general

SW PA Action Plan for Social Justice

This came from the QUILTBAG newsletter: The final session of the conference was designated for discussion of the “Action Plan for Building Social Justice in Southwestern PA”. The structure was similar to our first QUILTBAG meeting. Facilitators engaged participants in sharing (1) their visions for the world in 5 years, (2) the burning issues that need to be addressed if this world is to manifest, (3) how social justice movements can better work together to[Read More…]

October 18, 2011 — Comments are Disabled — Activism, general

Reply from my father.

He would probably say that he has always loved me and has always been ready to do whatever it took to care for me, and to love me (and I don’t doubt that). It is true however, that we haven’t always been able to talk about things like this. Change has happened over time to get us where we are now, and that change has been on both sides of things- his and mine.

October 18, 2011 — Comments are Disabled — Activism, general

Open letter to my father.

It may be that we have every right to demand full and unconditional acceptance and love from our parents. It may be also true that our parents don’t know that they have this to give us. The task may seem impossible to them. Activism isn’t only about giving voice to our demands, but it is also about giving individuals enough information to help them rise about their own ideas of the status quo.

October 18, 2011 — Comments are Disabled — Activism, general

Can Coming Out Save Lives?

Telling our youth that it gets better, may help some who are feeling alone, recognize that they can hold on, but in reality, it doesn’t itself, make everything better. In fact, if we are too busy focused talking about how it gets better, all we really do, is be in denial of just how really bad it is for far too many queer youth each and everyday.

October 17, 2011 — Comments are Disabled — Activism, general

Service Members United: How to build a grass roots movement.

This is a wonderful video clip well worth watching. I appreciate how they lay out a case for building a strong grass roots movement based on a single, clear and concise message. At times, I think the LGBTQ movement seeks inclusivity over clarity. I’m not sure that is all bad, but I do wonder if we had more groups, each working for a clear purpose, and cross supporting each other, if we would get further[Read More…]

October 17, 2011 — Comments are Disabled — Activism, general

Fending off competition with homophobia: Christian politics 101?

See any trend here similar to what we are seeing in National politics? The conservative/Christian approach is always to demonize and “other” the gay person, instead of focusing on jobs and thew economy which are the two subjects most important to the majority of voters at every level of government. Their goal is to win, at any cost.

October 16, 2011 — Comments are Disabled — Activism, general

Vlogtober 15

This policy change through the Department of Health and Human Services is huge, and does more to affect the real every day lives of gay and lesbian couples than most all of the big trendy issues where people complain about tge President. This is real change that impacts real lives.

October 15, 2011 — Comments are Disabled — Activism, general

Feedback about the Bloomfield Queer Rally posts.

Today, as I was leaving the Building Change conference, a young person stopped me, and said they recognized me from the Bloomfield Homophobia Rally. That, they have been reading my blog, and while some of the comments had become quite attacking, they really valued how I had had kept an open mind and even welcomed different perspectives. This allowed everyone’s voices into the mix. Few things could have meant more to me today that this[Read More…]

October 14, 2011 — Comments are Disabled — general

The lies and misinformation of NOM.

“Vlogtober” is a series of You Tube videos inbspired by another youtuber I subscribe to, who was posting a video for everyday of the month of October. So I decided to try and do the same. [youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Fq8Of_lx0VE[/youtube]

October 14, 2011 — Comments are Disabled — general, Same-Sex Marriage

Brandon McInerney: Homophobia, Hate Crimes and Violence

There is a slightly longer story at Joe.My.God (below link), however, I’m interested in exploring a different aspect of this case and issue. What is the relationship between homophobia, violence, and hate crimes? Prosecutors announced today that they will be retrying teenage murderer Brandon McInerney as an adult and with no hate crime embellishment to the charges. A mistrial was declared last month after some jurors refused to convict McInerney as an adult. Those jurors[Read More…]

October 10, 2011 — Comments are Disabled — general

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