black and pink

I have decided to start writing letters to queer folks in prison.  Are you interested in doing this?  Check out Black & Pink.

Pride

This weekend is Twin Cities Pride.  There are a few radical events you may want to check out if you are local or planning to visit MPLS this weekend:

Twin Cities Trans March: organized by the TC Trans March Collective

Twin Cities Dyke March: organized by the TC Avengers

Pegasus/Dyke March Afterparty: brought to you by the Revolting Queers

And check out my loving comrade JAC’s post about his Pride experience this past weekend.

Report on Gender Identity Job Discrimination

Hat tip to Midwest Genderqueer for tweeting this.

http://www.citylimits.org/multimedia/258/transgender-need-not-apply-a-report-on-gender-identity-job-discr

Immigration is a queer issue! (repost )

http://www.bilerico.com/2010/04/a_call_to_action_immigration_is_a_queer_issue.php

Spring Fever

I’m in Minneapolis where spring fever has totally hit.  All over the blogosphere, things are quieting down…I’m losing my interest in Facebook because I want to sit outside and ride bikes with friends.

Another thing that comes with spring fever is spring fever– that sexy time when we all start running around in tank tops and rolled up jeans (i call them shants), having impromptu bonfires and dance parties, and maybe getting our make out on.

So in honor of spring, I remind you of my favorite zine about consent, and two videos made by the Sexual Violence Center here in Minneapolis (I have a pal who works there and a few pals who volunteer there) about sexual violence prevention.

Please be good to yourselves and one another!

[cross posted to the Dating Algorithm]

(Repost) feminist avengers: A few words on the non-profit industrial complex

feminist avengers: A few words on the non-profit industrial complex.

So like many activist-y types just trying to pay their bills, I work at shitty non-profit. That isn’t to say that the services we provide aren’t important or needed, but that somehow a bunch of neo-liberal capitalist assholes run the place, and as far as I’m concerned, seem hell bent on running that place into the ground. They talk down to the people they ‘help’, top-down manage in the most hierarchal fashion possible, and, just to top it all off, treat the employees below them like shit. I’ve really had it with my bosses complaining and complaining about the non-profit we all work at having no money, which I suppose would be how they would justify a recent action that occurred at work. When it came time for my annual raise, my bosses found it fit to give me a raise of .08 cents. I’m not complaining about this because the money is so damn important. I’m upset about this because the person who decided my work, which I’ve absolutely poured my heart into, was only worth .08 cents of raise, while this same person collects more than 100,000 dollars a year. On many weeks I work just a many hours as she does, but I still have to collect food stamps and work a second job just to get by. She drives a corvette to work. This is even more upsetting to me considering the radicals who started this program, in part to help people that are of low-income backgrounds, have had their efforts hi-jacked by capitalist assholes who re-create in the workplace the same structure that harms the people we are supposed to help. If we want true liberation we’re going to have to create our own programs and systems of mutual aid, always aligning ourselves with those who have been marginalized by the capitalist patriarchy, not becoming it.

another call for submissions!

Friends of Dorothy (FOD) calls for submissions for a new radical queer zine focusing on gentrification tentatively titled “Hey Girl Get Out, or Why Housing is a Queer Issue”.  FOD is an autonomous group of radical queers in Columbus, Ohio dedicated to fighting the consequences of global capitalism and imperialism by working in solidarity with low/no income multi-racial communities struggling for collective liberation. Currently we are joining up with Columbus Housing Justice to challenge the ongoing gentrification happening in our city – creating this zine is our first step in providing our community (locally and more broadly) a tangible resource for building our collective Resilience, Resistance, and ability to Re-imagine.

It’s no surprise to us that the assimilationist, consumer-driven mainstream gay community has played and continues to play a large role in the displacement of low-income and working class communities and communities of color – including members of the LGBT community. This is certainly the case here in Columbus as highlighted in the 2003 documentary “Flag Wars”.

We’re currently looking for essays, articles, news, poems, art, stories, and interviews that highlight our major themes for this zine which include: The history of gay-driven gentrification in the U.S., queer struggles for economic / housing justice, community centered alternatives to gentrification, and success stories highlighting queer & multi-racial working class organizing efforts. That said, If you have other ideas for topics, please don’t let this hold you back!!! Ultimately we want to create a zine that uses the issue of gentrification as a means to support the queer community in developing a deeper anti-racist, anti-capitalist, and queer liberationist praxis for economic and housing justice. Our submission deadline is February 28th – the zine is scheduled to be out in by April. Submissions my be sent to organizeCBUS@gmail.com