Being gay is something one does not choose.
Rather it is who they are.
It is innate and second nature.
If it was a choice do you think people would willingly choose to take the road less traveled, knowing they are not seen equally under the law and, in some cases, can be prosecuted for being who they are, gay? I don’t know, maybe one would choose to take the road less traveled even if they had the choice.
Beauty. Innocence. Hope.
Those are the three words that come to mind when I think of Africa, but it is a vision that not many get to see first hand.
Instead, people see death, disease and disrepair when they think of Africa because that is what is portrayed in the news.
And to tell you the truth, it was what I thought of Africa before I visited the continent.
The United States will be forever changed as the U.S. Supreme Court is currently hearing two landmark cases this week, with the future of same-sex marriage in the country at stake.
Over the past few days, the justices have heard arguments for and against Proposition 8, which bans same sex marriage, and the Defense of Marriage Act [DOMA], an act passed in 1996 that allows only the marriage of a man and woman to be recognized, prohibiting same sex couples from receiving the countless benefits associated with being wed.
That means that even though nine states and Washington, D.C. allow same-sex couples to wed; they are still unable to receive benefits associated with being married because of DOMA— an issue that is part of the Supreme Court debate.
To me, the ability to love and marry who you want to is a natural right — one that should not have to be won in court. I do not understand why and how people take it so personally what others choose to do.
It does not affect you.
And it should not be cast as a political or religious issue tied to rules and laws. It is a personal issue, and should remain that way.
Below is an image I saw on Facebook. At its core, I think it accurately portrays just how stupid the concept of not allowing gay people to marry is.
Additional reading: NY Times, SCOTUS blog and Washington Post.
The article written below by CNN is inspirational and a testament to how times are changing. [sorry it is a little delayed. I thought I had posted it already]
Donnie Collins’ journey from female to male will continue, thanks to a college fraternity that raised money for sex-change surgery.
Collins, a 20-year-old sophomore at Boston’s Emerson College, learned soon after he joined the Phi Alpha Tau fraternity that his insurance company declined to cover surgery to remove breast tissue to flatten his chest.
Phi Alpha Tau members, defying the conventional stereotype of a fraternity, launched a campaign on an online fundraising site — Indiegogo.com — with a goal of collecting the $8,100 needed for the procedure, scheduled for May.
“We see Donnie as a brother and we want to support him in this endeavor,” Phi Alpha Tau Chapter President Jon Allen told CNN affiliate WBZ-TV.
“We are here less to raise money, and more to tell a story … of transformation, and a story of self-discovery, and the story of brotherhood,” the online appeal said.
The response was overwhelming, resulting in almost $16,000, according to the frat’s website. The money left over after the surgery will be donated to the Jim Collins Foundation, an organization that helps “fund gender-confirming surgeries for transgender people,” the group said.
“I’m overwhelmed and surprised. I can’t thank everyone enough,” Collins told WBZ-TV.
The whole Emerson campus has been supportive of Collins, according to Jason Meier, who supervises the school’s Greek groups as student activities director.
“Emerson has always been very inclusive and accepting of LGBT students,” Meier told CNN. “I didn’t even flinch or bat an eye. It just seemed like every day for these men.”
Collins is not the first transgender member of the fraternity, Meier said. Another transgender student became a leader in the group, he said.
Phi Alpha Tau, which has been active at Emerson since 1902, describes itself on its website as a “professional communicative arts fraternity.”
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When a person is born they are identified as male or female, depending on their body parts. From that point on, they are expected to live as their identified sex— females ushered into the world of pink, dolls and fashion and males ushered into the world of blue, leggos and sports.
And while this concept seems simple enough, it does not align with reality. The world cannot categorize people into blue or pink, with body parts as the only identifying factor because one’s sex and gender are not that simple.
The reality is, one could be born male or female [sex] but not identify or relate to being a woman or man [gender], respectively. Instead, they identify with the opposite gender.
Sex v gender
While some may believe sex and gender are synonymous, they are not.
Sex is a fixed concept based on biology, whereas gender is based on culture and social cues.
This means that while one may be born one sex, they may not identify with that gender and how the world sees that gender. Instead, they internally identify with the opposite gender. This causes many to feel trapped in the wrong body, prohibiting them from being who they truly are.
There are medications and surgeries people can undergo, so they can transform their body into the person they see themselves as [if they wish to], instead of the way the world has determined them to be. However, these medications and surgeries are expensive, and many health care companies do not pay for such treatment.
Contemporary society
Today, transgender [one whose internal gender identification and gender roles made by society do not fit] and transsexual [one’s who believes their sex at birth does not align with their internal feelings and may undergo surgery so it aligns] individuals are more accepted in society than years past, but it is no way perfect. They still face discrimination under the law, ridicule from others and, at times, experience violence for who they are. But there are also those— like the frat in the story— that are accepting of a person for who they are, and that is a beautiful thing.
Unfortunately, laws often lag behind reality, and need time to catch up. But that is where people come in. Be a voice of change. Help someone become who they are and have always been.
It does not matter how small your action may seem. It only matters that you take it, and [eventually] the world will follow.
Whether she is your mother.
Sister.
Daughter.
Grandma.
Lover.
Or best friend.
Today is the day to celebrate her.
March 8 is International Women’s Day— the day to celebrate the economic, political and social achievements of women every day. And the day to respect, love and appreciate every woman in your life.
Whether she has wronged you, hurt you, love or nurtured you, today is the day to say thank you.
Human Rights Watch recently wrote an article on the Violence Against Women Act [VAWA] that Congress failed to renew before it expired. It is an act that ensures protections for victims of violence, and must be renewed. It is Congress’s inability to embrace progress, change that has led to their inability to act— a decision which has very real implications for many. Since VAWA expired at the end of 2012 the Senate has passed a bill reauthorizing it, extending protection to Native Americans, the LGBT community and undocumented victims. However, the House of Representative fails to pass its equivalent, fighting over technicalities of who deserves protection under the act. They have since decided,
In reality is not a question of who deserves protection because everyone— every race, gender, sexual orientation and legal status etc.— deserves protection since all groups are equally susceptible to domestic violence.
Passage of this bill, and the ability to protect all who are victims of domestic violence is essential, and should not be held back due to technicalities and Congress’s inability to face the reality of what happens.
In the 50 years since Betty Friedan’s “Feminine Mystique” opened a discussion of the oppression behind the American ideal of domesticity, we have seen significant progress in how society views violence against women, particularly violence in the home. The belief that domestic violence was a private matter has given way to state and federal legal protections for victims of domestic violence, sexual assault, dating violence and stalking.
The mainstay of the national response, the Violence Against Women Act, first passed in 1994, supports victim services like rape crisis centers, temporary housing for domestic violence survivors and programs to address violence against people with disabilities, among other critical services and protections.
All is not done, however. According to December 2011 figures from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, one in four women in the U.S. has been a victim of severe physical violence by an intimate partner in her lifetime. Nearly one in five has been raped.
Given those figures, it is outrageous that Congress failed to renew Violence Against Women Act in its last session. The Senate and the House split over protections for immigrant women, with House members raising unfounded concerns about immigration fraud, despite existing checks against fraud and broad law enforcement support for the protections. House members also claimed the bill would restrict the constitutional rights of defendants, when it actually protects those rights while closing a legal loophole that has long allowed non-Native Americans to commit abuse on reservations. Protections for lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgendered victims of violence also drew objections that the provisions would divert resources from the bill’s objectives, when, in fact, service providers nationwide had identified this as an area needing resources. The House’s refusal to pass these protections and ensure that all women can seek protection from violence is one of its most shameful failures.
This session, the House should redeem itself by swiftly passing the new legislation, which was recently approved by the Senate. Doing so would show that progress toward realizing the right of every woman to a life free from violence has not stalled, and that the next 50 years will see this progress continuing to expand.
Additional reading: Think Progress
Below is an article written by CNN about a cult in Mexico accused of kidnapping and forced labor.
(CNN) — A cult operating in Mexico, along the U.S. border, is accused of kidnapping and forcing victims to work and have sex, the country’s National Migration Institute said Wednesday.
Fourteen foreigners — accused by victims’ relatives of demanding “tithes” from local followers — were detained, and at least some are in the process of being deported, said the federal attorney general’s office, or PGR.
Three Mexican citizens are being held on suspicion of human trafficking, the PGR said.
Immigration authorities and police raided the Defenders of Christ group in Nuevo Laredo, Mexico, the migration institute said Tuesday night. Nuevo Laredo is across the border from its sister city, Laredo, Texas.
Six of the detained foreigners were Spanish, two Brazilian, two Bolivian, two Venezuelan, one Argentinean and one Ecuadorean.
The Defenders of Christ are not officially registered as a religious organization under Mexican law.
Authorities released the name of only one of those involved with the group, Jose Arenas Losanger Segovia, a Venezuelan identified as the leader of the organization, which “was characterized by its recruiting of people at the national level.”
A website for the cult identifies Losanger as an “apostle” of the reincarnation of Christ. The group believes that a man named Ignacio Gonzalez de Arriba is the reincarnation of Jesus.
Myrna Garcia, coordinator for the Support Network for Victims of Cults, says her group first received complaints about Gonzalez in December 2011. In February 2012, the group filed a complaint with authorities about the Defenders of Christ.
Garcia called Gonzalez “very dangerous because he manipulates the minds of people to satisfy his whims.”
The accusations that the cult victims network gathered paint a picture of a man who forced people into labor without pay or threatened to deny food.
“He was able to convince them that they had to behave in certain ways to satisfy his economic and sexual needs,” Garcia said.
Women were made to have sex with the men in the group, and polygamy was promoted in the cult, Garcia said.
Women were beaten and forced to prostitute themselves, she said.
Many of the victims became suicidal and lost contact with their families and children, she said.
