ethiopienne:

Forever reblog.

(via wretchedoftheearth)

mothernaturenetwork:

Ingredients for a successful urban kitchen garden
Growing your own food can be easier than you think.

<3 <3

Sexy.

(via wretchedoftheearth)

asherofwinterfell:

Big Fat Deal: The Big Ballet is a troupe of dancers from Russia who weigh a minimum of 220 pounds each.

Because the ballet tag features too many people of only one body type.  Let’s not pretend you need to be a certain weight to be able to perform fouetté en tournant.

(via sinidentidades)

The 106-year-old transgender woman who addressed the first ever public gay rights rally in Burma must have seen incredible changes in her lifetime, from living under British colonialism to Burmese independence to military rule to the recent opening up.

At the first celebration of IDAHO (International Day Against Homophobia and Transphobia) in the Burmese capital Rangoon yesterday, a local youth brought the centenarian transgender woman to the stage during a section called Paying Respect to Seniors.

‘She was almost in tears,’ one of the organisers of the event, Aung Myo Min, told Gay Star News. ‘She told the audience how pleased she is to see this event take place in Rangoon.’

Aung Myo Min, from Human Rights Education Institute Burma, said the event in Rangoon was a resounding success. ‘It was very exciting and colourful,’ he said. ‘Youth wearing colorful outfits mingled with older men and women in traditional Burmese dress. Everyone was looking around, eager and excited for the first day of LGBT rights in Burma.’

The programme started with a speech by a well-known Burmese make-up artist. Ko Mar. He said that as a gay man in Burma he has struggled for acceptance. He encouraged young LGBT people to maintain a strong sense of self-worth and to fight for equality.

Then author Atta Kyaw spoke about homophobia in Burmese society. He said the media presents stereotypes of LGBT people which reinforces dangerous misconceptions. In movies for example, he said, gay men are comic characters rather than multi-dimensional.

The events in Rangoon and other cities in Burma went smoothly without any interruption from the authorities.

Aung Myo Min, who has organised IDAHO events for Burmese nationals in Thailand for the last three years, said:

‘I am very happy to see this happen. I feel like the rainbow flag in Burma ties the event to others happening around the world. This event is a historic event that establishes the voice of the Burmese LGBT movement as one that will not be silenced.’

(via sinidentidades)

sonofbaldwin:

An Interesting Look at the History of Marriage (via http://www.facebook.com/itstimeequality)

transfeminism:

Paige Clay. Photo: Courtesy Brian Turner.

A social worker at Taskforce Prevention and Community Services, is organizing a community event to call for answers in the murder of Paige Clay, a transgender woman who was killed on the city’s West Side on Monday morning.

Brian Turner, the organizer, said the motivation for this event is also due to the dissatisfaction over the police investigation.

“My main reason for doing this is because it seems like it is in the process of being swept under the mat,” he said.

Clay, who was 23, was found with a gunshot wound to her forehead early Monday morning in an alley behind the 4500 block of West Jackson Boulevard. Area North detectives are investigation the case and no suspects are in custody. Initial information obtained from police and the Cook County Medical Examiner’s office could not confirm her gender identity.

Turner, who runs a program for transgender women called Women of Many Voices of which Clay was a member, has taken it upon himself to be a voice for the now silenced Clay.

This silence is also coming from investigators and Cook County officials, according to Turner. He said he has contacted numerous officials and investigators and has not been contacted in return. Turner was also turned away from identifying Clay’s body because he was not considered immediate family.

Turner describes Clay as an adopted member of his family via his aunt, Denise Turner, who was a foster mother to Clay.

“Why should it matter if I’m not immediate family if my aunt was her foster mother? This is the woman that raised her, who took her into her own home,” he said.

Cook County has given Turner 90 days to wait to see if any biological family makes a claim, something he finds frustrating and confusing.

“She has people who love her who were not her immediate family, but they were family.”

Turner knows what it is like to be a “ward of the state” and was one himself until his grandmother took him in, he said. Clay never had that advantage of a loving mother father home, but that she did have a community and a life, he explained.

Clay was well known in the ball community and held down several part-time jobs in the area.

“She was a human being just like anyone else and she was trying to do better,” Turner said.

The event, Justice for Paige, will be held at Taskforce, located at 9 N. Cicero Ave. Tuesday, May 1 from 6:30 p.m. to 9 p.m. More details will be updated on posted on that page.

The event is intended to bring the community together to share useful information about the murder. The event is also meant to heal the community wounded by this event.

“[We want to] do what we can do to bring this person into custody and do what we can do as a community to get us back on track,” Turner said. “Comfort one another and ensure that this does not happen to another trans girl.”

Turner is calling for the police investigating to release what leads they have and to really become involved with the community.

(via crunkfeministcollective)

sonofbaldwin:

AFTER TRAYVON: Black Boys Speak

(via variationalbeings)

(via variationalbeings)