“In a raucous meeting that lasted more than six hours and drew hundreds of people, the City Council early Wednesday made Richmond the first city in Contra Costa County to enact rent control.”
More at Contra Costa Times
“The Supreme Court may not think bans on gay marriage are sex discrimination, but the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission thinks anti-gay discrimination in the workplace is.”
More at Washington Post
“Felipe Gil and Francisco Jurado, in Winning by Overflowing [in Spanish], laid out this new reality that defied the conventional wisdom of the political spin doctors, campaign consultants and party machines. In their article, they speak of inconclusive and unfinished narratives, of open prototypes and mutant identities. And they single out the key for all the political confluences that emerged and would emerge: ‘to let oneself trust and be invaded by an uncontrolled collective construction.’ Mayo Fuster, a researcher in collaborative culture, also highlighted this point: ‘The key concept here is overflow, which refers to the capacity to loose control over a process and to operate freely during the process of mobilization.’
More at Occupy Article Part I and Occupy Article Part II
Great speech by Elizabeth Warren:
“The American people are progressive and our day is coming. Our values are America’s values, and America’s values are progressive values.”
“In May, Citigroup, JPMorgan Chase, Barclays, Royal Bank of Scotland and UBS Group AG pled guilty to felonies. Swiss Bank had cooperated with authorities early on, and was ultimately not charged. The banks face collective fines of a little over $5 billion – paltry in relation to the money they handle and the money they manipulated. But while big banks continue to ruin communities and personal lives with light impunity, in some cases the people are fighting back….
“‘The [Santa Cruz] Supervisors can make a strong point and show disapproval with our dollars,’ she [Amanda Robinson, vice chair of the Santa Cruz County Democratic Party] said. ‘We will no longer put up with unethical and illegal banking practices. I hope other cities and counties will follow our lead and remove their monies from banks that don’t benefit local communities.'”
More at Occupy.com
“The Pentagon announced Monday that it will allow transgender members of the military to serve openly starting next year, marking an end to a long-standing policy that barred them from the armed forces.”
More at Washington Post
While celebrating the gains of queer people, such as the recent U.S. Supreme Court ruling on same-sex marriages, I feel it’s important to remember that you can still be arrested for your sexual orientation in 75 countries and punished by death in 10 countries around the world.
The best news I saw this Queer Freedom season was the San Francisco opening of “Jazzie’s Place”, amazing apparently the first homeless shelter for queer youth in the world.
Thanks to Gary Sponholtz for this great video of the ribbon-cutting event!
“Those of queer and Muslim have been enjoying the pride parade in Istanbul for over a decade, using it as an example of what is possible in a Muslim country. But this month’s pride left many of us angry. Vasip Şahin, the Governor of Istanbul, who belongs to a political party that lost in this year’s elections, and his government have banned the pride last minute, using the holy month of Ramadan as a pretext.”
Images no longer available…
More at Islam and Homosexuality
“New York City’s landmarks commission today [June 23, 2015] voted to grant official status to the Stonewall Inn, the Greenwich Village bar often credited as the birthplace of the modern LGBT rights movement.
“The vote was unanimous, according to the Associated Press.”
More at The Advocate