Want Fries With That Transphobic Hate Crime?

Jamar McLeod, 24, told the NY Daily News he and his girlfriend, 22 year old Jalisa “JoJo” Griffen had just picked up her hormone medicine Wednesday night and were headed back to their apartment in Bushwick when they headed into the fast food restaurant on W. Third St. around 7 PM EDT to grab something to eat and use the bathroom

While in line McLeod got into a conversation with Griffen about how people were being attacked just for being gay.  He was overheard by their 350 pound tormentor Keith Patron, who butted into their conversation and started hurling homophobic slurs at the couple punctuated with ‘”I can’t stand gay people.”

Read more at TransGriot.

LISTEN: Could Gay Marriage Keep Black Voters From Polls?

Historically, pastors have played a big role in organizing get-out-the-vote efforts within the African American community. But the issue of same-sex marriage has divided faith leaders. Guest host Celeste Headlee speaks with Reverend Derek McCoy of the Maryland Marriage Alliance about how the issue could affect the black vote.

Listen to the segment on NPR.

Media Erroneously Makes Boogeymen Out Of Black Churches, Voters

There is an obvious attempt to make a boogeyman out of Black churches and an unfortunate number of White liberals are choosing to be willful suckers. I’m exhausted by it, especially when it comes from White gays who are doing their part to share it. It’s déjà vu from 2008 when Blacks were faulted for the passing of Proposition 8 in California.  Many of these so-called progressives didn’t reach out to Black voters then and too many of them are willing participates to paint Blacks under the same monolith as the mainstream press is doing now. Such is the problem with not communicating enough with the people you’re condemning.

Continue reading over at NewsOne.

GUEST POST: My OUT on the Hill 2012 Experience 

I experienced the most exciting, engaging, empowering, and transformative four days of my life at the National Black Justice Coalition’s (NBJC) OUT on the Hill Black LGBT Leadership Summit. There is an inspirational and non-quantifiable affirmation in seeing so many Black queer people who are successful and true to their whole selves in one place. OUT on the Hill has given me the greatest gift of all, the gift of renewed hope. As I continued through OUT on the Hill, I felt more and more affirmed, empowered, and hopeful. I felt a part of a family filled with mommas, daddies, sisters, brothers, cousins, aunties, and uncles who shared their stories with me, embraced me, comforted me, praised me, and even admonished me in love.

Read the full testimony on NBJC.org.

We Can’t Afford to Participate in a ‘Justice for Some’ Culture

We’re living in a time when more than 25,000 transgender people are at risk for losing their voting rights because (of course) they too are being caught in the net of racist voter ID policies; when black transwoman Cece McDonald sits in a mens’ prison for defending herself against a racist transphobe; when violence against transgender people is so prevalent that the nation’s capitol has taken the extraordinary step of creating an ad campaign to combat it; when being transgender and a person of color represents a life-threatening “double burden.”

More at Colorlines.