The Latest

Tuesday May 1 Rally/March












































Tuesday May 1







4:00 pm





Rally/March





Boston Common






Boston May Day Coalition






617.290.5614 • info@bostonmayday.org






www.bostonmayday.org





Dear sisters and brothers,





The struggle for immigrant workers’ rights needs your active participation and solidarity. Remember May 1, 2006? Millions of immigrant workers from coast to coast walked off their jobs and rallied in just about every major city to demand full rights for undocumented workers.





The same thing is planned for May 1, or “May Day” 2007. Many of you who are reading this appeal probably have a good idea of why it’s important for you as anti-war activists to be involved in the movement for immigrant workers’ rights. Even so it’s worth reviewing just a little.





To begin with, while we march against the war in Iraq, it’s absolutely critical that we march against the war on the people right here at home. The level of institutional racism on the part of the capitalist system and government that resulted in massive death and continued suffering in New Orleans is part of a “war at home.” So are the police murders of 23-year -old Sean Bell in New York City and 92-year-old Kathryn Johnston in Atlanta several months ago.





When it comes to the government anti-immigrant raids that go on daily, calling it a war is no metaphor. No other word could describe it more accurately. Thousands of immigrant workers have been arrested over the past year alone. On the morning of March 6, an army of hundreds of heavily armed Immigration and Customs Enforcement and FBI agents raided a leather factory in New Bedford, Mass., arresting and terrorizing 350 workers, many of them women whose children were suddenly left stranded. It’s time that we UNITE and show by our actions that we are as angry about these raids as we are about the war in Iraq. When we do that, we are truly connecting the struggles against the war abroad and the war at home.





The main weapon that the government and the capitalist media are using to try to deter more people of all nationalities and races from demanding an end to these raids is anti-immigrant racism. When immigrants rally for their rights, and you look out at many of the big immigrant rights rallies and see a tremendous sea of people—including, however, very few people who are either white, or whom you usually might see at a big anti-war march—that’s a sign that the divide and conquer with racism strategy is being used.





On May Day 2007, it is up to us to make sure that the anti-war movement shows up to stand side by side, shoulder to shoulder, with immigrant workers against these terrorist raids.





Another point is that it’s so important that immigrant workers have chosen May Day as the day to boycott work and rally for their rights across the country. May Day is the day the workers in every part of the world rally and march to show their solidarity with the struggle of all workers everywhere. Even though May Day was born in the working class struggles of the 19th century right here in the U.S., up until recently May Day has not been widely observed in this country. But all of that’s changing, in large part because immigrant workers are bringing May Day back to the U.S., along with its message of worldwide working-class unity and militancy and anti-racist, anti-imperialist and anti-war solidarity.





The anti-war movement must get behind May Day 2007 and build for it with the same passion and energy that we put into anti-war marches. If we do that, we will not only be solidarizing ourselves with immigrant workers, we will be helping to revive worldwide working-class solidarity in the country where it is most needed.





Anti-war movement—all out for May Day ’07!





Signed by,





LeiLani Dowell, Fight Imperialism-Stand Together (FIST)



Teresa Gutierrez, May 1 Coalition, New York City



Larry Holmes, Troops Out Now Coalition (TONC)



John Parker, March 25 Coalition, Los Angeles

BAGLY 27th Anniversary




Coming Home, the 27th Anniversary Celebration for the Boston Alliance of Gay, Lesbian, Bisexual, and Transgender Youth (BAGLY, Inc.), will be held on Thursday, May 3, 2007, at the Artists For Humanity Epicenter at 100 West Second Street, South Boston. The reception will begin at 6 p.m., with the program beginning at 6:45 p.m.


Please put this date in your calendar and plan on joining us for a very special evening including complimentary hors d’ouevres, wine, beer, and non-alcoholic beverages, as well as entertainment, awards, and our one-of-a-kind auction.



Hosted by WCVB (Channel 5) TV Morning Anchor David Brown.



Honoring:
Kathleen Henry, Former chair, Massachusetts Governor’s Commission on Gay and Lesbian Youth



and



Lexington C.A.R.E.S.—Community Action for Responsible Education and Safety



The community’s participation this year is very important to us, as we have been given two challenge grants.


New Donor Challenge
Donor Ron Ansin has agreed to match all new gifts we receive, before June 30th of this year—up to $20,000. If you’ve never donated to BAGLY before, your purchase of a ticket to Coming Home will go a long way to helping us meet that challenge.



Current Donor Challenge
The Babson Foundation has agreed to match all gifts—up to $10,000—from current donors who increase their giving before June 30th of this year and also commit to giving that amount again in our next fiscal year.



So, if you are planning on joining us at Coming Home, please bring a friend or two!



It’s never too early to reserve your tickets, at $75/ticket, either by online donation at http://www.bagly.org/ or by calling Paige Kruza, Development Coordinator, at 617.227.4313. Of course if you can’t make it on May 3rd, but wish to support BAGLY through these challenge grants, you can make a tax-deductible donation at anytime. You can also let us know if you want any tickets to go to current youth or recent alumni/ae who will otherwise be unable to afford to attend.



BAGLY is a youth-led, adult-supported social support organization committed to social justice, and creating, sustaining and advocating for programs, policies and services for the gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender youth community. BAGLY offers social support, health promotion and youth leadership development through its community outreach programs and services.

ABC News 20-20 Barbara Walters Program on Transgender Children

ABC News 20/20 is broadcasting a program hosted by Barbara Walters this
Friday night, April 27 on transgender children and their families. The
program will feature three families who are supporting their transgender
children, ages 6, 10 and 16 who live in different parts of the U.S., and
some of the health providers who are working with these families. The
program also describes new findings from the Family Acceptance Project
about how family acceptance and rejection affects the health and mental
health of young people who are gender non-conforming.

Happy Day of Silence!

To all of the brave young people who are silent today in their schools and communities, we salute you!



*The national day of silence was last week and had more participants than ever. MA is having DOS a week late due to Patriots day and such.

12 Days Until French Election

In just twelve days France could elect their first woman president (Segolene Royal) or they could elect a George Bush clone (Nicolas Sarkozy, in the lead). The outcome will have a huge effect on LGBT people and Immigrant populations in France, and it will have an affect on the world because it will tip the balance between apologists for America's imperialist policies, and those who firmly resist the policies of the current administration. This blog will keep you updated on what is going on with polls and such. Go Sego Go!

A transgender prom king?

I read this article this morning and thought it was very interesting. I think it really shows that young people are becoming more accepting of queer culture and can be some of the best advocates we have out there.

Bush's plan to build wall in Iraq (Didn't this not work in Berlin?)


George Bush's military plans to build wall in Baghdad!
Do we not learn from history?!?






A great psychology professor once told me "You keep doing what you're doing, you keep getting what your getting"







Keeping out the oppressed from their 'OWN' government will only rip the divide even deeper...







Photo(Cape Elizabeth School Department)
Story: LA Times

New Hampshire Gov. to aprrove Civil Unions?

The AP revealed today that New Hampshire Gov. John Lynch is onboard to support Civil Unions in New Hampshire if the state Senate approves the bill.

http://www.wmur.com/news/12506280/detail.html

I'm not sure if this is step forward or a step back at this point. But at least it is a step.

Empty-Headed Show: Don Imus and Minority Outrage


It may just be my imagination, but it seems as though people are raising a lot more hell over offensive speech. Every time I blink, someone’s being taken to the woodshed for saying something racist, sexist, or homophobic. In the last few months I recall uproars over Michael Richards, Isaiah Washington, Tim Hardaway, Ann Coulter, a Snickers ad and now, most recently, Don Imus. And that’s only the stuff I can think of off the top of my head.

What is going on? Why has a man like Don Imus, who has spewed so much racist filth over the years (see the now infamous Gwen Ifill “cleaning lady” comment, for example), finally lost his job? Why did people react so angrily now? I suspect that the fury embodies the frustrations of minorities, who have had to endure 25 years or so of repression and reversals but have had few effective political outlets to express their anger. Many black people are just damn tired of being criminalized, degraded and discriminated against. And many queer people are equally tired of stigmatization and discrimination. And we are starting to speak out--perhaps at peripheral, symptomatic issues--but to me even these lashes at symptoms indicate an "enough is enough" attitude.

And when anger at a racist, heterosexist system is bubbling beneath the surface like hot magma, you never know when or where there’s going to be an eruption. So shock jocks who employ racist, sexist, and homophobic rhetoric cavalierly should take note.

The source of the indignation at people like Imus or, say, Tim Hardaway is legitimate. It is a reaction to the degradation of our material lives, which is reinforced and supported by racist, sexist, homophobic discourse. This needs to come out more forcefully in our expressions of outrage against bigoted speech. Yes, Rev. Sharpton, I’m sure your daughter was offended by the comments—but let’s also hear about some of the concrete hardships black women face! Let’s hear about how anti-black stereotypes do concrete harm to black people.

Racism, sexism and homophobia are not just matters of divining people’s inner feelings and prejudices, they can also be measured demographically. If anyone would like to get started with some resources, let me recommend The Color of Wealth: The Story Behind the US Racial Wealth Divide or American Apartheid: Segregation and the Making of the Underclass. These resources discuss how our present inequalities are rooted in past discrimination and how without radical social reforms these inequalities will continue to fester.

Yet, the discussion in the media is limited to talk about how comments offended and hurt people’s feelings. I am not suggesting that feelings are unimportant or unrelated, but the outrage is also about more than emotions. It is about education and housing disparities, job discrimination, police brutality, increasing rates of HIV, appalling levels of incarceration, etc.

It would be a godsend for the status-quo if our outrage were directed solely at peripheral manifestations of racism like talk show hosts, or what some peroxide blowhard says at a right-wing conference. If we leave it at this, executives and corporate oligarchs will simply proclaim their commitment to “diversity,” expunge the most overt offenders, and paper over the overarching racist, sexist ideas they support. As Harvey Fierstein so eloquently put it:

Our nation, historically bursting with generosity toward strangers, remains remarkably unkind toward its own. Just under our gleaming patina of inclusiveness, we harbor corroding guts. America, I tell you that it doesn’t matter how many times you brush your teeth. If your insides are rotting your breath will stink.

Fierstein made the common mistake of limiting the question to individual prejudices, when he should have talked more about structure. But his point is nonetheless strong. By all good demographic measurements, our insides, as a nation, are indeed rotting. We live in a racist, sexist homophobic society and no “diversity” and “tolerance” rhetoric will be able to whitewash that.

Safe Colleges Conference this Saturday

Hey Folks,

Check out this queer conference on Saturday at Tufts with a focus on economic justice. Dorothy Allison is the keynote!

Queer Youth “Day of Silence” Protest Threatened by Right Wing Backlash Across U.S.



“Please understand my reasons for not speaking today. I am participating in the Day of Silence, a national youth movement protesting the silence faced by lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender people and their allies in schools. My deliberate silence echoes that silence, which is caused by harassment, prejudice, and discrimination. I believe that ending the silence is the first step toward fighting these injustices. Think about the voices you are not hearing today. What are you going to do to end the silence?”



"Making matters more complex are the several lawsuits filed against schools where students have been prevented from wearing anti-gay T-Shirts during the mid-April controversy. In Southern California three years ago, Tyler Harper was banished to a Poway High School office when he refused to take off a homemade shirt quoting anti-gay scripture. Last year, a Chicago area girl was told to take off a shirt reading “Be Happy, Not Gay,” and a school counselor took a magic marker to the “not gay” clause, leaving Heidi Zamecnik’s parents and lawyers not happy indeed."



"On the contrary, the Day of Silence followed by the Day of Truth places the upbeat passion and power of GLBT student allies in stark contrast to the lame and inherently mean-spirited expressions that come limping out the next day. The comparison provides a welcome showcase for the future of the gay rights movement."



("lame and inherently mean-spirited" sounds like some one I might of met.... Oh! Amy and Brian maybe)



Read the full article.
Ann Rostow
San Francisco Bay Times

quote of the day

After being criticized for saying gays were too self absorbed Roseanne apologized and gave us this quote. She gets it. And she is right - many of our leading organizations are too self absorbed. Looks like Roseanne has been talking to some queers.

"The leaders of gay groups need to align with the leaders of Acorn, and other groups of poor and desperate Americans and fight against those who oppress all of us!

"I have met too many gays who are Republicans, and I cannot understand how they could choose that!

"Let's all leave our own bedrooms, kitchens, neighborhoods and groups and meet each other to form a diverse army that stands for Democracy and Economic Justice." - Roseanne


Join QueerToday At The Theater!

OPENS APRIL 14!






SURVIVING THE NIAN







A World Premiere musical







Music and Lyrics by Melissa Li






Book by Melissa Li and Abe Rybeck












"Winner of the 2007 Jonathan Larson Award for Musical Theater"












Fireworks explode when Kaylin's new-world life clashes with her family's plans. Where do her loyalties lie?












Kaylin returns to Hong Kong for the first time in five years, bringing her lover Asha -- and a completely new life plan -- to introduce to her family. But they have plans of their own for her. Kaboom! This groundbreaking show will remind you that families in even the most far-away lands are, well, familiar.













Playwright and composer Melissa Li started her drama career as a teenager in The Theater Offensive's True Colors: Out Youth Theater program. Surviving the Nian has been developed over the past four years through the company's Plays at Work program, and this spring's premiere represents the first fully-staged production of this exciting new musical.









Surviving the Nian runs April 14-May 5, with both matinee and evening performances available. Talkbacks after the April 15, 17, 21, 22 and 29 performances.













-Regular prices $32 and $40 QueerToday Price: $20!











CLICK HERE by April 15, to RSVP
and Buy Your Ticket to the Student Night
Hosted by QueerToday.com!
Special Price: $20



Oranges for Passover

I posted the exact same thing last year at the end of Passover... but I love the story so much, I had to share it again. Plus, my mom actually remembered to put an orange on the seder plate this year.




"In the early 1980s, the Hillel Foundation invited me to speak on a panel at Oberlin College. While on campus, I came across a Haggada that had been written by some Oberlin students to express feminist concerns. One ritual they devised was placing a crust of bread on the Seder plate, as a sign of solidarity with Jewish lesbians (there's as much room for a lesbian in Judaism as there is for a crust of bread on the Seder plate)."

"At the next Passover, I placed an orange on our family's Seder plate. During the first part of the Seder, I asked everyone to take a segment of the orange, make the blessing over fruit, and eat it as a gesture of solidarity with Jewish lesbians and gay men, and others who are marginalized within the Jewish community (I mentioned widows in particular)."

"Bread on the Seder plate brings an end to Pesach — it renders everything chometz. And it suggests that being lesbian is being transgressive, violating Judaism. I felt that an orange was suggestive of something else: the fruitfulness for all Jews when lesbians and gay men are contributing and active members of Jewish life. In addition, each orange segment had a few seeds that had to be spit out — a gesture of spitting out, repudiating the homophobia of Judaism."

"When lecturing, I often mentioned my custom as one of many new feminist rituals that have been developed in the last twenty years. Somehow, though, the typical patriarchal maneuver occurred: My idea of an orange and my intention of affirming lesbians and gay men were transformed. Now the story circulates that a MAN said to me that a woman belongs on the bimah as an orange on the Seder plate. A woman's words are attributed to a man, and the affirmation of lesbians and gay men is simply erased."

"Isn't that precisely what's happened over the centuries to women's ideas?" (Susannah Heschel, April 5, 2001)

....blatantly lifted from Wikipedia

Not Just Rubbers for Lovers: HIV Prevention Beyond Latex

With the recent discussion of circumcision as the new "it" method of prevention, I thought it was important to give an update on methods of HIV prevention that are currently being developed that don't rely on the state interfering with our anatomy.






PEP




PEP stands for Post Exposure Prophylaxis. What this means, is that there is medicine (Truvada) that you can take after a potentially risky sexual encounter that may have exposed you to HIV. For example, barebacking, condom breaks, sexual assault, etc. PEP started out as something that was available to health professionals after something like a needle stick, but someone got the brilliant idea of sharing with non-health professionals too. The idea is kind of similar to Emergency Contraception in that by taking it soon after the risky sexual experience, you may be able to prevent infection. PEP should be available from your Dr., but is also available at places like Fenway Community Health and an emergency room like MGH. Before being prescribed PEP, the Dr. will give you a syphilis and an HIV test (both require blood being drawn). You take Truvada for about a month, and then consult back with your Dr. Truvada does have some side effects, like diarrhea, sleeplessness, etc. but it's different for everybody. As for price, it can be kind of expensive. Fortunately, you should be able to get it for little or no money through your insurance, or through HDAP. One thing you should be aware of, is that if you go through private insurance, your insurance company will know that you took PEP, which some people may be uncomfortable with. So, some people choose to go through HDAP even if you do have private insurance, but then that means the state government knows you took PEP, which may also make people uncomfortable. There has been some initial research on PEP, unfortunately, I don't have any numbers with me at the moment. It's definitely not 100% effective, so this is not something to rely on. But, at the moment, it's the only thing available to reduce risk after sex.







PrEP






PrEP is kind of similar to PEP in that it requires taking antiretroviral medication. The biggest difference between PrEP and PEP is that little "r" between the first "P" and the "E." PrEP stands for Pre-Exposure Prophylaxis as opposed to Post. PrEP is even more in the initial stages of development than PEP. Some new studies have begun to look at PrEP as an effective means of prevention, but as far as I know, nothing has been concluded yet. But, this may be a good option to keep a look out for in the future. Some problems with PrEP, like PEP, are the side effects, the difficulty of taking pills daily, the expense, etc. Some people are worried that it may increase risk behavior because people will think they're immune. What do other people think? Is this a legitimate concern?









Microbicides






To start with, some marketing people need to come up with a sexier name for this. But that's not the point at the moment. Personally, I think microbicides are exciting no matter what you call them, but that might just be me. Microbicides are kind of like a lube that can be used before sex to serve as a sort of "chemical condom" (again, not very sexy) that could prevent HIV transmission, and maybe pregnancy. Like PrEP, this is still very much in the testing stages and is not yet available for public use. Microbicides can either be vaginal or rectal, meaning they can be used in the vagina, or up the butt by anyone engaging in anal sex. The idea is that it could potentially be empowering for receptive (bottom) sex partners so that they don't have to rely on the insertive (top) partners to put on condoms. The "female" condom came about for similar reasons about 20 years ago. Again, this is still in development, so nothing's available just yet, but keep your eyes peeled. Microbicides may be the new circumcision one day.







Vaccine






Don't get too excited... there's nothing concrete in this section just yet. But, it is something that is in the process of being developed. Mostly by large, generally evil, pharmaceutical companies. But, an HIV vaccine could potentially put an end to the epidemic. There are a number of concerns about the politics surrounding HIV vaccines. One, is that these large, generally evil, pharmaceuticals have little incentive to invest much in vaccine research because it could mean the end of making and selling and profiting off their HIV meds. There's also the concern that once a vaccine is found, people who are already HIV positive would become (even more) forgotten. But, these concerns aside for the moment, a vaccine would be incredible.






What can I do?





Get involved in research! So much of this stuff is so new that we really know very little about it. Places like Fenway, MGH, Brigham & Women's, etc. are all researching some, or all, of these things. All studies involve financial compensation and can help stop the epidemic!

NYC To Promote Circumcision Among Gays

New York City) New York City’s Health Department is reportedly preparing a campaign promoting circumcision as a means of reducing HIV/AIDS among high risk groups.

The New York Times reports that the Department of Health and Mental Hygiene campaign is aimed at gay men, Hispanics and African Americans. The department began working on the campaign after the World Health Organization last month cited "compelling" evidence that circumcision can reduce their chances of contracting HIV by up to 60 percent. - 365gay.com


HRC fires back

A local board member of HRC fired back in response to my letter (see below) to the editor last week. Click here to read her excuses for HRC supporting pro-war candidates.



HRC too cozy with GOP not the Dems
The Human Rights Campaign has been attacked for being closely aligned with Democrats (see “HRC Struggles To Find Its Footing In New Media,” March 15). The real problem with HRC is that they continue to endorse Republicans and conservatives like Joe Lieberman over more progressive choices like Ned Lamont. In doing so they have failed to stand up for social justice and helped to maintain the oppressive Republican majority for many years. They endorsed candidates who continue to favor the Iraq war, something our community is overwhelmingly against. Their mainstream imagery, over-prioritization of marriage, top-down organizing, belated support of trans people, wasteful spending and continual endorsements of conservatives should be enough reason to stop all donations to the group. I urge readers of Bay Windows to avoid HRC’s expensive dinners and concerts and instead donate to a local LGBT group in need or the slightly more social-justice oriented National Gay and Lesbian Task Force.
Mark D. Snyder
Boston

Foreskin Shots?

Last night popular drag queen ChiChi La Rue was overheard at Fubar (a popular LA gay nightclub, also in attendance were Bobby Trendy of the Anna Nicole Show and porn star Chad Hunt) yelling "Who wants a foreskin shot?!". She then proceeded to fill porn star Jeremy Hall's cupped foreskin with tequila and offer shots for $20 a pop. For those of you who do not know, you can get herpes this way. We're all about sexual liberation, but be sure to know the risks before engaging in any penis puppetry.



Things to think/comment about: Should fubar be held responsible for herpes contracted from these particular foreskin shots? Should ChiChi? Is this even legal? Do you think it is okay to promote something like this in a bar? If not, what about dark rooms that are so popular in Europe? Are they different than this? What do you think?

Parents Education Foundation pulls in $80,000 in 2005


Brian Camenker of MassNutBags brings home $47,000 to spew hate!



Bay Windows top story states:



Yearly Revenue of the Parents Education Foundation:


2005: $80,220

2004: $21,760

2003: $8,150

2002: $32,650




They use the cover of Parents Education Foundation as their non-profit 501 © 3.



Also on the pay role is none other than Amy Contrada pulling in $6,000. So much for being a volunteer!



Read the full article!
(Great reporting Ethan Jacobs!)

Go Soulforce Go!

Three more young adult Equality Ride participants were arrested today at anti-gay Bob Jones University. Be sure to attend the welcoming rally for Soulforce when they ride into Danvers, MA this April 15.

Fill in the blank!

Brian is flipping through the Globe looking for________.



(photo credit: Boston Globe)

Why are Whites so Homophobic?

Keith Boykin turns a critical eye on the representation of blacks as more homophobic than whites...

Check out the article.