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Follow Friday: Genderqueer and Non-Binary Voices

April 24, 2018January 6, 2017 by David Mariner

In the recent US Trans Survey, More than one-third (35%) of respondents indicated
that their gender identity was best described as nonbinary or genderqueer (US Trans Survey). Here are just a few of the amazing gender queer & non-binary individuals who are bringing visibility to the movement.

Jes Tom

www.twitter.com/jestom

Born & raised in San Francisco and now established in New York, Jes Tom is a fresh voice in stand up comedy.

Their first 30 minute comedy special, Cold Brew, was recorded live in August 2016 at Astoria’s QED: A Place to Show and Tell. Cold Brew is an elegy for the Fuckboi. It’s a cautionary lamentation about being Queer and getting your heart broken in the age of “Love is Love is Love.” Through stand up, storytelling, and uncomfortably public vulnerability, COLD BREW tackles “falling in love,” astrology, interracial relationships, Pokémon, gay porn, and the inevitable fall of society as we know it

Jes Tom holds a BA in Theatre from Smith College. They have completed the Meisner Acting program at Maggie Flanigan Studio.

Brian Langevin

twitter.com/brianlangevin

Brian Langevin is the Executive Director of Asexual Outreach. Recognizing the need for a more collaborative and sustainable movement, Brian brought together a team to found Asexual Outreach in 2014. Since then, Brian’s passion for the nonprofit sector led them to a Nonprofit Management program at Ryerson University, while Brian’s drive for equality has them happily spending their days building a better society for aces and aros across the country.

Ignacio Rivera

twitter.com/papi_coxxx

Much like Christopher Soto, the work of Ignacio Rivera blurs the lines between art and activism. Ignacio identifies as “Brooklyn, New York City born and raised Queer, Two-spirit, Black Boricua Taíno” who uses the gender-neutral pronoun they.

Ignacio is also one of the founding board member of Queers for Economic Justice; a progressive non-profit organization committed to promoting economic justice in a context of sexual and gender liberation. And while this organization is no longer around, it had a profound impact on our movement, highlighting how LGBT folks living in poverty are affected by issues like welfare reform, homelessness and the shelter system.

These days Ignacio wears many, many hats. They are a performance artist, activist, lecturer, and most recently a filmaker. Learn more about Ignacio at their website, www.ignaciogrivera.com.

Toi Scott

twitter.com/afrogenderqueer

A native Texan, currently living in Puerto Rico, Toi is a gender non-conforming author, playwright, spoken word artist, filmmaker, journalist, medicine-maker, health advocate, food justice activist, anti-racist and anti-oppression organizer/diversity and gender workshop facilitator and curriculum developer. Toi is also a QPOC/POC (queer/people of color) community builder/organizer. They are the author of Notes from an Afro-Genderqueer (1 and 2). Find out more at www.afrogenderqueer.com.

Kaitlyn Alexander

twitter.com/realisticsay

Kaitlyn Alexander is a Canadian actor, writer, and youtuber. They are known for their role as LaFontaine in the online web series Carmilla. They are also the creator of the web series Couple-ish, in which Alexander acts as a main character, writer, producer. They play the lead role, Dee, who is non-binary, pansexual and open to date all genders. The series was funded through a successful Kickstarter campaip9up8gn, which raised over $29,000. An accomplished musician, Kaitlyn also wrote and recorded the theme song for the web series. Watch Couple-ish on Youtube.

Jacob Tobia

twitter.com/jacobtobia

Jacob Tobia is the host of NBC OUT’s Queer 2.0 and a leading voice for genderqueer, nonbinary, and gender nonconforming people. They have appeared on MTV’s The T Word, and in 2015, Jacob was profiled by MTV in the one hour, GLAAD Award-nominated episode of True Life: I’m Genderqueer.

Jacob is a Point Foundation Scholar, Harry S. Truman Scholar, and recipient of the Campus Pride National Voice and Action Award. They have spoken at conferences and college campuses around the country. Find out more about Jacob at www.jacobtobia.com.

Christopher Soto

twitter.com/loma_poetry

Christoppher Soto (aka Loma) is an nationally recognized poet and activist. Their first chapbook “Sad Girl Poems” was published by Sibling Rivalry Press and tackles some tough topics like LGBTQ youth homelessness, Intimate Partner Violence, and suicide. Their work has been translated into Spanish and Portuguese.

They are currently working on a full-length poetry manuscript about police violence and mass incarceration. Originally from the Los Angeles area, Christopher now now resides in Brooklyn. Visit Christopher’s website at christophersoto-poet.com.

Jeffrey Marsh

twitter.com/thejeffreymarsh

Jeffrey Marsh, author of ‘How to Be You’ from Penguin Random House, is an LGBTQ activist and icon whose message of inclusion and acceptance has amassed over 300 MILLION views on social media. Named ‘Viner of the Year’ by CBS, Jeffrey has 500k+ fans on their social channels, and is the creator of the global trends #NoTimeToHateMyself and #DontSayThatsSoGay. Jeffrey is a regular contributor, writer, and on-air host for Snapchat Stories, Facebook Live, O Magazine, Oprah.com, TIME.com, Huffington Post, Buzzfeed, Mashable, and Mom.me, to name a few. Find out more at www.jeffreymarsh.com.

Genderqueer / Gender Nonbinary — Genderqueer / Gender Non-Binary

10 Key LGBTQ Health Advocacy Issues

November 5, 2016November 5, 2016 by David Mariner

The National LGBTQ Task Force Action Fund and the National Coalition for LGBT Health have published a new guide on health issues important to lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and queer (LGBTQ) people. Released in advance of the 2016 presidential election, the “10 Key LGBTQ Health Advocacy Priorities Guide” is intended to educate voters on LGBTQ health priorities the two organizations will continue to focus on during the next administration.

The guide lists the following ten key areas as priorities: advocating for reproductive health, rights and justice; creating an AIDS-free generation, promoting HIV harm reduction, and increasing access to pre-exposure prophylaxis (PrEP); expanding public education and treatment for sexually transmitted infections (STI) and sexually transmitted diseases (STD); supporting LGBTQ youth experiencing homelessness; improving transgender healthcare; addressing religious exemptions and nondiscrimination laws; promoting LGBTQ cultural competency; improving access to mental health; expanding access to affordable health care; and ending violence against LGBTQ people.

All of these of course are important issues. Notably absent, however, is any discussion of tobacco and tobacco related cancers. Smoking causes more deaths in the United States than HIV, illegal drug use and alcohol use combined, and more than 30,000 LGBT people die each year of tobacco-related diseases. Members of the LGBT community smoke at rates 50 percent higher than the general population. Some studies indicate that LGBT adults are 1.5 to 2.5 times more likely to smoke than heterosexual adults. And, although most LGBT smokers say that they know smoking is harmful to their health, fewer have tried to quit (75 percent versus 80 percent of all adults).

Both The National LGBTQ Task Force Action Fund and the National Coalition for LGBT Health will host workshops, trainings, and informational sessions on these priority health advocacy issues during the 2017 Creating Change Conference on January 18-22 and SYNChronicity 2017: the National Conference on HIV, HCV, and LGBT Health, set for April 24-25.

Download the resource guide here:
10 Key LGBTQ Health Advocacy Issues

LGBTQ Health Advocacy

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

Anti-Trans Discrimination in Retail Stores

November 24, 2016May 9, 2016 by David Mariner

A new report published by the Equal Rights Center takes a closer look at the discrimination transgender women face in retail stores. The pilot project was conducted in DC, Maryland, and Virginia. Utilizing ‘secret shoppers’, or ‘testers’, the study compared the experiences of transgender women and cisgender women. Some of these tester pairs were African American and some of the pairs were White. This made it possible to also see differences on treatment based on race.

The results will not be suprising to anyone who is familiar with the experiences of Transgender Women.

In 75% of the tests conducted, the transgender tester experienced at least one type of adverse differential treatment and service. The adverse differential treatment included differences in the quality, quantity, and content of the service provided to the testers.

African American transgender testers faced higher rates of verbal harassment and other forms of negative interactions than their white peers. In the jurisdictions with nondiscrimination protectiosn (DC, MD) the white transgender tester experienced significantly less negative interactions (19%) than the African American transgender tester (81%). In the jurisdiction lacking nondiscrimination protections (VA) the African American transgender tester experienced a negative interaction in 57% of the tests, while the white transgender testers experiences negative interactions in 43% of the tests.

This study is a sobering reminder that legislation is needed at the federal level to prohibit public accomodation discriminationcbased on gender identity and expression. Still, passing a law is a beginning, not an end. As this study shows us this kind of discrimination continues even in a place like the District of Columbia, which has strong laws supporting the Transgender community. Legislation has to be coupled with active enforcement of the law. It is also crucial that retail employees are educated about the rights of their transgender community. Further, it is crucial that transgender and gender variant indivduals themselves understand their rights and how to report discrimination when it happens.

Read the entire report here to learn more:

Download the Report

FDA Launches LGBT Youth Tobacco Prevention Campaign

April 14, 2018May 3, 2016 by David Mariner

LGBT Youth Tobacco Prevention Campaign - This Free Life

The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has officially launched their new This Free Life campaign to shift the conversation about smoking in the LGBT Community. While smoking is an issue that is not often discussed in our community, it has a profound impact on our community, particularly when we are talking about LGBT Youth.

“We know LGBT young adults in this country are nearly twice as likely to use tobacco as other young adults, says Mitch Zeller, director of the FDA’s Center for Tobacco Products.

On hand for the launch was Dr. Scout from Healthlink, a program of the CenterLink, the National Association of LGBT Community Centers. Scout provided valuable information to the FDA on best practices with regards to reaching the LGBT Community and was one of many LGBT communty members who provided feedback on the campaign, which was market tested with over 1,000 LGBT Youth.

“There are a number of factors that contribute to the higher risk for tobacco use among LGBT young adults. The coming out process is a unique tobacco-use risk factor for LGBT young adults due to the actual and perceived social stigma, discrimination and anxiety experienced during this process. And data show that the coming out process faced by most LGBT young adults can lead to tobacco use and negative health consequences.

Research also indicates that many LGBT young adults can find a sense of community at LGBT bars and clubs which sometimes provides environments conducive to tobacco use.

“This Free Life” launches in 12 markets this week using print, digital and out-of-home ads, as well as outreach at the local level to showcase tobacco-free behaviors and attitudes within the LGBT Community. The $35.7 million campaign is funded by user fees collected from the tobacco industry.

Queer Poets: 10 Favorite Moments from Capturing Fire

November 24, 2016February 20, 2016 by David Mariner

Capturing Fire is an international spoken word and poetry that takes place in Washington DC. Poets gather for panel discussions, workshops, performances, and of course a poetry slam. Fortunately some of the best queer poetry performances over the years have been captured on video and have been viewed hundreds, some even thousands of times on youtube. Our most popular video by featuring Joanna Hoffman has over 80,000 views! Unfortunately, we do not have video footage from 2015 which include some of my favorites, including performances by Lady Dane Edidi and Venus Selenite. Still, over the years we have amassed an amazing collection of queer poetry. I offer below, ten of my favorite performances from Capturing Fire featuring some truly amazing queer poets.

Joanna Hoffman – Pride

Patience Rowe – Freedom Piece

Sam Sax: After My Boyfriend’s DragShow

trigger warning – hate violence

J Mase III – Ally Fail

J.T Bullock – This Dance Floor

Shyla Hardwick – Worms

Regie Cabico – It’s not so much his kiss I recall…

Jessica Genia Simon – For the Jewish Queers

Paul Tran – On Beauty (For Queer Colored Boys)

trigger warning – sexual assault

Gabe Moses – Stimming

If you liked these poems, you can find more on the Center Arts youtube page. You can also follow Capturing Fire on Twitter or like Capturing Fire on Facebook.

Protecting LGBTI Asylum Seekers and Refugees

January 3, 2016 by David Mariner

IOM and UNHCR have released a comprehensive training package on the protection of lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, and intersex (LGBTI) asylum seekers, refugees, internally displaced persons, migrants and stateless persons.

The need to ensure that the rights of LGBTI people are respected has recently received increased attention and support from UN agencies, States, and the broader humanitarian and human rights community. However, despite significant progress, discrimination against LGBTI persons persists and their international protection needs often go unmet.

LGBTI persons fleeing persecution face a complex array of challenges and threats at all stages of the displacement cycle. These include discrimination, prejudice, violence, difficulty accessing humanitarian services and barriers to articulating their protection needs during asylum procedures and other interactions with protection and humanitarian actors. UNHCR and IOM are committed to protecting the rights of LGBTI persons of concern, and will continue to take targeted actions to build the capacity of staff and partners to this end. The training package released today is a significant step in that direction.

The training package modules cover a wide variety of topics, including terminology, international law, communication, operational protection, conducting interviews, durable solutions, health and refugee status determination, all with a focus on practical guidance for humanitarian and protection actors around the world. Through a series of field tests undertaken in 2015, IOM and UNHCR have refined these materials to ensure that they are operationally relevant globally.

The training package includes general and module-specific guidance for facilitators, as well as other training aides, to promote the use of these materials in the field. In 2016, UNHCR and IOM will also offer training of trainers.

All modules include a facilitation guide, participant workbook and presentation. These materials can be accessed at the following locations: www.usrap.iom.int/training , http://www.unhcrexchange.org/topics/15810 and https://goo.gl/T7Z9Dy .

New Guide to Supporting LGBT Asylum Seekers

November 24, 2016October 21, 2015 by David Mariner

The Human Rights Campaign (HRC) Foundation in partnership with the LGBT Freedom and Asylum Network (LGBT-FAN), and the National LGBTQ Task Force, recently announced an essential new guide, Stronger Together: a Guide to Supporting LGBT Asylum Seekers, during an event at HRC’s Equality Center.

Stronger Together provides crucial advice and guidance to service providers working with LGBT asylum seekers coming to the United States in search of better, safer lives. The work of Center Global is featured prominently in the report. Center Global, a program of the DC Center for the LGBT Community, supports LGBT asylum seekers and refugees in the District of Columbia.

Every year, thousands of LGBT people flee to the United States (U.S.) from home countries where they face persecution and violence because of who they are or whom they love. However, once arriving in the US, LGBT asylum seekers frequently face the daunting task of building new lives in what can be an unfamiliar and often hostile environment.

Asylum seekers who are LGBT often face barriers that others do not. They may continue to face homophobia or transphobia, often arrive in the U.S.without family support, and may be rejected or ignored by organizations that might be helpful to non-LGBT asylum seekers. Even well-meaning individuals could inadvertently undermine the wellbeing of LGBT asylum seekers by providing incorrect or inappropriate advice. Stronger Together offers service providers information on how best to help newcomers adjust, including advising on employment counseling, access to housing, and where to seek legal representation. The guide focuses on assisting service providers in empowering LGBT asylum seekers.

“LGBTQI asylum seekers and asylees should be leaders in this work. They are experts on their own stories and needs, and can use their expertise to serve their own community.” said Nikilas Mawanda, a Ugandan activist and asylee who also contributed to Stronger Together.

“It is wonderful that people in the U.S. want to support LGBT asylum seekers” said SiobhÃ¡n McGuirk, Stronger Together co-author. “It is important that this movement develops in ways that respect the diversity, agency, and views of LGBT asylum seekers and asylees, while also contributing to the wider immigration justice movement. Stronger Together reflects that aim. Over a hundred people contributed to this project, including LGBT asylum seekers and asylees, service providers, lawyers, researchers, and activists.”

The situation for LGBT people around the world varies widely. As LGBT equality advances in some places, people continue to suffer from discrimination, persecution and violence around the world.

– An estimated five percent of U.S. asylum claims are based on persecution of sexual orientation or gender identity, suggesting that the U.S. would have received 4,802 applications citing anti-LGBT persecution in 2014.
– In 10 countries worldwide, same-sex activity is punishable by death, and 75 countries criminalize same-sex relationships. Hundreds of transgender individuals have been brutally murdered in the last year.
– In a growing number of countries, governments have sought to silence equality advocates and organizations with so-called “anti-propaganda” laws and legislation.

To read the full report click on this link: Stronger Together: A Guide to Supporting LGBT Asylum Seekers.