"It's a slight change to the law, it's true," Socrates, the prime minister, said. "But it is a very important and symbolic step towards fully ensuring respect for values that are essential in any democratic, open and tolerant society: the values of freedom, equality and non-discrimination."

In case you haven't heard, congress has choosen to protect Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender, and Queer people by now including them as part of the group of classes of people that are discriminated against in this country and around the world. LGBTQ victims of hate crimes, illegal acts against people motivated by an intolerance or prejudice, will now be ensured that their assailants will not go unpunished or treated tepidly. Since 1969, race, color, nationality, ethnicity, sex, and religion have been recognized as protected classes, and now because of the passage of The Matthew Shepard and James Byrd, Jr. Hate Crimes Prevention Act, gender, sexual orientation, gender identity, and disability will soon be included as protected classes of people. So what does the new law mean?

For more than a decade, senators have been fighting to extend protections for LGBTQ people and this Thursday their efforts along with the efforts of civil rights and gay rights activists paid off when the Senate passed the extension of hate crimes legislation. Because several states already enforce hate crimes protections upon LGBTQ people, the federal government will not change existing laws but will instead broaden the range of actions that can be considered biased against LGBTQ people such as preventing someone from voting or going to school because they are LGBTQ. The bill also includes available grants to help state and local governments fight the prevalence of hate crimes. Although the bill won’t prevent hate crimes, per se, the Matthew Shepard Act is a sign of great things to come during this era of rising progressivism in our nation. There is no doubt that the passage of this bill will pave the way towards future pro-LGBTQ legislation under the Obama administration.

Now that the bill has passed both the house and the senate, all we have to do now is wait for the president. We've been waiting for years for this bill and months for President Obama to fulfill his campaign promises to the LGBTQ community. We'll be watching what he does when he signs this bill and what he has in store for the future of civil rights.

So, the November issue of Seventeen magazine came out and there was a story in there that was suprising to say the least. The story was "My Boyfriend Turned Out to be a Girl!" It was a story about a girl who fell in love with her boyfriend who just happened to be, big twist, transgender. Derek, the boyfriend in the story, was accused of being a liar and a fraud because he didn't share with the narrator that "he used to be a she."

Well, a good friend of mine wasn't going to let it go. Ariel Bustamante has started a Facebook group, "Letter Campaign to Seventeen Magazine":

The November issue of Seventeen Magazine featured a story entitled "True Life Drama: My BOYFRIEND turned out to be a gir!l"

Rather than use this opportunity to educate readers about transgender issues, it never once even uses any terminology (well, unless you consider the slur "he-she" -_- ) but instead furthers the common transphobic assumption that someone who's gender does not match their sex assigned at birth is a deceptive liar and even compares them (at the bottom) to perverts, drug addicts, and older dad's trying to get someone young w/o disclosing their parental/age status.

Please read the article (follow the link) done in poor taste with a terrible accusatory tone from the get-go and write a letter to the editor (mail@seventeen.com) expressing your opinion about the article, the implications it has, and ask them to put an apology in one of their next 2 issues.

The more responses they receive about this the better! Even if you don't read the magazine, it's important to send the message that articles like this will not be tolerated and that we don't want this hateful message being sent to young people who read it. Please invite anyone you can to write a letter, too

So I suppose a letter like this would suffice.

This is a response to your "True Life Drama: My BOYFRIEND turned out to be a girl!" article in the November issue of Seventeen magazine. I feel that the story's editor did not consider the implication that it would have on the transgender community and the readers who may or may not understand transgender people. The inappropriate use of terminology and the insensitivity on the matter in the story continues the cycle of transphobia in our community and confuses uninformed readers even more. I ask that you make a correction to your magazine in the next issue and apologize to your readers, straight, gay, lesbian, bisexual, transgender, male,and female, for furthering the transphobic assumption that someone who's gender does not match their sex assigned at birth is a deceptive liar comparable to perverts and drug addicts. By keeping these ideas in your magazine and promoting them, you create a divide between all of your readers that will end up harming many people and creating a stigma attacked to people who are transgender. I hope that in the future you will learn to be more sensitive to issues concerning the GLBT community and that articles concerning to the latter will be taken in a more serious note.

Sincerely,
Adrian Pedroza

Get the full article here and write to Seventeen magazine to make sure homophobia and transphobia never touch the pages of the magazine again!

In case you missed it, the Daily Show covered the National Equality March on DC like no other news station did before. Surely a sign on the part of the media that shows the failure that we have of a system whose responsiblity is to keep Americans informed. What made my day after seeing the lack of coverage on the media is when my favorite, best straight ally went to me on Monday so that he could find out everything about the National Equality March that they didn't cover on Sunday. I love him so much. Well, in case you did miss it like Fox, CNN, and MSNBC, here's the Daily Show's "Queer and Loathing In DC." (Fear and Loathing reference).

Don't think that old ideas can never come back and find its place in American politics again. Sexism was proven to be alive and well while Secretary of State Hillary Clinton was running for office and from what we've seen while she has been in office. Once again the National Republican Congressional Commitee has proven that the GOP has several members who continue to debase women and promote sexism in the United States. This time, they have attacked Speaker of the House of Representatives, Nancy Pelosi.
AP Reports:

She was taking issue with a National Republican Congressional Committee press release that accused her of backing down to liberals in her caucus who oppose Gen. Stanley A. McChrystal's recommendation for an escalation of troops in Afghanistan. Pelosi had been quoted as saying that voting for an escalation was a difficult choice for members of her caucus whose constituents oppose such action."If Nancy Pelosi's failed economic policies are any indicator of the effect she may have on Afghanistan, taxpayers can only hope McChrystal is able to put her in her place," the release said.

Clearly someone at the NRCC needs a few history lessons. This is unacceptable behavior and speech and should not be allowed in any house of Congress or government branch, period.

For years, gays have been waiting for the day that the Don't Ask Don't Tell policy, the discriminatory law that bans openly gay men and women from serving in the military, is repealed. After thousands of honorable servicemen and women have been kicked out after already serving years in the military fighting for Americans and training for years to prepare for combat, the year finally came that a president would come into office supporting LGBTQ rights. After running a campaign promising all of us the oppertunity to serve this country we love, President Obama was elected, however, after eight months in office, we have not seen any of the change he has promised us.

Jon Stewart Tuesday night took Obama over to camera three for a little talk and in my opinion, nailed him!


(Follow Link Here If Above Doesn't Work)

Listen up, Mr. President. We're not backing done and we want action. So, eat up and start working for us and for what we deserve, equal rights! P.S. I loled at "The Gay After Tomorrow."

So once again The Onion has come out with a story that entertains, educates, and satirizes.



(If the above doesn't work try the link)

I usually like the Onion but this went a little too far. I know it was commenting on how "That's So Gay" is a popular phrase and on how smoking in the gay community is an epidemic, but gosh, the video was pretty harsh personally.

Well, anyway, the topic I want to bring up is the epidemic of smoking in the LGBTQ community. According to several reports, high smoking rates in the gay community is the result of stress and a number of external factors including advertising targeted towards the community.

More...

You wouldn't believe how far my jaw dropped when I saw the trailer for this movie. You'll understand how amazed I was at what I was seeing once you see the video below.



"It's Elementary, the groundbreaking film that addresses anti-gay prejudice by providing adults with practical lessons on how to talk with children about gay people." The film first aired in 1999 on public television, yet I have never heard of it and schools are still scared to even mention the letters, "LGBTQ." This film brought to you by GroundSpark.

More...

More...

Representative Tammy Baldwin (D-Wi) has released a youtube video addressing the importance of healthcare reform and why people in the lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, and queer community should be following the debate carefully.

Congresswoman Baldwin, the first openly lesbian congresswoman in the house, has even included sections in the bills that would directly affect the LGBTQ community including extending drug access to people with AIDS and nondiscrimination policies. Her Youtube site can be found here and her official page here.