Kwnowledge Is Power!
I’m so elated to announce that my favorite from Rupaul’s Drag Race, actually won. Tyra Sanchez took home the top prize, leaving Raven and JuJu-Bee to settle for second and 3rd place.
I was a little concerned based on the politics of television that “The best woman” wouldn’t win but was pleasantly surprised win she did.
Congrats Tyra!
President Obama has been often criticized for not keeping his campaign promises to the GLBT community but as I have often said in my defense of him: Give him some time!
It appears that the patience is paying off and Obama is not making good on some of those promises and bringing the GLBT community another step closer to equality. While this step is far from what many would have hoped for..I firm;y believe it to be a step in the right direction and one of many that will be made by Obama!
President Obama on Thursday signed a memorandum requiring hospitals to allow gays and lesbians to have non-family visitors and to grant their partners medical power of attorney.
The president ordered the Department of Health and Human Services to prohibit discrimination in hospital visitation. The memo is scheduled to be made public Friday morning, according to an administration official and another source familiar with the White House decision. An official said the new rule will affect any hospital that receives Medicare or Medicaid funding.
The decision injects the president squarely into the debate over gay marriage by attempting to end the common practice by many hospitals of insisting that only family members by blood or marriage be allowed to visit patients. Gay activists have argued for years that recognizing gay marriages would ease the emotional pain associated with not being able to visit their partners during a health crisis.
By contrast, opponents of gay marriage have said the visitation issue is a red herring, and have argued that advocates want to provide special rights for gays and lesbians that others do not have.
I have always been a Cyndi Lauper fan and now I have 1 more reason to sing her praises. The “Girls Just Wanna Have Fun” singer is proving that life is about more than “Having Fun”.
Recognizing the severity in the need for help for those who identify themselves under the GLBT umbrella, Cyndi has decided to give back to the community who has given so much to her.
As previously reported, Cyndi Lauper is using her stint on The Celebrity Apprentice to further her already vocal support for gay rights. She recently launched the Give a Damn campaign through her True Colors Fund. The new campaign encourages everyone — gay, straight, transgender, lesbian, bisexual — to get informed about and involved with LGBT issues and causes. Now, Lauper is localizing her campaign even more by opening a shelter for homeless LGBT youths in Harlem.
According to DNA Info, advocates say that “Many homeless LGBT youth face violence in mainstream shelters, forcing them to rely on a small network of gay-friendly facilities.”The National Gay and Lesbian Task Force reports that there are between 15,000 and 20,000 homeless youths in New York City, and, of that number, roughly 3,000 to 8,000 of them identify as lesbian, gay, bisexual, or transgender.
The True Colors Residence, which is slated to open in 2011, will offer a safe haven for LGBT youths between the ages of 18 to 24 who need a place to stay while they get back on their feet. It will be the first permanent residence in Manhattan for LGBT homeless young adults. The $11 million of funding for the six-story building, which will “contain 30 studio apartments, communal space, a library and a computer room” will come from Lauper’s True Colors Fund, the city’s Department of Housing Preservation and Development and some additional corporate, city and state sources.
In a statement about what inspired her to open the new shelter, Lauper said: “Kids are coming out in greater numbers as they see themselves accepted and represented on TV and in movies, but they’re still being kicked out of their homes or running away and living on the streets. We need to make sure we’re taking care of them. This is the next generation of the LGBT community.”
The four emergency and two transitional shelters that currently exist in New York City only provide temporary solutions for LGBT youths coping with difficult living situations or negative feedback in response to their coming out. Many youth programs only shelter people up to the age of 21, so the 3 year addition to the age span at the True Colors Shelter will help even more young adults transition through what is often an extremely difficult time in their lives.
You know what this has inspired me to link to, right? I can’t help it, Lauper chose the name!
What a progressive and noble concept. Kudos to whomever is responsible for giving those who often lack heath care and/or the funds to proceed with their transition expenses.
Hopefully this model will be adopted by other GLBT communities to assist the gender variant and moving into the next phase of their lives.
Tuff Luck, a Portland, Ore., cafe, celebrated its grand opening last month.
The coffee shop is located inside In Other Words, a feminist bookstore, and was started as a way to help transgender people raise money for health care by providing them with a side job and a venue for selling art.
“It’s mostly people’s art that they can make money off because right now we can’t really afford to pay employees,” entrepreneur Ryder Richardson told Just Out, a Portland-area LGBT newspaper. “Down the line we’d like to set up an individual development account and get organizations to match whatever people can make working here.”
The cafe is inclusive of anyone who identifies as transgender, regardless of transition status, and raises funds for a variety of health care needs, including therapy, hormones, and surgery.
Richardson’s friend Seamus Bogues created the shop with the goal of funding their top surgeries and told Just Out they eventually want to provide the same option to others.
“For a business, we’ve done it on a shoestring for sure,” Richardson said. “It adds to the charm, I think.”
Richardson and Bogues thought of the idea after a friend suggested the two work out of the bookstore instead of a coffee cart.
“In Other Words wanted to draw more business and have more people hang out in here, so it kinda worked out for them to let us use the space ’cause it’s kinda mutually beneficial,” Richardson said. “I know they’re trying to have more people of different genders feel like they can hang out here.”
April 27, 2010
cerebraldiva
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