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What do you know about black history? – YouTube.

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Although February has been marked by LGBT marriage victories in California and Washington, lets not forget and more Importantly take time to recognize the LGBT African-Americans who have fought and struggled for Equal Rights and Human rights not just because of their sexuality, but because of their ethnic background.  They have in so many ways paved the way and blazed the trail which we follow today.  Take time out to respect those who put their lives on the line so that we have the right to fight our battles in court, protest on the street, and lobby for change.  Harvey Milk exhorted LGBT’s to follow the path of the African-American Civil Rights leaders of the 50′s and 60′s…

Harvey Milk once said “The blacks did not win their rights by sitting quietly in the back of the bus. They got off! Gay people, we will not win our rights by staying quietly in our closets… We are coming out! We are coming out to fight the lies, the myths, the distortions! We are coming out to tell the truth about gays!”

FAMOUS AND NOTABLE LGBT AFRICAN AMERICAN PEOPLE

Alice Walker: author, poet, and advocate

Alvin Ailey: choreographer and advocate

André Leon Talley: editor-at-large for Vogue magazine, current contributing editor

Angela Davis: political advocate, scholar, and author

Audre Lorde: author and advocate

Bayard Rustin: chief organizer of the 1963 March on Washington, advisor to Martin Luther King Jr.

Bessie Smith: blues singer

Bill T. Jones: artistic director, choreographer and dancer

Countee Cullen: poet

Darryl Stevens: actor

Don Lemon: reporter for CNN and news anchor

Doug Spearman: actor

E. Denise Simmons: mayor of Cambridge, Massachusetts, during the 2008-2009 term, first openly lesbian African American mayor in the United States

E. Lyn Harris: author

Emil Wilbekin: former openly gay Editor-in-Chief of Vibe Magazine, current managing editor of Essence.com

Felicia “Snoop” Pearson: actress

Glen Burke: Major League Baseball player

Isis King: America’s Next Top Model contestant

James Baldwin: author

Jasika Nicole: actress

Jean-Michel Basquiat: artist

John Amaechi: former NBA player

Josephine Baker: dancer, singer, and actress

June Jordan: author

Kevin Aviance: female impressionist and entertainer

LZ Granderson: ESPN.com columnist

Langston Hughes: poet and social advocate

Laverne Cox: actress, producer and transgender advocate

Lee Daniels: film producer and director

Linda Villaros: author, journalist and public speaker

Ma Rainey: blues singer

Maurice Jamal: filmmaker and director

Meshell Ndegeocello: singer

Paris Barclay: television director and producer

Patrik-Ian Polk: director, producer, screenwriter, singer and actor

Roy Simmons: former NFL player

RuPaul: actor, drag queen and singer-songwriter

Sheryl Swoopes: WNBA player

Stacy Ann Chin: author and poet

Tracy Chapman: singer

Wanda Sykes: actress and comedian

via Black History Month Resource Kit | GLAAD.

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• Seven LGBT African-Americans Who Changed The Face Of The Gay Community (queerty.com)
• Don Lemon: Being black and gay is ‘about the worst thing you can be in black culture’ (thegrio.com)
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• Black History Month | NBJC Creating Change & LGBT White House Briefing (oblogdeeoblogda.wordpress.com)

A recent article in the Gay Patriot stooped to a new low recently. Rather than take an opportunity to unite liberal and gay conservatives in the fight for first class citizenry and equal human rights, the article did nothing more than attempt to drive a wedge in the LGBT movement. An effort the religious right funded Republican Party couldn’t have done better themselves. NOM would be so proud of their baby GOProud organization…

All gay and lesbian conservatives seem to have one experience in common, that of facing the hostile prejudice of our liberal peers. Some but fortunately not all of our ideological adversaries ever so quick to deem any opposition to their agenda as “hateful” seem to harbor themselves a lot of hatred toward individuals who do not share their [view]

…

As GOProud Board Member Lisa De Pasquale detailed the other day in the Daily Caller:Dan Savage, the “It Gets Better” project’s co-founder, has been just as vicious toward gay conservatives as schoolyard bullies have been toward their gay classmates.

Lisa De Pasquale lashed out at Savage because

Savage referred to the members of GOProud, an organization of gay conservatives, as “gay Quislings and useful idiots.” He said they were just “window dressing” for bigoted Republicans. Like a schoolyard bully….

via GayPatriot » Why Do They Hate?.

Just because your feelings were hurt by Dan Savage’s “Window Dressing” comment, doesn’t mean you should stoop to a level comparing LGBT liberals to school yard bullies who have literally taunted LGBT youth to death…

Shame on YOU! And thanks for validating Dan’s point!

Hat tip: Gay Marriage USS

Joey

Once I was a lonely dog,
Just looking for a home.
I had no place to go,
No one to call my own.
I wandered up and down the streets,
in rain, in heat, and snow.
I ate whatever I could find,
I was always on the go.

My skin would itch, my feet were sore,
My body ached with pain,
And no one stopped to give a pat
Or to gently say my name.
I never saw a loving glance,
I was always on the run.
For people thought that hurting me
was really lots of fun.

And then one day I heard a voice
So gentle, kind and sweet,
And arms so soft reached down to me
And took me off my feet.
“No one again will hurt you.”
Was whispered in my ear.
“You’ll have a home to call your own
where you know no fear.”
“You will be dry, you will be warm,
you’ll have enough to eat
And rest assured that when you sleep,
your dreams will all be sweet.”

I was afraid, I must admit,
I’ve lived so long in fear.
I can’t remember when I let
A human come so near.

And as she tended to my wounds
And bathed and brushed my fur
She told me about the rescue group
And what it meant to her.

She said, “We are a circle,
A line that never ends.
And in the center there is you
protected by new friends.”
“And all around you are
the ones who check the pounds,
And those who share their homes
after you’ve been found.”
“And all the other folks
who are searching near and far,
To find the perfect home for you,
where you can be a star.”

She said, “There is a family,
that’s waiting patiently,
and pretty soon we’ll find them,
just you wait and see.”
“And then they’ll join our circle
they’ll help to make it grow,
so there’ll be room for more like you,
who have no place to go.”

I waited very patiently,
The days they came and went.
Today’s the day I thought,
my family will be sent.
Then just when I began to think
it wasn’t meant to be,
there were people standing there,
just gazing down at me.

I knew them in a heartbeat,
I could tell they felt it too.
They said, “We have been waiting
for a special dog like you.”

Now every night I say a prayer
to all the gods that be.
“Thank you for the life I live
and all you’ve given me.
But most of all protect the dogs
in the pound and on the street.
And send a Rescue person
to lift them off their feet.”

- Arlene Pace

Reposted from Ruckus Random Ramblings

“I still hear people say that I should not be talking about the rights of lesbian and gay people. … But I hasten to remind them that Martin Luther King Jr. said, ‘Injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere.’ I appeal to everyone who believes in Martin Luther King Jr.’s dream, to make room at the table of brotherhood and sisterhood for lesbian and gay people.”

~Coretta Scott King

Human Rights Day 2012: Where do we go from here?.

Post-it(r) notes are a sticky subject at the Idaho capital.  Members of a group called “Add the Words” was halted by state troopers while placing post-it notes on the glass state capital doors.  Their message?  Add the words “sexual orientation and gender identity” to the Idaho Human Rights Bill.  Since October Idahoans have been mailing and emailing messages asking lawmakers to give legislation protecting the   LGBTQIA population from discrimination a hearing and pass the legislation.

While efforts have been going on since October to have a Human Rights Bill be heard by the House State Affairs Committee legislators were stunned and shocked when the “Add the Words” campaign showed up on their marble door step.  In Idaho, the House State Affairs Committee refused to give the Human Rights Bill a hearing for the fifth year in a row.  Sounds like they’re taking a page out of the Utah LDS Legislator handbook.

[Cody Hafner]  invites the public to post their own sticky notes or if you can’t make it to Boise you can send your request to your lawmakers to amend the Human Rights Bill by submitting it to the Add The Words, Idaho website at www.addthewords.org.There will be an Add the Words, Idaho fundraising party this Thursday, January 12th, from 5:30-8:30 PM at the Beside Bardenay on the Basque Block in Downtown Boise. It will be hosted by more than 30 human rights leaders from across the state. Cost is a $10.00 to $100.00 donation at the door. CLICK HERE FOR MORE INFORMATION. If you can not attend, you can send a donation to: Add the Words PAC Box 2661 Boise, ID 83701.

via Idaho State Police Attempt to Halt Sticky Note Campaign « The Idaho Agenda.

Inspiration from Bob Paris

Concerned Women for America’s Janice Crouse trots out a cavalcade of statistical cliches to demonstrate how gay relationship threaten the institution of marriage.

via Crouse: Stats Prove That Gay Relationships Threaten Marriage – YouTube.

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• James Peron: Are Gays and Divorce Destroying the Welfare States? (huffingtonpost.com)
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• Inspiring Speech From Son Of Two Moms Is YouTube’s Most-Watched Political Video Of 2011 (queerty.com)

Every year, hundreds of gay youths end up on the streets of L.A. County, where they make up a disproportionate share of the people under 25 who are homeless. ‘They haven’t been on the streets for years and years,’ an advocate says, ‘so they don’t look bad.’

AJ, 23, and his boyfriend, Alex, 21, hide their blankets and duffel bags in bushes. They shower every morning at a drop-in center and pick out outfits from a closet full of used yet youthful attire.

“If I could be invisible, I would,” AJ said. “I feel ashamed to admit that I’m homeless.”

Every year, hundreds of gay youths end up alone on the streets of Los Angeles County, where they make up a disproportionate share of the at least 4,200 people under 25 who are homeless on any given day.

A recent study found that 40% of the homeless youths in Hollywood, a gathering spot for these young people, identify themselves as gay, lesbian, bisexual or unsure of their sexual orientation. Five percent say they are transgender.

But it is a largely hidden population, said Simon Costello, who manages the drop-in center frequented by AJ and Alex.

via Gay and homeless: Gay youths living on Hollywood’s streets – latimes.com.

In our Great Steate of Utah, , Volunteers of America surveyed 131 Utah youth in 2008 and 2009. Here are some of the facts:

• 11 percent of youth said they were younger than 18
• 42 percent of youth said they were not heterosexual.
• 49 percent of youth said they had quit school before 12th grade.
• 28 percent of youth said they tried to commit suicide three times or more.

via  http://www.affirmation.org/homelessness/

Related articles

• Homeless for the Holidays (newwaysministryblog.wordpress.com)
• Interagency Homelessness Council Commits To Addressing Needs Of LGBT Youth (thinkprogress.org)
• Huge Percentage of Homeless Youths Identify as LGBT (onebluestocking.wordpress.com)
• A New Place for Queer Homeless Youth in Atlanta (bilerico.com)
• Watch now | ‘A Day in Our Shoes,’ an ‘In the Life’ online video about homeless LGBT youth (miamiherald.typepad.com)

It’s Christmas, for goodness sake! Think about the baby Jesus… up in that tower, letting his hair down… so that the Three Wise Men can climb up and spin the dreidel and see if there’s six more weeks of winter.”–Karen Walker

No cross gender costumes for Mormons

Sandy Utah- Fliers announcing the local Mormon Ward house Halloween event, known as Trunk or Treat was tainted with Devilish hatred and bigotry. The fliers prohibit children from attending the event if they choose a cross-gendered costume. Scott Trotter, spokesperson for the Mormon church assumes the ban "was a means to promote appropriate dress." The local Bishop ( Mormon Bishops are similar in authority to Ministers in Christianity) Dennis Toone says "anyone who doesn’t like it doesn’t have to come.”

Clearly the sanctity of traditional Halloween is under attack. If children are allowed to dress in cross gender costumes Halloween would end as we know it. If a 4 year old girl is dressed as the tin man or a 5 year old boy dressed as a witch it’d be a dark evil road our children may never recover from. What would be next? Children dressing up as animals? Lions, tigers and bears? OH MY!!!

The homophobic bigoted insecurities of a few narrow minded women who published this flier are an insult to fair-minded citizens. We cannot allow such hatred and insecurities to taint innocent young children’s minds. This "church" with the support of its local leadership is sanctioning hate, discrimination and bigotry as acceptable societal norms and it must NOT be tolerated.

http://www.fox13now.com/news/local/kstu-mormon-halloween-partys-no-crossgender-costume-flier-angers-resident-20111028,0,460827.story

Cindy Jacobs says Christians need to pray against the “power of darkness” behind the Occupy Wall Street protests which seeks to foment revolution and unleash a full-blown civil war.

via Jacobs: OWS Protests Driven By “A Power Of Darkness” – YouTube.

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