3/2: Rally to Demand Release of NJ4!
FREE THE NJ4!! March 2: NYC DEMO
Free the NJ4 — March 2 Protest at noon — 1 Hogan Place Manhattan
Demand that the Manhattan district attorney stop persecuting the New Jersey 4.
On August 16, 2006, seven young African American lesbians were in New York’s West Village and were accosted by Dwayne Buckle, who eventually grabbed one of them, and a fight ensued. The seven women were arrested and charged with crimes such as “gang assault.” Three of them took plea agreements.
The other four lesbians Terrain Dandridge, Renata Hill, Patreese Johnson, and Venice Brown were put on trial in 2007. In the trial and the surrounding media they were dehumanized, vilified, and called a “lesbian wolf-pack.” The prosecution and trial were so baised that the appeals court completely overturned all of Terrain’s convictions, and dismissed the indictment with prejudice, although by that time she had served almost two years in jail/prison. The appeals court also overturned the more serious charges against Renata and Venice, and they both got out on bail after serving more than two years. Patreese’s sentence was reduced, but not overturned. The district attorney is demanding that Renata be returned to prison, or face another trial.
It is time to demand that the NY county district attorney, Robert Morgenthau, stop persecuting Renata, Patreese and Venice. They fought back to defend each other. Had they not fought back successfully, one or more of them might have been killed or raped. Are rape, death, or prison the only three options open to lesbians who are attacked on the street?
Protest Monday March 2
noon - 1 p.m.
1 Hogan Place
Manhattan, NY
For more info e-mail: freenj4@yahoo.com
Alternet Piece Argues Civil Unions for Range of ‘Couples’
Alternet reprinted a piece today from In These Times making the argument that the civil union law that President Obama said his administration will push for “gay couples” should be expanded to any two people who need or want the legal protections currently only given to married couples:
[Civil unions] should be available to any two people, gay or straight, in whatever configuration: Mother and son, grandparent and grandkid, mother and daughter, and best friends should all be able to form legal couples that enjoy the rights, privileges, financial benefits and responsibilities now assigned to marriage. (Calm down Rev. Rick: Only two people, no pets allowed.)
America’s current marriage system, even when it includes same-sex couples, inherently discriminates against millions of people who are not in a sexual relationship. (That many legal marriages are platonic only adds irony to injustice.) Ensuring equal rights for all requires relegating or elevating (however you look at it) marriage to the realm of religion. Kind of like christenings, bar mitzvahs and chicken sacrifice.
The state’s job, then, would be to assign benefits, if any, to couples, but not to define who can enter into coupledom. There is no rational, as opposed to religious, reason why any two people shouldn’t be able to form a civil union that carries the same rights as marriage: to pass on and inherit property, make decisions for the sick, visit inmates and get discounts on Carnival cruises.
QEJ spearheaded a campaign a few years ago called Beyond Marriage, which argued similarly for an expansion of legal protections for a range of families or relationships for whom marriage is not an option, or a desire. However, the Beyond Marriage statement disagrees with this framework is that the focus should not just be focused on “couples,” as there are polyamorous relationships, or other kinds of kinship and care models for which a simple 2-person policy would not be sufficient. What about roommates of 3 or more people? Or queer couples who are jointly raising children with another person or couple? While thinking beyond the civil union as only applicable to gay or conjugal relationships, it is also important to think beyond the “couple” as a framework.
2/25 & 26: Queer Disability Rights Activist Eli Clare at NYU
QEJ has had the pleasure of working with Eli Clare, a trans activist and writer who’s work has centered around disability, queerness, and racial justice for the last two years as part of a group of trainers for the Racial Justice Institutes at Creating Change. Eli is doing two events this week at NYU, and would love for you to come out and support!
NYU wants people to RSVP due to limited space so be sure to do so at the email provided below:
Disability, Social Justice & Queerness:
Eli Clare at NYU
The Office of LGBT Student Services at NYU works everyday to make our campus inclusive for all. One of the many ‘isms’ that we seek to challenge is “ableism,” a stereotype that considers non-disabled individuals the standard of normal living. In an effort to create a greater understanding of the intersections of disability, queer identities, and social justice, Eli Clare is visiting our campus to foster a greater engagement between disabled and non-disabled students. Staff, faculty, and students invested in social justice and the advancement of communities with multiple identities are especially encouraged to attend.
Disability as a Social Justice Issue
5:00 – 7:00 PM, Wednesday February 25th
At the Intersection of Queerness and Disability
5:00 – 6:30 PM, Thursday February 26th
This interactive workshop requires an RSVP. Please email crv3@nyu.edu to check availability. Space is limited.
Gay City News: Young Professionals Honor Queers for Economic justice
QEJ was the recent recipient of a $7500 grant from Quarter Share, a program for young LGBT professionals in NYC at Stonewall Community Foundation, which chooses an organization to give 25% of the money they raised the previous year. Gay City News reported on it.
The group now has 115 members, each of whom pays dues of $300 a year to participate in social gatherings every other month, learn about New York’s gay philanthropic world, and decide on the recipient of an annual Quarter Share grant. Three-quarters of the money raised goes to the Stonewall Institute, the parent foundation’s training program that offers educational and capacity-building assistance to small LGBTQ organizations in the city. The other quarter goes to a grantee chosen by Quarter Share members.
This year, in choosing its grantee, Quarter Share focused on groups committed to community organizing, and selected Queers for Economic Justice. QEJ is a non-profit that tackles issues of poverty and economic injustice as part of the battle for “sexual and gender liberation,” as the group’s website frames it. It is explicitly and unapologetically progressive, tracing its origins to concerns during the late 1990s about the impact of welfare reform legislation enacted under President Bill Clinton. QEJ puts a focus on racial and class issues absent from the work of many LGBT organizations.
Kenyon Farrow, a longtime African-American writer, journalist, and activist who is now QEJ’s national public education director, was on hand to accept the grant, and addressed some of the group’s key current initiatives. Its Welfare Warriors project presses for inclusive policies in city, state, and federal public assistance programs, and is about to launch a survey of LGBT New Yorkers living in poverty. READ THE WHOLE ARTICLE HERE!
Oscar Review: Milk = Marriage
When the biopic of assassinated San Francisco gay activist Harvey Milk was released this fall, I neglected to see it. Maybe I’m a bad gay. But given all of the flack and fallout of Prop 8 in California, I knew that the film was going to take on a meaning about the need to win same-sex marriage.
This was clear last night when screenwriter Dustin Lance Black and actor Sean Penn picked up Oscar’s for their respective categories.
Black talked about how learning about Milk at 13 years old made him feel a sense of value despite growing up in a very homophobic environment. “It gave me the hope one day I could live my life openly as who I am and then maybe even I could even fall in love and one day get married,” he said.
Penn quite humorously opened his acceptance speech by calling the Hollywood crowd, “You commie, homo-loving sons of guns.”
He then used the moment scold “Yes on Prop 8″ voters: “I think it’s a good time for those who voted for the ban against gay marriage to sit and reflect on their great shame and their shame in their grandchildren’s eyes if they continue that support. We’ve got to have equal rights for everyone.”
While I felt moved by both Black and Penn’s speeches on some level, I also wondered about how Milk’s work (though not without it’s problems) for “gay rights” was also very clearly tied to coalition building among civil rights, labor, and other movements is getting conflated, confused, and reduced to a singular argument for marriage? What are the other lessons that could potentially be learned and passed on about broad-based coalition and movement-building for white gays to work on behalf of a broader social justice agenda?
Also, as San Francisco’s The Castro neighborhood celebrates this movie as reported by the San Francisco Chronicle, I can’t help but remember that just a couple years ago in 2005, several gay bars were picketed for trying to prevent Black people from entering by doubling the admission or asking for multiple forms of ID, and discriminating against Black job applicants. So while the Castro is celebrating the past, what are the current injustices perpetuated in the very location where Milk launched his career as an activist?