Men find academic home in gender studies

By Rhema Hokama
University of Chicago


Sexuality, masculinity, and interracial pornography have held particular allure for David Klein since high school, but only after coming to the U of C did Klein find a theoretical framework for talking about his interests.

“Theories of gender and sexuality have a part in everything. I think queer theory has a lot to offer in terms of frameworks for looking at the world,” said Klein, who is a second-year in the College.

Klein is one of only three undergraduate men currently declared as gender studies majors at the University.

Since the creation of the major in 1996, men have comprised around 20 percent of undergraduate gender studies majors, said Stuart Michaels, assistant director for curriculum development at the University’s Center for Gender Studies, which was established in 1996 in conjunction with the gender studies major. However, with an average of only four undergraduate gender studies majors per year, the small department often graduates classes without any men at all.

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When will I get my gay disability check?

I'm homosexual and for years I've been hearing how I'm sick. That I have a mental illness and that I'm a pervert.

I'm obviously disabled with all of this within me.

When will I start getting my disability check from the government?

Oklahoma Families to Rally at State Capitol

Oklahoma Families to Rally at State Capitol and Call for Meeting With Representative Sally Kern

WHEN: Tuesday, March 18, 2008

Noon - 1pm

WHERE: The Oklahoma State Capitol 1st Floor Rotunda North Lincoln Boulevard at N.E. 23rd Street Oklahoma City

WHAT: Families, allies and loved ones of GLBT citizens from Oklahoma will gather at the State Capitol on Tuesday in response to Representative Sally Kern's recent statements calling the lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender community" the biggest threat our nation has, even more so than terrorism" and that GLBT people are "just destroying this nation."
Voters from across the state, including members of the Oklahoma City chapter of Parents, Families and Friends of Lesbians and Gays (PFLAG), will request to meet with Kern about her remarks. The public is encouraged to join the Oklahoma chapters of PFLAG and support calls for a meeting with Kern.

WHO: Speakers will include Rev. Loyce Newton-Edwards, president of the Oklahoma City PFLAG chapter; chapter vice president Conna Wilkinson; and attorney Richard Ogden, chair of Cimarron Alliance Foundation.

WHY: "Representative Kern's remarks undermine our nation's commitment to 'liberty and justice for all,' and do a great disservice to our families and communities," PFLAG says in a statement to be released at the rally."Every Oklahoman, and every American, deserves a public servant who believes in the dignity of all our children and who refuses to take part in divisive and counter-productive attacks on our families. Words matter, and Representative Kern's statement sent a clear message that she condones second-class citizenship for the lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender community. Her remarks disrespect our GLBT loved ones, dishonor the service of nearly 10,000 lesbian and gay veterans in Oklahoma and disregard her duty to uphold our country's most noble values. Representative Kern owes her constituents an explanation, and our families an apology."

Mount Si High School Principal defends DOS

WASHINGTON: Despite some parents' and students' objections to the Day of Silence, Mount Si High School Principal Randy Taylor told the Snoqualmie Valley School District board last week that the high school's Gay-Straight Alliance (GSA) had begun planning this year's event, scheduled for April 25.

Taylor said organizers were working to set expectations of respect for all students - participants and non-participants - on the Day of Silence, which is part of a nationwide effort to raise awareness of gay, lesbian, bisexual, trans-gendered and questioning (LGBTQ) students and allies who do not feel safe enough to speak their true voice.

"The Day of Silence is just one [of many school activities] that sends a powerful message that all students are respected and have the right to learn regardless of the label they wear at school, at home or in the community. We are a better school because of activities like the Day of Silence," Taylor said at the standing-room-only meeting Thursday, March 6.

He said the GSA was working to address "the blatant misconception that participating or not participating in the Day of Silence is about choosing a side and drawing lines over GLBTQ rights."

Taylor added that staff members and students would be educated on expectations for the day, and communication with parents would remain open. Aune said that participating in the Day of Silence is within students' right to free expression, and that "any form of bullying will not be tolerated."

Mount Si parents and other community members belonging to a group called the Coalition to Defend Education (CoDE) wrote in a letter to the school board and Mount Si administration that the Day of Silence creates an unsafe environment for non-participating students, whom they claim are labeled as anti-gay. They also wrote that the Day of Silence is a distraction to learning, and shapes a school environment where school employees feel emboldened to advocate their personal opinions.

Tom's personal opinion:

I find it very telling how the anti-gay community is screaming and yelling about their children having to feel offended if they are non-supportive of DOS.

GLBTQIA's are asking the non-supportive community to feel, for one single day, what the GLBTQIA community feels EVERYDAY!

It seems the non-supportive community can't handle it for even one day. Now who are the weak and pathetic?

VIDEO: Silence=Death .. Get angry, hate crime rampant

VIDEO: Homophobia and denial

VIDEO: David Paris - Coming Out Gay

Queer elders? Who knew?

BY BYRON BECK

“I came to hate the word ‘lesbian,’” said Susie Shepherd, daughter of Portland PFLAG pioneers Bill and Ann Shepherd. “Before all this alphabet-soup nonsense we were all gay, no matter what you did. That’s what we were: gay.”

Shepherd was talking about her history in Portland’s gay-rights movement before an audience of 100 people, old and young, at “30+ Years in the Making: Stories of the Struggle for Our Rights” on Saturday, Jan. 12, at Portland’s Q Center. Shepherd was joined by about 20 other queer folk—but not just any queer folk. This group paved the way for a wave of recent legislation that has and hopefully will soon again benefit gay people in the workforce and at home. Alongside Shepherd were familiar names—Commish Sam Adams, activist Terry Bean, trans-evangelist Paula Nielsen and gay-friendly former Gov. Barbara Roberts. But there were also a slew of older gay figures I’d seldom—if ever—heard from, including Larry Copeland, Cindy Cumfer, Harold Strong, Donna Red Wing, George Nicola and Jerry Weller.

Although it was nice to hear from Roberts and Bean, it was even more remarkable—and memorable—to hear the stories from the mouths of those who had kept relatively quiet. I had no idea, for example, that Copeland, who now runs downtown’s Black Rooster Cafe, was co-founder in 1974 of the Portland Town Council—one of this city’s first gay-identified groups. Or that he also ran for a seat on Portland’s City Council long before anyone had heard of a gay guy named Adams. As a lawyer in 1985, Cumfer told how she helped make possible the first adoption by a same-sex couple in this state—and country. In 1976, Strong was the first black male elected to the position of “emperor” in our city’s—or any other city’s—drag queen court. Red Wing, who now lives in Colorado, kept the anti-gay Oregon Citizens Alliance at bay in 1992. Nicola helped introduce the state’s first sexual nondiscrimination bill in 1973. And Weller did yeoman’s work for several gay groups in the 1970s.

For years now these good people have pretty much stayed on the sidelines of our movement, even though they were the ones who first opened doors previously closed to gays. They’re the unsung heroes—our forgotten foot soldiers—in the fight for queer rights. They’re the ones who did the hard work—long before cell phones and the Internet—that no one else wanted, or even dared, to do. Today you might sit by them at a restaurant, or on a bus, having no clue the extremely important role they played in making it easier for you to be gay today.

When a younger audience member wondered aloud why change took forever and what impatient “kids” could do to push it along, Red Wing jumped to her feet and shouted, “Just do it!” It’s a bit of an eye-opener to realize our queer forefathers have been with us all along, whether we realized it or not. Who knew?

Thailand's secret history

About 2,000 books, magazines, photo albums, video tapes, movie and audio CDs relating to homosexuals fill the small room that is the country's only library dedicated to documenting the local gay community.

Called the Thai Queer Resource Centre (TQRC), it was founded by Australian scholar Assoc Prof Peter Jackson with the aim of preventing the history and voice of the Thai GLBT (gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender) community from erosion by the state.

Authorities view material that reflects the lives of the Thai GLBT community as immoral and illegal, which must be destroyed.

Hence his effort to set up the Thai Queer Resources Centre to collect as many publications as possible before the police and ill-informed government policies lead to them being destroyed.

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