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9 Tweets to Celebrate Trans Awareness Week
See how these trans advocates, students, and allies brought visibility to their trans community members this week.
Mitch Kellaway
www.advocate.com/politics/transgender/2014/11/19/9-tweets-celebrate-trans-awareness-week
Honoring Harvey Milk's Legacy in Europe
Harvey Milk did something that few people ever do — he started a movement that changed the nation. His legacy lives on through the great work being done by his nephew, Stuart Milk, who accepted the Presidential Medal of Freedom on Harvey’s behalf posthumously in 2009, the same year that I humbly received the same award for my work with Susan G. Komen. Meeting Stuart that day changed my life, and gave me a new cause to pursue — achieving equal rights for the LGBT community in our nation and across the world.
Last month, I was extremely pleased to join the U.S. Embassy in Budapest to honor both the legacy of Harvey Milk and the incredible work that the Harvey Milk Foundation is doing to promote LGBT inclusion and acceptance across the globe. I did so not just as a former U.S. Ambassador, but as a proud American who believes in inclusion and not exclusion.
It is an honor to serve in a leadership advisory role and stand with the incredible Harvey Milk Foundation that is supporting LGBT visibility on all corners of the globe, doing so with a strong grace and successful efficacy. It is imperative to raise awareness about the LGBT community around the world, and the only way to do that is to educate those around us, everywhere we go.
One of the late Harvey Milk’s core messages was visibility. When I promised my sister, Susan G. Komen, that I’d do everything I could to stop the heartless progression and social stigma of this disease, the word “breast cancer” wasn’t even fit for polite conversation, let alone a national discussion. Slowly but surely, we changed that through visibility. And while the LGBT community has made enormous strides in the U.S. there still is significant work ahead at home and abroad.
36 years ago, Harvey Milk said:
You must come out. Come out… to your parents… I know that it is hard and will hurt them but think about how they will hurt you in the voting booth! Come out to your relatives… come out to your friends… if indeed they are your friends. Come out to your neighbors… to your fellow workers… to the people who work where you eat and shop… come out only to the people you know, and who know you. Not to anyone else. But once and for all, break down the myths, destroy the lies and distortions.
Today, we are seeing the incredible impact of those words. Just recently, Apple CEO Tim Cook announced publicly that he was gay. He did so because he believed that sharing his story with the world could “help someone struggling to come to terms with who he or she is, or bring comfort to anyone who feels alone.” He couldn’t be more right, and by coming out to the world, he paved the way for many others to be honest with their friends, their family and their peers about who they really are, and for them to be accepted with open arms by all.
The Harvey Milk Foundation is doing terrific work in helping people like Mr. Cook feel comfortable about being who they are by coming out to their friends and family. Recently, the Foundation helped establish the annual Harvey Milk Day in California. They were also successful in working with the United States Postal Service to issue a Harvey Milk stamp, which will go a long way in educating our nation about the decades-long effort to bring about real change for the LGBT community.
Today 65 percent of Americans say being gay is just the way some people are, not something people choose to be and they should be accepted and have equal rights. These are remarkable statistics because gay people like Tim Cook had the courage to be honest with themselves and their families. This turnaround is also due to the education work being done by the Milk Foundation and the other LGBT civil society organizations that move the LGBT community towards greater acceptance and equality every day. But the work is far from over – just last week a federal appeals court upheld gay marriage bans in four states. We must double our efforts to ensure that every American can spend their life with the person they love.
And although I have long supported LGBT visibility in everything I have done, it is personal for me. Not only because of dear friends who are members of the LGBT community but because one of the most important and inspiring people in my life, my son, is a proud and wonderful gay man. I could not be more proud of my son Eric, and am so pleased that he was able to join me in Hungary as we work for equality for the LGBT community in central Europe and across the globe.
There is much more to be done to ensure that the LGBT community is endowed with the same rights as all humans across the globe. But what I saw in Hungary last month gives me hope. People like Tim Cook give me hope. And my own son, who works tirelessly for the cause, helps me believe that we will someday bring about real change in the world for justice for all.
Mississippi Dad’s Beautiful Response to Son’s Coming Out
One dad finds inspiration from HRC’s All God’s Children campaign.
HRC.org
Michael Sam Retires, Says There Are Closeted Players In Every Sport
It has been 18 exhilarating months since I came out in Sports Illustrated as the first openly gay man in one of the four major professional team sports. And it has been nine months since I signed with the Nets and became the first openly gay male athlete to appear in a game in one of those leagues. It feels wonderful to have been part of these milestones for sports and for gay rights, and to have been embraced by the public, the coaches, the players, the league and history.
On Wednesday at the Barclays Center, I plan to announce my retirement as an NBA player. …
… There are still no publicly gay players in the NFL, NHL or major league baseball. Believe me: They exist. Every pro sport has them. I know some of them personally. When we get to the point where a gay pro athlete is no longer forced to live in fear that he’ll be shunned by teammates or outed by tabloids, when we get to the point where he plays while his significant other waits in the family room, when we get to the point where he’s not compelled to hide his true self and is able to live an authentic life, then coming out won’t be such a big deal. But we’re not there yet.”
— 38-year-old Michael Sam, recently named one of GQ‘s Men of the Year, and the first openly gay NFL draft, announcing his retirement in a column he wrote for Sports Illustrated
Jeremy Kinser
Houston Restaurant Apologized to Customer Who Complained About Their 'Faggot' Waiter: VIDEO
A former waiter at Kelley’s Country Cookin’, a Houston restaurant, is speaking out about a disgusting incident that occurred during a shift he was working last week, ABC13 reports:
Blake Butler, 19, was a server at Kelley’s Country Cookin’ in Meadows Place up until last Wednesday when he says a fellow server got a note on the top of the receipt from two customers. It was about him and read “Don’t want to listen to a (faggot) through my whole meal.”
“I just thought it was disgusting,” said Butler. Butler says it was offensive but just as offensive was how the manager reacted.
“Instead of having my back and be like, you know, ‘That’s my employee. I can’t have you talking about my employees like that.’ She was like, ‘Oh. It’s OK. I’m sorry,'” Butler said.
Butler also says that he came out to his parents because he didn’t want them to find out after hearing about it on the news.
Watch the report, AFTER THE JUMP…
Andy Towle
Bette Midler on Girls, Gays, and the 'Love That Won't Shut the F— Up'
The Divine Miss M dishes on her new album, It’s the Girls, and her joy watching the gay rights movement transform from the love that dare not speak its name to ‘the love that won’t shut the fuck up.’
Jase Peeples
www.advocate.com/arts-entertainment/music/2014/11/19/bette-midler-girls-gays-and-love-wont-shut-f
First Same-Sex Marriage Licenses Issued In South Carolina
CHARLESTON, S.C. (AP) — A judge has issued the first same-sex marriage licenses in South Carolina, ahead of a planned move by the state’s attorney general to block such unions.
Early Wednesday, the office of Probate Judge Irvin Condon in Charleston said that he had issued six licenses to same-sex couples.
The judge’s attorney, John Nichols, says the way was cleared for issuing the licenses by a decision in a case in Columbia. On Tuesday, the judge in that case ruled that South Carolina must recognize the marriage of a same-sex couple performed in Washington, D.C.
Last month, the South Carolina Supreme Court told probate judges not to issue any marriage licenses until there was a decision in that case. Nichols says Tuesday’s ruling was that decision, so Condon is issuing licenses.
TDOR Series: A Message to Transgender Youth
Blossom Dupree reflects on Transgender Day of Remembrance as part of HRC’s week-long blog series.
HRC.org
www.hrc.org/blog/entry/tdor-series-a-message-to-transgender-youth?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss-feed
South Carolina Attorney General Alan Wilson Asks SCOTUS Chief Justice John Roberts to Stay Gay Marriage Ruling: READ
South Carolina’s Attorney General Alan Wilson, who has long been entrenched in his battle against attempts to end the state’s discriminatory ban on same-sex marriage, is seeking a stay of U.S. District Judge Richard Mark Gergel’s ruling that struck down the Palmetto state’s marriage ban as unconstitutional from none other than U.S. Supreme Court Chief Justice John Roberts. Just yesterday, the Fourth Circuit Court of Appeals denied a similar appeal made by Wilson. Now, as BuzzFeed reports, all eyes turn to Roberts and whether the 6th Circuit’s move to uphold same-sex marriage bans and the subsequent appeals by plaintiffs in those cases will sway Roberts to intervene:
Since the justices turned down five states’ requests on Oct. 6 to take a marriage case appeal — including a decision from the 4th Circuit striking down Virginia’s marriage ban — the justices have, on three occasions, turned down requests to issue stays of lower court rulings during appeals. This includes one, in Kansas, since the 6th Circuit Court of Appeals upheld four other states’ bans.
Now, however, with requests in from the plaintiffs in those four states’ cases asking the Supreme Court to take one or more of the appeals and resolve the question, Wilson is hoping that he can get a stay issued from the court to stop the trial court ruling from going into effect Thursday.
Specifically, South Carolina is asking the chief justice to grant a stay pending appeal because, the filing asserts, the 4th Circuit Court was wrong in its decision in the case challenging Virginia’s marriage ban, Bostic v. Schaefer, which the Supreme Court let stand on Oct. 6.
Same-sex marriage is set to begin Thursday at noon in South Carolina should a stay not be granted.
Read the appeal filed by Wilson, AFTER THE JUMP…
Sean Mandell
9ª Parada do Orgulho LGBT de Anápolis Go 2014
Visite nosso Blog www.brasilcolorido.blogspot.com.
www.youtube.com/watch?v=4kThjZgvIVA&feature=youtube_gdata
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