Perspectives

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Caster Semenya fights to compete without reducing her Testosterone Levels

South African Olympic gold medalist Caster Semenya. South African middle-distance runner Caster Semenya is fighting for her right to compete without reducing her testosterone levels. The openly gay athlete appeared at the court of arbitration for sport (CAS) on 14 February. She is asking to compete without ‘unnecessary medical intervention’.    Lawyers for athletics’ governing body, the International Association of Athletics Federations (IAAF), suggested that, if Semenya was successful in next week’s landmark case, it could lead to athletes with differences of sexual development (DSD) and transgender athletes ‘dominating the podiums and prize money in sport’. ‘Her case is about the rights of women such as […]

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Is it Anti-gay to Speculate about a Politician’s Sexuality?

In 2004, LGBT activist and journalist Mike Rogers posted a story on his website—Blog ACTIVE—suggesting that Edward Schrock, a Republican congressman representing Virginia’s second district, solicited sex with other men through a phone service. For years, Schrock had advocated a variety of anti-gay policies. Not only did he oppose same-sex marriage, but he objected to LGBT people serving in the military. Schrock never denied the allegations Rogers made, and not long after the story came out, Schrock announced that he would end his campaign for a third term in Congress. Rogers started his blog in 2004 at a time when […]

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Everything LGBTI People Need to Know about Trump’s Border Wall

A story dominating headlines in the United States right now is the wall President Donald Trump wants along the US-Mexico border. It has caused a government shutdown (going on three weeks) and numerous debates around the country. While it may be understood this has nothing to do with the LGBTI community, that’s simply not true. In fact, immigration (and related issues, such as refugees seeking asylum) is intrinsically linked to LGBTI issues. This is everything LGBTI people should know about the current border wall debate in the US. Background on the wall Trump has been promising a border wall to […]

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How 2018 Became the Year of Trans Persecution

In May 2014, Time magazine featured trans actress Laverne Cox on their front cover and declared the arrival of a “trans tipping point.” American Vogue described 2015 as “the year of trans visibility.” For someone like myself, intimately aware of the place of trans people in culture since my teens in the 1960s, and having been a leading campaigner for almost 30 years, these were monumental events and you might forgive me for thinking by September 2016, when pitching an anthology-based history of trans emergence in Britain, that I was going to be putting together a retrospective on a community […]

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If Kevin Hart Were Really Sorry, He’d Prove It.

  Apparently, being Kevin Hart means never having to say you’re sorry. Just weeks after vehemently defending the controversial “Cowboys and Indians”-themed birthday party he threw for his one-year-old son (on Thanksgiving Day, no less), the comedian is at the center of yet another controversy that he refused to apologize for. This week, homophobic tweets from the early 2000s surfaced wherein Hart belittles LGBTQ people through uses of words and phrases like “fag,” “no homo” or using “gay” as a derogatory term. This homophobia was not reserved to his Twitter account. In his 2010 special, “Seriously Funny,” in talking about […]

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Ending Partner Abuse in the LGBTQ Community

Efforts to address Intimate Partner Violence (IPV) tends to focus on heterosexual women, despite IPV happening at similar or higher rates among the LGBTQ community. The American Medical Association (AMA) recently adopted policy at its Interim Meeting that aims to address IPV in the LGBTQ population. The new policy calls for physician and community awareness of IPV among LGBTQ patients. It also requires federal funding to support programs and services for survivors that do not discriminate against underserved communities, including sexual and gender minorities, according to a press release. Due to the limited data available, the policy also encourages more […]

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Gay former Dallas Cowboy Jeff Rohrer is Marrying his Boyfriend

Jeff Rohrer (left) and Joshua Ross will marry one another this Sunday.Allen Zaki With Jeff Rohrer, you have to expect the unexpected. When the 6-foot-3, 235-pound former Dallas Cowboys linebacker approached our table in the corner of a dimly lit Beverly Hills restaurant a couple of weeks ago, he was dressed like a stereotypical straight guy, clothes on the baggy side, carrying an over-sized duffel bag… and a delicately clenched martini. Sitting down, he quickly launched into some questions for me, as well as ground rules for our conversation. He was nervously hopeful about this entire public coming-out process and […]

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Why the “Rainbow Wave” at the 2018 Midterm Election Matters for Future Queer Generations

The 2018 midterm election has been considered the most diverse election in terms of candidates and elected officials in America’s history. It was the lowest year ever in terms of straight white male candidates running for political office. There were a record number of queer and transgender candidates in the 2018 midterms, many of them winning their races. With over 150 queer and trans folks victorious in their respective elections, this midterm was a major advancement in social progress. Many are calling this “Rainbow Wave” a major checkpoint in the fight to achieve equality for queer and trans people in […]

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Remembering Mathew Shepard as Hate Crimes Increase

Matthew Shepard, on right. (Photo courtesy Michele Jouse) Twenty years ago this month, when Matthew Shepard, a 21-year-old University of Wyoming student, went to a bar, he likely wasn’t thinking he’d die that day or that his all-too-brief life and horrific death would put a human face on homophobia and hate. How could Shepard have foreseen on Oct. 6, 1998 that Aaron McKinney and Russell Henderson would entice him to step into their vehicle and then tie him to a fence outside Laramie, Wyo.?  Then beat him mercilessly – striking his head, as the Blade reported, with the barrel of […]

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Eminem Doesn’t Deserve the LGBTI Community’s Forgiveness

Eminem used the word ‘faggot’ and absolutely no one was shocked. A couple of weeks ago Eminem dropped his surprise album, Kamikaze, featuring one of the diss tracks he’s built his entire career perfecting. But you’d think that someone so known for weaving together insulting tracks could steer away from such lazy expressions like the f-word. I, a weaker writer than this supposed legend, don’t have to resort to slurs. I can just call him a has-been who’s built his relic of a career on the backs of insulting minority groups and such a deep hatred of women I’m surprised […]

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