The Bilerico Project

Why Polanski, After All These Years?

brynn@bilerico.com (Brynn Craffey) — Mon, 28 Sep 2009 09:30:00 -0500

George Bush remains free and charged with no crimes, despite lying the American people into an illegal war and occupation that has so far cost taxpayers $700 billion (by the time you read this) and resulted in the deaths of nearly 4,500 American soldiers, as well as an estimated 800,000 to 1.3 million dead Iraqi civilians, 4.5 million Iraqi war refugees, and left Iraq shattered and possibly ungovernable for decades.

Bush remains free despite crimes of negligence and incompetence in relation to 9/11 and Katrina that left thousands of Americans dead; despite demonstrable election fraud in Florida and Ohio; despite instituting illegal detention, and ordering torture, murder, and disappearances in Afghanistan and Iraq; despite authorizing illegal spying on Americans without warrants; and so on.

Dick Cheney remains free and charged with no crimes despite perhaps even more culpability than Bush in Iraq's illegal invasion, as well as neglect and incompetence in relation to 9/11. He also betrayed the identity of an American CIA agent; presided over conflicts-of-interest and profited enormously from war profiteering in Iraq and Afghanistan; and masterminded and instituted the illegal and utterly depraved program of detention, torture, and disappearances after 9/11--a policy he still strongly defends.

Wall Street profiteers not only remain free and charged with no crimes, but continue to reap insanely huge salaries, obscene bonuses, and lavish perks, despite defrauding taxpayers of nearly $13 trillion (at last count) and bringing the world's economy to the brink of a disaster we may still not avoid, in the process causing the losses of hundreds of thousands of American jobs and millions of homes.

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Exceptions

brynn@bilerico.com (Brynn Craffey) — Mon, 21 Sep 2009 09:30:00 -0500

I try to check the headlines in the UK's Guardian, if not on a daily basis, at least every few days. On Saturday, I came across a tragic story of two young, British, working-class men in love with each other, neither of whom seems to have been gay -- although it's impossible to be absolutely sure from the story as reported.

As you can see from the photo, though, showing Barry Delaney, 25, collapsed and weeping, it is a story with a heartbreaking ending. Delaney promised his best friend, Kevin Elliott, 22 at the time, to wear a dress -- "the brighter, the better" -- to Elliott's funeral in the terrible event Elliott was killed in action in one of the two wars of occupation in which Britain has joined America in the Middle East.

And, yes, in the photo Delaney is at Elliot's funeral, wearing a tight green mini-dress and pink leg-warmers. Had he donned this outfit under different circumstances in his blue-collar community, it likely would have resulted in a tragedy of a different kind, with himself the victim. In this case, however, his cross-dressing was accepted as a sign of respect, even by Elliott's comrades from Britain's Black Watch infantry who attended the ceremony in their regimental uniforms.

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One (Huge) Score for the Girl's Team

brynn@bilerico.com (Brynn Craffey) — Sun, 30 Aug 2009 14:30:00 -0500

Reading an article on Saturday in the L.A. Times about the now widely-reported and extremely disturbing story of kidnap, rape, eventual impregnation, and 18-year enslavement of Jaycee Dugard, then 11 and now 29, I was struck by the fact that the two law-enforcement officers who broke the case and rescued the young woman and her two daughters, were both women.

Lisa Campbell and Ally Jacobs of the UC Berkeley Police Department (pictured below) were suspicious of Phillip Garrido and the two girls he introduced as his daughters and did something that numerous authorities over a 15-year period who had encountered the ego-maniacal, sex-obsessed, clearly delusional man in charge of two young children had failed to do: they acted on their suspicions, investigated further, and intervened. In the process, they ended the 18-year nightmare for Jaycee, her children, and her family of origin. (Although, you can definitely argue, a new sort of nightmare is just beginning for them all as they struggle to come to terms with what happened and adjust to the new circumstances of their lives.)

(Photo: Paul Chinn / Associated Press / August 28)

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The Gender Police Strike Again

brynn@bilerico.com (Brynn Craffey) — Sun, 23 Aug 2009 14:30:00 -0500

A South African runner, Caster Semenya, 18, is being forced to prove that she is, indeed, a young woman and not "a man," as her detractors allege.

Semenya, whose athletic performance recently improved greatly and who, it seems, was a tomboy as she grew up in an impoverished rural village, enduring taunts and other discrimination as she transgressed what the Guardian newspaper describes as "the rigid gender roles of South Africa's traditional rural communities."

So, our culture's gender roles - as aptly illustrated by this situation - are less rigid than those primitive black people's, are they? Unfortunately, I don't have time to go into that right now.

The Guardian article reads, in part:

The father of a women's world champion athlete today angrily denied accusations that the teenager was secretly born a man, insisting: "She is my little girl." Caster Semenya, 18, is undergoing a gender test to prove she is female after beating her rivals by a huge margin to win the gold medal in the world championship 800 metres in Berlin.

Family, friends and teachers at her home in South Africa recalled how Semenya played football with boys, wore trousers instead of skirts and endured teasing by her peers. But all asserted that she is definitely a woman.

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Where Is persiankiwi?

brynn@bilerico.com (Brynn Craffey) — Sat, 27 Jun 2009 13:30:00 -0500

As the Iranian government and entities around the world with various vested interests begin to pronounce the Iranian "crisis easing," what is happening on the ground in Tehran is anybody's guess. Iranian authorities continue their brutal suppression of dissent: killing, beating, and arresting demonstrators, shutting down websites, confiscating or destroying computers, cameras, and cell phones, throwing journalists out of the country, and crushing any hope of first-person accounts getting out.

In the ominous and spreading silence, I fear for one voice in particular whose vivid reports I'd come to rely on. A twitter feed by the name of "persiankiwi."

Where is persiankiwi?

The person or persons reporting by that name fell silent on Wednesday, June 24th, 8:09 p.m. local time. Nothing has been heard from them since then, and their final tweets leave me fearing the worst:

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IMO, This Says It All

brynn@bilerico.com (Brynn Craffey) — Fri, 26 Jun 2009 16:00:00 -0500

In case you missed this, the BBC interviewed Dr. Arash Hejazi, who tried to save Neda Soltan's* life on the streets of Iran. By speaking publicly, and very eloquently, he has effectively exiled himself from his homeland.

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You say you want a revolution....

brynn@bilerico.com (Brynn Craffey) — Wed, 24 Jun 2009 10:00:00 -0500

(Please note: The video linked to the Guardian article below, while not the complete video of Neda Soltani's death, is shocking, and I urge caution in viewing it.)

I'm surprised there hasn't been more (any?) discussion here about the dramatic events unfolding in Iran...do folks feel that what's happening there doesn't concern them? I know we're an LGBT-focused blog, but we're also global residents, living in a time of incredible change.

As well, folks are dying in Iran in an effort to make their votes count and voices heard. It seems the least we can do is pay attention, especially being Americans whose government set in motion more than half a century ago the events that led directly to what's happening today in Iran.

Moreover, many of us consider ourselves political activists. Although the official policies of the two front-running Iranian presidential candidates didn't differ that much during the campaign, the brutal, authoritarian tactics of the government since the election was stolen has enormously widened the gulf between the two sides.

Likewise, the groundbreaking amalgam of technology and grassroots resistance has changed the face of political activism for some time to come.

Continue reading "You say you want a revolution...."...

Bravo à la France!

brynn@bilerico.com (Brynn Craffey) — Wed, 18 Mar 2009 16:30:00 -0500

Leave it to the French to have the balls to respond to the Pope's heartless and idiotic misinformation campaign against condoms!

The Roman Catholic Church says marital fidelity and sexual abstinence are the best way to prevent the spread of HIV.

But France, echoing the reaction of some aid agencies, said it "voices extremely sharp concern over the consequences of [the Pope's comments]".

"While it is not up to us to pass judgment on Church doctrine, we consider that such comments are a threat to public health policies and the duty to protect human life," foreign ministry spokesman Eric Chevallier said.

Thank goodness someone responded!!! How many people have died worldwide, do you think, as a direct result of the Catholic Church's opposition to condom use?

Spain to allow FtM into the Military

brynn@bilerico.com (Brynn Craffey) — Thu, 12 Feb 2009 13:30:00 -0500

Just to provide some perspective on how much power the religious right wing wields in the United States, consider this breaking news story coming out of Catholic Spain, where the Defense Ministry, headed by a woman, seems to be on the verge of allowing FtM's into the military.

Following his second unsuccessful attempt to join the Spanish Armed forces on Tuesday this week, 28 year old transsexual Aitor G.R from Jaén, is now celebrating the news from the Ministry for Defense that they are currently completing the revision of the legislation of medical exclusions, under which Aitor was rejected because of his lack of a penis or testicles.

A ministry spokesman said that as soon as the new guidelines are announced, from the very same day candidates who lack a penis would be accepted.

Now, as a pacifist, I'd prefer to see progress in areas other than a society's ability to wage war. Nevertheless, even I will admit that this represents progress I never expected to see in my lifetime--much less, in Catholic Spain!

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Happy birthday, Charles!

brynn@bilerico.com (Brynn Craffey) — Mon, 09 Feb 2009 12:00:00 -0500

The 200th birthday of Charles Darwin is next Thursday and may I be the first one on Bilerico to wish a rousing "Happy birthday!" to the distinguished British naturalist, whose brilliant "On the Origin of Species" threw religious fundamentalists into a tizzy they're still refusing to conclude?

The United States stands alone among modern western nations in that roughly half its adult population still disbelieves in the theory of evolution.

In case you are one of the many who don't realize that the word "theory" in this context does not convey uncertainty, let me clarify. In a scientific context, "theory" refers to an explanation or prediction based on a body of evidence that is under scientific examination. It can be a new theory with weak supporting evidence that is eventually discredited; or, as in the case of evolution, a theory that is firmly established by two centuries of investigation, experimentation, and supporting evidence.

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All Powerful Trannies Threaten Humanity

brynn@bilerico.com (Brynn Craffey) — Wed, 24 Dec 2008 14:00:00 -0500

In his end-of-year address to senior Vatican staff, Pope Benedict XVI, head of the 1.13 billion person-strong Catholic Church,has warned of the dangers of "gender theory," saying it threatens humanity's existence and equating its potential destructive power to that of the disappearing rain forests.

POPE Benedict XVI has denounced gender theory, warning that it blurs the distinction between male and female and could thus lead to the "self-destruction" of the human race.

When the Roman Catholic Church defends God's Creation, "it does not only defend the earth, water and the air ... but (it) also protects man from his own destruction'', the Pope said in his end-of-year speech to the Vatican hierarchy today.

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A Novel Take on Marriage and Rick Warren

brynn@bilerico.com (Brynn Craffey) — Tue, 23 Dec 2008 17:30:00 -0500

Bob Ostertag, over at Huffington Post, has written an excellent article arguing that elevating same-sex marriage to the forefront of the LGBT movement is ill-advised both strategically and morally. Even more thought-provoking, he writes that rather than an enemy, Rick Warren might actually be someone the LGBT community can work with.

Regarding the first point, as much as I support equal rights, I have been disturbed by the prominence that marriage has assumed in our movement, to the exclusion of all other issues, including the idea of equal rights for queers and straights who decline to marry.

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CA Attorney General Supports Repeal of Prop 8!

brynn@bilerico.com (Brynn Craffey) — Sat, 20 Dec 2008 10:00:00 -0500

Californian Attorney General (and former two-term governor) Jerry Brown, in a surprise turnabout, has filed a brief to the State Supreme Court in support of overturning Proposition 8!

Prior to this move, Brown had publicly stated he would uphold Prop 8. Attorneys general are expected to enforce and defend state laws unless they have a strong reason not to. The fact that Brown has taken this high-profile and very political step indicates that he and his team of attorneys are confident they stand on strong legal ground and can defend their position.

In another surprise, Brown did not argue against Prop 8 by saying that the ballot measure was a constitutional revision--which would have thus required the support of two-thirds (instead of a simple majority) of the electorate to pass. Rather, Brown took a totally different legal tact by arguing that Prop. 8 conflicts with the State Constitution's Declaration of Rights, the basic guarantees of liberty declared in the document's first sentences.

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Irish Equality Authority Budget Cut by 43%

brynn@bilerico.com (Brynn Craffey) — Wed, 17 Dec 2008 11:00:00 -0500

I was shocked to read today that the Irish government has cut the budget of the Equality Authority -- a civil service organization tasked with enforcing non-discrimination legislation in Ireland -- by 43%!

The Equality Authority's CEO, Niall Crowley, resigned in protest his week. Quite a courageous act in this frightening economy.

Equality groups today described the resignation of the Equality Authority chief executive as a principled and courageous step.

Niall Crowley resigned after saying the organisation has been made unviable by the extent of cuts to its budget, and the Government's insistence on the decentralisation of most of its remaining staff.

In a statement today, the Equality & Rights Alliance (ERA), a coalition of 71 civil society organisations, said it admired and supported the stance taken by Mr Crowley in stepping down.

The alliance added it "deeply regretted" Mr Crowley "had been forced into this position because of the budget actions which had effectively rendered the Equality Authority unviable".

Niall is a great guy. I worked with him and others in Dublin on a 10,000 Euro project to educate Irish general practitioners about transsexuality.

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Bittersweet Victory

brynn@bilerico.com (Brynn Craffey) — Wed, 05 Nov 2008 20:30:00 -0500

For California's LGBT residents, last night's historic election victory is a bittersweet one.

At the same time that Barack Obama's amazing victory was being proclaimed, it become clear that Proposition 8 was headed to victory. Bigotry went down to defeat on one front even as it triumphed on another. I drifted off to sleep listening to election coverage around 1:00 a.m., and I deliberately did not try to find out the latest Prop 8 figures, holding on to hope that it might still lose when San Francisco and Los Angeles precincts were finally tallied.

I woke up this morning to the devastating news: with 95% of votes counted, a historically high turnout of California voters, by a margin of approximately 4-6 percent, chose to stick it to the LGBT community.

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