Living: December 2010
Top 10 LGBT News Stories of 2010
Filed by Bil Browning | December 31, 2010 5:00 PM |Every December, Alex and I get together and pick our top ten stories of the past twelve months. This year's list sticks mostly to the political with only two stories standing out as non-governmental. 2010 stands out as a year...Read More
Holiday Greetings From A Canadian Soldier To His Husband
Filed by Betty Greene Salwak | December 31, 2010 2:00 PM |Posted by the Toronto Star....Read More
Why Our Sex History Matters: An Allen Ginsberg story
Filed by Gloria Brame, Ph.D. | December 31, 2010 12:00 PM |You know how I feel about sex history? I love it! Sex history is human history. Because so much of LGBT/Queer/Leather sex history has been systematically destroyed and censored in the name of God and country, it feels particularly vital...Read More
CBS Sunday Morning Profiles the Chateau Marmont
Filed by Karen Ocamb | December 31, 2010 11:00 AM |This story is a really a backgrounder for the new Sophia Coppola movie Somewhere in which the legendary Hollywood hotel is a kind of "character." But the Chateau Marmont has also served as the setting for a number of LGBT...Read More
Should gay bars ban straight people?
Filed by Alex Blaze | December 31, 2010 9:30 AM |A long time ago I posted on a Australian gay bar that started screening people at the door for sexual orientation (I can't look it up because Bilerico, as well as some other LGBT sites, are blocked at the library...Read More
New Year's Dream
Filed by Kate Clinton | December 31, 2010 8:30 AM |At sunset every New Year's, we make a bonfire at Herring Cove Beach in Provincetown. The crazy curve of the Cape affords a disorienting western view of sunset over water. And it has always been my contention that Provincetown, on...Read More
2010: When Official Republican Bigotry Went Unchecked
Filed by D Gregory Smith | December 30, 2010 6:00 PM |For me, 2010 is/was about Republican political shaming of The Gays- and about the relative silence surrounding the issue. The Montana GOP approved a platform which included this blatant piece of ignorance and bigotry: We support the clear will of...Read More
Notable Celebrity Deaths of 2010
Filed by Bil Browning | December 30, 2010 5:00 PM |MSNBC did a remarkable job with this video montage of notable celebrity deaths of 2010. Quite frankly, I'd forgotten about a few of them. Visit msnbc.com for breaking news, world news, and news about the economy For some reason when...Read More
We don't have good sex ed or condom distribution, but we want more ideas?
Filed by Alex Blaze | December 30, 2010 12:00 PM |Michael Weinstein has an interesting column up about the potential of PrEP, the pre-exposure medication regimen that recently showed some potential to slow the spread of HIV: The potential use of this drug is based on the premise that we...Read More
2010: A Lesson In Trust
Filed by Father Tony | December 30, 2010 10:30 AM |I learned some personal lessons in trust in the course of 2010 when I became the second of three board members to resign from the fizzling Catholics4Equality, but that was small in comparison to what our entire LGBT community learned...Read More
Betsie Gallardo Transferred to Hospital
Filed by Bil Browning | December 30, 2010 9:30 AM |I've been featuring Betsie Gallardo, an HIV+ inmate in a Florida jail for the crime of spitting at an officer. She is dying of gall bladder cancer and the state had stopped her chemotherapy. After she developed a large tumor...Read More
Kate's Theme
Filed by Kate Clinton | December 30, 2010 8:00 AM |No, I'm not wearing a muskrat on my head. It's cold in New York but the repeal of Don't Ask Don't Tell still has me warm inside!...Read More
On Starving In Prison, Or, Who Gets Pardons In Florida?
Filed by Don Davis | December 29, 2010 7:00 PM |If you were with us on Christmas week you heard the story of Betsie Gallardo, who, unless something changes quickly, is going to be intentionally starved to death in a Florida prison after being convicted of spitting on a cop....Read More
Should Kwanzaa Stay in Black Neighborhoods?
Filed by Rev Irene Monroe | December 29, 2010 10:30 AM |Immediately following Christmas this year will mark Kwanzaa's thirty-eighth anniversary. From December 26 through January 1, millions of African Americans, like myself, will start their week-long celebration by greeting families and friends with the Swahili term "Harbari gani!" which means...Read More
Airbags Equal Death
Filed by Sara Whitman | December 29, 2010 9:30 AM |I'm in Ogunquit now. I needed some alone time, where I could close my eyes and let my mind race to wherever it wanted to. It's freezing up here and I moved the overstuffed chair and stool right next to...Read More
Trans man denied marriage license
Filed by Alex Blaze | December 29, 2010 8:30 AM |The local news covers the story of a trans man in Michigan denied a marriage license even though he had all the paperwork needed. This story says a lot about how politics, which is people of differing opinions on everything...Read More
Moving Remembrance of LGBT Youth Who Took Their Own Lives
Filed by Patricia Nell Warren | December 28, 2010 6:00 PM |This is a must-see -- a deeply moving musical remembrance of the LGBT youth who took their own lives during the past year. On December 10, LeAnn Rimes sang "The Rose" with the Gay Men's Chorus of Los Angeles. She...Read More
My Life Again In New York, cont.
Filed by Steven Cheslik-DeMeyer | December 28, 2010 9:30 AM |The Saturday before Christmas I attended my friend Kristin's tree-trimming party. She has this gathering every year -- the first time I attended was in 1987, I think. She lives with her husband and child in Peter Cooper Village in...Read More
Dear Cathy
Filed by Sara Whitman | December 27, 2010 5:00 PM |Dear Cathy, I've spent the last few days in complete shock that you are gone. What is up with that? I knew you were sick, but this dying thing was a little too extreme. And after all the years that...Read More
Hospital loses Catholic status for life-saving abortion
Filed by Alex Blaze | December 27, 2010 3:00 PM |Here's one of the big reasons people are moving away from organized religions. I can't imagine why anyone would want to hear moral lectures from people who censure hospitals for saving people's lives (via Feministing): Bishop Thomas Olmsted said he...Read More
Marching for Gay Rights in NYC: Historic photo
Filed by Gloria Brame, Ph.D. | December 27, 2010 9:30 AM |This photo was taken in Greenwich Village, NY, ca. 1970, shortly after the Stonewall riot. A beautiful blast from the past. Check out all the hippie-chic facial hair and raggy jeans. Also love seeing the tot in the stroller being...Read More
Marching for Gay Rights in NYC: Historic photo
Filed by Gloria Brame, Ph.D. | December 27, 2010 9:30 AM |This photo was taken in Greenwich Village, NY, ca. 1970, shortly after the Stonewall riot. A beautiful blast from the past. Check out all the hippie-chic facial hair and raggy jeans. Also love seeing the tot in the stroller being...Read More
A Tribute to a Trans Warrior in Afghanistan, My Dear Friend Jenn
Filed by Guest Blogger | December 26, 2010 4:00 PM |Editors' note: Pam Daniels is a writer and activist with 23 years experience in broadcast news and media including the staff of a former Governor. Those of us in the LGBT community have much to celebrate this holiday season. Ted...Read More
OutLoud in Nashville to close
Filed by Alex Blaze | December 26, 2010 2:30 PM |The interesting thing about a bookstore closing, as opposed to most other small businesses that have gotten shut down in recent years, is that the owners usually read a lot and have a good idea of whom to blame. OutLoud...Read More
Christmas Miracle: An Update on Betsie Gallardo
Filed by Bil Browning | December 26, 2010 1:00 PM |When I put out the call on Thursday for a Christmas miracle for Betsie Gallardo, a young HIV+ Haitian woman dying of gallbladder cancer in a Florida prison for the crime of spitting at a police officer, Projectors came through...Read More
Miracle on 22nd Street
Filed by Father Tony | December 25, 2010 8:00 AM |As we pause our feverish LGBT world of activism, anger or apathy, this will be our one post for the day, and I want to wish you all much holiday happiness by sharing with you a Christmas story that will...Read More
My Seester
Filed by Sara Whitman | December 23, 2010 7:00 PM |My sister, my most wonderful seester, who I loved so much, died Tuesday morning at 10:30am, with me holding one hand, stroking her head, and my sister in law holding her other. It's a long story, as everything with my...Read More
Fear and Loathing at the Eye Doctor
Filed by Paige Schilt | December 23, 2010 3:00 PM |Last month, we took our son to the optometry clinic at a large urban university. As it happens, it was the same clinic where I was treated as a child for amblyopia, AKA "lazy eye." Although twenty-five years had passed,...Read More
Fear and Loathing at the Eye Doctor
Filed by Paige Schilt | December 23, 2010 3:00 PM |Last month, we took our son to the optometry clinic at a large urban university. As it happens, it was the same clinic where I was treated as a child for amblyopia, AKA "lazy eye." Although twenty-five years had passed,...Read More
TAKE ACTION: We Need a Christmas Miracle for Betsie Gallardo
Filed by Bil Browning | December 23, 2010 1:00 PM |Folks, we need a Christmas miracle and we need it today. Get out your cell because you're about to start crying and then start making phone calls. Betsie Gallardo was a dying HIV+ Haitian child when missionary Jessica Bussert adopted...Read More
The Short Term Queer Memory Of Chris Finlay
Filed by Father Tony | December 23, 2010 10:30 AM |South Florida is a treasury of queer memory. Many who live here can recall the secret codes of cruising in the 50s and 60s, the post-Stonewall eruptions and euphoria of the 70s and the grim arrival of AIDS in the...Read More
Don't Move So Fast
Filed by Michele O'Mara | December 23, 2010 8:30 AM |the right time to move in togetherRead More
Remember our homeless gay youth this holiday
Filed by Rev Irene Monroe | December 22, 2010 7:00 PM |The holiday season is a difficult time of year many of us. Our culture's egregious forms of commercialism always bother me, as well as its anemic recognition of other celebratory forms of this holiday season other than Christmas, like Hanukkah,...Read More
Gay youth sleeps in the street while Bill Donohue pockets $400K
Filed by Alex Blaze | December 22, 2010 1:30 PM |In the midst of all this talk about DADT and bullying in schools and DOMA and right-wing haters, it's important not to forget some of the most vulnerable people in what we call a community: My parents told me I...Read More
The Rainbow Belongs to Everybody
Filed by Patricia Nell Warren | December 22, 2010 12:30 PM |There is just no end to the arrogance, stupidity and pettiness of extremists on the religious right. Now NOM is insisting that the LGBT movement has "wrongfully appropriated" the symbol of the rainbow. No doubt they're outraged by the latest...Read More
Christians May Irk, but Christmas Doesn't
Filed by Diane Silver | December 22, 2010 8:30 AM |I am well-known for my disagreements with Christianity and certain Christians. Christmas, though, just melts my heart. There's the fact that presents are involved, and I do love presents. But there's something else about Christmas that snared me when I...Read More
This holiday open thread brought to you by MIKA
Filed by Bil Browning | December 21, 2010 7:00 PM |As we call it quits for the evening, it seemed appropriate to leave you with Mika's new version of that Christmas standard, "Let It Snow." There's a little bit on the ground here in DC but I've heard that Indy...Read More
Family Time
Filed by Tobi Hill-Meyer | December 21, 2010 12:30 PM |This short film put together by COLAGE and media artist Jen Gilomen documents the past twenty years of organizing and activism by people with LGBTQ parents. Their interwoven stories reflect social changes through personal experiences with the political, legal, and...Read More
Cupcakegate: The finale
Filed by Bil Browning | December 20, 2010 7:00 PM |Remember "Cupcakegate?" Just Cookies, an Indianapolis bakery, refused to serve a college LGBT group rainbow frosted cupcakes for National Coming Out Day and the city went into an uproar. The Mayor's office launched an investigation and the local news was...Read More
A Shining Star of Activism in the Arizona Desert
Filed by Bobby Parker | December 20, 2010 3:00 PM |Caleb Laieski, a brilliant, 16-year-old dynamo from the town of Surprise, Arizona is a one-man force for equality and safety for all school children in our state. I don't think there's anyone like him in our whole nation. I'm giving...Read More
My Magical Culinary Tour of the US
Filed by Alex Blaze | December 19, 2010 2:30 PM |I got back from a nearly month-long trip to the US last week, to New York, Indianapolis, Chicago, and DC, staying with my parents, Bil and Jerame, Yasmin Nair, and a few friends not into Bilerico at all (thanks, all!)...Read More
He's My Husband, Thank You Very Much
Filed by John M. Becker | December 19, 2010 1:00 PM |Our society has made remarkable progress in the fight for LGBT equality in my lifetime. Don't Ask, Don't Tell" was repealed yesterday. A majority of Americans support ending workplace discrimination against LGBTs. In 2010, for the first time, two separate...Read More
An Open Letter to Dan Choi
Filed by Guest Blogger | December 18, 2010 10:00 AM |Editors' Note: Guest blogger Jonathon Edwards is a pastor in the United Church of Christ and has been active on a local level in the glbt movement since his youth. He co-founded the first GLBT student organization at the University...Read More
When lesbians conceive through sexual intercourse, different legal issues can arise
Filed by Nancy Polikoff | December 17, 2010 3:00 PM |We don't discuss it much. It confounds notions of fixed sexuality and fidelity. But sometimes when a lesbian couple wants a child one partner conceives through sexual intercourse. Relatively speaking, it is cheap and reliable, but it alters the legal...Read More
If Scrooge Were Queer: 20 Questions for Couples in the New Year
Filed by Guest Blogger | December 17, 2010 1:00 PM |Editors' Note: Guest blogger Jeff Lutes is a psychotherapist who lives with his husband and their three adopted children in Austin, Texas. He is the principal consultant for ContemporaryCouples.com, where he teaches online dating and relationship workshops to the LGBTQ...Read More
A cure for HIV infection?
Filed by Bil Browning | December 16, 2010 2:00 PM |Can it be true? Has a cure for HIV infection been found? On the heels of World AIDS Day comes a stunning medical breakthrough: Doctors believe an HIV-positive man who underwent a stem cell transplant has been cured as a...Read More
A Son Comes Home
Filed by D Gregory Smith | December 15, 2010 11:30 AM |Out West Executive Producer, Gregory Hinton did a radio interview for Yellowstone Public Radio recently. He talks about growing up in the American West, coming out as a gay man and coming home to Montana. He expresses articulately and beautifully...Read More
Joel Burns Named Finalist For "Texan of the Year"
Filed by Michael Hamar | December 15, 2010 8:30 AM |At the National Gay and Lesbian Chamber of Commerce ("NGLCC") last month I had the privilege of meeting and speaking with Fort Worth, Texas, City Councilman Joel Burns (pictured at left). He is an amazing individual (and taller and cuter...Read More
Open thread: Illinoisans in the house?
Filed by Phil Reese | December 14, 2010 9:38 AM |I've always wondered how many Illinoisans or folks right over the state-line we have here at the Project. We have three writers: Yasmin Nair, Waymon Hudson and myself, but how many other folks hanging out here at TBP live in...Read More
Health care bill ruled unconstitutional
Filed by Alex Blaze | December 13, 2010 4:00 PM |A judge appointed by Bush ruled part of the health care bill unconstitutional: In a 42-page opinion issued in Richmond, Va., Judge Hudson wrote that the law's central requirement that most Americans obtain health insurance exceeds the regulatory authority granted...Read More
PFLAG/LA Founder Adele Starr Has Died
Filed by Karen Ocamb | December 13, 2010 2:00 PM |Adele Starr, founder of the large Los Angeles chapter of Parents and Friends of Lesbians and Gays, died in her sleep Friday night, the Los Angeles Times reported Sunday. She was 90. Starr founded PFLAG/LA in 1976 - a group...Read More
What is it Like to Be Young, Queer and Behind Bars?
Filed by Toshio Meronek | December 13, 2010 12:00 PM |We have a way harder life when we're incarcerated. Straight people have a hard time here but [gay youth] have it even worse. They are raped, get food thrown at them, are jumped, humiliated, god knows what will happen...Read More
Come Out for the Holidays!
Filed by Michael Emanuel Rajner | December 12, 2010 2:30 PM |As the Christmas holiday season draws closer by the day, I can't help but reflect back 18 years ago to the winter of 1992 when I had little to give. I went from living in a studio-styled guest house on...Read More
It's not racist! It's just 'controversial!'
Filed by Bil Browning | December 12, 2010 1:00 PM |Back in February, I did a post about the U-Washee laundromat in Richmond, Indiana. The business features signs showing a 1940's-style stereotypical Chinese man doing laundry with lettering written in what Margaret Cho calls "feng shui hong kong fooey font."...Read More
Have You Heard the One About the Exploding Cell Phone?
Filed by Terrance Heath | December 11, 2010 12:00 PM |No. Seriously. A guy’s Motorola Droid exploded, right next to his ear. To be fair, it’s not just the Droid....Read More
Former Publisher of San Diego Gay Paper Commits Suicide
Filed by Karen Ocamb | December 10, 2010 1:00 PM |Frontiers has confirmed that Michael Portantino, 52, the former publisher of the San Diego Gay and Lesbian Times, committed suicide Wednesday night. According to Michael Ellano, an investigator with the San Diego County Medical Examiner's office, Portanino was found dead...Read More
My Grown-Up Christmas List
Filed by Terrance Heath | December 10, 2010 11:00 AM |When it comes to the holiday season, I'm neither a Scrooge nor a fanatic. I enjoy the season for a multitude of reasons. And no, I don't agree with most people about the "reason for the season," and that's OK....Read More
Utah school upset over neighbor's pro-gay signs
Filed by Bil Browning | December 09, 2010 3:00 PM |The Art City Elementary School in Springville, Utah is upset with a neighbor who has put up three pro-gay signs on his fence. The signs face the elementary school's playground. After learning about the recent rash of suicides by young...Read More
Utah school upset over neighbor's pro-gay signs
Filed by Bil Browning | December 09, 2010 3:00 PM |The Art City Elementary School in Springville, Utah is upset with a neighbor who has put up three pro-gay signs on his fence. The signs face the elementary school's playground. After learning about the recent rash of suicides by young...Read More
The White Lie
Filed by Father Tony | December 09, 2010 10:30 AM |Recently, my husband and I had an argument. He had taken a few days off from his exhausting work as the owner of a business and wanted to share in the decompressed and perpetual leisure of my beachy days. I...Read More
Student Sues Washington School District for Failure to Stop Bullying
Filed by Joe Mirabella | December 09, 2010 9:30 AM |A 19 year old former student teamed up with the ACLU of Washington to sue the Aberdeen School District in Washington State. He alleged the school did nothing to stop years of harassment based on his race and perceived sexual...Read More
My First Gay Christmas aka Destroying My Mother
Filed by Mark S. King | December 08, 2010 9:30 AM |There is so much distance in my mother's eyes that I fear she may never come close to me again. Circling her stare are wrinkles of pain, betrayal even, and in her hand she holds the watch. It was December...Read More
Shelly Bauman Founder of Seattle's First "Out" Gay Bar Died
Filed by Joe Mirabella | December 07, 2010 2:30 PM |The Seattle Gay News reported in her obituary: Shelly and a group of friends went to Pioneer Square on July 14, 1970 for the Bastille Day Parade. 'There was a cannon in the parade loaded with gunpowder, held in place...Read More
Good Medicine: Honoring Aurora Levins Morales through thought and action
Filed by Susan Raffo | December 06, 2010 5:00 PM |A piece written in partnership with Aurora Levins Morales Susan Who is your community? Seriously. Stop and take a moment to notice who you think of when you hear that word: community. What makes them your community? Is it just...Read More
Good Medicine: Honoring Aurora Levins Morales through thought and action
Filed by Susan Raffo | December 06, 2010 5:00 PM |A piece written in partnership with Aurora Levins Morales Susan Who is your community? Seriously. Stop and take a moment to notice who you think of when you hear that word: community. What makes them your community? Is it just...Read More
Good Medicine: Honoring Aurora Levins Morales through thought and action
Filed by Susan Raffo | December 06, 2010 5:00 PM |A piece written in partnership with Aurora Levins Morales Susan Who is your community? Seriously. Stop and take a moment to notice who you think of when you hear that word: community. What makes them your community? Is it just...Read More
Simplicity
Filed by Sara Whitman | December 06, 2010 4:00 PM |Simple. It's the mantra running through my head. Over and over. All I want is simple. A clean house, fewer things, fewer responsibilities. To turn the focus to relationships instead of the pile of bills on my desk. My sister,...Read More
Queer kids face more punishment in school
Filed by Alex Blaze | December 06, 2010 11:30 AM |A Yale University study was recently published on punishment of queer youth in schools and in the juvenile justice system. The usual caveats about studies of queer people apply (more on that after the jump), but just take it in...Read More
Yes We Scan!
Filed by Kate Clinton | December 06, 2010 8:00 AM |No, you didn't catch me processing my hair. I'm going to show you some leftover ideas - like censoring art at the Smithsonian. That's so 80's! Also recycled - another Don't Ask Don't Tell report!...Read More
Another nonsensical HIV nondisclosure prosecution
Filed by Alex Blaze | December 04, 2010 12:00 PM |Another HIV nondisclosure prosecution from Canada: Steve Biron, 32, faces charges of aggravated assault and aggravated sexual assault against one alleged victim, but the Crown could lay more charges in a case that has Quebec City's gay community on edge.[...]...Read More
Boston Globe Is On the Money with Lesbians and Finance
Filed by Dana Rudolph | December 04, 2010 10:00 AM |The Boston Globe published an article November 21 titled "Learning to adjust," with a sub-heading explaining, "For millions of middle-class Americans, the recession has forever changed spending habits and forced a reconsideration of basic expectations--like retirement." What makes this more...Read More
Admiral Mike Mullen Proves To Be A Class Act: Obama? Still Missing in Action
Filed by Michael Hamar | December 03, 2010 4:00 PM |I will admit that I never initially trusted the Pentagon to be above board with its DADT study. Indeed, I feared the top military brass would endeavor to have the study skewed so as to justify retaining the religious based...Read More
Christmas List
Filed by Sara Whitman | December 03, 2010 12:00 PM |My kids keep asking me what I want for Christmas. Over and over. So... here's my list: I want peace and quiet for a day. No fighting, no wrestling, no sassy back talk. A mother's dream. I'm not looking for...Read More
Gary Bitner is GLAADly Up To His Neck In Beach Balls
Filed by Father Tony | December 02, 2010 11:30 AM |The pleasure of attending a great party is exceeded by only the satisfaction of throwing a great party, and that is what Gary Bitner, president of Bitner Goodman, an advertising/public relations/marketing firm headquartered in Fort Lauderdale, is doing as a...Read More
May-December Romance, ca. 1950s: Vintage photo
Filed by Gloria Brame, Ph.D. | December 02, 2010 11:30 AM |A very happy find, this super hot photo from a private estate sale. Totally love the way the older man is holding the younger one. You can sense what's coming next, off camera! Plus the tucked in plaid shirt and...Read More
The Story of Hanukkah
Filed by Jesse Monteagudo | December 01, 2010 6:00 PM |To many Americans, Hanukkah is the Jewish equivalent of Christmas, perhaps because the two holidays usually fall close to one another. However, thanks to the vagaries of the Jewish lunar calendar, Hanukkah 2010 begins at sundown on December 1, when...Read More
When "free trade" really means "restricting trade"
Filed by Alex Blaze | December 01, 2010 4:00 PM |The Independent in the UK has a special World AIDS Day issue that's worth looking through, and I wanted to zoom in on this article because access to HIV/AIDS medication, while restricted and soon to be more restricted in the...Read More
A Day with HIV in America
Filed by Cathy Renna | December 01, 2010 3:00 PM |Much of the media coverage and focus of World AIDS Day seems to be on the global pandemic. While of course absolutely justified, it seems that the epidemic here in the US gets short shrift. I know I am not...Read More
Covenant House Texas Is Not A Home For Houston Trans And Intersex Youth
Filed by Monica Roberts | December 01, 2010 1:00 PM |The Covenant House location in Houston opened its doors on June 27, 1983 and has been around in the Montrose gayborhood for over 25 years. It claims on its website that it has counseled, mentored, educated, inspired, transformed, and healed...Read More
Covenant House Texas Is Not A Home For Houston Trans And Intersex Youth
Filed by Monica Roberts | December 01, 2010 1:00 PM |The Covenant House location in Houston opened its doors on June 27, 1983 and has been around in the Montrose gayborhood for over 25 years. It claims on its website that it has counseled, mentored, educated, inspired, transformed, and healed...Read More
Once, When We Were Heroes
Filed by Mark S. King | December 01, 2010 8:30 AM |On any other day you might be excused for skipping an HIV related posting. But not today. World AIDS Day demands we pay attention to our history and what happened 30 years ago, when something terrible began and our best...Read More
