UPDATE Beyond the Bar

Beyond the Bar was an amazing exhibit. Hosted at the Start Gallery in Detroit it featured at least 20 different graphic designers. The work was beautiful, the atmosphere was so lovely and the  turnout was amazing,  it was really great to see so many people come out and show their support for a cause so near and dear to my heart.

If you didn't go you definitely missed out on a great event but the host promised more to come and I will definitely try my best to attend as many as I can. I was lucky enough to have a new friend and my best friend attend with me and though she told me no so many times before she has no idea how much it meant to me that she finally said yes.

Beyond the Bar and anyone affiliated will always have a friend in me and this blog, ingeniously titled Born 2b LGBT.


For more photos, taken by Metro Mix .

In Honor of Bi-Sexual Visibility Day!

Kate Lethe, the artist behind Kate or Die, tackles sexual fluidity in cartoon form in her much-needed Bisexuality Series— including the myths about monogamy and, well, existence.

Meanwhile, Tara Mavery, the bisexual trans artist behind Dirtheads, has a spin-off worthy of note: Gooch. Mavery, who is on the steering committee of the Los Angeles Bi Task Force, created Gooch for the group last year, but the fan base became wider than expected.

Courtesy of Diane Anderson-Minshall ADVOCATE

DOMA Destruction Receives it's 1st Republican Sponsor!

What is DOMA? Its the Defense of Marriage Act, signed into law by President Clinton in 1996, is an act that gives states the right to not recognize same-sex marriages performed out of their jurisdiction. Basically, if Sally and Jenny were married in New York and moved to Michigan, their marriage would not be seen or treated as a marriage. Sucks right?

I've been following DOMA for quite some time waiting for its destruct and though it still stands tall it now has Republican Representative Ileana Ros-Lehtinen in ranks to help end it all. Rep. of Florida announced Friday that she would cosponsor a bill to repeal federal law, becoming the first Republican to do so.

“I voted against the constitutional amendment defining marriage [in 2006] so I’m pleased to cosponsor the repeal of DOMA and work with my colleagues on marriage equality,” said Ros-Lehtinen, who represents Florida’s 18th district.

Though the South Florida representative has a long history of voting in favor of LGBT rights, her decision to join 124 House Democrats in cosponsoring the Respect for Marriage Act nevertheless is a bold move, given the Republican House leadership’s defense of DOMA in multiple legal challenges after the Obama administration announced in February it would no longer defend the law.

Rep. Jerrold Nadler of New York, original sponsor of the House DOMA repeal bill, called Ros-Lehtinen, chair of the Foreign Affairs Committee, “a tremendous ally in the world’s struggles for freedom and against oppression and discrimination.”

“She is widely recognized as a champion of human rights and human dignity,” Nadler said. “And her support reminds us that the march to repeal the discriminatory DOMA is not a partisan issue. ... The drive to end DOMA is — and must be — a collective, nonpartisan effort that unites Americans behind a simple push for equality.”

Ros-Lehtinen’s announcement comes just days after the historic end to “don’t ask, don’t tell” — which she also voted to repeal.

For Full Story

Beyond the Bar

Beyond The Bar
Friday, September 23, 2011
6:00 PM - 9:00 PM

@AIGA Detroit

206 E. Grand River
Detroit, MI 48226

Detroit itself is home to many talented LGBT (Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgendered) individuals who have contributed to our bustling and energetic graphic design and illustration scene. However, despite the vast offerings of LGBT Americans to the professional arts world, so many continue to stereotype the careers of this unique subculture.

We invite you to attend this unique exhibition of design work, have a drink, socialize, show your support and witness the awesome works of these individuals.

This is a free event and food and drinks provided. Thank you to Traffic Jam and Snug and to our Premier SponsorDishKin.

I'll be there to show my support and check out some awesome artisits. Will you?

Societys "Acceptance"

Courtesy of The Detroit Press & The Associated Press

A West Michigan high school that attracted criticism last year for disqualifying votes for a transgender student as homecoming king won't have a homecoming king and queen this year.

The Muskegon Chronicle reports the senior class at Mona Shores High School in Norton Shores instead will vote on two finalists among eight chosen as class representatives.

Last year, the school tossed out ballots on which students had voted Oak Reed as homecoming king. Reed identified himself as a young man. But school officials said rules informed students they were to vote for a boy as king, and Reed was enrolled as a female.

To be more gender neutral, the Muskegon-area school agreed to do away with prom king and queen last spring and homecoming king and queen this year.

*Doing away with the titles of King & Queen does not make you a gay-friendly school in fact it makes you a coward. If a girl doesn't feel like she's a girl then you should be respectful and let her identify as the gender she chooses. Nowhere in any school mission or objectives does it state that the school is in charge of assigning genders. Why? Because that's not your job, its a personal matter and they shouldn't in anyway try to force it.

Transgenders seem to be the hardest of the LGBT community to be accepted even within the our own community but if no one else you guys have a friend in me! :)

Bold Moves

Courtesy of: Andrew Harmon, The Advocate 

The mother of a gay teenager who committed suicide last year met Thursday with Rep. Michele Bachmann’s office to ask, at the very least, that the congresswoman publicly denounce anti-LGBT bullying.

Tammy Aaberg, whose 15-year-old son, Justin, was a perpetual target of harassment by fellow students and hanged himself in July 2010, was joined by three students from the Anoka-Hennepin School District and two fellow anti-bullying advocates in a meeting with Deb Steiskal, Rep. Bachmann’s constituent services officer, that lasted just over an hour at the congresswoman’s district office in Waite Park, Minn. The group delivered a petition with 141,000 signatures urging Bachmann to speak out on school bullying.

“I think Congresswoman Bachmann is in a leadership role to speak out against bullying,” especially now that she is running for the GOP presidential nomination, Aaberg told The Advocate. “I’m not asking her to change her beliefs. But all kids should be protected in school.”

In a meeting that she described as cordial and productive, Aaberg talked about the pervasive bullying her son had faced. The problem was compounded by a school policy that did not adequately counter such harassment, she said. To the contrary, Justin’s school allowed such events as the “Day of Truth” to occur: The annual antigay event is organized by the social conservative legal group Alliance Defense Fund, though the ex-gay group Exodus International has also supported Day of Truth in the past. 

Bachmann’s past statements on the issue have been less than compassionate, however. “I just don't know how we're ever going to get to point of zero tolerance, and what does it mean?” she said during a 2006 Minnesota Education Committee hearing in reference to school anti-bullying policies. “What will be our definition of bullying? Will it get to the point where we are completely stifling free speech and expression? Will it mean that what form of behavior will there be — will we be expecting boys to be girls?”

“This was a meeting, not a protest. The point was to try and get [Congresswoman Bachmann] to actually listen to her constituents, and people around the country who are concerned about this issue,” Bonds said. 

Aaberg will travel to Washington, D.C. next week for a second-annual summit on bullying held by the Department of Education.

What is in a word...

I'm the type of person that puts a lot of thought into choosing the right words to use and likewise I'm also the type of person that notices different relationships between different words. The word I noticed today was homosexuality.

What I noticed was the ending -ality I realized that its the same ending used in words like reality, personality, actuality. Now I know that this is probably a huge coincidence but I looked into it anyway.

The suffix -ality doesn't really mean much so I settled for the definition of -ity which is a suffix used to form abstract nouns expressing a state or condition. Pair that with homosexual which obviously means gay.... the state or condition of being gay. The words state or condition would or COULD imply that its a set condition.

So why is it such a hard word for people to swallow? Reality, insanity, personality... All these words though some negative are accepted, gold even so why is homosexuality questioned? Makes you wonder huh?

My One Request

My One Request: Watch what you say.

The one thing I will never grow to tolerate are offensive statements made against the LGBT community. That's the number one way for people to become dead to me. I've come to realize though that its gotten so bad that people don't even know their saying it. So this is a Public Service Announcement to you...

A teammate of mine posted a stat saying "Darts and wine. Keeping it classy." Another one of my teammates comments "Homo!" I wouldn't have taken it offensively if she were implying that all homosexuals are classy but I know she wasn't.

"That's so GAY!" Said when something happens that you don't like or something disgusts you.

I have another teammate that faithfully says "No Homo." after every statement he makes. It drives me insane and of course no one sees the error in these kind of comments.

My own mother refuses to say that I am gay instead referring to me as "sexually insane and confused."

Look, I don't care if you don't like it or don't agree with how I live but that does NOT make it okay for you to just insult us all the time even when you don't notice your doing it. Its about R-E-S-P-E-C-T.

My Personal Rainbow

That is my rainbow anklet. From the time I came out almost three years ago I have never really been without it.

Back when I used to let peoples judgement affect the way I felt about myself a very close friend of mine bought it for me. Well technically, this is number two, the first wore out and my teammate made me another one. Anyways it seems like no big deal right?

This anklet (and the one before) has been with me through every sneer, every rude comment, every event, every night out.... What it signifies for me is PRIDE. Pride in who I am, what Im apart of, what I stand for, who I stand with. Pride in my beliefs, in my freedom to just be me and likewise, whenever I dont want to speak up it burns into my ankle I swear.

I think everyone should have one. Maybe not exactly like mine but something thats a constant reminder as well as statement of pride.

Seth's Law Passes.

Seth's Law Passes.

If you haven't been following the huge amount of lgbt suicides due to bullying this past year, there was one in particular that caught a lot of attention. It was the story of a 13-year-old boy in California named Seth Walsh.

Soon after a battle began to stop schools from looking the other way when students are bullied because of their sexual orientation. That battle ended Friday when Seth's Law was passed. This means that public schools will now be required to create policies for addressing bullying incidents. This is a huge step for a state who repealed their legalizing of gay marriages.

The law passed through the state Senate on Friday and had already been approved by the state Assembly in June, so it now heads to Gov. Jerry Brown for his signature.

This may not affect us much here in Michigan but I like to follow all lgbt advances all over the nation because a victory in California is still a victory and it gives me hope that other states will follow suite.

What does LGBTQIA mean?

Every time we think we have a handle on our community's title more letters are added. So what do they all mean?

LESBIAN- Which of course is a woman attracted to other women.
GAY-Describes both males and females attracted to the same sex but is more associated with the males attracted to other males.
BISEXUAL-A person to whom love knows no gender and are attracted to both sexes.
TRANSGENDER-Any person that does not follow gender norms such as androgynous, cross-dressers, drag queens and kings, transsexuals and some others.
TRANSSEXUAL-Any person who changes there gender to align with the gender they feel they better identify with.
QUESTIONING- Any person that is currently trying to figure out their sexual orientation.
INTERSEX- One whose privates do not match male or female standards.
ALLY- A person who is an advocate against homophobia, heterosexism, heterosexual privilege, biphobia, transphobia and society's gender norms.
ASEXUAL-One who has no either no sexual interest or only a sexual interest in their self.

Some argue that its too much, too long but I look at from a completely different angle. With each added letter we add more people to our family. More people means more power and with our battle at the forefront of the nation growing can only help us. And our open-mindedness allows us to do just that, grow. Who knows how many more letters we'll add in the next five years but you should never look at it as a bad ordeal because it isn't.

What are some other groups of people (or letters) you think should be added?

The sanctity of marriage.

Gay people cannot be allowed to marry because it will desecrate the sanctity of marriage between a man and a woman.

So wait, back up. Heterosexuals are worrying about us ruining the sanctity of marriage??? What about Hollywood highlighting marriages for citizenship and money, and adultery in their movies? With the divorce rate marked at 40% in 2008 and people getting married numerous times? Liza Minnelli had been married and divorced four times. Britney Spears had her marriage annulled just days after. And every knows Anna Nicole Smith married for the money.

Why isn't there a war against getting a divorce? A war against re-marrying or marrying for any other reason other then love? These are the things ruining the sanctity of marriage. So why do people think that gay marriage is one of these factors?

The only reason I could possibly think of is fear, fear of change. Just because a female marrying a female isn't what you think is normal does not mean that you have the right to make sure it doesn't happen. And just because to try to make sure it doesn't happen does not mean that we as a people will not prevail.

Just as the African Americans fought for their freedom, like interracial couples fought to get married, like Arab Americans fought for acceptance, the LGBT Community will not only continue to fight but I believe we will one day win our fight for equality.

One day people will see that love is love no matter the genders it is between, no matter the difference (or similarities) between the two seeking this union. One day people will begin to accept us for who we are, human beings, and will see that ALL human beings deserve the same rights. One day I will be able to marry the woman of my dreams in any state apart of these United States and that one day will come soon so don't sleep on us.

My favorite advocates for gay marriage: FCK H8