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<author>Lisa Weiner-Mahfuz</author>
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<p>And what a trip it was.... </p>]]><br /> <![CDATA[
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<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?><rss version="2.0"> <channel> <title>The Bilerico Project</title> <link>http://www.bilerico.com/</link> <description>Daily experiments in LGBTQ</description> <language>en</language> <copyright>Copyright 2013</copyright> <lastBuildDate>Wed, 15 Jun 2011 10:00:00 -0500</lastBuildDate> <generator>http://www.sixapart.com/movabletype/?v=4.37</generator> <docs>http://blogs.law.harvard.edu/tech/rss</docs> <item> <title>Queering Up the Family Vacation</title> <author>Lisa Weiner-Mahfuz</author> <description><![CDATA[<p><a href="http://www.bilerico.com/images/Basta%21Immigration.jpg"><img alt="Basta!Immigration.jpg" src="http://www.bilerico.com/assets_c/2011/06/Basta!Immigration-thumb-250x381-18875.jpg" width="300" height="458" class="mt-image-right" style="float: right;" /></a>About a month ago my brother-in-law called from Puerto Rico to invite us to join in on an already planned family vacation to Sedona, Arizona. As the month proceeded, more and more family members were added to the impending family extravaganza. In the end, our not-so-little delegation included my mother, father, sister and brother-in-law, two nieces, my sister-in-law's mother, my partner, and me. Traveling in a pack is our specialty! </p> <p>When the initial invitation was issued, we spent quite a bit of time talking about whether or not we should go to Arizona given the <a href="http://colorlines.com/archives/2010/04/brewer_signs_sb1070_legalizes_racial_profiling_of_arizonas_immigrants.html">passage of SB1070</a>, one of the most racist anti-immigration laws in the United States. In the past year this hateful law was not only passed, but Arizona has also <a href="http://colorlines.com/archives/2010/10/arizona_teachers_sue_to_protect_ethnic_studies.html">banned ethnic studies from being taught in its public educational system </a> . Institutional racism and anti-immigrant sentiment run deep in Arizona. We questioned what it would mean for us, as committed social justice organizers, to go to Arizona on a family vacation. We questioned what it meant for us as queer people of color to go to a state that has been at the epicenter of right wing activity.</p> <p>We eventually decided to go for only one reason: to spend time with family and, in particular, our young nieces who we do not get to see often because of the distance and the cost of flying from Washington, D.C. to Puerto Rico. Given that we happened to have airline vouchers, we were able to fly for free to see them anywhere in the United States except Puerto Rico. With serious reservations, questions, and excitement about spending time with our nieces, we made the trek to Sedona.</p> <p>And what a trip it was.... </p>]]><br /> <![CDATA[<p><a href="http://www.bilerico.com/2011/06/queering_up_the_family_vacation.php#more">Continue reading "Queering Up the Family Vacation"...</a></p>]]></description> <link>http://www.bilerico.com/2011/06/queering_up_the_family_vacation.php</link> <guid isPermalink="True">http://www.bilerico.com/2011/06/queering_up_the_family_vacation.php</guid> <category>Living</category> <pubDate>Wed, 15 Jun 2011 10:00:00 -0500</pubDate> <comments>http://www.bilerico.com/2011/06/queering_up_the_family_vacation.php#comments</comments> </item> <item> <title>Hotel Silver Spring: Always a Repeat Performance</title> <author>Lisa Weiner-Mahfuz</author> <description><![CDATA[<p><a href="http://www.bilerico.com/images/847E7AA1F65CBD0126B9B6F8DB631800.jpeg"><img alt="847E7AA1F65CBD0126B9B6F8DB631800.jpeg" src="http://www.bilerico.com/assets_c/2011/05/847E7AA1F65CBD0126B9B6F8DB631800-thumb-300x446-18282.jpeg" width="200" height="297" class="mt-image-right" style="float: right;" /></a>Ten years ago my partner and I moved to Silver Spring MD. We were intentional about choosing a neighborhood that was multi-racial, multi-generational, mixed class and was not a gentrified gayborhood. We landed in our street and the story simply begins there.</p> <p>When we moved to our neighborhood we were the only out queer family on a street packed with town houses and mixed income apartment buildings. There are no single family houses here. Folks live closely and interdependently together. After settling in to our new digs, we started doing what my partner and I do best: build community and engage with our neighbors.</p> <p>My partner and I have always been very open about our relationship mostly because we have had the privilege of living in urban and progressive places. Our move to our community was no different. We were open about being a couple when curious neighbors would ask if we were sisters or roommates.</p> <p>For quite some time many of the kids in the neighborhood thought that we were mother and daughter! I often refer to my partner as Mami which can have two meanings in Spanish. In addition to actually meaning mother, it can also be used as a term of endearment among friends and family.</p>]]><br /> <![CDATA[<p><a href="http://www.bilerico.com/2011/05/im_an_organizer_yes_i_am.php#more">Continue reading "Hotel Silver Spring: Always a Repeat Performance"...</a></p>]]></description> <link>http://www.bilerico.com/2011/05/im_an_organizer_yes_i_am.php</link> <guid isPermalink="True">http://www.bilerico.com/2011/05/im_an_organizer_yes_i_am.php</guid> <category>Living</category> <pubDate>Fri, 27 May 2011 08:00:00 -0500</pubDate> <comments>http://www.bilerico.com/2011/05/im_an_organizer_yes_i_am.php#comments</comments> </item> <item> <title>Our Queer Intergenerational Life</title> <author>Lisa Weiner-Mahfuz</author> <description><![CDATA[<p><em>This piece was written in collaboration with Carmen Vazquez</em></p> <blockquote> <p>If we want a beloved community, we must stand for justice; have recognition for difference without attaching difference to privilege. <em>-- Bell Hooks</em></p> </blockquote> <p>Building beloved community is a passion we share. An integral part of our vision of beloved community includes forging <a href="http://www.rlmarts.com" target="_blank"><img src="http://www.rlmarts.com/itemmultimedia/RLMA/P868/p868.jpg" border="0" style="float:right;" width="200" ></a>intergenerational partnerships. We are particularly committed to building those partnerships in a queer context. Our movement cannot move forward without understanding its past nor can it move without the vision, energy and new ideas of young people. Elders and young people are both needed equally and urgently in order for our movement to grow in ways that heed the lessons of the past and respond to the urgency of the present political and economic moment. <br /> <br />To its detriment, the queer movement has internalized societies devaluing of old people while at the same time actively engaging in dismissing young people. Can we really build a movement that is rooted in historical memory and a bold vision for the future if adultism and ageism are constantly unexamined and at play in our work towards justice? </p> <p>This is the question that brought us to writing this blog together. It is the question that consistently motivates us to examine these issues in our own intergenerational, multi-racial, mixed gendered and mixed class relationship. We understand that our mutual survival simply depends upon it.</p>]]><br /> <![CDATA[<p><a href="http://www.bilerico.com/2011/03/our_queer_intergenerational_life.php#more">Continue reading "Our Queer Intergenerational Life"...</a></p>]]></description> <link>http://www.bilerico.com/2011/03/our_queer_intergenerational_life.php</link> <guid isPermalink="True">http://www.bilerico.com/2011/03/our_queer_intergenerational_life.php</guid> <category>Gay Icons and History</category> <pubDate>Mon, 21 Mar 2011 18:00:00 -0500</pubDate> <comments>http://www.bilerico.com/2011/03/our_queer_intergenerational_life.php#comments</comments> </item> <item> <title>The Fierce Urgency of This Movement Moment</title> <author>Lisa Weiner-Mahfuz</author> <description><![CDATA[<p>Revolution doesn't happen by accident. Revolution doesn't happen without tremendous vision, loss, and <a href="http://www.bilerico.com/2011/03/wisconsin-art.jpeg"><img src="http://static.bilerico.net/2011/03/wisconsin-art-thumb-200x320-16859.jpeg" width="200" height="320" alt="wisconsin-art.jpeg" style="float:right" /></a>sacrifice. Revolution happens when a critical mass of courageous people come together to struggle for it with every fiber of their being. Revolution takes place over time and, more often than not, raises complex questions that can't be answered in the immediate. Revolution happens when the people not only name their circumstances on their own terms but also organize with the strategic intention of reaching mass scope and scale action. </p> <p>We are seeing this all over the Middle East, in Wisconsin, and in many other parts of the world as people come together to create a visible culture of resistance against deep seeded economic, social and political oppression/repression. </p> <p><strong> Revolution is local. </strong>Yet, when a social consciousness begins to emerge that makes the connection between uprisings (without taking away from their specificity and nuance) it gives us a window into the kind of broad social change that is possible. <em>Yes, through these interconnected struggles we can begin to see that another world is possible. </em></p>]]><br /> <![CDATA[<p><a href="http://www.bilerico.com/2011/03/the_fierce_urgency_of_this_movement_moment.php#more">Continue reading "The Fierce Urgency of This Movement Moment"...</a></p>]]></description> <link>http://www.bilerico.com/2011/03/the_fierce_urgency_of_this_movement_moment.php</link> <guid isPermalink="True">http://www.bilerico.com/2011/03/the_fierce_urgency_of_this_movement_moment.php</guid> <category>The Movement</category> <pubDate>Fri, 11 Mar 2011 12:00:00 -0500</pubDate> <comments>http://www.bilerico.com/2011/03/the_fierce_urgency_of_this_movement_moment.php#comments</comments> </item> <item> <title>Hello! Can I Get a Movement Please!</title> <author>Lisa Weiner-Mahfuz</author> <description><![CDATA[<p>Workplace discrimination runs rampant in movement organizations at a local, state and national level. <a href="http://www.bilerico.com/2011/01/healthyworkplace.jpeg"><img src="http://static.bilerico.net/2011/01/healthyworkplace-thumb-200x310-16244.jpeg" style="float:right" width="200" height="310" alt="healthyworkplace.jpeg"/></a>As movements become more professionalized over the past thirty years, the internal structures and policies of many organizations increasingly mirror the worst patterns of exclusion and marginalization endemic to society itself. Both the movement, as well as the movement organization, is no utopia. </p> <p>The movement organization is often a breeding ground for the perpetuation of -isms: racism, sexism, ableism, etc. in spite of a social justice mission that explicitly works to create transformation in the world.</p> <p>There is no doubt that the "food chain" in movement organizations is quite deliberate: folks with the most complex bodies - brown, black, immigrant, disabled, working class, gendered - are usually at the bottom. The higher you go in the organizational hierarchy, the whiter, straighter, and/or male identified the leadership becomes. Let's be clear: this is pretty typical across movements, and is a system built over time and by design. Not so ironically, the movement organization often replicates all of the -isms it supposedly dedicates itself to fighting in society. We can only conclude from this that the movement, and the organizations that comprise it, are not exempt from perpetuating oppression even if they have a stellar mission. </p> <p>It's time that we address this directly because we cannot work for justice if our workers are not treated justly.</p>]]><br /> <![CDATA[<p><a href="http://www.bilerico.com/2011/01/hello_can_i_get_a_movement_please.php#more">Continue reading "Hello! Can I Get a Movement Please!"...</a></p>]]></description> <link>http://www.bilerico.com/2011/01/hello_can_i_get_a_movement_please.php</link> <guid isPermalink="True">http://www.bilerico.com/2011/01/hello_can_i_get_a_movement_please.php</guid> <category>The Movement</category> <pubDate>Mon, 31 Jan 2011 19:00:00 -0500</pubDate> <comments>http://www.bilerico.com/2011/01/hello_can_i_get_a_movement_please.php#comments</comments> </item> <item> <title>Debunking The White Liberal Dog and Pony Show</title> <author>Lisa Weiner-Mahfuz</author> <description><![CDATA[<p>I deeply believe that white allies who are committed to challenging white supremacy are critical to our efforts to build multi-racial and cross-issue movements. At the same time, I also believe that white liberalism lies at the heart of why racial justice<a href="http://www.bilerico.com/2010/12/2DF5360E4297EA0125466713E7631600.jpeg"><img src="http://static.bilerico.net/2010/12/2DF5360E4297EA0125466713E7631600-thumb-250x325-15406.jpeg" width="250" height="325" alt="2DF5360E4297EA0125466713E7631600.jpeg" title="racial justice - we will prevail" style="float:right;" /></a> - <em>as an ongoing practice principal</em> - is not a central commitment of the LGBT movement.</p> <p>There is a difference between white liberalism, which engages people of color as tokens, and a commitment to challenging white supremacy in a way that uproots the systems of power that maintain the status quo. White liberalism is what fuels the movements "add people of color and stir" approach to policy, political and organizing work. White liberalism uses black and brown bodies as window dressing in an attempt to appear inclusive without actually shifting power and making change. White liberalism strategically and intentionally prevents multi-racial alliances and the full inclusion of people whose bodies and cultures do not fit what is considered to be "the norm". </p> <p><em>Simply put, white liberalism will be the death of our movements.</em></p>]]><br /> <![CDATA[<p><a href="http://www.bilerico.com/2010/12/debunking_the_white_liberal_dog_and_pony_show.php#more">Continue reading "Debunking The White Liberal Dog and Pony Show"...</a></p>]]></description> <link>http://www.bilerico.com/2010/12/debunking_the_white_liberal_dog_and_pony_show.php</link> <guid isPermalink="True">http://www.bilerico.com/2010/12/debunking_the_white_liberal_dog_and_pony_show.php</guid> <category>Politics</category> <pubDate>Thu, 09 Dec 2010 19:00:00 -0500</pubDate> <comments>http://www.bilerico.com/2010/12/debunking_the_white_liberal_dog_and_pony_show.php#comments</comments> </item> <item> <title>Building Our Movement with Heart and Chutzpah</title> <author>Lisa Weiner-Mahfuz</author> <description><![CDATA[<p>Movements are <em>supposed</em> to move. They are <em>supposed </em>to be nimble enough to respond to what is happening at the grassroots level. After all, it's been proven that change historically takes place from the bottom up not from the top down. So why, oh why, does our national LGBT <a href="http://www.bilerico.com/2010/11/Paul-Wellstone-quote.jpeg"><img src="http://static.bilerico.net/2010/11/Paul-Wellstone-quote-thumb-200x277-15015.jpeg" width="200" height="277" alt="Paul-Wellstone-quote.jpeg" title="Paul Wellstone quote" style="float:right;" /></a>movement continue to operate as if change occurs at a national legislative and policy level? </p> <p>Let me digress for a little history lesson that might help to put this question into perspective:</p> <p>Bayard Rustin started doing racial justice organizing in the 1930's in the pacifist and labor movements. Over the course of 30 years he organized, built strategic coalitions and facilitated racial justice trainings throughout the country. </p> <p>The insights he gained from his travels, training work, community conversations and organizing efforts eventually became the framework within which the Civil Rights Movement articulated its vision, organizing strategies and values. It took 30 years, but in 1964 Rustin was able to witness his life's work reach mass scope and scale as thousands upon thousands of people flooded onto the National Mall for the 1964 March on Washington. </p>]]><br /> <![CDATA[<p><a href="http://www.bilerico.com/2010/11/building_our_movement_with_heart_and_chutzpah.php#more">Continue reading "Building Our Movement with Heart and Chutzpah"...</a></p>]]></description> <link>http://www.bilerico.com/2010/11/building_our_movement_with_heart_and_chutzpah.php</link> <guid isPermalink="True">http://www.bilerico.com/2010/11/building_our_movement_with_heart_and_chutzpah.php</guid> <category>Politics</category> <pubDate>Wed, 17 Nov 2010 15:00:00 -0500</pubDate> <comments>http://www.bilerico.com/2010/11/building_our_movement_with_heart_and_chutzpah.php#comments</comments> </item> <item> <title>Numbers Alone Don't Move a Movement</title> <author>Lisa Weiner-Mahfuz</author> <description><![CDATA[<p>I come from the school of community organizing--often referred to as <a href="http://www.bilerico.com/2010/10/postes.jpeg"><img src="http://static.bilerico.net/2010/10/postes-thumb-170x260-14690.jpeg" width="170" style="float:Right" height="260" alt="postes.jpeg"/></a>movement building--that seeks to connect issues, communities and identities. I engage in organizing from this place because, frankly, I don't know how to do it any other way. It is the way that race, class, gender, sexuality, disability, faith and ethnicity intersects within my own body that drives my approach to organizing. If I didn't organize from this intersectional place I'd have to check major parts of my identity at the door in order to do the work. I don't want that for myself nor do I want others to have to check parts of their identities at the proverbial movement door. </p> <p>Queers, particularly queers of color, have a long history of doing intersectional organizing. Why? Because our complex bodies provide the road map for organizing strategies that leave no one behind. The whole point of intersectional organizing is to try and achieve universal design. This means that if a movement is built to support and speak to the most marginalized among us <em>everyone benefits</em>. </p>]]><br /> <![CDATA[<p><a href="http://www.bilerico.com/2010/10/i_come_from_the_school.php#more">Continue reading "Numbers Alone Don't Move a Movement"...</a></p>]]></description> <link>http://www.bilerico.com/2010/10/i_come_from_the_school.php</link> <guid isPermalink="True">http://www.bilerico.com/2010/10/i_come_from_the_school.php</guid> <category>Politics</category> <pubDate>Sun, 31 Oct 2010 10:00:00 -0500</pubDate> <comments>http://www.bilerico.com/2010/10/i_come_from_the_school.php#comments</comments> </item> <item> <title>The Playground is Often Anything but Playful</title> <author>Lisa Weiner-Mahfuz</author> <description><![CDATA[<p>Retard. Stupid. Uneducable. These were the words that were used to describe<a href="http://www.bilerico.com/2010/10/poster.jpeg"><img src="http://static.bilerico.net/2010/10/poster-thumb-200x274-14363.jpeg" width="200" style="float:right" height="274" alt="poster.jpeg"/></a> me and dozens of students with disabilities in my elementary school. </p> <p>Each morning, the "resource room" teacher would walk the hallways going from classroom to classroom calling out the names of the students whose minds and bodies were not fit for the "mainstream." We were rounded up --herded like cattle--and delivered to what they called the "resource room." It was certainly a misnomer because no teaching occurred in the resource room. </p> <p>Taken together, our disabilities ranged the spectrum from physical and cognitive to learning. Yet, regardless of the specificity of our disabilities, the powers that be determined that we were unable to learn, that we were a "distraction" to students in mainstream classroom and that the best place for each one of us was lumped together in one room.</p>]]><br /> <![CDATA[<p><a href="http://www.bilerico.com/2010/10/the_playground_is_often_anything_but_playful.php#more">Continue reading "The Playground is Often Anything but Playful"...</a></p>]]></description> <link>http://www.bilerico.com/2010/10/the_playground_is_often_anything_but_playful.php</link> <guid isPermalink="True">http://www.bilerico.com/2010/10/the_playground_is_often_anything_but_playful.php</guid> <category>Living</category> <pubDate>Tue, 12 Oct 2010 13:30:00 -0500</pubDate> <comments>http://www.bilerico.com/2010/10/the_playground_is_often_anything_but_playful.php#comments</comments> </item> <item> <title>Queers and Global (In)Justice</title> <author>Lisa Weiner-Mahfuz</author> <description><![CDATA[<p>I am often kept awake at night thinking about issues such as war, the international trafficking of women and girls, indigenous rights to land and water and the US's role as a global exporter and enforcer of colonialism and genocide. I realize that these are not exactly the kinds of issues that are on the radar screen of the mainstream LGBT movement. Yet, for me, they are quintessentially queer issues. </p> <p><a href="http://www.bilerico.com/2010/09/true-revolutionary.jpeg"><img src="http://static.bilerico.net/2010/09/true-revolutionary-thumb-200x317-14070.jpeg" width="200" height="317" alt="true-revolutionary.jpeg" title="The true revolutionary" style="float:right;" /></a>As a US born queer person of color committed to sexual liberation and gender justice, I feel that it is critically important for our movement to be deeply conscious of and connected to an expansive view of justice. I'm talking about a form of justice that doesn't allow us to stop thinking and acting at some false, man-made boarder. I'm talking about a form of justice that moves us beyond a narrowly defined LGBT rights-based agenda to a thoughtful, deliberate and accountable commitment to the full breadth of depth of the LGBT community and to the world around us.</p> <p>The US based LGBT movement has a long history of connecting the struggle for sexual liberation and gender justice to a global picture. Yet, in large part, we don't discuss the important ways in which LGBT leaders throughout our movement's history have held a complex international perspective. A perspective that laid the foundation for so many of us to deepen the thinking and organizing work that has taken place in the US based LGBT movement. We also rarely discuss the many LGBT organizers throughout history that got their start making revolution either in other movements for social justice and/or around issues of war, apartheid and US colonialism. </p>]]><br /> <![CDATA[<p><a href="http://www.bilerico.com/2010/09/queers_and_global_injustice.php#more">Continue reading "Queers and Global (In)Justice"...</a></p>]]></description> <link>http://www.bilerico.com/2010/09/queers_and_global_injustice.php</link> <guid isPermalink="True">http://www.bilerico.com/2010/09/queers_and_global_injustice.php</guid> <category>Politics</category> <pubDate>Tue, 21 Sep 2010 13:00:00 -0500</pubDate> <comments>http://www.bilerico.com/2010/09/queers_and_global_injustice.php#comments</comments> </item> <item> <title>The Fierce Urgency of Now: Queers Must Challenge Islamaphobia</title> <author>Lisa Weiner-Mahfuz</author> <description><![CDATA[<p>My great-grandfather was one of the founders of the mosque in <a href="http://www.bilerico.com/2010/09/solidarity.jpeg"><img src="http://static.bilerico.net/2010/09/solidarity-thumb-200x275-13708.jpeg" width="200" style="float:right" height="275" alt="solidarity.jpeg"/></a>Quincy, Massachusetts. My grandfather, his son, was also a practicing Muslim. Although I was raised as a Jew, I have not forgotten the fact that many members of my family were/are practicing Muslims. As someone who is committed to being an ally to the Muslim community, I continue to be outraged by the venom-filled hate that is spewing from many parts of the United States towards Muslims and people perceived to be Muslim. </p> <p>As a queer person, I am keenly aware that this kind of vicious targeting of any marginalized community is yet another reminder that we share space on the right wing target list with Muslims, Jews, women, People of Color, immigrants and people with disabilities. So why don't I hear more from the LGBT community and our leadership about the targeting of Muslims, mosques and Islam? </p>]]><br /> <![CDATA[<p><a href="http://www.bilerico.com/2010/09/the_fierce_urgency_of_now_queers_must_challenge_is.php#more">Continue reading "The Fierce Urgency of Now: Queers Must Challenge Islamaphobia"...</a></p>]]></description> <link>http://www.bilerico.com/2010/09/the_fierce_urgency_of_now_queers_must_challenge_is.php</link> <guid isPermalink="True">http://www.bilerico.com/2010/09/the_fierce_urgency_of_now_queers_must_challenge_is.php</guid> <category>Politics</category> <pubDate>Wed, 01 Sep 2010 08:30:00 -0500</pubDate> <comments>http://www.bilerico.com/2010/09/the_fierce_urgency_of_now_queers_must_challenge_is.php#comments</comments> </item> <item> <title>Yearning for a Just Democracy: From Prop 8 to the 14th Amendment</title> <author>Lisa Weiner-Mahfuz</author> <description><![CDATA[<p>I am celebrating the overturn of Prop 8 but not for the reasons you might think. Although I have strong objections to the fact that the mainstream LGBT movement has made marriage a priority above and beyond so many other issues that impact our communities, <a href="http://www.rlmarts.com" target="_blank"><img src="http://www.rlmarts.com/itemmultimedia/RLMA/NC079/nc079.jpg" border="0" width="250" style="float:right;" ></a>I believe that no community should have to fight discriminatory legal or Constitutional attacks on their lives and identities. Yes, my friends, the Constitution is supposed to have safeguards that protect marginalized communities from the tyranny of the majority.</p> <p>That's the way it <em>should</em> be because that's how a democracy <em>should</em> work.</p> <p>I'm going to digress for a second and tell you what I think a true democracy is because it's germane to my assertion that a true democracy requires solidarity, self determination and truth telling. When we all have self determination over our bodies and land, particularly those of us who are most marginalized in society, the power that institutions have to decide <em><strong>for us</strong></em> can shift into the hands of people and community so that we <em><strong>decide for ourselves.</strong></em></p>]]><br /> <![CDATA[<p><a href="http://www.bilerico.com/2010/08/yearning_for_a_just_democracy_from_prop_8_to_the_1.php#more">Continue reading "Yearning for a Just Democracy: From Prop 8 to the 14th Amendment"...</a></p>]]></description> <link>http://www.bilerico.com/2010/08/yearning_for_a_just_democracy_from_prop_8_to_the_1.php</link> <guid isPermalink="True">http://www.bilerico.com/2010/08/yearning_for_a_just_democracy_from_prop_8_to_the_1.php</guid> <category>Politics</category> <pubDate>Mon, 09 Aug 2010 10:00:00 -0500</pubDate> <comments>http://www.bilerico.com/2010/08/yearning_for_a_just_democracy_from_prop_8_to_the_1.php#comments</comments> </item> <item> <title>21st Century Leadership: Queers and Interdependence</title> <author>Lisa Weiner-Mahfuz</author> <description><![CDATA[<p>I want an LGBT movement that is visionary, bold and unafraid of difference. I want an LGBT movement that <a href="http://www.bilerico.com/2010/07/liberation-poster.jpeg"><img src="http://static.bilerico.net/2010/07/liberation-poster-thumb-200x309-12692.jpeg" style="float:right" width="200" height="309" alt="liberation-poster.jpeg"/></a>represents the full breadth and depth of our communities without hesitation or compromise. In the words of Audre Lorde, I want a movement where: </p> <blockquote> <p>Difference must be not merely tolerated, but seen as a fund of necessary polarities between which our creativity can spark like a dialect. Only then does the necessity for interdependency become unearthing. Only within that interdependency of different strengths, acknowledged and equal, can the power to seek new ways of being in the world generate, as well as the courage and sustenance to act where there are no characters. </p> </blockquote> <p>I want an LGBT movement that is ready to move into the 21st century with the kind of leadership and risk taking necessary to ensure that we move beyond a narrow single-issue agenda. Simply put, our mutual survival depends upon it. </p> <p>So what does 21st century leadership look like? Framed another way, what does visionary leadership based on the principles of interdependency look like and why is it important at this moment in our movement's history?</p>]]><br /> <![CDATA[<p><a href="http://www.bilerico.com/2010/07/21st_century_leadership_queers_and_interdependence.php#more">Continue reading "21st Century Leadership: Queers and Interdependence"...</a></p>]]></description> <link>http://www.bilerico.com/2010/07/21st_century_leadership_queers_and_interdependence.php</link> <guid isPermalink="True">http://www.bilerico.com/2010/07/21st_century_leadership_queers_and_interdependence.php</guid> <category>The Movement</category> <pubDate>Sun, 18 Jul 2010 16:00:00 -0500</pubDate> <comments>http://www.bilerico.com/2010/07/21st_century_leadership_queers_and_interdependence.php#comments</comments> </item> <item> <title>Cuz We Gotta Have Faith!</title> <author>Lisa Weiner-Mahfuz</author> <description><![CDATA[<p>I am a secular Jew who was <a href="http://www.bilerico.com/2010/06/lisa-poster.jpeg"><img style="Float:right" src="http://www.bilerico.com/2010/06/lisa-poster-thumb-175x238-12319.jpeg" width="175" height="238" alt="lisa-poster.jpeg"/></a>raised by a Jewish father and a Muslim Syrian, Lebanese mother. We were active in our temple and celebrated the high holidays. We were not the most religious family on the block, but we were observant Jews. Faith was something that was not discussed in my childhood household but it was certainly practiced. Growing up in a totally Semitic family meant that I was raised with a big dose of distrust for Christianity.</p> <p>Over the years many of my personal and political experiences have countered the narrative that all Christianity is bad and that faith is always hurtful to LGBT people and other communities living on the margin of society. As I grew older and came to understand the powerful role faith can play in combating hate, I began to realize that I needed my progressive brothers and sisters of faith by my side. I also began to realize that progressive faith traditions and spiritual practices of all kinds are a powerful connecter of people, communities and issues. </p>]]><br /> <![CDATA[<p><a href="http://www.bilerico.com/2010/06/cuz_we_gotta_have_faith.php#more">Continue reading "Cuz We Gotta Have Faith!"...</a></p>]]></description> <link>http://www.bilerico.com/2010/06/cuz_we_gotta_have_faith.php</link> <guid isPermalink="True">http://www.bilerico.com/2010/06/cuz_we_gotta_have_faith.php</guid> <category>Living</category> <pubDate>Tue, 29 Jun 2010 14:30:00 -0500</pubDate> <comments>http://www.bilerico.com/2010/06/cuz_we_gotta_have_faith.php#comments</comments> </item> <item> <title>Two Worlds: The Israeli/Palestinian Conflict</title> <author>Lisa Weiner-Mahfuz</author> <description><![CDATA[<p>I was born with a gift. I was born of Jewish/Muslim Arab descent. Yes, my friends, I am a clear headed, unconflicted Jewish Arab-American that deeply values and respects my Semitic roots and the histories and cultures of my peoples. <a href="http://www.bilerico.com/2010/06/Israel-Palestine.jpg"><img src="http://static.bilerico.net/2010/06/Israel-Palestine-thumb-200x314-11867.jpg" width="200" height="314" alt="Israel-Palestine.jpg" title="Israeli Palestinian conflict" style="float:right;" /></a>At 38 years old I have already been asked a lifetime of questions about my ethnicity, racial identity and faith practices. </p> <p>Some of my all time favorite questions include: "given the circumstances" do you live in a constant state of confusion? How do you know what side to take in the Israeli/Palestinian conflict? How in the hell did your parents meet? </p> <p>What I tell inquiring minds is that I grew up in a household where I received two very conflicting messages. On the one hand, my Jewish father and Lebanese, Syrian Muslim mother had a very volatile relationship fueled by a struggle to understand the complexity of their differences based on faith, culture, race, gender, class and the politics of Israel/Palestine. On the other hand, my Jewish and Arab grandfathers, both of whom died far too young, were the best of friends. They were able to find common ground and relish a friendship based on the complexity of their shared cultural and Semitic experiences in the "old country". </p> <p>As a Jewish/Arab-American disabled, lesbian feminist I came to understand early in life that I had one of two paths I could take: the volatile path of my parents or the bridge building path forged by my grandfathers. </p>]]><br /> <![CDATA[<p><a href="http://www.bilerico.com/2010/06/2_worlds_the_israeli_palestinian_conflict.php#more">Continue reading "Two Worlds: The Israeli/Palestinian Conflict"...</a></p>]]></description> <link>http://www.bilerico.com/2010/06/2_worlds_the_israeli_palestinian_conflict.php</link> <guid isPermalink="True">http://www.bilerico.com/2010/06/2_worlds_the_israeli_palestinian_conflict.php</guid> <category>Media</category> <pubDate>Thu, 10 Jun 2010 20:00:00 -0500</pubDate> <comments>http://www.bilerico.com/2010/06/2_worlds_the_israeli_palestinian_conflict.php#comments</comments> </item> </channel></rss>
