CNN anchor Ashleigh Banfield is facing harsh criticism from the LGBT community for saying on-air that being gay is voluntary. Corrections she made to her position don’t seem to have helped very much. 

During a segment on a morning show, Banfield was discussing an antigay pastor’s comparison of homosexuality to incest and pedophilia. She said homosexuality was the only one of these two that’s a choice:

“Pedophilia is not by choice, last I checked,” she said, before elaborating. “Again, we gotta outline here, when he says ‘they punish incest and pedophilia.’ Please. Those things are often not by choice and are crimes. Homosexuality is a lifestyle choice by people. It is voluntary.”

GLAAD and others reached out to CNN immediately to condemn her comments, and she took to Twitter to clarify what she said:

“Need 2 clarify,” tweeted Banfield. “Incest and pedophelia are CRIMES & victims have no choice. Being gay is not. Relatnshps r by choice. Way of life not crime.” She followed that up with, “Being gay is not a choice. Being in consensual relationship is. I support LGBT people.”

Oh boy. People really need to watch what they say - her correction does not convince me in the least. This is a big no-no, especially for someone in media. 

Marquise Brown came out as gay to his aunt when he was 16. She kicked him out immediately - he couldn’t take any of his things, and he wasn’t wearing anything but his underwear. 

This is Marquise’s account of how he overcame being homeless on and off and found support at school to ultimately become valedictorian. Sometimes things get really bad, he says, but if you work for it, you can find a way through.

I knew there were consequences for standing up for your beliefs, but I never thought I’d lose the place I’d known as home since sixth grade because of who I am. Full of anger and despair, I walked a few blocks across our neighborhood to my sister’s house. Despite having two children of her own and another baby on the way, my sister welcomed me into her home. It was a relief to finally be able to be myself, but I also had to grow up fast. …

The support of my teachers, school, and peers also helped me stay on track. GCCP supported me not just as an occasionally homeless LGBTQ teen, but as a person and as a student. The school has always been a safe place where my peers and I don’t have to hide who we are. I’ve been able to focus on my academics, and I’ll proudly graduate as the valedictorian. I’m also a senior class representative for student council, a member of my school’s National Honor Society, and one of my school’s first male cheerleaders. In addition to actively recruiting boys for the cheerleading team, this year I helped create GCCP’s student-led Gay Straight Alliance, which organized our first annual National Day of Silence. Both students and staff members chose to remain silent for the day in recognition of LGBTQ individuals who are continuing to live without the ability to express themselves.

Marquise sounds like a pretty inspiring guy. If anyone will be going to Pomona College in the fall, look him up. 

Leave it to U.K. media to create the coolest possible graphic explaining gay rights across the U.S.

No, but really. This interactive chart breaks down pretty much every valid gay rights issue and looks at how every state addresses it. Using different shadings of colors to signify progress on each issue, the chart looks at how each state handles marriage/unions, hospital visitation, adoption, employment, housing, hate crimes and education.

A quick glance at this chart shows that some regions are doing much, much better than others (get your act together, Southeast). If you ever have the freedom to move anywhere in the U.S., consider using this as a guide to what kind of rights you’ll have there!

Thanks to everyone who recommended I post this - there were a lot of you! 

My dear friends, I had my very first column published on the Huffington Post’s Gay Voices site yesterday. I’m quite excited about it.

As some of you may know, I have a wonderful girlfriend named Anne whom I’ve been with for 10 months and who I’m madly in love with. Unfortunately, when my dear grandmother found out I had a girlfriend and not a boyfriend, she didn’t talk to me for a few months. It wasn’t a happy time, but I learned a lot about myself and, strangely enough, a lot about how much I want the right to get married one day.

This article is my reflection on what it meant for me to come out to my grandmother and, likewise, how her reaction showed me that marriage equality is really a crucial step in our fight for complete equality. The reason my grandmother was so angry was not because of the nature of my dating a girl, but because she was so upset that I could never get married and have a “normal” life.

One day I want to prove to her that she’s wrong. I will get married, I will be very happy, and honestly, whose life is “normal” anyway? As cliched as it is, I put my heart and soul into this piece. I’d love for you to read it and give me any feedback you have.

Nicholas M. Teich, a social worker who runs a camp for transgender youth, is used to families coming forth with questions about their trans* children and how to find resources to support them.

So he wrote a book called “Transgender 101” about the basics of trans identity, issues and vocabulary. The basics of the book are outlined in this Huffington Post article, and here’s what Teich says about how he put it together:

The approach of Transgender 101: A Simple Guide to a Complex Issue is easy and conversational. When writing the book, I thought about the following: if you were sitting in a room with me, and I was explaining what “transgender” means in the simplest terms possible, what would I say? For instance, one of the chapters in the book, “Gender vs. Sexual Orientation,” explains in laymen’s terms the differences between gay or bisexual people and transgender people, and how they may overlap, but how they may not. I felt that this was one of the many areas that needed attention, because I constantly hear people use “transgender” and “straight” (“heterosexual”) as mutually exclusive terms, which they are not. The book also details what it means to come out, to transition and live as one’s true gender, to live in between genders, to face daily discrimination, and more.

Check out the “15 things to know” as listed in this article. Do you agree with the points given? What would you add or change?

Over the course of almost two years, Eli Sanders, an associate editor of The Stranger, a weekly paper in Seattle, wrote a story about the double-rape and homicide of a lesbian couple that shocked a community.

Teresa Butz died in the attack and Jennifer Hopper spent time in the hospital, and Sanders’ coverage of the possible hate crime won him a Pulitzer.

“I was stunned at first,” Sanders told the Miami Herald, adding that it’s “cool that a scrappy little alt-weekly in Seattle can produce something that resonates on this level.” Isaiah Kalebu was sentenced to life without parole for killing Butz (the sister of Tony-award winning actor, Norbert Leo Butz) and attacking Hopper, who later came out in the media with a riveting essay in The Stranger entitled, “I would like you to know my name.”

Many congratulations. Read the article here.

Gloria Allen, a trans* woman located in Chicago, was disconcerted by the way some kids dressed when they dropped into youth services at the Center on Halsted.

So she took matters into her own hands and, with permission, opened up a “charm school” where she teaches them how to dress and behave - according to this article from the Chicago Tribune, “things they might have ordinarily learned at home if their parents understood how to guide their LGBT teens and were supportive enough to do so.”

Allen says she was lucky enough to have a very supportive family who were helpful during her transition, so she knows firsthand how important it is to have someone there for you. At her charm school, she teaches young LGBT people how to do things like apply makeup, dress well and take care of their skin, as well as things like how to safely manage a hormone routine and other transgender-specific issues.

Allen said she knows that charm school instructors might not typically talk about safe sex practices or the perils of abusing alcohol and drugs or even domestic abuse.

“But transgender people are abused by their partners at high rates, and no one talks about it,” she said. “They may abuse drugs and alcohol to cope. They’re ashamed, but the real shame is not doing something about it.”

She said transgender people have dual identities that they’re trying to learn and unlearn.

“It’s not an easy journey, but I’ve been on it for a long time,” she said. “The women in my family were fabulous teachers. I never had children, but I feel like I have them now.”

I’m not thrilled with everything about this article. Obviously this woman’s intentions are good, but I’m still a little put off by her notions of how there’s a certain way a person (usually a woman) “should” look or act in order to be “respectable.” I see her point, but I don’t love how she got there. Your thoughts?

The TV show In the Life is featuring eight families with transgender or gender nonconforming kids in its April episode.

“As soon as he could talk, he started saying he was a boy,” a mother says of her 5-year-old child, Jake. Another child declares, “I’m a girl, I don’t play boy stuff.” A parent wonders, “How are we going to navigate puberty?”

At the link above, The Advocate has the complete episode. The episode will show throughout the month on public television. Check it out!

You’ve heard about the film and you’ve signed the petition. After causing quite a stir, the new movie Bully will officially be released unrated in select cities this week. But that’s not good enough.

This fabulous Salon.com article explains the motivation behind the MPAA’s stubbornness. It provides a great case: the MPAA has historically stayed on the wrong side of history when it comes to films because of the fear of offending anybody, and this will offend people because of “language” - because of a few f-bombs, the movie was rated R and is now unrated. But in this case, releasing the movie as R or without a rating means kids can’t see it, when they’re the ones who most need to. And the MPAA may be too homophobic to see any of this.

This couple of sentences from the story sums it up perfectly:

No one knows exactly how or why the MPAA voters make their decisions (the deliberations of the Supreme Court are a model of transparency, in comparison), so we can only judge them by their actions. Whether consciously or not, the board is acting to suppress the painful truths in “Bully” in exactly the same way as the movie’s adult authority figures do.

This article is short and easy, but so full of inspiring, thought-provoking ideas. Read through this one and you’ll be able to argue anyone’s commentary about the movie. What do you think?

In an ongoing series of allegations against the extremely anti-gay National Organization for Marriage, documents were found that show the organization’s racist, homophobic strategy for repealing marriage equality in Maine, among other anti-marriage equality campaigns. 

HRC obtained and circulated the documents this week, and they’re shocking. I can’t phrase NOM’s strategy any more clearly than they already have, so here’s an excerpt from this New York Times blog:

“The strategic goal of the project is to drive a wedge between gays and blacks — two key Democratic constituencies,” the memo says, describing an initiative called the “Not a Civil Right Project.”

The project’s goal, according to the memo, was to recruit blacks who opposed same-sex marriage to represent the group, and then “provoke the gay marriage base into responding by denouncing these spokesmen and women as bigots.”

This is HUGE. Stay tuned for updates as this evolves - it’s going to be around for a while. 

You’ve probably heard some buzz in the last couple of weeks about the Affordable Care Act, President Obama’s health care reform law that was passed in 2010 and seems to constantly demand our attention. Health care will undoubtedly be a major issue in the election and it’s something we can’t seem to agree on.

Brad Jacklin, who’s worked with Congress and now heads a project at the National Gay and Lesbian Task Force, knows this law has benefits not just for the American public, but specifically for LGBT people. He explains them in the Huffington Post column linked above. More specifically, a couple to note:

• The law includes a clear rule that state insurance exchanges cannot discriminate against LGBT people or their families.
• There are tools readily available whereby people can search for insurance plans that offer benefits to domestic partners.
• Community health centers and other sites of localized health care will have more funding to offer greater coverage, a plus for LGBT people who want to seek health care in neighborhoods they know and trust.

It can be hard to comprehend a law like the ACA, but Jacklin seems pretty convinced that health care reform will be better for all of us, especially those of us who are LGBT. What do you think?