This one's about fetishization and attraction, specifically as it operates in/on the trans community--the subject matter does require a pretty direct address of sexuality, so that's there. FYI :)

OUTmedia's
"BE QUEER, BUY QUEER!"
INTERNATIONAL VIDEO CONTEST

in partnership with Campus Pride

WIN $10,000
in FREE OUTmedia Entertainment for Your Campus

LEARN MORE

In partnership with Campus Pride, OUTmedia is seeking college students throughout the world to submit original videos on the theme,“Be Queer, Buy Queer!”

Slams,rants, stand up, sketch, music frenzy, spicy splicing are all welcome.We want you to speak boldly, and outrageously on the vision, expressed by OUTmedia’s Founder, Shelly Weiss, “care about where you spend your every dime, invest in the businesses that believe and invest in you.Build your queer vision of your future, with what and where you buy today!”

Submit your own video responding to concept of "Be Queer Buy Queer," with a friend,your LGBTQQIA campus group, or run wild with your entire campus community! Present in video form "What Does Be Queer Buy Queer Mean To You?"

PRIZE: One winner will receive $10,000 in OUTmedia entertainment* and the opportunity to host the First Annual OUTmedia Queer Campus Culture Fest! at their university --hosted by Kit Yan and being developed for TVairing.

An additional prize of a performance by one OUTmedia artist will be given to the school with the most number of registered voters.

DEADLINE FOR SUBMISSIONS: Submissions will be accepted through April 15, 2010, voting from April16-29, 2010 -- and the winner announced at the culmination of Diversity Month on April 30, 2010.

I remember being nervous as I sat there with my study abroad advisor. It was our final meeting. After months and months of meeting for advice on figuring out where I wanted to study, looking over final applications for programs and scholarships, helping me to get all of my forms and vaccines in order, it was our final check-in before I would be on an airplane to Tanzania. "There is one last thing," I nervously piped up after we'd gone over all of the checklists. "I...I'm kinda nervous about having a girlfriend while I'm abroad." Holly and I had only gotten back together in the last month of school, and I had only recently started thinking about what it would mean to have a girlfriend in a country that has a language without a word for lesbian and where male homosexuality is illegal--there was even a case of a European man being deported! None of this was going to stop me; I figured that our once-a-week phone calls would be private enough, and that I could pass off the picture of the two of us I kept by my bed as a picture of my "friend." Mostly, I couldn't believe this was a position I was actually in. I felt a lot of anger about having to step into a closet I had never even had to be in for that long. But, I also knew this was just part of the experience, one more opportunity in cross-cultural learning. And in the end, it made me grateful for the ability to be out and proud and makes it only that more important to create safe spaces for LGBTQ people.

The R. Scott Hitt Foundation provides grant funding for college and post-graduate students to receive compensation for skill-building internships at pro-LGBT 501(C) non-profit organizations.

The R. Scott Hitt Foundation is accepting applications for our 2010 internship grants. Additional information is available at www.scotthittfoundation.org Please feel free to contact us directly at scotthittfoundation@gmail.org

PAID LGBT INTERNSHIPS

The R. Scott Hitt Foundation Internships for 2010

The R. Scott Hitt Foundation is offering funding for qualified candidates with the vision to be future leaders in the lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) movement.

The pro-LGBT sponsoring organization that you choose apply with will receive funding to compensate your internship position while you strengthen your resume and gain valuable skills towards becoming a leader of the future.

* POST-GRADUATE*
THE SCOTT HITT INTERNSHIP IN LEADERSHIP DEVELOPMENT

Application Deadline: May 7, 2010
Post graduate students with strong academic record
Duration: 7-9 months, 40 hour week - $20,000 Grant
Location: An established 501(c)3 nonprofit with a commitment to the advancement of LGBT equality
Applicant contacts host organization they want to work at and co-develops a successful curriculum encompassing these key elements: communications, fundraising, board development and grassroots policy
2-4 recipients per year

UNDERGRADUATE *
THE A.N.G.L.E. SOUTHERN CALIFORNIA INTERNSHIP

Application Deadline: April 16, 2010

• Current undergraduate students with strong academic record
• Duration: 8 weeks, 40 hour week - $4000 Grant to sponsor 501(c)3

So this is something to be excited about! That’s right, an LGBT skate night at the local roller skate rink/gaming establishment, Roll On America. It’s coming up this month, so I’ll be posting pictures! In the meantime, I’ll be encouraging my group to make sweet uniforms. It may not quite be roller derby, but it might just be a springboard. Oh yeah, it’s on.

On a more serious note, OPEN has recently come to realize that Clark University doesn’t account for any sort of gender and/or gender presentation in its nondiscrimination policy. This month we’re having a speaker on Transgender rights and showing the informative documentary Toilet Training, so hopefully we can use that momentum to work with administration and get some serious trans-friendly policies in place.

REGISTER NOW

2010 Regional LGBT & Ally College Conferences

Every year thousands of LGBT college students and their allies meetfrom coast to coast to network, learn and celebrate with PRIDE. Choose from several LGBT national events and regional conferences across the United States. REGISTER NOW.

Feb 19-21 -- Midwest BGLTA College Conference
University of Wisconsin, Madison, WI
http://www.mblgtacc.org

Feb19-21 -- Western Regional LGBTQIA Conference
California Polytechnic State University, San Luis Obispo
http://www.comeoutwest.org

April 2-4 -- Power of One Northwest LGBT Conference
Co-hosted by Washington StateUniversity and University of Idaho
http://www.nwlgbtleadership.wsu.edu/

Apr16-18 -- Northeast LGBT Conference
University at Buffalo – http://www.nelgbtc.com

Campus Pride is a Proud Partner

Believe In -- Campus Pride. Campus Pride is the leading national nonprofit organization 501(c)(3) for student leaders and campus organizations working to create safer, more LGBT-friendly colleges and universities. It exists to give "voice and action" in building future LGBT and ally leaders. More information online at www.campuspride.org

I know I had already touched upon it, but now that school’s out and all my pictures are uploaded, I wanted to mention more about Clark’s Trans Day of Remembrance this year. One of OPEN’s main goals next semester will be making the campus more Trans-friendly and aiding legislation meant to help Transgender individuals, so I thought it might be helpful for myself as well to recap. It was a multi-faceted event, and we had a vigil, signs, tabling, and a push to make more of our restrooms gender neutral.

I had hardly realized the vigil was happening until it was over. Being the busy-body I am, I had been too worried about its production than actually experiencing it. After everyone had gotten their tea lights, we stood around in a circle and read off stories of Trans victims. I was counting to see how many we had gone through so I’d know when to make the closing remarks (thinking: “Five? Yes, I think that was the fifth. Seven more? Wait, was that sixth? Oh no…”), when I heard a few sniffles. It was frigid out; my nose was running too. “Okay, twelfth. That’s the last one. No, actually one more. Alright.” And then it hit me. There were sixty people crowded around a circle, and they hadn’t all just come down with colds. Nope, people were crying; people were genuinely moved. And that’s when those sniffles hit me too, and we concluded the vigil.

LOCAL NEWS -- CHARLOTTE, NC

Campus Pride & Time Out Youth Condemn Remarks by Mecklenburg County Commissioner Bill James as “intolerant and harmful to area LGBTQ youth”

Both organizations call for an immediate reprimand of Commissioner James

Charlotte, NC, Thursday, December 17, 2009 – Campus Pride and Time Out Youth today condemned remarks made by Mecklenburg County Commissioner Bill James at the Tuesday night county commissioner meeting where domestic partner benefits for same sex couples were considered and then passed by the majority of commissioners. Both Campus Pride and Time Out Youth call for an immediate reprimand of Commissioner James to send a clear message that incivility and disrespect will not be allowed in public county commission meetings.

During the meeting, Commissioner James interrupted Commissioner Vilma Leake and leaned over to her saying, “Your son was a homo, really?” The comment was made after Leake shared an impassioned speech about her son being gay and passing away of HIV/AIDS. Commissioner James has repeatedly used slurs like “trannies and homo” and likened bisexuals to a “Three’s Company of the sordid and icky kind” to demean LGBT people.

Hey everyone! Sorry about the brief hiatus; finals and papers have got me bogged down like never before. Just one more week!

OPEN finished up our semester with a lovely holiday party. We’ve been collaborating with several other clubs and events, including CureFest— a flea market type event with artists and vendors from the area, with a portion of the proceeds went toCentral Massachusetts Health Awareness Services in honor of World AIDS Day. We also worked with VOX (student advocates for Planned Parenthood) at their annual Sex Fest—a FUNdraiser promoting sexual health and awareness (we had a “Pin the Gender/Bender on the Person” game table!).

I feel really good about this semester. It’s been an eventful one for OPEN, and a monumental one for me.I can’t help but feel like the tireless hours I’ve put toward the organization have helped us bring about some majorly successful events. The intimate relationships I’ve worked to create and maintain with the members have been a great source of joy, and my Executive Board and I have become very close friends. I’ve learned a lot about what are realistic goals, what are not, and why realizeability shouldn’t always be my main concern (a queer’s gotta have dreams, ya dig?). It feels really good to look back on four months with great events and member turnout and think, “Wow, I helped make that.”

PASS ENDA NOW

Campus Pride Statement to U.S. Members of Congress

I write on behalf of the thousands of lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender (LGBT) and ally college students, faculty and staff who are members of Campus Pride, a national nonprofit organization working to create safer, more LGBT-friendly colleges and universities. We strongly support the federal Employment Non-Discrimination Act (ENDA) (H.R. 3017/S. 1584), which would prohibit discrimination in the workplace based on sexual orientation and gender identity. We urge your support to ensure that the Employment Non-Discrimination Act becomes law in the near future. Specifically, we urge you to co-sponsor this measure, vote for it, and oppose any efforts to weaken it.

A clear and unambiguous federal law is needed to fully address the continuing problem of discrimination against lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender people. While some states and localities have laws in place to prohibit this type of discrimination, the patchwork of laws in this country remains inadequate. Discrimination is a very real problem that affects lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) people, leaving them and their families economically vulnerable. For all of these reasons, passage of ENDA remains a top priority for the LGBT community.