Thursday, June 28, 2012

In Any Case, I Figured It Out (Personal)

We tend to stick pretty closely to the LGBT sides of ourselves here, which is important considering the social landscape of this country, but there's more to us than that.  I for one am fascinated with the complexities of relationships, of emotions, of love, of sex.

Tuesday, June 26, 2012

What Does a Company Need to Do for LGBT Employees?

I’ve been thinking about this one a lot over the past few days.  I work in a very rural area with people that predominantly occupy an older, whiter demographic.  Many of my coworkers consider their religious beliefs to be very important to them.  Now, none of these things necessarily mean anything from individual to individual (and I want to highlight that I am making no assumptions), but I am well aware of the demographics and percentages.  As you would expect, it is not the most naturally welcoming environment in which to come out, or advertise any aspect of being LGBT.

Monday, June 25, 2012

Some Thoughts on Being Out and Coming Out

I’ll back up a bit first.  I am not ‘out’ in the traditional sense in that everyone knows that I am not straight and it is violently obvious within five minutes of meeting me.  There is a large group of people that knows about my sexuality, and a large group that doesn’t. 

Sunday, June 24, 2012

Contribution to IMEnough

I graduated from George Washington University with a Bachelors degree in Fine Arts (hence the photography:)). I played as an openly trans male on the women's basketball team. Now that I am out of college I came up with the idea to "Hide to create Visibility". I know that sounds strange but let me explain. When you see a photo of a person people usually want to see the face so that they can SEE who the person IS. My project goal is to teach people how to relearn that tendency.

Our outer appearance does not tell us who we are, we are who we say we are. Who someone is comes from within and my project will portray that. So my pictures will have individuals (only one person in a photo, this is about our inner self) doing whatever you feel like doing, standing, running, reading, dancing, WHATEVER you feel describes you. The sky is the limit. The only thing I ask is to not allow your face to be seen. You can hide it anyway you'd like, be creative, or not ha. Just make sure your ENTIRE face is NOT visible so we create the visibility.

 Now the visibility comes from your words. Everyone transitions in life not just transgender individuals. So what makes one transition better than the other? Absolutely nothing. I will give you a sentence starter, "I transitioned........From______To________". You can have as many of those as you need. At the end of your I transitioned piece it will say IMEnough. This project will consist of trans people and trans ally's. IMEnough promotes love and respect for yourself and others.


Monday, June 18, 2012

Girl or Boy?

As many of you know, one of the things we're railing against here is the 'gender binary,' the assertion that a person must be male or female without any middle ground. Lately society has come to find out just how narrow and inaccurate a way that is to classify people. I'll let one of my favorite artists, Dani Shay, take it away after the jump.

Sunday, June 17, 2012

The National Organization for Marriage is at it Again

Tonight I'm glad to bring you a perfect example of how the National Organization for Marriage, arguably the largest, most dangerous, and most well funded anti-gay group, lies about LGBT individuals.  If you haven't been following the story, a school district in Erie, Illinois has banned materials from the Gay, Lesbian, and Straight Education Network.  Here is NOM's writeup.

Tuesday, June 12, 2012

How The Anti-Gay Lie

If you were watching on Twitter today, the National Organization for Marriage was all over a "study" completed by Mark Regnerus, a Texas professor (that was funded by conservative special interest groups...but who's keeping track?).

Saturday, June 9, 2012

Clothing and the Gender Binary

I identify as male...barely.  Gender fluid might be a better descriptor, but for convenience's sake I pick one and, in line with my physiology, that one is male.  As you would expect, my tastes are anything but what you would stereotypically call male, especially with clothing.  However, I often find myself limited.

Monday, June 4, 2012

The Anti-Gay Lobby; What is it Really About?

Something Alvin McEwen of Holy Bullies wrote today struck me and I want to expand on the idea.  McEwen points out that of all the things in comic books that go against Christian teachings, violence, torture, murder, religious groups like One Million Moms (Note: does not actually contain one million moms) have chosen tot ake issue with a couple characters who have recently been revealed to be gay.

Friday, June 1, 2012

Porno Peter LaBarbera has had Enough of Me Pointing Out He's a Liar

Peter LaBarbera blocked me on Twitter in a sad development today.  I'm assuming he didn't like being called our for the liar he is yesterday when he tweeted:

". Homo-fascism. So much for the Left + "choice." Killing babies: Right to Choose! Leaving homosexuality: BAN IT! "

Of course "banning leaving homosexuality" is preposterous and nothing of the sort has been done.  He was referring to the proposed bill that would ban Reparative (ex-gay) Therapy in California for minors.  If you haven't been keeping track, this therapy has been condemned by every reputable medical and psychiatric association.

As you can see, there is a massive difference in banning a sexual preference and banning a harmful therapy for a certain subset of the population.  LaBarbera is not an idiot, and knows this, but that doesn't stop him from spreading the kind of misinformation that is common of him and his anti-gay compatriots.

Farewell Peter's Twitter feed, I will miss the special brand of crazy you brought that even had some conservatives shaking their heads.