It’s an open thread! Pleeeeease feel free to chat, blogwhore, and link-share in the comment thread…

So, this is what my cartoon sockpuppet Bookworm Bob have been looking at since our last This & That post.

• The Clarion-Ledger‘s District Sued Over Yearbook; Gay Teen Says School Violated Her Rights By Removing Her Photo:

A former student at Wesson Attendance Center in Copiah County filed a lawsuit Tuesday alleging the district illegally discriminated against her by not including her portrait in the school yearbook.

According to Ceara Sturgis, the district withheld the photo because she refused to wear a drape customarily worn by girls. Sturgis, who is gay, said she feels more comfortable in men’s clothing and had her senior portrait taken in a tuxedo.

The federal lawsuit claims the district’s actions violated Sturgis’ right to equal protection under the law and protections against gender discrimination under Title IX.

The lawsuit seeks unspecified damages and legal costs.

If y’all haven’t noticed, our rural lesbian, gay, bisexual, and queer (LGBTQ) youth are doing a lot of heavy lifting for freedom, equality, and justice of our LGBTQ community.

As you can imagine, I admire Ceara Sturgis a lot.

• Sharon Lettman-Hicks piece for theGeorgia Voice, entitled Empowering Black LGBT People:

Barbecues, backyard parties and soul-food jams. Summer is a time for family get-togethers. A time when people all over the world take vacations so they can make memories with close friends and loved ones, but in African-American communities only some of us feel comfortable going home.

In our communities, only some of us feel safe enough to be who we are in the company of those who raised us. Only some of us can show up and be all of ourselves all of the time with the people we love most. The pain of moving through our families – closeted, and, in many instances, alienated – is devastating black families everywhere.

Homophobia and the anti-gay oppression it engenders severely limits the extent to which African-American LGBT people live out and open lives. In recent years, we have seen significant efforts to undermine black families due to restrictive laws and regulations based on sexual orientation and gender identity. Such laws include the 2008 proposition passed in Arkansas outlawing adoption by LGBT people, even though 21 percent of black LGBT couples are biological parents and 2.2 percent are adoptive or foster parents (2000 U.S. Census)…

This to me is an incredibly thoughtful piece — I really recommend going to the website link to read the entire piece — in my opinion, it’s well worth the read.

• Philly.com‘s Doylestown bans sex-orientation discrimination:

Doylestown Borough has become the 17th government in Pennsylvania to ban discrimination based on sexual orientation or gender identity.

By a unanimous, 9-0 vote, the Borough Council passed a law Monday night protecting lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) people from discrimination in employment, housing, and public accommodations.

The vote drew a standing ovation from several dozen who packed Borough Hall.

“This ordinance is a statement that we will no longer treat different groups of people differently,” Councilman Don Berk said. “. . . We are protecting people who previously had no recourse.”

Amen.

• Los Angeles Times‘ Mummified Remains Of Two Babies Wrapped In 1930s Newspapers Found; Two Women Made The Discovery After Opening A Steamer Trunk That Had Been Stored In The Apartment Building For Decades. LAPD Will Conduct A Full Investigation:

Gloria Gomez stepped eagerly into the basement of the once-grand Glen-Donald apartment building near MacArthur Park on Tuesday afternoon, hoping to find treasures in three large trunks that someone had left there decades ago.

The first two trunks were empty. Using a screwdriver, she broke the lock on the third.

Gomez, the building’s manager and an amateur antique collector, was giddy over what she found: a gleaming crystal bowl, stacks of beautiful books, including a copy of “Peter Pan,” and two leather doctor’s satchels. Cradling one of the bags, Gomez turned to her friend, Yiming Xing, and said, “These must be worth a lot of money!”

Inside the bag was a small bundle wrapped in Los Angeles Times newspapers from the 1930s. Xing unpeeled the newspapers and shrank back in horror.

The doctor’s satchels contained the mummified remains of two babies.

Ugh.

• Our Wiener Story Of The Day: NBC Miami‘s Hot Dog Thief Stuffs Pants With Weiners:

A St. Lucie County man was arrested for putting a two-pound pack of jumbo hot dogs into his pants and then walking out of a Publix grocery store without paying.

A store loss prevention officer spotted Allan Polhemus conceal a 32-ounce package of Publix jumbo beef franks, valued at $6.99, in his pants while walking down aisle five at the store on South U.S. 1.

The wiener packaging describes the dogs as “meaty & delicious” and as having “no fillers,” but they seemed to fill the robber’s pants well enough to be spotted from the ceiling security cameras…

As always, “The weenie tempts you!”

So anywho…It’s an open thread! What are you thinking about today, or what books or articles have you been reading the past few days? Wanna share?

And again, please feel free to chat, blogwhore, and link-share in the comment thread because…it’s an open thread! Woo-hoo!