by Bianca Laureano

There’s been a lot going on over the past week to start off Pride month. Here are a few exciting and interesting stories. Please consider this trigger warning as these stories will be discussing transmisogyny, violence,

CeCe McDonald and Support
If you have yet to hear about CeCe McDonald, I don’t know what to say but get on it! In short, CeCe is a young Black trans woman who is a survivor of racist and transphobic and transmisogynistic comments in her home state of Minnesota which lead to violence. She was attacked by 4 people and fought back for her life. One of her attackers died and she has been incarcerated at a men’s prison for the past year. CeCe pled guilt to manslaughter for a reduced sentence and and was sentenced this week to 41 months in prison with some time served toward her sentence and to pay over $6000 in restitution.

CeCe has an amazing support time working to help her legally, emotionally, spiritually, mentally, and physically during her incarceration. There are book clubs, letter writing campaigns,  fundraising,  and movement building that you can participate in today! Visit this site  as the main space to find more information and official updates from her team (there have been some unapproved CeCe petitions and such going around) and follow them on tumblr. 

Leslie Feinberg Arrested
Author and activist Leslie Feinberg was arrested on June 4, 2012 the day CeCe McDonald was sentenced.  One of the things I find incredibly important to be reminded of is from Feinberg’s official statement after arrest which reads in part:

As a white, working-class, Jewish, transgender lesbian revolutionary I will not be silent as this injustice continues! I know from the lessons of histories what is means when the state—in a period of capitalist economic crisis—enacts apartheid passbook laws, bounds up and deports immigrant works, and gives a green light to e white supremacists, fascist attacks on Black peoples—from Sanford, Florida, to Tulsa, Oklahoma, to a courtroom in Minneapolis, Minnesota.

The prosecutor and the judge are upholding the intent of the infamous white supremacist Dred Scott ruling of 1857.

The same year Fredrick Douglass concluded: “Without struggle, there is no progress!”

CeCe McDonald is being sent to prison during the month of Juneteeth: celebration of the Emancipation Proclamation—the formal Abolitionist of “legal” enslavement of peoples of African descent. The Emancipation Proclamation specifically spelled out the right of Black people to self-defense against racist violence.

Yet, the judge, the prosecutor, and the jailers are continuing the violent and bigoted hate crimes begun by the group of white supremacists who carried out a fascist attack on CeCe McDonald and her friends.

CeCe McDonald is being sent to prison in June—the month when the Stonewall Rebellion ignited in the streets of Greenwich Village in 1969. From the Compton’s Uprising to the Stonewall Rebellion, defense against oppression is a law of survival.

More...

by Debra Hauser
President, Advocates for Youth

Inevitable. Since President Obama announced his personal support for marriage equality last month, reporters and pundits alike have said same-sex marriage is "inevitable." That it is only a matter of time before gay and lesbian couples will be allowed to legally marry across the United States. And, now with recent court rulings on Defense of Marriage Act and California's Proposition 8, it is very likely the Supreme Court will weigh in on this sooner than later. With the personal backing of Vice President Biden, Secretary of Education Arne Duncan, President Obama, the NAACP, Latino singer Ricki Martin, and even hip hop mogul Jay-Z it might just be the case that marriage equality is inevitable.

Of course, not everyone agrees with the President's position. Opponents of same-sex marriage are numerous and vocal, the Defense of Marriage Act is currently still on the books, and 31 states have a constitutional ban preventing it.

So why does marriage equality now look inevitable? The answer may be found with the swiftly growing cultural acceptance of gay and lesbian rights and demographic changes that elevate the potential political power of Millennials.

The change in public attitudes on marriage equality has been rapid. In just eight years, the national polling shows a shift of 16 percentage points in favor of marriage equality[1]. And, only sixteen years after President Clinton signed into law a bill defining marriage as the union between a man and woman, we have President Obama coming out in support of same-sex marriage and a federal appeals court ruling the law unconstitutional. The movement on marriage equality is an example of how quickly change can now occur in our society when propelled by a generation that is technologically savvy and willing to challenge preconceived norms of older generations.

Millennials represent an ever increasing share of the electorate. Young people born between 1980 and 1991 comprise 64 million potential voters in 2012[2].  And they support marriage equality. If you look at any recent poll, the divide between those who support gay rights and specifically marriage equality, and those who oppose it, can be measured in years:  if you're under 29 you are more likely than any other generation to support the rights of gay and lesbians and to support marriage equality-- and politicians and other leaders have clearly taken notice. In recent months, support for marriage equality reached a new high with 74% of Millennials supporting legal recognition of marriage between gay and lesbian couples[3].

Despite the popular misconception of rampant homophobia within communities of color, support for gay rights is also strong among young adults of color. Over two-thirds (67%) of Millennials of color support some form of legal recognition of gay couples -- either legal marriage (48%) or civil unions (19%). The numbers are similar to those of young adults across the country. In fact, only three in ten youth of color (29%) say there should be no legal recognition.  To break these numbers down further, 58% of African-American, 70% of Latino, and 76% of Asian Pacific-Islander youth agree that same-sex couples should receive legal recognition[4].

While previous generations paved the way for change, Millennials are the first generation to see consistently positive images of gay men and women in the media, the first to grow up with Gay/Straight Alliances in their schools, and the first to routinely know families with two mothers or two fathers. They are also the first generation to be completely at ease with social media, using it not just as a means to exchange information but as a pathway for shifting norms, attitudes and beliefs among their peers.

Millennials grew up with gay characters featured prominently in the popular television shows they watched, and not just as guest appearances or in stereotypical roles, but in lead roles. Gay characters – particularly portrayals of gay teens – humanized gay and lesbian stories and became an important part of the collective adolescent psyche.

Millennials are digital natives – they have lived their whole lives with the Internet, social networks, and texting and most are completely fluent with these technologies. Three-quarters have created a social networking profile, eight in ten report texting in the last 24 hours, and a majority (54%) believes new technology brings them closer to friends and family[5].

Today, over six in ten Millennials say that they have a close friend or family member who is gay or lesbian,[6] and personally they are more comfortable discussing their own sexual orientation than any prior generation. Social media has fueled this openness. With the ability to state your sexual orientation or relationship status as part of your most basic identifying information, Facebook has transformed the ability for gay and lesbian Millennials to live openly, and for their peers be more aware of the LGBT people in their lives.

Millennials are not going to sit idle as friends, colleagues, and family members are denied their rights. They are already leading the charge on this issue, redefining conventional wisdom on marriage. Policy makers will continue to be seen as more and more out of touch if they refuse to follow suit. Possibly President Obama knew this to be true when he declared his personal support last month. In fact, one day, we may well divide the debate on same sex marriage by “before” and after Obama's announcement. If, broadly speaking, marriage equality is now inevitable; Millennials will be the generation to make that future a reality.

Learn more about millennials on AdvocatesForYouth.org.

Cross-posted on RH Reality Check

[1] Pew Research Center Publications.  "More Support for Gun Rights, Gay Marriage than in 2008 or 2004." April 2012. pewresearch.org/pubs/2251/social-issues-gun-rights-gay-marriage-abortion-presidential-campaign

[2]Center for American Progress Action Fund. Democratic Change and the Future of the Parties. 2010.

[3] Public Religion Research Institute. March PRRI/RNS Religion News Survey.  March 2012.

[4] Belden Russonello Strategies. May 2012.

[5] Pew Research Center. The Millennials: Confident, Connected, and Open to Change. 2010.

[6] Public Religion Research Institute. Survey - Committed to Availability, Conflicted about Morality: What the Millennial Generation Tells Us about the Future of the Abortion Debate and the Culture Wars. 2011.

Yesterday the CDC released the results of its Youth Risk Behavior Surveillance , a survey of 15,000 high school students around the nation that asks questions about a variety of health and safety behaviors.

The headline for sexual health was: no headline.

There were no statistically significant changes in the percent of young people who have ever had sex (47%), who are currently sexually active (34%), or who used condoms (60%) and/or the most effective forms of birth control (24%) at last sex.

The only statistically significant change was in HIV education, and it wasn’t good: the percentage of students taught in school abou