Public Information

Arse Elektronika: Come for science!

Jack Diehl, Alison Gardner, and Dan Massey contributed to this article.

VenusPlusX attended the Arse Elektronika conference in San Francisco (September 29 – October 2), hosted by the Austrian “art-technology-philosophy group” Monochrom. This energetic collective has run the European AE for many years, and this is the fifth year in a row they have brought its parallel to San Francisco. The call for entries last February gives some insight to what unfolded.

This year’s theme was Sex and Technology. It was hard to know what to expect from the schedule of four days of programming over three different venues, with intriguing titles like “Phallic Home Economics,” “Make your own Mind Controlled Dildo,” and “It’s Wankie Time!” But we are not complaining, we had to see it.

The entire conference had a natural leftist perspective, expressed in the sub theme, “Screw The System.” Kink was commonly understood, appearing quite abundantly in many presentations and all over the walls of the San Francisco Center for Sex and Culture, one of the 3 venues. Technology, the Internet, and hacking were also well represented. The last day of Arse Elektronika was held at one of the country’s biggest hackerspaces, Noisebridge. (Here is Jack’s brief video walk-through of Noisebridge.)

The first night was at author-rac0nteur Chicken John‘s legendary warehouse, a multi-media opening introduction made up of summaries of the previous 5 conferences in San Francisco, previews of talks to come during the following days, lots of high jinks, and some very enjoyable entertainment from “song a day guy” Jonathan Mann (who has made a song everyday for the last 1,000+ days.)

What Does It Mean To Love A Machine? (buy for $1)
Until The Vulcans Call (free download)

The presentations were extremely wide-ranging, and showed the creativity possible as a new age of sexual freedom emerges. Each one incrementally stretched the group or “hive” mind in real time.

Among the dozen+ offerings, we heard from Kitty Stryker in her frank talk, “Sex Work, Disability, and Stigma”  and Maymay presented “A Class Analysis of Social Status in the BDSM Scene” (also available on YouTube). David Fine, who vaguely describes himself as “a Sex Robot from the 25th century” spending his time in our era guiding technology in useful, or at least interesting, directions, brought us his reimagining of the Mindflex kids’ toy (available on Amazon) which he modified to activate a vibrator, simple and perhaps the first attempt we’ve seen to apply an EEG headset  to a sex toy; The future possibilities are endless.

Most expressive of the intersection of sex and technology, though, is the impressive work and activism of Ned and Maggie Mayhem.  Their  PSIgasm (that’s Pounds per Square Inch, pronounced, sci-gasm) is one of the first legitimate, fully engineered entries into the nascent science of teledildonics. As they describe it . . .

“PSIgasm was conceived in 2010 by an HIV prevention specialist and an experimental physicist, both of whom moonlight as queer porn performers and are active in the Bay Area sex positive scene. The project revolves around measurement devices that can be used as sex toys, simultaneously getting people off and monitoring physiological responses correlated with arousal and orgasm.”

PSIgasm

Considering themselves citizen scientists, the Mayhems prompted the assembled to start thinking about other commercial grade sex toys that might emerge and use their application and the sensors they’ve engineered in this device, and the ways that data on your heart rate, anal contractions, other statistics recorded during orgasm will prove beneficial.

Besides the PSIgasm project and being so damn cool, the Mayhems are HIV and sex educators, and among many useful things for society that they advocate for, they  campaign to empower others to produce and star in ethical and sex positive pornography to escape financial hardship. The pair are coming to DC in March to participate in the Momentum conference, and hold other events we will be promoting soon. For now, they are headed to the next phase of substantial testing and data collection for the PSIgasm under their slogan, “Come for Science.”

Overall, we assert that the teledildonics field hasn’t received the attention it deserves. These breakthroughs will lead to better and safer sex practices and extend to people often excluded from traditional social connections.

The toys being made right now are mostly DIY (do-it-yourself), and have very little financial backing. Technology will continue to be applied to sex, and as society grows out of its strangling sexual repression and we move further into an interconnected world, there is no doubt in our minds that the future of teledildonics will be exciting. Want to contribute yourself? Check out The Sex Prize, a new competition announced at this year’s conference challenging entrants to develop open source teledildonics software for f#^king machines. Entries will be judged by a Turing Test, meaning your program has to preform so well that it is indistinguishable from a human operator. With countless people willing to test such devices, we can’t wait to see what people come up with.

in Cosmic Citizenship / Events / Public Information / Transhuman Erotic Freedom  by 10 Oct 2011 0 comments

Southern Comfort—Historic Gathering

What is “gender non-conforming?” “What does a transexual person have in common with a part-time cross-dresser? or with a transgender person who identifies as neither?” “Can transgender and gender non-conforming people, cross-dressers, transexual men and women who have undergone Sexual Reassignment Surgery (SRS), and other segments of this diverse cohort group ever speak as one?” To feel the power of collective action that is sleeping beneath us? “What are the limits of working in coalition with lesbian, gay, bisexual, and interesex people?” “What are the shared policy priorities we can all work on together, in unity without uniformity?

These are just a few of the brain-twisting questions we heard and engaged in while attending Atlanta’s Southern Comfort Conference, our second year at this awesome and inspiring event. There were many firsts in this 21st gathering, now closely associated with the name of Robert Eads, a transman who died 13 years ago in Georgia because not one doctor would agree to treat his ovarian cancer. Eads’ case was internationalized with the release of the 2001 documentary film Southern Comfort, which received awards at the Sundance, Seattle, and Berlin film festivals. Talking to some social workers from Japan, I found his cause and the American trans movement is known in Asia as, simply, Eads. Just now, the CAP 21 Theatre Company in Manhattan is presenting a new musical, Southern Comfort, based on the 2001 documentary.

Southern Comfort was featured last year in Chaz Bono‘s history making documentary, Becoming Chaz, about his transition from Cher and Sonny Bono’s daughter Chastity to the Chaz he always knew he was. Bono attended last year’s conference and met many of us, and at the same time has emerged as a fierce advocate for trans and equality rights. This year he called into the Saturday night gala to say hello to everyone by phone, saying he couldn’t be there this year because he’s in training for his groundbreaking appearance on TV’s popular Dancing With The Stars.

This year, Southern Comfort broke all attendance records and must be credited with bringing together the largest gathering of trans men ever, 60 among a crowd of nearly 1000 dominated by feminist expression. Noteworthy to the media was the first-ever joint seminar with the World Professional Association for Transgender Health (WPATH) and the Gay and Lesbian Medical Association (GLMA) that comprised Southern Comfort’s last day.

You can call this one of the happiest week in the calendar, where all these segments get together in an environment of safety, acceptance, and celebration. It is the courageous lives of these most tolerant, compassionate, relatively highly educated people on the front lines of obtaining full legal equality and the freedom they deserve to live their lives as they choose and in peace. It’s the happiest because it’s a taste of a world totally free from sexual oppression, free from government interference, man-made religious precept, and outdated social customs and discrimination. While the questions we wrestle with often disable an otherwise productive unity of purpose among this most select community of gender benders, every encounter leads to more shared understanding of what we are fighting for.

For this and many other reasons we are trying to get an online national conversation going about building trans unity and trans leadership. Together we can bring the rest of the world to understand that gender freedom is a crucial and unfairly maligned gateway to creativity, truth, and love. Together we can move the political debate forward, influence state and federal policy and lawmaking, and bring about trans-inclusive legislation that will save so many lives.

We welcome guest bloggers and cross-posts, or just leave a comment here or on Facebook or Twitter. Let us know what you are doing to educate and advocate for trans equality. If you work with one or more organizations, are they making trans rights a priority? What will bring about comity among superficially different segments of the trans community? What are the shared policy priorities that will have a universal appeal, not only in the gay and trans community, but to all Americans and citizens abroad?”

 

in Events / Public Information / Transunity & Transleadership  by 06 Oct 2011 0 comments

Ugandan Bishop Christopher Senyonjo Calls for Compassion

Compassion is not religious business, it is human business, it is not luxury, it is essential for our own peace and mental stability, it is essential for human survival.  Dalai Lama

The other evening I received an email inviting me to meet the man commonly refered to as the ‘Desmond Tutu’ of Uganda – Bishop Christopher Senyonjo. Bishop Senyonjo’s unfailing support for the LGBTI people cost him his job in the Anglican Church of Uganda and everything else but his integrity. To his fellow Anglican Bishops and church leaders, he is a useless, good for nothing person, BUT to the LGBTI community, he is a savior and that is what keeps him standing. When the Kampala tabloids called for the hanging of LGBTI Ugandans, they included his picture.

He has been aggressive in his fight against the Ugandan Parliament’s “Anti-Homosexuality Bill,” which calls for imprisonment and death. Against all odds, he has gone on to create a safe space where the LGBTI/straight allies find refuge while the rest of the population turns against them: St. Paul’s Reconciliation And Equality Centre-Kampala.

St. Paul Reconciliation Centre pursues a holistic approach to the challenges in Uganda, providing essential services while also seeking systemic change and fostering genuine reconciliation for LGBTI persons and other marginalized groups. Its programs include business development, HIV education and services, counseling, and support for expanded schools, LGBTI advocacy and dialogue, an LGBTI legal resource team, and a sanctuary safe house for activists who frequently need to go into hiding.

Whenever he is around town, I get to see him, and over the weekend had another opportunity to listen to him speak at All Souls Episcopal Church in Washington, DC. Throngs listened to him talk about Compassion and call for all people to be tolerant of everybody like Jesus was.

He thanked Americans for their good heart and for sacrificing their huge taxes towards helping the disadvantaged populations around the world, including but not limited to the LGBTI community in Uganda.

Anyone who wants to contribute to this cause…please visit the center’s website.

“The only weapon we can use to fight our battles isn’t guns, atomic bombs, or missiles, but compassion.” Bishop Christopher Senyonjo

 

in Events / Global Sexual Freedom Watch / Public Information  by 29 Sep 2011 0 comments

This week’s hot stuff (9-22-11)

The Take Back the American Dream conference, organized by the Campaign for America’s Future with support from Rebuild the Dream, will be happening on October 3 – 5 in Washington, DC. Find out more and register online. The American Dream Movement is growing stronger by the day, and it’s not going away until everyone can find jobs, afford to go to college, retire with dignity, and secure a future for our children and our communities.

Rainbow Response Coalition in DC is a grassroots organization addressing the needs of LGBTQ people with regard to domestic violence. This deeply sensitive work joins LGBTQ leaders domestic with violence service providers and government agencies to increase the awareness about Intimate Partner Violence (IPV) amid the relationships of LGBTQ individuals, and educating within the LGBTQ communities and beyond. We encourage you to get involved and support Rainbow Response Coalition.

We hoping to make it to the The Singularity Summit 2011, a TED-style two-day event at the historic 92nd Street Y in New York City, October 15-16. This is all about the development of new technologies ramping up more and more rapidly, an exponential expansion of technology wherein technology feeds on itself making unpredictable progress, otherwise known as “the singularity,” a term coined and popularized by inventor and futurist Ray Kurzweil. Joining Kurzweil as a speaker are visionary scientist Stephen Wolfram, IBM manager Dan Cerutti, longevity expert Sonia Arrison, author David Brin, neuroscientist Christof Koch, PayPal founder Peter Thiel, MIT cosmologist Max Tegmark, AI researcher Eliezer Yudkowsky, MIT polymath Alexander Wissner-Gross, DARPA challenge winner Riley Crane, Skype founder Jaan Tallinn, economist Tyler Cowen, television personalities Jason Silva and Casey Pieretti, and robotics professors James McLurnkin and Robin Murphy. The Singularity Summit was founded as an academic forum for discussing the “big picture” questions in industry, economics, and ethics raised by the prospect of such a profound event.

Fantasia Fair is a week-long celebration of gender diversity and according to its website it is also the longest-running annual event in the transgender world. Every October it is held in Provincetown, Massachusetts, this year October 16-23. We have only heard rave reviews of this gathering which attracts hundreds of gender-queer and transfolk from across the country. There is a whole circuit of similarly themed conferences, one called Be All every year in Chicago. Many people we have spoken to here with us attending Atlanta’s Southern Comfort Conference are heading north for Fantasia Fair because there is nothing like person-to-person contact to help forward our common cause.

Out & Equal‘s 2011 Workplace Summit in Dallas is coming, October 25-28. “Individuals, human resources professionals, diversity managers, employee resource group (ERG) leaders, and allies have the perfect platform from which to make powerful connections, share best practices, and formulate a strategy that allows for a powerful demonstration of their commitment to equality in the workplace.” Find out more about this and the many other thing this organization is accomplishing.

We marvel over The American Equality Bill which calls for equal non-discrimination protections for sexuality and gender, and would apply nationally to every state by adding “sexual orientation and gender identity” to all existing federal civil rights legislation.  As endorsements add up for this idea, Representative Jared Polis (CO-2) is also working on an LGBT Omnibus Equality Bill to be introduced sometime in October. If you want to get involved in working towards such a bill and help free our society from sexuality and gender oppression, go to Equality Giving or Facebook.

It’s Vicky’s birthday again, Victoria Woodhull that is (September 23, 1838 – June 9, 1927), the radical suffragette that founded the sexual freedom movement. Each year, Woodhull Sexual Freedom Alliance produces a report, the State of the Sexual Freedom in the US, and presides over Sexual Freedom Day filled with informative presentations, the “Vicky” Awards to outstanding sexual freedom pioneers, and a sumptuous gala in the evening. Alison and Dan are members of the Alliance’s Advisory Board, and VenusPlusX returns as a Sexual Freedom Day sponsor. Some tickets are still available, but make a note for next September 23 to attend this must-go event.

And. we can’t pass any opportunity to draw your attention to People For The American Way and its crucial work fighting right-wing extremism in this country. Please check out “Right Wing Watch” on their website, one of many features that will spur you into action.

Last but not least, a shout out and message of love and deep admiration for all the dedicated and impassioned individuals who comprise Servicemembers Legal Defense Network and played such a vital role in seeing through the September 20 repeal of “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell.” It’s a brand new day. Thank you.

If you your site or blog isn’t yet on our general Stuff We Like, or would like to be featured here on our weekly top ten, please let us hear from you.

in Events / Public Information  by 22 Sep 2011 0 comments

This week’s hot stuff (9-15-11)

Voto Latino along with the National Council of La Raza are playing an increasing central role in advocating for progressive causes across a spectrum of stakeholders, not just for immigration, but all struggles for economic and social justice including labor rights and equality rights. These are the leaders of America’s new majority and so much the target of the old white men who would have it otherwise. We will soon be hearing from Gloria Nieto who will be writing on the intersection of race, gender, and sexual politics.

In doing research for a story Zain Rivzi is preparing this week, about what it is like to be gay in Iran today, we came across the now resurfaced Iran Human Rights Blog. Zain is asking if you know that the only way two men can be coupled in Iran is if one of them undergoes sexual reassignment surgery? The penalties for homosexuality is imprisonment, torture, and death, which are worse, but the result is an entire class of transexuals who easily fall into poverty and prostitution. Prostitution in Iran is technically legal under government issued “temporary marriage” documents, but in any calculation it’s a mess, and a mess that we need to care about.

The Organization for Refuge Asylum & Migration (Oram) is a fierce and heroic advocate for refugees fleeing sexual and gender violence and provides free legal advice and representation. They are looking for interns and volunteers and you can “adopt a refugee” to see someone through the passage of safety and resettlement.

Doing work on America’s streets to prevent the spread of HIV and protect the lives of prostitutes living at society’s edge, Helping Individual Prostitutes Survive (HIPS) works tirelessly to break the chain of poverty, prostitution, and HIV. We salute them, support them, and urge you to get involved in this life-saving work.

Returning again this year, we’re off to Southern Comfort Conference next week. This most excellent and exuberant gathering draws nearly a thousand gender non-conforming and trans folks and their allies spending a 4-day weekend sharing wisdom and seeking common ground. Check out the days of programming that are punctuated with all sorts of social events; this year, the conference joins the World Professional Association for Transgender Health (WPATH) International Symposium on September 26. You’ll want to come, or at least put it on your calendar for next year. Scholarships are available. We will be hosting several events there including several scheduled Live Twitter Chats on the subject of Transunity and Transleadership. If there ever was a time to join hands to end transphobia, it certainly has to be now.

The last week in September we are headed to Arse Elektronika (AE) for a something, as they say, completely different. Nonetheless it is related to sexual freedom. AE is an international conference founded in Austria and held each year in Europe and in San Francisco. It is an exposition of the future of sexuality, gender, and technology. As transhumanists we are interested in the individuals and companies on the forefront of this industry’s great potential. because they have a built in interest in the struggle for sexual freedom and may want to become involved in in VenusPlusX’s grant-making programs. Consider that future sex is safe sex and future sex technology will find more of a market as sexual repression ebbs away and disappears.

We are again highlighting DC Trans Coalition, and its recently released preliminary findings in a Needs Assessment that was undertaken last year. Must reading for all those who advocate for the rights of trans people, and other sexual minorities. Around here, we say, “If you advocate for the T (as in Transgender, Gay, Lesbian, and Bisexual people, TLGB) you are advocating for everyone. We hope you will take an interest and support the DCTC’s exemplary work.

Planning for January’s Creating Change Conference (January 25-29, 2012, in Baltimore) is underway and looking for volunteers and presenters. The next planning meeting is September 15 at 7:oo PM at the MCC Church conference room (401 W. Monument Street, Baltimore, MD 21201).

Few dig as deep as Michelle Meow at Swirl Radio out of San Francisco, “a fast-paced show . . . from the epicenter of the gay universe.” Check it out.

And, last but not least, a shout out to our favorite news aggregator  for giving the Huffington Post a run for their money, The Raw Story.

If you your site or blog isn’t yet on our general Stuff We Like, or would like to be featured here on our weekly top ten, please let us hear from you.

in Events / Public Information  by 15 Sep 2011 0 comments

VenusPlusX September Expansion Announced

Visitors! Let us know what you think of our expansion to fulfill VenusPlusX’s mission to help usher in “The New Age of Sexual Freedom” – a world free from the global culture of racial, sexual, and gender oppression and violence driven by governments, religions, commerce, and social customs

We aim to do that through multiple and international voices participating in our campaigns, initiatives, educational and advocacy programs, and grassroots organizing, all expanding this month with venusplusx.org’s new utilities and capabilities.

We are especially proud of our new roster of Feature Editors, Guest Editors, and Guest Bloggers, such as…

  • Zain Rivzi, Adrianna Midama, and other international activists join Kushaba “Moses” Mworeko in widening response to the imprisonment, sexual mutilation, and murders of lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender (LGBT) people, the severe curtailment of women’s rights, and the steady eradication of anyone who is HIV+ 100s of countries. And, keeping up-to-date a useful annotated bibliography as a resource to anyone who will get involved. Fundraising to support LGBT US asylum seekers is also on deck.
  • Dan Massey will continue to write on the broad topic of Transhuman Erotic Freedom, adding to his large archive developed over the last 6 months, with an annotated Table of Contents for your use. Prepare for The New Age of Sexual Freedom.
  • Jack Diehl will be giving us his wry take on his favorite news stories everyday. And be sure to check out our new Sexual Freedom Project: LilMike will bring us videos, poems, essays, artwork and other original submissions from readers on the topic of sexual freedom, or anything else that is covered by VenusPlusX. If your submission is featured on the site, we’ll send you a free VenusPlusX t-shirt for participating.

One of the good results of expanding our online presence, and the new staff to support all these editors, is that I will at last have the time to devote myself two subjects that tie in with all this.

For one, reporting out my research into self-styled American Fundamentalists groups (that include, sadly, current U.S. Senators and Representatives) involved today in exporting hate and homophobia in the name of religion to boost their own (and their associate’s) commercial interests. And it’s all courtesy of your tax dollars.

Second, my passion, is bringing to life the real victims of sexually-motivated violence against women and people who are LGBT, and honoring their sacrifice by putting grassroots “boots on the ground” to bring public and media attention around concerns and demands for immediate relief from police bias, full federal equality rights, and the passage and enforcement of trans-inclusive legislation throughout the United States.

We hope you will find our new features and expanded utilities both interesting and enticing, To help expand our reach, please Like us on Facebook, Like-Favorite-Comment-Subscribe to our YouTube videos, follow us on Twitter, and email your uncensored comments to us at columbia@venusplusx.org.

in Events / Public Information  by 08 Sep 2011 0 comments

Grassroots: Take action (updated 10-25-11)

This is a 10-25-11 editor’s update.

Washington, DC’s TLGB Police Watch Coalition of concerned citizens and organizations has now scheduled the first street action, a Transgender Day of Action (TDOA, November 7) in conjunction with the planners of DC’s Transgender Day of Remembrance (TDOR, November 20), to end DC police bias against trans folks.

While the TDOR has been held for two decades to honor those who have lost their lives in the struggle for full equality, this year everyone is cooperating to express in unison the community’s urgent need to rid itself of discriminatory practices in the police force and in city government. The trans community’s leaders have worked ably through the years, and we are starting to see some significant changes but the pressure from the public must remain strong until these practices are irradiated completely from life in our nation’s capital. AG

Recent coalition partners are Rainbow Response, Transgender Health Empowerment, and Gender Rights Maryland, who join DC Trans Coalition (DCTC), Helping Individual Prostitutes Survive (HIPS), Gay & Lesbian Activists Alliance (GLAA), GetEQUAL DC, The DC Center for the LGBT Community, Gays & Lesbians Opposing Violence (GLOV), Woodhull Sexual Freedom Alliance, Cedar Lane UU Church LGBT Task Force, and VenusPlusX.

Please let us know if you would like to be a part of this coalition to end police bias in DC. 

The grim numbers attest to the cost of unregulated hatred of vulnerable minorities when civil government fails:

  • Over a ten year period, eight trans women were murdered in Washington, DC, out of a population of 600 thousand. No place in the nation had a larger proportion of its population murdered in anti-trans assaults.
  • In the same period, ten trans women were murdered in California, out of a population of over 37 million. No other state in the union had a larger number of trans murders.
  • One in seven trans murders occur in DC. One in 500 Americans live in DC.
  • DC’s clearance of murders is a paltry 50% and in the trans community it is only 20%.

Local DC activists working in coalition have launched “TLGB Police Watch” to plan and strategize around concerns of the TLGB community-at-large. Their goal is to put well-aimed and -vetted “boots on the ground” to bring pressure on city government, the Metropolitan Police Department, and Congress (because we don’t have Home Rule in DC) and draw the attention of the public and the media to this gruesome national tragedy.

The coalition is expanding daily and we invite you to join. It consists of individuals and local and national organizations, such as DC Trans Coalition (DCTC), Helping Individual Prostitutes Survive (HIPS), Gay & Lesbian Activists Alliance (GLAA), GetEQUAL DC, The DC Center for the LGBT Community, International Socialist Organization (ISO), Woodhull Sexual Freedom Alliance, Cedar Lane UU Church LGBT Task Force, Rainbow Response, Transgender Health Empowerment, Gender Rights Maryland, and VenusPlusX,

Everyone is working together to complement inroads community leaders are making in direct conferences with Mayor Vincent Gray and Metropolitan Police Chief Cathy Lanier, while making it perfectly that the entire community is unified in its rejection of anything short of instituting an emergency response plan to bring relief to these murders. DC has the best in the nation human rights laws for LGBT residents, but this alarming murder rate against trans and gender-nonconforming residents reveals that we cannot .

The Office of the Mayor and the Metropolitan Police Department (MPD) must be forced once and for all to disrupt the existing anti-LGBT culture which every day leads to their employees’ non-compliance with the D.C. Human Rights Act, the standards for basic cultural competency, and existing police procedures and special orders. As Alison Gardener previously reported elsewhere, “Chief Cathy Lanier calls this, ‘willful negligence,’ on the part of her officers, and admits that police discipline and training has fallen short and endangers public safety.” We already know this pathological, undisciplined, willful negligence increases the likelihood of even greater violence and discrimination against our community.

TLGB Police Watch is putting the “T” first, in demanding systemic and sustainable change throughout Washington, DC. If you would like to work with us or familiarize yourself with what we are doing for problems in your own city, please contact columbia@venusplusx.org and reference TLGB Police Watch.

Change must come now, before more lives and families are shattered because of TLGB discrimination and violence against our community.

in Grassroots / Public Information  by 08 Sep 2011 0 comments

Global Sexual Freedom Watch

The struggle for the civil rights for women, sexual minorities, and people who are HIV+ outside of the United States, in hundreds of countries, involves fierce protection against imprisonment, mutilation, violence, and death. The abuse of power is monumental, and first world countries mostly sit idly by while this miscarriage of humanity is put forward by governments, religions, commerce, and often vile social custom.

This alone should make every American care about this silent genocide, the systematic “disappearing” of people who are HIV+ or lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender and gender-nonconforming (LGBT) and severe restrictions on the rights of women.

But, there are still other reasons, all very troubling, that should lead every global citizen to be concerned with this tyranny which causes the unnecessary shattering of people’s lives on every continent.

American foreign aid supplies all or a portion of the budgets of many foreign governments but we fail to do enough, anything, to interrupt the associated civil corruption which swallows sometimes half and mismanages what is supposed to be benefiting their populations. This has the most severe impact on women, sexual minorities, and people with HIV+. When will the United States live up to its own principles and condemn these practices and add more safeguards for our US tax dollars? Quiet and overt diplomacy and more public statements from President Obama and Secretary of State Clinton must be forthcoming, not just occasionally reactive or opportunistic sound-bites.

The US has a great opportunity to save a whole class of people in other countries, but looks away. Are we to look back on this period and say we stood quiet instead of interceding to prevent the mass murder of thousands and thousands we could have saved?.

To stand by not only misses that opportunity, America sends the wrong message, attitude, and philosophy out to the rest of the world, whose eyes are fixed on what we are or are not doing to make the world a better place. Will the US just perpetuate the global culture of sexual violence or do something about it?

Worse, and complicating this terrible worldwide problem, is the direct manipulation of dishonest, hypocritical, and greedy past and current US elected and appointed officials. These men very unofficially and unlawfully earn millions for themselves and their cronies on the backs of foreign populations. They are connected and primarily loyal to secretive christianist corporations/organizations, such as “The Family” (aka “The Fellowship”), the Family Research Council,  and to religious leaders whose congregations comprise primarily of honest people who may be blissfully unaware that their financial and moral support of their church is being funneled into the pockets of these commercial adventurers.

Like past charades and crusades, these zealots come in the disguise of acting “in the name of Jesus” and today use fear of women’s rights, fear of people who are HIV+, and fear of anyone who is LGBT to terrorize entire populations. This is a ruse to distract because they are chiefly concerned with who gets the contracts, for roads, schools, hospitals, and especially the extraction of national resources, and most important, “What is the margin? Their profit, how much can they get their hands on?

They lobby at home to unadvisedly turn out more foreign aid, even to countries under dictatorships, to keep the revenue stream pregnant with multiple opportunities to make even more money. One U.S. Senator has boasted of hundreds of thousands of dollars in travel and security he received as senator to fund his “Jesus work” in Uganda.

More in the weeks and months to come exposing the voting and lobbying histories of these current elected and appointed US officials (virtually all Republican, white, and male) which will disclose this egregious mishandling of US tax dollars for spreading homophobia and hate abroad, lining the opposition’s own pockets, and working to blur all lines separating church in state everywhere.

How about a round up and forced resignations of a few dozen members of the US Congress?

We will delve deeply into the cause which motivates these christianist corporations/organizations which advocate adherence to a duty they place higher than any civil duty whatsoever, including government service. Their shared cause is to bring about a world where the rule of law is replaced by the rule of [their] God. And their rule of God includes putting women in their place, and erasing sexual minorities that make them uncomfortable or scare them (itchy about one’s own sexuality, really) and any evidence of HIV+.

This goal to erase the rule of law is foundational to their political and private lives, as Sarah Palin, Rick Perry, and Michele Bachman are showing us right now (don’t they know we can see them??). To me, this parallels the oft-disdained mission of jihadists. As for our the members of the US government involved in this cause, ahead of their oath to the US Constitution, this is a vile form of organized crime secretly draining our treasury and ought to be considered sedition.

Are we going to just sit by and let them do that? Their mayhem here and abroad must come to an abrupt end.

If we fail to get involved and act, these self-styled American Fundamentalists, these abusers of powers, will continue their mission of eradication of what they find unacceptable, bringing their theocracy to Main Street USA and every continent on the globe.

These forces are engaged in a worldwide, well-organized attack on all countries’ governments and their populations to extend their exclusionary religious beliefs and unreckoned homophobia and hate, all in the name of their religious cause.

We are broadening out contacts with foreign groups representing women, people with HIV+, and LGBT rights, and will be regularly reporting here, organizing grassroots activism in Washington, DC, and working with watchdog groups to expose the secretive disloyalty of US elected officials. We welcome new contributors.

Let us know what you think? What are you doing to right this terrible and shame wrong being perpetuated by our hard-earned tax dollars?

Where is the outrage?

in Campaigns / Global Sexual Freedom Watch / Public Information  by 08 Sep 2011 0 comments

Our Call to Action

These grim numbers attest to the cost of unregulated hatred of a vulnerable minority when civil government fails:

  • Over a ten year period, eight trans women were murdered in Washington, DC, out of a population of 600 thousand. No place in the nation had a larger proportion of its population murdered in anti-trans assaults.
  • The DC trans murder rate is 75 times the national average.
  • In the same period, ten trans women were murdered in California, out of a population of over 37 million. No other state in the union had a larger number of trans murders.
  • The DC trans murder rate is 50 times that of California.
  • One in seven trans murders occur in DC. One in 500 Americans live in DC.
  • DC’s clearance of murders is a paltry 50% and in the trans community it is only 20%.

A social and governmental emergency exists in the District of Columbia. Neglect and overt hatred of our city by rubes in congress, fools in the bureaucracy, and ignoramuses in the judiciary, who beat us down as a scapegoat for deficiencies of civil government that they are too greedy and lazy to correct when it is within their power, have taken their toll for years on the quality of civilization, the actual practice of social justice and equality, in this city. We have now reached the point that breakdown in the legitimacy and standards of law enforcement in our nation’s capital threatens government stability as surely as the recent earthquake, which cracked our national monuments.

Law enforcement and legal justice are essentially non-existent in DC for the transgender community, in spite of this city having an outstanding record in legislating civil rights and equality for all its residents. Nowhere is this more evident than in the prevalence of transgender murders here, compared to other parts of the country.

No one understands the injustices suffered and the social costs borne by the transgender community so well as transfolk themselves. As the members of society most intimately familiar with the individual and collective challenges to the expression and enjoyment of gender freedom, no group is better qualified to lead the liberation of human society from a failed vision of civil devotion. The time is now for transfolk to unify around, and seize, their privilege as the logical leaders of the quest to achieve TLGB justice and equality.

VenusPlusX has been created to serve and expedite the emergence of this New Age.

in Public Information / Transunity & Transleadership  by 07 Sep 2011 0 comments

The Sexual Freedom Project: Make Your Voice Heard

The Sexual Freedom Project is a series that will highlight your original and creative efforts around addressing the question, “What does sexual freedom mean to you?” It will feature your videos, stories, poetry and artwork exploring the role sexual freedom plays in your life today, how the media covers sexuality, gender, and popular culture, or anything else that comes to mind when you think of sexual freedom. Send us your personal take on these questions, or on any of the other varied topics covered by VenusPlusX.

We will also feature works created by the VenusPlusX staff, including video interviews filmed on the street, in parks, restaurants, over the Internet, and anywhere sexual freedom is being discussed.

To thank you for the submission of your original video, story, poem or artwork that we feature on the site, we will send you a free VenusPlusX t-shirt. It’s easy! For instance, you can use your videocamera, phone, or computer to make a 1-2 minute video sharing your thoughts. You could also write a short story or an essay in response to a post you read here on the site, write a poem, or create a piece of art. We look forward to your creativity!

Jack and Adrianna model our fabulous t-shirts

VenusPlusX’s soft cotton t-shirts feature the Statue of Freedom, Columbia, as it appears atop the U.S. Capitol Dome in Washington, D.C., a deeply embedded, gender-nonconforming American icon that inspires us to work harder for universal equality and sexual freedom.

For more information on how to submit your videos and stories, click here or contact us directly at columbia@venusplusx.org.

Be a part of the conversation, let your voice be heard and shared all over the world, and make us your digital platform of choice — a place where your views can have great impact. After all, isn’t expressing yourself what freedom is all about?


in Public Information / The Sexual Freedom Project / Videos  by 06 Sep 2011 0 comments