, there was a scream from the middle of the crowd, and then people shouting, “he just ran her foot over!” The patient was helped out of the fray and a medic took over her evacuation.

During this time, at least 8 cops were involved in the beating of at least 10 queers in the crowd. They drug queers into the street and proceeded to hit them with batons, the queers falling to the ground in attempts to protect their heads. Reports tell of at least five successful unarrests as queers watched each other’s backs. One queer, after very nearly escaping a very determined cop, was cornered against a building. The cop, waving his baton in the queer’s face, kept repeating, “It’s over, do you understand? It’s over. Take your mask off.” The queer, obviously feeling like it was not over, took advantage of a lapse of attention from the cop and took off again, successfully escaping into the crowd.

It appears that the most-targeted individuals were those who conform less to binary systems of gender. This was evidenced in the continued targeting of one of the eventual arrestees, when a cisgendered person put herself between the cop and his target and, instead of being hit, was told, “Move it!”

A summary of the injuries suffered by people in the crowd (not just the arrestees)- a broken big toe, bruised ribs (three people, one of which developed into pneumonia), bruised kidney, sprained fingers with accompanying infection, separated ligaments in the shoulder, soft tissue damage to the elbow, and uncountable bruises, cuts and scrapes.

In the end, four people were arrested, and spent the remainder of the night being harassed and tormented in the jail. At the holding facility, still in Boystown, the queers were mocked for their choices of hairstyle, questioned without being Mirandized, and threatened with rape (”you won’t like it when we leave you in a cell with Tyrone. He’ll sure like you though.”)

Each of the arrestees, now called the Fabulous Four, is facing a misdemeanor charge of Aggravated Assault of a Police Officer with Hands/Minimal Damage. Three of them are also facing combinations of Obstructing Justice, Evading a Police Officer, Refusal to Obey an Officer, and Resisting Arrest. All of their charges can be summed up in layperson’s terms as, “Refusing to Allow Self to be Arrested for No Reason.” For that, we must stand behind the Fabulous Four and support them throughout their court process. It could have been any one of us that was there that night, but certain people, even in a crowd of queers, were targeted based on their appearance, and we need to unite behind them.

The first appearance (arraignment) of the Fabulous Four will be on August 7th in Chicago. More information to come about how to best support them will come in the future- at this point we are not sure who will need travel fees, or if the charges will just be dropped altogether, opening the way for a quick civil case. In the meantime, take this month of the anniversary of Stonewall to think about what liberation of queers means, and at what cost to our community it comes, and look for things you can do, either as a queer or as an ally, to support us in our quest.

X POSTED
PLEASE REPOST WIDELY

[ second note: PLEASE do not post any identifying information about folks there in either comments or elsewhere without their consent!! ]

if you haven’t seen this video on You Tube, definitely watch it here.  Lyrics follow the vid.

“Homophobia” is a song from Chumbawamba’s album Anarchy, concerning the topic of modern homophobia.

Homophobia lyrics
Up behind the Bus-stop in the toilets off the streets
There are traces of a killing on the floor beneath your feet
Mixed up with the piss and beer are bloodstains on the floor
From the boy who got his head kicked in a night or two before [Read more →]

http://www.bostondykemarch.com/

This year’s Boston Dyke March is on Friday, June 12, 2009 at 6pm.
Please sign up on our meetup site and/or facebook profile to keep up to date.

Every year, we gather at the Boston Common Gazebo at 6:00 p.m. The march route is posted here.

Everyone is invited and welcome to march.

Join Mitch M. from the Workers Solidarity Alliance (http://workersolidarity.org/), Skip from NEFAC (http://www.nefac.net/), and Roger from Wrench in the Works Collective (http://www.wrenchintheworks.org/) for a discussion on the purposes and uses of anarchist specific organizations. How can we create a fighting working class movement? What role does the organization play in maintaining that movement?

We’re meeting in the large Gallery (downstairs) at Charter Oak Cultural Center in Hartford (21 Charter Oak Ave) at 5pm.

See you there!!

Contact:
Cindi Creager
Director of National News
(646) 871-8019
creager@glaad.org <mailto:creager@glaad.org>
Richard Ferraro
Director of Public Relations
(646) 871-8011
ferraro@glaad.org <mailto:ferraro@glaad.org>
June 2, 2009— In a lengthy May 28 tirade on the Rob, Arnie & Dawn in the Morning radio show heard in Sacramento, California on KRXQ 98.5 FM and Reno, Nevada on KDOT 104.5 FM, hosts Rob Williams and Arnie States verbally attacked transgender children. While discussing a recent story about a transgender child in Omaha, Nebraska and her parents’ decision to support her transition, the two hosts spent more than 30 minutes explicitly promoting child abuse of and making cruel, dehumanizing and defamatory comments toward transgender children. [Read more →]

The International Queer Solidarity Network calls for a European mobilization, with support from the United States, that will stand in solidarity with Queer Bulgaria. On June 28th 2008, neo-Nazi groups aggressively attacked the first LGBTQ Pride march in Sofia, Bulgaria. A week before the march, the Bulgarian National Alliance, the most visible nationalist organization in the country, called for a “week of intolerance.” The BNA strongly encouraged nationalistic groups to organize themselves against the right of the queer community in Bulgaria to peacefully march, which resulted in loosely organized violence during the festivities.

BNA members and other neo-Nazis threw molotov cocktails and small explosives at the participants of the Pride march. Fortunately, no injuries were reported. However, more than eighty skinheads, including Boyan Rasate (head of the BNA) were arrested for their attempted harm and direct violence toward pride participants. This year neo-Nazi groups are once again organizing themselves against the march and Bulgarian queers’ ability to defend their human rights. The Bulgarian government not only tolerates but also encourages such attitudes. Two of the parties in the Parliament of Bulgaria are nationalistic and one of them, Ataka, called for “the men to beat up the gays.”

In addition, the Prime Minister of Bulgaria and head of the “socialist” party, Sergei Stanishev, subtly, through hidden sparks of hatred, said that he did not like the “manifestation and demonstration of such orientations.” Even though the rights of LGBTQ people in Bulgaria are protected by the constitution, this is yet more empty rhetoric in the hands of the powerful. The queer community refuses to give up its rights to a free assembly. There will be another Pride march on the 27th of June 2009. Let’s unite and stand together against the homophobic and transphobic state of Bulgaria and growing neo-Nazism in Europe.

The International Queer Solidarity Network calls for a European mobilization, with support from the United States, that will stand in solidarity with Queer Bulgaria. For more information on how you can help you can contact: iqsn@riseup.net or sofiagaypride2009@gmail.com If you cannot attend the Pride, visit www.iqsn.org for more information on how you can help.

www.youtube.com/watch?v=w6oz3yeW5yo

e-mail: iqsn@riseup.net

Download Now

The official zine of Queers Without Borders is now out for public consumption. If anybody can make copies we’d love to have some on-hand for the radical queer convergence in Chicago this weekend. Inside is the current draft of “This document is queer as fuck,” as well as poetry, stories, opinion and more.

Printing and viewing is fairly straight-forward. Just go by the page numbers at the bottom of each sheet, and print front-and-back. Fold down the middle. This zine is a little different, in that it folds the long way instead of wide, so the finished product is 4.25″ x 11″.

The following was forwarded on to QWB.  Also see the Audre Lorde project website for follow up actions.  As an aside, the NYPD routinely stops trans folks. A great comrade to qwb, Dru Levasseur, testified before the Committee on Public Safety and the Committee on Civil Rights of the New York State Assembly about the New York City Police Department’s stop and frisk procedures and their impact on trans folks (click here to read testimony). [Read more →]

To organize a broad delegation of Connecticut Activists to attend the National Assembly to End the Iraq and Afghanistan Wars and Occupations

In June of 2008 - in a year without a single national mass anti-war demonstration - over 400 anti-war activists from 26 states and Canada met for a national anti-war conference in Cleveland Ohio to rejuvenate the anti-war movement and unite it in the streets.  Through an open democratic process of one-person-one-vote they assembled an action plan which they proposed to the broad anti-war movement for the following year.  [Read more →]

 Please post feedback and suggestions. I’m pretty happy with it, though admittedly the image I picked has everything to do with the fact that it fits into the space that I had to work with.

Middletown, Cheshire, Plainfield, Hartford … It seems that the media and many other complicit folks and entities seem to still not get that ALL LIFE HAS VALUE!  Cornell Lewis, Francis Davila and myself had attempted to bring attention to the media’s complicity in white washing urban vs surburban issues, especially when they come to violence (click here) and I certainly have written on this issue more than once (click here).  Helen Ubinas recently wrote an excellent piece (pasted below and found here), making similar points in regards to the murder of  Justin-Jinich relative to Ashley Peoples or Tiana Notice.  Sadly it seems like no matter how much things change the more they remain the same.

When Will We Treat All Murder Victims Equally?

Helen Ubinas of the Hartford Courant

‘Buzzards,” the marshal said as he looked at the growing group of reporters outside the Middletown courthouse the other day.

The man accused of gunning down Wesleyan University student Johanna Justin-Jinich was due inside a third-floor courtroom. The appearance was brief; Stephen Morgan didn’t even enter a plea. [Read more →]

In “honor” of the california supreme court decision coming out tuesday, i tried my hand with a new tool for doing animations.  could be a lot better with a little more time and energy, but what the hell, it’s something.  yeah equality is important but not when you and a community get sidetracked down a single issue path!  to quote audre lorde “There is no such thing as a single-issue struggle because we do not live single-issue lives” ~ enjoy and comment if you like.

This is a draft that came out of our special QWB meeting this past Sunday. We projected what I had drafted up onto a white sheet, and tore it to bits point-by-point, having some very engrossing  conversations in the process. This is a collaborative document, and will become increasingly so as we continue to revise it indefinitely and write at length about each point in queer voices. Within a week, we will be wrapping up the next issue, which will include this draft, plus perhaps a few amendments. The only major addition that is still needed is a list of labels that queerfolk of all types use to describe themselves. They may describe your gender, sexuality, style, attitude, appearance, or anything else that may be used to describe a person’s uniqueness.

[Read more →]

A great short by Pinky (pinkyshow.org) titled: Banked into Submission: The Globalizationalist’s Guide to Developing Poverty.  Click here to see the many other creative pieces from the pinky show.

On Mother’s Day, I remember my mom. My father left us when I was thirteen years old and my mother was left with three children–me being the worst.

When I was younger, I didn’t understand patriarchy and capitalism. I knew that my life was different from the wealthier kids I knew. Our homes were different, our language was different, our opportunities were different–even our diets were different. Nevertheless, my working class mother, being double-binded–exploited as a member of the working class and oppressed as a woman–worked tirelessly to put meals on the table and keep a roof over our heads. I was too young and hurt to really understand what this meant. In retrospect, I realize I blamed my mother for my father leaving. In many respects, I wronged her and didn’t fully appreciate the sacrifices she made so I could try to pull myself into a better material existence.

My mother taught me to be a feminist–though a liberal feminist. My radicalism came later in life. She also exposed me to her friends who taught me about matriarchal religions and worldviews that weren’t centered around male dominance and control.

I’ve since shed my liberalism and my religiosity. But I’ve grown into a radical and feminist man with the help of my mother, her friends, and some people I met on my own along the way. In many respects, I’ve come to realize that our mothers are ourselves. Most of us have experienced some form of oppression. Likewise, most of us have acted as an oppressor. To me, recognizing the interconnectedness of these hierarchies is the root of the radical project.

The first step, I think, is recognizing that oppression and exploitation are wrong–no need for a high-handed analysis here. It’s that simple. Next, we attempt to build analyses and movements that recognize institutionalized oppression as our enemy–that no woman is free as long as there are rich and poor. That no person of color is free until we have smashed patriarchy. That no working class person is free until we have built a society in which no group is routinely exploited and oppressed. To me (and many others), anarchism is the theoretical perspective that best equips us with ways to overcome the shitty world we’ve all inherited.

I’m thankful to have met so many radicals along the way that have challenged me in various ways to be a better human being–teaching me new ideas, arguing heatedly with me, and also being my friend when things are going badly. All of them have been my teachers. But, most of all, I am thankful for my mother. Recognizing the piece of her within me has helped me build a vision of a future without the constraints placed on us in a world built on hierarchy, control, and domination.

I love you, mom.

-Deric Shannon

Dear Friends and Allies,

This is a draft of a statement I’ve written as some kind of “about us” for QWB, coming out of the brief opinion piece I posted recently about taking it to the next level. We will be meeting on Sunday at 5:30pm at Metropolitican Community Church, 155 Wyllys St to discuss this more. If you can’t make it, please post your reactions and we will take them into account.

The idea behind this is something that is comprehensive, sets us apart, and is written in accessible language.

• We are a collective of people with diverse backgrounds, ages, identities and a variety of progressive political outlooks. We are committed to creating a welcoming space for political action with a solid foundation of respect.

• We want a free world based on equality, education and healthy relationships. We believe in each person’s right to free expression of gender and sexuality, based on the desires of the consenting individual, not by other peoples’ definitions and prejudices.

• We oppose the violence and discrimination in our communities, workplaces and schools against anyone regardless of their sexuality, disability, gender, ethnicity, race, spirituality or national origin. We will stop all efforts to terrorize us into submission here in Connecticut, elsewhere in the United States, and around the world–we are here, there and everywhere.

• We seek to build grassroots power to directly confront injustice and inequality. We seek to create new liberating cultures based on the value of difference, free of domination and ignorance.

• We reject injustice in all its forms, be it military occupation, police brutality, [fascist?] mob violence or corporate tyranny. We take sides. We fight for concrete improvements in the quality of life for all poor and working people, winning demands from the ruling class, and never collaborating with them. We want Queer Revolution for a better tomorrow.

Referred by RHA and reported by NY Times

The Bloomberg administration has quietly begun charging rent to homeless families who live in publicly run shelters but have income from jobs.

The new policy is based on a 1997 state law that was not enforced until last week, when shelter operators across the city began requiring residents to pay a certain portion of their income. The amount varies based on factors that include family size and what shelter is being used, but should not exceed 50 percent of a family’s income, a state official said.

Vanessa Dacosta, who earns $8.40 an hour as a cashier at Sbarro, received a notice under her door several weeks ago informing her that she had to give $336 of her approximately $800 per month in wages to the Clinton Family Inn, a shelter in Hell’s Kitchen where she has lived since March.

“It’s not right,” said Ms. Dacosta, a single mother of a 2-year-old who said she spends nearly $100 a week on child care. “I pay my baby sitter, I buy diapers, and I’m trying to save money so I can get out of here. I don’t want to be in the shelter forever.” [Read more →]

From jason at www.blackandpink.org 

URGENT PRESS CONFERENCE ON MONDAY AT 3PM IN DUDLEY SQUARE
END YOUR SILENCE, END THE VIOLENCE!!!
NO MORE YOUTH DEATHS
LET DARRELL OUT OF SOLITARY
INVESTIGATE MASSACHUSETTS PRISONS

Darrell Jones is a prisoner at Old Colony prison. He has been working mad hard from the inside to stay connected with the community and harness the influence of OG’s in prison to support young folks in the street by encouraging them to stop violence and stay out of prison. They created a video series to share with young people in our communities. They are horrified by the lack of relevant support for youth, and are scared like many of us for what the summer will bring without resources or jobs.

Darrell also created the only program in Old Colony to serve black men called African Heritage. It was the best attended program in

[Read more →]

On May 4, 1970, the National Guard opened fire on a peaceful anti-war protest at Kent State University in Ohio.  The attack left four dead and nine wounded.

[Read more →]

A Talk by Jeff Mackler

The bankers would have us believe that there is only one way out of this economic crisis: use working peoples’ tax dollars to bail out the speculators. Socialists think that there is a more rational and just solution. And that working people have the power to make it happen.

Wednesday May 13, 7 p.m.
La Paloma Sabanera Coffeehouse
405 Capitol Ave., Hartford, CT 06106
For more information: Sean at 860 357 8724

Jeff Mackler biography:
Mackler has written and lectured widely from a socialist perspective. His numerous books, pamphlets and articles cover a range of subjects including revolutionary developments in Latin America, the Cuban Revolution, Marxist analyses of the unfolding world economic meltdown, global warming/climate crisis, health care, trade union struggles and the fight to build the U.S. antiwar movement. Mackler is the National Secretary of Socialist Action and was his party’s 2006 candidate for the U.S. Senate in California.

from our comrades at radical women…

Immigrant rights are a feminist fight!

Around the world, May Day is a working peoples’ holiday. For decades, the United States has tried to ignore it. But massive May Day marches in 2006 demanding justice for immigrants sparked a resurgence of this day of action. And those huge mobilizations made a difference.

They led to the utter defeat of the racist Sensenbrenner bill in the U.S. Congress. And they fueled successful opposition to all the “reforms” lawmakers have come up with since then. Most of these unacceptable proposals included temporary worker programs, forced detentions, militarized borders, and exorbitant fines for undocumented workers. However, ICE raids and deportations are still a brutal reality. And now the world has plunged into a financial crisis. [Read more →]

The Sex Workers Empowerment Project (SWEP), $pread Magazine, and WITNESS are hosting a full-day training on video advocacy, specifically for sex worker organizing and advocacy. This training will provide participants with a range of effective strategies for using video in their human rights documentation and advocacy, including a basic overview of filming. The training focuses on Setting up a “cop watch” program, including effectively utilizing video to be used in legislative advocacy and to present to UN treaty bodies in order to pressure responsible parties to take action to stop abuse by police.

.
WHO: Sex Worker advocates and organizers
WHEN: 9am - 4pm, Friday May 8th at the WITNESS conference center in Brooklyn. Morning coffee and lunch provided (with vegan-friendly options).
COST: $20 (covers the basic costs– use of facilities, lunch, etc.). If someone would like to attend and cannot afford the entire $20, please contact Email SWEP@gmail.com

..
. THERE IS A LIMITED SPACE. Please rsvp to SWEP@gmail.com  if you plan to come. Your input about what else might be useful to learn or incorporate in this training would be greatly appreciated.  Please include any and all suggestions in your RSVP. Thank you!

More About the Training: [Read more →]

cross posted from sdsqueercaucus

Over the last few years mainstream gay advocacy groups have focused their efforts on one issue, a panacea to seemingly solve all forms of inequality that gays are faced with: marriage rights. With the passage of Proposition 8 this summer in California, many people’s hopes that gays would achieve full equality in this country were dashed. What was even more distressing, however, was the wave of racist backlash against people of color in California, who were accused of being the cause of Prop 8’s passage (this is a completely unfounded claim, as studies have shown). When I look at the actions of HRC, GLAAD, and other mainstream gay advocacy groups from the past years, they make me sad to call myself queer. In particular, their perpetual focus on marriage rights as the most pressing issue facing queers, the only obstacle blocking the [Read more →]

Written by Dykonoclast

At 9AM on Tuesday April 28th, somewhere between 50-70 people came to the iconic Park Street Church across from Boston Common to attend an Exodus Ministries training.  Attendees watched a video wherein ‘former homosexuals’ and ‘former lesbians’ spoke of the power of god to heal ’sexual brokenness’ and restore heterosexual desires to the most fallen of souls.  During the ‘male homosexuality’ portion of the training, ‘former homosexual’ Jeff Buchanan shared his experience of having turned from his homosexual past, as well as the causes of male homosexuality, which include resentment of male authority and lack of bonding with fathers.  [Read more →]

From The New York Times,  April 15th

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/04/15/arts/15sedgwick.html

Eve Kosofsky Sedgwick, a Pioneer of Gay Studies and a Literary Theorist, Dies at 58

Eve Kosofsky Sedgwick, whose critical writings on the ambiguities of sexual identity in fiction helped create the discipline known as queer studies, died on Sunday in Manhattan. She was 58.

The cause was breast cancer, her husband, Hal Sedgwick, said.

Ms. Sedgwick broke new ground when, drawing on feminist scholarship and the work of the French poststructuralist Michel Foucault, she began teasing out the hidden socio-sexual subplots in writers like Charles Dickens and Henry James. In a 1983 essay on Dickens’s novel “Our Mutual Friend,” she drew attention to the homoerotic element in the obsessive relationship between Eugene Wrayburn and Bradley Headstone, rivals for the love of Lizzie Hexam but emotionally most fully engaged when facing off against each other. [Read more →]

On a local level QWB is quite a little phenomenon. We’ve had some startling successes and the character of the organization has remained uniquely positive since before we even took up the banner. As an amateur organizer, one thing I know is that success needs to be capitalized upon, otherwise the point becomes somewhat academic, though certainly not without value. So I have some arguments I’d like to make in favor of some directions for QWB to move in; I apologize in advance for making declarative statements, that’s just how I write oftentimes, and should be read as only my opinion and totally open to criticism.
[Read more →]

….Just got this in this morning. From what I understand, the occupation only lasted a few hours before police dropped tear gas into the building, arrested the students, as well as supporters and demonstrators on the outside. A report from a comrade in NYC said that red and black anarchist banners flew outside the building and one participant said “We demand everything! We demand communism!”…Brave souls and let’s hope this trend spreads to other universities and workplaces. We can run our own lives without the need for bosses–whether capitalist bosses or political bosses! Smash capitalism and the state!

THE NEW SCHOOL HAS BEEN REOCCUPIED!
SUPPORT NEEDED IMMEDIATELY!
PLEASE COME TO 65 5TH AVE, BETWEEN 13TH AND 14TH STWE NEED YOU!!!
RALLY AT 9AM!!!!!

New School students have just reoccupied the entire graduate faculty building at 65 5th Ave, in NYC, fully barricading themselves inside until President Kerrey and Vice-President Murtha resign. This is the same building that was occupied from December 17-19th of last year in protest of President Bob Kerrey’s mismanagement of the university. On February 10th, students announced they would “shut down the university” if President Kerrey and Vice-President Murtha did not resign by April 1st. With their demand still unmet as of this date, students have once again reclaimed this neglected, symbolic building which housed the New School for Social Research. This time, however, the entire building has been occupied. On the 75th anniversary of the University in Exile, New School students are reclaiming the tradition of protest and political action that birthed the university and gave it meaning for generations to come.

…But we still have a load of work to do!

RNC 8, FRIENDS OF THE RNC 8 SPEAK ABOUT POLITICAL MANEUVERING

April 9, 2009 Press Contact: Celia Kutz, press@rnc8.org, 612-886-4565

Originally facing a single charge–Conspiracy to Riot in Furtherance of Terrorism–Gaertner’s office added three additional charges against the eight defendants in December of last year. Now, two of those charges have been dropped, clearly demonstrating that all the charges are a matter of political maneuvering, not a reasoned look at the evidence.

On March 28, supporters delivered to Susan Gaertner’s office a stack of over 3,000 petitions urging her to drop all four charges. Among other statements, a resolution from the 17,000-member Duluth Central Labor Body in support of the RNC 8 was also delivered. National media attention, including an appearance on MSNBC on Wednesday morning, has drawn significant attention to the case at the same time as Gaertner is accelerating her campaign for Governor–having just hired full-time staffers, opened an office on University Avenue, and planned appearances at several DFL events in the next month. Additionally, the broad-based RNC 8 Defense Committee has succeeded in calling widespread attention to the Minnesota PATRIOT Act, and played an instrumental role in applying the pressure that led to this reduction of charges.

In removing the controversial MN PATRIOT Act from the debate at this moment, Susan Gaertner obviously hopes to defray the costs of this unprecedented prosecution on her campaign for Governor, and to mitigate the overwhelmingly negative public opinion of Ramsey County’s repressive behavior during and since the RNC.

“Make no mistake,” said defendant Luce Guillen-Givins, “This change to the complaint against us is a token gesture meant to placate our supporters and bolster a floundering political prosecution.”

As defendant Eryn Trimmer pointed out, “This move only focuses attention more acutely on the outrageous nature of the two remaining charges, Conspiracy to Commit Riot and Conspiracy to Commit Criminal Damage to Property.”

In the months leading up to the RNC, the defendants were involved in open, public organizing with a broad coalition of Twin Cities activists and community members. We continue to assert that the only “conspiracy” committed by the RNC 8 was to provide basic and necessary infrastructure for people who wished to engage in their fundamental right to dissent.

“We’re relieved and gratified that the most sensational part of the charges has been dropped,” said St. Paul peace and justice activist Betsy Raasch-Gilman, member of Friends of the RNC 8. She continued, “We hope that the conspiracy charges will also be dropped. If planning a protest can be called conspiracy, the right to free speech is in real danger.”

Friends of the RNC 8 asks Susan Gaertner to continue in the direction of justice by dropping all the remaining charges, thereby saving enormous financial resources for the people of Minnesota in this time of rampant foreclosures, unemployment and economic turmoil. We also remind supporters that while we should rightly celebrate this small victory, the time for increased action to defend the RNC 8 is now. Political organizing is not conspiracy. Dissent is not a crime.

FFI on the case and recent and upcoming events: www.RNC8.org
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From: http://www.365gay.com/news/connecticut-gay-group-disbands/  

(Hartford, Connecticut) Saying its work is done, a Connecticut gay rights group will disband at the end of the year.

For a decade Love Makes A Family fought for adoption rights for gay and lesbian couples and for same-sex marriage rights in the state.

Last year, the Connecticut Supreme Court ruled that same-sex couples have the right to wed in Connecticut. The state’s 2005 civil union law doesn’t give same-sex couples equal status of married heterosexual couples, the court said.

The lawsuit was brought by the Boston-based Gay and Lesbian Advocates & Defenders, the same group that won marriage equality in Massachusetts.

But it was Love Makes a Family that was instrumental in swaying politicians and the public.

The legislature currently is in the processes of passing a bill updating dozens of state laws to conform with the court ruling.

“We accomplished our core purpose, and we want to end on a high note,” Anne Stanback, executive director of Love Makes a Family, told a news conference.

Stanback made the announcement surrounded by members of the group and beside a huge picture of a gay couple slicing a wedding cake.

Stanback said that even though Love Makes a Family will officially disband, it will maintain a political action committee to endorse LGBT-positive candidates.

The bill to harmonize state law with the high court marriage ruling was approved Monday by the Judiciary Committee on a 30-10 vote. It now heads to a vote by the Senate.

The omnibus bill would remove gender references in current state laws and transform same-sex civil unions into legally recognized marriages as of October 2010.

The measure also would strip language from a 1991 state anti-discrimination law that says Connecticut does not condone gay marriage and will not set quotas for hiring gay workers or encourage teaching in school about “same-sex lifestyles.”

In one of my many pursuits in documenting our Trans hirstory, I stumbled across this blog posting from 2007. Considering we are approaching the 40th anniversary of the Rebellion, I hope to post a number of relevant stuff over the months.

The following poem was published in one of the many “fagzines” created by Ralph Hall, a collection of poems called The Divas of Sheridan Square. Ralph was an artist who was much influenced by the underground artists and rock concert poster artists of the ’60s. The poem itself was written by Jimmy Centola, who was a member of the Hot Peaches, a gender-fuck theater troupe not unlike the Cockettes, but not as anarchic (I don’t mean that philosophically, i mean they were a better organized troupe). Mind you, it was published sometime around 1979, long before Marsha died, but it so captured her voice, and a phrase that she made famous: Pay It No Mind, which as the story goes, Marsha said to a judge when he asked her what the P. in her name stood for.

Marsha P. Johnson, who was a transgendered activist present at the Stonewall riots, was also a founding member of an organization that could only have been started in the 1970s - S.T.A.R. - Street Transvestite Action Revolutionaries (if it sounds like a Warhol film, you’re remembering Women In Revolt, in which trans-glamour diva Candy Darling joins a radical feminist group called P.I.G. - Politically Involved Girls ). Marsha was about as sweet as they come, a fixture on the mean streets who was always ready with a smile. And as we approach Queer Pride Day, I wanted to share this forgotten gem of a poem that tells the history of Stonewall and of what happened to the gay movement by the late 70s in Marsha’s voice.

Can you spare any change for a dying queen dar-ling?
I mean I am dying.
I know you don’t believe me.
But I know what I’m talking about.
Yes I do.
Us queens know what we’re talking about because we’re for liberation, yes we are.
Look at the Stonewall.
When I first came to New York
all pressed and clean
in a white shirt and tie
what my mother bought me
I heard about the Stonewall
so I thought I’d go over and
check it out
and LORD!
Men are dancing with men
and one more gorgeous than another
and way in the back were my sisters, honey
turning it out in gold lame and wigs for days.

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