[Verse 1: Macklemore]
When I was in the 3rd grade
I thought that I was gay
Cause I could draw, my uncle was
And I kept my room straight
I told my mom, tears rushing down my face
She’s like, “Ben you’ve loved girls since before pre-K”
Trippin’, yeah, I guess she had a point, didn’t she
A bunch of stereotypes all in my head
I remember doing the math like
“Yeah, I’m good a little league”
A pre-conceived idea of what it all meant
For those that like the same sex had the characteristics
The right-wing conservatives think its a decision
And you can be cured with some treatment and religion
Man-made, rewiring of a pre-disposition
Playing God
Ahh nah, here we go
America the brave
Still fears what we don’t know
And God loves all his children it’s somehow forgotten
But we paraphrase a book written
3,500 years ago
I don’t know
[Hook: Mary Lambert]
And I can’t change
Even if I tried
Even if I wanted to
And I can’t change
Even if I tried
Even if I wanted to
My love, my love, my love
She keeps me warm [x4]
[Verse 2: Macklemore]
If I was gay
I would think hip-hop hates me
Have you read the YouTube comments lately
“Man that’s gay”
Gets dropped on the daily
We’ve become so numb to what we’re sayin’
Our culture founded from oppression
Yeah, we don’t have acceptance for ‘em
Call each other faggots
Behind the keys of a message board
A word rooted in hate
Yet our genre still ignores it
Gay is synonymous with the lesser
It’s the same hate that’s caused wars from religion
Gender to skin color
Complexion of your pigment
The same fight that lead people to walk-outs and sit-ins
Human rights for everybody
There is no difference
Live on! And be yourself!
When I was in church
They taught me something else
If you preach hate at the service
Those words aren’t anointed
And that Holy Water
That you soak in
Is then poisoned
When everyone else
Is more comfortable
Remaining voiceless
Rather than fighting for humans
That have had their rights stolen
I might not be the same
But that’s not important
No freedom ’til we’re equal
Damn right I support it
[Trombone]
I don’t know
[Hook: Mary Lambert]
[Verse 3: Macklemore]
We press play
Don’t press pause
Progress, march on!
With a veil over our eyes
We turn our back on the cause
‘Till the day
That my uncles can be united by law
Kids are walkin’ around the hallway
Plagued by pain in their heart
A world so hateful
Some would rather die
Than be who they are
And a certificate on paper
Isn’t gonna solve it all
But it’s a damn good place to start
No law’s gonna change us
We have to change us
Whatever god you believe in
We come from the same one
Strip away the fear
Underneath it’s all the same love
About time that we raised up
[Hook: Mary Lambert]
[Outro: Mary Lambert]
Love is patient, love is kind
Love is patient (not cryin’ on Sundays)
Love is kind (not crying on Sundays) [x5]
Published on Aug 7, 2012 by vice
Indonesian transsexuals, or Warias, still feel the urge to practice Islam despite being shunned by Islamic Authorities.
We headed to Indonesia to visit the Senin-Kamis School, an Islamic school for Indonesian transsexuals. Our host, Hannah Brooks, meets the school’s founder, Maryani, and the rest of the ladies who call this place home. Then Hannah is taken to a local funeral, where Maryani speaks about the difficulties of living as a transvestite and a practicing Muslim.
Burma’s AIDS epidemic mostly affects marginalized groups, such as the gay community. In a country where homosexuality remains illegal, finding and treating gay patients is a challenge for the few health workers devoted to their treatment. VOA News reports that an annual religious event called a Nat festival, however, is one time when the gay community can network – and talk to health workers about treatment.
Perversion for Profit is a 1965 propaganda film financed by Charles Keating and narrated by George Putnam. A vehement diatribe against pornography, the film attempts to link explicit portrayals of human sexuality to the subversion of American civilization, and briefly draws a parallel between pornography and the Communist conspiracy. The film is in the public domain, and it has become a popular download from the Prelinger Archives. Perversion for Profit illustrates its claims with still images taken from various soft core pornography magazines of the period, though with some portions of human anatomy obscured by colored rectangles.
To bolster his position, Putnam makes several references to “Dr. Sorokin, the renowned Harvard sociologist”. This individual is Pitirim Sorokin, a Russian-American who founded Harvard’s Sociology department and served as the American Sociological Association’s 55th president.
In an article discussing the Prelinger Archives for the San Francisco Chronicle, Peter L. Stein observes that the film has gained a different sort of utility than its producers intended: …as the parade of girlie magazine covers, men’s physique pictorials and campy S&M leaflets continues, the film betrays a kind of prurience the filmmakers could hardly have intended. What results is a remarkable visual record of midcentury underground literature and sexual appetites, and a gloss on the values of the society that condemned them.
At the time the Chronicle article was written, Perversion was the Archive’s second most popular download, superseded only by Duck and Cover. Ephemeral film scholar Rick Prelinger, founder of the Archive, views the popularity of such films as a sign the “unofficial evidence of everyday life” has become more interesting than “‘official’ documents from Washington or New York”.
In 2004, a Prelinger Archive user going by the pseudonym “Trafalgar” produced a remix, in which short clips from the film are rearranged to make a pro-pornography advocacy video. Trafalgar’s remix, entitled Come Join the Fun!, is available from the Internet Archive’s open-source movie collection. The electronica band 3kStatic sampled audio from the original Perversion film for the title track of their 2005 album Perversion: for Profit.
The UN estimates that one in five women in Iraq suffer from domestic abuse, in a society where a woman leaving her husband for any reason is considered grounds for punishment.
One rights group says cases of abuse appear to be on the rise since the fall of former Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein nearly nine years ago.
But even for women who do manage to escape their abuse, there are few places in the country they can go to seek refugee.
Al Jazeera’s Jane Arraf has this exclusive report from the capital, Baghdad.
Latest news: Girl Scouts of Colorado has announced that 7-year-old Bobby Montoya, who was initially turned away from a local Girl Scout chapter on the grounds that he is not a girl, will be allowed to join since he “identifies” as a girl.
Rachelle Trujillo, vice president of communications with Girl Scouts of Colorado, told CNSnews.com that any child who is “living life as a girl” is eligible for membership in the organization.
Quad Talk: Transgender and the Girl Scouts
The Breeze asks students what they think about a recent issue with transgender in the Girl Scouts. A troop in Colorado originally told Bobby Montoya, a seven-year-old boy who identifies as a girl, that she was not allowed to join because she had a male anatomy. Later, the Girl Scouts of Colorado said that their policy would in fact allow Bobby to join.
A Breeze Video Production
Reporting by Carolyn Bedi
Shot by Bradford Ambrose
Edited by Kerri Bartruff
This is the story of Mike, who was beaten up at school for being homosexual in one of the most tolerant countries in the world. And he’s not alone. When he turned to the school for help, they ignored the problem.
This film is part of a children’s rights campaign in the Netherlands by the Dutch Children’s Ombudsman, an official government position. The film is meant to draw attention to Holland’s poor record on children’s rights and inform Dutch children that, despite what anyone might say, they too have rights.
The campaign is based on real stories by children whose rights have recently been violated. Wanting to remain anonymous due to the sensitivity of their experience and precariousness of their positions, we recruited other Dutch kids to help them tell their stories. The campaign includes a total of 4 short films and a series of outdoor posters. To watch other films search for ‘Children’s Ombudsman, Every child has the right to…’ or for Dutch speakers go to http://www.dekinderombudsman.nl
