Tom of Finland House

Last weekend, I went to an art gallery opening at the Tom of Finland House in LA. The house has been around for a long time and has been a home for many artists to live at while they work on their art. The artist that get this privilege focus their artistic abilities on art that empowers the gay community. All of the events are free, I hope you check out the website and consider going to an upcoming art show. Also please comment if you have been to this house before and tell me about your experience.

Family Guy announce that they will not make "gay jokes" anymore

Basically, a show that I have been watching for many years, Family guy, is known for constantly making fun of every minority group in the country. This includes jokes about the LGBTQ community. The show recently announced that these jokes will no longer be made due to the amount of people it offends. Although it seems ridiculous that this only occurred in 2019. The BBC article offers points of view on whether it is necessary to eliminate such jokes. Read through the short BBC article and let me know your thoughts on the subject.

A TV Show Tackling the Transgender Experience in High School

This TV show is currently airing in Germany and this season introduced a transgender character played by a transgender actor. I think it does an excellent job of candidly showing the experiences of a transgender high student in 2019 having to navigate a school that is not necessarily accepting of his gender identity. TV shows like this increase the visibility of transgender students and this episode specifically touches on several issues that many young people probably have questions about. This is just one episode, but worth a watch if you're interested!

https://www.drucktranslations.de/s03e08-full-outing/

California sex-ed curriculum

Feels related to our discussion about California's inclusion of queer history in the classroom: the state just passed a new sex ed framework that requires discussion of LGBTQ people in that context as well. https://apnews.com/e6b4018eaebb49bf8ddc63aee0074182

Lena Waithe honors black drag queens with Met Gala outfit

This year, the Met Gala-- an annual fundraising gala for the benefit of the Metropolitan Museum of Art's Costume Institute in New York City-- was more than "fashion's biggest night out". The gala signified the highly anticipated grand opening of the Costume Institute's annual fashion exhibition: "Camp: Notes of Fashion" that is currently set to open May 9, 2019. For what exactly "camp" is, one cultural historian made the remark, "trying to define camp is like attempting to sit in the corner of a circular room". What can be said about the theme is it has little to do with pitching tents or the outdoors and is more a play on Susan Sontag's seminal essay, "Notes on Camp". Sontag does define camp as the "love of the unnatural: of artifice and exaggeration".  With this in mind, actress and producer Lena Waithe stood out in her statement-making attire. From first glance at the front, her pin-striped pantsuit looked rather simple. However, upon a closer look the buttons on her suit were faces of black camp pioneers, and the stripes were lyrics from Diana Ross' "I'm Coming Out", Gloria Gaynor's "I Will Survive", and other anthems from "iconic black divas". A more obvious statement, written on the back of her jacket in bold were the words, "Black Drag Queens Invented Camp". Waithe gave a statement to E! News saying she wanted to give emphasis to the black drag queens who did so much to advance the camp movement. "Pepper LaBeija, Benny Ninja, RuPaul, all these pioneers . . . I really wanted to pay tribute to them and all that they did for the culture," she explained. "They started this whole 'camp' thing by being over the top." Waithe's statement piece is extremely important because, as observed by freelance writer Evan Katz, “no black drag queens sans RuPaul appear to be invited to the camp-themed affair.” Being that the Met Gala is an invite-only event, the fact that no black queens were given the opportunity to walk the red carpet despite history showing that the theme was widely propagated and invented by them was disappointing, but not surprising. No comments about this have been made by Met Gala curators.

FAQ: Anti-LGBT Curriculum Laws

https://www.lambdalegal.org/dont-erase-us/faq#Q1

Here is a quick FAQ page from Lamda Legal on anti-LGBT curriculum (so-called "No Promo Homo" laws across the United States. As the page notes, there are currently 7 U.S. states with such laws on the books: Alabama, Arizona, Louisiana, Mississippi, Oklahoma, South Carolina, and Texas. The page also provides information about this history, constitutionality, and impact of these laws - and provides a form for teachers to fill out if they are living under such laws!

Caster Semenya, "Breathtakingly Butch"

https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2009/11/30/eitheror

While reading through coverage of the Caster Semenya case, I was reminded of an old New Yorker article from Ariel Levy (same fantastic writer who wrote the piece we read in class on Edie Windsor) on Caster Semenya. This beautiful piece from Levy shines additional light onto the infuriating controversy surrounding Semenya's right to compete - controversy which has lasted for all of Semenya's career.

As Levy writes, Semenya is "breathtakingly butch". Her identity as a Black butch lesbian is often ignored in the media, and yet clearly influences the way she is viewed and treated - provoking important questions about our culture's obsessions with de-coding and controlling the bodies of people we have defined as different.

Met Gala Theme: Camp

https://www.nbcnews.com/feature/nbc-out/lena-waithe-honors-black-drag-queens-met-gala-outfit-n1002851
https://www.refinery29.com/en-us/2019/05/232085/lena-waithe-pyer-moss-jacket-invented-met-gala-2019
https://www.reddit.com/r/OutOfTheLoop/comments/936jay/why_are_people_writing_moodt_and_periodt_instead/

I don't really pay attention to events and stuff but I know that the Met Gala is a thing. Although I don't know what it is actually for, they always have a theme for the attendees outfits. This year the theme was "Camp: Notes on Fashion" based on Susan Sontag’s 1964 essay “Notes on Camp.” My friend, who is much more "in" on pop culture and events like these, was showing me the different outfits that people wore, one being Lena Waithe. I noticed the back of her suit, reading "Black Drag Queens Inventend Camp." Curious about it, I looked up more information about her outfit/statement.  I've found many articles that more or less discuss the same thing, Lena Waithe's outfit, designed by Kerby Jean-Raymond, gives black drag queens the shoutout that they deserve. As one person comments, besides RuPaul, the event lacked any black drag queens, who's creation of camp fashion has inspired the event's theme. I was unsurprised as it is a continual theme in mainstream media/pop culture to not give credit where credit is deserved, especially to POC and marginalized communities. 

The second article discusses a little more about the spelling of "invented" on Lena's jacket. Many of the articles pointed this misspelling so I was confused as to whether it was purposeful or not. Lena tweeted that every thing she does is purposeful, saying "First there was “Periodt” ... and Kerby and I wanted to give y’all another one “Inventend”." The article explains this as meaning she is putting an emphasis on the D, like black people did it. I also looked up periodt/using t at the end of words and from this reddit thread, it seems like adding a t on the end of a word is a part of gay/drag culture and AAVE. This made me further appreciate Lena's statement as an acknowledgement and appreciation for the black gay/drag community. It just shows how much thought went into the outfit. The stripes are actually lyrics from black artists. Her buttons are the faces of black "camp" pioneers. The detail the designer put into this outfit is amazing and I love it.

Genderless Voice

Q - a gender-neutral voice assistant

I saw this article a while ago and forgot about it/to read it but knew I wanted to share it with the blog. I think it's super cool and interesting because I have rarely thought about the voice assistants and the way their pitch/tones imply gender or affect the way people take in information. Before I had read this article I assumed that voice assistants are usually female-sounding because of motherly, comforting, and familiar feeling women are associate with. In the article, they discuss that female-sounding voices can be preferred in assistive settings while male-sounding voices can be used as an authority source. Similarly, I watched a John Mulaney bit where he said he heard that people take information from a female's voice but take a warning from a male's voice. Now I don't know how accurate his sources are but it seems to match what was implied in the article. Overall, I found this a really cool way in facilitating discussion and conversation about gender through a different lens and medium, voice assistants/AI, that is just going to get more prevalent with the growing technology.

NYT article on Military Supporting Transgender Service Members

After some searching, I was able to find this article that I read in The New York Times a few months ago regarding transgender service members in the military. In class today I mentioned how in many ways the militarily as been fairly supportive of these soldiers--especially when compared to the current administration. The article explains how transgender service members generally are supported by their comrades and their commanding officer (often to a greater extent than by their own families and home communities). Anyway, I thought it was an interesting read that adds more texture to our conversation today. Let me know what you think!

https://www.nytimes.com/2019/03/09/us/transgender-troops-military.html 

Pete Buttigieg and his husband have been dubbed the “First Family” on the cover of TIME Magazine

In class we have been discussing the connection between politics and the LGBTQ+ community, talking about the repeal of the "Don't Ask, Don't Tell" Policy by the Obama administration and the dangers imposed by Donald Trump to the progress made by the Obama administration. In news for a more hopeful future than the present being posed by Trump, the Democratic 2020 hopeful Pete Buttigeig and his husband have been named the "First Family" on the cover of TIME Magazine. The image depicts Buttigieg and his husband, Chasten, in front of a white picket-fenced home, wearing co-coordinating blue shirts and pants-- a message seeming to align with the conservative argument for gay marriage as allowing it would keep American ideals and tradition intact. Pete Buttigeig is a former member of the Navy Reserve and the current mayor of South Bend, Indiana-- a role he has held since 2012. The piece in TIME explored Buttigieg's rise to fame as well as his relationship with his husband, discussing the fact they met on an online dating app while Pete was serving as mayor. He "came out" while in office in 2015. The pair married in June 2018 and are the first same-sex couple posed together on the cover of TIME since an edition was published dedicated to equal marriage in 2013.

LGBTQ Youth: High Risk of Homelessness and Incarceration

LGBTQ youth are at greater risk of homelessness and incarceration
This research expands on the dire issue of LGBTQ youth homelessness and the racial disparities within this population. The detrimental effects of homelessness and incarceration on people’s physical and mental health, relationships, and social and economic prospects are immense. Experiencing these realities as a young person will likely have harmful effects that last a lifetime. When I wonder why this issue is not being addressed a few explanations arise. First, these youth have no political capital because they are homeless and, thus, generally lack time to meet with and sway the opinion of their elected officials. Second, the racist, homophobic structures that prop up the white, heterosexual status-quo continue to thrive when LGBTQ youth and youth of color are disenfranchised from an early age.

Religion used as Reason to Deny Birth Control

Today in class Professor Selig mentioned the NPR podcast that she just posted on the blog about that discussed recent anti-LGBTQ legislation in Texas that uses religious freedom as grounds for denying services to LGBTQ individuals. This reminded me of an experience my mom had recently at a doctors office in Turlock, the small town my parents recently moved to. As they had just moved, my mother needed a new doctor. On her first visit she asked to get a new IUD, her current method of birth control. The doctor told her she probably didn’t need it because she was likely menopausal. My mother told him she knew she was not, to which he replied something along the lines of her still not needing it because the chances of her getting pregnant were so small. My mother pushed back again and asked if there was any reason for her not to get the IUD because wasn’t it better to be safe than sorry….he still refused to provide her with the IUD. So she went to Planned Parenthood instead and had a much more positive experience. Once she made friends with people in town, she learned that that particular doctor is Catholic, and does not believe in birth control, and that was why he refused to give my mom the IUD, not because he genuinely believed, in his unbiased professional opinion, that she did not need it. Although this experience is different from LGBTQ discrimination, it is still an example of an individual’s personal religious beliefs being used to violate someone’s rights. However, the doctor did not explicitly state that he was refusing to give her birth control because it conflicts with his religious beliefs, and as such, this experience makes me think about the anti-LGBTQ legislation in Texas because even if it is ultimately defeated, there is nothing preventing individuals from continuing to discriminate against LGBTQ people, or violate reproductive rights, on the basis of religion however informally.

Asia Kate Dillon's Gender Exploration

This is a great interview with actor Asia Kate Dillon on Seth Meyers' show. They talk about their gender exploration as a non-binary person and the ways in which representation is really important, and how there is more than one way to express yourself as a non-binary person.

A really great watch, highly recommend!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p84_xaLZc-g

Conversation with my parents

I meant to post this awhile ago because this conversation with my parents happened last month, but better late than never! And it’s still interesting I think…Basically I discussed the nature of special friendships with my parents after we watched the movie “The Favourite” which depicted a seemingly special friendship scenario between Queen Anne of Great Britain and her adviser, the Duchess of Marlborough, during the early 1700s. My parents were skeptical of the lesbian relationship and felt that it was an anachronistic representation of modern-day relationships. However, I informed them of the historical evidence of same-sex special friendships and how they are different from same-sex couples today, and how this movie might not have been completely fiction. Although when I researched it, there does not seem to be any historical evidence for Queen Anne and the Duchess of Marlborough engaging in a sexual relationship, or constituting what we called special friendships, it nevertheless could have been possible for the time period and circumstances and I really enjoyed having the knowledge I have from this class and bringing it to the conversation with my parents. 

LGBTQ History Bill in Illinois

There is bill similar to the FAIR act we looked at in class being put forth in Illinois. It was recently passed to require the teaching of LGBT history in public schools. Seeing this legislation in multiple states makes me wonder if there could be a federal law about it sometime in the future.

Article link:
https://thehill.com/homenews/state-watch/434397-illinois-house-votes-to-require-lgbt-history-curriculum-be-taught-in

LGBTQ Youth Homelessness

Hi everyone,

I came across this Ted Talk by Professor Tiffany Graham about LGBT homeless youths and survival sex that reminded me of the end of our class discussion today.

The video can be found here:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x-nqjUby11c

One part of it that was particularly interesting to me was this question that she asks near the beginning. She describes how the LGBT movement has just won its decades-long fight for marriage equality. She then asks: what will the movement for LGBT equality focus on next?

She connects this with the high rates of LGBT youth homelessness. She then delves into the topic of survival sex, giving examples for why in many cases, prostitution is the only option for these teens and young adults to be able to survive. She concludes with a policy proposal:



We talked in class about how responding to the problem of LGBT youth homelessness requires comprehensive reforms that look at a variety of systematic problems that our country has pertaining to homelessness, foster care systems, criminal justice, disease prevention, and a lot more. Professor Graham's approach is interesting because it focuses on one incremental change within the broader issue of LGBT youth homelessness.

Aside from her own policy proposal, I do think that this is an interesting question to ask ourselves. What should the LGBT movement focus on achieving next? Is it better to tackle wide-scale problems or use the approach of incremental policy changes?

Business Leaders Oppose 'License To Discriminate' Against LGBT Texans

From NPR:  In Austin, Texas, a new raft of anti-LGBT legislation is working its way through the state legislature. One of the bills would allow state licensed professionals of all stripes — from doctors and pharmacists to plumbers and electricians — to deny services on religious grounds. Supporters say the legislation is needed to protect religious freedoms. But opponents call them "religious refusal bills" or "bigot bills."

We celebrated Michael Phelps’s genetic differences. Why punish Caster Semenya for hers?

I found this piece to be tangentially related to some of the material we have read in the course, as it covers issues of gender and does a good job illustrating the blurry lines that compose this construct.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/lifestyle/style/we-celebrated-michael-phelpss-genetic-differences-why-punish-caster-semenya-for-hers/2019/05/02/93d08c8c-6c2b-11e9-be3a-33217240a539_story.html

The geographic spread of HIV and Trump’s plan

When looking over the NIH online exhibition, I was shocked at the HIV transmission rate in Washington, D.C. and so I looked up the current geographic distribution. Young people in D.C. are being diagnosed at twice the national rate. Of these newly diagnosed, 8 out of 10 are black and 2 out of 3 are MSM. In 2016, more than half of new cases were in several southern states where less than 38% of the population resides. It seems that, while in some areas HIV infections are decreasing, they are becoming increasingly concentrated in low-income communities and communities of color.

I also stumbled across Trump’s plan to tackle the epidemic. I was unaware of this plan which was announced early in the year. However, Maria de Jesus, Associate Professor at American University, wrote an interesting piece on how drugs alone cannot end the epidemic without addressing poverty.

Workplace Discrimination

https://www.newyorker.com/news/our-columnists/the-dread-of-waiting-for-the-supreme-court-to-rule-on-lgbt-rights

I thought this was really interesting based on our current marriage equality conversations- especially when considering how marriage equality has come to be seen as the end all be all for LGBTQ rights and that's definitely not true. The article deals with cases of workplace discrimination- and I think it's worth noting that we don't give these cases a lot of attention but they are fairly high stakes.

Genderless Children and Genderless Schooling

This is the video I mentioned in class yesterday--it looks at a gender non-conforming family in Sweden, the different ways in which adults approach the children's gender identities and expression, and their experiences in a gender-neutral school. It is an interesting look at the way gender-aware teaching can manifest itself.

BYU Valedictorian Comes Out as Gay in Graduation Speech

https://www.huffpost.com/entry/byu-matty-easton-comes-out_n_5cc6be95e4b04eb7ff98760e

This is really powerful to witness. When religious strongholds like this Mormon church owned university become more accepting, it's indicative of a larger scale cultural shift.
I'm curious about what you all think it means to reconcile religion and sexuality.