Story Type: News and Media

Astraea Grantee Partners Helem and Meem Protest Violence in Lebanon

Astraea Grantee Partners Helem and Meem, in collaboration with Lebanese Human Rights organizations, staged a protest in opposition to the violence in the Lebanese society targeting LGBTI people, women, children, domestic and foreign workers and others.

Meem creates a safe space in Lebanon for LBTQ women to meet, discuss issues, share experiences and work on improving their lives and themselves. Meem recently opened the first house for LBTQ women in Beirut, conducts research and trainings, provides free mental health and legal services, and publishes the only lesbian magazine in Lebanon.

Helem leads a peaceful struggle for the liberation of the LGBT community in Lebanon from all legal, social and cultural discrimination. The organization holds social and cultural events, works on HIV/AIDS related issues, and collaborates with other human rights organizations to advocate for prosecuted LGBT people and the advancement of human rights and personal freedoms in Lebanon.

Watch New Coverage of the Protest

Out in force: Gay rights activists denounce violence and stand up for sexual diversity

By Alexandra Sandels for NOW

Hundreds of people armed with rainbow flags and signs denouncing violence and discrimination against homosexuals and other minority groups in Lebanon gathered at Beirut’’s Sodeco square amid pouring rain on Sunday afternoon for a demonstration.

The event, the first of its kind in the Arab world according to the organizers, was staged by the Beirut-based Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender, Intersex, Queer (LGBTIQ) support organization Helem, and also featured representatives from Lebanese rights groups Kafa, KAFA, TYMAT and SIDC.

Twenty-six year old Maya, holding a sign reading, “Feminists Against Violence” told NOW Lebanon she had come to the demonstration to give a “statement.”

“”I want to say that I denounce violence on all levels, against homosexuals and disadvantaged groups in my country,”” she said.

Next to Maya stood a protestor waving a sign in front of curious photographers saying, “”I don’t believe in a country where it’’s more acceptable for two men to hold guns than two men to hold hands.””

The demonstration was a direct response to a recent incident of anti-gay violence in Achrafieh, in which two men allegedly engaging in sexual conduct in the entrance of a building were dragged out onto nearby Sassine Square and severely beaten.

Conflicting reports have, however, marred the incident.

An initial report by the French-language daily L’Orient Le Jour had it that the beating was carried out by security personnel, while others, including Helem, say the men were assaulted by civilians.

“I mainly came to protest what happened at Sassine,” 23 year-old Sara told NOW, adding, “I’’m happy with today’s turnout of people.”

“”The beatings were inhuman. Where were the police to protect them at the time?”” another demonstrator asked.

While advocacy for Lebanon’’s LGBTIQ community appeared to be the main banner of the demonstration, many came out to show their support for other minority groups such as foreign domestic workers, and to protest against domestic violence.

“I came to protest domestic violence against women. My neighbor gets beaten by her husband. We hear it all the time. It’’s awful,” a 20 year-old who did not want her name to be printed told NOW.

In the middle of the demonstration a woman in her 50s walking by asked one of the participants what the crowd was protesting against. When told it was in support of Lebanon’s LGBTIQ community, the woman hurried away.

Yet while homosexuality is still technically illegal and punishable under Lebanese law, it is more accepted in Lebanon than in most Arab countries.

Helem Director Georges Azzi told NOW that while there is a “bit of freedom” for homosexuals in Lebanon, he emphasized that it remains “fragile.”

“”There are many things that need to be done on the issue,”” he added, mentioning the need to reform the laws that criminalize homosexual conduct in Lebanon.

Twenty-year old Helem affiliate Joe, who had wrapped a large rainbow flag around his head for the occasion, said that he, as a Lebanese, felt very proud an event like this was able to be held in Beirut, where there are numerous groups offering support services to LGBTIQ people, including the recent addition of Meem, a community for non-heterosexual women.

Helem, the largest of the groups, provides free HIV-testing services and also publishes Barra Magazine, which translates as “out,” for the LGBTIQ community in Lebanon.

Most recently, members of Meem launched Bekhsoos, or Concerning, the Arab world’s first publication for lesbian, bisexual and queer women.

Despite these inroads made, Joe said that conditions for Lebanon’s LGBTIQ community remain “a bit shaky,” especially considering the Sassine incident.

“To a certain extent the situation is OK, but the recent acts of violence are not positive indicators,” he said, adding, “We’re so glad and very proud this protest happened in Beirut.”

Visit Meem

Visit Helem

Grantee Partner, the Audre Lorde Project: A Different Kind of Morning in America

In the weeks leading up to the election, we held discussions with community members about the financial crisis and people’s hopes and fears for the election.

The last few months were a historic period for members of the Audre Lorde Project (ALP) community.  Some of us participated in electoral organizing for the first time and some of us with more energy than ever before – door knocking, phone banking, fundraising, and organizing.  When Barack Obama won the presidency, we saw a victory made possible through the efforts of millions of people, which was powered by hope on a scale many of us have not experienced before.  The energy that people, and especially young people, brought was a testament to how much folks want to be active and engaged in the workings of the United States, and the United States in relation to the rest of the world.  We noticed all around us, people breathing sighs of relief that there is a chance the U.S. will have a presidential administration which does not have contempt for people and dissidents; or an attitude that people are expendable, and that accountability is a joke.  We noticed that we were juggling multiple emotions – amazement, fear, skepticism, visions of a different future, and anxiety.  We know that President Obama will inherit impossible expectations, the worst conditions that the U.S. has dealt with since the Great Depression, and the current versions of white supremacy which have never gone away.  We also know that Obama ran as a centrist, and as someone who believes in neoliberal economic strategies.

As a result, we write this statement as a commitment to not be paralyzed by disappointment and disillusionment, but to organize more strongly, deeply, and strategically from this day on.  We acknowledge that this statement strays from the traditional policy agenda of the LGBT movement in the U.S., and that is because Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Two Spirit, Trans and Gender Non Conforming (LGBTSTGNC) People of Color are everywhere – in refugee settlements and prisons, in factories and board rooms, in the service sector and the unemployment line, the picket line and protests in the streets.  We are putting this out as in invitation to move forward on the lessons of the election, to continue to build local community spaces and transnational movements powered by the energy of many more people than we have seen before.

On the 23rd annual Martin Luther King Day, the Eve of the Inauguration

Power at its best is love implementing the demands of justice.  Justice at its best is love correcting everything that stands against love.  – Martin Luther King, Jr.

In the weeks leading up to the election, we held discussions with community members about the financial crisis and people’s hopes and fears for the election.  What people talked about is very much a map of the current conditions that are front and center in our communities’ realities.  We talked about the stagnation of real wages, an understanding that the ratio of people’s income to expenses has gone down for the last thirty years, meaning that even when people earn more over time, our money pays for less.  We talked about an unprecedented level of imaginary profit made by a very small number of people, and the cost of deregulation on homeowners, poor and working class people; and the deepening gap between the rich and the poor in the global south due to free trade agreements, structural adjustment policies, and currency speculation (http://economicmeltdownfunnies.org/).

We identified the impacts of these issues on our communities locally: people feeling trapped in jobs that they are afraid to leave; the rise in homelessness; the decrease in small businesses; gentrification (the process by which higher income households displace lower income residents of a neighborhood, changing the essential character and displacing original residents of the neighborhood) and the decrease in affordable housing; less resources for education and an increase in military recruitment; rising scapegoating, racism, transphobia, depression, hopelessness, and crime.  We talked about the budget cuts which are affecting all of our organizations, and how in many ways homeless LGBTSTGNC people, especially younger people, elders and people with disabilities, are feeling these cuts to services most immediately.

As we hold these hard realities among others, as LGBTSTGNC People of Color based in New York City we identified some of the policy and movement commitments we will make during the next period:

 Economic Crisis:  We will fight for increased access to livable wage jobs for all people, including Trans and Gender Non-Conforming (TGNC) people, immigrants, and young people.  TransJustice, a project of ALP, is currently leading an Economic Justice campaign based on the fact that even before the recession, the unemployment rate for TGNC People of Color in NYC was estimated at around 70%.  We understand that the current financial crisis has been forming over a long period, and to some extent was inevitable.  It is much broader than the housing crisis, credit bust, and the nationalization of banks and large blocks of debt.  We understand it includes our ability to buy food, afford housing and medical treatment, and access education and welfare.  We are wary of the billions of dollars going to corporations for the bailout, while people face a crisis of survival. (http://www.alternet.org/story/107000/wall_street%27s_bailout_is_a_trillion-dollar_crime_scene__why_aren%27t_the_dems_doing_something_about_it/)

Violence:  We anticipate that an economic crisis combined with global unrest, disasters connected to climate change, and the continued growth of the police state in New York City leave many of us vulnerable.  We recognize the negative effects that the economic crisis and the resulting budgetary crisis will have upon our lives and neighborhoods in terms of the potential of increased violence and survival crimes.  We are concerned about the expansion of broken windows policing, where police use brute force and mass arrests to target quality of life crimes (fare evasion, graffiti, broken windows, etc) that are usually the result of poverty.  These policies quickly turn under-resourced neighborhoods into police states creating an environment of distrust, fear, and alienation.  This fearful environment impedes our ability to create safety for ourselves making us more dependent upon the police.  Similarly, we don’t want to see tactics like the ones we have seen post-Katrina in the Gulf Coast, where moments of crisis are used for heightened militarization and privatization.  We know that in times of economic hardship, people who are already vulnerable become more so, and we are concerned about a rise in hate violence against LGBTSTGNC communities of color.  However, we remain opposed to hate crime legislation due to the lack of evidence that increased penalties actually prevent violence; the understanding that these policies strengthen the prison industrial complex by disproportionately incarcerating people of color; and because these policies divert necessary resources from education, mediation, and transformative anti-violence policies that target the root causes of violence.  We seek to advance strategies which focus on community accountability and transformative justice such as the Safe Neighborhood Campaign by ALP’s Safe Outside the System Collective.

Privatization: We realize that due to a commitment to neoliberal economic strategies and the growing economic crisis, there are many sectors of the public infrastructure that are vulnerable to being taken out of public control and sold to the highest bidder in the corporate sector.  This has already happened largely with health care, prisons, and military troops; and could very well become the education reform strategy.  We oppose privatization because it makes public institutions function on the basis of profit instead of service to the people, and is often harmful to current struggles for indigenous sovereignty and autonomy.  We recognize that anti-privatization struggles in the global South are connected to our struggles locally, as well as the fact that it is largely U.S. corporations that profit from them and use the same practices domestically and abroad.  We urge the Obama administration to use the economic stimulus packages to increase the infrastructure and capacity of public institutions such as schools and inclusive and accessible healthcare and hospitals, and not use the anti-recession tactics as a tool for privatization of new sectors and jobs.

War and Militarization:  We continue to oppose all the public and hidden wars of the U.S., the continued occupations of Afghanistan and Iraq, and the expansion of U.S. militarization through the building of military bases and the War on Drugs.  We are witnessing the escalation of tactics combining militarization, the manipulation of global economic objectives and the criminalization of migrants through both Plan Merida and Plan Colombia (http://www.art-us.org/node/392).  As we recognize the mass deaths in Congo, Nigeria, and Mumbai, we acknowledge the impact of the War on Terrorism globally, and we continue our commitment to being part of efforts seeking to end the War on Terrorism.  We are appalled by the ongoing attacks on the people of Palestine through the denial of equal rights inside Israel, division through the wall, the latest assault on Gaza, economic isolation, blockades of supplies and imports, escalating militarization throughout the occupied territories, and the continued refusal of Palestinian refugees’ right of return.  (http://electronicintifada.net/).  We support organizations intensifying efforts through boycott, divestment, and sanction strategies (http://www.bdsmovement.net/).  We oppose escalating military activities everywhere, including Palestine, Pakistan, Iraq, and Iran.  We urge the Obama administration to cut the $6-8 million plus that is given to the Israeli government every day to further the oppression and dispossession of the Palestinian people.  (http://www.ifamericansknew.org/stats/usaid.html)

Immigration: In the last year, violence towards immigrants has increased at the borders, through workplace and house raids, in schools, and detention centers.  We continue to oppose all forms of enforcement, which target people who are trying to survive a deepening global economic crisis, and stand in solidarity with migrant rights organizations around the world.  We will oppose any immigration reform proposal that includes a registration process, more militarization at the border and further criminalization of undocumented people.  We will continue to build spaces for us to come together to collectively increase our options for survival and self-determination as immigrants, as well as continue our participation in the broader movement for legalization of all people.  Towards that end we are a member of the National Network of Immigrant and Refugee Rights, as part of our commitment to build mass movements, which can meet our goals for global justice (www.nnirr.org).

Losses and Opportunities:  Much has been said about the significance of the passage of Prop. 8 in California.  We were saddened and alarmed at the passage of the homophobic ballot measures, as well as the rollbacks on affirmative action, the rights of immigrants, reproductive rights, and the rights of workers.  We were angered and pushed to engagement by the conversations which marginalized LGBTSTGNC people of color and used racism to justify the failure of organizing strategies around the country.  We remain committed to building spaces for dialogue, struggle across communities, and working within communities of color around the city to address transphobia, homophobia, xenophobia, and all other forms of oppression, which divide us and weaken our movements.

Marching Orders

Still feeling the energy and hope in our communities post-election, we realize there is no 1-800-Call-Obama line.  We know we will have to continue with organizing and building movements big enough for all of us.  Our work is to make spaces which help us sustain hope and the possibilities for survival as well as transformation.  We know that when we as people look towards collective power as our greatest resource, much more is possible.  Beyond moving forward with our existing work, at ALP we will be holding conversations about how we envision taking advantage of this period, and which strategies and tactics give us energy and take advantage of our creativity and spirit.  We look to our neighbors in the global south, who are practicing different models of sustainability and democracy (http://www.alternet.org/workplace/114799/what_we_can_learn_from_social_struggle_in_south_america/).

We are inviting you to help ALP build community spaces which make it more possible for us to take care of ourselves and each other; learn about and develop alternative models of sustainability, cooperation, and mutual support; and organize for justice for our communities.  We know that now more than ever we need powerful movements made up of all of us, because the state has not and does not hold our interests and needs at the center of its functioning.

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The Audre Lorde Project
Community Organizing Center for
Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Two Spirit, Trans and Gender Non Conforming People of Color
85 S. Oxford Street, Brooklyn, NY  11217
Tel: 718.596.0342      Fax: 718.596.1328
Web: www.alp.org

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FIERCE raises its voice with Right to the City Alliance

Just one way Astraea grantee partners are engaging in movement building to achieve a common vision for social justice hit the news this week. FIERCE, a membership-based organization that builds the leadership and power of LGBTQ youth of color, joined a media-grabbing civil disobedience planned by Right to the City Alliance, of which FIERCE is a member. Right to the City Alliance is a national coalition that is building a nationwide urban movement for housing, education, health, racial justice and democracy.

Media Coverage

Excellent coverage by Feministe
Excerpt: “You can’t hear much more on the video than “this is what democracy looks like,” but that’s precisely the point of the disruption. Decisions about the future of this city shouldn’t be by a Trilateral Commission or a Bilderbergers forum, and we’’ve already seen what happens when bankers, and bankers on the other side of the revolving door, get carte blanche to decide how to shore up the economy their banks. The protest was organized by Right to the City, a national coalition of community organizing projects. Here in New York, that includes CAAAV (Organizing Asian Communities), FIERCE, Community Voices Heard, FUREE, JFREJ, Mothers on the Move and quite a few other local grassroots projects that you should know about. I know that one group, Picture the Homeless, has been trying for months to get a meeting with Bloomberg to get him to hear the voices of homeless people who are affected by the city’s policies. He refuses to meet with them. That’’s why disruption becomes necessary.

This is what democracy really should look like: grassroots movements of LGBTQ youth of color, women who’’ve had to deal with welfare, mothers trying to save the communities of the South Bronx, progressive people of faith, women of color working for low-income families, Latin@ immigrant communities, Asian women against violence, the list goes on and on. I’’m proud to see this kind of action bringing together so many different movements.” [Read the whole post and watch video]

ABC News

Newsday

New York Times

Sylvia Rivera Law Project Featured in ArtForum.com

Long-time Astraea grantee partner, Sylvia Rivera Law Project’’s 4th annual “Small Works for Big Change” was a smashing success. Held at the donated Leslie/Lohman Gay Art Foundation whose gallery was nearly filled to capacity, the event featured over 50 contributing artists and a runway show.

On March 5th, Sylvia Rivera Law Project (SRLP) will team up with fellow Astraea grantee partner, the Audre Lorde Project, to present a joint benefit show, The Get Down. SRLP works to works to guarantee that all people are free to self-determine their gender identity and expression, regardless of income or race, and without facing harassment, discrimination, or violence. After recent legal victories for gender self-determination and protections for youth, SRLP has launched a new monthly legal clinic in the Bronx.

Law and Disorder

By Lauren O’Neill-Butler for ArtForum.com

New York, NY—SINK OR SWIM. Since art nonprofits (and downtown art nonprofits in particular) have dealt with those looming conditions for ages, it felt only natural that last Tuesday night, during several events feting such institutions, conversations about community would trump those about the economic downturn. White Columns celebrated its prestigious history with the opening of “40 Years/40 Projects,” and the Sylvia Rivera Law Project held its fourth annual “Small Works for Big Change” auction at the Leslie/Lohman Gay Art Foundation. The latter, a benefit that is supported by donations and volunteers, raises funds for free legal services for low-income transgender and intersex people. Pressed to catch the 7:30 PM SRLP fashion show, and hoping to make a pit stop at the Swiss Institute for Marlo Pascual’s opening, time and space seemed to collapse as I rode a wave of giddy, infectious cheer, post–season of giving, pre-–Obama inauguration.

First up was White Columns, where ever-gracious curator Amie Scally pointed out a few highlights–––a 1970 New York Times review by Peter Schjeldahl, Lovett/Codagnone’s 1995 video Samurai Love, and the newspaper exhibition catalogue from the 2004 “Gloria” show. Did it come as a surprise to see the august critic and artists meandering around the galleries? Not really. Maybe it was all the ephemera going to my head, but already the art world seemed a little smaller, more tightly knit—1970s redux. Salvaged from basement archives, the show includes a 1988 checklist from Cady Noland’s exhibition, with works priced at two and four hundred dollars. Amid chatter about those now-bargain-basement prices, director Matthew Higgs elaborated on the archive’s poor condition, as we gazed fondly at the three remaining documents from Kim Gordon’s 1981 show and discussed the potential for a panel featuring all of the White Columns directors—a disparate clan, to be sure. Clocking the time—–nearly 7 PM—–on Felix Gonzalez-Torres’s Perfect Lovers, I squeezed through the by-then-bustling crowd and caught a taxi to SoHo.

At the Swiss Institute, wistful new works by fresh-faced Pascual were reminiscent of her show last year at White Columns––everything comes full circle. The hallways were crowded and the elevator packed, but the large main gallery, featuring a mammoth steel sculpture by Pierre Vadi and Christian Dupraz, was relatively empty, perhaps because no one wanted to step on the frail, barely there glass rings on the floor (although by the looks of it, several already had). During a few quick New Year catch-ups, I tried to persuade friends to tag along to the final destination of the night––it was, after all, a good cause. “I don’t like art that has an obligation,” one asserted. “You killed Proposition 8!” I heard someone retort. And off we went.

En route to the benefit, as we navigated the nearly barren streets, my mind wandered back to the early ’70s again. (Last year, the auction was at Sara Meltzer Gallery, and the year before at Orchard; its flight to SoHo seemed perfectly timed.) This quasi-nostalgia was in full effect once I arrived at Leslie/Lohman, where a few hundred participants were having the loudest art party I’’d ever seen. Tacked above the entrance desk, a large handmade sign—the sort familiar to protests and DIY celebrations––welcomed visitors to the auction, while T-shirts and posters for sale at prices from two to ten dollars suggested that no one would leave empty-handed.

“How bad do you want it?” someone screamed above the blaring hip-hop as I made my way toward the stage, shouldering through the sea of radical––and radically different––people. I tried to find out what “it” was––the art, the clothes, the drinks, or something more lubricious––but the show was just ending. Or at least, I thought it was, since the Sisters of Perpetual Indulgence were prancing around all night, selling raffle tickets for a two-hour “Kink Session.” Playing name-that-tune with some friends, I caught up with a few of the benefit’s organizers (full disclosure: I helped out over the summer) and checked the works lining the walls, taking second glances at Isabelle Woodley’s and Lisa Ross’s contributions. “I’m just relieved my work was bid on!” exclaimed another artist in the show, while one more told me he was just as relieved there were no bids yet. “Saving the best for last,” he said as I nodded, lip-synching to Madonna’s “Lucky Star.” It seemed hardly any time had passed before MC Jennifer Miller was screaming over the music for everyone to bid. On command, the pages appeared to fill up. During those fleeting moments, in the midst of joyful and jostling bodies, downtown seemed immune to the downturn.

As seen on ArtForum.com

Utne Reader features International Two Spirit Gathering

Last August, Astraea grantee partner Two Spirit Press Room coordinated the 20th International Two Spirit Gathering. Invited as a media guest, the Utne Reader has this account.

The next International Two Spirit Gathering, sponsored by Astraea grantee partner, the Denver Two Spirit Society, will be held in Estes Park, CO in October. Visit: www.denvertwospirit.com

Sacred Rights of the International Two Spirit Gathering
Gay and transgender Native Americans find acceptance in tradition

by John Rosengren for Utne Reader

He checks his plaid skirt, stockings, and deep-cut white blouse. When another man’s eyes fall on his cleavage, Richard squeezes his breasts together and answers the silent inquiry: “They’re real!”

Beyond the bathroom doors, men and women dance around a drum in more traditional costume—feathers, fox pelts, moccasins, beads, and bells. They’re all here for the 20th annual International Two Spirit Gathering, a celebration of and for those who feel they carry both male and female spirits.

In late August 2008, some 85 Native lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender (LGBT) people from three dozen tribes in Canada and the United States traveled to the Audubon Center of the North Woods, 90 miles north of Minneapolis.

There, communing under the tall pines, they would sit in a sweat lodge, pray together at the sacred fire, engage in a water ceremony, and dance at the powwow. They would listen to a mother talk about her son’s struggle with coming out, hear the results of a groundbreaking health study, and receive a blessing from an elder.

They would also watch Sanchez–—in full drag, lip-synching his version of “I Kissed a Girl–”—win the event’s annual talent contest.

“We want people who face difficulties in their day-to-day lives to be able to stop and breathe,” says Richard LaFortune, a Yupik from Minneapolis and national director of Two Spirit Press Room, sponsor of the 2008 event. “We want people to walk away with new friendships, good memories, and something to restore themselves.”

Organizers have wanted to keep out spiritual and cultural tourists who may be well intentioned but nosy. In 2008, however, they decided to allow a few media representatives, including an Utne Reader writer and photographer, to attend in order to tell their stories to a wider audience.

The Minneapolis Native community hosted the first Two Spirit Gathering in 1988. “We didn’’t have a lot of places to meet and socialize except with the mainstream LGBT community, which was in bars, and those aren’t a good place for us,” says LaFortune, one of the event’s original organizers. Since then, some 3,200 people have attended the alcohol- and drug-free gathering in locales including Montreal, Vancouver, Kansas City, Eugene, Tucson, San Jose, and Butte.

Many in the Two Spirit community just don’t feel at home within the broader LGBT scene. Karina Walters, a Two Spirit Choctaw and a professor of social work at the University of Washington, tells the group gathered at the Audubon Center about “the feeling of being expected to go along with the white homosexual party line, like getting your first dyke haircut or going to a gay bar and having a certain type of experience.”

Many are also misunderstood and shunned within their Native communities, even though some tribes once honored those with male and female spirits as shamans, warriors, and chiefs.

Men and women at the gathering speak of parents avoiding them or kicking them out of their homes, even being beaten by neighbors. “That’s what really hurts us, when our own people throw us out,” says L. Frank Manriquez, a Tongva-Ajachmem woman from Southern California. Manriquez, now 56, left as a teenager after her uncle asked if she was going to seduce her sister. ““I about threw up,”” says Manriquez. “”In his eyes, I wasn’’t human.’”

Misunderstanding and fear can manifest themselves—as they do in mainstream society—in overt abuse. Targeted because of both their race and their orientation, members of the Two Spirit community suffer higher incidences of physical and sexual abuse than the general population. According to a study Walters just conducted with funds from the National Institutes of Health, gay Native Americans also have higher rates of addiction, homelessness, depression, and suicide.

More often, though, LGBT Native Americans suffer a daily battering of “microagressions.” Walters defines these as “chronic injustices, messages that people of color endure every day that are denigrating, demeaning, and subtle.”

Take Richard Sanchez. Today, the 45-year-old theater prop artist from San Jose has an ebullient personality, but he has not always carried himself so confidently. When he was growing up in rural Northern California, the boys in his family adhered to rigid gender roles, fixing cars and taking care of livestock. Making clothes and cooking were not options, being gay out of the question.

It was not even cool to be Native American. Raised by his grandparents and schooled in the Catholic faith, Sanchez was taught that his ancestors were Mexican. It was not until he was 16 years old that his grandmother, literally on her deathbed, revealed the family’s Navajo heritage.

By then, his sexual identity was clear. As a preschooler, Sanchez was walking to school with his brother when they stumbled upon a girlie magazine. The pictures of naked women mesmerized his older brother, but Sanchez stared at the half-naked men. By the time he was 10, he had defined himself as gay and knew that meant he would be ridiculed. “My favorite character was Pinocchio, because he wanted to be a real boy,” Sanchez says. “I wasn’t a real boy because I was a sissy.”

During a break in the schedule, two men toss a football on the lawn in front of five colorful tepees. Two women, seated on the hillside above the lake, discuss a beading project. Half a dozen men and women smoke cigarettes outside the dining hall and trade jokes. “The laughter helps heal and transform all that oppression sickness that we get from this culture,” says Lawrence Ellis, a 47-year-old who refers to himself as Native, American, and African American. “There’s just such joy.”

A letter from Barack Obama to the Two Spirit Gathering pledges to “bring about a more tolerant America.” Clyde Bellecourt, a 72-year-old elder and one of the founders of the American Indian Movement, speaks to the group about the importance of connecting with their identity. His words carry special weight and move some to tears: “I stand in total solidarity with each and every one of you,” he tells them. “I love you.”

Bellecourt’s blessing, Obama’s words, and the gathering itself honor the community. “It’s a way to keep something sacred and alive,” Manriquez says. “Some people here are doing remarkable things, even if it’s as simple as being themselves.”

As seen in the Utne Reader

Astraea Named Top Gay Charity by Qweerty.com

The Astraea Lesbian Foundation for Justice has been named the “#1 Top Gay Charity” by Qweerty.com. The rankings were based largely on ratings by CharityNavigator.org, where Astraea has the highest rating–—4-stars—–for organizational efficiency, organizational capacity, and overall financial health. As a public foundation with a global reach, last year Astraea awarded more than $2.2 million to 198 organizations and 21 individuals in 120 cities and 47 countries around the world.

Read the post here: Qweerty.com

“Astraea’’s holiday party was an evening full of warmth and inspiration.”—Astraea Donor

Over 100 people filled Astraea’s paper-snowflake bedecked offices last Thursday, December 4th. Pockets of conversation and laughter sprang up as donor and grantee partners, staff, board, and new friends came together to celebrate. Whether you were able to be with us in person that evening or not, we thank you—–you are an important part of Astraea and Justice in the Making the world over.

The “Gay Adoption Ban” in the Chicago Tribune

Astraea Grantee Partner, Center for Artistic Revolution (CAR), is a founding member of Arkansas Families First, which is documenting how Act One is affecting alternative families and the more than 1,000 children languishing in foster care. More about CAR.

Next skirmish in culture war: Gay parenting

Arkansas adoption ban passes despite shortage of homes for needy children

By Bonnie Miller Rubin for the Chicago Tribune

Anne Shelley and Dr. Robin Ross are unwinding after a jampacked day of ferrying 4-year-old daughter Eva Mae from preschool to ice-skating lessons to speech therapy.

““It’’s pretty much your mundane American family,”” said Shelley, 46, over a dinner of barbecue at their home near the Ozarks.

But not everyone sees their domestic situation as a hefty slice of apple pie. Arkansas residents recently voted to ban people who are “cohabitating outside of a valid marriage,” as Shelley and Ross do, from being foster parents or adopting children as these women did.

The measure was written to prohibit straight and gay people who are living together from adopting or becoming foster parents, but it’s real objective, child welfare experts say, is to bar same-sex couples like Shelley and Ross, 52, from raising children—even if it means youngsters who desperately need families will wait longer.

““We don’’t have enough quality homes as it is, and now we’’re going to place more restrictions?”” asked Susan Hoffpauir, president of the Arkansas chapter of the National Association of Social Workers. “”A lot of us are still shell-shocked by this.””

While the Nov. 4 vote to ban gay marriage in California grabbed the headlines, it is same-sex parenting that is heating up as the next skirmish in the nation’s culture wars. Last week, a Florida judge struck down that state’s decades-old law preventing gays and lesbians from adopting.

Nationwide, laws on the issue are a grab bag. Florida had been the only state that had a law specifically disallowing gay individuals from adoption, although they are allowed to be foster parents. In Utah, only heterosexual, married couples can adopt. North Dakota law permits child-placement agencies to rule out prospective adoptive parents based on religious or moral objection.

Conversely, in Illinois, prospective foster and adoptive parents can be single or married, and the state’s Department of Children and Family Services cannot use sexual orientation as a basis for exclusion.

Still, many Americans are opposed to placing kids in gay households, and social conservatives hope the issue will rally voters in the same way that same-sex marriage has in recent elections.

In Arkansas, some 3,700 children are in state custody, taken from their homes because of abuse and neglect. “Of those, 960 kids (average age: 8.5 years) are available for adoption,” said Julie Munsell of the state Department of Human Services. Of the 1,100 foster homes, one-third are headed by single people.

But beyond the state system, the ban set to take effect Jan. 1 will thwart private adoptions of children like Eva Mae, left at a Vietnamese orphanage with nothing but a yellow blanket and a gaping hole where her upper lip should have been. Moreover, opponents say the new law could jeopardize a wide range of non-traditional living arrangements, such as co-habitating grandparents raising grandchildren, and are not sure how far-reaching the impact will be.

“However, such scenarios are a “smokescreen,”” said John Thomas, vice president of the Arkansas Family Council, a conservative group that pushed to get the initiative on the ballot after it had failed several times in the legislature. “The real issue,” he said, “is that the state has to set the bar higher when it comes to finding homes for children.”

“”I understand that there is a lack of homes, but I refuse to believe that the choice is between a horrible situation and a so-so situation,”” Thomas said from the group’s Little Rock headquarters. “The council took its message directly to churches, speaking out against “the gay agenda.””

But finding potential homes for foster children is a continual challenge across the country—especially for children who are older and have special needs. Some 129,000 U.S. children are in foster care, and the only criteria should be who can best provide a loving, permanent home, according to Adam Pertman, executive director of the Evan B. Donaldson Adoption Institute.

In a recent report, the non-partisan group concluded that a national ban on gay adoptions could add $87 million to $130 million to foster care expenditures annually because these children would then be living in other types of institutional care, such as group homes.

“On its face, this [Arkansas] law is just crazy,” Pertman said. “I fear what will happen if other states see this as a model.”

Social conservatives say the state could alleviate the shortage of foster and adoptive parents by stepping up efforts to recruit better candidates. “We have the opportunity to create the very best families,” Thomas said. “That’s what we should be aiming for.”

Still, a broad coalition of child-advocacy organizations—including the American Academy of Pediatrics—came out against the ban, as did Gov. Mike Beebe and former President Bill Clinton. Polls, too, predicted its defeat.

So, on Election Night, Shelley and Ross—who have been together for nine years—were cautiously optimistic. Then they were stunned. The measure passed in all but two counties.

“Do I believe that most people in this state hate me and my child? No,” said Ross, a psychiatrist. “Do I believe that the Christian right is more organized here? Yes.”

Eva Mae is sprawled out on the living room floor, intently working a puzzle, oblivious to all the adult anxiety.

The two women traveled to Vietnam in 2007, returning with a lethargic 2-year-old, who, because of a cleft lip and palate, could not swallow or talk and had not been outside since she was born.

Eva Mae endured several surgeries—and while her speech is still difficult to understand, she has all but caught up to her peers in other developmental areas. “She is very smart,” said Shelley, a former community organizer turned stay-at-home mom.

The American Civil Liberties Union is weighing a legal challenge to the ban. But people are afraid to bring attention to their families, said Rita Sklar, executive director of the ACLU in Arkansas.

brubin@tribune.com

SLRP Celebrates Legal Victory for Self-Determination

Astraea Grantee Partner, the Sylvia Rivera Law Project, achieved a victory for gender self-determination. After a year long struggle, New York courts upheld a transgender woman’s right to change her name, reversing an earlier denial of her legal name change related to lack of medical evidence and the possibility of “confusion.”

Press release as posted on: http://www.srlp.org/namechangevictory

Read Newsday.com’s account http://www.newsday.com/news/local/wire/newyork/ny-bc-ny–court-namechange1126nov26,0,3360898.story

The New York State Supreme Court Appellate Division, Third Judicial Department, held that a transgender petitioner cannot be denied a name change simply because she seeks to adopt a feminine name in the place of a traditionally masculine name.

Elisabeth Golden, a 57-year-old transgender woman, initially filed her name change petition with the Supreme Court in Broome County in October 2007. Ms. Golden has been using the name Elisabeth in her personal life since 2004, and in her professional life since 2006; she wanted a legal name that reflected her female gender identity. Her petition was heard by the Hon. Jeffrey Tait of the Supreme Court, who initially suggested that Ms. Golden supplement her petition with affidavits from physicians or therapists. After Ms. Golden refused to provide such affidavits, believing them to be private, Justice Tait denied her petition, stating that “the proposed change of name from a male to a female name is fraught with possible confusion…” Upon reviewing the decision, the Appellate Division, Third Department ordered Ms. Golden’s petition to be granted.

Writing on the behalf of a unanimous panel of five justices, Presiding Justice Anthony Cardona stated that the petitioner had the right to change her name “under common law… at will so long as there is no fraud, misrepresentation or interference with the rights of others,” The decision goes on to hold that any potential confusion arising from a transgender name change “is not, standing alone, a basis to deny a petition…” and points out that any name change, regardless of gender, has a reasonable and ordinary potential for confusion.In overturning the Supreme Court decision, the Third Department also rejected Justice Tait’s suggestion that the submission of medical or psychological affidavits were necessary to supplement Ms. Golden’s petition.

Franklin Romeo, the Sylvia Rivera Law Project attorney who represented Ms. Golden, echoed Justice Cardona’s ruling: “This decision confirms what SRLP has long argued is the law of New York: judges cannot deny a person’s petition to change their name simply because they seek to adopt a feminine name rather than a masculine name, or vice versa. Nor can they request medical evidence regarding a petitioner’s gender that is irrelevant to a name change proceeding. This is an important victory for transgender people throughout New York State.”

Ms. Golden’s petition was the first opportunity for any of the Appellate Division courts in New York to address the issue of transgender name changes. It is now binding in the Third Department (which covers most of western New York other than New York City and Long Island), and is expected to be highly persuasive across the state.

Though Ms. Golden was ecstatic when learning of her victory, she also found the entire situation bittersweet. “It is somewhat comforting to know that our rights as citizens can still be protected, but sad that it has to go this far.” She went on to say that she hoped that the ruling in her case “furthers the lives of transgender folks and helps prevent others from going through this.”

Many transgender people seek legal name changes in order to accurately reflect their gender identity and the gender they live as. By exercising their legal right to change their names, transgender people can surmount potential barriers in workplaces, education, and many other institutions that require a legal name on file.

Although many trans people do seek medical treatment and/or psychiatric counseling as part of a gender transition, not all do, especially since access to health care is far from universal. Furthermore, many trans people begin the process of transitioning socially and legally before starting medical treatment.

The Sylvia Rivera Law Project (SRLP) is a non profit legal organization dedicated to serving low income transgender, intersex, and gender non-conforming people of color. SRLP works to guarantee that all people are free to self-determine their gender identity and expression, regardless of income or race, and without facing harassment, discrimination, or violence.

Press release as posted on: http://www.srlp.org/namechangevictory