The Bilerico Project

CA Bay Area: Vigil Sunday for Jorge Steven Lopez-Mercado and Jason Mattison Jr.

jessica@bilerico.com (Jessica Hoffmann) — Sat, 21 Nov 2009 14:00:00 -0500

This Sunday in Oakland, Bay Area queers and allies will gather near Lake Merritt for a candlelight vigil and open mic to mourn Jorge Steven López-Mercado and Jason Mattison Jr., queer and gender non-conforming teenagers who were brutally murdered last week. While mourning, the gatherers will also "brainstorm ways to keep their community safer from violence," say vigil organizers.

Lopez-Mercado, 19, was mutilated and murdered last weekend in Puerto Rico by Juan Martinez-Matos. Martinez-Matos has said he dismembered and set fire to Lopez-Mercado after discovering that Lopez-Mercado had male-assigned genitalia and was "wearing women's clothing"--a remark many fear is setting up a "trans panic" defense.

Jason Mattison Jr., 15, was raped and murdered during the same week in Baltimore, Maryland.

Details about the vigil and others across the country after the jump.

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LGBT Resistance to the Coup in Honduras

jessica@bilerico.com (Jessica Hoffmann) — Mon, 16 Nov 2009 14:00:00 -0500

On Saturday I attended a talk by Indyra Mendoza, an activist with the LGTB Coalition Against the Coup in Honduras, who was in LA for a speaking tour. Her message was simple and powerful:

Murders of trans women and gay men in Honduras have escalated rapidly since the coup. She reported that there were 17 documented murders of trans women between March 2004 and March 2009; there have been 15 in the last four months alone. LGBT activists believe most of these murders have been assassinations by military and police, but authorities' refusal to perform autopsies have denied them the opportunity to prove that the bullets a series of trans women, and a few gay men, have taken to their heads have been military-issue.

More after the jump.

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No Impact Man and the Bizarre Notion that Heteronormativity Lacks Impact

jessica@bilerico.com (Jessica Hoffmann) — Thu, 17 Sep 2009 18:00:00 -0500

The new documentary No Impact Man is about a man who tried to reduce his environmental footprint as much as possible for a year. Actually, as Jonathan Hiskes pointed out at Grist, it's a documentary about an entire household (husband/father, wife/mother, and child) who tried to reduce their environmental footprint for a year. And actually, as quite a few people pointed out when this household got attention in the New York Times and big morning TV shows during their year-long experiment, it's about a white, liberal, class-privileged, urban, U.S.-based family who tried to reduce their environmental footprint for a year.

If you believe the journey of privileged liberals as they discover more progressive or radical or social-justice-oriented ideas is a useful story to tell in popular culture -- perhaps because such stories might lead to other privileged liberals' being provoked to paradigm shifts or changes in behavior -- you'll likely appreciate how the film shows No Impact Man's awareness that individual action must be linked to collective action and structural change, as well as his discovery (via Majora Carter) of environmental-justice movement, which addresses how racism and economic exploitation connect to "green" issues. I haven't sorted out my beliefs on that matter.

What I want to talk about here is how No Impact Man reveals and shores up a very privileged-American culture of individualism rooted in the isolated, heteronormative nuclear family, and a related lack of critique of capitalism and consideration of broader visions of sustainability and interdependence.

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The Revolution of Desire

jessica@bilerico.com (Jessica Hoffmann) — Wed, 19 Aug 2009 11:00:00 -0500

In 1971, a handful of feminists and gay militants shouting "family is pollution" demonstrated for revolutionary sexual liberation. 35 years after, what remains of these ideals and struggles?

That's the opening of The Revolution of Desire, a 2007 documentary about radical-queer activism in early-70s France.

What remains indeed?

More after the jump...

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Fig Trees, Transliminal Criminals, and Other Plural Nouns: Dispatch from Outfest 2009

jessica@bilerico.com (Jessica Hoffmann) — Sun, 12 Jul 2009 17:30:00 -0500

So, you know, there's a bo-ring school of thought about how political art is didactic, great art can't be explicitly political, and bla bla bla silliness that shores up existing power structures and of course anyone who's outside or critical of those structures knows better.

Still, of course, there's a ton of mediocre political art, just like there's a ton of mediocre every other kind of art, and already I'm bored of this limiting-loaded vocabulary ("politics," "art," etc.) and have little desire to type about any of the less-than-ripe things I've seen so far at Outfest. After the jump, notes on some of the very exciting things I've seen in the first few days of the festival -- films that are passionately political and gorgeous, complicatedly layered and insistently in social contexts ... and, often, for those reasons and more, very hot.

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Why I Don't Do 'Bi'

jessica@bilerico.com (Jessica Hoffmann) — Tue, 21 Apr 2009 16:30:00 -0500

Editors' note: This post ran over a year and a half ago on TBP and has been one of the most popular. Since there are lots of new readers on the site, we thought we'd run it again. Enjoy!

It's been years, but suddenly this week the word "bisexual" is landing in my life a lot. First, I was invited via e-mail to moderate a panel of young lesbian writers at an upcoming book fair. I replied--to a person whose identity and politics I know nothing about--that I have to check my schedule and, not-sure-if-you-care-but "I don't identify as a lesbian. I identify as queer, and I often do work around lesbian media and literature, and I'd be happy to moderate the panel, but"--just checking--"I want to let you know in case you specifically want a lesbian to moderate this panel."

He replied that, yeah, I should check my calendar--and meanwhile he'd think about the lesbian-versus-queer question. Maybe we could even talk about it, because he's curious about why so many young people identify as queer instead of lesbian and gay. [Much more after the jump...]

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Quick Report-Back: Fusion Opening Night

jessica@bilerico.com (Jessica Hoffmann) — Sun, 08 Mar 2009 15:30:00 -0500

I hope some of you L.A. readers are out at Fusion events today while I'm in my room reading make/shift submissions. Quickly, thought I'd post a little report-back from opening night of the festival:

Turnout was fantastic (sold out!); path-crossing with almost-neighbors I see more often on Twitter than in real life, kinda ridiculously, was good; network-y small talk will probably never not freak me out a little; the opening short, "El Abuelo," a portrait of poet Joe Jimenez by Dino Dinco, is really beautiful and you should try and see it ever screens anywhere near you; I am really trying to resist expending energy on a critique of an astonishingly retrograde film in which butch/femme is narrow and rigid, all butches are tops and all femmes are bottoms, and those feminine creatures who are the only ones that like penetration are kinda silly-stupid little girlies; and I have mixed and not-yet-processed feelings about both "The Young and Evil" and "La Corona," so I'm gonna think on those a little more before typing about them.

Did anyone else go? Thoughts on the films? Anyone attending the conference that's running alongside the festival? I'd love to hear report-backs from that.

Speak: Radical Women of Color Media

jessica@bilerico.com (Jessica Hoffmann) — Sun, 08 Mar 2009 09:30:00 -0500

Happy International Women's Day!

I just discovered (via brownfemipower) that the Speak CD is now available for purchase. It's a compilation of poetry, spoken word, and music featuring radical-women-of-color artist/activists from all over the U.S. -- and it's being sold as a fundraiser to support mothers and financially restricted activists in traveling to the Allied Media Conference in Detroit this summer. Check it out.

This Weekend in L.A.: Outfest's Fusion Film Festival, Mujeres de Maiz

jessica@bilerico.com (Jessica Hoffmann) — Fri, 06 Mar 2009 16:30:00 -0500

I'm looking forward to two rad events gracing Los Angeles this weekend: Fusion, an annual LGBT-people-of-color film festival presented by Outfest, and Mujeres de Maiz, an art show and performance celebrating International Women's Day at Farmlab.

Maybe I'll see some of you there? (Details on both after the jump.)

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Regarding that video ...

jessica@bilerico.com (Jessica Hoffmann) — Sun, 08 Feb 2009 17:30:00 -0500

Regarding that video,

Please don't forget to be critical about marriage.
Please love the weirdo queers, too.
Please don't exclusively equate love with long-term, two-party commitment. Or atomized nuclear families.
Please don't think assimilation + inclusion are justice + freedom.
Please expand definitions of love + family.
Please don't heteronormative-ify us.
Please work for love and against violence in huge, visionary, multifarious ways.

(And please note: Soviet Kitsch is really the best Regina Spektor album. Some songs on that make me cry.)

Hello, San Francisco (with an LA Infusion): Get Queer-Literary Next Week ...

jessica@bilerico.com (Jessica Hoffmann) — Fri, 06 Feb 2009 10:00:00 -0500

Some LA friends and collaborators are heading to the Bay Area next week for some events I thought you might want to check out:

Monday, the rad and talented Raquel Gutierrez (of Butchlalis de Panochtitlan, among many other projects), is participating in a space-specific poetry series at Galeria de la Raza in San Francisco.

And Wednesday, my regular hiking buddy, filmmaker/poet/writer Hilary Goldberg, will be featured in Michelle Tea's RADAR reading series along with Elan Margolis, Lauren Logiudice, and Bana Witt

Addresses and more after the jump. (Ever partial to my So Cal hometown, I only boost San Francisco when it is graced with a little LA infusion.)

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Come See Me + Make/shift in Brooklyn on Saturday!

jessica@bilerico.com (Jessica Hoffmann) — Wed, 07 Jan 2009 17:30:00 -0500

I'm heading to NY for a few days this week. On Saturday in Brooklyn, we're having a reading/party/benefit for make/shift, the feminist magazine I coedit and copublish. There will be readings by some wonderful queer writers, and I'd love to see some Bilerico contributors and readers there! The details:

make/shift in Brooklyn!
Saturday, January 10, 2009, 6:30 p.m.
Fort Green, Brooklyn.
(Because this is in a private residence, we're asking that you please RSVP to info@makeshiftmag.com for the address.)

My coeditor/copublisher, Daria Yudacufski, and I will be in Brooklyn for an evening of readings, music, and food at a house party to build community and benefit make/shift. Hosted by Mariana Ruiz Firmat and Chad Jones, with readings by Jen Benka, Blackamazon, Mariana Ruiz Firmat, Maegan "la Mala" Ortiz, and Masha Tupitsyn. Won't you join us?

"Queer" as a Challenge: Notes on Louise Bourgeois, Milk, Revolutionary Road, White-Led Feminist and Gay-Rights Movements, and Etc.

jessica@bilerico.com (Jessica Hoffmann) — Fri, 26 Dec 2008 13:30:00 -0500

Queer, as in "strange or odd from a conventional viewpoint" [Random House Webster's Unabridged]; "questionable ... differing in some way from what is usual or normal." As in "often disparaging: homosexual" or "sometimes offensive: gay." As in "a contemporary antonym of the heteronormative"--or, wait: "a zone of possibilities." As in: [more after the jump]

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Queer Lit: What I'm Reading (Offline)

jessica@bilerico.com (Jessica Hoffmann) — Sun, 23 Nov 2008 17:30:00 -0500

Earlier this year, I realized that I don't read nearly as much in print as I used to. That, and some other things (like the fact that I typically spend more than 10 hours a day at my laptop, and the related fact that I tend to be a bit -aholic in my relationship to the machine and the work I do on it), inspired me to try something new: no-computer Sundays.

It's been about six months now, and I love it. I'm reading more in print, and I'm also spending more time doing stuff outside, taking care of my apartment, and cooking -- all of which, of course, improve overall quality of life enormously. So, I'm typing this post in advance on Saturday night to let you know about some of the rad things I've been reading on my computer-free secular sabbath. (This'll be the Queer-as-in-Something-Other-than-Gay-Lesbian-and/or-Straight-Lit edition.)

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Duanna Johnson: Your Outrage, Support Needed

jessica@bilerico.com (Jessica Hoffmann) — Sat, 15 Nov 2008 13:00:00 -0500

The Tennessee Transgender Political Coalition has set up a way to donate to the fund for Duanna Johnson's funeral online. Please help share the funeral expenses as a community.

And please read this: "Can the LGBT Community Spare Some Outrage for Duanna Johnson?" at Angry Brown Butch.

Background:

Months ago, Alex reported on Duanna Johnson's being brutalized by police

And just a few days ago, Waymon posted the terrible news that Johnson had been shot to death.