Brazillian Hate Crimes

I have very mixed feelings about posting a story on the same day about the same thing that Joe.My.God had on his blog, but in posting it, it passes my litmus test: Would Margaret Cho re-post it? Yes, she most certainly would...So here it is.

Nearly a month ago, Priscila, a transgendered woman from Brazil was shot to death.  Brazil is supposedly (I've never been there, so I can't say) among the most homo/trans/queer-phobic places in the world.  The current president's platform (like most mass-appeasing politician's) was that human rights are core.  The discrimination that Priscila faced is common, and pushes many transgendered Brazilians into sex-work.  Watch the video, sign the petition, and remember that your vote here counts, too. 

Discrimination, adversity, violence, prejudice, intolerance, ignorance, hate...  America is a great country to be, as we all have the right to be.  If you have never done so, vote. Get involved with the HRC, or the ACLU, or NOW. Some organization geared toward making a change.  It is 2011, and we still segregate, discriminate, and hate. All people are created equal. Period. So, let's stop treating other people like less than people.



http://www.allout.org/petition/priscila

Brazil needs to pass the Anti-Homophobia law because ...

Off With Their Heads!

It's been a while since I've blogged about something of substance. One could argue that I've indeed, never really blogged about anything of substance, and that the premise of blogging is, by nature not substantial!

Alas, here I am, again, writing.

I am a student at Temple University in Philadelphia, about to be greatly impacted by Gov. Corbett's budget cuts to public education.  The school, (more specifically the Dean of College of Liberal Arts) has taken preemptive action to reduce spending. Great idea, but terrible ramifications. They decided to reduce spending by nearly 20 grand by eliminating the department heads of many of the programs of the liberal arts, and re-shuffle the programs under already existing programs (i.e. Women's Studies will now fall under Sociology).  There are many, many, many problems with this (and the way they implemented it), chiefly that none of the department heads were consulted.  Also, they were cut before the new budgetary design had been drafted.  (Hence preemptive) 

The two largest issues that the students in these programs will now face are a significant loss in assistance with their academic progression in these fields, as well as predictable losses in the number of courses offered in the  affected programs.

Among the programs to be re-structured/maimed in the process: American Studies, Women's Studies, LGBT Studies, Jewish Studies, Asian Studies, among others.  The irony inherent here, is, in case you haven't noticed, these are programs traditionally associated with discrimination, oppression, and adversity.  Why should the academics associated with them be any different?!?

The cuts to the programs wouldn't be as "shock and awe," maybe, if all of the schools within Temple University had made similar cuts or "streamlining endeavors."  But they didn't. The science departments made no changes to their programs whatsoever.  There are dozens of programs in the School of Science and Technology that are considered "untouchable" because they are sciences.  By the virtue of being a science program, they are able to apply for grants to do research and bring the university money.  The arts, however, are not as fiscally virtuous, and therefore become another notch in the bedpost of capitalist casualties.  This reinforces the false notion that the science programs are more useful than the arts, especially the humanities. 

Are they? Of course not.  Just because someone's life was saved by a chemical compound, doesn't mean that the quality of that life wasn't equally saved by discovering queer culture, or Jewish studies. Or any other humanities niche. It is thinking in terms of the discriminatory sweeping generalizations that tends to get us into trouble!  It is time to accept and promote academic diversity instead of feeding into the corporate university eugenics of the arts.


There is very little coverage of this, so here are the links I could find.

http://philadelphia.cbslocal.com/2011/03/08/temple-u-head-urges-public-response-to-corbetts-education-budget-cuts/

http://www.philly.com/philly/news/pennsylvania/119232609.html

 Get involved. Act up. Use your free speech that has been fought for! If you pay to go to school, it SHOULD be up to you to study whatever you want to.

Things to do on a Saturday: Put 1000 miles on your car!

I normally wouldn't consider spending 10 hours in a car for a one hour performance, but that's exactly what Rico and I did on Saturday night!  I started introducing my sweet, young, and sheltered buddy to queer entertainment, via LOGO online, Youtube clips of some awesome performers, and getting involved with things in person.

The morning of the show, I was undecided whether or not we should go.  We're both at the cusp of falling behind in our classes (and being Bio majors, this is unacceptable), so I thought perhaps our time should be spent better in the quiet, uninterrupted calm of our dorm rooms.  Then I remembered we were supposed to go to a "Stand Up For Planned Parenthood" rally downtown at noon. 

We ended up getting there half an hour late, lost the group, wound up at the "Support Unions" rally and had a fight.  When he asked me later that afternoon if we were going to the show in VA, I actually didn't think we ought to, nor did I really want to spend that much time in the car with someone I was mad at. 

We ended up getting tickets online, driving a 5 hour trip in just over 3 and a half hours, and meeting Bridget McManus!  It was super awesome. The show was superb! I was a little concerned that her show would be a little to sharp for the general southern VA population, but for the most part they laughed at all the same stuff I thought was hilarious.  Rico did too.  I had forgotten that I was mad at him when we got on the road.  We had a really long heart to heart for the five hour journey home. 

Bridget was super-awesome.  She felt bad that we drove like 5 hours for a one hour set, but we're crazy people like that.  She offered to let us crash in her room, but I said we had to get going. Sunday is lots of time for studying and getting stuff done, but that we'd take a rain-check! Rico's camera died and I left mine in Philly, so she used her own BBerry to take a pic of the three of us and emailed it to me.  We hung out after the show for a while and then Rico and I hit the road.  What a perfect day!

I don't know where the saying "Never meet your hero's, they always let you down" came from, but it's totally not true.  Or maybe I'm not really using the concept of "hero" like the rest of the world.  People who are famous are still just human beings.  Why is that inconceivable to think?  Some are really good at comedy, or music, or sports, or acting, or whatever, so we give them excess attention sometimes, but deep down they are still just people! I've never had any negative experiences as a fan, when it comes to meeting famous people.  (I haven't met that many famous people, but still...)

Anyway here are some pics (I do not own rights to the flyer, so don't sue me please!)

Special thanks for all for an awesome weekend,
Peace, Love, and Rock.
Shayna

Rights for Everybody, Except You.

I'm almost certain it was Rachel Maddow who brought up this point: If rights were really rights, how can you decide, all of the sudden they're up for grabs?  If it is my "right" to exist, to pursue happiness, liberty, etc, then there ought to be no exception whatsoever to that deal.  I think it's important to note that no group of oppressed people has ever gained rights denied by their oppressor without both a long fight, and some power transfer from the oppressor to the oppressed. 

The big bully in the playground who is always stealing the lunch money from the nerdy kid (OK, me), always wins.  Because the bully is stronger than the other kid, the weaker kid loses.  The bullied do not get to decide on what terms they may be bullied.  Albeit a farcical example, I maintain that it is a prime example for what is going on today in civil rights issues, women's rights, and bi-partisanship politics as a whole.  The money never belonged to the bully, and the bully's own lunch money was never at risk to begin with.  Against all good judgement whatsoever, I watched a clip of Ann Coulter regarding the repeal of DADT on YouTube.  "Putting girls and gays in the military, we're not taking the military seriously," are actually words that came flying out of her mouth. 

Warning! This clip may cause you to have a severe anxiety/rage episode, before playing, remove all sharp objects from arm's length.

Girls and gays are going to ruin the military?  The problem I have with this is that when you have someone whose function is to say outlandish things, and you are passing that off as news, the uninformed people who watch "entertainment news" are not even close to getting the actual truth. 

I must also add as a disclaimer that I'm an avid Rachel Maddow Show fan, because even though I'm super-liberal, the information she presents is the truth, not just some insane opinions. 

But back to the clip.  They're saying that most of the people who wanted DADT to be repealed are against the military.  Seriously?  Most of the people who fought so hard for DADT are or were IN the military!  How can someone be a vocal advocate for a policy that discriminates against who they are?! 

For the purposes of continuing with my analogy of the schoolyard bully, the LGBT service members who are subjected to unfair, discriminatory policy never tried to take away the rights of the heterosexist patriarchal oppressors.  They just did their jobs, lied about who they were, faced losing their careers, and died on the battlefield along with their straight peers.  The bully's rights were never in question, so why should the other kid's?

*It is also important to mention that I am also vehemently against bullying, and that in the end, the bully almost always ends up divorced, overweight, unhappy, and with a terrible comb-over. 

I Give More Than A Damn.

After this week's backlash of the Rutger's Student suicide/bullying tragedy, a whole bunch of celebrities have stepped forward to plead with distraught teenagers (and young adults) to not give in to the negativity of the bullies. I remember what high school was like, and frankly, it sucked! Teenagers (and pre-teens) can be some of the cruelest, most malicious people alive. I think I'd rather share a cell with Manson than have to go back to the hell of the "Mean Girls." Everyone's awkward; that's just life, but to then specifically single out LGBTQIA kids is about as fair a fight as Hellen Keller vs an Army Ranger.

How can we help? The weird dynamic of all parents (which I am not) is that one of the most common goals of a parent is to make their child's experience a little better than theirs was. How can we do that? In my experience, the US Army does something that I really like (I don't say that very often). There is mandatory suicide training three times a year to recognize signs and symptoms, know what to do, as well as suggest alternatives and other resources. They always conclude this training with passing out a "what to do" type card, about the size of a business card. It has a 24 hour toll-free hotline for those in crisis or just for people with questions.

After a little research, I found a few resources that I think might help. One is called the Trevor Project, named after the movie in the early '90's. (Which admittedly, I didn't research, a professor told us about it this past Wed.)
The website also has a 24 hour crisis line for crises or any LGBTQIA youth issues.

http://www.thetrevorproject.org/
1866-488-7386

Along with this resource, is the celebrity based "We Give A Damn" campaign, which is being sponsored by the other wonderful activist organization of Cyndi Lauper. There are seemingly endless celebrities who have endorsed this campaign to end the silence, end the indifference, and end this epidemic.

http://www.WeGiveADamn.org



I've bought one of the t-shirts from the website, as on a college student's salary, I couldn't really afford to just donate a million dollars, but I'll wear my shirt in a pic and change my FB status to it.

There are zillions of ways to get active. Do something. Check out a website, find organizations, and invest time and heart. We're all human beings, so let's start treating each other that way!

<3 Shayna

Get Active.

Okay, so clearly a daily goal of blogging was not a realistic achievement to start with...

I've been thinking lately of a great multitude of things, from activism, my personal hero(ine)s, my music, and (probably due to PMDD hormones) the insanity and angst of failed relationships.

I'm not sure really what the catalyst was for my recent and fervent obsession with getting involved in activist groups, but it probably had something to do with the realization that I've not really made any positive contribution toward the movements that mean something to me. I suppose there are even more reasons that I have not thought much consciously about getting involved. I, being a liberal-minded person (for the sake of context), feel there are many issues that speak to me personally, from feminism, women's rights, civil rights, animal rights, and so on and so forth.

I read a comment on Facebook yesterday that best summed up how I personally feel about the impending change in the Army's DADT (Don't Ask, Don't Tell) policy. It said, (hoping not to misquote) "The last two institutions I want telling me about morals are the government and the Church." I liked that because these two concepts have been so bastardized beyond original intent, that in our current society likens both to corruption and greed.

I also joined PETA, as I posted previously, because in addition to the obvious ideas of animal rights, it is far more environmentally friendly. Removing animals and their products from our diets is far healthier for my body and the environment. (As I may or may not have stated in this issue, it's just a matter of personal preference for me. I am not the arbiter of anyone else's affairs, nor would I hope to impose my feelings on this matter on anyone!)

As far as feminism is concerned, I believe that most of our society does not even know what it means. Women should have the same rights and privileges as men, PERIOD. I, naively, assumed that in our modern American society, we had somehow attained this. I was so rudely awakened to the great realization that I had either been delusional or, and I believe more likely, I was misinformed. TODAY, yes in 2010, a woman still receives less pay than a man for the same job with the same experience and credentials.

Alice Paul would be rolling in her grave if she knew. This is appalling. We've sent humans to the moon, cloned live organisms, and found ways to medically resuscitate someone from near death, but women are still not "worth" as much as men.

We also, as I have alluded to earlier, have established laws governing what specifically, women can or can not do with their bodies, who we can and cannot marry and have recognized rights, and yet we are sending flocks of troops to other nations professing emphatically, "Democracy is the way!"

In a Poly Sci class I had, we discovered that two things are errant with this. One, what we have is not really a democracy. Two, if the principle way our government works is by representing proportionately the views of the citizens to law making and enforcing agencies, and the majority has expressed a view on some issue, and the elected person doesn't defend that view, then clearly our "system is broken."

Well coming up with the problem was fairly simple. The solution, however, is not all too complicated, though. Less than a quarter of American citizens vote (they have elections for other than just the President). Probably, I have found, due to complete apathy and complacency of the citizen. Women's Suffrage took decades to achieve. Abolishment of slavery took decades. Doesn't one of our great early "national treasures" start out saying that "all men are created equal?" Now we have herds of people complaining about immigration and even helping other countries, such as Haiti.

This almost makes me nauseated and smile at the same time, because it always reminds me of one of my favorite bands, The Talking Heads. Why talk if you have nothing to say?

I have something to say: if you are uninformed, get informed before you try to cram your oppressive views down other people's throats. I have some "friends" who are vehemently opposed to helping the Haiti earthquake victims because "we need to take care of ourselves first." They, not surprisingly, are the same folks preaching to "send the immigrants back from where they came here from." Uninformed is a gross understatement. I am the descendant of immigrants. I'm not petitioning for DAR status, but I know for a fact that my German/Irish family had at some point IMMIGRATED to this continent for some reason. I've never seen a deed to the planet, but I've never heard or read anywhere that human beings own this planet. There were living things before humans, and will surely be some living organism long after our extinction. What right do we have saying that we can or cannot travel to some place on this planet?

I am getting anemic wasting my energy thinking instead of doing. What makes all Americans, but not humans, equal? We're all human beings! We have far greater things in common than differences, and if we, as a global society, could stop to acknowledge this for a while, perhaps it wouldn't matter so much what language we spoke, what kind of god you believed or didn't believe in, or who can have the most money. We all succumb to illnesses, most of which have cures or treatments. We, as humans, have the capacity to communicate, feel, think, create, empathize, encourage, and love. Why then, do we keep focusing on our ability to find minute differences, dominate, oppress, torture, and kill? Instead of investing so extravagantly in the wars in both Iraq and Afghanistan, why not invest in eradicating diseases in underdeveloped nations, where water is poison? Why not help end genocide in Darfur? Men, women, and children are dying at an unspeakable rate. Perhaps that's the heart of the problem; it's unspeakable.

So I'm getting involved. I'm not quite ready or able to host another LiveAid, but in any way possible, I'd like to do something to contribute positively to the betterment of the human experience, especially for those persons who have no voice.

I can think of no more admirable footsteps to follow than those of Ghandi, Mother Theresa, Anne Frank, Nelson Mandella, Martin Luther King, Jr., and Alice Paul. Those, are big footprints to follow, indeed, but for the future of humanity, they must have been, as we still have so very far to go. I believe that I have learned a great deal from the teachers I've had over the years, both in formal education, and outside. I have a friend who first showed me, at thirteen, that one person CAN in fact make a difference. I got an A in Civics in high school, but it seems irrelevant if I don't do anything with it.

I suppose I'm going into more of a Mr. Smith-esque filibuster on this, but as I go out from here into this day, my new earnest resolution is to, in some capacity, try to do good each day, whatever and however that might happen.
-Shayna