Gay men of color, along with women and transgender people of color, are among the Black and Latina/os disproportionately subjected to over 685,000 stops and frisks by the NYPD last year. I know, because I am one of them.
He cared for me and my sister every day while my mom was at work. He encouraged us to be assertive and fearless tree climbers and communicators. And he taught us to be open-minded and accepting of others, because Dad was also transgender.
I didn't see a way out. I was tired of hearing things in my head, and tired of feeling weighed down from the top of me to the bottom, and mostly tired of this constant, numb sadness that found its way into every moment of my life. I was 16 years old, and I wanted to die.
Why do faith communities accept Madea when they are aware that she is played by a man in drag? Would the same churchgoing audiences accept a man attending their church services in drag? Could that love extend to someone who still has manly features but identifies as a woman?
In 2011 my marriage to Thomas was invalidated based on the assumption that we had a same-sex marriage, even though we weren't a gay couple. In fact, we were a very average heterosexual couple. After the shocking ruling, I fought back.
Maines men don't talk about our feelings. Maybe if we had talked it would have stopped my worrying about the questions they were afraid to ask. Maybe it could have been a start.
As a transgender woman, her in-your-face sexuality and songs of joy and freedom have provided an empowering message to the LGBT community. And, as she says in this interview she did via email for Network Awesome, it's a role she takes very seriously.
CeCe McDonald's experience seems to show that being caught in the wrong place at the wrong time can somehow turn someone who very much appears to be a black, transgender victim and survivor of a hate crime into a criminal.
Nothing makes all the hours of work on this conference more worthwhile than knowing that people can come to a space where, for three days, no one gawks, asks rude questions about their body, or suggests "what you could do to help me get your pronouns right."
Gov. Daugaard is allowed his views and since he was duly elected by the people of South Dakota, I'm not going to second guess their decision. But it is fairly clear that Daugaard's view doesn't belong at the NAD conference. So why was he invited?
As the truism advises, "Think globally, and act locally," my hope is that we can join together to create the world as be a place where everyone will celebrate their Pride safely and with integrity in ways that express their truest joys while showing their full humanity, freedom, and liberty.
A wildly insensitive New York Times article on the life and death of trans artist and drag performer Lorena Escalera flared tensions between the gender-variant community and the paper when it was published as part of the Sunday edition on May 14.
I had no idea that transgender people could live so openly in Indonesia, a country with the world's largest Muslim population. Like many Americans I had this notion of Islam as being particularly unforgiving toward sexual minorities. How could a community of warias possibly exist?
I've never heard a woman say, "I shouldn't eat those fries they're bad for my inner peace." No guy checking himself out in the mirror ever tells himself, "Your values and morals are looking hot today."
Imagine a world where someone with a penis can wear dresses every day if this person desired. Gender-neutral bathrooms and department stores and professional sports become the rule rather than the exception to it. Children can play with whatever toys they prefer.
I've now an eye on the big picture: winning the hearts and minds of those not quite on board with trans people. If this involves embracing something seemingly shallow, so be it. My hat goes off to Jenna for opening some doors we couldn't have done easily otherwise.