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Dreams deferred: Why we need immigration reform
A pathway to citizenship would give my parents, and our country’s 11 million aspiring Americans, the chance to come out of the shadows and live their lives with pride. … I know what it’s like to be forced into two closets, unable to openly share your immigration status and sexual orientation. That’s why I’m thrilled that the LGBT community is standing up for immigration reform…
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CNN has no excuse for continuing to call Chelsea Manning a man
Major news organizations have honored Chelsea Manning’s explicit request to be identified as a woman, but CNN continues to make excuses for misgendering Manning in its news coverage. CNN’s “policy” on identifying transgender people contradicts the guidelines set forth by GLAAD and the National Lesbian & Gay Journalists Association, which both state that transgender people should be referred to by their preferred name and gender identity, regardless of the presence of a legal name change or gender reassignment surgery…
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States must respect the rights of LGBT parents
In a country where so many politicians espouse “family values” and the importance of parents in a child’s life, it’s remarkable how quickly those beliefs go out the window when there’s an opportunity to shame and bully an LGBT person. It must stop. An estimated 650,000 same-sex couples live in the United States, and 19 percent of same-sex couple households have minor children…
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The other race Virginians need to watch
Given its off year elections, Virginia is attracting a good deal of attention among political observers. LGBT Virginians, women and minorities likewise ought to be paying close attention. Why? Because the Republican statewide ticket — which was nominated at a convention dominated by far right religious extremists and Tea Party fanatics (who usually also identify as “conservative Christians”) — is the most extreme in Virginia’s history.
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Lives mislabeled: Gay or straight, left or right, this or that…
One problem I have with labeling ourselves as a this or a that, is that it usually stems from adoption of the values most familiar to us as we grow into young adults. Once adopted it can be very difficult to abandon those labels, particularly if the culture we live in seems to suggest that any alternatives are forbidden. While we might be subjected to psychological manipulation to think of ourselves as being one thing or another, philosophical alternatives, discussions and attitudes may be well and truly concealed from our consciousness; even to the point of them being actively denied as worthy investigations.
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Putin’s anti-gay Olympics – Should we participate and condone the hate?
Perhaps it’s because the United States is so divided on the issue of gay rights that, as a country, we are so divided on the Russian anti-gay, Olympic issue. We have states making laws that allow us to marry and states making laws that prevent us from getting married. We have Christians who hate us, and Christians who love us. We have politicians who work tirelessly to see that we have our constitutional rights, and politicians who use every ounce of their power to make sure that the Constitution was most certainly not written with the homosexual in mind. For me, the Olympics are a no-brainer…
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Mainstream LGBT rights groups have abandoned Bradley Manning
One of the interesting factors is that two of the largest and most well funded LGBT rights groups in the U.S. have stayed quiet about Bradley Manning, his reprehensible treatment in custody and his trial. Why has Manning, whose revelations about the U.S. Army’s actions epitomize social justice in action, gotten the cold shoulder from the Human Rights Campaign and GLAAD? The silence of these groups has been deafening.
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Russia: This Berlin Wall of bigotry shall crumble too
If Russia is eventually freed from Vladimir Putin’s tyranny, it will partially be a result of LGBT people fighting this rogue nation’s state-sponsored terror apparatus. Worldwide efforts are now underway to pressure this petro police state into abolishing its recently passed anti-gay laws. … What is occurring in Russia is a psychotic pogrom against homosexuals. The goal is to terrorize and humiliate LGBT people and make their lives a living hell. Such ignorant bullying and cruel barbarism will not stand and Russia will pay a prohibitive price for its outrageous actions.
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How do we stop a modern-day Adolf Hitler?
We’ve all heard the quotes, right? There are reports of Russia beating up LGBT people — bad — and enacting percussion around them, stripping them of rights and sending them to detention camps. Now the Olympic Games are scheduled to take place in Russia next winter. What to do, what to do? Boycott the games? Boycott vodka?
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Should states’ rights decide gay rights? Or any rights?
The citizens of each state want what they want. The people with the money have the power, and they want to mold their cities and towns to their own little standards, with their own little rules, their own little prejudices, and their own little innuendos. Those who struggle to keep their heads above the water have no money which means they have no power and their voice is very rarely, if ever, heard. They are considered “the other,” and the laws are never structured to their benefit … LGBTQ citizens fall into “the other” category.