Articles tagged with: video
Bent News, 5/26/11: Roger Ailes finds us skeeeeeery!
A Gallup poll update on American attitudes about gays and lesbians, how to help Joplin LGBT tornado victms, Moscow Pride, Fox News president Roger Ailes is skeeeeered, and more from the past couple of days in today’s Bent News.
Prepare for Takei Pride Month!
Tennessee’s “Don’t Say Gay” bill would prohibit teachers from discussing homosexuality in classrooms below the 9th grade level. But never mind: just say “Takei” instead!
This weekend in LGBTQ Alaska (5/20/11), as we await the End Times
Another packed weekend in LGBTQ Alaska, as with bated breath we await the Rapture.
Believe Out Loud: A Million Christians for LGBT Equality
This Mother’s Day, Believe Out Loud is inviting mothers and children everywhere to break the silence.
Determined to give voice to the millions of Christians who believe in equal rights for all, including the lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgendered (LGBT) community, Believe Out Loud is launching a campaign to get one million Christians to break the silence and join the burgeoning chorus for full LGBT equality in the church.
Progressive Christians across numerous denominations believe that Jesus’ message of justice, compassion and love compels them to be fully welcoming of all people, regardless of sexual orientation or gender identity. Now is the time to speak up and remind the world that it is possible to be Christian AND believe in LGBT inclusion.
Simply believing that LGBT individuals ought to be welcomed into our church communities is not enough. The time has come to break the silence. Believe Out Loud. Express your compassion by welcoming and supporting the gay and lesbian members of our communities. Join us, and raise Christian voices around LGBT issues.
How can you make your beliefs real? Be active. It can be as simple as starting a conversation. Lending a hand. Offering a seat. Kind gestures are the first step down the road to inclusion.
Watch their new video and be inspired to break the silence around LGBT equality in your church:
“Inside and Out” and Creative Outreach at IAA
The Fairbanks public is invited to “Inside and Out” tonight, a First Art Friday exhibit at Interior AIDS Association and part of their Creative Outreach program.
This exhibition will include stories, posters, and artwork from agency consumers of the Interior AIDS Association. The presenters chose the title “Inside and Out” because some of them are telling stories or sharing concepts that have had to remain hidden for years, while others are sharing artwork that they have never shared outside of their immediate friends and families. There will likely be stories of recovery, struggles, prejudice, and unique original artwork.
Samuel Johnson has been working with people at IAA to put their stories together and consolidate artwork for the show.
“It won’t be artsy in the same way that other FF openings will be… it will have posters, written stories, pictures, and art that folks here have made. Some of it relates to the above themes, and some relates to the person’s own interest or efforts at drawing and art.”
The previous IAA story event on April Fools Friday showed digital stories related to HIV/STD Prevention. Check out Samuel’s cool digital story about finding IAA and joining the Creative Outreach project:
Interior AIDS Association Creative Outreach Digital Story from Samuel Johnson on Vimeo.
Inside and Out
Date/time: Friday, May 6, 6:00-8:00 PM
Location: Interior Aids Association, 709 W. 2nd, in downtown Fairbanks, across from Gambardella’s.
Cost of admission: Free
Further info: See the Facebook event page.
Keep track of this and other events in LGBTQ Alaska at Bent Alaska’s new & improved events calendar.
Lewis: I’m gay and from Wasilla, Alaska
The second video from Wasilla was uploaded today on I’m From Driftwood!
After coming out, Lewis is met with religious fanatics at school but love and support at home.
Watch Lewis: I’m From Wasilla, AK
Thanks to Lewis for sharing his home and school coming out stories, and a big high five to his parents for being so loving and supportive of their son!
IFD traveled all the way to Alaska to include us in their story tour, collecting “true stories by gay people from all over in an attempt to help LGBTQ teens feel not so alone.”
Read about their great Alaska adventures here, and watch the other I’m From Wasilla video story here.
IFD has posted five written stories from LGBTQ Alaskans, in addition to the 2 videos. They’re all listed on the IFD Alaska page.
If you haven’t submitted a story yet, write one and send it to them. The story guidelines and submission page is here.
Out North goes to the PAC with Bridgman/Packer’s “Double Expose” and “Under the Skin”
Out North Contemporary Art House has brought New York City-based Bridgman/Packer Dance to Anchorage for two performances at the Discovery Theatre at the Alaska Center for the Performing Arts.
Gay pride flags thrown in mud outside youth dance
136 queer and allied youth from Anchorage and the Mat-Su Valley attended the Glee-themed Pride Prom last weekend at Out North – and at least one vandal, who took down four of the five rainbow flags decorating the outside of the building. A flag was hung upside down, others were thrown on the ground in the mud.
Can you stomach this?
Caleb Pritt writes opinion pieces for Bent Alaska. His opinions are his own.
This post concerns an attack on a transgender woman in a Baltimore McDonalds, the attack video that went viral over the weekend, Caleb’s response to the incident, and suggestions for taking action.
Update: Please see Caleb’s post “Words do matter….” for a follow-up on issues about race brought up in comments to this post.
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I want you to watch this video before continuing with the article. [warning for violence]
Chrissy Lee Polis is just like you and I. She has a brain, a heart, and she is an American who expects the benefits of a nation that promises LIFE, LIBERTY, & THE PURSUIT OF HAPPINESS. But in the words of one of this nation’s modern fathers, Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., from his famous “I Have a Dream” address at the Lincoln Memorial, we now echo for the Gay, Lesbian, Bisexual, TRANSGENDER, Ally community, the following:
“When the architects of our republic wrote the magnificent words of the Constitution and the declaration of Independence, they were signing a promissory note to which every American was to fall heir. This note was a promise that all men would be guaranteed the inalienable rights of life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness. It is obvious today that America has defaulted on this promissory note insofar as her citizens are concerned….a bad check which has come back marked “insufficient funds.” But we refuse to believe that the bank of justice is bankrupt. We refuse to believe that there are insufficient funds in the great vaults of opportunity of this nation.”
Chrissy Lee Polis was spit upon, attacked, beaten, and dehumanized by sadly two African-American women who forgot Dr. King. Forgot about the sacrifices and the lives that allowed these two women to walk into a McDonalds and order their food. Even more insulting, McDonalds, which is a symbol of America as much as Sunday football or the American flag, had employees that looked on and watched this display of hatred and did nothing to intervene.
The question has to be asked, when do we say enough is enough? I say today is the day we say enough is enough. When the day has come, which is now, that ANYONE cannot enter a McDonalds and be served, but rather savagely treated like a dehumanized choice to be viciously assaulted with no regard, enough is enough.
Shall we as a society continue to fund a corporation that allows this hatred and violence to happen? If it doesn’t stop now….WHEN WILL IT?!
McDonalds needs to institute policies for ALL of its employees teaching them sadly how to be humans. This means no violence, no sacrificing of liberties, and no allowing the idea of some or any violence or disrespect is allowed.
As Dr. King also said, “An injustice somewhere is a threat to justice everywhere.”
What happened in Baltimore can tomorrow be in Anchorage, in Honolulu, in Salt Lake City, in Boston, in Fayetteville, N.C., or yes even in Washington, D.C.
We need to remember the words of Dr. King and re-echo them today. We need to stand up and tell McDonalds, THIS IS UNACCEPTABLE.
Here are 3 ways to do it:
Starting Monday at 4:00 p.m. for twenty-four hours, I ask you to make your Facebook profile pic a picture of a simple candlelight. The candle is for Chrissy Lee Polis and to let her know, while we are not at the vigil in Baltimore, a candle of hope burns bright all across this nation and she is loved.
Secondly, the phone number for McDonald’s Corporate is 1-800-244-6227, open 7 days a week from 7:00 a.m. to 7:00 p.m. CST. Let them know you are horrified and that you demand nationwide training in transgender issues for ALL McDonald’s franchise owners and employees.
Thirdly, and finally, if you want to sound off, join Aunty Anita and I in two places. Join on Facebook, the group named BOYCOTT McCRUELTY. And also join us on the radio at Aunty Anita on Tuesday, April 26 at 7p.m. Alaska Time/ 8pm Pacific. The studio hotline is toll free (619) 393-6513. Please call in or listen on demand.
In the words of Reverend Jesse Jackson, who I hope will join us in this fight for civil rights, “Red, Yellow, Black, and White….WE ALL are precious in His light.”
Injustice at Every Turn
“Every day, transgender and gender non-conforming people are marginalized because of their gender identity and expression.”
This In The Life video features the personal stories of Ja’briel and Michelle, two trans women. Their experiences highlight the findings of the first comprehensive transgender discrimination study, recently completed by the National Center for Transgender Equality and the National Gay & Lesbian Task Force.
Watch the video:
The study Injustice at Every Turn “brings to light what is both patently obvious and far too often dismissed from the human rights agenda. Transgender and gender non-conforming people face injustice at every turn: in childhood homes, in school systems that promise to shelter and educate, in harsh and exclusionary workplaces, at the grocery store, the hotel front desk, in doctors’ offices and emergency rooms, before judges and at the hands of landlords, police officers, health care workers and other service providers.”
There are no laws in Alaska protecting transgender people from discrimination or harassment.
When we allow injustice against a group of people, unstable individuals may feel they have permission to act on that prejudice and cause physical harm, like in the violent attack on a transgender woman in a Baltimore McDonald’s last week.
