There is an Asian-Pacific Islander (API) community, and there is API community activism. There are differences between those of Samoan ancestry and those of Chinese ancestry; there are differences between those Americans who have familial or ancestral ties to Japan, and those Americans who have familial or ancestral ties to Indonesia. But along with differences…
Transprogressive BY AUTUMN SANDEEN Saturday, April 20, I attended the GLAAD Media Awards with media credentials as a columnist at San Diego LGBT Weekly. I listened to the acceptance speech of Steve Warren of GLAAD’s board upon being presented with the Steven F. Kolzak Award, as well as listening to former President Bill Clinton’s acceptance…
In the week since I wrote my last column, scheduled Michigan Womyn’s Music Festival (MWMF) performer Ubaka Hill released a statement in response to the Change.org petition asking that this year’s performers at the festival boycott the event. She stated, “My response to your courageous request that I cancel my Drumsong Workshop and the Drumsong…
In his Nobel Prize acceptance speech, Martin Luther King Jr. stated: “The nonviolent resisters can summarize their message in the following simple terms: we will take direct action against injustice despite the failure of governmental and other official agencies to act first. “We will not obey unjust laws or submit to unjust practices. We will…
On the day the constitutionality of Prop. 8 was being argued before the Supreme Court, a rally was organized by the Human Rights Campaign (HRC), the National Gay & Lesbian Task Force, Family Equality Council, GetEQUAL, Marriage Equality USA and the New Organizing Institute. The rally was successful, almost in every way, in how the…
State Rep. John Kavanagh (R-8th District) recently submitted an amendment for state Senate bill SB 1432. He’s stated that the amendment is a response to Phoenix passing an ordinance granting housing, employment and public accommodation antidiscrimination protections based on gender identity for transgender citizens. His proposal is to limit public restrooms and locker rooms usage…
At what age do transgender girls become perceived predators? Do we consider a transgender girl in kindergarten – a girl born with male genitalia – to be a predator toward other girls in her elementary school class should they all use the girls bathroom? Would the line be a third grade/8-year-old trans girl? A sixth…
March 9, OutServe-SLDN’s Executive Director Allyson Robinson gave a speech at a Washington, D.C. fundraiser for her organization that was billed as “The State of LGBT Military Service Address.” In her speech she gave a description of how her family supported her through her time, first at West Point and then later during her military…
I would never refer to African Americans by the terms “colored” or “negro” even though Martin Luther King Jr. used those terms frequently. Times have changed, and the terms we use for the African American community and its members have changed. Many, if not most, African Americans now consider those terms to be offensive, although…
Should there be a third gender category birth certificate gender assignment? The Australian Capital Territory (ACT) is considering just that after its Law Reform Advisory Council advised the government in Canberra that gender options for birth certificates and other identity documents should include the options female, male, intersex, to be advised or indeterminate. In 2010,…
