Day 1 of the LGBT blogger conference is underway here, and after carpooling up on Thursday with Bil and Jerame and visiting the town with Serena yesterday, I'm ready to get to work here. We're currently waiting for the convention to start late this morning, but Bolthouse Farms provided juice as part of their apology tour, so the queers are in good spirits.
Last night we all had a meet-n-greet over on Rhode Island Avenue. Serena and I were the two first people to show up and we were reminded right at the door what HRC was all about; they had a table set up with their "Buying for Equality 2009" guides strewn out. I've seen it on the net before, but when you see something like that on paper, the unfortunateness of the title really sunk in.
I mean, I get how a buying guide is important and why people wouldn't want to support homophobic companies, but, seriously, "Buying for Equality"? I can just imagine the young queer asking Joe "What can I do to help queer rights?" and him responding: "Go shopping!!!"
But last night was a great opportunity to actually meet some of these people who write for this site! Before last night, I had only met Serena, Bil, Jerame, Bruce Parker, Don Sherfick, and Yasmin Nair in real life. But now I can put quite a few faces with names. This was the main reason I came here, and I'm already more excited about this site than I was a week ago - these people are smart, gregarious, and friendly. The Rev Irene, Paige Schilt, Waymon Hudson, Pam Spaulding, Eric Leven, Father Tony and a bunch of other contributors are here. We make up quite a few of the people here.
Oops, they're getting started now. I'll have updates later.
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5 Comments
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Wow Alex. I am so sorry that you had awful time at the reception at HRC. They are a sponsor of the blogger summit and gave their space for the welcoming reception.
Most other people had welcoming words to say about the reception and the HRC staff that they met.
You will be headed back to Indiana soon and hopefully that will make you feel safer.
Michael Crawford | December 6, 2008 5:01 PM
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Michael Crawford, you will not nor will hors d'oeuvres silence me.
Alex Blaze | December 6, 2008 5:05 PM
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Yeah Alex play the martyr. Does it make you feel better to sit in corners and look down your nose at everyone?
Well, at least I made the attempt to be friendly to you.
Michael Crawford | December 6, 2008 9:37 PM
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Well behaved gays never make history. I think Alex is on to something. Don't drink the cool aid, on in this case, carrot juice.
Charles Merrill | December 6, 2008 8:29 PM
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Alex:
Although you did not like the conference that much (You did give it the lowest rating of every attendee) please do not pick on HRC. HRC was incredibly generous to the summit, including providing the space, giving $5,000, paying for the party and raising money for the LGBT Blogger and Citizen Journalist Initiative Grantmaking program.
Incidentally, bloggers will be informed when the grants program applications are open. Be sure to apply, we'll be looking for cutting edge bloggers who want to apply for anywhere between $500 and $3,000. I do hope you apply.
Michael Rogers | December 9, 2008 9:46 PM
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