Tag Archives: fight back

Study Shows There Was over 600 LGBT Rights Protests Between 1965 to 1973.

Study Shows There Was Over 600 LGBT Rights Protests Between 1965 to 1973.

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Where are the protests today that we so desperately need?

A recent report published jointly by OutHistory and Queer Pasts, documents more than 600 LGBT direct actions, stated Marc Stein, a gay man who’s a history professor at San Francisco State University and the study’s lead researcher. 

For the nine years studied, Stein and his research team identified 646 direct action events, averaging 72 per year. The study cites more than 1,800 media sources from the 1960s and 1970s, the release noted. According to these sources, more than 200,000 people participated in these protests and nearly 200 were arrested.

The report includes lists of the cities, states, and months that featured the largest number of LGBTQ direct actions, along with the protests that featured the largest number of participants, the largest number of arrests, and the longest sustained actions during the period studied. The 20 largest actions involved more than 1,000 participants, the release stated.

San Francisco is at the top of the list, with 148 documented protests during the nine-year period, according to the study. It’s followed closely by New York City (142), Los Angeles (93), Washington, D.C. (43), and Chicago (40). Berkeley ranks seventh with 21. Other California cities on the list are: Kern River (near Bakersfield), with 13, and Sacramento (3). 

Perhaps its time that we all moved away from the computer and protest again.

OFF OF THE KEYBOARDS AND INTO THE STREETS!

Multiple Protests at Chelsea Piers Over DeSantis Visit Adds To FULL #LGBT+Ally Boycott of the Piers Businesses

Multiple Protests at Chelsea Piers Over DeSantis Visit Adds To FULL #LGBT+Ally Boycott of the Piers Businesses and Venues

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Well Chelsea Piers NYC had their chance to cancel the Ron DeSantis visit to speak at the extreme right wing Jewish Leadership Conference led by the The Kapos For Nazi’s Fund The Tikvah Fund and they refused to cancel the event.

So we are are TOTALLY CANCELLING The Chelsea Piers. Every venue. We gays love to ice skate you know, and eat out. Especially in Chelsea. Which is our Gayborhood. DURING RIDE MONTH, BUT the Chelsea Pier’s spit in our face and now they must pay the price.

Hundreds of LGBTQ rights activists at their supporters gathered outside New York City‘s Chelsea Piers on Sunday holding signs like ‘Transphobia is not kosher’ and ‘Say Gay’ to protest the venue’s hosting of a Jewish Leadership Conference featuring Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis as a guest speaker.

“DeSantis is clearly trying to raise money here in New York City for that speculative presidential bid,” New York State Senator Brad Hoylman told Bloomberg News at the protest. “He’s stirring up a hateful set of the Republican party, who want to see LGBTQ people erased from textbooks, schools, if not daily public life entirely.”

All LGBT New Yorkers, friends, and allies should participate against ALL businesses within the complex. ALL LGBT and LGBTQ friendly events should cancel any reservations at any Chelsea Piers venue

They obviously don’t care for us unless it’s for our money.

Lets make them pay for that.

Carolyn Maloney this am at Chelsea Piers for the arrival of the event planners and guests at 8:00 am protest

Jeff Sessions and the DOJ Set To Reject LGBT Workplace Protections Under Title VII

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According to sources from the Washington Blade, Jeff Sessions and the Justice Department intends to file a friend-of-the-court brief that would affirm the view of the three-judge panel on the Second Circuit who  in April determined Title VII doesn’t prohibit anti-gay discrimination in the case of Zarda v. Altitude Express which alleges  Donald Zarda, who has since passed away  was fired from his job in 2010 for being gay.

Such a brief would reverse a position under former U.S. Attorney Eric Holder asserting discrimination on the basis of gender identity is prohibited under Title VII. In a 2014 memo, Holder wrote the Justice Department will no longer assert Title VII’s prohibition on gender discrimination “does not encompass gender identity per se (including transgender discrimination).”

The current case is under review at the request of Lambda Legal has agreed to reconsider the ruling “en banc,” or before the full court.

James Esseks, director of the ACLU’s LGBT and HIV Project, states that filing such a brief would be going out of its way to undermine LGBT rights.

“This would be a gratuitous and extraordinary attack on LGBT people’s civil rights,” Esseks said. “DOJ would be reaching out to offer its opinion on these issues, since they are not a party to this case. That’s not championing LGBT people, it’s working affirmatively to expose us to discrimination. But fortunately, whether the Civil Rights Act protects LGBT people is ultimately a question for the courts to resolve, and not for the attorney general. We are confident that the courts will come to the right decision here.”

Even though the Justice Department brief would be restricted to an interpretation of law related to employment, it could have implications for other federal laws barring sex discrimination in housing and education and seems to be at odds with the position of the Education Department.

If you think this is not an all out war against the LGBT community.  Think again.

Stephen Schwartz Pulls Wicked from North Carolina

B’way Composer Stephen Schwartz Bans WICKED, All Other Works From Being Put On In NC Over Anti-LGBT Law

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Stephen Scwartz Pulls Wicked from North Carolina

Tony Award-winning composer and lyricist Stephen Schwartz who has written such hit musicals as Godspell (1971), Pippin (1972) and Wicked (2003) is refusing to allow any of his musical productions to be put on in North Carolina because of its recently passed anti-LGBT law HB2 and is asking all other Broadway composers and agencies to do the same.

Via BroadwayWorld.com

“To my fellow theatre writers and producers: As you no doubt know, the state of North Carolina has recently passed a reprehensible and discriminatory law. I feel that it is very important that any state that passes such a law suffer economic and cultural consequences, partly because it is deserved and partly to discourage other states from following suit.

“Therefore, I and my collaborators are acting to deny the right to any theatre or organization based in North Carolina to produce any of our shows. We have informed our licensing organizations and touring producers of this, and I’m happy to say have met with compliance and approval from them.

“In the 1970’s, I, along with many other writers and artists, participated in a similar action against apartheid in South Africa, and as you know, this eventually proved to be very effective.

“If you are in agreement, you may want to join me in refusing to license our properties to, or permit productions of our work by, theaters and organizations in North Carolina until this heinous legislation is repealed.

“Thank you for considering this.”

An important lesson for North Carolina: No one mourns the wicked.

 

Check out the rest of the content at Back2Stonewall.com the one and only independent LGBT news and media site in America by CLICKING HERE.

 

OKLAHOMA Allows Corporal Punishment For Disabled Students

OKLAHOMA: Religious Liberty Bill Scraped After Amendment To Post “We Discriminate” Signs Introduced.

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Oklahoma

 

Earlier this year, GOP Republican state Rep. Chuck Strohm introduced his ‘Oklahoma Religious Freedom Act’ (HB1371).

If passed, this would allow businesses to deny services to customers if they felt that such services were ‘against the person’s religious beliefs’.

The Bill looked all but set to pass, that is until one Democratic legislator fought back in the most billiant way possible.

Emily Virgin ( a Democratic member of the Oklahoma House of Representatives. introduced an amendment to the bill that added a caveat stating that if you were planning on refusing to serve LGBT people on religious grounds, then you must display a public notice to this effect.

‘Any person not wanting to participate in any of the activities set forth in subsection A of this section based on sexual orientation, gender identity or race of either party to the marriage shall post notice of such refusal in a manner clearly visible to the public in all places of business, including websites. The notice may refer to the person’s religious beliefs, but shall state specifically which couples the business does not serve by referring to a refusal based upon sexual orientation, gender identity or race.’

Yesterday, it was announced that the bill has stalled.  For it to return to the House, it would need to be added to another bill,

Virgin has indicated that if that happens, she would act again.

BRAVA REP. EMILY VIRGIN!  We need more Democrats like you.

Philadelphia Gay Basher Kathyrn Knott Hit Victims and Called Them “Faggots” – Read the Affidavit of Probable Cause

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The Three Faces Of Hate

 

Now that Kathryn Knott, Kevin Harrigan and Philip Williams have been charged with the crime, an affidavit of probable cause describing the incident has been made available by the court describing what happened to the two gay men were attacked in Philadelphia.

According to that document, the incident began when “words were exchanged” between the two groups of people, with suspect Kevin Harrigan allegedly calling the victims “faggots” several times before a “heated argument developed.” The affidavit also alleges that Knott screamed “faggots” at them and hit one of them in the face.

Read the affidavit below:

 

 

Affidavit of Probable Cause, Harrigan/Williams/Knott, 9/23/14

 

OkCupid Fights Back At Mozilla Anti-Gay CEO: “Please use another browser than Firefox to access our site”

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okcupid

Online dating site OkCupid is calling for its members and anyone who’s a Buddy to ditch Firefox and use another browser to search for love in protest of Mozilla’s new CEO, Brendan Eich, who supporter of anti-same-sex marriage campaign.

In an email sent to it uses OkCupid states:

“Hello there, Mozilla Firefox user. Pardon this interruption of your OkCupid experience.

Mozilla’s new CEO, Brendan Eich, is an opponent of equal rights for gay couples. We would therefore prefer that our users not use Mozilla software to access OkCupid.

Politics is normally not the business of a website, and we all know there’s a lot more wrong with the world than misguided CEOs. So you might wonder why we’re asserting ourselves today. This is why: we’ve devoted the last ten years to bringing people — all people — together. If individuals like Mr. Eich had their way, then roughly 8% of the relationships we’ve worked so hard to bring about would be illegal. Equality for gay relationships is personally important to many of us here at OkCupid. But it’s professionally important to the entire company. OkCupid is for creating love. 

If you want to keep using Firefox, the link at the bottom will take you through to the site.

However, we urge you to consider different software for accessing OkCupid:

Google Chrome

Internet Explorer

Opera

Thank you,
OkCupid”

Also programmers at the OKCupid website have tweaked its programs so when members navigate to the site on a Firefox browser, they are met with a message encouraging them to use an alternative browser to access the site, including Google Chrome, Opera, Safari and the amusingly misspelled Internet Exploder.

“Those who seek to deny love and instead enforce misery, shame and frustration are our enemies, and we wish them nothing but failure,” reads the message.

H/T Brad Delaney

Celebrities, Groups, and Individuals To Rally In Washington D.C. Against Mass Surveillance

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Rally Against Mass Survelliance

On October 26th, the 12th anniversary of the signing of the US Patriot Act, StopWatching.us a coalition of more than 100 public advocacy organizations and companies, plus celebrities such as John Cusack, Evangeline Lilly, Mark Ruffalo and Wil Weaton willl be holding a Rally Against Mass Surveillance in Washington, D.C. and  handing over petitions with more than a half a million signatures  to Congress to remind them that they work for us — and we won’t tolerate mass surveillance any longer.

The recent NSA revelations have laid it all out: The NSA is watching us online and on our phones. The NSA has corrupted security and cryptography, undermining the fabric of the Internet. Its overreaching surveillance is creating a climate of fear, chills free speech, and violates our basic human rights — and it operates without any meaningful oversight.

But a movement is building to change all this. And we’re about to take the next step.

To learn more about the Rally on October 26th and to sign the petition check out their website at StopWatching.us 

ENOUGH IS ENOUGH!

 

Harvey Fierstein: ‘You know what boys? Time to stop fucking with us,’”

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Harvey Fierstein

The awesome Harvey Fierstein appeared on The Michelangelo Signorile Show  on Sirus XM today where he let loose on “Rat Putin”, anti-gay churches and told the gay community thats its time to stand up, fight back, and not let others take advantage of us or use us as scapegoats anymore.

“It seemed to me a really good time for us as a community to say, ‘You know what boys? Time to stop fucking with us,’” he said, also backing the boycott of Stolichnaya Vodka that has taken off worldwide. “It’s time for them to stop to making money. Time for churches to stop raising money by demonizing us. Time for politicians to stop making money by demonizing us. It’s time to make the gay community too dangerous to do that too. Russia happens to be a great place to do it because Putin — I call him ‘Rat Putin’ — is such a villain. I think there’s an entire movement here and an opportunity to say the gay community is no longer available to be your scapegoat.” Fierstein urged LGBT people to take a stand. “A lot of people are saying, ‘We can’t do this, we can’t do that,’” he said. “You can do everything. You don’t necessarily see the results right away. We have to create an environment where we are too dangerous to mess with. “

YOU GO GURL!

You can listens to Fierstein’s entire interview below.

Westboro Group DOES NOT Protest Sandy Hook, Cowers and Hides In Hotel Because of Outrage

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The cowardly members of the Westboro Baptist Church showed their true “righteous colors” this week and never left their hotel rooms in Newtown CT, after nationwide outrage, cyber-attacks and volunteers from all across the United States traveled there, to form a human barrier to prevent them from reaching the memorial service for Sandy Hook Elementary principal Dawn Hochsprung.

Hundreds off duty police officers, firefighters, bikers and concerned and disgusted citizens traveled across country to join with locals in forming a human barricade to stop members of the church from trying to picket.

Last week a website for members of New York’s Fire Department put out a call for off duty emergency workers to travel to Sandy Hook and a day before the memorial service the estranged son of Westboro pastor Fred Phelps had released a statement condemning the planned picketing action.

‘My sincere hope is that the Sandy Hook community is able to grieve and mourn privately, and with whatever peace can be had in knowing the rest of the world mourns with you,’ wrote son Nate Phelps, who is a board member of the group Recovering from Religion.

ANONYMOUS the worldwide Hacktivist group also became involved and declared war on the Westboro Baptist Church  by hacking into Phelps-Roper twitter account and taking it over Also ANONYMOUS disrupted several of the WBC websites by launching Distributed Denial of Service (DDOS) attacks against them, and has leaked the personal details of several members, such as home addresses, emails, and phone numbers.

In turn the  internet security company the Westboro Baptists have hired to protect its website from attacks announced that it would be donating the money it received from Westboro to charities supporting the Newtown community, veterans groups like the Wounded Warrior Project, and LGBT groups like The Trevor Project.’

This is how you fight hate and evil   You STAND UP and  FIGHT BACK.  You don;t ignore it.

Well done to all involved.

How about the Family Research Council next?  Same boat, different crew.