IT'S A TRAP!

Wed, 08 Jul 2009 23:36:30 GMT

Children kicked out of whites-only pool in Philadelphia for being black.

"When the minority children got in the pool all of the Caucasian children immediately exited the pool," Horace Gibson, parent of a day camp child, wrote in an email. "The pool attendants came and told the black children that they did not allow minorities in the club and needed the children to leave immediately."

from multiple sources

Sun, 05 Jul 2009 16:48:35 GMT

omg this community D:

from the profile:

This is a community for people who are anatomically and physiologically designed and function as females. That is, their current sex if female. Their self defined gender is non-important, so long as they do not mind role playing the character's implied in the community's name. Any female is welcome to join. Whether you are a trans MTF who is currently undergoing or has already completed transition, an FTM who still has not undergone sex reasigment surgery (still female)...

lol it is like a parody, but not

FFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFF

Sat, 04 Jul 2009 04:10:20 GMT

http://community.livejournal.com/lesbian/9196638.html

THIS COMMUNITY MAKES ME WANT TO PUNCH A BABY

Thu, 02 Jul 2009 16:06:15 GMT

I do not understand, for the life of me, all this resistance from cis people to the word "cis."

Pam's House Blend is just an example, but it's not like the first or last time it's happened or anything.

So what's up with that?

ETA: AT LEAST I'M NOT CALLING YOU GUYS "MUNDANES" OKAY

Guess the state!

Mon, 29 Jun 2009 16:37:33 GMT

Cops raid a queer bar, arrest seven for intoxication and restrain others.

One man injured by the police may need surgery to stop bleeding around brain.

snugglebitch has a very good post on it, titled It felt so very Stonewall, but without the standing up for ourselves.

Mon, 29 Jun 2009 03:00:58 GMT

If you are a trans woman who has been excluded from health care programs designated for women, or designated for women and trans people, and you would be willing to participate in a media project regarding your experiences with it, please get in touch with voz_latina. She is creating a media piece called . Click here and here for details!

Trans Female Health Experience Media Project

We have a Ning group now, so we can get to work making it all happen! Send an email addy so I can invite you to join us.

We have a name: Trans Female Health Experience Media Project

We have a mission: To empower and give voice to all who feel that unfettered access to women's or women's and trans' healthcare would be appropriate and helpful, but are excluded by cissexism

We have a plan: To create media works showcasing trans females speaking out about our needs in utilizing gendered healthcare.

We have a goal: Make ourselves heard, and get healthcare to respond to our needs, and be accountable to our concerns.

What we still need: You, your experiences as trans female, and your energy.

It's time we spoke out about being served. Send me a PM with an email I can send you a Ning invite to, to join our group and get to work.

If anyone needs access to the old post, please PM me (voz_latina). It will be the concept-on-a-cocktail napkin we all look back at and smile when this is all done.

Sat, 27 Jun 2009 16:46:36 GMT

Minutemen assassinate a ten-year-old girl, her father, and one other person for being Latinos who lived near the border.

One Minuteman describes the way they go about murdering people:
“It’s just like hunting,” Mr. Stonex said, describing the tracking skills the group used. “If you’re going out hunting deer, you want to scout around and get an idea what their pattern is, what trails they use.”

Sun, 21 Jun 2009 15:48:45 GMT

it's not the first time, and won't be the last, that hospitals run by anglo white people steal newborn babies from latina mothers and give them to other anglo white people

From the article:

The [Mississippi] hospital’s social worker reported “evidence” of abuse and neglect based on the following:

* The “baby was born to an illegal [sic] immigrant;”
* The “mother had not purchased a crib, clothes, food or formula.” (Most Latina mothers breast feed their babies).
* “She does not speak English which puts baby in danger.”

Mon, 08 Jun 2009 16:24:40 GMT

The UK has elected two members of a whites-only political party to European Parliament (via snakey).

BNP leader Nick Griffin denied the party was racist, telling the BBC: "You've got it all confused. You see, the thing is, we don't have racism here in the UK; that's a misconception based on erroneous comparisons to the history of the United States. Well no, that's not entirely true; we do have racism, but it's only directed against us whites. That's why we have to stem the influx of non-white immigrants, since non-whites have been scientifically proven to have low IQs, and the interracial breeding dirtying our pure indigenous British white blood. We want to put them all in separate, quarantined-off areas--camps, if you will--and then solve the problem. Maybe by shipping them off the island or something." As he spoke, his eyes became unfocused, becoming filled with a distant fire, perhaps looking into a bold new future.

Snapping back, he goes on: "And really, you've got entirely the wrong idea--we're as progressive as you get; why, as we speak, we're fighting for animal rights by struggling to do away with Kosher and Halal slaughtering practices."

After a few moments of thought, he added: "We are kind of weirded out by faggots, though. The little AIDS monkeys."

Mon, 01 Jun 2009 16:53:24 GMT

So, some of you may remember the London Pride bathroom thing last year.

Apparently, they're continuing their winning approach to pride this year, where they're requesting that trans women and trans men march dressed and made up as the caricatures of trans people that the (cis) members of London Pride's board have in their heads. And, according to some recently leaked emails, they were also considering having "African costumes and masks [and/or] Latin American dance themes."

2008/10/30 Emma Hands [emma@pridelondon.org]

Hi

We need to have a discussion by email (as we are unable to discuss it at the board meeting) about our theme for next year (and if poss next 3 years)

I know the Operations team have decided on Independance but this really isn't a marketable or good dressing up theme

Please can you all let me have your ideas or Pink can run a competition for us (as previously mentioned).

We need to have a flamboyant and beautiful parade again this year

ta
Emma
----- Original Message ----

From: Paul Birrell [paul@pridelondon.org]

I agree - Independence is too Yankie for our event, and we should run a competition in the Pink, just for the additional coverage it will give us if nothing else.
I shall have a think if you all could too!

--

Paul Birrell
CHAIRMAN
Pride London
344-354 Gray's Inn Road
London
WC1 8BP
paul@pridelondon.org
www.pridelondon.org
A company limited by guarantee registered in England no. 5061574.
Registered Charity no. 1104774

2008/10/31 Andrew Murray [andrew@pridelondon.org]

Next year will also be the 40th anniversary of Pride, so there are lots of possibilities linked into that. Perhaps 40 years of fashion etc.

We could also have a theme of major historic anniversaries - linking into LGBT History. We could also consider American themes that could celebrate independence - like American dreams and idols, American idols etc.

I think we should try and come up with a list of the top 10 possibilities between us, and then get the vote through a competition. I know we discussed this at a previous meeting. I'm keen that we use the competition to get the themes for the next 3 years, and ideally move the themes progressively towards world pride in 2012. It may be worth looking at themes linked to world pride by theming continents and their cultures, where we can open up to the best and most colourful possibilities. E.g. African costumes and masks, Latin American dance themes etc.

We will also need some prizes to go along with the competition, so if anyone has any ideas on prizes, and contacts with people who would be willing to provide freebie prizes, please let us know.
I'd really like us to be able to hang good sponsorship deals on the back of our themes, so that we can get more financial stability, something we are going to need even more now to support our efforts for 2012.

Regards
Andrew

Andrew Murray
Associate Director
Marketing & Communications
Pride London
344-354 Grays Inn Road
LONDON
WC1B 8BP
A company limited by guarantee registered in England no. 5061574.
Registered Charity no. 1104774

2008/11/2 Emma Hands [emma@pridelondon.org]:

If we can come up with 10 themes by tomorrow (monday) or tuesday at the latest then Pink can run the competition with the 2012 story or we can do it in the next issue as a follow up story so that give us more time.. probably the best option

Emma

2008/11/3 [Andrew.Sharratt@dh.gsi.gov.uk]

I thought this had been put to bed?

Andrew Sharratt
Press Officer - Newsdesk
Department of Health
020 7210 5221
Richmond House
79 Whitehall
London
SW1A 2NS
On 3 Nov 2008, at 12:39, Emma Hands wrote:

No - Independence is not a marketable enough of a theme and to [sic] American

We need 10 ideas for Pink paper competition - so if you have any do let me know

thanks

Emma

White cis people deciding to throw a dress-up-in-"African costumes and masks"-or-as-Latin@s-with-"Latin American dance"-themed pride march in which trans participants are requested to dress in exaggeratedly feminine or masculine attire: LESS MARKETABLE THAN AN INDEPENDENCE-THEMED PRIDE MARCH

D:

Thu, 21 May 2009 20:14:08 GMT

omg

via trousers

Tue, 19 May 2009 15:23:02 GMT

I haven't been using LJ a lot lately, so at this point a lot of you have probably heard all about this, so i will try (and, apparently, fail) to keep it short:

I am a fan of speculative fiction (sci fi/fantasy).

As a child, my introduction to SF/F was through my mother, who is white, and who is also a fan of the genres.

She is, i think, an accurate representation of the white SF/F fans, writers, and editors who i've interacted with or read, in that writers and artists--and fans--of color don't cross her mind.

When i, late in my teens and now as a young adult, started trying to work out my feelings about being someone of mixed ethnicity, about being Latino after having ignored that part of me for years, i eventually--and fairly recently--started taking more of an interest in seeing people with similar backgrounds reflected in the fiction i read.

But it's been difficult, because of the disproportionate attention given to white people involved in SF/F, not just in the press and by fandom, but by publishers as well, who pass authors of color over for white ones.

To this day, i've only read the work of handful of Latino & Latina authors--although this may in part be a shortcoming on behalf of my ability to search for them--and i've read exponentially more fiction that's had characters who are mixed white and [dragon/fairy/wizard/god/space alien/genetically modified superhuman/being from a plane or dimension above us/whatever] people than those who are mixed race or ethnicity.

And that's not because they don't exist, despite what Lois McMaster Bujold may think. It's because fans, authors, and artists of color are ignored, silenced, and rejected by an industry that devalues their work, favoring, instead, complete garbage like Patricia Wrede's The Thirteenth Child about Americas which were devoid of human life before European colonists arrived.

neo_prodigy started a community, foc_u, where people involved in speculative fiction--be they authors, editors, artists, or just fans--can talk about racism in the industry, and also to "[serve] as a place to celebrate and affirm POCs of the speculative fiction genre, celebrate our favorite POC characters and storytellers, and it's also intended to be a fun place where we can come and discuss our fandoms, recommend movies, books, authors, etc."

Also, a question from me to you all: who are your favorite Latina or Latino speculative fiction authors?

.

Tue, 05 May 2009 19:53:01 GMT

So i'm applying for a job at MassMutual Financial Architects here in Rochester, and I've done two interviews in their "hiring process" already, and today, during the third interview with them, as the guy i'm talking to is going over the kind of things I'd be doing as a beginning employee, how employees are paid, and all that, he casually informs me that everyone, before they're hired, needs to pay them fifteen hundred dollars up front.

I tell them that i don't have money and ask if there's an alternative there (you know, one that involves them paying me for working for them), and i'm informed that part the company's screening process adheres to the notion that people who don't already have money won't be as good as employees as people who do, and if i really wanted to work there, even if i didn't have the money, i'd say "sure Bill, i'll see you in a week with the money" and go out and make it in time. And "blah blah blah this is a Darwinian industry, i've never broken that policy but i guess i'll talk to Heather and see if there's another solution blah blah don't let the door hit you."

Oh, and they also charge you for using their office space at an increasing scale as your employment with them goes on. ~Because that's just how they roll~

This fucking company not only led me on for two interviews, but led me on for two months and had me do an assignment for them where i went out and surveyed people on their experiences with the financial services industry.

Upside: I got a free 1GB flash drive for my troubles?

ETA: I've informed the Better Business Bureau and sent emails politely informing everyone I've surveyed for them that I appreciated the time that they spent talking to me, but that I will not be pursuing a career with MassMutual because they want to charge me fifteen hundred fucking dollars to hire me. lulz.

Tue, 05 May 2009 13:31:26 GMT

More on the way Latino lives are valued by the media, the "justice" system: For her an uproar, for him a whisper

via princessrugger

Mon, 04 May 2009 16:03:47 GMT

Oh, my fucking god

Four white teens beat Luis Ramirez, a Latino man, to death while spewing racist slurs, only one of them gets charged with third-degree murder, one is released without charges, one pleads guilty to "violating civil rights" and may get out of jail in four years, and an all white jury acquits two of them of every single charge except simple assault. They weren't even found guilty of aggravated assault, reckless endangerment, or ethnic intimidation.

"The jurors here [are] sending the message that you can brutally beat a person, without regard to their life, and get away with it, continue with your life uninterrupted," said Gladys Limon, a representative of the Mexican Legal Defense and Education Fund (MALDEF). "This was murder. Luis Ramirez was murdered. A father, a son, a brother, a partner was murdered. The message the verdict sends is you can kill a person, you can stomp on their head until the person dies, based on their national heritage."

"The jury has spoken. We’re deeply gratified with the verdict," Frederick J. Fanelli, the defense lawyer, said. Disgusting.

What the hell LJ (or, NOM NOM NOM!)

Sun, 03 May 2009 15:39:21 GMT

LJ slathered my partner's journal with homophobic ads from NOM, like this:

You stay classy LiveJournal. You stay classy.

ETA, marta is dealing with it, receives cookies and ecstatic chittering and adulation from LJ-obsessed SAHM.

I don't support your marriage, no matter what's between your spouse's legs (or ears)

Sun, 03 May 2009 04:55:37 GMT

I've said this elsewhere, but never really made a post about it:

I don't support marriage.

For anyone.

Or, to be more clear, i think that it shouldn't be an institution with any legal merit. To give even more slack here, i don't think that it should hold exclusive privileges over any other kind of relationship... Although its discriminatory history and present make me inclined to think that it should be considered, legally speaking, completely irrelevant.

The exclusive bundling of certain rights and protections leaves those who can't get married, or don't have that type of relationship or family structure that they would feel comfortable with that kind of ceremony but who do need some or all of those rights and protections, in really shitty situations. And it always will.

To use the example that may come immediately to mind for many people, one partner in a lesbian couple is dying of cancer in a hospital, but her partner can't visit her because she has no legal right to do so, and the hospital staff don't think that it's "appropriate" or they're "just being cautious."

Okay, well, same-(legal)sex marriage laws could fix that, right?

But what if it's a relationship like the one i have, a relationship between three people? Same-(legal)sex marriage won't fix that. And who is going to "fight for our right to equality?" The same people who are "fighting" for same-(legal)sex marriage? Activists for polyamory? Uhhh, no.

What about a couple that's been together for a decade but just haven't gotten married--for whatever reason?

Same-(legal)sex marriage is, for GLBt organizations like the HRC (and there are plenty of them, at all scales), has become a core motivational issue, their raison d'être. Resources get funneled into it, attention gets diverted to it, discussion gets derailed toward it, other issues get forgotten or opposed in the hopes of making it even the smallest likelihood closer to being attainable.

And why?

Because it's the issue that seems the most urgent to the most privileged GLB people.

When a lesbian couple goes into debt because one of their partners is going uninsured because the employer of the other doesn't provide benefits, what is the first thing you'll hear from many of them?

"If same-[legal]sex marriage was legal, this never would have happened."

Well, okay. But if health care was universal, this never would've happened, either. To that couple or to the many many people, gay or straight, married or not, who are uninsured and can't afford health care.

When one partner in a queer relationship is an undocumented immigrant and is deported where she might not have been if she'd been married but couldn't because she was in a queer relationship, what's the first thing you'll hear? "If that marriage was legal..."

But she shouldn't have been fucking deported based on the xenophobic, racist, classist laws and law enforcement in the first damn place!!

These people, and the organizations that represent them (even if they like to say otherwise), like to pay a little bit of lip service to other kinds of discrimination, to hate crimes, especially if it's against someone who falls into their demographic categories (or whose other identities they feel they can just ignore or wash away). But that's all it is: lip service, scantily given in the hopes of garnering more support for an ultimately selfish cause that's never going to come back for anyone else.

So, to paraphrase something that my partner often says, "why is there all of this fighting [by 'queer' organizations] for some people to be able to get married when we could do so much better?"

lol

Sat, 02 May 2009 19:59:32 GMT

Just now, my partner snugglebitch said to me:
"You are such a huge dyke that you could stop up the Mighty Mississippi.
"And then eat its pussy."

Fri, 01 May 2009 15:31:08 GMT

I have a DreamWidth :D

what

Thu, 30 Apr 2009 18:38:16 GMT

This is a baby snuggy.

Oh my god.

Sat, 25 Apr 2009 01:36:44 GMT

dude

ERIKA MOEN IS NOT FUNNY YOU GUYS

this is kind of neat

Thu, 23 Apr 2009 22:31:54 GMT

James Kuhn, the man who painted his face every day of the year, has finished the 365-day project

on an unrelated note, the galaxy's core tastes like raspberries (maybe), via theweaselking

Wed, 22 Apr 2009 21:42:51 GMT

Andrade guilty on 1st degree murder, hate crime charges in Zapata slaying, to be sentenced to life without parole. It will be the first trans-related murder to get hate crime conviction.
--via touchyphiliac

If you want to repost or link this post, feel free.

There's nothing good about this whole situation--the murder of Angie Zapata, the systemic inequalities through which so many people--Andrade, other murderers, and everyone who is complicit in them--think that murder is an acceptable response to the existence of a trans woman of color, the grief of everyone who knew and loved Angie, the hateful "tranny panic" defense by Andrade's attorneys that's worked so many times before.

But the ruling against Andrade as having committed a hate crime against a trans person is a landmark. It sends the message that there is a problem with this, that it does not make it suddenly okay to bash someone's head in with a blunt, heavy object and say "i killed it" if you later claim that "finding out" (in spite of knowing two days ahead of time) that a woman was assigned male at birth drove you into a state of murderous rage.

This ruling may make the world a safer place. It may save lives.

I didn't write this, but omg lol

Sat, 18 Apr 2009 16:25:31 GMT

Interlude: A Short Story About Unrequited Love.

They sat there, poring over the literature in the oak paneled library. A grandfather clock in the corner ticked and tocked, as if to underline the musty silence in the room. "Excuse me, J Michael, if we selectively quote this bit, it adds weight to the paper I wrote about narcissistic rage amongst autogynephiles who disagree with us."

Dammit!, thought Anne, as she tried to hide signs of her blushing, I sound like such a dork! She mentally mocked herself, hearing the words again as if spoken by some kind of sycophantic moron, "Excuse me, J Michael", when what she'd really wanted to say was, "Take me now! Make me feel like the filthy whore I can only aspire to be! Colonise me with your man rocket! Cover me in your man juice and talk dirty to me - tell me how I'll never know what a woman feels like. Do me now!"

"That's useful, Anne. Perhaps there's some mileage in that, not a paper, but some sort of blog post". You could hear the scare quotes around "blog" in his voice, as if he was a bewildered middle aged father trying to make his teenage son realize that he's not using proper English. Sometimes he wanted to slap this dumb tranny - ugly as a bucket of toads, but there would have been something salvageable if the dumb fuck hadn't gone and had that hack, Meltzer cut their only useful body part off.

Still, it was useful to have one of them onside. Most of them were too fucking uppity by half, and the apparent growing tendency for them to transition young, cut their hair short, not use makeup and fuck each other was disturbing him. As much as he hoped Lawrence would just go away, he realized "she" still had uses. There may be no shemale cock in the picture, but there were always blowjobs. If he closed his eyes during the act, he could at least fantasize that the mouth belonged to a hot young, big breasted shemale with a tight ass and a huge throbbing cock bulging through her lingerie. Oh shit, he'd gone and gotten stiff now...

"Anne, would you mind passing me the latest DSM-V draft? I think it's on your side of the room." This way he need not embarrass himself and reading the latest boring shit from Blanchard (why didn't the man just fuck off and realize that he, J Michael Bailey, was the leading mind on autogynephilia now) might work better than thinking of octogenarian nuns.

Anne got up. She'd do so much more than just fetch him a book if he'd only ask. "Here you are, J Michael", she said, passing it to him.

"J Michael?"

Now what did the fucking pervert want? "Yes, Anne?"

"What does the J stand for?"

Wed, 15 Apr 2009 20:41:31 GMT

not usually a fan of this kind of show, but i enjoyed this.

via kynn & stoneself