Journal Review & Thoughts - Asylum & Betrayal

Ritchie: Palestinian LGBTQ Refugees

In this article Ritchie talks about the struggle of the Palestinian homosexual. He recalls how he was going to a gay bar in Israel with his friends and wondering if they would get in this time. They had planned to stop speaking Arabic as they got closer to the bar, to act more “gay” than usual and try not to give away that they are Palestinian. They did not gain entrance that night. Palestinian LGBT members have an extremely tough time. In their country they are seen as immoral and evil sinners doomed to damnation. There is no community there, it would be snuffed out. So Palestinians flee to Israel, a country that has somewhat accepted the gay community and culture. However, this is a strange place for Palestinians to escape to. Israel and Palestine are intertwined in an age old war over land and birth right, religion and destiny. The Palestinian homosexual has a chance to be accepted if he plays the victim of an evil and oppressive home country. If he rejects Palestine and comes to Israel as an open refugee of Muslim oppression there is a chance he will be accepted. Due to the war between the two countries there is a lot of discrimination and political hoops to jump through even after escaping to Israel. Activists in both camps try to stay away from political topics and support what they deem strictly LGBT community issues. This leads to problems because the two are very clearly related, especially in this case with the Palestinian refugees. A big part of the Palestinian struggle is also that they cannot take the path of a traditional western homosexual and come out of the closet, they must pass or escape.

Q: What do you think about Israel accepting homosexuals but using the community to discriminate and manipulate those that are of the background of their political rival/enemy

Berg: Asylum Claimants

This article takes a look at refugees seeking Asylum in other countries on the basis of being persecuted and prosecuted for being a LGBT member in their own country. These individuals are forced to pass as heteronormative people in their countries. This creates barriers to self-identification, reluctance to group membership and leads to depression and shame, impacting mental health. Sadly these factors also present barriers for these refugees in the legal process. Some countries still do not believe the narratives of these victimized LGBT refugees. Believing the story is a cover in order to be granted asylum and escape their country of origin for other reasons and agendas, calling these gender identities not plausible

Q: How would you feel if you had to hide your identity in your home country and when you fled in order to join a tolerant country they thought you were pretending in order to escape and be accepted.

Add to Flipboard Magazine.

Journal Review & Thoughts - Domestic Violence & Hate Crimes

Barnes: Suffering in a silent vacuum

Domestic Violence has always existed and it is never going to go extinct. Even if a partner were to defend themselves or terminate the relationship after the first instance of abuse, it would still be a form of domestic violence. To be able to imagine a world, relationship and even a lifestyle that is free of domestic violence is a practice of ignorance. I can relate to the notion that same sex lesbian relationships tend to foster loving families, at least in our minds. However, it is just as naïve to pretend that lesbians tend to be egalitarian, non-violent feminists who prescribe to groupthink so strongly that they would do whatever it takes to support their community’s precious feminine ideal of love and affection. On the other hand it should not come as a shock, after all women are almost always the victims of domestic violence. Not always but as we can see even in lesbian couples it makes sense that the women that are being victimized would act exactly the way their heterosexual counterparts do. Why would it be any different? It is convenient to point to the shock and disbelief of violence in these relationships to lend support to the inaction of silence. To me it is merely a convenient explanation. Domestic abusers know exactly what they are doing, they don’t just abuse, they plan and entrap, this is no different no matter what your sexual orientation may be. To me these are standard cases of domestic violence, no different, no more special and not surprising at all.

Q: Why would feminism support non-violent relationships? Many women completely disagree with feminists and furthermore there are radical feminists who do more damage than good.

Stotzer: Seeking solace in We-Ho

Hate crimes are an awful and pathetic demonstration of bigotry. They have plagued society for centuries, and are likely to never seize to exist, even when we are all mocha colored with brown hair in the year 3000. There will always be someone ignorant and feeble enough to want to hurt someone they do not understand and cannot accept. Thinking that a gay community would strengthen support of outsiders and increase security for those within the community makes sense on the surface. The members of that community hope that by banding together and also showing the other communities that they are pleasant, upstanding citizens that they will create a safe haven for their niche. The articles explains however, that it is not so much the community that draws the violence, although those people seeking to hurt members of that community know exactly where to go, poverty, industrialization and overall density are better indicators of safety or the inverse. I agree that if the area in general is poor, where people are struggling, uneducated and likely furious and depressed causing them to act out against community members who they do not understand. It also follows that a low amount of special community’s members would be likelier targets in a poverty stricken city. Now if the socio-economic makeup of the area were constant, maybe then a larger concentration would be beneficial to those members, but once again only if they can be in groups and look after each other at all times.

Q: What factors do you think contribute to a safer environment for special communities such as LGBTQ?

Add to Flipboard Magazine.

Journal Review & Thoughts - Kings vs. Queens & Popular Culture

Rupp: Drag Queens and Kings

In this paper Rupp discusses the various differences in drag queening and drag kinging, including some fundamental differences in message, purpose and execution. If I understood correctly the drag queens are more of a flamboyant and light approach towards social commentary. This seems to fall in place with heteronormative societal roles of women, which they are cross dressing as. Drag Kings on the other hand are more serious, however, still adhering to strict male gender roles. Their stated purpose is supposed to be more queer theory oriented and taking a stand to voice their disgust of society and its bigotry. Although it seems that the females cross dressing as men fall into the same societal norming as the drag queens are accused of. Maybe the difference is that there are also bio females or transgendered individuals identifying as female in a male body drag kinging, as well as other diverse sexualities in the drag king group.

Q: Aren’t the cross dressers both conforming to societies binary of gender by dressing and acting the way they feel, at least according to their sexuality?

Walters: Out is In

This piece by Walters is a critique of the portrayal of queers in popular media. The article discusses how queers are allowed to be more in the spotlight, but only in certain minimal scenarios. It says that the gay or lesbian in popular culture is not allowed the same uplifting storyline as a heterosexual character. Straight men are allowed to be valorous and find love through their struggle, while the gay man is not allowed to find love but instead be a tool for the main character. For example, in “As Good As It Gets” the gay character is a broken and abused weak character used in the story to teach the main character to be a better person and overcome his own straight faults. The main character is a stereotypical straight man who doesn’t care for other people, but through his interaction with the fragile gay and the female love interest grows to become a decent human being, capable of redemption. This is the sort roles gays have not been allowed to lead in Hollywood and most people would not find anything wrong with that. This is a problem when trying to advance gay rights and we see that at this time laws are still quite homophobic.

Q: Can you think of any stories and roles that break this stereotype in that era or even nowadays?

Add to Flipboard Magazine.

Journal Review & Thoughts - March 2014

Almack:

Same sex couples have had a historically hard time in regards to nearly all aspects of their lives. It comes as no surprise that the lives of senior LGBTQ community members is rarely studied. More importantly it is almost certain that these members of society will be neglected in terms of essential “near end of life” care and support. Even though the Affordable Care Act is ushering in unprecedented strides towards equality in terms of health care and anti-discrimination measures, as well as state laws forcing equal rights for all citizens. The elder members of the LGBTQ community are weary of these claims due to their conditioned past filled with discrimination and rejection. It is still true that there is a lot of intolerance and discrimination today, however, this also seems to be mainly from the older non-LGBTQ community as well as religious zealots of all ages sticking to their hateful past. It is sad if you think about it, once the elder LGBTQ community does get researched and the attention it deserves, the data will cover up a dark past that really could have benefitted from some light being shed on it. As we progress as a society, and drastic changes in rights and opinions trickle up [from youngest to oldest] the victims are the original trailblazers. Those who fought first and longest, continued to struggle throughout their entire life in order to spark a change for the younger generation. Individualization is a key point in LGBTQ members learning to live freely and openly. With laws being passed supporting those rights, these members can pursue their own choices as opposed to the rigid norms of our past. New generations will hopefully never have to know the disenfranchised grief of their elders, not being able to openly acknowledge or publicly mourn the tragedies that affect their LGBTQ loved ones.

Q: Why did the elder LGBTQ members not get researched as much? One would think they are the generation that started the movement or even precursors to that movement

Goltz:

The article is about the way LGBTQ youth assess, thinks and feels about their future. The research cites a major gender divide in the outlook of gay men’s futures versus lesbian’s futures. Gay men feel that their future will be negative and miserable like that of a bitter old man. This likely stems from society’s influence on the thoughts of gay men. The heteronormative stereotype and the fear of being persecuted for going against society and its views. Lesbians surprisingly escape that dreadful outlook on their future. They associate positive meanings to their futures. This might be because their perception of the future relies heavily on society’s standard heteronormative model of the family and children. It is interesting to discover this divide in attitudes, since an outsider like myself would assume that both genders are similar struggles and interactions with others in their lifespan creating similar outlooks.

Q: Why are lesbians able to foster this positive outlook while gays see such bleak futures?

Add to Flipboard Magazine.

Journal Review & Thoughts - Communities & Sterotypes

Moore:

 In this article Moore did an analysis of many pieces of data as well as hands on experiences and fieldwork in order to better understand the struggle of LGBTQ blacks in their own community. The article starts with Prop 8 in California during the 2008 election, which overturns a CA Supreme Court decision that had legalized gay marriage. Historically blacks had been less accepting of LGBTQ rights and were blamed for aiding the proposition to pass 52% to 48%. The author believes the numbers of blacks voting against gay marriage were exaggerated, however, it is important to note that the statistics are indeed there, even for democratic blacks and communities that should be supporting the LGBTQ struggle. An interesting fact the author mentions is that blacks in general prescribe to “linked fate”, they make decisions based on what they assume will be good for the community as a whole. Accordingly, this leads to blacks avoiding LGBTQ activism, especially because the LGBTQ community in black neighborhoods is not very visible. They stay undercover and use a technique called “covering” in order to save face in their own community. This makes sense if you look at the attitudes and history of LGBTQ in black communities, however, if things are to change the LGBTQ members in the black community need to become visible and vocal. This did happen during the following Kingdom Day Parades and has caused overall success for the community as a whole.

 Q: In your opinion what causes the community to be opposed to LGBTQ rights, even in one that has had such struggle in their own civil rights movements?

Berube:

 Berube discusses how most people in general have a set stereotype in their minds about certain classes, races, genders, etc. For gay men this seems to be, “white and well-off”. The article explains that most gay social and activist circles continue patterns of racial separation by being mainly white. The vision of the national gay movement and media turned away from more general support of freedom, liberation and social justice to expressing personal pride, achieving visibility and lobbying for individual equality within existing institutions. Promoting this generic gay community had unintended negative effects. By mostly identifying with and being represented by upscale, white men with mainstream views. They were able to become visible and spread the struggles of the LGBTQ community, but this lack of diversification inadvertently reinforced a racialized class divide that still has a firm grip on the nation. This is bad for the LGBTQ community and equality as a whole. The lGBTQ community should try to diversify in order to achieve greater acceptance from all other communities and thereby society in general. They should also fight for more generalized issues such as universal health care, welfare, unemployment, unionizing, abortion rights and so on. This will also help strengthen the community by bringing them together with non-LGBTQ members in order to fight for the rights that affect all people and advocating for acceptance by showing they are also like everyone else with these concerns.

Q: What do you believe causes even the LGBTQ community to effectively be somewhat segregated, mirroring society, rather than consciously uniting to benefit an fit for their cause?

Add to Flipboard Magazine.

Journal Review & Thoughts - Trans Sexuality

Schilt: Just One of the Guys?

We all know there are many remaining remnants of workplace equality. But imagine having been born a woman, and feeling out of touch with your sex. On top of this your role at work is not regarded as preferable. So you undergo sex transition and then something unexpected happens. Even at the same job, a FTM transsexual/intersexed person discovers that they gain more authority and respect as men. This unique experience was dubbed “outsider-within” by the author. It is baffling to me that these gender disparities still exist for FTM intersexed people. The patriarchal agenda and advantage of men is not surprising to me, but the fact that society in all its cruelty still prefers a FTM intersexed person over a woman is sickening. Not that I have anything against intersexed people, but how can a know gender operation be more acceptable than an entire gender population. As bigoted and biased as society is, this makes no sense to me at all. I can hardly believe it.

The upside, however, is that these “outsiders-within” have a unique ability to shed light on this gross injustice to women. As Schilt calls it, the patriarchal dividend needs to stop, and we are definitely moving in the right direction. One of the major disparities between men and women left in the workplace is contract offers and negotiations. I recall from Industrial Psych class that women almost never negotiate contracts to boost their offer, while something like ⅔ or half of men do. This is an area where women need to step up, unfortunately if men get higher offers because of perceived authority and or superiority then the system is broken. So more awareness and legal reminders are necessary.

Q: Why do you think society prefers the FTM person over standard females in the workplace? How can this reasoning and behavior make any sense? Is society truly that patriarchal yet open to diversity and change, it appears no, but how does this happen?

Connell: Two Cans of Paint

This article is about the life and struggle of a male to female intersexed person. Robyn wants society to understand “that transsexuals are just normal people”. She wants people to understand the everyday struggles of intersexed people. Transition is extremely hard and complicated. Even some intersexed people breakdown during or after the process. Despite completely identifying with the decision, some of them do not make it out in one piece. On top of that society has its reservations about intersexed people. Not only are they seen as strange and broken or even abominations, but there are striking differences between FTM and MTF transitions. I was shocked to find out that as cruel as our society is, they still prefer a FTM transition because the end result is a man. Most MTF transitions experience the exact opposite. Being scrutinized for their feelings, desires for transition, operation and then being cast in a world that tramples on women and intersexed people, causing them great amounts of alienation, even from other women. That is a tough life to live.

Why is there such dislike or weirdness associated with intersexed people? What bothers people about the process of wanting to transition into a body that matches their gender identity?

Add to Flipboard Magazine.

Journal Review & Thoughts - February 2014

Kirsch: Queer Theory

Queer Theory has an interesting approach, the belief that sex and gender should be treated separately on their own instead of identifying with past movements and theories. By separating itself from the movements that initiated LGBTQ rights and led to advancements such as gay marriage, queer theory has managed to alienate itself from public support, some of its own communities and the ability to effectively fight for change and freedoms of those ignored by society. By doing so queer theory might have in fact unintentionally reinforced homophobia and resistance to support for queer individuals.

Kirsch has a good remedy for the situation in mind. Instead of identifying with or as a specific category, sex and gender should be viewed as fluid. This is a way of thinking that can be safely applied to any and all identities while allowing those currently excluded to have the same freedoms we all enjoy today. We should fight to support each other and collectively fight for the advancement of rights across the board for all members of society.

Q: Why do you think identities were so important to the birth of social movements, why is it still harder to fight for equal rights for all human beings?

Gammon: Troubling the Canon

In this article, the authors explain how bisexuality is a unique issue within queer theory and actually any movement it is involved with. On one side bisexuality aligns with queer theory and its quest to blur the lines between sexualities and the rejection of identities due to the ambiguity and duality of bisexuality. However, bisexuality also implies that there is a connection with dual identities, which opposes the core movement of queer theory, since identities are unnecessary and opposed by queer theory

Q: Do you agree with queer theory that it is best/beneficial to avoid identities in general?

Add to Flipboard Magazine.

Trance Around The World!

The first trip I took for the purpose of traveling the world, experiencing great music I love, and having an amazing time was for the celebration of the world's #1 DJ Armin van Buuren’s 8 year Anniversary of his world famous radio show, A State of Trance. He was celebrating the 400th episode with 3 parties in 3 countries. Germany, UK and Netherlands. I decided I would go to all 3 as they were back to back all in one weekend. I was even luckier because the weekend before he was performing in a club in Los Angeles and of course I went to see him as well. The special parties featured many guest DJs and it was an amazing celebration of Trance music. I invited one of my best friend’s and former German classmate to meet me for the Finale in Rotterdam, Netherlands. We had a great time catching up and enjoying the party. We stayed in Amsterdam another two days, sightseeing and having a good time.

I would attend festivals that featured trance before this event in Los Angeles, and I had even seen the likes of Armin van Buuren, but the atmosphere is nowhere as special as it is in Europe. In LA the festivals are largely driven by drug-culture, mainstream partiers going to the events to do drugs and have a good time. I was always there for the music, and people were often amazed when I told them this and that I was sober. In Europe almost nobody does drugs, maybe 10% or less. Of course everyone still drinks, but that is normal. The partiers in Europe attend for the love of the music, and I could tell the experience was much more enjoyable than it had been in the states. I loved it. I had to make it a ritual.

I still continued attending local festivals with friends, filled with glow sticks, pacifiers, crazy outfits and cuddle puddles. But the next year when the 9 year anniversary for A State of Trance came around it was announced that there would be 5 parties in 4 countries, and that they would be more globally spread out. I was worried I could only attend one event. The locations were revealed to be Toronto, New York, Bratislava and Poland. I wasn’t sure which party to attend, but it seemed luck was on my side and New York was to have two back to back shows in one weekend. I was excited beyond belief. I could save money staying in the country, visit an amazing city such as New York and experience two of the ASOT 450 parties. Once again I came a day early and stayed a day longer, visiting an old classmate from Los Angeles who had moved to New York. The performances were once again amazing, and to my surprise the fans were all very down to earth and definitely into the music. Not as passionate as Europe was, but much better than LA. The guest DJs were top notch and the performances absolutely amazing.

Of course after attending these two epic celebrations there was no way I could miss the 10 year anniversary of A State of Trance. I once again attended local events and had fun passing the time until this year when ASOT 500 was to take place. Armin said he would take the party to global heights, with 5 events on 5 continents. This time I could only attend one show for sure. However, the trance gods seemed to have smiled upon me. It was announced that ASOT 500 USA would be on a special dedicated stage at ULTRA Music Festival during one whole day of the 3 day festival. ULTRA is one of the most famous USA EDM festivals and I always wanted to go. Not only would I be able to attend all 3 days of it, but it is always being held as the finale of WMC, [which is a week long EDM centered conference in Miami] as it does every year. It features special performances, club nights, beach parties, pool parties, yacht parties and surprise performances in front of sponsors' stores and of course concludes with ULTRA. I was lucky enough to have Spring Break and went to Miami for the entire week. One of my friends in L.A. who also loves trance and joins me for local festivals told me he wanted to go as well and we had a blast. It was an opportunity of a lifetime, and we grabbed life by the horns and jumped in. We went to South Beach during the days and went clubbing, seeing our favorite DJs at night, all week long. We also stumbled into the Armani store in SoBe [South Beach, Miami] to find special performances being held all week, which we walked to from the beach. ASOT 500 was definitely the highlight of the week, unparalleled in its guest DJ lineup and quality of DJ performances. Besides Armin’s 10 year anniversary for ASOT and the rest of ULTRA Music Festival we also attended Gareth Emery’s album release party at club Dream with guest DJs, Markus Schulz & friends @ club Space, Above & Beyond’s concert at the Ice Palace with special guest DJs and Cosmic Gate’s yacht party extended performance. Best Spring Break Ever!

Add to Flipboard Magazine.

In the Beginning ...

Hello World,

My name is René Sebastian Shabastari. I was born February 20th. I am a Psychology major with a Philosophy minor at California State University Northridge in Los Angeles. I changed majors after transferring to University as a Business Administration major. I feel I would enjoy a career in Psychology over the daily grind of a Business related career. I attended University of California Santa Barbara as a Computer Science major straight out of High School, but discovered that Computer Programming is not for me, I am still passionate about Computer Hardware and stay on top of Technology related news and build my own PCs and upgrade my system religiously. I very much enjoy gadgets and among my friends am always the person to ask about Hardware and / or Network expertise.


I enjoy being active and participating in all kinds of sports. My favorite sport is Basketball. My height exposed me to the sport and I have loved it since an early age. I still keep in contact with some of my early childhood friends and teammates and play at least twice weekly in Leagues and pick-up games with friends. I also enjoy nature, which is related to my active lifestyle. I go hiking with friends, and take trips to the beach. I like to swim in the ocean, in my pool at home or anywhere else.


I also love to travel. Having lived in different countries growing up I have family in Europe that I can stay with, alleviating a major burden of travel; hotels. I have family in Germany and Finland, while I live in Los Angeles after I moved here with my parents. I would travel a lot growing up and have visited Greece, Italy, UK, Sweden, Finland, Germany, Netherlands, New York, and was fortunate enough to visit a good foreign-exchange-student friend of mine in Japan. Traveling is an amazing experience and I truly believe it has affected my view on life in a very positive way. When I travel I get to enjoy the nature those countries have to offer and I try to visit areas where I can be active and take in the culture.

Music is a big part of my life, and it has even influenced me to combine my passions to travel, experiencing special festivals catered to my favorite genre of music; Trance. I used to listen to hip hop when I first moved to Cali as a child. I was big into a rock phase during my school days here. There will always be a special place in my heart for 80’s and 90’s music, being a child of that era. However, once I discovered EDM [Electronic Dance Music] there was no turning back. I fell in love with Trance, especially because it is a very melodic and symphonic branch of EDM. Most people think of harsh and monotonous beats when they think of electronic music, and I myself actually dislike this style of EDM. Trance was pioneered in the Netherlands and I have taken many trips for the purpose of visiting a country while attending certain big time events. I have met amazing people during my trips, and the most generous and kind have been in the Netherlands. Amsterdam is an amazing city. It is beautiful, tolerant, progressive and has a great taste of music.

Add to Flipboard Magazine.