San Diego Gay and Lesbian News

Fifty years ago, this summer an urban rebellion took place. One hundred and fifty-nine riots erupted in African American cities across the country. The civil unrest took place in cities like New York, Atlanta, Chicago, Birmingham, and Boston, to name a few.  The worst riots that summer were in Newark, New Jersey and Detroit, Michigan.  

The first punch was President Trump’s ban against transgender service members. In his inimitable style of communicating to the American public the order came in the form of a tweet:

With the Catholic Church being the largest Christian denomination in the world the fight for the dignity and inclusion of its LGBTQI parishioners is a fight for the church’s soul and moral integrity. 

DignityUSA since its inception has asserted that God loves the LGBTQI community equally.

This week the U. S. Supreme Court announced that in the fall it will hear the case “Masterpiece Cakeshop v. Colorado Civil Rights Commission.” 

The case - which will have many of us LGBTQ Americans on pins and needles - will argue the parameters of one’s right to practice their religion and their right to express themselves freely that’s enshrined in the First Amendment.

In this political climate, hate speech is becoming common use. And there has been an uptick of the use of the n-word, even from the mouths of people one would not expect. 

While we all rev up each June for pride so, too, do the fault lines of race and class in our larger white LGBTQ community.

With advances such as hate crime laws, legalization of same-sex marriage across the country, and with homophobia viewed as a national concern, the LGBTQ movement has come a long way since the first pride march in 1969.

When artist Dana Schutz presented “Open Casket,” an abstract painting of Emmett Till’s open casket-the Chicagoan 14 year old African American male teen lynched in the  Mississippi Delta in the summer of 1955- she could not have fathomed the conflagration that erupted. 

There are differences within diversity.This issue scratches below the superficial veneer of diversity and is an eerie reminder of how minority groups are often pitted against one another. 

This year’s Oscars were the most diverse in history.

Milo Yiannopoulos, vulgarian, alt-right’s telegenic token gay and Breitbart’s polemical senior editor, last appearance on a national stage may have finally come.

February 1 begins Black History Month, a national annual observance since 1926, honoring and celebrating the achievements of African Americans.