I’ve was sent some interesting European televison ads with sensitive protrayals of trans gender identity. It’s a little jarring when the products are plugged but still pretty incredible to think that these were aired on TV. After poking around ye olde youtube, I found some other vids worth posting.
Italian ad for Campari
Transgender Children – Out of the Shadows
This one seemed to be a Public Service type of film for educational purposes.
The best was this youtube channel for Laidbaqq, a young black trans man’s video blog about his present experiences, challenges and questions. In this video, he responds to people who think they know who is and who is not trans based on physical traits and hormone taking.
If TPR could give out an award for Best New Non-Profit, this would be it. I never got to go to any away camp as a kid, and you can bet your pink and brown asses my parents would not have sent me to a gay camp. This volunteer-run camp for trans youth, Camp Aranu’tiq, has a heart of gender-neutral gold, and I can only imagine the amount of struggle, defensive conversation and explanation that the organizers have gone through just to get to this point. Well, queer-kudos to the coolest bunch of organized queers I have seen in a long time! From the Aranu’tiq website:
“Our mission is to provide transgender and gender-variant youth with a safe, fun, and unique camp experience during which they are able to express gender however they are comfortable and connect with others in similar situations.
Camp Aranu’tiq is a non-profit, volunteer-run organization. It was born out of the idea that transgender and gender-variant youth needed a safe place to relate to others like them, away from home, in a beautiful rural setting where they can concentrate on what every camper loves: having fun.
Due to the sensitive nature of our program, the exact location of Aranu’tiq can be obtained by interested parents, volunteers, and campers by contacting us.”
Please join Beyond Media for the premiere of “HIV: Hey, It’s Viral!” on September 10th at the Center on Halsted, 3656 N. Halsted Chicago. The film “examines how HIV is transmitted and prevented, risk reduction, safer sex practices, the importance of testing, and stressing the idea that anyone can get HIV. It’s spun with a quirky fun soundtrack and animation to illustrate the science of HIV/AIDS to young viewers.”
For more info call (773) 857-7300 or email beyond((@))beyondmedia.org
Look at these cuties from the COH website. Photo by Israel Wright
Years ago, when Chicago was still the only major city without a community center for LGBT people in need, the Center on Halsted seemed like a big duh. We need one, and as soon as possible so we don’t keep up this embarrassment, please. Fast forward to 2008, and people are using it. The problem is that Chicago is geographically segregated, and queers of color are trekking all the way to the mostly white Boystown to get services they need; now the affluent area where COH is located is having trouble adjusting. I had heard rumblings within the COH staff and volunteers that the older queers were not happy with how loud the youth could be. Now, this highly alarming post by Laura Washington is screaming racism. Accusing the youth of turning tricks, this presumptive assumption of law breaking is stupid, mostly because johns and prosties have been in the neighborhood since, well shit, they started that neighborhood. Just because suddenly, there are black and latino kids hanging out, the conservative elders are getting upset possible alley sex. Fuck that. We built this center for all of us, not just the white kids in the neighborhood.
Their LGBTQ Youth CloseUp will include research on the following topics:
* LGBTQ Youth cultures;
* Cyberworlds and LGBTQ Youth;
* LGBTQ Youth resilience;
* LGBTQ Youth of color;
* LGBTQ Youth in rural environments;
* Homelessness among GLBT Youth;
* LGBTQ Youth suicide;
* Special health issues faced by LGBTQ Youth;
* Making schools safe for LGBTQ Youth
If you are a nonprofit and are doing work in the field of LGBTQ Youth please register at IssueLab today. They are asking that organizations list their research with IssueLab by the last week in May
*The image from a 2005 hanging of two gay teenagers in Mashhad, Iran.
One of my favorite things is when one of my favorite porn blogs gets serious and posts something about politics. It’s grounding and comforting knowing that in the middle of a scroll ‘n jerk, one can make a difference. My slick suit loving, porn-art showing, Titan media covering Roids and Rants (NSFW) did just that and had this to say about the most recent tragic treatment of queer youth in Iran:
On January 23rd, 2008, Hamzeh Chavi and Loghman Hamzehpour, two homosexual young men of 18 and 19, were arrested in Sardasht, in Iranian Azerbaijan. The authorities use physical and psychological torture to obtain confessions from people who fall into their hands, and the two young men admitted to being in love and having a relationship. Their confession was enough for the Islamic court to commit them to trial with two very serious charges: Mohareb, the crime of those who are “enemies of Allah” and Lavat, sodomy. Iranian criminal law prescribes hanging for homosexuals, who are considered “enemies of Allah”.
You can sign a petition for the lives of Hamzeh and Loghman to the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights on the site of EveryOne organization.
When I saw that last weeks blog caused such a stir I couldn’t help but giggle to myself when I stumbled upon this bit of news first reported by the Associated Press.
An out lesbian in Richmond, Virginia was asked to cover up her lesbian pride t-shirt by a teacher at her high school (it depicted two interlocking women’s symbols). The seventeen-year-old high school student was first asked to cover her shirt, and complied. When she wore the shirt again the same teacher sent her to the principal’s office where they also told her to cover the shirt or be suspended.
The ACLU has gotten involved in the case, arguing that the school has violated the student’s rights to freedom of speech. They want all documentation of the incident removed from her records, and to clearly state that students are allowed to wear “political” items of clothing. According to the Associated Press, the school’s current dress code states that students are not permitted to wear shirts with”bawdy, salacious or sexually suggestive messages.” The teacher involved said that the shirt’s presence in her classroom interfered with her ability to teach.
While wearing an article of clothing that proclaims ones queerness may seem like something minor, but I was honestly shocked to see this report. As a senior in my violently homophobic high school I wore dyke pride shirts nearly every day (I had been kicked out of home earlier in the year, and ran the semi-rural school’s first GSA). Even in that environment I was never asked to remove my shirt, which could be why this case took me by surprise. The idea that youth are being disciplined in the school setting for saying proudly who they are is deplorable.
Kevin Logan, a student at West Side High School in Gary Indiana has been making news because of the law suit he has filed against his former High School. Last spring Logan was refused entrance to his senior prom because he showed up wearing a dress. Logan claims the school’s principle blocked his entry into the dance citing a school rule, which prohibits any “clothing/accessories that advertise sexual orientation, sex, drugs, alcohol, tobacco, profanity, negative social or negative educational statements.”
Logan and his family are suing the school under the grounds that they have violated his constitutional right to freedom of speech and expression. This case is particularly interesting in light of the fact that a female classmate of Logan’s was admitted into the prom wearing a tuxedo! While he was barred entrance, he claims he attempted to explain to the principle that he identified as a drag queen.
This is only the most recent instance of gender expression of youth not being taken seriously or reprimanded by people in authority. One is left wondering how queer students an be expected to learn and succeed in such repressive environments where sexual orientation remains lumped together with “drugs.” As a community we really need to be coming together to ensure a safe and supportive environment for the LGBTQ youth who represent not only our present but also our future.
There’s a cute site called gayprom.com –about a book released in 2004 called Kings & Queens–Queers At The Prom, where GLBT people from all generations write and tell their story of having to endure hetero prom. Go there and add your own story!
