LGBTQ*-Friendly Wedding Cards

Found in Georgetown’s Paper Source.

LGBTQ* Spoken Word You Might Be Interested In

Stayceyann Chin “Feminist or a Womanist”

*Warning: Lyrics NSFW*

“Am I a feminist or a womanist? 
The student needs to know if I do men occasionally and primarily, am I a lesbian? 
Tongue tied up in my cheek, I attempt to respond with some honesty. 
Well, this business of Dykes and Dykery, I tell her, it’s often messy. 
With social tensions as they are, you never quite know what you’re getting.

Girls who are only straight at night, hardcore butches be sporting dresses between 9 & 6 every day. 
Sometimes she is a he, trapped by the limitations of our imaginations. 
Primarily, I tell her, I am concerned about young women who are raped on college campuses, in bars, after poetry readings like this one, in bars.
Bruised lip and broken heart, you will forgive her if she does not come forward with the truth immediately, for when she does, it is she who will stand trial as damaged goods.
Everyone will say she asked for it, dressed as she was, she must have wanted it. 
The words will knock about in her head: ” Harlot, slut, tease, loose woman” – some people can not handle a woman on the loose. 
You know those women in pinstriped shirts and silk ties, You know those women in blood-red stiletto heels and short skirts. 
These women make New York City the most interesting place.
And while we’re on the subject of diversity, Asia is not one big race, and there’s not one big country called ‘The Islands’, and no, I am not from there.

There are a hundred ways to slip between the cracks of our not so credible cultural assumptions about race and religion. 
Most people are suprised that my father is Chinese. 
Like there’s some kind of preconditioned look for the half-Chinese, lesbian poet who used to be Catholic, but now believes in dreams.

Let’s get real sister-boy in the double-x hooded sweatshirt. 
That blonde-haired, blue-eyed Jesus in the Vatican ain’t right. 
That motherfucker was Jewish, not white. 
Christ was a middle-eastern rasta man who ate grapes in the company of prostitutes and he drank wine more than he drank water. 
Born of the spirit, the disciples loved him in the flesh.

But the discourse is not on those of us who identify as gay or lesbian or even straight. 
The state needs us to be either a clear left or right. 
Those in the middle get caught in the cross – fire away at the other side.
If you are not for us, then you must be against us. 
If you are not for us, then you must be against us.
People get scared enough, they pick a team. 
Be it for Buddha or Krishna or Christ, I believe God is that place between belief and what you name it. 
I believe holy is what you do when there is nothing between your actions and the truth.

The truth is I’m afraid to draw your black lines around me, I’m not always pale in the middle, I come in too many flavors for one f***ing spoon.
I am never one thing or the other. 
At night I am everything I fear, tears and sorrows, black windows and muffled screams.
In the morning, I am all I ever want to be: rain and laughter, bare footprints and invisible seams, always without breath or definition. 
I claim every single dawn, for yesterday is simply what I was, and tomorrow even that will be gone.”

queerbetweenthelines:

LGBTQ* Artists You Should Know: Robert Giard (1939-2002)

Particular Voices: Portraits of Gay and Lesbian Writers

(following from the Robert Giard Foundation)

In 1985, after attending a performance of Larry Kramer’s The Normal Heart—one of the first dramas dealing with the impact of AIDS on gay life—Robert Giard decided to devote his energies as a photographer to some aspect of the gay and lesbian community. Thus was born his two-decade long project of photographing over 600 gay and lesbian writers—from famous playwrights to emerging novelists to unsung poets and pioneering performance artists. 

Particular Voices: Portraits of Gay & Lesbian Writers is an extraordinary visual record of the flowering of queer voices in the wake of the Stonewall Rebellion and the AIDS crises, while also paying homage to many earlier 20th Century activists and writers who had urged the creation of a community identity, or otherwise gave public voice to gay and lesbian sensibilities.

(Photos, clockwise, beginning from upper left: Ann Bannon, Robert Howard, Kitty Tsui, and Adrienne Rich.)

**Note from Ruth Elizabeth:

The winner of a Lambda Literary Award in 1997, 182 of these portraits are collected in a book also titled Particular Voices: Portraits of Gay and Lesbian Writers, alongside excerpts of each writer’s work carefully chosen together by Giard and the writers themselves. GORGEOUS.

LGBTQ* Marriage Equality (USA) Political Cartoons

Some of the leading political illustrators and their cartoons from the last few weeks.

(Source)

Moderator Response Videos

KNOWhomo creator, Rebecca, responds to internet trolls and bullies

(You can watch the full video here)

smith-q-and-a:

Some great shots from yesterday!  Submit yr own

LGBTQ* Tumblrs We’re Watching: smith-q-and-a

Q: Trans women at Smith?

A: Trans women at Smith. 

Note from Ruth Elizabeth:

I’ve been looking for a way to articulate my feelings regarding this post from Calliope Wong regarding the dismissal of her application to Smith after the school noted that her gender marker was male on her FAFSA. As a student at Hollins University (a women’s institution with a rather problematic trans* policy we’ve been trying the modify for years), I am thrilled to see such solidarity and support for trans* women from our family at Smith.

LGBTQ* Materials in Video Vlogs - Nostalgia Style

Lindsay and Rantasmo’s - “Disney Needs More Gay”

(direct link HERE)

Personal note from Rebecca: If you enjoy any of the video above, I recommend checking out more of Lindsay’s videos, especially the Smurfette Principle. You can also watch more “Needs More Gay” on Rantasmo’s channel.

KNOWhomo Personal Responses:

KNOWhomo’s response to the frequently asked question, “I identify as bisexual or pansexual, but my current partner has the opposite gender identify as myself. My friends are saying that means I’m not queer. Is that true?”

For the full video response (and pep talk?!) click here.

LGBTQ* Memes You May Have Missed

Queer Femme Problems 

LGBTQ* Videos We’re Watching Right Now:

College Senior Kirsten Bledsoe wants Mila Kunis to attend Cotillion, a spring dance held annually at Hollins University in Roanoke, Virginia. This year it will be on April 26th, and Kirsten has the courage to ask Mila to be her date. I’d say that’s something the KNOWhomo family might be behind! 

<3 Good luck, Kirsten!

via (femmelyfe), original poster is (kunissexual)