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Win The Human Agenda: Conversations about Sexual Orientation & Gender Identity from Joe Wenke! To enter the contest, fill out the form below between March 13 and April 3.
THE HUMAN AGENDA: Conversations about Sexual Orientation & Gender Identity
By Joe Wenke
Despite the progress in the movement toward marriage equality, the LGBTQI community continues to face difficult, and often heartbreaking, odds. Gay and lesbian youth are four times more likely than their peers to attempt suicide. Nearly half of transgender teens have contemplated suicide and a quarter has made an attempt, according to The Trevor Project. Adoption equality and second-parent rights are still blocked in many states, and legislators in Oklahoma and Alabama have tried to introduce laws that make it legal to discriminate against gays and lesbians. Perhaps most disturbing of all, homicide rates for transgender women account for 45 percent of all hate murders, according to GLAAD. Clearly, we are not having the vital conversations we need to ensure all Americans equal rights to life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness.
Joe Wenke thinks there is a better way. By opening up discussions about our shared humanity and experiences, Wenke is getting people to talk with, not at, each other and leaving the rancor and divisiveness behind, beginning with his book THE HUMAN AGENDA: Conversations about Sexual Orientation & Gender Identity (Trans Über, February 2015). For this collection of frank conversations about growing up, coming out, finding your identity, family, marriage, parenting, careers and so much more, Wenke approached the community's leading change agents, including:
- Andrew Solomon, author
- Kristin Russo, co-founder, Everyone is Gay and The Parents Project
- Aidan Key, founder of Gender Education and Support Services
- Gisele Alicea (aka Gisele Xtravaganza), fashion model
- Elegance Bratton, filmmaker
- Kevin Fisher-Paulson, author and captain, San Francisco Sheriff's Department
- Hida Viloria, chairperson, Organisation Intersex International
- Ian Harvie, comedian
- Carmen Carrera, performer
- Dr. John Allen and the Rainbow Support Group, leader and members of a support group for LGBTQI people with intellectual disabilities
- Hina Wong-Kalu, educator
- Ash Beckham, public speaker
- Andre St. Clair, actor
- Rabbi Amy Bernstein, spiritual leader and community organizer
- Dr. Carys Massarella, emergency physician/health activist
- Y-Love, hip-hop artist
- Dr. Mark Maxwell and Timothy Young, parental rights advocates
- The Rev. Dr. Jonipher Kupono Kwong, spiritual leader and marriage equality activist
In these wide-ranging conversations, Wenke and his guests share their personal and professional stories along with their profound commitment to freedom and equality. Going far beyond heartfelt popular movements, such as It Gets Better, his book reveals that there is no gay agenda, there is no transsexual agenda, there is no straight agenda; there is only the Human Agenda.
JOE WENKE is a writer, social critic and LGBTQI rights activist, social critic. He is the founder and publisher of Trans Über, a publishing company with a focus on promoting LGBTQ rights, free thought and equality for all people. In addition to The Talk Show: A Novel, Wenke is the author of Free Air: Poems; Papal Bull: An Ex-Catholic Calls Out the Catholic Church; You Got To Be Kidding! A Radical Satire of the Bible; and Mailer's America.
