Daily Archives: October 16, 2014
Black Colleges: Stop Discriminating Against LGBT
Black Colleges: Stop Discriminating Against LGBT
Life is not easy for lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgendered (LGBT) students at the nation’s 105 Historically Black Colleges and Universities, where the subject of same-gender-loving people and lifestyles remains largely taboo. The reality is that most black colleges have not accepted sexual identity diversity as an issue with which they need to be concerned. A number of reasons have been suggested — among these, a level of social and religious conservatism within the black community.
Whereas nearly all majority institutions long ago developed programming and institutional support systems to ensure that same-gender-loving persons are able to live authentically, only three HBCUs — Bowie State University, North Carolina Central University and Fayetteville State University — have created a center or dedicated full-time administrative staff to LGBT affairs.
Moreover, few black colleges have codified anti-discrimination policies related to sexual orientation. As a result, the LGBT communities within these schools are vulnerable to unchecked discrimination, forcing many to live in the shadows; masking their identities and suppressing their human potential in order survive. By not valuing and validating sexual identity diversity, black colleges create enormous losses in terms of human capital and opportunities for increased excellence, both for the black colleges, for black LGBT persons, and for society. There are no winners here.
According to the Harvard Business Review, LGBT persons comprise 5 to 10 percent percent of the working public in the United States and, we extrapolate, a substantially larger proportion of college enrollments. Estimates are that family and friends of LGBT persons extend to 60 percent of the American population. In terms of wealth, the LGBT community in the United States represents an $800 billon marketplace that is growing.
Data show that development and execution of a campus-based LGBT diversity and engagement strategy can both improve institutional outcomes and campus climate by providing a welcoming environment that fully engages all students, faculty and staff to contribute their best. Indeed, successful LGBT diversity and engagement strategies can enhance an institution’s reputation, overall student satisfaction, and fundraising opportunities — each providing new levers for marketability. And student and staff morale are lifted when an institution is seen to be inclusive. But perhaps most importantly, fully inclusive institutions garner the best talent, increase employee retention and productivity, and decrease their legal vulnerability.
With a collective enrollment of some 300,000 undergraduate and graduate students annually, black colleges play a critical role in shaping the black community. It is imperative, therefore, that black colleges take a national leadership role as agents of social change by adopting a campus diversity agenda built around the emerging needs of their LGBT communities.
At the core is a recognition that black colleges lag woefully behind their peers nationally in developing welcoming environments for LGBT persons, with most displaying benign neglect and some outright hostility to LBGT concerns. The presidents of these institutions must have the courage to stand up for diversity by aligning their institutions’ operations with their stated values of inclusion.
Black college presidents should invest in 1) understanding their campus climate with an emphasis on LGBT concerns, 2) developing a language and framework to engage with the issues of sexual identity diversity constructively, and 3) creating strategies, plans and the infrastructure to ensure that the needs of their LGBT members are met. Concurrently, all who care about black colleges must step out of the shadows of fear or indifference and help them write a new chapter in their ongoing tradition of inclusiveness.
Joan Rivers died after complication of lack of oxygen to brain while sedated with Propofol
Joan Rivers died after complication of lack of oxygen to brain while sedated with Propofol
The beloved gay icon was undergoing medical procedure to deal with changes to her voice
gregh
LGBT Non-Discrimination Ordinance Passes in Springfield, Missouri
LGBT Non-Discrimination Ordinance Passes in Springfield, Missouri
This week the City Council in Springfield, Missouri, passed a non-discrimination ordinance that includes sexual orientation and gender identity.
HRC.org
This Submissive Bear Had All His Genitalia Removed And Now He’s Happier Than Ever
This Submissive Bear Had All His Genitalia Removed And Now He’s Happier Than Ever
A South Florida man’s penis was too large for his liking, so he decided to do something about it.
“I was always embarrassed by the size of what I had,” the man tells Gawker. “It didn’t fit my personality.”
His solution?
Castration.
The man goes by the name Gelding. He describes himself as a “submissive bear.” 20 years ago, he had his testicles surgically removed.
It all started with a fantasy ignited when he was playing soccer in high school. Another athlete approached Gelding in the school locker room, grabbed his nut sack, and said: “You have a man’s equipment, but you’re still a boy… You shouldn’t have such big equipment!”
“He squeezed my balls and at that point it was just a fantasy for me,” Gelding explains. “So how about getting rid of them for some reason?”
Years passed, and the desire to sever his scrotum from his body only grew stronger.
Gelding initially tried castrating himself in what he described as a “sexual frenzy” in 1991. After numbing his scrotum with ice water, he tied off his ball sack with rubber bands then cut off about two-thirds with a kitchen knife.
“It was like I was outside my body,” he told SF Weekly in a 2000 interview.
But things didn’t quite go as he had planned.
“You are in a state of sexual excitement, and then your body exhausts the supply of adrenaline,” he explained. “It simply can’t continue anymore, and you go into clinical shock, which is just about what happened.”
Gelding drove himself to an emergency room, where doctors stitched his scrotum back up.
Three years later, he decided to seek the help of an underground “cutter” to assist him in ridding himself of his scrotum. He located a man in San Francisco with castrating experience who was willing to help.
Once again, there were complications. Gelding found himself back in the ER. On his way there, however, his balls fell off. At long last, after years of trying, he was finally a eunuch.
Cut to 2011. Gelding has been living without testicles for over 15 years. He’s been taking testosterone injections to boost his sex drive. But something is still bothering him: His penis.
You see, Gelding suffered an injury to his penis during a high school soccer match that caused severe nerve damage. For years, the pain would awaken him up at night. Erections, too, were extremely painful.
After decades of suffering, he finally decided enough was enough. He had already removed his testicles, why not remove his penis as well? It’s not like he needed it or anything.
“I had a big dick, it got damaged, and I was a bottom,” he says. “I went through a long set of psychological evaluation sessions with a psychologist here in town, because that was necessary in order to have the penis removed.”
Today, Gelding identifies as a “nullo,” which is a cisgender man who voluntarily removes his external genitalia as a form of body modification.
“It is not transgender,” he explains. “It’s simply nullification of what you’ve got. A friend of mine Mack in San Francisco likes to use the term “mascunull”, because I remain as masculine as they come with fur and so forth. But I no longer have the parts.”
Despite not having any genitalia, Gelding still has sex regularly.
“Guys who are aroused by my situation are very aroused,” he says. “I’ve got some guys who are pursuing me a lot. And they just like this idea, because there’s nothing there to be in the way.”
He claims to have quite a range of sexual partners, including a bisexual man who “loves the idea that I have a hairy chest and what is to him a very tiny vagina that he can’t fuck, but he can lick,” as well as a straight man who “likes to fuck me because I don’t have any male genitals and he doesn’t feel threatened by that.”
Gelding notes the downsides to having no genitalia are that he has to sit when he pees and sometimes gets urinary tract infections. He also occasionally suffers from “phantom dick” syndrome.
“I wake up in the morning with a feeling that I have a big dick that’s erect,” he says.
And now the question you’ve all been waiting for: Can he still have an orgasm?
Gelding explains: “With ejaculation, just before you reach the peak, all the fluid is there at the base of the penis, and right before orgasm happens it’s the urethra that acts like a rail gun and expels the semen. So when you don’t use the penis, there’s no force behind it. It just flows out.”
See the very NSFW pictures of Gelding at Gawker.
Related stories:
A Lot Of Men Are Unhappy With Their Penis Size, So Here’s What Can Be Done About It
Firemen Receive Frantic Call To Help Remove Ring From Man’s Penis, Tweet Photos Of The Heroic Rescue
Man Arrested After Jars and Jars Of Human Penises Discovered In His Apartment
Graham Gremore
Towleroad Guide to the Tube #1632
Towleroad Guide to the Tube #1632
SPIRIT DAY: The cast and crew of Orphan Black show their support for LGBT youth
WATCH: Chris Hemsworth vs Moby Dick in teaser for In the Heart of the Sea
APPLE: The iPad Air 2 announcement all summed up
TIME BOMB: Jimmy Fallon and Shailene Woodley pop a pumpkin with rubber bands
For more recent Guides to the Tube, click HERE.
Kyler Geoffroy
www.towleroad.com/2014/10/towleroad-guide-to-the-tube-1.html
FTM: Visit to Mazzoni LGBT Center for Testosterone
FTM: Visit to Mazzoni LGBT Center for Testosterone
Prescription approved; first shot injected.
www.youtube.com/watch?v=2RsSXIzVQis&feature=youtube_gdata
WATCH: Seth Meyers Spoofs The Advocate's Vatican Coverage
WATCH: Seth Meyers Spoofs The Advocate's Vatican Coverage
The late-night talk show host included The Advocate in a roundup of faux reactions to the Vatican’s pro-gay letter.
Daniel Reynolds
www.advocate.com/comedy/2014/10/16/watch-seth-meyers-spoofs-advocates-vatican-coverage
Here's The Flat Butt Anthem You Didn't Know You Were Missing
Here's The Flat Butt Anthem You Didn't Know You Were Missing
Your anaconda don’t want none? Hey, comedian Jessica McKenna gets it.
It’s basically the best thing ever that artists like Nicki Minaj and Meghan Trainor are singing the praises of big butts, but if your booty doesn’t merit a “-licious,” don’t be too bummed: McKenna’s here with a hilarious flat butt anthem to make sure you don’t feel too left out.
Bottom line? Whatever your behind looks like, we’re sure you’re totally rocking it.
Anti-gay televangelist Pat Robertson: 'The towels (in Africa) could have AIDS'
Anti-gay televangelist Pat Robertson: 'The towels (in Africa) could have AIDS'
The 84 year old makes bizarre claim on his TV show The 700 Club
gregh
www.gaystarnews.com/article/anti-gay-televangelist-pat-robertson-towels-africa-could-have-aids161014