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Category: pride month

  • Pride in oneself: why we must all be able to be our authentic selves

    By Gina*

    Just after WWII, my ex-husband Chen* was born. A young couple based in California, his parents had been wed just a year and were delighted to have a boy.

    At that time and in their cultural tradition, there was a distinct preference for boys – especially for the first child.

    Chen was raised in the 50’s when the US was undergoing many social changes.

    It was a time when sexuality was barely discussed publicly, and mostly remained behind closed doors. Divorce was still taboo, and divorced women were referred to as divorcées, discreetly, in French.

    Hollywood was going great guns, and movies touched on themes related to social changes, but actors who were gay felt forced to stay in the closet or lose work. 

    I’ve asked myself over the years, when did Chen realise that he was gay? Because he certainly didn’t talk about it — not to anyone. Who knows. He may not have even had the vocabulary to describe his feelings.

    Sexuality wasn’t something that could be discussed in his family. If his parents had even an inkling about him — and some think they did — nothing was said.

    Of course, Chen went to college and tried to be a “good son” and meet his parents’ expectations.

    Unbeknownst to his parents, he embarked on a new lifestyle and eventually moved in with a man. However, he of course kept his lifestyle a secret.

    About a decade after his college days, Chen and I married. A straight woman, I knew little about his past. Yet, early on, I felt a chill in the marriage.

    Unfortunately, the women in my family felt that no matter how mediocre a marriage was, you had to tough it out. So, I did — knowing nothing of my husband’s true sexuality.

    We went on and had two children. There was discord, poor communication, and no joy in the marriage.

    Eventually, I asked for a separation. Chen agreed, but was furious. He was concerned with appearances and “what people would say”.

    Neither of us was happy in the marriage, but I still didn’t know the secret reason why he was so distant. We had marital counselling, but with secrets still hidden in the closet, the therapy couldn’t work.

    Once again, Chen was worried about appearances. He gaslit me repeatedly. He told me that he was “fine” and that I was, in his words, a “hormone case”.

    Our second separation was the final one, and I went on to initiate divorce proceedings.

    Some people in our circle felt I was considering divorce too easily; some supported me unconditionally. He protested, but at the same time was undergoing many personal changes.

    For years, I had tried to figure out what was wrong. Finally, I figured things out and confronted him.

    He couldn’t say much, but silently showed me a photo of himself and his male lover. I finally knew the truth.

    If only I’d known sooner. Chen could have alleviated a whole world of hurt if he’d had been able to talk openly. But it just wasn’t that easy.

    One day, my father-in-law, someone I once loved, got angry at me for initiating the divorce and took it out on our children by becoming violent with them. He would do anything to preserve the family image.

    I later learnt that Chen had always had a secret life outside of our marriage. He put my health in danger. And our children suffered for years.

    The problem though isn’t that Chen was gay; that didn’t really matter.

    What I took away from years of pain was that fear, social and cultural conditioning, and his own behaviour, made for a devastating lack of transparency.

    The trust between us was gone forever.

    Chen now lives happily with his husband. We remain in contact when it comes to discussing things related to the kids, who are now adults. I’m now also happily remarried.

    It has taken years and lots of therapy for our children to be well-integrated, content adults. For such growth, I am very grateful.

    I’ve reflected time and time over the years. And well, I’ve still not determined how much responsibility society bears, and how much Chen does, for him not being honest with me.

    He has never apologised for the turmoil he has caused.

    What I’d like others to take away from this experience is how vitally important it is for all of us to live authentically. 

    And, how important it is for parents to accept and support their children as they are, appearances be damned.   

    Seek support:

    If you’ve been affected by the issues in the blog, please visit:

    *Names changed

    This post was originally published on Voice of Salam.

  • Human Rights Campaign Declares State of Emergency as LGBTQ People Face Crises

    The Human Rights Campaign has declared a state of emergency for LGBTQ+ people in the United States over a wave of discriminatory laws passed in states across the country. There have been more than 70 anti-LGBTQ+ bills signed into law so far in 2023 — more than double last year’s number, which was previously the worst year for discriminatory legislation. These laws have primarily targeted the…

    Source

    This post was originally published on Latest – Truthout.

  • The Right’s Bigoted “Boycott Target” Rap Is as Toxic as It Is Cringeworthy

    When Newsweek reported that an anti-Target novelty song had topped the iTunes charts on May 30, besting pop star Taylor Swift’s latest single in the process, both political journalists and music fans were left scratching their heads — surely no one was actually enjoying this sonic garbage? Meanwhile, right-wing pundits crowed about what they perceived to be a victory over the “woke agenda” they’ve…

    Source

    This post was originally published on Latest – Truthout.

  • More Than 530 Anti-LGBTQ Bills Have Been Proposed Across the Country in 2023

    Several different legislative trackers have noted that, in the first five months of this year leading up to Pride Month, which began on June 1, hundreds of anti-LGBTQ bills have been proposed in statehouses across the country, with dozens of them passing. A tracker managed by Erin Reed, a transgender journalist and activist who provides daily updates on LGBTQ-focused legislation (both negative and…

    Source

    This post was originally published on Latest – Truthout.

  • LGBTQ+ People Are Vulnerable to Wrongful Conviction

    Earlier this month I had the pleasure of speaking with Valeena Beety, author of Manifesting Justice. Ms. Beety is a former federal prosecutor turned innocence litigator who is now a professor of law at Arizona State University. Manifesting Justice tells the story of two Mississippi women — Leigh Stubbs and Tami Vance — who, in 2001, were found guilty of drug possession and a violent sexual assault on their friend Kimberly Williams. 

    Prosecutors, with the help of the notorious odontologist Michael West, claimed that Ms. Stubbs and Ms. Vance were “drug addicts” that engaged in “sexually deviant” and aggressive acts against Ms. Williams. But reinvestigation by Ms. Beety and the Mississippi Innocence Project revealed that the women were wrongfully convicted, and that a major driver in their case was the fact that both identify as lesbians. 

    As we celebrate the LGBTQ+ community this Pride month, it is important to acknowledge that this is a community under attack, with dozens of states passing homophobic and transphobic bills that ban classroom instruction about sexual orientation or gender identity. Unfortunately, these laws are not new. “Historically in the United States, LGBTQ+ people have been characterized and labeled as ‘depraved and violent,’ and lesbians, specifically, have been portrayed as ‘menacing social types,’“ Ms. Beety said. These false and biased perceptions are propagated by laws that unjustly target LGBTQ+ people, including laws against cross-dressing (dating back to 1845 and enforced until the 1980s) and laws against sodomy (which was criminalized in the 1950s in all states). Though the anti-sodomy laws were declared unconstitutional in the 2003 Supreme Court decision, Lawrence v. Texas, their effects linger. 

    What’s more, LGBTQ+ people are overrepresented at every stage of the criminal legal system. “[Members of the LGBTQ+ community] are arrested, incarcerated, and subjected to community supervision at significantly higher rates than straight and cisgender people,” according to a Prison Policy Intiative report. In 2019, gay, lesbian, and bisexual individuals were 2.25 times as likely to be arrested in the prior 12 months than straight individuals, according to the National Survey on Drug Use and Health. Black trans people are especially vulnerable to harassment by the police. One in 5 trans people who have had police contact reported being harassed by police, including 38% of Black trans individuals, according to National Center for Transgender Equality and the National Gay and Lesbian Task Force. 

    The case of Ms. Stubbs and Ms. Vance reminds us that the LGBTQ+ community is also at risk for wrongful conviction. At their 2001 trial, the prosecution used their sexuality as a proxy for guilt, claiming that marks and bruises allegedly found on Ms. Williams’s body were consistent with those suffered by sexual assault victims. Although “examinations by numerous emergency personnel and other caregivers” found no bite marks on Kim’s body, Dr. West testified otherwise, asserting that his own examination uncovered bite marks and that homosexual assaults are more likely to include bite marks.  

    Even Dr. Rodrigo Galvez, a forensic pathologist who was called to testify for the defense stated, stated: “In homosexual crimes, all, they are very sadistic. Most violent crimes I’ve seen in my experience are homosexual to homosexual. They do what we call overkill. They do tremendous damage, tremendous damage…They’re more gory. The more repulsive crimes I’ve ever seen were homosexual to homosexual.”

    This outrageous homophobia and Dr. West’s unreliable bite mark testimony, were weaponized against Ms. Stubbs and Ms. Vance to achieve a conviction. Both Ms. Stubbs and Ms. Vance were found guilty and sentenced to 44 years in prison without parole. But thanks to the hard work of Ms. Beatty and the Mississippi Innocence Project, in 2012, nearly 11 years after they were convicted, both were released on bond pending a retrial. In 2013, Ms. Stubbs and Ms. Vance pled no contest to a charge of possession of morphine — the Oxycontin pills that were in Ms. Williams’s purse — and were sentenced to time served. The prosecution dismissed the remaining charges. Ms. Stubbs’ conviction for drug possession was expunged in 2015.

    In Manifesting Justice, Ms. Beety lays out a number of steps that the criminal legal system could take to better support and protect LGBTQ+ people. She notes that some progressive prosecutors are actively building relationships with LGBTQ+ nonprofits to investigate crimes against LGBTQ+ people. Ms. Beety also recommends that Conviction Integrity Units partner with LGBTQ+ nonprofits to identify people who have been victimized by the legal system and wrongfully convicted, like Black and Pink, which supports incarcerated queer people and people living with HIV in prison, and Who Speaks for For Me?, which centers incarcerated LGBTQ+ women of color and recognizes the “trauma to prison pipeline.”

    According to Ms. Beety, “The most important point is visibility. LGBTQ+ identity is largely suppressed in the courtroom, unless it is raised alongside tropes of criminality, deviance, and sex work. Sexual orientation and gender identity are often used to elicit bias in jury members and to capitalize on harmful stereotypes, even when LGTBQ+ identity is irrelevant to the case. Queer visibility is important to challenge and re-envision who holds power in the courtroom.”

    Therefore, efforts to educate jurors about implicit and explicit bias against the LGBTQ+ community are vital. Ms. Beety cited a study showing that, from 2003 to 2008, 45% of the jurors in America viewed homesexuality as an “unacceptable lifestyle.” When jurors bring homophobia, transphobia, or prejudice of any kind to their deliberations, it raises the risk of wrongful conviction. The states, like Washington and California, that have changed the rules for peremptory challenges to eliminate racial bias in jury selection stand as examples of the kinds of reforms that can also be adopted to address LGBTQ+ bias.

    Ultimately, Ms. Beety’s book offers not only a powerful reminder of the very real homophobia and transphobia that plagues our system, but also a roadmap — including specific policies — to eradicate it and move towards a more just criminal legal system.

    The post LGBTQ+ People Are Vulnerable to Wrongful Conviction appeared first on Innocence Project.

  • To Fight Far Right Attacks We Must Reclaim the Radical Legacy of Pride

    Attacks on trans people are continuing to become more prevalent and more vicious. Not only are there currently more than 150 bills making their way through state legislatures that specifically target trans people, but the far right, aligned with certain sectors of the feminist movement, are also becoming more and more explicit in their calls for a eugenics campaign against trans people, with the end goal of as few trans people in existence as possible. One Twitter user, echoing language used by Tucker Carlson, even called for a “post-Weimar cleanup” of “degenerates.”

    The post To Fight Far Right Attacks We Must Reclaim the Radical Legacy of Pride appeared first on PopularResistance.Org.

    This post was originally published on PopularResistance.Org.

  • Inspiration From Argentina For The Trans Rights Movement

    This Pride month is a one of great fear and grief for many. After decades of (slowly) advancing queer rights, we are in the midst of the worst backlash we’ve seen in years. Laws are being passed across the country that dramatically roll back queer rights and specifically target trans children. These policies being put forward by far-right politicians would (in effect) forcibly detransition and socially isolate trans children, and in many cases they are already being used to attack the lives of trans people.

    These attacks are in direct contradiction with supposed ideas about progress that many of us have been told for years. This can have a demoralizing effect, making us feel as if struggling for our rights is futile, since the right wing seems so much more powerful than we are.

    The post Inspiration From Argentina For The Trans Rights Movement appeared first on PopularResistance.Org.

    This post was originally published on PopularResistance.Org.

  • Faith and LGBTQI+ identity are not in opposition: Sharing messages of solidarity

    It’s Pride Month and for people belonging to both the LGBT+ and a religious community, this can be a difficult time.

    Not everyone has acceptance from their co-religionists, a safe space to worship as an out and proud worshipper or a religious figure in their community that accepts them for who they are – both queer and of faith.

    As a queer Muslim, I see absolutely nothing wrong with being both queer and Muslim. My faith and bisexuality are NOT in opposition. If I thought they were, I’d no longer identify as a Muslim – however for many people, leaving Islam comes with its own additional challenges.

    As Muslims, with a lack of LGBT+ friendly spaces, queer imams and discourse around the coexistence of faith, gender and sexual diversity in the Muslim world, it can be confusing, lonely and challenging for many Muslims. And we’re not the only ones.

    So that’s why it’s critical that both queer spaces are inclusive to people of faith and that faith communities are also inclusive of LGBT+ members.

    Solidarity is vitally important, as is sharing the experiences of those who have already been through similar struggles.

    So, if you’re struggling as a queer person of faith, check out these messages of support from community members and allies in the video below.

    And if you don’t identify as queer, take a look and share in your own communities to spread critical solidarity and awareness!

    Remember: you are loved and you count in your communities! Your experiences and views are just as valid as anyone else’s. You are how God made you!

    To find out more about the experiences of queer people of faith, click here.

    And you’re in need of support, please get in touch with:

    No one should be forced to choose between their sexuality/gender and their faith – including you!

    The message is clear: love is love, trans rights are human rights and God loves us all!

    This post was originally published on Voice of Salam.

  • ‘We were made out to be these horrible monsters’: How Homophobia Led to the Wrongful Conviction of Four Texas Women

    This Pride Month, we celebrate LGBTQ rights and equality. But there is still much work to be done to combat prejudice and discrimination against LGBTQ communities in the United States, including within the legal system and among law enforcement.

    Last year, nationwide protests against police brutality and racial bias prompted calls for investigations into the deaths of two Black transgender people — Tony McDade, who was shot and killed by police in Florida in May 2020, and Layleen Polanco, who died in isolation in 2019 at Rikers Island where she was being held on a $500 bail she could not afford to pay.

    Trans people are almost four times more likely to experience police violence than cisgender people — people whose gender identity corresponds with their birth sex — according to the Anti-Violence Project. McDade’s death highlighted this tragic fact, while Polanco’s death in the custody of the legal system drew attention to the discriminatory treatment that members of the LGBTQ community experience while detained.

    But these are just two examples of the many ways in which the legal system is failing the LGBTQ community. 

    “I think people are surprised to learn that wrongful conviction happens as a result of homophobia and prejudice against the LGBTQ community, especially in this time where things have been changing and improving more generally,” Anna Vasquez told the Innocence Project.

    In 1995, Vasquez and three of her friends were wrongly accused of sexually abusing two young girls in San Antonio, Texas, after one of the women, Elizabeth Ramirez, rejected the advances of the children’s father Javier Limon. All four of the women identify as lesbians, a fact that colored the investigation into the accusations and case against them.

    Police often profile and criminalize LGBTQ people, according to the American Bar Association, and this has lead to arrests based on biased beliefs, influenced investigations, and contributed to the harassment and sexual assault of LGBTQ people by law enforcement officers.

    “We were looked at horribly, horribly,” Vasquez said. “Because of people’s opinions and all that was going on back then that we were made out to be these horrible monsters.”

    At the time of their arrest, several false allegations of child abuse in daycare centers believed to be part of satanic rituals had led to more than a decade of the “Satanic Panic.” In multiple cases, law enforcement and prosecutors relied on scientifically invalid expert testimony which attributed hymen tears to sexual abuse or testimony based on coercive or suggestive interrogations.

    “We were looked at horribly, horribly.”

    “That was the way it all started — the “daycare panic” and the “Satanic Panic” — and the gay community was already looked upon as preying on children. So, unfortunately, that’s how it all just got out of control because I was a gay woman and my alleged victims were little girls,” Vasquez said.

    But it wasn’t just the unfounded national fear of satanic ritual abuse that influenced the investigation into their case, Vasquez said. Both she and Kristie Mayhugh, one of the other women accused, are not feminine-presenting, which she believes contributed to the discrimination they experienced.

    “That right there put a bad taste in people’s mouth,” she said. “And it was really Javier who led this accusation against us because he didn’t like that Liz was gay and had rejected him — it was a shot to his ego — but you would think law enforcement or expert witnesses would try to find the truth, but they also had these opinions and biases. And so it just fueled the fire.”

    During their hearings, Vasquez said the prosecutor emphasized the fact that she and her friends were gay.

    “They just kept hammering on it …. ‘These are four gay women, this is what gay people do, this is how they live their lives’,” she recalled. People who identify as LGBTQ are incarcerated at three times the rate of the general U.S. population, according to one study. And this disproportionate rate of incarceration is influenced by many of the same types of discrimination that have led to the over-incarceration of people of color.

    “You would think law enforcement or expert witnesses would try to find the truth…”

    Because of the widespread bias and discrimination the gay community was already experiencing at the time, Vasquez said they received little support from the wider LGBTQ community.

    “The gay community was already portrayed as being child predators and they didn’t want to be connected with a case like this,” even though it was a wrongful conviction, she said.

    Vasquez and her friends were wrongfully convicted in 1998 and spent 15 years in prison before being released on bail in 2013 after one of the alleged victims recanted her statement saying that her father had pressured her to lie. The women came to be known as the “San Antonio Four” and were exonerated with the help of the Innocence Project of Texas in 2016. The documentary “Southwest of Salem” tells their story. 

    Today, Vasquez is the director of outreach and education at the Innocence Project of Texas, where she shares her story of wrongful conviction to help educate the community, providing the kind of information she wishes she’d had before her wrongful conviction.

    “I just wish I was educated about this … I wish I had some kind of knowledge of wrongful convictions when this all happened to me, or even a basic knowledge of my rights,” Vasquez said. “I think a lot of people take for granted or expect law enforcement to protect you and to find out the truth in an investigation. And, unfortunately, we cooperated … and I did everything that I was raised to do by complying with law enforcement, but it just went horribly wrong.”

    Embed from Getty Images

    Part of Vasquez’s job now is working to educate law enforcement and legal practitioners about biases and wrongful conviction.

    “We have to tackle all the biases, their [misinformed] opinions, and prejudices in how they were raised,” she said.

    Vasquez said that when it comes to dismantling discrimination against Black people, other people of color, and the LGBTQ community she hopes to see movements come together to advocate for systemic change. In particular, she hopes the LGBTQ community will come together to support one another.

    While incarcerated, Vasquez was shocked to witness the unchecked abuse of a trans woman. 

    “People would throw rocks at her and the guards would encourage it and call her a ‘freak,’ and I just didn’t understand that as a gay woman, because there were many other gay women in prison. Yet they treated this person like she was something else even though she was part of their own LGBTQ community,” she said.

    To really bring about change, Vasquez said she hopes to see people working together as a community.

    “Whether you’re lesbian or gay or transgender, instead of approaching it like lesbians have bigger problems or gay people have worse problems or trans people have bigger problems, we need to push forward together because equality is what we want,” she said.

    “That’s all anybody wants and that’s what everyone is fighting for and we must continue that.”

    The post ‘We were made out to be these horrible monsters’: How Homophobia Led to the Wrongful Conviction of Four Texas Women appeared first on Innocence Project.

    This post was originally published on Innocence Project.