When Queers Attack...Fighting Back

It really hurts my heart as a transgender woman and as a human being whenever I hear stories like this one from The Advocate. If you don’t feel like clicking through to the link, first of all shame on you for being lazy! Secondly, let me tell you about it in a nutshell. It’s another dreadful case of injustice against the gays! Oh yes, because we never hear enough about that, do we? Luke O’Donovan was arrested after being involved in a New Year’s Eve scrap a couple months ago. A bunch of gay-bashers allegedly chased him down a hill and stabbed him after provoking him with gay slurs. He defended himself and now he’s the one in jail?! Someone please tell me where the sense in that lies? And while we’re on the subject, tell me why this sort of story rings true in so many other cases involving LGBT youths who’ve had enough and decide to fight back? Young, transgender woman Cece McDonald, for instance. In case you’re not familiar with Ms. McDonald’s story...she and her friends were verbally and physically attacked in June of 2011 by a group of racist bigots and in defending herself against the ringleader, Cece ended up killing him with a pair of scissors. She was sent to a men’s prison...essentially for defending herself against a hate crime. 

Why is it that the LGBT community can’t seem to catch a break when it comes to hate crimes? If we depend on law enforcement to help us out, we’re ignored due to the intrinsic homophobia that often exists within such a straight male-dominated structure. If we defend ourselves, we end up in prison. And if we don’t do anything at all...we die. That would all be fine and good for people who aren’t connected to the young kids who end up getting screwed over no matter what they do, but it isn’t fair. Equally unjust is the lack of attention paid to cases like this by the mainstream media. So, if they won’t make noise for us, we have to make noise for ourselves. I never encourage violence, but sometimes things happen that are out of our control and we act in the way we feel is most necessary at the time, we shouldn’t be punished for this and we most definitely should not be silenced or forgotten. Support your fellow LGBT brothers and sisters, don’t turn your backs because if we don’t support one another, no one will. 

For letters of support or donations to Luke O’Donovan, please go here.

For letters of support or donations to Cece McDonald, please go here.

I also urge you all to visit the Gay American Heroes Foundation's "Rainbow Memorial," a traveling exhibit that pays tribute to the countless GLBT souls that have been taken far too soon by the forces of hatred and ignorance.

Say hello to your new resident blogger!

Well hello and welcome to the UDGLBT Center’s community blog! 

My name is Miranda and I’ll be using this space to share stories, articles and other findings of interest to the LGBT community. In addition, I'll be helping to manage our Facebook and Twitter pages as well. This is your blog too, so be sure to get involved and share your comments on any entries you find particularly exciting and if you’re interested in providing an article yourself or guest blogging, please use our contact info to e-mail us! 

For our very first entry, I thought it might be nice to let you know a little about myself. After all, we will be seeing a lot of each other, so you may as well know whose rants you’re reading. This is my story...but because I am by nature a “creative eccentric,” it is in narrative poem form. So, brew yourself some tea or shake yourself a cocktail and let’s get reading!

Magic

I’ve always believed in magic. The kind of magic that allowed a little Spanish woman from Honduras, my grandmother, to divorce her ogre of a husband and single-handedly raise two daughters on a seamstress’ income in the United States of the 1970’s, despite only knowing limited conversational English.

I believe in the magic of making something from nothing, just as my grandmother did when she stretched each dollar to ensure that her two princesses were always well-educated, impeccably groomed and treated to those mainstays of American culture…ice cream, movie outings and hamburgers, every once in awhile.

I believe in the magic of supplication. Of asking for help and summoning assistance…be it from God…or one’s family…or one’s own inner reservoirs of untapped fortitude in order to endure the otherwise unendurable. I believe in the magic of family that supports one another in those times of great need, like my grand-uncle helped his sister those many years ago.

I believe in the magic of time travel, for when my grandmother tells me of those days, the past comes alive and through the windows of her eyes I can see every tear, every fear…every unyielding hope that brought her from there to here. I make that journey with her and know that magic exists.

I believe in the magic of filling a grandchild’s Paterson-poor holidays with a treasure trove of toys bought through scrimping, saving and layaway plans. In the magic of multicolored lights, popcorn tins, a glazed ham in the oven and the symphonic strains of friends and family swirling throughout the living room of a tiny third story apartment, stretching it beyond its limits and, for that day, transforming it into the grandest of palaces.

I believe in the magic of inheritance. For that same woman’s magical strength of will has been passed down from mother to daughter to me. I believe in the magic of the undying dream, which resulted in a much sought-after home for my mother and a much sought-after son for my aunt. I believe in the magic of the seemingly impossible and the magic of transmutation, for I became what I ought to have been through the same magic that’s swelled through the veins of three generations of my family’s women.

I believe in the magic of recording this for posterity’s sake, so that this magic never disappears from the world. I believe in the magic of sharing and the way that sharing can make ideas flourish and spread like ivy…so I share this fable, born of magic but grounded in truth with any and all who will listen. I share this magic with you.

Day of Silence

Day of Silence had its humble beginnings in 1996, at the University of Virginia. With just two organizers and 150 students, the purpose was to bring awareness to the struggles that LGBT persons face on a daily basis in their lives, especially those who are young people and students in grade schools, high schools and colleges. It came about so that that awareness could bring about action on the part of the LGBT community and our allies.

The silence represents the silent lives that many LGBT persons live every single day; living secretly for fear of being physically or emotionally harassed or abused; fear of losing their jobs, housing, or close relationships with family and friends; and silence out of shame about being who we truly are.

For one day, April 16, every year across the United States, persons who observe the Day of Silence remain silent throughout their school or work day; when asked why the silence, we can use cards or other means to educate people about the self imposed silence that many within the community live with each day. Indeed, to have to stay silent about who a person truly is, means that parts of that person fade away each and every day they feel called upon to live in that way. And, is that truly living at all?

The work is not complete at the end of Day of Silence; it is the hope that by raising awareness of others, the work, advocacy and policies will change to create more equality for those of us that are members of the LGBT communities in this country.

Please, do what you can to raise your own awareness, the awareness of others, and to start to create meaningful, effective change that will support the LGBT community and the people within that community. Speak out. Write. Learn. Teach.

Be an ally.

UD GLBT Stands Strong With Lt. Dan Choi

It was with much pride and support that members of the Upper Delaware GLBT group who marched on Washington for Equality Across America this past October, posed with Lt. Dan Choi.

On March 19, 2009, Lt. Choi came out on the Rachel Maddow Show, an act of bravery for which no military decoration was awarded. Choi, a West Point graduate and Iraq veteran is one of only eight in his class fluent in Arabic. In spite of his record and value, one month after appearing on Maddow's show he was notified that the Army began discharge proceedings.

The Cadet's prayer taught him to "choose the harder right over the easier wrong." Standing firm and following the Honor Code, Choi refused to lie about his identity.

Choi has since become an activist for GLBT rights and an icon for the repeal of Don't Ask Don't Tell. On March 18, 2010 he handcuffed himself to the fence in front of the White House as part of his effort for this cause. Following his arrest Choi told the Judge "Your Honor, I plead not guilty and I am not ashamed." The chains around his waist and handcuffs were removed. While walking out he said "I feel dignified...to wear the chains others have been wearing but can't see."

The Upper Delaware GLBT Center stands with Lt. Choi in fighting for equal rights for gays and lesbians and for the repeal of Don't Ask Don't Tell.

Paragraph 175

As many of you may know, the pink triangle is a symbol that the LGBT community utilizes frequently. The history of it is directly from Nazi Germany, and the symbol that was worn by those that were labelled as homosexual in concentration camps. But, that is not the end of the story..........

Paragraph 175, a clause that existed in German law at the time, prohibited homosexual relations. During Hitler's rule, he extended this law to include homosexual kissing, embracing, even homosexual fantasies. Between 1937 and 1939, some 25,000 persons were convicted under this law. There were initially imprisoned, and then later on sent to concentration camps. Castration was a common punishment for being charged with these crimes under Paragraph 175. In 1942, Hitler declared that homosexuality was punishable by death.

The use of the pink triangle in concentration camps was part of how prisoners there were categorized, each "grouping" was labelled with an alternate color of triangle. Gay Jews were considered to be the lowest of prisoners, and they were labelled with the overlapping of a pink and yellow triangle. Pink triangle prisoners were reported to receive the hardest workloads in the concentration camps, and were most often harassed and beaten by guards and other prisoners.

Later on, when the Allies defeated the Nazi regime, and so many other prisoners in the concentration camps were released, those prisoners that were defined under Paragraph 175- either labelled as or were homosexual- were kept imprisoned while they watched many of their fellow prisoners set free. They remained prisoners for an additional 24 YEARS..........

This symbol of hate has now been embraced as a symbol for the LGBT community, to emphasize strength in numbers and never allowing oppression to cost us our very souls again. Although Nazi Germany seems like a lifetime ago, and there are even those that deny that it happened, similar laws and hateful attitudes are now being seen in the world, most recently in Uganda, where it is legal to put homosexuals to death. Frightening thought about this world in 2010.

This is why the Upper Delaware GLBT Center is so necessary. To create a sense of equality and justice for all.

World AIDS Day, 2009

December 1st was World AIDS Day. The time to remember, among other days, this disease that takes so many lives. This year is the twenty first anniversary of the first World AIDS Day. It seems like the more time that goes by, the more apathy develops about this disease.
Still, people die every day. Awareness lacks in terms of the dangers of transmission. We have become complacent, because no matter what the virus does and can do to us, many people do not change their minds, their hearts, their behaviors in regard to it. It is 100 percent preventable these days from the most frequent transmission means: unprotected sexual contact and IV drug use.
Please, say a prayer, wear a ribbon, read about it, talk about it, do SOMETHING.
Please, let us never forget all of those that have perished as a result of this horrible illness, and how we need to keep ourselves and others safe. Remember those who are fighting this illness every day of their lives. Reach out. Connect. Share your love and your heart with someone who is affected by this.

WIGSTICKS Drag Show & Dance Party! Oct.17

The Upper Delaware GLBT Center is pleased to present WIGSTICKS, Out in the Wild'erness. Join us on October 17 at Mt. Haven Resort, Milford, PA for a Drag Show and Dance Party you will not forget. Hostess Steady Mess will be joined by Anita Mann, Karyn Thomas, Millie Shayntwrite and Skinay Biatch to entertain you with song, dance and God knows what else. Doors open at 9:30 with cash bar, show begins at 10PM followed by a dance party with NYC DJ Michael Roselli at 11PM.

Get there early and enjoy a delicious dinner at Mt. Haven. Tell them you are going to the show and get a 10% discount on your meal!

Seating is limited. Tickets will be honored on a first come first serve basis. Advance tickets for show and dance are $25 and can be purchased online using the Buy Now button on the right until October 15. Advance tickets can also be purchased by mail and must be postmarked by October 10, 2009. Check should be made out to UDGLBT and mailed to Upper Delaware GLBT Center, PO Box 1295, Milford, Pa 18337. Remember to include your contact info and seating requests. Tickets at the door $30. Tickets for dance only are $10.

Interested in being an event sponsor? Sponsorship opportunities starting at $100 are available. For more information contact udglbt@gmail.com

See you in the sticks... WIGSTICKS

Join us as we March on Washington

On October 11, 2009, The Upper Delaware GLBT Center will proudly join thousands of Americans when we march on Washington, D.C. to let our elected leaders know that NOW is the time for full equal rights for LGBT people. This march will kick start the national grassroots Equality Across America campaign (http://equalityacrossamerica.org). We will gather. We will strategize. We will march. And we will leave energized and empowered to do the work that needs to be done in every community across the nation.

This march marks a shift in strategy that will secure full equality in all 50 states. Similar to the historic civil rights movement, which in 1963 and 64 made its transition from fighting local battles to winning national victory with the passage of the civil rights act, it is time for that passage for LGBT Americans. Let your voice be heard along with others who believe that our time is NOW.

The Upper Delaware GLBT Center (UDGLBT) will have a chartered bus leaving Milford, PA and making a stop in Newton, NJ to pick up individuals who want to be a part of this historic event. SEATS ARE LIMITED, SO GET YOUR TICKET NOW. You can order your bus tickets online by clicking the “Buy Now” button on this blog. Tickets can also be purchased by mail. Checks should be made payable to the Upper Delaware GLBT Center and postmarked by October 1. Tickets are $50 each. All sales are final – there will be no refunds for unused tickets. Specific details about departure and arrival times will be posted as they become available. Your confirmation page will serve as your ticket.

Don’t miss this opportunity to share in an amazing experience and be a part of making LGBT history.

The Denver Principles Project

March 7, 2009

Dear friend,

Did the election of Barack Obama give you a sense of elation and newfound freedom, like you had gotten released from prison, escaped from a camp or crawled out from an underground bunker?

It did for millions of Americans, including me. But one consequence of crawling out from the bunker is the devastation suffered becomes disturbingly clear. We have a lot to rebuild.

To reconstruct a building destroyed by the bombs of war, one starts by repairing and securing its foundation, brick by brick, stone by stone.

To reconstruct an activist movement devastated by years of anti-science, anti-empowerment, anti-people policies, one also must start with its foundation and rebuild it, step by step.

Help Rebuild the Movement

That’s why I am writing you: To ask you to join me in the important process of rebuilding our community’s movement to combat the HIV/AIDS epidemic. Please let me explain.

The foundation of the self-empowerment movement for people with HIV—and all of the service providers, treatment activism, public education and awareness that followed in its wake—can be found in a document known as “The Denver Principles.”

“The Denver Principles” was written by a group of people with AIDS, including pioneer activists such as Michael Callen, Dan Turner and Bobbi Campbell, at a GLBT health conference held June 1983 in Denver.

Their landmark manifesto outlined the rights and responsibilities of people with AIDS. Near the end of the conference, they stormed the podium and read “The Denver Principles” manifesto in front of a banner that read “Fighting for Our Lives!” Ginny Apuzzo, the conference co-chair, said the activists got a 10-minute standing ovation and “there wasn’t a dry eye in the house.”

“The Denver Principles” represents the first time in the history of humanity that a group of people who shared a disease organized politically, asserting an inalienable right to participate in the decision-making processes, at all levels, that would so profoundly affect their lives.

What “The Denver Principles” Enabled

In the early years of the epidemic, “The Denver Principles” enabled us to combat stigma, create an extraordinary peer-to-peer service delivery system and implement community-based HIV prevention that worked. In the years since, UNAIDS, WHO and other organizations around the world have used “The Denver Principles” as a model for service delivery to disenfranchised communities.

For people with HIV, “The Denver Principles” is the Declaration of Independence, Bill or Rights, Constitution and Magna Carta all rolled into one. That’s why the manifesto was applauded and celebrated so greatly when introduced at the Denver conference—because those in attendance knew that important history was being made.

A few weeks after that Denver meeting, the National Association of People with AIDS (NAPWA) was formed in Washington, DC, to provide a unified national voice to represent us in the media, on Capitol Hill and within the executive branch of our federal government.

The Denver Principles Project

Today, I am working with NAPWA and POZ Magazine on The Denver Principles Project, and I would like to ask for your help.

The Denver Principles Project is a three-part campaign to recommit our community to the principles of self-empowerment, to raise awareness of “The Denver Principles” among service providers and the communities they reach and to build a large national membership for NAPWA that will give it the voice and authority it needs to be most effective.

Step 1

The first step is simply asking individuals and organizations involved in or who care about the epidemic, like you, to add your name to a list of those agreeing to recommit to “The Denver Principles.”

I hope you can go to www.napwa.org, click on The Denver Principles Project link and add your name, or your organization’s name, to the roster of those supporting this historic initiative.

Step 2

The second step is to raise awareness of “The Denver Principles” and The Denver Principles Project through your organization’s resources, by including information about the project in your newsletters; by educating staff, volunteers and clients about the history and meaning of the principles; and by posting copies of “The Denver Principles” in waiting and reception areas.

Step 3

Most important, we are asking you to encourage your clients with HIV to sign up for a sponsored membership in the National Association of People with AIDS (NAPWA). That’s right: no cost to the person with HIV who wants to be involved.

When NAPWA was founded, it was originally envisioned to grow along the lines of other national organizations such as NOW, NAACP or HRC, with thousands of members contributing $35 or $50 each.

But most people with HIV live in poverty, and many have trouble maintaining secure housing, feeding their families or accessing medical care. That traditional constituent-building model will not work because people with HIV do not have the funds to pay for membership.

That’s why NAPWA has made a commitment to find sponsors to pay for memberships for anyone with HIV who wants to become empowered, anyone who wants to add his or her voice and become a member of NAPWA.

POZ Support With Its Anniversary Issue

POZ is supporting this effort as well. To kick it off, the magazine has agreed to donate all of the advertising sales from its 15th anniversary issue, this coming May, to the NAPWA Membership Fund. Those funds, along with donations from corporate, foundation and individual sponsors, will pay for memberships in NAPWA for any person with HIV who would like to join.

Other Organizations Support The Denver Principles Project

There are more than a dozen national AIDS organizations, but NAPWA, as an organization of people with HIV/AIDS, has a unique role. That’s why the National Minority AIDS Council, the Latino Commission on AIDS and other national groups, as well as more than 140 local service providers from 45 states (including AIDS Foundation of Chicago, Gay Men’s Health Crisis of New York City, the San Francisco AIDS Foundation, Nashville Cares, Nevada AIDS Project, Tulsa CARES, Action AIDS of Philadelphia, AIDS Delaware of Wilmington) are supporting The Denver Principles Project. (For a complete list, go to http://www.napwa.org/)

They know giving greater voice to those of us with the disease is not just important—it is vital in order to secure funding, increase health care access, combat stigma, reduce new infections and empower people with HIV and improve their health. Isn’t that what the fight against AIDS is all about?

Objective: 100,000 NAPWA Members by December 1

Our goal is for NAPWA to have 100,000 members by World AIDS Day, December 1, of this year. Imagine how important the ability to mobilize a large NAPWA membership will be for everyone working to reauthorize the Ryan White CARE Act this year, and to secure funding for state ADAP or HIV testing programs and to have a voice in the Obama administration’s initiatives for health care reform.

We have suffered because our voice has not been adequately heard. We need to be represented in Washington, and that is why I am hopeful you can join us in this historic effort at this uniquely opportune time.

For years we have had a culture in Washington that has denigrated the needs of people with HIV, ignored their voices and treated us like a problem population to be regulated and controlled rather than the key to successfully addressing the epidemic.

Obama’s Election Is Great, But No Guarantee

The election of Barack Obama has brought great hope and inspiration, to be sure. But changes in bureaucracies and long-entrenched policies do not come magically or easily, even with the election of powerful and progressive new leadership.

We must fight for these changes. And to fight effectively, we must have clarity of vision—that’s why it’s so important to recommit to the founding ideas expressed in “The Denver Principles.” That’s why we must have a large membership—to demonstrate the community’s support of this effort to make sure we get the attention of elected officials and public policy leaders.

Can You Join Us?

Please, I urge you to take a moment right now and go to www.napwa.org and click on The Denver Principles Project link. Join us in recommitting to “The Denver Principles,” raising awareness of the principles and building NAPWA’s membership to make sure our voice in Washington is heard clearly.

Yours in the struggle for justice,

Sean Strub

P.S. Everyone who contributes $35 or more, or any organization promoting membership in NAPWA to their clients will have their name(s) listed in the roster of supporters of The Denver Principles Project that will be printed in the 15th anniversary May issue of POZ. But time is short—to include your name, you must sign up by March 15. Please, go to www.napwa.org/supportdpp right now to sign up. Thank you.

GLBT Events in YOUR County

The Upper Delaware GLBT Center (UDGLBT) is ready to take its next step. We are planning ‘Meet and Greet’ events in each of the 4 counties we will be serving – Pike County, Pa., Sussex County, NJ, and Sullivan and Orange Counties in NY.
The events will be informal, fun and…
· free and open to the GLBT community and friends,
· provide an opportunity to meet GLBT people in each geographic area,
· provide an overview of what the UDGLBT is planning,
· give everyone an opportunity to have input into how we can best serve the GLBT community in your county, and
· let you know how you can help and become an active member.
We are looking for volunteers who would like to join a committee in each county to help plan these ‘Meet and Greet’ events. Danielle, Lori and Kathy have volunteered to put the Sullivan County event together and Arnold is checking into places in Pike and Orange counties. Lisa and Diane are planning a separate event for GLBT families. But we need more help. So… now is a great time for all of you who have been asking, “What can I do?” to get involved. We can use your time, talent and energy and if you don’t have any of those, we can use your money!
It promises to be a gay ole time so step up, join in and help us make it
okay to be out!