The Bilerico Project | Daily experiments in LGBTQ

Rather than editorialize on a new topic today, I would like to take a moment to reply to some criticism I've seen in a few places about my Wednesday post (correction: the post in question was written Wednesday, not Monday as original listed), which took NPR correspondent Liz Halloran to task over her revisionist history of the Stonewall Riots.

There are some (presumably) gay people who felt that I overreacted to Ms. Halloran and NPR cutting drag queens, trans* women, and non-conformist gays out of the Stonewall narrative. Some people feel that the deliberate de-emphasis and/or erasure of the aforementioned members of our community is a reasonable price to pay in exchange for making our civil rights history better known and accepted. Additionally there's been some argument is that using the word "gay" rather than "LGBT" is a useful, and socially advantageous shorthand, which works better than more inclusive alternatives when addressing a mainstream audience.

In response I have this to say: These people aren't "footnotes" to the Stonewall story. They were the driving force, the protagonists if you will, of what has come to be seen as a pivotal moment in our history. Leaving them/us on the cutting room floor of history to further a mainstream, marriage & conformity-focused agenda is exploitive, not to mention denigrating to all our forebears who have fought for the rights of LGBT/GSM people, regardless of whether they fought in the streets, courtrooms, media, or around the dinner table.

Obviously in a community as diverse as ours, consensus as to what our objectives are, or should be, not to mention how to pursue those objectives most effectively, will likely always remain elusive. But if we cannot even agree on the fundamental truths of our history, we simply cannot, as a movement, have a future.

As of this time NPR has not responded to requests for comment, but I certainly hope that they will.

On a lighter note, having used a Stonewall picture on Monday, I chose today's picture of Reddit user nessaluvs269, because according to her recent post, it was taken just before the National Equality March.

And now, here's what you need to know today:

• As the Proposition 8 case begins to make its way through the Supreme Court, opponents of marriage equality have arguably put together their most persuasive argument to date.
• After deeming a photo featuring a mixed race same-sex couple "offensive" and suspending the founder of the Gay Marriage USA page, who uploaded the image, Facebook has recanted and issued an apology.
• Rhode Island's House of Representatives has overwhelmingly approved a marriage equality bill, which will now go to the state senate, where it is expected to meet stiffer resistance.
• From the Queensland University of Technology comes interesting, if unsurprising findings about police harassment of LGBT youth.
• Las Vegas will soon have a theater dedicated to LGBT-themed films.
• Profiling OutServe-Servicemembers Legal Defense Network head Allyson Robinson.
• Same-sex marriage and other LGBT rights causes have found firm support in many South American nations.
• A marriage protest in Kentucky involving a local Baptist minister and his partner ended with their arrest.
• It's slightly embarrassing how excited I am for Project Runway's 11th season. We'll see if changes in the format make it work, or finally bring the last "you're out" for the long-time queer staple.
• Former GOP congressman Connie Mack believes that "you cannot legislate morality" if the issue at stake is the rights of gun-owners (disclaimer: I own quite a number of guns), but put that statement together with his relentlessly anti-LGBT voting record, and you have a perfect illustration of GOP hypocrisy.
• A growing number of organizations are working to serve and protect the rights of aging and retiring LGBT people.
• Breaking down LGBT themed awards-season nominations.
• Despite the possibility of devastating social, and potentially legal consequences, LGBT Jamaicans are speaking out.
• Prosecutors in King County Washington have leveled hate-crime charges against a forty-four year old man relating to a verbally and physically violent incident with a thirteen year old boy he perceived as being gay.
• Oklahoma GOP Representative James Lankford intends to use the "power of humiliation" to undermine and presumably defund a substance abuse treatment program targeting the needs of the LGBT community. I imagine I speak for much of the LGBT media when I say that I look forward to covering his inevitable outing scandal.
• Continuing a story I covered in a previous WYNTK, Australian LGBT youth support organization Twenty10 has received an official apology related to an incident in which they were told that a banner describing their work was "offensive," and had to be taken down during a public festival the organization was participating in.
• The Advertising Standards Authority of Ireland (ASAI) is in agreement with a complaint filed by an Irish transgender equality organization over the negative portrayal of trans* people in a recent mobile phone advertisement.
• In light of their unsuccessful lobbying efforts in Rhode Island, NOM has apparently decided that people shouldn't lobby their elected officials on the subject of marriage equality.