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Number Crunch: Queer Comics
Comic book superheroes in film dominate at the box office, but queer characters are not a new phenomenon in the super source material.
Michelle Ehrhardt
www.advocate.com/arts-entertainment/geek/2015/01/09/number-crunch-queer-comics
When Religion Goes Wrong
I have a very early memory of attending the midnight Easter mass at the Greek Orthodox Church in San Francisco. My sister and I had been forced to take naps that afternoon, with pink sponge curlers in our hair, in preparation for the late-night service. When we woke we put on our good dresses and patiently waited while our mother took the curlers out of our hair and brushed through our brown curls, allowing her to pull the top layer back into a ribbon tied in a perfect bow. It was so important to look just right, because we had to look respectable to go to church, like pretty little girls. No pants, no jeans, no sneakers, no messy hair, no scowls, just dresses and smiles and curtsying before the icons, genuflecting and kissing the feet of saints.
During the service, after chanting and incense, the whole church went completely dark to represent the tomb where Christ’s body lay. In the darkness you could hear the respiring of the faithful, and the shushing by mothers trying to still the squirming bodies of little children trying their best not to fidget in the dark. We each held a special white candle ringed with a red cup, a tulip with a rod thrust through it. In the front of the church, at the altar, one candle was lit. At midnight, with the announcement of Christ’s resurrection, that one candle would light the next person’s candle, and so on, until each neighboring churchgoer had helped light the next, and finally all the candles would be lit. Then the church, with its classic Eastern Orthodox icons and beautiful stained glass, was illuminated by the joined flames of our candles.
The symbolism of sharing illumination with your neighbors is lovely, unless it becomes dangerous. Such was the case with the parents and conservative church community of Leelah Alcorn, a teenage transgender girl who was denied the love and support she needed and finally took her own life as a form of protest. Leelah’s parents prioritized their religious ideology over their daughter’s well-being. They refused to acknowledge her gender identity, isolated her from the world for months on end, verbally berated her, and subjected her to Christian counseling meant to undermine who she knew herself to be. When Leelah told them she was transgender and was meant to live as a woman, their response was that “God doesn’t make mistakes.”
If a person truly believes that we were created by God and that God doesn’t make mistakes, then it would follow that each person was born perfect, and that God gave them a body and soul to His liking. If they believed that God doesn’t make mistakes, how could Leelah’s parents have asserted that their child was anything other than perfect?
I was raised in a conservative religious context and believe that religion can be comforting and enlightening and, through structure and ritual and consistency, bring order to a world that feels chaotic. However, that only works when all people feel welcomed. It works when the basic principle is love and finding community through kindness and acceptance. In cases when acceptance is not offered, religion can scar a person’s soul. How many times was Leelah’s soul scarred in the name of religion?
The memory I have of midnight Easter mass has imprinted itself onto me: the mystical rituals, the chanting, the smell of the incense, the Greek words floating through the ether. As a child I found it magical and enduring. When I came out as a lesbian at the age of 16, I had to hide my true self from my family and church community. My parents would say that “lesbians are worse than prostitutes,” and I knew that I could be excommunicated from the church. So I withdrew from them, and I accepted that the church would never truly embrace me.
Many years later, when I gave birth to my first child, my mother asked when I was going to baptize the baby. In my heart I wanted to, but I didn’t know if I could find a Greek Orthodox priest willing to baptize the child of a queer couple, and I was scared to even ask. I was scared to be rejected. Finally I went on my local Greek Orthodox Church website and asked through an email contact form if they would be willing to baptize our child. The priest invited us to come speak with him. My partner and I arrived, nervous and hopeful that the meeting would go well. The priest was a kind and gentle man with an embracing spirit, and he was eager to baptize our son. We were the first LGBT couple to request a baptism at his church. With a warm smile he told us the church believed you should “love the sinner and hate the sin.”
With mixed emotions we proceeded with the baptism. I was grateful for his willingness to perform the baptism, but I would be lying if I said I wasn’t hurt when he framed my then-12-year relationship as a sin. The ritual was beautiful, and we felt treated with respect, but when we received the baptismal certificate, we found that the only parent listed was me; the second parent was listed as “unknown.” I put the certificate away. I don’t think I’ll ever show it to my son. I’m ashamed that his other parent was erased.
Whenever I enter a Greek Orthodox church, I enter both as that little girl enraptured by the beauty of the rituals and as the lesbian who will always feel like an outsider. Whether I am there to attend an Easter mass or the Greek Festival, I always have the same experience. I stand in the pew and drink in the majesty of the pounded copper ceiling, the blue glass, the hand-painted icons; I experience the thrill of standing side-by-side with my fellow Greeks in community; and then I cry with a yearning to fully belong.
I am a full-grown woman with a family and a house and friends and stability. But when I stand in church and know that I am not fully accepted, it is still painful. Now amplify that pain by infinity. Imagine being a young person still under the purview of your parents’ authority and being told that everything you are is wrong. Imagine them invoking the name of God to tell you that you are wrong. It’s crushing. And in the case of Leelah Alcorn, she had to find a way to crush the pain. And now we are left with the agony of knowing that a perfect child died in the name of God. God didn’t want Leelah to die. Religion went wrong when Leelah’s parents wielded God as a weapon against their own child.
Need help? In the U.S., visit The Trevor Project or call them at 1-866-488-7386. You can also call 1-800-273-8255 for the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline.
Please share Transgender Law Center’s resource guide for talking about trans suicide.
Please Stop Spitting on Me During Sex
WARNING: This post contains sexually explicit language. Please read on at your own discretion.
Please stop spitting on me during sex. It’s gross, unnecessary, and totally weird. There is absolutely no need for you to spit on me while we are having intercourse, and, honestly, the spitting causes more problems than anything else. I don’t know what porn you saw this in, but please stop doing it. I don’t know why you find it attractive, because I certainly don’t.
First of all, spitting on me is not going to provide any more lubrication than your mouth is already providing during sex. By sucking my penis or licking my anus, you are already providing a sufficient amount of moisture to facilitate the sex act. What’s more, by using your mouth like a normal person during oral sex, you spread your saliva evenly over me, which is much more useful during intercourse than stray wads of lube hocked up on me. Not once have I looked at my dick during a blowjob and thought, “Wow, I am incredibly dry in this one particular spot. I hope he spits exactly there to keep me lubed up!” Half the time you try to spit on me you totally miss your target. I really don’t need your spit on my futon, alarm clock, or rug. I also don’t want a loogie in my chest or ass hair; you keep trying to be manly, but you missed the spittoon by a mile!
I can’t stand when you spit on me while we are kissing. When we softly taste each other with our tongues, that is hot! When you grab my face and spit in my mouth, that’s not! Maybe some guys enjoy the degradation of having their face spit on, but that is not me. Your spit is actually kind of gross. It’s ropy and bubbly, and sometimes there is phlegm or bits of food in it. I don’t need to see that.
When I dominate another man, I absolutely never spit on him. There are a lot of things that happen in porn that look hot on video but are gross unfulfilling in real life. Spitting falls under this category. The rawness of it may appeal to some, but otherwise it’s completely gross. There are tons of other hotter and more agreeable acts to do to assert your power. Being dominant can involve holding someone down with exerted arm muscles, using powerful words to make them submit, or simply taking the lead in the bedroom (all consensually, of course). Spitting is the most unpoetic way to be dominant.
Russia Now Says Trans People Can't Have Driver's Licenses
You’ve got to hand it to Vladimir Putin’s Russia: Just when you think they’ve thought of everything, leading Russian anti-LGBT forces get even more creative.
Thom Senzee
www.advocate.com/world/2015/01/08/russia-now-says-trans-people-cant-have-drivers-licenses
GOP Lawmaker Wants To Declare Texas A Sovereign Anti-Gay State On Same-Sex Marriage
A Republican Texas state lawmaker has filed a bill attempting to re-ban same-sex marriage in the highly likely event it is made legal in the Lone Star State by federal courts.
Rep. Cecil Bell Jr. on Wednesday introduced House Bill 623, which he’s calling the “Texas Preservation of Sovereignty and Marriage Act.”
The bill would essentially declare Texas a sovereign state when it comes to the issue of same-sex marriage, meaning it wouldn’t have to comply with federal court rulings.
The Texas Observer reports:
HB 623 would amend the Texas Family Code to prohibit the use of taxpayer funds for the “the licensing or support of same-sex marriage.” It would also bar government employees from recognizing, granting or enforcing same-sex marriage licenses. Any government employee who violates the provision would be barred from collecting “a salary, pension, or other employee benefit.”
HB 623 would also require Texas courts to dismiss challenges to the law and award attorneys’ fees to defendants. And it would grant Texas sovereign immunity under the 11th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution when it comes to enforcing the law, “regardless of a contrary federal court ruling.”
“When I was elected, I made a promise to my constituents to fight to protect our traditional values and to stand strong in the defense of our constitutional rights as Texans and Americans,” Bell said in a release. “Texas is a sovereign state and our citizens have the right to define marriage. We as Texans voted in 2005 to define marriage as being solely between a man and a woman. In Texas marriage is sacred and traditional families are recognized as the fabric of our society.”
Last February, U.S. District Judge Orlando Garcia struck down Texas’ marriage bans as unconstitutional. But Republican Attorney General Greg Abbott appealed the decision to the 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals, which will hear oral arguments in the case on Friday.
More on Bell’s bill from The Texas Tribune:
“The federal government is trying to act to create moral standards, and that’s just not acceptable,” Bell said.
Daniel Williams, a legislative specialist for the gay rights group Equality Texas, said the bill would go against legal precedent.
“This bill is retreading very well-established precedent here. In 1869, the U.S. Supreme Court decided in Texas v. White that no, Texas does may not ignore federal law whenever it wants,” Williams said. “Beyond it ignoring federal law, it would actually punish state employees who follow the law.”
Ken Upton, Dallas-based senior counsel at Lambda Legal, called the bill “laughable.”
John Wright
WATCH: Calif. Sen. Barbara Boxer Will Not Seek Reelection
The four-term U.S. senator and LGBT ally announced today she will not run for reelection in 2016.
Sunnivie Brydum
To Be a Fly on the Wall
On Friday, January 9, the United States Supreme Court will discuss whether to review of one or more of the five marriage equality cases now before it. We’d love to be a fly on the wall at the Court’s private conference, but we, like millions of other LGBT Americans and their friends and families, will have to wait for the Court’s public announcement, which could come later that day, the following Monday, or even later in January.
Nearly all legal observers thought the Supreme Court would take a marriage equality case last October, but the Court instead declined to review decisions in favor of the freedom to marry from the 4th, 7th, and 10th Federal Circuits. Marriages began immediately in Virginia, Indiana, Wisconsin, Oklahoma, and Utah. Other states in these federal circuits, such as Colorado, North Carolina, and West Virginia soon thereafter followed suit. At the same time, the 9th Circuit Federal Court ruled in our favor, and states such as Nevada, Idaho, and Arizona gained equality. Today, 36 states and the District of Columbia have marriage equality.
But a very conservative federal trial judge in Louisiana and the 6th Circuit federal appeals court (covering Michigan, Ohio, Kentucky, and Tennessee) failed to follow the otherwise unanimous consensus of lower federal courts, which had sided with equality since the Supreme Court struck down DOMA in 2013. The 6th Circuit and the Louisiana federal judge upheld the statewide marriage bans before them.
Speculation is high that the Supreme Court will grant review of the 6th Circuit (or Louisiana) decision. Last summer, Justice Ginsberg, stated that “some urgency” would exist for the Court to take the case if the 6th Circuit ruled against equality. Conflicting decisions from federal circuit courts present a classic reason for the Supreme Court to review a case. Justices Thomas and Scalia indicated late last fall that they had wanted the Court to take one of the cases in October. But the Supreme Court could also decline review of the 6th Circuit and Louisiana cases and continue to allow the various federal appellate courts to reach their own decisions regarding state marriage bans.
We urge the Supreme Court to grant review of one or more of the cases before it and establish marriage equality nationwide and heightened constitutional protection for LGBT people more broadly. If it doesn’t, LGBT people will continue to be excluded from marriage in Michigan, Ohio, Kentucky and Tennessee for the indefinite future. Married LGBT couples will remain vulnerable if they move or travel to a state without equality. LGBT couples who married in states with equality but live in states without it will be deprived of important federal rights and protections. And LGBT Americans will continue to live with uncertainty as to whether the Supreme Court and other federal courts will protect us from governmental discrimination in all aspects of our lives.
As we await the Supreme Court’s decision, action will continue apace in the federal circuits. Marriages began in Florida earlier this week, and briefing is nearly complete in the 11th Circuit. The 5th Circuit (covering Mississippi, Louisiana, and Texas) will hold oral argument in marriage equality cases on January 9, the same day the Supreme Court will conduct its conference. Decisions will follow in the coming months. The First Circuit is also reviewing an unfavorable ruling from Puerto Rico, and the Eighth Circuit (covering states such as Arkansas, Missouri, Nebraska, and the Dakotas) will be hearing and deciding case(s) as well.
The case for equality is strong if the Court takes a case this January. The Court’s 2013 Windsor decision articulated forcefully the harm that inequality causes LGBT couples and their families. If the Court takes a case this term, oral argument will take place in the spring with a decision very likely in late June — just in time for Pride. We hope for an equality filled 2015.
John Lewis and Stuart Gaffney, together for nearly three decades, were plaintiffs in the California case for equal marriage rights decided by the California Supreme Court in 2008. They are leaders in the nationwide grassroots organization Marriage Equality USA.
Kim Fu's ‘For Today I Am A Boy’: Book Review
Early in this uncommonly moving debut novel—the last book I read in 2014, and one of the best—the young narrator, Peter Huang, goes to the movies with his adored older sister Adele. The theater plays old movies, and they watch Sabrina, the classic film starring Audrey Hepburn. Sitting with his beautiful sister, heartbroken that in a few weeks Adele will leave for college, Peter sees in Hepburn an impossible ideal, an embodiment of the kind of woman he feels sure he was meant to be.
But everything in Peter’s life seems designed to keep him from anything like an authentic self. The child of Chinese immigrants in a small Canadian town, Peter is the only boy in a family of four children, the answer to his father’s prayers. Peter’s father is in some ways desperate to assimilate—he refuses to speak Cantonese and forbids his wife from cooking their native cuisine—but he has deeply traditional ideas about gender and the duties of children. He gives Peter the Chinese name Juan Chaun, “powerful king,” and expects him to act accordingly.
But Peter can’t be the son his father wants, and he lives for stolen moments when he can imagine himself into a different life. Alone in the afternoons after school, he puts on his mother’s apron and cleans the house, then cooks a meal his sister will take credit for. When his father discovers that his son has been doing “women’s work,” his response is immediate and cruel.
Peter does find allies in his small town, people he can begin to share his secrets with, but it isn’t until he moves to Montreal as a young man that he has his first glimpses of queer life. And even here he can’t let himself make use of his new freedom. Years after he leaves home, even after his father’s death, Peter is still ruled by his parents’ expectations. He feels not just shame at being trans, but absolute certainty that anything like a full life is impossible.
It’s not surprising, then, that Peter’s first sexual experiences are bound up with violence. In one of the book’s most powerful sequences, he enters into an abusive relationship with a much older woman, who stages scenes of sexual sadism and racist humiliation. In a devastating scene, this woman dresses Peter as a woman and then chokes him in front of a mirror, so that “I could watch my own blissful face white out slowly, glowing like an angel’s, until I passed out.”
Structured in short, intense fragments and poetic scenes, Kim Fu’s novel follows Peter’s life over three decades, and one of its strengths is that Peter’s coming of age doesn’t fit into any easy narrative of liberation. Even when he does fall in with a group of young people who seem entirely comfortable with their queer identities, with rich lives and loving relationships, Peter’s response, at least at first, is to feel less relieved than enraged.
“Who were these kids?” Peter asks himself. “What right had they to be born into a world where they were taught to look endlessly into themselves…To ask themselves, and not be told, whether they were boys or girls?”
The novel doesn’t offer any easy answers to Peter’s questions, or to other questions he asks about family and gender and sex. It certainly resists any sense that there are ready-made answers to those questions, or that they can be resolved in anything other than individual, divergent, and partial ways.
In fact, the novel suggests, Peter’s best chance at happiness may not be in the urban queer community Montreal offers, but instead where he began, within his difficult, fractured family, and especially in his relationships with his three sisters, each of them desperate for a wholeness their lives seem to refuse them.
For Today I Am a Boy is an extraordinarily accomplished first novel, and Fu is a thrilling new voice. She’s at once compassionate toward her characters and uncompromising in her refusal of the usual novelistic resolutions of questions that remain intractable in lived experience. Lyrical, sometimes brutal, always beautiful, this is a brilliant book.
Previous reviews…
Joyce Brabner’s ‘Second Avenue Caper
Shelly Oria’s ‘New York 1, Tel Aviv 0’
Colm Tóibín’s ‘Nora Webster’
Saeed Jones’s ‘Prelude to Bruise’
Garth Greenwell is the author of Mitko, which won the 2010 Miami University Press Novella Prize and was a finalist for the Edmund White Debut Fiction Award and a Lambda Award. His new novel, What Belongs to You, is forthcoming from Farrar, Straus and Giroux in September 2015. He lives in Iowa City, where he is an Arts Fellow at the University of Iowa Writers’ Workshop. Connect with him on Facebook and Twitter.
Garth Greenwell
www.towleroad.com/2015/01/kim-fus-for-today-i-am-a-boy-book-review.html
Lea Michele Singing 'Let It Go' Is The Cover 'Glee' Fans Have Been Waiting For
It’s not time to let go of those “Frozen” covers just yet.
In anticipation of the two-hour final season premiere of “Glee,” Fox just released Lea Michele’s much-anticipated rendition of “Let it Go.” In the premiere, Michele’s character, Rachel Berry, sings the song as she works to reestablish the glee club at McKinley High School, according to EW.
After the release of “Frozen,” “Let it Go” has become a force of nature, helping singer Idina Menzel make music history as the first person ever with both a top 10 hit and a Tony Award for acting. And since Menzel plays Michele’s mom on the Fox show, it seems like a fitting way to start the final season.
The final season of “Glee” premieres Friday, Jan. 9, at 8:00 p.m. ET on Fox.
BarbWire Columnist Blames 'Demonic' Gay People For Leelah Alcorn's Suicide: LISTEN
Gina Miller, a content editor at vile anti-gay rag BarbWire, has blamed the gay community for the suicide of transgender teen Leelah Alcorn, reports Right Wing Watch.
Late last month, 17-year-old Alcorn took her own life and scheduled a heartbreaking suicide note to be published on her Tumblr page. The page has since been removed by Leelah’s conservative Christian parents.
In a characteristically nasty but shockingly insensitive column, Miller says that Satanic forces were behind Leelah’s “deeply disturbing mental and spiritual sickness.”
She continues that anyone “in open rebellion against God’s design for human sexuality will suffer for it, and suicidal tendencies are just one of the many ill effects.”
Using the horrible, preventable death of a teenager as fuel to the “Christian” right fire, Miller goes on to claim that it is actually anti-gay activists that are the victims of Leelah’s death:
“Our freedoms are in terrible danger. The radical homosexual movement is a powerful tool of these evil forces, and it is being used in an aggressive to squash our natural rights of conscience, speech, association and religion and to pervert the meaning of family and marriage.”
Listen, if you can stomach it, AFTER THE JUMP…
BarbWire is owned by bigot Matt Barber, a man so deeply involved in the promotion of hatred that he has actively supported the “work” of Scott Lively who is known for helping to spread anti-gay laws in Africa and for his book The Pink Swastika, which blamed gay people for the rise of Nazi Germany.
Dan Savage has called for Leelah’s parents to be prosecuted for abuse.
Jim Redmond
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