Years ago, author, literary arts organizer and publisher Michelle Tea was hanging out with a fellow writer who was a nanny for a young boy, and noticed how the child was transfixed by the wigs in the window of Gypsy Rosalie's Wigs and Vintage in San Francisco. It was there that she had the germ of the idea for Drag Story Hour, which she launched in 2015 at the Eureka Valley/Harvey Milk Memorial branch of the San Francisco Public Library. For Alta Online, she talks about the evolution of the series, how she feels about right-wing attacks on it, and why she chose to launch in libraries. "Librarians have always been cool. They’ve always been pro-queer, pro-liberation, pro-freedom. Of course they’re going to love a drag queen reading to kids.”
Waiting times for NHS gender clinics continue to grow. A trans person attending their first appointment in England or Scotland today will have waited between 2 and 7 years.
(ID: Purple background with a person waiting in front of a clock)
PRRI recently issued a report showing that, from 2002-3, support for LGBTQ rights declined nationally. Melissa Deckman of PRRI explains to William Brangham why this is happening:
"I think what's happening is that you see many Republican leaders in red states, really trying to amp up the volume, so to speak on LGBTQ rights, and really trying to claw back some of those rights across the country."
"And I think that's had a spillover effect nationally in terms of the attitudes of Republicans, especially on issues with respect to LGBT rights. ...
I think there was often an assumption among many political analysts that younger Republicans would moderate the party with respect to things like LGBTQ rights, or even abortion rights or climate change, et cetera. But what we're finding in this data is that younger Republicans are very conservative socially."
In the past decade, #Putin has taught the world a master class on using #homophobia as a political weapon. Now he is showing us what #homophobia looks like as a #WeaponOfWar.
Investigators have a chance to build a case in #Ukraine unlike anything ever seen under international law: that persecuting #LGBTQ+ people constitutes a #CrimeAgainstHumanity.
The targeting of #LGBTQ+ people in #conflict — such as #ISIS making a spectacle of executing men accused of homosexuality by throwing them off buildings — has received much attn in recent yrs, but no #international#tribunal has ever held that this kind of persecution violates #InternationalLaw.
Jurists have done painstaking work to make clear how existing international #law gives the #ICC the power to investigate persecution on the basis of #sexuality & #gender identity. #Russia#Putin#Ukraine
Does anyone have resources for straight (heterosexual) trans folks who are feeling isolated in the broader LGBTQ community for being "not queer enough"? Essays, groups, advice that helped you? I'm asking for a straight guy, but all advice welcome, I meet lots of folks.
If you are trans, like pop punk or are simply online more than just once in a while, chances are you’ve heard of NOAHFINNCE – the stage name of singer-songwriter and YouTuber Noah Finn Adams.
🤦🏻♀️ The Supreme Court on Friday denied a request by a Texas college student group to host a drag show on campus, siding with the school’s decision to prohibit the performance. #SCOTUS#LGBTQ
(1/2)🧵 In shock news - the UK Equalities & Human Right Commission (EHRC) pan the Tory Schools draft guidance for England and Wales on trans kids, pointing them back to the EA 2010 and the actual law
Some EHRC Board members or the CEO hoping to hang onto their jobs after the next election perchance ...?
"[Africa] is seeing a surge in repressive [anti-LGBTQ] laws. Campaigners say US evangelists are fuelling discrimination and hatred. …
'Ugandan society has always lived … with LGBTQ persons … The homophobia, the transphobia we are seeing … is from the west. It is mostly peddled by extreme American evangelicals,' argues the Ugandan activist Frank Mugisha."
Today in Labor History March 14, 1954: Salt of the Earth premiered. The film depicted the 1951 strike of Mexican-American workers at the Empire Zinc mine, in New Mexico. The film was one of the first to portray a feminist political point of view, particularly through Actress Rosaura Revueltas’s role as Esperanza Quintero. When the Company uses the new Taft-Hartley Act (which also bans General Strikes) to impose an injunction preventing the men from picketing, their wives go walk the picket line in their places. LGBTQ and labor activist Will Geer also played in the film. Writer Michael Wilson, director Herbert Biberman and producer Paul Jarrico had all been blacklisted for their alleged communist ties. Only 13 of the 13,000 theaters in the U.S. showed the film.
Philip Bump looks at PRRI's latest report showing a slight movement in the US from 2002 to 2003 away from support for LGBTQ rights. He zeroes in on this finding:
A correlation can be seen between support for legal protections and the state’s 2020 election vote margin; states that voted more heavily for Biden are more supportive of protections than states that voted for Trump.
"Public support for same-sex marriage and nondiscrimination protections for LGBTQ+ Americans has fallen, even as the overall share remains high, according to new findings by the nonpartisan Public Religion Research Institute.
Broad majorities of Americans, regardless of political party or faith, continue to support LGBTQ+ rights and protections, the analysis found."
"But after years of rising public support, the decline is notable, said Melissa Deckman, CEO of the PRRI. ...
The analysis also identified a strong correlation between those who adhere to Christian nationalism – a once-fringe belief that the US was founded as a Christian nation and its laws should reflect Christian values – and opposition to policies protecting LGBTQ+ rights."
Single out a targeted, vulnerable minority community as Republicans and their right-wing Christian base have done in the past few years, bombard that minority community with one attack bill after another in state legislatures, spread outright hate and lies about that minoriity community, and, yes, you will make inroads in how the population at large treats that community. You will expose it to more abuse.
I had no idea from the coverage that this was such a resounding win.
"The settlement was a resounding victory for the parents and LGBTQ advocacy groups who filed the lawsuit. It dramatically limits the law's application to a narrow set of circumstances that seldom occur in K-12 public schools."