The Movement: July 2007
Japanese lesbian fails to win election
Filed by Bil Browning | July 31, 2007 11:05 AM |Kanako Otsuji, Japan's first openly lesbian political candidate, failed to win a House of Councilor's seat in the general election. Otsuji-san was backed by a major party, the Rainbow and Greens coalition, and would have been Japan's first openly gay...Read More
My Special Reality
Filed by Ethan St. Pierre | July 30, 2007 2:42 PM |"Why don't you just demand your rights as an American instead of asking for Special Rights?" Transgender Americans are not asking for special rights but for the same rights that other people have. The fact that transgender Americans are NOT...Read More
Somebody's trying to be inclusive, cue Dan Savage whine
Filed by Alex Blaze | July 27, 2007 4:28 PM |Don pointed me to this Slog post that found this item on the University of Michigan webpage. The University's Office of LGBT Affairs is considering a name change for a number of reasons, including the fact that they'd like to...Read More
Why come out?
Filed by Alex Blaze | July 27, 2007 3:17 PM |Having been out on some level since I was 15 (it had a lot to do with a cute boy who I called up and "asked out".... oh, those were simpler days), and, as you likely know, it isn't always...Read More
Anti-gay hate crimes on the rise in the Netherlands
Filed by Alex Blaze | July 27, 2007 1:31 PM |From Radio Netherlands Worldwide: The homosexual interest group COC is also sounding the alarm. It says that "old-fashioned queer-bashing" is back. The Amsterdam police have also observed an increase in the number of reports of violence against homosexuals. In the...Read More
Gay zap at Ban Ki-Moon
Filed by Alex Blaze | July 27, 2007 11:28 AM |Michael Petrelis, et al, zapped UN Secretary General Ban Ki-Moon in San Francisco yesterday to protest the UN not talking about queer issues. Video from Zombie Time: Ban responded:...Read More
Is this activism?
Filed by Alex Blaze | July 26, 2007 4:34 PM |Charles Merrill, a really, really rich white gay guy (his late wife was the daughter of one of the Johnsons of Johnson & Johnson and he's the cousin of the Merrill in Merrill Lynch), burned a rare copy of the...Read More
Wyoming (IN)Equality
Filed by Marti Abernathey | July 26, 2007 1:00 PM |What the heck is up with Wyoming Equality? From their front page: An equality group is promoting The Michigan Womyn's Music Festival? For those that don't know, the Michigan Womyn's Music Festival is a "womyn born womyn" event that specifically...Read More
More sex fantasies in Fort Lauderdale, Florida
Filed by Alex Blaze | July 25, 2007 6:47 PM |About two weeks ago Fort Lauderdale mayor Jim Naugle said that he was going to try to install quarter-of-a-million-dollar toilets in that city to curb man-on-man bathroom sex that no one could confirm was actually happening. Yesterday the mayor apologized...Read More
Matt Foreman ROCKS!
Filed by Bil Browning | July 25, 2007 4:02 PM |Joe.My.God. sent us over a tip about a video he has up on his site featuring Bilerico Project contributor Matt Foreman speaking at the Flush Naugle rally yesterday in Ft. Lauderdale. (See this post for details behind the rally.) I...Read More
SF Gay Rape Reports Remind Us that Race Still Matters
Filed by H. Alexander Robinson | July 25, 2007 12:56 PM |I moved to San Francisco in late 1979. By then most of the gay bars had curbed their most overt form of racial discrimination and I could get a cocktail with only one maybe two forms of identification, though my...Read More
Note: Separate still isn't equal
Filed by Bil Browning | July 24, 2007 1:04 PM |Civil unions and domestic partnerships are taking a beating lately, aren't they? First UPS refuses to recognize New Jersey's civil unions as equal to marriage when it comes time to give insurance benefits to their same-sex employees. NJ Governor John...Read More
America Finally Spoke Up in Last Night’s Debate
Filed by H. Alexander Robinson | July 24, 2007 12:44 PM |The everyday American finally had a chance to weigh in on the presidential race last night in the CNN/YouTube debate. The new age, techno-savvy format allowed videos from everyday citizens to play across a massive screen giving candidates only 1...Read More
If the NAACP Can Bury the N-Word, Could the F-Word be Too Far behind?
Filed by H. Alexander Robinson | July 23, 2007 2:00 PM |For the third year in a row, the National Black Justice Coalition proudly and pro-actively participated in the NAACP annual convention. Once again NBJC hosted a prominent tradeshow booth where staff members spoke to hundreds of people and distributed many...Read More
Straight Pride gone bad
Filed by Alex Blaze | July 20, 2007 1:50 PM |From the Telluride Daily Planet: Down main street they came, wearing Brooks Brothers and waving signs that declared “Straight is Great,” and “Adam and Eve, not Adam and Steve.” They were the Straight Pride brigade, and they high-stepped through Telluride’s...Read More
Because women aren't pretty without Photoshop
Filed by Bil Browning | July 20, 2007 1:01 PM |Oh, Photoshop - the advertising world's best friend. Where would American life be without the re-touched, flaw free and completely unrealistic tweaks to our collective consumption of celebrities? While I posted a video a while back that shows you just...Read More
Highest court rules against HK sodomy law
Filed by Alex Blaze | July 18, 2007 1:35 PM |From the AP: Hong Kong's top court rejected a ban Tuesday on public gay sodomy, another victory for the Chinese territory's gay rights movement. This started with a case of two guys caught having sex in their car, which, strangely...Read More
Elizabeth Edwards Calls Out Bush Over Hate Crimes
Filed by Michael Crawford | July 17, 2007 10:05 AM |Hello gorgeous! I am psyched to be joining the Bilerico Project community and getting to know everyone. This site is pretty sweet and Bil, Alex, Jerame and co. should be very proud of what they are creating. Feel free to...Read More
Turkey is improving the lives of gays, slowly
Filed by Alex Blaze | July 17, 2007 7:37 AM |The AP has a story up about how gay life has changed over the past several decades in Turkey: In the 1980s and 1990s, Turkish police routinely raided gay bars, detained transvestites and banned homosexual conferences and festivals. In May,...Read More
Liberating Gender and Sexuality: Audio from the USSF
Filed by Jessica Hoffmann | July 16, 2007 9:16 AM |Audio from the "Liberating Gender and Sexuality" plenary at last month's U.S. Social Forum is available here. Moderator: Suzanne Pharr Speakers: Andrea Smith, Mia Mingus, Loretta Ross, Imani Henry, and Betita Martinez (The plenary begins after a pre-show by participants...Read More
Liberating Gender and Sexuality: Audio from the USSF
Filed by Jessica Hoffmann | July 16, 2007 9:16 AM |Audio from the "Liberating Gender and Sexuality" plenary at last month's U.S. Social Forum is available here. Moderator: Suzanne Pharr Speakers: Andrea Smith, Mia Mingus, Loretta Ross, Imani Henry, and Betita Martinez (The plenary begins after a pre-show by participants...Read More
Liberating Gender and Sexuality: Audio from the USSF
Filed by Jessica Hoffmann | July 16, 2007 9:16 AM |Audio from the "Liberating Gender and Sexuality" plenary at last month's U.S. Social Forum is available here. Moderator: Suzanne Pharr Speakers: Andrea Smith, Mia Mingus, Loretta Ross, Imani Henry, and Betita Martinez (The plenary begins after a pre-show by participants...Read More
Violence Against African Lesbians, Now
Filed by Jessica Hoffmann | July 16, 2007 8:31 AM |Go now: Read the discussions on violence against African lesbians and international queer solidarity in the wake of the murders of two South African lesbians last weekend at Black Looks and Women of Color Blog. Why are the international LGBT...Read More
Violence Against African Lesbians, Now
Filed by Jessica Hoffmann | July 16, 2007 8:31 AM |Go now: Read the discussions on violence against African lesbians and international queer solidarity in the wake of the murders of two South African lesbians last weekend at Black Looks and Women of Color Blog. Why are the international LGBT...Read More
We’re desperate. Shut up!
Filed by Matt Foreman | July 14, 2007 2:12 PM |If the country seems increasingly hungry for a change in power, I’d say the LGBT community is desperate. We’ve been taking it on the literal and figurative chin for years, and the extent to which anti-gay ignorance and bigotry has...Read More
Weekend queer reader
Filed by Alex Blaze | July 14, 2007 12:21 PM |Enrique Fernandez describes some of the many slang words for gay in Spanish: In gorgeous imagery, Lorca defended Whitman's love for men while mercilessly attacking homosexuals who display behavior associated with being "queer''-- a word that later generations would use...Read More
I finally figured out how to talk about cruising without talking about Rosie O'Donnell...
Filed by Mattilda Bernstein Sycamore | July 14, 2007 11:30 AM |It's the songs they play when you're cruising the video booths at the Nob Hill Theatre, they go something like this......Read More
Gravel's in!
Filed by Alex Blaze | July 13, 2007 5:06 PM |From the HRC: After enthusiastic community response, former Senator Mike Gravel has been invited to participate. Confirmed candidates now include, in alphabetical order, Senator Hillary Clinton (D-NY), Senator Christopher Dodd (D-CT), former Senator John Edwards (D-NC), Congressman Dennis Kucinich (D-OH)...Read More
Dykes on Bikes now have legal protection
Filed by Alex Blaze | July 13, 2007 2:18 PM |From the NCLR: The San Francisco Women's Motorcycle Contingent announced today that the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit issued a final ruling yesterday affirming the group's trademark of the name "DYKES ON BIKES." The Court of Appeals...Read More
Fight the right: not each other
Filed by Guest Blogger | July 13, 2007 12:32 PM |[EDITOR'S NOTE:] The following is a guest post by Michael Crawford. Michael is an African-American LGBT activist and blogger based in D.C. He has worked to advance LGBT civil rights at the national and state levels as a former staff...Read More
Here a Trick, There a Trick
Filed by Sean Kosofsky | July 12, 2007 4:41 PM |If you thought that losing control of Congress would mean we would hear less about Republican sex scandals, you were wrong. Two recent revelations about Republican elected officials continue the drum beat about hypocrisy within the conservative movement. The first,...Read More
Michael Moore's next movie on gay rights?
Filed by Bil Browning | July 12, 2007 2:24 PM |What's this floating around in rumor land? The Advocate has an interview with Michael Moore in the current issue where the filmmaker hints that the subject of his next movie might just be gay rights. I think it’s a very...Read More
Let Mike Gravel debate!
Filed by Alex Blaze | July 12, 2007 8:49 AM |Lane posted yesterday about how the HRC excluded Gravel, and only Gravel, from their invite list on the upcoming presidential debate. The HRC's Chris Johnson responds: The other standard we set was that the candidates we invited had to have...Read More
Same sex marriage: it's behind everything that's gone wrong!
Filed by Don Sherfick | July 12, 2007 8:15 AM |Jon Swift has written a delightful tongue-in-cheek piece here about the current revelations that Louisiana Republican Senator David Vitter's name appeared on lists kept by "D.C. Madame" Deborah Jeane Palfrey, and how his acknowledged marital transgressions were really due to,...Read More
Homophobia starts pouring in over HRC-sponsored presidential forum
Filed by Alex Blaze | July 11, 2007 6:13 PM |The forum that the HRC and Logo are sponsoring for the presidential candidates (only the big money ones, of course, because we wouldn't want poor people attending an HRC event) probably won't produce anything worth much out of these candidate....Read More
Shocker: former Surgeon General felt political pressure
Filed by Jen Jorczak | July 11, 2007 11:20 AM |As the Senate preps for confirmation hearings on his anti-gay would-be successor, former US Surgeon General Richard Carmona tells Congress: The administration... would not allow him to speak or issue reports about stem cells, emergency contraception, sex education, or prison,...Read More
Rick and Steve, meh, I'll hold off on judgment here
Filed by Alex Blaze | July 10, 2007 3:24 PM |Logo's launching Rick & Steve: The Happiest Gay Couple in the World, a Southpark-like gay puppet show. Here's a clip: Well, it doesn't look as terrible as Big Gay Sketch Show was, even though it's from the same creator....Read More
Dude, You're a Fag
Filed by Guest Blogger | July 10, 2007 10:00 AM |[EDITOR'S NOTE:] The following is a guest post by Michael Crawford. Michael is an African-American LGBT activist and blogger based in D.C. He has worked to advance LGBT civil rights at the national and state levels as a former staff...Read More
Lesbian Grandmothers from Mars
Filed by Lane Hudson | July 09, 2007 12:41 PM |Carrie and Elisia Ross-Stone are dedicated to the goal of marriage equality. But these grannies aren't sitting around in rocking chairs waiting for something to happen. Instead, they mounted their bicycles and rode across the country. TWICE. Along the way,...Read More
Welcome to my childhood dreams come true
Filed by Bil Browning | July 09, 2007 6:32 AM |Sometimes I look around at the world and I am amazed at how far the LGBTQ movement has made it so far. I came out in high school - around 1989 - and for a senior English assignment, I wrote...Read More
Trans hate crime is "justifiable"?
Filed by Bil Browning | July 06, 2007 12:04 PM |This is one of those cases that'll just make you seethe with anger. A trans woman is horribly beaten in Palm Springs, Florida and the judge decides it wasn't a hate crime, but instead commented, "In many ways it appears...Read More
Ban Straight Marriage
Filed by Guest Blogger | July 06, 2007 11:00 AM |(This guest post comes to us from Eric Marcus, an NYC-based author who wrote Making Gay History, Breaking the Surface, Is It A Choice?, and several other books on gay issues. He blogs at Up & Out. ~a.b.) I think...Read More
Mitt Romney won't kill you, but he sees where those who would are coming from
Filed by Alex Blaze | July 05, 2007 3:15 PM |In case you needed any more proof that the pro-life movement has little to do with actually promoting life (in the same way that the "traditional values" movement has little to do with tradition or values), here's a few words...Read More
Why "sodomize" and not "rape"?
Filed by Sean Kosofsky | July 05, 2007 8:36 AM |I have been waxing confused lately about the use of the term "sodomized" when referring to men who have been raped. It is on my mind because of the recent news that David Ritcheson, a young Mexican-American who was violently...Read More
Prayer good; compassion bad
Filed by Jen Jorczak | July 03, 2007 2:00 PM |Today, the Indianapolis Star writes about Jeanne Atkins, devout Catholic, cheesecake producer, and mother of gay stroke victim Patrick Atkins. Except that the Star left out that last bit. The entire article is about a (blessedly, optional) prayer group she's...Read More
That Mass. bar exam question
Filed by Alex Blaze | July 03, 2007 1:23 PM |Ellen posted yesterday about that guy suing the state bar association and individual justices on the Massachusetts Supreme Court for having to acknowledge that same-sex marriage is part of Massachusetts law. Well, someone on the internet thinks they know the...Read More
Thoughts on the pieing of Medea Benjamin
Filed by Mattilda Bernstein Sycamore | July 03, 2007 4:25 AM |Your browser is not able to display this multimedia content. When a friend of mine mentioned that Medea Benjamin, cofounder of Global Exchange and CODEPINK: Women for Peace (or Global Trade-Off and Code Pinkerton, as someone posts on San...Read More
Notes from the USSF (or, What Andrea Smith Said)
Filed by Jessica Hoffmann | July 02, 2007 7:25 PM |"How does heteropatriarchy keep white supremacy and colonialism in place? How does the heterosexual family serve as the building block of empire?" That's how INCITE!'s Andrea Smith opened Saturday night's plenary on "Liberating Gender and Sexuality" at the US Social...Read More
