Paragraph 175 Reparations.

Justice Minister Heiko Maas. AP photo.

Justice Minister Heiko Maas. AP photo.

The German government has announced that it will make reparations to the men imprisoned under Paragraph 175, a provision in the country’s criminal code that outlawed sodomy until 1994.

Authorities also plan to expunge the records of the 50,000 jailed under the law.

Although 140,000 people were arrested in total, the country’s justice minister, Heiko Maas, has estimated that around 5,000 individuals — meaning those who are still living — stand to claim the reported payout of 30 million Euros. Mass stated that the amount of financial restitution will be based upon personal assessments of those incarcerated. Factors will include the length of time the individual spent behind bars.

“We will never be able to remove these outrages committed by this country but we want to rehabilitate the victims,” Mass said in a statement. “The convicted homosexual men should no longer have to live with the black mark of a criminal conviction.”

Germany’s Green and Left parties have placed enormous pressure in recent years on federal authorities to make amends to the men incarcerated under the law. Politicians Katja Keul and Volker Beck, both of whom serve in the German Bundestag, have referred to the lack of compensation as “a monstrous disgrace.”

[…]

East Germany stopped prosecuting homosexual acts in the 1950s, although West Germany was slower to catch up. The statute was amended in 1969 to prohibit sexual assault in the workplace and gay male prostitution. It also stipulates that as a punishable act intcourse between “a man over twenty-one years old who engages as the active or passive partner in lewdness with another man under the age of twenty-one.” The age of consent would be lowered to 18 in 1973.

Paragraph 175, however, wouldn’t be stricken from the legal code for another 25 years.

Although Germany would expunge the arrests made under Hitler’s regime, that would not apply to the men harassed and imprisoned by police after the war. Those convictions had yet to be vacated.

Full Story Here.

Defending the Indefensible.

Former Trump campaign manager Corey Lewandowski. CREDIT: AP Photo/Evan Vucci.

Former Trump campaign manager Corey Lewandowski. CREDIT: AP Photo/Evan Vucci.

While Trump’s latest vileness has caused some more repubs to jump ship, even some evangelicals, plenty of them are sticking, and attempting to defend the indefensible, Trump talking about women as convenient walking vaginas, there for him to grab and use, because white and wealthy.

One group wrote the comments off as harmless banter.

Former Trump campaign manager and CNN commentator Corey Lewandowski dismissed the tape’s importance because, “We are electing a leader to the free world, we’re not electing a Sunday school teacher.”

On MSNBC, Michele Bachmann, former member of Congress, called Trump’s comments “bad boy talk.”

And the chair of Trump’s Virginia campaign who is also running for governor responded to his candidate’s comments by saying Trump “acted like a frat boy, as a lot of guys do,” adding that people already “knew he wasn’t an angel.”

The co-chair of Trump’s campaign in New York, Carl Paladino, said Trump’s comments were something “ all men do, at least all normal men.”

That’s something all normal men do? That’s news to me. The man I live with doesn’t do that, say that, or think that. I’m pretty sure he’d be considered a normal man. All the men I’m friends with don’t do that, say that, or think that, and yes, normal men. It’s men like Paladino who give all men a bad name, perpetuating the idea that men are barely restrained beasts, who can’t be trusted to be thinking creatures.

Another group came to his defense by saying we’re all sinners.

When asked for former Republican candidate Ben Carson’s reaction, spokesman Armstrong Williams told BuzzFeed, “People commit adultery. It happens. Ministers. Heads of state. Everyday people. People are human, they do human things. It’s nothing unusual that somebody committed adultery on their spouse. Women do it. Men do it. Should we be shocked by it? No… Hey, the flesh can be weak, my man.”

Unsurprisingly, Carson doesn’t even manage to address the remarks and behaviour in question, although one wonders if he’d be so casual about adultery if he was talking about Bill Clinton. Anyroad, the question wasn’t one of adultery, even though Trump has exhibited no particular trait of fidelity. Trump talked about women as walking holes he could grab by the vagina, and use them at his whim. That would be assault and rape, not the same thing as adultery.

Sean Hannity, Fox News host, seemed to echo that defense, saying, “King David Had 500 concubines for crying out loud.”

I have absolutely no idea just what the fuck relevance this is supposed to have, unless one wants to point out that David did get his spouse via murder, and did rape her after god decided to punish David by killing his infant child. All of which is a spectacular derail. What in the hell does that have to do with saying “I can grab any woman by her pussy”?

Washington State Republican Party Chairwoman Susan Hutchison argued that they shouldn’t matter now because they “were made when he was a Democrat.”

Uh, I, no. I can’t even.

And Fox host Bill O’Reilly pointed out that the comments were in a “private conversation.”

Oh FFS, it’s hardly a private conversation if someone is wearing a microphone, you idiot.

Via Think Progress.

That Damn Gay Agenda!

Muay Thai fighting champion Fatima Pinto appears in an ad for H&M (Screen cap).

Muay Thai fighting champion Fatima Pinto appears in an ad for H&M (Screen cap).

Puritanical Christian group One Million Moms has launched a boycott of H&M after mistaking a Muay Thai fighting champ for a transgender woman.

The right-wing pressure group, renowned for its ridiculous string of anti-LGBT boycotts, threatened the fashion chain in a release this week over latest fashion ad ‘She’s a Lady’.

The Christian group fumed: “1MM is not sure of H&M clothing company’s thought process behind their new television ad, but if they are attempting to offend customers and families, they have succeeded.

“H&M’s newest ‘She’s A Lady’ commercial includes what appears to be a man dressed as a woman in one segment, another woman wearing skimpy lingerie, and ends with two teenage girls kissing while underwater.

“Parents find this type of advertising inappropriate and unnecessary especially since H&M’s target market is teens.

“H&M Marketing Team may have thought this type of advertising was politically correct, but not only is it disgusting and confusing for children, it is pushing the LBGT agenda.

“Let H&M know their new ad is irresponsible.”

The group encouraged its supporters to send a pre-written email complaining about the “disgusting commercial” that should be pulled “for our children’s best interest”.

The problem? The so-called “man dressed as a woman” in the ad is actually female Champion Muay Thai Boxer Fatima Pinto, who is not transgender. She does have some world class muscles, to be sure. I rather expect that would be needed if you’re a champion Muay Thai boxer.

Ironically, the ad does also fleetingly feature H&M model Hari Nef, who is transgender, but 1MM apparently didn’t notice.

Via Pink News.

The Box.

box

Ron Amato has a kickstarter for his project, a book called The Box.

Focused on themes of isolation, desire, conflict and empowerment, Ron Amato’s photographic series and upcoming book, The Box, speaks to human experiences of self-discovery and community building. Using a series of boxes to create visual metaphors, Ron echoes his development from adolescence to adulthood through over 100 color, and black and white photographs. Evoking first his youth in Brooklyn, New York during the 1960s and 1970s, moving through his coming out as a gay man and to his present position as a respected professional photographer and teacher, Ron creates a vivid portrait of struggle and triumph.

Individually the photographs evoke powerful responses. However, they achieve the scope of their power only in relation to each other.

Reflecting the square of the boxes in the photographs, this 96-page book is designed in a 10-inch square format. It has a hard cover and dust jacket. It is available with an embossed, cloth covered slipcase at specific pledge levels. The printing will be of the highest quality from a renowned Italian printing house.

You can read and see more here. Ron Amato’s website: http://www.ronamato.com/

Charles Blow Gets Blunt.

Charles Blow.

Charles Blow.

Charles Blow has something to say about Donald Trump, and I don’t think one word could possibly be said better. Just a bit here, click over the full, glorious read.

Donald Trump is a domestic terrorist; only his form of terror doesn’t boil down to blowing things up. He’s the 70-year-old toddler who knows nearly nothing, hurls insults, has simplistic solutions for complex problems and is quick to throw a tantrum. Also, in case you didn’t know it, this toddler is mean to girls and is a bit of a bigot.

It isn’t so much that he is a strict disciple of radical ideology, but rather that he is devoid of fixed principles, willing to do anything and everything to gain fame, fortune and power. He has an endless, consuming need for perpetual affirmation. This is a bully who just wants to be liked, a man-boy nursing a nagging internal emptiness.

He’s fickle and spoiled and rotten.

So, when he loses at something, anything, he lashes out. When someone chastises him for bad behavior, he chafes. This is the kind of silver-spoon scion quick to yell at those he views as less privileged, and therefore less-than, “Do you know who I am?”

We do now, sir.

[…]

This is the kind of childish person who, when losing, flips over the board and yells insults at his family, rather than learning from the loss so that he can get better and be in a stronger position to win the next time.

This man is a brat whose money has stunted his maturation.

He shouldn’t be ushered into the White House; he should be laughed into hiding. His querulous nature shouldn’t be coddled; it should be crushed.

America is in need of a leader, not a puerile, sophomoric sniveler who is too easily baited and grossly ill-behaved.

Go to your gilded room, Donald. The adults need to pick a president.

Whew. Full column at The NY Times.

Indoctrination! Political Fad!

White Privilege survey (Photo courtesy Jason Schmidt).

White Privilege survey (Photo courtesy Jason Schmidt).

ALOHA, Ore. — 

Some parents in Aloha are concerned about a “white privilege” survey their children received as homework.

Jason Schmidt’s son, a senior at Aloha High School, was given the survey as homework. Schmidt said he’s not too happy about the form.

“I think he should be learning actual education and not be a part of some social experiment or some teacher’s political agenda,” Schmidt said.

Confronting implicit bias, the effects of stereotypical tropes, and learning how to be aware and think critically are actual education, Mr. Schmidt, a very good education. Your child’s teachers are providing a profound and valuable experience, one which will foster openness, acceptance, mindfulness, and empathy. And yet, you complain. I’d say your child’s school got to him just in time.

But Schmidt sees it differently.

“With the amount of money we pay for schools, they should be educating not indoctrinating our students about the latest political fad or political agenda a teacher wants to get across,” Schmidt said.

:snortchoke: Schools are not swimming in money, sir, and teachers are most seriously underpaid. The school in question is one of high diversity:

The school, located in the suburb of Beaverton, is ethnically diverse, according to statistics published byU.S. News& World Report. The student body comprises 34 percent Hispanic students, and 45 percent white students. Native Americans, blacks, and Asians and Pacific Islanders also attend the school, where approximately half of the students are listed as “economically disadvantaged.”

So it’s significant, teaching about privilege, and how that privilege affects all facets of life for people. As for “latest political fad”, FFS, Mr. Schmidt. I think you need to take your child’s class, you’re in need of an education. This country is founded on colonial racism, the whole infrastructure of this country is racist. The very least white people could do is confront their own privilege.

According to the Beaverton School District, this class deals with a number of topics affecting our country today including race, sexuality and religion. The hope is to get students talking civilly with one another about challenging topics.

All the cheers for the school, and the teachers, you’re doing a great job! As for Mr. Schmidt, I won’t place money on his getting a clue or three, but there’s hope for his child.

Via KATU.

Wonder Woman Confirmed Bisexual.

Greg Rucka said Wonder Woman’s queer identity was important to the narrative. Photograph: Frank Cho/DC Comics.

Greg Rucka said Wonder Woman’s queer identity was important to the narrative. Photograph: Frank Cho/DC Comics.

Wonder Woman is queer, her writer has confirmed: “I don’t know how much clearer I can make it”.

Greg Rucka, who worked on Wonder Woman for DC Comics throughout the 2000s, returned to DC Comics this year for the new Rebirth series commemorating her 75th year in print.

He told the comic news site Comicosity the character had “obviously” been in love and relationships with other women, as has long been speculated by fans.

Wonder Woman is known as the warrior princess Diana in her homeland of Themyscira, an island populated only by Amazonian women.

The confirmation was met with celebration on social media.

That said, Rucka then goes on, practically choking in his need to say this doesn’t mean there should be any sort of queer storylines, no. I suppose acknowledgement is a good thing, but representation sure would be nice. Really nice.

Full story at The Guardian.

Kim & Kim: Interview with Magdalene Visaggio.

kim-kim-cover-issue-three

Science fiction stories are nothing new. It’s a pretty sure thing modern geeks have traveled to and from the stars many times within the pages of a comic book, novel, or in their favorite TV show or movie. At this point, space is no longer the final frontier; it’s as familiar to comic books readers as a superhero’s cape and tights.

So it’s truly rare and exciting to discover a story that can add a new element to the sci-fi genre. Thankfully, four-issue limited series Kim & Kim is just such a story. Published by Black Mask Studios, written and created by our trans writer Magdalene Visaggio, with art by the straight/queer team Eva Cabrera and Claudia Aquirre, Kim & Kim mixes space-faring action, with salty language, humor, and a female buddy adventure with a trans lead character.

In short, this outer space comic book series with a decidedly queer- and female-centric tale is what our modern culture needs. The Advocate was happy to chat with writer/creator Magdalene Visaggio to discuss Kim & Kim, the importance of featuring an authentic trans character, her upcoming work, and what to look forward two in the final two issues of the series.

The Advocate has an in-depth interview with Magdalene Visaggio, good reading, and if you’re new to Kim & Kim, now’s a good time to catch up!

“Miss Piggy” “Miss Housekeeping” “Miss Eating Machine”.

Alicia Machado, who won the Miss Universe pageant in 1996, was photographed in May of this year in Los Angeles. Credit Emily Berl for The New York Times.

Alicia Machado, who won the Miss Universe pageant in 1996, was photographed in May of this year in Los Angeles. Credit Emily Berl for The New York Times.

The undeniably beautiful Ms. Machado, who is beautiful at any size, (preferably a well-nourished one) speaks out about her treatment at Trump’s hands, and the trauma she’s lived with for 20 years. As I understand it, Ms. Clinton had quite a moment in the debate regarding Trump’s abusive tactics with Ms. Machado. The whole article is a good read. I’d dearly like to think that Trump was at the very least moderately shamed, but no. All he cared about was how he was caught out. Nasty creep, that one.

For 20 years, Alicia Machado has lived with the agony of what Donald J. Trump did to her after she won the Miss Universe title: shame her, over and over, for gaining weight.

Private scolding was apparently insufficient. Mr. Trump, at the time an executive producer of the pageant, insisted on accompanying Ms. Machado, then a teenager, to a gym, where dozens of reporters and cameramen watched as she exercised.

Mr. Trump, in his trademark suit and tie, posed for photographs beside her as she burned calories in front of the news media. “This is somebody who likes to eat,” Mr. Trump said from inside the gym.

[…]

“I was sick — anorexia and bulimia for five years,” she said in an interview with The New York Times in May. “I was 18. My personality wasn’t created yet. I was just a girl.”

Mr. Trump has acknowledged pressuring her to lose weight, saying it was her job as Miss Universe to remain in peak physical shape. On Tuesday morning, he made no apologies for that.

“She gained a massive amount of weight and it was a real problem,” Mr. Trump told Fox News.

The full story is here.

Investors Call on McCrory to Repeal.

matt-patsky

Sixty investors representing $2.1 trillion in managed assets have called on North Carolina to repeal HB2, the controversial law limiting protections for LGBT people.

Earlier this month it was estimated that HB2 has so far cost North Carolina in the region of $395 million from sporting organizations, the entertainment industry and business interests. In March, more than 80 CEOs and businesses – including Apple’s Tim Cook and Facebook’s Mark Zuckerberg – signed a letter urging Governor Pat McCrory to overturn HB2.

Speaking at a press conference on Monday alongside some of the investors who have signed the statement calling for repeal, Matt Patsky, chief executive officer of Trillium Asset Management, said North Carolina “appears to be headed for what I would call a state-government-inflicted recession.” According to Associated Press, Trillium – one of the organizers of the statement along with environmental research group Croatan Institute and the New York City comptroller, Scott Stringer – has more than $2 billion in assets under management. Stringer was unable to attend the press conference because of a New York ban on travel to North Carolina.

In a separate statement, Stringer said:

“As long-term investors, we can’t sit idly by as HB2 undermines fundamental human rights at our expense. For the last 25 years, New York City’s pension funds have pushed more than 100 companies to enact non-discrimination policies that protect LGBTQ individuals and ensure they attract, retain, and promote the best and the brightest. These policies are essential if we want companies – and our economy – to succeed, and we can’t let a hate-filled law get in the way.”

Bonny Moellenbrock, executive director of North Carolina-based Investors Circle, added:

“This fallout is real. It has had a devastating impact on our reputation and that has a direct impact on entrepreneurs’ ability to grow their business here.”

McCrory replied in a statement:

“This latest attack on North Carolina values is being coordinated by the same people who manage the New York City pension fund that is on the verge of an ‘operational failure,’ according to a recent report. For New York hedge fund billionaires to lecture North Carolina about how to conduct its affairs is the height of hypocrisy.”

Pat McCrory, the Asshole Bigot’s Asshole Bigot.

Via Towleroad.

You F*gs Are Destroying Family Values!

Neil Frias (left) and Jeff White were pepper-sprayed. Photo: Jeff White / Courtesy Jeff White.

Neil Frias (left) and Jeff White were pepper-sprayed. Photo: Jeff White / Courtesy Jeff White.

What was supposed to be a weekend of revelry and excitement for two friends in town for San Francisco’s Folsom Street Fair turned ugly Saturday night when five assailants attacked the men with pepper spray for no apparent reason other than they are gay.

The violence was particularly shocking for Neil Frias and Jeff White, both 28, because they were assaulted in a city lauded for its progressive values and broad acceptance of the LGBT community.

[…]

Frias and White said they were attacked at about 9 p.m. outside a McDonald’s at Golden Gate Avenue and Fillmore Street in the city’s Western Addition. As Frias left the fast-food restaurant, he said five men pulled up in a blue minivan. “They were saying, ‘You fags are destroying family values,’” Frias said. “I said I didn’t want any trouble, and one of them got out of the van. I thought he was going to take a swing at me, but he sprayed me across the face.”

Frias said he was hit with the unmistakable “searing sting” from the pepper spray as a second man came at him with another can of the aerosolized weapon. A third assailant, he said, attacked White, who crawled into a ball to protect his face from the painful blast.

“I was completely vulnerable,” he said. “I thought they were going to start beating me.”

A nearby woman shouted that she was calling the police, prompting the mob to jump back into the minivan and speed away. Police and paramedics responded to the attack, and the two victims returned to their Union Square hotel.

“The thing that was the most remarkable about the situation is how unprovoked it was,” White said, still reeling from the encounter Sunday morning. “I was literally tying my shoe when they came at me. It’s mind-boggling.”

“You fags are destroying family values”.  Why don’t these assbrained individuals ever wonder just what kind of family values teach you that it’s perfectly okay to go out and assault people? Those are indeed values, and they are seriously bad ones. It’s past time that every person start pointing this out, in a very loud way – if your values are immoral, evil, unethical and harmful, you need to sit down, shut up, and figure out just what in the fuck is wrong with yourself. If you’re fueled by hate, sit down, shut up, and figure out just what in the fuck is wrong with you. If you think it’s a fine, upstanding thing to go out and stalk strangers and dole out violence, you need to lock yourself up in your residence until you can get that poor brain of yours exercised enough to figure out just what in the fuck is wrong with you.

Via SFGate.

Spot sobre la situación educativa y laboral de las personas trans.

Argentina’s trans community, as is the case in many countries, faces an extraordinary amount of discrimination, from education and employment opportunities to violence. Animator Virginia Gilles, writer Stephanie Santoro and sound designer Thomas Corley decided to put some facts about the community’s Argentine experience into stark relief in an experimental short, which features hypnotic animation, motion graphics, music, and voiceover.

“The spot is not part of any campaign,” Gilles tells The Creators Project. “Our objective is to demonstrate the problems of employment and educational discrimination against trans people. As for aesthetics, we wanted to create a powerful but cool effect, mixing the character of the words with experimentation in image and sound.”

As the artists note in the voiceover, quoting Argentina’s Fundación Huésped (Guest Foundation), “Six out of ten transgender women and seven out of ten transgender men failed at completing their secondary school education.” Half of these individuals failed because of discrimination against their gender identity. The artists are also attempting to raise awareness about the various forms of violence suffered by transvestites and transsexuals.

“The policies implemented by the Argentine government and the expansion of their rights through laws that generate greater inclusion are insufficient,” they write. “We believe that in order to reverse this painful reality requires a real commitment by the whole society, to eliminate social hatred and generate inclusion and actual acceptance of all trans people in various fields, which will enable them to develop a equally dignified life without being discriminated against because of their identity.”

“As people, we have the right to be treated in accordance with our self perception and this should be respected,” the artists say. “Education empowers you and gives you tools to stop discrimination. The doors are open. You have to take impulse and go through them.”

Via The Creators Project.