(no subject)

Good morning everyone! Welcome to Radio Free Monday, part one of two. I got so many links last week and so much has happened that I am making two RFM posts -- one about miscellaneous issues, causes, and news that the Cafe has to share, and one in specific about LGBTQ rights and the struggles of queer youth.

So, last week I posted about the It Gets Better project, and since then the news has, well, not. Tyler Clementi, a young gay man at Rutgers University, killed himself after his roommate secretly filmed him having sex and then broadcasted it on the internet. It's still bullying when college students do it, and it's still bullying when adults do it.

xtricks, and I think this is important reading, pointed out that kids play out the narratives adults put in place for them, and the pain and the death we're seeing is a result of the bigotry and hate that is festering in this society. drgaellon linked me to a report on the Michigan Attorney General, currently engaged in violent harassment of the UM Student Body president, an openly gay man, to demonstrate precisely what Xtricks means. The man is now "on leave", and I hope his ass gets fired. This is not him exercising his first amendment rights in his off hours; this is him harassing someone because of their sexual orientation, and don't tell me that dipshit never checks his website at work.

I asked last week for links to organisations that are trying to help prevent bullying and protect queer kids from the brutalities of their (and I use this word dubiously) peers. I hope that even if you don't have the financial resources to support these groups, and lord knows many of us don't, you will link to this post or repost these links on your journal or look into what these websites are saying and how you can help. If you know of other resources, please feel free to post them in comments.

rm posted some links, which I'm reprinting here:

http://www.glsen.org
http://www.safeschoolscoalition.org
http://www.beatbullying.org
http://www.imfromdriftwood.com

The We Got Your Back project, like It Gets Better, is collecting stories of survival in the written word and providing resources for queer teens who are suffering, allies, and anyone who needs help or wants to provide it.

knittinggoddess recommends The Trevor Project, a phone-in line which helps counsel queer youth.

nancybrown recommends Advocates For Youth, which works with all youth to provide reproductive health information and be a voice for youth rights, but also places specific focus on the rights and struggles of queer youth.

bearfairie recommends:
Gay, Lesbian, and Straight Education Network, "one of the best groups around for issues relating to dealing with school issues for kids and teens";
Children of Lesbians and Gays Everywhere, a group for children of queer parents, which also does a lot of work in schools;
Parents of Lesbians And Gays, an old established activist group which does great work in schools with LGBTQ kids.

mamagotcha recommends, for teens who are looking for educational alternatives and ways to escape hostile environments, The Teenage Liberation Handbook: How to Quit School and Get a Real Life and Education.

light_of_summer writes that "The Southern Poverty Law Center (SPLC) has made a documentary film and teaching kit that is available for free to USA educators, regarding the bullying of kids who are perceived to be Lesbian, Gay, Bi, or Trans, and the legal responsibilities of school systems to stop and prevent this kind of harassment."

beachlass offered some resources for Canadian LGBTQ teens:
Youthline, a telephone counseling service;
Resources from Rainbow Alliance Ontario;
Anti-homophobia storytelling by Ivan E. Coyote

A lot of people have also been posting about Spirit Day, which is to take place on October 20th, where people are being asked to wear purple to show rememberance and solidarity. The origin of this plan is a little hazy and there's a lot of question about whether the names and photos being used in Spirit Day posts are appropriate, given that the photos are mainly of minors and uh, their families may not know this is happening. If you post about Spirit Day, please tread cautiously. Consider, instead, the idea of being Visibly Queer Friendly, not just on October 20th but every day.

On a personal and perhaps self-indulgent note, assembling these links was unexpectedly emotional for me. My circle of friends trends strongly towards queer and I've heard them talk and talked with them about the struggles they face, but this hit me in a way few other discussions have. Maybe it's because it's kids, I don't know, but I had to stop several times even while just cutting and pasting links, step away from the computer and take a moment. I'm grappling now with why, but I'm not sure in the end that "why" is important.

I would hope that people, on the whole, would act out of kindness and empathy, even something as momentary as telling someone to stop with the gay jokes or intervening when kids are tormenting each other. But people should act, however they act, if for no other reason than that none of us are safe until all of us are safe, and it's in your own enlightened self-interest to do so. Because your kid, your sister's kid, your friend's kid, your grandchild or student or the kid who cuts your lawn on the weekends -- they could be next. And, if you look "funny" or act "wrong" or even if someone just doesn't like your haircut or your clothes or your friends, so could you.

Respect is a basic human right, and where there is no respect there is a declining cycle of prejudice, hatred, violence, pain, and death and we are seeing this happen, right here, right now. None of us can do everything, but all of us can do something.

(no subject)

...and welcome to part two of this week's Radio Free Monday! Cafe members are sellin' and seekin' and bringing us news.

One of our Cafe is a Newfoundlander who wrote to let me know that Hurricane Igor struck the island last week and Newfoundland is in need of help. The rural communities in particular are without power and supplies, especially since the highway has been washed out in many places. People are hiking across the broken wreckage of it to get gas and food wherever they can get through. Estimated damage stands at around a hundred million dollars. They can't do much rebuilding because winter is coming, but of course winter is coming, and people are without homes (though fortunately everyone seems to have a roof of some kind over their head) and without employment because their places of work have been eradicated. You can get more news at http://www.cbc.ca/nl/features/igor/ . The best place to send relief funds and find out how you can help is at the Canadian Red Cross website.

One of our Cafe is in dire straits due to some unforeseen truck trouble; she can't get her kids where they need to go without a car, and is now in the unenviable position of needing to buy a new one. She's trying to recoup some of the funds via ebay auctions; there are antiques, jewelery, gemostones, and a china set for sale, as well as a Japanese ink painting. You can check out the auctions here.

thefannishwaldo is selling personalized animal alphabet books, aimed at kids; she does the writing and photography and the books are highly customizable. Each picture has kid-friendly information for beginning readers. You can check out sample pages and get more information at her Etsy page, and I also recommend having a look at her photography blog, which has some spectacular pictures on it.

snaxcident linked me to a small ray of light amidst the grief and anger of all that's gone on this week: Starbucks restrooms in DC are going gender-neutral at the request of transgendered customers. I hope this heralds a change for Starbucks worldwide; if you're buying a cuppa from them this morning, you might let 'em know you approve and support the change.

Via cluegirl, Strowlercon is next weekend in Boston! Support your local street performers.

lhazzie is "looking for knowledge sharing from anyone in the UK who works/has worked in the NfP sector and is familiar with CTT mailer as an email campaign sending tool" because her organisation is currently investigating its use. You can message her or email her at heathen.geographer at hotmail.co.uk.

As a PSA, Rhi on Dreamwidth informs me that PBS will be showing all 3 Sherlock eps on Masterpiece Theater: Oct 24, Oct 31, and Nov 7. If you've been wanting to see what the fuss is about but haven't been able to get your hands on a copy in the US, now's your chance!

Last week Dove linked me, just because, to some photos of Cinnamon, a rescue dog, and I fell head over heels in love. I had a dachshund throughout high school and into adulthood and he was, if not the most well-behaved dog on the block, certainly the sweetest. Dachshunds are almost annoyingly intelligent and very stubborn, but I always felt the rewards were worth it. Anyway, I asked if there was anything I could do to find Cinnamon a home, and Dove said no, she was in good hands, but reminded me that there are many wee puppies out there who are not. She linked me to Central Texas Dachshund Rescue and All Texas Dachshund Rescue. Most states have a similar program; if nothing else, go look at those adorable fucking dachshunds. Seriously.

(Personal braggin': This is my dachshund, Dog, mayherestinpeace.)

I had a lot of questions last week about how you can get your info into Radio Free Monday; I have messaging on LJ turned off because I despise it, but you are ALWAYS welcome to drop a comment in an RFM post or indeed on any post, or you can email me at copperbadge at gmail.com. I do use some discretion in what I link; I don't link everything I'm notified of, but I'd guess about 95% of what I see goes into RFM the following week.

This has been Radio Free Monday -- thanks for your time. :)

(no subject)

I love how my mind totally protects me from fear of the future by erasing large swathes of emotional memory from my past. All weekend I told myself, it's cool, you're collecting edits for CG, you can bang them out on Monday, it'll take like ten minutes!

Ahahahahaha no. God, I'm exhausted and it's only halfway through the day and I am on chapter five of seventeen. And that's just the easy "did you really mean to add that extra comma?" stuff.

I recall, now, that this was the most annoying part of rewriting Nameless, fixing all the little tiny doodahs that were wrong, but did I remember that until now? I did not. I hear the same thing happens to women with childbirth and, while I'm not comparing the existential angst of writing a novel to the screaming pain of childbirth, I totally get the feeling of "Wait what? This happened before, didn't it. Aw fuck."

Towards the end of second-draft repairs and typesetting, with Nameless, I loathed the book. I truly and deeply despised it. I knew it would pass, because I'd gone through the same thing with most of the plays I'd written or directed, but that didn't stop me in the moment. Now, of course, it is my pride, very first and most beloved, but that comes later. I'm just waiting for the loathing to set in with CG, but maybe it won't; I've spent the last eight months in ambivalence, maybe that will take the sting out.

With preliminary typesetting, the book clocks in at about 300 pages or a little over. That's a hundred pages more than Nameless, but part of that is that I've upped the font from 10-point to 12-point. Then again, I've also narrowed the margins, so who knows.

I feel like I should work on this as much as I can, given I can only work on it at work, and yet the urge to run off and read fanfic is very strong. :D