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 can relate to some of the disappointment with either the inaction, slow action, or counteraction of the Obama administration regarding sexual and gender equality.  Over a year ago, then-candidate Barack Obama made a number of promises that he, now as President, has either backed down from, disregarded, or moved in the opposite direction (like on the Defense of Marriage Act).  While it’s nice to have a friend in the White House, we need not forget that much of the work it will take to realize full equality in a legal, social, and cultural sense will be our own doing.  Though my generation was not around for the Stonewall riots and gay liberation, and was too young to understand any of the emergence of AIDS and the mobilization for better treatment and prevention options, we have to remember the power we hold as people to create change for ourselves.

My concern is that we’ve become increasingly obsessed with making changes...

This week the Human Rights Campaign Foundation released At The Intersection: Race, Sexuality and Gender—a two year research study focused on identifying the priorities and realities of LGBT people of color nation wide. This research is part of a new broader HRC initiative called Equality Forward, which has as its mission the uniting of LGBT people and allies of all races and backgrounds in order to achieve equality for all. The report is meant as the beginning of an interactive national dialogue. You can download the entire report and also share your own story (and read other stories) as an LGBT person of color on the Equality Forward web site.

Some of the report’s findings include:

Last week at The Fellowship Conference in Atlanta, I discovered that radical inclusivity and sexual literacy have way more in common than I ever could have imagined.

As hundreds of mostly African American LGBT faith leaders from all over the nation convened to celebrate the radically inclusive love of Jesus Christ, I witnessed the emergence of a movement that is already dealing a powerful blow to the “church as usual” mentality which fractures people and communities.

I saw more clearly than ever that those who have hijacked religion and God himself by being exclusionary of lgbt people and others are seriously mistaken. And their mistakes are doing exactly what Jesus warned about—promoting the false idea that God’s love is only for the deserving…..constructing in so doing the category of “those who are not deserving”….and there are many of us, perhaps more than the alleged “deserving” themselves. 

Photo: My friend, Ginger, expressing himself at Pride (photo by Tom Kern)

Well, make that my first FULL San Francisco Pride.  Last year, I was in New Orleans for the annual meeting of the American Association of Sexuality Educators, Counselors, and Therapists up through Saturday night, but I was in town for the big Pride event at the Civic Center on Sunday.  In 2009, however, I was able to be part of the full experience of Pride in San Francisco – what is really a week long (some would say month long) series of parties, rallies, marches, and parades.  Quite frankly, it blew my mind.

Maybe it was the heat (85F  - I’ve gotten soft since I left Texas) or maybe it was feeling worn out after months of being beaten down by the constant fighting against the right wing or the infighting among the different segments of the queer community or maybe it was the consistent feelings of disappointment we’ve experienced with the Obama Administration’s lack of action regarding LGBT civil rights that made everything feel so intense and real.  Even my seasoned SF Pride friends said that something seemed different this year.  Maybe despite the events of the last twelve months, we feel a sense of real hope that there is the real possibility of change – and not just regarding marriage,...

Here is a listing of the upcoming presentation I will be doing:

May '09, Phoenix, AZ. AASECT Conference. Gender Identity Disorder: What is in the Diagnosis

June '09, Philadelphia, PA. Philly Trans Health Conference. GID & the DSM: Academics to Advocacy. With Dan Walinksy, Michele Angello, and Kate Richmond

June '09, Oslo, Norway. World Professional Assn. for Transgender Health. Sexual Identity Development in Female-to-Male Transsexuals. With Anneliese Singh & Theo Burnes

August '09, Toronto, Ontario, Canada.American Psychological Assn. The Intersections of Transgender and Racial Identities. With Shana Hamilton, Anneliese Singh, Barry Chung, Vic Munoz, and Seth Pardo

(Crossposted on Equality Loudoun)

This has got to break some sort of record for stupid.

Yesterday, I heard a man equate the sacrifices made by Thomas Beatie so that he and his wife could have children, with the crowd of idiots who trampled a man to death so they could get inside a Wal-Mart to go shopping. No kidding, this was on (OMG!) "Janet Parshall's America" (see here for more on that). The man is named Wesley J. Smith, and he writes a blog about bioethics and "the importance of being human." Bioethics is a big subject, and Wesley J. Smith may well have something insightful to say about some aspect of it, for all I know. But that possibility now seems remote to me, given that he knows so little and displays absolutely no inquisitiveness about something as central to being human as gender.

Here is the "reasoning" involved in his placing those two completely opposite events in the same category, something he calls "coup de culture": He thinks they are both illustrations of "hedonistic people" who are self-centered and think they should get what they want when they want it, no matter what it takes. He may have a point with the Wal-Mart shoppers; as I recall, they refused to stop shopping even after learning that they had trampled a man...

The Religious Institute on Sexual Morality, Justice and Healing released a new study today called: Sex and the Seminary: Preparing Ministers for Sexual Health and Justice. This comprehensive survey data provides even further and compelling proof that we are living in a national state of emergency when it comes to the lack of connection being made between sexuality and religion. The bad news is that even the most progressive of the seminaries surveyed are not adequately providing sexuality education and training. The good news is that despite this unholy disconnect, there are many organizations and religious denominations nation-wide working to turn this deadly trend around.

NSRC began training clergy in 2001 at our first annual Summer Institute on Sexuality, Society and Health. In 2003, we held our first Religion, Spirituality and Sexuality Interfaith Roundtable Discussion—much to the dismay of many of our colleagues in sexual health who frown on religion (many if not most of whom have endured religious persecution based on sexuality in one way or another).  Over the years, in our...