Religion Dispatches
…f unprecedented pride,” reports Voice of America, “in stark contrast to just five years ago when discrimination and bullying were usually endured in private.” Argentina: Subway station named for LGBT activist A subway station in Buenos Aires has been named after LGBT activist Carlos Jáuregui….
Read More
…Kuyper award at all. Institutions with storied histories such as PTS are always walking a tightrope between paying tribute to their legacies but also respecting a diverse student body. “I saw this award as an attempt to be ‘all things to all people,’” says Jasmin Figueroa, a PTS student in her final year and the Intersectionality Chair of the seminary’s Women’s Center, via email. “It wants to honor its history, but that often means honoring the le…
Read More
…erything. So now if I’m trying to open up a bank account, I’m doing a cell phone application, or anything, that statement is there, it has just gone into everything, every aspect of one’s life, it’s there. It’s ridiculous to have that, but nonetheless it’s real. The problems are not just administrative: Ahmadis have a “glass ceiling” in the civil service, and discriminatory use of voter registration lists (Ahmadis are enrolled separately) keeps th…
Read More
…bout the cover? I love the cover. I took that picture myself (with my cell phone), and the press did a great job with the layout. The picture is of a hallway in Dystopia Haunted House, a big haunted attraction in Denmark. I’m doing some scientific consulting for them and have also done two large-scale quantitative research projects on recreational fear in the haunt, so it seemed only appropriate to use an image of one of their sets. It’s atmospher…
Read More
…ped under Obama to suppress voting rights, privatize education, and strip away existing civil rights protections. That last provision is particularly important for LGBT Americans, who enjoyed an unprecedented growth in legal equality under President Obama. If Trump’s nominee for Attorney General, Alabama Sen. Jeff Sessions, is confirmed, the fate of American civil rights law is effectively sealed, given that Sessions was considered too racist to b…
Read More
…ears and couldn’t continue. One admitted she was drunk, which was the only way she could handle getting up behind a microphone. God was barely mentioned. When asked about the secular nature of the vigil and why he agreed to participate, Rios responded that “it is always the responsibility of clergy to act in moments of disaster, regardless of the secular tone and style.” Throughout the vigil, he said, “[I] kept thinking of Jesus and where this rad…
Read More
…ernment action.” As for the lesbian moms who have their sick child turned away by a “pious” doctor? Perhaps they should just follow Trump’s advice for those seeking safe abortions and “go to another state.” Speaking of health care, Trump’s pick for secretary of Health and Human Services, Georgia Rep. Tom Price, voted with Sessions on almost every LGBT-inclusive bill that came before him too. That includes opposing the reauthorization of the Violen…
Read More
…n Muslims, however, are mourning Clinton’s loss and responding in the same way as others who exist as the subjects of Trump’s demagoguery and the objects of his supporters’ disdain: Latinos, LGBT communities and women, to name a few. On November 9th, two such friends of mine took a day off from their jobs so that they could cry all day. They were literally worried sick. One described the previous night as “the longest panic attack I’ve ever had.”…
Read More
…ic accusing the Church of having nothing better to do than to dream up new ways to torment the faithful. But the most common objection, the one expressed more than any other, seemed to be about who controls the body. One commenter in the National Catholic Reporter put it this way: “The issue is choice. This choice should be up to the person to make before death, or for the family itself to make. The hierarchy is trying to impose its will on people…
Read More
…discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation and gender identity. Norway: Changing gender ‘as easy as filing a tax return’ Associated Press reports that a person can now change their legal gender in Norway as easily as filling a tax return. Iraq: Social media used to entrap gay men The Washington Blade interviewed Iraqi activist Ayaz Hassan, who says anti-gay militants are using social networks to identify gay men and kill them. Afghanistan:…
Read More