POLITICS - The Gay Agenda! Noooooooo!

CULTURE/SOCIETY - Transgender Day of Remembrance: An Angry Trans' View

I haven't seen anything about it on any Gawker sites today, but today is Transgender Day of Remembrance.

The mainstream feminist movement has, in large part, abjectly failed the trans* community, as has the LGBT movement (which has often been more about LG than B or T or Q or I or anything that's not attractive white couples).

When you look at any of the galleries of trans* people killed in the last year, and there are plenty of them, you'll notice that the vast majority of those murdered are trans women, and trans women of color at that. Trans issues ARE feminist issues, and they're not treated as such in many spaces that purport to be safe.

http://groupthink.jezebel.com/transgender-day-of-remembrance-1468606909

CULTURE/SOCIETY - Commentary: Why the Transgender Day of Remembrance Matters to Black People

The African-American transgender community disproportionately faces violence and homicide. 

Since 1998, November 20 has commemorated the International Transgender Day of Remembrance, which memorializes those who have been killed as a result of anti-transgender violence. This day is also aimed at bringing attention to the continued violence endured by the transgender community through out the world.

And while this day may not get the media attention that it deserves, hundreds around the country in places such as New York City, Kansas City, Boise and St. Louis will gather and hold vigils for those whose lives ended way too soon.

And while it’s easy for many of us to ignore this day, we have to face the facts: Violence against the transgender community is most definitely an African-American problem.

http://www.bet.com/news/health/2013/11/19/commentary-why-the-transgender-day-of-remembrance-matters-to-black-people.html

POLITICS - There is no "too much, too soon"!

From Etoile Frank on Facebook -
https://www.facebook.com/etoile.frank/posts/579496355408780

With the Supreme Court currently hearing arguments on two major marriage equality cases, we all keep hearing the media and their talking heads going on about the worry that the the court could do "too much, too soon" to advance gay rights. There's apparently fear that giving too broad and sweeping of a judgement in favor of gay rights will cause a culture war that will put the furor over Roe v Wade to shame. I have news: that war has been going on for those of us with skin in the game for a very, very long time.

I, and people like me, have been second class citizens in this country since it's creation. We're members of a minority group that has historically been persecuted, prosecuted, murdered, mutilated, and tortured since civilization began.

There was a time, not so long ago, when the punishment for being gay in this very country was death. Then we got a reprive, homosexuality moved from mortal sin to mental illness in the early part of last century. And up until around 1973, gay men and women were treated for said disease with castration, lobotomies, pudic nerve surgery, and electroshock therapy.

It took until 1983 for the first state in the union to decriminalize homosexuality. And until 2003 for all states to finally make it so gay men and women couldn't be arrested in their own homes for the crime of sharing a bed and their lives. And that only happened because of a Supreme Court decision.

In 1993, brave gay men and women fighting for the freedom of their fellow countrymen were finally acknowledged...by being told they could serve, if they never let it be known that they were part of a lesser class of people. It took until 2011 for them to finally be able to die for their country without hiding their sexual orientation.

And so we get to the point of marriage equality. The question of whether or not gay men and women everywhere deserve the right to equal protection under the law. To things like hospital visitation rights, not being subject to thousands of dollars in estate taxes on property they share with their partner should they die (which their straight, married counterparts never have to worry about), to having their employer provide their family with health insurance, and about a thousand other rights and responsibilities that come with marriage.

And to add insult to injury, we gay folks work hard and pay our share of taxes for representation in the government that has, until relatively recently, used us as pawns in a political game. Our right to marry used a scare tactic to drum up arch conservative throwback voters. We serve our country in a time of war, and still get trotted out as the circus freak show to bring out the worst and most divisive in the general population come election time.

And people whose own lives will not be changed by the decision over marriage have the audacity to ask if it's too soon.

That question is beyond insulting, it's ignorant. Ignorant of the struggle gay men and women have had through history. Ignorant of the inexcusable treatment we've received for thousands of years. Yes, we've come a long way in this country, but that's no excuse to rest on our laurels and say that second class citizenship is "good enough" because some people may not be ready to let go of their prejudice and preconceived notions. The real question isn't if it is too soon... It's what took us so long to get to this point? Gay people being treated like people is long overdue.

HISTORY: 8 Surprising Things You Didn't Know About Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.

Although King is one of U.S. history's most widely chronicled individuals, there are aspects of his life that are less well-known than the pivotal speeches, the campaigns against Jim Crow city halls from Montgomery in 1955 to Memphis in 1968, and the dalliances that for some, tainted his personal life. King was as complex a figure as exists in our social narrative. He was a man conflicted by his commitment to a movement into which he was drafted against his better judgement and by the overwhelming demands to fulfill the role of human rights spokesperson. He was a husband and father who belonged to a people and a revolution, and the nation's most prominent advocate of nonviolence at a time when violence burned on urban streets, college campuses and in Southeast Asia.

http://www.alternet.org/activism/8-surprising-things-you-didnt-know-about-dr-martin-luther-king-jr

CULTURE/SOCIETY: Two Sikh Men, Two Lifetimes Of Looking Different

The tragic shooting at a Sikh house of worship in Wisconsin this month has turned the spotlight on the Sikh faith and the nation's Sikh community.

Earlier this year, Surinder Singh and his son Rupinder visited a StoryCorps booth in San Francisco, where they reflected on their own experiences standing out among their peers and neighbors.

http://m.npr.org/story/4516989?url=/series/4516989/storycorps

CULTURE/SOCIETY: Where there is no mercy: The transgender plight

http://subversify.com/2012/06/08/where-there-is-no-mercy-the-transgender-plight/"

CULTURE/SOCIETY: When and When Not to Say I Love You with a Tween Daughter

This is from me, not reprinted from somewhere else. - OlderMusicGeek.

A while back, my daughter and I were running late. I dropped her off at her school's front door. As she ran out of the door, I yelled, “Bye, I love you!”

My daughter ran to the front door, but stopped half way, walked back to the car, and knocked on the window.

Thinking she forgot something, I lean over and open her door. I look at her quizzically.

She leans her head, looks at me, and says, “Um, yeah... I would appreciate if you wouldn't yell that.”

Then she closed the door and headed back to school.


But I found this can be used to my advantage.

My daughter and I were in a store and got into a kicking fight. I had had enough and told her so – of course, after I got in the last kick! :)

My daughter, obviously, did not want to leave it there and tried to kick me again.

I told her, “If you kick me one more time, I'm taking you to the front of the store, giving you a big hug and telling everyone here just how much I love you!”

She put her hands up in surrender, stepped back and said, “Okay, okay, I'm done!”

A man next to us laughed when he heard that.


Unfortunately, I found that this is practiced with sexual discrimination.

When I pick my daughter up at her mother's, she is always shouting, “Bye, Mom, I love you.” And her mother yells back that she loves her too.

So I asked her why her mother can yell I love you, but I can't.

“Yeah.... That's because she's Mom and you're Dad.”

“So just because she's Mom, she can yell I love you and hug you?”

“Well, not in public!”

So apparently there is a limit even for Mom!


Oh, and my darling daughter, if you're reading this,

I LOVE YOU!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

And big hugs to you too!

CULTURE/SOCIETY: Robot Rights - A Poser for the 21st Century

Nothing new here for science fiction fans. But I'm printing it anyway. :)

This is from the English newspaper, The Guardian. - Why are the Europeans always ahead of us on trends? - I found this article through my home page from NetVibes. - OlderMusicGeek

Robot rights - a poser for the 21st century
James Randerson, science correspondent
The Guardian,Wednesday January 16 2008

The fight against discrimination based on race, gender, class and sexuality may not yet be won, but experts in artificial intelligence are warning that this century societies will have to tackle a new prejudice - against individuals with brains made of silicon.

Even the most enthusiastic promoters of robot rights admit that it is likely to be mid-century before humanity has to grant legal rights to our creations, but they say we should start considering the problems now.

Dr Nick Bostrom, a philosopher at the University of Oxford, said that even though present-day robots are not cognitively very impressive they should not be written off. "I don't think you should ever say never, especially with regard to technology. There's no good reason whatever for being confident that robots will not reach human-level intelligence and indeed pass human-level intelligence."

At a conference yesterday in London organised by the Centre for Bioethics and Public Policy, he predicted a time when robots become so intelligent they will need to be granted equivalent rights to humans. "If it has the same experience and the same capabilities we shouldn't treat it any differently if it is made of silicon rather than carbon." Those rights might include owning property and a bank account and the right not to be turned off.

But Professor Noel Sharkey, a robotics expert at the University of Sheffield, doubts that robots will ever achieve that sort of intelligence. "I can't deny that this is possible, but as a scientist there's absolutely no evidence for it."

A link to the article in The Guardian