My new Twitter “buddy,” Peter LaBarbera, brought some folks to the National Gay and Lesbian Task Force’s Creating Change conference last week. He represents, of course, Americans for Truth About Homosexuality, an organization that condemns homosexuality and supports ex-gay therapy, incredibly harmful positions that completely contradict decades of psychological and sociological research.
Naturally, Peter and his group were quite put off with some of what they found at Creating Change (which apparently was sponsored by Chili’s? I didn’t realize, but I’ll remember next time I chance to eat there). As my twitter exchange with Peter continues and he prepares to report on more detail about what he and his spies “discovered,” I thought I’d offer an initial response to the complaints he has filed about the conference. Continue reading “NGLTF’s Apparently “Extremist” Vision, According to AFTAH” »
[Shannon Cuttle is an educator, school administrator, safe schools advocate and trainer, community organizer, and policy wonk.]
So today is a big day for little “Monsters” everywhere (otherwise known as Lady Gaga fans).
If you have not already noticed by now in your news, Twitter, Facebook, and other feeds, Lady Gaga has dropped her highly anticipated new single called “Born This Way” today from her upcoming new album (available in May). Hype of the song release has been everywhere for weeks building up in anticipation for today.
Lady Gaga, who has been viewed as a vocal LGBT supporter, said in her recent VOGUE interview that, “I wrote [“Born This Way”] in ten fucking minutes, and it is a completely magical message song. And after I wrote it, the gates just opened, and the songs kept coming. It was like an immaculate conception.”
Having admitted this past October that she was bullied in school as a youth, she is now selling and marketing her new single about bullying to the LGBT community as an “anthem” and a “timely piece”.
But, an anthem and timely piece for whom?
Lady Gaga has signed an exclusive deal with Target for pre-order sales of her new album that also features an extended album with additional tracks only available at Target, with free download of the much-hyped song “Born This Way” as purchase incentive.
As you may recall, this past summer Target was caught donating funds to anti-LGBT candidates and the LGBT community responded with a boycott of the retailer that is still largely in effect.
Lady Gaga, who last year made headlines at the MTV video music awards by speaking out for the repeal of Dont Ask Dont Tell, is now in an exclusive contract with Target, who has made anti-LGBT contributions?
Forbes has estimated that Lady Gaga, with a new album, tour, and marketing in 2011, could make as much as an estimated $100 million dollars. An estimated $30 million is expected to come in just from potential sales of “Born This Way.” In 2010, she was ranked as the seventh highest grossing artist just behind Jay-Z.
Is it all about the Benjamins?
Lady Gaga stands to make herself the top grossing musician this year with her anti-bullying anthem benefiting in the wake of the recent tragedies this past Fall.
The LGBT community should also have concerns about her use of “transgendered,” a grammatically incorrect form of the word “transgender” that is often used by opponents of equality to conditionalize transgender identities.
Similarly, Hispanic and Latino groups are also criticizing Lady Gaga‘s use of the terms “chola” and “orient.”
Organizations like Chicanos Unidos Arizona and MEChA do not like Lady Gaga’s use of the words ‘Chola’ and ‘Orient’ in her lyrics, viewing both as being racist and derogatory.
The word chola according to the critics refers to Latina girls in gangs, Latinas from the barrio who have a certain look about them and conjure very negative stereotypes. Lady Gaga use of this term in the song is sure to promote already negative Hispanic stereotypes, according to these organizations.
Is she making it better?
The selling and marketing around bullying is a hot topic these days, with promotions and products that are aimed at the LGBT community and other marginalized groups. Using tragedy for profit instead of awareness is not the way to remember those who have been lost or who are still struggling with bullying and harassment.
If Lady Gaga wanted to make a song to empower the LGBT community and youth everywhere, why is she marketing the theme of bullying to sell units to her masses? Why not make “Born This Way” a FREE download or donate the sales of the song to inclusive organizations or charites that work to assist youth?
Instead, Lady Gaga seems to be only making it better for herself in a most timely—or rather untimely—of fashions.
Take a listen and make your own decision:
BORN THIS WAY
Written by: Lady Gaga
INTRO:
It doesn’t matter if you love him, or capital H-I-M
Just put your paws up
’cause you were Born This Way, Baby
VERSE:
MY MAMA TOLD ME WHEN I WAS YOUNG
WE ARE ALL BORN SUPERSTARS
SHE ROLLED MY HAIR AND PUT MY LIPSTICK ON
IN THE GLASS OF HER BOUDOIR
“THERE’S NOTHIN WRONG WITH LOVIN WHO YOU ARE”
SHE SAID, “‘CAUSE HE MADE YOU PERFECT, BABE”
“SO HOLD YOUR HEAD UP GIRL AND YOU’LL GO FAR,
LISTEN TO ME WHEN I SAY”
CHORUS:
I’M BEAUTIFUL IN MY WAY
‘CAUSE GOD MAKES NO MISTAKES
I’M ON THE RIGHT TRACK BABY
I WAS BORN THIS WAY
DON’T HIDE YOURSELF IN REGRET
JUST LOVE YOURSELF AND YOU’RE SET
I’M ON THE RIGHT TRACK BABY
I WAS BORN THIS WAY
POST-CHORUS:
OOO THERE AIN’T NO OTHER WAY
BABY I WAS BORN THIS WAY
BABY I WAS BORN THIS WAY
OOO THERE AIN’T NO OTHER WAY
BABY I WAS BORN-
I’M ON THE RIGHT TRACK BABY
I WAS BORN THIS WAY
DON’T BE A DRAG -JUST BE A QUEEN
DON’T BE A DRAG -JUST BE A QUEEN
DON’T BE A DRAG -JUST BE A QUEEN
DON’T BE!
VERSE:
GIVE YOURSELF PRUDENCE
AND LOVE YOUR FRIENDS
SUBWAY KID, REJOICE YOUR TRUTH
IN THE RELIGION OF THE INSECURE
I MUST BE MYSELF, RESPECT MY YOUTH
A DIFFERENT LOVER IS NOT A SIN
BELIEVE CAPITAL H-I-M (HEY HEY HEY)
I LOVE MY LIFE I LOVE THIS RECORD AND
MI AMORE VOLE FE YAH (LOVE NEEDS FAITH)
REPEAT CHORUS + POST-CHORUS
BRIDGE:
DON’T BE A DRAG, JUST BE A QUEEN
WHETHER YOU’RE BROKE OR EVERGREEN
YOU’RE BLACK, WHITE, BEIGE, CHOLA DESCENT
YOU’RE LEBANESE, YOU’RE ORIENT
WHETHER LIFE’S DISABILITIES
LEFT YOU OUTCAST, BULLIED, OR TEASED
REJOICE AND LOVE YOURSELF TODAY
‘CAUSE BABY YOU WERE BORN THIS WAY
NO MATTER GAY, STRAIGHT, OR BI,
LESBIAN, TRANSGENDERED LIFE
I’M ON THE RIGHT TRACK BABY
I WAS BORN TO SURVIVE
NO MATTER BLACK, WHITE OR BEIGE
CHOLA OR ORIENT MADE
I’M ON THE RIGHT TRACK BABY
I WAS BORN TO BE BRAVE
REPEAT CHORUS
OUTRO/REFRAIN:
I WAS BORN THIS WAY HEY!
I WAS BORN THIS WAY HEY!
I’M ON THE RIGHT TRACK BABY
I WAS BORN THIS WAY HEY!
I WAS BORN THIS WAY HEY!
I WAS BORN THIS WAY HEY!
I’M ON THE RIGHT TRACK BABY
I WAS BORN THIS WAY HEY!
Today marks the ceremonial 100th day of school for students across the United States. It’s an important day to mark the ongoing culture of bullying and harassment that persists for young people who are perceived to be LGBT in our schools and universities. In solidarity with the Safe Schools Action Network, I’m pleased to share with you the testimony of one young person who has been the victim of bullying.
The following was written by a student at the Catholic University of America.
Late one night during my sophomore year, here at CUA, I was asleep in my dorm room in Ryan. It was probably around 3:00 AM when I awoke to several loud bangs on my door. I heard several voices out in the hallway, all male, and they were all laughing and talking about me. They yelled, “Yo, come out here faggot!”
I continued to lie in my bed; my heart was racing, and I didn’t know what to do. Another male then said, “Yo, get the fuck out here faggot so I can beat the shit out of you!” I glanced across the room to my roommate’s bed to see if he had woken up, but it seemed he hadn’t.
The group in the hallway continued to bang on the door as hard and as much as they could. The hinges on the door were rattling and I was afraid that given the force with which they were hitting the door, the door itself would break at any given moment.
Then, the banging stopped and the voices were reduced to light giggling and laughter. It was at this point that I could hear the guys outside my room writing on the whiteboard outside my door. After a few minutes they began to bang on the door some more, screaming for me to come out there to see them, then the voices died down and then finally there were no more sounds in the hallway.
I was breathing rapidly, and it was only after ten minutes that I had the courage to get out of my bed to go over to the door. I looked through the peephole and saw that no one was outside. I opened the door and looked at my whiteboard and written all across it were profanities regarding my sexuality along with vulgar images of penises.
I called DPS and they responded and I filed a report, but nothing ever came of it. I lived two doors down from one of my two RAs, yet neither he nor the other one responded that night. Neither of my RAs were around that night, and as such, there was no one who could have responded right away to help me. I felt as though I couldn’t talk to anyone about it, except for close friends, and that there was no one who could legitimately sympathize with me.
That night, I felt entirely alone.
It’s been a very long time since I last published this feature (so much so that it was before I reformatted the layout over a year ago), but I thought it was time to bring it back. There won’t be one next week because of Creating Change, but I think I’ll try to keep this pretty regular.
[The Friday Fundamentalist Farce File is a week’s worth of “news” clippings from conservative hubs like WorldNetDaily and the American Family Association’s OneNewsNow. Millions of Americans absorb these messages as gospel truth—literally—on a daily basis.]
Great Britain decided it was a good idea to keep track of racist and homophobic incidents that occur at schools. Doing so gives the government a sense of how prevalent such incidents are and to make sure that schools are actually addressing bullying as they are expected to. Of course, WND thinks this is a problem.
Following last year’s publicized case of 10-year-old Peter Drury – who was added to his school’s hate register for calling his friend “gay boy” – Dr. Michele Elliott of the charity Kidscape told the Mail, “Children are being criminalized and singled out here from a very early age when they don’t know what they’re doing.”
“It must be explained that [this behavior] is wrong,” added Margaret Morrissey, founder of the campaign group Parents Outloud. “But to keep a register that will haunt them for years to come is going far too far and is against all rights.”
Drury’s mother told the paper of her son, “He doesn’t even understand about the birds and the bees, so how can he be homophobic?”
Oh, Mrs. Drury, let me count the ways.
Here’s a quick lesson how to be productive: Identify a problem. Address the problem. Assess whether the solution has successfully addressed the problem. Continue developing solutions to address the problem. If you don’t continue to identity and assess the problem, the problem will surely persist.
Of course, the real issue here is not that anybody thinks the actual reporting is a problem. They don’t think that there’s really anything wrong at all, and they don’t like it being called out:
Adrian Hart, the report’s author, told the Mail, “I feel that childhood itself is under attack. It’s absolutely the case that these policies misunderstand children quite profoundly.
“Racist incident reporting generates the illusion of a problem with racism in Britain’s schools by trawling the everyday world of playground banter, teasing, childish insults – the sort of things that every teacher knows happens out there in the playground,” Hart said.
Get it? Saying racist stuff to people isn’t really racism, because children just don’t understand what they’re saying! Just let it go.
Or how about no.
Feel like your strategies for demonizing those dirty gays are running stale? Reboot them by making up the most absurd shit you can think of and demonize them for things they haven’t even done yet!
This article is all about how same-sex couples in the future will use “procreative liberty” to abort any babies that aren’t genetically proven to be gay like they are.
What’s great about this article is that it concedes all the legal turf conservative groups usually hold. The couple will be married and have a kid. It’s inevitable. But apparently, gays are eager to abort heterosexual babies.
I’m not going to lie, I’m a whole lot more worried about heterosexual couples trying to prevent a gay child from being born than the other way around.
I wrote last week about how Alabama’s new governor made it quite clear that he wasn’t interested in representing non-Christians. How did OneNewsNow spin the story to make him look like the victim?
Dr. Al Mohler, Jr., president of The Southern Baptist Theological Seminary, says that the governor didn’t say anything wrong. Any evangelical would understand it! Duh!
Bentley was “attempting to build bridges,” explains the seminary president. “His first statement was a very comprehensive statement of the unity of all believers in Christ — it is in Christ, due to the adoption that is ours in Christ, that we are brothers and sisters together.”
You see, the problem isn’t anything Gov. Bentley said. The problem is just that damn political correctness got in the way. If only people stopped getting so offended, it wouldn’t be a problem.
“[His remark] ran into a head-on collision with political correctness and with a secular culture that doesn’t even understand the terms in which the governor was speaking,” he says. “The governor is an experienced Sunday school teacher; he knows how to speak as a Christian to Christians — and I’m sure this was a rather bitter lesson in learning that the secular world doesn’t always hear things the same way.”
The only reason non-Christians thought his remarks were inappropriate is because they’re not Christian. It makes perfect sense!
This Al Mohler fellow really has nothing better to do than offer talking points to OneNewsNow (or maybe article writer Russ Jones just doesn’t know anyone else to call).
On Tuesday, he was going on about the twelve new Southern Baptists in Congress and how he prays they’ll be “faithful,” whatever that means. The language isn’t very subtle that he wants them to “bring the full wealth of conviction… the full resources of the Christian worldview” to the job of governing.
The article points out that 304 members of Congress (57%) hold Protestant beliefs. It also inaccurately points out that “no member of Congress… declares himself an atheist, agnostic, or ‘nothing in particular.” Apparently they’ve never heard of Representative Pete Stark.
This isn’t a news story. It’s just a mom in Tennessee complaining that Planned Parenthood is actually teaching her kid about sex.
How do you teach sex without teaching how to have sex? And encouraging sex? What does that even mean?
Anything to keep people afraid of Planned Parenthood; they’re turning all of our young people into whores.
It’s okay to teach the Bible in a public school if all the students say it’s great!
I actually have mixed feelings about this. I think studying the Bible as literature is worthwhile, particularly if you read all of the really dark stories that don’t come up often in Church, and not just the pretty ones. Studying literature means being critical and considering all the parts, after all.
But what the Chino Valley Unified School District is doing seems inappropriate. Using the literature course as a cover, they seem to be using the course to teach Christianity as well. The Board president is not so subtle about it.
Board president James Na, who envisioned the course, says that he was “highly impressed” by students and board members who voiced their support of the Bible course in the community’s classrooms. He is convinced that young people need the Word of God to direct their lives.
“And these young people should be not only taught but nurtured to be our future face of this nation, with understanding of our foundation as a Christian nation,” he comments.
Na also mentioned how the class discusses how the Bible relates to American historical heritage. Sounds more like a Texas State Board of Education “history” class than a literature class. We should be highly dubious.
Just when you thought they couldn’t get any crazier (we are talking about birther central here), WorldNetDaily showed today just how off the deep end they really are.
They are organizing a campaign to urge Republicans to oppose raising the debt ceiling. By threatening to vote “no,” they can force the Democrats to cut the budget in an historic way.
What Joseph Farah doesn’t point out is that if the debt ceiling is not raised by that particular deadline, the entire U.S. government will shut down (i.e. no salaries for federal employees until the problem is fixed), which could also spark financial disaster the world over.
But hey, destroying the world economy is a good plan if it means the Republicans get a little more power over the government, right? Priorities, priorities.
I think any plan that involves these names should be particularly avoided:
Sens. Jim DeMint, R-S.C., and Pat Toomey, R-Pa., are already on record as opposing an increase in the debt limit. Rep. Michelle Bachmann, R-Minn., has also advocated the plan.
Oh, Farah also said that Obama and the Democrats “keep bailing out the wealthy.” I’m sure all the blue-collar workers whose jobs and pensions were saved by the bailouts feel exactly the same way.
Feel free to go and sign the petition. It’s not Faustian at all.
[Shannon Cuttle is an educator, school administrator, safe schools advocate and trainer, community organizer, and policy wonk.]
This year will go down in history as full equality became one step closer for millions of lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender adult community members. From the historic Don’t Ask Don’t Tell Repeal Act of 2010, which will eventually allow openly lesbian, gay, and bisexual servicemembers to serve, to full marriage equality in Washington D.C., to victories such as hospital visitation mandates for LGBT families nationally.
One of the biggest under-reported stories of 2010 affects a population who mostly cannot yet legally vote nor make a donation to a campaign or an organization, and most of whom still depend on an adult to look out for their best interests and in some cases save their lives:
Lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, and gender non-conforming youth and allies.
In 2010 we saw bullying and harassment in schools and communities in Washington, D.C, Texas, Georgia, Indiana, Ohio, South Carolina, North Carolina, Tennessee, Massachusetts, Colorado, Virginia, Florida, New York, Michigan, Utah, Arizona, Mississippi, Montana, Illinois, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Alaska, Louisiana, Idaho, Connecticut and California, and those were just the stories that we heard about.
In more than half of the United States of America in 2010, youth experienced bullying and harassment.
In 2010, we lost over 20 youth due to reported suicide from bullying and harassment. Keep in mind: those are only the reported cases. Across the nation, we were heartbroken and shocked to learn about many suicides due to bullying harassment, including Seth Walsh, Tyler Clementi, Phoebe Prince, Chloe Lacey, and others. The youngest student that attempted to take hir life from severe bullying and harassment at school was just six years old. Not every story made the news.
This year we also saw student heroes like Will Phillips, Constance McMillen, Ceara Sturgis, Paige Rawl, Graeme Taylor, Derrick Martin stand up and fight back after serve bullying and harassment at school. There are countless other youth whose stories have yet to be told about their struggle, strength, courage, and pain facing bullying and harassment in schools, colleges, and universities. Over 150,000 students miss school each day due to bullying and harassment. And 9 out 10 LGBT youth experience bullying and harassment—especially given the advent of Facebook, Twitter, and other social networking sites. According to GLSEN, 40% of all youth who have access to a computer have experienced cyber bullying.
Youth in 2010 have faced not just bullying and harassment, but homelessness as well. Up to 40% of homeless youth identify as LGBT and are struggling for food and shelter across this nation. Most of these homeless youth were thrown out of their homes or disowned by their families, left on the streets because of their sexual orientation or gender identity.
And even progressive advances such as the DADT Repeal Act of 2010 still do not address creating safe spaces for lesbian and gay youth in JROTC, young adults in ROTC, or cadets in our nation’s schools, colleges, and universities.
How are we truly providing high quality education if we are not providing inclusive safe schools?
In 2011 we must fight together to make safe schools a priority so that all youth—regardless of sexual orientation and gender identity (actual or perceived), socioeconomic status, disability or impairment , religion, immigration status, race, national origin, HIV/AIDS status, or any other identity—are free from bullying, harassment and discrimination.
What can you do?
Join the movement for safe schools in your local communities and stand up to bullying and harassment when you hear it, see it and take action. Help create inclusive safe spaces and anti-bullying and harassment polices on a local, state-wide, and federal level such as the Student Non-Discrimination Act and Safe Schools Improvement Act.
Make 2011 the year we invest in youth and make sure no child is left behind by making inclusive safe schools a reality.
Get Involved today: Safe Schools Action Network, GLSEN, Make it Better Project, Project Life Vest, Operation Shine America, PFLAG, Trevor Project, It Gets Better Project, Ali Forney Center, GSA Network and your local PTA, LGBT community Center, classroom, school board or college campus.
If you need help please call The Trevor Help Line at: 1-800-U- TREVOR (800-488-7386)
[Andy Szekeres is a political consultant from Denver who specializes in LGBT ballot measures and progressive candidates and causes.]
I wrote a while back about the fact that sometimes even the folks with best intentions can make mistakes in how they go about activism.
Well, today the National Organization of Marriage has launched a major fundraising campaign based on just this fact that we are using kids to promote our message.
As you can see below they have gone full court press with this message using it to turn parents, grandparents and family members against us because we have picked the wrong messengers for our cause. Here is just part of the blog post.
Help Stop Radical SSM Activists Obscenity-Laden Attempt to Corrupt our Children
Radical activists have released an angry and degrading new video that they are using to garner publicity and raise money for same-sex marriage advocacy. Already watched by nearly 2 million people, the 2-minute video is laced with dozens of angry obscenities, even putting obscene language in the mouths of 8 and 10-year-old kids.
Words fail me in trying to describe it . . . it’s vile, sickening and incredibly sad to see the way these children have been exploited for cheap shock value. I find myself thinking – is this the kind of thing they want to teach our children?
I will let it speak for itself. Sometimes hindsight is bliss, and sometimes it’s just smarter not to give our enemy more ammo to use against us.
[Editor’s note: Since Andy’s first post about FCKH8, they have released a second video—the one referenced in the NOM fundraiser. It features a cameo by popular web persona Kelly of “Shoes,” and raises money for The Trevor Project. (The first video apparently raised over $200,000 that went to help support AFER, Equality California, Courage Campaign, and Lambda Legal.) I’ve included it below for your consideration.]
A podcast w/ Peterson Toscano!