In a powerful and deeply moving statement today, Robert Reich remembers the murder of Civil Rights workers James Earl Chaney, Andrew Goodman, and Michael Henry Schwerner on this date, July 21, in 1964. The three young men were helping register Black citizens of Mississippi to vote. With 40% of the state's population Black, only 7% of that Black population was registered to vote in 1964. The Klan murdered these young men.
"I have now seen further evidence that, since the Bell decision in the High Court (1 December 2020), there has been a huge increase in deaths of young trans people on the NHS waiting list - and that NHS management has sought to suppress that evidence."
San Francisco’s giant Pink Triangle is installed atop Twin Peaks prior to each Pride weekend since 1996. The triangle is nearly 200 feet across and visible for up to 20 miles. The Pink Triangle, used by the Nazis to identify LGBTQ prisoners in the concentration camps, has since been embraced by the LGBTQ community as a symbol of pride. But we shouldn't forget its tragic origins. The Third Reich demonstrated how easily a government could turn its people against each other, how facilely it could criminalize, imprison, torture and murder people based on their identities, a trend we’re seeing played out in many parts of the U.S. and other parts of the world, with rises in hate crimes, violence and murder. LGBTQ people in many parts of the world continue to live in fear for their safety. As long as bigotry and hatred persist anywhere, we are all at risk. As long as anyone is not free, none of us is truly free.
Have fun at Pride events. But please also keep an eye out for danger, for yourselves, and for those around you. Fascists, transphobes, homophobes and other assholes may be looking for targets.
I love the vibes of these posters for a couple reasons:
We should support each other's rights
I think it's important to find happiness in other people's happiness. I think it aligns your mental state in a good direction (for yourself and others) and I enjoy people talking about their happiness and excitement so much
🎉 #Juneteenth is here again!
🎲 Tell us about your fave Black #TTRPG, #Punk, + #Queer creators.
🙌 Are you a Black creator? Introduce yourself & share your current hype.
🥰 Share all the wonderful things from our African diaspora friends!
Kristin Kobes du Mez, author of Jesus and John Wayne and history professor at Calvin College, speaks here about what her local church and other Christian Reformed Churches in the US and Canada are now going through. Their denomination is shoving them out unless they agree to a confessional statement requiring them to condemn same-sex relationships.
She shares a sermon her pastor, Len Vander Zee, has just preached, speaking of the turmoil in many churches and the nation as a whole today, and asking if we're saying "peace, peace, when there is no peace." Pastor Vander Zee's conclusion:
"The church has, for a long, long time, had a problem with power."
Key sectors of the Christian church in the US are right now drunk with the lust to acquire power — power to hurt, punish, and exclude others and call this holy, he says. His conclusion,
"What is the fruit of this cult of Christian power and domination? It doesn’t look much like the fruit of the Spirit. It seems to breed ugly, divisive, and authoritarian rhetoric and action--all in the name of Christ."
"So, let’s no longer say, 'Peace, peace, when there is no peace.' There’s something deeply wrong with the church today. And it’s profoundly connected with the use of power and authority, the very things that Jesus called us away from."
They want to fuse church and state to give them power to hurt, punish, and exclude others, and call this holy.
The #gunman who killed 5 people & wounded 19 others during a midnight #shooting spree at an #LGBTQ+ nightclub in #ColoradoSprings in 2022 was sentenced in federal court Tues to 55 concurrent life sentences in addition to a 190-yr sentence w/no possibility of parole. #AndersonLeeAldrich, 24, pleaded #guilty to 74 federal counts, including 50 federal #HateCrimes & other #gun crimes.
The shooter who opened fire in a #Colorado#LGBTQ+ nightclub in 2022, killing five people and injuring 19, was sentenced in federal court Tuesday to life in prison without the possibility of parole plus 190 years.
The shooter who killed five and injured over a dozen more at an #LGBTQ nightclub in Colorado Springs, #Colorado, in 2022 is expected to accept a plea deal Tuesday and be sentenced in connection with federal hate crimes charges.
👏🏻Thailand becomes first country in Southeast Asia to legalise same-sex marriage, in historic parliamentary vote hailed as a "victory" by campaigners - AFP #LGBTQ
Chris Geidner reports on how Trump-heavy federal courts are now blocking attempts to protect LGBTQ students from discrimination under Title IX:
"In the past three business days, three federal courts have issued decisions blocking the Biden administration’s efforts to protect LGBTQ students from discrimination in the nation’s schools under Title IX of the Education Amendments Act of 1972."
"Taken together, though, the rulings highlight a continued but dramatic legal shift rightward that has come out of Trump-infused lower courts in recent years. Here, it is specifically in interpreting whether sex discrimination bans include protections against discrimination based on sexual orientation and gender identity."
… panorama of sexual and gender dissent in the Spanish State during the 19th & 20th centuries. #LGBTQ+ ourstory during the Second Republic (1931–9), the Spanish Civil War (1936–9), and the fascist Franquist dictatorship (1939–1975). Most of the book is on the “Transition” to formal democracy (1976–1982) following Francisco Franco's death.
Fed judge on Monday temporarily blocked the #Biden administration’s new Title IX rule expanding protections for #LGBTQ+ students in 6 additional states, dealing another setback for a policy that has been under legal attack by Republican attorneys general. #legal https://apnews.com/article/9f7b89ec50657436e0e8110799b576d4
So I'm listening to music this morning and "Dancing in the Dark" by Springsteen came on. Now, I don't normally read too much into things (just kidding, I totally read too much into things), but...
Why isn't the conservative Right flipping their shit over this rock icon singing about being a transgender sex-worker and struggling author dealing with depression?
Lyrics (with the fluff cut out):
I get up in the evening
And I ain't got nothing to say
I come home in the morning
I go to bed feeling the same way
Man, I'm just tired and bored with myself
I could use just a little help
This gun's for hire
Even if we're just dancing in the dark
I check my look in the mirror
I wanna change my clothes, my hair, my face
I'm dying for some action
I'm sick of sitting around here trying to write this book
I need a love reaction
Come on now, baby, give me just one look
You can't start a fire
Worrying about your little world falling apart
This gun's for hire
Even if we're just dancing in the dark
There's a lot of talk about starting fires too. Possible pyromania?
"I am your history. You can never change that no matter what you do to me."
— Felicia Elizondo
Felicia Elizondo was a Mexican-American entertainer, activist, organizer, historian, and Vietnam war veteran and HIV survivor. She took part in the Compton's Cafeteria uprising in San Francisco, 1966, where trans women, gay men, and sex workers fought with police for the right to simply gather and drink coffee together.
She served the LGBTQ community until her death in 2021.
Disclosure: I received a free copy of this book from NetGalley.
I really enjoyed this collection of speeches. They tied together well with the overall topics. The introduction and information about history before each speech was very informative. The speeches covered a diverse number of identities and struggles involved with our LGBTQ+ community.