World Bank Forum Video Up!

Okay, so that interview I did for the World Bank Forum is up! Naturally, they managed to cut my 15-minute session down to 12 seconds and bury it into "clip 9" at "minute 6:20."

But hey, still cool! You can watch it on the World Bank Open Forum website. Indeed, it is clip 9 and I come on at 6 minutes 20 seconds. Hahaha. What's equally great is that the commentators don't refer to any of our statements afterward. It's as if they didn't actually watch, digest, or absorb anything we said, which is fairly representative of the broader dialogue. Lots and lots of talking AT young people rather than talking TO young people. Enoy!

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Kyle Taylor
www.kyletaylor.com

I Have Amazing Friends: Be An Equality Ally

While the last few months have been a roller coaster for the GLBTA community headed in mostly a downward spiral, the entire onslaught of hate has really galvanized the same community to push harder for change. I can even feel it 6,000 miles away! One of my amazing friends - Jaclyn Pulice - is one of those community members. She has started an AWESOME blog where straight allies can submit their stories - both written and in video form - to show the World that not everyone believes in two-tiered citizenship. The site has exploded in popularity the past few days, and I encourage all those straight allies out there to submit their show of support as well.

If you consider yourself an ally, please submit your post (video or written) to weareallies@gmail.com or click "Declare Yourself An Ally" right here. You will be notified when your post is up on our site. Make sure to let them know if they can publish your name, age, and geographic location; just include that information if you want it to be published.

Real change - real equality - is going to take each and every one of us, so submit your story now!

P.S. Thank you Jaci P, you are a rock star.

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Kyle Taylor
http://www.kyletaylor.com

Enough Is Enough: Homophobia Needs To Go

Here we are again. Another day and another gay teen who has taken his own life because of hatred, fear, and homophobia. 19-year-old Ohio resident Zach Harrington committed suicide on October 10th after attending a City Coucil meeting where members of both the council and the public spent a majority of the meeting shouting anti-gay epitaphs for numerous "reasons." What did Zach do to deserve that hatred accept be himself? He was bullied and victimized most of his childhood for being gay and he took everything to heart, hearing every criticism of LGBT people as a personal attack on his character and his identity. It was.

Now, as a result of that hatred, he is dead. His sister has lost her brother. His father has lost his son. His mother has lost her baby boy. This has become a national epidemic and it's time we as a community - gay, bisexual, and straight - say enough is enough. Some say this has been happening for years and it is only just now getting "real attention," which means it's nothing new and therefore not a real event. To me, that just makes the whole situation worse. You're saying this has been going on for years at the same intensity and we're only now just paying attention to it? Where were we as community members? Where were we as fellow Americans? Where were we as human beings?

Regardless of how you feel about homosexuality, every person deserves to be protected from systematic hatred. Did you know that the GLBT community does not have legal protection under the law from hate crimes? It's not just marriage; it's employment, it's housing, and it's crimes driven by hatred based on nothing more than a person's sexual orientation. Now, this hate is killing our young people and it seems to be turning into a daily occurrence. Enough is enough.

I haven't lived in the USA full-time for several years now, and I've had the incredible opportunity to see my own nation and my own identity from the outside. There isn't a day that goes by when I'm not proud of my heritage in some way. In the last few years, however, I've felt almost lucky that I don't have to endure the day-to-day struggles of the GLBT community. Lately, I've been wondering why, in a nation built by a group of people who came over on a boat because they were being oppressed, in a nation that seems to repeat this cycle of oppression and equalization with women, African Americans, and a number other groups, in a nation that spends vast resources bringing freedom, democracy, and "our way of life" to the world, we continue to remain silent when the most vulnerable among us need us most. Enough is enough.

Imagine Zach was your brother, your son, or your grandson. Imagine you've spent your whole life watching him grow up, discover himself, and become an adult. Now imagine that your fellow citizens - neighbors, friends, and even sometimes relatives - are bullying him. Imagine they're shouting messages of hate and telling your flesh and blood that they're not okay and that they don't deserve the same rights you have. Now imagine that this hatred, anger, and unbearable pressure drive him to take his own life. What would you do?

There is a Zach in each and every one of our lives and it's now our responsibility to make sure he grows up to enjoy the same opportunities, beauties, and wonders this incredible world has to offer. We must take a stand before another Zach out there believes that their life isn't worth living. Make no mistake, this is urgent. Do something now:

1. Call your congressperson and tell him or her to support equal rights for EVERY American.
2. Support the Trevor Project and give resources to troubled gay teens.
3. Find a local advocacy campaign and ACT.

These last few weeks have made me think a lot about my closest friends and my own life. So many of us have struggled to be who we are for fear of "what might happen." I could have been Zach. Many of my friends could have been Zach. Today, for the first time in a long time, I do wish I was home. So that I could march. I could campaign. I could show other LGBT teens that they're not alone and America doesn't hate them.

The time for action is now.

Enough is enough.

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Kyle Taylor
www.kyletaylor.com

The Devastation Of Poverty In America.

This graph shows poverty rates of rich countries. Mind you, in absolute terms the USA is BY FAR the wealthiest nation on Earth.


I subscribe to a regular email news update that brings light to major issues facing the United States that don't seem to get covered anywhere else. The analysis is fantastic and the depth of research is unmatched. Their assessment of poverty in America was shocking, and I thought everyone should read it:

Intolerable Poverty In A Rich Nation

Last week, the U.S. Census Bureau released its Current Population Survey, documenting the American population's access to health insurance and family economic well-being. One stunning fact revealed by the new Census data was that "the ranks of the American poor soared to their highest level in a half a century" and that nearly "44 million Americans -- one in seven -- lived last year in homes in which the income was below the poverty level, which is about $22,000 for a family of four. While this is the largest number of people since the Census began tracking poverty 51 years ago," this figure would have been much larger without the economic policies pursued by Congress and the administration. The data is sobering to a national discourse that often omits the poor. Yet, it also points towards continued action to bring the unemployment rate down and boost demand. The country must continue successful policy initiatives that have kept millions out of poverty thus far, such as the Recovery Act, and pursue additional policies aimed at addressing the alarming fact that the world's richest country now has more people in poverty than ever before.

THE SHAME OF A NATION: The Census Bureau data finds that a shocking number of Americans are now officially classified as living in poverty. In 2009, roughly "4 million Americans fell into poverty," with a total of 43.6 million people meeting the income qualifications to be described as impoverished. The data also found that one in four African-Americans is in poverty, and that women are also particularly hurting. An analysis by the National Women's Law Center of the Census numbers found that the poverty rate for women rose to 13.9 percent last year, compared to 10.5 percent among men. Additionally, poverty rates "were substantially higher for women of color, approaching one in four among African-American women (24.6 percent compared to 23.3 percent in 2008); Hispanic women experienced a similar increase from 22.3 percent in 2008 to 23.8 percent last year." Geographically, southern and rural states tended to have the most poverty, with Mississippi faring the worst with 23.1 percent of people in poverty, with New Hampshire having only 7.8 percent.

GOOD POLICIES KEEPING PEOPLE AFLOAT: While the poverty numbers are shamefully high given the wealth of a rich nation like the United States, a number of progressive policies have served to keep millions more Americans from falling into poverty. After being passed in early 2009, the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (ARRA) -- commonly referred to as the stimulus -- saved or created 1.4 million to 3.3 million jobs, according to analysis by the Congressional Budget Office. Additionally, the expansion of tax credits like the Child Tax Credit (CTC), Earned Income Tax Credit (EITC), and Making Work Pay tax credit, along with additional food stamp assistance and emergency unemployment compensation kept more than 6 million Americans out of poverty, according to data provided by the Census Bureau. Expanding and extending unemployment insurance -- which faced enormous opposition from conservative pundits and politicians -- alone kept 3.3 million Americans out of poverty.

MORE TO DO: As the Center for American Progress's Melissa Boteach writes, "We can't exactly pat ourselves on the back when more than one in five (20.7 percent) of America's children lived in poverty last year." Instead, we should expand and extend policies that have served to keep Americans out of poverty and reassert ourselves to combating rising income inequality. America's earlier efforts to tackle poverty, like President Lyndon Johnson's "War On Poverty" -- included job training, special aid to poor parts of the country, and the creation of the single payer health care system for the elderly, Medicare, that brought the poverty rate down from 19 percent to 11.1 percent within less than a decade. In just two weeks, "a job-creation engine known as the TANF Emergency Fund will expire, forcing states to begin shutting down successful partnerships with the private sector that have already created nearly a quarter million jobs for low-income families. Congress must act before September 30 to extend the TANF Emergency Fund for another year and allow this innovative jobs program to continue." Congress also must continue reforms it made to the EITC that allowed "families with three or more children to earn a larger credit to reflect the higher cost of raising an additional child" and to the CTC that allowed low-income working parents "to count most of their earnings toward calculating their credit instead of arbitrarily counting only earnings above $8,500." Doing so would of course cost the federal government money, but extending these tax credits would do much more to boost the economy than extending the Bush tax cuts for the wealthiest Americans, which would have little stimulative effect on the economy. Additionally, Congress should continue to extent unemployment benefits until the unemployment rate comes back down to normal levels. While the Census numbers show an alarming rise in poverty, "it's important to remember, however, that poverty was a problem even before the Great Recession. Between 2003 and 2007 we experienced the first-ever economic 'recovery' on record where productivity and profits grew but poverty went up and median incomes fell. The middle class and low-income families did not benefit form the gains accrued over the last decade, which was due to the failed economic policies of the Bush administration and the focus on tax cuts for the wealthy that did not lead to growth in investment." Only by rebuking failed right-wing policies and championing policies that expand the social safety net, strengthen labor rights, build a more humane and efficient health care system, reward hard work with living wages, and value society's most vulnerable members, children, can the U.S. rebuild the American Dream, the idea that this a country where all can prosper, not just a select few.

WHEN ARE WE GOING TO WAKE UP TO THIS TRAGEDY?

Graph from here: http://sitemaker.umich.edu/salas.356/files/poverty_rates_of_rich_countries.bmp
Text from here: http://thinkprogress.org/

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Kyle Taylor
www.kyletaylor.com

Old Habits Don't Die

The notion of "why can't we all just get along?" is wonderful. Beautiful. Perfect. But it's not realistic. I'm probably going to be labeled a cynic for writing this, but it's time we get real. Democrats and Republicans aren't going to agree on everything. Not only is that ok, I would argue it's preferable. Mind you, this notion is applicable to any country in which multiple parties exist - Labour, Conservative and Lib Dem, Christian Dem and Social Dem, etc.

Barack Obama promised a new era of bipartisan collaboration that "puts politics aside to do the American people's business." He went on to say:

"I hope I've communicated a sincere desire to get good ideas from everybody. And my attitude is that this is the first major piece of legislation we've been working on the Hill, and over time some of these habits of consultation and mutual respect will take over. But, you know, old habits die hard."

Here are the problems with this:

1. President Obama is being just as political as the Republicans by preparing a piece of legislation that is inherently Democratic in nature then using it to suggest Republicans should be "less political." He's basically saying, "look, this is the right way and if you don't agree then you're making it political." Granted, I'm fine with it because I believe in Democratic ideals and think tax cuts have proven over the past 8 years to be the most ineffective way on the planet to spur economic growth, favoring the wealthy who don't reinvest and create jobs but instead buy private planes and 11 houses. Yes, that was a dig on McCain.

2. These aren't "habits" we're talking about, they're World views, value sets and political philosophies. They're rooted in a lifetime of considering domestic, social, moral and international issues then deciding how to best solve those issues. Again, I'm completely biased here and for the most part, agree with the Democratic framework on this, so I'm very very pleased with the direction we're moving in. Couple that with the complete failure of the last eight years and you wonder how anyone could still believe in the Republican philosophy (though some would argue it really wasn't Republican). Nevertheless, people do, and it is all but impossible to get half of a country to adopt an entirely new World view over night simply because one man says it's the right thing to do. Society has never and will never work that way. These value sets are shaped over generations, passed down from parent to child again and again and again. Granted, that doesn't mean they're right (that is, I do believe there are absolute truths - equality for all, liberty, freedom, etc.), but they simply are, and they have been for a really long time. Bottom line, the expectation that we'll all agree is fundamentally impossible to attain.

3. Despite everything, 58 MILLION people still voted for John McCain. That means 46% of all voters, with all the facts in, still thought John McCain's course of action was better. The US is trapped in a two-party system that makes every issue black or white, left or right, agree or disagree. To change that would be to change our entire political culture. Yes, President Obama has suggested he is the man to do it, but he is still a Democrat who holds Democratic principles and who will [hopefully] never be a Republican, and that's FINE, just as it's fine for Republicans to feel completely the opposite (though I would argue they're wrong using a great deal of quantitative and qualitative research that proves, beyond a reasonable doubt, that Republican economic, social and international policies are rarely - if ever - successful).

In discussing the economic stimulus he said:

“We're not going to get 100 percent agreement, and we might not even get 50 percent agreement, but I do think people appreciate me walking them through my thought process on this."

Even if we get 0% Republicans, that's fine, and at some level, should be expected. If you're coming at problems from entirely different places, shouldn't we simply acknowledge that we're not going to agree? Look, Bush had 8 years to prove his philosophy and we all watched at is failed miserably. Now Obama has [hopefully] 8 years to prove that a Democratic philosophy works better (the same way FDR, LBJ and Clinton did some 60, 40 and 10 years ago). If we do it, hopefully people will realize that and continue on the same trajectory. If not, we'll head right back into the Republican doldrums, as happened after FDR, LBJ and Clinton. It seems to be entirely cyclical - Republicans crash and burn an entire nation and let Conservative values hold us back, a Democrat sweeps in and makes a great deal of progress, Republicans come back in and keep us there for a solid 20 years or more, Democrat sweeps in and edges us forward again. My only hope is that this time, we don't fall back into a Republican doldrum.

So then, my advice to President Obama - keep consulting and explaining to Republicans why what you want to do is the best idea a) because it's the right thing to do b) because it looks great to the American people. Then, after you've consulted your heart out, just do what's right. That's why the other 66 million of us voted for you.

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Kyle Taylor

Photo From: http://www.bestofbarack.com/images/barack-obama-custom-sneakers-1.jpg

You’ve Been Randomly Selected For Incredibly Intrusive & Overwhelmingly Ridiculous Additional Screening

Twelve hours pass and it’s like I’ve landed in a completely different universe upon arriving at San Francisco Airport. I had fallen asleep in Shanghai only to wake up two hours later and find that we were still at the gate. Apparently one of the lavatories was acting as a vacuum into the outside world. Not good. Needless to say, that meant everything else was late, except for the flight attendant’s attitude. No, that was right on time. “Excuse me can I…” Odd woman wearing excessive eye make-up continues on past me. Cue safety video circa 1973 reminding us to stow our platform shoes. Awesome. This video was, of course, broadcast on the microscopic televisions suspended over the aisles. This TV would later play host to Casino Royale as we munched on our “meat” dish.

Now here I am, back in the good ol’ US of A looking forward to the more “civilized” life I left so many months before. Wrong. First it was the baggage claim, where people fought like cats and dogs to snatch their bags off a revolving platform that was indeed REVOLVING. That meant the bags were coming back around again and again and again. Then it was the customs line, where a man cut in front of me and the officer didn’t “welcome me home.” When did we lose that touch? It always felt so nice to return to the US and hear a guy say “welcome home Mr. Taylor.” Apparently it was a security issue?

This was followed by the third, and most disastrous turn of events. I had missed my original connecting flight because my first flight was two hours late, despite the fact that my connecting flight was actually on the same aircraft that I had taken from Shaghai, that ancient Boeing disaster (special thanks to Not Divided Airlines). Isn’t it odd how I was on the plane then had to get off of it, only to be unable to get back on it in time? This is, of course, a security consideration. After all, that’s how the bad people get you! They feign normalcy on their first flight then kick it into high gear on the connection.

This put me in the slow lane at the “Rebooking Center,” also known as the reason you missed the next three connecting flights. Luckily Lucy was able to squeeze me into a flight scheduled to depart in 20 minutes. I dumped my baggage, tightened my backpack, gave my rolly suitcase wheels a spin and I was off to catch this plane! I must have run for ten minutes solid before reaching the re-securing security line (that’s literally what it was called). I approached the tight-panted, quite fine TSA employ (who would now check my ticket and ID for the eleventh time) completely out of breath. “Why were you running,” she asked. “Because I have ten minutes to catch this connecting flight and I already missed the first one,” I told her, smiling at the fact that I was going to catch the plane. “Well that’s just great,” she said, proceeding to then dash the ticket with her hot pink highlighter. “You’ve been randomly selected for additional screening.” Game over.

I spent the next forty minutes being picked, prodded and questioned by who can only be described as a TSA intern, who rubbed his little bomb residue reader cloth over every single item in each of my two carry-on bags. That includes my poster tube, green tea and chopsticks, because clearly those three items are central to my greater plan of taking over the world via an aircraft. While I sat there a black woman wearing a “Hong Kong rocks” T-shirt was also pulled aside. She was using a walker and wheeling an oxygen tank behind her. Terrorist? I think yes! I’m pretty sure the blind man was her partner in crime (no, seriously. They randomly screened a blind man). Per usual the TSA intern was trying to strike up a conversation. “So, where ya comin’ from and where ya goin’?” I tell him I’ve been in China. “Wow, musta been tough since they speak that weird picture language.” Yes. Yes. That was tough.

I ended up missing the next two flights and was eventually placed in the exit row of a prop plane full of about 50 people or so, including the blind man and the black woman. It’s just so odd to have left a developing country where people work so hard to create a better life, only to find people in my home being treated like criminals for the sake of “safety.” How many rights and freedoms do we have to give up before people realize that we’re actually losing our way of life to protect it. In the end, will there be anything left to save? Meanwhile, I’m just wondering what they did with that guy’s seeing eye dog…