Have a Gay Day

By Gwen

Over the past few weeks my Queer friends and I have been experiencing more instances of homophobia than usual... clients, coworkers, supervisors, and even random-ass taxi drivers!

Thought I'd post some positive and 

          **ANTI-Heterocentric**

links to combat the negative, homophobic energy that seems to be forcing it's way into our happy GAY lives. 

So here's go... and have a GAY day!

"The Olympics have always been a little gay" commercial from CANADA  

New Zealand's Prime Minister pro-gay speech

A Dallas sportscaster responds to Michael Sam's coming out and the NFL's response to him

Gotta love Boulder: IGNITE Boulder and using the word GAY

And of course this classic: "PROP 8 The Musical"

Assembly Bill 1266 Breakdown
By Joe

This California law, passed in August of 2013, allows transgender-children in public school to use the restrooms and join the athletic programs that correspond with their self-identified gender. It took effect January 1st of this year, and as of February 26th, 2014, AB 1266 has survived an attempted repeal by Anti-LGBT interest groups. 
Out in front of this discriminatory campaign to overturn AB 1266 was Frank Schubert. He was instrumental in the passage of Proposition 8, which took marriage rights away from same-sex California couples in 2008. 
Schubert submitted 619,381 names of people opposed to AB 1266, because, as they believe, it forces children to use restrooms and locker-rooms with fellow children of the "opposite sex".
131,897 of the names could not legitimately submitted, making Schubert's petition more than 17,000 signatures short of 504,760, the number required before AB 1266 could be included on California's 2014's November ballot.
Thus AB 1266 stands as California law and may serve as an example for other states where gender identity is not considered grounds for protection from discrimination in public school.

It was Tom Ammiano who first introduced AB 1266 (a.k.a. the School Success and Opportunity Act). 
And it was the activism of LGBT advocate group like Equality California (EQ CA), GSA Network, National Center for Lesbian Rights (NCLR), Transgender Law Center, and the ACLU that spurred action by California legislators and Governor Jerry Brown to pass and ratify the bill.

Among the activist organizations to gather and then deliver petitions in favor of AB 1266 to the Governor's office in Sacramento was, C-FAC, Canvass for a Cause (motto: Strictly Progressive, occasionally queer.)
My sister Rachel Scoma, attorney at law, was field director of C-FAC when I joined the campaign to promote passage of the controversial bill.

Kegan, a C-FAC activist and trans man, personally delivered over 6,000 signed petitions of support to Governor Brown's secretary, immediately after being hassled by State House security guards for wearing a whistle around his neck. Kegan's singular treatment by security on that auspicious day turned ironic when they referred to him with female pronouns (e.g. "she says" and "her whistle").

Having stated our purpose was to hand signed petitions promoting transgender rights to the Governor, it didn't even dawn on the burly, stoic, security guards protecting the Capitol that some of the gender-non-conforming members of our group might be trans themselves.

This incident merely showed us how important it is that provisions, policies and laws be passed that acknowledge the existence of trans-people who are regularly marginalized by our communities and governments. 
Only through education will cisgender (non-trans) people come to understand that there are thousands, even millions of people who do not identify with the gender they were assigned at birth. 
And it is only through equitable legislation that we can assure all people receive their full human dignity under the law. 

LGBT Fall & Winter 2013-2014

2013

November 20th

• Governor Pat Quinn signed Illinois' Marriage Equality Law on Abraham Lincoln's desk after it was passed by the State Legislature, making it the 16th state to achieve marriage equality. Gay weddings are slated to begin June 1st, 2014.

December 19th

• New Mexico's Supreme Court ruled unanimously (5-0) that the state's Marriage Equality Ban was unconstitutional, effectively legalizing same-sex marriage.

December 20th

• U.S. District Judge Robert J. Shelby ruled Utah's Anti-Marriage Equality amendment, passed by voters in 2004, unconstitutional.
• Gay marriages commence in Salt Lake County.

December 27th

• Utah County start to issue marriage licenses to same-sex couples.

2014

January 3rd

• LDS Ex-Gay Conversion Therapy organization, Evergreen, merges with North Star, another LDS Ex-Gay Conversion Therapy organization.
• CBS anchor, Itay Hod, effectively "outs" GOP, Illinois Congressman and male fitness model, Aaron Schock, in an Gawker op-ed. Rep. Schock has a typically right-wing homophobic voting record and has fended off gay rumors since his election.

January 6th

• U.S. Supreme Court has ceased the issuing of marriage licenses to same-sex couples until the appeals process is concluded.

January 8th

• Utah's governor, Gary Herbert, announced the State will not recognize the more than 1,300 marriage licenses it had issued since December 20th, 2013.

January 10th

•  U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder announced that the Federal Government will recognize Utah's gay marriages.

January 14th

• Federal District Judge Terence Kern ruled Oklahoma's Anti-Marriage Equality amendment, passed by voters in 2004, unconstitutional. Same-sex marriages will not be performed until after the appeals process is concluded.

January 22nd

• Pavel Lebedev was tackled by Sochi Olympic Security officers for waving a rainbow flag:  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iIwvdulPG-8

January 27th

• Anatoly Pakhomov, Sochi's mayor, in a BBC interview leading up to the Olympics, insists there are no homosexuals in his city.
• Virginia's Attorney General, refuses to defend Virginia's anti-gay marriage law.

January 28

• An Anti-Gay Marriage measure failed to pass Indiana's House of Representatives and will not be included in November's ballot.
• Disney Channel introduces its first gay couple on kid's show Good Luck Charlie.

January 31

• Nicole Maines, a trans high school student from Maine, was given a favorable verdict by the state's Supreme Court, which acknowledges her rights were violated when teachers forced her to use a staff restroom at the request of another student's parent instead of the student-girls' restroom.

February 3rd

• 43 LGBT activists were arrested for silently blocking Idaho's State Senate Chamber. Their shirts and posters read "Add the Words", calling for the terms 'sexual orientation' and 'gender identity' to be included in Idaho's Human Rights Act. Among the activists was former State Senator, Nicole LeFavour, Idaho's first openly gay legislator.

February 4th

• Bill de Blasio, NYC's new progressive mayor, is boycotting historic St. Patrick's Day Parade because of its anti-gay policy.

February 5th

• AT&T, one of the Sochi Olypics' official sponsors, publicly condemns Russia's anti-gay laws.  

February 6th

• Dmitry Kozak, Russia's Deputy Prime Minister, warns LGBT community not to demonstrate their love in front of children. The implication of his remarks, and Putin's Gay-Propaganda Law itself, affirms that children are harmed by seeing loving gay relationships. This baseless opinion is taken even further by right-wing fascist groups who claim all gay men are pedophiles and torture them with impunity.
• Google shows solidarity with LGBT Olympians with rainbow graphic.

February 7th

• Russian police arrest dozens of LGBT activists protesting their country's homophobic laws.

February 9th

• Michael Sam, top NFL prospect, comes out as before May Draft. 

February 11th

• Scott Lively, international promoter of anti-gay laws, insists the videos of young gay men being beaten by Neo-Nazis in Russia is a homosexual hoax.
• Activists protest Russia's homophobic and transphobic laws in Greece despite police crackdown.
• Pascal Tessier becomes the 1st openly gay Eagle Scout.

February 12th

• U.S. District Judge John G. Heyburn II ruled that Kentucky must recognize Same-Sex Marriages from other states.

February 13th

• U.S. District Judge Arenda Wright Allen ruled Virginia's Marriage Equality ban, passed by voters in 2006, unconstitutional. 

February 14th

• Ellen Page comes out.

February 21

• U.S. District Judge Sharon Johnson Coleman ruled that gay marriages should commence immediately in Chicago and the rest of Cook County, Illinois.
• Governor Jan Brewer considers signing into law a bill passed by both houses of Arizona's legislature that allows the State's businesses to discriminate against people (LGBTs and their allies) by refusing them service on the basis of religious objection.

February 24

• Uganda's President, Yoweri Museveni, signed an anti-gay law that will make homosexuality a crime so that promoting gay rights can result in incarceration and engaging in consensual gay relationships can be punished with life in prison.

February 26

• U.S. District Judge Orlando Garcia ruled Texas' Marriage Equality Ban was unconstitutional. Gay marriages are pending on the appeals process.