Living: March 2011
The Gandhi None of Us Knew
Filed by Rev Irene Monroe | March 31, 2011 4:00 PM |It has been not quite a century since Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi was assassinated in January 1948 at the age of 78 in New Delhi, India. The bevy of hagiographies written about him is now being replaced with truth-telling biographies about...Read More
The Day My Family Nearly Parachuted From a Commercial Airplane
Filed by Jeff Lutes | March 31, 2011 1:00 PM |Years ago my family went to visit relatives in Vegas for New Years. Along with our children, we took a 10-month baby boy that we were fostering at the time and one of our dogs (which Southwest allows because my...Read More
Feminine Wetness: Vintage Pinup Publicity
Filed by Gloria Brame, Ph.D. | March 31, 2011 11:30 AM |I have no idea, but this one looks to be of 1940s vintage (unless you know better), and some kind of a publicity stunt by the folks selling these fine plumbing fixtures. That gal has moxie and actually seems to...Read More
My Sad and Trivial Night with Rock Hudson
Filed by Mark S. King | March 30, 2011 6:00 PM |Perhaps it is the passing of Elizabeth Taylor, and her connection to Rock Hudson, that brings this memory back again. It still conjures such fear and melancholy that repeating it feels like sharing a ghost story... Over and over, footage...Read More
A Bilerico Blogger in the Baby Dyke Years
Filed by Jessica Max Stein | March 30, 2011 5:00 PM |While recently visiting my childhood home, which I like to call the Stein museum, I dug up this little gem. At 17 (cue Janis Ian), I was the "Baby Dyke Heroine" in the February 1995 issue of Deneuve magazine (before...Read More
Get Beached: Vintage Summer Fashions
Filed by Gloria Brame, Ph.D. | March 30, 2011 2:30 PM |Buried like some deep ancestral memory, I vaguely remember that my dad had a jacket and swim trunks set like this ca. 1960. I think they were called cabana sets. My dad's was a Hawaiian print with flamingoes on it...Read More
Will Marriage Save Us?
Filed by Anthony Carter | March 30, 2011 12:30 PM |Marriage, any type of commitment, and being truly, terrifyingly, unabashedly, emotionally intimate is for grown ups. This is the reason we now have this insane obsession with marriage. Although I have never really had the desire to marry, I am...Read More
Richard Simmons' Air New Zealand Video
Filed by Bil Browning | March 29, 2011 2:30 PM |Oh, Richard Simmons. You've still got it. Whatever it is. At least in New Zealand, you do....Read More
Cave Painting of a Dinosaur?
Filed by Bil Browning | March 29, 2011 11:30 AM |The nutjobs at the Kentucky creationist "museum" have made another ludicrous claim in their desperate attempts to link modern science with a bunch of nomad's oral history stories written down thousands of years ago. This time they say a cave...Read More
It's March Madness Out There!
Filed by Kate Clinton | March 29, 2011 8:00 AM |War war war all time time - things are pretty mad everywhere it seems, better spend time with the ones you love....Read More
LGBT Health Awareness Week Begins Today
Filed by Guest Blogger | March 28, 2011 2:00 PM |Editors' Note: Guest blogger Hutson W. Inniss is the Executive Director for the National Coalition for LGBT Health. The Coalition is committed to improving the health and well-being of lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender individuals through federal advocacy that is...Read More
Was Gandhi Gay?
Filed by Bil Browning | March 28, 2011 12:00 PM |Was Gandhi gay? Noted historian Joseph Lelyveld has written a biography of the famous Indian activist that includes a hint of same-sex intimacy. Conservative "historian" Andrew Roberts (there's been some controversy about his other work) wrote a review of Lalyveld's...Read More
Inexplicable Spanking: Vintage Weirdness
Filed by Gloria Brame, Ph.D. | March 28, 2011 9:30 AM |An old men's club's hazing ritual? Great-grampa's secret Daddy/boy relationship? The first underground Bear party? Or, as the youngsters say... LOLWUT!? My favorite strange find of the week....Read More
Spring Has Sprung: The DC Edition
Filed by Bil Browning | March 27, 2011 2:30 PM |If you follow me on Twitter, you probably already know that one of my favorite things about living in DC is that Spring comes earlier than it does in Indianapolis. The dogwoods, cherry trees, tulips and daffodils are all blooming...Read More
Pole Dancing for Jesus in Texas
Filed by Karen Ocamb | March 27, 2011 11:30 AM |Reporters Isiah Carey and Kristin Kane of Fox 26 talk about pole dancing for Jesus. Offered without comment....Read More
But I Thought He Was Gay!
Filed by Bil Browning | March 25, 2011 4:00 PM |This has to be one of the most ridiculous stories I've ever heard. A woman went to a massage parlor and her male therapist gave her what she asked for. Now she's pissed and making a stink of it. Why?...Read More
Uganda: 'Kill the Gays' Bill Dead?
Filed by Bil Browning | March 25, 2011 12:00 PM |Has Uganda's "Kill the Gays" bill finally died in the country's Parliament? Local television reports announced the bill's demise yesterday after the Museveni administration pulled its support. Information Minister Kabakumba Matsiko said in the news report that homosexuality is already...Read More
Remember the Triangle Fire
Filed by Jessica Max Stein | March 25, 2011 8:30 AM |Today is the centennial of the Triangle Waist Factory Fire - more familiarly the Triangle Fire - a 1911 blaze near Manhattan's Washington Square that killed 146 garment workers, most young immigrant Jewish and Italian women, many just in their...Read More
Tipper Gore & the Accidental Activist
Filed by Bil Browning | March 24, 2011 7:00 PM |On Sunday night Jerame and I attended a GetEqual fundraiser with Jillian Weiss. During the speeches it was announced that Tipper Gore was in attendance. Mrs. Gore smiled and waved brightly to the assembled guests and according to the Washington...Read More
How to Queer Ecology: One Goose at a Time
Filed by D Gregory Smith | March 24, 2011 5:00 PM |If you're an amateur naturalist, like me, you've probably spent some time in the library or online looking for sexual ambiguity in nature. After all, one of the biggest arguments against the biodiversity of sexual orientation is this: Natural Law....Read More
The Smithsonian: Historically Hardcore
Filed by Bil Browning | March 24, 2011 12:00 PM |Copywriter Matt Kaplan came up with this fantastic series of advertisements for the Smithsonian Museum complex. While the ads are fakes, the museum would be foolish not to immediately commission him to do a full series they could use. Two...Read More
The Homosexual Generation: Vintage Book
Filed by Gloria Brame, Ph.D. | March 24, 2011 11:30 AM |From 1965: this mass-market paperback on homosexuality. Oh dear. From the cover commentary to the table of contents, one gets a clear sense that this volume was riddled with myths, lies, distortions, and misinformation. (Click on the images to get...Read More
The Metaphor Trap
Filed by Guest Blogger | March 23, 2011 5:00 PM |Editors' Note: Guest blogger Hugh Yeman is a redneck cursed with a modicum of intelligence. He enjoys hiking, beer, history and excluding the serial comma. Lately I've been running into a lot of metaphors relating to LGBT rights. I tend...Read More
Dame Elizabeth Taylor Dies at 79
Filed by Bil Browning | March 23, 2011 1:30 PM |Longtime gay icon and movie star Dame Elizabeth Taylor has died at age 79 in Los Angeles. Taylor died of congestive heart failure after being ill for many years. She was well-known in the LGBT community for her dedicated support...Read More
Walmart Gets Better
Filed by Mark S. King | March 23, 2011 12:30 PM |Yesterday I had a conference call with Walmart PR manager Ravi Jariwala, and Crosby Cromwell, a manager for constituent relations. We discussed the fact that I wasn't able to use the word "gay" in my review on the Walmart web...Read More
Lobbying Against Indiana's Marriage Discrimination Amendment: Newbie Report
Filed by Betty Greene Salwak | March 23, 2011 8:30 AM |A couple of weeks ago I attended a lobbying workshop presented by Indiana Equality Action, in which we learned how to address our legislators on the upcoming vote to embed marriage discrimination in the Indiana constitution. On Tuesday I drove...Read More
DOMA: Judge Adjourns Deportation Until Spousal Status Decided
Filed by Bil Browning | March 22, 2011 5:00 PM |An Argentinian woman who married her lesbian partner in Connecticut has won a court victory postponing her deportation. The judge ruled that after recent developments surrounding DOMA, the women should submit a form to the government requesting spousal status that...Read More
Exuberantly Erotic: Vintage Male Photo
Filed by Gloria Brame, Ph.D. | March 22, 2011 4:30 PM |From the 1920s-30s, I bring you fantastic photographic image of an Adonis leaping through the air as if he was riding on winds. Perfectly perfect in every way - his exuberance is almost contagious!...Read More
The Face of Same-Sex Marriage?
Filed by Terrance Heath | March 22, 2011 2:30 PM |“Honey, we’re on page two of the Washington Post.” That’s what my husband said to me Saturday morning, when he and Dylan returned from their swimming class, as he left on the counter a page that had been ripped...Read More
Walmart Is Selling a Profane Book
Filed by Mark S. King | March 22, 2011 11:30 AM |Walmart is selling the new It Gets Better book. Just don't call it "gay." When I noticed that Walmart had listed It Gets Better: Coming Out, Overcoming Bullying, and Creating a Life Worth Living on their web site, I answered...Read More
The Self Esteem Our Precious Young Boys Need to Thrive
Filed by Anthony Carter | March 22, 2011 8:30 AM |To all the boys who may or may not be queer. The boys picked last in sports but first for the latest in fashion, entertaining, and tasteful decorating. The boys who couldn't catch a football but instead could clean a...Read More
Sheela Na Gig
Filed by Kate Clinton | March 22, 2011 8:00 AM |Highlighting the LGBT saints you might not know about!...Read More
Modern Medicine Now Able to Bestow Constitutional Rights
Filed by Drew Cordes | March 21, 2011 7:00 PM |If there's anything that illustrates the inanity of our nation's policies on queer rights, it's what I'm about to go through. In two months, I'll be trekking up to Canada for sex reassignment surgery. (Yes, Canada. That's what I think...Read More
Did I Sign a Youth Death Sentence?
Filed by Anthony Carter | March 21, 2011 3:00 PM |I am a cowardly murderer. I stood by watching the hate and homophobia of the world devour our youth and did nothing to prevent it. I could have spoken up. I could have screamed. I could have demanded they take...Read More
Girlish Affections: Victorian Lesbiana
Filed by Gloria Brame, Ph.D. | March 21, 2011 9:30 AM |A turn-of-the-century gem, ca. 1900. Although the women were probably put in poses by the Victorian photographer who captured this scandalous (for the time) boudoir photo, I don't think that kiss is faked. She looks genuinely passionate and her girlfriend...Read More
Whatever Happened to My Middle Age?
Filed by Guest Blogger | March 21, 2011 8:30 AM |Editors' note: Steve Publicover is a former DC resident who lives in southwestern Virginia. I got the word from my doctor this week that it's time for me to schedule my first colonoscopy. That's the procedure where they dope you...Read More
Six Dead Kids Who Needed More than Safety
Filed by Anthony Carter | March 20, 2011 5:30 PM |Whenever I have worked with young people the issue of safety is obsessively focused on. You can't touch them (unless it is in front of other people and even then it's frowned upon). You can't be too involved or concerned...Read More
Are You?
Filed by Guest Blogger | March 20, 2011 2:30 PM |Editors' Note: 15-year old guest blogger Naomi L. from Los Altos, California and is starting to look at colleges - with an eye towards an LGBTQ friendly campus! Naomi was a winner of the National Campaign to Restore Civil Rights...Read More
Undocumented, Unafraid, and Unapologetic
Filed by Jake Weinraub | March 20, 2011 11:30 AM |Kansas State Representative Virgil Peck is receiving some well-deserved backlash after an extremely offensive comment he made at a Kansas House debate this past Monday. During the meeting he stated: Looks like to me, if shooting these immigrating feral hogs...Read More
From Politics to Parades: What's Left To Do in Massachusetts
Filed by Guest Blogger | March 18, 2011 6:00 PM |Editors' Note: Guest blogger Kara Suffredini is the Executive Director of MassEquality. She is a seasoned LGBT movement veteran and has extensive background advancing laws that promote justice and fairness. So much has changed in Massachusetts since the early 1990s...Read More
You Don't Have to Go to College to Figure Out Scissoring
Filed by Alex Blaze | March 18, 2011 3:00 PM |The New York Times has an article about how new survey data doesn't support the idea that there's a "lesbian until graduation" phenomenon. Here's the data: But according to the new study, conducted by the Centers for Disease Control and...Read More
A Belated Apology: Should We Accept?
Filed by Guest Blogger | March 18, 2011 12:00 PM |Editors' Note: Guest blogger Sean Carlson is a writer and organizer from Washington, DC. Sean is the co-founder of Talk About Equality, an LGBT blog focusing on personal stories and leveraging narrative for social change. Coming out was easily one...Read More
No Gays in the Crystal Cathedral Choir?
Filed by Karen Ocamb | March 17, 2011 1:00 PM |There is trouble at the famed Crystal Cathedral mega-church in California's Orange County - and it's not just that they've filed for bankruptcy. The church now appears to be vetting its leadership by making them sign a "covenant" promising that...Read More
1972 Philly Pride: Historic Photo
Filed by Gloria Brame, Ph.D. | March 17, 2011 11:30 AM |Awesome private photo of a contingent Gay Pride Parade in Philadelphia 39 years ago - a touching reminder of the passion and bravery of the people who fought for rights at a time when Gay Rights seemed like an impossible...Read More
Obstinance Only
Filed by Kate Clinton | March 17, 2011 8:00 AM |We won't let Women's History Month become Women ARE History month!...Read More
Like Black Church, St. Patrick's Day Parades Are Anti-gay
Filed by Rev Irene Monroe | March 16, 2011 7:00 PM |Irish and African-American lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and queer (LGBTQ) communities share a lot in common when it comes to being excluded from iconic institutions in their communities. For LGBTQ African-Americans, it's the black church, and for LGBTQ Irish, it's...Read More
The Book with a Promise: It Gets Better
Filed by Mark S. King | March 16, 2011 6:00 PM |There were moments while reading It Gets Better, the new book inspired by the YouTube video project to help bullied youth, when my heart leapt to my throat and hovered there. It happened a few times, quite unexpectedly, usually while...Read More
Fashion Forward: 1920s Photo
Filed by Gloria Brame, Ph.D. | March 16, 2011 2:30 PM |From the 1920s, a photo of three of the most interesting looking people one could ever meet. They and their surroundings look pretty swanky, too. I wish I knew who they were and the stories of these elegant individuals' lives....Read More
Sean Chapin Homage to Gaga: Target, Are You Anti-Gay?
Filed by Phil Reese | March 16, 2011 10:30 AM |This weekend I was in San Francisco at the Haas Jr. Fund summit for LGBTQ journalists, writers, bloggers and editors (more on that in my next post) and while I was there I had the good fortune to meet gay...Read More
America Loves Mitch and Cam More than Murphy Brown
Filed by Alex Blaze | March 16, 2011 9:30 AM |Pew found that Americans are more supportive of gay parents than single parents (as if they're mutually exclusive categories...): The survey found that when it comes to opinions overall on non-traditional families, such as those with gay and lesbian parents,...Read More
Refugee from Uganda
Filed by Davina Kotulski | March 16, 2011 8:30 AM |"Gay Sex Pervert Can't Boink Wife" in big black typeface took up more than a third of the tabloid newspaper Moses held up for everyone in the audience to see. These words were next to a large photo of him...Read More
Christian Exceptionalism
Filed by Alex Blaze | March 15, 2011 6:00 PM |Michigan's attorney general, who campaigned on not firing that creepy assistant attorney general who was homophobicly/homosexually stalking a gay college student because "when you're not on the government job, you ought to be able to express your opinion," has filed...Read More
Written in the Stars: Gays and Astrology
Filed by Jesse Monteagudo | March 15, 2011 3:30 PM |I first knew there was something queer about astrology back in my teen years, when I first saw Walter Mercado on television. Though Mercado's homosexuality has never been established, this flamboyant, androgynous, perfumed, bouffant, heavily-made up psychic seemed to me...Read More
Indiana LGBT Folk Rally at Statehouse Against Marriage Amendment
Filed by Bil Browning | March 15, 2011 11:30 AM |About 500 Hoosier LGBT people rallied against a proposed constitutional amendment to ban same-sex marriage, civil unions and domestic partner benefits yesterday. While Fox 59 has done an admirable job of leading the way for accurate LGBT reporting, I was...Read More
Grindr Goes Straight
Filed by Alex Blaze | March 15, 2011 10:30 AM |The same guy who put Grindr together is going to put out a straight... I mean "mainstream" version of the app: The new application, Project Amicus will offer similar functionalities, allowing users to discover other users who are close to...Read More
The Word Is Out
Filed by Leslie Robinson | March 15, 2011 9:30 AM |At Wayne State University in Detroit, the Word Warriors wave the banner on behalf of the English language's neglected words. Last year the Warriors released a list of words they hoped to rescue from disuse. As the obliging type, I...Read More
Wash Away the Gay
Filed by Alex Blaze | March 14, 2011 6:00 PM |Oh, this stuff is still going on. This is the latest from a Florida ex-gay ministry that's making powerful promises, specifically that a bath can wash away the gay if done correctly (I'm gonna wash that man right outta my...Read More
Age 40+ Gay Black Male Seeking a Love Community
Filed by Anthony Carter | March 14, 2011 4:00 PM |In communities of color in other parts of the world , there is no such thing as orphans and single parents. Children are not left alone and people are not removed or shoved out of communities once they reach a...Read More
My Friend Chloe
Filed by Dr. Jillian T. Weiss | March 14, 2011 1:00 PM |In 1996 or so, I went after a long day in the law office to a place called the Manhattan Gay Community Center to get counseling at the Gender Identity Project, where transsexuals could go to get help. Wearing my...Read More
Like a Virgin, Post-SRS?
Filed by Drew Cordes | March 14, 2011 12:00 PM |My sex reassignment surgery is two months away, and as you might expect, I have a lot of things on my mind. Most of them I'm trying not to think about: complications, pain, infection, how much sensation I'll have, my...Read More
Stone Cold Hats: Butch Photo, ca. 1910
Filed by Gloria Brame, Ph.D. | March 14, 2011 9:30 AM |The suits on these ca. 1910 two are great, but it's the hats that really make the look. This fascinating photo leaves me wondering if they were a private lesbian couple who posed for a romantic portrait of themselves, or...Read More
SHAKEDOWN
Filed by Jake Weinraub | March 13, 2011 5:30 PM |Call it nepotism if you like, but I wanted to use my temporary editor powers to make you all aware of a project my cousin Leilah Weinraub has been working on called "SHAKEDOWN." The film chronicles the day-to-day lives of...Read More
"The Gay Gene Will Not Protect You"
Filed by Yasmin Nair | March 13, 2011 4:00 PM |In the wake of Lady Gaga's new song "Born This Way," there have been several online discussions about the worth of arguing whether queers are biologically determined or not. I think it's a pointless issue. Whether or not science supports...Read More
Invisible at Death
Filed by Joe Mirabella | March 13, 2011 2:30 PM |Death Certificates in Washington State do not count gay, lesbian, bisexual or transgender people, and Washington is not alone. There is not a single state in this country recording this data. This is problematic for several reasons. For example: Local,...Read More
LGBTQ Mentorship Program - DIY!
Filed by Jake Weinraub | March 13, 2011 1:00 PM |So last Wednesday I had four coffee dates. The first at 10AM was with a 42-year-old graduate student, who recently admitted to himself his attraction to other men, and is looking for guidance through the coming out process. The next...Read More
Coming Out in Wisconsin
Filed by Guest Blogger | March 13, 2011 11:30 AM |Editor's Note: Ryan Biava is a PhD Candidate in political science at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, and was a founding board member of Equal Rights Washington. [Disclosure: He is a member of the Teaching Assistants Association, a public-sector union affiliated...Read More
My Humble Hero - Teaching People with HIV to Live and Die with Dignity
Filed by Michael Emanuel Rajner | March 12, 2011 4:00 PM |Every March, a diverse community of more than 400 PLWHA's (people living with HIV/AIDS) journey from several states, mostly the southeast, and meet up at the annual Positive Living Conference. The conference take place along the Florida's Emerald Coast stretches...Read More
Ali Forney Center LIFE Coaches Go Live
Filed by Dr. Jillian T. Weiss | March 12, 2011 2:00 PM |As I noted a while back, I'm training to be a LIFE coach for homeless LGBTQ youth of the amazing Ali Forney Center in New York City. "LIFE" stands for, uh, something I can't remember right now. (uh oh, new...Read More
Sign the Petition Demanding that Apple Remove Exodus's Bigoted iPhone App
Filed by John M. Becker | March 12, 2011 12:00 PM |Truth Wins Out has created a petition to demand that Apple remove its bigoted Exodus International iPhone app: Exodus International, the notorious "ex-gay" organization, has just released an iPhone app that, according to its website, is "designed to be a...Read More
Brotherhood is Not So Powerful
Filed by Kate Clinton | March 12, 2011 10:00 AM |What an interesting Women's History Month. They must have hired a new publicist. It's as if plucky Peggy Olsen from "Mad Men" took over the account and decided to shake things up. I don't know how the new branding will...Read More
The Queen
Filed by Jake Weinraub | March 11, 2011 4:00 PM |I was doing some sleuthing online and came across this clip from the 1968 documentary "The Queen" directed by Frank Simon, which features Flawless Sabrina preparing for a drag queen contest in New York City. What strikes me most about...Read More
Gay Men and Lesbians Marry in West Bank and Shanghai
Filed by Alex Blaze | March 11, 2011 1:00 PM |Haaretz has an article up on Orthodox Jews forming gay male/lesbian couples for marriage and child-rearing: His 12th couple has just announced their engagement, Harel said, and he has a list of another 30 gays and 20 lesbians seeking matches....Read More
Claiming Rainbow Pride
Filed by Jake Weinraub | March 11, 2011 11:00 AM |Hi everyone! I thought I'd make my first post a conversation starter. So last week wraps up some of the LGBT Pride events in Cape Town, South Africa, an opportunity for some queer Capetonians to unveil their new South African...Read More
Men in Garters: 1920s Photo
Filed by Gloria Brame, Ph.D. | March 11, 2011 10:30 AM |Another felicitous eBay find. I'm guessing these handsome fellows were drag performers at a 1920s cabaret? They have a theatrical look about them, and the one on the right is still wearing his wig cap. What really stands out though...Read More
The Great Queer Migration Myth
Filed by Jessica Max Stein | March 10, 2011 7:00 PM |This weekend, I am going to the house where I grew up for the last time before our family sells it. I have been surprised at the depth of my feelings of loss. I wonder how much my experience of...Read More
Much Too Old
Filed by Guest Blogger | March 10, 2011 4:00 PM |Editors' Note: Guest blogger William Schindler, a.k.a., Brother William, founder and Spiritual Director of Ashram West, obtained a B.A. in Sanskrit from UC Berkeley, where he also studied Hindi and Bengali, and a Master's degree in clinical psychology from Antioch...Read More
The Joy of Gay Banking
Filed by Alex Blaze | March 10, 2011 2:00 PM |Once a while back a few friends, who are French, were over and one read a line of poetry, an awkward but clever metaphor that involved fruit (it was a while ago, I don't remember it exactly). I joked that...Read More
When History Is Hard
Filed by Terrance Heath | March 09, 2011 5:30 PM |February came and went without my writing a post about Black History Month.Though, not because I didn’t think about it, or didn’t want to. I did. I even had a couple of invitations to write guests posts for other...Read More
Women of Trans Berlin: Two 1920s Photos
Filed by Gloria Brame, Ph.D. | March 09, 2011 1:30 PM |Historic 1920s photo of a sophisticated group of transwomen, taken at the Eldorado Night Club on Berlin's Motzstraße. The Nazis shut the club down in 1933....Read More
TRX Needs to Sponsor Chris Mosier
Filed by Bil Browning | March 09, 2011 10:30 AM |I don't usually do promos for specific people since we're inundated with requests to "show my video" or "help me win XYZ contest." This one, however, is interesting and easy to help out with. Projector Chris Mosier writes in to...Read More
40+ and Refusing to Be Dismissed
Filed by Anthony Carter | March 08, 2011 7:00 PM |Within the gay community, there seem to be two factions, old and young. I want to specifically address these issues even though I know someone will bitch and say we have more issues than this, or this is too simplistic,...Read More
One Queer Reports on Changing Hearts and Minds of White People in Wisconsin
Filed by Caitlin Breedlove | March 08, 2011 6:00 PM |One of the things about the Wisconsin protests that has not been written about much is that most of the uprising consists of working class white people. The culture of the space reflects the culture of this place: country and...Read More
Gay Film and Theatre Arts, 1920s Berlin
Filed by Gloria Brame, Ph.D. | March 08, 2011 4:30 PM |In the course of doing some research on libertine life in 1920s Berlin, Germany, I came across two small but very meaningful images. The first one, showing two gay sailors, was a banner that once hung on a theatre in...Read More
Clarification in New York Marriage Rules for Transgender People
Filed by Austen Crowder | March 08, 2011 12:30 PM |One of the most understated barriers to equality for trans people isn't animus - it's ambiguity. Some of our biggest steps of progress come from the clarification of rules regarding gendered institutions like marriage. Take TLDEF's latest victory regarding policies...Read More
Hillary Clinton & James Bond: International Women's Day
Filed by Bil Browning | March 08, 2011 11:30 AM |Today is the 100th annual International Women's Day - a "global celebration of women" that originally started as a German socialist political event that has morphed into different celebrations in different areas of the globe. Some treat it like Valentine's...Read More
The Myth That LGBT Youth of Color Can't Be Supported
Filed by Guest Blogger | March 08, 2011 10:30 AM |Editors' Note: Guest blogger Kyle Bella currently resides in Brooklyn, NY where he is an undergraduate studying through Goddard College's low residency program. He is working on his senior thesis project titled, "Queer: Self. Selves. Selvedges." and writes articles for...Read More
In Praise of Good Men
Filed by Anthony Carter | March 08, 2011 8:30 AM |In an effort to make sense of so much of the craziness that goes on, everybody would like a scapegoat. Someone to blame everything on. I have read a great deal of feminist literature. I love me some bell hooks...Read More
The "Gay Imam"
Filed by D Gregory Smith | March 07, 2011 3:00 PM |I get a lot of emails from friends who know that I love to read all sorts of things, but don't have a lot of time to search for it myself. One of my friends looks at websites from the...Read More
DOMA & the Death of My Beloved Partner
Filed by Guest Blogger | March 07, 2011 10:00 AM |Editors' Note: Guest blogger Ted Hayes is a retired chemist, Baptist minister and Doctor of Counseling. He was recently featured in D. Gregory Smith's post, "Educate Me." There is cause for a great deal of rejoicing these days. The Obama...Read More
Turn of the Century Butch: 19th Century Photos
Filed by Gloria Brame, Ph.D. | March 07, 2011 9:30 AM |Two fascinating photos, dated 1890, from a private estate sale. Presumably a bunch of 19th century misses that had a fun costume party, but do I sense a special tenderness between some of the couples! Photos like these pose so...Read More
New Free Legal Resource for LGBT Families
Filed by Nadine Smith | March 07, 2011 8:30 AM |For LGBT Floridians looking to navigate the legal landscape, Equality Florida is providing a free legal guide created in partnership with Carlton Fields, one of Florida's premier law firms. The Equality Florida Legal Handbook for LGBT Floridians and Their Families...Read More
An LGBT Centre in Ulaanbaatar, Mongolia
Filed by Guest Blogger | March 06, 2011 1:00 PM |Editors' Note: The Mongolian LGBT Centre is this year's awardee of the International Gay and Lesbian Human Rights Commission's Felipa de Souza award, which honors human rights defenders working on LGBT rights each year at it's a Celebration of Courage...Read More
DUI Arrest: Senator's One Year Coming Out Anniversary
Filed by Davina Kotulski | March 05, 2011 10:00 AM |This week marks the one year anniversary of former Senator Roy Ashburn's DUI arrest and subsequent coming out as a gay man. As you may recall, Republican Senator Roy Ashburn from Bakersfield, California, was arrested for drunk driving in Sacramento...Read More
Not Welcome: A Transwoman and the Plasma Center
Filed by Guest Blogger | March 04, 2011 2:00 PM |Editors' Note: Guest blogger Sera Wohldmann is a 23-year old recently post-operative transgender lesbian, a working musician by day, and a security guard by night. She currently lives in Hollywood, CA with her unemployed trans fiancée just trying to scrape...Read More
Conservative Campus Queers Revolt
Filed by Alex Blaze | March 04, 2011 1:00 PM |I posted a few weeks ago about Westmont College, which forces students to promise not to be gay, and the letter alumni and professors wrote talking about the negative effects of the school's homophobia. Even though the school receives federal...Read More
Life Partners: Vintage Lesbian Couples
Filed by Gloria Brame, Ph.D. | March 04, 2011 10:30 AM |It's a rare and beautiful thing when the person dissolving an estate can provide some brief background on the deceased. According to the auctioneer of these two images, they came from the estate of an elderly, openly lesbian woman and...Read More
Live Nude Sex Show!
Filed by Mercedes Allen | March 04, 2011 8:30 AM |The above is not what you would expect to be the heading used to advertise an elective on-campus speaker series event. But then, most of us never attended Northwestern University. After an initial discussion at Ryan Family Auditorium, the students...Read More
This Will Break Your Heart
Filed by Bil Browning | March 03, 2011 7:00 PM |Meet Derence Kernek and Ed Watson, a California couple who have been together for 40 years. They want the 9th Circuit federal court to lift the stay against same-sex marriage is California so they can get hitched. Why? Ed, who...Read More
Happy First Anniversary Washington, DC
Filed by Cathy Renna | March 03, 2011 4:00 PM |A year ago today, the District of Columbia became the first jurisdiction south of the Mason-Dixon line to legally marry same-sex couples. As I write "Happy First Anniversary" emails to the three couples I had the honor and pleasure of...Read More
In Defense of Nikolai Alexseev
Filed by Guest Blogger | March 03, 2011 2:00 PM |Editors' Note: Guest blogger John R. Selig is a gay dad, writer, photographer, podcaster and activist living in Dallas, Texas. Selig produces his "John Selig Outspoken" podcast to provide role models to gays, lesbians, bisexuals and transgender people. I am...Read More
Rev. Peter Gomes: Accidental Gay Advocate
Filed by Rev Irene Monroe | March 03, 2011 8:30 AM |If during your tenure as a student at Harvard you did not encounter the Reverend Peter J. Gomes, you have not had the quintessential Harvard experience. For undergraduates, if they were paying attention, Gomes bookended their four-year experience at Harvard...Read More
Are Our Politics Born of Immutable Principles?
Filed by Steven Cheslik-DeMeyer | March 02, 2011 3:00 PM |Since we plan to move in together, C, being more traditional than I am about these things, took me home to meet his family. Besides his mom and dad, his brother, his sister and her husband and baby were there....Read More
Six Naked Men: Vintage Photo [NSFW]
Filed by Gloria Brame, Ph.D. | March 02, 2011 2:30 PM |Did I ever mention how much it drives me crazy not to know the back-stories on many of the images I find, via auctions, estate sales, tumblr, and google searches? I love knowing the little details of human life. You...Read More
How Many Parents Does Rufus Wainwright's Daughter Have?
Filed by Nancy Polikoff | March 02, 2011 8:30 AM |Viva Katherine Wainwright Cohen (born February 2, 2011) is the heir to folk music royalty. As the granddaughter of Loudon Wainwright III, Kate McGarrigle, and Leonard Cohen, she starts off life with songs - and poetry - in her blood....Read More
Why I Am an Evangelical Christian
Filed by Rev. Emily C. Heath | March 01, 2011 5:00 PM |Growing up in the South, there was one phrase that could always strike terror in my heart: evangelical Christian. My town was overrun with Christians who claimed the label of "evangelical". For them, this did not mean spreading the good...Read More
Head Game: Vintage Queer Erotica [NSFW]
Filed by Gloria Brame, Ph.D. | March 01, 2011 4:30 PM |The first time I looked at this, I thought that was Groucho Marx getting oral sex from a big-bottomed gal, then I looked closer. This is a fabulous and rare photo of two women either having a little fun, or...Read More
UK Foster Parents Told They Can't Be Homophobic
Filed by Alex Blaze | March 01, 2011 3:30 PM |A couple in the UK, which had previously fostered almost twenty children and was considered an exemplary foster parenting couple, were told several years ago that they couldn't foster anymore because they're homophobic. They sued, and the court sided with...Read More
Touring an HIV+ Gay Sex Club: Serosorting in Action
Filed by Mark S. King | March 01, 2011 2:30 PM |The idea that HIV positive people still want sex is as old as The Denver Principles, the 1983 manifesto drawn up by gay men with AIDS that demanded "as full and satisfying a sexual and emotional life as anyone else."...Read More
Designer John Galliano Confuses Fascism with Fashion
Filed by Bil Browning | March 01, 2011 1:30 PM |What's the deal with the recent rash of celebrity implosions? I realize that there's always high drama surrounding these mostly nouveau riche stars and that addiction and mental illness often plays a role, but not since Mel Gibson's infamous racist...Read More
