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I have never endured a more difficult experience than the cliquey, judgemental, make it or break it middle school crowd of my childhood years. I'll be perfectly honest, at 20 years old, those memories are quite fresh in my mind. I'm sure you can relate in some way.
I know, I'm well aware of the demographics of Dkos, however I also am aware of the universality of assholes, bullies and jocks throughout time, culture and class. If not middle school, then high school or certainly college. So many of us Kossacks can recall those dark experiences of school harassment in the form of intimidation, humiliation and sometimes violence.
Some of us, like me, remember those days as perpetrators. I know it may be hard to imagine, but for us reformed bullies, the experiences can sometimes be far worse than anything we dished out. Please allow me to explain.
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At any given time there are 1,500,000 individuals enlisted in one of the branches of the U.S. military, 15% of which are women. That's one million and five hundred thousand people enlisted in the institution set up to protect American freedoms from outside aggression. This institution instills values and beliefs that will be carried by those very same men and women for the rest of their lives, even after service, when they attempt to reintegrate into civilian life.
That's why it's so worrisome that our military has become one of the largest national incubators for implicitly sanctioned rape and sexual assault. By allowing our military to slack in the disciplining of sexual assault crimes, we are creating a culture of impunity, where perpetrators of rape and sexual assault escape punishment, and their victims are denied justice. These perpetrators of sexual assault are then free to return to civilian life. That's right, they're free to then visit your neighborhood, your jogging route, your favorite local bar, anywhere. We know our enemy, and it is within.
Is helping the LGBT community important to you? Is defending my rights, your rights or the rights of friends and family something you care about? If it is, and you live in New York City, I’m sure you can find 3 or 4 hours to help fight for equality this summer! Please make some time for equality and civil rights and watch our combined efforts win this November! Read below for more info.
On May 17th, 2004 we were victorious in the marriage fight in Massachusetts. As every battle energizes the movement for marriage equality, likewise every defeat sets back our mission for equality by years, if not decades. Our thriving and passionate marriage equality movement stands to face the largest setback in the 21st century this November if California passes an amendment which would wipe out all signs of progress that we have made for equal marriage.
The military’s need for qualified and experienced personnel continues to grow. The House Oversight and Government Reform Committee recently released data showing the Army has doubled the number of waivers it grants to recruits convicted of violent felonies including manslaughter, rape and kidnapping. In an attempt to meet personnel goals Pentagon leaders have recently relaxed enlistment standards regarding age, physical fitness, education and criminal records. The discharge of lesbian and gay Americans, however, continues.
Don't Ask Don't Tell (DADT) is the military's ban on openly serving lesbian, gay or bisexual service members. It was enacted by a Democratic President and has been sustained by both Democratic and Republican congresses for over a decade. Like many progressive initiatives, Democrats in Congress, who remain too skittish about being labeled a "Gays before Berets" party, have not brought up the issue in any meaningful, challenging way this session.
Let's be perfectly clear. As a person of Caribbean descent, the LAST thing I want to be in this post is condescending. I admit very upfront that I do not know much about Caribbean culture- or Jamaican culture in particular- however coming from a Guyanese family, with family members scattered throughout the Carribean, I have a vague, but proud, connection to the region.
This connection, as I continue to discover and nurture it throughout my life, encourages me to speak out against the ills existing in my ancestral homeland. As progressives, we show our love and pride for our roots by always seeking out the better in those very things which give us meaning and comfort. As I explore the highly emotional details of rampant homophobia in Jamaica in this post, I do it out of love for the Caribbean region, which has thrived despite a history of colonialism, natural disasters, slavery and the shackles of contemporary neo-liberalism.
The LGBT rights movement long ago has invested itself in a state by state election strategy. National politics has disregarded our concerns for decades, literally, with no national legislation on LGBT rights ever being passed and signed into law. What little we have made progress on, like support behind the Employment Non-Discrimination Act, has been severely tarnished by the move by centrist LGBT leaders and some allies to give generous exclusions to religious institutions from the bill and take out the rights of transgender, gender variant and gender non-conforming individuals from the Act.
2008 will hold the fight for the presidency and congress in the spotlight, but left at the margins of societal consciousness is the state by state fight LGBT people will be waging to either preserve their newfound rights or to prevent their already unprotected status from becoming even more marginalized by the electoral power of bigots, marriage amendments and ignorance. This post is a start at covering some of the battlegrounds for the LGBT rights movement this fall. It's more than California and marriage equality, as important as that issue is to many in the LGBT community. Below the fold I outline 2 battle fields, though there are certainly many more, that I intend on involving myself with this year:
As an American I am honored to have protection from the nation's most advanced military.
As a valuer of critical thought I worry about my protection- our military- becoming a force of imperialistic ambitions.
As a student of history I am glaringly aware of the sordid misuse of our armed forces.
As a descendent of a worldly family I recognize the military as my family's ticket from third world poverty into American prosperity.
As an activist I realize the disproportionate amount of racial minorities and working class individuals in our armed forces.
As a queer I understand the need for queer individuals to be able to openly serve in our armed forces.
The Left's relationship with our armed forces is both deep and estranged at the same time. Many of the left's proudest moments: the Civil Rights Movement, the Anti-Vietnam War movement and the Chicana/o movement- in large part were made possible by returning veterans settling back into their communities and realizing that the social order could not remain as it was before they left to fight overseas.
Public Displays of Affection are a touchy subject for a single person to defend. Many single people see couples practicing PDAs as a flaunting act. Many see it as a needless showing of affection that is not appropriate for public areas.
It was Freedom to Marry Day (FMD) at American University two days ago and there was this map that I saw that I had conflicting feelings about. I remember when it was being made. It was a regular Queers & Allies meeting. This meeting was meant to be a prep for FMD, so we were making fact sheet signs on pieces of white posterboard paper. I remember just sitting there being the room DJ and enjoying conversation with a person I've recently grown to like a lot in a non-sexual way (awkward phrasing I know).
Primary season is unavoidable. As Obama by the day becomes more and more the presumptive Democratic nominee for President, we begin to see many individuals of the Democratic progressive community coalesce around his candidacy. Today, Obama announced the support of both the Teamsters Union and the International Brotherhood of Boilermakers. This of course happening just days after the Service Employers International Union announced its endorsement of Senator Barack Obama. These unions will play a big role in trying to resolve this drawn out primary by attempting to project Obama to victory in the March 4th Texas/Ohio primaries.
Obama has a lot of labor-friendly support to thank thusfar and unions will be holding him to it if he can win the general.
It's time for action. There is so much discussion on the major blogs about diversity and the blogosphere. The question often asked is how can we make the most popular progressive blogs more diversified. One component of the answer is simply to diversify the content. "Linking our Way to Diversity" is a model made for progressive sites to follow. Together, we can link our way to equality.
It's time for action. There is so much discussion on the major blogs about diversity and the blogosphere. The question often asked is how can we make the most popular progressive blogs more diversified. One component of the answer is simply to diversify the content. "Diversity Blog Sundays" is a model made for progressive sites to follow. Together, we can link our way to equality.
"He who lives by fighting with an enemy has an interest in the preservation of the enemys’ life"
- Neitzsche
Hate speech has always been a very controversial issue in America. On one side, there are those who see hate speech as an extreme detriment to society that threatens social stability. On the other side, some claim that the 1st amendment is more importantly meant to protect the speech that everyone hates, not just the speech that everyone supports. Recently, a case involving two nations, 1000 hate messages and the internet has stirred up controversy over what the proper way is to deal with hate messages and speech:
It's time for action. There is so much discussion on the major blogs about diversity and the blogosphere. The question often asked is how can we make the most popular progressive blogs more diversified. One component of the answer is simply to diversify the content. "Diversity Blog Sundays" is a model made for progressive sites to follow. Together, we can link our way to equality.
It's time for action. There is so much discussion on the major blogs about diversity and the blogosphere. The question often asked is how can we make the most popular progressive blogs more diversified. One component of the answer is simply to diversify the content. "Racial Minority Blog Sundaes" is a model made for progressive sites to follow. Together, we can link our way to equality.
Americans generally must really have a distaste for everything arab. It quite simply is a very frustrating time for people of arab descent and for those with families that include arab members in America today.
Two very recent examples only highlight these difficult times for Arab-Americans. One recent incident involved an arab man who was kicked off a plane for wearing a t-shirt that said "We Will Not Be Silenced" in Arabic and English. An account of the incident can be found over the flippy thingy:
This is a new Sunday tradition that I have begun in the quickhits section of the wonky (but oh so luvable) blog OpenLeft. Stop on by, or just feel free to see the amazing selections this week over the little flippy floppy area.
"The Politics of My..." Series is an effort to document seperate angles of my life thusfar through a political lens, linking my past personal history to current LGBT news.
It was the best first kiss one could ask for. It happened on Valentine's day, three distant years ago. I remember it so well because I remember every Valentine's Day very well. The day is the biggest holiday of the year for me, though I celebrate in a markedly different way than do others who follow a more consumerist variety of celebration.
We met, as do so many of us young ones these days, on a social networking site. It was before Myspace or Facebook was on my radar. For those teens who still remember when Xanga was in vogue, that was the site where we met. He happened across my teenage attempt at an LGBT Civil Rights blog and we commented back and forth before we agreed to meet.
Our first date was on that very same v-day, where we went to the most romantic place we could afford, Blimpie's (hey, we were high school students, we couldn't afford decent restaurants, not saying I can afford them now as a college student though... unless my date is paying ;) ).
