Remembering the Chinatown Fair…

(C) NYC the Blog

Chinatown Fair,a local institution in New York City and Chinatown landmark closed on Saturday late night. This video game arcade was also known as Tic Tac Toe x Chicken, due to the previous attraction of playing a game of Tic Tac Toe against a live chicken in a machine, all for the price of $1 (in the late 80s at least). [Video after the jump]

Homophobic Attack in West Queens

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
July 9, 2008

Press Contact: Marisa Ragonese, 718-204-5955 (w) or 917-428-0250 (c)
or via email at MRagonese@QueensCommunityHouse.org

LGBT Youth Drop-in Center Responds to Gay-Bashers Assault
on Astoria Priest

In aftermath of Monday’s assault on Father Braxton, Director of Carmen’s Place, a homeless shelter for LGBT youth, participants gather to discuss hostility they face daily in school and in the streets of Queens.

***
Astoria, NY – On Thursday, July 10th at 3 PM, youth participants of Queens Community House’s Generation Q, the sole drop-in center for Lesbian Gay Bisexual Transgender (LGBT) youth in Queens, as well as residents of Carmen’s Place a homeless shelter that serves the same population, are holding a press conference in front of Carmen’s Place, located at 31-14 Steinway Street. Father Lewis Braxton, director of Carmen’s Place, was attacked in front of the shelter by four teenaged boys on Monday night after stepping in to defend one of the residents of the shelter who was being harassed and threatened.

“I’m shocked that this happened on such a busy street,” said Father Braxton. “This speaks to the need for a real conversation about the safety of trans people in this city. ”

With somewhere between 20 and 40 percent of homeless youth identifying as LGBT and statistics showing that LGBT youth are 3 to 5 times more likely to commit suicide, this shelter meets an essential need. These young people, many of whom have been thrown out of their homes, depend on safe havens like Carmen’s Place and Generation Q to fulfill their emotional, psychological and social needs, and in the case of those without homes, their most basic needs.

The youth at Generation Q would like to take this opportunity, while there is a spotlight on the homophobic assaults in Queens, to speak directly to the media and public about the dangers they face daily and the need for hate crimes law, school-based initiatives such as Dignity for All Students Act (DASA) that focus on prevention of hate crimes as well as interventions of identity-based bullying, and funding for safe havens like Carmen’s Place and Generation Q.

Read more.

As transgenders push for respect, a rift grows with traditional gay leadership

Michael Lavers wrote for the Village Voice:

Angel’s performance at the Black Party was a direct challenge to the men who have pretty much run the gay-rights movement for decades. The transgendered—which encompasses anyone whose gender identity and expression doesn’t fit into traditional masculine or feminine roles—may have helped instigate the 1969 police riots at the Stonewall Inn. But since then, the movement has endured an ongoing struggle to find its place at the table, even as it continues to become more institutionalized and more an accepted part of mainstream America.

Transpeople present a threat to the conformity of today’s gay leaders. The faces of contemporary gay activism are the well-scrubbed visages of Ellen DeGeneres and gal pal (and soon wife) Portia de Rossi; Rosie O’Donnell and Kelli Carpenter; and such folks as Nathan Lane, Episcopal Bishop V. Gene Robinson, and TV judge David Young. The Human Rights Campaign and the Gay & Lesbian Alliance Against Defamation—two of the largest and most powerful national gay-rights groups in the country—put forward these trained spokespeople to mouth carefully crafted messages and talking points that effectively market their brand of lesbian and gay identity to a largely straight audience.
Read more.

Read more.

Sexual Reorientation

William Saletan wrote for Slate:

Last month, when the California Supreme Court declared same-sex marriage a constitutional right, it repeatedly invoked the precedent of interracial marriage. An attorney involved in the case protested, “There is no evidence to establish that a homosexual lifestyle is an immutable characteristic such as race.”

He’s wrong. There’s lots of evidence. More of it just came out this week. It’s been driving the gay rights debate all along, away from the clutches of religion and into the clutches of science. The trend is inexorable, but its implications are about to change. The culture war over homosexuality is dying—and a chemical war is threatening to take its place.

More here.