The Birth Of Suburbia

Not so equal HRC

"The HRC has tokenized and otherwise has given lip service to issues pertaining to LGBT communities of color. Racial justice (or even an allusion to it) isn't even listed on their website's "issues" tab as part of a broader strategy. And dare we not address how that functions from within, given the racism many people experience in LGBT* spaces and forums.

Yet the HRC has thrown almost the full weight of their strategy, fundraising moolah and public platform on the issue of marriage equality. And they've done it for a while now.

It's as if the organization can't make fully-voiced statements and actions to push forward other pressing issues. I'm sure many folks can appreciate that they've at least tried with employment protections and addressing bullying. But, more often than not, you won't hear HRC's voice on issues other than marriage. A quick perusal of its Facebook posts over the past year confirms that."

Read the rest of this article here

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Gender.

"Indigenous activist-scholars and anarchist anthropologists note 

that many cultures, and even some nations, do not have the same impulse 

to define clear borders or police their own people

— forms of social control that are taken for granted as politics. 

Let’s notice in our own lives the difference between the official stories of 

who is in control and how life actually works. 

How might we nurture the elements of our society that work cooperatively with other people as well as ecosystems to create freedom, equality, and abundance? 

 

            Like power, gender is everywhere, running through our relationships with ourselves, 

each other, and the earth, and the relations between nations, classes, and cultures. 

And like power, it is not a problem in itself but instead a question of how we do it. 

Gender can be a pattern of control, violence, and domination. 

Or it can be just another way of talking about the beautiful diversity of human existence."

~ “Gender”by Jamie Heckert

Sex is not dirty work.

"The media portrayal of sex workers surrounding the Thomson case has sold the concept of sex workers as immoral, dirty and damaged, building on stereotypes the media itself has created over many years in the public's perception. The use of sex workers to sell this concept of immorality has worked so well that online discussions suggest the crime alleged against Thomson is having visited sex workers, not the fraudulent use of funds." ~ Scarlet Alliance, Australian Sex Workers Association, CEO Janelle Fawkes

Read more: http://www.brisbanetimes.com.au/opinion/society-and-culture/sex-is-not-dirty-work-20120609-202ww.html#ixzz1xLp7OpWJ

A husband and wife were sitting watching a TV program about psychology, which was explaining the phenomenon of "mixed emotions". The husband turned to his wife and said, "That is an absolute bunch of crap. I bet you can't tell me anything that will make me happy and sad at the same time."

She said, "Out of all of your friends... You have the biggest dick."

"As with all finite play, the goal of veiled sexuality is to bring itself to an end.

By contrast, infinte players have no interest in seduction or in restricting the freedom of another to one's own boundaries of play. Infinte players recognise choice in all aspects of sexuality. They may see in themselves and in others, for example, the infant's desire to compete for the mother, but they also see that there is neither physiologicak nor societal destiny in sexual patterns. Who chooses to compete with another can also choose to play with another.

Sexuality is not a bounded phenomenon but a horizontal phenomenon for infinite players. One can never say, therefore, that an infinite player is homosexual, or heterosexual, or celibate, or adulterous or faithful - because each of these definitions has to do with boundaries, with circumscribed areas and styles of play. Infinite players do not play within sexual boundaries, but with sexual boundaries. They are concerned not with power but with vision.
In their sexual play they suffer others, allow them to be as they are. Suffering others, they open themselves. Open, they learn both about others and about themselves. Learning, they grow. What they learn is not about sexuality, but about how to be more concretely and originally, themselves, to be the genius of their own actions, to be whole.
Moving therefore from an original center, the sexual engagements of infinite players have no standards, no ideals, no marks of success of failure. Neither orgasm nor conception is a goal of their play, although either may be part of the play.

There is nothing hidden in infinite sexuality. Sexual desire is exposed as sexual desire and is never therefore serious. Its satisfaction is never an achievement, but an act in a continuing relationship, and therefore joyous. It's lack of satisfaction is never a failure, but only a matter to be taken into further play."

"Laws governing indirect sexual activity in poetry prose movies comics TV radio are altogether silly. Who cares if people want to copulate in public on TV? Why not? The controllers can always turn off the screen if it doesnt please them, or find another station where they're showing murder. But no, control powers can't look the other way they want to make a federal case a state case a local case any kind of case thats how they get their rocks off."
~ Allen Ginsberg

Lovingly reposted from Dear Chill Masc Bro

Even when I don't feel gay I'm still proud to be queer!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4lR3ffBsMTc

The British Police are the best in the world
I don't believe one of these stories I've heard
'Bout them raiding our pubs for no reason at all
Lining the customers up by the wall
Picking out people and knocking them down
Resisting arrest as they're kicked on the ground
Searching their houses and calling them queer
I don't believe that sort of thing happens here

Sing if you're glad to be gay
Sing if you're happy that way

Pictures of naked young women are fun
In Titbits and Playboy, page three of The Sun
There's no nudes in xxx News our one magazine
But they still find excuses to call it obscene
Read how disgusting we are in the press
Telegraphs, people and Sunday Express
Molesters of children, corruptors of youth
It's there in the paper, it must be the truth

Sing if you're glad to be gay
Sing if you're happy that way

Don't try to kid us that if you're discreet
You're perfectly safe as you walk down the street
You don't have to mince or make bitchy remarks
To get beaten unconscious and left in the dark
I had a friend who was gentle and short
He was lonely one evening and went for a walk
Queerbashers caught him and kicked in his teeth
He was only hospitalised for a week

Sing if you're glad to be gay
Sing if you're happy that way

So sit back and watch as they close all our clubs
Arrest us for meeting and raid all our pubs
Make sure your boyfriend's at least 21
So only your friends and your brothers get done
Lie to your workmates, lie to your folks
Put down the queens and tell anti-queer jokes
Gay Lib's ridiculous, join their laughter
'The buggers are legal now, what more are they after?'

Sing if you're glad to be gay
Sing if you're happy that way

PRESS RELEASE

ECOSOS Council vote grants consultative status to ILGA

Geneva, 25 July 2011

With 30 votes in favour (India, Italy, Japan, Latvia, Malta, Mexico, Mongolia, Nicaragua, Norway, Peru, Republic of Korea, Slovakia, Spain, Switzerland, Ukraine, United Kingdom, United States, Venezuela, Argentina, Australia, Belgium, Canada, Chile, Ecuador, Estonia, Finland, France, Germany, Hungary), 13 against (Iraq, Morocco, Namibia, Pakistan, Qatar, Russia, Saudi Arabia, Senegal, Bangladesh, Cameroon, China, Egypt, Ghana) and 6 abstentions (Guatemala, Mauritius, Philipines, Rwanda, Bahamas, Ivory
Coast) the UN Economic and Social Council (ECOSOC) granted today consultative status to the International Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Trans and Intersex Association (ILGA). ECOSOC consultative status allows NGOs to attend UN conferences and meetings, submit written statements and reports, make oral interventions, and host panels in UN buildings, thus representing a fundamental tool for an NGO like ILGA with more than 700 member organisations in all continents to do work on LGBTI human rights within
the UN system.

ILGA was the first international LGBTI organisation to get ECOSOC consultative status in 1993, but lost it the following year due to the presence of groups advocating the abolition of laws of consent. ILGA has applied to regain the status ever since, following the expulsion of the above mentioned groups from its membership and after amending its constitution to state clearly its commitment against child abuse, but a small group of countries sponsoring homophobia had been able to influence the votes in the UN NGO Committee examining the applications for a long time. In the meantime, many ILGA members like LBL Denmark, COC The Netherlands, FELGT Spain, LSVD Germany, ABGLT Brazil, IGLHRC US, and Ilga-Europe were able to obtain the status by having the negative recommendation of the NGO Committee overturned in the ECOSOC Council, as it has happened in the case of ILGA today.

"This is a historic day for our organisation, which heals a 17-year-old wound said co-Secretary General Renato Sabbadini, in Geneva for the occasion and we want to thank all, really all UN Members who voted in our favour, they all deserve indeed to be named fully: India, Italy, Japan, Latvia, Malta, Mexico, Mongolia, Nicaragua, Norway, Peru, Republic of Korea, Slovakia, Spain, Switzerland, Ukraine, United Kingdom, United States, Venezuela, Argentina, Australia, Belgium, Canada, Chile, Ecuador, Estonia, Finland, France, Germany, Hungary.
A special thanks goes to Belgium, for its relentless efforts in building a consensus around us, together with the United States and Argentina. We would like to thank also our member organisations which successfully lobbied their Governments on this occasion and all our allies for their support, in particular Arc-International in Geneva."

"Today we are celebrating said co-Secretary General Gloria Careaga from Mexico City but we are aware that there is a lot of work to do for us in the coming months. But we are looking forward to working together with all our members, particularly those which also have the status, and our allies to advance LGBTI human rights in the UN bodies in the coming years, taking advantage of the very positive developments opened by the resolution presented by South Africa in the UN Human Rights Council last June."

Pedro Paradiso Sottile, Regional Secretary for ILGA LAC (Latin America and the Caribbean), also in Geneva for the occasion, said: "Granting ILGA consultative status is an act of justice and a reason for pride for the international community working for a world where human rights are truly trespected without any discrimination. Our voices and our struggle for equality and freedom must reach every corner of the world, for differences in sexual orientation, gender identity and expression to be respected and
protected by all States. We believe that the ECOSOC status will help all our activists around the world in this endeavour.

--
Renato Sabbadini
co-Secretary General, ILGA
The International Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Trans and Intersex Association
rue de la Charit 17
1210 Brussels
tel. +3225022471
fax +32 2 22 34820
email: renato@ilga.org
web: www.ilga.org

My latest nerdy crush.

So I've finally gotten around to watching Farscape recently and pretty quickly developed a nerdy crush type fascination with, what can be seen as the only punk character in the show. This is Chiana, a hot individualistic Nebari who respects no authority and values her freedom more than anything or anyone else. She comes across in the show as quite promiscuous, kinky and street smart, and these traits, coupled with a strange speech patterns and a habit of crouching on objects rather than sitting, kinda make me droool and squirm a bit... Chiana is played by a cool actor/performer from Perth named Gigi Edgley.

Gigi does a fantastic job in Farscape and she's in some other stuff too, including Secret Life Of Us. Her official site is here. Yay!

Yet another reason to love Chumbawamba

Up behind the Bus-stop in the toilets off the streets
There are traces of a killing on the floor beneath your feet
Mixed up with the piss and beer are bloodstains on the floor
From the boy who got his head kicked in a night or two before

Homophobia
The worst disease

you can´t love who you want to love in times like these

Homophobia
The worst disease

you can´t love who you want to love in times like these

In the pubs, clubs and burgerbars breeding pens for pigs
Alcohol, testosterone and ignorance and fists
Packs of hunting animals roam across the town
They find an easy victim and they punch him to the ground

Homophobia
The worst disease
you can´t love who you want to love in times like these

Homophobia
The worst disease
you can´t love who you want to love in times like these

The siren of the ambulance, the deadpan of the cops
Chalk to mark the outline where the boy first droppes
Beware the holy trinity - church and state and law
For every death the virus gets more deadly then before

Homophobia
The worst disease
you can´t love who you want to love in times like these

Video here (includes some interview footage)

Pinkwashing and the Gay International

From Electronic Intifada

The International Gay and Lesbian Youth Organization (IGLYO) announced this week that it will host its upcoming General Assembly in Israel with direct Israeli government financial sponsorship. Since March, activists have appealed to the IGLYO board of directors, but IGLYO clearly intend to violate the Palestinian civil society call for boycott, divestment and sanctions.

In their announcement, they acknowledge the dilemma of hosting their international events in Israel but deny that direct government sponsorship of their event interferes with their human rights mission.

IGLYO fundamentally disagrees with any violations of human rights and does not prioritise human rights or any particular group during any of our work. The concern has been raised that by hosting an event in Israel and accepting funding through government departments IGLYO support various political views of that government. IGLYO believe this to be untrue.

Although this event will be given some level of financial support by the Israeli government, this will in no way censor our debates and discussions.

The General Assembly will be hosted by Israeli Gay Youth (IGY). This organization

was established in 2002 … in order to provide social support net to LGBT and questioning teens. … IGY operates different leadership and outreach programs, designed to empower our teens, and train them to be the future leaders of not only the gay community, but the entire Israeli society.

Encouraging LGBT youth to serve in the military

On 12 December 2010 at the Herzliya Interdisciplinary Center (the IDC), two IGY leaders participated in a 5 member panel discussion about gender and sexual orientation in the Israeli army.

The purpose of the panel is to raise awareness of the issue of the difficulties and coping of gay and lesbian youth in the military framework in the IDF and to recruit volunteers who will serve as mentor/escorts for youths within the ‘mentor/escort before recruitment’ project, with the goal of allaying their concerns with regard to their military service.

IGY’s ongoing “empowerment group” to support young gay men provides yet another example of the organization’s effort promote military service among gay youth:

This group started out as a group for gay soldiers who were coping both with military service and with their early days as independent civilians, and later developed into a group that investigates the meaning of gay life in the adult world. Participants deal - among other things - with issues of becoming independent, meeting people, relationships, family, and more.

Palestinian Queers for BDS (PQBDS) noted these links between the Israeli military and Israeli Gay Youth when they wrote to IGLYO to ask them to reconsider the locale of the 2011 General Assembly.

IGY is one of the main LGBTQ youth organizations in Israel; unfortunately, not only is it complicit with Israel’s policies, but it also systematically promotes and proactively supports the same structures that oppress and discriminate against Palestinians. As we have already mentioned in our first letter, IGY works closely with the Israeli Defense Forces (IDF) in recruiting young queers to the army – a clear proof that IGY is not only a gay organization, but a homonationalist one that plays an active role in maintaining the same oppressive political system that we are working hard to resist. IGY’s leadership proudly serves in the army, and organizationally recruits LGBTQ youth to serve openly in the IDF. Their “unique” program includes soldiers who work to support LGBT youth pre/during service.

PQBDS also notes that “a few of IGY’s leaders were part of the [IGLYO] committee that was in charge of taking this very unfortunate decision.” In fact, last year IGY and the Israeli Ministry of Foreign Affairs hosted IGLYO board members on a trip to Tel Aviv Pride.

Pinkwashing is a failure

In recent years, Israel has promoted itself in Europe and North America as a haven for LGBT rights and freedoms. Israeli government ministries and NGOs are participating in this public relations and marketing effort. Activists have named this campaign “pinkwashing” because it’s a distraction from the fundamental problems of the Israeli occupation: ongoing and systematic violation of Palestinian human rights, and discrimination against Palestinian citizens of Israel.

Now even the democratic revolutions in the Arab world are presented as a threat to LGBTQ people in the Arab world, but the pinkwashing critique is also catching on. A Gay Girl in Damascus writes:

We’ve gotten used to being used rhetorically by the advocates of war, occupation, dispossession, and apartheid as ‘evidence’ that the primitive sand-people don’t deserve anything other than killing by the enlightened children of the West; we’ve seen this story used to advocate murder of Afghan villagers, Palestinian refugees, Iraqis and so on. …

Which of course is crazy. And like any tool of oppression needs to be opposed.

Israel’s pinkwashing campaign has serious and apparent contradictions. Israel’s most vocal and enthusiastic base of support in the U.S. is the “religious right,” which has always opposed LGBTQ political causes. It’s hard to see how Israel can simultaneously promote itself as LGBTQ-friendly while enjoying financial and political support from these powerful friends in the United States who are so notoriously LGBTQ-hostile.

Thanks to Dena Shunra for providing translation.

By Benjamin Doherty

Read Benjamin's blog here: http://electronicintifada.net/blog/benjamin-doherty

Update:

Palestinian Queers for BDS has issued a Call for Action: Tell IGLYO to Get Out of Israel.