Over 50,000 at Belgian Pride say the police

in: http://www.deredactie.be/

VRT

Tens of thousands of people attended the Belgian Pride parade in central Brussels on Saturday. The event is staged in support of people with a gay lifestyle and received added poignancy this year following the country's first homophobic killing.

The parade started with a minute's silence in memory of the gay man who was punched to death in Liège.

VRT

It was for the first time in many years that gays, lesbians and transgender people and their supporters had a clear signal for Belgium's politicians: homophobic violence cannot be tolerated.

The police estimate that at least 50,000 people took part in the parade. Many participants also wore a black ribbon to show their abhorrence of violence targeted at gays.

On Friday the Belgian Pride organisers handed in a petition to Prime Minister Elio Di Rupo (Francophone socialist), Belgium's first openly gay prime minister. The Justice and Equal Opportunities ministers also received a copy. The three politicians have given a commitment to draw up an action plan with measures aimed at tackling hate crimes against gays, lesbians and transgender and transsexual people soon.

http://www.deredactie.be/

Homophobia strikes Gay Comic Book Convention

in: http://www.prlog.org/

LOS ANGELES — Selling tickets to a comic book convention is the last place organizers expected to encounter anti-gay hate groups and their allies. That’s exactly, though, what Bent-Con, the gay pop culture festival that celebrates LGBTQ contributions to the science fiction, fantasy, horror, comic book and gaming genres, did.

They did so in an obscure and arcane area of the internet most people aren’t familiar with: credit card payment processing gateways, lynchpins of internet transactions the world over.

“Honestly, it was something I wasn’t even expecting,” Bent-Con President Sean Holman said. “When you think about hate groups, you think of them with regards to anti-marriage efforts or against serving openly in the military. You don’t think about them in terms of internet payment systems. But there you go.”

Credit card payment gateways are the mechanism the internet uses to exchange information between websites and mobile phones and the banks. When the general public buys a pizza or orders tickets over the web, the gateway verifies all the information is correct, authorizes the transfer of funds — and takes a percentage for the effort in “fees.” These fees can add up to significant amounts of money, for both the seller and the gateway service. Getting the best deal possible is what ever seller requires.

“In setting up our ticket service, our ticketing agent signed us up with an established company that offers low rates to non-profits like us — Cornerstone Payment Systems — that’s when things got odd,” Holman said.

Typical approval time is 48 hours. Several days of no word prompted Mr. Holman to inquire about the delay, first to the ticketing agency, then to Cornerstone itself. Two weeks later, a Cornerstone representative sent a cryptic email that said, “Unfortunately because the type of business we cannot get this account approved. Sorry for the inconvenience.”

Puzzled, Mr. Holman inquired further with both Cornerstone and the ticketing agency about the rejection and the language. Apologizing, the ticketing agency indicated that Conerstone’s “underwriting criteria will be problematic” in regards to Bent-Con and quickly made arrangements with a different company, ACH Direct, to handle the processing. ACH approved Bent-Con and the website is now live and tacking ticket orders for the December 2012 event.

Mr. Holman admits to being frustrated by the delay, but once the new gateway came on-line, he was satisfied. Then he and Jody Wheeler, the vice-president of Bent-Con, did a little on-line research and were quite surprised by what they found.”Mostly, I was curious about what was ‘problematic’ about our organization. Turns out the problem wasn’t with us, but with the values of Cornerstone.”

According to their website, Cornerstone Payment Systems of Bristol, VA (www.cornerstonepaymentsystems.com) bills itself as a gateway that puts “Christ at the Cornerstone of our business…. we will not process credit card transactions for morally objectionable businesses.” They specifically reach out to churches and para church organizations, in addition to regular retail, food and related industries, in order to provide them services. It’s part of larger banking operation, Cornerstone Bancard, started by CEO and entrepreneur, Nick Logan.

One of Cornerstone’s main programs involves providing a revenue sharing service where, alongside Cornerstone, partners receive a percentage of the fee for all transactions processed and that all referred companies process. 

Titled the ”Processing with a Purpose” service, (www.processingwithapurpose.com), one of notable partner is The American Family Association (http://www.cornerstone.cc/afa/), which the Southern Poverty Law Center certified as a hate group last year (http://www.splcenter.org/get-informed/intelligence-files/...).

Cornerstone also provides these services to related organizations like the Home School Legal Defense Fund, American Family Association, Teen Pact, World Magazine and Florida Family Policy Counsel. Cornerstone advertises that they’ve processed several billion dollars and worked with 30,000 ministries.

“No wonder they rejected us,” Mr. Holman said. “We’re the kind of people they hate!”

The most troubling aspect, though, is that Cornerstone, directly and through partnerships, has provided gateway services to unknowing groups who support equality and fairness in other ways. ”There are several charities — cancer prevention, poverty reduction, even Little League organizations — that use Cornerstone due to its low rates and inadvertently fund the anti-gay hate industry in the United States, ” Mr. Holman  said.

“Had things broken in a slightly different way, we might have wound up providing money to what is, essentially, the ‘bag-man’ for internet funded  hate groups. I wonder how many otherwise great organizations don’t realize they’re helping to fund such hate with their own internet sales, ” Mr. Holman added.

—-

Bent-Con 2012 is happening November 30th, December 1st and 2nd in Los Angeles CA. With an estimated attendance of 3000 people, it is one of the largest conventions to promote, encourage, celebrate and appreciate LGBT and LGBT-friendly contributions to comic-book, gaming, scifi, fantasy and horror mediums from artists, writers, creators, publishers, directors, actors, and producers, that create works targeted directly to LGBT audiences or the larger realm of underground and mainstream pop-culture as a whole.

www.bent-con.org 

Contact:

Viktor T. Kerney 
Director of Outreach
213-400-2353
viktor@bentcon.org

Photo:
http://www.prlog.org/11863219/1

http://www.prlog.org/

San Diego Gets the Worlds First Harvey Milk Street

in: http://www.advocate.com/

Yesterday the San Diego City Council unanimously voted to name a street after LGBT civil rights pioneer Harvey Milk, becoming the first city in the country to do so.

“A year ago, a group of community leaders came together around the notion the time had come to honor an LGBT civil rights leader in San Diego the same way we have given honor to other civil rights leaders  such as Cesar Chavez and Martin Luther King Jr.,” said Dwayne Crenshaw, San Diego LGBT Pride Executive Director. “Today marks a symbolic and significant moment in the movement forward towards the American value of equality.”

The city will unveil the new street on what would be Milk's 62nd birthday, Tuesday, May 22. Festivities will begin at 5 p.m. at the corner of Harvey Milk Street (formerly Blaine Avenue) and Centre Street, and will include Crenshaw, several City Council members, City Commissioner Nicole Murray-Ramirez, Milk's nephew Stuart Milk, and Delores Jacobs, the CEO of San Diego's LGBT Community Center. 

Local activists pushed hard for the street renaming, as Milk served some of his time in the Navy as a diving instructor stationed in San Diego. After his election in 1978 as one of the world’s first openly gay elected officials — and later his assassination — symbolized for many LGBT women and men around the world the bravery it took to life life fully and honestly.

Milk has been memorialized, often in San Francisco where he made his biggest political impact, with a foundation, a civil rights academy, an LGBT educational institute, a library branch, and even a band. Now activists are pushing to have a military vessel named for him as well.

http://www.advocate.com/

Tom Gabel of Against Me! Comes Out as Transgender

in: http://www.rollingstone.com/


Singer reveals plans to begin living as a woman in the new issue of Rolling Stone

Tom Gabel in St. Augustine, Florida.

Cass Bird

Against Me! singer Tom Gabel reveals plans to begin living as a woman in the new issue of Rolling Stone. Gabel, who has dealt privately with gender dysphoria for years, will soon begin the process of transition, by taking hormones and undergoing electrolysis treatments.

Gabel will eventually take the name Laura Jane Grace, and will remain married to her wife Heather. "For me, the most terrifying thing about this was how she would accept the news," says Gabel. "But she's been super-amazing and understanding."

Gabel only told a handful of family and friends about her plan to transition before talking to Rolling Stone. Because this is the first time a major rock star has come out as transgender, the singer made a point of speaking openly about it. "I'm going to have embarrassing moments," says Gabel, "and that won't be fun. But that's part of what talking to you is about – is hoping people will understand, and hoping they'll be fairly kind."

The full story of Gabel's transformation is in the latest issue, on newsstands this Friday (May 11th). In it, the singer tells Josh Eells about her history of gender dysphoria, the specifics of the transition process and what becoming Laura Jane Grace will mean for the future of Against Me!

http://www.rollingstone.com/

Cresce número de igrejas LGBT no Brasil

in: http://www.advivo.com.br/

Igrejas voltadas predominantemente para público gay somam hoje cerca de 10 mil fiéis

Encaradas pelas minorias como um refúgio para a livre prática da fé, as igrejas "inclusivas" - voltadas predominantemente para o público gay - vêm crescendo a um ritmo acelerado no Brasil, à revelia da oposição de alas religiosas mais conservadoras.

Estimativas feitas por especialistas a pedido da BBC Brasil indicam que já existem pelo menos dez diferentes congregações de igrejas "gay-friendly" no Brasil, com mais de 40 missões e delegações espalhadas pelo país.

Concentradas, principalmente, no eixo Rio de Janeiro-São Paulo, elas somam em torno de 10 mil fiéis, ou 0,005% da população brasileira. A maioria dos membros (70%) é composta por homens, incluindo solteiros e casais, de diferentes níveis sociais.

O número ainda é baixo se comparado à quantidade de católicos e evangélicos, as duas principais religiões do país, que, em 2009, respondiam por 68,43% e 20,23% da população brasileira, respectivamente, segundo um estudo publicado pela Fundação Getúlio Vargas (FGV), no Rio de Janeiro.

O crescimento das igrejas inclusivas ganhou força com o surgimento de políticas de combate à homofobia, ao passo que o preconceito também diminuiu, alegam especialistas.

Hoje, segundo o IBGE, há 60 mil casais homossexuais no Brasil. Para grupos militantes, o número de gays é estimado entre 6 a 10 milhões de pessoas.

Segundo a pesquisadora Fátima Weiss, da Universidade Federal de Santa Catarina (UFSC), que mapeia o setor desde 2008, havia apenas uma única igreja inclusiva com sede fixa no Brasil dez anos atrás.

"Com um discurso que prega a tolerância, essas igrejas permitem a manifestação da fé na tradição cristã independente da orientação sexual", disse Weiss à BBC Brasil.

O número de frequentadores dessas igrejas - que são abertas a fiéis de qualquer orientação sexual - acompanhou também a emancipação das congregações. Se, há dez anos, os fiéis totalizavam menos de 500 pessoas; hoje, já são quase 10 mil - número que, segundo os fundadores dessas igrejas, deve dobrar nos próximos cinco anos.

Resistência

As igrejas inclusivas ainda enfrentam forte resistência das comunidades católicas e evangélicas. Embora a maior parte delas siga a tradição cristã - pregando, inclusive, o celibato antes do casamento e a monogamia após o matrimônio - ainda não são reconhecidas oficialmente por nenhum desses dois grupos.

Não raro, em igrejas tradicionais, os homossexuais são obrigados a esconder sua opção sexual. Descobertos, acabam sendo expulsos - ou, eventualmente, submetidos a tratamentos de "conversão" para se tornarem heterossexuais.

"Segundo a Bíblia, homossexualidade é pecado. Na igreja evangélica, gay só entra caso queira se converter e, para isso, tem de se tornar heterossexual. É uma regra de Deus", disse à BBC Brasil Silas Malafaia, fundador de uma das principais igrejas evangélicas do Brasil, a Assembleia de Deus - Vitória em Cristo.

"Tenho vários casos de ex-gays na minha igreja. Trata-se de um desvio de comportamento; afinal, gays têm a mesma ordem cromossômica que nós, heterossexuais. Depende deles, portanto, mudar sua opção sexual para serem aceitos na nossa comunidade", acrescenta.

A pernambucana Lanna Holder, de 37 anos, acreditava poder "curar" a atração que sentia por mulheres que, segundo ela, vinha "desde a infância". Usuária de drogas e alcoólatra, Lanna converteu-se a uma igreja evangélica aos 21 anos, passando a fazer pregações no interior do Brasil.

Após ser expulsa de igreja, Lanna Holder decidiu criar nova congregação

"Enquanto todas as meninas brincavam de boneca, eu soltava pipa e jogava futebol", lembra ela à BBC Brasil.

Lanna tornou-se uma das principais pregadoras da igreja Assembleia de Deus, a mais importante do ramo pentecostal no Brasil. Casou-se aos 24 anos e, dois anos depois, teve um filho.

Mas durante uma viagem aos Estados Unidos em 2002, conheceu outra pregadora, Rosania Rocha, brasileira que cantava no coral de uma filial da igreja em Boston. Um ano depois, elas tiveram um caso amoroso às escondidas e acabaram expulsas da comunidade.

De volta ao Brasil em 2007, Lanna teve a ideia de criar uma igreja voltada predominantemente para homossexuais que, como ela, não ganharam acolhida em outra vertente religiosa. Ela montou a "Comunidade Cidade Refúgio", no centro de São Paulo.

De reuniões pequenas, com apenas 15 pessoas, a igreja possui hoje 300 fiéis e planeja abrir uma filial em Londrina, no Paraná, até o fim deste ano.

Origem

O embrião das igrejas inclusivas começou a surgir no Brasil na década de 90, em pequenas reuniões feitas normalmente sob sigilo.

Nos Estados Unidos, entretanto, elas já existem há pelo menos quatro décadas, praticando o que chamam de "teologia inclusiva", com um discurso aberto à diversidade.

Um das pioneiras foi a Igreja da Comunidade Metropolitana (ou Metropolitan Church), a primeira a ter sede própria no Brasil, em 2002.

http://www.advivo.com.br/

Transgender woman ticketed for using women’s restroom at Parkland hospital

in: http://www.dallasvoice.com/

Paula Witherspoon

Police cited a transgender woman for disorderly conduct on April 25 for using a women’s restroom at Parkland hospital.

An officer with the hospital’s police force wrote the citation for a class-C misdemeanor after a complaint was lodged by someone who saw the transgender woman, Paula Witherspoon, leaving the bathroom.

Witherspoon said she was at the hospital with her husband, who had a follow-up appointment after suffering a heart attack.

“I live full time as a woman,” Witherspoon said.

She said hospital police told her they weren’t there to decide whether she was guilty.

“Then they wrote me a ticket,” she said.

The ticket lists Witherspoon as a man and her name as Paul. But Witherspoon provided a copy of a letter from her clinical psychologist at the Dallas VA Medical Center, Gloria J. Emmert.

“As a frequent visitor to the Dallas VA Hospital, she is expected to use facilities consistent with her external presentation, which is female,” Emmert wrote. “Please assist this Veteran by supporting the application of this ethical approach in all Dallas settings.”

Ken Upton, a supervising attorney in the Dallas office of Lambda Legal, said lewd conduct is the closest thing he could find in Section 4201 of the Texas Penal Code, the statute listed on the ticket.

For that portion of the code to apply, Upton said, Witherspoon would have had to have acted “intentionally or knowingly for a lewd purpose.” But since she went into a private stall, that’s unlikely, he said.

Witherspoon said she didn’t even know whether there was anyone else in the restroom.

“I went in, did my business, washed my hands and left,” she said.

And the letter from the psychologist indicates she was following doctor’s orders rather than acting out of lewd intent. Upton said Parkland will have trouble defending the case.

“The officer doesn’t know if anyone else was in there,” Upton said, so his testimony would be hearsay. And if the complainant wasn’t in the restroom, that person was not a witness to any lewd behavior.

Upton said the officer probably figures Witherspoon will either pay the fine or it’ll be dismissed.

“And he doesn’t care,” Upton said, adding that the officer couldn’t have written a ticket for simply using the wrong bathroom.

“That’s not a crime in Dallas,” he said.

Officials at Parkland, Dallas County’s public hospital, are looking into the incident.

“We have verified that on April, 25, 2012, Parkland Police responded to a complaint from a concerned female patient regarding her allegation that there was a male in the female restroom,” Parkland spokeswoman Charise Thomason wrote. “Because of the complexity of the issue, the incident is currently under review. Parkland strives to treat patients, visitors and staff with dignity and respect, as well as provide a safe environment at all times.”

Roberto de la Cruz, an openly gay member of Parkland’s Board of Managers, said he plans to meet with Witherspoon on Wednesday at her home. He said his concern is that transgender people are welcome at Parkland and will be treated with dignity.

After the jump is a copy of the letter from Dr. Emmert, as well as Witherspoon’s ticket.

http://www.dallasvoice.com/

Vídeo LGBT da Semana - FreshAir (Eurogames2012 promo)

Fresh Air, the world’s very first gay airline announced its debut take off to the deservedly popular and gay-friendly Budapest, host city to EuroGames 2012 Budapest between June 27 – July 1. The cargo is gay and straight athletes and visitors from 32 countries around the world, arriving especially for this prestigious occasion. The world’s first devotedly gay airline was recently established in order to fill the gap left by traditional, boring airlines and to satisfy the increasing demand by all sorts of consumers – sporting a rainbow of tastes and sexual orientations - for services provided in a gay atmosphere.

Why Budapest? As the first Central-European country selected to organize EuroGames, this magnificent capital offers vibrant clubs, baths, theatres, sporting facilities and other points of interest in progressive and gay- friendly enviroment.

Owners of Fresh Air are aware that EuroGames has attracted at least 10000 visitors anywhere in Europe in previous years. Fresh Air holds a strong grip or rather, a gentle, but firm massage on the target group, providing information about Eurogames in Fresh Air offices in all 32 countries. The competition - open to both professionals and amateurs - features 18 games, countless events, cultural, fun and professional outings included.