On this Thanksgiving Day's Eve, it's delightful to note that at least one openly lesbian couple and one openly gay couple attended President Obama's state dinner for the prime minister of India last night. What's even more fun is the fact that the attendees included Bilerico's very own, Kate Clinton. So, Kate, when are you posting about the social event of the year?

The guest list is posted on Time Magazine's Swampland blog and includes:

Continue reading "Queering Obama's first state dinner" »

No one expects the Spanish Inquisition.

I posted the other day that Adam Lambert's performance was actually kind of boring, nothing new, not really shocking. Of course, I'm not a Real American. Not only that, I'm constantly being crushed under my own massive ennui. So it turns out that some people were pissed at his performance.

ABC's Good Morning America decided to cancel his performance on their show. No word yet on any attempts by ABC to block out sexual straight performers like Britney Spears or the sexually racist Gwen Stefani. This move follows 1500 complaints that people wrote in to complain.

Every time I think that we can't be any more bland, something like this happens to remind me that we're still fringe, that we do still pisses people off, and, if fully-clothed gay sexuality aired at 11pm can still get people to write enough angry letters about the childrenz to shut down a concert, then Americans still have a deep problem with homosexual sex.

It's enough of a problem that 365gay.com's editor says that performance set back the movement:

Continue reading "Who is better for the movement: Adam Lambert or Will Truman?" »

Awhile back, I wrote a piece at my home blog, OpenLeft.com, looking at the map of results in Maine, and noted the results in small towns where we lost badly. A colleague of mine at OpenLeft, Mike Lux, who has done a lot of small-town organizing in his earlier days, asked me what the campaign did to organize in some of these towns. I wrote at the time:

In truth the campaign did a great deal to organize in smaller towns, but there is one tactic no political campaign can fully execute with money or resources or organizing. Part of the reason these small towns are so hardcore against marriage equality, Mike noted, is because in many of these communities, there are no gay people, or if there are, they are usually closeted. To some extent, no amount of TV advertising or direct mail or surrogate work will work as well as person-to-person communication with gay people in your community.

As we all talk with family and friends over the holidays, there is one thing we can do if we want to advance marriage equality- without any campaign going on. It's to do what Harvey Milk would have done... but with a twist.

Continue reading "Harvey Milk and the holidays" »

If you are coming to New York City during the holidays and you want to see a show - book some tickets to The 39 Steps. Based on the movie by Alfred Hitchcock, it is a comedic tour de farce with some of the best physical comedy I've seen live. Four actors play fifty characters at break neck speed with accents to match. Thank god for Velcro. Harriet Levy, my friend and Broadway producer maven, invited me to moderate the talk back after the show and I was honored to be close to such talent. Nearly speechless, actually.

Heck, while you're in New York, go to the Natural History Museum. You won't see Ben Stiller, but it's amazing. I was there to see the award-winning documentary Edie and Thea: A Very Long Engagement in the Margaret Mead Theater. The documentarians, Susan Muska and Greta Olafsdottir and Edie her wonderful self were there to answer questions. After the film, we rambled out through the museum and wondered why we don't go there more often. Or every day.

Continue reading "I ♥ New York" »

There are just so many divergent communities and interests waving the "LGBT" banner, ones that I personally have no reason to defend, interests that simply don't line up at all with my own, and people whose priorities are just far too different from my own for us to work together in one movement. I try my hardest to accept people who are different from me, but why should I have to share a movement with them? I'm not against them, just against them hijacking my liberation movement. Call it sympathy fatigue if you want, but I just can't bring myself to care about these folks:

If the estate tax penalty remains in effect, affected gay and lesbian couples will be subject to a total of $237 million in additional taxes in 2009 -- and more than $3.5 billion in added taxes over the decade by 2011, according to a study by the University ot California, Los Angeles, School of Law's Williams Institute.

Currently, taxpayers with estates valued at less than $3.5 million are exempted from federal estate taxes. The tax is scheduled to be repealed in 2010 but will resume in 2011 with a $1 million exemption.

If I more than a million dollars when I die, I'll come back to life so I can die of shock. These folks have nothing in common with me, so can we please start having endless discussions about cutting them out of "LGBT"?

Continue reading "Sympathy fatigue" »

If you must know more, visit go-girl.com. via Yahoo news

An Open Letter to Chairman George Miller of the House Committee on Education and Labor, where the Employment Non-Discrimination Act is stalled while awaiting markup.

Dear Chairman Miller:

I know Thanksgiving is tomorrow, and that you are back in your home district in California to celebrate with your family and friends. But don't reach for that turkey yet. Many of my friends and family are unemployed and underemployed because of discrimination. We are wondering why you are holding up rescheduling the Employment Non-Discrimination Act in your Committee.

"Tweak" the language of the bill if you think you must, but why not get it on the schedule? How long could it take to "tweak"?

After the jump: Contact info for Chairman Miller, and The Advocate suggests that we vote on whether to scrap gender identity protections from ENDA.

Continue reading "Chairman Miller, Don't Reach For That Turkey Yet!" »

"Those people talk like TV channels I don't watch."

This was by far my favorite line in the movie Precious produced by Oprah Winfrey and Tyler Perry. Here I will join the flocks of the converted and preach to you about the effects of this movie and how you must see it. And see it in the theater to really feel it.

]The movie is imbued with a magical queer realism as witnessed in Ma Vie En Rose (1997) with little Ludovic Fabre taking flight to escape an unbearable rigidly, gendered present. The main character, Precious, is masterfully played by the young New Yorker Gabourey Sidibe. The massive, stoic solitude portrayed by Sidibe in the face of complete chaos was as heavy as anti-matter. She draws you in even if you don't want to look. For many of us, that subtext of escapism will be painfully familiar. Drag queens and glamor girls take note: the costumes are fabulous as Precious fugues to a Broadway-esque alternate reality when her grindingly deprived, sexist present becomes violently incomprehensible.

Continue reading "Precious: A Must See" »

The minute voters ripped the right to marry away from same-sex couples in Maine, the call rang out across LGBTQ America: Let's give up on marriage.

The defeat in Maine was horrible in itself, but it was even more galling because it came as voters in Washington state were on their way to approving an "everything-but-marriage" recognition of domestic partner rights.

On Bilerico and elsewhere bloggers declared their wish to pull out of the fight. Longtime activist Jeanne Córdova, for example, argued on her blog, The Lesbian World, that "the LGBT movement should stop wasting our precious funds and energy" on a losing, limited strategy. "(I)t's time to re-direct the gay movement into fighting the real battle for civil rights in all 50 states," she wrote.

The sad reality is that there is truth in her argument.

Continue reading "The Horrible Truth About Gay Marriage" »

Sign this Thanksgiving Day card for Democrats who have been true allies to the LGBT community.

As an aside: I saw that Madonna and Child is this year's Christmas stamp. I was sorely disappointed when I clicked through to see it.

It's not really surprising that the FBI is reporting that hate crimes based on sexual orientation went up in 2008. The trend has already been remarked in New York and in California. It's almost as if demonization of LGBTQ people being given such a huge platform didn't work out well for us.

Also interesting is the break-down:

Continue reading "Hate crimes up in 2008" »