My friend Damir sent this out today, and it is definately worthy of posting here (and everywhere else).

HOMOPHOBIC . . .
I am the boy who never finished high school, because I got called a fag everyday

I am the girl kicked out of her home because I confided in my mother that I am a lesbian.

I am the prostitute working the streets because nobody will hire a transsexual woman.

I am the sister who holds her gay brother tight through the painful, tear-filled nights.

We are the parents who buried our daughter long before her time.

I am the man who died alone in the hospital because they would not let my partner of twenty-seven years into the room.

I am the foster child who wakes up with nightmares of being taken away from the two fathers who are the only loving family I have ever had. I wish they could adopt me.

I am not one of the lucky ones. I killed myself just weeks before graduating high school. It was simply too much to bear.

We are the couple who had the realtor hang up on us when she found out we wanted to rent a one-bedroom for two men.

I am the person who never knows which bathroom I should use if I want to avoid getting the management called on me.

I am the mother who is not allowed to even visit the children I bore, nursed, and raised. The court says I am an unfit mother because I now live with another woman.

I am the domestic-violence survivor who found the support system grow suddenly cold and distant when they found out my abusive partner is also a woman.

I am the domestic-violence survivor who has no support system to turn to because I am male.

I am the father who has never hugged his son because I grew up afraid to show affection to other men.

I am the home-economics teacher who always wanted to teach gym until someone told me that only lesbians do that.

I am the woman who died when the EMTs stopped treating me as soon as they realized I was transsexual.

I am the person who feels guilty because I think I could be a much better person if I didn’t have to always deal with society hating me.

I am the man who stopped attending church, not because I don’t believe, but because they closed their doors to my kind.

I am the person who has to hide what this world needs most, love.

I am the person ashamed to tell my own friends I’m a lesbian, because they constantly make fun of them.

I am the boy tied to a fence, beaten to a bloody pulp and left to die because two straight men wanted to “teach me a lesson”

—If you believe that homophobia is wrong… Share this around.

—If you are ignorant… Continue to ignore this.

GLBT Issues

Thursday evening, B.D. Wong was at the University of North Texas as part of their annual Diversity and Equity Conference. I was only planning on going to the presentation, but my boss asked if I was interested in attending the dinner first (a small affair), and I decided that it might be fun. It was!

As for the presentation itself, I had heard that B.D. was not a great presenter, and while he appears to be more comfortable when his words have been scripted, he spoke to the crowd as if it was just a small group of people in his living room. The rawness of his talk gave an insight into the man that was sitting in front of this group, as he shifted – at times, almost uncomfortably – around on his stool (at one point he was kneeling on this rotating stool, as if it were an overstuffed reading chair).

Part of his presentation focused on how he became more comfortable with who he was. One of the comments that he made was how there are so many components within a person's being, that the secret was to create a balance within your own self, and have all these elements synchronize with each other. Each element needed to be an accepted, and welcomed, part of the self prior to obtaining this balance.

I'm not sure why, but this commentary really sunk in with me. It was confirming a belief that I have held for a long time, that not one part of me, actually defines who a person is. A person's experiences, feelings, and thoughts are what makes a person, and these often define the types of roles that we take on during our lives.

I thoroughly enjoyed what was on offer, and am looking forward to tomorrow night's presentation with Yolanda King.

(Also posted at http://aboutequality.com/archives/28)

GLBT Issues, UNT

http://www.biggaypicture.com/story/2006/2/20/25416/7714

Straight Students Wearing Gay T-Shirts? Fine by Me!
By Sarah Warn
Posted on Mon Feb 20, 2006 at 02:54:16 AM PST

Last week, a Melbourne, Australia high school student was asked not to wear her “Nobody Knows I'm a Lesbian” t-shirt to school on picture day. She agreed to change the shirt, but several of her fellow students were outraged on her behalf, and wore their own versions of the t-shirt to school in protest (which included “Nobody knows I am bulimic”, “Nobody knows I'm pregnant” and “Nobody knows I'm on steroids”). Stephanie told her local paper that she was surprised and pleased by the support (although she still had to take off the t-shirt).

What is pretty amazing is that it happened in Strathmore, a north-west suburb of Melbourne.

Its amazing what a little t-shirt can do

Australia, GLBT Issues

I always find it amusing that you can say one thing one day, and then be reading it in the newspaper the next   Yesterday, I chatted with Linda Stewart Ball from the Dallas Morning News about the increase in HIV infections that have occured in the Collin and Denton county areas.  Today, there are some of my words.

It appears that a preliminary report was released earlier this week that indicated that HIV infections had increased in Collin County about 60 percent in 2005. A similar increased was shown to have occured in Denton County as well.

Another person interviewed was Dr. Ron Aldridge, executive director of AIDS Services of North Texas, who expressed a similar thought to me – and a common belief (in my view) – that with the increase of availability of antiretroviral therapy drugs, which “treats” HIV, too many people erroneously believe that HIV is not an issue anymore.

My contribution to the report related to the age group that showed the largest increase (between 30 and 39) was:

“It's surprising that it's in that age group,” said James Nunn, 37, who founded Frisco Pride, a gay social and support group. He wondered how many of the people who tested positive were married and don't consider themselves gay because they have only occasionally slept with a man.

As I said to Linda, for many people in that age group, we lived through the time when HIV/AIDS was most prevalent, and many of us saw how it affected friends and our community, so I was baffled why gay men in this age group would have such a steady increase, then it became clear that maybe the increases were not amongst gay men, but this other category of “men who have sex with men.”  Some people believe that if you are a guy that has sex with another guy, then your gay.  I disagree.  A number of men experience sex with another man, but still identify as heterosexual.  A recent “phenomena” that supports this is African-American men who were “on the down low” (a term used for men who discreetly have sex with other men while in sexual relationships with women).  Perhaps the practice of this is becoming more prevalent amongst white men.

Another factor which I discussed, was the reality that there are also a number of men who are in this age group who have married, and possibly had children, who were conditioned to this lifestyle based on societal expectations.  These men are now realizing their true sexuality and experimenting, and in some cases, are probably doing so in an unsafe manner. These men didn't “live” through the first stages of the HIV/AIDS pandemic, so probably weren't exposed to a lot of the information or education that was made available, especially on how to reduce risks. This is made more likely given that the second largest increase in infections were in the 40-49 age group.

Of course there are gay men out there who are in these age groups who actively seek HIV positive men to have sex with, in the “hope” that they will get infected, so that may sway some of the figures a little.  Still scratching my head on this one.

GLBT Issues, Health

Yesterday, Chris, Layton, Ian and myself went to see Transamerica.  For those not in the know, it's a film about the journey of a male-to-female transgender named Bree (also Stanley, played by Felicity Huffman, of Desperate Housewives fame), in the final days of her transition, and her discovery that she has a son.  The son, Toby (played by Kevin Zeigers) is a troubled “teenager” who discovers the identity of his father, after he tries to seduce Bree (one of those awkward moments in the film for the audience, at least for me).

Huffman's performance as a woman playing a man becoming a woman was brilliant, and she did an amazing job at looking the part.  I listened to an interview on NPR not that long ago with her discussing this role, and how mentally draining it was to be Bree.  All I can say is that she deserved the Golden Globe that she received early last week for the role. 

I'd rank it about the same as Brokeback Mountain, and hope that more films like this can be made to tell the thousands of stories of normal people out there.

GLBT Issues, Reviews

I never really wanted to contribute to the liturgious society that we live in, however recent activities of a small group of people involved with a community organization which I have been involved have caused me to join this societal grouping.  (You can read more about the details here.)  I'm still waiting to hear from the court on a date.  I guess the moral of this story is don't file court action over the at the end of the year.

GLBT Issues, Legal Issues

Was just catching up on some news, and thought I would share some links and thoughts.

News Story One: The Cherokee Nation has dismissed a challenge to a same-sex marriage between Kathy Reynolds and Dawn McKinley.  The highest court found that as the plaintiff's were not individually harmed or affected by the marriage.  One of the quotes from the article is from Reynolds who said, “Dawn and I are private people, and we simply wish to live our lives in peace and quiet, just as other married couples are permitted to do.”  Amen to that, and good luck with their future.

News Story Two: It seems the SBC has another fallen angel.   Lonnie Latham, an executive committee member of the Southern Baptist Convention, was arrested on a lewdness charge for propositioning a male plainclothes policeman outside a hotel.  It appears he asked the police officer to engage in oral sex.  I guess SBC women aren't any good at giving head.

News Story Three: In political news, the country has a new gay speaker (of NY City Council), a new gay mayor in New Jersey, a returning gay mayor in Cambridge, MA, and a new lesbian senator in Arizona. This is fantastic news, as in all cases, the people who put these people in these positions, did so because of the contributions that they can make – not because they were gay.

GLBT Issues, Media

Another country with same-sex marriage-like occurrences happening. The first “regular” people to get “married” took place in Belfast earlier today.

For those that think “gay weddings” are a bad thing for the economy, one should look at this article which discusses the dollars in pink weddings, not too mention the “fighting” that is taking place between the city councils to be more “gay friendly.”  It's an interesting phenomenon that other capitalistic societies might be interested in.

GLBT Issues