Questions of gender rights and gender justice are not new to the Middle East, and neither are struggles that we now read under the sign of “feminism.” In fact, a large portion of the laws that are often regarded as oppressive to women and LGBTQ Arabs and/or Muslims are relatively new. They were introduced to the region via the Napoleonic code and the codification and the severe hollowing out of the shar‘ia in modern history. For example abortion, long considered a question of women’s rights in the Western world due its twinned history with Catholicism and Christianity more broadly, was not illegal across the Arab world until the rise of the nation state. Some traditions of fiqh continue take a position on abortion that American feminists might wish could be extended to the United States today. In addition, jurists have and do struggle to understand and promote “progressive” notions of male and female relations and to make room for nonconforming gender persons in the region. In fact, scholars such as Paula Sanders have shown us that several centuries ago Islamic jurists were developing a system of accommodation for hermaphrodites and nonbinary gendered peoples in Islamic communities.
These are good points to keep in mind when doing any cross-cultural research.
Religious beliefs are no different than other ideas and do not deserve special immunity from criticism. The fact that they have received immunity in the past has been a major source of problems for way too long. We would not be dealing with half of the religious harm we do currently if more people realized this—and spoke against them. There is no idea that inherently deserves ‘unquestioned respect’ or is ‘off-limits’ to critique and criticism. Any idea for which this immunity is demanded is very likely irrational, dangerous, and unsupported by evidence.
History does not disclose the name of the first black person dragged onto a slave ship, the first black person held in newly constructed prisons, or the first black person forcibly recruited to work on a colonial plantation. But black people have been arriving late ever since, hoping that the slavers have left, the ships traveled beyond the horizon, the whip silenced, the work done, the suffering gone.
Black time—whether you call it colored people time (CPT) or African timing (AT) or the deliciousness of syncopation—black time is about delay, interruption, break: strategic lateness.
Black time is long time, deep time, waiting time, excavated time, time around time. The not-here, the not-yet-there, the it-will-be-coming, the it-has-been-to-come, the it’s-not-wasn’t-yet, the it-was-just-here-yet-to-be-now. The fold, the crease, the wrinkle, the tick that does not tock. The tock that does not talk. The silence that does not break. The breaking that will not be broken. The.
You-just-missed-it.
Black time is hungry time. Ravenous time. Gluttonous time. Cannibal time.
Black time is waiting time, time after the reservation, time after other people’s time, time cut by other people’s time, time as didn’t-see-you, time as can-you-wait, time as you-again, time as I-don’t-have-time-for-this-shit.
Black time is dropped consonants, slipped sounds, skipped beats, don’t-wanna-ain’t-gonna-coz-it-don’t-make-no-difference time. Black time is learned time, doing time, time done, time-to-do, time-never-done, time-undone. Time-served, time-to-serve, time-serving, time-unserved, time-put-off, time-for-time, pipeline-time, skipping-time, cut-time, time-cut, cutting-time.
I haven’t seen you for a minute.
Sorry I’m posting this late. I was running behind.
– Black Time, Keguro Macharia
Jason Collins, NBA athlete & 2013 Courage Award recipient, answers questions before the show begins
Matt Bomer greets students Joey Kemmerling and Emet Tauber
Members of Farrington High School GSA—GLSEN’s 2013 GSA of the Year—pose with Janet Mock
Janet Mock snaps a picture with two members from Farrington High GSA
Barbara Frankel (DiversityInc), Respect Awards - New York co-chair with guests.
Kyra Sedgwick & Kevin Bacon at dinner
GLSEN Executive Director Eliza Byard talks with Jason Collins and openly gay high school football player Leo Washington
Former NFL football player Wade Davis plants a kiss on Eliza Byard while walking the red carpet before GLSEN’s 2013 Respect Awards - New York
Lilla Crawford (Broadway’s Annie) and Jonathan Del Arco (The Closer) on the red carpet before GLSEN’s 2013 Respect Awards - New York
For more Respect Awards photo, video, and recap check out youtube.com/glsen, glsen.org/respectawards, flickr.com/glsen and of course here on Tumblr — we’ll be posting more updates soon!
If a man has not had sex with another man within the last five years and meets all the other eligibility criteria to be a blood donor, he will be able to donate blood,” Dr. Dana Devine, who is vice-president of medical, scientific and research affairs at Canadian Blood Services, told reporters Wednesday from Vancouver.
“A re-enactment of Harvey Milk’s famous Hope Speech in the Castro to celebrate Harvey Milk Day, 2013.
To mark what would have been Harvey Milk’s 83rd birthday, San Francisco city officials organized a reenactment of his famous “You’ve Got To Have Hope” speech on Sunday, May 19, 2013. Milk gave the speech on June 24, 1977 at the San Francisco Gay Community Center at the campaign kick-off to announce his third bid for supervisor. Five people helped recite a portion of the speech, including:
- Courtney Walsh and Aaron Wimmer, two actors from Dear Harvey, the recent New Conservatory Theater play about Milk’s life - Randall Mann, local poet and winner of the 2003 Kenyon Review Prize in Poetry - Sister Roma, 20-year member of the Sisters of Perpetual Indulgence - Andrea Shorter, lesbian political consultant who serves on the city’s Commission on the Status of Women.
The TGEU map [above] shows countries in blue that require no sterilization, orange for countries that require sterilization and red for countries where trans people can not legally change their gender.
More at the source link.
Just Two Men Who Do Si Do (w/ Lyrics) - Marriage Equality Song (by Rob Gould)
1,500 rally for Mark Carson in NYC - It was New York City’s largest LGBT rally in years, according to organizers. On Monday at least 1,500 people showed up to honor the life of Mark Carson and make a stand against the hate that led to his death. Carson was an openly gay 32-year-old black man who was shot and killed over the weekend in what authorities are investigating as an anti-gay hate crime.
The randomness of Carson’s death has shocked the city’s LGBT community. “Mark is not going to die in vain. We are not going to get beat up in vain,” one rally participant told Mother Jones. “Gay rights, we’re still fighting for them, and the fight is not over. We need to protect each other.”
diversity in everything is being decimated by the corporate drive towards monopolization. this includes monocultural agriculture and monsanto’s drive to reduce the world’s seed supply to a handful that they own and have patent rights over. —-nb
From a Boy Named Issak by Issak Wolfe:
“The school has agreed to let me wear the boys’ cap and gown, but won’t budge on anything else. They refuse to promise to do anything to help other kids like me, as if pretending I’m the only transgender student they’ll ever have at their school will make it so. They refuse to apologize to me, even though they know the principal’s actions were mean-spirited and hurtful.
And they insist on reading my female name at graduation, even though I’m working on getting my name legally changed and most people have been calling me Issak for almost two years now.
Reading my male name at graduation wouldn’t hurt anyone, but they KNOW that reading my female name only serves to hurt me more. [my emphasis]
“We are not toys. We are not going down without a fight…This is racism right here.” -Asean Johnson, from Chicago’s Marcus Garvey School, on the Mayor Rahm Emanuel’s school closings
Wow. An amazing speech from one so young.
Presidential Medal of Freedom to be posthumously awarded to astronaut Sally Ride.
“We remember Sally Ride not just as a national hero, but as a role model to generations of young women,” said Obama in a statement. “Sally inspired us to reach for the stars, and she advocated for a greater focus on the science, technology, engineering and math that would help us get there.”
“Sally showed us that there are no limits to what we can achieve, and I look forward to welcoming her family to the White House as we celebrate her life and legacy,” said Obama.
![The TGEU map [above] shows countries in blue that require no sterilization, orange for countries that require sterilization and red for countries where trans people can not legally change their gender.
More at the source link.](http://25.media.tumblr.com/0b1a53e8df7deb979bb208c343b9ba08/tumblr_mn5x8xdK7T1qgo5q0o1_500.jpg)
![From a Boy Named Issak by Issak Wolfe:
“The school has agreed to let me wear the boys’ cap and gown, but won’t budge on anything else. They refuse to promise to do anything to help other kids like me, as if pretending I’m the only transgender student they’ll ever have at their school will make it so. They refuse to apologize to me, even though they know the principal’s actions were mean-spirited and hurtful.
And they insist on reading my female name at graduation, even though I’m working on getting my name legally changed and most people have been calling me Issak for almost two years now.
Reading my male name at graduation wouldn’t hurt anyone, but they KNOW that reading my female name only serves to hurt me more. [my emphasis]](http://24.media.tumblr.com/9609f36ba6a9aee0398798ff6e924b85/tumblr_mn5o97hCre1qgo5q0o1_400.jpg)
