Yesterday, D.C. Police Chief Cathy Lanier released a statement on the incident. "I take concerns about the appropriate use of police powers very seriously," Lanier said. "Members who are found to have abused their authority are subject to both criminal and disciplinary penalties up to and including termination." So, was Culp canned over the slur-happy arrest?

Lanier refused to comment on the disciplinary penalties applied to Culp. But according to Lanier, Culp was not, at least, subject to criminal penalties over the arrest. The D.C. police's Internal Affairs Bureau "immediately launched a criminal investigation into the matter and subsequently referred the arrest to the U.S. Attorney’s Office for further criminal investigation and prosecution, if appropriate," Lanier says—but the Attorney's Office declined to prosecute Culp.

The American Civil Liberties Union, which represents Tuma, is looking for more than just discipline—it wants to revise D.C.'s "disorderly conduct" statute to reduce the possibility for police abuse. The ACLU told Fox 5 that "disorderly conduct" is "a false charge used every time an officer thinks someone has spoken disrespectfully or harshly to them, so we want that changed." Lanier disagrees with the ACLU's characterization of the law—she says that "disorderly conduct" is a necessary charge to prevent people from "urinating in public" or "blocking the sidewalk or road and refusing to let others pass." But she adds that D.C. police are committed to working alongside the ACLU to review the statute.

Lanier will say that Culp's tactic isn't exactly the D.C. police's preferred method for dealing with citizens who mouth off to cops. That would be something called "Verbal Judo."

"[B]elieve me, police do not make an arrest every time an officer thinks someone 'has spoken disrespectfully or harshly to them,'" Lanier's statement continued. "That happens everyday, and we train officers in a widely used tactical communication strategy (Verbal Judo) to defuse these situations." Lanier added that "Verbal Judo" is "by no means a magic wand," but that "it would be a mistake to let this case in which an officer is alleged to have acted outside both the law and Department policy drive the current discussion about revisions to the law."

* NOM's nationwide "One Man, One Woman" bus tour takes a turn: Dude with sign voices support for lynching gays.

* Via Broadsheet, the gays aren't the only ones destroying marriage: Sleeping in separate beds may also be threatening the institution.

* Sady Doyle writes in support of snark (kinda):

"Snark" is one of those fundamentally goofy internet neologisms that we could try to fight, but are better-off just learning to work with. The word denotes mean humour: sarcasm, venom, the art of the put-down. Mostly, it's an attitude. Snark is the kids at the back of the class, heckling the substitute teacher; it's the voice of people who feel stifled, talked down to, or left out; the tool of people who have discovered that honing in on the weaknesses of those in power, exposing them publicly (if only to their own circle of friends), and reducing them to figures of fun (if only in their own minds), makes them feel a little less helpless.

* The Washington Blade has more on the death of Secrets dancer Mark Gower:

Although it couldn’t be immediately determined how long Gower was dead inside his apartment, White said police indicated he could have died shortly after he was discovered missing, which was nearly two weeks before the body was found.

* Lilith redux: NPR talks to 700 female musicians about the industry.

"This is an action for damages and other relief by Pepin A. Tuma, who was detained, arrested and humiliated by Defendant Officer James Culp without any lawful basis and with the sole and illegitimate purpose of harassing Mr. Tuma because of Mr. Tuma’s criticism of the police and Officer Culp’s perception that Mr. Tuma is gay," the complaint reads.

Tuma—accompanied by friends Luke Platzer and David Stetson on U Street that night—admits to engaging in some light taunting prior to his arrest. From his complaint:

Across the street, on the north side of U Street, several police cruisers were parked with their lights on and several police officers were engaging in what appeared to be a traffic stop of a single civilian. Mr. Tuma noticed the police cruisers and commented to his friends that this seemed to be another example of excessive policing. As Mr. Tuma passed the police cruisers, he said, in a sing-song voice, “I hate the police; I hate the police.” Neither Mr. Tuma nor his friends stopped or slowed down as they walked. They did not approach, address or gesture to any of the police officers.

Then, Tuma claims:

Within seconds . . . Officer Culp charged across U Street shouting, in substance, "Who do you think you are? Who do you think you’re talking to? You can’t talk to me that way!" . . . When Officer Culp reached Mr. Tuma, he forcefully pushed Mr. Tuma up against a utility box . . . handcuffed him, and dragged him across to the north side of U Street to the police cruisers where he was searched and placed under arrest. Mr. Tuma did not resist in any way. When Mr. Tuma asked why he was being arrested, Officer Culp replied, “Just shut up, faggot.” . . . Mr. Tuma later learned that he had been arrested for disorderly conduct.

According to the complaint, Tuma filed complaints against Culp with the Second District police station, the D.C. Office of Police Complaints, and D.C. police chief Cathy Lanier. Tuma's complaint says that Culp was disciplined over the arrest. Tuma, who is being represented by the American Civil Liberties Union, is now suing Culp and D.C. for violating his constitutional rights, false arrest, assault and battery, and intentional infliction of emotional distress—as evidenced by the slur.

Tuma seeks compensatory damages—and "an injunction directing the District of Columbia to expunge all records of his arrest . . . and authorizing him to deny that he was arrested on July 26, 2009." I have an e-mail out to MPD for comment.

* HUD claims that transgender people are protected against housing discrimination via the Fair Housing Act's prohibition against "gender discrimination"—even though the law doesn't specifically list gender identity discrimination as prohibited.

* Mark Gower, a 26-year-old dancer at SW strip club Secrets, was found dead in his apartment last week.

* The Washington Post conducted a four-month investigation into the career of former Manassas schoolteacher Kevin Ricks, a man the paper says "moved from one teaching job to the next over nearly 30 years, navigating the nation's public and private school systems undetected, evading traps designed to catch him"—and racking up molestation allegations along the way.

* Carolyn Hax on the etiquette of outing your gay ex-husband.

* DC Center plans discussion on body image issues among gay, bisexual, and trans men.

* Susannah Breslin on sexual assault games:

To promote the release of Bret Easton Ellis' new novel, Imperial Bedrooms, a digital creative agency in London created an online game that encourages players to virtually manipulate a young woman. If you play the game right — encourage her, get her drunk, get her high — you'll score a blow job, and then you can brag to your friends about a job well done by posting your "high" score to the social networking site of your choice. So, is this social commentary, or marketing misogyny?

This snappy two-minute video recap of NOM's bus tour stop in Maryland reveals a clever new twist on the hetero marriage defense: "We're asked to believe that a mother, a biological mother, will have no problem sharing the care of her child with another woman!" one speaker announces at the rally. "Moms, do you believe that?" (They do not!) Sure, NOM can understand two women loving each other and wanting to spend their lives together. But once it's time for the couple to share in the child-rearing, the biological mother's jealousy will ultimately destroy them both—along with every American family? That's just science.

When NOM's mandatory heterosexuality tour stopped by Newark on Tuesday, Parents & Friends of Ex-Gays (PFOX) leader Greg Quinlan was on-hand to present the ex-gay position on heterosexual marriage: Desperate! "If you know of anybody, send them my way," said Quinlan, who is totally straight now (and divorced). "I live right here in Roxbury Township, up in North Jersey. I’ll give you my name and number afterwords, if you know of anybody who’s available." He then offered his criteria for a potential mate: "Female. And breathing." Go get him, ladies!

* The New Gay is looking for stories of people affected by a lack of ENDA. "Fired from your job for being gay, lesbian, bi or trans? Do you feel that no one cares about your lack of livelihood born from our governments systematic betrayal of its own people? Now you can do something about it," TNG writes. File your stories here.

* Fugitivus on sex work:

Theoretically, I don’t have a problem with sex work. I don’t think there’s anything inherently, fundamentally wrongdirtybad with sex as a job, or sex for pay. But that’s based on a concept of sex work in a vacuum, and we don’t live in a vacuum. We live in a patriarchy. And sex work situated within a patriarchal world is inevitably swimming in a pool of wrongdirtybad, and anything tagged with the wrongdirtybad brush becomes fair game for serious violations of humanity.

On the one hand, since my ideal vision of the world doesn’t differentiate sex work from any other kind of work, it seems like that should be the thing I’m working toward. I “should” be the kind of feminist that is all on board for decriminalization or legalization, or normalizing the sex trades so they’re not a dirty stigmatized mess — and often I feel bad that I’m not more so. On the other hand, I work in a profession where I frequently see young girls who have been trafficked and exploited, and/or mothers who have had to prostitute themselves in order to feed their children, and their desperation has usually caused them to be exploited as well. Some of the abuses I see surrounding exploited sex work are so heinous that it’s very difficult not to come away with a “SHUT IT ALL DOWN” view of sex work. And yet, I know it’s not something that can be shut down, not now, not ever. I often just don’t feel like my brain is large enough to find a way to integrate some of the worst horrors I’ve ever seen with a utopic vision of positive, healthy sexuality. I don’t know how to overcome my revulsion of abuse long enough to separate the tools (which are not inherently abusive) from the abusive people who are handling them. At some point, they just seem practically, realistically fused together, even if conceptually I know they aren’t.

* Speaking of: Last month, D.C. police busted six people for solicitation [PDF] at 2121 P St. NW.

* Westboro Baptist Church turns its attentions to Lady Gaga.

*Metro Weekly takes a local angle on Chinese counterfeit condoms lubricated with vegetable oil, featuring FUK!T Campaign leader Dan O'Neill:

''When you have counterfeited items, like your Louis Vuitton bags and what have you, at the end of the day, that's not great. But here, when one's life is put at risk,'' [O'Neill] says. ''This has real implications in that it undermines the public's trust in these products.

''What we don't want, or what would be terrible, is if people are just trying to get a deal and at the end of the day they just totally abandon their trust in using condoms altogether, thinking, 'Why bother?'''

As promised, the NOM mandatory heterosexuality tour hit Annapolis today at noon. There, NOM leader Brian Brown demanded that Maryland voters have a chance to vote on same-sex marriage. Brown lives in Virginia. Derek McCoy of the Association of Maryland Families was on-hand to lend local support of the idea:

We will fight for marriage in this State until the end!… Our definition [of marriage] is not passe, is not outdated, is not stale; it’s the definition we’ve already had in a state statute, that we’ve all known for years . . . Let’s take this issue to the ballot box. Let the people decide! Let the people vote!

Maryland will truly never be free until its citizens have the right to restrict the rights of other citizens.

Also of concern: Anti-gay doctor lifts nickname from Julius Erving!

On the subject of "Lesbians Until Graduation," and all the stigma attached to the label, a commenter points to the Two Nice Girls song on the subject. A sampling:

I spent my last ten dollars on birth control and beer
My life was so much simpler when I was sober and queer
But the love of a strong hairy man has turned my head I fear
And made me spend my last ten bucks on birth control and beer

It concludes: "there's certain thrills that lesbian love simply cannot supply / Like paying for abortions from sperm gone awry." Indeed.

Tomorrow at noon, the NOM mandatory heterosexuality bus tour will hit Annapolis. The big anti-gay bus will pull up in front of the Maryland State House, where it will be joined star local anti-gay talent: The Bishop Harry Jackson, described by NOM as a "leader in the effort to take back marriage in Washington DC." Also on-hand at the rally will be Association of Maryland Families president Derek McCoy, an outspoken opponent of marriage, abortion, and gambling. Bring your lunch!

D.C.'s Gay and Lesbian Activists Alliance (GLAA) has released its questionnaire for the D.C. mayoral race, quizzing candidates on their thoughts on everything from the D.C. police department's Gay and Lesbian Liaison Unit to  "water-based lubricant."

The document surveys the candidates on 26 questions in six categories: marriage, public health, public safety, human rights, education, and business. Some of the queries are pretty pointed: Just try giving the incorrect answer to "Will you support legislation to curb abuses by NIMBYs who are now allowed to file an endless series of baseless complaints to harass or extort bars and restaurants?" or "Will you rein in police officials who respond to legitimate crime concerns with unsustainable, media-centric quick fixes that infringe constitutionally protected civil liberties?" Come on. That's practically a cheat sheet!

Another question of note: Question 26 follows up on the GLAA's push to legalize prostitution earlier this year: "What are your thoughts regarding GLAA’s proposal . . . to mitigate the problems associated with prostitution by legalizing and regulating it? What will you do to provide alternatives to survival sex for at-risk populations like homeless youth and transgenders?"

Participating candidates must file answers to the GLAA by Aug. 17.

Photo by Darrow Montgomery

Last Wednesday, the D.C. Council held a public oversight hearing to discuss D.C.'s recent LGB Health Report—and its exclusion of transgender health data from the findings. In this video summary of the meeting from the DC Center, trans activist Ruby Corado sums up the problem: "There's a lot of agencies—and I will say local agencies—that are in charge of promoting the health of D.C. residents that really do not understand or do not want to understand that we're real people," she said. "They still don't want to hear it."

First, the headline: "Virginia Gov. Bob McDonnell's former in-law speaks out for gay rights." Deane certainly does speak out for gay rights, but it seems odd to emphasize that fact above her trans activism. Next, the photo gallery: It begins with a series of photos of Deane applying makeup, hair-spray, and pantyhose, as if to emphasize the fact that Deane's  beauty regimen (quite typical, for a woman) is somehow relevant to that activism.

And then there's this:

For years, Deane, a man who is in the process of becoming of woman, had considered revealing her lengthy but largely unknown connection to Gov. Robert F. McDonnell (R). She had told no one that this would finally be the moment she went public.

From whose perspective is Deane "a man who is in the process of becoming of [sic] woman"? The state of Virginia? The Washington Post? Deane's herself?

The Post identifies Deane with feminine pronouns. It also implies that Deane very much considers herself a woman—it mentions that "she changed her name from Bob to Robyn, and transformed herself from a cleanshaven, dark-haired man to a blond woman saving her pennies for sex reassignment surgery." The story states outright that Deane previously "came out as a woman" to her family. What criteria is the Post using to classify Deane as "a man" in the process of "becoming" a woman? The paper doesn't say.

* In her final dispatch on the Buttman trial, porn director and performer Aurora Snow claims that LAPD Det. Michael Ozaki, a witness for the prosecution, is a fan:

[Ozaki] looked all too familiar to me. I heard the detective explain how he had to attend the AVN Expo for the last five years in a row “undercover” in order to research the new material being put out by adult companies. I was surprised to hear how the LAPD spends tax money so consistently on porn related materials in the name of “research” when the city is reeling from recent budget cuts. But mostly, as the LAPD detective answered questions under oath, I began to realize why I was recognizing him; I am almost sure that I have signed autographs for him at adult conventions. That is one dedicated undercover officer! I wonder if somewhere in a police evidence folder is a signed photo of me or if the detective kept that for his personal collection. I hope the latter. I don’t want to be in a file and even detectives should have fun with their porn collections.

* When Maryland man Aaron Burroughs was convicted of "sexually exploiting a minor" for an offense involving child prostitution and child pornography, he was sentenced to 16 years in prison—plus extra restrictions "that required him to keep a daily log of his computer use and to permit the authorities to monitor that use." Last week, a federal appeals court struck those restrictions, as Burroughs' offense wasn't conducted via computer.

* GLAA Forum updates us on the NOM bus tour for hetero marriage, declares it an "epic fail. As it turns out, holding rallies at noon on weekdays isn't the smartest way to drum up support for opposite marriage after all. The tour hits D.C. Aug. 15.

* Figleaf 0n how sex work obscures assault in the Lawrence Taylor case:

the word “prostitution” magically washes away all traces of “statutory rape,” “sexual assault of a child,” “sex offender registry,” “corruption of a minor,” and every other offense prosecutors, judges, and juries are usually (and, I think, correctly) willing to throw at people who have sex with minors

* Via Metro Weekly: Victim of hate crime plans to leave D.C.

Photo via State Library of Queensland.

* Ms. Magazine reporter Kate Noftsinger asks a panel of Lilith Fair artists a question:

“Who here identifies as a feminist?”

I got a long pause, followed by nervous laughter.

Finally [Brandi Carlile] spoke, “I don’t know, it means something different that it used to.”

Before I could ask what it meant now as opposed to then, [Sarah McLachlan] assumed the role of official spokesperson and began building a mystery:

"It’s a tricky question, because it’s been redefined and I think we all define feminism to a certain degree. We all define femininity. I think we’re able to have a little more balance. There’s still fights to be fought. There’s still inequality, absolutely. . . . I think as long as we’re being mindful and honest with ourselves and doing what we feel is right, and that’s a very personal decision for all of us, if we’re going forth with that intention, then we are; we’re being feminists, we’re being humanists, we’re being feminine. We’re being true to ourselves, in every way, in every facet of our personalities."

By conflating feminism with femininity, Sarah McLachlan officially lies squarely in the feminist tradition of Sarah Palin devotees.

* Metro Weekly profiles "the first out transgender Capitol Hill staffer."

* But, also in Metro Weekly, magazine co-publisher Sean Bugg is "terrified to write about transgender issues."

* In 1999, David Segal penned the definitive Buttman profile:

Ladies and gentlemen, hide your daughters: John Stagliano is strolling down a riverside walkway and he's got his mojo working.

Cradling a video camera in his hands, he sidles up to a curvy brunet and fumbles for a pick-up line. Gazing into the lens, the woman seems flustered at first, then amused, then — lo and behold — flattered. She follows him to a hotel room, and within minutes she is standing on a coffee table, peeling off her dress. A man knocks on the door and eventually there is a whole lot of naked writhing on a white couch.

Stagliano shoots. Stagliano scores.

* Sady Doyle channels Simone de Beauvoir-as-dating advice columnist.

Photo via Kashmera, Creative Commons Attribution License 2.0

On Aug. 1, The Washington Post Magazine’s weekly blind date feature, Date Lab, will print what has become a once-yearly ritual: The gay date.

Every Sunday, the magazine writes up the adventures of two single Washingtonians set up by the Post; after the date, both spill the night’s details to a reporter, judging their companions on everything from body weight to tolerance for “that’s what she said” jokes. Since launching in 2006, Date Lab has run nearly 200 heterosexual encounters. But it’s only managed to set up four same-sex couples in as many years—and one dater was a repeat.

The Aug. 1 item will be a milestone for Date Lab editor Amanda McGrath—her first same-sex write-up since assuming the feature in May 2009. “I heard stories from the previous editor about how difficult it was, and I thought, ‘This won’t be a problem for me. It will be so easy,” says McGrath. Nope: Date Lab’s last gay date hit newsstands on Jan. 20, 2008. It ended with “a little bit of an air hug.”

According to a recent survey, nearly 7 percent of D.C. residents identify as gay, lesbian, or bisexual. Which you’d think would mean The Post wouldn’t go two years between gay dates. Apparently, in order to qualify as a same-sex match on Date Lab, being gay isn’t enough. Asked in an online chat in 2006 why Date Lab mostly experimented with straight romance, then-editor Sandy M. Fernandez said it was a matter of math: “We just need to get in enough applicants that it isn’t one of those soap opera dates, where if you see two gay or Latino or African American characters, they’re inevitably going to hook up.” Four years later, the feature’s applicants remain prohibitively hetero—and, according to The Post, that’s why the people who make it into print do, too.

“We honestly try with every couple we send out to make a good match, to find a pair that will hit it off,” says McGrath, 27. But “it’s really hard to find people who seem compatible when you have such a limited pool to work with.”
Obviously, in the grand scheme of injustices, the paucity of gay Date Labbers ranks pretty low. But the lack of diversity—in a feature that so clearly strives for it in other ways—does stand out. After all, plenty of heterosexual couples have been matched based on glancing similarities: “She roasts; he bakes”; “He paints, she pots”; “He’s tall; she’s tall”; “She’s tall; he’s very tall.” The paper has matched three pairs based on a shared interest in distance running (“Have these two marathoners run into romance?”; “Two runners finally cross paths. Can they go the distance?”; “Can two marathoners go the distance?”). Some daters don’t even have that much in common. Past unifying principles include “They Were Adopted And Keep Losing Debit Cards. Will They Hang Onto Each Other?” and “They Both Agree: She’s ‘Not Hideous.’” In 2008, a monkey from Rockville tried its hand at making a match. Both daters rated the date a “5.”

So with a track record like that, why not “He’s gay; he’s gay”?

The Post’s answer: Date Lab’s shallow same-sex pool. Of the 3,300 potential daters who have submitted applications since 2007, only 84 identify as gay, lesbian, or bisexual. Fifty-one are men; 33 are women. Since Date Lab keeps potential lovebirds on file for years, some once-promising applicants wind up in committed relationships or rethink their interest in romantic exhibitionism—particularly if they’re not out to all their friends and family who may happen to pick up the Post. From there, start factoring in age (daters range from their 20s to their 60s), interests, personality, and appearance, and you’ve got a pretty skimpy selection of gay and lesbian Washingtonians.

* Porn performer Aurora Snow is also filing updates from the Stagliano obscenity trial. Her take: The prosecution hates fun:

Opening arguments began yesterday, and as a performer I was stunned by the prosecution’s description of what made the material obscene. From my point of view, the prosecution’s lack of contact and knowledge of what we do in adult entertainment seemed laughable. Oh no, there are close-up shots of pussy? Oh, the horror! If this were not such a serious matter, it would be a pure farce of cardboard bad guys picking on others for having more fun than them in life.

* Feminist running tally: Score one for Playboy, Chloe Angyal says.

* Remember that "conscience rule" the Bush administration squeezed through in its lame-duck period, allowing workers in federally-funded facilities to refuse to provide services they found morally objectionable? Yeah, Megan Carpentier noticed that Obama never repealed that.

* Silvana at Tiger Beatdown on the fun and frivolity of fashion! Unless you're fat:

For fat women, clothes are supposed to be about making people forget that you’re fat. “Hiding” “flaws.” “Smoothing out” your “shape” (i.e. your fat). “Emphasizing” your “assets” (at least you have big boobs, fatty). “Defining” your waist (because, hey, at least you can make one part of you look smaller than the other parts). It’s all code for: Don’t look fat. The advice isn’t too different for thin or average women. You also want—surprise, surprise!—to not look fat. And for a long, long time, I bought into that. I bought the idea that my body wasn’t acceptable and I had to use clothing as best I could to try to make it acceptable.

* The D.C. Attorney General's Office has dropped all charges against Lt. Dan Choi in relation to his "Don't Ask, Don't Tell" protests outside the White House last Spring.

Photo via walid.hassenein, Creative Commons Attribution License 2.0

In light of the CDC's latest report on the HIV epidemic in D.C., a reader suggests that local gay men participate in Hope Takes Action, an effort to recruit men for clinical trials of a possible HIV vaccine. The study is looking for HIV-negative, circumcised men who have sex with men and who live close to one of the study locations. The closest site to D.C. is at the National Institutes of Health in Bethesda. One vague note on that whole circumcision thing: "Participants must be circumcised because of safety information learned in a previous vaccine study."

* The roundtable will be held at 2 p.m. this Wednesday, July 14, in Hearing Room 123 of the John A. Wilson Building.

* Individuals who with to testify at the meeting should contact Committee Clerk Victor Bonnett by close of business tomorrow, by phone at (202) 741-2112 or by e-mail at vbonett@dccouncil.us. Include your "name, address, telephone number, organizational affiliation and title (if any)." Testimony should be limited to four minutes. If participants submit 15 copies of their written testimony before 5 p.m. Tuesday, Councilmembers will see copies of the testimony prior to the hearing.

* Individuals who are unable to testify in person can submit written statements to Bonett, or to Secretary to the Council Cynthia Brock-Smith in Room 5 of the Wilson Building, 1350 Pennsylvania Ave. NW. Statements must be submitted before 5 p.m. p.m. on July 27.

* In other trans healthcare-related news: Tomorrow at 7:30 p.m., the DC Trans Coalition will hold a meeting "to discuss our plans for creating the second-ever DC Trans Needs Assessment Survey!" The survey will help fill in some of the gaps left by the LGB Health Report. Contact DCTransCoalition@gmail.com for more info.

Last week on the Sexist, we took a look at potential complications facing trans patients at local hospitals. Commenters weighed in with their own experiences:

JR on the fear of emergency rooms:

I’m a 30 year old trans man and I am afraid whenever I get sick and can’t see my regular doc or have to go to the hospital. There are so many areas that are fear inducing in everyday life, that most people take for granted. I recently had to come out (a number of times) at the neighborhood swimming pool because they have a “no t-shirt” policy for men, and nothing on the books about pre-op transmen.

Stacey on the deterrent to reporting sexual assaults:

Sad thing is . . . Washington Hospital Center is the only hospital in DC that has medical staff trained for rape kit examinations and evidence collection. . . . not having properly trained staff nor understanding the difference between Sexual Orientation and Gender Identity creates a chilling effect for the trans-community.

Elizabeth K says she was outed by her doctors:

About a year ago I was in the hospital emergency room for detoxification—which required having to run the usual gauntlet of admission and medical history questions. It was a very good hospital, set in a population area of about 35,000 collectively—and I doubt they had ever encountered a transperson in the ER. I was a curiosity to say the least as I had to ‘out’ in detail my condition to seven people ‘officially.” What was interesting is the number of people who suddenly found it necessary to come into the exam room to remove the waste basket, restock shelves, and the like. We are an attraction.

Of course within two weeks I was known as transexual all through the small town I was living. I was rather androgynous at the time and gender neutral in clothing, so I suspect the ‘man in a dress’ expectations were squelched. Professonally I had no mistreatment, but behind it was the unprofessionalism of outing me to the community. That seems to be the way of the world.

Photo by Darrow Montgomery

* Scientific American's Jesse Bering debunks feminism:

The IAT was designed to assess people’s “hidden” beliefs about minority groups. If you ask folks in, say, a straightforward interview format, most will tend to report explicitly that they’re not racist, or that they don’t think obese people are stupid or that those with handicaps are dull. Obviously such views aren’t exactly okay to say aloud or to even acknowledge having as a fleeting thought. But the IAT presumably flushes out people’s unconscious (implicit) negative associations with such social outliers.

Although administration of the IAT varies, the basic idea is this. Participants see randomized combinations of negative and positive words at the top right and left corners of a computer screen (for example, in one trial, they might see “lazy” on the left versus “hard-working” on the right). Then words representing different social targets appear in the middle of the screen (for instance, “black” in one trial and “white” in the next) and participants are asked to rapidly decide—by pressing the e key for the left side or the i key for the right—which of the two words at the top of the screen it belongs with. In some cases, the participants are instructed to match the social target with the stereotypical concept; in other cases, they’re told to associate the social target with the non-stereotypical concept.

So implicit bias is said to be evidenced by faster reaction times when stereotype-consistent words are paired with a marginalized social group (e.g., black-lazy) relative to other groups (e.g., white-lazy), and slower reaction times to pairings of positive words with the marginalized group (e.g., black-intelligent) relative to the comparison group (e.g., white-intelligent). The idea is that, when asked to match positive concepts to words describing marginalized outgroup members, participants’ latency of response captures a dragging of their cognitive heels because they’re working against the grain of their inner bigot.

So guess what happened in Jenen’s IAT study when college-aged men and women were asked to match the category “feminist” with either positive or negative words? The most pertinent findings were that the participants were significantly slower to associate positive words (“happy,” “joy,” “peace,” “wonderful”) with the feminist than they were negative words (“awful,” “evil,” “nasty,” “terrible”).

Bering takes these results to mean that the feminist movement has been hijacked by "the most obnoxious, peevish and humorless feminists," turning it into "a term loaded with negative stereotypes of the kind exemplified by [the] sour and overly vigilant, accusatory, men-are-brutes outlook on life."

So, can we also use the IAT results to conveniently ignore ingrained racism and instead accuse lazy people of "hijacking" the black community? Or does the poor view of the feminist movement instead reflect the work of people like Bering, who are invested in framing feminism exclusively in negative terms?

* The Washington Blade's abandoned National Press Club newsroom remains abandoned.

* On acronyms:  Michelle Rhee chooses the term "LGBTQ" for her Blade op-ed.

* SAFER Campus covers the latest in cutesy nicknames for sexual assailants: In L.A., serial rapist and murderer is known as "The Grim Sleeper."

* Seed Magazine reviews Sex at Dawn, a husband-and-wife team's take-down of human monogamy:

When we think of the first swinger parties most of us imagine 1970s counter-culture, we don’t picture Top Gun fighter pilots in World War II. Yet, according to researchers Joan and Dwight Dixon, it was on military bases that “partner swapping” first originated in the United States. As the group with the highest casualty rate during the war, these elite pilots and their wives “shared each other as a kind of tribal bonding ritual” and had an unspoken agreement to care for one another if a woman’s husband didn’t make it back home. Like the sexy apes known as bonobos, this kind of open sexuality served a social function that provided a way to relieve stress and form long-lasting bonds.

Photo via Nationaal Archief

allegiance to the United States, foreign influence, foreign preference, sexual behavior, personal conduct, alcohol consumption, drug involvement, psychological conditions, criminal conduct, handling protected information, outside activities and use of information technology systems.

Well, "outside activities" seems to cover just about everything, but the "sexual behavior" point could stand some elaboration. Are we talking workplace sexual harassment? Rape? Sex outside marriage? Anal? No matter—this federal agency apparently reserves the right to fire you for fucking wrong. Whatever that means. [Via GLAA Forum]

Why did the report omit the T in GLBT? “The short answer is that we didn’t have any data to report,” says Christopher Dyer, Director for the Mayor's Office of GLBT affairs. "[Trans-specific health] is a brand new field of research at the government level."

The District's transgender community has become a lot more visible in recent years. In 2005, the DC Trans Coalition formed to advocate for trans issues in the District; in 2007, Capital Trans Pride was added to the roster of the city's LGBT pride celebrations. But scientific data moves at a slower pace than public consciousness does.

The new LGB health report relies on data from the CDC's Behavioral Risk Factor Surveillance System (BRFSS), which tracks “health conditions and risk behaviors in the United States” via random phone surveys. The BRFSS surveys included in the LGB Health Report were completed in 2005 and 2007, when respondents' sexual orientation was on the CDC's radar—but gender identity wasn't. "There just weren’t questions asked about gender identity anywhere in the country in those years," Dyer says. “We need to add a question about gender identity."

In order to get transgender health data into upcoming BRFSS-based reports, Dyer says the CDC will first have to approve the gender identity question for the District survey. D.C. will have its next opportunity to request the question in January 2011. If it's approved, the random survey will then have to hit upon enough local transgender people for the results to be statistically significant. “The CDC has a requirement that you get 100 responses or more before you can do any kind of comparative analysis,” Dyer says. “There is no baseline data yet on the transgender population in this country, and it might take two to three years to get enough responses to even begin the analysis. It conceivably could be until 2013 or 2014.”

That's a long time to wait for accurate health information on the local transgender community, which often suffers from health disparities—like an increased risk for HIV. Yesterday, District trans activists took issue with the exclusion of trans data from the LGB report, and penned a letter to the Mayor's Office saying so. "[T]he goal of the report was to 'present data and prompt discussion' about how to improve the overall 'health outcomes in the GLBT community living in the District of Columbia,'" the DC Trans Coalition wrote in a press release. So DCTC was "alarmed" by "the report’s very obvious omission of existing research on D.C. trans communities."

The press release faulted the Mayor's Office for failing to look past the BRFSS-specific data to include information from other surveys that do include trans residents—like the District's 2009 Youth Risk Behavior Survey and its 2000 Washington Transgender Needs Assessment Survey. Since the results of the 2009 YRBS haven't yet been released, the ten-year-old Needs Assessment Survey provides the latest publicly-available data on the community. But according to the DCTC, "Acknowledging that the existing survey tools only provide a partial snapshot of the current health of local transgender communities in the report would have added much needed transparency."

The DCTC asked the Mayor's Office to wrangle up funding for a new comprehensive transgender needs assessment to supplement the 2000 report, to draw up a trans health report based on data available now, to add questions that include gender identity to all survey tools, and to show a "commitment to true inclusion." Dyer says he’s currently “exploring other options” for gathering transgender data that works with the population’s small sample size. "I'm personally committed to including transgender health data and making the report as good as possible," says Dyer. “When we do produce the transgender report, we want to make sure it’s the best data possible.”

Two years ago, Roberta, a 59-year-old Arlington County resident, reported to Virginia Hospital Center for a breast-cancer screening. “There’s a man here to have a mammogram!” a clinician announced across the room when she arrived for her appointment.

Roberta is not a man—she’s a transgender woman who began publicly transitioning from male to female six years ago. And like any woman, she requires regular mammograms for the breasts she developed through hormone therapy. “Technically, they know what they’re doing, and they’re really, really good,” Roberta says of the hospital’s staff. But when it comes to treating transgender patients with care, “they’re clueless.”

Last month, the Human Rights Campaign released its 2010 Healthcare Equality Index in an attempt at providing healthcare providers a clue. The report surveyed 16 Washington-area hospitals on their patient anti-discrimination policies, looking for explicit mentions of sexual orientation and gender identity. While eight local hospitals’ policies explicitly recognize the rights of gay, lesbian, and bisexual patients, none mention gender identity or expression—in other words, a commitment to respecting patients like Roberta.

Which means going to the hospital—rarely a particularly pleasant experience—often produces an overlay of uncertainty and anxiety for transgender patients. Without a firm policy in place, the care transgender patients receive often comes down to chance; a caregiver who’s familiar with transgender issues may treat patients perfectly fine, but if they encounter the wrong employee, problems can ensue. Even, sometimes, within the same hospital.

Take the case of Washington Hospital Center, one of the local hospitals to include sexual orientation—but not gender identity—in its nondiscrimination policy. Last October, Stacey Roberts cut open her left pointer finger while slicing fruit. So she headed to the District hospital’s emergency room, where she received a bandage from a nurse—and a transphobic attitude at check-out. The employee who completed Roberts’ hospital visit “repeatedly insisted on calling me ‘sir,’” she says. “For each question he asked me, he blatantly added the term ‘sir’ at the end.”

Roberts—who says she was “dressed very feminine, in a dress”—listened to the man address her as the incorrect gender half a dozen times before requesting that he modify his language. “I didn’t even ask him to call me by feminine pronouns,” says Roberts. “I just asked him to stop gratuitously calling me sir.” The employee refused. Though Roberts identifies as female, and began presenting a feminine gender expression years ago, she has yet to secure a legal name and gender change. And until the government officially recognizes Roberts as a woman, the clerk claimed, he’s “legally required” to treat Roberts as the gender listed on her identifying documents. (That’s news to local LGBT activists.)

That same month, another District transgender woman checked into Washington Hospital Center following a suicide attempt. After swallowing “a lot of pills,” she was rushed by friends to the hospital, where she spent several days in the mental-health ward. “I’ve had really negative experiences at other hospitals in the area,” says the woman. So once she regained consciousness at Washington Hospital Center, “I was really surprised—pleasantly surprised—that everyone was super-respectful.” The woman says hospital staff had “no problem” identifying her as female and providing her trans-specific healthcare throughout her stay. Despite the mental-health ward’s highly regimented routine, “they let me go to the bathroom at certain times on my own to deal with trans-related stuff,” says the 31-year-old, who asked to remain anonymous due to the nature of her treatment. Staff was also quick to prescribe the hormone medication she takes daily. “The treatment I got there was really important,” she says. “If I’d had a negative experience there, it would have made everything a lot worse.”

Those two wildly different experiences stem from a hospital with a confused LGBT anti-discrimination policy. According to a Washington Hospital Center representative, the institution “has long observed a broad policy of nondiscrimination and is committed to providing care to all those with an emergent need, without regard to any status protected by law.” But once the policy gets into specifics, it reveals a fundamental misunderstanding of the LGBT community. “With respect to Washington Hospital Center’s nondiscrimination policy, we are in the process of revising it to enhance our current reference to sexual orientation to include the more specific reference to gender identity or expression,” the hospital said in a statement, adding that “staff education will accompany implementation to ensure all patients are treated in a sensitive manner.”

Except gender identity or expression is not a “more specific” reference to sexual orientation. Roberts, for example, is a transgender woman who also happens to be a lesbian—and those two identities are not one and the same.

In a few weeks, Washington Hospital Center’s policies will, technically, be in compliance with the HRC’s expectations. “In the Healthcare Equality Index survey, we asked for specific language—explicit language that policies were inclusive of LGBT families,” says Tom Sullivan, deputy director for the Human Rights Campaign Family Project. But improved written policies might not translate into actual improvements in care. “I don’t think there’s a correlation between having protections for gender identity and actually providing trans-specific and trans-friendly healthcare,” says a local man who prefers the term “trans” to “transgender,” and has had several negative experiences at local hospitals.

A couple of years ago, the 20-something—who wished to remain anonymous—sought treatment at Sibley Memorial Hospital for possible appendicitis. When he arrived, he disclosed his trans status to his doctor for medical reasons. “I explained to the doctor that I’m FTM and what that means,” he says. “She had no clue what was going on. It’s one thing to not know about trans-specific healthcare, but it’s another to be so ignorant that you say things that are medically impossible. She asked me when I had my uterus implanted.” Other hospital personnel expressed disbelief that the bearded man standing before them was trans. “People were just visibly shocked,” he says. “And they were open about that shock. They said, ‘Oh my god. Really?’ In a medical situation where you’re disclosing all kinds of information, that’s not a response that’s ever appropriate.”

Sibley maintains that it has policies on the books meant to protect transgender patients against such affronts. Sheliah Roy, director of public relations and marketing for the hospital, notes that its patients’ bill of rights includes the right to “receive hospital services without discrimination on the basis of any factor to which discrimination is prohibited by law.” Because discrimination based on gender identity has been prohibited in D.C. since 2007, Sibley’s policy technically covers transgender patients. Transgender patients at hospitals in Maryland and Virginia don’t benefit from similar legal protections.

“Every time I go to the hospital,” Roberta says, “I have to give ‘Trans 101’ to everyone I meet.” Unless hospitals write coherent guidelines and provide training on their own, that responsibility may keep falling on patients.

Photo by Darrow Montgomery

* NOM's hetero-happy summer bus tour will be shadowed by counter-events organized by Freedom to Marry. The marriage rights group will  respectfully disagree with NOM's "one man, one woman" message at every stop the NOM bus makes. Unfortunately, no actual gay bus will be stalking NOM's anti-gay bus across the highways of this great nation.

*  Fugitivus [via Figleaf] on rape victims who drop charges, refuse to participate with investigations, and decline to testify:

I am sure that in this wide, wide world of people, there are rape victims out there who truly want nothing more than for their rapists to go free without punishment, without retribution, without justice. That’s their right. But I don’t think I’ve actually heard any of them. Instead, what I hear is, “I just want this whole thing dropped. I don’t want it prosecuted. Every time this gets brought up I get harassed.” Or, “I don’t want this prosecuted. I don’t want to be called a slut in court.” Or, “I don’t want this prosecuted. I could never win, I don’t have the money, and nobody would believe me.” Or, “I don’t want this prosecuted. He would kill me. His friends would come after me.” Or, “I don’t want this prosecuted. I can’t stand to see him every day in court.”

None of those statements can be reasonably boiled down to, “Rape victim doesn’t want her rapist to come to justice.” They can be reasonably boiled down to, “Rape victim suspects pursuit of justice will feel worse than getting raped did.”

I think it can also take forms like these: "I don't want this prosecuted. It's not something to ruin another person's life over." Or: "I don't want this prosecuted. He says it didn't happen that way, and maybe it didn't." Or: "I don't want this prosecuted. I'm not worth all of this attention."

* Olivia Munn talks to Salon about posing for Playboy (among other things):

I don't find myself to be the kind of person who is easily swayed. I could see what this guy was doing. But if I pose for Maxim, I know that if my nipple accidentally slips out, they can't publish that. With Playboy it's different. I understand that the criticism is: "Yeah, but she posed for it anyway." Well, that's like saying, "Oh, you were asking for it cause you dressed a certain way."

* Georgetown Girl collects the views of women who say "I'm not a feminist, but . . ."

* Jamelle Bouie on "acting white":

as a nerdy black kid who was accused of "acting white" on a fairly regular basis, I feel confident saying that the charge had everything to do with cultural capital, and little to do with academics. If you dressed like other black kids, had the same interests as other black kids, and lived in the same neighborhoods as the other black kids, then you were accepted into the tribe. If you didn't, you weren't. In my experience, the "acting white" charge was reserved for black kids, academically successful or otherwise, who didn't fit in with the main crowd. In other words, this wasn't some unique black pathology against academic achievement; it was your standard bullying and exclusion, but with a racial tinge.

This summer, the National Organization for Marriage is launching its "Summer For Marriage" bus tour, a 22-stop jaunt around the Eastern united states in the interest of drumming up support for straight marriage. The tour's motto: "ONE MAN, ONE WOMAN." Does anyone else get the jeebies looking at that graphic? I'm always amazed at how NOM manages to turn heterosexual relationships into some skin-crawlingly creepy imperative born out of soulless moral necessity. The tour hits D.C. on Aug. 15. [Via GLAA Forum].

* Happy birthday, "post-racial America"! Writing in the Washington Post, Kathleen Parker does not see race. In response to criticism that calling Barack Obama the first woman president was (among other things) racist, Parker pens a column explaining that she can't write racist things, because she is white, and white people have the luxury of not being racist, like black people are:

But I also recognize that my life experience is different from that of most African Americans. And that experience allows me both the luxury of seeing people without the lens of race, but also (sometimes) to fail to imagine how people of other backgrounds might interpret my words.

She also has trouble seeing Obama as "exclusively black" because she has learned that she and the President are eighth cousins once removed—a genealogical "nugget" she had previously intended to write an entire column about.  That detail alone strikes me as a fireable offense.

* Via Figleaf: Holly at The Pervocracy on the douchebaggery behind calling women "females":

I hate it when people call women "females." I have one friend who does it because she was in the military and it was standard practice there, and occasionally I'll say it when I specifically mean biological females rather than women, but 98% of the time it's douchebaggery. Rule of thumb: if you say "females and males" it's okay, but if you say "females and guys/men," you're probably a douchebag.

* Virginia resident Andrea examines U.S. immigration laws through the lens of her attempts to get her British fiancee a visa. In short, they have it easy, and they still don't have it easy:

One of the things I hear a lot in any discussion of people who come here illegally is some permutation of “Well why don’t they just do it legally?” If they know that I’m currently going through the immigration process with my fiance, people will often ask “Doesn’t it make you mad that you’re going to all this trouble and people are just coming over here illegally?” The answers to these questions are, in reverse order, “No, I am thankful that we are able to do it legally fairly easily” and “Wow, you have never dealt with immigration, have you?”

* In Newsweek, Julia Baird tells us to "stop ogling Republican women":

It’s odd to see how some men insist that when women start to grasp power, we should think of them primarily as playthings and provocateurs. Is this the best way to explain their success? They aren’t challenging the status quo. They’re being wild! They’re not trying to lift the ban on offshore drilling. They’re being naughty! When four women beat a field of men on the same night recently, competing for primary and gubernatorial nominations, it was widely referred to as “ladies’ night.” Aren’t ladies’ nights those promotions where women are allowed free entry into bars to provide fodder for the men?

* Scarleteen continues its "queering sexuality in color" series, this time with Dharshi, a 25-year-old South Asian lesbian:

The problem is that the queer community where I live is predominantly white, and tend not have familiarity with issues such as my marriage predicament. Sometimes I do feel pressure from the queer community to come out, as if that will be the solution to all of my problems. I do have some wonderful white gay and lesbian friends though who make an effort to listen and understand. One woman in particular is my mother's age and her advice and sharing of her life experience has really helped me through the hard times. Also when I watch her with her partner and her kids, I feel optimistic that maybe that kind of future is also possible for me. I love meeting other queer people of colour, particularly from the South Asian community, but I don't often get this opportunity.

Photo via Beverley & Pack, Creative Commons Attribution License 2.0

This week, the District Mayor's Office of GLBT Affairs released the "LGB Health 2010 Report," an examination of everything from smoking habits to sexual behavior in the gay community. This is the District's first report to address the health of lesbians, gays, and bisexuals in the District. But as the report's title makes clear, the transgender community has yet again been excluded from the official conversation on health. Also underrepresented here: African-American men and women under the LGB umbrella.

The methodology of the [study] itself raises questions about the reliability of the data and how it represents the true health of the LGB community, as reflected by the limited number of responses from African American LGBT people. The survey's findings rely on an identity-based rather than a behavioral questionnaire, which may exclude men who have sex with other men (MSM) but do not identify as gay.

And, as always: "the absence of information on transgender health underscores the pressing need for better data on the transgender community in the District," the DC Center writes.

* In the City Paper this week, Kim Chi Ha writes about the regulatory spotlight on Ziegfeld's/Secrets, the lone SW gay club to survive the construction of Nationals Park. Post-baseball, the D.C. government has kept a close eye on the strip joint:

The club’s regulatory troubles were exacerbated by an ABRA investigation in December, in which two investigators “observed five to six nude male performers, standing on individual pedestals, each performing a sexual act on themselves (masturbation),” in apparent violation of D.C. Code, according to an agency report, which includes a grainy photo of one performer touching himself. Patrons were also observed “rubbing and massaging the performers about the body (not the genital area) and the performers did the same to the patrons,” the report notes.

* In Maryland, Dana Beyer is running for office in the hopes of becoming the "first out transgender person to win election to a state legislature."

* Dear Prudence tackles sperm donation etiquette.

* Carmen Rios offers up "a big fuck you" to street harassers. That happens to be the phrase that I generally employ when harassed on the street. Similarly satisfying possible responses welcomed in the comments.

* Figleaf rejects the idea that"sufficient" progress has been made toward gender equality: "I happen to believe, correctly, that there’s been incredible progress, sure. But sufficient? . . . Just as something’s either legal or it’s not, you’re either equal or your not. And I think 'sufficiently' in this case means 'closer to my comfort level” rather than 'closer to equal.'”

* Sexist internal business: On Twitter, I now answer to @amandahess. "@" me!

Photo via Powerhouse Museum Collection.

That's a problem, especially considering that the latest local data available—the DOH-funded 2000 Transgender Needs Assessment Survey—reveals staggering infection rates among trans women. Here's a rundown of that survey's findings:

The decade-old report surveyed 252 District transgender men and women on a variety of factors, including their HIV status. Of locals surveyed, 32 percent of trans women reported being HIV-positive, compared to 3 percent of trans men. (Twenty-two percent of those surveyed were unaware of their status).

More info on how HIV affects the community: Eighty-one percent of the HIV-positive trans men and women surveyed were black. And two-thirds of HIV-positive trans citizens "believe they became infected through unprotected sex with men." A "history of sexual assault, a history of sex work, and unemployment" also contributed to HIV rates in the community.

Also a contributing factor? The lack of public education and concern on how the epidemic affects the trans community. In 2008, Darby Hickey wrote of the invisibility of transgender people in the HIV conversation: "The communities hit hardest are African-American men and women, Lations, and gay and bisexual men of all races. Within these carefully drawn categories, some based on behavioral risk factor and others on racial, gender and sexual classifications, one community heavily affected by the epidemic remains invisible in the eyes of officialdom a quarter century since the first reports of the disease: transgender people."

The failure of mainstream studies to single out trans men and women in its numbers compounds the problem of getting testing, prevention, and treatment resources to that community. "There are no official reports because most agencies do not recognize trans people's existence at all," says Sadie-Ryanne Baker of the DC Trans Coalition. "They usually fold trans women in the 'men who have sex w/ men' category (even ones like me who sleep with women!) which means we have no independent numbers to analyze for trans folks. It also means that most trans folks don't even get tested or get safe sex supplies because all the forms force them to lie about their identity."

* D.C. Mayoral candidate Leo Alexander only has 700 bucks in the war chest, and $200 of it came from Phyllis Schlafly's Eagle Forum. That's rough, dude.

* Woman marries her partner in D.C., but is denied a name change in her home of Tennessee, on account of her absurd document from the nation's capital claiming her to be married—to a woman!

* The Bilerico Project takes the temperature of gay online media. Zack Rosen of the New Gay submits: "The state of gay online media is, simply, that it exists."

* In the Washington Post, Mark Judge calls for more male teachers in Catholic schools, for feminism:

[T]his is the kind of feminism that can sometimes be best delivered by a man. This year girls basketball team at St. Mary's won the league championship. As a reward the girls on the team got to come to school out of uniform, wearing whatever ever t-shirts they wanted to. The boys, whose team had not done as well, were sulking around school, bristling whenever the girls would brag. I noticed they were whispering to each other, "Yeah, but girls basketball is not a sport." They would never say in front of any teachers, 90 percent of whom are women. But then the sixth grade came into my classroom in the afternoon and, the boys saw me standing in the front and they let themselves go. "It's not a sport!" they cried. They called out, men to man, for validation—"Mr. Judge, girls basketball is not a sport! Right?"

I was surprised. I grew up in the 1970s, and even in those dark ages we would never have claimed that women's basketball was not a sport. Had thing moved that far backwards? Actually, I answered, not only is it a sport, it's a lot more interesting than men's basketball. Men's basketball has become a lot of dunking. In women's basketball there is strategy, jump-shots, thinking.

The boys looked at me suspiciously for a few seconds. But then they seemed to take it in.

* So sorry to bother you, via Feministe: How men and women pitch stories to the Awl. According to the site: "The emails from men are pretty direct. The emails from women are often kind of . . . apologetic!"

Photo via Nationaal Archief

Research shows that intimate partner violence occurs at the same rate in the LGBTQ communities as in the heterosexual community. Last year, Rainbow Response released a groundbreaking report on IPV in the District, which confirmed that DC’s LGBTQ communities experience IPV at the same rate as the heterosexual community. However, for a variety of reasons, survivors of IPV in the LGBTQ communities do not have equal access to services to help them escape; therefore it’s critical that our community be afforded as many protections and resources as possible.

Although there is no federal law outlawing discrimination against LGBTQ individuals in the workplace, the District has outlawed this type of discrimination for many years. Unfortunately, it remains perfectly legal to terminate an LGBTQ employee who happens to be a victim of IPV, simply for reasons related to the abuse. For example, three years ago one of my good friends, who is a lesbian and was out to her employer, found herself in an abusive relationship and was forced to miss work periodically because she was either in court seeking a protection order, or was at home waiting for the bruises on her face to disappear. Noticing that she had been taking time off from work, her employer threatened to fire her even after my friend disclosed the reasons for her absence. Fortunately, this talk happened just as her abusive partner finally decided to leave the relationship, and the District, for good. However, if my friend’s employer had fired her, she would have had no recourse available. Not only would she have been abused by her partner, she would have become abused by the system too.

. . . Much has been discussed about the comprehensive provisions in the bill, including requiring employers to post notice of these protections, develop workplace violence policies, and provide training for staff on domestic violence. Many questions and concerns have been raised about these provisions that are important and valid. I have tremendous respect for both the business and domestic violence community, and have no doubt that we can all work together with Committee staff to revise the bill where necessary to ensure it moves forward. But please let me remind us what the core issue of this bill is about at the end of the day: discrimination. If we as a society are committed to creating a safe and healthy District of Columbia, then we must help those who are in need, and protect them while they heal, not unravel the fragile threads that are supporting them.

* Via Vox Populi, Georgetown student Julia Shindel talks to the Chronicle of Higher Education about her reproductive health activism on campus, which included chaining herself to a statue of Georgetown founder John Carroll and wearing duct tape over her mouth. She rates that symbolic silencing method "disgusting."

* The Center for Sexual Pleasure and Health offers up a proposed curriculum on porn.

* Something to remember, via Hysteria!: "There are too many instances in the world when women’s voices are discounted.  Not just our figurative voices—the words we speak and the meanings of those words—but our literal voices too—our sometimes soft, high-timbre ululations. We are told that we are too soft-spoken to hear, that our proclamations carry too much emotion, too much shame, too many tears."

* Queen Emily on what can happen when you're outed as trans:

One time, I inadvertently outed myself to a group of students. I’d been teaching a tremendously interesting media studies class to first years; that is, mostly 17 and 18 year olds. The first three weeks went pretty well. We talked video games and violence, Hollywood, what they actually did with media. The discussions were engaged, it was all going fine. Then, a month in, I came down with a cold. My voice suddenly dropped an octave, because I couldn’t vocalise at my usual pitch. And like that, you could see the lights go on in their eyes. They’d realised I was trans.

. . . The next week, we did adbuster style cut-ups to jam dominant media messages and several groups turned in transphobic assignments, giggling their arses off. They were laughing at me. Another student spent the lesson interrupting me, telling the class how everything I was saying was stupid. And of course, a number of students stopped attending my classes altogether, trying to get into classes in the same unit run by other teachers.

. . . The point is, the mere fact of their knowing that I am trans meant that they, 17 and 18 year olds with scant knowledge of the subject they were taking, suddenly felt entitled to talk over me, to mock me openly when previously they had been respectful. Of itself, being subjected to ungendering takes its toll, especially if it’s something you experience frequently.

* Elena Kagan on abortion. Apparently she believes that the constitution provides for women's lives being protected in abortion regulation. Activist judge!

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Photo via George Eastman House

*D.C.'s AIDS rate is higher than that of any U.S. state. Our AIDS rate is approximately 10 times that of the U.S. in general.

* D.C.'s AIDS rate is higher than these major cities: Baltimore, Philadelphia, New York City, Detroit, and Chicago.

* From 2004 to 2008, 3,312 new AIDS cases were diagnosed in D.C. African-Americans accounted for 86 percent of those cases.

* New AIDS cases are decreasing: From 2004 to 2007, newly-diagnosed AIDS cases decreased from 164 to 137 cases. From 2007 to 2008, they decreased from 137 to 107 cases.

* In 2008, 4.7 percent of African-Americans in D.C. were HIV-positive. "The burden of disease among blacks/African Americans in DC is especially high," the CDC reports. "In 2008, blacks/African Americans represented 55% of DC's population, but accounted for 78% of those living with HIV infection and 86% of newly diagnosed AIDS cases."

* The risk to African-American women is extreme: Of new AIDS cases diagnosed in D.C., 94 percent of women diagnosed were African-American, compared to 82 percent of men.

* HIV testing is increasing: From 2005 to 2007, surveys showed that the percentage of D.C. citizens who had been tested for HIV in the past year rose from 15 percent to 19 percent. But the surveying method has a serious flaw: It only includes adults with landlines, not those who only have cell phones.

* More people in D.C. are testing positive for HIV: From 2004 to 2008, the "number of persons testing positive" for HIV in D.C. increased by 353 percent, from 246 in 2004 to 1,115 in 2008.

* Free HIV tests are significantly more available: From 2004 to 2008, "publicly funded HIV tests" increased by 335 percent. Free tests increased by 415 percent for African-Americans.

* How the D.C. Department of Health's anti-HIV initiatives may be working: "Although the causes of the improvement in these indicators are unknown and cannot be linked to any specific intervention, they suggest improvements in the delivery of HIV testing and linkage to care services in DC," the CDC reports. These efforts include "enhanced collaborations, working with D.C. residents as spokespersons for local marketing campaigns and creating toolkits for health-care providers to expand HIV testing and linkage to care."

* Where to go from here: The CDC recommends that "ongoing and increased HIV testing and efforts to ensure linkage to care are warranted." I'd say so.

* Some douchebag slapped the ass of a local female DJ; she recounts her experience on Holla Back DC:

[I] was doing a gig in a bar in Adams Morgan when an older guy came into the DJ booth . . .The guy started bragging that he owns a bunch of clubs in DC, and telling me they’re always looking for “hot female DJs” to spin parties, blah blah blah. He was really creepy, and the whole time he was talking, he was literally inching toward me, until he was right up in my grill.

I (politely) asked if he could take a few steps back and give me room while I worked. Apparently that was offensive, cause he said, “Fine, f*ck you then” and turned to leave, slapping my butt on the way out.

I totally lost it. I screamed “OH NO YOU F*CKING DID NOT JUST TOUCH MY BODY! How dare you, you disgusting PIG! Don’t EVER touch my body like that again, you get me?” He just looked at me like I’d punched him in the face, then skulked off.

Needless to say, I won’t be working in any of his clubs.

* Via GLAA Forum: The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services took the next step toward protecting equal hospital visitation rights for LGBT patients. The new proposed rules will "protect patients' rights to choose their own visitors during a hospital stay, including visitors who are same-sex domestic partners."

* David Malitz attends a "disastrous" Hole concert at the 9:30 Club:

The between song chatter was more than just chatter. Ten minutes without playing a song? Sure, let's do that a few times. She talked about her courting style ("I never chase"), being anorexic and bulimic, quizzed fans on the meaning of her late husband Kurt Cobain's lyrics, twice mentioned how The Washington Post hated her new album "Nobody's Daughter," and name-dropped a "TMZ" episode's worth of celebrities, from Trent Reznor to Diablo Cody to George Clooney, even Douglas Fairbanks. She asked what the lamest Hole song was and cursed at people when they gave the wrong answer.

That last part is kind of awesome.

* My Sex Professor tells us what we can learn about sex from Snoop Dogg. (She sticks to "Sexual Seduction," conveniently forgets his video work). "Sexual Seduction" aside, Snoop Dogg's messages on sex have been mixed. While he emphasizes the importance of keeping a pocket full of rubbers—particularly in a sex party situation—and illustrates how to set boundaries—"raise up off these n-u-ts, cause you gets none of these"—he also furthered a "G's up, hoes down" mentality when it comes to heterosexual sex. You don't have to love them hoes, but you don't have to call them that, either.

* Via The Center for Sexual Pleasure and Health, Audacia Ray talks about how to improve the lives of sex workers:

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Photo via State Library of New South Wales

I've never been a big fan of one way beauty pageants choose to award scholarship money to young women (Swimsuits! Why did it have to be swimsuits!). But pageant contestants using the competition to campaign for LGBT rights and gender-based activism? I'll take that!

Last year, Miss D.C. 2009 Jen Corey campaigned on a recycling platform, "Let's Talk Trash!" Once crowned, though, Corey devoted significant effort in her reign to speaking out against public sexual assault in the District and voicing her support for D.C.'s LGBT community.

Just last night, Claire Buffie was named Miss New York 2010 in this year's Miss America pageant on a platform of gay rights. (Local angle: She designed Corey's website!) From Buffie's official bio:

Miss New York 2010, Claire Buffie, is an outspoken advocate of human rights, opening the dialogue about equality amoungst youth, teens and adults alike with her platform "Straight for Equality: Let's Talk." The issues of gay rights make up the civil rights movement of our generation and reach far beyond marriage equality. As Miss New York 2010, Claire aims to break the stigma of marginalized youth, eliminating discriminatory vocabulary and changing the climate in New York schools. She celebrates diversity and the things that make us all unique and aims to instill pride, dignity and respect in developing minds and compassionate hearts. This will be a year of change in New York State and Claire is ready to support this incredible movement.

It's an interesting moment for America when the most traditional of contests for women begins championing the rights of people who are marginalized based on gender and sexual orientation. Buffie's Twitter stream offers a look at what life is like for a woman juggling pageant duties and LGBT activism. Turns out it includes regular work-outs, some spray-tan application, and plenty of PFLAG meetings—and that's all on top of her day job. "Awesome Photoshoot with @nycpageants and bianca Thomas and now off to the Straight for Equality Gala with @pflagnyc!!" one Tweet reads. Here's another: "Work. @pflagnyc board meeting. Work out. Dance. @GLEEonFOX ! Reply to 945793 emails. Sleep. Can I eat in there somewhere?" Let's hope the answer to that last question is "yes."

Last week, I wrote about the second KinkForAll unconference to bring ad-hoc alternate-sexuality education to the D.C. area. Below, some video evidence of kink educators from around the country talking everything from oral herpes at orgies to erotic Harry Poter fan-fic. (I'll post videos of that story's anti-porn conference later today).

"Sexy Fun Time With Google Apps", with Maymay and Emma, on the way Google's suite of applications can be applied to sex, from spreadsheets for calculating orgasm rations to calendars for annotating past sexual experiences.

"The Language of Touch", with DDog, on gender politics and touching. One participant: "After i came out as trans and started using male pronouns and presenting more male, it became more OK for me to be touchy-feelie and cuddly with people than I had previously, because for some reason a lot of my straight female friends then saw me as a straight guy instead of a gay woman—neither of which have ever been true!"

"How'd You Get Here? Rocky Horror, Fanfic, and Gateways to Kink", with Julia, on how nerdy subcultures can facilitate exploration of kinky sexualities—from the Rocky Horror Picture Show to Harry Potter fan fiction. Engorgio!

"Sex, Gender, and Pathologies", with xMech, on the scientific language of "gender identity disorder," and how it hurts the trans community.

"Taboo Erotica," with Jack Stratton, on erotica that defies social norms. He begins the session by having participants name "some horrible things." A working list: Scat play, piss play, incest, bestiality, furries, underage people, rape, edge play, snuff, race play, slavery, cuckoldry.

"Kissing," with Molly Ren, on navigating life as an orgy-attender with oral herpes. "I've dated mostly in the kink scene for the past two years, so I don't know what vanilla people do anymore," Molly says. "My first reaction when I would tell people, 'Oh, I can't kiss'? They'd say, 'Oh, Molly has a dom that's telling her not to kiss anyone but her! This is really hot!'"

"KinkForAll: What and Why?", with Maymay and Emma, on the reasoning behind this whole thing.

* Seventy-five-year-old Mamie "Peanut" Johnson, the "first and only woman to pitch in the Negro American League," is set to be commemorated with her own field in Northeast D.C.

* The National Area Woman's Foundation doles out some advice to the new cast of "Real Housewives of D.C." "Since I moved to Washington, D.C., I have been incredibly impressed by the number of intelligent, genuine, caring, friendly and strong women I’ve met," writes Mariah Craven. "Those women will not be on the 'Real Housewives of DC.'”

* The Washington Blade factors heavily into the Village Voice's story on the "death rattle" of gay print media:

Making things even harder for gay media—new and old—is the not-unpleasant problem of continuous and thorough examination of LGBT issues in big media like The New York Times, the Washington Post, and the Voice. Their coverage threatens to make already-threatened gay community weeklies, with their much more limited resources, redundant. Consider this: The photo that caught notorious professional homophobe George Alan Rekers with a male escort at an airport two months ago wasn’t taken for a gay paper, but for the Voice’s sister paper, Miami New Times.

It's true that LGBT news has gone mainstream, but it's a bit odd for the Voice to lump itself and Miami New Times together with such "big media" dailies as The New York Times and the Washington Post. The Miami New Times, like the gay papers that the Voice declares as dying, is a weekly with limited resources and an equally uncertain future.

* Metro Weekly profiles a "model blood donor" who is ineligible to donate because he has sex with men. Says Lee Storrow: "I think it's powerful that I am someone who … would have been a lifetime donor—and could potentially be a lifetime donor—but isn't eligible because of this policy.''

* LGBT activist Peter Rosenstein on why he's not voting for Adrian Fenty:

Candidate Fenty promised support for marriage equality but Mayor Fenty never spoke up for it. He didn’t testify for it or allow his director of the Office of GLBT Affairs to do so. Compare that to the advocacy of mayors like Gavin Newsom and now even Michael Bloomberg and it really comes up short. He did sign a veto-proof bill and held a signing ceremony to be in on the celebration. He did sign a veto-proof bill and held a signing ceremony to be in on the celebration.

Candidate Fenty promised to fight against hate crimes. Mayor Fenty never even managed to get the words hate crimes out of his mouth. He refused to meet with the community at-large even though these crimes have been increasing. Candidate Fenty promised to hold a GLBT Economic Summit. Mayor Fenty refused to make this an event of the mayor’s office and has never found time to attend one. Candidate Fenty promised to take the message of fighting HIV/AIDS to the community, including the faith community. Mayor Fenty has never spoken to a faith-based group about HIV/AIDS.

Rick Rosendall's take: "This is too long, too one-sided, and too much about Peter Rosenstein."

Earlier this month, we examined how D.C.-area hospitals fared in the Human Rights Campaign's 2010 Healthcare Equality Index, which rates hospitals on their policy toward LGBT patients (they all failed). Then, we spoke to HRC's Tom Sullivan, who explained the Equality Index's high standards. Now, Sum of Change has produced an in-depth video—including interviews with both Sullivan and Ellen Kahn of the HRC's Family Project—which explains all aspects of the index, why it's important, and why more facilities will be coming into compliance in the future. Let's hope D.C.-area hospitals are listening.

* Via BLOgT: Even ex-gays are allowed to wear fabulous scarves.

* Feministing points to a Brightest Young Things piece on how some LGBT folks define queer virginity.

* At Tiger Beatdown, Silvana reacts to a piece in the Washington Post about a victim of trauma who built an anti-terrorism career out of her fascination with "evil and violence":

Ironically enough, reading an article about someone else’s fascination with terror caused me to feel a little terror of my own. What if this explained it all? What if my fascination with detention and corrections, and compulsion to fight for people who are locked up, was all a complicated outgrowth of my history of trauma? I was harassed almost every day as a teenager, groped, assaulted, and in my late teens and early twenties raped repeatedly by a boyfriend. I was surrounded by people who had done bad things to me. But instead of being repulsed by criminals, rapists, terrorists, I identify with them. Because, just like women are the sex class, to be the recipient, the dumping-ground for male aggression, men of color and especially mentally ill men of color are the dumping ground for white male authoritarian state-sanctioned violence.

* At Jezebel, Irin Carmon interviews former staffers about The Daily Show's boys club. Head to the comments to read a deluge of defenses of this "progressive" product with a gender problem.

* Tracy Clark-Flory on a man who allegedly hacked into over 100 computers in search of private sex tapes and photos (44 of the victims were underage):

When we come across stories about violations of people's sexual privacy, whether on the news or in our personal lives, there's a tendency to go, Oh, well, that was stupid of them — they shouldn't have filmed that, they shouldn't have taken that photo, etc. And then you feel a bit safer, thanks to your superior wisdom, which tells you that you should not let your boyfriend keep a copy of your homemade sex tape and that you should decline that guy's request for a sexy photo (and maybe you even follow this advice, most of the time). The reality, though, is that precautions—no matter how sensible, no matter how self-righteously we trumpet them—are no match for someone set on exploitation.

Today, June 23, 2010, marks the deadline for Attorney General Eric Holder to finalize the national standards for corrections facilities to address prison rape. And unless Holder's doing some serious cramming right now, he's going to miss it.

Last June, the National Prison Rape Elimination Commission released a report of proposed national standards for the “prevention, detection, and response to sexual abuse in confinement settings”—a path toward ending prison rape. Holder had 12 months to review the report and make a final ruling on what standards would become law. Holder failed to meet the deadline—according to some corrections experts, he appears to be at least several months behind schedule—and every day Holder waits means the continued abuse of people in detention facilities across the country.

Today, Just Detention International (JDI) held a teleconference to voice its disappointment with Holder's tardiness. According to Lovisa Stannow, Executive Director of JDI, Holder's failure isn't solely administrative.  "National standards have the potential to protect tens of thousands of men, women, and children from being sexually abused behind bars every year," Stannow said.

Scott Howard-Smith, a survivor of sexual abuse while incarcerated on theft and tax code violation charges, also shared his story on the call. "The attacks that I suffered were devastating," said Howard-Smith, who detailed how a white supremacist gang in his Colorado prison "raped, assaulted, and extorted" him in an attempt to convince him to commit fraud on their behalf.

The abuse didn't stop with fellow inmates. “My efforts to report were often fruitless," Howard-Smith says. Corrections officers refused to help him unless he identified all of his assailants by name and detailed their illegal activities, a move Howard-Smith thought would have put him at greater risk in the facility. Other officials informed Howard-Smith that “as a homosexual I should expect to be targeted by one gang or another," while refusing to offer him added protections.

Also joining in on the call was Rep. Frank Wolf, a Republican from Virginia, who emphasized the urgent time factor in finalizing the standards. "I’ve heard figures [of sexual abuse of prisoners] from 60 to 100,000 people a year!" Wolf said in a call from the House floor. "This is unacceptable. The Attorney General has got to act, and he’s got to act now . . . and if he doesn’t act, someone ought to call the president. But to let this go on for one more day is just wrong.”

Photo via decade_null, Creative Commons Attribution License 2.0.

According to Quinlan's analysis, it doesn't make sense that Kagan is gay:

President Obama's nominee for Supreme Court Justice, Elena Kagan, has steadfastly refused to divulge her sexual orientation, despite a CBS News blog item claiming that Kagan is known in Harvard circles as a lesbian.  In response, the White House blasted CBS News for its "lies" and CBS pulled the item off its website.

But if Kagan is a lesbian, why would the White House insist that she is not when Obama made gay rights part of his platform for change?  In issuing this month's gay pride presidential proclamation, Obama stated he is "proud to be the first President to appoint openly LGBT candidates to Senate-confirmed positions in the first 100 days of an Administration."

So Kagan and her alleged lesbianism should not be an issue for the White House or the Democrats, who control the Senate vote for Kagan's judicial nomination.

And it doesn't make sense that she's not gay:

Some of Kagan's friends have told Politico that she is frustrated by the persistence of the gay rumors, but "worried that denying them could imply some anti-gay prejudice." But this makes no sense either-isn't the whole point of the gay rights movement to allow people to be free to declare who they really are, without stigma? If the only way for a middle-aged woman to declare that she is straight is to marry a man, wouldn't that be a step backward, and not forward, in liberal gender politics?

THEREFORE:

There is, however, another possibility. Could it be that Kagan is ex-gay?  That would explain the White House insistence on Kagan's heterosexuality and Kagan's silence about her past sexual preference.

That's right, Obama has just nominated the woman who will be our nation's first closeted ex-gay Supreme Court justice. No other explanation makes sense. Now, we must work to make Kagan our first openly ex-gay Supreme Court justice. On that day, our country will finally grant heterosexuals the same respect it gives gay people:

As an ex-gay myself, I sympathize with Kagan and the Obama administration.  I have had to face taunts, threats, and phone calls to my employer demanding that I be fired.  There is no hate like that directed against the ex-gay community. And the President knows it.

. . . So Ms. Kagan, do not be afraid to come out of the closet.  Regardless of our political differences, ex-gays like me, and maybe you, should be able to live openly just like when we were homosexuals.

It wasn't until I read this woman's experience, via Holla Back DC!, that I understood how D.C.'s annual Capital Pride Parade could present the groper's perfect storm. She writes:

I marched in the Capital Pride Parade last weekend as part of a marching band. For part of the parade route, the crowds had pushed up into the street, leaving very little room to march through and no space to separate us from the crowd. One man at the front of the crowd took the opportunity to grab my ass as I marched by.

Because I was concentrating hard on playing and marching, I couldn’t respond. Nonetheless this upset me. Obviously, being part of a parade does not make my body public property. I was also disturbed by the fact that, given the context, this guy probably assumed I was a lesbian, yet still felt entitled (perhaps even felt more entitled) to sexually assault me.

All the elements are here: The close proximity, the element of alcohol, the assumption of a safe space, and the selection of a target who—because she is directly in the public eye, because she is concentrating on playing an instrument, because she is surrounded by potential suspects, because she's swiftly marching away from them, and because she may even be a member of a marginalized group—can't do anything about it. That's not to say that Capital Pride is infested with gropers—but this isn't the first story I've heard from someone being assaulted at this year's event.

We know that gropers seek out situations like this in order to get away with assault. In order to deal with that reality, we invent excuses to blame groping victims for also being present in these circumstances. The victim-blaming is tailored for each space in which a groper operates. Because sexual assailants target places where people are drinking, "potential victims" shouldn't drink so much. Women—and men, both gay and straight, who aren't into non-consensual groping from strangers—don't belong in gay bars, or at least shouldn't complain when they're assaulted in them. Of course, it's hard to argue that people should avoid public transportation just because gropers get off on the sheer number of people who do take the train. So we suggest that people targeted on the Metro are to blame for failing to speak up or fight back.

Even an action as innocuous as playing in a marching band at a Pride Parade has to be defended against the implication that the victim was asking for it: "Obviously, being part of a parade does not make my body public property," she writes.

* Just in time for Father's Day, WorldNetDaily has republished David Kupelian's column on how refusing to acknowledge male superiority is hurting men:

"Father knows best."

How do those three words make you feel? Turn them over in your mind a couple of times and be aware of the subtlest of feelings. Be honest.

Do they make you feel slightly squeamish? A little discomfort in your solar plexus? Is something deep down inside you repelled by those words?

If so, you're not alone. Contempt for male authority—as if to say, "Give me a break, father sure didn't know best in my life"—is everywhere around us. We're swimming in it. You see, men, boys and masculinity itself have been under withering national assault for decades.

* Reporter John Townsend has outed an anti-gay Lutheran minister he met at meetings of "Courage," an anonymous Catholic program that helps gays and lesbians to suppress their sexuality. So, how ethical is that? From the NGJLA: "While many people disagree with [Courage's] approach—which focuses on working steps, remaining chaste, prayer, and little contact with openly gay people—the question is whether the practice, itself, is so dangerous that people’s expectation of anonymity should be violated in order to expose it."

* The GLAA congratulates Germany's gay penguins on becoming proud fathers.

* In other displays of gay pride, Metro Weekly presents 20 shirtless men dancing to a Lady Gaga medley in front of the Capitol building:

[youtube:v=xCELpZ-FARg]

* And now for some less inspiring maneuvering: Gay council candidate Clark Ray accepts an endorsement from the Rev. Willie F. Wilson, who has opined on the issue of sexual orientation that "Lesbianism is about to take over our community" and "Can't make no connection with a screw and another screw."

*Broadsheet's Tracy Clark-Flory reports on an X-ray manufacturer's foray into the pin-up market. Clark-Flory's take: "damn, these skele-girls got femurs for daaays. As the Weekly Vice suggests, I guess the message here is that beauty isn't skin deep, after all. Or something." I think the real message here is that even Skeletors can look "sexy" if we splay them out in a suitably compliant pose and strap the right shoes on their feet.

* At Feministe, s.e. smith declares open season on bikini season.

* Bitch Magazine's Kjerston Johnson aggressively campaigns for the Twilight series to show Bella's vampire-baby birth on-screen, in which "Edward has to deliver the baby Cesarean-style . . . with his teeth." In response to Twilight screenwriter Melissa Rosenberg's claim that "you can do childbirth without seeing childbirth . . . it doesn't mean it's any less evocative of an experience," Johnson replies: "Um, he rips their baby out of her stomach with his mouth! I would like to see what kind of mise-en-scène director Bill Condon conjures up to ensure it's no 'less evocative' without this unnatural natural birth."

* Why is the National Organization for Marriage (NOM NOM NOM) bankrolling a local ANC commissioner to the tune of $60,900? [Via Metro Weekly].

* Vote in Freedom to Marry's blogger scholarship contest; our local pick is The New Gay editor Zack Rosen. (Read his submission here).

The annual documentary film festival Silverdocs hits D.C. again this week. For the City Paper's coverage of this year's Nordic-heavy offerings, I reviewed Regretters, a documentary which unfolds as a long talk between two men who underwent sex-change operations to become female only to immediately regret the loss of their penises. Its accusatory title aside, the film is less about the tragic indecisiveness of a couple of transgender people than it is about the desperation of homophobia and misogyny, the complexity of gender, and all the social expectations that come with a set of genitalia. Read the rest of the review here.

Tonight, I have the honor of appearing on WPFW's monthly LGBT radio program, "Inside Out." I'll be talking about some recent LGBT coverage on the Sexist, from terminology disputes to wedding industry turf wars to same-sex marriage turncoats. I'll also be chatting for an entire hour about this stuff, so help me out! Got any topics you'd like me to talk about? File them in the comments. Want to ask a question on the air? Call us at (202) 588-0893. And listen in tonight at 7 p.m. on 89.3 FM in the District, or online at WPFW.org. In the meantime, I'll be studying words I'm not supposed to say. I've heard "cunt" is off limits, so, glad to get that one out of my system!

Photo via Nationaal Archief

Some consensual touching at the 2010 Capital Pride Parade

This weekend, Miss D.C. 2009 Jen Corey graciously agreed to march alongside City Paper at the 2010 Capital Pride Parade. Along with her support of the LGBT community, Corey has been outspoken about D.C.'s groping problem as her reign draws to a close. The Miss D.C. organization is behind Corey's new platform, and her recent efforts to physically defend herself against assault: "Jen recently got quite a bit of notoriety for her reaction to an overly familiar 'admirer.' In the fine tradition of [Miss America 1944] Venus Ramey . . . who defended herself against an intruder, Jen’s body slam or 'Smack Down' has become legendary."

Corey, 22, will hand over her crown this Sunday at the Lincoln Theater. But before she finishes her reign, she's agreed to answer some questions about public sexual harassment and assault:

In your NBC interview, you mentioned that you've experienced both physical and verbal sexual harassment. In my experience, a lot of people who agree that touching a stranger is wrong can't understand what the big deal is about making sexual comments toward them. How have both types of harassment affected you personally?

Jen Corey: I have a lot of guy friends who agree and don't understand what a little harmless catcalling has to do with sexual harassment. Sometimes I wish a hidden camera could follow me down a street because it's not just the fact that someone calls out to you and maybe pays you a compliment. I used to live 1 block from campus in college and after walking to school for the first week down Massachusetts Ave, I drove for the rest of the year. I counted once and I was either catcalled or beeped at 11 times in one block. Living in a city alone is scary for a woman. It only increases your fear more when you are walking alone and a white van pulls up next to you and a car full of men are yelling derogatory things at you. A girl can only take so much before she is too afraid to go out alone.

I know that many, many women in D.C. experience this type of public sexual harassment and assault on a regular basis, but a lot of people are skeptical that this is actually that big of a problem. When you speak out about groping, are other people ever surprised that it's this common an experience for you?

JC: I think men don't always understand how often it happens. My own boyfriend really didn't grasp it until recently one night when he walked me back to my car late at night after a photoshoot. I was walking with him and men were still coming up to us to try to talk to me or touch me. I've also heard other men say, "Oh that only happens because you're probably dressed in a short dress" or it's because I'm Miss DC. But this has happened to me since I was 13 and happens when I'm in sweatpants and a sweatshirt or when I'm in jeans and t-shirt.

Speaking of how frequent groping is: Can you talk a little bit about how this problem affects people all across the District?

JC: Not only does it affect people all over the District, but it affects people all over the country. The fact that we're an active city where a most people are out and walking around, it just seems to happen more. My biggest point that I'm trying to get across is that we need to speak out against it. Do NOT just accept it as "a part of life." It is not OK and the only way it will stop is if it is confronted. That's why I'm so glad to have the support of the Washington City Paper, stopstreetharassment.com and Holla Back DC.

Is this not enough jorts-wearing dancing cowboy for you? Check out Darrow Montgomery's full collection of photos from the 2010 Capital Pride Parade over on City Desk for more where that came from. Bonus: Dude drinking beer out of a water bottle straddling a foam noodle.

* Via Sociological Images, a recent Marie Claire fashion shoot declares that "nude is the new black." Except that by "nude," they mean "the color white people are." White people are the new black. It's science.

* s.e. smith on rethinking the ban on gay and bisexual men donating blood:

The ban is not a deferral period, as is the case for most things that exclude people from donation. It is a lifetime ban. If you are a man who  has had sex with a man since 1977, you are not allowed to donate blood in the United States. Period. End of discussion.

Meanwhile, if you are a heterosexual man who has had sex with a woman whom you know to be HIV positive, there’s a year waiting period on blood donation.

Let me reiterate this: The FDA has determined that a year waiting period to eliminate any possible concerns is enough if you have been exposed to a known risk factor for HIV infection and you are heterosexual. Meanwhile, if you are a gay or bisexual man, you are banned from donation for life unless you haven’t had sex with a man since 1977. Regardless of risk factors. Only had one monogamous partner since 1977, and you’ve both been tested? Banned. Only had protected sex since 1977? Banned. Get regular HIV tests that are always negative, and been tested since the last possible window period? Banned.

* Thomas at Yes Means Yes on labeling sexuality: "Does that make me queer?"

* On Shakesville, is "the end of men" really the end of male privilege?

Hanna Rosin's piece in The Atlantic is titled "The End of Men," but a more accurate title might be "The End of Male Privilege."

Well, it would be a more accurate title if she'd ever managed to tease out the idea that struck me as a glaring omission from the piece: Privileged men's achievement gap, and the associated atrophy born of the observable resistance, or inflexibility, to make quick course corrections, is the inevitable result of a culture that continues to sell privileged men a patriarchal narrative of birthright entitlement, despite the fact that it is nothing but an empty promise of an illusory bounty in which most men will never share.

Simply: American culture continues to promise straight, white, cis, able-bodied men success and supremacy, in exchange for nothing but their being straight, white, cis, and able-bodied. But that shit just ain't enough anymore.

Photo via the Jewish Historical Society of the Upper Midwest