Monday Meme: Moonlight

ginsburg moonlight

An LGBT icon, a literary powerhouse and a vital part of the Beat poet movement, Allen Ginsburg was an American original. His legacy of bold thoughts and wonderful words make him a natural pick for today’s Monday Meme. Most famous for his epic poem “Howl”, he also wrote articles, short stories and songs. Ginsburg was out and proud way before it was considered fashionable and he lived with his partner Peter Orlovsky from 1954 until his death.  The poet is once again making headlines as a reissued recording of his spoken words is set to be released this May. The album, The Last Word on First Blues, recorded in the 1980’s, features all-star talent like Bob Dylan.  According to Omnivore recordings, the label releasing the album, “The release includes a full color 28-page booklet of rare photos, writings and drawings from Ginsberg’s archives and an essay from set producer Pat Thomas featuring interviews with original participants. Longtime Ginsberg-music aficionado Thomas was given full access to the poet’s tape archive at Stanford University and spent several years pouring over hundreds of hours of recordings.” So here’s to Ginsburg, a godfather of gay rights and champion of self-expression. Now get out there and make Monday howl!

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Frank Ocean Pays Tribute to Prince

<> on June 14, 2014 in Manchester, Tennessee.

Openly bisexual singer/songwriter Frank Ocean took to his Tumblr to pay tribute to music icon Prince, who died yesterday at the age of 57. The post, written in all caps, lauds Prince for his fearlessness and Ocean says the artist helped him embrace his own sexuality. Per Pink News, here’s what Ocean had to say about the legend:

I’M NOT EVEN GONNA SAY REST IN PEACE BECAUSE IT’S BIGGER THAN DEATH. I NEVER MET THE MAN (I WAS TOO NERVOUS THE ONE TIME I SAW HIM) AND I NEVER SAW HIM PLAY LIVE, REGRETTABLY. I ONLY KNOW THE LEGENDS I’VE HEARD FROM FOLKS AND WHAT I’VE HEARD AND SEEN FROM HIS DEEP CATALOG OF PROPELLANT, FEARLESS, VIRTUOSIC WORK. MY ASSESSMENT IS THAT HE LEARNED EARLY ON HOW LITTLE VALUE TO ASSIGN TO SOMEONE ELSE’S OPINION OF YOU.. AN INFECTIOUS SENTIMENT THAT SEEMED SOAKED INTO HIS CLOTHES, HIS HAIR, HIS WALK, HIS GUITAR AND HIS PRIMAL SCREAM. HE WROTE MY FAVORITE SONG OF ALL TIME, ‘WHEN YOU WERE MINE’. IT’S A SIMPLE SONG WITH A SIMPLE MELODY THAT MAKES YOU WISH YOU THOUGHT OF IT FIRST, EVEN THOUGH YOU NEVER WOULD HAVE – A FLIRTATIOUS BRAND OF GENIUS THAT FEELS APPROACHABLE. HE WAS A STRAIGHT BLACK MAN WHO PLAYED HIS FIRST TELEVISED SET IN BIKINI BOTTOMS AND KNEE HIGH HEELED BOOTS, EPIC. HE MADE ME FEEL MORE COMFORTABLE WITH HOW I IDENTIFY SEXUALLY SIMPLY BY HIS DISPLAY OF FREEDOM FROM AND IRREVERENCE FOR OBVIOUSLY ARCHAIC IDEAS LIKE GENDER CONFORMITY ETC. HE MOVED ME TO BE MORE DARING AND INTUITIVE WITH MY OWN WORK BY HIS DEMONSTRATION – HIS DENIAL OF THE PREVAILING MODEL…HIS FIGHT FOR HIS INTELLECTUAL PROPERTY – ‘SLAVE’ WRITTEN ACROSS THE FOREHEAD, NAME CHANGED TO A SYMBOL… AN ALL OUT REBELLION AGAINST EXPLOITATION. A VANGUARD AND GENIUS BY EVERY METRIC I KNOW OF WHO AFFECTED MANY IN A WAY THAT WILL OUTRUN OBLIVION FOR A LONG WHILE. I’M PROUD TO BE A PRINCE FAN(STAN) FOR LIFE.

Prince was found dead in his home in Minneapolis on April 22.

Bullied Teen Ballet Dancer Gets Moment in the Spotlight

The fight to be yourself and follow your dream isn’t always easy. But every so often that fight proves to be a worthwhile one.  Take 14-year-old dancer Jack Higgins, for example. A ballet dancer from Liverpool, England Higgins wowed the judges and viewers across the globe with his performance on Britain’s Got Talent over the weekend. Higgins said other kids his age bullied him for being a dancer. “When I started, I was called names,” Higgins said. “They said it was just for girls and I should be doing football.” Despite what his peers said, Higgins kept dancing. With the support of his family, he now attends an arts high school and by the looks of it, the education has really paid off. Higgins’ dance to “Say Something” by A Great Big World earned him a standing ovation, a trip to the next round of the competition and words of praise by notoriously cranky judge Simon Cowell. “You know the one thing bullies don’t like? They don’t like it when you do well. I can see how hard you’ve worked and I congratulate you,”Cowell said.

Watch the incredible performance here!

Monday Meme: Whatever

maria meme

Happy birthday Maria Bello! The actress/writer/activist  turns 49 today. Bello made headlines in 2013 when she wrote about her long-term relationship with a woman for a piece in the New York Times but that wasn’t the whole story. Bello doesn’t identify strictly as a lesbian and instead wrote a bestseller questioning labels and championing sexual fluidity. Bello is a voice of a recent movement focused on love and not who we love. Hooray for that! Bello is an award-winning actress best known for her roles in films like A History of Violence, The Company Men and Coyote Ugly. 

 

Good News From The South! Louisiana Bans LGBT Discrimination

New-OrleansIn a couple of weeks filled with really bad news coming out of the south, this little nugget from Louisiana is a real gem.

On Wednesday, Governor John Bel Edwards signed an executive order prohibiting discrimination against LGBT Louisianans. The order overturns an executive order by Edwards predecessor, Republican Bobby Jindal which protected employers and agencies that wouldn’t serve the LGBT community. Edwards said order was “bad for business, tourism and the Louisiana economy. Per NBC News, “Louisiana has no law protecting LGBT residents from employment discrimination. Edwards’ order protects state employees from discrimination over a variety of reasons, including race and religion in addition to sexual orientation and gender identity.” Edwards’ bill also explicitly protects transgender people. The nonprofit Forum for Equality called the order “a bold stroke to broaden equality in Louisiana,” while Equality Louisiana said it should spur the Legislature “to extend these employment protections to all workers in Louisiana, in both the public and private sectors.” The order was signed after months of pressure from gay rights groups and companies like IBM which worried that Jindal’s order would “create a hostile environment for our current and prospective employees.”

Monday Meme: Cracks

allison meme

Happy birthday Dorothy Allison! This literary powerhouse turns 67 today! Author of the award-winning novel Bastard Out Of Carolina, Allison is an open lesbian, a proud advocate of independent authors and small presses and a winner of several Lambda Literary Awards. Allison writes openly about her own physical and sexual abuse as a child as well as tackling the topics of gender, feminism and poverty. Hugely influential, Bastard Out of Carolina continues to be a much-discussed and beloved novel for both book clubs and literature students around the globe.

Greg Louganis Finally Gets His Wheaties Box

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Four-time Olympic diving gold medalist and five-time world champion Greg Louganis can now be found in the cereal aisle at your local grocery store. After a 30 year career, Louganis will be featured on one of three Wheaties box honoring Olympic legends. Swimmer Janet Evans and hurdler Edwin Moses, respectively, can be seen on the other boxes. In previous interviews, Louganis has said he understood he wasn’t featured on Wheaties boxes during the 1980’s because he didn’t fit the brand’s wholesome image. Louganis came out as gay and HIV-positive in 1995. “[It’s] so incredible to be honored with the likes of Edwin Moses — we were in our first Olympic games in 1976 together,” Louganis told NPR’s All Things Considered. “Janet Evans — we trained at Mission Viejo together — I watched her grow up.” Louganis is the only man to sweep Olympic diving events in consecutive games, winning gold medals  in both platform and springboard diving at the 84′ and ’88 Olympics.  Louganis’ career is an inspiration to contemporary divers like Tom Daly, who is also openly gay. Daly told NPR,””I would have always wanted someone like him as a role model on the front of a cereal box,” Daley told NPR’s Ari Shapiro. “He’s a great model and forever will be the greatest diver to walk this earth.”

A recent Change.org petition, which garnered over 45,000 signatures to get Louganis his own Wheaties box, didn’t play a part in this recent series however. “We were aware of the petition, as we see this all the time from fans wanting their favorite athlete on the box,” Mike Siemienas of General Mills said. “But appearing on a Wheaties box is not a popularity contest. Wheaties chooses athletes based on their achievements on and off their field of play.” Although decades after his appearance at the Olympics, Louganis is thrilled that his Wheaties moment is happening now. “Back in ’95, I wasn’t expected to live very long because we thought of HIV-AIDS as a death sentence, so to be here today, now 56, the box means so much more to me than it would have then because I feel like I’m being embraced as a whole person, not just for my athletic achievements.”

Openly Gay Police Chief Sworn In

033016magnusDSC_7068In a few weeks filled with bad news for the LGBT community, here’s something to smile about! Although he’s been serving as Tucson’s top cop for the last two months, Chris Magnus was officially sworn in last week. Magnus, an openly gay man, previously served as police chief in Richmond, CA. Magnus married Terrance Cheung in 2014 and is believed to be the first gay police chief to ever get legally married. “I’m grateful and proud that I can now serve the people of Tucson,” he told a crowd of about 120 city officials last Wednesday. Prior to being sworn in, Magnus had to pass a series of tests administered by the Arizona Peace Officer Standards and Training Board. According to the Tucson Sentinel, “Assistant Chief John Leavitt said that Magnus has been the ‘first to arrive and the last to leave’ at headquarters each day, and that despite the budget crunch that the city faces, Magnus is allowing the department to tackle projects ‘that we never thought possible.'” Tucson is Arizona’s second largest city with over 525,00 residents.

Monday Meme: Rainbow

maya meme

Had she lived, Maya Angelou would be 88 years old today! Angelou was a poet, writer and civil rights activist. She also turned the contemporary autobiography on its head with the release of I Know Why The Caged Bird Sings in 1969. She’s also remembered for reading her poem “On the Pulse of Morning” at Bill Clinton’s inauguration in 1993. Around these parts, however, we love Maya Angelou for providing a treasure trove of quotes like the one in today’s Monday Meme!

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Greenland Ushers in New Era Of Marriage Equality

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If you needed proof that marriage equality is spreading to the far corners of the Earth, look no further than Greenland!  The country’s same-sex marriage law went into effect on April 1st.

Last year, the country unanimously passed a marriage bill,which is an adoption of Denmark’s matrimonial laws. After taking two years, the bill was finally approved after a series of starts and stops, like the stepping down of Greenland’s Prime Minister had put the bill on hold. The marriage bill was approved by the Greenlandic Parliament on a vote of 27-0. An autonomous Danish Territory, Greenland can now celebrate same-sex weddings with the approval of Greenland’s Bishop. The Bishop has welcomed the arrival of a gender neutral marriage law and the Church of Greenland “worked closely with the government to amend the portion of the Danish law that covered same-sex blessings in religious weddings. The joint adoption clause that was included in Greenland’s new Marriage Act will go into effect on July 1st,” according to Out.com.  Nivi Olsen, the Minister of the Church in Greenland, wrote on the Greenlandic Parliament’s website:

“We have long waited for this day. To have the opportunity to enter into marriage means a lot to many couples regardless of the gender of one’s partner. I am therefore pleased that a united Parliament adopted in 2010, finally made it a reality. The Government warmly welcomes this new opportunity and the national church rejoices that we are ready for the new era.”