The Bisexual Movement Needs a Make-Over

In a recent New York Times magazine piece called “The Scientific Quest to Prove Bisexuality Exists,” Benoit Denizet-Lewis provided a nice overview of the bisexual movement by touching on the sex researchers, activists as well as the American Institute of Bisexuality (A.I.B.), a think tank founded and funded by the wealthy deceased psychiatrist and bisexual writer Fritz Klein. The article does all this and a little more, even while failing to identify the enduring blind spot in our discussion of bisexuals and bisexuality. Sexism.

The first thing that irked me about the “The Scientific Quest to Prove Bisexuality Exists” is the title. First, it infers that science has yet to prove bisexuality is real. Otherwise why would there be a “quest,” right? Wrong. Science has already proven the existence of bisexuality many times. Yet the title casts an established fact in the shadows while it thrusts the baseless denial of bisexuality’s existence into the spotlight.

Continue reading on the Huffington Post.

Maryland Transgender Rights Bill Receives Final Approval

A bill that would ban discrimination against transgender Marylanders on Thursday received final approval in the Maryland House of Delegates.
The 82-57 vote on Senate Bill 212 – the Fairness for All Marylanders Act of 2014 – took place after lawmakers debated the measure that state Sen. Rich Madaleno (D-Montgomery County) introduced in January for more than two hours.

“What we are about to do today is important,” said state Del. Maggie McIntosh (D-Baltimore City) as she referenced the exclusion of trans Marylanders in a 2001 anti-discrimination bill that only included sexual orientation. “This is an important group of people today who frankly we left out 11 years ago. They’re beat up. They’re ridiculed. They are suffering and they need to hold their head up high just like I do.”

More over at Washington Blade.

Justice Department Launches Training Program to Improve Response to Transgender Community

The Justice Department launched a program Thursday to train local police departments to better respond to transgender individuals, a population authorities say is disproportionately harmed by violence.

The new initiative is aimed at helping police identify hate crimes and build trust with a community that law enforcement officials say is too often reluctant to report crimes.

“It’s clear that such a training is as necessary as it is overdue,” Associate Attorney General Tony West said at a ceremony unveiling the program. “Because too often, in too many places, we know that transgender victims are discouraged from reporting hate crimes and hate violence due to their past negative interactions with and perceptions of law enforcement.”

Read more at U.S. News.

WATCH: Outfest Fusion ’14 Highlights

Via NoMoreDownLow TV.

Ending Violence Against Queer Black Women Is Everybody’s Responsibility

“We only want justice, but sometimes it is not always clear what justice is when you are black in this country,” admitted Amina Baraka, wife of the late-poet Amiri Baraka, after prosecutors indicted James Coleman for the murder of their daughter, Shani Baraka, and her partner Rayshon “Ray-Ray” Holmes. On August 12, 2003, Coleman — estranged husband of Shani’s sister, Wanda Pasha — shot and killed the Black lesbian couple in Pasha’s home. A little more than a decade later, Amina Baraka’s words ring true again as yet another Black lesbian couple is slain in Houston, TX. Justice, indeed, is not always clear when you are Black, and queer, and a woman in this country and the threat of violence is never too far removed from you.

More on Autostraddle.