[Emily Pekar]

The theme of this week is Marriage equality for the LGBTQIA community where we began our conversation with Obergfell v Hodges(2015) and centered the majority of our conversation around Cheif Justice Roberts opinion statement. One line that we found to be problematic in our discussion was Robert’s assertion that “They [The LGBTQIA community] ask for equal dignity in the eyes of the law. The Constitution grants them that right” because although marriage equality has been a constant struggle, the LGBTQIA movement it isn’t the epitome of rights for all members of this community. Even as it is mentioned in the reading “How Gay Rights Became Constituional”, to the majority of the LGBTQIA movement the attainment of gay marriage has been the primary concern for gay and lesbian couples who are willing to fit into the heterosexual expectation of a relationship in that way while excluding the rights of other members of the community. As brought up in class, there are rights to privacy for Trans folk in bathrooms and forced surgery on children born as intersex to consider, not just gay rights as the apex of LGBTQIA rights. That is why I’ve chosen to present a picture of a trans woman who is being arrested during the Stonewall riots. During the 1970’s, there was an upsurge of legislation requiring people to conform to gender identity which lead to the discrimination and the violation of privacy for trans folk and other members of the LGBTQIA community who were at “gay” nightclubs, such as Stonewall, where police would often arrest, search and “confirm gender” anatomically through strip searches if not offered bribes.  On June 28, 1969, riots erupted at Stonewall where trans folk fought against oppression and demanded basic human rights; thusly starting the tradition of the Gay Pride Parade which is still celebrated to this day. I feel this photo and the Stonewall riots are relevant to our class and the discussions held during week 9 because we found that gay marriage is just a step in the right direction for the LGBTQIA community because it hardly provides access to the same human dignity afforded to heteronormative people which were emphasized greatly in our conversation. By recognizing where the activism of the LGBTQIA community originated we see that marriage equality has only been attained because it fits within heteronormativity and societal expectations, where the original pioneers of the movement were concerned with anything but accepting and adhering to social expectations and gender roles–however that doesn’t make them any more worthy of full rights of citizenship.

Source: EgoCity–LGBT Community Network

Stonewall_preview_640-resize-1200×0-70

Author/Date: Unavailable on source website

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[Emily Pekar]

This week in class we discussed illegality and civil rights where I found in these discussions the criminalization of immigrants and the mass-spreading of misinformation and “fake news” by our administration which is crucial in creating and worsening the issue of legalized terrorism based on citizenship status in communities of color. During the recent midterm elections, President Trump and his administration released a campaign ad which berates Democrats for “letting in” illegal immigrants such as Luis Bracamontes who has been convicted of killing two policemen; while showing footage of the Central American Caravan in which immigrants where attempting to seek refuge in the United States. In this ad, the assumption being made is that the caravan of immigrants seeking asylum are committing a crime and should be of upmost concern for American safety being that they could be harboring criminals like Bracamontes. Although these actions are on completely different levels of legality, by conflating these instances the Trump administration is attempting to criminalize any immigrant who is attempting to enter the country “illegally” on the same level as an illegal immigrant who has committed a crime which contributes to racist presumptions about all non-assimilating immigrant groups and is meant to serve Trump’s desire to close the Mexican-American border.

Source: https://twitter.com/realDonaldTrump/status/1057728445386539008

Date Posted on President Donald Trump’s Twitter: October 31, 2018

 

• This reply was modified 6 years ago by Emily Pekar.
• This reply was modified 6 years ago by Emily Pekar.

[Emily Pekar]

https://youtu.be/k2zvPTGiJj4

This is a trailer clip taken from YouTube account Annapurna Pictures posted August 2, 2018 in which Barry Jenkins teases his adaptation of James Baldwin’s If Beale Street Could Talk(1974). In his novel, Baldwin follows the love story of a young black couple in Harlem named Fonny, a sensitive artist, and Tish, a woman wise beyond her years, who become pregnant in the wake of Fonny’s false imprisonment. Despite being arrested at the hands of a racist cop, Fonny and Tish plan on being together and raising their child together at all costs. I chose this visual because Baldwin is often seen as a didactic orator; however the emotional weight of this novel allows for the discussion of systematic racism which functions primarily to stagnate the lives of young black men in a personable way in which the tragic plot and dynamic characters puts this situation into a human context. Also, I feel as though this novel is a counter narrative to the misconception that has been developed about “absent” black fathers–it is evident by Fonny’s determination to get out of prison and raise his child that despite being unprepared for fatherhood his love for Tish and gentle personality pushes him to want to defy all odds, which are traits not often contributed to historically criminalized black men.

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