White House LGBT Update: Deep in the Heart of Texas

Earlier this week, Valerie Jarrett, Senior Advisor to the President, joined Attorney General Eric Holder in Arlington, Texas to deliver keynote remarks at the White House LGBT Conference on Safe Schools & Communities.

Valerie Jarrett, Senior Advisor to President Obama, delivers keynote remarks along with Attorney General Eric Holder at the White House LGBT Conference on Safe Schools and Communities at The University of Texas at Arlington, Tuesday, March 20th, 2012. (Photo courtesy of The University of Texas at Arlington).

In speaking before an audience of over 400 teachers, students, parents, community advocates, law enforcement officers and officials, and elected officials, Valerie described the steps the Obama Administration has taken to ensure safety and security for all our young people – including LGBT students – in our schools and neighborhoods.

As she closed her remarks, Valerie told the story of Tempest Cartwright, a 12th grader from Broken Arrow, Oklahoma, who experienced – but was able to overcome – bullying and whose story inspires us to continue to fight for safe schools and communities:

So in closing, I would share one more story from a leader who is here today. Because change doesn’t begin in Washington. Change happens because ordinary people do extraordinary things … people like Tempest Cartwright.

Tempest is from Broken Arrow, Oklahoma – she’s 18 years old. When word first got around her high school that she was gay, she lost friends. Some people stopped talking to her at church. Other students called her hurtful words that no young person should ever hear. For a while, Tempest was depressed. But she refused to let bullies ruin her life. As she put it, “Their attitudes and assumptions need to change, not me. If I don’t help that along, who will?

So today, Tempest is the president of her school’s gay-straight alliance – an alliance that has more than quadrupled its membership since she became involved. It’s not easy. In fact, it is hard. When her organization places posters around the school, they often get torn down. But she and other members keep putting them right back up. And every day, bit by bit, she changes the world around her. As she put it, “When people put me down, it inspires me to stand up.”

Well, young people like Tempest should inspire us all to stand up, and keep standing up, for what is right. To stand up for the safety of our children and neighbors. To stand up for the belief that in America, no one should face bullying, harassment, or violence because of who they are, because that’s not who we are.

Read Valerie’s remarks as prepared for delivery

Since launching the White House LGBT Conferences, we’ve been in Philadelphia, Detroit, and Dallas/Ft. Worth to discuss issues such as Health, Housing and Homelessness, and Safe Schools and Communities. Stay tuned for announcements about future White House LGBT Conferences on issues including HIV/AIDS, Aging, and Families.

Best regards,

Gautam Raghavan
Office of Public Engagement
The White House

In Case You Missed It: White House LGBT Conference on Housing & Homelessness

Earlier this month, hundreds of advocates, community organizers, and interested members of the public came together in Detroit, Michigan for the White House LGBT Conference on Housing & Homelessness to participate in a dialogue with the Obama Administration on these issues. The Conference was hosted by the White House Office of Public Engagement in partnership with the U.S. Department of Housing & Urban Development (HUD) and the Ruth Ellis Center, a Detroit-based center for runaway and homeless LGBT youth.

Secretary for Housing & Urban Development Shaun Donovan delivered keynote remarks at the Conference. In his remarks, Secretary Donovan described the important steps HUD has taken to ensure that all people – including LGBT people – have “a place to call home” and announced that HUD’s new Equal Access rule has gone into effect. Thanks to that rule, no one can be discriminated against on the basis of sexual orientation or gender identity when trying to access HUD funded programs or FHA insured mortgages.

Watch archived video of the opening session and Secretary Donovan’s keynote

Two panel sessions followed Secretary Donovan’s remarks: first, a panel of senior leaders that discussed the work being done across the Administration to address housing for LGBT people, and second, a panel of nationally recognized advocates who work directly with runaway and homeless LGBT youth.

Watch archived video of the panel discussions

President Obama Announces New Director of the Office of National AIDS Policy

Last week, President Obama announced the appointment of one of the nation’s leading public health policy experts as the Director of the Office of National AIDS Policy (ONAP) – Grant Colfax, M.D., the former Director of the HIV Prevention Section in the San Francisco Department of Public Health. Dr. Colfax will coordinate the continuing efforts of the federal government to reduce the number of HIV infections across the United States. A component of the White House Domestic Policy Council, ONAP emphasizes prevention through wide-ranging education initiatives and helps to coordinate the care and treatment of citizens with HIV/AIDS.

“Grant Colfax will lead my Administration’s continued progress in providing care and treatment to people living with HIV/AIDS,” said President Obama. “Grant’s expertise will be key as we continue to face serious challenges and take bold steps to meet them. I look forward to his leadership in the months and years to come."

Read more about Grant and the Office of National AIDS Policy

GLBT Study: Gay, Lesbian Kids Singled Out for Punishment

Posted by David W Freeman

(CBS.com) When it comes to bullying gay teens, narrow-minded classmates may not be the only offenders.

Lesbian, gay, and bisexual (LGB) adolescents are about 40 percent more likely than other teens to be punished by school authorities, police, and the courts, according to a new study by scientists at Yale University.

"We found that virtually all types of punishment - including school expulsions, arrests, juvenile convictions, adult convictions and especially police stops - were more frequently meted out to LGB youth," lead author Kathryn Himmelstein, who initiated the study while she was a Yale undergraduate, said in a written statement.

Lesbian and bisexual girls were especially at risk for unequal treatment, Himmelstein said. "They reported experiencing twice as many police stops, arrests and convictions as other girls who had engaged in similar behavior," she said in the statement.

Could it be that LGB are punished more because they are more prone to misbehavior? Not likely, says Himmelstein, who is now a public school teacher in New York CIty. The study showed that disparities in punishment could not be explained by differences in the rates of misbehavior. In fact, it showed that LGB teens are less likely than their peers to engage in violent behavior.

To conduct the study, researchers followed about 15,000 middle and high school students for seven years. In addition to details on the teens' sexuality, the study collected information about how frequently they engaged in misbehaviors ranging from lying to their parents to using a weapon.

The study was published in the January 2001 issue of Pediatrics.

Hit Dwight Allen O'Neal for Being Gay!

So for the past few days I have urged myself not to get angry and to practice forgiveness. In life we many times experience things and we often don’t understand why, I am true testimony that things just seem to happen and there is always a reason. Many of my friends and loved ones have already heard the horrible news about my minor attack on last Wednesday and no one knows of the details; well the time you have been waiting for has finally revealed itself.

So on last Wednesday at around 5:57PM I was heading downtown on the 3 train, when I got on the last car there were about five teenage boys on the train being loud and obnoxious. Living in New York City you become immune to the way that young people act and the way that they carry on, I have seen youth curse at each other, other passengers, fight, wrestle, and everything else when riding the train or walking down the street. When I did get on the train I decided that I would sit on the opposite end of the train and read my book “The Other Side of Paradise” by Stacyann Chin, while reading my book minding my own business and not even looking in the direction of the young boys, I heard them curse at each other, laugh, talk, and wild out in New York City youth’s normal behavior. In this entire process I did not feel concerned, threatened, or frightened at all; when the train entered the 96th street station I noticed the boys were walking in my direction and the first one had a plastic poster covering (lighter than glass, but harder than regular plastic) in his hand rolled up and the next thing I knew was I was being struck by it, immediately following the first blow another individual punched me in my face, I was down instantly. When I came too the doors had closed on the train and a young passenger on the train ran to my aide.

As the young men did run off the train I did hear homophobic remarks and thought back to my recent trip to Miami when a very masculine friend of mine was ashamed to be seen with me in public due to the fashionable garments that I choose to style myself in, mind you I don’t wear women clothing; however I am a fan of v-neck shirts, skinny jeans, and accessories. Him being deep from the south he is not accustomed to men dressing fashionable and defiantly not someone as comfortable with their sexuality as I am.

Honestly I have never been very masculine and New York has just assisted in me learning to accept myself not liberate myself. I remember a conversation where my friend said that Miami is very homophobic and not like New York and I argued back that New York, London, Little Rock, Miami, LA all have people who are just ignorant, homophobia is everywhere. If you cannot deal with my clothes and they alarm you, or my effeminate personality, then you cannot deal with me, because THAT’S WHO I AM AND I AM NOT SORRY THAT I AM NOT SOME BUTCH MASCULINE ACTING MALE! Gone are the days that I will pretend to be someone I am not to satisfy others, that is not loving ME and I love ME to damn much! Loving me has not always been easy, but with soul searching I finally have learned to do so, I just pray for the young men that did this to me, because there is obviously lots of pain that they are dealing with and it made them feel big to hit a grown man and run, I hope I helped a few of their chest hairs grow in. I do forgive them for hurting me, and I pray that before it is too late that they change their thinking on how they view punks, faggots, queers, freaks, homos, or whatever other name they can come up with. I love myself for who I am and I am not changing for anyone.

Thank you to everyone who sent an email, text, instant message or phone call and for all of you who are wondering did I do anything… I did file a report. I love you all and please don’t get mad and feed into this type of behavior, put on your best drag (whatever that may be) and walk with your head high, I will not let these homophobic idiots hold me back. We are GREATER than HATE! I AM LOVE!

Coney Island’s Annual Generation Gap Stop Da Violence Go-Cart Race

By Big Rod
Nubian Knights Network

This has to be one of the greatest moments in my life as a photographer. I mean, just look at the photo above with these two adorable looking boyz with theri go-cart medals!! This picture truly conveys beyond a thousand words the excitement of this event photographed. Coney Island which is at the edge of south Brooklyn (by the water) where I live had our 1st Annual Coney Island Generation Gap - Stop Da Violence Go-Cart Race. Man on Saturday, September 5th, 2009 at Kaiser Park. I tell you, it was so great to see all these young Black children and parents out there and doing something positive, affirming and FUN!

FLASHBACK: This event totally took me back and reminded me of the late 1970s/early 1980s (yeah, I know... I'm "dating" myself) when I remember me and my friend Charles (I think it was him) found this long slender and very thick wood board. while we were playing after school or on the weekend. We came up with the idea to use the wood to build a make-shift go-cart out of it.

Because Coney Island back then had a lot of empty, abandoned and desolate lots with weeds in them (ah, the old freaky deaky days in the make-shift clubs houses... ummm, that's another coming of age story which is rated "R" or "NC-17", LOL! ), it was easy to find some old broken down folding shopping carts. that were all medal including the spoke in the wheels. We needed two shopping carts so we could strip the metal axles with wheels from them. Man, just thinking about it, I remember that it was a FUCKING BITCH to pry the metals rods holding the shopping cart together from the axles with our hands hurting and all. We prevailed though and got two sets of axles/wheels for the front and for the back of the cart.

Read the entire article at: Nubian Knights Network by Big Rod