lgbtq
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Black LGBT Ministers Speak Out About Kim Burrell, Shirley Caesar
The community is still reeling after a silent churchgoer put Kim Burrell’s violently homophobic sermon on blast for the world to see. Burrell’s tirade—which featured vulgar remarks about gay and lesbian sex and a warning that they would “die in 2017”—led Ellen DeGeneres to cancel the scheduled talk show performance of the gospel singer’s song…
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Harlem Becomes Site of Only Public Gender-Affirming Clinic in NYC
An East Harlem, N.Y., clinic dedicated to the needs of transgender individuals will expand its services to that community, the city announced this week. Harlem Patch reports that the uptown branch of Metropolitan Hospital’s LGBT Health Center will now offer gender-affirming “top surgeries” and access to hormone therapy for transgender patients. Patients referred by their…
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Mike Pence's New DC Neighbors Raise LGBTQ Pride Flags in Protest
Vice President-elect Mike Pence’s Washington, D.C., neighbors want him to realize they don’t tolerate hate directed toward the LGBTQ community. And they’ve raised gay-pride flags all throughout the neighborhood to put him on notice. Pence’s anti-LGBTQ track record includes signing an Indiana law that would allow businesses to turn away gay and lesbian customers to…
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How Police Fail to 'Protect and Serve' LGBTQ Communities of Color
Police killings of unarmed black men and women—such as this summer’s shootings of Alton Sterling and Philando Castile—have highlighted the need, long recognized by racial-justice advocates, for a more critical examination of the ways in which police fail to “protect and serve” some of our country’s most marginalized communities. These killings have forwarded a national…
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Deeniquia Dodds: Another Black Trans Woman Was Killed. Do #BlackLivesMatter Still?
Deeniquia Dodds, known to her friends and loved ones as “Dee Dee,” died Wednesday from a Fourth of July shooting in Washington, D.C. On a day commemorating the alleged freedom and equality for all people in this country, Dee Dee, a 22-year-old black transgender woman raised in the nation’s capital, became at least the 15th trans…
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To Black Church Folks Just Waking Up: A Welcome and a Warning
The past few weeks have been rough. We are dying daily, and yet many of you have been sound asleep. You saw Mike Mike’s body lying in the middle of Canfield Green in Ferguson, Mo., on Aug. 9, 2014, but you did not “cry aloud and spare not.” Some of you prayed, and others recited…
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Ironic Homophobia Is Still Homophobia
Earlier this week, Panama and I made a trip together for VSB-related business. We met with a group of people interested in our long-term goals for the site. During this conversation, they expressed how unique they believe VSB to be, especially in regards to our (collective) candor, tone, and irreverence with race-related and race-adjacent topics. This…