October 2016 – David Mariner

Apply for a Point Foundation Scholarship

February 13, 2017October 30, 2016 by David Mariner

Point Foundation (Point) is the nation’s largest scholarship-granting organization for lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, and queer (LGBTQ) students of merit. Point promotes change through scholarship funding, mentorship, leadership development, and community service training.

The Application Cycle for 2017-2018 Point Foundation Scholarship will take place from November 1, 2016 through January 30th, 2017.

Point Foundation considers many factors when assessing scholarship applicants, including:
A proven track record of leadership and community involvement
Strong academic achievement
Working for the betterment of the LGBTQ community
Financial need

Eligible applicants also:

Must be enrolled or intending to enroll at an accredited college or university based in the United States, including Hawaii and Alaska, in the fall of 2017. Students enrolled or intending to enroll in a college or university in a United States territory are NOT eligible.
Must be “out” as a person who identifies as a member of the LGBTQ community.
Must be enrolled full-time for the full academic year.
Must be enrolled in a degree-granting undergraduate or graduate/ doctoral program. Post-doctoral programs are not eligible.
Community college students must be transferring to a four-year college or university. Students continuing their studies at community colleges, online programs, trade schools, as well as post-doctoral research students are NOT eligible.
Must be at least a senior in high school.
If selected as a finalist, the finalist must be in North or Central America on April 20-22 and be available to fly to Los Angeles in order to remain eligible for the scholarship. All travel expenses will be covered by Point.

To learn more and apply, visit the Point Foundation Website.

Apply for a Point Foundation Scholarship

The Disparities Facing Bisexual People and How to Remedy Them

April 17, 2018October 28, 2016 by David Mariner

The Disparities Facing Bisexual People and How to Fix them

Despite making up more than half of the lesbian, gay, and bisexual population, bisexual people are often overlooked and invisible. Bisexual people are frequently assumed to be gay, lesbian, or heterosexual based on the gender of their partner. Yet when bisexual people are open about their sexuality, they face increased levels of violence from intimate partners; rejection by community, family, and peers; and skepticism from the people and organizations whom they turn to for help, resources, and services.

Consider this: Only 20 percent of bisexual people say that there is social acceptance of lesbian, gay and bisexual people where they live, compared to 31 percent of lesbians and 39 percent of gay men. While these social acceptance numbers are too low across the board, bisexual people are rarely explicitly considered separately from lesbian and gay people. Rather, bisexual people are swept into the greater lesbian, gay, and bisexual population, their specific disparities made invisible within data about the population as a whole.

The Movement Advancement Project and a broad coalition of partners have released a groundbreaking report. Invisible Majority: The Disparities Facing Bisexual People and How to Remedy Them focuses on the “invisible majority” of the LGBT community, the nearly 5 million adults in the U.S. who identify as bisexual and the millions more who have sexual or romantic attraction to or contact with people of more than one gender. The report shows how bias, stigma, and invisibility lead to alarming rates of societal rejection, violence, discrimination, and poor physical and mental health.

Download the entire report here:
Invisible Majority: The Disparities Facing Bisexual People and How to Remedy Them

Protecting the Rights of Transgender Parents and Their Children

October 29, 2018October 21, 2016 by David Mariner

Protecting Transgender Parents and their Children

The American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) and the National Center for Transgender Equality (NCTE) have come out with a new report on protecting the rights of transgender parents and their children.

All too often parents who have transitioned or come out as transgender after having children have seen their gender transition raised by their ex-spouse or partner as a basis to deny or restrict custody or visitation. Transgender people who formed families after transitioning have faced challenges to their legal status as parents, often based on attacks on the validity of their marriages. This guide provides information to transgender parents and their attorneys to help them protect parent-child relationships and assist them when faced with disputes over child custody issues.

Click here to download the entire report