8/20/08

Ugandan police accused of torturing gay activist

The outrage against Gay's in Uganda continues. During a world gathering of the worlds HIV/AID's implementers Alliance, 3 activists were arrested whhile drawing attention to the Uganda goverment and religious denial of AIDS/HIV treatment for men in Uganda
Alliance,
http://www.rmnblog.org/2008/08/gay-in-uganda.html

http://www.pinknews.co.uk/news/articles/2005-7895.html

http://www.aidsalliance.org/sw54769.asp

http://planetransgender.blogspot.com/2008/06/amnesty-international-condemns-arrest.html

http://planetransgender.blogspot.com/2008/06/gayuganda-ugandan-lgbt-aids-activist-re.html

no on 8 Equality for all,


100,000 people by Friday Night


Same sex couples, Transgender and genetic gender pairs, wonderful loving families. The need is urgent to defend what is rightfully ours. The legal blessing to love and care for each other.
Please join with the National Gay and Lesbian Task Force and pledge to vote no on 8 Equality for all, to assemble the needed voter support.

The Mystery of Coming Out



By Kelli Busey
Wednesday, August 20, 2008
planetransgender

Dr. Renee Baker's interview of Feleshia Porter MS LPC, in a article about the mystery of coming out, Dallas Edge.com made me pause to reflect, what a gift we have. Felishia Porter who is a Licensed Professional Counselor from Dallas Texas feleshiaporter.com, is a widely known and highly regarded therapist who understands the transgender experience. Both Ms Porter and Ms baker contribute many hours to local non profits, and have dedicated their lives to helping people to better understand ourselves and to appreciate the potentials that lay within.

The process of transition in gender identity involves learning about ourselves It has many twist and turns and even a few very rough roads. Feleshia has the manual so you can fix your mojo should you get a flat and should your battery go out, she will shine a light for you to see the wonder of the coming day.

Her inspiration has saved lost and desperate souls. She makes her life available for all, that we to may witness what is the true splendor of being.

In this we are eternally grateful to you Feleshia Porter.

Ms Porter shared this with me when I first started to see her and I have modified it as my life experences have grown. It is a guide for me and is as valuable today as the first time I read it.
***********************
Deservability
I am deserving. I deserve all good. Not some, not a little, but all good.

I now move past all negative, restricting thoughts.
My expectations are positive.
I release and let go of the limitations of my parents. I love them, and go beyond them. I am not their negative opinions, nor their limiting beliefs.

I acknowledge my parents as human beings. They expressed great love, but as true as in all of us,
they perceived limitations.
I now am attempting to move past preconceptions.

I am not bound by any of the fears or prejudices of the current society I live in. I no longer identify with limitations of any kind.
I wish to free myself of the shackles of shame.

In my mind, I have total freedom. I now move into a space of consciousness, where I am willing to see myself differently. I am willing to create new thoughts about myself and about my life.
My new thinking becomes new experiences.

As each day unfolds, I am rewarded with a reflection of joy.

I now know and affirm that I am at one with the prospering power of the universe. As such, I now prosper in a number of ways.
I now accept my higher power and embrace our oneness.

The totality of possibilities lies before me.
The infinite is being unveiled.

I deserve life, a good life.
I deserve love, an abundance of love. I deserve joy and happiness.
I deserve freedom to be all that I can be. I deserve more than that.
I deserve all good.
The universe is more than willing to manifest my new beliefs. And I accept this abundant life with joy and pleasure and gratitude.
For I am deserving. I accept it, I know it to be true.
Thank you Feleshia Porter
Thank you Rennee Baker
mmtherapeutics.com

In solidarity
planetransgender.blogspot.com,

8/19/08

FOX APPOLIGIZES for OFFENDING GAY, LESBIAN, BISEXUAL AND TRANSGENDER PEOPLE

What is the Faux mouthpiece apologizing for?.....


....Purposefully wounding a young impressionable woman, or for being made to say the word GLAAD? It is a step up from the road side ditch of "Laura Ingram and Fox Tv at war (WARbeeaatch)" though.

So I guess taking a hose and washing the faux slime off my boots is better than nothing.

Maybe he is sorry that in fact the pressure that made FOX News apologize is the thousands of emails they receive from bloggers like 'Wheres Jimbo", "Queers United" and "Queers Without Borders" generate by advocating!

WAY TO GO GUYS! (thats a shout out)

And FOX this is a SHOUT DOWN TO YOU. Say hi to Laura Ingram for me while your down there.

8/18/08

Victory! HRC Moves Event to Sheraton Due To Pressure from Labor Movement

Victory! HRC Moves Event to Sheraton Due To Pressure from Labor Movement

Posted by QueerToday on August 18, 2008 click title to link

HRC Staff may say publicly that the protests of their Galas have "nothing to do with organized labor," but Unite Here Local 26 just informed us that thanks to their months of lobbying HRC, they have decided to move their event to the Sheraton. Not only does HRC fail to see how ENDA is related to labor (duh!), they have also historically chosen to ignore the fact that their caterer was anti-labor and anti-gay. Now that the pressure is on, and in the spotlight they had to take action.

This is what solidarity with allied movements can achieve. The momentum, again, is on our side.

Aramark was one of the 5 lowest scoring corporations on HRC's "Equality Index" just a few years ago, but they have always catered the HRC Gala at the Hynes Convention Center. Aramark is the only company that caters events at the Hynes.

But Aramark hasn't just received low marks for LGBT support, they have a longstanding history of protest from the labor rights movement.

Labor organizations nationwide have been trying to convince Aramark to treat their workers fairly, and things have escalated as of late. On June 21, 2008 hundreds of activists

Our Unite Here! Local 26 chapter has been protesting Aramark at the Hynes Convention center.

Their website reads:

"The 350 food service workers at the Hynes Convention Center and the Boston Convention & Exhibition Center have been in contract negotiations with their employer, ARAMARK since September 2007. Throughout these negotiations there has been an atmosphere of fear and intimidation.

The National Labor Relations Board has issued a complaint against Hynes and BCEC food proivder ARAMARK for:

* Interfering with, restraining, and coercing employees in the exercise of their rights.
* Discriminating in regard to hiring, tenure or terms of employment of its employees, thereby discouraging membership in a labor organization.
* Failing and refusing to bargain collectively and in good faith."

So when HRC staff say that the protests of their Galas "have nothing to do with organized labor," we can kindly remind them that not only does ENDA have everything to do with labor but so does everything right down to who caters their fancy meals.

Press Release Call On HRC (Human Rights Campaign) to employee Civil Response to Protest

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

LEFT OUT PARTY ORGANIZERS JOIN BOSTON’S QUEERTODAY.COM, DALLAS’S TRANSGENDER ADVOCATES AND ALLIES, AND THE TEXAS GENDER ADVOCACY AND INFORMATION NETWORK TO DEMAND THAT HRC ADDRESS DISSENT AT FUTURE FUNDRAISERS WITH NON-VIOLENCE AND SAFETY PROTOCOLS

Contact:
Left OUT, Hale Thompson, 415.310.8569
QueerToday.com, Ethan St. Pierre, 978.518.1835
Texas Gender Advocacy and Information Network, Vanessa Edwards Foster, 832.483.9901
Dallas Transgender Advocates and Allies, Kelli Anne Busey 214.226.7080

AUGUST 15, 2008

A national coalition of LGBT organizations have come together in response to HRC’s disturbing pattern of enlisting potential force to address dissent within its own communities. In the wake of the ENDA debacle, HRC has demonstrated a reliance on force to address possible dissenters—LGBT ones-- at their gala fundraising events. In Houston last spring, HRC requested riot police for less than a dozen transgender and allied activists. In San Francisco, private security guards forcefully removed a dissenting attendee, Catherine Cusic.

Brutality and violence are unacceptable ways for any organization, let alone the largest LGBT human rights organization, to deal with dissent or even disruptiveness within its own communities. The incident inside the San Francisco HRC Gala dinner should be fully investigated and in the meantime, HRC should develop a set of protocols in anticipation of future confrontations with dissent that outline humane ways to address dissidence within and outside its events.

Dissent is a critical part of both the political process and political change and calling the police on or using force against fellow LGBT protesters to squash dissent is unacceptable. Clearly with HRC Galas planned for Boston, Minneapolis, Dallas and D.C. in the upcoming months, there will likely be protests, parties, and possibly disruptiveness from persons in our communities who feel excluded by or misrepresented by HRC, and HRC should be fully prepared to address them thoughtfully, humanely and peacefully.

The struggle for civil rights requires solidarity as well as dissent. If any organization should understand and respect that notion, it should be the Human Rights Campaign. Not everyone in our communities can afford to or even wants to enlist HRC in this movement. This coalition calls on our communities, and in particular, HRC, to approach our struggles for civil rights and full protections under the law non-violently and in solidarity.