Yasmin Nair

Morten, Madigan make transitions

Post author By Yasmin Nair
Post date December 31, 2008

Two prominent Chicago LGBT activists are making significant career transitions.

Mary Morten is stepping down as the interim executive director of Chicago Foundation for Women. Morten was the first African American and first out lesbian chair of the board in 1999. She became the interim executive director in November 2007.

Queer Politics, Culture, and History

Conversations with God Hates Fags/Westboro Baptist Church

Post author By Yasmin Nair
Post date December 21, 2008

“Two men? It was perfectly fine for them to go have sex in the bathrooms or in the bushes or whatever. So they brought God into it, saying that God loves everybody. Of course, God doesn’t love everybody.”

Chicago Chronicles Gay Marriage Queer Politics, Culture, and History Reporting

“Day Without a Gay” supporters

Post author By Yasmin Nair
Post date December 17, 2008

In the wake of Proposition 8 in California, gay groups across the country urged people to take a day off from work by calling in “gay for a day” and refusing to spend any of their dollars contributing to the economy. They chose December 10, which is also International Human Rights Day.

Chicago Chronicles Queer Politics, Culture, and History Reporting

Blagojevich and gay politics

Post author By Yasmin Nair
Post date December 17, 2008

Illinois voters were stunned this past week by the news of Governor Rod Blagojevich being arrested on corruption charges. Along with his chief of staff John Harris, who has since resigned, Blagojevich was charged with, among other allegations, holding out President-elect Barack Obama’s soon-to-be-vacant Senate seat for a “pay-for-play” deal. The two men were both out on bail December 9, the day of their arrest.

File:Blagojevich greeting students at Ill State U. in 2006.jpg

Capitalism, Class, Inequality Gay Marriage On Books and Publishing Queer Politics, Culture, and History Race, Sex, Gender, and Sexuality

Gay dollars, labor and boycotts

Post author By Yasmin Nair
Post date December 3, 2008

For Eric Stanley, economic boycotts “uphold the free market myth of capitalism in ‘non-boycott’ times.”

Chicago Chronicles Reporting

Chicagoan escapes Mumbai turmoil

Post author By Yasmin Nair
Post date December 3, 2008

Doug O’Keeffe, a Chicago resident and volunteer at the Northside Grocery Center (a food-pantry branch of HIV/AIDS agency Vital Bridges), was caught in the recent attack on the Taj Oberoi hotel in Mumbai, India, but was able to escape.

Chicago Chronicles Queer Politics, Culture, and History Reporting

Plans for LGBTA school postponed

Post author By Yasmin Nair
Post date November 26, 2008

A proposal for a Chicago gay high school was abruptly taken off the agenda of the Chicago Public Schools November 19 board meeting. Supporters and opponents of the proposal came to the downtown office of CPS, only to be handed a memo from The Office of New Schools informing them that “[t]he Social Justice Solidarity High School proposal has been withdrawn from consideration during today’s Board meeting.”