PFLAG activist Adele Starr died
The mother who founded the LA chapter of PFLAG and led the org has died at age 90.
Philadelphia Cinema Alliance Announces 2009 Gay Icon Award Recipients
The Philadelphia Cinema Alliance is pleased to announce the recipients of this year’s awards. They are – 2009 Gay Icon Award: Sharon Gless; the 2009 Rising Star Award: H.P. Mendoza; the 2009 Artistic Achievement Award: Chad Allen; and the 2009 Barbara Gittings Award: Dr. Dee Mosbacher. Each honoree will be present to accept his or her award at one of four special ceremonies during the 15th Anniversary of Philadelphia QFest, July 9 – 20, 2009.
Actress Sharon Gless will receive the Gay Icon Award on Sunday, July 19 at The Prince Music Theater before a screening of her new movie Hannah Free. Gless entered the national consciousness as detective Christine Cagney on the classic series “Cagney & Lacey”, a show unafraid to tackle difficult issues like AIDS, abortion and racism. In 2000, Gless created the role of the beloved PFLAG-Mom Debbie Novotny for the groundbreaking series “Queer as Folk”, remaining with the series throughout its five-season run. She recently completed an Emmy-nominated, multiple-episode arc in the hit series “Nip/Tuck”, and currently stars in “Burn Notice”. Her current project, Hannah Free, finds the actress playing a free-spirited lesbian trying to reunite with the love of her life. Off-screen, Gless is an active participant in the ongoing struggle for reproductive rights and a consistent supporter of national and international human rights.
The multi-talented H.P. Mendoza will receive the Rising Star Award on Thursday, July 16 at the Ritz East Theater, preceding the screening of his new film Fruit Fly. An innovative, musical and prodigious talent, H.P. Mendoza returns to QFest this year with his bubbly directorial debut. Born in San Francisco to Filipino immigrants, he studied film at the College of San Mateo, where he met Richard Wong. Wong went on to direct Colma: The Musical which Mendoza wrote and composed. Colma was one of the highlights of PIGLFF 2007. H.P. has also released several CDs over the past few years, including the new “Nomad”.
Hollywood mainstay Chad Allen will receive the Artistic Achievement Award Thursday, July 9 at The Prince at QFest 09 Opening Night celebration, following the screening of Hollywood je t’aime. Many know Allen for his impressive body of professional work on family dramas ranging from “St. Elsewhere” to “Our House” and “Dr. Quinn, Medicine Women.” Equally important to Allen is his personal life, being one of the few openly gay actors working in Hollywood today, one willing to speak candidly about his sexuality. Allen has most recently gained recognition as the sexy, shrewd and resourceful gay detective Donald Strachey in the series of films Third Man Out, Shock to the System, On the Other Hand, Death (all of which screened at PIGLFF) and Ice Blues. Allen is a solid supporter of AIDS/LIFECYCLE, in which he recently rode 545 miles to help raise more than $11 million for the fight against AIDS. See Philadelphia Cinema Alliance Announces 2009 Gay Icon Award Recipients
Broadway World
* Tags = gay men gay news lesbian news transgender bisexual
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Original source : http://gay_blog.blogspot.com/2009/06/philadelphia-…
Same-Sex Couples, Faith leaders Celebrate First Anniversary of Marriage
Community members to hold anniversary events across the state, honoring historic milestone
Faith leaders, same-sex couples, friends and family will gather across the state to celebrate in honor of the one-year-anniversary of couples who married last year when same-sex couples were able to legally marry. Faith leaders will offer brief remarks, and couples will gather for a group photo at each event.
San Francisco: 6:30 p.m. First Unitarian Universalist Society of San Francisco 1187 Franklin St, Starr King Room
June 17 Fresno: 6 PM Historic Water Tower in Downtown Fresno 2444 Fresno St.
San Diego: 5:30 p.m. Mission Hills United Church of Christ 4070 Jackdaw St.
Event sponsors include, Equality California, California Faith for Equality, Marriage Equality USA, Jordan Rustin Coalition, API Equality – LA, Equality Inland Empire, Redlands United Church of Christ’s Christians for Marriage Equality, Orange County Equality Coalition, Equality Action NOW, PFLAG, Courage Campaign- Fresno Equality Team, Yes! on Equality, and Unitarian Universalist Legislative Ministry, Spousesforlifeproject.com.
Equality California (EQCA) is the largest statewide lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender-rights advocacy organization in California. In the past decade, EQCA has strategically moved California from a state with extremely limited legal protections for LGBT individuals to a state with some of the most comprehensive civil-rights protections in the nation. EQCA has passed over 50 pieces of legislation and continues to advance equality through legislative advocacy, public education and community empowerment. www.eqca.org
California Faith for Equality is a statewide network of clergy and lay leaders from a diversity of faith traditions who are committed to equality. www.cafaithforequality.org
Marriage Equality USA is a national organization whose mission is to secure legally recognized civil marriage equality for all, at the federal and state level, without regard to gender identity or sexual orientation. www.marriageequality.org
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Original source : http://gay_blog.blogspot.com/2009/06/same-sex-coup…
ACLU Sues To Stop Tennessee Schools From Censoring Gay Educational Web Sites; Filtering Software Allows Anti-Gay Sites
NASHVILLE, TN – The American Civil Liberties Union and the ACLU of Tennessee sued two Tennessee school districts in federal court today, charging the schools are unconstitutionally blocking students from accessing online information about lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender issues. Metropolitan Nashville Public Schools, Knox County Schools and as many as 105 other school districts in Tennessee use Internet filtering software to block Web sites containing pro-LGBT speech, but not Web sites touting so-called “reparative therapy” and “ex-gay” ministries. The “LGBT” filter is not used to block sites containing pornography, which are filtered under a different category, but it does block the sites of many well-known LGBT organizations including Parents, Families, And Friends of Lesbians and Gays (PFLAG), the Gay Lesbian Straight Education Network (GLSEN) and Human Rights Campaign (HRC).
“Allowing access to Web sites that present one side of an issue while blocking sites that present the other side is illegal viewpoint discrimination,” said Catherine Crump, a staff attorney with the ACLU First Amendment Working Group and lead attorney on the case. “This discriminatory censorship does nothing to make students safe from material that may actually be harmful, but only hurts them by making it impossible to access important educational material.”
The school districts block the Internet filtering category designated “LGBT,” which includes sites that “provide information regarding, support, promote, or cater to one’s sexual orientation or gender identity.” They do not, however, block sites that condemn homosexuality or promote “reparative therapy,” a practice purporting to “cure” LGBT people that is denounced as dangerous and harmful to young people by such groups as the American Psychological Association and the American Medical Association.
The ACLU filed the case in the U.S. District Court for the Middle District of Tennessee against Metropolitan Nashville Public Schools and Knox County Schools on behalf of two high school students in Nashville, one student in Knoxville and a high school librarian in Knoxville who is also the advisor of the school’s Gay-Straight Alliance (GSA).
“Students need to be able to access information about their legal rights or what to do if they’re being harassed at school,” said Keila Franks, a 17-year-old student at Hume-Fogg High School in Nashville and a plaintiff on the case. “It’s completely unfair for schools to keep students in the dark about such important issues and treat Web sites that just offer information like they’re something dirty.”
The lawsuit charges that blocking LGBT sites violates students’ First Amendment rights by only allowing access to sites that present an anti-gay point of view on the rights of LGBT persons on issues such as anti-gay harassment, marriage, employment discrimination and the military’s “don’t ask, don’t tell” policy while blocking access to sites that support LGBT rights. Further, the filtering hinders the ability of GSAs and their members to facilitate club activities and keeps students from accessing important information about scholarships for LGBT students or doing research for school-related assignments.
The ACLU first learned about the discriminatory filtering from Andrew Emitt, a Knoxville high school student who discovered the problem while trying to search for LGBT scholarships. Internet filtering software is mandated in public schools by Tennessee law, which requires schools to implement software to restrict information that is obscene or harmful to minors. However, the “LGBT” filter category does not include material which is sexually gratuitous and already included in the “pornography” filtering category.
“While schools may have an interest in using filters to block material that could be harmful to minors, blocking access to information about LGBT issues while allowing anti-gay information is unlawful and potentially dangerous,” said Tricia Herzfeld, a staff attorney with the ACLU of Tennessee. “There is no place for this kind of unconstitutional censorship in our public schools.”
In addition to Crump and Herzfeld, attorneys on the case are Chris Hansen of the ACLU First Amendment Working Group and Christine Sun of the ACLU LGBT Project.
The plaintiffs are Nashville students Keila Franks and Emily Logan, Knoxville student Bryanna Shelton, and Karyn Storts-Brinks, a Knoxville high school librarian and faculty sponsor for her school’s GSA.
More information about the case, including the ACLU’s complaint and a video featuring one of the student plaintiffs, is available online at: www.aclu.org/lgbt/youth/39346res20090413.html.
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Original source : http://gay_blog.blogspot.com/2009/05/aclu-sues-to-…
200 Supporters of Gay & Lesbian Community March in2009 Los Angeles Chinatown New Year’s Parade
Contingent Organized by API Equality-LA Draws Record Participation
Los Angeles – On Saturday, January 31, 2009, a record 200 people joined the API Equality-LA contingent in the Golden Dragon Parade in Los Angeles’ Chinatown, one of the city’s most popular community event. Saturday marked only the fourth time in the parade’s 110-year history that a contingent representing and supporting lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) members of the Asian and Pacific Islander (API) community has participated in the parade.
“We expected a strong turnout after all of the energy in our community since the November 2008 election, but we were absolutely astounded to welcome 200 participants – nearly three times as many as last year!” said Ericson Herbas, API Equality-LA steering committee member and one of the organizers of the contingent. “Particularly meaningful for all of us, we were also joined this year by same-sex couples who had been able to legally marry before November 2008.”
Wearing bright red t-shirts, the large contingent marched proudly through the streets of Chinatown, carrying banners displaying the six colors of the rainbow. The rainbow is commonly used to represent the pride of the LGBT community and was chosen by the API Equality-LA contingent to also represent the diversity of the coalition’s membership and supporters.
“Our participation in the lunar new year parade each year sends a powerful message of pride, diversity and inclusion,” said Marshall Wong, API Equality-LA co-chair. “Saturday was a wonderful way to enter the Year of the Ox. It is said that the Ox is a sign of prosperity through fortitude and hard work. Fortitude and hard work describe exactly what we need to win back the freedom to marry for the LGBT community. Today we took a short stroll around Chinatown but we’re committed to the long march to full equality.”
The contingent was led by a drum troupe playing traditional Korean drums, comprised of volunteers from the Koreatown Immigrant Workers Alliance (KIWA). And bringing up the rear of the API Equality-LA contingent was Danza Méxica Cuauhtemoc, a cultural troupe performing traditional Aztec dances, accompanied by Aztec drums and dressed in traditional Aztec clothes and tall feather headdresses.
“API Equality-LA was thrilled to be able to include both Korean and Aztec drums as well as Aztec dancers,” said Eileen Ma, another API Equality-LA steering committee member and organizer of the contingent. “For us, the drummers and dancers reinforced our message of pride in our diversity as a community.”
The diversity of the marchers was also evident in the organizations that officially joined the API Equality-LA contingent, many of whom proudly displayed their own organizational banners as part of the contingent. In addition to API Equality-LA, other organizations who participated in the contingent included: Asian Pacific American Legal Center (APALC); Asian Pacific Health Care Venture (APHCV); Asian Pacific Islander Parents, Families and Friends of Lesbians and Gays (API PFLAG); ); California Faith for Equality; Chinese Progressive Association (CPA) of San Gabriel Valley; Equal Roots Coalition; Gays United Network (Gays U.N.); Japanese American Citizens League (JACL); Koreatown Immigrant Workers Alliance (KIWA); Little Tokyo Service Center (LTSC); Love Honor Cherish; OCA-Greater Los Angeles; South Asian Network (SAN); and Asian Pacific Islander Pride Council, which includes Asian American Queer Women Activists (AAQWA), Asian Pacific AIDS Intervention Team (APAIT), Chinese Rainbow Association, Gay Asian Pacific Support Network (GAPSN), and Satrang.
(photo credit Ericson Herbas) * Tags = gay men gay news lesbian news transgender bisexual
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Original source : http://gay_blog.blogspot.com/2009/02/200-supporter…
PFLAG Launches First-of-its-Kind Safe Schools Initiative …
Parents, Families and Friends of Lesbians and Gays (PFLAG) launched a comprehensive, community-based safe schools program today to address a growing epidemic of anti-lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) animus in the nation’s schools. The program, entitled Cultivating Respect, includes training seminars for local parents and allies, empowering PFLAG supporters at the local level to work directly with their community leaders and school administrators to protect LGBT students. PFLAG plans trainings across the country in 2009, following initial training sessions held earlier this year in Ohio and Tennessee.
“Too many students attend school in fear, and too few school administrators and leaders understand just how damaging a hostile learning environment can be for lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender young people,” said Jody M. Huckaby, PFLAG’s executive director. “Cultivating Respect is the very first program designed to identify and mobilize a grassroots network of parents and allies to take an active role in combating anti-gay behavior, policies, information and environments in their local schools. When children do not feel safe, they cannot learn, and their school experience becomes fraught with the long-lasting effects of unchecked hostility. By working with local parents and local administrators, Cultivating Respect addresses community and school-specific concerns. This is a significant step forward in making our classrooms, hallways and locker rooms safer for every student.”
The PFLAG training, which builds on the organization’s prior work in schools across the country, includes insights on fostering on-going dialogues with local school leaders; approaching administrators about implementing safe schools policies; skills building seminars on language, policy and problem solving in schools; identifying and leveraging access points within the school community; and training on three specific programs that can be implemented in local schools. The program is also designed to counter harmful, anti-gay campaigns by conservative advocacy groups, including attempts to infiltrate libraries with anti-gay literature and information on so-called “reparative therapy” practices, which have been condemned by medical experts. A workbook on LGBT school issues, titled The Top 10 Ways to Make Schools Safer for All Students, was also released today in conjunction with the training and outreach program.
“It is critically important that students, teachers, parents and administrators have accurate, inclusive information and materials about sexual orientation and gender identity,” said Huckaby. “Anti-family advocates are pushing an extreme, anti-gay agenda that seeks to mislead adults and ultimately undermine the well-being of the countless LGBT young people who deserve a healthy learning environment, too. This new program asks those responsible for the well-being of our children to listen, think, act and be respectful of every member of our families.”
According to statistics compiled by the Gay, Lesbian and Straight Education Network (GLSEN), 73.6% of LGBT students hears derogatory remarks such as “faggot” or “dyke” frequently or often at school. More than half (60.8%) reported feeling unsafe at school because of their sexual orientation, and more than a third (38.4%) felt unsafe because of their gender expression. An overwhelming 86.2% of students reported being verbally harassed.
“Hostile classrooms and campuses impact every member of the school community.” Huckaby concluded, “From LGBT students, to those perceived to be, and even young people who are denied the opportunity to learn because of the distractions presented by anti-gay behavior, the consequences of not dealing with these issues reach far and wide. Now, at last, parents have the tools they need to work directly with their local leaders to stand up for every young person, including those who are LGBT or are impacted by these behaviors.”
For more information on Cultivating Respect, including .pdf copies of The Top 10 Ways to Make Schools Safer for All Students, visit www.pflag.org.
PFLAG promotes the health and well-being of gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender persons, their families and friends through: support, to cope with an adverse society; education, to enlighten an ill-informed public; and advocacy, to end discrimination and to secure equal civil rights. Parents, Families and Friends of Lesbians and Gays provides opportunity for dialogue about sexual orientation and gender identity, and acts to create a society that is healthy and respectful of human diversity.
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Original source : http://gay_blog.blogspot.com/2008/12/pflag-launche…
How Facebook and Web 2.0 are changing the nature of gay activism
Kowing there are at least 13,000 people across the world who support them has been a tremendous boost to Jane Currie and Anji Dimitriou.
The Oshawa lesbian couple was brutally assaulted in front of their children on Nov 3 in an attack that left them battered and bloodied. The couple chose to fight back, but not through press releases and phone calls, the traditional weapons of established activist organizations. Three days after the assault Currie and Dimitriou started a Facebook group.
“One of our friends phoned and said, ‘You should call the newspapers,’” says Currie. “We said, ‘We’re not sure about that.’ Then Anji said, ‘Holy shit. We should start a Facebook group.’ Not only is it unbelievably worldwide, it’s free.”
Currie says when they checked the group a couple of days later there were 87 members.
“We were on there yesterday [Nov 28] and there were 13,000 people,” she says. “Roughly every three minutes a new member joins. We’ve got emails from Norway, Spain, Australia, France, Scotland, Ireland. They’ve seen it [bashings] happen, if not had it happen to themselves.
“We were just trying to get the message out that it’s not an isolated incident, that it happens all the time. It completely snowballed from there.”
Among the snowball’s effects was that rather than having to chase media attention the media, including Xtra, ended up coming to them.
“One girl who was checking out Facebook, her sister was a reporter for the Durham News, which is owned by the Toronto Star,” says Currie. “It was the gay sister of this reporter who was saying, ‘That could have been my sister.’ CNN in New York came across it on Facebook.”
Facebook also played a crucial role in organizing another staple of traditional activism: the rally. The Nov 14 Oshawa rally drew several hundred people out on a windy, rainy night to support Currie and Dimitriou. The event was organized by the Durham chapter of Pflag, but Currie says much of the crowd learned of it through Facebook. See How Facebook and Web 2.0 are changing the nature of gay activism
Xtra.ca, Canada
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Original source : http://gay_blog.blogspot.com/2008/12/how-facebook-…
