Living: August 2009
The LGBT Hate Crimes Project: Narciso P. Leggs
Filed by Terrance Heath | August 31, 2009 | 5:00 PM |Over the past week, I had some downtime from work, and I used it to do some much needed editing on the LGBT Hate Crimes Project. (Yes, to those who emailed me about the various spelling and typographical errors, I...Read More
A salvation for Baptists?
Filed by Matt Comer | August 31, 2009 | 4:00 PM |At the gathering of the Baptist World Alliance in The Netherlands in mid-August, Baptists from around the globe gathered to celebrate and remember the 400th anniversary of their founding. Among the topics for discussion was what is, perhaps, the Christian...Read More
Waiting for the Birds
Filed by Sara Whitman | August 31, 2009 | 11:00 AM |Well, Ms. Moon... I gotta say... it's been interesting. As life always is, right? I am really well and awful, too. I'm here, last day, with my sister. She's very sick. Probably shouldn't be here but... one more night won't...Read More
Open Thread: PETA & McDonalds
Filed by Bil Browning | August 30, 2009 | 4:30 PM |I'll admit it, I'm a PETA member. As my bio says, I'm a non-practicing vegetarian (I can never stick with it; bacon is my downfall every time.) but animals in circuses is my top cause. Before we became the Bilerico...Read More
What do you want me to ask Cleve Jones?
Filed by Bil Browning | August 30, 2009 | 11:30 AM |I'm doing a video interview with Cleve Jones today. I sent this out over Twitter and Facebook and got some great replies, but wanted to put it on the site as well. What questions would you like me to ask...Read More
A Sad State
Filed by Kate Clinton | August 29, 2009 | 8:00 AM |We've lost our biggest and best champion. We'll be hanging our rainbow flag at half mast in honor of Senator Ted Kennedy....Read More
Goodbye, Reading Rainbow
Filed by Dana Rudolph | August 28, 2009 | 4:00 PM |Some sad news this morning from NPR: Reading Rainbow, the 26-year veteran of children's television programming, airs its final episode today. The show has won more than two-dozen Emmys, and is the third longest-running children's show in PBS history, after...Read More
Pro-LGBT teacher reinstated in Oklahoma
Filed by Alex Blaze | August 28, 2009 | 12:00 PM |Here's an item about a teacher who got fired because he was pro-LGBT. I don't know if he's queer or not, but he took the school to court for wrongful termination and won. Considering how maddeningly hard it is to...Read More
Wow. So, yeah. There. What he said.
Filed by Bil Browning | August 27, 2009 | 7:00 PM |I'm still not sure whether or this guy is anti-gay or not, but I doubt he knows either. While Kevin Leininger's News-Sentinel column "Lutheran gay debate shows 'change' isn't always worth believing in" definitely sounds anti-gay, I'm not sure he...Read More
No HIV/AIDS Vigil for the October March?
Filed by Dustin Kight | August 27, 2009 | 4:00 PM |Seth Hemmelgarn at the Bay Area Reporter is reporting that organizers of the National March for Equality have dropped a vigil for people living with HIV/AIDS: It appears that a vigil for people living with HIV/AIDS will not be part...Read More
Love Thy Neighbor? Not at this Florida Church.
Filed by Waymon Hudson | August 27, 2009 | 3:30 PM |And some wonder why Florida has the reputation as the conservative, backwards armpit of America? The Dove World Outreach Center near Gainesville, Florida, has started a new media blitz. Is it helping the poor? Building homes for the homeless? Opening...Read More
Kentucky Judge says Homeland Security isn't Dependent on God
Filed by Waymon Hudson | August 27, 2009 | 2:00 PM |In a story that is sure to get Dick Cheney out of his undisclosed location, a Judge in Kentucky struck down a 2006 state law that required the Kentucky Office of Homeland Security to stress: dependence on Almighty God as...Read More
California AIDS Clearinghouse among the casualties of the Global War on Taxes
Filed by Alex Blaze | August 27, 2009 | 12:00 PM |Here's some more info on the California AIDS Clearinghouse, one of the orgs cut by Schwarzeneggar's line-item veto that eviscerated that state's HIV/AIDS programs. I'm glad that we had a functional Supreme Court in 1996 that took it away from...Read More
My Summer Break: A Star-Studded GLAAD Party
Filed by Father Tony | August 27, 2009 | 10:30 AM |I. Am. Exhausted. Between working as an "extra" from dusk till dawn in the movie called "Bear City" being shot this week in NYC, and covering the red carpet at "GLAAD Manhattan" which was held at 230FIFTH, the absolute most...Read More
Ted Kennedy's Life is a Parable
Filed by Karen Ocamb | August 26, 2009 | 7:00 PM |It was mid-December 2007 when longtime politico Steve Smith beseeched me to go hear fledgling presidential candidate Barack Obama speak at the Gibson Amphitheatre at Universal City. He's the real deal, Steve insisted. To Baby Boomers like us, saying someone...Read More
To the Barebackers
Filed by Betty Greene Salwak | August 26, 2009 | 5:00 PM |An online conversation about unprotected sex began with the publication of Father Tony's recent column in the South Florida Blade. Other bloggers have responded with essays of their own, The Milkman's being especially eloquent. I offer here a different point...Read More
A great light has gone out: R.I.P. Ted Kennedy
Filed by Phil Reese | August 26, 2009 | 3:00 PM |Few Senators draw such strong emotional reactions from folks as Senator Ted Kennedy. He was almost more of an idea than a person. At least to most Americans. He was the Liberal Lion of the Senate who refused to back...Read More
IN state police intimidate & search gay rights activist
Filed by Bil Browning | August 26, 2009 | 2:00 PM |Gay rights activist Chris Mason from Driving Equality recently did a stretch of road in Indiana and apparently got a dose of Hoosier hospitality homophobia. After getting pulled over for speeding, Mason was let go but was detained again 20...Read More
Circumcision, the CDC, and HIV
Filed by Alex Blaze | August 26, 2009 | 12:00 PM |Speaking of penises, circumcision and HIV are back in the news. Various news outlets have had stories this past week because the Centers for Disease Control are about to release recommendations about circumcisions because of a study that linked to...Read More
Jesse's Journal: Disco Gets R-E-S-P-E-C-T
Filed by Jesse Monteagudo | August 26, 2009 | 10:00 AM |Thirty years after the "death" of disco, 1970's dance music has made a comeback. Gay author John-Manuel Andriote, who followed his "serious" history of AIDS (Victory Deferred) with the more cheerful (and readable) Hot Stuff: A Brief History of Disco,...Read More
Ted Kennedy dies at 77
Filed by Alex Blaze | August 26, 2009 | 9:30 AM |Liberal Senator Ted Kennedy passed away last night at around midnight. He was an LGBT-friendly Senator, and I know that more than a few LGBT activists in DC were looking to him to introduce an inclusive ENDA in the Senate....Read More
Love in the Time of Chlorophyll
Filed by Kate Clinton | August 25, 2009 | 5:00 PM |Here in Ptown we are basking in the sunny knowledge that just a few nautical miles away, the Obamas are enjoying this lovely late summer day. Maybe Michelle took the girls boogie boarding; Barrack is playing golf, then he'll meet...Read More
Did you know we live in a "post-AIDS" world?
Filed by Dustin Kight | August 25, 2009 | 11:00 AM |Apparently the Beverly Hills: 90210 revival is going well. What else can explain its sister revival of Melrose Place? The CW is bringing Melrose Place, 90210's sleezy, later-night sibling, back to television on Tuesday, September 8th. Gay fans of the...Read More
The LGBT Hate Crimes Project: Carlos Lopez
Filed by Terrance Heath | August 24, 2009 | 4:00 PM |The unpredictable nature of hate crimes isn’t something that gets a lot of consideration, but it’s a factor in the increased level of stress LGBT persons often experience. At least according to researchers at UCLA. This is the finding...Read More
Gay Tithe: Assuring your donation doesn't work against you
Filed by Phil Reese | August 24, 2009 | 1:00 PM |Back in Detroit, I grew up in the Catholic School system. I was raised a very strict Catholic, and even in school we were given collection envelopes in which we were encouraged to give 'the price of a comic book,...Read More
Caption This: The family patriarch
Filed by Bil Browning | August 24, 2009 | 12:00 PM |I'm really loving AwkwardFamilyPhotos.com - I've used a couple of their pics before for our "Caption This" posts, but this one really made me laugh. This one confuses me soooo much. Don't they usually sit the oldest family members in...Read More
Intersex puppet show at IndyFringe
Filed by Bil Browning | August 24, 2009 | 11:00 AM |Here's an interesting concept you don't see very often. There's an intersex puppet show playing at IndyFringe this week. The unfortunate title character of this puppet-centered operetta, whose story comes from an incident in 18th century Scotland, was abandoned at...Read More
Coalition of Florida Orgs Endorse the National Equality March
Filed by Waymon Hudson | August 24, 2009 | 11:00 AM |O.U.T. (Organizations United Together), a coalition of over 80 Florida LGBT and allied organizations whose goal is to achieve equality and justice for LGBT Floridians, has announced that it endorses October 11th's National Equality March. The March, which is being...Read More
LGBTI Health Summit: Where are we now?
Filed by Guest Blogger | August 24, 2009 | 9:30 AM |Editors' Note: Guest blogger David Phillips is a poly Leather shaman, kink evangelist, and Queermen's health advocate living in Arlington, VA. A survivor of relationship abuse, David co-founded the Rainbow Response Coalition, addressing intimate partner violence among LGBTQ people in...Read More
Fighting Homophobia, One Kiss at a Time
Filed by David Badash | August 23, 2009 | 4:00 PM |Last Saturday, thousands of people - gay and straight - joined together across more than 50 cities in the U.S. and Canada and kissed their partners, in public. The Great Nationwide Kiss-In, a celebration and affirmation of the right of...Read More
Reflections on the Fiftieth Anniversary of my Ordination to the Priesthood
Filed by Guest Blogger | August 23, 2009 | 1:00 PM |Editors' Note: Guest blogger Father John McNeill is a pioneer in the gay liberation movement. John helped found Dignity New York City, a spiritual support group for gay and lesbian Catholics, in 1972. In 1976 he published The Church and...Read More
Saturday Morning Cartoons: An Interview with aGLIFF's Jake Gonzales
Filed by Paige Schilt | August 22, 2009 | 4:00 PM |One Saturday morning, my son was sitting in the living room, watching an animated video about numerals. "Mom!" In keeping with his TV-watching custom, he was shouting, even though I was only a few feet away. "Mom, Mom!" he persisted,...Read More
Victory Garden: Backyard Fruit Made Simple
Filed by Patricia Nell Warren | August 22, 2009 | 12:00 PM |Late summer is the biggest fruit time - a good time to talk about preserving all that wonderful taste. If you take some of my suggestions, you can keep part of your refrigerator stocked with a few containers of simple...Read More
Disqualifying the Gender Binary in IAAF Track & Field
Filed by Keri Renault | August 22, 2009 | 10:00 AM |Can victory in the woman's 800 meters by an obscure teenager from a small South African village signal defeat of the big, bad gender binary at the IAAF World Championships? Probably not, but it's nice to dream. Amidst allegations that...Read More
Stories from the Helpline: Helplines Work Both Ways
Filed by Guest Blogger | August 22, 2009 | 10:00 AM |Editor's Note:"Stories from the Helpline" is a recurring feature on The Bilerico Project, bringing in the personal accounts of Helpline counselors from The Trevor Project. The Trevor Project is the leading national organization focused on crisis and suicide prevention efforts...Read More
Anti-gay beating raises concerns about violence in Kalamazoo
Filed by Guest Blogger | August 21, 2009 | 6:00 PM |Editors' note: Todd Heywood is a professional journalist for the Michigan Messenger. Activists and leaders in the lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender community are raising a red flag of concern about the potential for violence following the attack on a...Read More
Is Social Media Saving the Public Option?
Filed by Guest Blogger | August 21, 2009 | 9:30 AM |Editor's note: Guest blogger Jake Kaskey is a queer activist, organizer, lobbyist, rabble-rouser, and social media enthusiast living in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. He blogs at http://jakekaskey.com and can be found tweeting away @jakekaskey. Last weekend, liberals had little to be excited...Read More
The Bilerico Rainbow Tour of the East Coast
Filed by Bil Browning | August 20, 2009 | 6:30 PM |The past week has been chock full of fun and new experiences! It began with Jerame and I going to Netroots Nation in Pittsburgh. While we were there we met Kip Williams, the Director of Equality Across America, and I...Read More
Unraveling
Filed by Sara Whitman | August 20, 2009 | 3:00 PM |"Midlife is not a crisis. Midlife is an unraveling." A friend showed me a link to a new book being written by Brene Brown, called Wholehearted: Adventures in Growing Up, Falling Apart and Finding Joy. It hit home. An unraveling,...Read More
Awesome Website of the Week: 'God Hates Shrimp'
Filed by Waymon Hudson | August 20, 2009 | 2:00 PM |Sometimes you just have to smile at the snarky, fun skewering of the anti-LGBT right. Activists Joe Decker and Ryland Sanders have created my new favorite parody site called "God Hates Shrimp", a smart poke at people like Fred Phelps,...Read More
I want to hear a song that makes me believe there's something to believe in
Filed by Sean Bugg | August 20, 2009 | 12:30 PM |There was a point in my life when I thought nothing could have more meaning than music. This point, of course, was during my teenage years in high school and college. At 16, even a Motley Crue song can carry...Read More
Goshen approves inclusive Civil Rights Amendment, will South Bend follow?
Filed by Donna Pandori | August 20, 2009 | 11:00 AM |Breaking news in Goshen: Dozens of people Tuesday night passionately pleaded for and against the addition of sexual orientation language to Goshen's Community Relations Commission ordinance. In a 4-3 vote the Goshen council voted in favor of the amendment that...Read More
Motown Helps When Smoke Gets In Your Eyes.
Filed by Father Tony | August 20, 2009 | 10:30 AM |Dear Father Tony, I'm involved with a smoker. He is funny and brilliant and we are great together, but I am not dealing well with the cigarettes. He wants us to live together and I do too. He promises...Read More
Face Value
Filed by Betty Greene Salwak | August 20, 2009 | 9:30 AM |Upon offering my first (guest) post for Bilerico, I was told I needed to submit a portrait photo to go with it. Wait. A picture? Now? As the One Who Wields The Camera, I don't have any pictures of myself....Read More
Gina Love
Filed by Kate Clinton | August 20, 2009 | 8:00 AM |This is not the dawning of the age of Aquarius. C'mon, Obama, lead! Keep the public option! Have a spine operation, c'mon!...Read More
High school sweethearts, present day ironies
Filed by Austen Crowder | August 19, 2009 | 4:00 PM |Editor's note: names have been changed to keep anonymity. Anyone who talks to me about transition knows that I prefer to emphasize the positive aspects of change, rather than focusing on all the pitfalls. Plenty of people on the Internet...Read More
High school sweethearts, present day ironies
Filed by Austen Crowder | August 19, 2009 | 4:00 PM |Editor's note: names have been changed to keep anonymity. Anyone who talks to me about transition knows that I prefer to emphasize the positive aspects of change, rather than focusing on all the pitfalls. Plenty of people on the Internet...Read More
Barney Frank to woman comparing President Obama to Nazis: "On What Planet Do You Spend Most Of Your Time?"
Filed by Michael Crawford | August 19, 2009 | 12:00 PM |Rep. Barney Frank may be a controversial figure on Bilerico, but for his response to a woman comparing President Obama to Nazis for pushing universal healthcare he deserves two thumbs up. The exchange occurred at a town hall meeting on...Read More
News from the front
Filed by Bil Browning | August 18, 2009 | 7:00 PM |What a week! First, Jerame and I went to Netroots Nation in Pittsburgh, then we ran off to New York City, and now we're in Washington DC. Out of all of this, only the Netroots trip was planned. Father Tony...Read More
News from the front
Filed by Bil Browning | August 18, 2009 | 7:00 PM |What a week! First, Jerame and I went to Netroots Nation in Pittsburgh, then we ran off to New York City, and now we're in Washington DC. Out of all of this, only the Netroots trip was planned. Father Tony...Read More
The Roller Coaster
Filed by Sara Whitman | August 18, 2009 | 5:30 PM |I can hear the sound of a roller coaster, as you start up the first hill. Clack clack clack... get ready for your ride... My sister has been having a low grade fever since she's been home from the hospital....Read More
Deep thought
Filed by Alex Blaze | August 18, 2009 | 3:30 PM |I'm visiting family, which has meant a reduction in the PDA. Pretty much the only way two men can touch in front of others now is through violence (everyone knows we're together, but we got the talkin' to). I think...Read More
America is still paying for the sin of slavery
Filed by Alex Blaze | August 17, 2009 | 6:00 PM |I was in and out last week, and this week will be the same. I did want to comment briefly on the current health care "debate." It's depressing that some people think other people (or even themselves) going to the...Read More
Spin the Bottle on Health Care Reform
Filed by Keri Renault | August 17, 2009 | 5:00 PM |My head is spinning with health care reform. Who and what should I believe? I'm sick and tired of it and I definitely won't take it much longer. Ultra-conservative Sarah Palin accuses Democratic-led reform of mandating senior citizen "death panels."...Read More
Texas to teach Bible classes
Filed by Alex Blaze | August 17, 2009 | 12:00 PM |Not that there's anything wrong with teaching "history of religion" or "world religion" type classes in high school. I personally took a world religion class back in the day from a Wiccan lesbian and found it fascinating, and a lot...Read More
GMHC's House of Latex Ball Burns Down NYC's Roseland Ballroom. Again.
Filed by Father Tony | August 16, 2009 | 7:30 PM |On Saturday, I attended GMHC's 19th annual House of Latex Ball. It. Was. Fabulous. The thousands of house-ball devotees filled New York City's Roseland Ballroom, but I was amazed at how well-behaved this fiercely beautiful crowd was. (This ball was...Read More
Obama, Lipton, To Seize World's Teabags
Filed by Don Davis | August 16, 2009 | 2:30 PM |WASHINGTON (FNS) - In a startling development related to the recent disruptions of town hall meetings, FNS is now able to confirm that the Obama Administration, with the assistance of Unilever Group and Queen Beatrix, both of the Netherlands, PepsiCo,...Read More
Somos seres humanos, ¡coño!
Filed by Pedro Julio Serrano | August 16, 2009 | 1:00 PM |Tras escuchar el triste y conmovedor relato de Marcial, un hombre gay que perdió recientemente a su compañero, hoy reafirmo -- con todas las fuerzas de mi ser -- mi compromiso de luchar porque logremos la igualdad que merecemos las...Read More
Judge orders Microsoft Word banned in the US [Gay Geeks]
Filed by Nathan Strang | August 15, 2009 | 1:00 PM |On August 11th, 2009, a Texas judged ruled that Microsoft can NOT sell Microsoft Word in the US, due to patent infringement. Toronto based i4i apparently has patents on custom tags in XML and claims Microsoft went on with intentional...Read More
Stories from the Helpline
Filed by Guest Blogger | August 15, 2009 | 10:00 AM |E ditor's Note: "Stories from the Helpline" is a recurring feature on The Bilerico Project, bringing in the personal accounts of Helpline counselors from The Trevor Project. The Trevor Project is the leading national organization focused on crisis and suicide...Read More
What Would Jesus Do?
Filed by David Badash | August 14, 2009 | 4:00 PM |How is it possible that so-called "Christian" and "Family" organizations are planning to protest an event that was created to celebrate and affirm the right of all couples to share simple acts of affection - like a kiss? That's right....Read More
From the Ameriqueer Archives: Maine bigots make it official - The time to start fighting is now
Filed by Phil Reese | August 14, 2009 | 3:00 PM |This post appeared on my blog, Ameriqueer, on July 8, 2009, but as people are making decisions about whether or not to book tickets out to the National Equality March in DC in October, I thought it'd be just as...Read More
From the Ameriqueer Archives: Maine bigots make it official - The time to start fighting is now
Filed by Phil Reese | August 14, 2009 | 3:00 PM |This post appeared on my blog, Ameriqueer, on July 8, 2009, but as people are making decisions about whether or not to book tickets out to the National Equality March in DC in October, I thought it'd be just as...Read More
As Different as the Next Girl
Filed by Tobi Hill-Meyer | August 14, 2009 | 1:00 PM |Sparked by a trans woman's call for submissions for a zine titled "How to F*ck a Trans Woman," I recently wrote a piece about trans women's sexuality and specific things to consider when getting sexual with a trans woman. I...Read More
To Save On Health Insurance, You Want My blood?
Filed by Nathan Strang | August 14, 2009 | 12:00 PM |I just had to attend a staff meeting at the agency I work for. I run a computer lab in a sheltered workshop teaching technology to people with developmental disabilities. Its a great job... awful pay, but wonderful benefits, like...Read More
Open Thread: Life's regrets
Filed by Bil Browning | August 14, 2009 | 9:30 AM |An open thread to start out your morning... If you had the chance to undo your biggest regret, what would it be and how would you do it differently?...Read More
Weird Science: A Laughable New "Scientific" Study on Ex-Gay Conversion
Filed by Waymon Hudson | August 13, 2009 | 7:00 PM |Sometime you just have to shake your head when right-wing fundamentalists claim to use science... A new "study" has been released, conveniently on the heels of the American Psychological Association adopting a resolution calling on mental health professionals to stop...Read More
Weird Science: A Laughable New "Scientific" Study on Ex-Gay Conversion
Filed by Waymon Hudson | August 13, 2009 | 7:00 PM |Sometime you just have to shake your head when right-wing fundamentalists claim to use science... A new "study" has been released, conveniently on the heels of the American Psychological Association adopting a resolution calling on mental health professionals to stop...Read More
HOLD THE PHONE: Chicago HIV/AIDS Budget Still Being Reviewed
Filed by Phil Reese | August 13, 2009 | 6:00 PM |UPDATE: THE REPORTS HAVE BEEN SUBSTANTIATED BY THE IDPH, ACCORDING TO REP. GREG HARRIS. PLEASE CALL THE GOVERNOR AND DR. ARNOLD AT ONCE! Yesterday I posted that intense lobbying by advocates like Rep. Greg Harris, Sara Feigenholtz, Heather Steans and...Read More
Reconsidering the Merits of an Army of Lovers
Filed by Father Tony | August 13, 2009 | 5:00 PM |While touring the decommissioned military installation on Governor's Island (in the East River, New York) last weekend, I kept seeing the ghosts of the soldiers who once lived and worked there. I found myself thinking about our nieces and nephews...Read More
The IT Crowd: 6 awesome items
Filed by Nathan Strang | August 13, 2009 | 4:00 PM |Just started watching this show from BBC called "The IT Crowd." Netflix recommended it, and I'm always for up for a tragically geeky comedy. Fricken awesome. If you often get stuck fixing your friends computers, have a hot shop job...Read More
Hot Tips: avoiding discrimination in an at-will employment state
Filed by Austen Crowder | August 13, 2009 | 3:14 PM |Indianapolis is, oddly enough, one of the easiest places to live as a trans person. Our Gender ID laws are humane, the people generally accepting, and the human rights ordinance acts as a nice security blanket for trans people in...Read More
Unplugging and Rebooting Your Partner
Filed by Father Tony | August 13, 2009 | 10:30 AM |Dear Father Tony, Got any tricks to turn an old dog into a young pup again? (I'm not talking about sex. We are great with that.) But he seems to have lost interest in other stuff. He wants to...Read More
Summer of Love
Filed by Kate Clinton | August 13, 2009 | 8:00 AM |I've got headphones on to drown out the sounds of those crazy people attending the town hall meetings. Plus, there's the birthers - the same people who believe in a virgin birth think that Obama's lack of a birth...Read More
The Good Life
Filed by Alex Blaze | August 12, 2009 | 5:30 PM |I'm back in Paris with my petit choux-fleur d'amour, so posting will be light from me this week as I get things in order and then head out to Germany to visit family. Thanks to the other Bilerico contributors and...Read More
Governor Quinn saves most of Illinois AIDS/HIV budget
Filed by Phil Reese | August 12, 2009 | 2:00 PM |According to the Windy City Times, the AIDS Foundation of Chicago and other AIDS/HIV programs around Illinois have a lot to be thankful for this week. While other states are cutting their AIDS/HIV funding to the bone, Illinois will not...Read More
Matthew's Story
Filed by Steve Ralls | August 12, 2009 | 1:00 PM |For "Matthew," next year can't come soon enough. The American citizen, who is featured in the September issue of The Advocate, chose the pseudonym to honor the memory of Matthew Shepard. He cannot use his real name because doing so...Read More
On The Costs Of Care, Or, You Don't Want Every Item On This Menu
Filed by Don Davis | August 12, 2009 | 12:00 PM |[Author's note: this a another of the "summer archive" stories you'll be seeing over the next couple of weeks, and if you plan on attending a "health care town hall" I hope you'll keep this discussion in mind.] I don't...Read More
Run For Your Life!
Filed by Donna Pandori | August 12, 2009 | 11:00 AM |A "warning" is circulating today by various and sundry religious right-wing media outlets urging "families" everywhere to beware this Saturday! Why? "Militant homosexuals" around the nation are gathering to protest. "Honey, hide the children, lock the doors, close the windows,...Read More
Caption This: Whaddaya mean we're wearing funny hats?
Filed by Bil Browning | August 12, 2009 | 11:00 AM |What's your best caption for this photo, Projectors? I really struggled to come up with something even though the pic is hilarious. Let's see what y'all come up with instead of my lame-o caption....Read More
More To Come...
Filed by Michael Emanuel Rajner | August 12, 2009 | 9:30 AM |Sometime ago, Waymon Hudson invited me to contribute to The Bilerico Project-Florida to help educate Bilerico readers on issues from the perspective of a person living with AIDS and engage in HIV/AIDS public policy. During the past year and a...Read More
Cry Me a River: 'Focus on the Family' Running Out of Cash
Filed by Waymon Hudson | August 11, 2009 | 6:00 PM |I'm not smiling at the misfortune of the fundies. Really, I'm not. The good folks over at Amplify got a pleading letter from Focus on the Fundraising... er... "Focus on the Family" whining about the hard economic times and what...Read More
California Budget Cuts: It's Apparently Okay to Kill People If You Don't Know Who They Are
Filed by Patricia Nell Warren | August 11, 2009 | 4:00 PM |The other day, two L.A. friends of mine visited the Hollywood Forever cemetery and stopped dead in their tracks when they noticed a gravestone with this epitaph: "My son had no medical insurance, that's why he's here today." They went...Read More
Gayneration Gap: Where have all of the gay big brothers gone?
Filed by Phil Reese | August 11, 2009 | 2:00 PM |This is the 10th anniversary of my first gay summer. I had come out the year prior, during the early winter of 1997/1998 (take that, Ellen!), but hadn't made any gay friends. The spring of 1999, I began hanging out...Read More
Gayneration Gap: Where have all of the gay big brothers gone?
Filed by Phil Reese | August 11, 2009 | 2:00 PM |This is the 10th anniversary of my first gay summer. I had come out the year prior, during the early winter of 1997/1998 (take that, Ellen!), but hadn't made any gay friends. The spring of 1999, I began hanging out...Read More
Protecting Trans Health
Filed by Guest Blogger | August 11, 2009 | 1:00 PM |Editor's Note: Today's Guest Contributor is the Reverend Donna Tara Lee, a Gainesville Florida out and proud M2F transgender activist. I recently posted a blog on this site concerning a transsexual woman who was arrested for injecting hormones in other...Read More
On Gay Acceptance, Or, "Wheres Are Special Day?"
Filed by Don Davis | August 11, 2009 | 1:00 PM |[Author's Note: This being summer, we're going to put a few stories from the archive in this space for you dining and dancing pleasure, and this one was from the "Day of Silence" 2008.] Unless Willie Brown was once your...Read More
I Do Not Deserve Your Tolerance
Filed by David Badash | August 11, 2009 | 11:00 AM |Note: This is a piece from the archives of my own blog, The New Civil Rights Movement. I am an American citizen. I pay taxes. I vote. I have a passport. I volunteer my time and voice and donate money...Read More
ACLU Wins Yulee Florida High School GSA Suit
Filed by Waymon Hudson | August 11, 2009 | 9:30 AM |Great news from the ACLU of Florida in the lawsuit they filed against the Nassau County, Florida School Board for denying a Gay-Straight Alliance to form. Readers may remember that the Administrators from the School Board of Nassau County, Florida...Read More
Daniel Radcliffe Teams Up with the Trevor Project to Help LGBT Youth
Filed by Waymon Hudson | August 10, 2009 | 4:30 PM |What a magical match up! Daniel Radcliffe, the star of Harry Potter, has made a major donation to our friends at The Trevor Project, the non-profit organization that operates the only nationwide suicide-prevention helpline for LGBTQ youth. The 20-year-old actor...Read More
Daniel Radcliffe Teams Up with the Trevor Project to Help LGBT Youth
Filed by Waymon Hudson | August 10, 2009 | 4:30 PM |What a magical match up! Daniel Radcliffe, the star of Harry Potter, has made a major donation to our friends at The Trevor Project, the non-profit organization that operates the only nationwide suicide-prevention helpline for LGBTQ youth. The 20-year-old actor...Read More
Oh. My. Gog. Why a godless White House might save America.
Filed by Father Tony | August 10, 2009 | 3:30 PM |It has come to light that 4,000 lives and a trillion dollars were wasted by an idiot president who mounted a ridiculous crusade against the evil doers of Gog and Magog. There doesn't seem to be any reason to doubt...Read More
IYG has a part-time opening
Filed by Bil Browning | August 10, 2009 | 12:00 PM |Thought I'd pass along this job opportunity to our Hoosier Projectors. In today's economy we need all the help supporting each other as possible. It's not often you get a chance to work professionally with an LGBT org in our...Read More
The Terminator Wreaks Havoc of Epic Proportions
Filed by Guest Blogger | August 10, 2009 | 9:30 AM |[Editor's Note: Jeffrey King is the founder and director of In The Meantime Men's Group in Los Angeles. The group is dedicated to developing discussion groups and programs devoted to the health and wellness of same gender-loving African American men....Read More
John Duran's Moving Summation of a Generation
Filed by Karen Ocamb | August 09, 2009 | 7:00 PM |At first glance, someone 49 years old seems too young to be receiving a "Lifetime Achievement Award." But openly gay and HIV positive West Hollywood City Councilmember John J. Duran has been fighting for civil rights since he was 18....Read More
The Town Hall Debacle: Whatever Happened to Robert's Rules of Order?
Filed by Patricia Nell Warren | August 09, 2009 | 5:30 PM |I'm baffled by the "successes" of Republican disrupters as they shout down efforts to discuss healthcare reform at town halls across the country. It's time for somebody to ask the obvious question. Why is parliamentary procedure not being enforced at...Read More
What Would You Do If You Weren't Afraid?
Filed by Betty Greene Salwak | August 09, 2009 | 4:00 PM |In the last days of 2005, I experienced a catharsis, an awakening that stripped me of the armor I had used to protect myself for decades. I realized that I had been hiding in fear of just about everything and...Read More
What Would You Do If You Weren't Afraid?
Filed by Betty Greene Salwak | August 09, 2009 | 4:00 PM |In the last days of 2005, I experienced a catharsis, an awakening that stripped me of the armor I had used to protect myself for decades. I realized that I had been hiding in fear of just about everything and...Read More
On Making Money, Or, Art Can Help New Orleans
Filed by Don Davis | August 09, 2009 | 10:00 AM |The long, lazy days of summer are upon us, and it's time to have a little fun--but it's also a great opportunity to volunteer a bit of spare time for a good cause. So imagine how cool it would be...Read More
The Tel Aviv Shootings Hit Home
Filed by Karen Ocamb | August 08, 2009 | 4:00 PM |Update: Approximately 25,000 people protested the shootings in Tel Aviv on Saturday, according to Yetnews.com. President Shimon Peres said "The gunshots that hit the gay community earlier this week hit us all." My best friend in third grade in Hempstead,...Read More
Encouragement for a Young Gender Sojourner in Crisis
Filed by Kelley Winters | August 08, 2009 | 2:00 PM |1. Face your truth. Embrace your truth. Live your truth. 2. Like all people, you are a unique, distinctive blend of feminine and masculine. 3. Nature is diversity. Difference is not disease. Uniqueness is not illness. 4. All human beings...Read More
Encouragement for a Young Gender Sojourner in Crisis
Filed by Kelley Winters | August 08, 2009 | 2:00 PM |1. Face your truth. Embrace your truth. Live your truth. 2. Like all people, you are a unique, distinctive blend of feminine and masculine. 3. Nature is diversity. Difference is not disease. Uniqueness is not illness. 4. All human beings...Read More
Stories from the Helpline
Filed by Guest Blogger | August 08, 2009 | 10:00 AM |[Editor's Note: "Stories from the Helpline" is a recurring feature on The Bilerico Project, bringing in the personal accounts of Helpline counselors from The Trevor Project. The Trevor Project is the leading national organization focused on crisis and suicide prevention...Read More
Do you know someone who died of AIDS?
Filed by Bil Browning | August 08, 2009 | 2:00 AM |Note from Bil: The comment thread on this post is simply beautiful. I bumped it back up to the top so more Projectors could see it and participate over the weekend. I finally got around to reading The Advocate's take...Read More
Do you know someone who died of AIDS?
Filed by Bil Browning | August 08, 2009 | 2:00 AM |Note from Bil: The comment thread on this post is simply beautiful. I bumped it back up to the top so more Projectors could see it and participate over the weekend. I finally got around to reading The Advocate's take...Read More
21 same-sex couples part of new D.C. marriage campaign
Filed by Michael Crawford | August 07, 2009 | 3:00 PM |Now that DC recognizes same-sex marriages from other jurisdictions we are preparing for the next step: marriages legally performed in DC. The Washington Blade has a great story about a new public educational campaign DC for Marriage. DC for Marriage...Read More
World on the Square 2009
Filed by Donna Pandori | August 07, 2009 | 2:00 PM |The annual World on the Square 2009 festival is scheduled to take place in Corydon, Indiana on Saturday August 8th between 4:00 - 8:00 pm. For those you who have never heard of World on the Square, it is free...Read More
La orientación sexual no se puede cambiar
Filed by Pedro Julio Serrano | August 07, 2009 | 11:30 AM |Estoy súper contento, orgulloso y agradecido -- en especial a Bil por invitarme a ser parte de este magnífico portal como el primer bloguero que escribe en español -- de iniciarme como parte de la gran familia de Bilerico Project....Read More
TAKE ACTION! Ryan White AIDS program terminates in 8 weeks
Filed by Michael Emanuel Rajner | August 06, 2009 | 2:30 PM |Editors' Note: Michael Rajner is a Bilerico-Florida blogger. We're bumping this post up to Bilerico Project and crossposting it on all of our state sites. Please add the post to your Facebook page, Twitter it and/or steal it for your...Read More
Jesse's Journal: Do We Need "Role Models"?
Filed by Jesse Monteagudo | August 06, 2009 | 1:00 PM |Is Perez Hilton a gay role model? Not according to many readers of the Advocate, who protested vigorously when the magazine put the celebrity blogger on the cover of its August issue. There was such a strong reaction that Advocate...Read More
Breaking
Filed by Alex Blaze | August 06, 2009 | 12:30 PM |Ex-gay therapy doesn't work: No solid evidence exists that such change is likely, says the resolution, adopted by a 125-4 vote. The APA said some research suggests that efforts to produce change could be harmful, inducing depression and suicidal tendencies....Read More
He's in love with a GRAMP! (Gay, Rich, Alone, Middle-aged, Positive)
Filed by Father Tony | August 06, 2009 | 10:30 AM |Dear FT, How can I convince an older man that he should take a chance on me? Him: 56. HIV positive. Hot. Healthy as can be expected. Rich. Me: 24. Cute. Negative. Hard working. He says things to me...Read More
Be Who You Are
Filed by Terrance Heath | August 06, 2009 | 9:30 AM |School will soon start again, and countless LGBT youth will return to classrooms all over the country. Some will return to schools where they find support and protection from harassment -- where administrators and teachers work together to ensure a...Read More
Barbed Walls
Filed by Sara Whitman | August 05, 2009 | 6:30 PM |I watched the curtains move silently with the ocean breeze. They are worn, having decades of sun bleach away the once colorful daisy pattern. A testament of perseverance, I could take a lesson from them. My sister is having her...Read More
Award-winning gay cop accused of molesting illegal aliens.
Filed by Father Tony | August 05, 2009 | 3:30 PM |This sad report about Broward County gay deputy Jonathan Bleiweiss leaves me unsure about what to believe. You should read the report in the Sun-Sentinel. You should also read the article about Officer Bleiweiss in the South Florida Blade. You...Read More
'Voices of Honor' Tour Comes to Norfolk, Virginia
Filed by Michael Hamar | August 05, 2009 | 3:30 PM |I have written a great deal about the need for the repeal of Don't Ask, Don't Tell, particularly because of the damage it does in the Hampton Roads community with its very large number of military personnel - and...Read More
Why "Sex Change" Surgery is Medically Necessary
Filed by Mercedes Allen | August 05, 2009 | 1:30 PM |The panic machine is in full swing, from far-right conservatives trying to terrorize Americans out of wanting universal health care. There are half-truths, such as the story of Ontarioan Shona Holmes who had to abandon Canada's public health system and...Read More
Indiana Black Pride is this weekend!
Filed by Bil Browning | August 04, 2009 | 6:00 PM |You are going to Indiana Black Pride, right? It doesn't matter what skin color you are, you know you should be there to support the community. This is the 5th anniversary of Black Pride; I haven't missed one yet and...Read More
Who cares about health care? It's just your life on the line.
Filed by Alex Blaze | August 04, 2009 | 2:00 PM |It just seems like there's so much opposition to what should be a basic right in the richest country in the world, a program that would help a country morally, economically, on a visceral level, that should have been enacted...Read More
DINKS with Drinks?
Filed by Father Tony | August 04, 2009 | 1:00 PM |Jeremy Hobson has delivered a report on NPR's Marketplace that is simply shoddy and rather offensive to at least this half of a DINK (Dual Income No Kids) couple. It begins by questioning whether or not DINKS (of any orientation)...Read More
Death, Dishonesty & The GOP
Filed by Terrance Heath | August 04, 2009 | 11:00 AM |In an effort to defeat universal health care, conservatives are engaging in a campaign of lies that will ultimately cause more families to suffer needlessly at a most painful time. As someone who worked for years with end-of-life care issues,...Read More
LGBT Teenagers Slaughtered by Tel Aviv Gunman
Filed by Guest Blogger | August 03, 2009 | 6:00 PM |Editors' Note: Guest blogger Susan Ferman-Austin is a writer, blogger and LGBT rights activist. She has served on the Board of Directors of Washington State Stonewall Democrats and the Moscow-Pullman LGBT Pride Festival. Susan is married to Phyllis Austin and...Read More
What Were You Doing 25 Years Ago?
Filed by Nadine Smith | August 03, 2009 | 4:00 PM |As a college student I helped to found the International Gay and Lesbian Youth organization along with a team of amazing activists aged 15-24. This past week IGLYO celebrated 25 Years with a huge conference in Amsterdam that brought the...Read More
Stonewall Dems Ex Dir Jon Hoadley resigns to lead Kalamazoo ballot fight
Filed by Bil Browning | August 03, 2009 | 3:00 PM |Stonewall Democrats Executive Director Jon Hoadley will be stepping down at the end of August to be the campain manager for Kalamazoo, Michigan's ballot initiative over an LGBT-inclusive human rights ordinance. Opponents of the ordinance turned in enough signatures last...Read More
Gay Self Hate
Filed by Michael Buckley | August 03, 2009 | 2:00 PM |Note from Bil: I bumped this post from Buck's usual spot in the middle column because it deserves more attention than his usual entertainment show. It's not often that comedian Buck gets serious, but his reply to a viewer's apology...Read More
Write Your Own Caption #33
Filed by Terrance Heath | August 03, 2009 | 11:00 AM |Dylan has a case of the "scoots". So I'm home with him, and not likely to post much today. I've got a couple in the works for later. In the meantime, I thought this captioning contest from McClatchy Newspapers looked...Read More
Ever thought of adopting your partner?
Filed by Nancy Polikoff | August 03, 2009 | 9:30 AM |Ever thought of adopting your partner? Not likely. But in times past -- sometimes not so distant -- that was the mechanism some couples chose to establish a legally recognized relationship. A few appellate court opinions on the subject have...Read More
Michelle's Garden: The Big Oops
Filed by Patricia Nell Warren | August 02, 2009 | 5:30 PM |Bombshell breaking news: the soil in the now-famous White House organic garden has some lead pollution in it. The National Park Service tested the soil, and says so. It seems that, during the Clinton era, the lawn was fertilized with...Read More
No Greg, YOU are harassing ME!
Filed by Guest Blogger | August 02, 2009 | 1:00 PM |[Editor's Note: Guest blogger Josh Cohen is a consultant providing need-based, low-cost internet media services for equality campaigns and organizations. During the day, he works for a software company in Redmond, WA. As a member of the Board of Directors...Read More
A Road Trip, Told as a Series of Pit Stops
Filed by Paige Schilt | August 02, 2009 | 11:30 AM |It's the kind of truck stop where a voice on the loudspeaker calls out "Customer 47, your shower is ready." In the back, plywood covers a large hole in the wall, a monument to some past collision. In the front,...Read More
PodCast: IML Bareback Issue
Filed by Eric Leven | August 01, 2009 | 4:00 PM |Brian and David B. over at The Occasional Fag hosted Will Clark and I on their Pod Cast to talk about the IML No-more-bareback-issue which recently came down the pipes. I thought we had a great conversation. We touch upon...Read More
Vacation Check in: Yes, I Belong in the Ladies Locker Room
Filed by Sara Whitman | August 01, 2009 | 12:00 PM |I thought I'd check in... I've been relaxing so much out here, I'm mush right now. Perfect level of mush. Jeanine and I are sitting on our own little private porch and she is reading me a fish oil supplement...Read More
WTF is up with "Gay Sports?"
Filed by Guest Blogger | August 01, 2009 | 10:00 AM |[Editor's Note: Steve Publicover is a middle-aged gay man living with his partner of nine years in the Blue Ridge Mountains of Southwestern Virginia, with three cats, four ducks and a pond. Having grown up in the suburbs of Washington,...Read More
