(via youarepriceless | Young Women’s Empowerment Project)

YOU DON’T WANT TO MISS THIS!!!

rentboyblog:

Hawk Kinkaid of HookOnline.org interview via KeepTheLightsOn.com

Hawk Kinkaid is speaking to me between meetings. He is the creator of HookOnline.org, a website devoted to harm reduction and fostering dialogue between male sex workers, and Rent U, a teaching program he created as an off-shoot of Hook. 

Adam: How did you first get the idea to do Hook Online?
Hawk: I started the project over a decade ago, and the initial reason for starting it was that there were no resources for men in the industry to assist in the learning curve, in other words, the site serves to help keep people from making some of the more common mistakes that people make in the industry. It’s also a way to foster some conversation about the business so that we are helping people to understand it better. A lot of people, especially gay men who are working in the industry will take a kind of laissez faire approach. They think having sex and having sex for money is not very complicated, but there are effects and decisions you have to make when you work in the industry. Many people have made many mistakes in doing that. So what we try and do is give people an opportunity to better understand it when making that decision. We are a harm reduction program. Our goal is not to prevent people from being in the industry, and a lot of the people who work on the project are people who do very well in the business. They pay their taxes, they pay for their healthcare, they make all sorts of practical decisions. But many people don’t. They’re in the industry very temporarily, as a result of a bad situation or emergency or they just see an opportunity for a period of time so they take it on. So what we want to do is get them to think practically and occupationally about the decision they make.

What are some of the most common complications people face in the industry?
On a professional level there are always issues surrounding physical violence, drug and alcohol usage, especially when they’re working and people end up being taken advantage of that way. There’s also implications in their personal lives, in their friends and their support system. As far as social behaviors, as I mentioned, there’s often significant drug and alcohol usage in their free time – which can become an addiction.

Read More

Yay Hawk!

blackgirldangerous:

by Mia McKenzie

President Obama just “endorsed” gay marriage. And guess what? I barely give a damn.

I mean, don’t get me wrong, it’s okay. It’s fine. There’s nothing inherently wrong with it. Saying that gay people who want to get married to each other should be able to do so is basically a…

Are you celebrating Obama’s weak endorsement of marriage equality? You should be reading this instead. 

Last night I had a glass of wine with Ceyenne to celebrate being so close to the finishing line for the Cooking in Heels Kickstarter campaign. We have 11 hours left, and we just hit $9200, which is truly stunning and amazing. 

This means we’ll definitely be able to produce a photo shoot and add full color photos of some of the dishes to the book. And if the pledges continue to climb over the next few hours, we will be looking at the possibility of creating a few episodes of a Cooking in Heels online cooking show, which will be available for free and would launch alongside the book in August or September. 

Folks here on Tumblr have been instrumental in making this book possible - not just by pledging, but by spreading the word about this project and making Ceyenne’s project visible. Thanks so much for your support! If you have already donated, it would be amazing if you could increase your pledge today (if just half of our backers chip in an additional $10, we’ll easily pass the $10,000 mark) - or just share the Kickstarter page and the amazing video that captures Ceyenne’s story.

Yesterday, I ran my first half marathon with my dear friend Lia, through the many hills of Columbia, Maryland. It was awesome. I finished in 2:36:17, keeping a nice steady pace just under 12 minute miles. Not the fastest, but better than I hoped, and damn there were a lot of hills. I feel good today - sore but not achey. And I want to do it again. I still remember that first day I started the couch to 5K program at the end of last May, how horrible it felt to run for a full minute. And I remember the first time I ran for 20 minutes straight without stopping, and how amazed I felt. I love that I’ve discovered the possibilities and strength of my body in my early thirties. It has been so so good for both my body (I’m fitter than I’ve ever been, and lost 40 pounds in the past year) and my brain. Yes, I am an overachiever, and I do a million things. But running (and the other sports I’ve been adding, like boxing and this summer, triathlon) is the only thing I do solely for my own benefit. And I am so very glad I’ve made this commitment to myself. 

Yesterday I spent a few hours talking about Cooking in Heels with Ceyenne and a longtime friend of hers, Jack (aka Flawless Sabrina), in the Upper East Side apartment where he has lived since the late 1960s. The apartment has lots of gorgeous antiques, and is cluttered with the objects that symbolize a life well celebrated: photos, newspaper clippings, wigs, a first edition of John Rechy’s City of Night. We talked about how things have changed and how they haven’t, about police violence and fabulous parties - and of course, we ate. Jack has been immensely important to Ceyenne over the years, offering refuge, support, and kindness to her when those things ran in short supply in her life. We showed him our Kickstarter video and he shed some tears and then clapped in glee at the end. There’s a dish in the book named after him, but he doesn’t know that yet.

Ceyenne prepared her signature quiche - in the Kickstarter video she talks about the first time she prepared it for her family. In her youth, Ceyenne’s quiche made her safe. Her parents were less abusive whenever she was cooking, because they needed her - and damn is she good at it. I stood in Jack’s kitchen with Ceyenne as she prepared the food, and took this shot of her kneading the dough for the quiche crust. 

Secret ingredient: pancake mix. The final product was fluffy and cheesy and amazing.

We told Jack about the success we’re having with the Kickstarter campaign and told him about our hopes for making a book with color photos of 5-10 dishes. That’s looking more and more like the reality of this project, as we steadily climb to $8000 in pledges, and beyond. Can we raise $10,000? Maybe $12,000? That would make it possible for us to produce episodes of Ceyenne’s dream online cooking show, which would be the same great quality as the video we produced for this campaign. 

So, please keep spreading the word! We’ve got just over two weeks left to see how big we can make this.

vizzz:

(10 trans women who were killed by hate crimes. the other 10 are located here)

latinegrasexologist:

cross posted at my Media Justice column

cross posted at my Media Justice column

I’m writing this letter regarding a particular interaction I recently had with a racially white person in the field. This person is planning a new program and project of which I was invited. I asked what the demographics were for this space, if there are any people of Color, with disabilities, youth, or trans* people. I was told, right now, there are no people of Color who are a part of the programming identified as “experts” and the demographics of participants is not available. The letter I wrote to this person is one that is filled with the same arguments I, and many other people of Color, have been making to racially white people in the field for years.

My decision to write and share with you this letter comes from my investment in the field (of which I’ve been a part for over a decade), but mostly because I care about the people of Color who wish to join this field, those people of Color who gave their lives to this field, and those of us who are still here doing work.

Have you noted the lack of people of Color in the field? When I’ve brought this to the attention of some of you, your responses have mostly fallen into the category of: “the field is what it is.” This response is problematic on numerous levels. It ignores and erases the people of Color who were a part of the field, helped create it in the US, those of us here today, and those of us to come. This response does not question the colonial legacies and white supremacy of which the US field was created and remains.

The field “is what it is” because of the lives, bodies, and sacrifice of people of Color. From the life of Saartjie Baartman, to the enslaved African women experimented on by “doctors” such as James Marion Sims, Henrietta Lacks, Black families in the Tuskegee Experiment, the forcibly sterilized Puerto Rican, Native and people with disabilities in the US; Rosie Jimenez, and the nurses, healers, doulas, midwives, and educators of Color save the lives of people every day make the field.

I understand when I write about youth people assume it is always folks under the age of 18. Sometimes this is true. Sometimes the term “youth” is more inclusive. What does remain when people who identify as “professional” or “experts” in the field is the ageism and elitism that isolates and excludes youth of any age. Assuming that youth are not serious about this profession, or cannot understand or put the time in necessary to develop their skills and abilities ignores the amazing work youth have done in their communities, especially as peer educators. Many of the amazing people of Color I know moving the field forward are under 30, several under 25. I have met and mentored peer educators who at the age of 14 are working at a local clinic/health centers or are students in college (because not all of us can afford to go to college or have the ability to attend) and seeking careers in this field. It is them who are on the vanguard of the work and who will remain when we are no longer here. Why are they ignored?

If we truly believe the field in the US must grow, evolve, and change and that we welcome anyone who cares and wants to do the work, we cannot exclude youth. Ever. It seems only certain types of sexuality professionals are seen as being able to grow, evolve and move the field in the US forward. When you think of why people of Color are not attracted to your space, website, services, etc. think about the marketing you implement. Many of the “experts” and professionals that are highlighted or treasured as valuable are all racially white people. Not only are they all racially white, but often the well known, highlighted “experts” are all blonde/light-haired people. Some of the “experts” that are highlighted have made offensive and oppressive remarks that perpetuate anti-Black racism and xenophobia.


When you reach out to those of us who are people of Color in the field, requesting our assistance in reaching our community it is often from a selfish space that is about your profit and advantage, not ours. As a result, we make our own spaces. Many of us are a part of Sister Song http://sistersong.net/ and/or the Women of Color Sexual Health Network, a group that was established at the 41st Annual AASECT Conference by 18 women of Color who were present (including myself) and were shocked and saddened by the exclusion of our lives, perspectives, work, experiences, community.

Honestly, at this point, this is the most I wish to help you reach more people of Color, trans* people, and people with disabilities. A internet search will help you find the national and local organizations that are centering the sexual health, and reproductive justice of people of Color. If you do not receive a response from them, know it is not always because we are disinterested, but because the images, language, and message that is a part of the space you wish to build already excludes us.

I have done my share of “helping” racially white people move their ideas, work, projects forward and target people of Color without any reciprocity. How are racially white folks in this field mentored, supported, prepared to succeed in this field and how is it different from how people of Color are prepared, mentored, and expected to succeed? Have those racially white folks considered how they have benefited from the white supremacy in the field that allows them success? How do those of us who are not racially white but in the field find and become successful? What are the barriers that racially white people in the field hold up, ignore, and not question or see that limit those of us of Color in the field? Why do racially white people only hear, what people of Color have said about the field for generations, when a white person says and repeats it?

These are questions I and many of us in the US who are of Color and in the field ask often. We will continue to ask more questions. My time in the field has led me to realize that unless these questions have been examined and attempts are made to shift, unlearn, relearn, heal, and process, I cannot find a space to grow, mentor, and to evolve. As a result, we create and find our own spaces.

My hope is that you consider speaking with your “experts” and those that you actively work to highlight and ask them how they would answer these questions, consider including such a dialogue in your sessions, and actively work to change this so that the field doesn’t remain as it is, but evolves in a way that recognizes the dignity people of Color embody and the safety and respect we too deserve.
Sincerely,

Bianca L
Sexologist, Educator, Revolutionary
LatinoSexuality.com
Amplify Media Justice Columnist