Can’t make it to this event? Please join our Facebook Page: Bloomsburg/Danville/Berwick PA LGBTA Community, a group for LGBTA people in the greater Bloomsburg PA Area to connect,network and support each other.
Our group is for ALL people in the area who otherwise do not have access to support and fellowship so all local residents can receive such as well as students and alumni of various universities. Together, community, students and alumni we can improve all our lives.
LADY GAGA & GOVERNOR CHRISTIE AGREE: We were born this way. So why won’t Governor Christie declare his support for the ban on harmful and abusive anti-LGBT “cure therapy” and commit to sign the bill?
When was the last time you took a survey or filled out a form where you had to specify your sex, gender or sexuality?
One friend who is transgender and bisexual discovered that their statewide LGBT group was asking people to self-identify on its website donation page, and it was only possible to select one identity when the options given were “lesbian,”“gay,”“bisexual,”“transgender,”“ally” and “other.”
For my friend, marking “other” didn’t seem right … “I really want there to be more bi/trans* visibility,” they told me, “especially since many people think trans* people are either all gay or all straight (depending on who you ask) and, of course, no one thinks a trans* person could be bisexual despite bisexuality being the largest sexual orientation group among trans* people.”
Other LGBT+-specific surveys that one would think would attempt to be extremely inclusive leave certain identities out as well. For example, one survey received by BiNet USA that claimed to be about “Sexual Minority Men’s Gender Attitudes and Wellbeing” ended up having a pretty narrow focus on gay men, despite being promoted as a study that included bisexual, genderqueer and transgender men too.
We still live in a heteronormative and cissexist society, and that is no clearer to me than at the doctor’s office. When I fill out their forms and identify as female, my doctors always assume that that means that I am heterosexual, so they ask me if I am on birth control … In fact, if doctors are making assumptions about a patient’s gender, sex and sexuality without verifying with the patient, mistakes are just waiting to happen … Much clearer questions should be asked on surveys and questionnaires, especially in the medical field, if accurate data is to be collected, and for all people to receive the best medical care possible.
Tune in NOW! at 8:00 PM ET tonight Thursday, January 24th 2013 to watch the opening plenary featuring Deepak Bhargava, Kate Clinton and Daniel Hernández. Please share to spread the word!
… the backing Mr. Obama received from gay [Ed Note: and lesbian and bisexual and trans* and queer/questioning et. al.] voters also has a claim on having been decisive. Mitt Romney and Mr. Obama won roughly an equal number of votes among straight voters nationwide, exit polls showed. And, a new study argues, Mr. Romney appears to have won a narrow victory among straight voters in the swing states of Ohio and Florida.
Mr. Obama’s more than three-to-one edge in exit polls among the 5 percent of voters who identified as gay, lesbian or bisexual [Ed Note: and trans* and queer/questioning et. al.] was more than enough to give him the ultimate advantage, according to the study, by Gary J. Gates of the Williams Institute at the U.C.L.A. School of Law, in conjunction with Gallup …
“In the younger population, there is a much wider range in the geography and ethnicity of those who are identifying as LGBT,” Dr. Gates said, using a common term for lesbian, gay, bisexual or transgender. That range now extends well beyond major cities and into multiple swing states …
GOOD NEWS - Polling data finds American are slowly becoming less afraid to Come Out of the Closet, and 3.2% of them answered affirmatively to the question “Do you, personally, identify as lesbian, gay, bisexual, or transgender?”
This is similar to the data found in the Williams Study, that showed when you add in the still shy & nervous you get between 8% and 10% of the population.
INTERESTING NEWS — Lauren S. Kannry, Director of Public Relations for Gallup, called it a “landmark” study, which also identified 44% of this LGBT population as Democratic, 43% as independent, and 13% as Republican.
The survey also found that nonwhite individuals are more likely to identify as LGBT. African Americans (4.6%), Asian Americans (4.3%), and Hispanics (4.0%), all exceeded the Non-Hispanic white percentage of 3.2% LGBT … the author of the report, Gary Gates, determined that the findings should cut against stereotypes associated with the LGBT community.
“Contemporary media often think of LGBT people as disproportionately white, male, urban and pretty wealthy,” he said. “But this data reveal that relative to the general population, the LGBT population has a larger proportion of nonwhite people and clearly is not overly wealthy.”
Bisexual Activist & Director of Policy for Equality MichiganEmily Dievendorf speaking at Michigan Pride 2012. Says Dievendorf, “I haven’t seen this yet and I may choose not to. Be kind. (And I did say ‘Vagina!’)”
GLSEN’s annual poll — which comprised 8,584 student respondents from all 50 states as well as the District of Columbia — aims to “consistently examine the experiences of LGBT students in America’s schools.”
Here are some findings from the survey:
81.9 percent of LGBT students reported being verbally harassed, 38.3 percent reported being physically harassed and 18.3 percent reported being physically assaulted at school in the past year because of their sexual orientation.
A considerable number of students reported discriminatory policies or practices against LGBT people by their school or school personnel. Students indicated the most common discriminatory policy or practice was related to treatment of LGBT relationships (e.g., related to dates for school dances and public display of affection).
60.4 percent of LGBT students never reported an incident of harassment or assault to school personnel.
84.9 percent of LGBT students heard “gay” used in a negative way (e.g., “that’s so gay”) and 71.3 percent heard homophobic remarks (e.g., “dyke” or “faggot”) frequently or often at school.
Transgender students experienced more hostile school climates than their non-transgender peers — 80 percent of transgender students reported feeling unsafe at school because of their gender expression.
Six in 10 LGBT students (63.5 percent) reported feeling unsafe at school because of their sexual orientation; and four in 10 (43.9 percent) felt unsafe because of their gender expression.
LGBT students reported feeling unsafe in specific school spaces, most commonly locker rooms (39.0 percent), bathrooms (38.8 percent) and physical education/gym class (32.5 percent).
The reported grade point average of students who were more frequently harassed because of their sexual orientation or gender expression was lower than for students who were less often harassed (2.9 vs. 3.2). Increased levels of victimization were related to increased levels of depression and anxiety and decreased levels of self-esteem.
Nearly one third of LGBT students (29.8 percent) reported skipping a class at least once and 31.8 percent missed at least one entire day of school in the past month because of safety concerns.
Being out in school had positive and negative repercussions for LGBT students - outness was related to higher levels of victimization, but also higher levels of psychological well-being.
While acknowledging that the 2011 survey ”marks a possible turning point in the school experiences of LGBT youth,” Dr. Joseph Kosciw, GLSEN’s Senior Director of Research and Strategic Initiatives, added, “An alarming number of LGBT youth still face barriers that inhibit their ability to receive an education. And although we have seen an increase in school supports that can improve school climate for these youth, many of these young people reported being unable to access these supports in their schools.”
