havearide:

Our Second Year (by Inhae Lee)

pulmonaire:

(by J.R. FURBUSH)

nevver:

When we are sleeping

havearide:

(via Pleghm – Street Art | InspireFirst)

iamblessed:

Brilliant idea for used beer bottles…

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colourfulonionsoup:

Terrorism has no religion.

That can’t be repeated enough.

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artpixie:

(by Marie Ek)

cassket:

Submission by Julian, TNG contributor

It makes me cringe when I hear a straight guy embark on a long tirade about how he could never possibly have sex or be intimate with another guy.  I sigh and think to myself, “Not this again. What an asshole. You don’t like dick. I get it!”

It’s understandable that a straight guy doesn’t want to have sex with another guy.  The problem for me is the drawn out and debasing lecture in which he frames his dislike.  It’s the soapbox diatribes about the awful, repugnant, I’d-rather-die-than-yada-yada-yada aspects of male-to-male intimacy that rub me the wrong way.  It’s the subtle and innocuous way that heterosexism keeps homosexuality on the margins while reasserting its own dominance that I resist.  Intentions aside, this rhetoric by straight guys regarding homosexuality only serves to devalue homosexuality—posing it as a distortion, an inferior derivative of heterosexuality.
Even though I’m fresh out of the closet, I’ve noticed that gay guys have countered this dominance by imitating and flipping this rhetoric on its head—“I could never have sex with a girl.  Pussy is so nasty!”  In order to affirm their own validity and push heterosexism off its pedestal, gay guys adopt this same technique—that is, to speak casually about heterosexuality as a perverted, strange, and repulsive orientation.  However, it usually goes along the lines of expressing disgust for the female body in another demeaning soapbox tirade.  If someone is not attracted to women, fine; but these exaggerated discourses are unnecessary and harmful.

This is where the misogyny of gay rhetoric surfaces.

I find this misogynist tone in everyday speech uncomfortable and problematic.  Uncomfortable, because it leaves little room for those of us who are situated somewhere between/outside the gay/straight terms to express our desires honestly.  It has become taboo for a queer guy to admit that a girl is appealing (sexually or otherwise).  The dynamic created by this misogyny mirrors the fear that makes straight guys shout “No homo!” if their hand brushes against another’s.  Moreover, this speech is problematic because it tramples on many aspects of feminist struggles.  Throughout our history, women have been marked economically, socially, and essentially inferior to men based solely upon anatomy—submitting them to lack of credibility in public life, to objects for men [to conquer or to romanticize], and to insecurity.

To express such overwhelming disgust for the female bodies only reinforces this oppressive tradition—male dominance and misogynist rhetoric.  If gay guys are not attracted to women, fair enough; but the drawn out or exaggerated monologues are not necessary.

Historically and currently marginalized, LGBTQ must tirelessly fight for identity, voice, and validity on all fronts.  However, I’m concerned when the struggle to find identity by one group is based on antagonism toward another; when one oppressed demographic finds a way to stand by stepping on another.  Employing misogyny to combat heterosexism is hypocritical and simply unjust.  It polarizes identities and weakens movements for liberation by advancing the oppression of others.

Even though our histories are different, women and gay men suffer under similar forces which try to confine gender roles and control sexuality.  However, if we are secure enough in our own identities, we won’t need to degrade others in order to find a voice; we won’t have to push others aside in order to stand.  In fact, we can resist heterosexism more effectively if we refuse to perpetuate oppressive rhetoric and become allies for others in their struggles.  Such solidarity leaves little room for the tyranny of hierarchies.  Rather than imitating heterosexism, solidarity will enable us to stand with, rather than on, others and it will give us new strength in our fight for liberation.

cassket:

When I first saw the video, I was brought to tears.

A young woman in her early 20s, beaten as she tries to use a restroom at a McDonald’s in my home state of Maryland. Several assailants punch her, knock her to the ground, drag her across the floor by her hair, and kick her in the face until it appears she experiences a seizure.

As the video spread over the Internet on Friday – first through the blogosphere and then to mainstream press outlets – the facts on the ground became even more troubling. We learned that the video was filmed by McDonald’s employees, several of whom seemed to cheer the assault on from behind the camera. And we learned that the victim was a 22-year-old transgender woman, later identified as Chrissy Lee Polis.

That’s when it hit me: yes, this was a disturbing attack, appalling on a sheer human level for its heinous nature. But this was also a hate crime, and representative of the violence and harassment that too many transgender people face in this country when they try to access public accommodations like restrooms.

I don’t have much experience when it comes to activism, but I knew after watching this video that I had to do something. I started a petition here on Change.org, hoping to send a message to McDonald’s and Maryland authorities that both the assailants and the McDonald’s employees who enabled this violent act should be held accountable. I thought maybe 100 people would sign it.

Little did I know that more than 27,000 people would be as outraged as I was, and as committed to seeking justice for this brutal crime.

So far, the Maryland police have only charged one person in this incident. And while McDonald’s wrote over Twitter that they would “take appropriate action” against all employees involved in this outrageous attack, just one employee has been punished. That’s simply not good enough.

I am a gay man, as well as a female impersonator. Being an entertainer, I’ve been in situations where I have had to use the women’s restroom. The fear of being harassed or assaulted is never far from my mind. I watched this horrific video, and couldn’t escape the thought that this could have been me in that video.

No one should ever have to experience what Chrissy went through, and no one should ever have to worry about being assaulted just for using the restroom. Yet in this country, upwards of 50 percent of all transgender Americans experience verbal or physical abuse when trying to use accommodations like public restrooms. Chrissy’s assault was caught on camera, but imagine how many hundreds of other cases just like this go undocumented?

Please stand with me, and call on McDonalds and Maryland authorities to do the right thing and hold all those responsible for this senseless act of violence accountable. Those who sat by and watched this attack happen might as well have been the ones throwing the punches or landing the kicks. Let’s not return their silence with silence.

And for McDonald’s, let’s hope that this attack at one of their franchises underscores the importance of providing employees adequate training to confront harassment based on gender identity and gender expression. McDonald’s has a good score on the Human Rights Campaign’s Corporate Equality Index, but right now McDonald’s does not include gender identity or gender expression in its anti-discrimination policies, nor do they require employees to go through diversity trainings that cover the subject of gender identity and gender expression.

That can change, and turn this tragic incident into something positive for the broader LGBT movement.

cassket:

Montreal Bed-In (1969) by Yoko Ono official on Flickr.

songonmypalm:

Its sad how accurate this is.

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