Google Censoring Google Blogs - I am discontinuing this blog!

Google, under pressure from other countries (purportedly) has decided to implement a new system of censorship with it's blogspot service.

This effectively allows Google to block and censor any blog for any reason beyond the practice of already monitoring and deleting posts that the "powers to be" do not like.

It seems that internet censorship is alive and well and growing under pressure from our government and other countries to monitor and block whatever they consider unfavorable.

Due to this new policy I am discontinuing my blogging and moving to another site where it will not be monitored and/or blocked at the whim of whomever. I will post the link in a few days as soon as I convert to a new blog.

It's unfortunate that Google has taken this approach and caved to political pressure, but it had to happen sooner or later as they have become another greedy,  corporate enterprise with nothing in mind other than to increase profits for self-serving management.

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London Gay Men’s Chorus kick-starts video campaign for gay youth

A new campaign in London against bullying, very similar to the "It Gets Better" project here in the US, the London Gay Men's Chorus recorded a video as part of the Proud2Be Project, which aims to encourage gay youngsters to be proud of their sexuality.

The Proud2Be Project, which was founded by Matt and Jon Price last year, aims to include more videos from organisations and individuals as well as continuing to petition for change. It is hoped the project will also put on workshops, produce documentaries and exhibitions, and initiate Proud2Be centres.

                            

The founders encourage anyone who supports the project to send in videos and the identical twins explain their reasons for initiating the project on their website: “As children, the overriding message we received from our school, our church, the media and society was that being gay was something to be ashamed of. Although many would argue that times our changing, for us change could not come fast enough,” they say.

“Still the messages our LGBT youth receive are not too dissimilar to the ones we heard as children. When a child is told at school to ‘act less gay’ to avoid being bullied, the message is loud and clear. When a teacher fails to challenge a student who uses the word ‘gay’ as a put down, the message is loud and clear. When public figures continue to use derogatory and offensive language to describe the transgender community, the message is loud and clear.

They add: “Our desire is for our LGBTQ youth to access a new loving message and for that message to be as loud and as clear as the rest.”

We wish them all the success that the same project has achieved here in the states and hope that this movement will spread to the corners of the globe. There is a long road ahead, especially in view of the upcoming elections and the potential for a backslide in LGBT rights should the GOP gain control of hte government.

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Suicide claims another LGBT youth: Trevor Project intern Eric Borges – LGBTQ Nation

Facebook photo-EricJames

Sadly we say goodbye to another young person who thought the only way to end the pain was to take his own life. And once again, I have to add another picture, another name to the page of those who have preceded him.

EricJames, a young filmmaker, intern at The Trevor Project, and a Supplemental instructor at the College of the Sequoias took his own life January 11th after trying to be on his own, dealing with personal issues.

A young film maker, EricJames posted this video on November 10, 2011, in which he also appears — the subtext of his video was described as “love is universal.”



Update: Laura McGinnis, Communications Director at The Trevor Project sent LGBTQ Nation this statement:

We are deeply saddened to hear about the tragic death of EricJames Borges, and our hearts go out to his family and friends, and his community. EricJames was a dedicated, trained volunteer. Our main concern right now is that those affected by his death feel supported and can get the care they need. If you or someone you know needs support, please don’t hesitate to call the Trevor Lifeline at 866-488-7386.

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Socialshield Announced at CES in Las Vegas

A cloud-based program called SocialShield has introduced an application that can track your child's language, posts, etc. on most of the social networks. The idea behind the program is not to snoop on anyone's personal information but to give a heads up to parents about possible issues that could affect the health and welfare of their child. It watches for certain words commonly associated with bullying, harassment, etc. and alerts the parents that there may be a problem with their child being cyberbullied, have improper postings, and other problems that possibly need intervention.

Here's a short video about the program.

General Overview for Homepage from SocialShield on Vimeo.

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