Casey Heynes is the boy who fought back to his bullies. Australia’s A Current Affair interviews this courageous boy about his past as a victim of bullying and the moment when he snapped and fought back that went viral.
What a brave boy- his is a story that anyone who has been bullied can relate to.
What do YOU think of Casey’s story?
Advocate reports on the documentary about Renée Richards, the transgender woman who fought and won the right to compete in the women’s U.S. Open in the 1970s, will be part of the fifth annual Tribeca/ESPN Sports Film Festival that kicks off April in Manhattan. Click to learn more about the festival.
Navigating areas of athletics as a trans person is a complicated matter. I’m a trans athlete, I have the opportunity to get sponsorship by a major fitness company, TRX, to support my racing. This sponsorship would allow me a platform to bring some of the challenges of navigating sports and an athletic identity as a trans person. The sponsorship contest is based on the number of views of my 30-second promo video. Please consider taking half a minute to watch it and support my efforts to bring trans issues to light (and to ride my bicycle from California to Maine in less than 11 days). Please share this link in your circles and help spread the word.
Thanks!
When 23-year-old Justin Alesna went into a gas station for a pack of cigarettes, he was the victim of anti-gay violence. Nobody in the store called the police or tried to help. So he is taking matters into his own hands, using YouTube to communicate his story to the masses.
Thank you, Justin, for being so brave and sharing your story.
THE HATE STOPS NOW.
Rutgers University, as of this coming fall, will allow a pilot group of its students to pick roommates of the opposite sex in an attempt to attract more LGBT students. This change comes just 5 months after the suicide of gay Rutgers student Tyler Clementi.
Gay campus groups have pressed the university for gender-neutral housing options for years to no avail, according to NJ.com.
The pilot program will involve more than 100 undergraduate students, including gay, lesbian and transgender students and be limited at first to housing in Demarest Hall on College Avenue, New Gibbons on the Douglass Campus and Rockoff Hall in downtown New Brunswick.
Many self-described LGBT individuals, including Rutgers senior Aaron Lee, eagerly await the opportunity to participate.
“I’m really glad they did it, although I wish it wouldn’t have taken as long,” Lee told NJ.com. “We live in a world where in order to be considered a human being you have to be male or female, and not everyone fits into that kind of binary. It’s important to have spaces where people don’t necessarily have to worry.”
The program will also be open to heterosexual students, who will be given the option to live with their significant others or friends of the opposite sex.
First-year students will not have access to the program, but LGBT freshmen will have the prerogative to ask for a roommate who respects their sexual preferences, reports NJ.com.
Housing assignments will be determined by a lottery, and those students assigned to any of the three buildings offering gender-neutral housing will be able to choose the sex of their roommates.
Parents cannot overrule a student’s choice to live with a roommate of the opposite sex. The university won’t ask students about their sexual identities.
“We’re not asking students their relationships,” Joan Carbone, Rutgers residence life director, told NJ.com. “People should not have to declare their sexual preference to us.”
Several changes will be made to the gender-neutral dormitories to accommodate the program, including replacing shower curtains with doors and restricting access to the mixed-sex bathrooms to residents with special key cards, reports NJ.com.
Rutgers joins a burgeoning list of colleges and universities offering mixed-sex housing to students.
At least a dozen colleges, including SUNY Stony Brook and Ramapo College in the tri-state area, have begun implementing or already offer gender-neutral housing, and the trend appears to be on the rise, reports the National Student Genderblind Campaign, a grassroots organization that aims to “pioneer a movement for broader gender equality,” according to its website.
Rutgers’ Newark campus will launch a similar program this fall, according to NJ.com, but the gender-neutral housing will be limited to three rooms in one of two dormitories.
We are SO impressed, Rutgers. While it’s shameful that the tragic death of a gay student sparked this change, at least something good came of it.
Let other universities follow suit! Facebook petitions, anybody?
Antigay pastor Grant Storms was arrested Monday for allegedly masturbating in a park while watching/in front of children. Today he held a press conference to apologize for his actions — and say he wasn’t masturbating, he just had his hand down his unzipped pants.
“That Friday I was reclined in the chair in the van, and I had opened my pants and I had my hand in my underwear,” Grant Storms said. “I’m not a pedophile. I’m not a child molester, and I don’t go exposing myself to children.”
Storms also apologized for his purity marches and campaigns against gay people, saying he hopes “they can find it in their heart to forgive me.”
We think that pretty much says it all, folks. Another one bites the dust.
The Sheffield Eagles, a rugby team in the U.K., will be the first professional team in the sport to don jerseys denouncing homophobia on and off the field. The jerseys, which say “Homophobia: Tackle It!” will be worn during their March 13 championship game against the Widnes Vikings.
LOVE it. Any US football players willing to support tackling homophobia during the superbowl??
The Advocate reports:
The seventh circuit court of appeals has ruled that students at Neuqua Valley High School in Illinois can wear T-shirts that criticize gay people.
In its opinion, the court said a “school that permits advocacy of the rights of homosexual students cannot be allowed to stifle criticism of homosexuality.”
The shirts were worn by antigay students in 2006 and carried the message, “Be Happy, Not Gay.” The shirts were later changed to “Be Happy, Be Straight” — later a dean crossed the words “Be Straight” off one of the shirts. The students wore the shirts in response to the Day of Silence, which draws attention to bullying of LGBT teens.
The Indian Prairie School District argued that the antigay shirts should be prohibited because they cause emotional distress to some students.
“The school argued (and still argues) that banning ‘Be Happy, Not Gay’ was just a matter of protecting the ‘rights’ of the students against whom derogatory comments are directed,” the court said. “But people in our society do not have a legal right to prevent criticism of their beliefs or even their way of life.”
UM…. NOT okay. What’s next- OKing the KKK’s “criticism” of black people?! Illinois courts, take this back!
Hawaii Governor Neil Abercrombie approved a measure to legalize same-sex civil unions yesterday- the seventh state in the country to do so and the first bill signing of his career! He says: “For me, this bill represents equal rights for everyone in Hawaii — everyone who comes here. This is, to me, the essence of the aloha spirit.” Rep. Blake Oshiro elaborates: “I think it’s amazing that we’ve joined a small, but ever-growing group of states that are recognizing equality. I’m proud that we’ve taken that major step forward.” Although it’s not marriage, the new law allows same-sex couples the legal status with all of the rights and benefits of one! Equality Hawaii’s co-chairman, Alan Spector, says: “Civil unions are not marriage, but they at least provide — on a state level — the concrete, tangible, legal rights At least its a major step in the right direction to marriage equality! Yay, Hawaii! Ps. What a beautiful place to have a wedding ceremony! Destination unions, anyone??
and responsibilities of marriage. We still don’t have the social significance and the social meaning of marriage … but getting us to civil unions — psychologically and legally — is such a major barrier to cross.”
Perez Hilton reports: Last month, proponents of the legalization of same-sex marriage in Maryland Maryland’s Democratic governor Martin O’Malley Looks like everything’s going according to plan, because Maryland Senate voted 25-21 in favor of a bill that grants “same-sex couples full marriage rights in Maryland.” The bill will now move to the House Amazing! So close!!
said they believed that they had enough support to make it happen during their upcoming legislative session. had “publicly stated that he would sign a marriage bill into law” if they could gain the support. of Delegates for debate, and then it will be signed by O’Malley, assuming everything goes off without a hitch.
