I am so happy C. A. MacKinnon's lecture is on YouTube. And now here too. It's so important.
Thursday, September 30, 2010
Hope Beyond Tragedy: To ANY QUEER, LESBIAN, OR GAY YOUTH: Reach out to those you know who will not hurt you. Find support. WE ARE HERE FOR YOU. Suicide is a terribly permanent solution to a temporary problem. Love exists for you.
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| image is from here |
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| image is from here |
To any queer youth of any color or age--any gay boys, lesbian girls, transgender teens, intersex or intergender children, teens, and young adults reading this, please do one thing: get support from adults and peers who care about you and find support instead of committing suicide. We are here for you (click this link).
Find adults who will listen but who will not exploit you. We are here for you (click this link).
Find compassionate people who understand the pain, isolation, and ridicule and torment that can come with being young and not heterosexual or "normally" gendered. You are fine the way you are. There are people out in the world who will respect you and emotionally support you without harassing and exploiting you. We are here for you (click this link).
Gay, Lesbian, Bisexual, and Transgender (GLBT) Youth Support Line
800-850-8078
Gay & Transgender Hate Crime Hotline
1-800-616-HATE
With condolences to all the loved ones of each of these youth and teenagers who took their own lives. And to all queer youth and adults who are bullied, harassed, exploited, abused, and neglected: there is support, help, and hope for you. We are here for you (click this link).
When I was 16, my first ever boyfriend (who was 15) was taken away from me, moved clear away, by his evil-acting step-father who didn't want his step-son being anything other than heterosexual. I was never identified as heterosexual, and I always knew other queer youth, which helped me feel not entirely alone. I am the only out gay, lesbian, transgender, intersex, intergender, or bi person in my family, however, which has done nothing to make me feel less alone.
My boyfriend and I saw another queer youth, more targetable than we were, enduring grotesque levels of harassment and also rejection at home. We stood with him when walking down the hallways, whenever possible. Of course that meant people would assume we were gay too. Well, we were.
The stories which follow of teen gay male suicides are so frequent lately that it's nearly impossible to keep track of the details of each boy's own struggles leading up to his death. What we know is that a form of U.S. terrorism more benignly called heterosexism, homophobia, lesbophobia, and transphobia in school systems and beyond them remains rampant. This form of terrorism, against children and young adults of all genders, all ages, all colors and cultures and ethnicities, will not be dealt with appropriately because, in general, school administrators want to keep their schools pro-heterosexual and anti-gay/lesbian/transgender/intersex. That's the truth of it. Now, how do we deal with that level of institutionalised anti-queer bias and bigotry? We support our youth, for one thing. Out loud. Not only out of view. And we demand more from heterosexist society and its protectors, because our youth need more protection that does heterosexism. Heterosexism isn't being threatened with extinction anywhere by anything. But our youth are taking their own lives at an alarming rate.
Below are too many new stories of gay boys losing their lives for no good reason at all. They want to escape humiliation and emotional torment and pain. But surely our community can be publicly supportive in ways that we have not, as yet, been, in order to help these children and young adults know there is hope beyond the torment. The last piece in this post is a message from a popular U.S. white gay activist and writer and his spouse, on their hell in high school and love together beyond it.
This first boy, Asher Brown, came out as gay to his parents in the morning. And later that day he committed suicide due to being bullied.
From LGBTQ Nation:
Another suicide: Houston teen, victim of anti-gay bullying, shoots himself
FAMILY PHOTOby Asher Brown
Another teenage victim of anti-gay bullying has committed suicide.
Asher Brown came home from school last Thursday while his parents were at work. He shot himself in the head after enduring what his mother and stepfather say was constant harassment from four other students at Hamilton Middle School in Houston.
He used his stepfather’s 9mm Beretta, stored on a closet shelf, to kill himself. He left no note.
“For some reason, he stood out and people were just cruel. Kids were cruel to my kid. He was very different. He’s not the type of kid that would try to wear the newest clothes or try to do the coolest thing. He was an individual,” says David Truong, Asher’s stepfather.David and Amy Truong said they made several visits to the school to complain about the harassment, and Amy Truong said she made numerous phone calls to the school that were never returned.
The 13-year-old’s parents said they had complained about the bullying to school officials during the past 18 months, but claimed their concerns fell on deaf ears.
But school officials said Monday that they never received any complaints from Brown’s parents before the suicide about the way the boy was being treated at school. [Houston Chronicle]
That statement has infuriated the Truongs, who accused the school district of protecting the bullies and their parents.
“That’s absolutely inaccurate — it’s completely false,” Amy Truong said. “I did not hallucinate phone calls to counselors and assistant principals. We have no reason to make this up. … It’s like they’re calling us liars.”
The Truongs say Asher confided in them that he was gay on the morning of his suicide. The parents say the conversation went so well, they believe he went on to confess to children at his school.
Asher’s suicide is the third incident this month attributed to anti-gay bullying.
On September 9, 15-year-old Billy Lucas of Greensburg, IN, hanged himself at his grandmother’s home. Friends of Lucas said that he had been tormented for years based on his perceived sexual orientation.
And in California, 13-year-old gay teen Seth Walsh remains in critical condition and on life support after he attempted to hang himself last week in what friends and neighbors describe as another case of anti-gay bullying.
With heartfelt condolences for all the loved ones who grieve and remember these gay youth and one gay adult.
From LGBTQ Nation:
Indiana teen’s suicide thought to be result of anti-gay bullying
A 15-year-old Indiana teen took his own life last week in what is thought to be another suicide at least partially connected to school bullying, a result of the teen’s perceived sexual orientation.
Billy Lucas (via Facebook)
Friends of Lucas say that he had been tormented for years. [WTHR-TV]
“He was threatened to get beat up every day,” friend and classmate Nick Hughes said. “Sometimes in classes, kids would act like they were going to punch him and stuff and push him.”Decatur County Coroner Doug Banks said Lucas left a note, but that it didn’t refer to bullying or blame anyone; Lucas reportedly never self-identified as gay.
“Some people at school called him names,” Hughes said, saying most of those names questioned Lucas’ sexual orientation, and that Lucas, for the most part, did little to defend himself.
“He would try to but people would just try to break him down with words and stuff and just pick on him,” Hughes said.
A Facebook memorial page created in Lucas’ honor, begins with this bio: “Everyone made fun of him at school and he couldn’t take it anymore so he decided to end his life”.
* * *
From Queerty.com:
From the comments posted *here*:
Frank Lundburg1 hour ago
From CNN:
From Americablog Gay:
Another gay youth suicide -- roommate secretly filmed him hooking up, put video on twitter, kid killed himself shortly after
This story just hurts to read. It's painful:
There have been a number of teen suicides over the past couple weeks. Truth Wins Out reports "In September, there have been three gay teen suicides as a result of school bullying." That's just wrong.
What kind of messages were our elected leaders, like John McCain, Lindsey Graham and Mitch McConnell, sending to young LGBT Americans when those Senators launched their vicious, homophobic attacks on gay and lesbian servicemembers last week? They were denigrating the worth of all LGBT Americans. It was sick. And, those deranged, obsessed religious right-types, led by Tony Perkins and Maggie Gallagher, send the same message. It's pure hatred and it's despicable.
Over the past few days, several sent me the video Dan Savage and his husband, Terry, filmed for the It Gets Better Project. It does. Every gay kid should watch this. It does get better --- and it's worth it:
A Rutgers University freshman killed himself after two classmates used a hidden dorm room camera to splash his sex life across the internet, sources told the Daily News.So, awful. It just hurts.
A distraught Tyler Clementi, 18, left his wallet on the George Washington Bridge before plunging to his death in the Hudson River last Wednesday, sources said.
A Twitter post from one of the students accused of streaming the sexual encounter live on the internet indicated Clementi, a renowned high school violinist, was with another man.
"Roommate asked for the room till midnight," read the post from Dharun Ravi, 18. "I went into Molly's room and turned on my webcam. I saw him making out with a dude. Yay."
The Twitter post went up Sept. 19 - three days before Clementi's suicide.
There have been a number of teen suicides over the past couple weeks. Truth Wins Out reports "In September, there have been three gay teen suicides as a result of school bullying." That's just wrong.
What kind of messages were our elected leaders, like John McCain, Lindsey Graham and Mitch McConnell, sending to young LGBT Americans when those Senators launched their vicious, homophobic attacks on gay and lesbian servicemembers last week? They were denigrating the worth of all LGBT Americans. It was sick. And, those deranged, obsessed religious right-types, led by Tony Perkins and Maggie Gallagher, send the same message. It's pure hatred and it's despicable.
Over the past few days, several sent me the video Dan Savage and his husband, Terry, filmed for the It Gets Better Project. It does. Every gay kid should watch this. It does get better --- and it's worth it:
Wednesday, September 29, 2010
The U.S. Proves It is Callous To Haitian People and Sovereignty, Including and Despite Bill Clinton's Efforts to Re-Colonize the Country
Antoine Fesnell, right, prays as his daughters Nicole, 9, center, and Antoine, 6, look on during mass in the rubble of the Notre Dame Cathedral in Port-au-Prince, Haiti, on Sunday. Fesnell's wife died in the earthquake that struck Haiti on Jan. 12 and killed a government-estimated 300,000 people and left millions homeless.
What follows and what is above is from *here* at MSNBC.com.
What follows and what is above is from *here* at MSNBC.com.
Haitians suffer as U.S. aid is stuck in red tape
Not a cent of $1.15 billion promised for rebuilding has arrived
The Associated Press 
PORT-AU-PRINCE, Haiti — Nearly nine months after the earthquake, more than a million Haitians still live on the streets between piles of rubble. One reason: Not a cent of the $1.15 billion the U.S. promised for rebuilding has arrived.
The money was pledged by Secretary of State Hillary Clinton in March for use this year in rebuilding. The U.S. has already spent more than $1.1 billion on post-quake relief, but without long-term funds, the reconstruction of the wrecked capital cannot begin.
With just a week to go before fiscal 2010 ends, the money is still tied up in Washington. At fault: bureaucracy, disorganization and a lack of urgency, The Associated Press learned in interviews with officials in the State Department, the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, the White House and the U.N. Office of the Special Envoy. One senator has held up a key authorization bill because of a $5 million provision he says will be wasteful.
Meanwhile, deaths in Port-au-Prince are mounting, as quake survivors scramble to live without shelter or food.
'Lives at stake'
"There are truly lives at stake, and the idea that folks are spending more time finger-pointing than getting this solved is almost unbelievable," said John Simon, a former U.S. ambassador to the African Union who is now with the Center for Global Development, a Washington think tank.
Nor is Haiti getting much from other donors. Some 50 other nations and organizations pledged a total of $8.75 billion for reconstruction, but just $686 million of that has reached Haiti so far — less than 15 percent of the total promised for 2010-11.
The lack of funds has all but halted reconstruction work by CHF International, the primary U.S.-funded group assigned to remove rubble and build temporary shelters. Just 2 percent of rubble has been cleared and 13,000 temporary shelters have been built — less than 10 percent of the number planned.
The Maryland-based agency is asking the U.S. government for $16.5 million to remove more than 21 million cubic feet of additional rubble and build 4,000 more temporary houses out of wood and metal.
"It's just a matter of one phone call and the trucks are out again. We have contractors ready to continue removing rubble. ... We have local suppliers and international suppliers ready to ship the amount of wood and construction materials we need," said CHF country director Alberto Wilde. "It's just a matter of money."
Last week the inaction bore tragic results. On Friday an isolated storm destroyed an estimated 8,000 tarps, tents and shacks in the capital and killed at least six people, including two children. And the threat of violence looms as landowners threaten entire camps with forced eviction.
In Washington there is confusion about the money. At a July hearing, Ravij Shah, director of the U.S. Agency for International Development, thanked members of Congress for approving the funds, saying, "The resources are flowing and are being spent in country."
It wasn't true then, and still hasn't happened.
When the earthquake hit, U.S. agencies sent troops, rescuers, aid workers and supplies to the devastated capital, Port-au-Prince. On March 24, President Barack Obama asked Congress for $2.8 billion in emergency aid to Haiti — about half to pay back money already spent by USAID, the Defense Department and others. An additional $212 million was to write off debt.
The heart of the request was $1.15 billion in new reconstruction funds.
A week later, Clinton touted that figure in front of representatives of 50 nations at the U.N. secretariat, the president of Haiti at her side.
"If the effort to rebuild is slow or insufficient, if it is marked by conflict, lack of coordination or lack of transparency, then the challenges that have plagued Haiti for years could erupt with regional and global consequences," Clinton said.
That was nearly six months ago. It took until May for the Senate to pass a supplemental request for the Haiti funds and until July for the House to do the same. The votes made $917 million available but did not dictate how or when to spend it. Without that final step, the money remains in the U.S. Treasury.
Then came summer recess, emergencies in Pakistan and elsewhere, and the distractions of election politics.
Now the authorization bill that would direct how the aid is delivered remains sidelined by a senator who anonymously pulled it for further study. Through calls to dozens of senators' offices, the AP learned it was Sen. Tom Coburn, a Republican from Oklahoma.
Bill on hold
"He is holding the bill because it includes an unnecessary senior Haiti coordinator when we already have one" in U.S. Ambassador Kenneth Merten, Coburn spokeswoman Becky Bernhardt said.
The bill proposes a new coordinator in Washington who would not oversee U.S. aid but would work with the USAID administrator in Washington to develop a rebuilding strategy. The position would cost $1 million a year for five years, including salaries and expenses for a staff of up to seven people.
With the bill on hold, the State Department is trying to move the money along by avoiding Congress as much as possible. It sent lawmakers a "spending plan" on Sept. 20 and gave legislators 15 days to review it. If they fail to act on the plan, the money could be released as soon as specific projects get the OK.
"We need to make sure that the needs of the Haitian people are not sacrificed to procedural and bureaucratic impediments," Senate Foreign Relations Committee chairman John Kerry told the AP by e-mail. "As we approach nine months since the earthquake, further delays on any side are unacceptable."
Asked when the money will actually come, State Department spokesman Charles Luoma-Overstreet said the department expects to start spending in the coming weeks and months. He added that $275 million in "bridge" funds were released in March and have gone toward agriculture, work, health and shelter programs — not long-term reconstruction.
Haitian advocates say that is not enough.
Jean-Claude Bajeuax of the Ecumenical Center for Human Rights in Port-au-Prince said this phase was supposed to be about building semi-permanent houses.
Promised houses: 'Where are they'
"Where are they? We haven't seen them," he said. "There is not much money that is being used. There is not much work that has actually been done."
Of course there is no guarantee that the money would lead to the successful rebuilding of Haiti. Many past U.S. aid efforts have fallen short. "I don't think (the money) will make any difference," said Haitian human rights advocate Pierre Esperance.
"Haitian people are not really involved in this process."
But officials agree the funds could pay for new approaches to make Haiti more sustainable, and rebuilding projects could improve millions of lives.
The AP found that $874 million of the funds pledged by other countries at the donors conference was money already promised to Haiti for work or aid before the quake. An additional $1.13 million wasn't ever going to be sent; it was debt relief. And $184 million was in loans to Haiti's government, not aid.
The Office of the Special Envoy has been tracking the money delivered so far but does not know who got it. The envoy himself, former President Bill Clinton, told the AP in July and again in August that he was putting pressure on donors to meet their pledges.
On the streets of Haiti, many simply feel abandoned. Mishna Gregoire, 22, said she was happy when she heard about the donors conference. But six months later she is still in a tarp city with 5,000 other people, on a foul-smelling plaza in the Port-au-Prince suburb of Petionville. "I thought it was something serious they were really going to do," Gregoire said, standing amid tarps torn apart by the sudden storm. "But nothing has been done. And I don't think anything will be done."
"There are truly lives at stake, and the idea that folks are spending more time finger-pointing than getting this solved is almost unbelievable," said John Simon, a former U.S. ambassador to the African Union who is now with the Center for Global Development, a Washington think tank.
Nor is Haiti getting much from other donors. Some 50 other nations and organizations pledged a total of $8.75 billion for reconstruction, but just $686 million of that has reached Haiti so far — less than 15 percent of the total promised for 2010-11.
The lack of funds has all but halted reconstruction work by CHF International, the primary U.S.-funded group assigned to remove rubble and build temporary shelters. Just 2 percent of rubble has been cleared and 13,000 temporary shelters have been built — less than 10 percent of the number planned.
The Maryland-based agency is asking the U.S. government for $16.5 million to remove more than 21 million cubic feet of additional rubble and build 4,000 more temporary houses out of wood and metal.
"It's just a matter of one phone call and the trucks are out again. We have contractors ready to continue removing rubble. ... We have local suppliers and international suppliers ready to ship the amount of wood and construction materials we need," said CHF country director Alberto Wilde. "It's just a matter of money."
Last week the inaction bore tragic results. On Friday an isolated storm destroyed an estimated 8,000 tarps, tents and shacks in the capital and killed at least six people, including two children. And the threat of violence looms as landowners threaten entire camps with forced eviction.
In Washington there is confusion about the money. At a July hearing, Ravij Shah, director of the U.S. Agency for International Development, thanked members of Congress for approving the funds, saying, "The resources are flowing and are being spent in country."
It wasn't true then, and still hasn't happened.
When the earthquake hit, U.S. agencies sent troops, rescuers, aid workers and supplies to the devastated capital, Port-au-Prince. On March 24, President Barack Obama asked Congress for $2.8 billion in emergency aid to Haiti — about half to pay back money already spent by USAID, the Defense Department and others. An additional $212 million was to write off debt.
The heart of the request was $1.15 billion in new reconstruction funds.
A week later, Clinton touted that figure in front of representatives of 50 nations at the U.N. secretariat, the president of Haiti at her side.
"If the effort to rebuild is slow or insufficient, if it is marked by conflict, lack of coordination or lack of transparency, then the challenges that have plagued Haiti for years could erupt with regional and global consequences," Clinton said.
That was nearly six months ago. It took until May for the Senate to pass a supplemental request for the Haiti funds and until July for the House to do the same. The votes made $917 million available but did not dictate how or when to spend it. Without that final step, the money remains in the U.S. Treasury.
Then came summer recess, emergencies in Pakistan and elsewhere, and the distractions of election politics.
Now the authorization bill that would direct how the aid is delivered remains sidelined by a senator who anonymously pulled it for further study. Through calls to dozens of senators' offices, the AP learned it was Sen. Tom Coburn, a Republican from Oklahoma.
Bill on hold
"He is holding the bill because it includes an unnecessary senior Haiti coordinator when we already have one" in U.S. Ambassador Kenneth Merten, Coburn spokeswoman Becky Bernhardt said.
The bill proposes a new coordinator in Washington who would not oversee U.S. aid but would work with the USAID administrator in Washington to develop a rebuilding strategy. The position would cost $1 million a year for five years, including salaries and expenses for a staff of up to seven people.
With the bill on hold, the State Department is trying to move the money along by avoiding Congress as much as possible. It sent lawmakers a "spending plan" on Sept. 20 and gave legislators 15 days to review it. If they fail to act on the plan, the money could be released as soon as specific projects get the OK.
"We need to make sure that the needs of the Haitian people are not sacrificed to procedural and bureaucratic impediments," Senate Foreign Relations Committee chairman John Kerry told the AP by e-mail. "As we approach nine months since the earthquake, further delays on any side are unacceptable."
Asked when the money will actually come, State Department spokesman Charles Luoma-Overstreet said the department expects to start spending in the coming weeks and months. He added that $275 million in "bridge" funds were released in March and have gone toward agriculture, work, health and shelter programs — not long-term reconstruction.
Haitian advocates say that is not enough.
Jean-Claude Bajeuax of the Ecumenical Center for Human Rights in Port-au-Prince said this phase was supposed to be about building semi-permanent houses.
Promised houses: 'Where are they'
"Where are they? We haven't seen them," he said. "There is not much money that is being used. There is not much work that has actually been done."
Of course there is no guarantee that the money would lead to the successful rebuilding of Haiti. Many past U.S. aid efforts have fallen short. "I don't think (the money) will make any difference," said Haitian human rights advocate Pierre Esperance.
"Haitian people are not really involved in this process."
But officials agree the funds could pay for new approaches to make Haiti more sustainable, and rebuilding projects could improve millions of lives.
The AP found that $874 million of the funds pledged by other countries at the donors conference was money already promised to Haiti for work or aid before the quake. An additional $1.13 million wasn't ever going to be sent; it was debt relief. And $184 million was in loans to Haiti's government, not aid.
The Office of the Special Envoy has been tracking the money delivered so far but does not know who got it. The envoy himself, former President Bill Clinton, told the AP in July and again in August that he was putting pressure on donors to meet their pledges.
On the streets of Haiti, many simply feel abandoned. Mishna Gregoire, 22, said she was happy when she heard about the donors conference. But six months later she is still in a tarp city with 5,000 other people, on a foul-smelling plaza in the Port-au-Prince suburb of Petionville. "I thought it was something serious they were really going to do," Gregoire said, standing amid tarps torn apart by the sudden storm. "But nothing has been done. And I don't think anything will be done."
"In America They Call Us Dykes: Lesbian Lives in the 70s". An October 8 - 10, 2010 Conference
The conference embraces a variety of topics and formats, from intimate conversations to more formal presentations of original research, from roundtables to workshops to reminiscences.
What is above and below is from *here*. I am posting the information here to promote the event.
Welcome to the Official Homepage for
In Amerika They Call Us Dykes:
Lesbian Lives in the 70s
Fall Festival
October 8th 2010 - October 10th 2010
Fall Festival Official Website
Fall Festival Schedule
Spring 2010 Series
The 1970s was a period of intense excitement, change, activism, and activity for lesbians. As lesbian feminism redefined what qualified as a "political issue" and challenged every assumption about gender, race, class, ability, sexuality, and any other social category, lesbians of all kinds created cultural, social, political, economic, and regional organizations and networks.
Lesbians created businesses; lesbians made and marketed music; lesbians played on softball teams; lesbians engaged in struggles for racial, social, and economic justice; lesbians made films; lesbians created womyn's land. Inspired by the massive social changes that were taking place, lesbians made new worlds for themselves and others.
In recognition of this momentous decade, the Center for Lesbian and Gay Studies (CLAGS) will be holding a weekend long event/conference/ festival of lesbian history, culture, arts, scholarship, discussion, and performance from Friday, October 8 to Sunday, October 10th. The event will call upon experience, memory, and scholarship to represent as fully as possible the broad and wide experience of lesbians during the 1970s.
www.70slesbians.org
CLAGS Lesbians in the 70s Series will:
- Introduce and educate a broader audience about a crucial aspect of post-war American history.
- Commemorate and illuminate the contributions of lesbians in the 1970s whose work was instrumental in the development of a modern feminist and LGBT identity.
- Nurture current historical research on women and Lesbianism during this particular era.
- Engage current multidisciplinary scholars of the 1970s, lesbianism, and feminism.
- Create an original anthology of older work and new scholarly and creative work on lesbian lives in the 1970s and now.
***For more, please see *here* at Gay City News.***
CNN Anchor Don Lemon reveals he's a survivor of child sexual abuse, to make a point about perpetrators that needs to be heard
(For more on that interview on CNN, see this article at dailymail.co.uk.)
There are three main points I'd like to highlight here, regarding the video above.
1. It is really glaring to me how and to what degree whites with class-privilege don't get how much more difficult it is for African Americans to publicly address the issue of sexual abuse in African American communities. If your sexuality and your personhood are both demonised by whites, then to discuss how some people in your community abuse people sexually is usually not going to be discussed in a public that has a white audience, if at all. Across race, the same phenomenon exists in identifying adult gay perpetrators of child sexual abuse. Because gay men are pre-stigmatised as "child molesters" those of us who are gay are often unwilling to discuss the issue of predation by gay adults in heterosexual, heterosexist, and homophobic environments. So, imagine being Black and gay in the U.S. and how different that is than being white and a heterosexual male, in terms of how much stigma there is on you, the survivor, and on the perpetrator as well.
2. It's sad that the reason people need to disclose on air, live, that they have survived an atrocity is because too many of us would prefer to be in denial about predators and perpetrators in our communities. Let's be clear here: predators, perpetrators, rapists, and child molesters are not "them". They are us. They look like "us" not like a "them". They behave like "us" not like "them".
If perpetrators and predators were only a "them" then "we" could spot 'em a mile away. We can't. They live with us and therefore are us. They are our doctors, priests, and fathers. They are, in some cases, our mothers. They are our step-dads, our grandfathers, our uncles, our older siblings. They are, usually, men known by us and trusted by us because they are known.
What most predators and perpetrators are NOT is "strange". What they are not are "strangers" most of the time. That's why the abuse happens so much: because the abusers are trusted and well-known adults who victims care for and, often, don't know how to say "NO" to.
That was the case with me. I didn't know how to say no to someone who was an adult who I was supposed to show regard and respect for. No one taught me it would be okay for me to fight back, to scream, to yell, to kick the perp in the nuts, to do whatever it took to get away. No one told me. What I was told instead was "always respect your elders".
Fuck that CRAP. Adults deserve no more respect than children, and no less. But when an adult violates another human being in atrocious ways, their "right to privacy" and their right to be held in high regard goes right out the door, as far as I'm concerned. I'm not at all in support of demonising abusers. But nor am I supportive of protecting them from consequences that they might avoid as long as their crimes are kept hidden.
3. If a Christian priest sexually abuses a child, they are a Christian terrorist. Plain and simple. If you don't get that, you don't get much.
Tuesday, September 28, 2010
Fundraising for Film on Audre Lorde's visits to Germany and the influence of her work there
I have no idea if the filmmaker plans to integrate what Audre taught about the intersections of sexuality, race, class, and gender, but I hope so.
All that follows is from *here*.
Dear friends and members of CAAR,
I (Audre Lorde’s German publisher) am in the process of making a film – “The marvelous arithmetics of differences. Encounters with Audre Lorde 1984 –1992” – with filmmaker Zara Zandieh on the times Audre Lorde spent in Germany from 1984to 1992.
The film demonstrates how Lorde’s ideas on constructively dealing with differences deeply influenced the development of a Black German movement and the growth of consciousness around racism among White women – a subject few people outside of Germany are aware of.
The project is a very timely one in view of continued struggles aganst racism and around integration.
It seems to closely relate to the purpose and goals of CAAR exploring a significant cross-cultural exchange and coalition building in the context of the Black diaspora.
The film is based on archival materials, videos and fotos I and others took. We also want to integrate footage which Third World Newsreel (TWN) took in Berlin in 1989 for their film “A Litany for Survival. Life and Work of Audre Lorde”, and most of which they did not use. The film is to be finished by the end of 2011 – 2012 is the 20th anniversary of Audre Lorde’s passing.
At this point, we urgently need two types of support: publicity and financial aid. This is a low-budget production for which I have received some, but by far not sufficient funding.
I am trying to raise at least $40,000. Contributions of any amount will be helpful, and of course contributors will be listed as sponsors. Contact: dagschultz1(at)aol.com
We appreciate CAAR’s cooperation in this important project!
Sincerely,
Dagmar Schultz
ps: Please find the expose of the film in the file below.
All that follows is from *here*.
Fundraising for Film on Audre Lorde: A Letter From the Filmmakers
I (Audre Lorde’s German publisher) am in the process of making a film – “The marvelous arithmetics of differences. Encounters with Audre Lorde 1984 –1992” – with filmmaker Zara Zandieh on the times Audre Lorde spent in Germany from 1984to 1992.
The film demonstrates how Lorde’s ideas on constructively dealing with differences deeply influenced the development of a Black German movement and the growth of consciousness around racism among White women – a subject few people outside of Germany are aware of.
The project is a very timely one in view of continued struggles aganst racism and around integration.
It seems to closely relate to the purpose and goals of CAAR exploring a significant cross-cultural exchange and coalition building in the context of the Black diaspora.
The film is based on archival materials, videos and fotos I and others took. We also want to integrate footage which Third World Newsreel (TWN) took in Berlin in 1989 for their film “A Litany for Survival. Life and Work of Audre Lorde”, and most of which they did not use. The film is to be finished by the end of 2011 – 2012 is the 20th anniversary of Audre Lorde’s passing.
At this point, we urgently need two types of support: publicity and financial aid. This is a low-budget production for which I have received some, but by far not sufficient funding.
I am trying to raise at least $40,000. Contributions of any amount will be helpful, and of course contributors will be listed as sponsors. Contact: dagschultz1(at)aol.com
We appreciate CAAR’s cooperation in this important project!
Sincerely,
Dagmar Schultz
ps: Please find the expose of the film in the file below.
- Files:
ExposÇ_engl._Kurzfassung_23.8.pdf76 K
Monday, September 27, 2010
Economics and Compassion
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| image is from here |
A fundamental question is this: What does an economic system exist to do? Follow up questions are these:
Does an economic system that is increasingly globalised exist to support the welfare of the rich only, or also people generally? Does our corporate capitalist system in the West exist to serve the so-called First World at the expense of every other region of the world?
Is the dominant economic system in the U.S. one that replicates and reinforces or challenges and transforms white het male supremacy?
Does our economy work for the rich and not for the poor? Does it work for rich people and not for non-human animals and the Earth?
I have been in discussion with people about re-envisioning what "an economic system" does, what and who it exists for, and how we might transition to a more humane global community that doesn't seek to become one globalised community, but rather increasingly diverse and sustainable, flexible systems of support for humanity, non-human animals, and the Earth and its atmosphere.
The discussion is about paradigms and programs, values and vision, and whether we are capable of seeing what paradigms we live and die in, and what those paradigms exist to do, and how they become what we live.
That we live inside a few people's ideas is perhaps unsettling but it is true enough. Someone designed the systems we live in. Perhaps many people did, and many more have modified these systems over time. But in the last many decades, increasingly few people have increasingly more power and control over the systems in which we live and die, in which animals live and die and become extinct, in which the Earth gets sick and begins to die.
On an economic level, why do we need a global economy? Why not support very local and regional economies which are relatively self-sufficient and sustainable with the land masses they exist on and with?
If you have an economic model that required ever-expanding growth, and that growth takes natural resources that are not ever-expanding, do you see a problem with the model? If an economic system requires continually polluting and destroying land masses, soil bases, forests, and many ecosystems, how is it that we expect to survive? What we can see quite clearly is that when humans fuck around with ecosystems, everything and everyone suffers the consequences.
Think about Haiti and the devastation of the Earthquake on land that had its trees removed and political systems ravaged by outside forces. Consider the Pakistan floods and mudslides, and how dependent those were on the removal of trees. Consider New Orleans and that once upon a time that land and sea met at wetlands which existed to slow and shut down hurricanes, not welcome them deep into the land mass.
Consider that money economies don't show much regard for the many non-material gifts each of us bring to one another, including the raising of children, and instead force us to do work that we can get to survive, not work that we can enjoy doing.
To me, a lot is not working, and the proof of that is the amount of human and non-human suffering we witness when things like earthquakes, economic downturns, ceaseless and expanding poverty, increasingly trafficking and slavery, and environmental disasters happen that are all caused or exacerbated by greedy humans who disregard laws of nature in order to get rich and richer.
Support local bartering and humane service exchange economies, and community strengthening that considers the land mass as part of the community. Support local and regional efforts to strength systems of support that don't require that taxes be generated to support warfare, poverty and famine, and the destruction of the Earth.
If we care about each other, why would we want to perpetuate economic and political systems that do unfathomable harm?
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