My partner and I had a Civil Partnership this summer. We stood up in front of friends and family and made vows to each other, exchanged rings, had a Celtic handfasting, and signed on the dotted line to declare that we are joined in law as well as in spirit. Afterwards we ate, drank and danced with those closest to us, all coming together to celebrate our relationship. We were able to do so because of the Civil Partnership Act 2004, which extends legal rights to same-sex couples, almost identical to those enjoyed by married mixed-sex couples. Such legal protections and rights were unimaginable to me as a teenager coming out in my home town in the early 1990s, when Section 28 still prevented ‘the teaching in any maintained school of the acceptability of homosexuality as a pretended family relationship’.
Blog
July 27, 2015 - 4:34pm
Oak Creek police officers Lt. Brian Murphy, who was shot 15 times in the line of duty, and Officer Sam Lenda were awarded the Congressional Badge of Bravery in honor of their heroic actions on Aug. 5, 2012, when they intervened during a hate crime attack at the Sikh Temple in Oak Creek, WI.
July 21, 2015 - 3:12pm
One of the main aspects of Dutch tolerance is that anyone can do what they want, as long as others are not bothered by it. Feeling "bothered" may range from the formal demands of Christian schools to not have to accept LGBT teachers or students in their schools, to any visibility of LGBT expressions that are not within the heterosexist norm of an individual.
July 21, 2015 - 10:23am
Not In Our Town traveled to Charleston, South Carolina to document stories from the community in the days after the horrific hate crime attack that took the lives of nine members of the Emanuel African Methodist Episcopal Church on June 17, 2015. This short video is designed to prompt reflection and discussion for community and faith groups about how we can take local action in response to hate.
July 9, 2015 - 10:10am
Storytelling helps to protect our integrity, validate our existence, and create empathy.
By Jonathan Santos
In my eighth grade English class, everyone kept a journal—even our teacher Mrs. Griffin. Every day, she allotted 10 minutes for her students to write. She always told us, “write to express, not to impress.” There were no prompts. No boundaries. The only rule was to write for the entire 10 minutes without stopping. You stop, you fail. Endure the hand cramps and the writer’s block. Just keep moving your pencil.
At the end of each writing session, we would share what we had written but only if we wanted to. Some entries were funny. Some were ridden with hurt. But they were always raw, honest, and uninhibited. We never gave feedback to what others had written. We didn’t have to. We honored each other’s stories by simply listening. We expressed solidarity through silence.