Daily Archives: September 12, 2014



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Gay Jews Shake Their Butts to End the Summer, and Jewish Mothers Plotz Everywhere (VIDEO)

Gay Jews Shake Their Butts to End the Summer, and Jewish Mothers Plotz Everywhere (VIDEO)
The summer might be over, but the Jewish boys of the famed Viagra Falls house in the New York gay getaway Fire Island Pines just released this Hebro-sponsored video mashing up two of this summer’s biggest gay anthems hits: “Anaconda” by Nicki Minaj and “Break Free” by Ariana Grande.

WATCH:

Looks like these boys will have loads to atone for this Yom Kippur.

www.huffingtonpost.com/jayson-littman/gay-jews-shake-their-butts_b_5791052.html?utm_hp_ref=gay-voices&ir=Gay+Voices

MISC

HRC Reboots Its Mission Toward Greater Trans Inclusion

HRC Reboots Its Mission Toward Greater Trans Inclusion
When I first came out after transitioning, I joined the Human Rights Campaign (HRC), because they had a women’s holiday party coming up and it seemed a good place to start. I had been dating men, but they were universally skittish once I discussed my gender history with them. So rather than just being frustrated and angry, I looked for an outlet in activism, and HRC was the big kid on the block (literally so, since they were just then dedicating the D.C. headquarters, which I had previously visited when it was the B’nai B’rith building), so I joined them (and many other groups soon thereafter).

This was also the time when HRC was discussing adding the “T” in “LGBT” to its mission statement, and after attending a few events I decided to join the local steering committee. I don’t know if I was the first trans person they had on board, but it certainly seemed like it, based on the general lack of knowledge about trans issues. I wasn’t surprised, because efforts by the trans community to join with the gay community in pushing for inclusive anti-discrimination protections had been very difficult and only occasionally successful over the previous decade. I understood where HRC’s self-interest lay, as their membership was mostly gay and their money was almost entirely gay, so I kept to myself and spoke out only when asked.

In those days certain organizations were more trans-inclusive than others. On the national level the National Gay and Lesbian Task Force was the most avant-garde, and I had made my first LGBT contribution to support their Trans Civil Rights Project, run by Lisa Mottet. On the state level the newly reconstituted Equality Maryland was led by Dan Furmansky, a dynamic executive director who was eager to develop a truly LGBT organization. Mara Keisling had just founded the National Center for Transgender Equality (NCTE) in D.C., as she saw the need for a professional presence on the federal scene, where previous incarnations of national trans organizations had never gained traction.

As a result of all of this ferment, HRC, which, under the leadership of Elizabeth Birch, had discussed and then finally decided to add the “T” to the organization’s mission statement, took the next step in 2004. It was that resolution, lobbied for by Donna Cartwright, Diego Sanchez, Mara Keisling and others inside the new building, while others, including mye, demonstrated outside, that was the first tangible example of true inclusion. It dealt with the Employment Non-Discrimination Act (ENDA), which was to become the lightning rod for HRC and the trans community for the next decade. There was immediate blowback in the gay community, presaging the upcoming battles of 2007.

A few years later I joined the board of governors, at a time when Donna Rose was the only trans person on the board of directors. (To date, HRC has never had more than one trans director out of 45.) With the Democratic takeover of Congress, passage of ENDA through Congress became possible (though it would have been vetoed by President Bush, which lent a surreal atmosphere to all the tumult that occurred). HRC, as the leading LGBT lobbyists on Capitol Hill (but without any trans lobbyists, a condition that has still not been altered), had the opportunity to put inclusion to the test and ultimately failed. That experience has been recounted voluminously elsewhere, but suffice it to say that HRC was left holding the bag for the sexual-orientation-only ENDA. Virtually every other LGBT organization joined the United ENDA coalition. The LGBT community had a raucous debate, for the first time, about the difference between gender identity and sexual orientation and the value of true inclusion. It was extremely ugly, leading to the resignation of Donna Rose from the board and Jamison Green from the HRC Business Council. (I remained as a governor to serve as a bridge, since I was locally based.)

The debate brought real change, but it occurred primarily in the national community and not in HRC. It was several years before they promoted another trans person, Meghan Stabler, to the board of directors, and they have still not added to that number. For many years Allyson Robinson was the only out trans staffer with any significant responsibility. Little changed in the culture at HRC under President Joe Solmonese, including the reluctance to fund trans legislative work on the state level. Inertia was the name of the game within, while progress continued at large, with multiple state and local jurisdictions passing anti-discrimination ordinances, groundwork being laid to remove being transgender from the compendium of mental illnesses and to begin to provide access to health care, and trans persons winning very significant cases in federal courts, culminating in the 2012 Macy v. Holder decision.

As those years passed, the leadership at HRC changed with the departures of Winnie Stachelberg, David Smith and Joe Solmonese. When Chad Griffin arrived in town, he promised me that he had been empowered to create real change in the staffing structure, and he has begun to fulfill that promise, particularly with his promotion of Hayden Mora to Deputy Chief of Staff. I was pleasantly surprised how informed he was about trans issues, both in D.C. and nationally.

Last Thursday at the Southern Comfort Conference in Atlanta, where Joe Solmonese had promised HRC support for a trans-inclusive ENDA in the fall of 2007, only to make that a very hollow promise in just a few weeks, Griffin apologized — not only for that misrepresentation but for all the problems between HRC and the trans community for which HRC had been responsible over the years. He was specific and demanded to be held accountable. These are words the trans community has never heard before from HRC, certainly not in public.

While the president of HRC can only do so much, it’s a major start. As has been said on many occasions, not only about HRC, these organizations take their direction from their board of directors. HRC’s board has changed little over the years, with some members still present since the early years. As I’ve mentioned, there is only one trans board member, and given the importance of fundraising for an organization whose financial support is primarily gay, it’s hard to believe that HRC’s focus can change very much, even with Griffin’s desire to do so.

There is reason for optimism, however, with the winding down of the marriage-equality movement. As HRC and others, such as the Gill Foundation, turn their attention to anti-discrimination work in the South and Midwest, and as gender expression, as distinct from gender identity and sexual orientation, comes to the fore as a major issue for the younger generations, an increasingly trans-based focus makes sense for the nonprofit that bills itself as America’s leading LGBT organization. Ironically, when gender conformity was of primary importance for both the gay and trans communities, a united front was both possible and desirable. It took a great effort to get here, but today’s more diverse expression of gender is demanding greater flexibility within both the gay and trans activist communities. I hope this will help HRC make good on its promises. My colleagues and I will be watching with great hope.

www.huffingtonpost.com/dana-beyer/hrc-trans-inclusion_b_5808146.html?utm_hp_ref=gay-voices&ir=Gay+Voices

MISC

Gareth Thomas Reveals New Partner With Sexy Bathtub Photo

Gareth Thomas Reveals New Partner With Sexy Bathtub Photo

unnamedWe’ve been together about a year now. We moved in together after about a month, a month and a half. I know so many people gay, or straight, who have regrets and just wish they’d not missed out on something good. I don’t want to regret something, I wanted to give it a go. It did seem pretty quick but we’re better than we ever have been after living together for a year. We thought ‘if it is right to us then bollocks to what anyone else thinks.’ If anyone thought it was too soon we’ve proved them wrong as now we’ve got our own house in Wales, we’re settled and life is good. I was 39 and Ian was 50. We’re not teenagers anymore and we live or die by our decisions and not by what other people decide for us.”
– Former rugby superstar Gareth Thomas speaking about his boyfriend Ian Baum and posing in a bubble bath with him for a cover story for Attitude magazine

Jeremy Kinser

feedproxy.google.com/~r/queerty2/~3/9ydWRmfRPd0/gareth-thomas-reveals-new-partner-with-sexy-bathtub-photo-20140912

MISC

Facebook Begins Enforcing 'Real Name' Policy, Disproportionately Affecting GLBT Performers

Facebook Begins Enforcing 'Real Name' Policy, Disproportionately Affecting GLBT Performers

My Name Is Roma

Facebook requires members to use their real names, a fact of which most folks are likely unaware due to the policy largely being unenforced, a decision quite possibly made due to the substantial blowback Google Plus received with their mandatory real name policy that they only recently rescinded. However, Facebook is now cracking down on their policy and the fallout is a disproportionate effect on LGBT individuals and drag performers in particular.

In a remarkably tone-deaf response in an interview with Business Insider, a Facebook representative said:

If people want to use an alternative name on Facebook, they have several different options available to them, including providing an alias under their name on their profile, or creating a Page specifically for that alternative persona.

As part of our overall standards, we ask that people who use Facebook provide their real name on their profile.

Fan Pages and Musician/Group categories are how stars like Lady Gaga, Madonna, RuPaul, and will.i.am keep their obvious stage names. 

Sister Roma of the San Francisco chapter of the Sisters of Perpetual Indulgence is presently one of the more high-profile dissenters to the policy. When Roma, who now has to go by Michael Williams in order for his Facebook account to remain active, was told to create a Fan page he responded: 

I use this site to keep up with friends and simply don’t want employers or crazy stalker people to log on and search me . I want my friends to find me…I detest the idea of having a fan page. I’m not fucking Britney Spears. I have friends, not fans.

Saying additionally:

Bottom Line: I’ve been Sister Roma for 27 years. Ask anyone what my name is, in or out of drag, and they will tell you it’s Roma. #MyNameIsRoma. 

Which brings to the forefront something that Facebook may not be considering: safety. While no doubt some users adopt pseudonyms for the purposes of trolling or harassment, no small number adopt fake names to protect their privacy and safety, and when that privacy is broken it can lead to disastrous results as one particularly devastating incident on Google Plus revealed.

This mandatory outing could be especially destructive for LGBT youth who need the protection of anonymity to connect with friends and resources without subjecting themselves to the hatred of peers…or even their own family. Going to Sister Roma again, she posted a message she received from a friend when the name change went into effect:

Here is an example of the comments i have received regarding Facebook’s legal name change policy:

“The name I was born with is the name of a victim, a lonely little boy who hated himself.

That is NOT who I am. 

#MyNameIsJayd“

Adding to all of the chaos and shady business, Roma went to reply to a message from Sister Unity and found that the entire thread had been censored, along with other conversations that had discussed Facebook’s name change policy. 

Then there’s the whole question of “How does Facebook enforce this?” Unlike Google Plus, users don’t have to submit photographic proof of identity when they sign up, so it seems to be that enforcement his highly subjective and is going to target people with obvious stage names rather than people who are simply creating a fake profile with a real-sounding name. Enforcement is also very spotty; Roma and some Sisters have been forced to change their names, while other Sisters like Nancy Drew Blood and performers like Heklina have their drag names intact. 

A Change.org petition has been started to demand that Facebook allow performers of all types be allowed to use their stage names and is seeking 2,800 signatures. As of right now, Facebook hasn’t commented any further on the issue.


Christian Walters

www.towleroad.com/2014/09/facebook-begins-enforcing-real-name-policy-disproportionately-affecting-glbt-performers.html

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