Compiled by Howard Israel
S/he Said
"LGBTs have a stake in this growing protest movement since our unemployment numbers and job searches are often made more complicated by having no job protections such as would be provided with the Employment Non-Discrimination Act. For instance, the Labor Department reported the unemployment rate for African Americans surged to 16.7 percent in August, its highest level since 1984, while the unemployment rate for whites fell slightly to 8 percent. The unemployment rate in California is 12.1 percent. LGBTs are in those statistics!"
-Karen Ocamb, in her column titled "Guide to 'Occupy Wall Street' Protests," about the relevance of the Occupy Wall Street movement to LGBTQ people, http://www.lgbtpov.com, Oct. 04.
"Gay is Good."
-Frank Kameny (1925-2011), considered the father of American Gay Movement, coined the phrase in 1968, publicly advocating the propositions that homosexuals were throughout the population, they were not mentally ill, and that there was neither reason nor justification for the many forms of discrimination prevalent against them, passed away on National Coming Out Day October 11, http://www.gaycitynews.com, Oct. 12. Kameny was fired from his U.S. government job in 1957 because he was homosexual and challenged the government's discrimination against him by appealing to the White House, the Civil Service Commission, and the Civil Service Committees of the US House and Senate, and the US Supreme Court. Kameny was a special invited guest when President Obama signed the bill that repealed "Don't Ask, Don't Tell."
"Children can't see their budding lives through the long lens of wisdom – the wisdom that benefits from years passed, hurdles overcome, strength summoned, resilience realized, selves discovered and accepted, hearts broken but mended and love experienced in the fullest, truest majesty that the word deserves. For them, the weight of ridicule and ostracism can feel crushing and without the possibility of reprieve. And, in that dark and lonely place, desperate and confused, they can make horrible decisions that can't be undone. I wrote that because I knew it – personally. Bullying isn't just a harmless game. It can be a deadly one, and we need to be reminded of that constantly. You never know how your words are affecting another person. Sometimes they don't tell. I never told."
-Charles M. Blow, in his New York Times op-ed column titled "The Bleakness of the Bullied," in light of the epidemic of bullying stories, revealing his disturbing story of being bullied alternately by classmates and extended family, http://www.nytimes.com, Oct. 14.
"It is right-wing fundamentalist asshole monster Christians who are claiming to speak for all Christians, who are fighting the bad fight. Trying to prevent social progress for LGBT Americans."
-Dan Savage, in his keynote address, during a seminar titled "Pro-Queer Life: Youth Suicide Crisis, Catholic Education, and the Souls of LGBTQ People, which called upon the Catholic Church, as a significant provider of education and producer of culture, to seek the well-being of LGBTQ people," at the Union Theological Seminary, in an interview titled "Dan Savage Does Not Hate You*," http://thenewcivilrightsmovement.com, Oct. 08.
