International Gay and Lesbian Human Rights Commission

"The International Gay and Lesbian Human Rights Commission (IGLHRC) is a leading international organization dedicated to human rights advocacy on behalf of people who experience discrimination or abuse on the basis of their actual or perceived sexual orientation, gender identity or expression." This organization works for the rights of Gays and Lesbians worldwide. It began in 1990 by an Activist from the United States named Julie Dorf and was accepted as a non-profit in 1991. Since its beginning it has been working with countries and groups worldwide to protect the rights of all people. Their website is easy to navigate and while their blog appears to be updated regularly the actual website does not have any recent news letters or information on their history page from recent years. To learn more about this group follow this link.

"Fifty Shades of Gay"

I found this TED Talk while I was searching for something to post and I think it encompasses what we've talked about in our discussions of Kiss of the Spider Woman. iO Tillett Wright is a photographer who set out to photograph as many LGBTQ identifiers as she could with the help of the HCR. The video is a little less than 20 minutes, but if you watch just a few minutes you can understand what she's presenting. I feel like this goes along with the previous post about putting people into boxes and how sexuality is much more complicated than people may think. The talk also presents ideas about sexual fluidity, which I think helps with understanding Valentine's sexual identity. 

Hawaii Legalizes Gay Marriage!

The Hawaii senate just passed a bill to legalize gay marriage today! Here is the link to the full story. I just thought that this was worth posting simply because it fits into our ongoing discussion of human rights. When I first saw this I didn't believe it because of how soon it was passed after Illinois. However, I'm very excited to know that gay rights are being recognized more and more each day!

Something to Think About

The following is a poem written by Bo Burnham, from his new poetry book "Egghead".
I find it to be really thought provoking and raise a lot of questions. Let me know if you agree!

I feel that the idea of someone falling in love with their clone is wrong. I wonder if I think this just because I, much like many homophobic people today, have simply been taught that this is such. I don't think that homosexuality is wrong (obviously), but I don't agree with the idea of clones being together. Is this because they share the same genes, or because I am just not open-minded enough? Will this actually have to be something we deal with in the future? Is Bo praising the notion that things eventually become accepted (homosexuality in this case) or is he making a claim that perhaps our world's open-mindedness needs to draw the line at some point? Let me know what you think.

P.S. One of my favorite things about this poem is the picture that goes along with it... I could not find it on the internet so instead here is a poorly taken photo of my copy of the book:

The Paris Underground

As we have learned, most of the films that the characters reference and connect with in the novel are based on actual films. When Molina tells of the second film that is clearly a piece of Nazi propaganda, it is unclear whether or not it is based off of an actual movie, as it wasnwith the first film. I recently found a short post stating that the story is believed to be based off of a composite of multiple Nazi films strung together with an American film from 1945 by director Gregory Ratoff called The Paris Underground, also sometimes known as Madame Pimpernel. In this link I have included the internet movie database of the film that gives a summary of the plot. While the plot of Molina's film is clearly not directly taken from The Paris Underground, the summary of the film shows some similarities between the actual film and the film from the novel that would suggest why some believe it is partially derived from it.

Sexual Citizenship and Human Rights

An interesting conference in Texas, November 22-24:

Sexual Citizenship and Human Rights: What Can the US Learn from the EU and European Law?

Topics include:

• Same-sex marriage and the family
• Transgender rights
• Anti-discrimination
• Youth sexual rights
• Pornography and children
• Sex work, migration and trafficking
• Do sex offenders have human rights?
• Therapeutic approaches to sex offending

Sexuality Explained

This video by Hank Green is the best fairly simple explanation of human sexuality that I've ever found. It explains some of the concepts we were talking about in class the other day about gendered pronouns and I think it's a good review of sexuality for everyone to watch before our final discussion of Kiss of the Spiderwoman.