a radical queer blog space that defies spatial, physical, religious, gender, political and all other imposed boundaries

Please check out a post I just wrote about Greek identity, Nationalism, and Colonialism, here:

http://saffolicious.blogspot.com/2011/05/parthenon-in-denver.html

REVOLT AND CRISIS IN GREECE: BETWEEN A PRESENT YET TO PASS AND A FUTURE STILL TO COME

April 2011 | $18 · €10 · £10 | 378 pages | ISBN: 9780983059714

For more information, or to preorder: http://revoltcrisis.org | http://www.akpress.org

How does a revolt come about and what does it leave behind? What impact does it have on those who participate in it and those who simply watch it? Is the Greek revolt of December 2008 confined to the shores of the Mediterranean, or are there lessons we can bring to bear on social action around the globe?Revolt and Crisis in Greece: Between a Present Yet to Pass and a Future Still to Come is a collective attempt to grapple with these questions. A collaboration between anarchist publishing collectives Occupied London and AK Press, this timely new volume traces Greece’s long moment of transition from the revolt of 2008 to the economic crisis that followed. In its twenty chapters, authors from around the world—including those on the ground in Greece—analyse how December became possible, exploring its legacies and the position of the social antagonist movement in face of the economic crisis and the arrival of the International Monetary Fund.

In the essays collected here, over two dozen writers offer historical analysis of the factors that gave birth to December and the potentialities it has opened up in face of the capitalist crisis. Yet the book also highlights the dilemmas the antagonist movement has been faced with since: the book is an open question and a call to the global antagonist movement, and its allies around the world, to radically rethink and redefine our tactics in a rapidly changing landscape where crises and potentialities are engaged in a fierce battle with an uncertain outcome.

Contributors include Vaso Makrygianni, Haris Tsavdaroglou, Christos Filippidis, Christos Giovanopoulos, TPTG, Metropolitan Sirens, Yannis Kallianos, Hara Kouki, Kirilov, Some of Us, Soula M., Christos Lynteris, Yiannis Kaplanis, David Graeber, Christos Boukalas, Alex Trocchi, Antonis Vradis, Dimitris Dalakoglou and the Occupied London Collective. Art and design by Leandros, Klara Jaya Brekke and Tim Simons. Edited by Antonis Vradis and Dimitris Dalakoglou of Occupied London.

Occupied London is an anarchist collective writing on all things urban. Since 2007, the collective has worked together to publish an irregular journal, offering a platform for discussion within the global social antagonist movement, and featuring contributions by writers and collectives from around the globe, including Nasser Abourahme, Zygmunt Bauman, Franco Berardi, Klara Jaya Brekke, Manuel Castells, Mike Davis, Dimitris Dalakoglou, Christos Filippidis, David Graeber, Richard Pithouse, Marina Sitrin, Antonis Vradis, and many, many more. Since 2008, the collective has maintained a wildly popular blog, “From the Greek Streets,” providing up-to-the-minute coverage of the urban revolt of December 2008 in Greece, and examining the impact and legacies of the revolt and the crisis that followed. (http://www.occupiedlondon.org | http://www.occupiedlondon.org/blog)

AK Press is a worker-run, democratically-managed publisher of anarchist and radical literature. Founded in 1990, AK Press is a ten-person collective of committed anarchists, spread between Oakland, Baltimore, and Edinburgh, working hard to publish more than twenty new titles each year, and distributing thousands of other titles from like-minded publishers around the globe. (http://www.akpress.org | http://revolutionbythebook.akpress.org)

We also need your help letting the world know about this exciting new project. If you have a blog, we encourage you to blog about the book. Newspapers, magazines, journals, and zines: please post announcements about the publication on your websites, or in print. Contact us about offering a special discount for your readers or subscribers! And, if you’re interested in writing a review of the book, or running an excerpt from the book, email publicity@akpress.org and we’ll work with you to arrange it. Forward this announcement far and wide. This book is an example of what happens when people collectivize and collaborate, and we need your help to make it a success!

Individual customers, preorder your copy from the AK Press website and get 25% off the US list price. Wholesale customers, we need your help too–and we’re offering a special 50% discount on any copies you preorder through AK Press Distribution (sales@akpress.org). Get your copies today, and please help us spread the word!

This title is distributed to the trade by AK Press Distribution, but like all AK Press books, you can also order Revolt and Crisis from most major wholesalers, from Amazon.com, and from your local independent bookstore! Whatever channel you choose, do get a copy, you won’t regret it. (And, Friends of AK worldwide will receive a copy in an upcoming Friends package!)

If you are in the UK, visit AK Press UK at http://www.akuk.com to order copies for individuals or for trade distribution. In the rest of the world, please order directly from Occupied London, at http://www.revoltcrisis.org.

Your voice(s) would be incredibly important to add to our chorus of support.  We just need to have written testimony submitted by this Sunday at 5pm and it takes no time at all to write. That’s tomorrow, so please jot something down if you can.

Here is a link to the Be an Advocate! page with hints on how to craft testimony, talking points for the bill, etc. http://www.ctequality.com/talk-to-lawmakers/

You can contact Pat directly through facebook or email: patrickcomerford1050@gmail.com (please put ctEQUALITY in the subject header).

This is such a crucial time for us, and we know that the Family Institute of CT will be our there at the hearing, so every voice counts…

 A Talk by Tunisian-born CT solidarity activist Mongi Dhaouadi

(We are also working on Skype connection with activists in Tunis and hope for the best.)

Sunday, January 23, 2011

3pm

Islamic Association of Greater Hartford

1781 Wilbur Cross Highway (Berlin TPKE)

Berlin, CT 06037

Sponsored by CT United for Peace

For more info: Chris, 860 478 5300

Sarah - a pro-choice activist and feminist is in urgent need of legal funds surrounding politically charged criminal proceedings she’ll be facing in the coming months.

Police arrested Sarah in December 2010 during a regularly occurring pro-choice demo where she and other activists hold welcoming signs for patients entering reproductive health clinics to combat the harassment anti-choicers inflict on patients. The courts pinned Sarah with outlandish felony and misdemeanor charges. On arrest, the arresting officer purposefully misgendered Sarah as male (despite previously referring to Sarah as “she”) before his colleagues subjected her to abuses within the jail due to her sexual orientation and gender expression.

Sarah is currently on her way to trial. The first preliminary hearing ended in a continuance as neither the anti-choicers nor the police showed up. During the second preliminary hearing date, all legally involved were in attendance. During the hearing the antis were relentless, stating blatant lies on the stand. The judge recommended a plea deal to drop Sarah’s charges to a summary offense of which the antis turned down. The judge attempted to convince them that the Christian thing to do would be to have some mercy - advising them to think very hard about choosing to disrupt Sarah’s life in such a way.  Ignoring the judge’s advice, the antis insisted on pressing charges. Sarah is a queer, single mother of a three year old child. As apparently these “pro-family” Christians have little room for consideration of the welfare of children beginning life outside the womb, Sarah is being forced into a long criminal court process during which she will have to spend time away from her child and afford childcare costs. [Read more →]

Below is a great, and thought provoking, piece by Cindy Sheehan on our growing facist corpo-security state! Comes to us via Al Jazeera.

[Read more →]

from TorrentFreak, written by enigmax on November 26, 2010 

Following on the heels of this week’s domain seizure of a large hiphop file-sharing links forum, it’s clear today that the U.S. Government has been very busy. Without any need for COICA, ICE has just seized the domain of a BitTorrent meta-search engine along with those belonging to other music linking sites and several others which appear to be connected to physical counterfeit goods.

While complex, it’s still possible for U.S. authorities and copyright groups to point at a fully-fledged BitTorrent site with a tracker and say “that’s an infringing site.” When one looks at a site which hosts torrents but operates no tracker, the finger pointing becomes quite a bit more difficult.

When a site has no tracker, carries no torrents, lists no copyright works unless someone searches for them and responds just like Google, accusing it of infringement becomes somewhat of a minefield – unless you’re ICE Homeland Security Investigations that is.

This morning, visitors to the Torrent-Finder.com site are greeted with an ominous graphic which indicates that ICE have seized the site’s domain.

“My domain has been seized without any previous complaint or notice from any court!” the exasperated owner of Torrent-Finder told TorrentFreak this morning.

“I firstly had DNS downtime. While I was contacting GoDaddy I noticed the DNS had changed. Godaddy had no idea what was going on and until now they do not understand the situation and they say it was totally from ICANN,” he explained.

Aside from the fact that domains are being seized seemingly at will, there is a very serious problem with the action against Torrent-Finder. Not only does the site not host or even link to any torrents whatsoever, it actually only returns searches through embedded iframes which display other sites that are not under the control of the Torrent-Finder owner.

Torrent-Finder remains operational through another URL, Torrent-Finder.info, so feel free to check it out for yourself. The layouts of the sites it searches are clearly visible in the results shown.

Yesterday we reported that the domain of hiphop site RapGodFathers had been seized and today we can reveal that they are not on their own. Two other music sites in the same field – OnSmash.com and DaJaz1.com – have fallen to the same fate. But ICE activities don’t end there.

Several other domains also appear to have been seized including 2009jerseys.com, nfljerseysupply.com, throwbackguy.com, cartoon77.com, lifetimereplicas.com, handbag9.com, handbagcom.com and dvdprostore.com.

All seized sites point to the same message.

Domain seizures coming under the much debated ‘censorship bill’ COICA? Who needs it?

Update: Below is an longer list of domains that were apparently seized. Most of the sites relate to counterfeit goods. We assume that the authorities had a proper warrant for these sites (as they had for RapGodFathers yesterday), but were unable to confirm this.

Update: A spokeswoman for ICE confirmed the seizures in the following statement. “ICE office of Homeland Security Investigations executed court-ordered seizure warrants against a number of domain names. As this is an ongoing investigation, there are no additional details available at this time.”

Update: The authorities have revealed further details on “Cyber Monday Crackdown.”

The Florida Family Association is calling for an advertiser boycott of Nickelodeon’s Teen Nick channel over a transgender character on its show, Degrassi: The Next Generation.The anti-gay group is falsely claiming to have already forced Kodak, the show’s prime sponsor, to pull out. Of course this was immediately denied by Kodak. Not to mention that the fools over at the FFA seem to ignore (or totally oblivious) to the fact that Kodak has had a long and inclusive history when it comes to trans folks! As Kodak’s website notes: Kodak has achieved a significant milestone by creating a safe environment for our Transgender employees. Transgender employees have been visible in our work community for at least the last 60 years from areas around the world. And in addition, Kodak Worldwide Benefits has updated health plan coverage to include procedures, services, and supplies for sex transformation (gender reassignment).

Enjoy this fabulous You Tube clip of Adam with Beyoncé’s beautiful song “If I were a Boy”

Some trivia on Nickelodeon’s Degrassi Character Adam: [Read more →]

            By Melanie Driscoll

           The recent suicides within the GLBT community have received attention and media coverage nationwide. The coverage has gone as far as celebrities participating in public service announcements. It seems that suddenly Hollywood is concerned about bullying and the dire effects it has. Yet, for years Hollywood has only added to the stigma that nontraditional sexual orientation is a bad thing. In movies gays are stereotyped, shamed, killed, raped or kill themselves. No one has stopped to question how influential films can be, nor how hypocritical it is for certain celebrities to participate in these public service announcements.

             Films subject people to gender normative and teach that men always like sports, women and power. The women are portrayed as humble servants who marry the right man according to society’s standards. The man is usually the provider while the woman stays home and care for the children and home. For centuries this image has been branded into the minds of adults, teens and children. Even cartoons are guilty. Cinderella marries Prince Charming, the perfect man who has power. Ariel also  abandons who she really is so she can marry the prince. She gives up her voice in order to win him. This sends messages to children of every gender that love can only be found with the opposite sex, and  that you must suffer in some way to achieve it. Only the Princess wears the beautiful, flowing gown. The Prince wears a suit and together they hold hands and walk off into the land of happily ever after. These images stick with children as they grow into teens.

            Of course once children become teens, their taste in films change. Most teens lose interest in the cartoons they watch religiously as a child. Naturally their interests mature and so they move on to films with real people in them. Since these films feature real actors, these films seem more realistic and have a potent effect on the way teens view the world. Teens are impressionable and look to culture to find some scapegoat from the confusion and angst they feel, as well as a “proper” identity. However, what happens when part of the confusion a teen has is about their gender or sexual orientation? What happens when they look around and see their peers applauding and glorifying fictional character’s like Tony Stark, the Iron Man; a well known womanizer, with power, money and a lavish lifestyle. I understand this movie in particular is based on a comic book, but what about the female main characters in movies? How do you think a confused teenage girl feels when she watches two men fight over the main female character Bella from The Twilight Series? When teen girls see the two boys fighting over Bella, they associate Bella with significant beauty and power. This influences teen girls to strive to be wanted by only men as much as Bella is. Much like when a teen boy watches the prominence Tony Starks has, they too want that attention. Both characters mentioned are fictional ones from books, but when they are featured in popular films, they tend to have more of an impact on the culture. People in general are more apt to watch a film than read a book, especially teens. When the normative is featured in blockbuster hits, sexually confused teens may be inspired to copycat the straight characters.

            Now lets look at the opposite spectrum of films. Instead of displaying gender normative in films, queers and trans are stereotyped. You have the “sissy” gay man who loves fashion and always wants to look fabulous. They are always giving fashion advice and tend to have “fag hags” surrounding them. An example of this would be Nathan Hale’s character in The Bird Cage. These stereotypes were created when films were first produced to make people laugh. They still do make people laugh and to a teen the laughter could be misconstrued as making fun of how “gay” the person is. You also have the stereotype of the man with a six pack, short shorts, bleached hair, and is known to be promiscuous. To openly gay male teens this is an image that perhaps it is how they should act, because it seems the majority of queers in movies look and act this way. This can have a dire effect on a teen’s individuality. Promiscuity is frowned upon in our narrow minded culture. If you add homosexuality into it, it can most certainly scare a teen into keeping their sexuality to themselves because they do not want to be labeled.

Then you have the popular female stereotypes of lesbians. They wear men clothing, have short hair cuts, or a bald head, or have that infamous mullet. They wear combat boots and walk like “a man.” They are called “Butches.” Some people may feel comfortable enough to call themselves this, but in films and images, Butches are not attractive. They don’t shave or wear dresses. There is also the “Lipstick” lesbian. The lesbian who wears dresses, shaves, wears pretty jewelry and only sips from martini glasses. These are the stereotypes that films have featured.  The latter is not criticized as much as the former. In reality the latter is often mistaken as a straight female. To a queer female teen this sends a message that they must look either way because they are queer. Most teens either want to blend in or stand out. If they are openly gay, they want to make a statement. The stereotypes I mention above are commonly known, therefore teens tend to copy the styles to draw attention to themselves. Every teen wants attention and most are rebellious. A woman dressed as a man is not the normative, which would draw attention from their peers. As for the “Lipstick” lesbian, openly gay teens may misconstrue this as true beauty. It also draws attention from both males and females, which in turn gives them a false sense of self esteem. They are wanted by men, but have no interest in them, giving them the power to turn down men and tell them they are gay. They may also think that lesbians want a physically beautiful lover. Society pigeonholes women with images of what they must look like regardless of sexual orientation. For a teen lesbian they may look up to someone like Portia de Rossi, an openly gay lesbian who fulfills the stereotype of a “Lipstick” lesbian. Teens rarely have a clue whom they really are and look to our culture for an idol. Some cannot grasp the concept that they can look however they want and be openly gay. There is also closeted teen lesbians whom decide to look like the “Lipstick” lesbian, so that they are not picked out of a crowd and bullied, because they look like a “normal” girl.

Bisexuals are often stereotyped. I don’t think I need to point out films that feature bisexual women as being a straight man’s wet dream, and by being represented as such, bisexuals and women are objectified. On the opposite side of that, bisexual men are looked at as disgusting and wrong. This is a double standard bisexuals of all genders have endured through out the decades. Trans of any kind are portrayed in films as having a mental problem.

Even in The Rocky Horror Picture Show, which personally I love, Dr. Frank-n-Furter appears to be a sadistic, crazed person. However, this film has an aspect that many films do not have. Dr. Frank-n-Furter is a proud Transsexual. That isn’t always the case in films though. Cross dressing was first featured in silent films as another form of comedy. Most teens probably haven’t watched any older movies, so let’s fast forward to films made in the last 20 years featuring Trans. In the movie Dressed To Kill Michael Cane portrays a Transgender murderer. Once again, proving my theory that Trans featured in films are often portrayed as sick individuals. Let us not forget about Silence of The Lambs. This features a murderer who skins women, and is also a cross dresser.

             There is too much violence that films have demonstrated against the GLBT community. In the movie The Children’s Hour, a 1961 film based on a play of the same name, Audrey Hepburn, and Shirley MacLaine are lovers. When a young girl starts to notice the “abnormal” relationship the two women have, she tells her grandmother and the story starts to circulate. In the end Shirley MacLaine’s character cannot harbor the shame she feels. She hangs herself and Audrey Hepburn finds her dangling from the ceiling. This message is sent to teens in the early 60’s and adults as well, that a person should feel ashamed to love someone of the same sex. This stigma that has influenced future generations.

Then there are the films based on tragic reality. Boys Don’t Cry for example was about Brandon Lee. A female by birth, but a male in his heart. He was raped, beaten and killed by Trans-phobics when he was found out not to be a cis-man. Most know the story of Matthew Shepard. An openly gay man who was tied to a fence, beaten and left to die. His story has been turned into a powerful play and also a movie adaption of the play called The Laramie Project. Then we have the movie Philadelphia. A story inspired by the real life events of Geoffrey Bowers, an attorney who was fired after his partners found out he had AIDS and was a homosexual. He won his case, but died before the jury came to their conclusion. Lastly we have the film Milk, a story about Harvey Milk, the first openly gay man to be elected into California’s public office. He was an activist within the GLBT community and pushed and won for propositions that protected gays. He was assassinated by Dan White, who was angry that his seat in The San Francisco Board of Supervisors was going to be replaced by someone who was more in line with the diversity of White’s district and The Board’s liberalism. He blamed Milk for the change and shot him five times. Films feature these stories to make people aware of the violence and hate. However, the adaptation of a queer’s and Tran’s tragic ending just turns them into the hapless hero. This sends a message to teens that violence in the real world just happens. They become scared and fearful for their lives.

            Celebrities shouldn’t only speak out when media has pushed issues, nor should they make public service announcements telling queers “It Gets Better.” What they should be doing is taking a closer look at the business they are in, and speak out against Hollywood’s adaptation of the GLBT community. Not all celebrities are guilty of this. Some have come out as being gay, bisexual and queer allies. Some have been featured in documentaries against Hollywood’s endeavors. Some have given speeches during World Wide or National televised events. Others have made musicals against the inequality we face. For these celebrities, I am grateful.

http://gatheringforces.org/2010/10/14/beyond-gay-marriage-and-queer-separatists-the-call-for-a-working-class-queer-movement/

October 14th, 2010 · Posted by wen · 4 Comments · Queer Liberation

[Read more →]

From Aljazeera

gay rights parade in the Serbian capital, Belgrade, has degenerated into violence after police deployed to protect the marchers clashed with anti-gay protesters, sparking riots that left scores of people injured.

Protesters dressed mainly in black and with hooded tops hurled rocks and molotov cocktails at security forces who were trying to ensure the city’s second ever Gay Pride event went ahead on Sunday.

One official said that 90 police officers required medical attention and two had been seriously wounded in the violence.

The riots spread to other parts of Belgrade as nationalists and skinheads attacked targets unrelated to the parade.

At one point, rioters managed to set fire to the headquarters of Boris Tadic’s Democratic Party (DS) in protest against the Serbian president’s support for the march. The flames were quickly put out and no one was hurt.

Dragan Sutanovac, Serbia’s defence minister, said that “it’s a really sad day for Serbia”.

Susanne Simon-Paunovic, a German married to a Serb who attended the rally, said: “It was more like death march. The atmosphere was terrible.”

Reporting from Belgrade, Al Jazeera’s Aljosa Milkenovic said that “one police officer has sustained serious injuries and is fighting for his life”.

The city’s streets were sealed off by thousands of police officials as the march took place. Police said they had detained 101 people and that 53 of them would be investigated for “criminal act of violence.

‘Toughest sentence’

A spokesman for the public prosecutor’s office said the state would seek “the toughest possible sentences” against those behind the violence.

Our correspondent said that “the protesters clashed with the police not only to protest against the parade, which is deeply against the Serbian orthodox church [doctrine], but also because they are disgruntled with the current economic situation … and wanted to register their anger with the authorities”.

The parade was the first in almost a decade, a step towards an open and modern Serbia following years of war in the 1990s on account of ethnic hatred.

“Serbia will secure respect of human rights for all its  citizens, no matter what their differences are and no attempts to revoke this freedom with violence will be tolerated,” Tadic said in a statement.

The Serb government also condemned what it described as “hooligan violence”.

The event was seen as a testament to pro-Western reforms launched by Serbia’s government and its pledge to protect human rights as it seeks European Union membership.

The clashes occurred two days ahead of a planned visit by Hillary Clinton, the US secretary of state, who wants to highlight US support for Serbia’s EU aspirations.

okay this was originally a facebook comment on a friend’s post about a rally to repeal DADT but it turned into such a rant that i decided to publish it in my blog: (saffolicious.blogspot.com)

i am terrified of the repealing of DADT. i don’t want to be assimiliated into the fucking war machine. these are the same fuckers that bombed my mother when she was 10 and became a war refugee. i don’t want my queer sisters and brothers being sucked into the fucking death machine.

black people in the US fought long and hard for the right to serve in the military– and look what happened. the military is predominantly people of color being shipped off to kill or be killed by other oppressed people, mostly in the global south. i do NOT want my queer sisters and brothers being sucked into the same fucking war machine.

if DADT gets passed then that means homeless queer and trans youth– predominantly of color– who have run away or have been kicked out by their parents for being queer and have few other options are going to be sucked in and exploited by military recruiters. the fuckers that are organizing this repeal DADT shit don’t give a FUCK about how this is going to affect the most marginalized members of our community. that’s because this agenda is set by the most privilieged LGBT folks

HRC tells us that DADT is hurting the US military.. well FUCK why ruin a good thing? DADT is doing a better job hurting the US military-industrial death machine than any of our anti-war protests over the last 7 years. i don’t want them to allow queers in the military, i want them to ban straights from the military.

the non-profit elites like HRC that set the assimilationist agenda for our community, and the well-intentioned activists that eat that shit up, never consider how this affects the most oppressed queer folks. i don’t want to see queer youth getting sucked into the recruitment war machine. i don’t want to see them killed by IEDs. i don’t want to see them brainwashed and turned into killing machines, and then come home fucked up in the head and abusive. our community has enough problems already, thank you very much.

the fact is the people setting these agendas have their basic necessities met. they have food, they have shelter. most queer folks don’t. the military presents itself as a way out. it preys on poor peoples’ vulnerability. the fact that people are focusing on this shit, the fact that people are so psyched about fucking lady gaga talking about gays in the military, the fact that i see people i know and love as part of my community fucking pissing their pants over the possilibity of DADT being repealed, makes me so enraged and disgusted.

when i first came out as gay when i was 14 and i started to seek out gay community, i felt like i had to choose between my politics and my sexuality. leaving home and finding other folks who were QUEER AS FUCK (not gay, but QUEER), eventually coming out as trans, meeting radical queer communities, i realized that i could respect my gender and sexuality and also my politics which are so deeply tied with my mothers’ experiences as a war refugee at the hands of the west. to see the people who would claim to be my community– the “lgbt” folks– clamor to want to fill the role of the ones who bombed my mothers home, the ones who almost killed her and made her a war refugee, as they do to millions all over the world in neocolonial wars of occupation, makes me feel ashamed to call myself queer.

there are queer Iraqis too. what about their rights?

Video of speakers Mongi Dhaouadi, executive director of the Connecticut chapter of the Council on American-Islamic Relations and Kashif Abdul-Karim, resident imam of the Muhammad Islamic Center of Greater Hartford.  A link to this story from AP can be found here.

No matter where you land on the issue of the separation of Church and State, the growing hatred and vitriol against Muslims in the US cannot go unanswered and we must stand with all our sisters, brothers and all those in-between to clearly state that Bigotry Should and Must Not Be Rewarded!  

Read this truthdig.com article (one of many) titled The Christian Fascists Are Growing Stronger where Chris Hedges writes about the growing right’s attempt at instituting Biblical law here in the US!

They came first for the Communists,
and I didn’t speak up because I wasn’t a Communist.

Then they came for the trade unionists,
and I didn’t speak up because I wasn’t a trade unionist.

Then they came for the Jews,
and I didn’t speak up because I wasn’t a Jew.

Then they came for me,
and by that time no one was left to speak up.

Statement attributed to Pastor Martin Niemöller (1892–1984) about the inactivity of German intellectuals following the Nazi rise to power and the purging of their chosen targets, group after group.

Repost of older but still very relevant piece from Trans Forming Media … Enjoy…

Today, July 2nd, is LGBT pioneer Sylvia Rivera’s birthday. Media Advocates Giving National Equality to Transsexual & Transgender People (MAGNET) and many LGBT people honor this heroic transgender woman, who is credited by historians as being the person who “threw the first heel” in the Stonewall Inn that fateful night in 1969, when the LGBT community decided to fight back against police brutality. Rivera and many other transgender and gender non-conforming people of color at the inn that night were “guilty” of having “gender inappropriate” clothing, which is the excuse the police used to exercise their prejudice with violence. The police were surprised when the guests at the bar decided to fight back! This riot catapulted the modern LGBT movement, and Rivera and other trans people were responsible for kicking things off.

Rivera continued to advocate for LGBT equality, particularly those disenfranchised and homeless. Sadly, after the gay establishment was done using her to get publicity to raise money, she was abandoned by the gay community, and actually died impoverished. They expressed that “transgender issues are too extreme”. The lesbian separatist “radical feminist” community would exclude her from women’s conferences, and she was even one time escorted out of a queer women’s conference by transphobic lesbians. She was banned from the New York Gay Center for publicly, and aggressively, asking them to take better care of homeless queer youth. When Rivera used her voice to call out the oppression of trans, poor and/or people of color from Gay Inc, she was blacklisted from many organizations, media outlets and social circles. Though the Gay Male Media Mafia tried to silence her truth telling, shortly before she died she foretold the future saying, “One of our main goals now is to destroy the Human Rights Campaign because I’m tired of sitting on the back of the bumper. It’s not even the back of the bus anymore - it’s the back of the bumper. The bitch on wheels is back.” [Read more →]

Click play video player to see QWB’s video from the 9/11/2010 Muslim Solidarity March and Rally in NYC.Enjoy…