From RaceWire comes the alert to a new report on women of color and the racial wealth gap from the Insight Center for Community Economic Development, released on International Women’s Day. Lifting As We Climb: Women of Color, Wealth and America’s Future focuses on the wealth gap rather than the wage gap, because,

The current economic crisis has revealed why wealth is so important to the stability of households. Wealth, or

net worth, refers to the total value of one’s assets minus debts. Without savings or wealth of some form,

economic stability is built on a house of cards that quickly crumbles when income is cut or disrupted through

job loss, reduced hours or pay, or if the family suffers an unexpected health emergency.

A few of the many important points in this report:

• There is an enormous racial wealth gap in America. For every dollar of wealth owned by the typical white family, the typical family of color owns only 16 cents.
• Single black and Hispanic women have one penny of wealth for every dollar of wealth owned by their male counterparts and a tiny fraction of a penny for every dollar of wealth owned by white women.
• Black and Hispanic mothers with children of any age have less than 1% of the wealth of white mothers with children of any age, whereas black fathers have 33% as much wealth as white fathers and Hispanic fathers have 3% as much wealth as white fathers.
• Young women ages 18-35, whether white or non-white, are beginning their adult years with a median wealth of zero, meaning that at least half of women in this age group had no wealth or had debts greater than the value of their assets. [...] Prior to age 50, women of color have virtually no wealth.

The entire report is well worth reading and is written in plain language that lays out the current situation, some of the underlying historical and cultural factors, and proposals to improve wealth equity.

If you've been here before, you may have noticed the new addition in the last few days of another category of news at the bottom of the page: pro-kyriarchy. I wrestled with whether this was the right thing to do, and decided it's better to be informed about what the opposition in these struggles is saying and doing. I noticed, too, that the sources I was adding were heavily weighted toward one particular aspect of the kyriarchy: gender.

I reflected on why it seemed more relevant to me to see the positions, arguments, interpretations, of those promoting gender inequality than the other aspects of access to privilege. Was it a reflection of my priorities due to my own perspective and my own privilege, and if so, did I need to balance that by adding more sources with the voices of those who promote inequality based on other factors, like race, ethnicity, national origin, ability, class, age, size?

Here's what I came to:

Pro-Gay Marriage Paterson Ends Reelection Bid - On Top Magazine -

Pro-Gay Marriage Paterson Ends Reelection Bid
On Top Magazine
Last year, the 55-year-old politician pressured Senators to debate a gay marriage bill waiting for their approval to become law. ...

Follow the link above, and you'll find another link, this one to Senator Diaz's site where he asks,

“The Governor went out on a limb for the gay community in his efforts to support marriage equality and to bring that bill to the Senate floor, even though he knew it did not have sufficient votes to pass and that thousands of people in New York State did not want it and will not support him for election because of that issue,” remarked Senator Díaz. “Where is the gay community now that the Governor needs them?” Senator Díaz wondered.

Paterson might be able to get "gay community" support, but he shouldn't get queer community support. Supporting "gay marriage" (as opposed to marriage equality, without regard to gender) is a step in the right direction, but this is a man who, in his role as governor of New York state, personally tried to persuade a victim of intimate partner violence not to pursue a restraining order to protect herself and her child, and may have been party to the State Police actions toward the same goal. Whether he initiated those actions or not, as governor he is responsible. Remember, "The buck stops here"?

I will never be gay. I have, at various times, identified first as heterosexual, then bisexual, then lesbian, and finally have found a home in queer. "Gay" was never an option. I knew, growing up, that gay men loved other men and lesbians were women who loved other women. As an adult, it's a little more complicated than that, but gay still means men.

For over 16 years I have exclusively dated and partnered with people who were socialized female in their upbringings, with various adult gender identities. I have friends who identify as "gay women," and I don't argue with them -- because it is their identity and not open for my negotiation --but I find it dismaying as one more word that reinforces male as default.

Joe Fries addresses the "gay community" today, complaining that he doesn't like the inclusive acronyms being used more commonly now to describe the community to which he belongs.

Imagine my surprise when I learned about the local university’s OutWeek, which is billed as a way to celebrate the LGBQTTI community.

WTF? What’s an LGBQTTI?

I thought the whole focus of the gay rights movement was to win the same freedoms for gay people that are enjoyed by straight people. So why would you use a handle that sounds not like a group of people, but rather a missile guidance system?

For the record, the OutWeek press release went on to explain that the rather unwieldy acronym means: Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Queer/Questioning, Transsexual, Two-spirit and Intersex.

I never particularly envisioned fashion as a topic I'd be in any rush to post about here -- though it certainly ties in to presentation and privilege in relation to any number of factors -- but here I go anyway.

I've just discovered a new site, dapperQ, which takes a different approach to fashion from any other site I've seen. Here's their self-description:

We are an open community of women, genderqueers, and trans men focused on queering men’s fashion, and making it uniquely our own.  Tired of being harrassed in men’s dressing rooms, frustrated with the lack of clothing options, and bolstered by a strong desire to take control of our own fashion lives, dapperQ’s aim to transgress men’s fashion, and make it into something that works for our community.  dapperQ.com welcomes all, and excludes none- if you feel like you belong, please join us!

Welcome to e-snark! I've been working on building this site and preparing it for visitors and new members, and I think it's finally ready.

If you register, you will have full access to blog here, comment, post images and links and other goodies, create and participate in forum discussions, write original content, help promote other relevant sites and material, and connect with others to build community.

I've added a bunch of new blogs to the blog feed section. Most of them are from LGBTQ folks with a focus on gender, sexuality, culture, inhabiting conscious gender and/or sexuality in our culture, dis/ability, racism, and/or discussing and dismantling the kyriarchy.* If you have suggestions for other well-written blogs focusing on these areas (that is broad enough to be of interest outside of the blogger's social circle), please suggest it in the comments to this entry. I promise I'll take a look.

Welcome! I'm pulling together e-snark.com a bit at a time. Please pardon any glitches or dead-ends you may encounter for the time being. There's lots of syndicated content here already -- not much else yet, but it's on its way.

Here's the basic plan:

1. Lots of syndicated content pulled together in a neatly-organized manner to make it easy to stay up-to-date on LGBTQ and gender-equality news and discussions and find interesting material with an emphasis on LGBTQ but with a variety of other topics as well.