English Wikipedia anti-SOPA blackout

To: English Wikipedia Readers and Community From: Sue Gardner, Wikimedia Foundation Executive Director Date: January 16, 2012

Today, the Wikipedia community announced its decision to black out the English-language Wikipedia for 24 hours, worldwide, beginning at 05:00 UTC on Wednesday, January 18 (you can read the statement from the Wikimedia Foundation here). The blackout is a protest against proposed legislation in the United States — the Stop Online Piracy Act (SOPA) in the U.S. House of Representatives, and the PROTECT IP Act (PIPA) in the U.S. Senate — that, if passed, would seriously damage the free and open Internet, including Wikipedia.

Read the full Wikipedia statement here.

A Fire in My Belly. Censored by the Smithsonian on behalf of the Christians.

 

At the end of November, the National Portrait Gallery in Washington, which is run by the Smithsonian, announced it was removing a four-minute excerpt of the 13-minute video A Fire in My Belly by New York artist David Wjonarowicz, who died of AIDS in 1992.

 

The Catholic League, along with conservative forces in the U.S., protested the work as "anti-Christian" because of an 11-second segment featuring ants crawling over a bloody crucifix. (I think molesting little boys is "anti-Christian" but they don't seem to be too concerned about that. I suppose we all have our priorities).

The work is part of the gallery's exhibition of gay and lesbian portraitures of life — Hide/Seek: Difference and Desire in American Portraiture — running through Feb. 13, 2011.

The removal of A Fire In My Belly sparked an outcry in the arts community. The Association of Art Museum Directors blasted the Smithsonian for bowing to "unwarranted and uninformed censorship."

Both the Andy Warhol Foundation and the Robert Mapplethorpe Foundation, which loaned images to the Hide/Seek exhibit, proclaimed they would stop donating money to the Smithsonian, which oversees many of the museums in Washington, D.C.

A non-profit Washington art gallery, Transformer, has pledged to keep showing the piece in its storefront window every day for 24 hours until it is reinstated at the National Portrait Gallery.

Since the video's removal on Nov. 30, other galleries in the U.S., including ones in New York City, Los Angeles, Boston, Minneapolis and Pittsburgh, also began screening it.

Text Source: CBC.ca

Pride Toronto to no longer restrict language in the Parade

Pride Toronto has announced that its recent resolution to restrict the use of certain language during the 2010 Parade has been replaced by the requirement that each participating group read, sign and agree to abide by the City of Toronto's Declaration of a Non-Discrimination Policy, and that all groups that uphold this policy are welcome to participate in the 2010 Pride Parade.

During a meeting between members of the board of directors, the executive director and well respected LGBT community leaders Pastor Brent Hawkes of the Metropolitan Community Church, human rights lawyer and Pride Lifetime Achievement award winner Doug Elliott, and 519 Executive Director Maura Lawless, the board unanimously voted in favour of a proposal presented by the three.

Banned In China

I was recently informed by someone who visited China that my blog is banned there.  My first thought upon hearing this news was 'no surprise there'. My second thought was, 'I should make a badge for my blog'.

I'm a bit busy these days, but I still wanted to proudly display my newfound censorednessism, or whatever one is when one is censored. So, rather than make a badge I simply googled 'banned in china' and I found pictures of t-shirts like the one on the right, which are available for purchase at Zazzle.com

I don't get a cut if you buy one, but I figured if I'm using their pic, I should give them credit.  Maybe one of these days I'll create my own badge, but for now I'll let people think the fit dude in the picture is me.

Gay Asians criticize Oscar speech's TV censorship

Gay Asians voiced indignation Wednesday after television broadcasts of the Academy Awards in their region censored the words "gay" and "lesbian" in speeches that called for equal rights for homosexuals.


The speeches by actor Sean Penn and writer Dustin Lance Black - who won Oscars for their work in "Milk" - were shown in full during live broadcasts of the Oscars that were screened across Asia on Monday morning.


But viewers who caught recorded telecasts in the evening on STAR, an Asian satellite TV service that says it reaches more than 300 million viewers in 53 countries, noticed that the sound was removed whenever both men mentioned "gay" or "lesbian."

Full Story Here

Don't Be Evil

I know this is not new news, but it doesn't hurt to remind you. Please visit the site and send the pre-written letter to Google.