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Five Things LGBTQ People Can Teach Us About Survival in Trump’s America

Anti-democratic and authoritarian movements aren’t just about bigotry, but they most definitely drive down avenues of race and gender. This election showed us that with absolute sparkling clarity.

It’s time for all of us to realize that addressing sexism and racism is a we thing, not a me for you thing. And when it comes to that, LGBTQ people, especially LGBTQ people of color, have something to teach us.

Here are five of those lessons:

Number One: Visibility matters. Come out!

By answering the call to come out of the closet, LGBTQ people exploded homophobic norms. We staged a … Read more “Five Things LGBTQ People Can Teach Us About Survival in Trump’s America”

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The Next Wave: Getting Ready For Trump’s America

I’ve decided that for me, this is a time to leave nothing potentially useful unexposed, and to stop hiding behind liberalism. I mean, if this election showed us anything, liberalism is no longer the shield it used to be in the war against the political right wing. So, I figure, why bother lugging it around?

In that spirit, here’s something that started out as an email discussion with a few progressive grassroots political leaders in the Northwest. ​I wrote it in a few minutes completely on the fly before taking a couple of hours to clean it up and flesh … Read more “The Next Wave: Getting Ready For Trump’s America”

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I Know Haters Are Gonna Hate Cuz That’s What They Do, But This?

Remember back in November of 2011 when Herman Cain called the House Minority Leader “Princess Nancy during one of the seemingly endless debates leading up to the GOP presidential nomination?

I was reminded of that comment when reading this report from Democracy Corps, Inside the GOP: Report on Focus Groups with Evangelical, Tea Party, and Moderate Republicans. There are two parts to the brief that together describe the result of focus groups organized to figure out what gives the Republican base juice.

Number one on the list? Obama-hatred. Here’s what they have to say on that front –… Read more “I Know Haters Are Gonna Hate Cuz That’s What They Do, But This?”

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You Can’t Judge A Book By Its Cover: Not Over Overt Racism

The story about the sudden “retirement” of a school superintendent and “resignation” of a school athletic director in Pennsylvania over racist and sexist text messages reminds us that, in spite of popular reports to the contrary, we’re not nearly over overt racism in this country.

The text messages can be read here. I’ll spare you the details and leave you with the option of following the link or just taking my word that the texts express a kind of sexism and racism that is beyond offensive. It made my skin crawl to think of these men providing care and … Read more “You Can’t Judge A Book By Its Cover: Not Over Overt Racism”

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The Exploitation of Asian Girlz

By now I’m sure you’ve heard about the controversy concerning the Day Above Ground video Asian Girlz. In response to an avalanche of protest, the band took the video down, though only after announcing they would leave it up for a while to give us all a chance to look at it again (and drive up their views) and see it for “what it really is.”

I’ll tell you what it really is. It’s one of the worse examples of hipster racism on the internet. The song and accompanying video are intended to “parody” the popular sexual fetish for … Read more “The Exploitation of Asian Girlz”