Andrej Pejic

American women in the twenty to thirty age group appear to push the envelope in regards to style versus older generations, by finding inspiration from “boyfriends” clothes whether it’s accessories, pants, or an over-sized tee-shirt.

From February 9th through the 16th, New York will host Mercedes-Benz Fashion Week. The fashion world will display upcoming trends for 2012. Expect to see more gender-pushing styles such as short suits, color-block, abstract tees and bottoms.

Summer is always a big box office season. Afterall, K-12 students are out of school, teachers don’t have to work, and many families are able to enjoy a leisurely time at the movies. But college students are also a target market in this, and let’s not forget the LGBT target market either.

This summer movie season features quite a few selections from comic books. Thor has already come out, but we’re still looking forward to movies such as the reboot of the X-Men movie franchise in “X-Men: First Class”, as well as “CaptainAmerica: The First Avenger” and “The Green Lantern.”

Now, when many people think of comics, they also think of the nerdy people who read them, or they think that comics are a waste of time. In all actuality, comic books have a very queer history that many people don’t know about.

I, personally, am a big fan of comics. Not just because I like seeing a bunch of hunky super heroes in spandex… but because they sometimes have a very queer undertone to them. Stop me if you’ve heard this one before:

Sound familiar? If you didn’t know the plot of the X-Men comic series, you might think I was talking about the current plight of the LGBT population of the world. I’m a huge fan of the X-Men for this reason. Readers of the comic book series can see the X-Men for who they are: hard working individuals who are just trying to fit in with a world that rejects them. It speaks to a lot of people, and it especially spoke to me.

But now let’s dissect X-Men a little further. We’ll take three characters from the series. 1) Jean-Paul Beaubier (AKA Northstar) 2) Raven Darkholme (AKA Mystique) and 3) Senator Robert Kelley.

Northstar was developed in the early 1980s to be a part of the Canadian mutant superhero team “Alpha Flight”. A policy in place by the Marvel Comics head, as well as the “Comics Code Authority” (which we’ll discuss a little later) resulted in Northstar being ambiguously gay, because the writers weren’t allowed to just come right out with it and say it. Later, he began to start getting progressively sicker. Many people thought he was sick with AIDS, which by this point was running rampant… and due to stereotyping of the time, would further imply that Northstar was gay. The writers shrugged this off by saying that Northstar was really partly a magical creature whose illness stemmed from homesickness on steroids. And they specifically referred to him as “a fairy.” Ha! See what they did there? In the early 90s, Northstar was finally given a special dispensation to come out, which sparked a firestorm of media coverage because he was the very first openly gay comic character in American comic books.

Mystique is a shape-shifting mutant who had a long-lasting relationship with another mutant named Irene Adler. Marvel intended on Mystique and Irene (also called Destiny, due to her power to foresee the future) to be the biological parents of another X-Men character named Nightcrawler, but the Comics Code Authority (I’ll get to it, I promise!) as well as Marvel policy required that there be no explicit gay (and lesbian) or bisexual relationships. In this originally proposed plot, Mystique would have morphed into a man to be able to conceive Nightcrawler. Instead, they dashed that idea and little mention was made of Mystique’s and Destiny’s relationship, although the two have frequently been seen together in a variety of media.

Senator Robert E. Kelly can be analogous to any politician who has ever tried to criminalize or legislate against homosexuality. Kelly has had various “spin-offs” in the various continuities of the Marvel multiverse, but usually, it centers around one theme: an ignorance of those whom he claims to hate. Marvel has identified him as being politically conservative, and often he is the most outspoken in Marvel’s fictional version of our government, although he is politically in the minority when it comes to his stance on the issues of “mutant rights.”

But enough about Marvel! DC comic fans have to have something to look forward to, right? While Marvel can boast the first openly gay character, DC boasts the first openly gay couple. In the late 90s, writers Warren Ellis and Bryan Hitch created Midnighter, who was a dark vigilante with some pretty awesome super powers. He could anticipate his opponent’s next move, and he had an auxiliary heart… you know… for just in case you ever need a second one. But eventually, the two superheroes actually got married and even adopted a child.

Ladies, I haven’t forgotten you, either. Have you ever heard of Kate Kane? She’s Batwoman, the female version of the dark knight we all know and love. She’s totally kick ass and totally a lesbian! She comes out after trying to join the military, moves back toGothamCity, meets and dates police officer Renee Montoya, and when she gets mugged, she handles herself just fine, managing to incapacitate the assailant just as Batman gets to her. She’s inspired by Batman to become a hero in her own right and steals some military weaponry and sets out to do just that.

But Batman is, in part, where all of this truly began. In the late 1940s, comic books were going through what is known as “The Golden Age of Comics” and subsequently began hitting the attention of politicians. These politicians began to look at comics as the cause of juvenile delinquency and several cities and counties banned any comic books with gore, horror, or violent themes. In 1954, Fredric Wertham’s book Seduction of the Innocent came out, in which he asserted that the material shown in comic books was harmful to the children who, after all, were a huge block of comic readership.

One scene that caught the attention of concerned adults everywhere was a panel from Batman #84. The intro to the panel says “Morning. And it begins like any other morning in the lives of millionaire Bruce Wayne and his ward, Dick Grayson.” It has both Bruce Wayne (Batman) and Dick Grayson (the original Robin) waking up–in the same bed. Batman then, while stretching, says “Ah, that was a good sleep! C’mon, Dick – A cold shower, a big breakfast!” That alone is homoerotic enough. And I have to wonder exactly why Bruce needs a cold shower right now. But this scene, according to Wertham, was evidence that Batman was “psychologically homosexual”. Also… Batman went through a rainbow phase in ’57. Detective Comics #241 show Batman in a pink (or is it red?) bat costume. Need I say more?

The Comic Code Authority was created out of this scandal and was a self-policing group of people from all the major comics publishers of the time. They censored any comics that depicted any of the following: “policemen, judges, government officials, and respected institutions … in such a way as  to create disrespect for established authority, good must always triumph over evil, law enforcement officers dying was discouraged, but not banned outright, “excessive violence”, “lurid, unsavory, gruesome illistrations”, vampires, werewolves, ghosts, zombies, “sexy, wanton” comics, “sex perversion”, “sex abnormalities”, “illicit sex relations”, seduction, rape, sadism, masochism, the “sanctity of marriage” was to be glorified, and any adjective synonymous with “scary” could not appear in a title. Now, I would be completely amiss if I didn’t mention that the CCA didn’t really have any true power over comics publishers and many publishers had their own rules regarding these topics. But it was difficult to get any distributors to sell comics without the CCA seal of approval.

Reading comics with a queer lense can be eye-opening at times. So this summer, while you’re sitting in the movie theater to watch one of the comic-based movies try to see if you can catch any gay subtext. Or you can gawk at the incredibly sexy men and women in skimpy outfits. That’s always an option, too.

Wikipedia articles were a major source of information regarding the CCA and DC comics

The LGBT Resource Center is putting out a call to all graduates from the 2010/2011 school year! If you graduated in Summer 2010, Fall 2010, Spring 2011, or Summer 2011, you are eligible to participate in the Lavender Graduation Ceremony.

This ceremony started here at the University of North Florida and is now celebrated at colleges and universities across the nation. Our application is online and the deadline to apply as a graduating honoree is Friday, March 11 at midnight.

The RSVP deadline is Friday, March 18 at midnight.

The applications can be found at the following links:

Lavender Graduation Application

Lavender Graduation RSVP Application

Graduates MUST fill out both surveys to ensure that everyone is invited, and that enough food will be ordered for each person.

Community members and LGBT Resource Center Patrons are asked to only fill out the RSVP application.

Links to both applications will be available on the Blog, the Website, and Facebook.

-Michael

Wednesday night:

• Arrived to single-digit temperatures, snow, dry skin, and static electricity
• Had dinner with my cohort (Ryan Miller) and one of his colleagues to an extremely busy hotel restaurant jam-packed with LGBTQA leaders, youth, advocates from across the nation. You could feel the energy of excited people exchanging ideas, expectations, and resources
• Called it a night in my 20th floor suite, which happened to be on the same floor as the POC (people of color) hospitality suite

Thursday:

• I was so excited about being there I decided to hit the gym… at 7am! I am NOT a morning person but I just could not stay asleep so I hit the gym and of course, everybody’s hogging the cardio machines. Good thing I prefer free weights anyway. Did some circuit training, went back to my room, showered, and dressed in my usual shirt/tie combo.
• Started a full day of LGBT campus administrators sessions from 9am – 6pm. A great ice-breaker of sorts and mingles makes me realize that not only do I NOT fit in the gender binary but I also do not fit in the Mac vs PC binary (I use both). I guess I am pre-destined to forever be in the middle
• During the day-long session I broke off into a POC group and found it both welcoming but also frustrating. Welcoming because I was no longer the 1 non-white person there. Frustrating because of all the horror stories that come with being both queer and a minority. I still walked away with a sense that there’s a purpose for everything.
• Went out afterwords to have dinner and explore COLD downtown. Thankfully, all establishments in the city of Minneapolis prohibit smoking – in other words, if a person wanted to smoke a cigarette, you’d have to go outside and freeze (if that’s not incentive to quit, I don’t know what is).

Friday:

• Session 1 (9-10:30am) — Woke up early again, still not feeling tired, but man my skin’s super dry! I forgot how much winter wreaks havoc on skin. There are more 25 (1.5 hr) sessions I can choose from or I could go to one of 6 academy workshops (3 hrs). I go for the sessions, unfortunately I picked one that I didn’t like (info was too specific and dis-heartening). I almost wanted to demand a refund of my morning.
• Session 2 (10:45am-12:15pm) — went to an AMAZING session on guerilla marketing. The facilitator was very knowledgeable brought relevant examples, and was humorous/entertaining. I hope to get her sources soon via email.
• Lunch (12:15-1:30pm) — went walking around in the Skyway (human-sized hamster tunnels) and found a subway.
• Plenary (1:30-2:45pm) — State of the movement Address from Rea Carey. I didn’t stay for the whole thing but I did catch that we need to advocate for Social Security. Many people rely on social security for their main source of income and she drove the point home with “if our parents no longer have social security, and have no other financial means, they will end up moving back in with us!”. I don’t think I’ve ever seen so many people running to sign up to send a letter to their senators.
• Session 3 (3-4:30pm) — Learned how to be a board star. Man this is a lot harder than I thought since I am on the board for both OUT Jacksonville and OASIS.
• Session 4 (4:45-6:15pm) — More board related stuff, learning how to ask for money. Also very important and very good.
• Caucus 1 (6:30-7:30pm) — Ryan and I facilitate a Southeastern US session on the issues that LGBTQ populations face in the southeast region: racism, heterosexism, gender binary, HIV infection rates, poverty, religion, lack of trans resources, etc. The only unfortunate part about the timing of this caucus is that it’s also during POC caucuses and we were lacking in both trans and POC representation.
• Evening events — Decided to go out and explore Hell’s Kitchen (which by the way, is NOT named after the TV show). Awesome restaurant that turns into a great night club/bar/hot spot. It not only gets packed but what was great was that several people and I had a really in-depth conversation about what it meant to be queer, young, and a person of color. It was great to have that conversation just for the hell of it.

Saturday

• Session 5 — Learned about community center resources, and a great survey and statistics of the state of CBO’s (community based organizations) and NPO’s (non-profit organizations).
• Session 6 — originally went to learn about interpersonal violence and campuses and it turned out to be something else. Disappointed, I ducked out as soon as I could and went upstairs to Kink, Race, and Class. It was a packed house of people discussing the issues of being a POC and how we’re sometimes tokenized, made to play a certain role, and how it can trigger safety issues and psychological reactions.
• Lunch at Hell’s Kitchen, which was insanely packed for not only weekend brunch, but people from the task force looking to get out of the hotel. It was warm, I walked around in a sport coat and I was fine, it was 25 degrees. Guess I’m still a mid-westerner at heart.
• Session 7 — went to learn about how to move swing voters but this was after a very full lunch and I had a hard time staying awake. Tried to look for coffee but since it’s the weekend everything (in downtown) is closed.
• Session 8 — HOORAY! A session on API (Asian Pacific Islanders) LGBT organizations! Jacksonville is severely lacking in queer API visibility. I got some ideas on how we could try to bring some visibility, but let’s see if it happens.
• Caucus 2 — had a HUGE space to talk about butch/femme issues. It was great to talk about all the issues and all the perspectives.
• Evening events – decided to stay in, pack, and study (the joys of being a grad student)

Sunday:

• Wandered around for a bit and said goodbye to the feeling of inclusion and celebration of all my identities. That and the great view of the city I had. Back to humid Jacksonville.

Can’t wait until next year!!!

Queer Love will focus on keeping your relationships healthy, both in body and mind, and also delve into some of the ways LGBTQ relationships differ from heterosexual relationships.

There will be food, fun, laughter, and great discussion so come out and join us on February 8 at 7:00 PM in the Student Union, room 3606. We hope to see you there!

On April 16, we will hold the Fourth Annual Lavender Graduation Ceremony. At that time, we will honor those graduates who have excelled through the rigors of pursuing a degree while overcoming the social and political stresses of being a lesbian, gay, bisexual, or transgender college student. Each graduate will receive a rainbow tassel for their cap and a certificate to help mark their success.

However, we can’t honor you if we don’t know about your story! So we’re urging everyone who is graduated the 2010/2011 school year or will graduate in Summer 2011 to sign up.

So, if you are a UNF student graduating this semester, Alumn who graduated in Summer or Fall ’10, or is set to graduate this summer, who is Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender, or Ally, please contact me at michael.lemley@unf.edu or the LGBT Resource Center at unflgbt@unf.edu with the headline “Lav Grad”.

Congratulations and we look forward to helping you celebrate your achievement!

As I’m writing this blog post, I am listening to Senator Joe Lieberman discuss the fact that he has 62 and potentially a few more senators willing to support the motion. The only thing that could stop it is Senator Majority Leader Harry Reid refusing to bring it up until too late. This bill, which was separated from the overall defense bill as a bill all its own, was passed in the House earlier today. The bill was then sent to the senate with a special note, utilizing a special policy in Congress.

Now, there is a bit of a squabble right now about Senators being disgruntled over the possibility of working through Christmas, however Lieberman doesn’t see why it should be drawn out past tomorrow morning. We will keep everyone updated as news becomes available. Perhaps Congress will see the light and give American Citizens an awesome gift this holiday season: their civil rights as human beings.

-Michael

The Fall semester has come to a close and on behalf of the LGBT Resource Center, I’d like to bid you all a happy and safe break. Congratulations to all who have graduated today! And congratulations, still, to those who were able to survive Finals Week with sanity intact.

We wish to remind everyone that we will still be open until December 22, 2010, observing reduced hours: 9:00 AM to 5:00 PM Monday through Friday.

If you have any extraneous loans from our lending library, please be sure to get them back as soon as possible.

We look forward to seeing you in the Spring Semester! We have a lot of awesome events in the works and we know you’ll definitely enjoy them!

Have a safe and happy winter break!

-Michael

He will go by male pronouns, he will hold off on hormone and surgical procedures, and will continue to play ball for not only a womens team, but a supportive womens team and school. I am ecstatic that not only are his teammates supportive of his process but his coach and school are on board as well.

Don’t get me wrong, this is going to be hard. The basketball season’s coming up and the NCAA, despite their best efforts, have a hard time of not only catching up on current issues but also enforcing their own policies. They already got their hands full with players going overseas for 1 year or only playing their freshman year of college ball just so they can get to the NBA. It’s ridiculous really, all the focus towards mens basketball, but that’s besides the point. The point is that Kye Allums is breaking ground and the NCAA will not only have to address his eligibility and rights, but they’ll have to address others who will (eventually) follow suit.

I’m a Jayhawk fan and alum, but you can bet that I’ll be keeping my eye on the womens tournament to see how GW and Kye Allums’ team is doing.

Thursday, November 18 is Transgender Day of Remembrance here at UNF. We will have a ceremony that includes a vigil, reading of names, (of transgender people who have passed) and a celebration of life ceremony immediately afterwards. Transgender awareness and advocacy, it’s important to include the entire human population, including those who do not fit the (gender) binary.

“The voters of Houston have opened the door to history. I know what this means to many of us who never thought we could achieve high office.”

In 2009, when Annise Parker was elected, Houston became the largest city in the nation with an openly gay mayor. Houston is the fourth most populous city in the United States.

Annise Parker was born and raised in Houston. Her mother was a bookkeeper, and her father worked for the Red Cross. Annise received a National Merit Scholarship to Rice University, where she earned a bachelor’s degree in anthropology and sociology.

After graduation, Parker began a 20-year career as a software analyst in the oil and gas industry. In 1997, she won a seat on the Houston City Council, making her Houston’s first out elected official. In 2003, Parker was elected city controller. She served two additional terms before being elected mayor.

Parker’s mayoral triumph didn’t come without a fight and controversy. Conservative groups criticized her for her “gay agenda” and distributed fliers featuring Parker and her partner, asking the question, “Is this the image Houston wants to portray?” Parker campaigned with her partner, Kathy Hubbard, and their three children.

Despite the attacks, Parker won the election in a city that denies its employees domestic partner benefits, and in a state where gay marriage and civil unions are constitutionally banned.

Parker was recognized as Council Member of the Year by the Houston Police Officers Union. In 2008, Houston Woman Magazine named her one of Houston’s 50 Most Influential Women.