By JERICHO JONES This time of year we have reason to look with rejoicing at Gay Pride celebrations around the world. Their number, persistence, and exuberance were unimaginable to this lonely queer kid growing up in the 1970s. To think there was any place you could be openly, even flagrantly gay was like oxygen. Today, … Continue reading Ambivalent Pride
By CHRISTINE MARIE and ANN MONTAGUE This is a particularly important moment to be considering the meaning of the Russian Revolution for women, LGBTQI activists, and gender politics. We have seen the protests against the Misogynist in Chief by more than 3 million U.S. women being channeled into clubs to rebuild the Democratic Party in … Continue reading Women & gender politics in the Russian Revolution
By ANN MONTAGUE “Mariela Castro’s March: Cuba’s LGBT Revolution,” directed by Jon Albert and Sual Landau. Cuban producer Roberto Chile. An HBO Documentary Production. This just released film follows Mariela Castro and Cuban LGBT activists as they travel through rural towns to engage with Cubans about the upcoming International Day Against Homophobia on May 17, … Continue reading Mariela Castro and Cuba’s LGBT revolution
By ANN MONTAGUE On June 12, the nation and the world were stunned when a mass shooting took place in Orlando, Fla., at the Pulse, a gay nightclub. Forty-nine people were killed and 53 wounded. Five people remain hospitalized. This was the deadliest attack in the United States since Sept. 11, 2001. The shooter opened … Continue reading We are all Orlando!
By JOHN WILSON “The Danish Girl,” 1 hr. 59 min., directed by Tom Hooper. “The Danish Girl” is a mesmerizing, moving account of how transgender pioneer Lili Elbe (originally Einar Wegener) came to be one of the first persons known to have gender reassignment surgery. Adapted from David Ebershoff’s fictionalized novel of 2000, it features Eddie … Continue reading Film: The Danish Girl
By ANN MONTAGUE and ANNETTE GAGNE On June 26, the U.S. Supreme Court issued a sweeping and historic decision that grants gay and lesbian couples the legal right to marry. The ruling invalidates discriminatory laws in Kentucky, Michigan, Ohio, and Tennessee that had been upheld by the Sixth Circuit Court of Appeals. It requires all … Continue reading Same-sex marriage victory
By GAETANA CALDWELL-SMITH and JOE AUCIELLO The Imitation Game, a film biography directed by Morten Tyldum, with Benedict Cumberbatch and Keira Knightly. Director Morten Tyldum has crafted an excellent fictionalized film biography, “The Imitation Game,” based on the book, ”Alan Turing: The Enigma,” by Andrew Hodges. The film portrays Turing as an intelligent though troubled man, … Continue reading British government betrayed its hero
By JOHN WILSON Outrage over the Putin regime’s recently enacted vicious anti-gay law has sparked a debate over how best to oppose it, and support queer communities in Russia. Already many protests have occurred. Aug. 3 was an international day of protest, which originated in San Francisco and saw demonstrations in many cities. In Toronto … Continue reading Boycott Sochi?
By ANN MONTAGUE Transjustice activists are working on a lot of issues, and a major one is health care. The United States is very far behind countries with national health-care systems, as most of these countries cover whatever transgender people need without prejudice. The Transgender Law Center is a major resource for information about the … Continue reading TransJustice: the fight for health care
By ANN MONTAGUE On June 26 the U.S. Supreme Court struck down the Defense Of Marriage Act (DOMA) as unconstitutional. This legislation was promoted and signed by President Bill Clinton in 1996 and denies any of the over 1100 federal benefits to same-sex couples. The Court’s 5-4 majority decision was clear and simple. Writing for … Continue reading A victory for same-sex marriage rights
By ANN MONTAGUE On June 7 the San Francisco Pride Board issued a statement that it was refusing to back down from its decision to overrule the vote to select Bradley Manning as grand marshall for this year’s LGBT Pride Celebration. This was despite an angry May 31 community meeting at which many people had … Continue reading SF Pride leaders reject Bradley Manning
Prodded by years of lesbian/gay rights agitation, Ontario New Democrats compelled the provincial Liberal Party to stand up and defy theocracy. The parties passed the Accepting Schools Act in June, mandating that all Ontario schools allow Gay-Straight Alliance clubs to be formed in publicly funded Catholic Separate schools. In Mississauga (west of Toronto), Catholic high … Continue reading Victory for Ontario LGBT youth
TORONTO—At least 1000 people gathered in Queen’s Park June 26 to participate in the first Stonewall march to commemorate the 42nd anniversary of the Stonewall Inn riots in New York City, which were a jump-off point for the gay liberation movement. This date had been opportunistically vacated by Pride Toronto, which moved Pride Day to … Continue reading Toronto: Stonewall is reborn
by Caryn Jensen On Nov. 12 at the State Capitol here, as many as 150 people turned out for a die-in for queer rights. The “Homophobia Kills!” Die-In was planned in response to the increased media coverage of the queer suicides happening across the country and mirrored after two other die-ins that had already taken … Continue reading Die-in for Queer Rights
Click here to view a round up of the protests in support of same-sex marriage that took place all across the U.S. on Saturday, November 15.
The broad outlines of Socialist Action's views on the centrality of mass mobilizations in building an irresistible antiwar movement have been published in previous issues of this newspaper (see Jeff Mackler's article in our November 2007 issue). But some additional elaboration can be helpful at a time when activists are today discussing concrete measures to … Continue reading Why Mass Action?
by Adam Ritscher / 2003 This past month the Supreme Court struck down the state of Texas’s anti-gay “Homosexual Conduct Law.” This law, like many of the “anti-sodomy” laws still on the books in number of states, makes gay sex an illegal act. The Supreme Court’s decision came on the heels of a big campaign … Continue reading Supreme Court Strikes Down Anti-Sodomy Laws
by Joe Auciello / November 2005 issue of Socialist Action newspaper BOSTON—During the last two years, the struggle for gay rights, especially the initiatives for civil unions and same-sex marriages, has seen more setbacks than gains throughout the United States. In 2003, the Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court ruled that gays had a right to marry, … Continue reading Setbacks in MA, a Victory in CT – The Struggle Continues for Gay Marriages
by Donny Lessard / April 2005 issue of Socialist Action In 1947 the state of California made a historic move and struck down that state’s ban on interracial marriages. At the time, 48 states had bans on interracial marriage. According to some polls from the time, approximately nine out of 10 Americans said that … Continue reading Which Way Forward for the GLBT Rights Movement?
by Barry Weisleder After decades of street marches, bitter protests, and expensive legal battles, the Supreme Court of Canada ruled on Dec. 9 that a same-sex marriage law would be constitutional. The High Court Justices said that Parliament has the authority to redefine marriage to include gay or lesbian couples, but religious officials cannot … Continue reading Supremes bless same-sex marriage
By ADAM RITSCHER Many tend to think that the gay liberation movement did not begin in earnest until the 1969 Stonewall riots in New York-the now infamous event when patrons of the gay and lesbian bar stood up and fought back against an attack by police. As important an event as Stonewall proved to be, … Continue reading Movement for Gay Liberation Began Well Before Stonewall
The Truth about Shell Oil By MARK OSTAPIAK In September 2001, Northland College in Ashland, Wis., sponsored a forum on "sustainability" featuring a representative from Shell Oil. In response, the Youth for Socialist Action on campus distributed a leaflet describing Shell's atrocious record in Nigeria. This article is adapted from the leaflet. Beneath the ground … Continue reading Youth in Action
FBI and colleges attack student rights By DAVID BERNT Using the so-called war on terrorism as a pretext, the FBI, in collaboration with colleges and universities, is trampling on the privacy rights of students. The FBI has sought out, and in most cases obtained private student records, which by law are not to be released … Continue reading Youth in Action
