Living: January 2010
Catholics For Equality
Filed by Father Tony | January 31, 2010 4:00 PM |There is something Catholic in the wind and it smells a bit like mutiny. It sounds like the early morning clarion call on the hushed day of battle, with a hint of frustration and a dollop of American liberty all...Read More
Florida Adoption Court Ruling Matters Nationwide
Filed by Nadine Smith | January 31, 2010 2:30 PM |Wednesday night volunteers from across the state joined us for our first ADOPT EQUALITY phone bank. First timers and seasoned volunteers alike committed 2 hours and made hundreds of calls to Florida voters to ask where they stand on Florida's...Read More
Florida Adoption Court Ruling Matters Nationwide
Filed by Nadine Smith | January 31, 2010 2:30 PM |Wednesday night volunteers from across the state joined us for our first ADOPT EQUALITY phone bank. First timers and seasoned volunteers alike committed 2 hours and made hundreds of calls to Florida voters to ask where they stand on Florida's...Read More
My Daily Spiritual Practice
Filed by D Gregory Smith | January 31, 2010 1:00 PM |As LGBTIQ persons, many of us feel estranged from or alienated by organized religion. We can feel hurt, misunderstood, persecuted and sometimes afraid because of religious positions, teachings and practices. Personally, I have always made a distinction between being religious...Read More
Reading is Fun(damental)
Filed by Terrance Heath | January 30, 2010 4:00 PM |I spent yesterday at home with the boys. (We all had the day off, but the hubby had to work.) It was a busy day, but I took the time to snap this picture of Parker reading to Dylan, partly...Read More
Caught with their homophobic pants down
Filed by Alex Blaze | January 30, 2010 10:00 AM |Don't color me surprised to hear that an absurdly homophobic comic strip was printed in the University of Notre Dame's student newspaper. It was one of the schools I was told to pursue at the end of high school, since...Read More
Notre Dame Students Protest for Gay Rights (& How You Can Help)
Filed by Waymon Hudson | January 29, 2010 2:00 PM |The unrest and fall-out over the publication of a pro gay-bashing cartoon in the school newspaper continues at Notre Dame. On Wednesday, hundreds of students marched through the campus to deliver a letter to University President Father John Jenkins. The...Read More
Goldie Sachs
Filed by Kate Clinton | January 29, 2010 8:00 AM |If corporations are people now, can they own guns? Oh. Blackwater. Riiight. I'm changing my name to Goldie Sachs now....Read More
Will faith-based agencies help Haiti's gay community?
Filed by Rev Irene Monroe | January 28, 2010 5:00 PM |Since the world community has descended on Haiti with relief aid in response to the January 12th earthquake, I am wondering how Haiti's lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, and queer (LGBTQ) communities are being helped. As one of Haiti's most marginal...Read More
Facing Saint Valentine
Filed by Father Tony | January 28, 2010 10:30 AM |Saint Valentine's Day is a lethal holiday, which is to say that it's not a holiday at all. More like the visit of an orderly bearing clean sheets to death row inmates in various stages of awareness and acceptance of...Read More
The Accidental Vegan
Filed by David Castillo | January 27, 2010 6:30 PM |Last week marked the end of the 21-Day Vegan Kickstart program that I started back on New Year's Day. I made some resolutions to not only shed a few extra pounds but to make a concerted effort to eat more...Read More
What's next, banning the dictionary? Oh, wait...
Filed by Alex Blaze | January 27, 2010 12:30 PM |This story proves two things: a) Fundies cannot be parodied because they're most likely already being as ridiculous as you can imagine them being, and b) the Global War on Sex stops at nothing and will attack any institution that...Read More
The queers go to South By South West 2010
Filed by Bil Browning | January 27, 2010 12:00 PM |The annual South By South West conference and festival in Austin, Texas, is one of the most popular festivals in the nation. It combines film, music and the internet into a sort of interactive geek fest, film festival and rock...Read More
What ex 'ex-gay' ministers say about Exodus
Filed by Gloria Brame, Ph.D. | January 27, 2010 11:30 AM |This video, taped almost 3 years ago, needs to be spread around and around and around some more....Read More
A Tale of Two Grannies
Filed by Sean Bugg | January 27, 2010 10:30 AM |When I walked into my Granny Ruth's house on Christmas Day, with my extended (and extensive) maternal family of aunts and uncles and cousins awaiting the start of the annual Southern Indiana holiday buffet, it was just moments before my...Read More
Gay Hoosier is White House guest for State of the Union address
Filed by Bil Browning | January 26, 2010 10:45 AM |Indianapolis resident Trevor Yager, an openly gay business owner, has been picked by the White House to be the First Lady's guest at tomorrow's State of the Union address. Yager co-owns TrendyMinds, an Indianapolis advertising agency celebrating its 15th anniversary...Read More
Orientation labels peel away
Filed by Cassandra Keenan | January 25, 2010 7:30 PM |If a heterosexual guy finds himself attracted to a non- or pre-operative trans chick, is he gay? The vast majority of people I interact with routinely inquire about this whenever I tell them that I have a date with a...Read More
So Many Endings
Filed by Sara Whitman | January 25, 2010 5:30 PM |What a week. Not only did naked frat boy win in MA, not only did the Supreme Court just open the floodgates for corporate giving to political campaigns... Buster died. Buster was Allan's dog. The kids always thought of him...Read More
TV Alert: A Family Is A Family Is A Family
Filed by Dana Rudolph | January 23, 2010 2:00 PM |From Rosie O'Donnell comes "A Family Is a Family Is a Family," a great-looking new documentary premiering Sunday, January 31, at 7 p.m. ET on HBO. Much of the film features children talking about their families, including ones with same-sex...Read More
Being gay is bad for my health (but not for the reasons you'd think)
Filed by Davina Kotulski | January 22, 2010 6:30 PM |I have not been to the gym since the Prop 8 trial started two weeks ago. I can't even think of going to the gym in the morning when I have to race to San Francisco and go through the...Read More
A Notre Dame Student Viewpoint: All Eyes on Us
Filed by Guest Blogger | January 21, 2010 6:30 PM |Editor's Note: Guest Blogger Jason Coleman is a senior accounting major at Notre Dame University. He originally expressed his views on the Observer Comic controversy in a article in the Observer on Jan. 20th. Last week, the national LGBT scene...Read More
Iowa Catholic Church Fires Woman Over Transgender Counseling
Filed by Betty Greene Salwak | January 21, 2010 4:30 PM |A recent article in the Des Moines Register reports that in September of last year a housekeeper at a Catholic student center at Drake University was fired by the parish bishop. Susan McIntyre, a transgender woman, is a certified social...Read More
Explosive Revelation on Mormon Church Involvement in Prop 8
Filed by Bobby Parker | January 21, 2010 2:30 PM |Good Morning, President Monson. Hope you slept well. Bit of bad news out of California. Seems there are some internal Church documents admitted into evidence in the Proposition 8 trial that prove we were more involved in Yes on Prop...Read More
What Men Want
Filed by Father Tony | January 21, 2010 10:30 AM |Dear Father Tony, What the hell do men want? Running on Empty...Read More
Atlanta passes the buck on apology to Eagle
Filed by Gloria Brame, Ph.D. | January 20, 2010 6:30 PM |In case you missed this, the Atlanta City Council decided to kowtow to conservative opinion (such as the Southern Baptist politics of the ACC's chairman) and take the coward's way out by deferring the decision to apologize for the unjust...Read More
Unholy Crusade: More on those Bible Verses on our Military's Guns
Filed by Waymon Hudson | January 20, 2010 4:30 PM |There's more coming in surrounding the shocking story I blogged about yesterday in which ABC News revealed that our Military is being armed with rifle scopes that have Christian Bible Scripture imprinted on them. These guns are not only being...Read More
Is HIV Motive For A Hate Crime?
Filed by D Gregory Smith | January 20, 2010 9:30 AM |On Christmas Day, 2009, gay, HIV+ Louisiana bar manager Robert LeCompte was found dead in his club, stabbed more than ten times with "a very long knife." More than four thousand dollars was missing, and the killer(s) left a note...Read More
Streetwise: Keeping Kids Off the Streets
Filed by Guest Blogger | January 19, 2010 3:30 PM |Editors' Note: Guest blogger Justin Early grew up on the streets of Seattle, is the author of "StreetChild: An Unpaved Passage" and was featured in the documentary "STREETWISE", which was nominated for an Academy Award in 1984. He lives in...Read More
Could a Brown win in Mass be good for health care reform?
Filed by Bil Browning | January 19, 2010 2:30 PM |Should liberals be secretly hoping for a Scott Brown win in Massachusetts today? Could a Brown win be good for health care reform? Air America's Jack Rice makes a good case for why a Brown win could actually help liberals...Read More
Justice Department takes on gay student's case
Filed by Alex Blaze | January 18, 2010 12:30 PM |The Justice Department is getting involved in a case of high school bullying on behalf of a gay boy who was beaten up for being too feminine and the school did nothing. It's a great development, considering that the case...Read More
Donor-Turned-Boyfriend after Break-Up
Filed by Michele O'Mara | January 18, 2010 11:30 AM |When my partner and I were pursuing parenthood, everything we read suggested that using an anonymous donor from a sperm bank is the most legally sound way for a lesbian couple to ensure their legal parental rights. Using a known...Read More
Caption This: Ride Without the Hide
Filed by Bil Browning | January 18, 2010 9:30 AM |Grabbed this pic from DC Agenda photographer Michael Key's photospread from Mid-Atlantic Leather Weekend. There's no caption for the photo on the site, but I'm assuming that the two pleathermen are anti-leather protesters. Are they from PETA? Anyone know? It...Read More
Hair, gender, and power
Filed by Alex Blaze | January 17, 2010 4:00 PM |Over a year ago I posted about a boy who wasn't allowed to start public school in Texas because he had long hair. He was Native and it was part of his culture to keep his hair long. Another school...Read More
Wow. Apparently Gay Bashing is Funny at Notre Dame
Filed by Waymon Hudson | January 15, 2010 1:30 PM |What a load of anti-LGBT crap. This gem of a comic strip got the full print treatment in the Notre Dame Student Paper, The Observer: Character 1: "What's the easiest way to turn a fruit into a vegetable?" Character 2:...Read More
What Your Friends Will Never Tell You
Filed by Father Tony | January 14, 2010 10:30 AM |Dear Father Tony, [....]and then as soon as I let everyone know that we split up, all my friends are like "We never liked him. We always hated him. We knew he was a jerk. We knew it wouldn't...Read More
The World of Late Night Comics: An Expert Opinion
Filed by Kate Clinton | January 14, 2010 8:00 AM |Everyone keeps asking me for the inside scoop on what's going on in the world of late night comics - whether Conan O'Brian, Jay Leno or David Letterman. I've got on my expert witness hat and I'm ready to...Read More
Sick and Wrong
Filed by Paige Schilt | January 13, 2010 7:30 PM |It had to happen sooner or later. When we sent our son, Waylon, to school, we knew that eventually some kid would tell him that it's sick and wrong to be fat....Read More
Putting Up with Disrespect
Filed by Michele O'Mara | January 12, 2010 4:30 PM |Why does a female continue to date a female who constantly cheats and lies to them and totally disrespects them? ~ baffled Dear Baffled, There's a variety of reasons that might motivate someone to stay in a relationship when...Read More
Pre-trial begins in Duanna Johnson beating
Filed by Alex Blaze | January 12, 2010 11:30 AM |Local TV is covering the the cop's trial, but I do wonder if they got two independent sources to verify their accusation that Duanna Johnson, who's dead and therefore cannot defend herself, was a prostitute. Sure, she was arrested on...Read More
Cynthia Nixon And ACLU Florida Kick-Off Campaign To End Adoption Ban
Filed by Father Tony | January 11, 2010 11:30 AM |In December of 2008, Guest Contributor Martin Gill wrote about a judge's decision to allow him and his partner to adopt two foster children in their care. Our lead-in to that post was erroneous. We said: On November 25, a...Read More
Smoke 'em if you've got 'em
Filed by Bil Browning | January 11, 2010 9:30 AM |Just in from the tip line. I know a lot of you will be celebrating this, but keep in mind that registering a PAC is a lot different from actually getting a law passed. If registering was all you had...Read More
Caption this: Don't mess with her melon
Filed by Bil Browning | January 10, 2010 10:00 AM |Your turn....Read More
The African Christian Church In America: Spiritual War
Filed by Betty Greene Salwak | January 09, 2010 2:00 PM |Dana Roberts, professor at the Boston School of Theology, was interviewed recently for PBS' Religion & Ethics Newsweekly. She addressed the sharp rise in recent years of the new African Christian church, a result of Nigerian missionaries coming to the...Read More
Julie & Julia and Mike (and me)
Filed by Phil Reese | January 09, 2010 12:00 PM |Let me tell you about the best duck of my life. That wasn't a typo, I really am going to talk about food today. I rarely mention my boyfriend, Mikey, on here (mostly because I feel like it would deter...Read More
Global HIV travel and immigration policies
Filed by Alex Blaze | January 08, 2010 3:00 PM |The US and South Korea just ended their HIV travel bans this week. UNAIDS has an interactive map up with information about the restrictions other countries put on entry, stay, and residence of foreigners with HIV/AIDS. Blue means there's some...Read More
Death of Denise King is a Call to Our Community
Filed by Michael Emanuel Rajner | January 08, 2010 1:30 PM |During the last final hours of 2009, many of us reflected on what meaning the year and decade had for us, and the hopes and resolutions that waited in 2010. For Denise King, she was unable to revel in the...Read More
Indiana: Marrying your kissing cousin
Filed by Bil Browning | January 08, 2010 10:30 AM |Jerame posted a cool graphic last week that compared states where you can get married to your same-sex partner vs where you can marry your first cousin. Indiana has a ban on same-sex marriage, but you can have an incestuous...Read More
What are the best ways to show interest in someone?
Filed by Michele O'Mara | January 08, 2010 10:30 AM |How do you go about showing someone you are interested in getting to know them? I did a little research on this topic and learned that according to the book, Are You Normal About Sex, Love and Relationships, there are...Read More
No, I don't need a uniform for my falafel
Filed by Sara Whitman | January 08, 2010 9:30 AM |I do so love a uniform. I'm sure it has something to do with deep seated issues with authority but I don't want to delve too deeply in it. I want to be able to smile when I see a...Read More
The Decade So Bad It Shall Remain Nameless
Filed by Kate Clinton | January 07, 2010 6:00 PM |It's over. On the eve of the new decade, we were in Provincetown, but were unable to have our annual beach fire because of snow and high wind. At the annual ritual, we jot down things we want to burn...Read More
The Morality of Health Care Reform, Pt. 7
Filed by Terrance Heath | January 07, 2010 3:00 PM |The fury and dialogue catalyzed by Joe Lieberman’s unsurprising treachery on health care reform — along with futile efforts to court Olympia Snowe, and the dealmaking with Ben Nelson and other “Blue Dog” Democrats — underscores a Democratic division...Read More
16 Years Old And Already A Catholic Rebel
Filed by Father Tony | January 07, 2010 10:30 AM |Fr. Tony, My name is Donny, and I am a 16 year old Catholic. I read one of your articles online about the Roman Catholic Church and homosexuality and LOVED it. You brought up a really good point about...Read More
Hail Mary!
Filed by Kate Clinton | January 07, 2010 8:00 AM |I'll miss my hero Mary Daly. Have you read her books "Beyond God the Father," "Gyn/Ecology," "Pure Lust," or "Amazon Grace?"...Read More
The punishment doesn't fit the crime: More on transgender women, prison, and Maria Benita Santamaria
Filed by Alex Blaze | January 06, 2010 6:00 PM |I posted the other day about Maria Benita Santamaria, a transgender woman sent to prison after she was found with ten pounds of meth on her. She was sent to a men's prison, put in solitary confinement, and denied hormones...Read More
The punishment doesn't fit the crime: More on transgender women, prison, and Maria Benita Santamaria
Filed by Alex Blaze | January 06, 2010 6:00 PM |I posted the other day about Maria Benita Santamaria, a transgender woman sent to prison after she was found with ten pounds of meth on her. She was sent to a men's prison, put in solitary confinement, and denied hormones...Read More
The HIV travel ban is over
Filed by Alex Blaze | January 05, 2010 11:30 AM |While Obama lifting the HIV travel ban was in the Top 10 LGBT Stories of 2009 Bil and I wrote up, it wasn't put into effect until yesterday. A two decades old policy that was based on nothing more than...Read More
Gay blogger who invented the term "blogosphere" dies
Filed by Bil Browning | January 05, 2010 10:30 AM |Brad L. Graham, the gay blogger who coined the word "blogosphere" as a joke, has passed away in his St. Louis home. Graham was 41. The time and cause of death is still unknown, but police have indicated that he...Read More
How a transgender prisoner gets tougher punishment because of her gender identity
Filed by Alex Blaze | January 04, 2010 5:30 PM |Six years of prison, solitary confinement, and denial of medical care, all for a nonviolent drug offense? Thank you, War on Drugs. You gave us such sane ways to deal with addiction. Officials at Central Virginia Regional Jail said they...Read More
Building an Inclusive Church
Filed by Betty Greene Salwak | January 04, 2010 2:30 PM |January's episode of IN THE LIFE presented "A Call For Inclusion" which in part profiles Emily Eastwood, the Executive Director of Lutherans Concerned/North America. Eastwood helms the organization which led the charge to change the constitution of the Evangelical Lutheran...Read More
Ex-gay mom steals daughter and goes on the lam
Filed by Bil Browning | January 04, 2010 1:30 PM |Ex-gay mom Lisa Miller has stolen her daughter, Isabella, in a desperate attempt to prevent her former partner, Janet Jenkins, from getting custody. The two women have been fighting over custody arrangements for months as two states decided who had...Read More
Denise King, Mother of Simmie Williams Jr & LGBT Advocate, Dies
Filed by Waymon Hudson | January 04, 2010 12:30 PM |There is sad news from South Florida. Denise King, the mother of slain 17 year old Simmie Williams Jr and LGBT advocate, died unexpectedly at 10pm New Years Eve. Since Simmie's death in 2008, Denise King has balanced her grief...Read More
Denise King, Mother of Simmie Williams Jr & LGBT Advocate, Dies
Filed by Waymon Hudson | January 04, 2010 12:30 PM |There is sad news from South Florida. Denise King, the mother of slain 17 year old Simmie Williams Jr and LGBT advocate, died unexpectedly at 10pm New Years Eve. Since Simmie's death in 2008, Denise King has balanced her grief...Read More
Saxx Apparel - it's a romper room for your boys
Filed by Nathan Strang | January 03, 2010 6:00 PM |Buffalo is freeee-zing 4 months out of the year, and for a pedestrian like myself, a good pair of long johns can help cut the chill. There's a wee bit of a problem though: for whatever reason, unless you wear...Read More
What We Should Do About The Suddenly More Saintly Pius XII
Filed by Father Tony | January 03, 2010 3:00 PM |Many are up in arms about the fact that B16 has moved Pius XII up a few steps on the board game "Sainthood". They feel that Pius XII, a lover of things German, did not do enough to fight the...Read More
You're not going to Disneyland
Filed by Bil Browning | January 03, 2010 12:00 PM |Picture it. Pennsylvania. 2006. Senator Rick "frothy mixture" Santorum has just lost his re-election bid. He steps to the mic to give his "I'm a loser" speech and this is the picture of that brief and fecal moment. Note: This...Read More
Never a year like '09
Filed by Bil Browning | January 01, 2010 3:00 PM |Happy New Year, everyone. What are your resolutions for this year? Try JibJab Sendables® eCards today!...Read More
Trans News Timeline: 2009
Filed by Dr. Jillian T. Weiss | January 01, 2010 11:00 AM |Here are some highlights from a Google News Archive timeline search on "transgender" for 2009. Reading through the list, I see news of social evils bedeviling trans people and the fight against them, but also more positive portrayals of trans...Read More
Happy New Year!
Filed by Kate Clinton | January 01, 2010 10:30 AM |On a scale from one to Dr. Zhivago - it's cold outside! Hope your new year is full of prosperity, love, and laughs....Read More
