• ELIXHER
• On April 11, 2014

Laverne Cox Expresses Support For Suspended Trans Student

Star of Netflix’s Orange Is the New Black and advocate Laverne Cox has issued a statement in support of the Central Piedmont Community College student who alleges she was harassed and suspended for being a transgender woman. Laverne Cox tweeted her support in the days after the news broke in several media outlets, and she has released this statement.

Read what she had to say here.

WATCH: What It’s Like To Be Bi

via BuzzFeed

Uganda Gay Teen Commits Suicide Over Anti-Gay Law

A Uganda gay teen has committed suicide over the homophobic law, it was reported [on April 7]. The young man, who we will call Denis, overdosed on pills and swallowed rat poison around a month ago. For the past few weeks, he showed little signs of recovery as he slipped in and out of consciousness. He also lost his ability to speak. Last Thursday (3 April), Denis was pronounced dead. He was just 17 years old.

See more at Gay Star News.

UMass’ Derrick Gordon is First Openly Gay Male D-I Basketball Player

Massachusetts guard Derrick Gordon became the first openly gay male player in Division I basketball on Wednesday morning, telling his story to ESPN’s Kate Fagan. Gordon and UMass head coach Derek Kellogg subsequently had interviews on ESPN to discuss the announcement. Fagan asked Gordon how he felt now that he had come out. He responded: “Awesome.”

“For this to be happening right now, me coming out, it’s an indescribable feeling, honestly,” Gordon said. “I couldn’t be any happier. I feel like I can fly.”

More over at CBS Sports.

A Path To Environmentalism

For many years, I had a very specific image of those who “cared” about the environment. They were always white and always foreign to me. They talked of spaces I felt no connection to, of places that were distant to me. When I was in the “world of environmentalists,” I always felt uncomfortable. My brownness stood out and none of my interests aligned. With my deep love of cities, I found beauty in the one place they often wished to escape. However, like many of the people I encountered in what seemed like a very niche culture, I, too, had become caught up with the fabricated idea of nature. Nature, in this manipulated imagination, was outside of the world I lived. It was fenced, it was legislated, and it was the place richer white folks went hiking and rock climbing, the place they went to safari and tour. Nature was always the thing that was packaged, consumed, and protected by governments and their agencies. Nature was not my block in the city or my house in the suburbs.

Continue reading on Black Girl Dangerous.