CeCe McDonald is set to be sentenced June 4, after pleading guilty to second-degree manslaughter for killing her attacker Dean Schmitz during a racist and transphobic altercation. The judge will likely apply time served and “good time” to her sentence, so McDonald will likely serve an additional 20 months in prison, not an additional 41 months. … Continue reading »
I — like so many other people, especially white people — was socialized into believing there are no systems of oppression, especially racism. For a long time I was under the impression all that stuff ended a long time ago, and I never really thought about it or talked about. And on the rare occasion … Continue reading »
A Cincinnati federal court yesterday ruled in favor of a gay student who sued Waynesville High School for prohibiting him from wearing a “Jesus Is Not A Homophobe” T-shirt. For the April 2011 Day of Silence, Maverick Couch wore the shirt to school, but Waynesville High School Principal Randy Gebhardt ordered him to turn the shirt inside out. When … Continue reading »
Thousands of protestors took to the streets Sunday in opposition of the North Atlantic Treat Organization (NATO) Summit in Chicago, including a contingent of queer people. Member countries of the NATO defense collective agree to an allied response to an attack against a member nation by any external party. Twenty-eight countries across North America and … Continue reading »
North Carolina is voting today on Amendment 1, a state Defense of Marriage Act to constitutionally ban same-sex marriage, something the legislature already banned. Rev. Dr. William J. Barber spoke out against the amendment and the precedent it sets of letting the majority vote on minority rights, saying: The question shouldn’t have been “How do you … Continue reading »
Illinois State Senate President John Cullerton announced the Corporate Tax Transparency bill (SB 282) at a Lakeview Action Coalition meeting May 6. Under the proposed legislation, a public corporation would have to make tax filings public, and if the corporation does not pay any taxes, it would have to disclose why. Cullertion will introduce the … Continue reading »
Trigger warning: This post discusses corrective rape. Cleveland WMMS Radio personality Dominic Dieter lent his charming advice to a father who discovered his daughter kissing another girl, saying ”You should get one of your friends to screw your daughter straight.” A listener wrote an email to Dieter explaining he’d happened upon his teenage daughter kissing another girl. … Continue reading »
Community members and chosen family members gathered May 1 at Taskforce Community and Prevention Services in Chicago to remember murdered transgender woman Paige Clay and to create a community forum on violence against transgender women, particularly those of color. Clay, 23, was found shot in the head in the early morning hours of April 12, … Continue reading »
