by Gregg Shapiro
Gay & Lesbian Times - arts & entertainment
Whether you had the opportunity to catch the first True Colors tour when it came your way in 2007 or you missed out, Cyndi Lauper is returning with her musical and comical pals – both queer and straight – to add some color to your Pride month. The tour, which begins in late May and extends into early July, is making stops in a number of metropolitan areas (including San Diego on June 27).
full article and interview
A forum for young queer people to voice, air and express what's going on for them, the things that affect them, and the challenges they face.
Gay Line Wellington has launched the first of a ten-part series of interviews with LGBT students about the issues 'out' young people face today.
John Mayes of Gay Line Wellington says the aim of the School's Out on Demand series is to provide a resource for young queer people, youth workers, counsellors and teachers to hear more about how young people deal with family, friends and peers' reactions to their 'coming out'.
"We hope, through offering diverse stories and experiences, to aid queer youth, increase awareness and contribute to a more tolerant, accepting and empathetic society," he explains.
Click here to listen
ESCALON - One man was arrested and his brother is being sought by authorities after the pair attacked two men because of their sexual orientation, then fought with deputies who attempted to detain them, the San Joaquin County Sheriff's Office reported.
The deputies were sent around 5 p.m. Thursday to the 22300 block of South McBride Avenue in Escalon on a report of an assault.
When they arrived, the deputies encountered Kenneth Huntley, age unspecified, and Gary Huntley, 38, who had allegedly assaulted two men, a 42-year-old and a 29-year-old, because of their sexual orientation.
Both Huntleys were characterized by deputies as irate, belligerent and so combative a stun gun and a K-9 had to be used, the Sheriff's Office said. A deputy injured his hand in the struggle to control the men. He was treated at San Joaquin General Hospital for his injuries.
Kenneth Huntley escaped from deputies, but Gary Huntley was arrested and booked into the San Joaquin County Jail on suspicion of battery as a hate crime and resisting arrest causing injury to a peace officer. He is being held in lieu of $525,000 bail.
full article
He said he was beat up until he was unconscious because he's gay, and police agree. Now police are looking to arrest a suspect in what they're calling a hate crime. News 10NBC talked exclusively with the victim.
Lance Neve said he was in the bar minding his own business and was then attacked.
“I was punched and I went to the floor,” Lance said. “He continued to beat my head into the floor.”
Lance Neve doesn't remember much until he woke up at Strong Hospital. “With a tube down my throat and my arms tied to the bed,” Lance said.
He and his boyfriend went to Snuggery's Bar in Spencerport last Friday night. He told police while they were there someone started yelling gay slurs at them. When Lance's boyfriend left the bar room Lance was attacked.
“I have fractures in my face, and skull, it's a lot of pain,” Lance said.
Police are still looking for the person who assaulted Lance. Lance had this to say to his attacker, “I feel bad for you I really do. If maybe you would've got to know me as a person I guarantee this wouldn't have happened. We could've been pretty good friends.”
Ogden Police said the suspect's lawyer has been in contact with them. They're just looking for him to arrest. He will be facing an assault charge as a hate crime.
Lance got out of the hospital a couple days ago. He still has some bruises but is making a recovery.
full article
By Paul Pringle and Catherine Saillant
LOS ANGELES TIMES
LOS ANGELES -- For teenagers living in a shelter for abused and neglected children, school can provide a daily dose of normalcy, a place to fit in, a chance to be just another kid.
It didn't turn out that way for Lawrence King.
According to the few students who befriended him, Larry, 15 years old and openly gay, found no refuge from his tormentors at E.O. Green Junior High School.
The 14-year-old accused of murdering him, Brandon McInerney, had his own troubled home life when he was younger, with his parents accusing each other of drug addiction and physical assaults, court records show. The year before Brandon was born, his father allegedly shot the boy's mother in the arm, shattering her elbow, the records say.
Brandon has been charged as an adult with premeditated murder and a hate crime and is being held in juvenile hall.
For about a decade, the household of William and Kendra McInerney, Brandon's parents, had been in turmoil. The 1993 shooting incident led to William's conviction on discharging a firearm and a 120-day jail sentence, according to court records.
William and Kendra McInerney declined to be interviewed. Brandon's attorney also declined to comment.
Some students say Brandon, tall and strong for his age, was one of the "cool" students and could be unfriendly. "If you weren't part of that group, it was like you didn't exist," said Erin Mings, 12. "He was a real jerk."
Earlier this year, some of Brandon's classmates say, Larry began "hitting" on him and remarking for all to hear that he thought Brandon was "cute." Other boys then ribbed Brandon by saying he must be gay.
Michael Sweeney, an eighth-grader at E.O. Green, picked up on the whispering that followed.
"Brandon told this one girl that he was going to kill Larry," Michael said. "She didn't tell the principal. I didn't either, after I heard about it. I thought it was a joke."
Larry was shot the next day.
The family has established a Web site in his memory, with a photo gallery that shows Larry throughout his childhood -- on his first plane ride, getting a haircut, dressed as the Great Pumpkin for Halloween. Hundreds of sympathetic comments have been posted.
Larry's friends offer differing accounts of whether he had complained to teachers about the taunting. Some say he had decided not to report it, fearing that he would be branded a "rat" and suffer the consequences.
"They used to bug him a lot, pick on him -- 'Hey you, gay kid ... want to wear lipstick?'" Vanessa Ramirez, 15, said of Larry's belittlers. "He'd start crying. ... He didn't want to tell the teachers because they'd start picking on him more."
full article
I am the boy who never finished high school, because I got called a fag everyday.
I am the girl kicked out of her home because I confided in my mother that I am a lesbian.
I am the prostitute working the streets because nobody will hire a transsexual woman.
I am the sister who holds her gay brother tight through the painful, tear-filled nights.
We are the parents who buried our daughter long before her time.
I am the man who died alone in the hospital because they would not let my partner of twenty-seven years into the room.
I am the foster child who wakes up with nightmares of being taken away from the two fathers who are the only loving family I have ever had. I wish they could adopt me.
I am not one of the lucky ones. I killed myself just weeks before graduating high school. It was simply too much to bear.
I am the (wo)man who fears that I will never be able to be myself, to be free of this secret because I won’t risk losing my family and friends.
We are the couple who had the realtor hang up on us when she found out we wanted to rent a one-bedroom for two men.
I am the person who never knows which bathroom I should use if I want to avoid getting the management called on me.
I am the mother who is not allowed to even visit the children I bore, nursed, and raised. The court says I am an unfit mother because I now live with another woman.
I am the domestic-violence survivor who found the support system grow suddenly cold and distant when they found out my abusive partner is also a woman.
I am the domestic-violence survivor who has no support system to turn to because I am male.
I am the father who has never hugged his son because I grew up afraid to show affection to other men.
I am the home-economics teacher who always wanted to teach gym until someone told me that only lesbians do that.
I am the woman who died when the EMTs stopped treating me as soon as they realized I was transsexual.
I am the person who feels guilty because I think I could be a much better person if I didnt have to always deal with society hating me.
I am the man who stopped attending church, not because I don’t believe, but because they closed their doors to my kind.
I am the person who has to hide what this world needs most, love.
I am the person ashamed to tell my own friends I'm a lesbian, because they constantly make fun of them.
I am the boy tied to a fence, beaten to a bloody pulp and left to die because two straight men wanted to “teach me a lesson”
IF YOU BELIEVE THAT HOMOPHOBIA IS WRONG … REPOST THIS.
About 15.6 percent of hate crime offenses in the United States targeted homosexuals, according to the FBI's 2006 Hate Crime Statistics.
According to the Southern Poverty Law Center, there are currently 844 active hate groups in the United States.
In Louisiana, there are 24 hate groups, including the Black Separatists, Ku Klux Klan, White Nationalists and Neo-Nazis.
California, where Lawrence King was murdered, has 63 active hate groups - more than any state in the country.
I'm still waiting to hear more about Lawrence Kings' murderer. Anyone want to bet his family is strongly grounded in religious right beliefs?
We've heard nothing about the parents. The parents should be going to jail also!
If the kid took their car and killed someone the parents would be held responsible.
But Brandon McInerney uses a gun (where did that gun come from?) to kill Lawrence King (a gay 14 year old who recently had asked the murderer to be his valentine) and the parents aren't even mentioned!
That's VERY VERY WRONG!
Kicked Out is an anthology, which chronicles the experiences of former queer youth and current queer youth who were forced to leave home as minors because of their sexuality and/or gender identity.
Kicked Out tells our collective stories of survival, weaving together descriptions of abuse, and homelessness with poignant accounts of the ways in which the queer community offered sanctuary, and the power and importance of creating our own chosen families etc.
Kicked Out offers advice and wisdom to the queer youth of today from former queer youth who have survived. Additionally, it provides the opportunity for readers to get a glimpse into the world of those queer youth who as a result of circumstance have had to leave home, while simultaneously shattering the stereotypes of who queer youth are, and what they have the potential to become.
Kicked Out showcases stories of overcoming obstacles, and not simply surviving but thriving in the face of seemingly insurmountable adversity. Kicked Out will explore the diversity of our experiences across lines of race, class, gender, sexuality, ability, and geographic region celebrating our differences, and showcases the ways in which they have contributed to our unique experiences.
Possible topics include but are not limited to:
• How being forced to leave home as a minor continues to impact your adult life
• What happened to you when you left home and how you survived
• Words of wisdom for today’s homeless queer youth—what you wished someone had told you
• Survival through the creation of “chosen family”
• Challenges of dealing with CPS or other agencies
• Success through adversity- overcoming a troubled past
Submissions should be between 1,500 and 2,500 words in length and previously unpublished. Submit your piece via e-mail in .doc format to KickedOutAnthology@gmail.com. Multiple submissions per contributor are welcome. Please include a short biography and contact information with your submission. Submissions must be received no later than March 1, 2008; contributors are encouraged to submit early. Rights revert to the authors upon publication. Contributors whose work appears in the anthology will receive TBA free copy(ies) as well as ongoing royalties. for more information check us out online at: www.myspace.com/kickedoutanthology
**Sassafras Lowrey is a high femme writer, artist, and activist. Ze was forced to leave home as a teenager after suffering physical violence after coming out as queer. Sassafras found hir way to queer youth organizations and movements, which quite literally saved hir life. As an adult ze has never forgotten the impact those groups had on hir life and has volunteered regularly with the queer youth of today. Sassafras lives with hir partner, two cats and a dog in New York City. Hir first book “GSA to Marriage: Stories of a Life Lived Queerly” is scheduled for release Summer 2008.
This coming summer, in London, the British Museum will OUT one of the greatest leaders in world history as an openly gay man.
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