- by Joseph Erbentraut, EDGE Contributor Jan 28, 2011 www.edgeonthenet.com

Though Krissy Bates had only lived in Minneapolis for only four months before her Jan. 6 death-the Twin Cities’ first homicide of the year and the first murder of a transgender person in Minnesota in nearly 15 years, the few people who knew her had only kind words for her. They described the former Kentucky resident as a true Southern belle: outgoing, talkative, friendly and hospitable.

Judging by the crowd of nearly 300 who braved freezing cold temperatures last Friday to pay their respects to Bates at a vigil in downtown Minneapolis, the Twin Cities’ trans residents are unlikely to forget her tragic death anytime soon. Authorities have charged Arnold Darwin Waukazo, who claims he had been dating Bates, with her murder. A broader sense of justice, however, will not be so easily achieved for trans Minnesotans, their friends and supporters.

Read the rest of this article »

By Advocate.com Editors January 29th, 2011 www.advocate.com

Wyoming residents are one step closer to voting on a constitutional ban on marriage equality now that the senate has passed a measure on Thursday calling for the ballot initiative.

Sen. Curt Meier’s resolution to allow voters to decide on the fate of gay and lesbian couples was approved 20-10, according to the Associated Press. The resolution would specify whether the state would recognize same-sex unions, as the current law is not as explicit as those in other states with full constitutional bans on marriage equality. The resolution will now go to the house of representatives for approval.

- Posted by John Aravosis (DC) www.gay.americablog.com January 29th, 2011

DOD held a briefing this afternoon on DADT repeal progress. The plan seems to be to allow gays to serve openly by the end of the summer:

According to a U.S. military source, Defense Secretary Robert Gates, Joint Chiefs of Staff Chairman Adm. Mike Mullen and President Obama are expected to certify in March or April that the repeal of “Don’t ask Don’t tell” will not hurt military readiness — that will then set in motion an automatic 60-day waiting period before the repeal is implemented. The official said gays will be allowed to serve openly probably by the end of the summer.
And according to the article, they’re still playing games with DOMA, claiming it may block them from letting partners stay on base, etc. I can’t believe they can’t find a way around this.

- www.queerty.com January 29th, 2011

Balls of Pride from Jacob Sempler on Vimeo.

By pussywhipping them into declaring their support, that’s how. A clever new campaign called Balls Of Pride hopes to get girlfriends of (or single ladies hunting for) straight guys to help them come out of the closet as being pro-gay. Because, the project’s creators (advertising students Emil Tiismann, Matilda Kahl and Jacob Sempler) hypothesize, most breeder dudes are, in fact, on our side. They just don’t have reason to tell anyone or campaign for our equality. But by getting straight chicks to show them being pro-gay makes them more attractive? It’s win-win for everyone: We get more vocal supporters, and the guys get laid.
How does Balls Of Pride work? Straight gals tag lads on Facebook with a pair of “balls” to indicate their gay-friendliness. That adds a virtual set of balls to the campaign’s widget, which will eventually become a real-life ball pit, with one pair in the pit for every guy who declared his LGBT alliance. For now, it looks like the project is just a prototype, but Tiisman says they’d love to get GLAAD involved.

Or, you know, screw that and just do it on your own, kids. Who needs Gay Inc. anymore? With a little bit of love, straight women and men will be playing with tens of thousands of balls by summer. And that doesn’t even count what’s going to happen inside that giant ball pit.

Read more: http://www.queerty.com/how-do-we-get-pro-gay-straight-guys-to-come-out-as-allies-ball-em-20110128/#ixzz1CMw46rQ3

Read the full report here: http://timeswampland.files.wordpress.com/2011/01/policy-memo-signed.pdf

- By MAX DELANY and GODFREY OLUKYA, Associated Press www.news.yahoo.co January 27th, 2011

KAMPALA, Uganda – A prominent Ugandan gay rights activist whose picture was published by an anti-gay newspaper next to the words “Hang Them” was bludgeoned to death. Police said Thursday his sexual orientation had nothing to do with the killing and that one “robber” had been arrested.

Activists were outraged over the death of David Kato, an advocacy officer for the gay rights group Sexual Minorities Uganda. His slaying comes after a year of stepped up threats against gays in Uganda, where a controversial bill has proposed the death penalty for some homosexual acts.

Kato, who had received multiple threats, was found with serious wounds to his head caused by an attack with a hammer at his home late Wednesday in Uganda’s capital, Kampala. Kato later died on the way to the hospital.

“We are horrified and saddened by the murder of prominent human rights activist David Kato in Uganda yesterday afternoon,” Assistant Secretary of State for African Affairs Johnnie Carson posted on Twitter.

Human Rights Watch called for an urgent investigation, saying that Kato’s work as a prominent gay rights campaigner had previously seen him face threats to his personal safety.

“David Kato’s death is a tragic loss to the human rights community,” said Maria Burnett, senior Africa researcher at HRW. “David had faced the increased threats … bravely and will be sorely missed.”

A Ugandan tabloid newspaper called Rolling Stone listed a number of men they said were homosexuals last year, including Kato. Kato’s picture was published on the front page, along with his name and a headline that said “Hang Them.”

Kato and two other gay activists sued Rolling Stone over claims that it had violated their constitutional rights to privacy and won the case earlier this month. A judge issued an injunction banning the publication of the identities and personal details of alleged homosexuals.

A police spokesman, Vincent Sekatte, said Kato was killed by robbers who have so far killed more than 10 people in that area in the past two months. He said there was no indication the death was connected to any anti-homosexual sentiment. Kato was hit by a hammer that has been recovered by police, Sekatte said.

Police arrested one suspect, a driver for Kato, Sekatte said. A second suspect is being hunted. That suspect had been hired as a house helper and had recently been released from prison, Sekatte said.

Kato’s lawyer told The Associated Press on Thursday that his client had become noticeably more worried about his safety in the wake of the Rolling Stone publication.

“He was conscious that something could happen,” said John Francis Onyango.

Family, friends and neighbors gathered to mourn at Kato’s house on Thursday. Several women lay on the floor of the living room. The room where he had been killed was closed off by the police. A funeral is planned for Friday.

“I feel very lonely,” said John Mulumba Wasswa, Kato’s older twin brother. “My brother was a very brave person, very courageous.”

Homosexuality is illegal in Uganda and gay men and women face regular harassment. The controversial bill introduced in 2009 and still before the country’s parliament would see the death penalty introduced for certain homosexual acts. The bill prompted international condemnation and hasn’t come up for a vote

Human Rights Watch called on the Ugandan government to offer gay people in the country sufficient protection.

In a statement, the group said that witnesses had told police that Kato was hit twice on the head by an unknown assailant who had been spotted entering his property. The assailant was then seen leaving by vehicle, the statement said.

Frank Mugisha, the chairman of Sexual Minorities Uganda, said he has asked religious and political leaders and media outlets to stop demonizing sexual minorities in Uganda.

“Across the entire country, straight, lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and intersex Ugandans mourn the loss of David, a dear friend, colleague, teacher, family member and human rights defender,” said Mugisha.

The introduction of the anti-homosexual bill in 2009 followed a conference in Kampala that was attended by American activists who consider same-gender relationships sinful. The U.S. evangelicals believe gays and lesbians can become heterosexual through prayer and counseling. Some gay Ugandans still resent that American intervention.

“David’s death is a result of the hatred planted in Uganda by U.S evangelicals in 2009,” said Val Kalende, a Ugandan gay rights activist. “The Ugandan government and the so-called U.S evangelicals must take responsibility for David’s blood.”

___

Associated Press Writer Matthew Lee in Washington contributed to this report.

- www.joemygod.blogspot.com January 27th, 2011

Never heard of this guy before, but he and his father are apparently well known evangelists.

- www.queerty.com January 27th, 2011

The new Thai airline P.C. Air isn’t just committed to getting you to where you need to be safely and on time. It also wants to make sure the flight attendants walking down the aisle represent the country’s trans community. The airline set a quota to ensure it would have trans staffers among its 30 new hires, and the company says it met its goal: three trans women are now part of the crew, alongside 17 cis-women and 10 men. That’s a 10 percent trans staff! Passengers have the best chance of recognizing Thanyarat “Film” Jiraphatpakorn (pictured), 23, winner of 2007′s trans beauty pageant Miss Tiffany. P.C. Air has purposefully been reaching out to trans job applicants, setting up shop in a Bangkok mall and encouraging members of the “third sex” to apply. Not that everybody will be so accommodating: So that MTF trans employees have fewer problems going through immigration, their name tags will be adorned with the “third sex” branding, because legally they are still considered men.

Read more: http://www.queerty.com/the-airline-purposefully-hiring-trans-women-to-hand-out-peanuts-pretzels-20110127/#ixzz1CGG0ioT3

- www.daily.gay.com January 27th, 2011

Dear Richard,

My boyfriend and I have been together for four years. But lately, we just have not been getting along. I love him but sexually things just haven’t been the best. When we had sex, it was for him to get off. I want to keep him happy, and I don’t want to lose him, but I stopped sleeping with him for a while after he started hitting me. Well, things haven’t gotten any better since then.

He is still married, has two kids, but won’t let me talk to them. He came to my town, is out to his coworkers, my friends, my family and members of our community, but to his wife and daughters and friends in his hometown, I am Rachel. His girlfriend. They don’t know that I am a guy. He says I can’t talk to his kids because they will never accept him, and his wife will use that to take his kids away.

He does not like my friends. He does not like my family.

I don’t know what to do. Do I just give up and let him go his own way? Emotionally I still love him but sexually— I can’t get into sex because I still feel hurt from getting hit, pushed around, and pulled across the floor. It has stopped now. Ugh! I so love him but I can’t get back to where were when we first met. Please help me.

Beats Me

Dear Beats,

Okay, D.R. seriously had to walk away from the computer, get some coffee and calm down, because this letter got him mighty angry. So let’s try and keep things as basic as possible.

You are in an abusive relationship. Period. You have been physically and mentally abused by a man who won’t come out, who uses you for sex and who treats you as a second-class citizen. It doesn’t matter how wonderful he was when you met, that is the reality right now. The other reality is that you deserve better than this.

Domestic violence is not uncommon in the gay community. According to Lambda.org, “Abuse can be physical, sexual, emotional, psychological, and involve verbal behavior used to coerce, threaten or humiliate.” Roughly 25% of same gender couples experience some form of domestic violence, which is the same number as domestic violence against heterosexual women. The problem is likely under reported. Why?

Some guys…
•Don’t identify as gay, so if another man mistreats them they don’t see it as “abuse.”
•Think it comes with the territory of living in a fringe segment of society.
•Have bad self-esteem over being gay and are desperate for the “love” they find in their abuser.
•Have never been educated about what to do if they find themselves in an abusive relationship.
•Can’t easily find resources since social services are usually directed toward women.
•Are ashamed to report their partner because it means coming out to strangers.
•Don’t want others in the local gay community to know.

So here’s the deal: Whether you want to help him work through his issues or not, you need to get some distance. If you live together, gather personal items such as your birth certificate, credit cards, medications, cash, etc. and keep them in one safe place so that you can quickly leave if you need to. In major cities your local LGBT Center should have information and resources. If not, reach out to your support system of friends and family. Don’t let shame get in the way. They love you and will help.

Once you’re in a place of safety, then decide if you really want to help him or just move on with your life. (Personally, D.R. says dump him and find a man who treats you well.) Whatever you do, don’t move back in until he gets proper counseling from a professional, because no matter what he says those same behaviors will reappear.

There are online resources that can also help.

The National Coalition Against Domestic Violence lists state resources at http://www.ncadv.org/resources/StateCoalitionList.php

National Domestic Violence Hotline can also help. Call 1−800−799−SAFE(7233) or TTY 1−800−787−3224, or visit http://www.thehotline.org/.

- BY PAUL SCHINDLER www.gaycitynews.com January 26th, 2011

One year after he pledged to end Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell in his 2010 State of the Union speech, President Barack Obama told a joint session of Congress in his 2011 address, “Our troops come from every corner of this country — they are black, white, Latino, Asian, and Native American. They are Christian and Hindu, Jewish and Muslim. And, yes, we know that some of them are gay. Starting this year, no American will be forbidden from serving the country they love because of who they love.”

With legislation the president signed on December 22, the policy barring open service by lesbian and gay members of the military will end once the Pentagon establishes policies and procedures that the president, the defense secretary, and the chair of the Joint Chiefs of Staff certify will not compromise readiness, effectiveness, morale, or retention.

The president’s remarks signal his view that the certification process will be completed in 2011.

The reference to ending DADT was the sole mention of LGBT Americans in a 62-minute speech that was broadly thematic and not peppered with the typical laundry list of legislative proposals. Talking about the issues confronting the gay community, of course, has almost never been part of a presidential State of the Union address.

One of the only other mentions of a specific community in Obama’s January 25 speech was his call to pass the Dream Act, a measure that would offer a path to permanent residency for undocumented immigrants brought into the country as minors but committed to completing higher education or military service.

The Dream Act failed to pass the Senate in last year’s lame duck session on the same day that DADT repeal was approved.

The president’s discussion of DADT repeal brought praise from leading LGBT organizations, along with reminders that much more is expected from this administration as well as tough criticism from some quarters about what was lacking in the speech.

A key player in the push for DADT repeal kept up the pressure on Obama to see the process through to certification quickly.

“Servicemembers Legal Defense Network is pleased the president expects that gays and lesbians will be able to serve their country openly this year,” said Aubrey Service, the group’s executive director, in a written statement. “In fact, we think there should be certification from the president, Secretary Robert Gates, and JCS Chairman Michael Mullen in this quarter. We need to make Don’t Ask repeal a reality sooner rather than later.”

Servicemembers United, an organization of gay and lesbian veterans, echoed that call, with its leader, Alexander Nicholson, releasing a statement saying, “We look forward to seeing President Obama’s administration move quickly to finish the job of repealing the Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell law by completing the required certification process.”

“Tonight is the culmination of a promise kept by this president,” Joe Solmonese, president of the Human Rights Campaign, the community’s lead Washington lobby group, said in a written statement.

Rea Carey, executive director of the National Gay and Lesbian Task Force, released a statement saying, “The repeal of Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell, which the president noted tonight, was a tremendous victory that will put an end to systemic discrimination against competent, qualified lesbian, gay, and bisexual service members. But let us not settle there. Fact is, the state of the union for lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender people remains largely one of inequality, as we can still be fired from or denied employment in many parts of the country for nothing other than bias, and marriage inequality relegates our families to second-class status. If the president is truly serious about job creation and boosting America’s economic well-being, he must provide leadership and action in helping to pass employment protections for lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender people and ending the costly and unjust federal marriage ban.”

Others were more pointed in pressing the administration.

“Tonight, President Obama missed an opportunity to lay out an agenda and strategy that continues progress made toward LGBT equality — removing the burden of being second-class citizens and acknowledging our families,” said Robin McGehee, director of GetEQUAL, a direct action group visible in Washington and around the country over the past year.

In a Huffington Post article earlier in the day, McGehee wrote, “We refuse to accept the political excuses that ‘now is not the time’ for ‘difficult’ issues like equality or that these issues are too ‘complicated’ or ‘controversial’ to take on right now.”

Dan Savage, a widely syndicated sex columnist who is the editorial director of the Stranger, a Seattle weekly, in a Sunday New York Times op-ed published January 23, urged Obama to use the State of the Union to “tackle the biggest, most meaningful right of them all: the right to marry.”

With the president trying to focus the nation on his commitment to right the economy, however, making news of that sort, even if he were prepared to take the leap, was never really in the cards.

Obama coupled his salute to DADT repeal with a call to “our college campuses to open their doors to our military recruiters and the ROTC. It is time to leave behind the divisive battles of the past. It is time to move forward as one nation.”

For more than a decade, the Pentagon and Congress have waged battle against some universities with anti-discrimination policies at odds with a military presence on campus over the issue of giving access to recruiters and the Reserve Officers Training Corps.

At least some in the LGBT community do not welcome the president’s call to end that debate.

On January 21, the Students for Queer Liberation at Stanford University, noting that the Pentagon’s Military Leadership Diversity Commission recommends a ban on transgender service members, issued a statement saying, “A re-introduction of ROTC on college campuses (including Stanford, Harvard, and Columbia) that include ‘gender identity’ in their non-discrimination clause is a fundamental violation of policy and an endorsement of discrimination.”

One aspect of the president’s address that captured particular interest in the LGBT community was the presence in First Lady Michelle Obama’s seating area of Daniel Hernandez, the out gay college student and intern to Congresswoman Gabrielle Giffords, whose quick and courageous actions are widely credited with saving the Arizona Democrat’s life during the failed January 8 assassination attempt against her.

Hernandez was due in New York on January 26 to appear with Mayor Michael Bloomberg in a gun control event at City Hall.