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

TAKE BACK THE MIC: All Female Hip Hop Showcase
Friday, March 12th
9pm
The Mill (93 Vernon Street)

FREE FREE FREE FREE FREE FREE

Featuring:
-La Bruja (Emcee from New York City)
-Mind Evolution (Poet from the Hartbeat)
-NuNuu (Poet from the Hartbeat)
-DJ Laylo (DJ from New York City)
-Haben Abraham (Trinity College)
-Amanda Persad (Trinity College)
-Isis Irizarry Negron (Trinity College)
-Feliz Matos (Trinity College)
-Shondaa Steppers (Trinity College)
-Trinitones (Trinity College)
[Read more →]

Pie in the Face
Local political agitator who tossed a pie at an anti-immigration activist talks to theAdvocate
Adam Bulger

October 13, 2005

During a sparsely attended Sept. 28 Connecticut Citizens for Immigration Control press conference at the West Hartford public library, controversial CTCIC head Paul Streitz was the target of a pie-throwing protester. CTCIC, formed by Streitz, seeks tougher immigration laws. At the press conference, Streitz intended to present a study about Connecticut McDonald’s where he concluded that Hispanics and undocumented workers take jobs away from whites and African-Americans. In an exclusive interview with the Advocate, the pie-tosser, who calls himself “La Pastelista,” explained his actions and future plans.

[Read more →]

Hello, everyone! My name is Olivia , a 3rd year doctoral student in the Counseling Psychology PhD program at Oklahoma State University. I am currently conducting a research project for my dissertation exploring individuals’ feelings about imagined acts of infidelity within their current romantic relationships. [Read more →]

Hello all,

I am writing because a young queer prisoner in the Federal Prison system at La Tuna in New Mexico needs your support! Anthony LaRue (85582-008) has been fighting to take care of his teeth for many, many months now. He currently has only eleven (11) teeth with NO contact points, making chewing nearly impossible. Tony has lost a considerable amount of weight and can’t chew his food properly, leading to choking and gum bleeding. Often dental issues are not taken seriously, but because of the decay in his mouth and the inadequate care, the rest of his body is in danger of infection. Support is needed now. Tony has been taken out to see the dentist numerous times, but always 30 minutes before institutional recall, making the work he needs done impossible. [Read more →]

Against Equality is an online archive, publishing, and arts collective focused on critiquing mainstream gay and lesbian politics. As queer thinkers, writers and artists, we are committed to dislodging the centrality of equality rhetoric and challenging the demand for inclusion in the institution of marriage, the US military, and the prison industrial complex via hate crimes legislation.

We want to reinvigorate the queer political imagination with fantastic possibility.

http://www.againstequality.org/

PrYSM: 669 Elmwood Avenue, Providence, RI

Presented by the Providence Youth Student Movement (PrYSM) and the National Queer Asian Pacific Islander Association (NQAPIA)

Join us for a special panel discussion about Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender, and Queer (LGBTQ) immigrants’ rights. Panelists will provide an update on developments from both the federal level in Washington, D.C. as well as on the local level in Rhode Island; how immigration reform may affect LGBTQ individuals, and how the audience can get involved.

Invited speakers include:
Alison Foley, Immigration Attorney
Ben de Guzman, National Queer Asian Pacific Islander Alliance (NQAPIA)
Dimple Rana, Deported Diaspora
Kathy Kushnir, Marriage Equality Rhode Island
Michelle Deplante, Immigrants United
Raúl Iriarte, Community Member

Interpretation will be provided in Spanish. Habrá Interprete en Español.

Cost is FREE! Light refreshments will be provided.

Co-sponsored by: Deported Diaspora, Immigrants United, Marriage Equality Rhode Island (MERI), Olneyville Neighborhood Association (ONA), Rhode Island Pride, Community HIV/AIDS Mobilization Project (CHAMP)

Educate, agitate, organise.

Tue, 02/23/2010 - 14:52 — AileenOCarroll

http://anarchism.pageabode.com/aileenocarroll/educate-agitate-organise

Educate, agitate, organise. The phrase has been around for years but the ideas it encapsulates are still radical. We live in a world where we are encouraged to be passive. We are all consumers. We watch, we read, we observe, and some of us wait, hope and dream. These words go against the grain. You can’t build a revolution by watching from a distance. There comes a point where many decide that they are tired of sitting on the sidelines. [Read more →]

“Intersectionality” is a Big Fancy Word for My Life

(Excerpts from MBGLTACC 2010 Keynote Address)

[Read more →]

Not long before Christmas, Sound Mental Health (SMH), the property managers of downtown Seattle’s Kasota apartments, began going door to door in the building trying to get tenants to sign a new lease. SMH houses both mentally ill ‘clients’ and roughly seventeen low-income tenants at the Kasota, but the new lease seemed to indicate that they wanted that to change. The terms of the new lease for SMH’s non-client tenants included rent increases of as much as fifty percent as well as a demand for further deposits. Many of the low-income residents of the Kasota are dependent on Social Security and other fixed incomes for survival and cannot afford to pay rent increases of this magnitude. They were outraged as it became apparent that the terms of the new lease would drive them from their homes and out into the street. For many residents the new lease would mean desperation and homelessness. It was at this point that one tenant saw a Seattle Solidarity Network (SeaSol) poster and decided to start fighting back. [Read more →]

Sponsored by WGRAC: Women & Gender Resource Action Center

Radical queer politics and anarchism have much in common. Queer theory argues against traditional identity politics, recognizing the social construction of “sexuality” and identity categories. Anarchism argues against any structured hierarchical arrangement of humanity that allows some members of society to systematically exploit and oppress others. Thus, both projects argue for a need to move beyond hierarchical and naturalized arrangements of socially constructed identities–though, at times, articulating those arguments in different ways. Nevertheless, despite these commonalities, little has been written about the deep connections between anarchism and radical queer politics. This edited volume is an attempt to fill that gap. [Read more →]

This book tour is happening in many places- come support the local Hartford date- January 27th, 7pm at Charter Oak Cultural Center (21 Charter Oak Ave, Hartford CT 06106). For more info email abbey.willis@charteroakcenter.org or call 860.249.1207. Listen to an interview with the author here.

Please re-post widely and wildly!

While Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez continues to capture headlines for his inflammatory remarks and controversial policies, a much larger story involving a wider cast of characters has gone largely ignored. [Read more →]

http://mrzine.monthlyreview.org/2010/flaherty150110.html

Sex Workers Targeted in New Orleans
by Jordan Flaherty

More than half of the people on Louisiana’s Sex Offender Registry — which was designed for rapists and child molesters — are indigent women convicted of sex work.

Tabitha has been working as a prostitute in New Orleans since she was 13.  Now 30 years old, she can often be found working on a corner just outside of the French Quarter.  A small and slight white woman, she has battled both drug addiction and illness and struggles every day to find a meal or a place to stay for the night.

These days, Tabitha, who asked that her real name not be used in this story, has yet another burden: a stamp printed on her driver’s license labels her a sex offender.  Her crime?  Offering sex for money.

New Orleans city police and the district attorney’s office are using a state law written for child molesters to charge hundreds of sex workers like Tabitha as sex offenders.  The law, which dates back to 1805, declares it a crime against nature to engage in “unnatural copulation” — a term New Orleans cops and the district attorney’s office have interpreted to mean anal or oral sex.  Sex workers convicted of breaking this law are charged with felonies, issued longer jail sentences, and forced to register as sex offenders. [Read more →]

At the beginning of January, a court in Berlin, Germany, reaffirmed that the local federation of the Free Workers’ Union (FAU) is prohibited from calling itself a union or a grassroots union. If the FAU Berlin were to dare to do otherwise, it would face a fine of EUR 250,000 (USD 357,000) or a prison sentence.This legal attack on the freedom of unions in Germany is the result of a labor dispute, which the FAU Berlin and cinema workers have been involved in for months with the management of the Babylon Mitte cinema. In the FAU’s opinion, it’s up to the workers to decide what a union is or which union they want and not the courts.

The FAU is intent on defending itself against the de-facto ban of its Berlin federation in a variety of ways. Thus, it was announced that the ban would be taken all they way to the Court of the European Union, if need be. The strongest weapon of the worker is, however, not our trust in the judiciary but our international solidarity and direct action.
Global day of protest…

We call on all union members, friends and comrades to mobilize globally in support of FAU Berlin. For this purpose, a global day of action has been planned for January 29 and 30, 2010. Protests in front of German diplomatic missions and cultural institutes have already been scheduled in many countries for this date.
…and further mobilization

In the coming days, the FAU will post suggestions of different ways to show support at www.fau.org/verbot. Needless to say, a wide-scale dissemination of all information regarding the call to action is very important. Please be sure to refer to our special website, www.fau.org/verbot, in all publications and send messages of solidarity, reports about actions and any further questions to soli-faub@fau.org.

FAU-IWA International working group
English leaflet: http://www.fau.org/verbot/text/fau_01_29_en.pdf

Press release of FAU Berlin concerning the possible EUR 250.000 (USD 375.000) fine or alternatively 6 month of prison for the union secretaries: http://ainfos.ca/en/ainfos23540.html

Special page concerning the verdict against FAU Berlin:
http://www.fau.org/verbot

Blog of cinema Babylon Mitte workers:
http://prekba.blogsport.de <http://prekba.blogsport.de/>

Send e-protest:

http://fau.zsp.net.pl/send-a-protest-to-kino-babylon/emailpage/

Personalized e-protests to bosses:

grossman@babylonberlin.de, hackel@babylonberlin.de, timothygrossman@kinoundkonzerte.de, tgrossman@kinoundkonzerte.de.