FIERCE

Dean Spade on Prison Abolition and Anti-Transgender Violence, and FIERCE Radicalizes the Creating Change Conference

Tue, 31 Jan 2012 05:00:00 GMT

Listen here to this week's show.

On this week's show we discuss anti-transgender hate crimes, prison abolition, and alternative models of justice with Dean Spade and Eric Stanley. We will also report on LGBT youth of color activist group FIERCE's attempts to radicalize the agenda at last weekend's Creating Change conference.

New HUD Policies Protect LGBT People; LGBT Youth Mic Check Obama Staff

Mon, 30 Jan 2012 05:00:00 GMT

On Saturday, HUD Secretary Shaun Donovan announced at the annual Creating Change Conference on LGBT Equality some new changes in HUD policies that will make discriminating against LGBT people and relationships with HUD funding illegal. Think Progress writes:

Under the new guidelines, any program that receives funding or insurance through HUD will be prohibited from discriminating on the basis of sexual orientation or gender identity, including Section 8 housing, emergency shelters, and other social services, as well as lending for FHA-insured mortgage financing. In addition, all such programs will now be required to recognize same-sex and otherwise LGBT families — regardless of their marital status or the adoption status of their children — to ensure they can stay together as a family unit when accessing HUD resources.

C.B. 2, gay youth hash out issues on the waterfront

Thu, 28 Jul 2011 04:00:00 GMT

A meeting of Community Board 2’s Waterfront Committee on Monday evening brought together gay youth and Village residents to discuss issues of safety and quality of life in and around the Christopher St. Pier.

Specifically, the meeting was billed as “Pier 45 — Disturbances, community reaction, summer outreach efforts — a dialogue with stakeholders.”

About 25 members of FIERCE, the gay youth advocacy organization, attended the meeting, as well as David Poster and Teri Howell, of the Christopher St. Patrol, and other residents.

John Blasco, a leader organizer for FIERCE, said L.G.B.T. youth are feeling “increasingly unsafe” in the West Village due to stepped-up summer policing along the Christopher St. corridor, which is the youths’ main conduit to the pier, their main stomping ground.

FIERCE focuses on center as some say, �Not here�

Thu, 30 Jun 2011 04:00:00 GMT

Representatives of Fabulous Independent Educated Radicals for Community Empowerment (FIERCE) said that recent int
eractions between the New York Police Department and L.G.B.T.Q. youth highlight the need for a 24-hour, drop-in center. But the economy’s troubled state has forced the organization to revise its plans and seek a location in the West Village instead of on the waterfront, which has many Villagers worried.

FIERCE, an L.G.B.T.Q. youth advocacy organization, began its Our Safe Place to Organize Together (SPOT) campaign in 2007 and initially looked to establish its youth center in the to-be-redeveloped Pier 40, at West Houston St., just a stone’s throw from the Christopher St. Pier, which has long been a focal point of gay youth culture. The 2008 economic slump that badly rattled the nation’s real estate market waylaid any redevelopment plans for Pier 40 and forced FIERCE to look elsewhere.

Pride 2011: Letters to a Young Queer Activist

Sat, 25 Jun 2011 04:00:00 GMT

Listen here to this 15-minute segment.

LGBT people don't have enough meaningful intergenerational conversations. For many reasons, there are stark barriers between our youth and our elders. We at Out-FM have the opportunity to interview many of the most exciting and experienced leaders of the LGBT movement, so we asked them: what advice do you have for young LGBT people? From avoiding burnout by making time to have fun together, to respecting the perspectives of the most powerless members of our community, their wisdom and insights are invaluable. Here, then, are a few of their Letters to a Young Queer Activist.

Listen here to an hour-long conversation about Rickke Mananzala's further thoughts on the state of the movement in New York after gay marriage.

Dunkin' Donuts Riot Response Exposes Rift in Greenwich Village

Mon, 13 Jun 2011 04:00:00 GMT

GREENWICH VILLAGE —Rising crime and a riot at a Greenwich Village Dunkin' Donuts has created a rift between residents demanding increased police patrols — and those who claim extra vigilance is creating an environment hostile to gays.

Some locals say lawlessness is making Christopher Street a no-go area, and it's increased because police and legislators have been too lenient to crowds of lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender youths who hang out in the area.

But critics say targeting the youths could seem anti-gay in a neighborhood that is nationally important to the gay rights movement — and has an historically contentious relationship with police.

4 arrests in �donut riot,� but FIERCE blasts crackdown

Sun, 05 Jun 2011 04:00:00 GMT

Police have made four arrests in connection with the May 16 incident in which at least a dozen young people, some of them transgender, invaded the Dunkin Donuts at 75 Christopher St. and wreaked mayhem. They threw two metal tables and one chair at employees and during the chaos stole pastries and drinks.

On Monday, two of the suspects, Dwayne Jones, 20, and Mark Wright, 19, were indicted for attempted assault, criminal mischief, criminal possession of a weapon (the thrown furniture) and riot. Jones was also charged with grand larceny.

A third individual was a juvenile. The fourth may have been charged with misdemeanors, according to police.

Police say, based on intelligence they received, their investigation took them to the 147 W. 24th St. location of FIERCE, the advocacy group for gay youth of color. A tip to a tips line said a few of the individuals involved attended programs at FIERCE. Word on the street that police got from members of the transgender community was the same.

Alleged Hate Crime Victim Calls Attack Part of a Wider Problem

Wed, 30 Mar 2011 04:00:00 GMT

DNAinfo Reporter/Producer

GREENWICH VILLAGE — The young victim of an alleged hate crime at a Village McDonald's shared his story with GLAAD Wednesday, calling the attack just one example of a wider problem of violence against the city's LGBT community.

"This has to stop. Under no circumstance should a person be attacked for their sexual orientation," Damian Furtch, 26, wrote in a statement. "This has been a traumatic experience for me, my friends and my family."

Furtch sustained three punches to the face in the early hours of Sunday morning, when two young men followed him out of a McDonald's at Sixth Avenue and West 3rd Street, according to the NYPD and Furtch.

Helping 'FIERCE' LGBTQ Youth Of Color Stand Up For Themselves

Fri, 18 Mar 2011 04:00:00 GMT

Krystal Portalatin decided to take action when she and her friends nearly lost one of the few safe places for young, lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender New Yorkers.

The city started to barricade the Christopher Street pier on the Hudson River, one of the few public spaces where many young LGBTQ New Yorkers felt they could be themselves.

Shoulder to Shoulder, Ending the Violence

Thu, 30 Dec 2010 05:00:00 GMT

2010 brought what was reported as a "spike" in bias incidents against lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and queer (LGBTQ) and HIV/AIDS-affected people in New York City. As organizations who work day-to-day with LGBTQ we know that anti-LGBTQ violence has not suddenly increased, but has been rising steadily for decades: LGBTQ people face violence every day. What we did see in 2010 was a spike in the severity of violence that LGBTQ people face, more virulent hate speech from "community leaders," more media attention to LGBTQ youth suicides and violent homophobic attacks in Staten Island, the Bronx, Chelsea and the West Village, and more reports of the dangers that LGBTQ youth face in school.