Twin Cities Daily Planet (https://www.tcdailyplanet.net/category/news/genderglbt/page/13/)
House District 48B primary challenger Sheila Kihne and her allies like to claim her bid to topple incumbent Republican state representative Jenifer Loon isn’t about Loon’s 2013 vote for marriage equality. Continue Reading
The Twin Cities Pride parade marches down Hennepin Avenue in Minneapolis tomorrow. To mark the occasion, MnDOT usually switches the lighting on the underside of the I-35W bridge to a rainbow pattern. The first time it did this was in 2011. This is a short timelapse film I made showing the bridge from a vantage point overlooking Mill Ruins Park. Continue Reading
Trinity Works, an evangelical group planning an mass “ex-gay” conversion outreach at Twin Cities Pride, recently told a church congregation that it’s outreach workers will cure HIV during Pride.Trinity Works, in coalition with what it says are 30 Twin Cities churches, is planning “Humility 2014,” an infiltration of Twin Cities Pride by outreach workers hoping to convince members of the LGBT community to leave the “lifestyle” as well as their partners, family, and friends, and become heterosexual born-again Christians. The group even had a failed plan to rent out the Gay 90s as a church during Pride.The group says it has about 300 outreach workers scheduled for Pride, and those workers will be based at First Baptist Church on Hennepin Avenue along the Pride parade route.Its leader Steven Uggen told a group gathered in April at The Well, A Living Church in Robbinsdale, that people will be cured of “HIV or AIDS” at the Pride festivities. Uggen says that by healing those with HIV, it will prove to the LGBT community that they should find Jesus and leave “the lifestyle.”“One of the words we got out of this outreach, the Lord really wanted to demonstrate his goodness to this community by releasing healing of HIV and AIDS, so we believe we’re going to see people healed of HIV and AIDS and we’re just, we’re carrying that word of the Lord into this outreach. And that will be part of our training just praying with boldness for the releasing of healing power and then sending them back to their doctors literally after praying for them. ‘Here’s what I want you to do: go to your doctor, get tested for HIV or AIDS and when you come back negative, you’ve got a decision to make whether you’re gonna serve the God who just healed you’ and then give them some gospel materials that they can take with them and encourage them to call on us and let us know and I’m confident that we’re going to have people healed of HIV and AIDS that are going to be contacting us. Continue Reading
Updated: 6/27/2014 2:19 pm Can you believe we’re almost at the end of June? Time flies, so spend it wisely — get out and enjoy some of the outdoor happenings around the cities. This weekend offers two big festivals — the Twin Cities Pride Fest in Minneapolis and the Twin Cities Jazz Fest in Saint Paul, along with other fun happenings around town. Just like the last couple of weekends, this weekend might be a bit wet so plan accordingly.See this weekend’s lineup below, and use the comment section or email tcweekend@tcdailyplanet.net to let us know about an event in your community. Music and Movies in the Park, June 27 – 28 Music and Movies in the Park is celebrating over 100 years of free entertainment in Minneapolis parks with 250 free concerts and movies taking place this summer. Bring a chair or blanket, some snacks and some bug spray and enjoy a night in the park. Continue Reading
Bluestem is beginning to wonder about the Republican Party’s commitment to be more inclusive interms of demographics, in that some of the candidates in the governor’s race–and their running mates–aren’t exactly star graduates of human relations seminars. Continue Reading
Friends and family of Joel Larson have started a campaign to remember the energetic and dynamic young gay man who lost his life to anti-LGBT hate in Minneapolis’ Loring Park in 1991.Larson’s loved ones are seeking a park bench with the inscription, Let us turn our backs on hatred. Teach love, to be placed in Loring Park to remember him. It will also serve to remind visitors of a dark time in Minneapolis history for LGBT people and how love has made things better, safer, and less unequal in the Twin Cities.“Yesterday, Joel’s sister Janet said to me, ‘Where do you begin to describe someone who was larger than life?’ That was Joel,” Larson’s friend Awen Briem told TheColu.mn. “I could elaborate about Joel’s out of bounds fabulousness, his dancing, his handsomeness, his beauty, his unmatched style… but at the core I was drawn to Joel because he showed up in the world authentically and he didn’t seem to care much what others thought… And if he did, he didn’t let it show.”Larson, a handsome young man from Urbandale, Iowa, — a suburb of Des Moines — had moved to Minneapolis the January before his murder. He loved New Wave bands, Madonna, died his hair, and occasionally wore eyeliner, as was the style at the time.(Photo via Remembering Joel Larson)Larson’s sister, Janet, remembered his attention to detail. Continue Reading
Having a “safer space,” according to Julia Winkels, means “one that is intentionally a place of respect and compassion, that goes beyond being polite or tolerant. We are making sure [people] are being respected and getting what they need,” she said.
Co-founder Victor Raymond remembers that they almost canceled the first BECAUSE conference when they realized the night before that only 12 people had signed up. They decided to follow through, and the next day over 120 participants showed up to register.That was back in 1992. Now the BECAUSE conference, which stands for Bisexual Empowerment Conference, A Uniting Supportive Experience, draws more than 200 participants from all over the United States every year. The conference, sponsored by local nonprofit Bisexual Organizing Project, aims to bring higher visibility to the sexual orientation, which advocates claim is mostly ignored in mainstream society. The event also provides a forum for support and activism for the bisexual movement. Continue Reading
Throughout his youth, Darrail Hughes attended various Saint Paul Public Schools. Now, as an adult, he returns to give that same school district something he believes they’ve been lacking: an African American male who students can relate to as he relates to them.“I would say something’s wrong with [traditional learning]. That’s why we are changing it,” says Hughes, believing that the current education system is getting ‘boring.’ Currently working with a division of the St. Paul Public Schools entitled Focus Beyond Traditional Services, Hughes credits his current position to his belief in the Arts Literacy Movement.According to Hughes, the movement is “a creative substitute” for the flawed traditional learning he described as ‘boring.’ The combination of Arts Literacy mixed with a mentoring component is what Hughes believes could make the connection between African American male students and the “broken” education system.This article is reposted from TCDP media partner Minnesota Spokesman-Recorder. Check out the links below for other recent Minnesota Spokesman-Recorder stories:South West Light Rail advocates see gains for communities of colorCommunities of color bear the brunt of environmental hazardsThis “broken system” is nothing new, he says. Continue Reading
The Minnesota Historical Society library has put together a display in its lobby documenting the LGBT community’s struggle toward full equality in Minnesota.