The Movement: January 2009
Creating Change, Day 4: They Got You Covered
Filed by Waymon Hudson | January 31, 2009 5:30 PM |Today was another day full of amazing sessions and institutes. Every issue you can imagine, from healthcare to identity-based politics to youth to faith, had a great space for discussion and communal learning. One of the things that keeps striking...Read More
State of the Movement
Filed by Guest Blogger | January 30, 2009 8:30 PM |UPDATE: Video excerpts of Rea's speech have been added at the end of the post. Editors' Note: Rea Carey, Executive Director of the National Gay and Lesbian Task Force delivered the following speech at the 21st National Conference on LGBT...Read More
Creating Change, Day 3: So Many Sessions, So Little Time!
Filed by Waymon Hudson | January 30, 2009 6:00 PM |I've been doing my best to cover as many events as possible over Day 1 and Day 2 of the Creating Change Conference in Denver, but today it was impossible to get to everything, even for a speedy guy like...Read More
Vegetarians are so gay
Filed by Alex Blaze | January 30, 2009 2:30 PM |Apparently a master of the universe can be completely incompetent, but he can't be vegetarian. A foreign exchange trader in NYC is suing because, he says, his boss made up an excuse to fire him after letting loose a slew...Read More
A very special interview with Dolores Huerta
Filed by Bil Browning | January 30, 2009 1:00 PM |This is one of those stories that will stick with me for the rest of my life. During the Indianapolis event for the National Day of Protest, I shot some video of various attendees and one of them was Daniel,...Read More
Best Creating Change Swag EVER: The Amazing Transgender Equality Pen!
Filed by Waymon Hudson | January 30, 2009 12:00 PM |So the best swaggy giveaway at the Creating Change Conference is by far the National Center for Transgender Equality's "Amazing Transgender Equality Pen." (click the photo to enlarge). For those that can't make out the writing in the picture, here's...Read More
Building bridges across our communities
Filed by Bil Browning | January 30, 2009 10:00 AM |I had a chance to sit down with Lisa Weiner-Mahfuz, NGLTF's Director of Capacity Building. Lisa arranged all of Wednesday's sessions on race relations. At one of the sessions, I noticed a sign on the door that read: Building Bridges...Read More
Creating Change, Day 2: Issues, Issues, Issues!
Filed by Waymon Hudson | January 29, 2009 8:00 PM |The second day of the Creating Change Conference in Denver has been packed full of amazing sessions and discussions. The toughest part about today was choosing where to go, since all the topics were so important and interesting. I popped...Read More
Sue Hyde: Creating Change's architect
Filed by Bil Browning | January 29, 2009 7:00 PM |If you don't know Sue Hyde, you should. Sue is the Director of Creating Change and is responsible for organizing this huge conference of queer activists and academics. Literally, she is the busiest person at Creating Change since everyone needs...Read More
Short interviews on race relations in the LGBT community
Filed by Bil Browning | January 29, 2009 1:30 PM |Yesterday's sessions at Creating Change were about racial issues in the LGBT community. (See Jerame and Waymon's posts for more in depth info on the different group sessions they each attended.) I spent some time yesterday afternoon asking attendees to...Read More
SAVE THE DATE: Rally in Tally for LGBT Equality
Filed by Michael Emanuel Rajner | January 29, 2009 10:00 AM |On Monday, March 16, 2009 hundreds of lesbian, gay, bi-sexual and transgender persons will travel to Tallahassee to engage and educate state legislators to advance civil rights for all people. Come to Tallahassee empowered and have your voice heard! Trainings...Read More
People of Color and the LGBT Movement at Creating Change
Filed by Jerame Davis | January 28, 2009 7:30 PM |Creating Change 2009 is off to a great start. Denver is a fabulous host city, even if it's below freezing and there is snow on the ground, we don't have the 12 inches of snow that's being reported back home...Read More
Creating Change, Day 1: Racial and Economic Justice
Filed by Waymon Hudson | January 28, 2009 6:30 PM |Today was the first full day of Creating Change and it started with a subject that touches everyone- Racial and Economic Justice. This topic has kicked off the Creating Change Conference for the past 35 years and continues to be...Read More
Did We Just Stumble on Another Gay Scandal?
Filed by Waymon Hudson | January 28, 2009 2:30 PM |As if flying weren't bad enough nowadays, it seems that cluelessness is on the rise in the skies. As most of you know, I spent yesterday flying to Denver for the Creating Change conference. As if going from 78 degree...Read More
Is It Justice Yet?
Filed by Rebecca Juro | January 27, 2009 6:00 PM |Editor's update: After some quirkiness with the comments earlier, they're working fine now. Sorry about the delay. Nope, not yet. So here we are, as of this writing just over one week into the Obama Administration. While it would be...Read More
Obama to America: The fundies are still in charge
Filed by Alex Blaze | January 27, 2009 3:00 PM |You want to know who still runs this country? Here's a clue... Christian Defense Coalition calls Speaker Pelosi's decision to add contraceptives to the economic stimulus package bigoted, racist, elitist and anti-child. It is unthinkable that the Speaker of House...Read More
New Coalition of LGBT Groups forms in Florida
Filed by Waymon Hudson | January 26, 2009 10:00 AM |Organizations United Together, or "OUT," a new federation of local LGBT and allied organizations held its first statewide meeting on January 24 in Orlando. According to the press statement, nearly 100 local leaders from across the state met to share...Read More
Knowing Our Enemy: A Closer Look at the Yes on 8 Lobby
Filed by Patricia Nell Warren | January 25, 2009 2:30 PM |In war, it's the basic axiom that you can't win if you don't know your enemy. Clearly, we who opposed Prop 8 don't know our enemy well enough. If we had, we could have gotten Prop 8 defeated. And the...Read More
The Day I Saved a Life
Filed by Guest Blogger | January 25, 2009 1:00 PM |Editor's Note: "Stories from the Helpline" is a recurring feature on The Bilerico Project, bringing in the personal accounts of Helpline counselors from The Trevor Project. The Trevor Project is a non-profit organization that operates the only nationwide, around-the-clock crisis...Read More
Just Say No to Civil Unions -- Hard Evidentiary Version
Filed by Marla R. Stevens | January 24, 2009 4:00 PM |Regarding civil marriage vs. civil unions, a few of us have been crying in the wilderness about things like ... separate ain't equal and never will be and what faux equality does to people's heads and that self-imposing more of it would be just plain shoot-yerself-in-the-foot dumb. Now we've got gummint-sponsored proof by way of the New Jersey Civil Union Commission.Read More
National Gay and Lesbian Task Force Leadership Awards kickoff in Manhattan
Filed by Father Tony | January 23, 2009 12:30 PM |You know you are back in New York City when you are already running late for something while waiting for the fasten-seatbelt sign to go off. (In Fort Lauderdale, I am never late for anything because there's nothing to schedule....Read More
Gays should celebrate Roe anniversary
Filed by Sean Kosofsky | January 23, 2009 10:00 AM |The November elections are only the beginning. We must continue to shovel layer upon layer of dirt onto the grave of right wing political playbooks that have hurt so many Americans. Last year I left the Triangle Foundation in Michigan...Read More
Another Culture War Chickenhawk
Filed by Alex Blaze | January 21, 2009 2:30 PM |Here's another example of a right-winger who thinks that her personal morality means she can violate another person's body. At least she's being sued. The patient went to the Presbyterian Health Services Rio Rancho Family Health Center in Rio Rancho,...Read More
Of Icebergs and the Mormon Church
Filed by Bobby Parker | January 21, 2009 1:00 PM |Wake up people! We have seen only the tip of the Mormon Church Iceberg. There is so much underneath that the average person would be astonished at the depth and breadth of an organization that thinks it is the only...Read More
Warren Who?
Filed by Marla R. Stevens | January 21, 2009 12:00 PM |I feel like I've drawn my first deep breath in over eight years, now that the Hopester is the new prez.....And, as for Rick Warren's performance, it was the dud of the day. ... We made our point and he struck himself out. Score us the big winner of that round.Read More
What the LGBT Community is Up Against
Filed by Michael Crawford | January 20, 2009 5:30 PM |Waymon asked if the LGBT community needs new thinking for a new president. Judging from some of the predictably bitter comments to Waymon's post and the conspiratorial outrage over technical difficulties and scheduling mishaps around the Gene Robinson inaugural concert...Read More
A new website with a new agenda
Filed by Jerame Davis | January 20, 2009 2:30 PM |In the Internet age, the real proof that change has come to the White House can be seen by surfing over to WhiteHouse.gov. President Obama's new website is live and it is just as amazing and groundbreaking as his campaign...Read More
Moving Beyond Bush: A Long Road Ahead
Filed by Waymon Hudson | January 20, 2009 10:30 AM |The Bush Legacy. The words alone send shivers down my spine and causes my blood to boil. For eight years, we have seen this administration tear apart virtually every part of our lives. War, recession, torture, job loss, deregulation, stripping...Read More
Does the LGBT Community Need New Thinking for a New President?
Filed by Waymon Hudson | January 19, 2009 11:00 AM |I'll be the first to admit that after 8 years of horrendous Bush policies and many more years of seeing our community sacrificed on the altar of politics, I have grown cynical and combative. After so much betrayal, demonization, and...Read More
No. 44: A Cause for Celebration
Filed by H. Alexander Robinson | January 19, 2009 10:00 AM |The inauguration of Barack H. Obama as the 44th president of the United States is cause for pride and hopefulness for America and the world. Sen. Obama's campaign heralded a transformational message of progressive change. His very election, as the...Read More
If I was straight
Filed by Annette Gross | January 18, 2009 5:30 PM |My son sent me this video. It's entitled "If I was straight......." The young man in it speaks about how being gay has made him stronger and more accepting of other people. There is a mom in our PFLAG chapter...Read More
Get Your Hot, Fresh Abortion Doughnuts!
Filed by Waymon Hudson | January 18, 2009 1:00 PM |Let's take a minute to go down the rabbit hole (or doughnut hole, in this case) with yet another bizarre fundie press statement... Krispy Kreme Doughnuts, like every other business in the country, is looking to get in on all...Read More
Phelps Clan is a No Show in South Florida
Filed by Anthony Niedwiecki | January 17, 2009 4:00 PM |Last night, the Westboro Baptist Church, the group run by Fred Phelps that is best known for their disturbing anti-gay signs and protests at military funerals, failed to show up at their own scheduled protest at the Rising Action Theatre...Read More
Your Pink Sheets Are Showing
Filed by Monica Roberts | January 17, 2009 4:00 PM |I wrote a post a little over 24 hours ago on TransGriot that basically called the gay community out for their continued pattern of knee jerk hostility to President-elect Barack Obama dating back to last year's Democratic primary. I pointed...Read More
Acceptance is Key to Combating LGBTQ Youth Suicide
Filed by Guest Blogger | January 17, 2009 2:30 PM |Editor's Note: Guest blogger Charles Robbins is Executive Director and CEO of The Trevor Project. At The Trevor Project, we listen to young people every day who confirm exactly what the new study from the Family Acceptance Project at San...Read More
George Will: Lying, snooty homophobe
Filed by Alex Blaze | January 15, 2009 6:00 PM |Long-time readers of this blog know that I plain don't like George Will. There isn't much space between him and the farthest right on substance, but he's usually held up as a "true conservative," a "respectable conservative," or an "intellectual...Read More
Rev. Al Sharpton on Marriage, Mormons and Prop. 8
Filed by Michael Crawford | January 15, 2009 2:00 PM |Rev. Al Sharpton left no doubt on where he stands on marriage equality and the passage of Prop. 8 in his speech at Tabernacle Baptist Church in Atlanta: It amazes me when I looked at California and saw churches that...Read More
How Prop 8 Hurts Families
Filed by Dana Rudolph | January 15, 2009 10:00 AM |"My six-year old, the day after we lost Prop 8, asked me, with tears running down his face, if we were still a family." —Contra Costa County Another Contra Costa parent explained, "My eight year old daughter heard many...Read More
The Chickenhawks of the Culture War
Filed by Alex Blaze | January 14, 2009 5:00 PM |I think we've been noticing a disturbing trend among the Religious Right in their attempts to impose their beliefs on the rest of us. They have, for some time, been developing an ethical framework in which someone can do something,...Read More
Oops. We were just kidding.
Filed by Mercedes Allen | January 14, 2009 3:00 PM |The Kalamazoo City Council knuckles under. When Kalamazoo, Michigan had passed an ordinance that prohibits discrimination in employment, housing or access to public resources on the basis of sexual orientation and gender identity, the American Family Association and others led...Read More
Equality Matters: Online March for LGBT Equality
Filed by Michael Crawford | January 14, 2009 1:00 PM |Equality Matters is launching an Online March for LGBT Equality set for the week of the presidential inauguration January 17-24. Equality Matters is using the power of social networking sites like Facebook, MySpace and Twitter to spread the message about...Read More
Body Talk
Filed by Tobi Hill-Meyer | January 14, 2009 10:00 AM |A year ago, I was joining the cast of a personal theater show, Body Talk, which was designed to provide a similar opportunity for empowering women as the Vagina Monologues, but with the freedom to write our own pieces. Despite...Read More
Maine marriage advocates go on the offensive
Filed by Alex Blaze | January 13, 2009 5:00 PM |From the Maine Civil Liberties Union's executive director, Shenna Bellows. They've built a coalition and they're going to push a referendum to recognize same-sex couple's marriages. This is the direction we need to be going in, bringing the battles to...Read More
LGBT Civil Rights legislation: Let's be bold
Filed by Guest Blogger | January 13, 2009 10:00 AM |Editors' note: Guest blogger David Mixner is former strategist and adviser to several presidential campaigns, including those for McGovern, Clinton, and Gephardt. He currently works as an activist for AIDS, LGBT rights, and wildlife. David writes from Turkey Hollow, his...Read More
Gay Bishop to Deliver Invocation at Inaugural Event
Filed by Michael Crawford | January 12, 2009 3:00 PM |Openly gay Bishop Gene Robinson has been invited by President-elect Barack Obama's inaugural committee to deliver the invocation at a concert held at the Lincoln Memorial. The concert will be held on Sunday, January 18th and will be the first...Read More
Author of Trans Workplace Study Speaks Out
Filed by Paige Schilt | January 12, 2009 1:30 PM |Back in October, the B.E. Journal of Economic Analysis and Policy published an article examining the salary and workplace experiences of transgender men and women "before and after" transition. The article, which was co-authored by economist Matthew Wiswall and sociologist...Read More
Hulu Sunday: Edna Garrett on marriage
Filed by Alex Blaze | January 11, 2009 4:00 PM |Straight from 1982, here's the episode of Facts of Life where Mrs. Garrett discusses the meaning of marriage. I thought it would be illuminating because of the ways in which the Religious Right has constructed false narratives about the importance...Read More
Mary Bonauto Gets Raw and Real About Marriage Equality
Filed by Dana Rudolph | January 11, 2009 1:00 PM |Mary Bonauto, lead counsel in the Massachusetts case that won same-sex couples the right to wed, spoke in November at a WBUR Kennedy Library Forum about marriage equality. When asked about the potential impact of the demonstrations that have sprung...Read More
Bipart bad, reason #2905: Equal pay for equal work passed House
Filed by Alex Blaze | January 10, 2009 2:30 PM |The House passed two bills this past week to protect equal pay for equal work, the Lilly Ledbetter Act and an amendment to the Paycheck Fairness Act. The former passed with three Republicans voting for it, the latter with ten....Read More
Larry Craig gave up the fight
Filed by Alex Blaze | January 09, 2009 2:00 PM |Larry Craig has stopped his legal battle. It was impossible and went on far longer than it should have - there was no way that confession and plea agreement was going to be overturned. Not on the first appeal, not...Read More
The Mormon Church and Proposition 8
Filed by Guest Blogger | January 09, 2009 12:00 PM |Editors' note: This guest post comes to The Bilerico Project courtesy of Exception Magazine. Liz Towne is General Counsel and Director of Advocacy Programs at Alliance for Justice, a coalition of public interest organizations which provides free technical assistance on...Read More
Saying good-bye to Boi from Troy
Filed by Alex Blaze | January 08, 2009 3:30 PM |Scott Schmidt, aka Boi from Troy, is hanging up his keyboard and has stopped blogging. I got the message in my RSS feed last week and was surprised that I was a little upset. I've at least scanned the boi's...Read More
House rules go gender neutral
Filed by Alex Blaze | January 08, 2009 1:30 PM |Via Amanda Terkel, here's a bit of the changes to the House's rules:...Read More
Women: Your beavers are smelly and itchy
Filed by Bil Browning | January 07, 2009 6:00 PM |Since my "I don't know nuthin'" post (where I admitted my ignorance to some trans and feminist issues), I've tried to keep my eyes open and be a little more observant of everyday slights that I'd normally overlook. I must...Read More
Come See Me + Make/shift in Brooklyn on Saturday!
Filed by Jessica Hoffmann | January 07, 2009 5:30 PM |I'm heading to NY for a few days this week. On Saturday in Brooklyn, we're having a reading/party/benefit for make/shift, the feminist magazine I coedit and copublish. There will be readings by some wonderful queer writers, and I'd love to...Read More
It Doesn't Make Sense
Filed by Sara Whitman | January 07, 2009 4:00 PM |My son came home from school yesterday after having watched a movie about the Civil Rights movement in the 1960's. It was horrible, he said. As he described the church bombing, the hoses and the police dogs, he asked me,...Read More
Gay Rights Threaten Freedom of Belief, Conservative myth 2.0
Filed by Guest Blogger | January 07, 2009 2:30 PM |Editors' note: Guest blogger Travis Ballie is a queer activist currently attending the most politically active campus in the nation, American University. He is a D.C. resident inspired by the Prop 8 protests and hoping to contribute to the"DC For...Read More
New York Times Comes Through Again...Who's Listening?
Filed by Nancy Polikoff | January 06, 2009 6:00 PM |This morning's New York Times editorial condemning Arkansas's ban on adoption and foster parenting by anyone living with a same-sex partner or unmarried different-sex partner is a welcome piece of advocacy. NYT calls the law "offensive" and urges the court...Read More
To all those folks telling us to keep it quiet about Rick Warren...
Filed by Alex Blaze | January 06, 2009 10:00 AM |Nate Silver has a post up about how Obama's transition website is more LGBT-friendly than his campaign site: What to make of the difference? On the one hand, this would seem to demonstrate Obama's (over)sensitivity to the politics embedded in...Read More
Children of Lesbian Families Happy and Healthy, Despite Homophobia
Filed by Dana Rudolph | January 05, 2009 12:30 PM |The National Longitudinal Lesbian Family Study (NLLFS), the longest-running and largest investigation of its kind, published two new reports in December, in the American Journal of Orthopsychiatry and Journal of Lesbian Studies. I interviewed Dr. Nanette Gartrell, the lead investigator,...Read More
A1 steak sauce: Sexism is that important
Filed by Bil Browning | January 03, 2009 2:30 PM |I realize that the picture is a little fuzzy since I took it with my cell phone, but this bottle of A1 Steak Sauce shocked me for it's blatantly sexist wrapper. (You can clickety to embiggen the picture.) The bottle...Read More
Let's move beyond "marriage" in '09
Filed by Jerame Davis | January 02, 2009 6:00 PM |Can we all agree to a New Year's Resolution? Can we drop marriage as "the issue" for 2009? Let me be clear... I know we have to fight the fight against amendments in the places that don't have them yet....Read More
ACLU files suit in Arkansas to overturn Act 1
Filed by Alex Blaze | January 02, 2009 2:30 PM |I don't know why, but I was much more upset that Arkansas's Act 1, which banned unmarried couples from adopting or fostering children in an attempt to overturn their supreme court decision that found the ban on gay adoption unconstitutional,...Read More
