The Love is Louder movement, a project of The Jed Foundation and MTV created with actress Brittany Snow, launched a new site this week at www.loveislouder.com which features a #loveislouder blog, videos, artwork, and songs created by people around the world who have joined the movement.

Additionally, the campaign announced 2012 plans to help communities and campuses support the emotional health of teenagers and college-age students, as well as address issues like bullying, negative self-image, discrimination, isolation and depression.

“Through Love is Louder, The Jed Foundation is harnessing technology, the media and grassroots efforts to expand the current dialogue on bullying to include not only the negative voices and pressures that cause pain, but the feelings themselves and how to deal with those emotions,” says John MacPhee, Executive Director of The Jed Foundation.

The Love is Louder movement works online, through the media and in communities to strengthen emotional health by building resiliency, creating connectedness, promoting acceptance and empowering others to support their peers.  Hundreds of thousands of people have joined the movement online since its launch in 2010 and the new www.loveislouder.com expands that online presence to include:

• A #loveislouder blog that explores common emotional issues like feeling mistreated, misunderstood or alone, and provides positive perspectives, coping strategies and resources for learning more and getting help if needed.
• Galleries of the thousands of photos, videos, pieces of artwork and songs that have been created by people around the world for the movement.
• New video features including a public service announcement starring Brittany Snow, Anna Kendrick, Anna Camp and others, and submissions from the Your Love is Louder Video Festival held in conjunction with the site launch.
• Information and tools that help campuses and communities plan events and start discussions that can increase connectedness, build coping skills, empower peers to support each other and encourage people to get help if needed.
• Connections to resources for learning more about and getting help for emotional health issues like depression, eating disorders and self-injury.

Other plans for 2012 announced include outreach to help educators and the media better understand and talk about the connection between bullying and emotional distress, research around tools to build connectedness and encourage help-seeking in community and campus settings, speaking events with Brittany Snow and other spokespersons, and the development and testing of technology to enhance resiliency and coping skills.

The Jed Foundation (www.loveislouder.com) is a national nonprofit organization working to reduce the prevalence of emotional distress and the rate of suicide among college and university students.

Over the last 10 years, the organization has launched innovative programs for students, campuses and parents, including the Peabody Award-winning Half of Us campaign with mtvU (www.halfofus.com) that uses the stories of students and high-profile artists to decrease stigma around mental health issues and increase help-seeking behaviors;

ULifeline (www.ulifeline.org), a comprehensive online resource center on emotional health with an anonymous screening tool and campus-specific information for getting help; and a model and portfolio of tools that help colleges and universities create healthier and safer campus communities.

Image Courtesy of   https://www.facebook.com/joinloveislouder

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Nancy Silberkleit, the seasoned anti-bullying and literacy advocate, is proud to announce the Strides To Stop Bullying Essay Event, a new anti-bullying initiative for 2012. This inspirational event, open to students across the country, encourages youth to share their true stories and insight to raise awareness and stop the harm that bullying can do.

Led by a panel including Former New York Governor David Paterson, Stan Davis of stopbullyingnow.com and Nancy Silberkleit, the contest will raise funds for the International Bullying Prevention Association. Selected youth will also have their story serve as the inspiration for a forthcoming educational, not-for-profit comic book written by Nancy Silberkleit. Selected essays may also be published anonymously in other ways.

Nancy Silberkleit, co-CEO of Archie Comics, is using her educational training and experience to inspire self-confidence and strength in children of all ages. The Strides To Stop Bullying Essay Event was conceived by Silberkleit as a way to create an inspired community while also furthering her philanthropic reach.

She is currently working on a series of educational comic book focusing on children’s issues such as bullying. She aims to share her words of strength and inspiration with today’s youth. She advises, “Never let anyone define who you are. You know who you are.”

The Strides To Stop Bullying Essay Event, open to all students across the country ages 8-18, will be open for submissions February 1st- May 1st. To enter, children must write a 250-word true essay on the topic of bullying. They may send their own true story about what made things better when they were bullied, or how they supported someone else who was bullied.

These essays will be used as the inspiration for one of Nancy Silberkleit’s upcoming educational comics. For the first 200 essays sent in, Nancy Silberkleit will donate $5 per essay to the International Bullying Prevention Association.

“Creating a school environment free of harassment and discrimination has been a long term goal of mine,” says Governor Paterson. “I’m proud to further align myself with causes such as this contest that encourage our youth to speak out and unite against bullying.”

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The Council on American-Islamic Relations and United Firm of Carolina Law announced the filing of a lawsuit against Delta Air Lines and Atlantic Southeast Airlines for removing two Islamic religious leaders, or imams, from a flight to a conference on Islamophobia in Charlotte, North Carolina, earlier this year after the pilot refused to fly with them on board.

CAIR and UFC Law attorneys announced the lawsuit at a news conference earlier today at Memphis International Airport in Tennessee. Interfaith leaders also took part in the news conference.

The lawsuit states in part:

“Despite having been cleared twice by TSA agents, Defendants’ pilot took the matter into his own hands when he chose to eject Plaintiffs from the flight based on arbitrary and capricious reasons, including his personal preconceived notions of race, religion, and national origin.”

According to the lawsuit, the defendants violated both a federal law preventing an air carrier from subjecting a passenger to “discrimination on the basis of race, color, national origin, religion, sex, or ancestry” and a Tennessee law that prohibits denying an individual the “full and equal enjoyment of the… advantages and accommodations of a place of public accommodation… on the grounds of race, creed, color, religion, sex, age, or national origin.”

The lawsuit seeks a permanent injunction that would prohibit the defendants from “singling out passengers for mistreatment based on their perceived race, color, ethnicity, religion, alienage, ancestry, and/or national origin” and order them to “take all affirmative steps necessary to remedy the effects of the illegal, discriminatory conduct described herein and to prevent similar occurrences in the future.” It also seeks attorneys’ fees and compensatory and punitive damages against Delta and Atlantic Southeast Airlines “in an amount to be determined at trial.”

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From the moment Romania officially entered the European Union in 2007, policies were defined, measures were taken and funds were allocated. But while the country awaits the result, the need to address further issues is starting to build.The European status subscribes to rights and responsibilities, but after four years, negotiations are still at a critical point.

Recently, three Romanian citizens living in Paris have felt that being Romanian does not always involve being European. On 9^th of September, three Romanian citizens, one of them a student at Sorbonne, were accused of theft on the grounds that one of their outfits bore a similarity with that of the real culprit.

The local police was alerted about the theft of a mobile phone by the victim in Paris, Pigalle. The description of the persons involved was a random match to two young Romanians who happened to be not far from the site of the theft, along with their friend – a female student at Sorbonne.

Without any other consideration, the three were taken to the police station. Not only were they arrested, but also treated with a complete lack of respect. The police were quoted for mockingly saying that there might be another Sorbonne for poor Romanian people and one even shouted at them: “Shut-up, I don’t like Romanians!”

Fortunately, the story had a happy ending with the intervention of the press but the only apology given by the judge was that “unfortunately other persons from your country steal phones and you suffered the consequences.” The three young Romanians have since decided to sue the French state, according to Hotnews.ro

The incident comes after the football match between France and Romania earlier this month. In the day of the match the TV show Les Guignols de l’Info presented in the form of satire several discriminating observations about Romanians. Examples ranged from “We know that the Romanian national sport is begging, not football” to “We have to pay attention to their game?

Why – is it tough? No, they have lice” or “I have a good joke – do you know how you say trashcan in Romanian? …Bucharest.” Another similar TV discussion took place last year in July, on the same channel France 2, where the humorist Jonathan Lambert showed the Romanian greeting as “S’il vous plait, Messieurs!” with a raising hand.

The whole studio repeated the gesture. Around the same time, France decided to expel all Roma people (n. gypsies) in France to Romania, giving them 300 Euros as incentive. Not to say that Romanians are necessarily different from the Romany community, but their similar sounding names does not have the same background.

However, Romanians or Roma, they are all Europeans and should have access to Europe on the same level as the rest of the Union.Moreover, discrimination and a lack of respect was proved by the lively journalist Nelson Monfort on France 2, when he added to the news about the French swimmer of Romanian origins, Roxana Maracineanu: “We should take care on this issue with Romanians.”

Being in Europe gives you the basic right of fair treatment under the law, without stereotypes and discrimination. The effort has to come from both side: West Europe and East Europe.

If we take a look at the low rate (8, 6%) of absorption of European funds in Romania, the disastrous sporting ground of the aforementioned football match or the large number of Roma people with Romanian citizenship begging on the streets, we should compare them to some of the negative sides of our fellow European nations.

Eventually, being poor in financial capital or simply historical good fortune should not determine whether you are less European than others — should it?

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It is believed that Thailand is the home of LGBT people in the world. This status was conferred on them due to the fact that the highest number of LGBT people in the world resides in Thailand. It is also a center of sex rearrangement, and to date, no record of violence towards homosexuals has been recorded. Lastly, the winner of the Miss Tiffany (Transgender) World show emerged from Thailand. However, it is wrong to assume that Thailand is a haven for sexual minorities.

We will analyze the prejudice that these people face in midst of this cultural, religiously accepted and tolerated behavior, and hopefully you will grasp why it is a false myth that Thailand is a paradise for sexual minorities.

In the Thai legal system, there is no provision for LGBT persons. Existing laws do not permit LGBT persons to pursue the career path of their choice and the hope for every LGBT person to have an “ideal, permanent partner” an imagination because while Thai LGBT people can live together as lovers, they are not allowed to be legally married under the Thai customary law.

Transgender people who have successfully, and expensively, undergone the sex reassignments are not allowed to change their gender identity, which is why it is not uncommon to see many female-looking persons with a different gender status in their passport and ID card. The negative aspect about this is that it causes the transgender community embarrassment; especially when they travel outside of their country and have to explain and prove why they are different. This poses a lot of risk in countries where such differences are not tolerated and accepted.

Reuters have reported Ladyboys’ picture confuse election officials; “Thailand’s community of lady-boys complained on Wednesday they were being marginalized in next week’s general election because their ID card pictures were too confusing for polling officials.”

Because transgender people are completely changed, it makes no sense for them to carry their birth identification. Since Thai’s legal system has refused to allow them to amend their status based on their physical appearances, and also refuses to grant them a third sex status in their passport and ID card, it further proves why this behavior is not accepted by the Thai law of culture.

In 2004, a top official at the Ministry of Culture proposed removing homosexuals from the media and government posts. In 2006, the Ministry of Defense branded transgender draftees as suffering from “permanent psychosis” in their military exemption documents known as SorDor 43. To this effect, LGBT persons are not qualified to be military personnel, or hold any other serious government position, including working in Immigration.

Seeking an environment where they fit in and are accepted, many LGBT end up as performers, sex workers, street vendors, make-up artist and the like.

The sad truth about this issue is that at the time when many Thai LGBT become transgendered, they really do not know that they are not accepted and they are quick to be impressed by the tolerance and respect they get from heterosexual people.

If the Thai legal system does not accept LGBT in theory and in practice, they should shout it loud! They should campaign against it in schools, stop high school children from cross-dressing. At least it gives them the idea that when they become one, they do so at their own risk or societal marginalization.

Debu55y / Shutterstock.com

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The new constitution recently passed by the Hungarian parliament is matter of concern about some of its articles, which seem to put at risk even fundamental human rights and smooth the way for different kinds of discrimination.

On April 25^th President Pal Schimtt signed the new constitutional text presented by the parliament. The new constitution was passed in parliament without the participation of opposition parties, voted only by Fidesz, the right-wing party that has the parliamentary majority and owns the two thirds of the seats, and thus can proceed independently.

The most criticized articles regard abortion, homosexuals’ rights, freedom of religion, freedom of information and expression, and division of powers.

Article 2 is one of the most controversial, it states “The life of a fetus will be protected from conception.” The concern of organizations as Human Rights Watch and Amnesty International is that this will provide the basis to restrict the access to abortion or even to ban it completely. Pro-abortion groups are worried about the potential danger of a tougher and stricter abortion law and a restriction of women’s rights.

Another crucial point is about the ban on gay marriage, and the exclusion of sexual orientation from the protected grounds of discrimination. The new constitution recalls the idea of the Christian traditional family and traditional marriage, defined as a union of a man and a woman. Disappointment on this question has been expressed by Amnesty International, and homosexual right’s groups are very critical.

Also freedom of information and expression seem to be undermined. In fact, the rights of being informed about the public interest’s acts and to freely express the personal opinion have been restricted, together with the independence of media. This will be controlled by the National Media and Infocommunication Authority (NMHH), that has strong sanctioning powers and is under the majority party’s control.

Also the powers and the autonomy of authorities and of independent bodies as the Constitutional Court, the regular courts and the ombudsmen, would be rather weakened, scaling down the whole system of checks and balances.

There is another point which has a marked ideological nationalistic connotation. It regards the reference to a broadened Hungarian nation. This model of new Hungary would include also the Hungarians whom don’t reside on the national territory – for example the Hungarian minority groups that live in Romania, Slovenia and Slovakia – that are being considered as member of the nation with the right of participate in the elections. This could appear an actual definition of ethnic nation instead of political, which could even create frictions with the neighboring countries.

The new constitutional document strongly reflects only a one-sided vision of the nation. All the symbols and the elements recalled are ideologically and politically clear expression of the right-wing part. The lack of neutrality and of warranty of normal political balance, competition and change among the parts sounds somewhat anomalous for a modern democratic country.

In a country as Hungary marked by a long and hard history made of totalitarianism, whether black or red, this removal from democratic values rouses worry and the criticism even of the Venice Commission of the Council of Europe. Meanwhile, Europe looks with concerns at this situation as Hungary waits for 2012 when the new constitution will come into force.

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