Professional Skateboarding Icon Brian Anderson Comes Out As Gay
Anderson, who was named Skater of the Year by Thrasher magazine in 1999, recalled feeling “totally scared” when he was entering the macho world of competitive skateboarding as a young adult. “Hearing ‘faggot’ all the time made me think, at a young age, that it was really dangerous to talk about it,” he said.
Kaylb Wiley Primm was in second grade in Kansas City when he started crying in class because he was being bullied. Within minutes, the child found himself in handcuffs.
Hours of heated testimony didn’t stop the Board from doing right by LGBTQ students.
After months of consideration, the Michigan Board of Education has passed more robust guidelines for protecting and supporting transgender students in schools, and creating more safe climates for LGBTQ students overall.
Here’s a breakdown of what the new guidelines include, as quoted from ThinkProgress and with a few additions from the full document:
Schools must explicitly protect students from any kind of harassment or discrimination based on their sexual orientation, gender identity, and/or gender expression.
All district staff and even board members should be trained about issues impacting LGBTQ students.
Schools should support the formation of gay-straight alliances.
Curricula should be inclusive of LGBTQ topics.
Students who come out as transgender should have their gender identity respected, including the name and pronouns they use, the facilities they use, and the athletic teams on which they play.
Trans students should not be outed to their parents if that would endanger their health, safety, or well-being.
Schools should designate a staff member as a point person for helping students with LGBTQ-related issues.
Libraries and resource centers should include LGBTQ books and media.
Schools should collect and review data to learn about any disparities that may be keeping LGBTQ students from receiving the best education and school experience possible.
This measure was a long time coming; it took lots and lots of dedicated activists (including many students) to come forward in support, and even still, plenty of conservatives pushed back against it. Well done, Michigan. This will make a huge, wonderful difference to so many people.
Edmonds is at least the 21st trans person murdered in the US this year. We knew of at least 23 last year.
Crystal Edmonds, a 32-year-old Black trans woman, was murdered this week in Baltimore. She’s at least the 21st trans person killed this year; last year, there were at least 23. There are no suspects so far. From Mey at Autostraddle:
What should I say? What haven’t I said every single time this happens? I don’t have any new words, I only have sorrow and anger and fear. I have sorrow for Edmonds and her family and friends, and for all the other victims and for their families and friends. I have anger at the people, mostly men, often men who are sleeping with, or at least flirting with, these women, who then turn and beat them, murder them and destroy them. I’m afraid for my trans family, for the trans women of color in my life who don’t have the privileges I do, the ones who sleep with men and who face anti-black racism, the ones who live in poverty or engage in sex work. I’m sorry that I don’t know what else to do. I’m sorry to all of my trans sisters.
We need to say their names and we need to do something to stop this. Take a look at these names, nearly all of them are trans women. Nearly all of them are trans women of color. Most of them are Black trans women. Many have been murdered by men who were sleeping with them or flirting them or felt some kind of attraction to them and then bought into the toxic masculinity, transmisogyny, misogynoir and homophobia that says they should react violently when they feel those feelings.
As a reminder, here are 24 things you need to do to help trans women of color survive. Rest in peace and power, Crystal. We will say your name.
It’s the most wonderful time of the year! Bi Week is Sept. 19-26, 2016!
I’ll be highlighting new bi content throughout the week to celebrate this magical time, which rarely gets as much coverage or recognition as it deserves. In the meantime, though, here are a few past videos I’ve made about bisexuality:
Lambda Legal has filed a brief to urge the Georgia Appeals Court to grant a name change for a second transgender man from Augusta.
For the second time, a court judge in Georgia has denied a transgender man’s petition for a legal name change because he didn’t approve of the name itself.
Andrew Baumert is seeking to be legally called Andrew, the name his friends and family know him by. But Superior Court Judge David Roper denied his request, claiming that for Andrew to go by a traditionally male name would “confuse or mislead the general public.”
The judge said he would have “approved a name he could live with … like Morgan, Shannon, Shaun and Jaimie.” And it gets worse:
“My policy is to allow someone who claims to be transgendering—and I’ve had them in various stages—my policy is to permit someone to change, in your case, from an obviously—what appears to me to be a female name to something that is gender–neutral,” Roper said, according to a hearing transcript that was posted on LAW.com.
“He addressed Baumert as ‘ma'am’ and suggested that Baumert might want to "rethink the name situation and come back to me with a name that I can live with,” that report stated.
In the other case, a transgender man named Rowan Feldhaus, who is a friend of Andrew’s, was denied a name change by the same judge for the same reason back in June. Lambda Legal is handling appeals of the judge’s decision for both the men. Send these two some good vibes, if you believe in that sort of thing, because to go through this is humiliating and demeaning. Oof.
When 11,000 people took to the streets in Celaya, Mexico this weekend to protest marriage equality, a 12-year-old boy stood in their way.
Journalist Manuel Rodríguez took this stunning photo, which some people are saying is reminiscent of the famous Tiananmen Square “tank man” photo. The boy hasn’t been named, but he told Rodríguez that he has a gay uncle and hates that people hate him. Oof. (via USA Today)
Bullying is a severe issue that pervades schools across America and beyond. GLSEN is the largest NPO designed to combat bullying. Connor Franta's video tells you how you can donate and even get some pretty awesome items in return and support this wonderful organization and help stop bullying in the American education system.
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