November 2011
43 posts
“The contrast between the Union Square of the 1930s and that of today symbolizes how New York has gone from being a city protective and proud of its dissenters to a virtual police state where protestors are treated like criminals simply for expressing their First Amendment Rights. This goes beyond the abuse of the Occupy Wall Street participants, though when demonstrators are beaten, pepper-sprayed and arrested for peaceful protest and journalists with valid press credentials are kept blocks away so as not to be able to witness your tax dollars in action, there ought to be cause for alarm.”
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Crackdown on Protests Could Spark More Scrutiny of Police - Andy Humm, Gotham Gazette, 11/2011
Interesting read looking at the dynamics of police response to dissent…how and why things have gotten where they are, and the potential for change…check out the entire article here.
Salon: The Worst State in America to Have HIV →
salon.com
TRIGGER WARNING: RACIST AND HOMOPHOBIC SLURS IN THE ARTICLE.
The state has the highest new infection rate and greatest percentage of people living with HIV in the country, and by many measures, the least interest in helping them. Elsewhere, HIV/AIDS has become manageable with anti-retroviral therapy, but a Mississippian with HIV/AIDS is almosttwice as likely to die than the average American with the virus; HIV-positive African-Americans in Mississippi are ten times as likely to die from it than their white neighbors. African-Americans are only 37.5 percent of the population, but represent 78 percent of new HIV infections. Meanwhile, an abstinence-education statute forbids even programs offering information about condoms to demonstrate how to use them, but does include a requirement to mention the anti-sodomy laws still on the books.
The full article is absolutely worth a read. I can’t believe this is happening…
So much work to be done…
“To address the significant health care disparities of transgender individuals and to improve their access to care, ob-gyns should prepare to provide routine treatment and screening or refer them to other physicians, according to The American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists (The College). In a Committee Opinion published today, The College also states its opposition to gender identity discrimination and supports both public and private health insurance coverage for gender identity disorder treatment.”
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Ob-Gyns: Prepare to Treat Transgender Patients - The American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists, 11/21/11
“The sooner we all start understanding the quest for equality – whether immigration equality, LGBTQ equality, gender equality, racial equality, economic equality, or a host of other struggles for justice – as one quest, the sooner we will all get to that prize of the American dream. The Statue of Liberty reads, “Bring me your tired, your poor, your huddled masses yearning to breathe free.” It is now Americans who are tired, and poor, and are building walls to keep out the huddled masses yearning to breathe free. And it is our undocumented LGBTQ youth who are pointing the way to freedom – we choose to follow their lead, and to create our own dreams.”
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Op-Ed: Equality for Us Means Equality for Everyone - By Tiffani Bishop, Issac Brown, Iana DiBona, and Michael Diviesti, Advocate.com, 11/25/11
- It was hard to pick an excerpt from this article - it’s worth checking out the whole thing.
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The historical narrative that surrounds the American Thanksgiving feast is fairly recent.
The purportedly idyllic partnership between the European Pilgrims and New England Indians is actually only about 120 years old. After WWI, the story that we learn in school today became THE story. I believe deeply in the power of re-appropriating racist and sexist traditions, but I do not believe that we can effectively do that if we do not know the history of what we’re re-appropriating. So, today I’m sharing some links that I’ve used as resources over the years that have helped me understand the holiday, the story and get a little closer to the truth. We know that victors write history books, but we also know it’s our job to correct and re-write them.
” —No thanks: A little historical truth-telling about Thanksgiving - Eesha Pandit, Feministing.com, 11/23/11
Check out the full article for excerpts and links to other sources that tell the story of thanksgiving as it is rarely told in school.
Elon James White at Colorlines: Black Leaders Get Closeup View of Alabama’s New Jim Crow →
colorlines.com
Recently I was invited to be a part of a delegation of labor leaders heading down to Alabama to speak out against one of the worst immigration laws in the country. I found it interesting, because the trip was billed as a “black” labor leader delegation. I’ve heard a lot about the black-brown discussion over immigrant rights, so I was ecstatic that this delegation of specifically black folks was going down to witness this law’s impact first hand. As a commentator on race and blackness, I felt it important that I join. Although there are those within the community who aren’t supportive, there are many who are absolutely against the prejudice that we’ve seen popping up across the country this past year, under the guise of “saving American jobs.”
My latest over at Colorlines. Please share, retweet, facebook, tumble, smoke signal, time travel and tell your ancestors about this post…
Revolutionary Convergences: History and Symbolism in Anonymous and OWS Art
…Corporations and countries have used these references for years—familiar symbols understood since grade school to present peace, unity, and power. So perhaps it is appropriate for new movements like Occupy Wall Street and Anonymous to recast these familiar symbols in hopes of resetting our subconscious associations.
A similar formula of aesthetic reclamation happens almost weekly with OWS posters. They pull from 20th century protest poster designs that galvanized movements of people 10,000,000 strong. The original decades-old aesthetics developed out of need, because resources were scarce. Printing and pasting happened as quickly as damaging graffiti and removal. OWS poster aesthetics hark back to powerful movements of the past, tapping into culture’s collective memory in hopes of reawakening the spirit of action….
Rhizome, Revolutionary Convergences: History and Symbolism in Anonymous and OWS Art
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The most well-funded organizations in the gay and lesbian movement do not provide direct legal services to low-income people, but instead focus their resources on high-profile impact litigation cases and policy efforts. Most of these efforts have traditionally focused on concerns central to the lives of nonpoor lesbian and gay people and have ignored the most pressing issues in the lives of poor people, people of color, and transgender people.
The “gay agenda” has been about passing our apartments to each other when we die, not about increasing affordable housing or opposing illegal eviction. It has been about getting our partnerships recognized so our partners can share our private health benefits, not about defending Medicaid rights or demanding universal health care. It has been about getting our young sons into Boy Scouts, not about advocating for the countless/uncounted queer and trans youth struggling against a growing industry of youth incarceration. It has been about working to put more punishment power in the hands of an overtly racist criminal system with passage of hate crimes laws, not about opposing the mass incarceration of a generation of men of color, or fighting the abuse of queer and trans people in adult and juvenile justice settings.
” —-Dean Spade: Compliance is Gendered (via delisubthefemmecub)
Smart, powerful words from the always insightful Dean Spade.
“New York State Bill A1008/S323, cosponsored by more than a dozen state senators, would stop police and prosecutors from using possession of condoms as evidence of prostitution in specified criminal or civil proceedings. According to the summary of the bill, it “provides that possession of a condom may not be received in evidence in any trial, hearing or proceeding as evidence of prostitution, patronizing a prostitute, promoting prostitution, permitting prostitution, maintaining a premises for prostitution, lewdness or assignation, or maintaining a bawdy house.”
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Stopping Police and DAs from Using Condoms to Convict Sex Workers — Feministe
About time. Sign the petition here: http://www.change.org/petitions/tell-new-york-state-legislators-condoms-arent-a-crime
(via workingsex)
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It is not surprising to me that virtually no one is familiar with the name Shelley Hilliard. Shelley’s body was just found on the side of a busy highway in Detroit last week, burned to death. Shelley’s mother, who had reported to police that her much-beloved teen was missing, had to visit the medical examiner’s office to identify her child’s torso — all that remained.
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There are many organizations that espouse to support the transgender community, but really what they are doing is splitting hairs. In light of Shelley Hilliard’s charred torso, the actual amount of money and human resources that most LGBT organizations devote to transgender services is insulting. Even in large cities there are only a handful of nonprofits doing substantive work for transgender people. Many argue that there are few funding streams to support programs for this community because no data is collected on transgender individuals, and they are correct. But that didn’t stop them from identifying funders for LGBT and HIV causes in the ’80s and ’90s — where there’s a will, there’s a way, as they say.
” —LGBT Leadership: Split Hairs and Burnt Bodies -Pete Subkoviak, Huffington Post, 11/16/11
Yesterday was International Transgender Day of Remembrance. This piece raises critical issues, calling on LGBT organizations and others to do more in support of the human rights and safety of transgender people. Silence=Death.
High IQ linked to drug use →
thechart.blogs.cnn.com
It’s not clear why people with high childhood IQs are more likely to use illegal drugs. “We suspect they may be more open to new experiences and are more sensation seeking,” says White. In the paper, White and his co-author also mention other studies that find high IQ kids may use drugs because they are bored or to cope with being different.
- Interesting, though not so shocking. Everyone uses drugs, and people who use drugs are very often intelligent, capable people.
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I'm sure it's been mentioned on this blog before but the important thing to remember wih Hep C transmission is that it will happen sharing ANY implements, even if it's just the same cooker.
hi! yes indeed! blood anywhere…cooker, cotton, water, tie, gauze, alcohol, injecting surfaces, syringe, etc…it’s important to be mindful of blood throughout the entire injection process. this is one of the challenges around messages that are carried over from HIV prevention that only emphasized the syringe. you’re totally right. thanks for the comment.
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An international team of investigators showed that infectious quantities of hepatitis C could survive on inanimate surfaces for up to seven days. However, the virus can be rendered inactive by commercially available disinfectants, or heating to a temperature of 65-70°C for approximately 90 seconds.
In a separate study, French investigators detected the virus on 80% of alcohol swabs obtained from injecting drug users. They suggest that the swabs may be shared by users, risking the transmission of hepatitis C.
” —I participated in a roundtable about hepatitis C testing and counseling yesterday. One of the needs identified again and again is the need for clear, easy to communicate messages about hepatitis c prevention that also make sense in the daily lives of people who inject drugs. Don’t share syringes is not enough. It’s about the blood.