I sit next to my attorney silently, facing the immigration judge. I am told my case (aka my life, aspirations and my body) is under his jurisdiction. I am dressed as professionally as possible to aptly represent my "Alien of Extraordinary Ability" status. I nervously look around the room. My dark eyes catch another attorney behind us signaling me to take off my hat. Promptly I take off my favorite accessory (my only sign of faggotry) to show my compliance with the US judicial practices. The judge begins his inquiry, to which my attorney reveals my HIV status, and my inability to adjust my status even though my petition for permanent residency to the US was granted on the basis of my claim as an "Alien of Extraordinary Ability" in February 2002.

The pain of hiding underground, days of unemployment, hunger, fear of accessing treatment leading me to near death flashes across my mind. Where would I turn for the wasted seven years of my life? Will this judge be able to understand the lost wages, aspirations, depression and most of all the psychological violence of being separated from my beloved parents? It is clear my journey to justice is only beginning.

This blog post is my first public step in ending isolation, silence, fear and their antecedent dysfunctions that the HIV ban on immigration and travel has wrought upon my life. It has disrupted my educational, work and all major life aspirations. I have silently watched my friends getting married, accessing green card,...

Now 42 years ago, the United States Supreme Court struck down any remaining anti-miscegenation laws in the case Loving vs. Virginia, Mildred and Richard Loving’s challenge to the state of Virginia’s ban on the marriage between people of different races.  But, a recent Justice of the Peace’s denial of a Louisiana couple’s application for a marriage license indicates that the debates over interracial marriage are hardly over.

Keith Bardwell, a Louisiana justice of the peace, denied Beth Humphrey and Terence McKay, an interracial couple, a marriage license citing concerns for their children.  The couple does not currently have children, so the justice is operating under the assumption that, once married, the couple would seek to have children, presumably through conception rather than adoption. ...

Research has repeatedly shown that abstinence only sex education both fails to prevent teen pregnancy and STIs, and leaves young people with inaccurate sexuality information. Public opinion polls have been overwhelmingly in favor of removing abstinence only sex education. President Obama’s budget plan in May reflected both scientific and popular opinions of abstinence-only sex education, as funding for these programs was removed for 2010 with resources set to be directed towards comprehensive teen pregnancy prevention.

But the end to the abstinence-only sex education era was unnecessarily put on hold as Senator Orrin Hatch (R-UT) proposed a renewal of abstinence-only sex education for the next 5 years at a cost of $250 million. The proposal, an addition to the ongoing health care reform bill, passed through the Senate Finance Committee with a 12-11 vote in its favor. Debates will now begin between Senator Hatch’s proposal and a comprehensive sex education policy proposed by Senate Finance Committee Chairman Max Baucus (D-MT) that  won a 14-9 vote from the Senate Finance Committee.

The Sexuality Education Month of Action is an opportunity for young people and their...

From South Dakota, USA to Rio de Janeiro, Brazil

“I was 16 when it happened. Not planned at all, and then I was angry afterward because I thought it was his fault like ugh, you didn’t even ask or anything like that, so… it wasn’t a good first experience. And um, I think I was kind of in shock because, of course, I did not want that to happen, and some of my other friends had that happen, and, um, I don’t know, I felt dirty, and not – that wasn’t me I guess. Like I didn’t have time to think about whether I wanted it to happen or not, especially since we’d never talked about it also, it just happened.”

~Missy 21, South Dakota

The quote above came from research I did for my MA thesis, which looked at the contradictions that exist between the political and religious ideologies and actual sexual practices and lives of young South Dakota women. What did I find? In a nutshell, sex “just happens” and in most cases, it happens unsafely accompanied by fear and shame.

So What Am I Doing in Brazil, You Ask?

As we all know, unsafe and unhealthy sexual...

Summer '09 saw a landmark judgment by the High Court of New Delhi, India on July 02, 2009 when a Division Bench of Justice struck down the provision of Section 377 of the Indian Penal Code that criminalized consensual sexual acts of adults in private, holding that it violated the fundamental right of life and liberty and the right to equality as guaranteed in the Constitution. In their 105-page order, they declared that Section 377 violates Articles 21 (Right to Protection of Life and Personal Liberty), 14 (Right to Equality before Law) and 15 (Prohibition of Discrimination on Grounds of Religion, Race, Caste, Sex or Place of Birth) of the Constitution.

On one hand, there were celebrations among the queer community in Delhi and all over the country while on the other hand, many religious leaders rejected HC's decision outright and claimed that this decision was an attempt to impose "western" culture on Indian society. It might be interesting to note that Section 377 that was used to harass sexual minorities in the country is a relic of the British era. There is vast literature out there (Same Sex Love in India and Queering India by Ruth Vanita are two books on top of my mind right now) that suggests that same sex love and other sexual lifestyles such as the hijra culture was accepted, celebrated and was very much a part of the society all throughout history. So why are we now looking at homosexuality as western culture?

A few weeks later, the...

I am alive and well in Rio de Janeiro (after a few setbacks) and haven't forgot to continue my previous conversation about the case of the 9 year old girl that was raped, impregnated with twins and was able to obtain an abortion in lieu of the Catholic Church, principally the Archbishop of Recife/Olinda, trying to stop the process.

Whew, my friends, that is a mouthful and the case continues to be seen that way in Brazil, and I imagine, the world around.

I hate even saying this, but if there is one thing that has come from this tragedy it is that this one hit home for a lot of Brazilians...including my "brazilian mom" who is against abortion in most circumstances, and the very nice Frei, a Catholic priest at her church. For those against abortion...they...just...can't...grapple...with this one. How could a 9 year old girl, who barely weighs 80 pounds carry this pregnancy to term? Like my "brazilian dad," who has been an OB/GYN doctor for more than 20 years in Brazil, said, it just wouldn't have been possible.

So when I asked the Frei about abortion he told me that he is in the position to always favor life. In this case, the 9 year old girl could have very well died and so he agreed that in this case an abortion was necessary. "But what about the other lives at stake?" I asked, thinking about what "life" in the abortion debate in America means. To the Frei (and my "brazilian mom" sitting beside him shaking her head in agreement), the health and...

I pride myself on being an open-minded individual. But I just don’t get the folks who tout their “traditional values” on issues related to reproductive health.

On one hand, their passionate stance against abortion is gutsy and even admirable. Where others hedge, they believe unequivocally that life begins at conception and that abortion is murder. In their protests and rhetoric, they are not just looking out for their own. All life is precious is their mantra. 

Given that, however, I would think one of their objectives would be to prevent unplanned—and unwanted—pregnancies in the first place. Their actions, though, suggest otherwise. To wit, they discourage women from taking the birth control pill, prevent teens from learning about contraception, and make Plan B unavailable to young women.

Then they the condemn those who do get an abortion.

Isn’t that kind of like withholding food from a child and then blaming the starving kid for swiping a candy bar (or a bowl of gruel)?

Luckily, we see options becoming available for people with dissenting viewpoints. Today, in opposition to Bush, the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of New York rejected the FDA’s decision to limit over-the-counter access to emergency contraceptive Plan B to...

The National Abstinence Education Association has picked today as "2009 Abstinence Day on the Hill." Abstinence on the Hill? That'll be a trick. As organizers bring carloads of youth to the Capitol, to sing the praises of abstinence (literally--there will be dancing, bands and some sort of 'drama teams'), a few thoughts:

On Monday, Barack Obama issued a Presidential Memo to  restore scientific integrity in governmental decision-making. He decried the past goverment's "false choice between sound science and moral values" and said that science must inform our policies. Barack Obama has made the connection; now it is time for the ab-only folks to make it, too: science shows that abstinence only education doesn't work. Want proof? Read the overview from our Fall 2008 Sexuality Research and Social Policy issue, which published articles from Doug Kirby, John Santelli and others showing that abstinence programs have been a failure. Can I boil it down for you?

If science must inform policy, and science shows that abstinence-only education doesn't work, then our abstinence-only policies must be defunded and something new put in their place. So stop right now and

Yesterday my "brazilian mom" called me into the living room and told me watch the news with her. "You know what's happening?" she asked, her eyes heavily focused on me. "No what?" I mumbled to her in portuguese. "A nine year-old girl in [the state of] Pernambuco was raped by her step-father and impregnated with twins. She was granted an abortion yesterday and now the archbishop of Recife Olinda has called for the ex-communication of her, her family and the doctors that performed the abortion."

I am currently in Rio de Janeiro on a Fulbright scholarship studying development and it's relationship to reproductive and sexual health and rights in Brazil. I was an exchange student here 10 years ago and had no idea I'd be back hanging out with my host family for awhile before I begin my project. I must say that I really hate the fact that this is my first blog post on this journey.  This is the kind of story that makes you feel like you have a big black hole where your heart used to be, which automatically gives you indigestion. I really wanted my first post to be about my struggle hating and loving the rigid gender roles here in Brazil. (Yes, I admit it. I love getting my nails done evey week and buying shoes like they just might be the last pair on earth. However, I'm not sure I can handle the braziian bikini (who knew I had all those stretch marks stripped across my ass?) or the brazilian bikini wax, and I can't believe I actually thought about getting botox...

Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender, Queer (LGBTQ) and immigrant rights are two hotly contested areas of policy advocacy and community organizing in the United States today. Millions of immigrants marched on streets of large and small cities of the US in spring of 2006 in their opposition to draconian immigration bills, and demanding legalization for all immigrants. While Gay marriage, Employment Non-Discrimination, equal treatment in the US military, and Hate Crime legislation has been the clarion call of the LGBTQ movement in the recent years.  LGBTQ immigrants find themselves uniquely positioned on the boundaries of both these movements. Voices of LGBTQ immigrants have often been on the margins of these movements.

There is little discussion of how immigration is also an issue for LGBTQ people, and even less analysis of the structural similarities between queer and immigrant struggles. LGBTQ immigrants are marginalized or invisible at the intersection of two identities. As a whole, more complex family structures -- such as those of binational...