“Progress in Marriage Equality” 2.0

When I joined the HPA staff back in September, one of the first blogs I wrote was about my personal experience with marriage equality (you can read it here). I compared equality to a baby taking it’s first steps- excruciatingly slow. “It may take decades for it to reach it’s goal… But it will get [...]

Read More
Posted in Human Rights, LGBTQ, Philosophical Musings | Tagged , , ,

Progress in Equality–It Does Get Better!

A lot has happened since Wizard Rock the Vote, and it’s easy to get caught up in new campaigns and forget to look back and see what we’ve helped to accomplish. So, personally, I think it’s time to take a moment to pat ourselves on the back and take a look at how far the [...]

Read More
Posted in Harry Potter Alliance News, Human Rights, LGBTQ | Tagged ,

I Remember: Transgender Day of Remembrance & Transgender Awareness Week

Amongst all of the holiday festivities lies a day slightly more somber than the rest: the Transgender Day of Remembrance.

Read More
Posted in Human Rights, LGBTQ | Tagged , ,

The Return of the ‘Kill the Gays’ Bill

Yep. It’s back: the Ugandan “kill the gays” bill that would make being gay a crime punishable by death. The return of this bill to Uganda’s Parliament is particularly painful the day after the Transgender Day of Remembrance, and to add insult to injury, they’re actually billing this as a ‘Christmas gift.’

Read More
Posted in Harry Potter Alliance News, Human Rights, LGBTQ | Tagged ,

How To Be An Effective Ally: The Dos and Don’ts

I believe all students, regardless of sexual orientation or gender identity/expression, deserve to feel safe and supported. That means I pledge to: -Not use anti-LGBT language and slurs; -Intervene, if I safely can, in situations where other students are being harassed; -Support efforts to end bullying and harassment.

Read More
Posted in LGBTQ | Tagged ,

Pride and Prejudice: The Problem with Banning Pride

After the Russian government banned the Moscow Pride for a century this August, one may begin to  wonder: why would anyone want to ban the manifestation of love and diversity? If we are people who claim to value equality, then why do some appear to be more equal than others?

Read More
Posted in Empowerment, Harry Potter Alliance News, Human Rights, LGBTQ | Tagged , , ,

Controversy in California

As you may have heard, earlier this week California became the first state to ban gay ‘conversion’ therapies. The purpose of these ‘therapeutic’practices, which can “include a wide variety of techniques from counseling to shock therapy to — in extreme cases — exorcism,” is to change children who identify themselves as gay, and make them [...]

Read More
Posted in Empowerment, Harry Potter Alliance News, LGBTQ | Tagged , ,

Progress in Marriage Equality

I have three mothers. My parents divorced when I was seven years old, and now, several years later, both my mom and dad are engaged to lovely women. They aren’t officially my moms- they’re not even officially stepmothers yet- but they feed me and care for me and love me all the same. Eventually- within [...]

Read More
Posted in Human Rights, LGBTQ | Tagged , ,

In The End, Everything Matters

If 90% of a population wears purple at the same time, it is most likely not a coincidence. Perhaps there’s a football game, and the entire school is walking around in ‘purple pride’ wear. Perhaps there’s a group outing, and the members of the group chose to wear purple hair ribbons in order to be [...]

Read More
Posted in Harry Potter Alliance News, LGBTQ | Tagged ,

Second Star to the Right

When I was little, I used to run outside at night and lay on my back, looking up to the stars. I loved the idea of space, of the vast blackness and stars that I could see from my backyard. In middle school, I got the chance to go to space camp. I was, if [...]

Read More
Posted in Human Rights, LGBTQ | Tagged , , , ,