fabfemmeboy

WATCH: Gay Protest Turns Into Fashion Show

“Totally Biased” sent two correspondents, comedians Guy Branum and Aparna Nancherla, to Madison Square Garden to interview people protesting gay-bashing that recently occurred at Knicks games — interview them about their fashion choices, of course. Check out the clip above to see what happens when a protest turns into a red carpet.

Two gay men were thrown to the ground and kicked repeatedly while being called slurs because the basketball fans thought that one of the young men was wearing a pair of pants that were “too gay.”  A group of people show up to protest because there has been no condemnation of the violence, and these individuals thought it was perfectly appropriate to turn a protest into a fashion show.  And the protesters play along because that’s what we, as gay men, are taught to do.  We are taught by society that our only value is in being fashionable, fluffy friends who will plan everyone’s wedding, make everyone’s clothes, and make a world a beautiful place all while we are being literally beaten to the ground for wearing things that are ‘too gay.’  For being too expressive with what we wear and how we speak.  Men are being beaten and shot and bashed and killed, and they make it into a joke that ends with the tagline “Gay bashin’ is never in fashion”?

This isn’t funny.  This isn’t satire.  This is fucking disgusting. 

The Boy Scouts of America voted today to end its ban on gay scouts.  Here’s why it’s not actually helpful for anyone:

1.  The ban on gay leaders, staff, and adults is still in place.  This means that gay teens can remain a part of scouting until they’re 18 but aren’t allowed to do anything for the organization thereafter, including being youth counselors, troop leaders, camp staff, or any other volunteer, nor can they work for the national or regional organization itself.

2.  There is nothing whatsoever that says you have to be nice to the kid you let in.  You don’t have to treat them with respect, compassion, or even basic decency.  In fact, you can spend every meeting lecturing the the troop on what it means to be “morally straight” and say that means not being gay.  Considering the majority of Boy Scout troops are sponsored by churches, that’s going to be a problem.

3.  Many of the people who have fought for the change expressed joy, saying that this means young boys will not be made to feel like there is something wrong with them, and they will not have to feel the sting of homophobia. This change doesn’t actually accomplish that (even within the limited world of scouting) for two reasons:

a.  They don’t have role models within the organization.  In fact, they’re specifically banned from having anyone like themselves to look up to.  This matters when there are entire sections of the Boy Scout Handbook and ‘curriculum’ about developing into a healthy adult and making smart sexual choices (namely, not having it until marriage); and

b.  The change in policy says “There’s nothing wrong with you…yet.  You’re a kid.  Once you’re an adult, you’ll become a predator.” 

Is it a step in the right direction?  I suppose so, but only in the same way that “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” was a step up from decades of witchhunts…and I think we all know how that worked out.

Killing in Greenwich Village Looks Like Hate Crime, Police Say

lettersfromtitan:

A young man screamed antigay slurs at another man before killing him on Friday night in Greenwich Village.

Here.  My city.  In the Village.  By Stonewall.  The idea that we’ve already won.  Yeah, not so much.

And this is just the most recent in a string - this week two men were bashed coming out of a West Village hotspot bar, and a couple weeks ago two men were kicked to the ground and called faggots in broad daylight next to Madison Square Garden/Penn Station. 

Personally I define ‘winning’ not by whether I can get a couple hundred extra back on taxes by filing jointly; I define it by whether I am afraid to walk down streets at night and how legitimate/rational that fear is.  We’re not winning right now - we’re not even close.

(via gingerandfair)

Fun fact:  Out of 11 regular seasons of Project Runway, only 2 winners have been openly gay. 

That’s 18%…in a fashion competition.

deliriumbubbles:

You can’t do this to him. If you sing with him, you’re painting a bullseye on his back.

This is so sad.

It’s incredibly sad and right up there with the fact that Kurt can’t win senior class president but Blaine can, or that Kurt couldn’t be taken seriously as a male lead while Blaine always is.  The issue with Kurt and Sam’s proposed duet was never Sam; Sam was the first guy to be openly cool about Kurt in the series, actually.  It’s an issue of passability and how that directly translates to acceptability, even where both guys are open and out.  If Sam had sung a duet with Blaine back in season 2, it wouldn’t have painted a target on his back; if he sang a duet with Kurt even at the end of last season, it would have meant people harassing him and making jokes. 

(via krissyreminisce)

jenndesq:

[source]

wham!blam

According to his earring, Blaine is NOT on the bottom!

(via nachochang)

Gay Man Attacked on New York City Subway; Onlookers Do NOthing

There are a lot of things I could talk about with this article - in particular regarding the comparison drawn between the (white, individual) gay man who fought back against a street preacher a few days ago to cheers as opposed to this (non-white, visibly coupled) gay man who was left to get beaten up by six people hurling slurs and taking pictures.  But all I can say is that I’m so fucking sick of this shit.  I’m sick of people talking about a few positive experiences where people cheer on a gay person and acting like that means we’re all safe.  I’m sick of looking at places where people like me are getting beaten up or killed and knowing those places well; they’re not far-off or unlike where I live.  They’re where I go to the grocery store.  They’re where I was looking at apartments a week ago.  They’re not the small towns we ‘know’ aren’t safe - they’re big, “liberal,” “gay-friendly” cites, and all it reinforces for me is the genuine, deep-seeded belief that my partner and I are not actually safe no matter where we live.  And it’s really, really fucking frustrating.

canuckjacq:

(x)

No. No no no no no no you are not, even if you think you are. YOU ARE NOT. You can “consider yourself” part of our community but seriously? I can as accurately consider myself an owl. Also straight people, while claiming membership in a group that experiences significant discrimination, including criminalisation and violence, you DO NOT USE THE WORD “queers”.

If your friends are actually happy for you to use that word, that’s fine. And while I use it to self-identify, I don’t use it around LGBTQ people I don’t know, because some people find it super triggery. 

But. Seriously. Super fail!ally. 

I did love all the people saying this had to be a troll because no one would really think that.  I’ve known several.  Because Allies are part of the community and they’re Allies because they say things like “I believe in gay marriage because I want a Klaine wedding” (I swear to fucking god), so somehow that translates to “I am one of you!”

It’s actually gotten worse lately, especially with the number of pieces being written/published by straight cis folks talking about “discrimination” they have faced (or could have faced, or finally learned something about) because they supported something gay (almost always marriage) and people disapproved.  Well, golly gee wedding photographer lady, that’s totally the same thing as literally watching your state vote against your marriage of three months.  Being asked to submit a different photograph for your ad is exactly the same level of personal offensiveness.  How silly of me.

(And don’t think I’ve forgotten about the girl who believes she is part of the community - and even got her own documentary - because someone spraypainted a slur that in no way applied to her on her damned car.  You’re not a fag.  You don’t get to go around being proud of that word.)

Shut The Fuck Up Straight People: thegallifreyanin221b: shutthefuckupstraightpeople: In a heterosexist...

thegallifreyanin221b:

shutthefuckupstraightpeople:

In a heterosexist society, unless an author specifically writes that their character isn’t a heterosexual, as far as I’m concerned, it doesn’t count as queer representation.

Except that some authors have said in interviews that…

Don’t get me wrong, I love that the President talked about “Seneca Falls, Selma, and Stonewall,” but a couple things:

1) The speechwriting snob in me gets prickly because his Inaugural addresses never sound like them.  Inauguration is the time to bust out the broad, timeless language; there’s nothing dated about “Ask not what your country can do for you, ask what you can do for your country.”  Inauguration is meant to be about soaring rhetoric that surpasses the issues of the day, so that in 50 years its quotes are just as relevant as they were on the day the speech was delivered. 

2) I’m happy our President believes my friends and I are worthy of equality and finally - finally! - it has become okay to put civil rights for gay people and the Civil Rights Movement in the same sentence, because just five years ago that was taboo in DC.  But to my friends jumping up and down and excited over the turn of phrase: being referenced is nice; getting rights is better.  At this point every right gay people have has been given by the states.  Every single one, save the right to die in a war which impacted less than 1% of LGB people in the US.  The last poll numbers I saw said that something like 80% of Americans believe that you shouldn’t be able to fire someone just because they’re gay, but in 29 states that’s perfectly legal.  No moves on ENDA.  No support for the bill when it’s introduced in every session.  No comparing that to Title VII which is a much more direct comparison.  There’s been no actual change in marriage equality status at the federal level, and now it’s being left in the hands of the Supreme Court which is pretty freaking bad. People who are talking about ‘thank God it’s not Romney, think about all that progress going backwards!’…sadly there isn’t much progress to undo.  Don’t misunderstand me, I didn’t vote for Romney and never would because I think it’s an out-of-touch guy willing to say or do anything to remain popular with his base of 1950s-wannabes, and I believe there is unexplored potential for new ways to screw people over.  But undoing valuable LGBT progress?  First there would have to be some on the federal level TO undo.

So thank you for the shout-out, Mr. President, but I think it’s sad just how many of my friends are so desperate for the scraps that they mistake a reference like that for action and change.