Archive for All things LGBT

Win: CCC Calls for UAFA Inclusion in CIR

// March 4th, 2010 // No Comments » // All things LGBT, Immigration

Just want to give some overdue shoutout to Rachel LaBruyere from the Center for Community Change for pushing on the inside for the organization to take a stance for UAFA inclusion in CIR. I know it wasn’t easy and it took a lot of fever-induced tweeting, plus a long burning blogpost.

It is not going to be easy moving forward but it’s important to not throw people under the bus when trying to build coalitions for social change and I am glad at least CCC gets it.

Of course, I am not waiting for the National Immigration Forum to apologize for its appalling words at the summit. But this is a win.

I achieved more with a blog and some tweets than we achieved at the summit all day.  Maybe next time I should just stay at home and do this through conference call instead of risking my life in cold climates. Yeah, remind me. Okay, I will go check-in my gigantic ego. We have work to do at DreamActivist and I can’t keep doing free work for Immigration Equality no matter how much I love them. Ralls–you should have just hired me as a consultant :P

I am going to go chill in San Francisco today and tomorrow and take care of this pneumonia because I am supposedly no good for the movement if I can’t tweet and rant.

Drinks are on me Rachel LaB!

<3

Moron of the Week: #RI4A On #LGBTCIR Disaster in New York

// March 1st, 2010 // 1 Comment » // All things LGBT, Immigration, Moron of the Week

Sorry for not blogging more often – I have been sick since January 3 and found out on Thursday that I am in early stages of pneumonia. Let me not make this into a post about how health care in America is worse than health care in Fiji.

But I had to go to summit in New York on “Immigration Reform: LGBT Community” –A summit where I was only invited as a blogger who is LGBT. Interesting.

Lets also ignore the fact that I took my drowning left lung into the snowpocalypse ice-winter of New York. At one point, I was having breakfast at 8am EST at a cafe and heard news about the earthquake in Chile and the fact that most of the Pacific had a tsunami warning. I realized that it meant ALL my families in Fiji, Australia, New Zealand and even San Francisco. Then, I heard the CNN commentator say “Fugee” and that got me more mad than upset, and hyper-ventilating in anger is not good for drowning lungs. I got a little too ‘excited’, couldn’t breath and didn’t think I could walk the two blocks needed to get back to my hotel. But I am a fighter.

I fully expected to go to the summit later that day and steel myself against ignorance from gay white bloggers on immigration issues, hear my life getting dissected right in front of me and sit through the torture bracing myself against any real permanent damage. Sure, I heard some pretty stupid things like,

1. Asking the Trail of Dreams students where they are in the citizenship process. I don’t know gay whitey. Where are you in the marriage process? Just like you can’t just go into the city hall of any state to get a marriage license, most undocumented students cannot just apply or sit a test. Yikes! Maybe the question was meant with genuine concern but it’s a question that makes us all cringe each time we hear it. The way it was phrased was not at all sensitive.

2. I adore Robert Bray and he has many great things to say. But sir, that meeting was not a safe space for me.  I was the only undocumented person in the room, the only one who truly understood the LGBT immigrant experience and possibly one of the few people one who had spent considerable time writing and talking about these intersectional oppressions. I am strong but it gets really lonely sometimes. And it is somewhat hurtful when people are talking and asking questions about your life without acknowledging your presence and work. And this was a complete failure on the part of people who decided to exclude me from any panels.

3. Organizer of the summit: “Oh you are undocumented?!!” FAIL. Just, epic fail. Seriously, just google me.

I probably spent more time outside the room than inside it due to the constant coughing fits and the need to not hear certain things. Why am I putting myself in this cold environment when I can be at home, warm and tucked under the covers sleeping, eating and catching up on two weeks of missed Smallville and Indian TV dramas? Can you read into the cold-warm metaphors here?

I will give mad props to Eric Berndt from the National Immigration Justice Center for a fantastic presentation on how LGBT immigrants suffer disproportionately through inhumane detention and how the system is failing us.

And Rachel Tiven from Immigration Equality cracked me up more than once by talking about “gay DreamActivists” and then “straight DreamActivists.” Of course, the joke here is that DreamActivist.org was built and driven primarily by two queers for so long that “straight DreamActivist” almost sounded like an oxymoron the first time I heard it.  I never thought people would talk about us in those terms but it was so absolutely refreshing to my ears. Everyone who works on the Dream Act is called a “Dream Activist.” That’s just sweet. I gave both Rachel Tiven and Steve Ralls from IE a “I support the DREAM Act” button

I think the Trail of Dreams presentation did take the room by storm but the DREAM Act was hardly mentioned, which just reminds me of events where undocumented students are asked to talk about their life but not about the bill pertaining to them by event organizers more concerned about the “message” of comprehensive reform. Excluding our issues and our work around the DREAM Act is not comprehensive.

I do wish we could have heard from someone who worked with LGBT immigrant youth on what the DREAM Act is, who is organizing around it, how even straight undocumented youth are using the LGBT concept of  “coming out” for themselves, how LGBT undocumented youth face some unique problems (more are homelessness, at risk of suicide, more compelled into marriage of convenience by the family and the system) and how the issues of the LGBT and immigration community are so intrinsically linked to the violence of “citizenship.” Nevermind my life experience, education and knowledge. FAIL. Then again, people listen in a fascinating manner but don’t do anything to change our lives. We have to make change ourselves, which is why young undocumented people are the leaders of any immigration reform movement at the grassroots level.

Maybe we should not even talk about it and just forget the last 4 hours of how the conversation simply went down the drain when representatives from the Reform Immigration for America Campaign started talking to a room full of LGBTQ bloggers on why they should support an anti-equality immigration reform.

Yeah, no. And the moron of the week is Ali Noorani from the National Immigration Forum. Hands-down. He did us the honors.

Click here: http://j.mp/RI4AFAIL

Repeal Prop 8 in 2010

// November 29th, 2009 // No Comments » // All things LGBT

Most of us know about the power struggle between ‘gay rights’ groups in California and the lengthy debate over campaigning to repeal Prop 8 in 2010.

The ironically-named Courage Campaign officially announced that it would back no such effort due to shrinking support in the polls and lack of financial backing.

Seriously, don’t underestimate the power of small, grassroots organizations fighting for marriage equality. All the money and support poured into Maine did not materialize into anything substantial. What makes people think that big institutional support and funding is all that it takes?

No matter how much I detest the institution of marriage, Proposition 8 is a violation of equal protection and a persistent scar on the California Constitution.

I support Sign for Equality and its efforts to gain signatures to put a proposition to Repeal Prop 8 back on the ballot.

The initiative must gather 1 million signatures by April 5, 2010 to qualify.

Once it gets on the ballot, what are the gay rights groups in California going to do? Lose face again by throwing up hands in protest and defeat? I don’t think so.

Index of My Articles on LGBT Immigration

// November 18th, 2009 // No Comments » // All things LGBT, Immigration

I received 3 emails today from different sources, asking for my blog posts on the intersectionality of immigration and LGBT rights.

I will just index everything I have written on the issue (not much) here, and maybe right something else soon to address some new concerns.

These articles span across 2 years. My viewpoints haven’t necessarily changed–I still think that if a straight person is allowed to sponsor her/his partner for immigration purposes, so should a queer person.

Obama – Big fat NOPE

// October 9th, 2009 // No Comments » // All things LGBT

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Fantastic cover shot from The Advocate referring to how Obama has let down queers.  He certainly owes the LGBT community much more than he has delivered thus far. But he is telling us to ‘wait’ a little bit longer. Sorry, that just is not acceptable. And with the Human Rights Campaign telling us to cut him some slack till 2017, we realize what ‘waiting a little longer’ means.

Maine: Daily Kos Polls Show Yes on 1 Ahead

// September 18th, 2009 // No Comments » // All things LGBT

Here is the polling question and results:

As you may know there will be one question on the ballot this November in Maine addressing the issue of same-sex unions. In part it will read “Do you want to reject the new law that lets same-sex couples marry?” A yes vote takes away the right of same-sex couples to marry. A no vote keeps the right of same-sex couples to marry. If the election were held today would you vote YES or NO on this question?

48%-YES
46%-NO
6%-NOT SURE

It’s within the margin of error but it doesn’t look good for LGBT Mainers and the fight for marriage equality.

But releasing these polls gives us more ammunition to shift all eyes and operations to Maine. I expect more donations to flood into the No on 1 coffers as people realize the gravity of the situation.

In the meanwhile, No on 1 and Travel for Change are escalating the out-of-state volunteer recruitment efforts by releasing a new “Volunteer Vacation” video and simultaneously rolling out additional online travel resources.  Here is the link to the video if you haven’t seen it yet.

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Changing Homophobic Attitudes in India

// September 12th, 2009 // 2 Comments » // All things LGBT, Desi-Indian

A recent State of the Nation 2009 CNN-IBN survey revealed quite a homophobic India. As many as 73% Indians feel homosexuality should be considered illegal while 83% felt that homosexuality is not part of Indian culture and 90% of Indians won’t give their house on rent to a gay or lesbian couple.

Watch the survey results here:

Gautam Bhan quite positively reflects that attitudes cannot be freeze-framed because they keep changing. Five years ago, he wouldn’t even be allowed to give his opinion on that platform. So some progress is definitely evident.

In light of these changing attitudes, Hindustan Times (Times Nows) is taking the lead on opening minds in advertisements which literally hits homophobia on the head. One of them goes like this: two friends are sitting in a cafe when one of them spots a gay male couple holding hands and nudges his friend, making fun of them. The friend rolls up the newspaper and hits him on the head instead. And he shuts up. It’s simply a short and sweet ad spot from Times Now about making a difference and recruiting a younger audience.Video here.

Alas, the message hasn’t reached the vernacular presses yet. Times Now–an English channel–probably has a better reach in the urban and metropolitan areas, where attitudes towards homosexuality are more likely to be liberal. But, it is the most watched English channel in India and for Times Now to take this step forward speaks volumes for the progress queers are making in India.

It’s the small steps that build a movement.

In the trenches

// September 6th, 2009 // No Comments » // All things LGBT

TravelforChange.org

I am working hard to for the relaunch of Travel for Change in record time. We don’t have the time to get someone to build a proper template so it would be Travel for Change 2.0 beta. Functionality matters more than looks right now.

Excuse unanswered emails, lack of blog posts or updates on other sites. Expect lots of rants about service providers, forms and theming.

And if you have something to spare, please donate.