Op-Ed

Human Rights in Perspective: Current Challenges to Sexual Freedom (Part 1)

Photo by Tim Evanson

The human mind is a dangerous weapon. The Country Reports on Human Rights Practices for 2013 from the U.S. State Department reinforce this timeless notion. The Report, released in February, gives us a clear view of the current frontier in the human rights struggle.

Things have come to a head, and at this point you have no excuse to be uninformed. The discrimination that the LGBT (Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, and Trans) community is facing worldwide is out of control, and will surely have adverse effects on people of all races, genders, colors, and creeds if left alone.
Freedom is not freedom if it is only reserved for those who adhere to irrational sensibilities. The very notion of liberty is being belittled, and those affected, along with their allies, must continue to push back against these transgressions. The cogs of hate will not stop turning by themselves. These issues have been on the agenda in the United States for some time now, and it seems like more and more we are bending towards the arc of justice.


However, there is still a long way to go in the United States and worldwide. Many solutions so far have been the equivalent of placing a bucket under a leaking pipe, simply an acknowledgement of these issues. More and more people are becoming personally conscious of these issues, so now is the time to turn to better solutions.
First, we have to fully apprehend the source of the discrimination against LGBT people, the extreme conservative-traditionalist ideologies, often of a religious nature. These falsified ideals are ignorant — fear of the unknown coupled with misunderstanding, the boiling anger that consumes some individuals whenever confronted with facts and reality, their loss of control. To many of us, it is no shocking revelation that a global kinship of hate has been created, forged by shared ideas that aim to fight a common enemy. Although our cultural sensibilities and aversion to political strife play key roles in apathy, this situation does not warrant apathy, it demands action. Apathy is often a precursor to regret.

Wake up. Instead of coldly observing the discrimination of others, begin to understand how easily the tides can turn. Next time it could be you on the receiving end.

The Country Reports on Human Rights Practices for 2013

Part 2, where we will review two countries detailed in the Report.
Check back Thursday for Part 3, our call to action.

The Feminine in Religion

The Christian Right’s archaic beliefs about women were evident in the recent presidential election with women’s right to health care and the right to choose an abortion were put on the line. All  throughout history organized religions have done much to control women, including everything from almost destroying our sense of  self worth to teaching us that our sexuality is a sin.

But where did all of this loathing come from? From the earliest days of the Judeo-Christian beliefs.

According to the Old Testament of the Holy Bible, Eve is the reason for man’s downfall. Oh wow, Satan tempted Eve in the form of a snake, but it was Eve who gave into the temptation. Then she allegedly convinced Adam to commit a sin, resulting in both of them being rejected from the Garden of Eden.

The Muslims go one step further, blaming women for man’s inability to control his sexual desires, the result being that women are not permitted to show any skin or hair while out in public.

In the Kabbalist Jewish beliefs, Lilith was the first woman, not Eve. Supposedly, she refused to be submissive to Adam and so was thrown out into the cosmos where she finally met up with Lucifer, who, enticed by her tenacity, took her for his own wife.

Anyone with an open mind can see the paradigm of prejudice taking place. Women are blamed for all of mankind’s downfalls and men are the innocent victims. Eve may have enticed Adam but she didn’t make him do it, yet, it is the woman that is cursed. According to these myths, Lilith is thrown out as worthless because she was strong enough to see the injustice in having to be subservient.

Sexuality is a normal part of being human. It can be considered a manifestation of God to experience love and to (pro)create. Yet, most organized religions try to control even this, having us to believe that our basic human needs are evil. Jesus Christ is considered by Christians to be the savior of humanity, yet his legend had to be free of any and all sexuality. Even his birth is believed by Christians to be sex free, born to a virgin. Christ himself is believed to have remained a virgin throughout his lifetime. But, why? Why is the thought of a sexually active savior so feared?

Religion has done plenty to restrain women’s rights and the right to sexual freedom. Consider The Inquisition. This period of Christian history is filled with torture and murder in the name of God. Women who knew something about medicinal herbs or the art of being a midwife were in danger of being called “witch.” The  “crime” of witchcraft was punished by torture and burning at the stake.

Can the feminine in religion be saved? To find the answer we must look back to the very beginnings of human history.

In ancient Egypt, the Goddess’ stature was equal to the God. The concept of the Goddess played an important part in everyday life. The ancient pagans and wiccans worshipped the Goddess and women priestesses were common. According to pagan and wiccan beliefs, the Goddess and thus women, have stronger spiritual power during certain times of the year.

In the last two decades, wiccan and pagan beliefs have been on the rise. They are all around us, yet they tend to remain cloaked. Why? For the very reason that Christians and Muslims still see women as wicked in one way or another. Women have no reason to fear torture and death, or do we?  To find the answer, we only have to look as far as modern day  Muslim countries where women can have acid thrown on their faces or be stoned to death because of a mere accusation made by a man.

We must remain vigilant in our work for spiritual equality. We won a few victories in the past election. But, it was a close call. Still, women spoke up and were heard. We can do the same for our spiritual freedom, and at the same time consider not just American women but women all over the world.  There is power in numbers and we must mobilize.

 

Violence against D.C. prostitutes has gone too far

 

Violence against local D.C. prostitutes has become alarming. A local transgender woman, “Jane,” who wishes to remain anonymous, shared her story with me.

As she describes it,”I was beat an inch from my life.” She said she was going to work as usual,”clocking in” as it’s called — those few moments that you take to get yourself ready for the long dreadful night to come. For some girls it’s a breather, for some it’s a drink or a drug and for others it’s simply a prayer to get them through the night, but this routine is done among co-working prostitutes to kind of put some ease into what will always be a harmful night.

On this night, Jane had just parked her car in her usual spot that on the local stroll. She took a moment to apply some lipstick and perfume before clocking in. Nothing seemed abnormal, “I looked around before getting out and everything looked fine” said Jane.

“The moment I stepped out, before the door could close I felt something hit me on the side on my head. Tthe moment I turned to see what  it was, pow! another one, and before I knew it, I was down on the ground being attacked by multiple people. They beat and kicked me until I was unconscious. The blows were so severe that it was not possible for me to have been beat with only fist and feet.

“I awoke to a homeless man trying to help me. I can only assume he thought I was dead. I suffered a broken jaw, three cracked ribs, a twisted ankle, and more than anything, no understanding. They also took my keys and car. I cannot identify these people because I saw no one and of course no one on the streets will say who it was. I know that prostituting is not legal and in that sense, I’m wrong, but I like sex so I chose this profession and I don’t think it’s fair to just be attacked and robbed because I’m an easy target or easy mark. Everyone in the area knows me and for the most part everyone respects me. I give respect to everyone so this obvious set up attack on my life has wounded me deeply and I want justice,” says Jane. “I deserve it!”

So here we have it, a trans woman prostitute attacked and robbed. There has been a lot of speculation that there is a local gang that is known for committing these kinds of crimes in this part of the city. The police department knows who they are and have been frequenting the area showing pictures trying to pull this together, but it seems as if they’re getting nowhere.

I don’t think it’s fair for anyone to be in this kind of situation, that’s just me. Some people might think that because you choose to be a prostitute that you pretty much choose all that comes with it…How so? At the end of the day we are all human and we should be treated as such. I encourage those who might have witnessed this crime to come forward and help the police find who did this. This could be any one of us at any time of the day, in any part of the city, whether we are a trans person or a sex worked. This is not an isolated incident, just the beginning of me giving voice to it. This has to stop!

To all my local ‘”PROS”: Stay alert, be smart and stay safe.

Editor’s note: VenusPlusX is working with other grassroots organizations to make sex work legal in Washington, DC. We finally got rid of the unconstitutional Prostitution Free Zones (which were nothing more that police trans profiling zones). Now we have to seriously address both the abolition of laws interfering with sex work so that a much needed sexual healing industry can emerge that will foster much needed sex education and sexual healing for all who seek it. 

With a Desire to be Free

I’m not good with beginnings. Never have been. I’m more of a middle and end guy. Beginning from a previous end is one of the hardest things I’ve had to learn. For the past year or so, I’ve considered myself a nomad. I’ve traveled to three continents and back. I’ve worked. I’ve lived. I’ve seen. I’ve toured. I got lost. I spent three months without unpacking my suitcase before having to repack it to venture out on another excursion.

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All of this was done under the assumption that it wouldn’t be done. You see, my travels abroad were not endorsed by my mother and father. They wanted me to get a job and start saving money and live with them. That was something I couldn’t do, nor could I have explained to them why it couldn’t be done. I defied their request and promptly boarded my flight at 10 one rainy night.

This all started years prior on a cool Southern afternoon. I was ready to board my flight back to the Northeast Corridor and return to school. That evening, I would tell my mother that I am gay. I would lose all that I knew and would have to rebuild my character, my soul, my sense of self, from the ground up. Years of reflection have told me that it was this sense of self that I lost. I spent two years under constant fire–hearing the likes of “no mother raises a faggot,” “you are not God’s best,” “you are going to die and burn in Hell,” “you won’t be able to handle your life.” Worse was how she said it and that my father never defended me. It was how my mother looked at me as if she were looking at someone who was not her child.

She did look at me like I was not her son. She did criticize who I was. She was wrong. She is wrong. That experience taught me that I have more power over who I am than I initially thought. You’d think it to be common sense, though if who you are is never challenged, you never realize all that you are or could be.

This is why I now consider myself an advocate.

Any one of us who have been admonished by anyone–society, close friends, family–are desperate to be understood. We are desperate to be free. We want to live our lives and be who we are without any pressure of conforming.

Conformity. Funny word, that one.

Why do people feel the need to conform? What about our societal structure tells us that we should conform to this small pool of potential selves? I simply told my mother that I am gay. You, the reader, could have told your father that you want to be an artist, not an engineer. You could have told your mother that you wish to not be called by a gender-specific pronouns. You could have told your best friend that you no longer understand the value of organized religion and will stop attending religious services.

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The point is, we all have a desire to be free. Though we live in a country that calls itself free, do you not find it ironic that freedom is actually hard to come by?

Hello. My name is Philip. My story is not new. My story is not the worst one or the best one out there. But I believe in history: you must know where you have come from to figure out why you believe what you believe and what you can do to change that or enhance that belief system as you grow into the future. I am not perfect. I don’t want to be. What I want to be is a sponge that soaks up information and thoughts and spits out more and more questions. So let’s get started.

Blue sunrises, Philip

Images by: Nyttend – WikiCommons and J. Billinger – Media Wiki

What is Family?

(Tabién en español)

A particularly important idea that really answers the question, “What is family?” is that a family is what we make it.

Yes, the nuclear family with a mother, father, and two children may sill be considered the norm, but in reality, non-traditional families are a rising majority. a subject that I began to learn more about during a few of the panels at Woodhull’s Sexual Freedom Summit. Speakers such as Diana Adams and Anita Wagner Illig explained to their audience that there are many other groups that can be considered family, even if their family format is not exactly mainstream: a single mother and her children; a lesbian couple, a sperm donor who wishes to take an active role in the child’s life, and the child; a gay couple, their child, and a surrogate mother; one parent, a child, and grandparents; and, polyamorous groups such as a married couple and their other partners. These may not be the individuals that people normally associate first with the word “family,” but that doesn’t make their love and devotion for each other any less real. They are all important example of what a family really is.

Creative Commons: Gay Ray

Creative Commons: Gay Ray

Fortunately, a wider view of family is starting to become more common throughout society. LGBT and polyamorous groups are now able to adopt children and California has even proposed a bill that could allow for the possibility of legally recognizing 3-parent families. Though the term “family” was undefined, UN’s Universal Declaration of Human Rights (Article 16) gave us the right to family since 1948, which doesn’t itself define what a family is.

Article 16.

  • (1) Men and women of full age, without any limitation due to race, nationality or religion, have the right to marry and to found a family. They are entitled to equal rights as to marriage, during marriage and at its dissolution.
  • (2) Marriage shall be entered into only with the free and full consent of the intending spouses.
  • (3) The family is the natural and fundamental group unit of society and is entitled to protection by society and the State

(The Universal Declaration of Human Rights)

It is a fairly recent development that this idea has reached beyond that of the nuclear family, which, again, no longer describes the majority of families in this country. Now that this definition gives LGBT families legal recognition, there is hope that in the future, we will be able to share this same right freely with all non-traditional families.

Creative Commons: Eric Ward

Editor’s Note: On September 22, 2012, at the Woodhull Sexual Freedom Summit, Woodhull’s Executive Director Ricci Levy announced the official launch of it’s newest campaign, The Family Matters Project, “Woodhull recognizes the diversity of family in the United States and our goal is to protect our fundamental human right to family by eliminating discrimination based on family structure and relationship choices.” Summit attendees were among the first to contribute by filling out cards describing why family means to them that will appear as part of this national campaign.. 

Sexual Freedom Isn’t Acceptable For Women?


Kai Davis takes a daring stand in this video when she challenges the misogynistic view that many member of today’s society hold. She brings up the important point that innocence and virginity are revered in women, but as soon as women take charge of her sexuality and tries to enjoy her sexual freedom, she is looked down on and considered a “whore.”

Though I agree with Davis’s overall point that sexual freedom is not always something that is given equally to women, the way that she presents some of her ideas can be a little extreme. I disagree that that it is all the fault of men that it is considered unacceptable for women to enjoy their sexual freedom; women judge other women for sleeping around just as harshly, if not more so, than men do. This is not just a problem that stems from the male population, but from society itself! I propose that if women want to have their sexual freedom accepted, they accept the sexual freedom of other women and stop blaming only men for looking down on their sexual choices.

Creative Commons: Kurt Löwenstein Educational Center International Team

Sacred Sex and Erotic Joy

For more on Transhuman Erotic Freedom…

Editor’s note: This is one of a series of position papers Dan Massey and I are creating and will soon index on our home page. They briefly explore the evolution of our points of view about a range of issues related to sex, gender, and racial freedom. Your feedback is always welcome.

300px-Paradiso_Canto_31

Gustave Doré – Paradiso

The world’s secret history is strewn with tales of visionaries and pioneers who have advocated for the primacy of erotic joy in connecting each person with the universe at large and endowing each of us with supreme power to shape our own destiny (however that is defined by the individual).

For eons, these practitioners have operated in secret to protect this inherited knowledge (and more frequently, their lives) from self-appointed minorities who by their nature suppress this information and fear its neutralizing power. Tantra survives today. More recently, today’s guardians of this secret knowledge have warned us that lifting the veil on people’s direct connection to the power of erotic joy is a bad idea. We are told average modern people will not understand this power, that they are not yet ready to wield this power, that there will be disastrous results.

Today, we ask the question, “What could be more of a disaster for the vital and progressive spirit of humanity than the current state of the world?”

Revelation of the long-hidden knowledge of the primacy of erotic joy in shaping vitological (spiritual) experience is the precise antidote to practically every problem on earth. When entirely materialistic values and coercive systems are cleared away by worshipful engagement with erotic joy, verifying the primacy of love, not only does everything get better—but also we each release the power of truth, beauty, and goodness to reign our world. Voluntary associations replace these obsolete and now useless systems that are based on fear, bullying, violence, and spiritual oppression. In this way the collective of humanity fosters the best future, the intended and inherited future, the future that each new child born into this world deserves and would choose.

We campaign for Sexual Freedom to enable all to experience erotic joy free from human superstition, performing its intended function to expedite the emergence of a society based on love and service.

You will find more about how you can bring Sacred Sex and Erotic Joy out of the closet on our websites (venusplusx.org and its sister en espanol, venusmasx.org), including the serials, A Course In Immortality and in Spanish, Un Curso de Inmortalidad.

 

Public Opinion: Lesbians vs. Gays

También en español Conversing recently with a friend, the topic of lesbianism came to our attention. Upon the mere mention of girls kissing girls, his instant reaction was, “That’s so hot!” even though one of the young women in this case was treating the other abusively. When I pointed out the contradiction, his reply was, “I mean, that sucks, but c’mon! Seeing girls making out is still pretty hot.”

Sadly, this reaction is all too common when people talk about women who partner with women, though rarely to this extent. However, it does drive home the point that society generally sanctions lesbianism for no other reason than it is between two women. While it may be great that people have accepted this so willingly, it is often for the wrong reasons. Simply seeing girls as “hot” ignores any other factors, including the one in the scenario above.

There is one catch to this unquestioning approval of lesbianism: it does not apply to all same-sex couples. The public opinion is more discriminatory toward male couples. The same people who loudly praise the merits of female couples often openly condemn their male counterparts. To make this even more contradictory, they take this negative viewpoint for the same reason that they take their positive viewpoint with the women: men together versus women together. Women can love women because that’s “hot,” but the same principle does not apply  for men  who love men.

Why does society find it appropriate to laud same-sex coupling when it is between women, but condemn it when between men?

Creative Commons image by: Marco Gomes

Op-Ed: . .Tis The Season of Love . . . and Not-of Love

También En Español.


Which will you choose for 2012? Will you commit yourself to the power and supremacy of love? Will you check yourself to make sure your actions are “of love?” Are you willing to call out those who are not-of love?

The stark realities and compounding errors of the feckless conspiracy of the greedy and the stupid are in sharp relief. These realities become clearer, bolder, and more desperate by the hour, with no exit strategy that doesn’t involve even greater hardship to the rest of us who own this earth. Who are the humane and the inhumane? Who are those “of love” and who are those “not-of love?” It’s easy to spot each camp. People cannot help showing which side they are on by the commitments and actions of their everyday life.

Our task is to co-create a world free from the bondage of a few. The few, let’s call them an aged, economically privileged, mostly entirely white, and corrupt. They are a small group, roughly .005% of the world’s population. They are characterized by their own polarizing fear of anything “other,” and naturally devolve to attacks at the intersection of race and sexuality because these two things so obviously threaten their ragged, useless paradigm that has brought nothing but social and economic injustice to the entire planet.

These folks are the ones in need of serious re-education. Movements such as Occupy Everything is doing a sterling service by pointing out this dislocation of world resources and the income disparities that are dismantling otherwise benign and serviceable institutions. For the first time in history enough people are mobilized throughout the world to flip that script once and for all, while the insane inanity of the now lock-step radical right, led by a new and rather freaky breed of (irreligious) American fundamentalists, is doing its part to speed along the process of their eventual demise.

Start with governments, “the state.” Governments are instruments of the people, and have an important role in maximizing the efficient uses of our collective resources, and in guaranteeing education and equalizing opportunity. An ideal government would have as its motto, “Privilege For All,” and carry on policy, programming, and administration to make that possible. Gone will be the most coercive arm of the state, the military, an end to the horrible choice given young people, unemployment or lack of tuition versus enlisting to fill body bags of endless asymmetrical wars aimed at justifying huge government budgets. That’s wrong, obscene.

Why must the state interfere with our reproductive rights? A private relationship between a patient and her physician is a precise example of the type of voluntary association that replaces its current coercive system that leads to nothing but heartache and more social and economic dislocation.

Why can’t teenagers have access to birth control? Condoms are more widely accessible, but why are teenage girls prevented from getting the morning after pill if they choose? The American fundamentalists driving governments insist that this is killing a . . . a what? a zygote?

“Personhood” proselytizers would have you believe that life begins at the moment of conception, when (the) sperm fertilizes (the) egg, and anything or more correctly, anyone, interfering with that “life” is guilty of a poorly thought through illegality. But they haven’t thought this through at all. The personhood laws would make every female guilty of infanticide every month because menstruation discharges those “eggs” that failed to attach. Shall we look all women up for their pre-existing condition that calls them monthly murderers? It make no sense and laws like these perforce are destined to the gooey dustbin of failed attempts to control people’s destiny.

These are just a few headline examples demonstrating how easy it is to separate out the haters among us. With the upcoming election, as crazy laws make their way through right wing controlled state legislatures, as mean-spirited Republican candidates spread their vitriol, it should be easier and easier for us to isolate and eradicate the draconians among us.

We have to have courage and call them out at every turn, and women are leading the way. Everyone, including men, comprising our 99.095% must join in to bring about a season “of love.”


Kiss the anti-gay away

(También en Español)

Two Guys Kiss at Santorum Rally

About three minutes and 35 seconds into Santorum’s speech at the Christian Liberty Academy in Arlington Heights, Ill., Timothy Tross and Ben Clifford screamed, “MIC Check!” Then they made-out to the horror and fascination of the 2,100 people at the rally. The men, along with a female companion, were removed from the event as attendees shouted, “U.S.A.”

Tross and Clifford aren’t saying whether they’re gay. They claim their orientation isn’t the point, Santorum’s antigay baiting is.

It has been used before at Westboro Baptist protests, and it occurs to me that Rick Santorum isn’t the only right wing zealot masquerading as a politician who deserves this.

Mass same-sex kiss-ins could become a formidable technique of non-violent civil disobedience!

Groups of us can go to public hearings of discriminatory legislation and policy, candidate rallies, and anti-marriage events, etc., whenever and wherever, and stage a timed mass kiss-in, something that would be as effective as sit-ins but much prettier and much harder to penalize. We could ask our allies to join in, putting their lips where their mouths are, staging kisses with same-sex allies.

We would drive the opposition crazy with this newfound, in-your-face strategy, or at least help them along their path of personal self-destruction. That would be a campaign I could get my lips around.