Fun: Dominic's Dominion of LGBT Issues

[Dominic]

Hey all! To be fair to other readers, I have decided to post all future LGBT-related news in this thread. so make sure you guys check back constantly for weekly updates from your friendly gay ReCommer.

World LGBTQ Youth Leaders Summit TLV December 2011

Israel Gay Youth organization (IGY) has announced that it will hold the first international summit for young gay, lesbian, bisexual, transgender and queer leaders in Tel Aviv

The six-day seminar, named 'World LGBTQ Youth Leadership Summit', will start on December 4th, and will be hosted by IGY in Tel Aviv.

The summit, conceived by IGY and held for the first time, aims at bringing young LGBTQ leaders from around the world, to promote LGBTQ rights, and to create a worldwide network of activists that will work together for this cause.

Furthermore, this summit will supply its participants with tools for activism, that IGY hopes will help the young leaders promote their causes in their origin countries. The seminar will include workshops and lectures in various topics such as media training, innovative ways of campaigning and debating.

"The seminar will focus on providing useful tools for creating and leading social change", says Avner Dafni, Executive Director of IGY. "It will train the next generation of leaders of the international LGBTQ community for social activism".

"We would like to create a strong network of global leaders who share common causes", adds Nir Zernyak, Global Affairs Director in IGY, "but along with this, we would like to have added values such as promoting women leadership and exposing the participants to various LGBTQ related and human rights struggles from other countries; we would like to see a young activist from the USA learning about the situation of LGBTQ people in Uganda from a local activist, not only by reading about it online".

The application for the summit will begin this week, and IGY plans to host around 60 people from around the world, including activists from Israel and the Palestinian Authority.

Dafni: 'We find great importance in bringing together activists from Israel and Palestine, who never have the chance to meet, and find creative ways of cooperation despite the differences. We welcome the debate on this 'hot' issue".

For further information:
Amit Lev : Spokesperson for the Summit

Official website: http://lgbtqsummit.org/
Facebook page: http://www.facebook.com/pages/World-...66470943363190

[Dominic]

‘Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell’ Comes To An End

As gay and lesbian troops await the end of the 18-year-old ban on openly gay service members on Tuesday, observers say the change will have significant impact beyond the military.

“Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” will finally be lifted from the books thanks to the certification of repeal that President Obama, Defense Secretary Leon Panetta and Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Adm. Mike Mullen sent to Congress on July 22. In accordance with the repeal law that President Obama signed in December, certification started a 60-day timeclock for the end of the ban on Sept. 20.

Aaron Belkin, author of “How We Won,” a book on the lessons learned for progressive causes resulting from “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” repeal, said the end of the military’s gay ban represents the end of what he called the “political paranoia” that led to the institution of the law in 1993.

“Just abstracting away from the question of LGBT rights that’s a danger to every American citizen,” Belkin said. “Sept. 20 is about the cultural change for the military and the political change for gay and lesbian troops … but I would say, even more importantly, it’s a moment when truth and fairness trumped paranoia, and that’s just critical.”

Jeff Krehely, director of the LGBT research and communications project at the Center for American Progress, said allowing open service will be significant for many Americans.

“‘Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell’ repeal is huge and tremendous, but I think there are much larger implications for society because a lot of people really respect the military,” Krehely said.

Observers agree the process that led to the end of “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” will have a lasting impact as well.

Alex Nicholson, executive director of Servicemembers United, said the training in which service members have been participating will have significant influence on the perspective with which troops — and the American public at large — view gay and lesbian people.

“They really took the time to train and educate the force on the various assets of this policy and hypotheticals,” Nicholson said. “It was an hour of instruction on gays and lesbians, on gay families, on gay partners and it was a really a normalization routine. It was really exposed to millions of America’s most conservative youth to the normality of gays and lesbians.”

Among the situations that the training addressed, Nicholson said, were gay troops holding hands, going on dates or participating in military events with their partners. Nearly 2 million service members received the “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” training before certification took place on July 22, according to the Pentagon.

Workplace discrimination against LGBT people could be an issue that gains new focus after “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” repeal. No federal law exists to protect LGBT workers against discrimination. Firing someone for being gay is legal in 29 states and firing someone for being transgender is legal in 35 states.

Krehely said open service could generate support for the Employment Non-Discrimination Act, which would prohibit discrimination against LGBT workers in most situations in the public and private workforce, or encourage other employers to add protections for LGBT workers.

“The military is probably one of the biggest and most visible workplaces in our country,” Krehely said. “I think Sept. 20 is a clear indication that this discrimination should not be there any longer, and that we need to move forward on ENDA, and educate people about the broader workplace issues that we’re up against.”

Despite the potential for long-term impact, advocates say the change resulting in the end of “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” won’t be immediately apparent and any impact of any lifting the gay ban will be more drawn out.

Krehely said the end of “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” next week won’t mean the “world changes necessarily” on Tuesday.

“I think that it’s just people who want to serve their country will want to do that without living in fear,” Krehely said. “That’s the biggest change. It may not be visible, but it’s really important to those people and it’s really important to the military itself.”

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Nicholson predicted Tuesday will be a “non-event” and said many gay service members will choose not to come out even though they won’t be in danger of dismissal now that the military’s gay ban is off the books.

“I think you’ll see a good number of them who decide not to come out,” Nicholson said. “I think the post-repeal military is going to resemble any conservative American workplace where individuals judge their willingness and their comfort level in coming out.”

According to the most recent findings from the Williams Institute at the University of California in Los Angeles, an estimated 48,500 lesbians, gay men and bisexuals serve on active duty or in the ready reserve in the U.S. military, while an additional 22,000 are in standby and retired reserve forces. These 70,500 service members make up 2.2 percent of the total force.

But what will happen to those service members who choose to be public about their sexual orientation? Will service members patronize their local gay bars while in uniform? Will Pride parades include contingents of openly gay troops?

Some gay troops have already started brandishing their military credentials during Pride celebrations. In July, about 200 active-duty troops and veterans marched in San Diego’s Pride parade. They weren’t wearing uniforms, but T-shirts indicating their branch of service. The event was the first time a military contingent participated in a Pride celebration in the United States.

Nicholson said that the standards that apply to straight service members with regard to uniforms will also apply to gay troops — so wearing the uniform may not be appropriate in some circumstances.

“Unless it’s some unusual circumstances, service members don’t wear their uniforms out to the bar,” Nicholson said. “I can pretty much guarantee that violations of long-standing and well-understood regulations like that for the sake of publicity is going to be frowned upon by gay troops because the community consensus is they want to blend in like everyone else and not have any special treatment.”

Nonetheless, gay troops will undoubtedly be visible in the post-repeal world. Belkin said the higher visibility of gay troops — and their relationships — following the end of “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” will add to the political pressure to advance the fight for same-sex marriage.

“We’re going to see gay and lesbian service members coming back from the Middle East and talking about the importance of marriage equality, and, very tragically, we’re going to see gay and lesbian service members fall in the battlefield and their partners, husbands and wives will not be dealt any benefits their straight counterparts have,” Belkin said. “That is going to illustrate for the public in a much more vivid way the stakes of the marriage debate.”

What’s the next frontier for those who worked to repeal “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell?” Securing benefits for gay and lesbian troops is the next step advocates plan to take after the gay ban is lifted from the books.

The Defense of Marriage Act, which prohibits federal recognition of same-sex marriage, prevents the military from offering benefits to gay troops, such as health care benefits. But other benefits related to housing and legal services could be changed administratively.

Krehely said benefits for gay troops will be among the issues advocacy groups will be pushing for in the post-repeal world.

“I think that there are still some implementation issues that need to be worked out in terms of benefits and housing, and I think that’s something advocacy organizations and research groups are going to keep trying to make some progress on,” Krehely said.

Taken from: http://www.washingtonblade.com/2011/...mes-to-an-end/

And the American policy which prevents openly gay service members form serving in the military comes to an end tomorrow!

[jessica9310]

It's kinda sad to know that some of my friends here(in my college i mean) are strongly against gay marriage. According to these people, most of the religions believe being gay is wrong and even the Bible does say so. What the hell is this?!! How can they be so narrow-minded?!

[Dominic]

Originally Posted by jessica9310

It's kinda sad to know that some of my friends here(in my college i mean) are strongly against gay marriage. According to these people, most of the religions believe being gay is wrong and even the Bible does say so. What the hell is this?!! How can they be so narrow-minded?!

Well, the people in my batch are either supportive or not, but every one of us believes that no one should be discriminated against, and none of them would ever condemn LGBTs, even though they are against it. Guess we're all pretty open-minded people. It takes time. I think when we started out there were quite a few homophobes as well but they changed for the better.

[yanno_yamster]

Some of my friends aren't outright anti-gays, they just shudder at the idea of men being lovey-dovey towards each other. Some said girlxgirl is less weird because girls even as friends are generally more "expressive" in showing their affection to each other compared to guys.

[Dominic]

Originally Posted by yanno_yamster

Some of my friends aren't outright anti-gays, they just shudder at the idea of men being lovey-dovey towards each other. Some said girlxgirl is less weird because girls even as friends are generally more "expressive" in showing their affection to each other compared to guys.

I do have straight guy friends who would simply love to see two girls have sex, but I've never met any straight person who wants to see two men going at it. Talk about double standards. LOL!

On a more serious note, every day we see girls holding hands and leaning on each other's shoulders and it's normal. But if men do that, everyone would probably start shuddering and pointing fingers at them. I wonder why society believes that girls can show affection to one another but men can't. It's like men are constantly expected to be made of stone (unless they meet the right girl).

*



Check out this video, which shows an American soldier coming out to his father.

[Cactus]

Originally Posted by Dominic

I do have straight guy friends who would simply love to see two girls have sex, but I've never met any straight person who wants to see two men going at it. Talk about double standards. LOL!

On a more serious note, every day we see girls holding hands and leaning on each other's shoulders and it's normal. But if men do that, everyone would probably start shuddering and pointing fingers at them. I wonder why society believes that girls can show affection to one another but men can't. It's like men are constantly expected to be made of stone (unless they meet the right girl).

*



Check out this video, which shows an American soldier coming out to his father.

I think they associate malexmale with anal sex. And obviously not everybody like it. I think we need to make people focus more on the affection rather than sex if we want to make same-sex relationship more acceptable here.

[Dominic]

Originally Posted by Cactus

I think they associate malexmale with anal sex. And obviously not everybody like it. I think we need to make people focus more on the affection rather than sex if we want to make same-sex relationship more acceptable here.

True. But in Malaysia, I guess most gay couples are hesitant in showing affection for each other in public (other than the already well-known ones), and there are very few TV shows which portray gay couples showing affection to each other (eg. Brothers and Sisters, Glee) so I guess society has yet to desensitize itself from the stigma of homosexuality being all about sex, and nothing else.

[Young]

Might be a bit personal Dominic, but when did you start discovering your sexuality? Feel free not to answer if it's uncomfortable.

[Dominic]

Originally Posted by Young

Might be a bit personal Dominic, but when did you start discovering your sexuality? Feel free not to answer if it's uncomfortable.

Hmm...thought I answered this before in some other thread. No idea exactly when, as it wasn't a sudden revelation; more of a gradual one when I slowly realised that I was attracted to men and not women, and how everyone else around me is different. I never thought anything about it back then. Then I grew up, which of course changed my perception on everything.

NOTE: You know you can just PM me on FB and ask right? You wouldn't be the first one.