“Almost 85 percent of LGBTQ teenagers are harassed in high school because of their sexual orientation, with 61 percent of gay youth reporting that they felt unsafe in school and 30 percent staying home to avoid bullying” - (2009 Gay Lesbian Straight Education Network survey).
I’ve been reading various responses to the recent four nationally recognized gay teens that completed suicide; Tyler Clementi, 18, Seth Walsh, 13, Billy Lucas, 15, and Asher Brown, 13, realizing that these are only four of many more gay or perceived to be gay bullied teens that find themselves facing a life that is not worth living and hopeless.
I’ve purposely used the word gay to identify these teens and the type of bullying they experienced.Reason is, I’ve noticed some responses to these tragedy’s as people thinking that because the gay teen is identified as gay and the bullying is homophobic and intolerant that those talking about these deaths are some how promoting the “gay agenda” or the using these deaths as a “political statement”.
My first reaction is what type of agenda does one perceive the "gay agenda" to be? Promoting tolerance agenda? A human right agenda? A civil rights agenda? All of which I would answer yes and admittedly say of course my response to these deaths is part of promoting tolerance and human rights.
Here is one example by “smittshow” taken from OUTwest Lubbock Youtube“It Gets Better Project” Channel; smittshow says; “…you shouldn’t have put such a strong emphasis on gay kids being bullied, a lot of kids get bullied for many other reasons.”
And another by Britton Peele columnist from the Texas Tech University, Daily Toreador, "Bullying serious problem, don’t mix politics into issue"; “…I feel as if too many people are taking the fact that these suicides were by members of the gay community and rushing to make a political statement out of it.”
I’ve also read Rachel Simmons Newsweek article, "The Nine Most Common Myths About Bullying" and Jessica Bennett “Are We a Nation of Bullies?" with great respect and gratitude for pointing the conversation in directions that, as a whole, make us contemplate the underlying current to bullying.
Yes, the statistics are outrageous no matter what type/kind of bullying we are discussing.Yes, young and old, straight and gay, people have in some manner experienced and/or witnessed bullying or have been the bully themselves.The issue for me is, when bullying is covered and discussed in the media looking for answers from school leaders tasked with protecting and representing all students, the system breaks down and reveals that "sexual orientation" is excluded in written policies and procedures while all other descriptions such as race, color, religion, gender, national origin, and disability are included.
By not including “sexual orientation” as a descriptive, defining whom this type of discrimination touches, supports the social, political and ideological system that has been in place for generations and adds to the practice of dehumanization of GLBTQ people. Deep seeded anti-gay bias from unknown teens to politicians, from television/movies to the church pulpit, from state bans on adoption, to not serving openly in the military, as well as having to live with the fear of loosing your job if you “come out” at work.It seems obvious to me why I would be discussing “gay” bullying over all other types of bullying at this point and time; because gay bullying is validated, reinforced and in some communities celebrated to dehumanize someone because they identify as GLBTQ or are perceived to be “gay”. The message is clear to the GLBTQ community; “please don’t exist” and if you do exist we don’t want to know about it.
The problem is, or shall I say the problem for an intolerant person is, that GLBTQ people do exist and on some levels the mediums listed above have showcased some support for GLBTQ people by way of character plots and "reality" television, and/or showing in the news the potential "threat" of overturning laws set in the last 10-15 years.
The issue I take with television/movies/advertising is that images of GLBTQ identified person’s still follow the pattern of hetero-normative media representation, leaving out GLBTQ people based on race, class, gender identified, ability, age, etc.Some would say I should just be glad they don’t have us written into the script as murdering, drug dealer, pedophiles, that die at the end of the film at the hand of the “confused” character that suddenly finds, after a heated affair with someone of the same sex, that they are straight again!
Have we come that far? Far enough where one can separate media images of fantasy to that of images of real lived experiences? All those that I ask usually say yes that they can differentiate fact from fiction. But what is the issue? Why is the audience continually bombarded with this imagery if we still classify it as fiction? Does our fictitious fantasy need to be degrading and intolerant?
I choose to talk about “gay” bullying and say it with purpose to remind people that all bullying, while harmful in every way, is not discussed equally. Until school districts consciously include "sexual orientation", gay and/or perceived to be gay youth will not find relief. Until media consciously begins to light a real lived experience of representing gay or perceived to be gay individuals as no longer condemned by outside sources on a continuous basis, I will always make a point to single out the anti-gay, hate filled speech and torment as a most horrendous form of greed and power. For me, it is time to give the power back to survivors of bullying to stand up and fight because talking about bullying alone is not enough.
I found a post on my Facebook page today that moved me to tears and while very heartbreaking to listen to, I did find hope.
Ft. Worth, TX City Council member Joel Burns took his time for announcements to reflect on the current gay youth suicides and to tell his personal story. I was so moved that I put aside my “to do” list for today to write this blog.
Over the past six months I’ve taken part in a committee of volunteers planning and organizing events for GLBTQ Awareness Month. I didn’t realize six months ago that when we suggested to show Trevor: The Film and OUT in the Silence as part of our GLBTQ Film Festival that they would be so needed. Early on, I received some criticism from a few members of the queer community that said; “we shouldn’t have sad and depressing events” but instead we should be “celebrating our lives”. I partly agree with my peers but at the same time I know that not all of us are in the same “safe place” in our lives.
As news breaks about another “gay” teen committing suicide, our community has slowly began to participate in our version of the “it gets better project”. Members of the planning committee felt so strongly that our community needed to “do something” that we started our own Youtube channel with local GLBTQ and Allies that felt they had something to say and needed to say it. I anticipate that we can bring awareness to the gay teen suicides that have happened in our own community while supporting others currently in crisis.
While taking part in the project (being behind the camera and hearing everyone’s story) and attending all of the awareness events so far, today’s video message from Joel Burns hit me pretty hard. I’m not sure if it’s because I’m feeling the “community organizer blues” or is it that I’m rethinking my own hidden identity to my family.
As I watched Joel speak about his personal story, I found myself thinking once again how powerful the media can be. Because I have friends that will post and send me messages such as this one, I’m hoping that my local news sources will pick up on the story and run it. But I know all too well when it is not “sensational” enough or doesn't connect celebrity to our town, it won’t run. This leads me to remember how, as a young budding lesbian in the 1980’s, I learned about what it was like to be someone that identified as gay or lesbian through watching the media.
I’m having flashbacks to my time in Junior High and High School during the 1980’s and remember that I was fully aware that if I were to “come out” I would not be welcomed. My news channels, locally and nationally, were reporting on the overwhelming numbers of people across the country contracting and dying of AIDS related illnesses. I witnessed the slow agonizing process of investigating and researching what this disease was while laced with a sense of urgency and panic for citizens in our own backyard.
I find it odd that I never met someone that was diagnosed with AIDS as the "gay disease" but instead was introduced to AIDS as sharing dirty needles and the "just say no to drugs campaign". Three years into my Mom and Stepfather's marriage, I was told that my step-cousin, that I had only known for a short time, died of AIDS. This was my first hand experience of seeing just how manipulative the media was and how much it played a part in how I defined AIDS. I also knew to keep the reason for her dying a secret. After this experience I knew that it would take a long time before the "gay disease" terminology and ideology would begin to subside.
Even though my firsthand experience with AIDS was more about how straight people contract the disease thru drug use, I knew what image I was supposed to uphold and being a lesbian was not the “right” way to live. I was confident of my feelings for other girls and I knew I needed to be true to myself but was faced with image after image and news feed after news feed that gays and lesbians will die of the “gay disease” spreading across the United States.
I’ve found myself reliving those disparaging memories, memories I’ve tried to block out of my mind, but somehow they keep coming back. Now the images are returning but they are in the form of young people, dying by way of their own hand. I find myself asking the same questions I heard back then when the President of the United States wouldn’t even say the word AIDS until Ryan White contracted the disease thru a blood transfusion; “How many more people have to die before something is done?”
There has to be a nation wide response to awaken the poor discrimination and harassment policies and procedures that parents and teens face while trying to make their schools responsible. Those that are in crisis deserve more than “a wink and a nod”.
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To find out what your school district policy is with regard to "student welfare: freedom from bullying and/or freedom from discrimination, harassment, and retaliation" and what it covers:
1.) Look up you school districts web site
ex. LISD = http://lubbockisd.org
2.) On some web sites it is hard to find but know that you are looking for some terminology such as "policy online" to get you to viewing the policy. Using the example of LISD, place your cursor over the navigation bar with the words "District Info & News"
3.) Click on "LISD Policy Online"
4.) Type in the words student welfare and click search
5.) If you click on STUDENT WELFARE: FREEDOM FROM DISCRIMINATION, HARASSMENT, AND RETALIATION you will see how your district defines "discrimination"
6.) If you click on STUDENT WELFARE: FREEDOM FROM BULLYING you will see how your district defines "bullying"
There are only four ISD's in Texas that protect students from discrimination based on sexual orientation: Houston, Dallas, Fort Worth, & Austin.
These policies are revised as needed to reflect changes in federal or state law, Texas Education Guidelines, and local options.
Find your legislator to ask why some Texas schools include sexual orientation in their student welfare policy and others don't? Is this only a "local issue" that needs to be addressed? How does one local area differ from another if we are talking about students need a safe place to learn?
There is a new business in this sleepy little West Tx town, using the same old ways of commerce/capitalism, turning a buck at the expense of others.Ooo La Lattes owned by Joe and Bruce, two “God fearing” and “family loving” guys that just want to put their entrepreneurial skills “out on a limb”, have opened a new coffee house.This town (approx. pop. 200,000) now has, at my count; six independently owned coffee shops competing with Starbucks which has four locations, counting the campus and Barnes & Noble bookstore at the mall.
What’s the big deal? It’s just a coffee shop, right? What could possibly warrant a blog post spent talking about coffee? If you read S. Coleman with Talk Lubbock you'll know what the big deal is with "Hooter-like jugs hanging just right". Also, the facebook page of KLBK/KMAC news channel (scroll down to June 22nd) seemed to have some folks saying that there are those "jealous folks" that need to get hip with the times, as other big cities in Texas have already done and that progress is good, if we just open up another coffee shop with men dressing similarly, in place of women.
Hear what the all female staff thinks of their work environment and dress code, oh, and the coffee they sell.
How was this new business covered on the local news channel? Couldn't get the link to be embedded so you'll need to click on this to Lubbock Online to view the story: http://everythinglubbock.com/fulltext/?nxd_id=56395
Raising eyebrows! You don’t say!That’s an understatement. Don’t get me wrong, I do enjoy deconstructing some young women's argument that tell me “women have come so far, being independent from influences of main stream media” that “we” are in control of how we are exploited and it’s our choice to be in those type of situations, on and on I could go; BUT this story is not your typical run of the mill “call out sexism” type post.Instead this is a story of hypocrisy as the cherry (no pun intended) on top of the sexist cake.
In a conservative town that prides itself and it’s founding morals on being “the best place to raise a family”, I’m not sure Mom and Dad will take the kids to Ooo La Lattes on their way to church for a coffee or hot chocolate for the kids.Oh, that’s right they’re not open on Sunday’s.Just when all those good Christian folk need something for that hangover! Cue “Lubbock Or Leave It” by the Dixie Chicks.
Also, what’s the big deal?“It’s a nice little spin and you need a gimmick to make money today” and don’t forget “different strokes for different folks”.
It’s not new, right? “Hooters” has been doing it since 1983 and their Internationally known and have a Wikipedia page. If it's not new then what's the big deal?
The bid deal is this:
Using women’s bodies to sell a product is sexism.The hypocrisy is that the virtuous and morally principled owners have hit on something to sell their product at the profit of constructed women’s bodies as nothing more than commodities.A typical question that comes to mind with this discussion; does this mean I’m calling for equal treatment of men’s bodies as fragments to even the playing field?No, why would I want to call for men to experience the same issues of body image, self worth, stereotypes, etc.? No, no one gender, race, class, body, orientation, age group, etc should be constructed, fragmented, pieced apart in a manner that exploits their social, political and economic worth for profit.
I’ll admit I’ve only viewed the web site and seen the fan page on Facebook.Others have told me that they drove by with their teenage daughters in the car and immediately the daughters told their Mom; “Those women don’t have any clothes on!”You see; the drive thru window is much lower than traditional drive thru windows and seems to go as far down as midway down her thigh and the top of the window reaches as tall as just under the overhang. On this day, they must have been wearing their bikini "uniform". It did make for a great conversation on the drive home that day and the Mom was struck by how her daughters could distinguish sexism, "in the flesh" (pun intended).
I’m not sure I really need to drive by or even buy a cup of coffee to know sexism when I see it?Just like I don’t have to define sexism to those that have experienced it first hand.The hand, so to speak, comes on my television on the movie screen, even in my daily walk across campus as well as face-to-face acts.
Just in case; here is a reminder of the basic definition of sexism
-noun
attitudes or behavior based on traditional stereotypes of sexual roles
If the images don’t convince you maybe the way you order that special cup of “Joe” might make you think otherwise.
Cup sizes are "B" cup, "C" cup, and "D" cup
Don’t forget the catchy names of some of the specials: “Tripple X”, “The Push-UP”, “The Wild Thing”, “The Commando”; all organically made.All in all these names can be used in most any restaurant or bar but when you hear them coming from the barista at the drive thru window, flashing you a little more skin than you are used to at a coffee house, you seem to get the pun and point to why Ooo La Lattes is the type of business standing out above the rest.
So, what is the bottom line for me? What should I learn from this new coffee establishment’s “gimmick”?That *hypocrisy is alive and well in this sleepy little town, out in the environment where cotton, oil, football and sexism are KING!
*Note: Hypocrisy in this case equals the context of using women, dressed in clothing attire that would be declined in a schoolhouse but acceptable at a strip club, as a gimmick to attract customers to sell them coffee; therefore exploiting another person based on traditional stereotypes of sexual roles.
One last thought:
Why didn’t J&B Coffee, Day Break Coffee, Sugar Brown’s Coffee, Otto’s Granary and Grand Café do the same? Maybe they just didn’t have a sense of humor or a creative management team like Joe and Bruce
Resources on sexism by Media Education Foundation:
This blog is in response to the awesome-ness that is Fair and Feminist, someone you should follow on Twitter (@fairandfeminist) and on the blog (http://fairandfeminist.com/)
I am a 41-year-old “young feminist”. I am “young” to feminism in the way that I am using the word, feminist/feminism, more often in my everyday speak, my art making, and my career choice. I am not young to the belief in feminism and how it has impacted my life but I am young in a sense that I have found my voice much later in life.
Coming to this realization consciously, I decided to use this opportunity to share with others how I believe music and more specifically women in music was a stand in for my voice at an early age.
I was given a copy of “The Runaways”, the movie, for my birthday. As I watched a young Joan Jett and Cherie Currie kick, scream, shout, and sing their way to history, I was reminded why I fell in love with women in music. Music has been a part of my life, living as an open diary, a fantasy lover, a celebration of life, and a loyal friend I can call on at 3am.
I grew up with a small portable transistor radio, when all the hot top 40 stations were on AM radio, an eight track portable player, and a console TV with a five channel tuning knob in which I was the remote control, turning the dial till my Mom told me to stop. These were my resources to take me far away from my life in a small town (population 2,000) in Texas.
From Tanya Tucker (8-track Country) to Pat Benatar (Rock-n-Roll cassettes and MTV) I found myself learning the in’s and out’s of love in a rough and tumble type of “kiss me, but don’t think you can have me” attitude. As I look back now, I think I had many “click” moments of when I knew I was a feminist; I just kept them hidden inside.
The music was loud and blasting out of my room every chance I had. When I was old enough to drive, legally, I was always conscious of having a radio that worked. Radio was my salvation!
With every beat of the drum and grind of a guitar string or a sultry ballad, validating itself over and over, again and again, I knew that I could be and do anything I wanted. I was never told I was living in a feminist world at the price of other women that had come before me. I only knew that the women that were raising me were powerfully determined.
So, who were the women in my early life still speaking the words I wished I could, making me get out of my chair to grab my hairbrush to sing out loud and giving me the words to speak my truth? Here’s a list of just a few that come to mind as I reminisce my feminist music play list of my life. Cheers to all the women in music that remind us of our youth, our power and our passion for feminism.
Roberta Flack (my first 45 record), Donna Summer, Linda Ronstadt, Emmylou Harris, Tanya Tucker, Janis Joplin, Stevie Nicks (Fleetwood Mac/Solo), Dolly Parton, Grace Slick (Jefferson Airplane), Dusty Springfield, Karen Carpenter, Chrissie Hynde (The Pretenders), Suzie Quatro, Debby Harry (Blondie), Heart (Ann & Nancy Wilson), Patty Smith, Pat Benatar, Joan Jett (Runaways/Solo), Lita Ford (Runaways/Solo), Madonna, Annie Lennox, Tina Turner, Cyndi Lauper, Tracy Chapman, Melissa Etheridge, Stevie Nicks, Go Go’s, Aimee Mann (Till Tuesday), Bonnie Tyler, Cher
School is back in session and the bars will once again be filling up here in this sleepy West TX town. As the Dixie Chicks song, "Lubbock or Leave It" echos in my head I found myself remembering the questions I asked a few months back when I heard that the only two "gay bars" in town were going to alternate Friday and Saturday nights as "Straight Night". I'll pre-face this post by saying the only reason I went to the gay bar was because my straight friends wanted to go...and then I was hooked!
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Why did you come to "straight night" at the "gay bar"? Do you come to this bar when it is not straight night? Is this a gay bar? Are gay people here now? Are straight people here now? How do you know? Who decides who looks gay and who is not? Is the music you are listening to and dancing to gay or straight? Are the drinks you buy the same or different because of what night it happens to be or the name the bar happens to be tonight?
The lines between gay and straight nightlife has maintained a significant split as long as bars have existed here in Lubbock. Yes, a gay person does go to a straight bar. I should know, I’m one of them. I used to burn up the dance floor with as many straight guys I could find just to have fun and hang out with my straight friends. It was all very innocent because I knew the chance meeting would go no further than dancing. At times there was a "gender free for all" tendency on the dance floor, depending on the song of choice, but there was never enough freedom for two people of the same sex to dance openly with each other. Therefore, the gay bar scene would be that one location where anyone could feel safe and overcome any fears of retaliation.
Everybody, gay and straight, knows where to go for nightlife if they want to find something different, out of the ordinary, and in most instances the most open. Yes, you’ve guessed it, the gay bar is the place to be if you find yourself not fitting in. The straight folks I know that have found themselves at the gay bar, a many a nights, find themselves there because of the music, lights, specials and freedom. Through this mix of communities the lines seem to be blurring and a small circle of people have maintained a working relationship with little to no physical incidents requiring the Lubbock police to show up in force, until now when the place is advertised as "straight nite".
Living in the second most conservative city in the United States, those that self identify as gay, lesbian, bisexual, transgender, and queer, find slim pickings for an open night on the town. The gay bar life is one location that is available to meet, greet and be "Mary". Over the past year the two gay bars (defined by way of many displays of rainbows, drag queen shows and the queer community) in Lubbock have decided to host "straight nite". Interesting enough it has even been advertised on local radio. On alternating Friday and Saturday nights you will find people being turned away at the gay bars because they "look gay".
Using the distinctly decorated, remodeled (except the bathrooms), gay clientele climate for the purpose of straights only night has brought animosity among an already small gay customer base. Instead of catering to the mixed (straight and gay) crowd that has kept this business actively attended for the past ten years, segregation is rearing its ugly head, dividing the community for profit. Seems that the most tolerant and accepting safe place promoting freedom from ignorance and bigotry now aims to host predominantly straight patrons (distinguished by looks) without embracing the gay culture that has no other safe place to go except another "gay" bar that isolates and keeps gay people locked in a corner conveniently accepting this segregation, thanking their lucky stars for this one sliver of hope that there is in a town this size. The documentary by the Dixie Chicks, "Shut Up and Sing", comes to mind.
The worst of both worlds is occurring as a result of not allowing straight and gay bar patrons to mix at the gay bar. It is my theory that if segregation is advertised, condoned and mandated then friction on many levels is ineffective for all involved, resulting in intolerance and homophobia to run rampant.
It is my belief that, for some, nightclubs and bars are stand ins for community centers. For the most part, people utilize bars with "10,000 watts of sound and lighting pumping the hottest high-energy dance and hip-hop music" to forget about the world outside, allowing free flowing emotions to throw caution to the wind and celebrate life.
Can the owners shed some light on this topic? Can the patrons of these establishments contribute to this intolerance and bigotry by attending? I’ve heard witnesses of homophobic and degrading remarks spoken openly by both owners and patrons alike. I’m guessing the old saying "like goes with like" fits with this situation. For me, it’s hitting too close to home for my comfort zone.
I'm starting a new project called Q&A with a Feminist Artist and I wanted to begin by asking for questions you think I should ask during my interview.
First some background: As I'm returning from a long recess of playing with this blog thing, I came up with a way that I can do two things: promote women artist that are alive and working as well as promote my feminist perspective related to art and art making. So my idea is to help promote women artist in the community and beyond that specifically identify as feminist.
I got this idea because of all the reviews and interviews I've been seeing of "famous" artists with massive retrospective exhibitions (which are predominantly male). With a lack of feminist artist interviews I found myself drawn to an online interview by Artkrush (AK) with exhibition organizer Cornelia Butler (CB), regarding the show she organized called WACK! Art and the Feminist Revolution, I found myself focused on the last question of the interview.
AK: Is the art world still male-dominated, or is that a thing of the past?
CB: The issue now is that sexism — to use a rather tired term — is more insidious now because it's less overt. Young women and men have incredible access to the system at the entry level. The problem remains that women drop into a black hole at the mid-career level. In general, you have to be either 32 or 86, and there is a desert in between. Also, if you look at the institutional support in terms of retrospectives and major publications devoted to women artists, the statistics are still pathetic.
After reading Cornelia’s answer I thought of my artist friends and other women artist I admire that were supposed to be in this “black hole” of career development. This lead me to wonder, if a good number of my feminist artist friends, including myself, were supposed to be in this black hole of creativity then what is it that their work is saying that may contradict this statement? Is there any truth to this analysis of where women artist are and why they may or may not be visible to the art world? How could I get to some answers to these questions? Are my artist friends that I define as feminist artist defining themselves the same? Does their artwork scream Feminism? How would interviewing them help me find answers?
So, here we are. Post any interview questions you think I have to ask....
First question: why has it taken me this long to respond to Nonnie Ouch’s letter to Lt. Dan Choi?Second question: why do I care what one person living in Lubbock, TX says about GLBTQ activism? The answer is simply; for the past eight months I, along with many others, have been meeting, coordinating, fundraising, negotiating and planning GLBTQ Awareness events for Lubbock, TX. and I am financially and physically vested in efforts to bring local, state and national activist to speak.
Additionally, this letter has reached my twitter-verse and blogosphere GLBTQ/Feminist followers and I don’t want one person’s individual “disappointment” over money appearing to represent the larger body of GLBTQ people in Lubbock TX. I have read and appreciate Between Floating and Leeching: The Financial Struggle of the LGBT Activist by: Zack Ford(-promoted by Pam's House Blend) and What is feminism Worth? By Jessica Valenti.Your critiquing of Ms. Ouch’s topic was well spoken.
Once again, Lubbock has a “black –eye”, and the GLBTQ and Feminist grapevine is seeing why they might want to stay clear of our small city.I am left explaining to those potential speakers why Lubbock TX, conservative as it may be, needs and will financially support speakers like Choi to help create dialogue rather than debates.
I am one of many Lubbock GLBTQ activists that exist in this city of 200,000.I did not see the need to send an open letter regarding Lt. Dan Choi, because I was privy to more information than is public knowledge. Individual negotiation tactics were exposed and questioned. Asking these questions were additional Lubbock organizations, which understandably were willing to negotiate a fee with an agent instead of the initial liaison, first involved. Before this negotiation could take place, state media outlets picked up on Ms. Ouch’s letter. As is typical in a small conservative community, it only takes one person’s publicity to bring a whole group effort to a state of unrest.As the saying goes; one-step forward, two-steps back.
I have had the good fortune of being part of community planning for the past 10 years. In this short time I have participated in raising funds ranging from small to large, bringing speakers of this caliber to Lubbock. A few years ago a coalition of community leaders and organizers came together to form a GLBTQ Awareness Committee.These members found it necessary to come together after a short lived Student Diversity Relations Department, on the University campus, was no longer in existence.Additionally, as of 2006, there is a virtual Community Center that is coming off a fundraising high from hosting a successful Art Exhibit & Auction. These are only a few examples, of many, that support our GLBTQ heritage, history and diversity way out here in West TX.
Living in the second most conservative city in the USA (taken from the Bay Area Center for Voting Research, 2006), my GLBTQ& Allies community is small but powerful. I thank the founders of the first GLBT Community Center (1985-1992) and the up and coming virtual community center of today, OUTwest Lubbock.I thank the health providers and organizations that have been here all along in small corners and on open avenues.I thank the religious communities for surrounding themselves in the common goal of equality for all. I thank the legal community that continues to represent so many GLBTQ individuals and groups, leading to state and national coverage of the public protest against Fred Phelps and his flock.I also thank Nonnie Ouch for reminding me how powerful our community is, here in a town people pass thru on their way to somewhere else.
The bottom line is; I would be proud to work with Lt. Dan Choi and his agent to bring him to Lubbock.He would make a great addition to our already present activist community that works out of love.
For more information on upcoming events in Lubbock, TX check out OUTwest Lubbock events page:
