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GAYWRITES

@gaywrites / gaywrites.org

LGBTQ news, media, culture & more. An archive of daily posts, 2010-2018.
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gaywrites

Welcome to GayWrites!

You may have reached this page through a Tumblr reblog, my website, or some other internet path. Either way, welcome!

Firs things first: visit the GayWrites homepage and browse the different tabs at the top to search the content archive by topic. 

After eight long years, GayWrites is no longer publishing daily content. This is for many reasons, particularly my need to focus on profitable work — this blog was always a labor of love — and my own wellbeing. I have loved every minute of blogging here, but considering recent changes to the platform and to my own career aspirations, it’s time for the next great adventure.

I want to offer enormous, sincere gratitude to the hundreds of thousands of you who have been on this journey with me. I’ve met good friends here, some of them IRL. I’ve learned a lot about myself, my community, and people who are nothing like me. My wife was my Tumblr follower before she was my girlfriend. All of this to say, the internet is sometimes good, and at times I believe I’ve witnessed the very best of it. For that and so much else, I’m grateful. 

Some business: This page and the GayWrites YouTube channel will remain up indefinitely. Other social media channels will be phased out over time. Thank you to everyone who has followed me on any platforms, purchased shirts or stickers, and generally been a part of this community; your generosity and kind words have never gone unnoticed, even if I haven’t always responded. 

If you’d like to follow me to hear about future writing projects, blogs, bisexuality puns, etc., you can find me on Twitter, Medium, and Goodreads. I won’t be checking messages consistently here anymore, but you can always reach out on any of those platforms or email me instead. 

I love you. It’s not goodbye, it’s see you somewhere else.

-Camille

#lgbtq#personal#feelings#lots and lots of feelings
gaywrites
gaywrites
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gaywrites

Like many of you, I am not thrilled with this Tumblr news!

Hey pals.

You’ve probably already noticed that I’m not here as much as I used to be. The recent announcement about Tumblr removing adult content is making me think more and more that it might be time to close up shop. The question now is whether and where to relocate.

I’d love to keep part of this blog alive on Instagram, though my audience there is real slim. If you’re up for that, would you consider following me over there? And if not, well, I’ll keep ya posted on what’s next.

Sending good thoughts to those who found some community and safety in Tumblr’s NSFW corners and those whose lives and livelihood will be affected the most by this change.

gaywrites

Like many of you, I am not thrilled with this Tumblr news!

Hey pals.

You've probably already noticed that I'm not here as much as I used to be. The recent announcement about Tumblr removing adult content is making me think more and more that it might be time to close up shop. The question now is whether and where to relocate.

I'd love to keep part of this blog alive on Instagram, though my audience there is real slim. If you're up for that, would you consider following me over there? And if not, well, I'll keep ya posted on what's next.

Sending good thoughts to those who found some community and safety in Tumblr's NSFW corners and those whose lives and livelihood will be affected the most by this change.

#lgbtq#news#adult content ban#tumblr#personal#internet
gaywrites
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'The Prom’ celebrates ‘first LGBTQ kiss’ in Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade history
The cast of Broadway's The Prom musical gave the LGBTQ community something to be thankful for on Thanksgiving Day.
ew.com
The cast of Broadway’s The Prom musical gave the LGBTQ community something to be thankful for on Thanksgiving Day.
Actors, including leads Caitlin Kinnunen and Isabelle McCalla, burst out of the theater and into the streets for Macy’s big holiday parade Thursday. Closing out their performance of the big number, Kinnunen and McCalla shared a kiss on live television, which appears to be the first same-sex kiss in the parade’s history.

Happy Thanksgiving, indeed! 

#lgbtq#news#thanksgiving#macy's day parade#representation#theater#broadway#the prom
gaywrites
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Scotland will incorporate LGBTQ history education nationwide
Equality campaigners hail new inclusive curriculum as ‘monumental victory’
www.theguardian.com|Libby Brooks

Scotland made history recently by becoming the first nation in the world to mandate teaching about LGBTQ history and social movements in public school curriculum. 

State schools will be required to teach pupils about the history of LGBTI equalities and movements, as well as tackling homophobia and transphobia and exploring LGBTI identity, after ministers accepted in full the recommendations of a working group led by the Time for Inclusive Education (TIE) campaign. There will be no exemptions or opt-outs to the policy, which will embed LGBTI inclusive education across the curriculum and across subjects and which the Scottish government believes is a world first.
Jordan Daly, the co-founder of TIE, said the “destructive legacy” of section 28 had come to an end. This legislation, introduced in 1988, banned local authorities in the UK from “promoting” homosexuality, until it was eventually repealed in Scotland 2001 and in the rest of the UK two years later.
Daly said: “This is a monumental victory for our campaign, and a historic moment for our country. The implementation of LGBTI inclusive education across all state schools is a world first. In a time of global uncertainty, this sends a strong and clear message to LGBTI young people that they are valued here in Scotland.”

Incredible. I can’t wait until the day when this is the standard around the world.

#lgbtq#news#scotland#international#UK#education#history
gaywrites
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In ‘Rainbow Wave,’ L.G.B.T. Candidates Are Elected in Record Numbers | via NYT
More than 150 L.G.B.T. candidates were elected nationwide, and Massachusetts voted to uphold a state law protecting transgender people from discrimination.
www.nytimes.com
More openly lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender people were elected Tuesday night than in any previous election, signaling a shift in cultural attitudes even as the Trump administration has chipped away at L.G.B.T. rights.
The results are still rolling in, but at least 153 have won so far, said Elliot Imse, a spokesman for the Victory Fund, a nonpartisan political action committee devoted to electing L.G.B.T. candidates. The group endorsed 225 candidates in this election cycle, nearly all of whom were Democrats.

ICYMI! 

#lgbtq#news#politics#election#transgender#massachusetts
gaywrites
Cis allies need to understand that this is a struggle for our lives. It cannot be limited to voting or constrained by adherence to ‘civility.’ Our enemies do not respect our existence, and they deserve no such courtesy in return. To combat the assault on trans lives, we must proclaim that no person or government has any authority over our bodies and genders.

Voting Isn’t Enough to Stop the Assault on Trans Lives — We Must Also Fight for Justice | Janus Rose for Them

#lgbtq#news#voting#election day#justice#rights#quotes#read this now#transgender
gaywrites
Being Jewish was my first identity, it feels as inextricable to my being as being queer and being trans. To me, being raised Jewish was about values, many that I still hold dear and prioritize: family, community, tradition, questioning, acts of kindness. Being raised Jewish was also about anti-assimilation. By that I mean that I learned about anti-semitism very early on (though I would not consciously experience it until my teens), and I also learned that because Christianity informs the dominant culture in the United States (much like heterosexuality), to move through this country as a Jew means to assert your identity if you want to be recognized. That is, culturally, I learned that I am a Jew first, that I cannot extricate myself from my Jewish identity. I learned that our community spaces and our synagogues are sacred and important places, and I still believe and experience that. Religiously, I don’t always agree with or practice everything, and politically, I know we don’t all agree with each other (because Jews are not a monolith), but there is actually something very Jewish about that.

21 Queer Jews on Why We Love Being Jewish | via Autostraddle

#lgbtq#news#religion#judaism#jewish#identity#faith#quotes#pride
gaywrites

ICYMI: During the fifth inning of a World Series game this weekend, activists unfurled a giant trans pride flag bearing the words “TRANS PEOPLE DESERVE TO LIVE” in the middle of the crowd. The group TransLatin@ Coalition was behind the flag, citing protests of Trump’s newest proposal to erase trans people; activists Maria Roman and Bamby Salcedo filmed themselves draping it in the stadium, where it stayed for several minutes. YES. (via PinkNews)

#lgbtq#news#transgender#pride#activism#protests#images
gaywrites
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Trump administration considers literally erasing the concept of trans identity, eliminating protections & recognition
The Trump administration is considering a legal definition of gender as immutable and fixed at birth, the most drastic in a series of moves against transgender people.
www.nytimes.com

A terrifying New York Times article today announced that the Trump administration is considering “narrowly defining gender as a biological, immutable condition determined by genitalia at birth,” a measure that would essentially eliminate any and all recognition of transgender and nonbinary people and, therefore, their civil rights. 

The memo from the Department of Health and Human Services claims officials need a clearer definition of gender. Their proposed definition “would define sex as either male or female, unchangeable, and determined by the genitals that a person is born with, according to a draft reviewed by The Times. Any dispute about one’s sex would have to be clarified using genetic testing.”

“Sex means a person’s status as male or female based on immutable biological traits identifiable by or before birth,” the department proposed in the memo, which was drafted and has been circulating since last spring. “The sex listed on a person’s birth certificate, as originally issued, shall constitute definitive proof of a person’s sex unless rebutted by reliable genetic evidence.”
The new definition would essentially eradicate federal recognition of the estimated 1.4 million Americans who have opted to recognize themselves — surgically or otherwise — as a gender other than the one they were born into.
“This takes a position that what the medical community understands about their patients — what people understand about themselves — is irrelevant because the government disagrees,” said Catherine E. Lhamon, who led the Education Department’s Office for Civil Rights in the Obama administration and helped write transgender guidance that is being undone.

Let me be perfectly clear: Being transgender is not something you can believe or not believe in, support or not support. It’s a reality. Trans people exist. Always have, always will. What this will do is make it infinitely *more* difficult than it already is to be trans in America. Violence, poverty, inaccessible healthcare, and a slew of other already-persistent problems will worsen. New generations of trans kids will be silenced in ways that date back decades, if not longer. 

We cannot under any circumstances allow this to happen. Vote. Protest. Cis folks, donate to trans-led organizations and trans individuals’ GoFundMe pages for medical care. Talk to your transphobic (or trans-ignorant) friends and family about what a policy like this would mean. And if you’re trans and need support today, call the Trans Lifeline at 1-877-565-8860.

Trans friends: I see you and I love you. We will not let them erase you. We will fight this with you. 

#lgbtq#news#transgender#trump's america#politics#transphobia#erasure
gaywrites
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Anti-gay lawyer confirmed as head of Justice Department’s Civil Rights Division
Senate Republicans have filed for cloture, or to end debate, on nomination of Eric Dreiband
www.metroweekly.com

More news from the hellfire known as the Trump administration:

Last week, the Senate confirmed lawyer Eric Dreiband as Assistant Attorney General of the Department of Justice’s Civil Rights Division. Dreiband will now be in charge of enforcing civil rights laws as they related to race discrimination, sex discrimination, and other protected classes.

Unfortunately, he’s got a terrible track record on LGBTQ rights and other civil rights issues. 

LGBTQ groups, in particular, have been concerned about Dreiband’s decision to represent the University of North Carolina in a lawsuit challenging the university’s decision to enforce HB 2, the anti-LGBTQ state law that restricted restroom access for transgender people and nullified local ordinances prohibiting discrimination based on sexual orientation or gender identity.
They also expressed concerns over his work for nonprofit organizations seeking religious exemptions from having to provide insurance coverage for contraception under the Affordable Care Act.
Recently, a mortgage company based out of Colorado has utilized a similar argument, citing its religious objections as justification for yanking spousal health care benefits from employees in same-sex marriages.
When Dreiband’s nomination was approved by the Senate Judiciary Committee along with three other anti-gay judges, the Human Rights Campaign called all four a “threat to the rights and safety of LGBTQ people.”

I am extremely ready for this administration’s reign to cease. 

#lgbtq#news#trump's america#politics#legal#justice#civil rights
gaywrites

Happy Spirit Day! Wear purple today to show your support and love for LGBTQ youth everywhere. 

What is Spirit Day? According to GLAAD:

“Spirit Day is a means of speaking out against LGBTQ bullying and standing with LGBTQ youth, who disproportionately face bullying and harassment because of their identities. Pledging to "go purple" on Spirit Day is a way for everyone — forward-thinking companies, global leaders, respected celebrities, neighbors, parents, classmates, and friends — to visibly show solidarity with LGBTQ youth and to take part in the largest, most visible anti-bullying campaign in the world.” 

Love you all. I know it’s hard to be spirited some days when it feels like there’s so much bad in the world; see if you can try anyway. 💜💜💜

#lgbtq#news#spirit day