Jonathan Butler, Mizzou Hero

Black students are doing battle for their lives as reports of the KKK on campus and repeated threats of violence targeting Black students and all Black people. 

There are dozens of courageous Mizzou students fighting for the right to attend school safely, but I want to call out Jonathan Butler for additional love and light for making this powerful statement: 

"We will not continue to be called niggers on this campus, believe that!"

Butler's hunger strike ended with the resignation of the University of Missouri chancellor, but the fight for justice continues.

WE STAND WITH YOU JONATHAN BUTLER AND ALL BLACK STUDENTS AT MIZZOU!

Further reading:
http://www.refinery29.com/2015/11/97468/university-missouri-protests#.jt4o55a:gBYf
http://www.slate.com/blogs/the_slatest/2015/11/11/the_federalist_and_sean_davis_say_the_feces_swastika_at_mizzou_was_a_hoax.html
http://www.msnbc.com/msnbc/blackoncampus-continues-national-discussion-race-sparked-mizzou
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/tim-wolfe-homecoming-parade_56402cc8e4b0307f2cadea10

Waiting on GLAAD: Bisexual Representation In Media 2015

Photo: Wooden desk with glasses, writer and books and the words "From the desk of Faith Cheltenham". Credit: thefayth.blogspot.com / Faith Cheltenham

Every time the bisexual community asks for GLAAD​ to tackle current or upcoming biphobia, it's been a waiting game. Usually, we are asked to wait until GLAAD can utilize the relationships it has with networks and studios to foster a better representation for bi people on TV and Film.

I've been told I need to "wait and see" because we haven't read the script. If there was a gay "showrunner" like in the case of the rampant biphobia on GLEE, there was no response, which has been all too common.

So, I'm still waiting.

Meanwhile, bisexual actor Michelle Rodriguez​ is set to star in a potentially problematic "gender bending" thriller, and there's been an immediate response from GLAAD.

GLAAD's Nick Adams​ (WHO I RESPECT THE HELL OUT OF) says, it's a concept that's disappointing, and he's right, even if he's not read the script. Anything with the potential to dismantle progress for trans rights should be highly scrutinized.

READ: GLAAD Calls 'Tomboy' "Disappointing": Gender Reassignment Surgery Isn't a "Sensationalistic Plot Device"

One day, I hope that will ALSO be the case for the bisexual community too. We need LGBT orgs to get past making bisexual people "visible" just one week a year, and start tackling the prominent media issues of biphobia and bisexual erasure.

I salute Eliel Cruz, a bisexual person of faith advocate, for kickstarting a campaign to hold MTV accountable regarding recent biphobia on "Faking It". Cruz is directing petition signers to also petition GLAAD via social media and email to take action.

 Photo: Eliel Cruz in a tie. Credit: Courtesy of elielcruzwrites.tumblr.com and BiAnyMeans.com

SIGN: MTV's Faking It Carelessly Reinforces Bisexual Stereotypes #NotFakingIt

I have hope that someday organizations just like GLAAD will see bisexual celebrities worthy of work that supports and fosters their identity as well as the larger bi, pan, fluid, queer (bi+) community. 

It's long past time that bi celebs stop being seen as "ALLIES" that support the LGBT community, without recognition of the incredible challenges they face as bisexual celebs. 

How will bisexual representation in media or in life every change otherwise?

#DemDebate Racial Air Quotes

Jim Webb's problematic explanation of affirmative action had me in tears...of laughter.

#DemDebate

Standing Bi Jennicet Gutiérrez

This year saw the fewest bisexual advocates in attendance at the White House LGBT Pride Reception since 2010. Only two invites were provided to bi community advocates who work on behalf of bisexual communities. In fact, more bisexuals have died by suicide in the last 3 months, than the number of bisexuals invited to represent us at the White House LGBT Pride Reception this year.

Photo Credit/Caption: Banner with name of bi+ teens who died recently of suicide (Blake, Taylor, Alyssa and Adam)

From what I can see from my personal Facebook feed, there WERE a huge amount of transgender advocates in attendance at the event, including members of SPARTA, a transgender military organization. So I don't think it's accurate to claim that the LGBT community was pushing back on trans people by booing Jennicet Gutiérrez when she stood up to demand President Obama address the subject of transgender women detained alongside cisgender men.


Photo Credit/Caption: Familia Trans Queer Liberation Movement members in front of the White House after an undocumented LGBT advocate was denied access to the White House just last month.

Yet, questions still remain. Would Ms. Gutiérrez have been booed if she were Black? If she were cisgender, instead of transgender? If she had a sign clearly listing her demand for #Not1More? Is it time to put down your protest sign if you've been invited to the White House for a social engagement?

Recently I was at a movie theater and I was asked to be wanded by security twice. I told security I had already been wanded but they did not believe me and my friend. Instead they let the white part of our group enter and took us folks of color aside for further security inspection. At a movie theater.

I'm not one to take such treatment in silence, so as I walked over to be wanded I called out, "It's fine! I'm gonna go over here and keep being Black OK?" Personally I thought I was being funny in light of the situation but a white woman came out of line and yelled at me in disagreement! She said "stop making it always about race" and "you need to stop bringing that up". Since I'd never met this white woman before I will assume she was referring to #blacklivesmatter and all demands for Black equality.

That's what it's often like for people of color when they speak up against basic injustices. I've been wanded, searched, and frisked while walking while Black. I have been pulled over countless times while driving while Black. I regularly experience racism and when I can, I SPEAK UP!

Photo Credit/Caption: Faith Cheltenham, BiNet USA President holding sign up for #NotToProudToFight 

Special thanks to Darnell Moore for starting the conversation.

If I will not stay silent in the face of my life being considered irrelevant, how can I possibly expect SILENCE from a transgender Latina woman currently subject to being detained with cisgender men who will assault her? If folks wanna enjoy the appetizers and drinks at White House receptions, they need to help end the dangerous circumstances for transgender women in immigration detention.


Photo Credit/Caption: Task Force Executive Director Urvashi Vaid interrupts President Bush's first and only AIDS policy speech in 1990. Her sign also reflects the history of bisexual erasure in the HIV/AIDS movement.

I've been witnessing the push back directed at trans people of color, many of them my friends, allies and fellow bi+ community members. They are fighting for their lives to be reflected in a transgender revolution that does not speak of their issues. Imagine what it must be like for LGBT people subject to detainment, to enter the White House alongside so many like myself who are not subject to that detainment.


The 6 white, cis, gay men above are the LGBT ambassadors for the US. Is that what your equality looks like?

As a member of the bisexual community, which has long been shit upon, I can well imagine the feelings of alienation, exclusion and loneliness that come with fighting from within your own community to be recognized. That feeling is far too familiar for LGBT people of color in their own movement. We are too often tokenized, utilized and USED UP by a white LGBT establishment that drowns out our grievances in favor of celebrating "wins".

So while you celebrate marriage equality today, keep in mind the fight still has a long way to go.

Fluid Pride Flag

In 2002, I co-founded UCLA's Fluid, a bi/pan/fluid/queer student group at UCLA. At the time I was unaware of the over 24 different labels that bisexual community members frequently use to describe themselves. I loved fluid for how it fit my particular sensibilities of not having any particular sensibilities when it came to my attractions. I loved fluid for how it described my capacity to be attracted to more than one gender. I love that our community has so many terms to describe itself and in discussion with trans and bi advocate Tara Avery during this year's LA Pride festival we mocked out what a fluid pride flag might look like.

Royal Blue and Lavender stripes acknowledge that fluid community members are proudly part of the bisexual community, the flag of which shares these same stripes. Turquoise is an acknowledgement of the pansexual pride flag as well as the many bisexual, pansexual, fluid and queer people who celebrate the power bisexuality has to set us free from binaries of gender and sexuality.

NEW FOR 2019 - larger size

BiNet USA President Faith Cheltenham Is Bruin Pride

Had some fun recently at UCLA's LGBT Resource Center, shooting a segment for "I am Bruin Pride", a documentary and archival project honoring the words, stories, and contributions of LGBT students, faculty, staff and alumni of UCLA.

  

 Image Copyright Jack Kaden, I Am Bruin Pride Project 2015

About The "I Am Bruin Pride" project:
UCLA's LGBT Campus Resource Center proudly presents the I Am Bruin Pride Project, a documentary and archival project honoring the words, stories, and contributions of LGBT students, faculty, staff and alumni of UCLA.

“I Am Bruin Pride” presents the stories, experiences, and contributions of LGBT students, staff, faculty, and alumni of UCLA in an inclusive and diverse manner. Each interviewee has been picked based on a variety of factors contributing towards a diversity in race, experience, orientation, and identity. Featuring a poster series and an interview, “I Am Bruin Pride” documents the important histories of those within the UCLA LGBT community.

Here's the link to the "I Am Bruin pride" nomination form. Anyone is welcome to nominate themselves or someone else.

https://docs.google.com/forms/d/1hRgkUh3kViavmDuz19w7bdiqKx-qO_Au7YoL5kWl8HQ/viewform

In prep for my interview I put together some bullet points of what I got up to while at UCLA...and what I've been up to recently!

UCLA Accomplishments

1998

Sexual Violence Prevention Program Director, Student Welfare Commission

1999

HRC Campaign College Internship on Gore 2000 campaign

(My reference letter was provided by UCLA LGBT Center Director Ronni Sanlo)

2000

Board member, La Familia

2001-2004

• Co-chair/Co-Founder, UCLA’s BlaQue
• Co-chair/Co-Founder, UCLA’s Fluid
• Co-Founder, UCLA’s Queer x Girl
• Co-chair/Co-Founder of UCLA’s Queer Alliance 
• Managed organization’s budgets (over $67,000) 
• Created annual Queer Student Leadership Retreat in Lake Arrowhead
• Co-created “The Other Side of The Rainbow (TOSTR)” to celebrate LGBT POC
• Established computer lab for Queer Student Center
• Presented at UC-LGBTIA conference, Feb.  2004.  UC San Diego.

2005
Chair – UCLA’s EnigmaCon 2005: A Tsunami Relief Benefit

UCLA AWARDS 

UCLA Women for Change Student Leader Award, 2003 

“Zeke” Weber Award for Excellence in Activism and Education, 2005

Accomplishments at large

• Appearances on 2006 Emmy award-winning FX Networks docu-series show on race in America, “Black. White”.
• Successful corporate launches of web/digital projects for clients like Macmillan’s tor.com, Oprah Winfrey Network’s “Finding Sarah” show, and Warner Bros.’ “Harry Potter Book 7 Part 2” film.
• Writing for Huffington Post, Advocate, South Florida Gay News, and the BiNet USA blog or my personal testimonies on Truth Wins Out, #StillBisexual, I’m From Driftwood and the Center for American Progress.
• Speaking engagements at locations as varied as the California Democrats State Convention, The GLBT History Museum, The United States Senate Hart Building, San Diego Comic Con, UCLA, The White House, HRC’s Time to THRIVE Conference and Yale University.  
• Appointee, University of California LGBT Task Force (2012-2014)
• Co-organizer, 2013 Bisexual Community Issues Roundtable at the White House
• 2014 invitee and stage participant, White House Executive Order signing 
• First president of a bisexual non-profit to meet with a sitting U.S. President alongside other LGBT leaders.
• Parent to a child, “Storm”

Bisexual Is Not Always An Umbrella

I'm leaning away from using bisexual as an umbrella term; umbrellas are supposed to keep the rain off of you, instead of bring it. Bisexual is a political term that the bisexual community fought 40 years to see used with pride.  Just like gay doesn't always mean happy and lesbian doesn't refer just to an island, bisexual does not refer to two; it refers to “more than one”. We are the people with the capacity to be attracted to more than one type, and we have many ways to describe that. Please don't "identity police" and ask us to erase the generations of activism that led us to this point. Words like bisexual can change over time, but what doesn't is the need to respect complex sexualities. If you identity yourself as pansexual, polysexual, multisexual, fluid, queer, and/or non-monosexual, do so with the full knowledge of what the term bisexual has meant politically and how it was also used as a tool to serve transgender communities and re-frame the dialogue about sexual minorities away from gay and lesbian alone. I am proud to stand by bisexual, are you proud enough to stand by me, no matter what the wind and rain may bring?

From the Archives: About the time I met Rosa Parks...

(funny enough, Myspace.com is back open and you can find old treasures from yore like this poem from 2006)

About the time I met Rosa Parks...
By Faith Cheltenham

Sun's rays cowered from smog as Gram and I approached Robinson's May, that great giant of a percent off.

"Don't wanna go inside"
Didn't want to do a lot of things those days, this was when I was about ten.

Gangly and huge at the same time: skin, bones and f^^king boobs.
Standing about 5 foot 6", I didn't want to do a lot of things back then.

Shopping with Gram sure wasn't top of the list.
She'd poke in to see about fits and I'd have to huddle to cover my chest and curl up back into less.
I really didn't want to go into Robinson's May, but grandmother was insistent with a pinched lip and flared nostril, she said, "Yes, this is going to happen".

So I half snarled, with a curled lip in response as I came out of the car. I'd just finished reading The Outsiders, wished I could be smoking a Camel and emulating the lean of James Dean.

But I was to meet Rosa Parks this day!

I hadn't wanted to go inside, even with air conditioning. So in I went, and turned to the right.
I stumbled into an unfinished hall, pics of ROSA PARKS and a replica of the bus seat...what the f^^k?
Oh, the privilege of youth. Of "knowing", what wasn't something that would help you.

Dismissively I walked down that hall. "I've got my own pains and thanks, but what you got that's really gonna get me up? The right to sit? I got to kick it free of charge! You wanna see the scars?

See I was ten, and things at that point didn't matter. I was struggling all the time, and angrily navigating my way through: church brothers in dark parking lots, Best Girl Friends who couldn't watch their hands, abusive parent(s), and errant father(s), not to mention my own real desires. Every sin in the bible...that was me at 10.

So, I continued dismissively down that hall. Grandmother found me and began, RE: Rosa Parks: and where Gram had been when Rosa sat "for all of us". What it had meant for the turning of our race, escaping from the hellhole of never being good enough in the first...I tuned her out.
Oh, the privilege of youth. To know who will always love you, and not think that someone could help you.

And so I met Ms. Parks.

Led by another (slowly, for she was using a walker even then), we ran into each other with the exhibit still unfinished and she's was supposed to come the next day for its opening. "All the way down here for nothing?" complained her caregiver, who had no idea that I had been deeply considering the same thing, especially at age ten.

Gram took me by crook and marched me straight up. "Oh, Hello!  This is my granddaughter Faith. We're so honored to meet you". She was the smallest of women, tiny even but she had held onto her seat, and kept her peace. Looking at her, I realized she'd probably been polite too.

"Stay in school, Educate yourself", was all I remember Rosa Parks saying.

Did I wish for something more tangible from the legendary lady? What for, when such a natural knowledge came upon me as we left that place. My life while hard, could have been much harder, so I can make it less difficult for another, even though the pay won't be great (and there's sure to be many unfinished honors and mixed up dates).