POLITICS: First Openly Trans State Legislator Withdraws
Stacie Laughton, a New Hampshire Democrat who became the first openly trans person elected to a state legislature, announced Wednesday that she has terminated her run for the state House of Representatives.
“Due to circumstances out of my control, I have decided to withdraw (from) the race for state representative,” Laughton wrote on her Facebook page.
Voters elected Laughton to office on Nov. 6, but she was forced to announce her resignation in late November after reports that she pleaded guilty to conspiracy to commit fraudulent use of a credit card, identity fraud and falsifying physical evidence in July 2008. She served slightly more than four months in the Belknap County jail before her Nov. 2008 release.
During her campaign, Laughton vowed to get to work for residents on the economic issues she ran on, but high on her agenda as well is protecting New Hampshire’s marriage equality law, and passing a transgender rights law, which was voted down by the Democratic-led legislature in 2009. She also planned to focus on legislation to fight bullying in schools, particularly for transgender youth.
WTF: Trans Dating on Tumblr
A new Tumblr is making the rounds called “WTF Trans* Dating,” which has set out to highlight gender-variant voices from the front lines of the club, the coffee shop, Craigslist, wherever.
“I’m visiting my mom down south, possibly for several weeks,” one poster writes. “And don’t know any local folks. So I posted to Craig’s List (sic). Wait, wait, wait! Before you rush to judgement, I posted in t4t and ‘strictly platonic,’ and said I was just looking for nearby trans and queer folk to talk with, and possibly help out with any local community efforts. Very clear.Is anyone surprised that I received a whole buncha responses like this: ‘Hey are you sucking dick while your in town?’”
Check out the site here.
QUEER LIT: Journal Seeking Queer/Trans Submissions
Educe, a journal of queer literature based online is seeking submissions of literary fiction, non-fiction, and poetry from “queer folks across the globe,” they write. The press encourages “multicultural submissions,” and asks for no length restrictions, only “quality.” (Yet, they do have some loose restrictions, which are listed below).
Here are some guidelines:
Poetry: No more than 3 poems at a time
Fiction: No more than one story, 8K word max
Nonfiction: No more than one essay, 8K word max
The press is also interested in visual art submissions to be used as cover art.
For questions or with submissions, include name, address, phone, and email to:
[email protected]
GORGEOUS WRITING FROM THE WEB: Queercrip Femme Man of Color
On Jan. 2, Black Girl Dangerous posted this beautiful article by Edward Ndopu called “Musings from a Queercrip Femme Man of Color.”
Edward Ndopu courtesy of Black Girl Dangerous
“I feel compelled to make it known that I do not move through the world as sometimes black, sometimes disabled, sometimes queer, sometimes femme, sometimes male and sometimes Afropolitan,” Ndopu writes. “I move through the world embodying all of those identities at the same time, all of the time. We often make the mistake of thinking that an intersectional identity means a set of compartmentalized lived experiences joined together. An intersectional identity is one lived experience layered with the complexity of sociopolitical and cultural context. To borrow the words of Eli Clare, “gender reaches into disability; disability wraps around class; class strains against abuse; abuse snarls into sexuality; sexuality folds on top of race…everything finally piling onto a single human body.”
Read the full article here.
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