• ELIXHER
• On July 5, 2013

How Actress Laverne Cox Broke The Trans Glass Ceiling

“I’ve literally played a prostitute about seven times,” actress Laverne Cox says, and her reel confirms it. From Law & Order to Bored to Death, it’s easy to see that Cox, a black transsexual woman, has come up against some disturbing typecasting, a fact she’s quick to point out. “In reality, yes, trans women do sex work, but the problem is that we don’t all do sex work. There are trans women who are doctors, and lawyers, and nurses, and mothers, and sisters, and convicts.”

That last mention isn’t happenstance. Cox, a former reality star (I Want to Work for Diddy), has a breakout role in the new original Nexflix dramedy Orange Is the New Black, from Weeds creator Jenji Kohan. The highly anticipated show, based on Piper Kerman’s memoir, is set in a women’s prison and was renewed for a second season before it even premiered.

More over at BuzzFeed.

Sharnee Zoll-Norman, WNBA Chicago Sky Player, Comes Out

Women’s National Basketball Association (WNBA) Chicago Sky guard Sharnee Zoll-Norman officially came out during an exclusive interview with the Windy City Times.

The five-foot-seven-inch basketball player is married and has mentioned her wife in previous interviews, but her sexuality has never been publicized. The former Los Angeles Sparks player intentionally never had a formal coming out…

“I never felt whether I’m gay, straight, bi, [or] whatever that my sexuality had anything to do with me as a basketball player, and I don’t think it necessarily has anything to do with me as a person,” she said. “If I was straight, I wouldn’t have to come out and say that I was straight.”

Read more at HuffPo Gay Voices.

B. Scott Rejects BET Apology Over Attire Clash

A TV personality who says BET forced him to tone down his typically feminine look to appear on its pre-awards show is rejecting the network’s apology.

BET was contrite after B. Scott, an openly gay fashion and advice columnist who has several television shows and a Web following, said the network yanked him off its red carpet coverage for Sunday’s BET Awards and forced him to change from heels to flats and put on a suit instead of the long flowing black shirt he was wearing. He also accused them of making him pull his long flowing locks back into a ponytail…

“I want a real apology from BET. This was a not a mutual misunderstanding or miscommunication. I pride myself on being very professional,” he said.

Details on Entertainment Weekly.

This is How We Do It: An Independence Day Mix

This is how we do it. And this is what we must continue to do. This second volume of the crunk feminist summer mixtape series heeds and amplifies this clarion call in its assembly of YOUR favorite summer selections. This mix is crowdsourced from your comments, FB postings and emails. It demanded your investment and so does this moment.

“We who believe in freedom cannot rest.” Bernice Johnson Reagon

We mourn the gutting of the Voting Rights Act, celebrate the defeat of DOMA and keep on pushing.

Jam on over to the Crunk Feminist Collective.

Op-ed: A Bittersweet Week

ColorOfChange’s Rashad Robinson reflects on SCOTUS decisions: It has always been about social justice — not one group’s victory over another but our collective progress. One fundamental truth for me is that when oppressed people win, they win for everyone. That’s true for the racial justice movement, for immigrant rights, or feminist or gay rights. Their legislative, legal, and cultural victories don’t just open up opportunities for one particular oppressed group – they empower all of us. The push for gay rights and marriage equality owes a big debt to the pioneers of the civil rights movement half a century ago. Likewise, the feminist movement hasn’t just allowed little girls to have bigger dreams; it has opened the way for little boys to be the best of themselves too.

Continue reading on Advocate.com.

Why The End of DOMA, Prop 8 is a Good Thing

Regardless of all the rhetoric or where any one individual or group stands on these decisions, the Supreme Court did not rule that gay and lesbian couples have a constitutional right to marry. That question remains very much alive. The impact is at the state level. Those 30 or so states that continue to outlaw same-sex marriage and define marriage as between a man and a woman will see no direct change from the court’s decisions. Historically, states have decided who can marry within their borders. That is still the case.

What is really at the heart of this matter is that laws that are passed to assert government control over perceived morals are wrong. You can’t condemn or punish a group of people through legislation. These rulings were about judicial prudence vs. ideological beliefs.

More at Black Enterprise.