Official News Outlet for the Rainbow Round Table of the American Library Association
By John Mack Freeman The gender-neutral honorific “Mx” has been added to the latest edition of the Oxford English Dictionary. It’s definition is: “n: a title used before a person’s surname by those who wish to avoid specifying their gender.” Via PinkNews: The title Mx is a gender-neutral alternative to Mr and Ms, which has […]
By John Mack Freeman This past week, GLAAD released their annual Network Responsibility Index. This index has for the last nine years been a barometers for the quantity and quality of LGBT representation by different television providers. This year, Fox became the first major network to receive an A+ score, and almost every network examined received […]
By John Mack Freeman The Department of Health and Human Services released a proposed rule this week that would prohibit anti-trans bias in healthcare in the United States. Via Washington Blade: Health & Human Services Secretary Sylvia Burwell said in a statement the proposed rule seeks to protect individuals “who have often been subject to […]
By John Mack Freeman A ruling by the Vatican this past week made it impossible for trans people to officially become a new baby’s godparents. Via Advocate.com: Alex Salinas, 21, was denied the opportunity by his local church because he is transgender. Bishop Rafael Zornoza Boy of the diocese of Cádiz and Ceuta, overturned the […]
By John Mack Freeman Much of the media has been following the unfolding story surrounding Kim Davis, the clerk of court for Rowan County, Kentucky. Davis had refused to issue marriage licenses to same-sex couples. After being sued, she lost in a federal district court, and emergency appeals for stays to both the Sixth Circuit […]
By A. Faulkner This isn’t so much an imminent issue in the news as it is an ongoing conversation for the past few years now. I want to talk about labels. I’m not so much concerned with the issue of who labels us and arguing that the only labels that matter are the ones we […]
By John Mack Freeman A Texas court this week rejected the city’s wording for a ballot measure that would determine the fate of Houston’s Equal Rights Ordinance (HERO). Instead of having to vote yes to remove the ordinance, it will instead have to be worded in such a way that a yes vote is cast […]
By John Mack Freeman A YouGov poll has found that 1 in 3 American young adults identifies as not completely heterosexual. Using a modified Kinsey scale, the researchers asked participants about their identification and their experiences. Here are the results broken down: The full results can be read here. Additionally, the study found that young […]
By Elizabeth Gartley A few months ago, I came across the 2011 article “The Silent Message: Professional Journals’ Failure to Address LGBTQ Issues” by Elizabeth Koehler, in The Journal of Research on Libraries and Young Adults, the academic journal of YALSA. In her study, Koehler searched for LGBTQ-themed articles in nine professional journals commonly read […]
By Carlos Fernandez According to the Oxford Concise Dictionary of World Religions, “religion binds people together in common practices and beliefs: it draws them together in a common enterprise of life” (Bowker, The concise Oxford dictionary of world religions, 2000, p. xix). Unfortunately, for many lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, and queer/questioning (LGBTQ) people, religion has […]