Sylvia Rhue | |
|---|---|
 Rhue at San Francisco Pride in 2011 | |
| Born | 1947 (age 75–76) |
| Nationality | American |
| Alma mater | Oakwood College UCLA (MSW, 1971) Institute for the Advanced Study of Human Sexuality (PhD, 1986) |
| Occupation |
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| Notable work | All God's Children |
Sylvia Rhue (born 1947) is an African-American writer, filmmaker, producer, and LGBT activist. [1]
Rhue was born in Pasadena, California in 1947. Her parents, a railroad worker and a secretary, were Canadian immigrants. [2] Rhue's maternal great-great-grandmother, a slave, was born in Blair House, the President's Guest House. [3] Rhue grew up attending a traditional black church. [4]
Rhue came out as a lesbian in the early 1970s. She had little support at that time, other than one book, Lesbian/Woman . [5]
Rhue earned a degree in Psychology/Sociology from Oakwood College (now University), and a Master of Social Work from UCLA. [2] In 1986, Rhue graduated from the Institute for the Advanced Study of Human Sexuality, becoming the first African American to receive a Ph.D. in Human Sexuality. [1] [2]
Rhue found employment as a psychiatric social worker and as a sex therapist, working specifically with the African American community. [1] In 1988, Rhue helped found the Black Gay and Lesbian Leadership Forum. [6]
In 1996, Rhue co-produced and co-directed (with Oscar-nominated directors Frances Reid and Dee Mosbacher) the documentary All God's Children , which dealt with African American family and religious values, civil rights, and homophobia. [2] The film won several awards, including Best Documentary at the National Black Arts Film Festival, and a Lambda Liberty Award from the Lambda Legal Defense and Education Fund. [7] [8] Other films produced by Rhue include Women in Love, "We Have a Legacy, and Women and Children: AIDS and HIV. [4]
Rhue served with the National Black Justice Coalition from its founding in 2003, as a board member and a director. [1] [2] [6] She spoke out against condemnation of the LGBT community by the religious right, once stating, "Love is the engine of the universe and cannot be boiled down to tab A goes into Slot B." [9] In 2006, she helped organize the Black Church Summit in Atlanta, to promote acceptance of gays and lesbians in black churches. [10]
Rhue has also worked for the Religious Coalition for Reproductive Rights and as Director of Equal Partners in Faith. [1] [11] She has contributed articles to The Huffington Post [2] [12] and other publications.
| Year | Title | Role | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1994 | Coming Out Under Fire | Archival film source | Documentary |
| 1996 | All God's Children | Director | Documentary |
| 2002 | Family Fundamentals | Consultant | Documentary |
| 2005 | The L Word | Actress | TV series |
Within Christianity, there are a variety of views on sexual orientation and homosexuality. Even within a denomination, individuals and groups may hold different views, and not all members of a denomination necessarily support their church's views on homosexuality. The Catholic Church and Orthodox churches officially condemn homosexual activity as sin. Various Mainline Protestant denominations have taken a supportive stance towards blessing homosexual clergy and same-sex marriage while others have not.
Lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender (LGBT) movements are social movements that advocate for LGBT people in society. Although there is not a primary or an overarching central organization that represents all LGBT people and their interests, numerous LGBT rights organizations are active worldwide. The first organization to promote LGBT rights was the Scientific-Humanitarian Committee, founded in 1897 in Berlin.
The LGBT community also known as the LGBTQ+ community, GLBT community, gay community, or queer community is a loosely defined grouping of lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender individuals united by a common culture and social movements. These communities generally celebrate pride, diversity, individuality, and sexuality. LGBT activists and sociologists see LGBT community-building as a counterweight to heterosexism, homophobia, biphobia, transphobia, sexualism, and conformist pressures that exist in the larger society. The term pride or sometimes gay pride expresses the LGBT community's identity and collective strength; pride parades provide both a prime example of the use and a demonstration of the general meaning of the term. The LGBT community is diverse in political affiliation. Not all people who are lesbian, gay, bisexual, or transgender consider themselves part of the LGBT community.
Anti-LGBT rhetoric comprises themes, catchphrases, and slogans that have been used in order to demean lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender (LGBT) people. They range from the demeaning and the pejorative to expressions of hostility towards homosexuality which are based on religious, medical, or moral grounds. It is a form of hate speech, which is illegal in countries such as the Netherlands, Norway, and Sweden.
Lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) persons in Belarus face legal challenges not experienced by non-LGBT residents. Both male and female same-sex sexual activity are legal in Belarus. Households headed by same-sex couples are not eligible for the same legal protections available to opposite-sex couples. Belarus provides no anti-discrimination protections for LGBT people, nor does it prohibit hate crimes based on sexual orientation and gender identity.
Stereotypes about lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) people are based on their sexual orientations, gender identities, or gender expressions. Stereotypical perceptions may be acquired through interactions with parents, teachers, peers and mass media, or, more generally, through a lack of firsthand familiarity, resulting in an increased reliance on generalizations.
Homophobia encompasses a range of negative attitudes and feelings toward homosexuality or people who are identified or perceived as being lesbian, gay or bisexual. It has been defined as contempt, prejudice, aversion, hatred or antipathy, may be based on irrational fear and may also be related to religious beliefs. Negative attitudes towards transgender and transsexual people are known as transphobia.
Lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender (LGBT) affirming religious groups, otherwise referred to as gay-affirming religious groups, are religious groups that welcome LGBT people as their members, do not consider homosexuality as a sin or negative, and affirm LGBT rights and relationships. They include entire religious denominations, as well as individual congregations and places of worship. Some groups are mainly composed of non-LGBT members and they also have specific programs to welcome LGBT people into them, while other groups are mainly composed of LGBT members.
Lesbophobia comprises various forms of prejudice and negativity towards lesbians as individuals, as couples, or as a social group. Based on the categories of sex, sexual orientation, identity, and gender expression, this negativity encompasses prejudice, discrimination, hatred, and abuse; with attitudes and feelings ranging from disdain to hostility. Lesbophobia is misogyny that intersects with homophobia, and vice versa.
With the exception of South Africa and Cape Verde, lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender (LGBT) rights in Africa are limited in comparison to the United States, Canada, Western Europe, Australia, and New Zealand. Out of the 55 states recognised by the United Nations or African Union or both, the International Gay and Lesbian Association stated in 2015 that homosexuality is outlawed in 34 African countries. Human Rights Watch notes that another two countries, Benin and the Central African Republic, do not outlaw homosexuality, but have certain laws which discriminate against homosexual individuals. Many of the laws that criminalize homosexuality are colonial-era laws.
This is a list of important events relating to the LGBT community from 1801 to 1900. The earliest published studies of lesbian activity were written in the early 19th century.
Corrective rape, also called curative rape, as well as homophobic rape, is a hate crime in which one or more people are raped because of their perceived sexual orientation such as homosexuality or bisexuality. The common intended consequence of the rape, as claimed by the perpetrator, is to turn the person heterosexual.
Homosexuality, as a phenomenon and as a behavior, has existed throughout all eras in human societies.
Call Me Kuchu is a 2012 American documentary film directed by Malika Zouhali-Worrall and Katherine Fairfax Wright. The film explores the struggles of the LGBT community in Uganda, focusing in part on the 2011 murder of LGBT activist David Kato.
Racism is a concern for many in the Western lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) communities, with members of racial, ethnic, and national minorities reporting having faced discrimination from other LGBT people.
The National Black Justice Coalition (NBJC) is an American civil rights organization serving primarily Black lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender (LGBT) people. Since 2003, NBJC has collaborated with national civil rights groups and LGBT organizations, advocating for the unique challenges and needs of the African American LGBT community in the United States.
Homophobia in ethnic minority communities is any negative prejudice or form of discrimination in ethnic minority communities worldwide towards people who identify as–or are perceived as being–lesbian, gay, bisexual or transgender (LGBT), known as homophobia. This may be expressed as antipathy, contempt, prejudice, aversion, hatred, irrational fear, and is sometimes related to religious beliefs. While religion can have a positive function in many LGB Black and Minority Ethnic (BME) communities, it can also play a role in supporting homophobia.
The African-American LGBT community, otherwise referred to as the Black LGBT community, is part of the overall LGBT culture and overall African-American culture. The initialism LGBT stands for lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender. A landmark event for the LGBT community, and the Black LGBT community in particular, was the Stonewall uprising in 1969, in New York City's Greenwich Village, where Black activists including Stormé DeLarverie and Marsha P. Johnson played key roles in the events.
Reverend Cedric A. Harmon is the Executive Director of Many Voices: A Black Church Movement for LGBT Justice and a speaker, writer, and activist. He is recognized as having taken a "leading role in trying to convince the faithful to support LGBT rights," his work acknowledged in the National Park Service 2016 Centennial report LGBTQ America: A Theme Study of Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender, and Queer History. He has also written for outlets such as the Huffington Post and the Advocate.
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