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Texas Trans Man Won't Back Down From AT&T Discrimination Claim
Despite AT&T’s denial that Matthew Hileman faced discrimination, he says the company tried to keep him from releasing a recording of coworkers discussing an ‘ass-whooping.’
Mitch Kellaway
Norwich University Blocks Yik Yak App On Campus
NORTHFIELD, Vt. (AP) — A Vermont college president has blocked access to an anonymous social media site because he says it was being used for cyberattacks against some students.
Norwich University President Richard Schneider says he realized his decision to block access to the Yik Yak application via the school’s computer system is largely symbolic because students can access it elsewhere, but he says he had to do something.
“I just know that it is hurting my students right now,” he says. “They are feeling awkward, they are feeling hurt, they are feeling threatened.”
Norwich has launched an internal investigation, but no reports of criminal behavior have been made, the school says in a statement.
Yik Yak describes itself as an anonymous gossip app that was launched last November.
In a number of instances elsewhere across the country, people have been charged with crimes for making online threats or harassing someone via Yik Yak.
Yik Yak says in a statement that like any social media app, it was liable to misuse. It says that it has blocked access nationwide from areas near most middle and high schools and that the app is only intended for use by people 17 or older.
“Additionally, the app monitors conversations and posts, and any negative or harmful behavior can result in the respective user being blocked, or altogether banned from future use,” the statement says. “Yik Yak also finds that as more users sign up and start using the app, communities begin to self-regulate in a positive way.”
Yik Yak was one of a number of new anonymous social media apps that have become popular in the last year, says Sameer Hinduja, a professor in the School of Criminology and Criminal Justice at Florida Atlantic University and the co-director of the Cyberbullying Research Center.
“People were using it to say very cruel and malicious and even threatening and humiliating things,” Hinduja says.
That’s what prompted Yik Yak to block its use from areas within about 1.5 miles of middle schools and high schools, but not colleges, Hinduja says.
“The app owners were very clear they did not want to provide the same sort of geo-fencing and blocking around colleges because it’s a little bit less of a vulnerable population, we’re dealing with what we hope would be considered adults,” he says.
Wanting to avoid repeat of Sochi Olympics, IOC adds clause against discrimination
It states: ‘A country or a person on grounds of race, religion, politics, gender or otherwise is incompatible with belonging to the Olympic Movement’
gregh
Jackson, Mississippi has 4th Highest Rate of HIV Infection in the Nation
HRC will advance awareness and prevention by working with partner organizations across the state.
HRC.org
LGBT FTW!
Homophobia is stupid and I think we’re awesome. #LGBTFTW Social Media Links: twitter.com/ItsKevi… www.youtube.com/use… www.facebook.com/it… Snapchat: itskevinprevo…
www.youtube.com/watch?v=I7MFlEyujFY&feature=youtube_gdata
Chelsea Manning Sues Federal Government for Hormone Therapy
‘I do not believe I’ll be able to survive another year or two … without treatment,’ says the trans military whistleblower, in the wake of the military’s continued delays in providing transition-related medical care.
Mitch Kellaway
Why I Study LGBTQ and Disability in Social Work
During this past summer, I was asked to give a talk at Yeshiva University’s School of Social Work, for their Common Day, on matters related to LGBTQ issues and social work practice. Instead of delivering a dry speech, I narrated a personal story of my journey to studying LGBTQ and Disability — two identities that intersect and create multiple oppressions in an individual’s life. Here is a snippet of it:
I have been involved with the LGBTQ population since the age of 16. I was tired of feeling like the outsider among my peers and community in Bensonhurst, Brooklyn. I decided to find a way to meet other LGBTQ people in the City. A friend of mine, who was also gay, said why don’t we contact one of the gay hotlines listed in the Village Voice. So, we found one, and an older gay gentlemen from the hotline said to visit the Gay and Lesbian Center in Greenwich Village. It was a scary endeavor to travel on the train all the way to the city, but worth the opportunity of finally finding people who identified proudly with being gay. When we discovered the location of the Center, my friend and I asked about groups and counselors available to gay youth. We were directed to Youth Enrichment Services, who embraced us immediately, and provided a safe space for us weekly to attend groups with other gay youth. I felt at home, finally. That was 17 years ago.
Since that time, I have made it a point to be an advocate for the LGBTQ population through my work experience and personal activities. I integrate LGBTQ and Disability literature, film and social media, in the classes that I teach. I write about the experiences, issues and concerns that surround both of these populations. And most importantly, I am mainly interested in how LGBTQ and Disability intersect as identities, and how both policy and practice should address institutional oppression.
You may ask why I chose to focus on disability; it was coincidence that a fellow social work student introduced it to me while I was graduate student in social work at NYU. I realized people who remain on the fringes of our society — I being one of those people since I am a gay and working-class — need the support, political power and financial backing of those who can challenge normativity. Normativity has been equated with the values of the dominant culture, which is usually described as wealthy men, who are able-bodied and heterosexual. That is not political. That is a reality!
As social workers, I believe our role should be to challenge the master narratives through the collection of our clients/students personal stories and to find ways to put those personal stories to use through your work. It could be utilized in the papers you write, discussed at your internships and jobs, brought to your community board, employed in qualitative research, published in books, channeled through art, expressed in social media and spread through spoken word/or other types of communication to family, friends and colleagues.
In the end, you will be happy that you maintained your integrity and commitment to your professional role. Through your efforts, those people’s voices will be heard.
HRC Awards 4 Grants to Historically Black Colleges/Universities—including Alabama State University
This effort is made possible through a partnership between HRC Foundation’s HBCU Project and Promised Land Film.
HRC.org
Judge Rules Public Servants Aren’t Allowed To Opt Out Of Gay Events
A Rhode Island Supreme Court judge ruled this week that the rights of two homophobic firefighters were not violated when they were ordered to drive the city’s firetruck in the 2001 Providence gay pride parade.
The two firefighters are suing former Mayor Buddy Cianci, claiming that their “constitutional religion and and free speech rights were violated” when he “forced” them to drive the parade route, which is considered community outreach and therefore a necessary duty for firefighters.
Kevin McHugh, the attorney representing Cianci, called the case “ridiculous” and argued that other firefighters have been ordered to complete similar drives in the Columbus Day parade, the Purim parade, and others.
Justice Maureen McKenna compared the firefighters’ arguments to their line of work, pointing out that if they were called to extinguish a fire in a temple or a mosque, they would be compelled to do so.
The AP reports that Mayor Cianci was forced from office in 2002 after being convicted of corruption, and the suit only “coincidentally” coincides with his current campaign to win back city hall. He told reporters outside the courthouse that he would make the same decision again if reelected.
Photo: Javier Soriano
Matthew Tharrett
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