Neal Broverman, “These Are the LGBTQ Immigrants Trump Has Vilified”
”Donald Trump's cruel and inhumane immigration policies continue unabated — his latest change, which went into effect Friday, forces asylum seekers to wait in Mexico until their cases are heard by U.S. judges. This is not a minor adjustment, especially for LGBTQ refugees fleeing discrimination and abuse. Many queer asylum-seekers face the same dangers in Mexico that they encountered in central American countries like Guatemala and El Salvador.”
Clio Chang, “The Credibility of ‘Out Boys’”
”While watching Nick Sandmann—the Covington Catholic High School student whose contemptuous gaze and taunting classmates were captured by dozens of cameras over the weekend—on the Today show, saying that he had not intended to be disrespectful to Native American Elder Nathan Phillips, I was reminded of a piece I read recently about the ‘credibility economy’.”
Matt Donnelly, “Oscar Race Most LGBTQ-Inclusive in History, GLAAD Says”
”Five of the eight best picture nominees are inclusive to queer communities, GLAAD found, including ‘A Star is Born’, ‘Green Book’, ‘The Favourite’, ‘Vice’ and ‘Bohemian Rhapsody’.”
Gillian Frank, “The Deep Ties Between the Catholic Anti-Abortion Movement and Racial Segregation”
”The modern Catholic anti-abortion movement was born in white enclaves and shaped by the politics of white flight and anti-integration activism. The sight of white Catholic teens wearing clothes emblazoned with Donald Trump’s racially inflammatory brand at the March for Life, marks a vital connection that has shaped modern conservatism and the Republican Party.”
Prachi Gupta, “Infamous Gay Conversion Therapist Comes Out as Gay”
”One of the most prominent gay conversion therapists in the country has come out as gay.”
Karen Loewy and Evan Wolfson, “50 Years After Stonewall, It’s Time to Protect LGBTQ Families”
”Unfortunately, New York’s welcoming leadership still fails to meet the needs of many same-sex couples and LGBT individuals who are looking to raise a family, as our state has some of the most byzantine, inadequate laws in the country for these parents and parents-to-be. ”
Nick Morrow, “HRC Commends NY Gov. Cuomo and Leader Stewart-Cousins on Signing Day of Historic Pro-LGBTQ Laws“
”Today, HRC celebrated New York Governor Andrew Cuomo signing historic pro-LGBTQ legislation in the state. Gov. Cuomo signed the Gender Expression Non-Discrimination Act (GENDA) and legislation protecting LGBTQ youth in the state from the dangerous and debunked practice of so-called “conversion therapy” at a ceremony at the New York City LGBT Community Center.”
Duane Paul Murphy, “Angola Decriminalizes Homosexual Sex and Outlaws LGBTQ Discrimination“
”The southern-central African country of Angola has decriminalized same-sex relations between LGBTQ individuals and outlawed discrimination against the country’s LGBTQ community on Wednesday, January 23. ”
Helen Regan, “Anna Wintour slams Margaret Court, Scott Morrison over LGBTQ rights”
”Vogue editor-in-chief Anna Wintour served up a fierce speech at an Australian Open event Thursday, when she joined calls for the Margaret Court Arena to be renamed because of the tennis legend's views on homosexuality.”
Matthew Rodriguez, “Why Do Abusers Keep Using Homophobia As a Shield?”
”Both Singer and Spacey have used their status as a sword to fight and to debunk allegations and subsequently used their queerness as a shield against their accusers.”
Mikelle Street, “Japan Upholds Law Demanding Sterilization for Trans People“
”Japan’s Supreme Court unanimously upheld a 2003 law requiring all transgender people to be sterilized prior to transitioning, Japan Today reports.”
Brynn Tannehill, “The Supreme Court Just Ended My Military Career”
”On Tuesday, the Supreme Court ruled, 5-4, that the Trump administration could reinstate its policy barring most transgender people from serving in the military while several cases challenging the policy are being decided. The decision was both a devastating blow to me personally, and a disturbing sign of what is to come for transgender people in the United States.”
Article Spotlight
"This article revisits LGBT organizing with, against, and apart from institutional psychiatry during the 1960s and 1970s, the end of the social movement era. Rather than reviving a triumphant narrative of homosexuality’s emancipation from stigma, I chart a more complicated milieu of queer critiques of and capitulations to discourses on mental health, sanity, and psychiatric authority during this time. As historians have begun to detail, activist challenges to psychiatry during this period were hardly restricted to gay organizing. In fact, the DSM campaign of the early 1970s occurred on the heels of an array of critiques developed by antipsychiatric, antiracist, feminist, and antiwar activists during the 1960s, all of which targeted psychiatric constructions of mental illness. As historian Michael Staub has argued, the social movement era thus bears note as a period in which ‘a significant portion of the populace … believed madness to be a plausible and sane reaction to insane social conditions, and that psychiatrists served principally as agents of repression’.”
Episode Spotlight
The hit television show American Bandstand has shaped how we understand the 1950s and early 1960s. For many, American Bandstand still evokes nostalgic images of white youth culture and sexually innocent teenage romance: a world made up of malt shops, juke joints, sock hops and drive-in movie theaters. If we look closer at how Bandstand was staged, and what was hidden from sight or hiding in plain view, we can see how the show's creators erased blackness and queerness from the show itself and from the official story of youth culture.
Books
Podcasts
Brothaspeak’s “Dear Black Porn Star …”
”In this Brothaspeak Podcast episode #81 we talk to XL, one of the top black gay adult entertainment film stars of today. XL has had a great career within the industry since 2012 and he candidly airs all the dirty little secrets out about the industry from a black male's point of view.”
Queer as Fact’s “Billy Tipton”
”Today's episode is on Billy Tipton, well-known jazz player and transgender man. Tune in for a man who could play the piano and the saxophone simultaneously, a nude portrait featuring an erupting volcano, and more dogs than you could possibly wish for!”
