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  Film still from 'Still Black - A Portrait of Black Transmen' Building community for queer students of color (QSoC) and their allies, the Queer Students of Color Conference (QSoCC) is the first of its kind in Oregon. Taking place from Friday, April 29th to Sunday, May 1st at Portland State University, this QSoC led and organized event seeks to address the unique issues that effect queer students of color and the communities they occupy.
Although a liberal-minded city inclusive to many folks on the sexuality and gender spectrum, Portland is considered the whitest big city in the US and often fosters queer spaces that are unwelcoming to queer people of color. In a state with a long, long history of institutionalized racism and displacement of people of color, Portland, OR is a prime location for anti-racist growth and QPoC empowerment, taking place at this year’s conference.
QSoCC main events include: keynote address by Portland-raised trans feminist activist, Elena Rose; the Portland premiere of Still Black—A Portrait of Black Transmen, and a Q&A with director/writer Kortney Ryan Ziegler to follow; daytime workshops; a dance party, and more. Open to community members from all backgrounds, identities, and orientations, this year’s QSoCC is a long-awaited landmark event in Portland’s queer history that is not to be missed.
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As you might have noticed, Basic Rights Oregon is hard at work on a freedom to marry campaign.
This week, labor leader and activist Dolores Huerta stated her support for marriage equality in a powerful video.
In this video, Dolores Huerta says supporting the freedom to marry is “so important” because “it’s a human right.” Ms. Huerta has spent more than a half-century advocating for human rights, […]
Rapper Lil B to release album called "I'm Gay"…and faces death threats
Cali rapper Lil B has come forward with an announcement to call his upcoming new album “I’m Gay”. Lil B, who is straight, is setting out to “flip the meaning of the word ‘gay’ and use its other definition, happy” because he has “major love for the gay and lesbian community, and I just want […]
  I've always loved their tagline I just heard yesterday that one of my favorite sources for national/international LGBT news, Queerty, ceased to exist with only the vaguest of explanations. This is what they say on their site:
After more than five years of serving the LGBT community with news and entertainment, Queerty has come to a close. The decision to shutter the site was not an easy one to make, and it is with great pain that we say goodbye to our loyal readership. From all of Queerty’s writers and contributors, from our first unto our last day, thank you for spending some time with us.
Today I found some explanation from 365’s Jennifer Vanasco, who reblogs from Queerty (and Jossip) founder David Hauslaib:
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 You can go ahead and mark this in the “duh” category but a new study, conducted in Oregon, suggests that gay youth are more likely to attempt suicide in homophobic environments.
 The study, in the journal Pediatrics, scored the social environment in 34 Oregon counties using five criteria, including the share of schools with anti-bullying programs and anti-discrimnation policies that cover sexual orientation. The findings suggest that expanding these programs to more schools could substantially reduce suicides and suicide attempts by young people.
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  More than 20,000 students are registered and hundreds of thousands more will participate at middle schools, high schools and colleges from every state in the country in GLSEN’s National Day of Silence on Friday April 15th by taking some form of a vow of silence to raise awareness about anti-LGBT (lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender) name-calling, bullying and harassment.
This year marks the 15th anniversary of the first Day of Silence, held at the University of Virginia in 1996 by students who wanted to call attention to anti-LGBT bullying on campus. The Gay, Lesbian and Straight Education Network (GLSEN) became the official sponsor in 2001, and participation has grown to include students from more than 7,500 middle and high schools-10% of schools nationwide–last year and hundreds of colleges.
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  In the early days of internet at my high school Net Nanny programs handily blocked many of my tame searches for the likes of “gay pharoah” or “breast cancer” (yes, breast was blocked in the 90s). Not someone who regularly works with teenagers I don’t really know how restrictive today’s internet is in secondary schools. But one thing is becoming fairly clear, not all access is created equal.
The American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) has launched a project that asks public high school students to inform them if their school blocks access to pro-gay websites and doesn’t anti-gay websites.
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  "Gay caveman" ‘Transgender’ skeleton discovered– A 5000 year old skeleton identified as male by preliminary examination was buried in a manner usually reserved for females.
The skeleton, which dates back to about 2,500 to 2,800 B.C.,[was part of a culture that] was very finicky about grave rituals, reported Iranian news network Press TV, which visited the excavation site….Corded Ware males were usually buried on their right sides with their heads facing east [accompanied by weapons] This man, however, was buried on his left with his head facing west [accompanied by household items] — a traditionally female position.
Discussion still continues about news outlets calling it a ‘gay caveman.’
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  Bell Hooks Today I have had this “Less Hate More Love” crap shoved down my throat. Now that I have your attention- let me tell you- I think the world does need a lot of love. Our society causes many of us to be broken, traumatized, fragmented, and isolated. Good politics and good practices should help us heal, bring us closer, and should inspire us to love openly. However; the idea that we should approach all of our interactions and root our analysis only in love is not only simplistic- it is anti-feminist, silencing, and counters much of what we value throughout history.
Most of my feminist upbringing and socialization is directly related to the works of bell hooks. I love bell hooks and her contributions to race, class, and gender politics are invaluable. However; in the past couple of years she has turned her attention away from political struggle to more of an individual and spiritual look of oppression. She has also not pushed herself to engage with queer/gender/sex positive theories and practices. I recall some of her analysis of BDSM and feminism to be downright sex negative. However; for a long while as a youth I took nearly everything she said as gospel and still hold her near and dear in my heart. Even some of the spiritual woo-ness that she espouses has sort of a place in revolutionary political struggle. However; that place is not in the foreground. Her most recent article Building a Community of Love upsets me for many reasons. Her revisions radical history, her conclusions of radical work, and the simplistic nature that she posits valid political struggle get to my point of why it is positing our world in a love vs. hate is damaging and ineffective.
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  "Fitting In, Standing Out: Navigating the Social Challenges of High School to Get an Education" A new study out of the University of Texas at Austin has just released a study announcing that teens who “don’t fit in” are less likely to attend college. That made me somewhat of a “duh” conclusion, but what might be even more interesting that that two groups who are at particular risk are gay and overweight females. They found that girls who are obese are 78% less likely to attend college than non-obese girls, and those who are gay, are 50% less likely to attend.
“Kids who have social problems — often because they are overweight or gay are at greater risk of missing out on going to college simply because of the social problems they have and how it affects them emotionally,” says Robert Crosnoe, a Sociology Department professor and Population Research Center affiliate. “Not because of anything to do with intelligence or academic progress.”
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Love and Rage: A guest editorial from Katey Pants
Bell Hooks
Today I have had this “Less Hate More Love” crap shoved down my throat. Now that I have your attention- let me tell you- I think the world does need a lot of love. Our society causes many of us to be broken, traumatized, fragmented, and isolated. Good politics and good practices should help us heal, bring us closer, and should inspire us to love openly. However; the idea that we should approach all of our interactions and root our analysis only in love is not only simplistic- it is anti-feminist, silencing, and counters much of what we value throughout history.
Most of my feminist upbringing and socialization is directly related to the works of bell hooks. I love bell hooks and her contributions to race, class, and gender politics are invaluable. However; in the past couple of years she has turned her attention away from political struggle to more of an individual and spiritual look of oppression. She has also not pushed herself to engage with queer/gender/sex positive theories and practices. I recall some of her analysis of BDSM and feminism to be downright sex negative. However; for a long while as a youth I took nearly everything she said as gospel and still hold her near and dear in my heart. Even some of the spiritual woo-ness that she espouses has sort of a place in revolutionary political struggle. However; that place is not in the foreground. Her most recent article Building a Community of Love upsets me for many reasons. Her revisions radical history, her conclusions of radical work, and the simplistic nature that she posits valid political struggle get to my point of why it is positing our world in a love vs. hate is damaging and ineffective.
Continue reading »