Folio Names The Advocate's Managing Editor to Power Millennial List
Michelle Garcia is among this year’s distinguished lineup of ’20 in Their 20s’ honorees.
Daniel Reynolds
Daily Archives: September 29, 2014
Poll Shows Just How Much Republicans Hate Eric Holder
Poll Shows Just How Much Republicans Hate Eric Holder
When Eric Holder leaves his post as attorney general, his legacy will include incurring the animosity of most of the GOP, according to a YouGov poll released Monday. As YouGov’s William Jordan notes, Republicans are more likely to dislike Holder than Democrats or independents are to have any opinion of him, positive or negative.
Sixty-four percent of Republicans have an unfavorable view of Holder. By contrast, just 60 percent of Democrats and 56 percent of independents were able to rate him either way.
Holder was a frequent target of GOP criticism, and in 2012 House Republicans voted to hold him in contempt of Congress over Operation Fast and Furious. Progressive groups like the ACLU have lauded some of Holder’s civil rights achievements and his frank dialogue on racism, while also expressing disappointment over his civil liberties record and pursuit of government whistleblowers.
Democrats in the poll who did have an opinion of Holder, however, were largely positive, with 44 percent viewing him favorably and just 16 percent unfavorably. African-Americans were also especially supportive, with 57 percent rating him favorably, and 6 percent unfavorably.
In total, 26 percent of Americans rate Holder positively, and 37 percent negatively, making him moderately more popular than former Secretary of Veterans Affairs Eric Shinseki and former Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius at the time of their resignations.
The YouGov poll was conducted Sept. 26-28 among 1,000 U.S. adults using a sample selected from YouGov’s opt-in online panel to match the demographics and other characteristics of the adult U.S. population. Factors considered include age, race, gender, education, employment, income, marital status, number of children, voter registration, time and location of internet access, interest in politics, religion and church attendance.
HRC Condemns Transphobic Ad in Twin Cities Paper
HRC Condemns Transphobic Ad in Twin Cities Paper
Yesterday the largest newspaper in Minneapolis, Star-Tribune, ran a shameful ad placed by the anti-LGBT organization Minnesota Child Protection League.
HRC.org
Barney Frank Criticizes HRC President Chad Griffin's Apology to the Trans Community for ENDA 2007
Barney Frank Criticizes HRC President Chad Griffin's Apology to the Trans Community for ENDA 2007
In an interview with The GA Voice, Barney Frank sounds off on Human Rights Campaign president Chad Griffin’s recent apology to the transgender community for HRC’s endorsement of a stripped down version of the Employment Non-Discrimination Act back in 2007 that did not provide gender identity protections alongside sexual orientation.
That bill, introduced by Frank, passed the House 235-184 but was never voted on in the Senate.
Said Frank:
Chad Griffin’s one of those people whose political judgment seems to be off. The fact is that HRC and I and everybody else were for an inclusive bill in 2007. The issue was we did not have the votes for an inclusive bill. It wasn’t a failure of will. Then the question was, was something better than nothing? Was it better to pass a bill that was protective of lesbian, gay and bisexual people or pass nothing? We tried very hard.
People have this mistaken view of the civil rights movement and say, ‘Well the black people never compromised, they got the whole thing.’ That is just silly nonsense. The first civil rights bill that was passed in ’57 was fairly moderate but it had some good things, and then one passed in ’60, and then one passed in ’64. People are now saying, ‘Well we don’t want ENDA to be just about employment, we want it cover housing, etc.” Well that national federal civil rights bill that Lyndon Johnson signed in 1964 that we’re all celebrating today didn’t include housing! Housing didn’t come until a separate bill was passed after Martin Luther King was murdered in 1968. The notion that you can win your entire victory at once is historically and politically flawed.
The transgender community had this mistaken view that if Nancy Pelosi waved a magic wand, transgender would be included. And we were insisting to them that, look we don’t have the votes, help us lobby. Instead of trying to put pressure on the people who were against them, they thought they could just insist that we do it. We said, ‘We’re trying, but we need your help.’
Frank goes on in the interview to discuss how the topic of trans rights has come a long way in the seven years since then, as well as reveal what he misses most about being a congressman – the friendships and the ability to influence policy.
Check out the full interview HERE.
Kyler Geoffroy
Transgender Pioneer & LGBT Activist Felicia Elizondo on Under the Golden Gate LIVE!
Transgender Pioneer & LGBT Activist Felicia Elizondo on Under the Golden Gate LIVE!
Watch more Underground San Francisco on underthegoldengate.com Felicia Elizondo aka Felicia Flames visits Under the Golden Gate LIVE! to talk with Maria Konner and Flynn Witmeyer about…
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WATCH: These Ore. High-Schoolers Want a Trans-Inclusive Homecoming
WATCH: These Ore. High-Schoolers Want a Trans-Inclusive Homecoming
‘Guess what? It’s 2014 and the world is constantly changing and improving,’ say student leaders at an Ashland, Ore., high school as they open the doors for transgender homecoming royalty at their school.
Mitch Kellaway
He, Zie or They: Gender-Specific Pronouns Are Personal
He, Zie or They: Gender-Specific Pronouns Are Personal
“So, Harry,” I said, during a phone conversation last fall with my then 23-year-old son, “How come Facebook says you’re my daughter?”
He burst out laughing.
“Why is that so funny?”
“It just is, Mom.”
Later I saw he had tweeted the question in quote marks attributed to me.
Sometimes I have to think through the ideas of gender identity and gender expression, even though my son has fallen somewhere on the trans* spectrum since he was two. That’s when he told me, “Inside my head I’m a girl.” Growing up, he wanted to wear clothes that society deemed appropriate only for girls, yet was happy with his assigned gender as a boy.
Oddly though, I didn’t know the terms “gender identity,” “gender expression” and “assigned gender” back then. It’s vocabulary I’ve come to understand only in the past several years.
These days Harry, who self-identifies as genderqueer, describes himself as a trans-media artist, meaning he works across and between different mediums, including photography, performance and video. Amber Alert is his drag performance alter ego. Whenever I saw Amber, I’d think of her as “she.” But without the wigs, body padding and makeup, I thought of my son as “he,” even if he were wearing an Escada skirt with black pumps.
I figured Harry’s use of feminine pronouns on Facebook was because he wanted to focus his social media profile on Amber, whose name appears in parentheses underneath his. But I’d noticed he and his friends often use pronouns interchangeably, whether in or out of drag. Pronoun usage was just confusing at times, and not only for me.
Last January, Harry and I were in the front row for the Q&A following Isabella Rossellini’s performance of Green Porno at the Brooklyn Academy of Music (BAM). The moderator spotted Harry’s hand raised and said, “She’s got a question here.”
Harry stood, wearing a black jumpsuit with rhinestones embellishments. His hair was in a high ponytail. As the moderator approached with the microphone, she must have spotted Harry’s cropped beard, because she said, “Oh, I mean he’s got a question.”
“That’s okay,” Harry assured her nonchalantly. “She or he, both work for me.”
I wondered if Harry was so unruffled about being identified as female because it’s been happening to him since he was 11. I remember chaperoning his fifth grade class on a museum field trip. Harry wore tie-dye then, and his hair was shoulder length. He raised his hand to ask a question and was called on as “the young lady in the back.”
“I’M A BOY!” he retorted, much to the amusement of his classmates.
That night at BAM I realized that personal pronouns didn’t matter to Harry. He’d told me he identifies as genderqueer because he consciously rejects the binary labeling of “man” or “woman.” So it follows that he wouldn’t care what pronouns other people use, because other people don’t affect his identity.
I admire my son’s outlook. He views himself as an individual first, as we all are, and he’s chosen how he wants to be identified, as we should all have the freedom to do.
This week on Facebook I noticed that Harry is now my “child” and has a new gender pronoun.
“Harry, why is ‘they’ your pronoun now on Facebook?”
“Because it’s the only non-gendered pronoun available.”
“What about ‘zie’?” I asked.
I’d read about the pronoun “zie,” and its corresponding “zir,” “zimself” and “zirself” while Harry was in college.
“Those terms aren’t really used that much, Mom. I think they have more of a liberal academic connotation.”
“Really?” I asked, hinting at disappointment. “I kind of liked those new words.”
I’d imagined them becoming part of everyday language, the way “Ms.” had been revived in the ’70s as a title for women to use with their last names instead of the only options “Miss” or “Mrs.”
I have to admit I do like the pronoun “they” for Harry. It suits the individual he is, who identifies and expresses as both Harry and Amber. And as a mom with just one child, I feel lucky to have both a “son” and a “daughter.” But the reality is that neither “he,” “she,” nor “they” perfectly encapsulates Harry or Amber. This may be frustrating for the purists out there, but practically speaking it makes perfect sense: people are more than their pronouns.
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This piece first appeared on Julie’s personal blog, My Son Wears Heels. You can also find her on Facebook.
HRCF and GLAAD Issue Report Debunking Anti-LGBT Rhetoric During Election Season
HRCF and GLAAD Issue Report Debunking Anti-LGBT Rhetoric During Election Season
“In Focus: Faith, LGBT People, & the Midterm Elections” seeks to empower journalists to challenge those who choose to thinly veil LGBT animus as a “tenet a faith.”
HRC.org
How You Dance Determines Whether You’re A Top Or A Bottom
How You Dance Determines Whether You’re A Top Or A Bottom
How many times have you admired a cute guy at the bar or club and thought: Hmmm. I wonder if that dude’s a top of a bottom?
Determing a man’s preferred position in the bedroom based solely on his physical appearance can be next to impossible. Sometimes the bottomest seeming bottom will surprise you by saying he’s a top. Or a guy you swear is a total top will leave you completely dumbfounded when he admits he loves being penetrated.
But according to blue-eyed British vlogger/anthropologist John Bird, a gay man’s preferred position can be decoded by closely observing the way he moves on the dance floor.
“Some people actually believe that they can tell a person’s ‘position’ from their gyrations,” says Bird.
Bottoms, he explains, use “smooth hip movements” not dissimilar to “a mating call,” whereas tops either don’t dance, dance extremely badly, or do so in a “very typical macho way.”
Watch Bird’s informative video, complete with dance move demonstrations, below.
Related stories:
Andy Cohen Is Definitely A Top, According To Anderson Cooper
Five Easy Yoga Poses To Make Power Bottoming More Enjoyable
STUDY: Young Men Suck At Sex, Bottoming Doesn’t Hurt, And 1 in 2 Guys Bareback
Graham Gremore