Queer and Ally Blog
Welcome to the Q & A Blog! District 202’s community blog has a variety of ways you can express your voice whether it’s by creating videos, writing, spoken word, poetry and anything else you can dream up. To submit something to be published please email it to (JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address). Jump in.
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No Homo!
A funny video showcasing the potential problems with the phrase “no homo”
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THE THRILLER
LEARN THE THRILLER DANCE FOR YOUR CHANCE TO WIN PRIZES AT OUR OCTOBER 17TH EVENT!!
AND HERE’S THE ORIGINAL. -
Young, Black, and Gay in America
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“Hir” - a poem
This amazing video came across our path and we had to share it.
In other news, District 202 programs will start soon. If anybody wants to make a video, share a poem, whatever (right here on the blog!) - we may be able to work that out
Stay tuned!
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2 Takes on “Crazy in Love”
Crazy in Love? Yup. We’ve been hearing it for years! On the radio, at our friend’s houses and at 202 dances. Transgender singer Antony, of Antony and the Johnsons, has a starkly different take on the lyrics creating a feeling that is at the same time both hurt and hopeful, if not a little obsessive. Crazy, maybe? Crazy in love, perhaps? Have a listen and compare the two.
Beyonce (live):
Video link: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0i38JRTyMik
Antony:
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My Response to the Shooting in Tel-Aviv
In what seems like tragic fallout from the already existing clash of ideologies, 2 Israeli teens were shot dead and at least 8 were wounded on August 2nd in central Tel-Aviv by a masked gunman who sprayed automatic fire at an Israeli club for gay teenagers.
The shooting spree in central Tel Aviv set off a citywide security clampdown, reviving memories of Palestinian attacks that have plagued the city in the recent years. With the weight of a prolonged nationalistic struggle between the Israeli and Palestinian people, Gay organizations outside of Tel-Aviv have had a hard time staying visible especially in the conservative western states where there are met with open hatred from the Ultra-Orthodox Jews.
The burden of the war and its toll on civilian life is pushing already closeted people in the area deeper into the closet, in Tel-Aviv alone, an estimated 300 runaway GLBT Palestinians are quietly establishing new lives for themselves in a land no longer their own, and in a land they are no longer welcome in. The story doesn’t get much better for their Israeli counterparts who have struggled to decriminalize sodomy.
It is impossible to talk about GLBT rights in the Israel-Palestine region without looking at the solution inter-disciplinarily. The perceptions of personal and national freedoms must be present in order for long lasting sustainable co-existence.
For this to happen, Israel’s right to exist and to live in peace must be acknowledged and honored by Palestinians and all other neighbors. Second, the killing of innocent people by suicide bombs or other acts of violence cannot be condoned. And third, Palestinians must live in peace and dignity but permanent Israeli settlements on their land have been and continue to be a major obstacle to this goal.
To make sense of this all one must have a deeper understanding of the land’s history. Israel was created in 1948, after UN Resolution 181 partitioned the territory of the British Mandate for Palestine into two states for Jews and Palestinian Arabs. The Arabs objected to the creation of the Jewish state and fought a war against it. The Arab side lost the war, and the Palestinian state never really came into being. The territory allotted to the Palestinian state by the UN partition resolution was taken over by Israel and Jordan. About 780,000 Palestinians became refuges overnight in the very same land their had called their own.
I doubt that the shooter opened fire at the gay center because of his innate hatred of Gays, I think it was a feeble attempt at trying to be heard, When the city landscape is dotted with barrel shots, the city constantly under siege, a deeper sense of despondency sinks, emerges and takes root at the steps of mosques where impressionable youth are rused into thinking that shooting innocent teens is the only way out!
As a Muslim, I am ashamed that they wasn’t any uproar from the clergy men who cry ‘foul’ at the injustice dished out by Israeli military personnel. As an open gay man, I am horrified and saddened by this news but not surprised! To the families affected I convey my deepest condole scenes, to the shooter, I say I am angry but ultimately saddened you had to take it out on kids who neither have the means nor the need to slay you. To the Queers in the Region I say, “Keep Living”. To the queers out here in the west I say “Count you blessings”
~A Sad Minneapolis Queer -
District’s First All-Season Fashion Show
Hello everyone! District 202 recently had its first, very own, All Season Fashion Show and it was a big hit. The planning behind the scenes, which I coordinated, was a fun experience. As coordinator I wanted to make sure the fashion show was about celebrating people’s individual styles. The whole evening focused on celebrating the people, not just the clothes. My job was just to find the youth and bring it to the runway. We also had a lot of great help from Ande at Salon De’Paugh, who helped style model’s hair to their own liking. I just have to say, as the evening’s hostess, it was just so darling to see everyone’s smiling faces while their hair and make up were being applied by the salon stylist. In the end we all, the youth, models and audience, had a great time and many more to come. Be on the look out for photos and videos from the evening here on the Youth Voice Blog.
-Braylin Moody
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District 202 PSA by Jenna Ballinger
This video, created by Jenna Ballinger, was done as a PSA for District 202 as a class project.
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GLSEN’s Wanda Sykes’ PSA
We thought this PSA, created by GLSEN was a great example of how to think about the whole, “That’s so gay” issue people find in their schools, homes and lives.