The Movement: March 2008
From today's comics
Filed by Alex Blaze | March 31, 2008 9:02 PM |Today's For Better or for Worse: Ah! The return of Lawrence, FBOFW's gay character who earned himself a mention in a Michelle Malkin column (she wasn't pleased). I wonder about Connie, though, and whether or not she's learned anything from...Read More
DOMA, Obama, and Pennsylvania
Filed by Guest Blogger | March 31, 2008 11:30 AM |Editors' note: Jeremy Bishop is Executive Director of Pride At Work, the constituency group for lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender workers. Pride At Work does not endorse candidates on any level. In my job as Executive Director of Pride At...Read More
Celebrating Women's History Month, Victoria Woodhull and Sexual Freedom
Filed by Ricci Levy | March 31, 2008 8:02 AM |"A very large proportion of present social relations are commendable. Do you not perceive that the law has nothing to do in continuing the relations which are based on continuous love?" Victoria Woodhull (1838 - 1927) The first woman to...Read More
Celebrating Women's History Month, Victoria Woodhull and Sexual Freedom
Filed by Ricci Levy | March 31, 2008 8:02 AM |"A very large proportion of present social relations are commendable. Do you not perceive that the law has nothing to do in continuing the relations which are based on continuous love?" Victoria Woodhull (1838 - 1927) The first woman to...Read More
Quaker women: "She Hangs There as a Flag"
Filed by Patricia Nell Warren | March 30, 2008 8:19 AM |We spend so much time complaining about religions that persecute us that we sometimes forget about the religions that support the cause of human rights for LGBT people. The Quakers certainly should be recognized for being probably the first religion...Read More
Coming out to my host family
Filed by Alex Blaze | March 28, 2008 3:23 PM |When I came here to France, besides my coworkers, I knew nobody. That was OK since I immediately signed up for unlimited phone to the US and high-speed internet (all for 30 euro a month with basic cable included, thank...Read More
Boygirls, Pill Bugs, and Cool Dudes
Filed by Paige Schilt | March 28, 2008 2:07 PM |[Editor's note: Dr. Paige Schilt is a dyke mama, a "low femme" nerd, an activist, and an occasional professor of LGBT studies. She works as the Media Director for Soulforce.] Last week was spring break, so I got to spend...Read More
The pro-family movement failed
Filed by Alex Blaze | March 28, 2008 9:37 AM |Pregnancy discrimination claims are up 40% from 1998. Dana Goldstein also writes: Shallenbarger also writes that many American women, until they get pregnant, have no idea that they are entitled to no paid leave under current law. Indeed, a study...Read More
How does this video weird me out? Let me count the ways...
Filed by Alex Blaze | March 27, 2008 9:26 PM |From the HRC: iPhone users: Click to watch Yeeeeeaaaaaaaah...........Read More
Tonight On The Rebecca Juro Show: Alex Blaze
Filed by Rebecca Juro | March 27, 2008 5:46 PM |Tonight we're taking on the hot LGBT topics of the day with the Bilerico Project's Managing Editor Alex Blaze! ENDA! Hillary! Barack! Barney! Pregnant Men! Plus lots more! It's the "Rebecca Juro Show, tonight at 7pm eastern, 4pm pacific! Don't...Read More
Gay cheerleaders
Filed by Alex Blaze | March 27, 2008 4:37 PM |Check this out from Naomi Klein and Jeremy Scahill: Many argue otherwise. They say that if we want to end the war, we should simply pick a candidate who is not John McCain and help them win: We'll sort out...Read More
How things change
Filed by Jerame Davis | March 27, 2008 2:32 PM |I've talked a bit about my family's backward social positions on the blog before. Most folks who know me know I come from an extremely racist, homophobic, misogynistic family. For example, when I came out, my father banned me from...Read More
Where has the feminism gone in the LGBT movement? Sisters are doing it for themselves.
Filed by Cathy Renna | March 27, 2008 10:17 AM |There's been a lot of talk lately about the loss of the feminist roots in the LGBT movement, especially since the tremendously divisive and challenging debate over a trans-inclusive Employment Non-Discrimination Act. Brewing for years has been the lack of...Read More
Where has the feminism gone in the LGBT movement? Sisters are doing it for themselves.
Filed by Cathy Renna | March 27, 2008 10:17 AM |There's been a lot of talk lately about the loss of the feminist roots in the LGBT movement, especially since the tremendously divisive and challenging debate over a trans-inclusive Employment Non-Discrimination Act. Brewing for years has been the lack of...Read More
Happy Birthday Gloria Steinem
Filed by Serena Freewomyn | March 25, 2008 5:30 PM |Foxy feminist and founder of Ms. Magazine, Gloria Steinem, turns 74 today. She's just as active today as she was in the 70's, and we womyn have so much to thank her for. In my mind, it would be harder...Read More
Spotlight on family values
Filed by Bil Browning | March 25, 2008 12:05 PM |Save these dates, because I've got a couple great event notices that you won't want to miss! April 9 Central Indiana Community Foundation (CICF) is presenting their 7th annual forum about challenges and opportunities offered by unique communities. Previous forum...Read More
The Inexcusable
Filed by Sara Whitman | March 25, 2008 9:30 AM |I was forwarded an article today by Linda Burnham, The Tightrope and the Needle. "Liberal feminists have every right to spend down their political capital on behalf of Hillary Rodham Clinton. Hard choices have to made; political debts have to...Read More
Made in Secret: the story of the East Van porn collective, and me
Filed by Mattilda Bernstein Sycamore | March 25, 2008 8:45 AM |The first time I did porn I was 19 and I needed the money, it was awful and traumatizing really because they didn't tell me what they were going to do ahead of time, just: will you bottom? Then spray-painted...Read More
EarthThunder: Medicine Woman working for our planet
Filed by Patricia Nell Warren | March 25, 2008 5:32 AM |Like many Americans, I have some First Nation ancestry braided with the European ancestry in my family roots. When I connected with a few tribal cousins, I started hearing stories about family groups back in the 1800s who had never...Read More
Could a gay running mate energize the Republican ticket?
Filed by Alex Blaze | March 24, 2008 4:43 PM |It would sure get them media attention: So when Crist earlier this month introduced 38-year-old socialite Carole Rome as "my girlfriend" at a Governor's Mansion reception, tongues wagged: Could she be 'the one,' the future first lady of Florida? Or...Read More
Amelia Earhart: You have to think like a pilot
Filed by Patricia Nell Warren | March 22, 2008 11:28 AM |Some great women go on making headlines long after their deaths. Earhart is one of those. She's unforgettable for her efforts to make way for women in aviation -- and for her disappearance on July 3, 1937, after she and...Read More
A champion for all of us: Marv Johnson, 1955-2008
Filed by Ricci Levy | March 21, 2008 4:22 PM |The American Civil Liberties Union today expressed its deep sorrow over the death of First Amendment Counsel Marvin Johnson, who passed away last night after a long battle with complications from diabetes. Before he joined the Washington Legislative Office in...Read More
The invisible queer woman
Filed by Guest Blogger | March 21, 2008 3:07 PM |[Editor's note:] This guest post is by [f]embody, one of the many fabulous bloggers at Below the Belt, a fresh, hip, and fun gender and sexuality theory blog that's definitely worth checking out if you haven't. Recently, I got out...Read More
Tonight On The Rebecca Juro Show: Marti Abernathey and Rye Seronie
Filed by Rebecca Juro | March 20, 2008 5:52 PM |The team is back in full swing as Marti and Rye join me tonight for good fun and good conversation! Plus, your phone calls! Barney Frank: First he's against inclusive workplace legislation, then he's for it, then he's against it,...Read More
A Radical Homosexual Activist donates blood
Filed by Alex Blaze | March 20, 2008 1:58 PM |Here's a letter to the editor that appeared in the January edition of Têtu, France's response to The Advocate: Normally, gays aren't allowed to donate blood, but I went anyway, hiding my sexuality because I think blood donation is required...Read More
June Jordan: Boundary Crosser
Filed by Rev Irene Monroe | March 20, 2008 10:21 AM |When asked by a friend what would I write my column on this week in celebration of Women's History Month, I turned to him with my usual grimace of uncertainty and said, "Perhaps, it will be on one of my...Read More
June Jordan: Boundary Crosser
Filed by Rev Irene Monroe | March 20, 2008 10:21 AM |When asked by a friend what would I write my column on this week in celebration of Women's History Month, I turned to him with my usual grimace of uncertainty and said, "Perhaps, it will be on one of my...Read More
Live Journal John Aravosis Horror
Filed by Alex Blaze | March 19, 2008 8:09 PM |Last night I was trolling around the internet looking for the original source of some RuPaul quote and I stumbled on a drag queen's Live Journal with a Technorati authority in the single digits and I'm totally sure this one...Read More
Pioneering Woman Racehorse Trainer
Filed by Patricia Nell Warren | March 19, 2008 6:08 PM |"Women's history" is still such a new concept that many of us, as kids, knew a woman who dared to make female footprints across some new planet. For me, in the sports world, trainer Janet Thomson was one of those....Read More
More on "that" being "so gay"
Filed by Alex Blaze | March 19, 2008 1:04 PM |A study by the Association of Teachers and Lecturers found that the top insult in UK schools is "gay," with 83% of teachers reporting hearing it. The others were Bitch (59%), Slag (45%), Poof (29%), Batty boy (29%), Slut (26%),...Read More
Writer/Warrior Alexis De Veaux
Filed by Guest Blogger | March 19, 2008 8:23 AM |[Editor's Note]: Guest blogger Alexis Pauline Gumbs is the founder of BrokenBeautiful Press and is a doctoral candidate in English, Africana Studies and Women's Studies at Duke University. Alexis is also the author of the column "But Some of Us...Read More
Be a Trans Ally
Filed by Bruce Parker | March 18, 2008 1:15 PM |In the Out Magazine April 2008 Transgender Issue, hidden at the bottom of page 25 is a really strong list of five ways to be a trans ally, by Dean Spade. Dean is a Harvard Law teaching fellow and founder...Read More
Transgender History: Toward the Future (1996-2007)
Filed by Mercedes Allen | March 18, 2008 9:30 AM |[EDITOR'S NOTE:] Frequent guest blogger Mercedes Allen has written a six part history of transgender people for the Project that is running weekly on Tuesdays. A listing of the other sections is at the bottom of the post. It is...Read More
The Marriage Narratives
Filed by Andrea Hildebran | March 18, 2008 9:24 AM |Have you seen David Patterson, brand-spanking new governor of New York admit to an extra-marital affair during his marriage? I love the candor - and even more I love what a different picture he's painted about marriage than what the...Read More
Women who are violent against other women
Filed by Patricia Nell Warren | March 17, 2008 3:50 PM |Women's History Month is a good time to pat ourselves on the back -- but it's also a critical time to remind ourselves that we have a long way to go yet. Case in point: some recent ugly incidents around...Read More
Women who are violent against other women
Filed by Patricia Nell Warren | March 17, 2008 3:50 PM |Women's History Month is a good time to pat ourselves on the back -- but it's also a critical time to remind ourselves that we have a long way to go yet. Case in point: some recent ugly incidents around...Read More
Response to "Gender: The Final Frontier"
Filed by Bruce Parker | March 17, 2008 2:45 PM |My response to "Gender: The Final Frontier" by Josh Kilmber-Purcell is a part of my weeklong obsessive dissection of Out magazine's transgender issue. When, from time to time, I do pick up Out, I always enjoy Kilmer-Purcell's column. He is...Read More
A defining moment...
Filed by Waymon Hudson | March 16, 2008 12:29 PM |I've been doing research for an educational project on LGBT activism and came across this picture. I get goosebumps every time I see it. I wanted to share it, especially in light of Women's History Month. Four years before the...Read More
I Hear A Fat Lady Singing......
Filed by Don Sherfick | March 14, 2008 7:55 PM |The current session of the Indiana General Assembly adjourned today, and that means that SJR7, the so-called "Marriage Protection Amendment" (many prefer "Marriage Discrimination Amendment") to the Indiana Constitution is finished. Good Riddance! I'll be posting a few thoughts concerning...Read More
Gays Pay More Taxes Than Churches -- Good Point
Filed by Dustin Kight | March 14, 2008 3:34 PM |Tulsa World has an interesting article up about the response to Oklahoma State Rep. Sally Kern's hateful comments about gays. Since Kern claims that gays are a worse threat to this nation than Islam and the terrorists (I'm paraphrasing here),...Read More
Tell it like it is, Fox News viewers
Filed by Alex Blaze | March 14, 2008 12:05 AM |Check out what Greta van Susteren had to say on Fox News' website (via Hullabaloo): No doubt these days are extremely painful for Governor Spitzer's wife Silda. In addition to her own pain, she has 3 children -- and no...Read More
Honoring Intersex Activist Cheryl Chase
Filed by Serena Freewomyn | March 13, 2008 1:28 PM |Imagine you're a parent and your child is born with "ambiguous" genitals and the doctors tell you that you have to make a choice. Your child must undergo surgery to "correct" the genitals so that you can check off male...Read More
Enough Already!
Filed by Sara Whitman | March 13, 2008 8:45 AM |Ah, the debate between Obama and Clinton camps rages on. Personally, I'm sick of it. No one comes up with anything new, same accusations are flying back and forth. No one is going to convince me Obama is the savior,...Read More
Language gap
Filed by Alex Blaze | March 12, 2008 3:54 PM |Here's a letter to the editor printed in the Arizona Republic from someone who I'm sure is sweet: Call me of the older generation, but I remember a time when to be identified as gay was to be identified as...Read More
Sex, Exploitation and 'Victimless' Crimes
Filed by Andrea Hildebran | March 12, 2008 2:24 PM |Anyone who felt like defending Spitzer as having got caught in a "victimless" crime got slapped down today in a New York Times oped piece this morning. Now, I agree with a lot of what the authors say about prostitution....Read More
Sex, Exploitation and 'Victimless' Crimes
Filed by Andrea Hildebran | March 12, 2008 2:24 PM |Anyone who felt like defending Spitzer as having got caught in a "victimless" crime got slapped down today in a New York Times oped piece this morning. Now, I agree with a lot of what the authors say about prostitution....Read More
Tituba - The Black Witch of Salem
Filed by Rev Irene Monroe | March 12, 2008 11:35 AM |Residing a stone's throw from Salem, Massachusetts, as I celebrate Women's History Month, I am reminded of one of this nation's earliest examples of home-grown domestic terrorism - the Salem Witch Trails of 1692. This haunting history of the Puritan's...Read More
An open letter to Sally Kern
Filed by Chuck Wolfe | March 11, 2008 4:00 PM |Dear Sally, I saw the statement you released yesterday in which you said your "hate speech" is merely "free speech." That's kind of gross, but it's also beside the point. The point is this: your words have consequences. Ask Judy...Read More
Living in Obamaland and hoping for a reality check
Filed by Jerame Davis | March 11, 2008 2:46 PM |Does anyone besides me wonder what the Obama supporters have been smoking lately? I find it fascinating that if Hillary's people say Obama is not ready, she's a witch and will do anything to win, but Obama's supporters give his...Read More
AFA's Day of Absence
Filed by Terrance Heath | March 11, 2008 1:13 PM |It's an old cliché, but nonetheless true: even a broken watch is right twice a day. The same can be said for even the most bigoted organizations of the religious right. (Maybe it's just that if you keep moving to...Read More
How Eliot Spitzer screwed the gays
Filed by Mike Rogers | March 11, 2008 9:15 AM |When I worked at the National Gay and Lesbian Task Force in the mid-90's I used to say that the last generation busted open the closet and that this generation's challenge is to secure marriage rights in at least one...Read More
Ali G on Feminism
Filed by Serena Freewomyn | March 09, 2008 2:37 PM |In a more lighthearted celebration of Women's History Month, I give you Ali G's thoughts about feminism, which are almost as good as Borat's thoughts about the same subject. iPhone users: Click to watch I think all girls should try...Read More
The Art of Claude Cahun
Filed by Serena Freewomyn | March 09, 2008 12:37 PM |When I discovered the work of photographer Claude Cahun, I was intrigued. When I read more about hir life, I was drawn in even more. Claude Cahun was a surrealist artist who focused on the subject of gender. Born Lucy...Read More
Honoring Lesbian Shero Joan Gibbs
Filed by Guest Blogger | March 08, 2008 4:17 PM |Editors' Note:Our posts for Women's History Month were so good that we've decided to make it a regular weekend feature. This post is from Alexis Pauline Gumbs, the founder of BrokenBeautiful Press and doctoral candidate in English, Africana Studies and...Read More
Happy International Women's Day!
Filed by Jessica Hoffmann | March 08, 2008 2:24 PM |Hope you're marching, striking, laughing, loving ... celebrating and working for change however you do it. Want to find an event near you? Check out the Global Women's Strike site. Read about IWD, Gaza-style, here (link via brownfemipower). This year's...Read More
Larry Craiging
Filed by Alex Blaze | March 07, 2008 2:04 PM |Florida's gay governor Charlie Crist seems to have a girlfriend: For months, Gov. Charlie Crist has insisted that New York socialite Carol Rome is just "a friend," but Tuesday night at a soiree in the Governor's Mansion, he introduced her...Read More
Tonight On The Rebecca Juro Show: Donna Rose
Filed by Rebecca Juro | March 06, 2008 4:06 PM |Tonight, my guest will be former Human Rights Campaign Executive Board Member, blogger, and Bilerico Project contributor Donna Rose. Donna Rose served as HRC's first and only transgender Executive Board member until late last year when she resigned in protest...Read More
True Colors Tour Partners with GLBT Community Centers
Filed by David Mariner | March 05, 2008 4:13 PM |Today Cyndi Lauper and the True Colors Tour announced an exciting partnership with CenterLink and GLBT Community Centers around the country. The True Colors Tour is hitting the road this summer, spreading the message of GLBT equality and highlighting the...Read More
LGBTQ Community Too Sharp For Recycled Propaganda
Filed by Rev Irene Monroe | March 04, 2008 8:45 PM |If Illinois Sen. Barack Obama's recent flood of campaign literature can be believed, then his recent media buys in Ohio and Texas might be a sign of "a change of heart" or, as we say in religious language, a "conversion,"...Read More
Transgender history: From Germany to Stonewall (1933 - 1968)
Filed by Mercedes Allen | March 04, 2008 10:45 AM |[EDITOR'S NOTE:] Frequent guest blogger Mercedes Allen has written a six part history of transgender people for the Project that is running weekly on Tuesdays. A listing of the other sections is at the bottom of the post. The 1920s...Read More
More and more misogyny in the Washington Post
Filed by Alex Blaze | March 04, 2008 9:20 AM |Please, someone, just make it stop. I know it sells papers to pander to the most hateful among us. I know some people love reading contrarian screeds, no matter how idiotic and poorly researched, just to have something to disagree...Read More
Jasmyne's Not Racist
Filed by Monica Roberts | March 03, 2008 11:50 PM |One thing I've noted in our ongoing struggle in the United States to overcome our negative past in terms of race relations is we aren't speaking the same language. Yes, we all speak our version of English here in the...Read More
Women's History Month: The Latest Femicide
Filed by Patricia Nell Warren | March 03, 2008 4:09 PM |Amid our celebration of important women through the ages, we must keep our eyes on the staggering task still ahead. Violence against women is a huge global problem -- and it is growing. Indeed, as the world becomes ever more...Read More
How do you think I'm doing?
Filed by Kate Clinton | March 03, 2008 2:35 PM |In addition to its fabled lilacs, Rochester is becoming justly famous for its LGBT Film Festival, presented by ImageOut. They had a benefit concert to advertise and subsidize their wonderful festival and they invited me! We brought the Hilarity Clinton...Read More
TransLaw at Harvard: Discussions of Law, Justice and Equality
Filed by Donna Rose | March 02, 2008 10:40 PM |I'm in chilly Cambridge, MA at Harvard Law School this weekend (yes, that Harvard) participating in a Trans Law conference organized by Harvard Law School Lambda. It's comprised of a number of panels led by an impressive array of nationally...Read More
Women's History Month: Standing on the Shoulders of Giants
Filed by Serena Freewomyn | March 02, 2008 1:35 PM |When we kicked off Women's History Month yesterday, I gave you a quote from my favorite historian Gerda Lerner. Here's another one from my favorite book The Creation of Feminist Consciousness: . . . [E]ducated women have had to develop...Read More
Women's History Month: Lady Mary Villiers
Filed by Patricia Nell Warren | March 01, 2008 5:56 PM |For the past several years, I've done profiles on LGBT history for Outsports.com, and will continue this thread for Bilerico during Women's History Month. Often I stub my toe on surprising stories that have been overlooked -- especially sportswomen whom...Read More
Women's History Month: Lady Mary Villiers
Filed by Patricia Nell Warren | March 01, 2008 5:56 PM |For the past several years, I've done profiles on LGBT history for Outsports.com, and will continue this thread for Bilerico during Women's History Month. Often I stub my toe on surprising stories that have been overlooked -- especially sportswomen whom...Read More
Ellen DeGeneres: We Must Change the Message
Filed by Michael Crawford | March 01, 2008 11:21 AM |I posted Ellen DeGeneres commentary on Lawrence King, the openly gay 15 year old who was murdered by a 14 year old classmate, under the You Gotta See This section in the middle column. But, I want to make sure...Read More
Women's History: Bilerico Style
Filed by Serena Freewomyn | March 01, 2008 8:06 AM |If you're a history nut like me, you've been enjoying all of the posts throughout February in celebration of Black History Month. Since we like to let the good times roll here at The Bilerico Project, we're dressing up the...Read More
