The LGBT South is a weekly email newsletter, compiling national, regional, and local news important to LGBT Southerners. Subscribe to get the latest edition to your inbox every Friday morning and keep up with what the Campaign for Southern Equality is up to!
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QUOTE OF THE WEEK
“Gender exists on a spectrum and the binary narrative that suggests that all trans women transition from male privilege erases a lot of experiences and isn’t intersectional. There’s no universal experience of gender, of womanhood. [As a child], patriarchy and cissexism punished my femininity and gender nonconformity. The irony of my life is prior to transition I was called a girl and after I am often called a man.”
– Laverne Cox, refuting the notion that transgender women benefit from male privilege
Here’s your breakdown of what’s happening this week in the #LGBTsouth:
NOT WITHOUT A FIGHT
In Arkansas, protesters gathered at the State Capitol to oppose a number of bills targeting trans people in the state. Among the proposed bills are a standard bathroom bill; an amendment to an indecent exposure law, which would add language regarding “biological sex”; and a bill prohibiting trans Arkansans from correcting their birth certificates. This last bill combined with the bathroom bill, if both passed, would resign trans people to using the wrong restroom indefinitely.
THE NEXT GENERATION
Each generation makes progress where previous ones may have stalled. And it has long been evident that young people today are much more accepting and understanding of LGBTQ identity and at a younger age, either in themselves or in others. New data from GLAAD shows that teens and twenty-somethings are questioning binaries when it comes to gender and sexuality, with 20% of millennials saying they identify as something other than straight and cisgender. (This is compared to just 7% of Baby Boomers, the generation born between the mid-40s and ’60s.) And even those who don’t identify along the LGBTQ spectrum tend to be more understanding of these nuances, citing things like Facebook’s expanded gender options as positive.
While their peers may be more accepting, LGBTQ youth continue to face challenges from the adults in their lives, be they parents, educators, cultural figures, or legislators, but having a peer support network can make a huge difference. A recent study from Northwestern University showed that when LGBTQ youth face low family support but have acceptance from peers, they not only have a higher level of wellbeing, but often their family support increases over time; perhaps seeing their child accepted by others leads to greater understanding. Of course, if adults are accepting from the start, that would be even better – and while the children are the future, maybe they can teach understanding to adults in the present.
WHAT ELSE?
One year after the passing of HB 2, take a look back at how the law has affected LGBTQ North Carolinians.
A landmark ruling in South Carolina will give same-sex couples recognition for common-law marriages prior to the 2015 SCOTUS ruling, granting couples equal marital protections.
A woman who was attacked by a cisgender man in a park restroom in Seattle refused to let an anti-trans group exploit her story to push anti-trans bathroom bills.
Questions concerning LGBT identity have been removed from two federal surveys, which would make it more difficult to identify and address disparities.
An extensive piece from the BBC looks at how the view of heterosexuality went from that of perversion to normalcy.
STAFF READ OF THE WEEK
L.B. Bell is a Mississippi native, LGBTQ advocate, parent, farmer, husband, physician, co-owner of Black Sheep’s Café & Speakeasy, and co-founder of The Spectrum Center – Hattiesburg, Mississippi’s first LGBTQ center. Now, L.B. is also a member of the Trans Leadership Initiative (TLI), a project of the Campaign for Southern Equality that provides expanded funding, training, and support to a cohort of trans leaders from across the South. CSE Community Organizer, Britney Nesbit, interviewed L.B. about his work and his experiences fighting for LGBTQ equality in the South.
Can you tell me story of how The Spectrum Center was founded?
The idea came about in 2014, when I was in the early stages of my transition. I really wanted to do something for the LGB and trans community. My initial plan was to the do something for homeless LGBT teens. That eventually developed into a community center in order to be able to reach more people. There had been other LGBT affirming groups in Hattiesburg, but the work was very fragmented and no one had a physical location of their own.
So when my wife, Sara and I were able to lock down a building, we wanted to make that space available to the community and allow folks to be a part of a unified movement. We named it the Spectrum Center because it is not just for the LGBT community but for allies as well.
What pushed you to focus mainly on LGBT youth upon founding the Spectrum Center?
I know what it’s like to be displaced from your home when you’re a teenager for being gay. That’s just a hard thing to forget. If you can relate, you don’t want anyone else to have to go through that. Just knowing that out of all the homeless youth, 40% are LGBT. That is pretty staggering. And kids and teenagers are one of the most vulnerable populations.
What are some current barriers The Spectrum Center is facing right now?
Financial limitations are our biggest issue right now. If we could afford to have paid staff and not have to worry about keeping the doors open, the work the board wants to do could get done.
A paid staff person, like an executive director, could make the phone calls that need to be made, make the contacts, and be the face of the Spectrum Center. We could have consistency versus the situation we have right now. We limited our volunteer, board member positions to one-year terms because the rate of burnout is so high.
What has your experience as a TLI cohort member been like?
I am able to learn from the other members of the cohort and from CSE’s leadership and coordination of the Trans Leadership Initiative. Also, grant writing is probably one of the major things I have been working on. If didn’t have Chloe [Stuber, CSE’s Hometown Organizing Project Director] and a few other folks on the CSE team helping me with that, there’s no way that I’d be able to get it done. I can’t stand it. They’ve been a major motivator and influence in getting that accomplished.
Read the full interview on our blog and support The Spectrum Center and Black Sheep’s Café & Speakeasy!
WHAT THE CAMPAIGN FOR SOUTHERN EQUALITY IS UP TO
We are excited to host a FREE “Protect Yourself” Clinic that centers the trans experience and is led by trans and gender nonconforming folks. Hosted by Gender Benders and the Campaign for Southern Equality, the clinic will take place Sunday, March 26 in Greenville, SC.
This free clinic will cover a range of safety issues that come up for trans folks, including: trainings in self defense, writing a safety plan, and using safety apps on your phone and pepper spray. Free and confidential HIV testing and counseling will also be available. Every participant will receive a can of pepper spray and a flashlight, and we will have free pizza, snacks and drinks.
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