ATLANTA -- Campus Pride was selected as a national partner by the Ben Cohen StandUp Foundation, the worldʼs first organization dedicated solely to combatting bullying, regardless of race, gender, socioeconomic status or sexual orientation.

World-champion rugby player Ben Cohen, the first straight sports star to use his celebrity to raise funds and awareness for the benefit of the lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgendered community, kicked off his international foundation last week in Atlanta during the inaugural stop of his Acceptance Tour 2011, which will also visit New York, Washington DC and Seattle. Cohenʼs philanthropic work has been covered by The Guardian (UK), CNN and The New York Times among other media outlets.

"We are proud to partner with Campus Pride. They have a long, successful track record of working with educators and students to make campuses more inclusive for and accepting of LGBT people. Raising awareness of and funds for their tireless, on-the-ground work is very important to all of us here at the Ben Cohen StandUp Foundation," said Ben Cohen, MBE, chair of the foundation.

In light of recent high-profile LGBT bullying, the Atlanta-based StandUp Foundation will coordinate and fund specific anti-bullying programs around the world. The StandUp Foundation will partner with four select groups in the United States: Campus Pride, the Human Rights Campaign, the Matthew Shepard Foundation and the Trevor Project. International partners will come at a later date.

“Every human being has the right to love and be loved, and I want to be a bridge between LGBT and straight communities to create a kinder world,” Cohen, the married father of two, says. His cause is as personal for him as it is for his fans; his father was brutally beaten to death in 2000.

Bebe, Pandora, Shannel & Shangela put their heels on to educate, enlighten & entertain on college campus communities across the country

(Charlotte, NC) -- Campus Pride in partnership with Hope’s Voice announces Divas of Diversity, an exciting new program to embrace differences and celebrate diversity with the unforgettable talent of Logo’s hit show RuPaul’s Drag Race Season 1, 2 and 3 -- Bebe Zahara Benet, Pandora Boxx, Shangela and Shannel. Starting today, Divas of Diversity college bookings will benefit Campus Pride as well as other charities with a donation from each booking.

“Campus Pride is thrilled to support Hope’s Voice to bring the talent of RuPaul’s Drag Race to college campuses with a timely message of acceptance and diversity,” said Shane Windmeyer, Executive Director of Campus Pride. “Acts of bias, harassment and bullying plague college campus communities, especially when it comes to the diversity of gender expression and gender identity. ‘Divas of Diversity’ has the power to entertain, enlighten and educate as only drag queens can – in heels with conviction and pride.”

This is about those suicides--so please don't read it, if it's going to make it harder for you to get through your day in one piece. In fact, if that's you, you should stop reading now, and maybe go have a look at the It Gets Better Project, instead (http://www.youtube.com/user/itgetsbetterproject)--or call the Trevor Project (www.trevorproject.org, or 1-866-4U-TREVOR)--or even get in touch with S. Bear Bergman, happy 36-y-o transman with a family (I'm not posting that info here, but you can find it where he did, on Twitter).

It's just: these are things I have difficulty voicing publicly, without getting the are-you-saying-white-gay-cis-men-and-boys-killing-themselves-isn't-horrible death stare. And because it needs saying: of course, it's horrible.

It's just that it's also horrible when women and trans people and people of color are murdered, or harassed into suicide--who's talking about Aiyisha Hassan? Victoria White? It's that I spent two hours at Wichita's Coming Out Day--the two hours before the candle-light vigil, and then I left, because I was thinking too hard about the closeted friend, smart, cynical, transmasculine, of color, an advocate for everyone except herself, who shot herself less than a year ago; who I miss endlessly, daily; who would never have qualified for this kind of media coverage. Who, in fact, didn't.

It's that any memorial where we name our dead leaves out the countless unnamed ones who were too scared, or young, or inarticulate to name themselves, or whose parents covered it up, or whose deaths were misconstrued as accidents, or who were simply not white-cis-affluent-attractive-able-bodied-educated enough to merit a mention.