I don’t normally get so excited about celebrities, corporations and capitalism, but this is a partnership I can get behind. MAC cosmetics are not tested on animals, many of the products are vegan, and the company often hires non-normative spokesmodels and employees, like Ditto. She is an unapologetic fat, queer, feminist who lets her inner drag queen shine—someone not considered beautiful to most of American society, someone like me—yet, MAC made her the face of her own high-end cosmetics line. That’s usually reserved for straight, white, thin, young, stereotypically attractive models and celebrities. (Although, CoverGirl did deviate from its usual spokesmodels with Ellen DeGeneres and Queen Latifa.)

I’m bummed that Ditto isn’t working with MAC’s Viva Glam campaign because every cent of the selling price of products in the Viva Glam line goes to the MAC AIDS Fund. Previous Viva Glam spokesmodels include queer and allied songstresses Lady Gaga and Cyndi Lauper, as well as professional drag aficionado RuPaul.

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Data in the report emphasized the intersections of the black racial identity with sexual orientation and gender identity, revealing:

• Families headed by black same-sex couples are more likely to raise their children in poverty.
• Black lesbians are more likely to suffer from chronic diseases.
• Black gay and transgender youth are more likely to end up homeless and living on the streets.

CAP recommends overcoming these issues with a policy agenda that “seeks to understand and tackle the structural barriers—discriminatory systems, conditions and institutions around socioeconomic status, race, sex, sexual orientation and gender identity—that perpetuate negative economic, health, and other life outcomes among this population.” The report also suggests gay policy priorities, like marriage equality, underserve many populations within the LGBT community.

“Despite significant gains in securing basic rights for LGBT Americans over the past decade, the quality of life for black gay and transgender Americans has remained virtually unchanged,” Aisha Moodie-Mills, CAP advisor on LGBT policy and racial justice, wrote in a statement. “Marriage equality is vital to overall progress, but marriage alone is not a silver bullet to reduce the disparities black gay and transgender populations face.”

In the report, CAP made the following recommendations to overcome issues faced by the people of color in the LGBT community:

CAP recommendations for addressing economic insecurity

• Adopt inclusive family policies and safety net programs.
• Pass housing anti-discrimination laws.
• Take a comprehensive federal approach to gay and transgender youth homelessness.
• Make consumer financial protection a priority.
• Pass employee non-discrimination laws.
• Support gay and transgender entrepreneurs.
• Legally recognize same-sex relationships.

CAP recommendations for addressing low educational attainment

• Adopt school safety policies.
• Enforce existing federal civil rights laws.
• Review school discipline policies.

CAP recommendations for addressing health and wellness disparities

• Implement the Affordable Care Act.
• Work toward health equity.
• Examine domestic violence among same-sex couples.

But the data on race and the LGBT community is limited, as few demographic surveys ask respondents their sexual orientation and gender identity. And without solid data, creating credible, persuasive policies is difficult. In response, CAP launched the Fighting Injustice to Reach Equality initiative, which makes policy recommendations to eliminate disparities faced by gay and transgender people of color.

My guess is, if surveys also enumerated other identities, like ability and citizenship status, researchers would find even greater social, economic, and health disparities for LGBT people of color who fall into those oppressed identities as well.

Read the entire report on CAP’s website.

*Black is the racial category used in the CAP report.

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The court extended the right to privacy clause in the 14th Amendment to a person’s choice to have an abortion; however, that right must be balanced with the state’s interest to protect prenatal life and the mother’s health.

A person may chose to have an abortion until the fetus is viable or “potentially able to live outside the mother’s womb, albeit with artificial aid,” according to the Roe v. Wade ruling. Medically, this is usually at about seven months or 28 weeks, but very few doctors perform abortions on people who are past the first trimester.

Before abortion was legalized in the United States, thousands of women died from complications resulting from botched back alley abortions. Currently, 60,000 to 80,000 people worldwide die each year from unsafe abortions, and 5 million more suffer permanent or temporary injury.

Several states—Illinois, Kentucky, Louisiana, Mississippi, North Dakota and South Dakota—enacted trigger laws to automatically criminalize abortion if Roe v. Wade is overturned. Other states did not repeal pre-1973 laws criminalizing abortion, which could be enforced if the decision is overturned.

California, Connecticut, Hawaii, Maine, Maryland, Nevada and Washington have statutes legalizing abortion if Roe v. Wade is overturned.

Many states skirt the ruling by imposing limitations on access to abortions, such as requiring an ultrasound of the fetus or parental permission before performing the procedure for minors. 2011 was a banner year for these laws: State legislators introduced more than 1,100 reproductive health and rights-related provisions, a sharp increase from the 950 introduced in 2010. By year’s end, 135 of these provisions had been enacted in 36 states.

Check out the resources below for more information:

• Guide to having an abortion
• Overview of U.S. abortion laws by state
• Abortion parental consent and notification laws by state
• Safety of abortion fact sheet
• Facts on induced abortion in the United States
• Safer sex tips
• How to use a condom and other condom FAQs
• Safer sex for lesbian and bisexual female-bodied people
• Safer sex after sex reassignment surgery

Because it was close to the holidays, the theme for the night was family: blood and chosen. I read pieces on femme visibility, alcoholism, poverty, fighting and friends. Other writers covered coming out, kooky kin, redefining family, body positivity, and name and pronoun preference.

I was all femmed out while sharing poems and short stories about family at All The Writers I Know.

All The Writers I Know was also featured in The Reader and Redeye. Not too shabby, considering this was the second installment of the series.

The Chicago Center for Literature and Photography recorded the reading as a podcast. Listen below, on iTunes or CCLAP’s website. I start at the 18:45 mark, but the entire show is worth checking out.

More photos from All The Writers I Know are on Stuff Queer People Need To Know’s Facebook page.

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Described as “the end of the internet as we know it,” by California Democrat Rep. Zoe Lofgren, SOPA and PIPA would make it easier for copyright holders to prosecute piracy. Corporations could obtain a court order to take down any website considered to be infringing their copyrights, and internet providers could be required to monitor customers’ traffic.

That means SOPA and PIPA could be used to censor any dissenting website, even if it only indirectly facilitates copyright infringement by linking to a site hosting pirated media. Popular search engines and social media websites could easily be shutdown. Watch the video below for a comprehensive and easy to understand explanation of SOPA and PIPA:

The House cancelled a vote on SOPA scheduled for late January 2012, pulling the bill from the floor, but it can still easily return later. The White House has come out against SOPA and PIPA, but Obama still seeks anti-piracy legislation that more people can agree on. And PIPA is still alive and well in the Senate.

The internet is an essential means of communication and expression across the world, albeit vastly unregulated. But limiting free speech and monitoring Americans online activity is dangerous—these bills could snowball to further online censorship. SOPA and PIPA put all websites, including this one, at risk. The bills are written vaguely, so even a rogue spam comment linking to pirated material could be grounds to shut a website down.

Tell your members of Congress censoring the internet is not acceptable. Quickly email your Senator about this issue at AmericanCensorship.org.

For more on how SOPA and PIPA could impact you, read FAQs on C|NET and check out this handy infographic.

UPDATE:  Lawmakers indefinitely postponed votes on SOPA and PIPA, in light of the protests.

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It wasn’t until college that I realized King didn’t do it alone. Of course he couldn’t single handedly orchestrate a peaceful uprising of an underclass, but until college I equated the Civil Rights Movement—and, really, all issues of race and ethnicity—with King.

In my 99 percent white school district, the only time race was even mentioned was around MLK Day. Well, then and also at Thanksgiving, when I learned about indigenous people celebrating the harvest with the Pilgrims.

Of course, I learned about white people everyday in school, but these were just people. I learned about white people’s struggles, white people’s heritage, white people’s writings and white people’s stories; we just called these subjects literature, social studies and history.

And while all people have a race and ethnicity, I only learned about those identities in an othering and tokenizing way, never discussing the atrocities committed against people of color. I learned about slavery, but it was presented like, “Black people, who we now call African Americans, were brought here as slaves who worked for free while masters gave them food and shelter. Then there was the Civil War, which wasn’t about slavery, and then Lincoln freed the slaves. Then they had to sit in the back of the bus and stuff, so there was the Civil Rights Movement. Martin Luther King said some things about his dreams, then he was shot and now racism is gone forever. We’re colorblind. Hooray!”

I thought this way the only way racism manifested.

It wasn’t until I took introduction to women’s studies during my third year of college that I was presented with a different view of race. This was the first time I realized racism still exists. I knew the Ku Klux Klan existed and they were racist and there were other bad people out there who were racist, but I thought the average white person like me wasn’t racist because we didn’t participate in overt racism, like using the n-word.

I had no idea about institutional racism, or the interlacing of race, ethnicity, class, education, ability, citizenship, gender, sexuality, the prison industrial complex and the law. Or how much privilege I have. Or that privilege even existed. Or that I contributed to the oppression of others, even though I did it inadvertently and with kindness in my heart.

This was a life-changing epiphany: I knew my activism had to be intersectional or it would be bullshit. I have to do more than just say I am an ally to identity groups that are not my own; I have to actively participate in what other people are working on because it’s the right thing to do and all of our oppressions are bound up together. No one can be left behind.

King and Rustin

Intersectionality is a tough issue for all liberation movements. King’s lead strategist was Bayard Rustin, a gay man. King and his fellow organizers kept Rustin’s sexuality under wraps out of fear he would tarnish the Civil Rights Movement. When a politician threatened to expose Rustin, King accepted his resignation. Rustin stayed in the shadows for three years until has was called upon to organize the 1963 March on Washington, causing infighting among Civil Rights Movement leaders because some believed Rustin would embarrass the march because he was gay.

That is just one example of the oppressed further oppressing others for their own gain. The Human Rights Campaign did this in 2008 when it jettisoned gender identity and expression from the Employment Non-Discrimination Act, hoping it would pass if they left transgender and gender-variant people behind.

But it’s no accident we organize around identity—people are more likely to find common ground or solace with someone with the same identity. While that is important, it breeds tunnel vision, allowing us to ignore all other identities, groups and issues because we’re focusing on what only applies specifically to our identity group. But no person can be equated to one identity—we’re all a complex mix of histories, oppression, privilege and circumstance. And if we don’t keep that in mind, no one will ever achieve liberation.

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