Best of 2011's Love: Latina Moms Show Love for Their LGBT Kids

Today closes our Best of Love list. As the 2011 year comes to a close, we wanted to end it with our favorite Love stories of the year. We culled through the stories that were shared the most on Facebook, and chose our fav 5 stories from the list. If you missed it, here are the stories we've featured so far: "For Girls Who Love Themselves Enough to Talk Back to Lil Wayne", "67 Sueños Shows Love for an Undocumented Majority", "Yo-Yo Ma Shows Love for Lil' Buck's Brand of Street Dance" and "Today's Love Goes to Khaliyl, Our Favorite 2-Year-Old Rapper." And to bring our top 5 to a close, today we have "Latina Moms Show Love for Their LGBT Kids."  We love that our readers love our Celebrate Love series as much as we do. Enjoy! ******** #5 Latina Moms Show Love for Their LGBT Kids by Bryan Gerhart It goes without saying, but it can be challenging to care for what you don't know. Trying to comprehend the abstract usually means relating it to something that you are familiar with, and if a connection can't be made, taking a stance that's already been paved is so often easier than formulating a unique opinion. For this reason, advancing civil rights almost always involves attaching the personal to the political; giving faces to statistics so that those who doubt their investment in a cause are forced to see how connected they really are. Tres Gotas de Agua (Three Drops of Water) is a short series of interviews with three Latina women, each of whom has a child that identifies as gay. Mirna, Dolores and Susana speak about their children's coming out processes, the hardships they've faced in taking a stand for gay rights, and acceptance of LGBT people in Latino communities. Throughout, the women display unconditional love at its purest. Somos Familia, the organization behind the videos, hopes that the videos will spark discussions in Latino communities about the normally taboo subject of homosexuality, and that they can help begin to break down some of the established beliefs that stand in the way of full acceptance of LGBT youth. As Susana says during her segment, "I am a firm believer that a drop of water wears away a stone." ******** We welcome your ideas for posts. Send suggestions to submissions@colorlines.com, and be sure to put Celebrate Love in the subject line. You can send links to videos, graphics, photos, quotes, whatever. Or just chime in to the comments below and we'll find you. Be sure to let us know you've got the rights to share any media you send. To see other Love posts visit our Celebrate Love page.

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Happy Holidays from Colorlines.com--And We'll See You in 2012

It's been a busy, exciting year in the news, and we've done our best to both chronicle and explain it every day. Check out Jorge Rivas's hair-raising video looking back on all that news--2011 in 90 seconds! It's fun. Today is the last day Colorlines.com will publish this year--we've gotta go spend some time with our families and loved ones. And we've gotta get rested and ready for what will be a busy and significant year, dominated by the national debate over priorities that a presidential election brings. This week, we've published a series of short essays looking ahead to that discussion. If you've missed any, they'll make great end-of-the-year reading, while we're out. Here's a recap: The Arc Is Bending Toward Justice. But That Doesn't Make Our Work Easier by Rinku Sen The 2012 Attack on Reproductive Rights Will Trade on Women of Color by Akiba Solomon Will Young Voters Steal the Show in 2012? Maybe, If Lawmakers Listen by Jamilah King Our Economy Was Built on Bull. Until We Admit That, We're Screwed by Kai Wright From the Colorlines.com family to all of yours, we wish you a happy holiday and a healthy new year. See you in 2012!

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All I Want For Christmas Is Change I Can Believe In

Dear Barack: The season is upon us when we're starting to hear all the familiar jingles. I feel an imminent blizzard, deluging us from all directions, deep enough to truly snow us over. Seems like only yesterday, the air was filled with the sounds of Hope, Hope, Hope. You lit our imaginations, like a massive Christmas tree brimming with sparkly ornaments, dangling with promises. Peace. Healthcare. Clean energy. Immigration reform. Green jobs. Good schools. I can still see the colors--blues and reds, blacks and whites--all blurring together into a blissful dreamland or bipartisanship and post-racialism. I recall the frenzied excitement, the raised expectations, the elixir of hope--like a wide-eyed child waiting to open countless coveted presents. When the big day finally came, I waited for the goods to be delivered. I kept waiting and waiting for the changes I believed in. And then a few things started arriving. But they weren't what I had asked for. Bank bailouts. Extended tax cuts for the wealthy. Expanded war. Stepped up immigration enforcement. Trickle down economic stimulus. Racing to the top of school competition and privatization. Watered down health care reform. Even lumps of coal cleverly packaged as "clean." My head was spinning with one serious holiday hangover. I know, I know. I'm not even supposed to believe in you, let alone blame you. You're only one person and not the Second Coming. I'm just having a rough time coping with another election season, when my hopes have been shattered like shards of ornaments strewn at the base of a shaken, barren tree. If it weren't for my hope and imagination, I'd be a long goner. I still harbor visions of peace on Earth and joyful nations rising. Laughing children in clean schools and new playgrounds. Happy families, healthy, well fed and comfortably sheltered. Nothing too grandiose. Though I admit, now and then, I still entertain dreams of ending poverty, war, environmental destruction, economic exploitation, racism and sexism. I imagine prison walls being broken and borders being bridged. Truth be told, I still fancy visions of sugar plum fairies dancing in my head, loving--even marrying--whomever they want. So I'm making a list. And checking it twice. I'm keeping it simple, and trying to be nice. I'll even pass on the iPad and nix the Xbox. I'm just asking for a little love for my simple list, so here it is: Peace. Good jobs. Great schools. Human rights. Healthcare for all. Affordable homes. Renewable energy. Environmental protection Immigrant rights and dignity. Race, gender and economic equity. I know my short list is a tall order. But I'd wager that a good 99 percent might have similar interests, if they were the least bit demanding. If my memory isn't too foggy, some of these were in your bag of tricks last time round. So they shouldn't come as any surprise. You've even had a few eloquent things to say about more than one of them. OK, maybe you haven't said much about racial equity, which is understandable, but I'm still making it part of my bottom line. I don't want to sound ungrateful, because I know you've come through on more than a few things. I'd just ask that you stick to my list this time round. I'm no longer expecting miracles. And I know it's gonna take a whole movement to raise some real hope and change. In the spirit of the season, I'm just making my wishes clear. I still wanna believe in you, but you gotta deliver the goods! Happy holidays, Hopelessly Hopeful P.S. If you're not able to make good on any of this, I promise to be good all year by helping to create the movement that will bring about the change I can believe in.

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Best of 2011: Khaliyl, Our Favorite 2-Year-Old Rapper

We close each day on a positive note with our Celebrate Love posts. So as the 2011 year comes to a close, we wanted to end it with our favorite Love stories of the year. We culled through the stories that were shared the most on Facebook, and chose our fav 5 stories from the list. We will be featuring a post everyday this week, in no particular order. For today, we have "Today's Love Goes to Khaliyl, Our Favorite 2-Year-Old Rapper." It's no secret that we here at Colorlines.com love cute, and talented, kids. This is just a sample of all the amazing kids we've featured. Check them out at Celebrate Love. Enjoy! ******** #4 Today's Love Goes to Khaliyl, Our Favorite 2-Year-Old Rapper by Noelle de la Paz This video is arguably the best thing since sliced bread. Two-year-old Khaliyl Iloyi can barely keep the smile off his face as he demonstrates his impeccable rhythm, though he doesn't quite have the words yet. No matter, this adorable little guy is as happy as can be freestyling in his pajamas alongside British hip hop artist Alim Kamara. Khaliyl's parents are Femi and Roucheon Iloyi of the UK gospel hip hop group The Royal Priesthood. His dad Femi, aka "Smooflow", is an emcee and record producer, while his mom Roucheon is a singer and songwriter. Growing up around that kind of musical energy, it's small wonder Khaliyl is rapping before he can talk. And boy, do we love it. ******** We welcome your ideas for posts. Send suggestions to submissions@colorlines.com, and be sure to put Celebrate Love in the subject line. You can send links to videos, graphics, photos, quotes, whatever. Or just chime in to the comments below and we'll find you. Be sure to let us know you've got the rights to share any media you send. To see other Love posts visit our Celebrate Love page.

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Republican Congressman Says Michelle Obama Has a 'Big Butt'

Rep. James Sensenbrenner has a big mouth. The Milwaukee Journal Sentinal reports today the veteran Republican legislator was overheard at a church event earlier this month disparaging the first lady's body. Sensenbrenner told a group of church members that Michelle Obama has no business leading an anti-obesity campaign because she's got a "big butt." Classy guy. It took a 72-year-old church lady to call the lawmaker on his remark. Journal-Sentinal blogger Daniel Brice has the story: Ann Marsh-Meigs, a church member who heard Sensenbrenner's remarks, said he took several swipes at the first lady on Dec. 10. In one, Marsh-Meigs said, the congressman claimed Michelle Obama left a recent charitable event when the media did, though Sensenbrenner's handicapped wife continued to work. "He then talked about how different first ladies have had different projects - Laura Bush and literacy - and he named two or three others," Marsh-Meigs said in an interview last week. "And then he said, 'And Michelle Obama, her project is obesity. And look at her big butt.' "That's basically what he said," she continued. "It was a combination of her work on obesity and her shape." After news of the remark began circulating the Web, Sensenbrenner sent a letter of apology to the first lady. But a spokesperson for the jowly lawmaker told Media Bistro's blog Fish Bowl DC that he "stands by his comments" on her obesity campaign. Fish Bowl DC first reported the story yesterday, when a tipster overheard Sensenbrenner on the phone in the airport reacting to Brice's questions about the incident. Marsh-Meigs told the Journal Sentinal that she was the only woman at the table when Sensenbrenner made his remark. She suspects the congressman figured she was too busy with her knitting to notice. "I was sitting next to him, and I felt he should be called on it,'" said the 72-year-old retiree. "I just said, 'I just happen to think Michelle Obama is a beautiful and elegant lady, and I think she dresses beautifully.' And then he said, 'Oh, well, I think she's elegant, too.' He just started back-pedaling." Sensenbrenner's name will be familiar to many Colorlines.com readers. He was the author and lead spokesperson for the infamous 2005 House bill that would have turned all undocumented immigrants into felons and, among other things, criminalized clergy who provided them support.

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CNN's Don Lemon: 'I Don't Want to Be Perfect, I Want to Be Real'

Creative Loafing Atlanta's got a pretty good profile on Don Lemon, the openly gay CNN anchor who made headlines after coming out as a survivor of childhood sex abuse. Here's a snippet: It's easy to assume that a gay black guy like Lemon is a diehard liberal, until the moment in his book when he gushes about Ronald Reagan or recalls his time involved with Young Republicans in college. He even has plenty of kind words to say about Bill O'Reilly. Maybe those things are something of a put-on; he certainly skews liberal at times. Ultimately, Lemon's not interested in giving anyone the answers they want to hear, "I'm not concerned with what people think of me," he says. "I mean, I'm a gay black guy. If I can't ask questions without caring what people think of me, who can?" "News people are human. They have backgrounds, they have certain lenses, they have certain filters. I don't believe any newsperson should be ideological or partisan. I think you should always seek to point out the truth and if something is bullshit, it's bullshit." It's an intriguing look at one of the most outspoken of mainstream media's news anchors. Read the rest over at Creative Loafing.

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Will Young Voters Steal the Show in 2012? Maybe, If Lawmakers Listen

Before the 99 percent captured the world's attention, another number helped energize an often overlooked part America's electorate: 58 percent. That's the percentage of black voters between the ages of 18 and 29 who showed up at the polls in 2008 to elect the country's first African American president. It was an extraordinarily promising number; in an election that drew its strength from the eagerness of young voters, black youth led the charge. Nearly two million more black voters between the ages of 18 and 24 cast ballots in 2008 than they did in 2004. While white voter turnout stayed relatively the same as it had been when George W. Bush won a second turn, the 2008 election showed that young voters of color--including records numbers of young Latino and Asian voters--were now a statistically significant voice in America's democratic future. Obama's brand of political change turned out to be a painstakingly gradual one--and, at times, frustrating. So it's no surprise that political skepticism and an eager conservative base helped lead to lower voter turnout numbers in 2010. But as the 2012 presidential election kicks into full gear, operatives from both parties will be looking to engage younger voters. And as they do, they'll have to pay attention to what drives young folks into the political process, and how they've managed to turn that process inside out. Shortly before the 2010 congressional elections, I spent some time reporting from Milwaukee. Though Wisconsin's election of Gov. Scott "I-hate-public-workers" Walker that year turned out to be part of a conservative tide that washed over America, Milwaukee had already long been a symbol America's neglect. It's a poor, deindustrialized city with mostly black and brown residents and few jobs. But the young organizers I spoke to had used those facts to help galvanize their peers. While the 2008 election had been their coming-of-age of sorts, they embraced the opportunity to shape their own destinies precisely because they could see clearly what was at stake. "If no one gets out to vote, it's gonna stay the same," Romero Jackson, a 25-year-old organizer told me. "Like a Twilight Zone." Since then, young organizers from around the country have used political disappointments as a call-to-action, one that's not dependent on the political showmanship on Capitol Hill. That's especially true for those who are still fighting for their right to participate in democracy. After the federal DREAM Act was defeated in the Senate last year, undocumented youth turned up the pressure in their own way. As Rinku Sen pointed out earlier this week, that shift among immigration rights advocates was a decidedly cultural one intended to show that people without papers are, in fact, people. Some took to making funny videos that poked fun at the awkwardness of trying to have a social life while undocumented. Jonathan Perez, 25, and Isaac Barrera, 20, engaged in some good, old-fashioned civil disobedience in protest of Alabama's draconian HB 56 and spent days in federal detention. The young folks of the Oakland, Calif.-based coalition 67 Sueños challenged the traditional immigrant narrative altogether and pointed out that the majority of undocumented people in the U.S. wouldn't quality for DREAM Act legislation even if it did become law. In April, the group painted a mural in downtown San Francisco that helped drive their message home. Even for those of us who do have the privilege of legal citizenship, there's still no guarantee that we'll have a voice in the country's upcoming elections. The defining fight of 2012 will arguably be who's able to actually cast a ballot on election day. In 2011, conservatives pushed an aggressive legislative agenda to pass dozens of strict voter ID laws in several states. Across the country, there are 19 new voter ID laws, and more than 40 are still pending in state legislatures. The new laws claim to address the Republican-backed myth of "voter fraud" and require eligible voters to obtain select forms of identification at the polls -- and endeavor that's proven to be costly and unnecessary. A new study released in October by the Brennan Center for Justice at NYU estimated that the new laws could affect five million voters, the majority of whom are poor, young, or color. Attorney General Eric Holder vowed this month to use his power to protect voters, and in 2012, he'll need plenty of on-the-ground help. And then there's the basic fight for survival. To be young and of color in America is still an enormously dangerous thing. NYPD's stop-and-frisk program has been the subject of widespread criticism for targeting black and brown men; a New York Times investigation found that 93 out of every 100 were stopped by officers in Brownsville, a Brooklyn neighborhood that's predominantly African American. The New York Civil Liberties Union recently reported that a total of 4 million people have been stopped since the program began in 2004, and those stops increased 13 percent in 2011. For some, police encounters turn deadly. This was also the year that former BART police officer Johannes Mehserle was released from prison after being convicted of manslaughter in the killing of Oscar Grant on New Year's Day in 2009. Earlier this month, prosecutors in New Orleans convicted NOPD officer Ronald Mitchell of attempting to cover up the shooting of a civilian in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina, making him the 16th police officer to be convicted of crimes committed during the chaos of storm. Those convictions show that there's at least some movement to hold law enforcement accountable for the often young and mostly black lives they take. If there were any one person who's come to embody the urgency with which young folks have taken up political action as a deeply personal fight, it may be DeJaun Davis-Correia. The 18-year-old has survived an almost unimaginably brutal year. His uncle, Troy Davis, was executed by the state of Georgia in September. A few months later his mother, Martina Davis-Correia, succumbed to her long battle with breast cancer. While the fight to save his uncle's life helped reignite the movement against the death penalty, DeJaun's fight for justice was shaped the everyday wars he's already learned to fight. "There are so many other cases out there like [my uncle's]," he told Jen Marlowe earlier this year. "My uncle is not the only one going through this type of pain ... a lot of people really want someone to hear their case but they don't have the power and resources. I see myself as an activist, helping people."

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