Q&A: ‘Gay in America’ photographer Scott Pasfield
By Nina Raja, CNN
(CNN) - New York photographer Scott Pasfield released his first digital photography project in the book, "Gay in America," last fall. With a mission to educate and destroy stereotypes about being gay, Pasfield spent three years traveling 52,000 miles across the nation to document the stories of 140 gay men.
"I hope that people see this project for what it truly is and know that it is perfectly normal to be gay," Pasfield said. "And it comes in many shapes, colors and sizes. And that life would not be the same or nearly as beautiful without us."
Here's what Pasfield had to say about the project.
CNN: What inspired you to take on this project?
Pasfield: First and foremost I started this project to make a difference. I wanted to make a book that I wished existed when I was a kid, one that I could learn about the realities of being gay and what my options were. I wanted to reveal the truth about the wonderful gay men in this country and I wanted to share that knowledge with the world. I think there is a tendency to unjustly stereotype gay men in a negative way that is perpetuated by many and that cycle really needs to stop. I saw this book as an opportunity to do my part in taking my gifts and using them for some greater good.
CNN: What were the biggest challenges you faced as you embarked on this project? What surprised you during this journey?
Pasfield: As I started the project, getting people to believe in me was not difficult. I have a nice website, with lots of celebrity portraits, so most of these guys thought it a great opportunity to have a pro come take their picture. I was amazed at how honest and beautiful everyone's emails were. I learned an incredible amount by just reading the thousands of replies. And I chose men first and foremost based upon what they wrote. I had always planned on editing the emails for the text to accompany the photos. In that respect, the book wrote itself. Secondly I considered other characteristics and tried my best to include as much variety as possible, based on age, race, occupation, religion and political opinion. I thought there should be as many different types of gay men as possible.
I find that the challenges on the project have only changed and actually grown for me since the book has been released. I feel that the real work begins now, not only having to convince people of the books merits and worth, but to get its message out that being gay is normal, that you can live a happy fulfilled life in this country. Not only gay boys and men will benefit from this book, but also their parents, family and friends. I want them all to know that everything will be fine, that life can be wonderful and fulfilled and complete.
Preserving the dream at historically black colleges and universities
By John Martin, CNN
(CNN) – Howard, Morehouse, Spelman, Tuskegee, Xavier – these are just a few of America's Historically Black Colleges and Universities, known as HBCUs. HBCUs are accredited historically black institutions of higher learning established before 1964. While many of these colleges are located in the South, there are HBCUs as far north as Michigan and as far west as Oklahoma. While some HBCUs are public and others private, all of them serve a principle mission to educate black Americans.
Several Morehouse and Spelman college students who we interviewed recently discussed the diversity they see on campus. They told us that HBCUs are "not exclusively black" and also serve international students and students from other ethnicities. Morehouse junior Jarrad Mandeville-Lawson, who comes from Matawan, New Jersey, identified himself as "Nigerian, Italian and Greek," and said, "My high school is majority Caucasian so I don't actually have those strong African-American traits that people would assume I would have." In 2008, Joshua Packwood became the first white valedictorian in Morehouse's history.
Students from both schools talked about their schools’ nurturing environments. At Morehouse, one of America's few all-male campuses, the students talked about the school's strong tradition of a brotherhood. Mandeville-Lawson told us, "We're going to constantly have our brother's back and uplift them.....These are my brothers. I'm going to do everything possible to make sure they stay strong and to get them where they need to be." Spelman senior Gabrielle Horton echoed Mandeville-Lawson's sentiments. "When you think of Spelman you think of the 'Spelman Sisterhood' ... You're indoctrinated with that your first year ... They have their brother's back, we have our sister's back. And that's something we just carry with us every day," Horton said.
Opinion: Don't threaten women's health care
Editor's note: Felicity Huffman was nominated for an Academy Award and won a Golden Globe Award for her performance in "Transamerica." She received an Emmy and Screen Actors Guild Award for her starring role in ABC's "Desperate Housewives."
By Felicity Huffman, Special to CNN
(CNN) - Congress is attempting to eviscerate women's health care. Like many women across America, I am outraged.
Tomorrow, the Senate will vote on legislation proposed by Sen. Roy Blunt that would allow employers to deny coverage for health care services that are considered morally objectionable.
On February 16, Republicans in the House of Representatives held a hearing designed to undermine President Barack Obama's decision to guarantee women free access to contraception health care regardless of their workplace.
Fair enough. We all have the right to disagree and fight for our beliefs. But by definition, a hearing is an inquiry into many sides of an issue with testimony from various points of views. But mark this: The Republicans did not have a single woman to testify in support of the contraception mandate. That is not a hearing; that is a sham.
Engage: Mormonism, race and Romney
Engage with news and opinions from around the web about under-reported stories from undercovered communities.
The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, African-Americans, and Mitt Romney -The Washington Post
Graphic: 10 states with fastest-growing immigrant populations -Multiamerican.org
Ta-Nehisi Coates: Jeremy Lin, and how we merge race and ethnicity with "some deeper objective reality " -The Atlantic
Marker commemorates the slave labor that helped build U.S. capitol -The Los Angeles Times
Musical revue highlights common ground of Jewish, African-American musical traditions - Voice of America
Prison bars white inmate from reading 'Slavery by Another Name,' citing security risk
By Stephanie Siek, CNN
(CNN) – The Pulitzer Prize-winning book "Slavery by Another Name: The Re-enslavement of Black Americans from the Civil War to World War II," by Douglas Blackmon, tells the story of African Americans in the post-Reconstruction south who were imprisoned and forced into involuntary servitude after being convicted of trifling crimes. Now a modern-day prisoner in Alabama is suing for his right to read the book.
The lawsuit, filed in September, alleges that when officials at the Kilby Correctional Facility in Mt. Meigs, Ala. denied prisoner Mark Melvin access to the book, it was a violation of his rights to "freedom of speech, equal protection and due process." The case is currently in the discovery phase.
The Alabama Department of Corrections declined comment for this story, citing the pending litigation. In their answer to the lawsuit, they admitted that Melvin had been denied access to the book, but denied any violation of his rights.
The Department said the book was in violation of its rules about what kind of reading material can be sent to inmates – namely that "the book, its title, its contents and/or its pictures could be used (or misused) by the plaintiff or other inmates to incite violence or disobedience within the institution." They also noted that the book, which describes the forced labor of African Americans in detail, "could also be used (or misused) in a manner which is inconsistent with legitimate peneological objectives, for instance the rehabilitation of inmates through prison work details and/or the inculcation of a work ethic."
A tale of two chefs: Marcus Samuelsson and Roblé Ali
By Alex Kellogg and Alyse Shorland, CNN
(CNN) - Marcus Samuelsson and Roblé Ali are two different chefs.
Samuelsson, 41, is an established name amongst foodies and the proprietor of Red Rooster, a renown Harlem restaurant.
Ali, 27, is an up and coming chef and animated reality-show star who works full time as an established caterer.
Samuelsson has made a name for himself embracing his identity as both a black chef and a Swedish immigrant to the United States, but younger chefs like Ali find themselves pushing back against being known simply as a “black chef.” Ali, who’s still building his brand, was frustrated when a blog author unexpectedly labeled him a “hip-hop chef.”
“Who takes you serious when you’re the hip hop chef?” said Ali. “And why am I the hip hop chef, because I’m black? I’m not break dancing.”
For decades, many African Americans were reluctant to enter a profession they associated with servitude and slavery. Cooking was reminiscent of second-class citizenship, and antiquated images of Aunt Jemima and Uncle Ben dominated the nation’s associations of blacks and kitchens.
“George Washington had a slave chef, as did Thomas Jefferson. It ain’t nothing new,” said Jessica Harris, a culinary scholar and the author of books on the foods of the African Diaspora. “I think that has lifted in many families, but I don’t think that it has lifted in all African-American families.”
In recent years, African Americans have begun to trickle into the field in growing numbers. FULL POST
BIA update: Tomorrow's leaders
CNN's documentary, "Black in America 2: Tomorrow's Leaders," followed men and women making a difference in the black community. When we met Mia Jackson, a young woman with an undergraduate degree in chemical engineering, she said she wanted to further her career. She applied to Management Leadership for Tomorrow, an MBA prep program dedicated to preparing minorities for executive positions in business.
Since then, Mia has graduated from Northwestern University's Kellogg School of Management with a dual degree: an MBA and a Masters in Engineering Management. But she says it was all at a great cost. Hear why in this Black in America update.
CNN Photos: Transgender in a male-or-female world
By Brett Roegiers, CNN
(CNN) - Chicago, a struggling New York musician in his mid-30s, was born female but now embraces the trans label. Since he was a teenager, he has been searching for his place in a world that wants people to be strictly male or female.
As part of his gender transition, Chicago started taking testosterone injections in 2009. Around that time, photographer Raymond McCrea Jones began to document his journey.
“Chicago was really on board from the beginning because he sees this as a way to get his story out,” Jones said. “As you can imagine, growing up in Middle America in the Midwest, going to high school and struggling with your gender is not an easy thing.”
Engage: Poll: Black women heavier, with higher self-esteem than white women
Engage with news and opinions from around the web about under-reported stories from undercovered communities.
Black women are heavier and happier with their bodies than white women, poll finds - The Washington Post
Mitt Romney, Mormons at odds on immigration in Arizona - Reuters
UC Berkeley experiment: the wealthy are more likely to cheat - The Los Angeles Times
NYPD Chief defends his departments' surveillance of Muslims beyond New York City– The New York Times
Touré: Jeremy Lin's victory over "stereotype threat" - Time Magazine
'Mama, would you please speak English!'
Editor's note: Rose Arce is a senior producer at CNN and a contributor to Mamiverse, a website for Latinas and their families.
By Rose Arce, CNN
(CNN) - I am sitting in the North Charleston Coliseum in South Carolina ensconced in a piece of pure Americana. A CNN debate between the Republican presidential candidates is unfolding beneath a sea of cardboard red, white and blue stars and stripes.
"I favor English as the official language of government and I think that creates a continuity," Newt Gingrich says, punching away at his opponent before a roaring crowd of Southern Republicans.
There was continuity weeks later at the CNN debate in Jacksonville, Florida, where nearly a quarter of the population is Hispanic. "I also believe that in our schools, we should teach kids in English," Mitt Romney says to thunderous applause.
What American - Latino or not - wouldn't applaud for teaching kids to speak English in U.S. schools? I slouch into my seat and wait for the good part, when the sparks of partisanship flare up over the details of what "English Only" means. But, when these go mano-a-mano in the language wars, these guys got nothing on the 40 inch, 35 pound adversary I fight each day.
"Mama, would you please speak English! We live in America," 6-year-old Luna yells at the breakfast table. You see, while the broad national debate is about English Only, in my 1,000 square feet of America, it's Spanish that's causing all the stir.
About In America
What defines you? Maybe it’s the shade of your skin, the place you grew up, the accent in your words, the make up of your family, the gender you were born with, the intimate relationships you chose to have or your generation? As the American identity changes we will be there to report it. In America is a venue for creative and timely sharing of news that explores who we are. Reach us at inamerica@cnn.com.
Black in America
iReport
