Posts from — November 2007

Join CT TransAdvocacy and Queers Without Borders at UCONN Storrs on Dec 1 to reveal the REAL TRUTH About HRC, ENDA and Trans Exclusion…

On Saturday, December 1, 2007 from 2 - 5 PM there is to be a Employment Non-Discrimination Act (ENDA) Town Hall / Meet Congressman Joe Courtney and sponsored by the Human Rights Campaign (HRC) at UCONN Storrs Thomas J. Dodd Center. The Connecticut TransAdvocacy Coalition strongly opposes the prominent role HRC has taken in this event [Read more →]

On International Human Rights Day, join us in calling on the federal government to

March on the ICE Headquarters in Hartford
Monday, December 10th, 5 p.m.

Gather at 4:30 p.m. in South Green Park (corner of Park and Main streets)
Step off at 5 p.m. and march to the ICE headquarters, 450 Main St., for a rally. [Read more →]

The recent attacks on a young black man in Plainfield are rightfully a reason to be outraged and to speak out in support of people of color and against bigots. But too often when such incidents occur in small towns and rural areas (whether it’s Plainfield, CT or Jena, LA) too many of us treat it as a given that the problem is “rednecks” and “white trash.” Treating deliberate and knowing racism as “ignorance” feeds into the stereotype of rural working class whites as “backward” and makes them the source of racism. Even the association of white supremacist thinking with the sound of a southern drawl is often used by white liberals to distance themselves from the reality that racism pervades the lofty heights as surely as it does the depths of our society.

Today’s Courant lets the cat out of the bag: incidents involving the hanging of nooses in West Hartford’s Blue Back Square and in Stamford tell the truth about how broadly the disease of race hatred infects white America.

Powered by ScribeFire.

The following is from our Queer friends at RHA (including the HRC is #1 pic)!

Hey RHAers

NY BLADE ArticleGay

City News Piece

Our big pink middle fingers are in both photos. We spiked the demo with our visuals, including a banner which read “Can’t spell LGBT with HRC! Trans Power Now!” [Read more →]

An Evening of Solidarity
Support Immigrant Workers Struggling for Justice and Dignity

Friday, January 11th 2008
1199 King-Davis Center
77 Huyshope Avenue,
Hartford
5:30 PM Doors Open
6:00 PM Dinner Served [Read more →]

Why are we MAD!!

Its not only HRC’s continuing support of a non-inclusive ENDA bill and the disregarding and disrespecting of our Trans sisters and brothers that makes our blood boil, but also their support of Human Rights Abuses around the globe brought to the people by the Corporate world. [Read more →]

T. Trist who commented on one of the postings on QWB turned us on to a very interesting site. This site is called Faith of the Abomination. From the site are these words: “Faith of the Abomination is a provocative, independent documentary film created in Austin TX about the experiences of a lesbian couple who went undercover as a heterosexual couple inside a Evangelical Organization. The film is currently in post production.” The women also have a very interesting blog site at: http://faithoftheAbomination.com. You can also link from there to see a movie preview.

Thanks again to T. Trist for bringing this important work to the attention of QWB.

Tahnee and the folks at Answer CT are sisters/brothers of the Queer Movement! Get involved if you can, we all must bring this Capitalist/Imperialistic society to a crushing defeat and will only do it through unified voices and bodies, independent of our ideologies.

Anti-war Protest & Outreach Action [Read more →]

The following is a work in progress that we should enhance and evolve (i.e. just scratching the surface of names and creativity for giving thanks):

Thank you for a life long struggle for the rights of

the oppressed…
the poor…
the outcast…
the homeless…
the queer…

[Read more →]

Cornell just relayed to us that he spoke with NAACP President Scot X. Esdaile by telephone. There is going to be a meeting in Plainfield, CT this Tuesday about the racial incident involving a 16 year old black youth [See prior blog entry]. Time for the meeting is still undetermined. It is critical that Queers Without Borders and many other organizations be there in support. I will be going so if interested please contact me. Remember this meeting is being held by the same US Justice System that has prosecuted the fewest hate crimes in ten years! Not to mention their white washing (no pun intended) of the Jena 6 hate crime by white youth and a white racist district attorney!

Newsflash: Adhamh Roland reports (or actually sings) of Bush’s plan to declare war on God!

Download link

I just learned of the following event being held at UCONN on World AIDS Day.  Check out the Sponsoring Organizations and tell me WTF you see wrong with this picture. [Read more →]

We are thankful for our people who have gone on before, thankful for them dwelling now and forevermore.

Trinity Stop the Raids is organizing a meeting to plan a response to the Parkville ICE raids.

Tuesday, Nov. 27
7:30 PM
St. Augustine Church
10 Campfield Ave., Hartford
Parking in lot in rear

Note time change from 7pm to starting time of 7:30.  Queers Without Borders will be a sponsor of this meeting and sending representatives. Please attend if you are able.

posted with permission By Cornell Lewis

Download link

Phyllisha Williams is a black mother whose only concern is providing a safe environment for her family. She moved to Plainfield “for her 16 year old son, Nashawn to attend school.” While the mother dreamed of living quietly in a predominately white town, racists gave her a rude awakening. Williams was called a racial epithet and ignored it. Nashawn was daily being called the same epithet on the school bus.” What this black mother did not ignore is the Oct.19 beating of her son, kicked and dragged while waiting for the school bus.” [Read more →]

If one relies on the Metroline for their LGBT news one would be under the false impression that there was only one side to l & g people marrying. Each month an article appears from Love Makes A Family and each month we hear that if g & l people marry in Connecticut that they will be afforded, dignity, respect and legal protections that marriage provides. We hear that the boys and the girls up on the hill in the state capitol building are beginning to love us more and more each day.  If one listened to only the political rhetoric coming from the comfortable l & g class would would think that the only thing that sexual minorities are interested in was a right to marry. A comfortable class who as Mattilda says is, “ a gay elite who has hijacked the queer struggle and positioned their desires as everyone’s needs–the dominant signs of straight conformity have become the ultimate signs of gay success.” But oh this right to marry, the dreams of school girls taking on the hunk (man I don’t need to be married to take on a hunk). [Read more →]

6th Annual Transgender Day of Remembrance
Tuesday, November 20, 2007

Candlelight Procession & Vigil on the Capitol Steps

TIME: 6 PM
LOCATION: Gather at the First Presbyterian Church, 136 Capitol Avenue, Hartford then Walk to Capitol for the Vigil

DETAILS: Candlelight Procession to the CT Capitol steps, followed by brief introduction by Rev Terry Davis, of First Presbyterian Church, Rev Cornell Lewis of the Men of Color Initiative, Dr. Lillian Ruiz Director Hartford Office of Human Relations, Hartford Councilperson Pedro Segarra and Jerimarie Liesegang followed by a Remembrance of Names.

Ceremony of Remembrance & Reception at MCC Hartford

TIME: 7:15 PM
LOCATION: MCC/Hartford, 155 Wyllys Street, Parish House, Hartford

DETAILS: Indoor Remembrance with Introduction by Pastors Rev Julio Flores and Rev George Chien, MCC Choir, Community Speakers including Staci Hunter, Robin McHaelen of True Colors, Sara Feral, Diana Lombardi and Regina Dyton, Song by Eve Christian, Reading of Names and Opportunities for Activism and Commitment.

For more information visit CT TransAdvocacy Coalition or Metropolitan Community Church Hartford or call (860) 983-8139 or email at dor@transadvocacy.org

Download Flyer .PDF

Download Program .PDF

This week we pause to commemorate three events that the dominant view of history would rather we forget:

Thanksgiving is deeply embedded in US culture as the time when the Pilgrims gave thanks to God for their survival, first harvest and freedoms in the “New World.” However, as Irene Monroe, an African-American lesbian feminist points out, “for many Native Americans, Thanksgiving is not a cause of celebration, but rather a National Day of Mourning, remembering the real significance of the first Thanksgiving in 1621 as a symbol of persecution and genocide of Native Americans and the long history of bloodshed with European settlers.”

The white supremacy of the early European settler/conquerors is alive and well 400 years later as evidenced by the brutal hate crime assault on 16-year old Nashawn Williams by racists who have a problem with African-Americans living in Jena, make that Plainfield, CT. And racism and heterosexism showed their ugliness as slurs around Yale University this week.

Around the world and in Hartford on Tuesday we will mark Connecticut’s Sixth Annual Transgender Day of Remembrance by bringing to mind the transsexual people of the Western Hemisphere who were murdered this past year because of anti-trans-hatred and trans-phobia. This year, in the spirit of Mother Jones who famously said, “Pray for the dead and fight like hell for the living,” there will be a press conference on the steps of the State Capitol to call passage of a bill prohibiting discrimination on the basis of gender identity or expression.

Tuesday, November 27 will be an important day of hearings on several criminal justice reform bills at the State Capitol beginning at 1 PM in Room 2E of the Legislative Office Building. Testimony will be solicited on bills covering the following topics: Sentencing, Parole, Community Supervision, Home Invasions, Persistent Offenders, and Death Penalty Appeals.

It is important that the Judiciary Committee hear testimony calling for the protection of victim’s rights and the correction of structural injustices. Justice and Mercy must be advocated.

from deleteTheBorder.org

Download link

The CIRCA Boredom Patrol shows up at a Borders bookstore, to protest Jim Gilchrist, [Read more →]

by Nadine Smith

I thought I should forward this letter on. Many of you may have already received it. If not, perhaps it is on its way.

To: The Gay Community
From: The Coalition
Re: Your Status

It pains me to write this letter but now I know that to do otherwise would be a failure of leadership. For years we have fought together in a coalition effort to end discrimination in its many and varied forms. We have stood shoulder- to -shoulder, linking arms in dangerous times. [Read more →]

Tuesday, November 20 is the National Transgender Day of Remembrance that honors victims of anti-trans hate crimes. This year it also happens to be the day that friends of the Human Rights Campaign are planning a networking event at the historic Stonewall Bar in the West Village. That confluence of dates has prompted Jon Winkleman, a longtime Democratic activist who is on the board of directors of the National Stonewall Democrats, to call for a protest at the bar against HRC [Read more →]

Oh, my, god. I giggled with delight as I read this. Enjoy, comrades.

[Read more →]

Each year HRC co-opts some group of Trans folks for an HRC National Transgender Day of Remembrance (last year it was Mara of NCTE and other DC activists), though this year their program in DC seems to lack any visible trans presence, wonder way. At any rate, over the next few days I will post some historical and factual details of the over 25 year backroom anti-trans dealing that HRC has been culpable of. For now, given that the Trans Day of Remembrance is fast approaching, I would like to reprint an email exchange between HRC and Sylvia Rivera [Read more →]

Okay folks, put away your rainbow flags, pink triangles, and QWB signs: gays have been officially assimilated into US society. Sexual orientation is no longer a central identity. Hell, there’s even gay republicans. The gay liberation front and gays of the 60’s were just a bunch of “hedonistic, transgressive radicals.” Please don’t burst this columnist’s bubble by telling him that Queers Without Borders exists and that assimilation is not one of our goals! [Read more →]

From Jon Winkleman of Radical Homosexual Agenda in NYC. Sadly, this confirms something we’ve known about HRC for a long time and which underscores the need to resist the corporatization of queer struggles:

As you know HRC lied to it’s members, donors, the transgender community and other LGBT organizations who overwhelmingly supported the trans-inclusive ENDA or no ENDA at all. What’s worse is at THE BEGINNING of the debate, HRC told committee members that if they voted AGAINST the inclusive version of ENDA but only supported the sexual orientation only ENDA they would get a free pass and it wouldn’t reflect on their legislative scorecard. [Read more →]

In response to Richard’s request for a religious response to the ICE raids, here is a very brief summary of Judaism and Christianity: God in these religions is intrinsically allied with oppressed peoples, although this truth has been suppressed and co-opted as these religions have been assimilated into societies ruled by aristocracies who depend on military and economic conquests and the subjugation of the working class. [Read more →]

As we hear of more raids on the immigrant communities in Hartford members of Queers Without Borders are outraged. We ask ourselves what can we do to help put and end to these raids, to this trampling of human rights, and to this injustice in our midst. While we fully realized that not all LGBT people are concerned with these raids and the performance of Nazi like tactics by member of Immigration and Custom Enforcement, (ICE) we at QWB stand out and open against ICE and work with other progressive communities to shut ICE down. [Read more →]

At 6:23 PM ET, the House of Representatives voted on and passed HR 3685, the Non-Inclusive ENDA, by a vote of 235 to 184 with 14 Not Voting. Click here to view vote tally.“

– Connecticut TransAdvocacy Coalition

true to form, the democratic party congress voted by the polls, which is to say, by straight, middle-class america’s values, not principle, and squashed employment protections for the people who need them the most — transfolk.

CTAC, LMF and many national orgs waged a valiant campaign to keep a fully inclusive gender-identity bill intact. I salute your efforts.

this is one battle, but it sure as hell is not the war!

CT. Fundraiser for the IWW Food and Allied Workers Industrial Union Campaign

JOIN US ON

January 11th, 2008, (snow date Jan 25th)

Doors open at 5:30 pm,   Dinner at 6:00 pm

1199 King-Davis Center

77 Huyshope Avenue, Hartford Ct.

[Read more →]

Iranian Gays do exist and need the World’s support.

by Arsham Parsi

I was born September 1980 in Iran. As a teenager growing up in Shiraz, I was lonely and filled with self-loathing. I had never met another queer, and I thought I was a freak.

I prayed to become a good person, a normal person. Other people fasted for one month but I fasted for three.

Then I found the Internet. And I discovered that I was not alone.

[Read more →]

I suppose we have the director of ICE (Immigrantion and Customs
Enforcement, Department of Homeland Security) to thank for demonstrating
that the struggle for the rights of immigrant workers, against the
prison industrial complex, and against racism are all connected. [Read more →]

EROS which stands for Encouraging Respect of all Sexualities presents it’s ninth film festival beginning on Saturday November 11 at 2:30 with films being shown on November 12, 14,15,16,and 17th.  Tickets are available at Cinestudio, 300 Summit Street, Hartford Ct. For information, please visit, www.OutFilmCT.org.  This definition of EROS comes from their film festival leaflet and as stated: “is a gay/straight alliance at Trinity College. Members of EROS are committed to fostering awareness about issues of differing sexualities on campus with the ultimate goal of creating a more tolerant environment for gays, lesbians, and bisexual students.” All films and the dates with playing times are listed on EROS’s Webb site.

From QWB: 

On Saturday November 17th at 2:30 the movie “Truth and Transformations” is screened. Look for our fellow Queer Revolutionary Mattilda and prick up your ears to what she has to say. Many feel this way about marriage but we have been rolled over by the snowball of the “I do” crowd. Of course if you want to read more of Mattilda’s works just scroll down our side bar and click on Mattilda.  Once on Mattilda’s site look at her side bar and click on the movie or any of her blog works. 

As a continuation on the theme of recent posts and comments, I thought this would be of interest. One of the most powerful and poignant speeches at both the Boston Anti-war demo and the Sabeel at the Old South Church was from Salma Abu Ayyash, a Palestinian born in Jordan. She is co-founder of the Palestinian arts and culture organization Tawassul and is a local Palestinian rights activist. I encourage you to view this most poignant speech regarding Israeli apartheid against the Palestinian peoples.

Download link

I returned from a very uplifting and inspiring evening at the Guild convention this evening to read emails and messages regarding an ICE raid in the Parkville section of Hartford yesterday. I am told that at least three people were detained. I have lived close to or in the midst of Parkville for many years now and I confess that there is a horrible sinking feeling about federal agents rounding up and detaining people in my own community that is at least as bad as the first time I heard of ICE raids going on in Connecticut, in East Hartford just about two years ago. It is the kind of news that makes me ask myself, “Have I become a good german?” I tell myself that I do what I can, but how can I possibly answer for myself as a white person in the U.S., knowing that people are being dragged from my community in gestapo-style raids to be imprisoned who knows where and with who knows what outcome? How can I defend the fact that I go about my business as my neighbors live in fear? [Read more →]

Given the growing activity of ICE raids (both known and unknown), Peters excellent analysis from the NLG Convention and the recent report of ICE/State Police emails, it might be interesting for folks to read ENDGAME: Office of Detention and Removal Strategic Plan, 2003-2012, DHS’s ICE Bureau. With a chilling subtitle “Detention and Removal Strategy for a Secure Homeland” [Heil NeoCons and NeoLibs!]. Endgame is DHS’s plan, via ICE, to deport all 12 million undocumented immigrants in the United States by the year 2012. From page 2 of the 49-page document by Department of Homeland Security: “….As the title implies, DRO provides the endgame to immigration and enforcement and that is the removal of all removable aliens. …..” Endgame is a plan earily similar, in name and form, to the early stages of Hitler’s Final Solution: [Read more →]

Thanks to Khalil for sending this email out the other day.

Emails between ICE (Immigration and Customs Enforcement) and CT State Police prior to the New Haven raids have been released to Unidad Latina en Accion and Junta for Progressive Action, thanks to the Yale Law Clinic. The raids horrified thousands in New Haven and across the state. In the exchange ICE invites the State Police to come “play”, saying that they have 18 addresses, so it should be “great fun”. The State Police reply is “sounds great”. Some parts of the emails, however, are still under black magic marker.

[Read more →]

An article in today’s Hartford Courant reports that at least one person was arrested and eight detained during Friday’s sweep in the Parkville section of Hartford by the Fugitive Operation Team of Immigration and Customs Enforcement. One person was arrested on an outstanding deportation order and the 8 others who were swept up in the raid were suspected of being illegal aliens.  

First, thanks to Richard for encouraging me to continue this report on the 70th anniversary national convention of the National Lawyers Guild.  A lot of folks may not know this but the Guild was formed in 1937 because at that time — only 70 years ago — African American lawyers were not permitted to join the American Bar Association. While I always emphasize to my colleagues that we don’t get a free ride on the question of fighting racism based on what was done seven decades ago, I like to think that we are keeping alive that spirit of dedication to the rights of human beings in the Guild today. [Read more →]

Kudos to Francisco Acevedo of the Free People’s Movement in Connecticut and straight ally of QWB on the launch of a new FPM e-newsletter and blog. The first edition contains:

a winter appeal for unused clothes for people in need;

coverage, photos and video of the FPM picket at the military recruiting station in hartford;

and a biographical sketch and endorsement of Luis Cotto for Hartford City Council.

FPM, along with SDS and CLASH, brings a fresh leftist activist perspective to Greater Hartford. I look forward to future QWB collaboration with our comrades.

Check out the new FPM blog at:
http://ct-fpm.blogspot.com

FPM website:
http://fpm-mgl.org/ct/index.html

Get on the FPM in CT e-newsletter list by emailing:
hartford_fpm at yahoo dot com

By m(A)tt

For me, the story begins back in November of 2003. Ill-prepared, exhausted, dehydrated and disoriented, I found myself among a group of black-clad radicals under the Miami sun. Recently disillusioned with the passivity of the antiwar movement, I traveled 2,000 miles to Miami to try my hand at what seemed like something more direct, and in theory, more effective than the permitted marches over the previous year. I was 18, fresh out of high school, and trying to figure things out before committing to college. The object of the protest, the Free Trade Area of the Americas, was almost incidental as far as I was concerned.

The action I joined in Miami had its exciting moments, but before long, we found ourselves boxed in, somewhere in Overton, with cops on bicycles creating a perimeter around us. It was a long time ago, but I recall that as soon as we stopped moving, they swooped in and surrounded us, long enough for the phalanxes of riot cops to come to the scene. I remember thinking to myself, “Why didn’t we think of that?”

Read more at BikeBrigade…