LGBTQ* Resident Assistants Who Are Doing It Right!

Ok. Yes. This is the poster hanging from the door of moderator, Ruth Elizabeth. It may be a bit unfair to repost moderator awesomeness but if it was any other blog on Tumblr we’d repost it from them. We are all really impressed by the working team that makes up KNOWhomo.

Thanks for all you do, Ruth Elizabeth!
The freshman individuals on your hall have an amazing RA!
 (-Rebecca)

LGBTQ* Grants (and Deadlines) You Should Know

Trans Justice Funding Project

Information

Accessibility

We aim to make this process as accessible as possible, so please let us know about any other needs you have and we will do our best to meet them. An audio version of the application is available on request.

Timeline

Applications are due on February 15th, 2013 by midnight, Eastern Standard Time. Decisions will be made in mid-March 2013. So you can expect to hear back from us by April 1st and, if you are funded, to get your check soon after that.

How will the funding process work?

A panel of 7 activists from across the country will come together for a series of conference calls and a weekend-long in-person meeting to review all the applications and decide on the grantees. You can read more about our the panel members at transjusticefundingproject.org/who-we-are/. While we are very grateful to all the contributors making this project possible, funding decisions will be made solely by this community-led panel.

What does trans justice mean?

We  use  the  term  “trans”  in  its  most  inclusive  sense,  as  an  umbrella  term  encompassing  transsexual,  transgender,   genderqueer,  Two-Spirit  people,  and  more  generally,  anyone  whose  gender  identity  or  gender  expression  is  non  conforming   and/or  different  from  their  birth-assigned  sex.

We see trans justice as a commitment to creating a world where trans and gender non-conforming individuals and communities have the freedom to self-define and express their genders without fear of violence, discrimination, or harassment. A world where we recognize and honor that our communities have knowledge and expertise in matters relating to our own lives that no one else will have.

(Thank you to Leeway Foundation and Ryan Li for the adapted definitions above)

Grant size

The funding panel will be distributing a total of $50,000. While it’s unlikely that grants will be smaller than $1,000 or larger than $5,000, the final decisions about grant size will be made when the panel meets to review all the applications.

Is multi-year support available?

Right now, this is only a one year project to distribute $50,000. In a way, it’s an experiment. We’re not sure what’s next, but no matter what, we want to do our best to get the word out about our grantees to as many donors as possible and to provide an example of an alternative, community-led funding model to those who want to support trans justice.

What we fund:

• Groups, projects and organizations across the U.S. from rural areas to big cities
• Groups that have 501c3 status or fiscal sponsorship
• Groups that don’t have 501c3 status or fiscal sponsorship
• Established organizations
• Groups that are just getting started

What we don’t fund:

• Individuals
• Groups outside the U.S.

Criteria

We are committed to supporting groups that:

• Are run by and for trans communities.
• Support and encourage trans leadership.
• Are guided by a commitment to trans justice and anti-oppression work.
• Center the leadership of trans people organizing around their experiences with racism, economic injustice, transmisogyny, ableism, immigration, incarceration, and other intersecting oppressions.
• Collaborate with other local groups and think of themselves as part of a bigger picture of trans-led work that seeks dignity and justice for all people.
• Are meeting the needs of different local communities and using organizing and/or providing services to help bring people together.

Just email us at info@transjusticefundingproject.org about any questions. We’ll get back to you as fast as we can! (Though please keep in mind that it’s just the two of us putting this together in our spare time, so it might be a little slower than we’d like.)

In Solidarity,
Gabriel Foster and Karen Pittelman, co-organizers

(source)

For more information visit TransJusticeFundingProject.org

LGBTQ* Breaking News You May Have Missed

Following from CNN.com

UK lawmakers approve same-sex marriage in first vote

(picture source) 

LGBTQ* Shows To Keep On Your Radar

Lost Girl is a series produced by the Canadian channel Showcase, and was picked up last year to run in the US on Syfy. Currently in its third season, the show follows bisexual succubus Bo as she navigates the discovery of her identity, becomes a force within her new community, and finds herself in a love triangle with the “wolf-shifter” Dyson and the beautiful human doctor Lauren. 

Toronto Life’s recent article explained how Lost Girl has emerged as one of the few shows on television which is really sex positive: “There are plenty of graphic shows on TV right now…but they all tend to shame their female characters for having sex and condemn them for liking it…. Lost Girl seemlessly unifies sex and sexual politics, delighting in the pleasure of the former and taking a stand on the later. Somehow, a humble, medium-budget fantasy show from Toronto has become the most sexually progressive thing on TV.” 

Bo and Lauren’s relationship (known as Doccubus within the fandom) is portrayed as any other relationship. In almost every other show, a relationship within the queer spectrum is used to drive the plot and create conflict. Zoie Palmer, who plays Lauren, explains how Bo and Lauren’s relationship is handled in this 2011 interview from AfterEllen (again, spoilers!): “It is just a real relationship. One of the things about the show is that it’s never sort of mentioned that it’s two women and that it’s a gay relationship. It just is one. It never comes up as a conversation piece that they’re both women. It is just the way that it is and I love that. And I feel that’s the way the world should be. That people should love who they love. This show is a great example of that.”

So we have a show with a sex positive spin, a relationship between two women which isn’t questioned in the slightest, an intriguing fantasy storyline, and some hilarious one-liners provided by Bo’s quirky sidekick, Kenzi. Are you Team Doccubus?

-Cael

Note: The show did recently get into hot water with the trans* community for the portrayal of a character who was a shapeshifter (a Liderc) in the season premier. (The following from GLAAD and show producers on The Bilerico Project):

Whether or not you consider the prison warden to be a transgender character is open to interpretation given that the character is a mythological shapeshifter, but there’s no mistaking the scene that takes place out at the end of the episode. The warden being “discovered” and then viciously attacked is a scenario tragically based in reality, but here is played out for the enjoyment of the audience. It’s also evocative of the offensive claim that transgender women are “tricking” their way into female-only spaces for perverted or criminal purposes which was recently put forth in a defamatory editorial in The Observer that became the subject of heated online debate. That piece inspired so much outrage from the LGBT and feminist communities that The Observer actually pulled the piece offline altogether.

The producers of Lost Girl responded with this:

We want to let you know that the Lost Girl writers base all episodic characters off of researched folklore, and that the character of The Warden in the premiere of Season 3 is a character based off the mythological shapeshifter known as the Liderc. The Warden was only intended to represent this mythic being. We did not intend this character to be seen as a transgender person, we apologize if the character was seen as such. We do hope that you accept that no comparison or discrimination toward the transgender community was intended by the depiction of this mythological character.

Lost Girl prides itself on being open and accepting to everyone, and are enthusiastic supporters of the GLBT community. We want to encourage a society in which everyone can feel comfortable to express and be who they are without judgment. Equality and a world without labels is important to all of us at the series. We strive to create three dimensional characters, who empower all viewers regardless of sexuality or gender.

As an avid reader of fantasy with a healthy suspension of disbelief, it is easy to see these images as a portrayal of a creature within the story, not as a human. However, as a trans* person, I can see the problem with these images. The truth is that any character portrayed by a human and looking like a human can have prejudices assigned despite being something out of mythology. I appreciate that the producers took the time out to realize this and apologize.

LGBTQ* Graphic Novels to Keep on Your Radar

(AKA, LGBTQ* graphic novels the KNOWhomo team is currently reading)

TRANSPOSES by Dylan Edwards

“Transposes will teach you something about what it means to have  a body and to feel desire. About what it means, in short, to be human.” - Alison Bechdel From the foreword by the New York Times bestselling author of FUN HOME and ARE YOU MY MOTHER

TRANSPOSES separates gender from sexuality and illustrates six fascinating true stories of transgender men who also happen to be queer. The result is a laugh-out-loud, funny, heartbreaking, challenging, inventive, informative, and invites the reader to explore what truly makes a man a man. 

Interested? Read some of the first pages HERE.

Note from Rebecca: 

I ordered TRANSPOSES after running into it time and time again online. (I am an avid comic book and graphic novel reader.) I ordered it from NORTHWEST PRESS and had it in my hands within 2-3 days (at regular shipping price). If you are unfamiliar with NORTHWEST PRESS and enjoy queer graphic expression and fiction, I highly recommend spending some time on their site. 

LGBTQ* Advancements in Popular Culture (Focus: Television)

40 Years of LGBTQ* on Television (source)

From GLAAD

LGBTQ* Young Audience Books (You Might Have Missed)

Lisa Jenn Bigelow’s Starting From Here

Sixteen-year-old Colby Bingham’s heart has been broken too many times. Her mother has been dead for almost two years, her truck driver father is always away, her almost girlfriend just dumped her for a guy, and now she’s failing chemistry. When a stray dog lands literally at her feet, bleeding and broken on a busy road, it seems like the Universe has it in for Colby. But the incident also knocks a chink in the walls she’s built around her heart. Against her better judgment, she decides to care for the dog. But new connections mean new opportunities for heartbreak. Terrified of another loss, Colby bolts at the first sign of trouble, managing to alienate her best friend, her father, the cute girl pursing her, and even her dog’s vet, who’s taken Colby under her wing. Colby can’t start over, but can she learn how to move on? (from GoodReads.com)

LGBTQ* Books and Love Letters You May Have Missed

Empty without You: The Intimate Letters of Eleanor Roosevelt & Lorena Hickok

by Rodger Streitmatter (Editor), Eleanor Roosevelt

In 1978, more than 3,500 letters written over a thirty-year friendship between Eleanor Roosevelt and Lorena Hickok were discovered by archivists. Although the most explicit letters had been burned (Lorena told Eleanor’s daughter, “Your mother wasn’t always so very discreet in her letters to me”), the find was still electrifying enough to create controversy about the nature of the women’s relationship. Historian Rodger Streitmatter has transcribed and annotated more than 300 of those letters—published here for the first time—and put them within the context of the lives of these two extraordinary women, allowing us to understand the role of this remarkable friendship in Roosevelt’s transformation into a crusading First Lady. (text source)

A Map of the “Gayest Cities in America, 2013”

(according to The Advocate’s Matthew Green)

15. St. Louis, Missouri

14. Salem, Oregon

13. Colorado Springs, Colorado

12. Providence, Rhode Island

11. Oakland, California

10. Twin Cities, Minnesota

9. Atlanta, Georgia

8. Madison, Wisconsin

7. Eugene, Oregon

6. Salt Lake City, Utah

5. Seattle, Washington

4. Washington, D.C. 

3. Spokane, Washington

2. Springfield, Massachusetts

1. Tacoma, Washington

LGBTQ* and (Christian) Biblical Texts

What Jesus Said About Homosexuality

(source)

Remember you can now find BuzzFeedLGBTQ on Tumbr (click HERE)