Activist Tip: Sharing is Caring, Oh, and Visibility!

Next time you are done reading a gay/lesbian newspaper/magazine, or some sort of activist flier or publication instead of tossing it in the trash, leave it on a table at the doctors office waiting room, or at your local library. It is great to recycle and someone else gets use out of it, but more importantly someone else will be reached with queer issues and may be personally affected by it. We change hearts and minds through our stories and through visibility of our movement.

Happy Father's Day!

A shout out to all the Daddy's and Papa's out there! Happy Father's Day from Queers United. Challenging Heterosexism one day at a time!

"Why Homosexuality Should be Banned!"

This is a clever video mocking arguments against homosexuality. Please watch it and get a good laugh but also share it with your friends. It makes a great point as to how ridiculous our opposition is.

XBOX Live Bans Words 'Gay' and 'Lesbian'

There have been a number of reports that Microsoft is banning people from using their XBOX Live video game console for simply having the word gay or lesbian in their username and/or profile. These players have been harassed and chased to different games by other users. One situation involved a guy last May whose tag theGAYERgamer was banned. Now, a lesbian user has been banned for identifying her sexuality.

These users have had their account suspended and xbox live did nothing to solve the issue, but instead said others found it offensive.

Please tell Microsoft that while it is getting 100% ratings on the corporate equality index by the Human Rights Campaign, in this scenario they are siding with the homophobes and penalizing the victim.

Email support for XBOX Live.

Assistance by phone seven days a week.
1-800-4MY-XBOX

Petition to Stop Deporting Gays & Lesbians

Recent cases highlight the extreme danger lesbians and gays face because of their sexuality if deported to a number of countries. Sending people back to their possible death is totally unacceptable.

"We the undersigned petition the Prime Minister to stop deporting gays and lesbians to countries where they may be imprisoned, tortured or executed because of their sexuality."

U.K. Residents Click Here to Sign Petition!

10 Reasons Why Gay Marriage is Wrong!

1. Being gay is not natural Real Americans always reject unnatural things like eyeglasses, polyester and air conditioning.

2. Gay marriage will encourage people to be gay, in the same way that hanging around tall people will make you tall.

3. Legalizing gay marriage will open the door to all kinds of crazy behavior. People may even wish to marry their pets because a dog has legal standing and can sign a marriage contract.

4. Straight marriage has been around a long time and hasn't changed at all; women are still property, blacks still can't marry whites, and divorce is still illegal.

5. Straight marriage will be less meaningful if gay marriage were allowed; the sanctity of Britney Spears' 55-hour just-for-fun marriage would be destroyed.

6. Straight marriages are valid because they produce children. Gay couples, infertile couples, and old people shouldn't be allowed to marry because our orphanages aren't full yet, and the world needs
more children.

7. Obviously gay parents will raise gay children, since straight parents only raise straight children.

8. Gay marriage is not supported by religion. In a theocracy like ours, the values of one religion are imposed on the entire country. That's why we have only one religion in America.

9. Children can never succeed without a male and a female role model at home. That's why we as a society expressly forbid single parents to raise children.

10. Gay marriage will change the foundation of society; we could never adapt to new social norms. Just like we haven't adapted to cars, the service -sector economy, or longer life spans.

Crossposted from our friends at Wicked Gay Blog

Word of the Gay: "Manscaping"

"Manscaping" is not exclusively a gay word, but the concept certainly has its roots in the gay community. "Manscaping" is when a man grooms himself by either shaving, trimming, or waxing hairy parts of the body.

Word of the Gay: "Non-Heterosexual"

"Non-heterosexual" is a term used to describe anything that doesn't fit the woman/man heteronormative mold. It can include everything from gay, bi, and queer, to gender non-conformity, gay for pay, or gay when drunk.

Web Spotlight: Rainbow Alliance of the Deaf

"The Rainbow Alliance of the Deaf (RAD) is a nonprofit organization established in 1977. The purpose of this Alliance is to establish and maintain a society of Deaf Gays and Lesbians to encourage and promote the educational, economical, and social welfare; to foster fellowship; to defend our rights; and advance our interests as Deaf Gay and Lesbian citizens concerning social justice; to build up an organization in which all worthy members may participate in the discussion of practical problems and solutions related to their social welfare. RAD has over twenty chapters in the United States and Canada."

http://www.rad.org/

Open Forum: Do We Have a "Gay Lifestyle?"

LGBTQ people are quick to be on the defensive when someone invokes the word "lifestyle" with regards to LGBTQ lives. Sometimes the term "gay lifestyle" is used to disparage LGBTQ people and insinuate that our sexual orientations or gender identities are but a mere choice. Anyone with some common sense knows that nobody chooses to be gay. Nobody chooses to feel isolated for years, face discrimination, and live as a second class citizen in a society that does not regard you as an equal.

The notion that we choose to be queer is illogical. However, the question as to whether we live a "queer lifestyle" is legitimate debate in my opinion. Living in a gayborhood, reading queer-centric news/publications, being an LGBT activist, going to an LGBT church or house of worship, going to gay clubs, restaurants, inns/hotels, choosing queer books and films, and socializing with other queer folks. At some point one has got to wonder, does a huge chunk of my life revolve around queerness? If it does, wouldn't this constitute as being a practitioner of the "gay lifestyle?" Thoughts?

Word of the Gay: "Yestergay"

A "yestergay" is a gay man who has chosen to live a heterosexual lifestyle. This is distinct from "ex-gay" who is someone who is attempting to alter their orientation.

Man Kicked Out of Bar for Being "Too Gay"

A man in Tuscaloosa, Alabama claims that the bar Catch 22 had kicked him and his friends out for being "too gay". The video below was on the local news and Joseph describes his alleged treatment.

Joseph: "I was in the back of the bar, Catch 22, and we were picking music by the jukebox and the female owner of the bar just kicked out my friends for dancing 'too gay'...She proceeded to tell me that she was the owner of the bar and that if I'm to continue coming to her bar, that it's not OK to be open because it's not a gay bar and it never will be. And then she added that gay people disgust her."

The bar owner denies any wrongdoing and says the incident did not occur. She says Joseph and his friends are welcome back anytime. The ACLU says nothing can be done legally because Alabama does not protect people on the basis of sexual orientation.

Catch 22
2328 6th St
Tuscaloosa, AL 35401
(205) 344-9347‎

Word of the Gay: "Twinkle Toes"

"Twinkle toes" is a term used to describe a feminine man who is gay or perceived to be. It is an insult, used to disparage men who are considered "light in the loafers".

Open Forum: Is the Community Comprised of Hypocrites?

We claim to pride ourselves on diversity and promote the notion of acceptance of others. Are we really hypocrites in disguise behind the banner of a rainbow?

We dispel myths and claim to hate labels but we also embrace all these things we so often argue against. The community claims that we don't need to follow heteronormative thinking and that we don't define ourselves by our genders. Among lesbians you see butch and femme, and among gay men there are tops and bottoms. Doesn't this follow the heternormative philosophy of a dominant "man" and a more passive "woman" role. If we claim to despise categorization and labels why do so many gay men and lesbians label themselves?

Bisexuals claim they can see the stigmatization of not being gay nor straight but somewhere in between. Do they lose this sense of empathy with sexual minorities if they partner with someone of the opposite sex? Do they gain a sense of heterosexual privilege?

Transgender people are fighting for recognition of diversity among gender identities. You hear that its not about the genitals but about the mind and spirit of the person that makes the gender. Is there hypocrisy among the gender variant folks as well? There are different labels such as pre-op, post-op, and non-op. You have terms such as "passable" to imply that the person transitioned so well that they could pass for the other gender. If the genitals and look don't matter, why are there these categories to identify others?

Intersexuals want acceptance of their biological make-up which is not male or female, and want more sensitivity towards gender variance. But, do some go out of their way to make a distinction between their "biological" condition and what many claim is a "psychological" condition for transgender people?

Asexuals don't like the fact that everything in society is labeled and thought of in a sexual context, when in their world sexuality does not play a vital role. But when they discuss asexuality in regards to an orientation aren't they just as much playing into the notion that sexuality is a driving force of life?

This post is controversial, and forgive me if anyone gets offended by it. I am knit-picking a little bit at everyone in order to engage in a healthy conversation that I think is boiling within the topic of queer theory lately.

Help Ugandan Gay Man Gain Asylum

UPDATE: Mr. Nyombi was scheduled for deportation this past Sunday and refused to board a plane to Uganda. Officials allowed him to refuse boarding the plane. Currently he is being held in the airport, which gives us activists and legal groups more time to demand justice for him. Please continue to urge for his asylum to be granted.

---

We have two asylum granting cases in the U.K. dealing with a gay man (John Bosco) and a lesbian (Prossy Kakooza) who face a return to Uganda where they will likely be killed due to their sexual orientation. The U.K. has decided not to grant asylum to these two individuals, posing a serious threat to their security. Please ensure their asylum in the U.K. Please immediately contact the Minister of State for Borders and Immigration within the Home Office about granting asylum to both John Bosco Nyombi and to Prossy Kakooza.

Write to Liam Byrne, the Minister of State for Borders and Immigration within the Home Office Privateoffice.external@homeoffice.gsi.gov.uk (Please ensure you put FAO Liam Byrne, Minister in the subject line)

Petition to stop deportation:
http://www.gopetition.com/petitions/john-bosco-nyombi

Queering Up History: Sept 12th

"Queer Events On This Day In History...

1772 Marquis de Sade was burned in effigy after being sentenced to death for committing sodomy with his manservant and poisoning prostitutes. Six years later his death sentence was commuted. He would die in a lunatic asylum in 1814.

1969 Less than three months after the Stonewall riots, Gay Liberation Front protests at the offices of the New York Village Voice to oppose their policy of allowing writers to refer to gays as "fags."

1976 Outspoken Episcopal Rev. Malcolm Boyd, author of "Are You Running With Me, Jesus?" comes out in an interview with the Chicago Sun Times. He later wrote "Gay Priest."

1985 Fifteen Chicago police who entered a gay bar with a warrant to arrest the bartender storm in with their guns drawn, ordered all the patrons on the floor, searched them, photographed them, interrogated them about their personal lives, beat one man, and detained them over three hours. After the ACLU filed suit charging unreasonable search and seizure, violations of freedom of association, and illegally obtaining personal information the police settled for $226,500 to be divided among the men. Police also agreed to return all photographs and items confiscated and to expunge the incident and all information collected from their records.

1992 Actor Anthony Perkins, best known for his role as Norman Bates in Psycho, dies of complications from AIDS at age 60, but not in his shower.

1993 Raymond Burr American TV actor Raymond Burr dies at age 76. Starred in Perry Mason and Ironside series.

1995 Des Moines, Iowa, school board member Jonathan Wilson, an openly gay man, is defeated in his bid for re-election by a candidate backed by the religious right.

1997 Bernard Widmar and Henry Korn of Boise Idaho hold a party with 200 guests to celebrate their golden anniversary. They met in Chicago while they were both in college on the G.I. bill.

2000 The Netherlands becomes the second country in the world (after Denmark) to recognize gay marriages as the Dutch parliament votes 109-33 to approve gay/lesbian marriages, allowing gays and lesbians to convert previously registered same-sex partnerships into full marriages complete with divorce guidelines and adoption rights.

2004 The Los Angeles Times reports that Paul Crouch, 70, the founder of the world's largest Christian television network (Trinity Broadcasting Network), paid $425,000 to a former male employee of the network to hush up an affair they had eight years earlier."

Brought to you by our friends at Wicked Gay Blog

Word of the Gay: "Lavender Marriage"

A "lavender marriage" is a marriage of mixed sexual orientation. Sometimes one partner is gay or lesbian while the other spouse is straight, and some are marriages of convenience where the husband is gay and the wife is a lesbian.

Word of the Gay: "LGBT"

"LGBT" is an acronym that stands for Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, and Transgender. It refers to the diversity of sexual and gender identity amongst us. Originally the acronym started as GLBT, but due to feminism and the advance for equality the term is more commonly LGBT today.

Word of the Gay: "Gay Lisp"

"Gay Lisp" is a term that refers to the stereotypical effeminate and high pitched voice that comes from some gay males.

Word of the Gay: "Stonewall"

"Stonewall" refers to the historic event and location at a gay bar/inn in New York City that was raided by the police on June 28th, 1969. Police raids were common on homosexual establishments, but the "stonewall riots" were significant because gay men, and transgender women stood up to police brutality by fighting back. It has become a defining moment in queer history where LGBTQ people decided to fight back, get political, and demand social justice with actual results and community unity.