Keeping The Fayth

Photo Caption: Tombstone that reads #WhiteFeminism May 29th 1851 - Nov 9th 2016 and underneath it says in purple scrawl “my feminism will be intersectional, or, it will not be.” Photo Credit: Faith Cheltenham While I understand the intentionality surrounding the #womensmarch , I haven't willingly walked alongside #whitefeminism since that one time I kept writing for UCLA's Outwrite after my student editor went to press (against my objections) with a cover of a white woman in plantation garb next to a smiling Black woman both gazing with joy on a "mirror of history" touting the success of "lesbian rights". Ouch . Nearly two decades later, a wiser and more woke Faith has questions. For instance: if millions of women marched today, were they engaged in explicitly anti-racist, anti-white supremacy conversations while they passed out handouts from Showing Up for Racial Justice ? Photo Caption: Philadelphia Yearly Meeting march poster, proving once a

I think darkest days are made brighter when you can help, and it was an honor provide social media consultation to Equality Florida last year as they developed their fund-raising efforts to support the victims and survivors of the Pulse nightclub shooting. In the end Equality Florida raised over $9 million and you can still donate today to support their efforts to #honorthemwithaction . Below are some articles I collected reflecting the LGBTQIA people of color (POC) response to #Orlando  (added to The Pulse Orlando syllabus on 6/20/16) White queers, this is a betrayal. | Woman of Qolour https://womanofqolour.com/2016/06/17/white-queers-this-is-a-betrayal/ My Pride is Bulletproof: A Queer Puerto Rican on Life After Orlando | Rolling Stone http://www.rollingstone.com/culture/features/my-pride-is-bulletproof-a-queer-puerto-rican-on-life-after-orlando-20160616 Whitewashing the Orlando shooting victims only makes LGBTQ people of color more vulnerable to vi

CHELSEA IS FREE! Thank you, Mr. President! Faith Cheltenham stands on stage behind President Obama (and next to Black trans civil rights icon Kylar Broadus ) at the White House, July 2014 in this previously unreleased photo from her personal archives.  I could not have thought of a more fitting gift to a community President Obama so deeply supported! While Chelsea does not currently identify as bisexual, a rep with the Free Chelsea Network did indicate to me that she considers herself a strong bisexual ally. Through that same rep Chelsea sent her thanks to BiNet USA and the B in LGBT for our supportive efforts late last year that included a personal request or three on the manner to anyone who would listen in the White House, or elsewhere. Many of us did the same. Worldwide many of us prayed and hoped that a member of the LGBTQIA community would be released with time served, even while some remained concerned about how to support Chelsea while also upholding convicti