The TV show In the Life is featuring eight families with transgender or gender nonconforming kids in its April episode.
“As soon as he could talk, he started saying he was a boy,” a mother says of her 5-year-old child, Jake. Another child declares, “I’m a girl, I don’t play boy stuff.” A parent wonders, “How are we going to navigate puberty?”
At the link above, The Advocate has the complete episode. The episode will show throughout the month on public television. Check it out!
The Violence Against Women Act, a 1994 measure working against violence and providing funding for victims, has been modified to include protections for LGBT people and immigrants.
Senate Democrats added provisions to the act that would help gay and trans* victims of violence and help immigrant victims in matters pertaining to visas. Some Republicans have protested the changes, not surprising considering the current debates over women’s issues and contraception in politics, though many support them.
“Protecting women against violence shouldn’t be a partisan issue,” Democratic senator Patty Murray of Washington said on the Senate floor Thursday.
Assuming (and hoping) these changes stick, this is a really huge move. Domestic violence doesn’t always get the attention it deserves in terms of policy, and this should help.
LGBTQ* Stories of Understanding from a Peer
For gay teens who have considered suicide
November 16, 2010By Sean Simonson
I have considered suicide. Yes, I have considered taking my own life. Unlike six other boys recently in the news, I never took the steps to follow through on my dark thoughts, but, unfortunately, I can understand what drove them to. Because I know what it’s like to be a gay teenager.
Imagine going through adolescence: hormones raging, body changing, and relationships that go a little deeper than friendship developing. Now, add on being gay.
Don’t believe being different is difficult? Try going through a day in the life of a gay teen.
Every day you hear someone use your sexuality — a part of you that, no matter how desperately you try, you cannot change — as a negative adjective. That hurts.
You fear looking the wrong way in the locker room and offending someone. Politicians are allowed to debate your right to marry the person you love or your right to be protected from hate crimes under the law. Your faith preaches your exclusion — or damnation. And no one does anything to stop it.
Recently, the Archbishop used money donated by an anonymous source to denounce same-sex marriage. That’s right: a major religious leader used non-Church money from a questionable source to publicly condemn your right to express your love in a public and binding manner.
A public school district nearby — after a wake of suicides by kids much like yourself — cannot bring itself to put your protection from bullying into its policies. Members of the district fear your kind and how you might brainwash their children into thinking that your behavior is appropriate or to join your kind.
A political party makes its position denying your right to marry one of its main voting points. And your nation voted this party in office.
You cannot legally give blood to save a life, nor risk your life to defend your country unless you hide your identity and deny who you are.
Oh yeah, and the words “queer,” “homo,” and “faggot” that people throw around all the time? Yeah, those might as well be personal attacks.
This is daily life for me. And I can understand why, if you are gay like me, you might consider ending it all. But I hope you don’t.
Why? Because without you, who is going to make it better for everyone else? Without you, no one is going to stand up against the injustice. I need you to help me make this world a better place for both of us and everyone else like us.
And all of you who don’t have to undergo this horror daily, it’s up to you to help. Don’t stand by and let hatred go on. Don’t sit back and watch your friends be discriminated against. Reach out and help those who might need it.
Together, maybe we can make the world an easier place to live for gay and straight teens alike. Because no one else is going to do it for us.
——
![thedailywhat:
Nouveau Richat of the Day: Tommaso, a rescued black moggy, is believed to be the world’s richest cat after inheriting €10 million ($13.4 million) from his late owner.
The four-year-old feline’s mistress, the 94-year-old widow of a successful builder, had amassed properties all over Italy, which are estimated to be worth a total of €10m.
Before she passed away last month, the woman earmarked her wealth for the protection of her cat’s welfare, asking that it be donated to “the animal welfare body or association” that can guarantee the animal’s comfort and well being.
As animals cannot directly inherit money under Italian law, the cat’s new-found fortune has been entrusted to the deceased cat lady’s nurse, Stefania. “I had no idea the signora had such wealth,” she said.
The Guardian points out that, while Tommaso may be the world’s most fortunate feline, he is far from the most affluent animal. That title goes to Gunther IV, the offspring of an Alsatian once owned by a German countess, whose personal wealth is estimated at $372 million.
[guardian.]](http://24.media.tumblr.com/tumblr_lw06r2z94T1qzpwi0o1_1280.jpg)
Nouveau Richat of the Day: Tommaso, a rescued black moggy, is believed to be the world’s richest cat after inheriting €10 million ($13.4 million) from his late owner.
The four-year-old feline’s mistress, the 94-year-old widow of a successful builder, had amassed properties all over Italy, which are estimated to be worth a total of €10m.
Before she passed away last month, the woman earmarked her wealth for the protection of her cat’s welfare, asking that it be donated to “the animal welfare body or association” that can guarantee the animal’s comfort and well being.
As animals cannot directly inherit money under Italian law, the cat’s new-found fortune has been entrusted to the deceased cat lady’s nurse, Stefania. “I had no idea the signora had such wealth,” she said.
The Guardian points out that, while Tommaso may be the world’s most fortunate feline, he is far from the most affluent animal. That title goes to Gunther IV, the offspring of an Alsatian once owned by a German countess, whose personal wealth is estimated at $372 million.
[guardian.]
![thedailywhat:
Important Internet Milestone of the Day: It’s official: Rick Perry’s homophobic campaign ad has more dislikes than Rebecca Black’s “Friday,” making it the most hated video in YouTube history.
Congrats, Rick. No one has ever deserved anything more than you deserve this.
[youtube.]](http://25.media.tumblr.com/tumblr_lvwqi5slV41qzpwi0o1_1280.jpg)
Important Internet Milestone of the Day: It’s official: Rick Perry’s homophobic campaign ad has more dislikes than Rebecca Black’s “Friday,” making it the most hated video in YouTube history.
Congrats, Rick. No one has ever deserved anything more than you deserve this.
[youtube.]
Rick Perry’s coat from his hate-speech ad campaign about gays.
If you bother to click the link to see the ad, make sure you downvote and flag for “promoting hatred or violence” as shown HERE.
“I’m not afraid to admit im an asshole”
