QBits

A long but worthy read. Sadly.

Q.

Two boys hold hands at the Ruth Ellis Center, a drop-in shelter for LGBT - lesbian, gay, bisexual or transgender youth in Detroit, Michigan.

By Jerome Hunt, Aisha C. Moodie-Mills | June 29, 2012

Download this brief (pdf)

Read this brief in your web browser (Scribd)

Gay, transgender, and gender nonconforming youth are significantly over-represented in the juvenile justice system—approximately 300,000 gay and transgender youth are arrested and/or detained each year, of which more than 60 percent are black or Latino. Though gay and transgender youth represent just 5 percent to 7 percent of the nation’s overall youth population, they compose 13 percent to 15 percent of those currently in the juvenile justice system.

These high rates of involvement in the juvenile justice system are a result of gay and transgender youth abandonment by their families and communities, and victimization in their schools—sad realities that place this group of young people at a heightened risk of entering the school-to-prison pipeline.

Despite the disproportionately high rates of gay and transgender youth entering the juvenile justice system, our nation’s schools, law enforcement officers, district attorneys, judges, and juvenile defenders are not equipped to manage the unique experiences and challenges that these young people face. As a consequence, the system often does more harm by unfairly criminalizing these youth—imposing harsh school sanctions, labeling them as sex offenders, or detaining them for minor offenses—in addition to subjecting them to discriminatory and harmful treatment that deprives them of their basic civil rights.

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Gotta love allies. Happy 40th PFLAG!

Q.

Staff Reports

WASHINGTON — PFLAG (Parents, Families and Friends of Lesbians and Gays), the nation’s largest grassroots-based non-profit for families, friends, and straight allies of LGBT people on Friday kicked off its milestone 40th anniversary year campaign, “PFLAG Then & Now…40 Years of Family and Ally Voices.”

The campaign will be a yearlong look at how PFLAG’s unique family and ally voice has been a crucial part of the LGBT movement, where PFLAG started, its achievements and goals toward achieving full equality for LGBT people.

PFLAG was founded in 1972 by Jeanne Manford, who marched along side her gay son Morty in New York’s Christopher Street Liberation Day Parade after watching a TV news report in which Morty was tossed down an escalator during a gay rights protest while New York City Police offices stood by and watched.

Manford was galvanized to take action through a simple act: walking side by side with him in the parade, carrying a sign that read, “Parents of Gays Unite in Support for Our Children.”

The response to Manford was overwhelming and she was begged by participants to speak to other parents and families.

In the year that followed, her grassroots movement spread like wildfire and in 1973 Manford, along with a small group of dedicated parents, founded PFLAG, an organization for parents, families, friends, and straight allies to unite with LGBT people in a shared mission of support, education, and advocacy.

That this movement spread so quickly — long before the age of the internet and mobile phones — was clear evidence of the need for an organization like PFLAG.

“Then, Jeanne had no legal recourse through which she could protect her son. The press refused to listen to her story and the government was silent in response to her calls for justice,” said Rabbi David M. Horowitz, PFLAG’s organization’s National President.

“Now, 40 years later, parents, families, friends, and allies of LGBT people have a voice – in large part thanks to PFLAG and its nearly quarter of a million members and supporters, who work relentlessly to create a society that not only protects the rights of their LGBT loved ones, but also celebrates their diversity and loving relationships,” Horowitz said.

“Jeanne Manford has been called the Mother of the Straight Ally Movement: the simple act of supporting her gay child empowered millions of family members and straight allies to do the same, demonstrating the force that a single voice has to transform the push for acceptance and equality for all,” said PFLAG National Executive Director Jody M. Huckaby.

Today, PFLAG has more than 350 affiliates throughout the United States and 11 other countries.

naturallybent:

-the video referred to at the beginning of dr. mercola’s article can be found at the url for this article or at the cbs site:

http://www.cbsnews.com/video/watch/?id=7403942n

—naturallybent

——

June 30 2012

By Dr. Mercola

If you haven’t viewed the video at the top, please schedule 20 minutes and do so as you will thoroughly enjoy this 60 Minutes vindication of sugar’s dangers.

In a ground-breaking news story, 60 Minutes reports that new research coming out of some of America’s most respected institutions is finding that sugar is a toxin that can lead to major chronic diseases such as obesity, heart disease, and cancer.

This is jolting to people who don’t realize that even if they don’t add it to their foods, hidden sugar, including high fructose corn syrup (HFCS), is in virtually all processed foods, from yogurts and sauces to breads and sodas.

Although some experts argue that “sugar is sugar,” test subjects in strict clinical trials who were monitored 24 hours a day, who consumed HFCS, developed higher risk factors for cardiovascular disease within two weeks.

Other studies indicate that if you limit your sugar, no matter what form you get it in, you decrease your chances of developing cancer—including breast and colon cancers.

What’s even more startling is that a growing number of studies are also showing that the more sugar you eat, the less satisfied you are.

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A Polish parliamentary committee has rejected a proposed civil partnerships bill but lawmakers will consider adding sexuality to the country’s hate speech laws as soon as next month

30 June 2012| By Andrew Potts

Polish lawmakers have rejected a civil partnerships bill on the 43rd anniversary of the Stonewall Riots.

However the largest party in its governing coalition has announced it will seek to include sexuality in the country’s hate speech laws as soon as next month.

The civil partnerships bill would have given legal recognition to both same-sex couples and unmarried cohabiting heterosexual couples in Poland for the first time but the Legislative Commission of the Polish Lower House of Parliament blocked the bill on June 28, preventing it from even being considered by lawmakers.

Supporters of the bill say that only the Lower House’s speaker, Ewa Kopacz, has the power to bring the bill back and have started a Facebook campaign in support of the bill but she has been a vocal critic of LGBT rights in the past.

But it may not be all bad news for the LGBT community in Poland as the centre-right Civic Platform party has announced it intends to introduce amendments to the country’s hate speech legislation in July.

The proposed law would add incitement to hatred on the grounds of sexuality and disability to the law which already covers nationality, race and religion.

A Civic Platform spokesman said the party was looking to cover all ‘natural personal characteristics.’

‘Natural personal characteristics include gender, state of health, sexual orientation and disabilities,’ he said.

House Speaker John Boehner’s (R-Ohio) attorneys on Friday formally appealed to the U.S. Supreme Court an appeals court decision determining the Defense of Marriage Act was unconstitutional.

Drew Hammill, spokesperson for House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.), told the Washington Blade on Friday afternoon Republicans had notified Democratic leadership that House counsel filed an appeal to the Supreme Court.

The court ruling that was appealed was the First Circuit Court of Appeals decision in the cases of Gill v. Office of Personnel Management, which was filed by Gay & Lesbian Advocates & Defenders, and Commonwealth of Massachusetts v. Department of Health & Human Services. On May 31, the appellate court issued a decision that Section 3 of DOMA, which prohibits federal recognition of same-sex marriage, was unconstitutional as a result of both cases.

In a statement, Pelosi slammed Boehner for continuing to assert the constitutionality of DOMA, saying the appeal is a decision that will “waste more taxpayer funds to advance a position rejected by four different courts and to defend discrimination and inequality before the highest court in the land.”

“Democrats have rejected the Republican assault on equal rights, in the courts and in Congress,” Pelosi said. “We believe there is no federal interest in denying LGBT couples the same rights and responsibilities afforded to all couples married under state law. And we are confident that the Supreme Court, if it considers the case, will declare DOMA unconstitutional and relegate it to the dustbin of history once and for all.”

Boehner’s office didn’t immediately respond to a request to comment on the appeal.

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06/29/2012

When we opened the Ali Forney Center, the challenges we faced were daunting; there was very little awareness of the plight of homeless LGBT youth, especially on the federal level, and it was difficult to obtain support for our work.

I am very grateful to President Obama for recognizing the needs of homeless LGBT youth and incorporating their care into his vision of ending youth homelessness. I am also grateful to the White House for recognizing the quality, innovation, and  importance of the Ali Forney Center, which is a testament to all of the individuals who have served on the board, staff and as volunteers.

Hopefully the award will bring more attention to Siciliano’s crusade. Demand for beds at the center has skyrocketed in recent years. To help alleviate the crush, the Ali Forney Center and their allies have launched the Campaign for Youth Shelter, which is asking the city and New York state for $3 million in funding that will help accommodate LGBT youth who are struggling on the street.

Cuban gay activists held a kiss-in demonstration and presented a demand for respect to the country’s parliament on Thursday, as they prepared for the upcoming island’s second annual Gay Pride parade.

Fifty people — mostly gay rights activists but also a handful of dissidents such as Guillermo Fariñas and Martha Beatriz Roque — signed a petition calling for civil rights and handed it to the National Assembly of People’s Power, said Ignacio Estrada, a gay activist and dissident.

“Our document calls on the Cuban government to fully comply with international agreements it has signed on human rights, especially those that apply to LGBT rights,” Estrada said after delivering the petition.

The petition also calls on lawmakers to launch an investigation of the Military Units to Aid Production, or UMAPs — hard-labor camps created by Fidel Castro during the 1960s to detain homosexuals and government critics — and requests trials for government officials responsible for the camps.

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Staff Reports

ATLANTA — A federal judge has ruled that a Georgia university did not violate the First Amendment rights of a graduate student when it ordered her to attend “diversity sensitivity training” because her anti-gay beliefs were “incompatible with the standards of her desired profession.”

U. S. District Court Judge Judge J. Randal Hall last Friday dismissed the lawsuit against Augusta State University, and said that the plaintiff, Jennifer Keeton, who was enrolled in the school’s Counselor Education Program, was aware of the conduct standards set by the University and that she failed to prove those standards suppressed her free speech.

Jennifer Keeton

Keeton, 24, sued the University in July 2010, claiming that faculty and university staff had violated her rights to free speech and the free exercise of her Christian faith when it told her that, in order to stay in the program, she would have to change her beliefs about homosexuality.

Keeton had said in and out class that, according to her Christian beliefs, homosexuality is “immoral, unnatural, and a ‘lifestyle choice’ that can be reversed through “conversion therapy.”

Faculty members said they were concerned that Keeton’s anti-gay beliefs would interfere with her ability to become an effective practitioner, as they conflicted with the professional ethical standards set forth by the American Counseling Association and the American School Counselor Association.

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First LGBT celebration in Laos with help from the US embassy

28 June 2012| By Anna Leach

The small communist south-east Asian country of Laos celebrated its first LGBT Pride on Monday (25 June).

The event ‘Proud to be Us’ was organized by local activists and the US embassy in the capital, Vientiane. It featured performances exploring discrimination, gender roles and sexual health on a stage in the US embasssy’s sports field, AFP reported.

Since Secretary of State Hilary Clinton’s historic address at the UN last December in which she said ‘gay rights are human rights’, supporting LGBT rights all over the world has been high on the US’s agenda.

US Ambassador to Laos, Karen Stewart spoke at the event.

‘The message we want to send is that no matter what you look like or where you come from or what your sexual orientation is, every single one of you is a person with value and should be treated with dignity and respect,’ Stewart told the crowd to loud applause.

The single-party Lao government also supported the event, shown by the attendance of the ministry of health’s Dr Bounpheng Philavong, director of the Center for HIV/AIDS/STI.

Around 100 people were at the Pride event, including those from local LGBT outreach groups: the Purple Sky Network, Lao Positive Health Association, Population Services International, the Burnet Institute and the Vientiane Youth Center for Health and Development.

Purple Sky Network’s Anan Bouapha, one of the event’s organizers, said: ‘I am proud to call this event our first victory for the LGBT movement in this country. We have made history. I’ll remember this memorable day and will meaningfully celebrate it throughout the generations.’

T/W for violence

by Dan Littauer
26 June 2012, 7:13pm

Thapelo Makutle is believed to have been killed on 8 June

A suspect in brutal murder of South African gay man Thapelo Makuthle has been charged. Activists say that anti-LGBT related crime and violence is on the rise.

A suspect in the brutal murder of Thapelo Makuthle is reported to have been charged. The suspect, named Sizwe Tajini, resides with his father in the village of Seoding, the same of the victim, near Kuruman, Northern Cape, South Africa.

Thapelo Makuthle, a gay man, was brutally murdered on 8 June, Kuruman, Northern Cape, his head almost severed from his body.

During a court hearing that was held today in Kuruman, Taijini was said to have admitted to carrying out the murder alone.

Speaking to PinkNews.co.uk, Shaine Griqua, director of the LGBT rights group LEGBO Northern Cape reported that Taijin “stayed silent most of the time and showed no remorse.

“He also made contemptuous, arrogant facial expressions and body posturing at the LGBT activists who were in attending the court hearing,” he said.

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Cool image!

Q.

Obama Pride

We came across this great fractal-rainbow image of Obama. We contacted the artist to tell us a bit about it.

“My name is Tom Vasquez, I am an artist and designer living in Brooklyn, New York. Earlier this month, I was inspired to create this image of President Obama as a tribute to his historic decision in support of marriage equality. I admire the president for taking a stand for what’s right. Since creating this piece, I’ve had many requests to put it on tee-shirts for Pride month and beyond. My ultimate hope is to have the president sign one of the limited edition prints I will be producing and to have it displayed prominently in my apartment!”   www.tomvasquez.com

Songapore’s Pink Dot rally is on June 30th.

Q.

Co-founder of Singapore’s first gay rights group and long-time blogger Alex Au Waipang awarded humanist of the year

25 June 2012| By Anna Leach

The Humanist Society (Singapore) awarded their Humanist of the Year prize to a gay man, Alex Au Waipang, for the first time on Saturday.

‘I think it’s very generous of the Society, though I would understand if it had been a difficult decision since I am a gay man,’ said Au Waipang when he was accepting the prize.

Au Waipang gave a rousing acceptance speech in which he explained why he feels his ‘gayness’ is one of his ‘key defining characteristics’, imagining a world where homosexuality was the norm and heterosexuals are marginalised.

Discussing homosexuality and religion, Au Waipang said ‘even ardent atheists can be homophobic.

‘All this suggests to us that it would be misplaced to blame religion for antipathy to homosexuality. In fact, when we reflect upon it, it is not religion that creates the antipathy, it is the antipathy that corrupts religions.’

Au Waipang said that sexual orientation shouldn’t be a big deal and ‘it wouldn’t be so if we applied reason upon empirical knowledge, which is the very essence of humanism’.

Au Waipang was one of the co-founders of Singapore’s first gay rights group, People Like Us, in 1993. He has been writing his blog Yawning Bread since 1996.

Homosexuality and political protest is illegal in Singapore. The city-state’s only gay rights event, Pink Dot, is on Saturday 30 June.

by Edmund Broch
25 June 2012, 10:25pm

Archbishop Desmond Tutu has always supported gay rights, and is a strong proponent of equal marriage

Four Nobel Prize winners, including Archbishop Desmond Tutu and Iranian activist Shirin Ebadi, have released a joint statement decrying violence against LGBT people, and calling on people around the world to support gay rights.

Their statement comes as Simon Lokodo, Uganda’s Minister of Ethics and Integrity, announced a ban on 38 human rights organisations that allegedly ‘promote homosexuality,’ thereby ‘threatening the traditions and values of the country.’ Just two days earlier, a gay rights workshop in the capital Kampala was brought to an abrupt halt by local police officers.

Today, the Robert F Kennedy Centre for Justice and Human Rights released a statement with Sexual Minorities Uganda, undersigned by Archbishop Tutu, Professor Jody Williams, Dr Shirin Ebadi, and Professor Muhammad Yunus, which reads:

As a global community of individuals dedicated to a more peaceful and just world, we wish to express our grave concern as to how our lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and intersex (LGBTI) brothers and sisters are being treated across the globe.

Collectively we represent a diverse array of countries and cultures. Today more than ever, we wish to express that the same cultural values, which have fostered and supported our lifelong quests for peace, also command us to speak out against the violence and discrimination our fellow human beings are enduring every day solely because they are lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender or intersex.

By expressing our solidarity with LGBTI people around the world, we recognize the inherent dignity and human rights of all individuals, without prejudice or intolerance, and we take an important step forward in our collective journey toward peace.

Local gay rights activist in Uganda have welcomed the statement, singling out Archbishop Tutu for his ‘moral courage.’

Mr Lokodo joined calls last week to hasten the passage of Uganda’s much-criticised anti-homosexuality bill, which proposes the death penalty for what it calls ‘aggravated homosexuality,’ and imprisonment for those who fail to spy and report LGBT citizens.

Riot police diffuse altercation between Trans Pride and right-wing marches

26 June 2012| By Anna Leach

Istanbul’s Trans Pride March on Sunday was caught in an altercation with a right-wing march scheduled for the same time in the same place.

Hundreds of transgenders and their supporters gathered in Taksim Square in Istanbul for the third annual Trans Pride March.

The march was supposed to start at 5pm, an hour after another march by right-wing groups in the same square to protest about the attacks by the PKK (Kurdish Workers’ Party) on Turkish soldiers.

‘When the trans activists arrived in the square, shouting “solidarity against fascism” with their rainbow flags, a group of fascists holding Turkish flags, started to attack us throwing bottles and sticks,’ said Turkish trans activist Kemal Ordek.

‘Fortunately, no-one was hurt as the [riot] police immediately went in between the two groups and stopped the counter demonstrators to attack us. The same group continued to hold their counter demonstration for a while, insulting and threatening us.’

The Trans Pride March, the finale of Turkey’s Trans Pride Week, started after the altercation and continued along Isitklal Street without any more problems.

Transgender women in Turkey have been subjected to a series of violent attacks. Last year 28 were murdered showing that Turkish authorities had failed to a respond to a 2010 Human Rights Watch report entitled Turkey: Stop Violence Against Transgender People.