Posts tagged with "Queer"

Uncle Samantha at Capitol Pride 2008

By Ari | Jul 14, 08 03:47 PM

Jonathan & Laurel with Uncle Samantha
Originally uploaded by bcvflickr

Burgundy Crescent folks using a character I drew, Uncle Samantha, to reel in volunteers at Pride in Washington DC. Apparently she's good at her job - they got a lot of volunteers!

Previously: Uncle Samantha

Shirari's Peace and Love Podcast #3: Travel

By shirari | Jun 30, 08 06:26 PM

Get ready for an hour and twelve minutes of non-stop queer vegan rambling! Wait, that didn't sound particularly attractive. Rest assured it'll be worth a listen - in this third installment of Shirari's Peace and Love Podcast we talk about our recent trip to Israel, Amsterdam, and Iceland, and how we attempted to take best advantage of the fuel used to have a experience that was as low-impact and culture-rich as possible. You'll hear about a kibbutz that turns soda cans and other trash into eco-friendly buildings, bikes by the boatload, naked showers with Europeans, friendly ducks interrupting breakfast in a tent, a town where street art is loved and not hated, and delicious, delicious falafel.

Shira's voice is kinda quiet in this one, sorry about that! We're still working out the technical kinks here. If you're actually downloading and listening to these, please comment and tell us what you think! Thanks to those of you who've written to us or commented already, we're so happy folks are giving these a listen.

Shirari's Peace and Love Podcast #3: Travel »
June 30, 2008 - 72 minutes - 32.9MB

Show links:

Previously:

Camp it up with Rude Mechanical Orchestra - Party tonight, NYC!

By Ari | Jun 27, 08 02:18 PM

Folly Day 2008 - RMO Horns Advance
Originally uploaded by LarimdaME

If you've never seen an activist marching band perform, and you're in NYC, tonight is the perfect opportunity to catch an amazing show. Our friends in the Rude Mechanical Orchestra are having a big benefit party, and we're bringing along some hand-drawn peace and love buttons and a poster in a hand-made frame for auction. We'll post photos of the stuff we made later on Flickr, or you can come see it in person tonight! For more info read on:

CAMP IT UP! with the RUDE MECHANICAL ORCHESTRA
Friday, June 27th at DCTV
87 Lafayette Street, NYC (just south of Canal)
$0-$20 suggested donation - $20 gets you a special gift!
Doors open at 7pm
Wear something CAMP-y!
HELP US GO PROTEST THE RNC! ***
Bike valet! Silent auction! S'mores! Stripes! Khaki shorts! Fun!
Buy a raffle ticket and win your chance to have the RMO perform at a personal event of your choosing! Yes, we're serious. 1 for $3, 2 for $5, 10 for $20. Available now until the party. Your event must take place after our tour and be in one of the five boroughs.
Also featuring:
Veveritse
Inner Princess
Melora auf Rasputina
Frank London
Jennifer Miller of Circus Amok!
DJ Dusty Walker
And, of course, the RMO
*** In August 2008, the Rude Mechanical Orchestra is taking our show on the road - in a low-impact, environmentally-friendly manner (no stretch SUV limo for us). We will be converting a school bus to run on waste veggie oil and traveling cross country for a two-week adventure -- to cross-pollinate with progressive grassroots organizations and other amazing movers and shakers, and to loudly register our dissent at the Republican National Convention. Along our journey, we plan to raise awareness about and support groups and individuals fighting against racism, sexism, homophobia, war and violence in all its forms. So come party with us and help one of the hardest-working bands in town send our rabble-rousing brassy selves to speak music to power!

Previously: Send the Rude Mechanical Orchestra to the RNC

Heinz UK Pulls Ad Showing Two Men Kissing

By Shira | Jun 25, 08 01:31 PM

I'm not sure what's more shocking - that this ad was pulled because of complaints or that it was aired in the first place. I can't imagine Heinz putting an ad this gay on U.S. television, Americans are way too homophobic. Further evidence that capitalism serves profit, not people, and definitely not the chickens whose eggs go into Heinz mayonnaise.

Now if Heinz is looking for new ideas for the American market, they need look no further:

Happy List

By Shira | Jun 5, 08 07:20 PM

There is a cat posse in our apartment, same-sex marriages are going to be recognized in New York State, my cousin Amir starred in this Borat spoof (it's a video for his high-school graduation party in Haifa), crop circles on google earth, using skype as our land line, Senegalese hip-hop at the eighth annual Media That Matters Film Festival Awards Ceremony, visiting Ithaca last weekend for a co-housing workshop at EcoVillage, looking for an apartment in Ithaca and finding an awesome one!!!, the plants in our window pots are starting to bloom, Obama is the democratic candidate for president, sharing our art and music this weekend as part of Bushwick Open Studios, picking up our first Hearty Roots CSA share of the season in Williamsburg, women's turkish oil wrestling at Galapagos, Renegade Craft Fair at the McCarren Park Pool June 14-15, Pineapple Express at BAM with Director David Gordon Green, tank tops, summer...

Toul Omri: A new queer Arabic film

By Ari | May 21, 08 11:49 AM

Our friends at freeDimensional let us know about "the first gay-positive, unapologetic and uninhibited feature movie in Arabic," Toul Omri (or "All My Life"). It's premiering at Frameline LGBT Film Festival in San Francisco on Sunday June 22nd at 8:30pm. (View trailer)

To help the independent filmmakers meet their post-production expenses, please send any donations to one of the 2 addresses below:

Tax-deductible donations: Please write a check to "Al-Fatiha Foundation" (and write "All My Life movie" in the memo) and mail the check to: *Mike Karim*, PO Box 3422, San Diego, CA 92163.
If you prefer to send your donation to the filmmaker directly (not tax-deductible), please send a check to Maher Sabry, 584 Castro St., Box # 378, San Francisco, CA 94114.

If for any reason you do not wish your full name to be to listed as a donor in the film's credits, please provide a partial name for the credits or mention that you prefer to stay anonymous.

Congratulations, California!

By Ari | May 17, 08 10:03 AM

In case anyone missed it: California's Supreme Court has ruled that queer folks can get married now.

I had the good fortune to grow up in a very queer-friendly community (though with my gender issues, I obviously didn't emerge unscathed), so I think the importance of this event doesn't hit me so hard as it does many folks who have struggled much longer and harder than I have. I found a friend's reaction to the news helped me get my mind around it: "It's been 10 years (today!) since I packed up my life and moved across the country without a job, without a friend other than the man who loved me and believed in taking a chance... I'm crying at my desk while they are trying to install a new phone system."

Thank you, trailblazers, fearless family, leaders of the queer pack. I think we northern coast-dwellers sometimes forget how hard it's been - and very much still continues to be for folks elsewhere. Marriage isn't just icing on the cake of Greenwich Village and Pride and all of our other queer freedoms, it's a Big Deal. It's another vote for us, a step closer to full citizenship. We can have legally recognized families now, in one more state.

Personally, I'm looking forward to a day when I can check "married" instead of "single" on my tax return. (Though I'll miss writing in defiantly beside that check mark: "GAY".)

NPR Covers Gender Queer Kids

By Shira | May 8, 08 01:46 PM

On All Things Considered yesterday, there was a pretty in-depth piece about families dealing with gender queer kids. In typical NPR fashion there was an attempt at objectivity by interviewing two doctors with very different approaches - one who thinks kids should be forced to behave accordingly with their biological sex, another who focuses on the child's happiness and sense of comfort and security with their body and gender expression. It's nice to see these issues getting some mainstream media coverage.

Listen to Two Families Grapple with Sons' Gender Preferences

Day of Silence

By Ari | May 7, 08 02:23 PM

Check out GLSEN's new Day of Silence Blog, designed by Shirari Industries. This year's DOS fell on April 25th and drew record numbers of participants. Hundreds of thousands of students from more than 7,500 middle and high schools took a pledge of silence to bring attention to the bullying, name-calling, harassment and other violence that silences queer folks every day.

This year's DOS was held in remembrance of Lawrence King, a 15-year old California student who was shot and killed because of his sexuality and gender expression. We had the honor of designing a quick skin for Lawrence's MySpace page, another GLSEN project.

Save the date - the next DOS is on Friday, April 17, 2009. In the meantime, anyone can take action year-round to create safer schools and communities for queer youth. Visit GLSEN for information and ideas.

Voices: Queer Palestinian women

By Ari | May 7, 08 12:15 PM

My friends at freeDimensional have introduced me to ASWAT, an organization of Palestinian gay women based in Haifa. ASWAT (Arabic for "voices") provides a range of services and opportunities for interaction and support to queer Palestinian women, while raising public awareness and fostering tolerance in the greater community. They're online at aswatgroup.org.

Their words remind me of the awkward (but perhaps essential) position of Bayard Rustin, whose efforts in the American Civil Rights movement have been largely marginalized and/or "forgotten" because he was also a gay rights activist. ASWAT's working statement reads in part: "As long as we women participate in the struggle for national liberation, we are welcomed and our efforts are appreciated. The moment women want to focus their energies in establishing independence from the male occupation and structure, we are transformed instantly into enemies."

For yet more voices of feminist women, this time from Muslim women worldwide, many of them from Palestine, check out Sarah Husain's Voices of Resistance: Muslim Women on War, Faith, and Sexuality. And stay tuned to our blog here for more on Israel-Palestine - Shira and I are just back from a trip that included about 10 days in Haifa, and thanks to many Big Discussions there, have a much better understanding of the politics in question, which I hope we'll have time to comment on in a future blog post or two.

My Feminist Review: Transgender Voices: Beyond Women and Men

By Ari | Apr 12, 08 01:13 PM

My review of Lori B. Girshick's Transgender Voices: Beyond Women and Men is up at Feminist Review. This was a really good one! I'm genderqueer and have read quite a bit on this subject, but I learned a lot. I loved reading the words of the people Lori interviewed for the book, and seeing their photos - I found it really made me care for all of them, identify with them, want to be in unity with them, to change things so we all have a safer, happier world to live in. Any book that can do that is a good book, I think.

Uncle Samantha

By Ari | Apr 10, 08 03:25 PM

I've been working for New York's Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transgender Community Center for a while now, and a little job I did for them has recently gotten some new life, being put into use by Burgundy Crescent Volunteers in the DC area. Here she is! Uncle Samantha (or Aunt Sam) was meant to be a drag queen but is frequently mis-identified as a hot lesbian. Either way, she seems to be a crowd-pleaser. I originally drew her for the Gay Center's Volunteer Program and she appeared on the cover of the Center's newsletter, Center Happenings. Now the folks at Burgundy Crescent are using her to recruit new volunteers for DC Pride events. You can even get her on a shirt or mug!

Anyway, had to post this - I'm so happy to see Sam getting out there and hopefully bringing in some new recruits for the Gay Agenda. If you're queer and looking for something fun to do, I highly recommend volunteering with a local organization like the Center or BCV. They can always use people with skillz and are, I've found, generally full of really awesome people doing great work for people who really need it.

Shirari Industries