A Thanksgiving Miracle - SNL; NBC via YouTube, 11/22/15

[200th post of 2015: diversity and inclusion-themed 11/22/15 Saturday Night Live (SNL) skit] NBC via YouTube; A Thanksgiving Miracle - SNL:

"There's only one thing that can keep a family (Beck Bennett, Jay Pharoah, Cecily Strong, Aidy Bryant, Matthew McConaughey, Kate McKinnon, Vanessa Bayer) from fighting at Thanksgiving: Adele."

A reservation town fighting alcoholism, obesity and ghosts from the past; Guardian, 11/22/15

Chris McGreal, Guardian; A reservation town fighting alcoholism, obesity and ghosts from the past:

"An 18-year-old student at Blackwater high school, Darius Jackson, was chosen as the reservation’s representative to a White House summit on American Indian youth last December.

“Youth suicide is an upcoming issue in my tribal community,” he told Arizona public broadcasting. “Young people are taking their lives at a young age, and we’re trying to get that to decrease.”

The Obama administration launched a Hope for Life day in September to “raise awareness in Indian country about suicide prevention”.

“Native communities suffer from a suicide rate that is more than twice the national average,” said the administration’s assistant secretary for Indian affairs, Kevin Washburn, in launching the initiative. “There is no greater tragedy in Indian country.”"

Clarion play cancellation generates national discussion on diversity, casting decisions; Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, 11/18/15

Bill Schackner, Pittsburgh Post-Gazette; Clarion play cancellation generates national discussion on diversity, casting decisions:

"Just over a week before the performance was to open tonight, playwright Lloyd Suh demanded that Clarion recast the parts in his play or halt the production. The university opted for the latter.

In the days since the Post-Gazette first reported the cancellation, an emotion-charged debate has ricocheted through social media. At the core of the dispute: should theater productions be 'color blind' in casting, an increasingly common practice over the last few decades? Or is that approach sometimes an excuse for inequity because, as Mr. Suh put it, "The practice of using white actors to portray non-white characters has deep roots in ugly racist traditions?" And just how should theater departments in out-of-the-way places such as Clarion, a small state-owned university whose enrollment is overwhelmingly white, be expected to make choices on picking plays, balancing diversity and challenging a homogenous community against adhering to the intent of the playwright?

Report gives some Pittsburgh companies high marks for LGBT policies; Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, 11/18/15

Joyce Gannon, Pittsburgh Post-Gazette; Report gives some Pittsburgh companies high marks for LGBT policies:

"A new report gives a handful of Pittsburgh-based companies high marks for their inclusion policies for employees who are lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender.

American Eagle Outfitters, PNC Financial Services Group, and law firms K&L Gates and Reed Smith received the top ranking possible in the survey released today by the Human Rights Campaign Foundation...

The foundation’s corporate equality index ranked businesses on categories including non-discrimination policies, employment benefits and corporate accountability to LGBT diversity. “While support for LGBT workers is growing in the U.S. and around the world, too many companies still fail to guarantee basic, vital workplace protections that allow employees to bring their full selves to work,” said Chad Griffin, president of the Washington, D.C.-based Human Rights Campaign.

20 People Found Refuge In A Famous Paris Bookstore During Attacks; Huffington Post, 11/14/15

Ron Dicker, Huffington Post; 20 People Found Refuge In A Famous Paris Bookstore During Attacks:

"A famous Parisian bookstore turned into a makeshift shelter Friday, housing 20 customers who waited out the attacks, according to Twitter users.

Patrons at Shakespeare and Company, the Left Bank literary institution opened in 1951 by American George Whitman, watched from darkened windows as police raced by. They called friends and relatives, and checked on the news, Harriet Alida Lye told The Guardian...

Author Jamie Ford, who recently visited the store, was one of many to tweet about Shakespeare and Company. He told The Huffington Post: "There's a communal spirit about that place, so the idea that they would take in strangers (in need or otherwise) wasn't a huge surprise, but was definitely a much needed reminder of how beautiful humanity can be on a terrible night.""

We Are All Parisians, Again; Huffington Post, 11/13/15

Howard Fineman, Huffington Post; We Are All Parisians, Again:

"Once again, we are all Parisians.

Once again, the ideals of freedom and peace are under attack on the very streets that helped give birth to the idea that you can’t have one without the other in modern life.

Once again, President Barack Obama went to a podium in Washington to declare American solidarity with France -- and to vow that an attack on French society was an attack on the very ideas of decency, modernity and sanity.

And once again, the world -- or that part of it that doesn’t love murder and hate peace -- must rise up and say, simply: Stop."

Mizzou, Yale and Free Speech; New York Times, 11/11/15

Nicholas Kristof, New York Times; Mizzou, Yale and Free Speech:

"More broadly, academia — especially the social sciences — undermines itself by a tilt to the left. We should cherish all kinds of diversity, including the presence of conservatives to infuriate us liberals and make us uncomfortable. Education is about stretching muscles, and that’s painful in the gym and in the lecture hall...

My favorite philosopher, the late Sir Isaiah Berlin, argued that there was a deep human yearning to find the One Great Truth. In fact, he said, that’s a dead end: Our fate is to struggle with a “plurality of values,” with competing truths, with trying to reconcile what may well be irreconcilable.

That’s unsatisfying. It’s complicated. It’s also life."

LGBT group returns to Duquesne; Duquesne Duke, 11/5/15

Zachary Landau, Duquesne Duke; LGBT group returns to Duquesne:

"After more than a year of inactivity, Duquesne’s gay-straight alliance is functional once again.

The group, also known as Lambda, held its first meeting since 2013 on Oct. 22. Co-Presidents Hunter Ackley, 19, pharmacy student, and Rachel Coury, 20, psychology major, are thrilled with the response they have received thus far...

Originally founded in 2005, the group experienced a decline in leadership until it ceased operations in 2013, according to member Niko Martini.

“I almost think that maybe [Lambda] was dormant because people are intimidated by the fact that they’re on a Catholic campus,” Coury said, “but it hasn’t been an issue now that we’ve formed.”

According to the co-presidents, Lambda’s goal is to create a positive and supportive environment for LGBT students at Duquesne, where they have faced adversity in the past...

Lambda’s co-presidents said they would like to team up with other gay-straight alliances in the area, such as the University of Pittsburgh’s GSA, to find ways to support their members."

Understanding the Free Speech Issues at Missouri and Yale; HuffingtonPost.com, 11/11/15

Geoffrey R. Stone, HuffingtonPost.com; Understanding the Free Speech Issues at Missouri and Yale:

"How should we think about the free speech issues in the recent controversies at the University of Missouri and Yale? In my view, universities have a deep obligation to protect and preserve the freedom of expression. That is, most fundamentally, at the very core of what makes a university a university...

In my view, a university should not itself take positions on substantive issues. A university should not declare, for example, that abortion is moral, that undocumented immigrants have a right to remain in the United States, that the United States should abandon Israel, or that a flat tax is the best policy. It is for the faculty and students of the institution to debate those issues for themselves, and the university as an institution should not intrude in those debates by purporting to decide on the "correct" point of view.

On the other hand, a university can promote certain values both to educate its students and to foster an intellectual environment that is most conducive to the achievement of the institution's larger educational goals. To that end, a university can appropriately encourage a climate of civility and mutual respect. It can do this in a variety of ways, as long as it stops short of censorship. More specifically, a university can legitimately educate students about the harms caused by the use of offensive, insulting, degrading, and hurtful language and behavior and encourage them to express their views, however offensive or hurtful they might be, in ways that are not unnecessarily disrespectful or uncivil."

Iceman’s Gay, Thor’s a Lady, and Captain America’s Black: The Constant Culture Shifts of Comics Continue; Reason, 11/6/15

Scott Shackford, Reason; Iceman’s Gay, Thor’s a Lady, and Captain America’s Black: The Constant Culture Shifts of Comics Continue:

"Thor has recently lost his hammer, and it has been picked up by occasional romantic interest Jane Foster. Captain America is no longer blond bohunk Steve Rogers. Former sidekick Sam Wilson, who is African American, has taken his place, abandoning his codename of Falcon. Ms. Marvel is now the name used by Muslim Pakistani-American teen Kamala Khan.

It’s easy to dismiss this all as a marketing ploy. Well, yes, it is, but superhero comics are a popular culture form of entertainment that partly lives or dies based on successfully understanding its audience and marketing to them.

And it’s absolutely not new. Marvel has made gestures toward cultural diversity for ages. Comic fans know full well that part of the metaphor of the X-Men—mutants whose powers originate from genetic abnormalities—was about cultural diversity, civil rights, and fear of the “other.”"

In Houston, Hate Trumped Fairness; New York Times, 11/4/15

Editorial Board, New York Times; In Houston, Hate Trumped Fairness:

"While the defeat of HERO is a painful setback, it is encouraging that the broader quest for equality for gay and transgender Americans is advancing steadily. On Monday, the Department of Education backed a transgender student in Illinois who is fighting for the right to use restrooms and locker rooms on campus like any other female student. It was the federal government’s latest action in a civil rights movement that is redefining how the nation views, and treats, transgender Americans.

When that movement achieves irreversible momentum — and it is a matter of when, not whether — people like Mr. Woodfill, Mr. Abbott and Mr. Patrick will be remembered as latter-day Jim Crow elders. Their demagogy is egregious because it preys on some of the most vulnerable people in our society.

As opponents of the ordinance celebrate their victory this week, transgender people across the country are understandably reeling. They should take comfort in knowing that history will not be kind to the haters who won on Tuesday. In time, the bigots are destined to lose."

Original 'X-Men' Character Iceman Confirms He's Gay; HuffingtonPost.com, 11/4/15

Curtis M. Wong, HuffingtonPost.com,; Original 'X-Men' Character Iceman Confirms He's Gay:

"Iceman's coming out, however, is noteworthy given that the character was one of the five original "X-Men" members, created by Stan Lee and Jack Kirby in 1963.

Marvel Comics Editor Daniel Ketchum told The Huffington Post that he was particularly proud of the new issue, calling Iceman's character just another example of how the franchise has always strived to reflect "the human experience."

"As a young person reading comics, starved to see my own life experience reflected on the page, I remember thinking it seemed only possible for that to happen as a one-off story relegated to a D-List character," he said. "I don’t know that I would have believed it if I was told that years later, this story would be presented in the flagship 'X-Men' title, featuring an A-list character who has been a mainstay of the franchise since the beginning.""

Marvel’s Iceman Cometh Out; New York Times, 11/5/15

George Gen Gustines, New York Times; Marvel’s Iceman Cometh Out:

"Mr. Alonso said the feedback has been largely positive. On one side are the lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender readers “who are looking to see their reflection in our characters,” he said. But there are also critics. “Some readers see this as opportunism, but I can assure you it is not,” he added.

Comic books are no strangers to gay heroes. When the mutant hero Northstar came out in 1992, the news was praised in an editorial in The New York Times: “Comics have often explored new terrain, conferring hero status on groups that society in general had stereotyped in peripheral roles.” Since then, many more gay, lesbian and bisexual champions have been introduced.

With this turn of events, Iceman may be the most high-profile gay hero, though that can be like debating who is stronger, Thor or Superman?...

Iceman’s first appearance was in 1963. “He is a perennial character,” Mr. Alonso said. And one with significant exposure outside of comics, including an animated series with Spider-Man and portrayal in the popular X-Men films.

“This fulfilled our mandate to reflect the world outside the window,” Mr. Alonso said. “We wouldn’t have done it if it didn’t make sense.”"

Here's What "Uncanny X-Men's" Iceman Coming Out Scene Got Right; ComicBookResources.com, 11/4/15

Brett White, ComicBookResources.com; Here's What "Uncanny X-Men's" Iceman Coming Out Scene Got Right:

"I've been out out -- meaning to my family and online to all of my followers who are definitely sick of seeing pictures of my crushes -- for just over four years now. Turns out you kinda have to come all the way out if you're going to start writing about what gay representation means to you. And now here we are, with a gay Iceman. A teenage gay Iceman and an adult gay Iceman. Two different versions of the same character going through two different coming out experiences. They aren't perfect, they won't be for everyone, and that's all right. But I can't deny that this story, this issue, this week, means the whole gay world to me.

Thanks Bobby, Brian and Mahmud. And also, I guess, thanks Jean -- but like, really try to cool it on the invasive mind reading, okay?"

George Takei Guides ‘Allegiance,’ a Musical, Not a Starship; New York Times, 10/27/15

Laura Collins-Hughes, New York Times; George Takei Guides ‘Allegiance,’ a Musical, Not a Starship:

"During the war, the government relocated about 120,000 West Coast Japanese-Americans to internment camps in what Mr. Takei called “an act of pure, irrational, mad, racist hysteria.” Raising awareness about the issue is his “life mission,” he said in that smooth baritone, so familiar from Starfleet chatter aboard the U.S.S. Enterprise...

He still chokes up when he recalls a vicious bit of adolescent venom for which he never apologized: accusing his father of leading the family “like sheep to slaughter by taking us into the internment camp.”

But his father didn’t want an alienated son with a victim mentality, Mr. Takei said; he wanted a child who was engaged in shaping American democracy. So he took young George down to Adlai Stevenson’s presidential campaign office and had him volunteer to help. He’s been a liberal activist ever since, viewing various forms of bigotry as all of a piece."