Category Archives: Marginal News

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The Real ORANGE IS THE NEW BLACK

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While many of us, especially sapphic appreciators, can enjoy a show about incarcerated ladies who like to make whoopy with one another, lets hope it does more than titilate us… lets hope it creates curiosity about real life female prisoners, all prisoners, and the prison system in the US in general.

The prison system in the US is atrocious and warrants many hours of reading and research as a whole. The fact is that female prisoners are a uniquely maltreated and neglected group. Their numbers have increased at a staggering rate since the 70’s even as crime rates have decreased. They are, as all prisons, over crowded and full of sexual and physical abuse, aside from the obvious mental strain. According to the ACLU approximately 90% of women in prison have been victims of sexual or domestic violence. They also have a higher rate of mental illness and are more often treated as “faking” it, then men in prison. Only nine states in the country have a place for women to give birth.

The World Health Organization did a report called “Women’s Health in Prisons: Correcting Gender Inequity.”

Here is a link to the PDF here, there is a good table of contents if there is a specific area of interest. It outlines many issues, recommendations and potential plans for addressing them.

Women’s Health in Prisons: Correcting Gender Inequity

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Exiled for loving your children

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When forced to choose between her beloved church and her daughter, Linda Cooper chose to follow through with her commitment as parent- to unconditionally love and support her child. She was exiled from her lifelong congregation for supporting her detective daughter, Kat Cooper. She was given this ultimatum after Kat received media attention in her fight for equal partner rights for her wife.

Read an article about Linda Cooper here: LOVE over RELIGION

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A Victory for a beautiful little girl and all trans and marginalized people!

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Coy Mathis’ has won her rights to use the girls bathroom at her elementary school. The school had informed her parents that she would not be allowed to use the girls bathroom and instead had to use the nurses station bathroom or a faculty bathroom because of her trans status. A tragic violation of a small child’s right to decide who they are. She has worn girls clothing and gone by female pronouns since the age of 18 months when she expressed her self identified gender. Thankfully her family held no hesitation in standing up for their daughter’s rights and won! Thank you to her parents for setting a high bar, one that should have been set long ago, but was gracefully raised by their steadfastness to their child’s rights and equality.

Read the story here: She WON!

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Oregon’s birth certificates can reflect true birth gender

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Oregon has opened the doors for transgender people to change their birth certificates to reflect who they truly were at birth. The only requirement is a doctors statement that their gender is true, there is no surgical requirement, just verification of the mental gender state of the person. This is a lovely change for the transgender population of Oregon. It allows ALL documents that run our life and our identity to sync. It will eliminate another unnecessary violation of privacy and lowers the risk of discrimination. This will help improve the possible quality of life available to transgender citizens by allowing smoother access to schools, housing, jobs, Social Security benefits and the many other things that require birth certificates.

This bill goes in to effect the first day of 2014.’

CHEERS OREGON! Thank you for setting a great example!

 

Oregons birth certificate bill!

 

For those wanting information about how to go about changing gender on a birth certificate in other states, here are a couple links I found that give some helpful information. Some of the information may be out of date, Oregon for example, but it is a good place to start.

Wiki Site on Changing Birth Certificate Gender

Dr.Becky Allison’s helpful list

Of course you should always do research and/or contact a local attorney to get the most updated information.

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Anti-Gay Therapy Organization closing!!

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The organization Exodus that has been performing therapy to reverse or undo homosexual attraction is closing its doors after almost 40 years!!

The president stated that he had homosexual feelings that have never left him and he realizes that it is not possible to change ones sexual orientation. This is a great example of the reasons a person should do thorough self examination when feeling so vehemently against one specific issue. Humans are very good at identifying the pieces of others that we dislike most in our selves and attempting to squelch it in others in order to avoid the pain of identifying it as a traits one holds in their self.

This organization has been abusing impressionable, self doubting people, causing irreparable damage to their sense of self and identity, possibly even taken lives because of their false teachings. Closing their door will never repair the damage they have done, but at the least it will not create more, and it will serve to show others, that being gay is not a choice, or a temporary state of mind or being, it is something that cannot and will not change not matter what type of shock or therapy is applied.

And if you feel so strongly that it can be reversed, maybe you should take a long hard look at yourself, you might find the source of your opposition within you.

The article from Human Rights Campaign here

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Social Security Removes Surgical Requirement for Gender Marker Change

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Finally gender equality and privacy in social security! Read the long overdue story HERE & another insightful article HERE Thanks Obama:)

This step toward equality for transgender individuals is long overdue. Previously, transgender people required proof of surgical reassignment surgery in order to change their official gender withing the social security system. This was a gross violation of their human rights to privacy. Gender has more to do with their internal sense of knowledge and self then the body parts that are hanging, or not hanging off of them. This caused undue discrimination against people who for many varying reasons chose to not have any special surgery, either through cost constraints, or other personal reasons. Citizens who desire to change their gender and choose to go as far to change their documents, do not take the decision lightly. It is an extremely difficult endeavor to state to the world that the body you were born in to is does not match the internal state of gender identity in their mind. It is a struggle daily to wake up in a body that does not connect to the physical image one’s mind eye would like to feel. This process is not like changing someones name, which people can do and have done often with little reason. It is an intrinsic part of a person that requires sensitivity and some life altering, irreversible (for the most part) decisions, some that risk damaging their body to achieve their goals. So lifting the surgical requirement for gender change in the Social Security system will give those people who have not or do not wish to surgically alter their body at this point in time, but are 100% certain of their gender identity the right to have their documents match up with their self. So often societies feel that because people are on the margins of society, they have the rights to analyze and enter in to their private space more often in order to determine the level of acceptability they will assign to a specific action or way of being. This milestone says no to one violation, affording transgender people the privacy and discretion they deserve and all other citizens take for granted. To have the right to change ones gender in the Social Security system is a right that will save lives by aiding the reduction of discrimination caused by involuntarily exposing someones gender history.

This is another important step toward gender equality; to allow more people the possibility to become self actualized, which is the great goal of life.  

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Current Professional Male Athlete comes OUT! -98

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While many athletes have come out as gay, and become gay icons, they previously have done this as part of a solo sport, like tennis, a less nationally popular team, or after retirement from the major team sports. Finally, a player in a nationally admired team has come out, NBA player Jason Collins came out as gay. Prior to his official coming out, he changed his number to 98, the year of Mathew Shepard’s bashing, as an ear tug to the gay community.  His final push toward full self acceptance and expression was the Boston Bombing, which he stated reminded him of the fleeting nature of life and the importance of living honestly. This is truly a great step in professional male sports, a sector that is notoriously womanizing, male chauvinist, discriminatory, and outright hateful. I have great gratitude to him for being the “kid in the classroom raising his hand” because no one else had the courage to do it. He was not the first to publicly state his orientation, but he was an important first for the community and for human rights. He will be very important to that young gay person who thinks that sports, masculine expression, and success are always coupled with heterosexuality. We are always in need of  another great example for inspiring the youth and suppressed adults to accept themselves and share their light with the world. The more we come out, the more voices there are in the media, the more common and less ‘other’ we seem to those still resistant to letting us move a step in from the margin, which leads to more acceptance and more equality.

Thank you Jason Collins, being your true self takes courage, no matter what your ‘coming out’ is.

READ THE ARTICLE HERE: http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-us-canada-22341153

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Being gay in Egypt

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There is a tremendous amount of risk being openly gay in most countries, but exponentially more in some. One of the most romatacized countries from the eyes of US Americans, Jamaica, is one of the most deadly places for queer people. This so called paradise is a place of execution if alternate sexualities are revealed. The middle east, is another region that is extremely dangerous to be openly queer. People are stripped of their dignity, social standing, excommunicated from their family and religion, and often killed. There is blame upon the queer person that they chose their orientation and a mentality, that it is a life event that created this, so it may be able to be undone. In an article I found on OUTIMPACT.COM, a young Muslim man from Egypt writes about being gay. He states that the gay culture moves just beneath the surface of mainstream culture, just as many marginalized groups feel they do. The suffering of the oppressed and shamed is always present in a culture, the racism, homeless, jobless, and sexual minorities.

He used to belong to the group Muslim Brotherhood, who has a tumultuous and mixed infamous reputation, being a grouped that began with righteous ideals and has strayed too far in to the dark of politics, What is Muslim Brotherhood, CNN; Muslim Brotherhood English website

The young man speaks about how he has been coached by his THERAPIST to not tell his family. Something that is unusual in this country, at least usually in the US we have a goal to eventually come out to our families. He has been told to keep it under wraps, “because there is a chance it may change,” and he doesn’t want to be ostracized from his family. He believes that he is gay because of the lack of a paternal figure in his life. On the same hand, he does not want to move to a place with greater freedom for homosexuals. He stands on the grounds that he should not be forced to leave the country he loves because he is gay.

I find this interview sad and haunting. His life is similar, yet so far away from the more privileged US gay rights movement. I know that being queer is still a danger in our society, resulting in beatings, and death, but we have more freedom. We have a GAy RIghts Movement. We are seen as humans and in general we believe we are born this way, and not thanks to Lady Gaga. We have parades and pride events. We build families and have lasting relationships, not just a shadow culture filled with insecurity and internal hate and prejudice. This young man believes it is his life experienced that shaped his sexuality, and that he may one day change. His culture has put the burden of his identity upon him. He is committing an ultimate sin against his culture and religion and it is his fault. He does not have a cultural movement around him to say, “no, you deserve rights, too! You are perfect just as you are!”

 

Read the interview and see the world from his eyes for just a moment…

Being Gay In Egypt

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Coach loves to hate

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I will let this man speak for himself. He is well spoken, calm and eloquent. His elloquence brings more fear to my heart, that a well educated, and well spoken man can spew such golden covered hatred, its not surprising, i’m just used to hearing the rhetoric from politicians, not the everyday Joe. I wonder if he has forgotten that the bible he quotes for citing homosexuality as a sin has also been used to discriminate and enslave entire races of people, including his. It is always astonishing when human’s take the voice of God. He conveniently forgets the well known passage to love thy neighbor, and do unto other’s, as well as not using your own freedom to to harm; selective quotes and memory can be a sharp persuader.

In psychology, specifically Jungian psychology, we might ask him to examine what it is in his shadow Self that is causing such intense hatred. Humans see the things in others we dislike the most vehemently in ourselves. A lot of self reflection is necessary for a many who states peace but preaches hate.

http://www.hrc.org/blog/entry/cornhuskers-coach-stands-by-his-discriminatory-views

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Broken Promises in Puerto Rico

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Public degradation of LGBT community continues in Puerto Rico.
This is specifically relevant to this blog because of the reference in Queer Latinidad by Juana Rodriguez to the disproportionate number of Puerto Rican immigrants and natives that were infected with HIV in the epidemic. Some of the reasons of the reasons for this can be attributed to the discrimination and blame the LGBT Puerto Ricans experience in their own culture.

http://www.glaad.org/blog/vow-twice-broken-puerto-rican-show-promotes-anti-lgbt-messages-again

The article above shows the public degradation of LGBT community that continues in Puerto Rico even after a very public promise to change these ways, which an be read here:

http://www.glaad.org/2010/12/07/tv-station-creates-new-procedures-agrees-to-glaad-trainings-after-anti-gay-remarks-about-ricky-martin#