• ELIXHER
• On June 14, 2013

Cheerios Parody “Just Checking” Response to Haters

A new Cheerios commercial featuring a biracial family has prompted a debate over race in America after drawing a host of ugly remarks online.The commercial features a biracial daughter asking her white mother if Cheerios are good for your heart, and then dumping a batch on her black father’s chest to playfully help his heart while he is sleeping on the couch. Check out this hilarious Cheerios parody “Just Checking” response to haters, featuring a queer couple.

New York Lawmakers Urged to Pass Measure Protecting Transgender People’s Rights

The New York Times urged New York lawmakers on Thursday to pass the Gender Expression Non-Discrimination Act (GENDA), a measure to protect transgender people from discrimination in employment, housing, education, credit and public accommodations. Unfortunate title aside (more on that in a minute), the editorial is the latest among recent calls to put the measure — which has bipartisan support in the state Senate and Assembly — to an up-or-down vote before the legislative session ends on June 20.

Read more at Salon.

Danielle Powell, Grace University Student Kicked Out For Being Lesbian, Must Repay Thousands

Danielle Powell was close to getting her bachelor’s degree when she was kicked out of her university for being gay in 2012, and now says the only way the school will transfer her credits to another school is if she agrees to pay $6,300. In response, Powell has launched an online petition to pressure the school to forgive the debt.

Continue reading on the Huffington Post.

LGBT Rights and Communities of Color in the South [VIDEO]

Colorlines held a live chat with readers and southern LGBT organizers as part of their ongoing LGBT Pride 2013 coverage. In this video, Colorlines.com’s Jamilah King interviews the Freedom Center for Social Justice’s Bishop Tonyia Rawls.

Crush Of The Week: Meshell Ndegeocello

It’s Pride Month, and I want to kick it off by feting a queer Black woman who’s a truly underappreciated musical genius: Meshell Ndegeocello. Where can I even start? I’ve loved Ndegeocello, who self-identifies as bisexual, since her Grammy-nominated debut album Plantation Lullabyes back in 1993, when Madonna signed the multi-instrumentalist and singer to her Maverick record label. Between her bass playing (she tried out for the band Living Colour back in 1992 but didn’t get the gig, though she was a part of the Black Rock Coalition co-founded by the band’s guitarist, Vernon Reid), her come-to-me smoky voice, her gender-bending outfits, and (at the time) bald head, I swoonily followed her through her musical universe as she had some shooting-star hits, like her cut “Wild Night” with John Cougar Mellencamp and “If That Was Your Boyfriend (He Wasn’t Last Night).”

More at Autostraddle.