May 1 Teach-In At Smith College

If you oppose discrimination and would like Smith College to admit trans women as undergraduate students, please come to this event. Bet Power will be speaking, and trans community members and allies are very much needed in this effort to press Smith College for change.

And if you haven't done so yet, here's the petition asking Smith to change its policies and admit qualified transwomen who wish to attend the school.

Smith Q & A (Queers & Alliez) is hosting a Teach-In next Wednesday, May 1 at 6:30-7:30 PM. EDT, outside the Smith Campus Center, in response to the issue of trans women's exclusion from Smith. It is an opportunity for coalition work between the larger queer community and Smith, as well as an opportunity for us to do education work around transmisogyny. It is not a protest, or a violent space -- but rather, a space to continue educating our communities.

Come learn about how and why excluding trans women from Smith is inexcusable, works against the mission of Smith as a women's college, and is not a Title IX issue. Hear students, faculty, and Northampton community members speak about historic exclusion of trans women, and the odds that trans women face trying to gain access to higher education.

The Smith College Campus Center is located at 100 Elm Street, Northampton, MA.

I'll repeat and expand on what I said in the Smith trans hypocrisy post.   This issue isn't going away because trans people now transition as early as ages 5 and 6.  More are transitioning in their teens.  Those 5 and 6 year old trans kids will grow up to become trans teens who one day will be looking to earn a degree on someone's college campus. 

Some of those trans teens will be trans feminine students who could be prospective students wishing to attend your campus.   You already allow transmasculine students on your campus after they transition, so why the problem with having transfeminine students on campus?  

Transfeminine students would not only benefit from matriculating at an all women's college with Smith's academic reputation, but we would bring something to the table in terms of educating you on our issues and having your students get to know the trans women who get to attend the school.

Hope you can attend, because Bet is an amazing speaker and you don't want to miss it.

When Are The Po-Po's Going to Use Pepper Spray On The Teabaggers?

Interesting to note that the Tea Klux Klan rallies last year had armed protesters, and you saw not one po-po in riot gear or using strong arm stormtrooper tactics to break up those protests.

Now compare and contrast how po-po's handle unarmed protesters at an OWS event on the UC Davis campus.



Hmm.

Sergeant Shamar Thomas Schools The NYPD

Since I criticized the Occupy Wall Street protesters in an area I believe they are lacking in, had to show them some love as well after seeing this video.

Marine Sergeant Shamar Thomas was on the scene of the OWS Times Square protests and delivered a verbal smackdown to the NYPD officers about the tactics they are using on unarmed protesters.  

And miracle of miracles, the po-po's didn't trump up some phantom disorderly conduct charge to arrest him after he put them on blast.




And before you right wing conservafools start surfing over to calling this brother 'un-American' or whatever BS du jour insult you come up with to denigrate an African-American (or any African American) daring to speak their mind, this is what Sgt, Thomas had to say on his FB page about it:

I took an Oath that I live by. am NOT anti-NYPD. I am antiYou Police Brutality. I am no longer under contract with the USMC so I do NOT have to follow military uniform regulations. I DON’T affiliate myself with ANY GROUPS or POLITICAL ORG. I affiliate myself with the AMERICAN PEOPLE that’s it. I REFUSE to affiliate with anything that SEPARATES. There is an obvious problem in the country and PEACEFUL PEOPLE should be allowed to PROTEST without Brutality. I was involved in a RIOT in Rutbah, Iraq 2004 and we did NOT treat the Iraqi citizens like they are treating the unarmed civilians in our OWN Country. No one was brutalized because our mission was to ‘WIN the hearts and minds.’ why should I expect anything less in my OWN Country.

Amen Sgt. Thomas..  You really need to consider serving your country again by running for public office.  

Occupy Wall Street Needs To Occupy The Voting Booths As Well

Been keeping my eye on the Occupy Wall Street protests and the Occupy Houston protests that are occurring here.  While I have much love for the people participating in them and love the messages of fairness and social justice that are coming out of these protests that are spreading all around the world as I write this and striking fear in the hearts of the 1% and the GOP politicians that support them, I still have some reservations and concerns.

What I'm concerned about and why I haven't really gone all in with the Occupy Wall Street movement is because I'm not hearing enough language or ideas about what we do to channel this activism and anger of the 99 percenters at the jacked up status quo into reforming the political system to make it effectively work for the other 99% of the country.

For you folks who think the Occupy Wall Street protests are the bomb, these protests aren't going to mean jack if you don't follow them up with bumrushing the voting booths on Election Day next year and for the next ten to 20 years.

You can take your money out of the banks, make long eloquent speeches about corporate greed at the General Assemblies of the Occupy Wall Street  protest sites, sit in and get arrested, but unless you get your butts up on November 6, 2012  and every subsequent election day after that for the rest of your lives to throw the political bums out who aren't doing the job, the Republican politicians whose policies and conservafool philosophies enable the 1% to screw you, you don't run for public office yourself or support the candidates that would help create the political world you'd like to see, then this is just a colorful but colossal waste of time  

These direct action protests are a wonderful thing to witness and have been invaluable to jumpstarting a consciousness raising conversation about this Greed is Good culture we find ourselves in that isn't benefiting those of us not in the 1% end of the societal scale.  

But they need to be backed up with those same people that you got to turn out for these Occupy Wall Street protests to channel that enthusiasm and energy into consistently marching those same massive numbers of people to voting booths on Election Day and being permanently engaged and committed to the political action piece for the rest of their lives. 

Our enemies and the people they bamboozle into voting for them will damned sure be at the polling places in full effect, and we on the liberal-progressive side need to match their energy and exceed their turnout.   The 1% also likes it when they see voter turnout in the 40% or less range and hear people on the center left end of the political spectrum stupidly say they aren't going to vote.  Helps make it easier for them to keep the right wing politicians in office who screw you.  

But the more people who participate in the voting process, the more progressive candidates that get elected.  

Why do you think the Republicans have been engaged in voter suppression tactics against my community for decades and have been actively working to make it harder for low income people and students to vote?

You need all the tools in the civil rights toolbox to enact systemic change, and the most important one is the power of the ballot.

So as you plot your strategies in the various protest sites around the country and the world in the coming weeks and months, you may also wish to consider taking some voter registration cards with you as well or marching unregistered people to the county courthouse to get them registered to vote, and then follow up to ensure they do.