The Movement: March 2009
Cincinnati NAACP president warns LGBT community
Filed by Bil Browning | March 31, 2009 | 6:00 PM |The Cincinnati NAACP has come under withering scrutiny for appointing anti-gay lawyer Chris Finney to their board. Finney wrote Article 12, a 1993 city charter amendment that forbid city officials from passing laws that protected the LGBT community. The ordinance...Read More
Teenage sex criminals, oh my!
Filed by Mattilda Bernstein Sycamore | March 31, 2009 | 12:30 PM |Here you have it -- teens are being prosecuted under child pornography laws for distributing topless pictures of themselves!!! This is particularly troubling: [Wyoming County, Pennsylvania District Attorney] Skumanick told an assembly of students that possessing inappropriate images of minors...Read More
Waiting for Reckoning Day
Filed by Kate Kendell | March 30, 2009 | 6:30 PM |As we brace ourselves for another reckoning day - the California Supreme Court's ruling in our Prop 8 legal challenge - I am appalled that our basic rights were put up for a popular vote, and fervently hopeful that the...Read More
A Marriage Win in D.C. is a Win for Everyone
Filed by Sean Bugg | March 30, 2009 | 4:00 PM |So I was settling down to judge some martinis at Beacon Bar and Grill this past week with some local notables who were my fellow judges, including D.C. Councilmember David Catania. While waiting for the contest to begin my chat...Read More
Robert Gates wants to "push" DADT repeal "down the road a little bit"
Filed by Alex Blaze | March 30, 2009 | 10:30 AM |Here's what happens when you appoint a Republican as Defense Secretary. Robert Gates went on Fox News yesterday to inform us that DADT repeal won't be happening for a while: Well, there ya go. If this line sounds familiar, it's...Read More
Poll: Should We Abandon Marriage for Civil Unions for Everyone?
Filed by Michael Crawford | March 30, 2009 | 9:30 AM |In new post called Marriage vs Civil Unions Bilerico DC contributor John Shields argues that we should abandon the fight for marriage and instead focus on fighting for equal rights. This has to stop. This war of words between "straight...Read More
Rethinking the Movement for LGBT Equality
Filed by Guest Blogger | March 29, 2009 | 6:00 PM |Editors' Note: Guest blogger Dixon Osburn was the Executive Director of Service Members Legal Defense Network for 13 years. Does the recession offer an opportunity to rethink the overall strategy for LGBT equality by merging some of our organizations into...Read More
Rethinking the Movement for LGBT Equality
Filed by Guest Blogger | March 29, 2009 | 6:00 PM |Editors' Note: Guest blogger Dixon Osburn was the Executive Director of Service Members Legal Defense Network for 13 years. Does the recession offer an opportunity to rethink the overall strategy for LGBT equality by merging some of our organizations into...Read More
Is Gay the New Black?
Filed by Michael Crawford | March 29, 2009 | 4:00 PM |Last December I was featured in a series looking at the LGBT after the passage of Prop 8 on www.newsweek.com. The series, which includes this video, called Is Gay the New Black? received a GLAAD Media Award for Outstanding Digital...Read More
Marriage vs Civil Unions
Filed by John Shields | March 29, 2009 | 1:00 PM |In December 2008 I wrote an editorial in the Washington Blade on the subject of same-sex marriage, arguing that what we really want is equal rights, so why are we fighting over the single word "marriage." The comments, letters and...Read More
Women's History Month -- and Three Women Jockeys
Filed by Patricia Nell Warren | March 28, 2009 | 4:30 PM |It's the last week of Women's History Month, and the subject of women jockeys has been galloping at me for weeks. First an Outsports colleague, Craig Brownstein, who loves handicapping horse races, sent me an email reminding me about Barbara...Read More
It's picture time!
Filed by Bil Browning | March 26, 2009 | 3:30 PM |Last weekend's Indiana Stonewall Democrats reception for the Democratic State Central Committee was a veritable Who's-Who of Indiana political heavyweights. Hosted in Bilerico-Indiana contributor Doug Meagher's home, the event drew over 100 supportive politicians, political power brokers and LGBT Hoosiers....Read More
Violence Runs Deep
Filed by Tobi Hill-Meyer | March 26, 2009 | 2:00 PM |Bil's Read This post last week erupted into a large flame war. Conversations like this one are always hard for me to step into, emotions are so high and people are very rarely listening or willing to reconsider the assumptions...Read More
Surviving The Recession
Filed by Guest Blogger | March 26, 2009 | 12:30 PM |Editors' Note: Guest blogger Dixon Osburn was the Executive Director of Service Members Legal Defense Network for 13 years. In my last guest post, To Merge or Not To Merge, I argued that the recent call for LGBT organizations to...Read More
Breaking: HRC board issues statement on new ENDA policy
Filed by Bil Browning | March 25, 2009 | 5:30 PM |Hot off the presses and presented without commentary since I know y'all will have plenty of opinions... The HRC board announced a new policy on ENDA today: HRC Board ENDA Policy 3/25/2009 It's the policy of HRC that the organization...Read More
Scalia is homophobic
Filed by Alex Blaze | March 25, 2009 | 2:00 PM |Fox News opinionators are falling right and left having fainting spells because Barney Frank called Antonin Scalia homophobic. I'm more surprised that anyone would think that he isn't. The man clearly has a problem with same-sex lovin', thinks some pretty...Read More
What Transmisogyny Looks Like
Filed by Tobi Hill-Meyer | March 25, 2009 | 9:30 AM |This is a topic that has been vital to my understanding of the world over the past few years, but it's still relatively unknown outside certain circles of activists. When I mention it as an area of my work, I...Read More
Riot Grrls vs. High School Musical Thespians in Celeb Charity Smackdown
Filed by Paige Schilt | March 24, 2009 | 5:00 PM |A grassroots feminist organization could be the lucky winner of the first Social Media Smackdown for Charity. The Smackdown challenges nine celebrity teams to raise the most money for their chosen charities via social media sites and blogs. Actress Brea...Read More
Vermont Senate passes marriage bill
Filed by Alex Blaze | March 24, 2009 | 12:30 PM |What with the site being down and all, we weren't able to mention last night that the Vermont Senate passed a bill to move the state from the civil unions category over to marriage: The Vermont Senate passed legislation Monday...Read More
To Merge Or Not To Merge: Is That the Question?
Filed by Guest Blogger | March 24, 2009 | 10:30 AM |Editors' Note: Guest blogger Dixon Osburn was the Executive Director of Service Members Legal Defense Network for 13 years. Kevin Naff, editor of The Washington Blade, and Joan Garry, former Executive Director of the Gay and Lesbian Alliance Against Defamation,...Read More
To Merge Or Not To Merge: Is That the Question?
Filed by Guest Blogger | March 24, 2009 | 10:30 AM |Editors' Note: Guest blogger Dixon Osburn was the Executive Director of Service Members Legal Defense Network for 13 years. Kevin Naff, editor of The Washington Blade, and Joan Garry, former Executive Director of the Gay and Lesbian Alliance Against Defamation,...Read More
Allies Aren't 'Homophobes' or 'Transphobes' For Telling The Truth
Filed by Monica Roberts | March 23, 2009 | 4:30 PM |The late poet Gwendolyn Brooks said it best when she stated that 'truth tellers are not always palatable, there's a preference for candy bars.' One of the things that irritates me is when the people in the GLBT community who...Read More
Reportback from MEChA's National Conference
Filed by Tobi Hill-Meyer | March 23, 2009 | 1:30 PM |I spent this last weekend at the national MEChA (Movimiento Estudiantil Chicano de Aztlan) conference which was held in my home town of Eugene. The theme celebrating MEChA's 40th anniversary was Retomando la Historia Desplazada de la Mujer, Reclaiming Displaced...Read More
Barney Frank on ENDA, DADT and the "Homophobe" Antonin Scalia
Filed by Michael Crawford | March 23, 2009 | 12:30 PM |In a wide ranginginterview with CBS News' Ross Palombo on LGBT issues, Rep. Barney Frank makes clear what he believes is possible in President Obama's first term: Passage of an inclusive ENDA Passage of an inclusive hate crimes bill Repeal...Read More
Rocks: Has the Push for Civil Equality Killed the Quest for Sexual Freedom?
Filed by Guest Blogger | March 23, 2009 | 12:30 PM |Editors' Note: Guest blogger David Phillips is a poly Leather shaman, kink evangelist, and Queermen's health advocate living in Arlington, VA. A survivor of relationship abuse, David co-founded the Rainbow Response Coalition, addressing intimate partner violence among LGBTQ people in...Read More
A Different Kind of Herstory: Longing for Femme Mentors
Filed by Guest Blogger | March 23, 2009 | 9:30 AM |Editors' Note: Guest blogger Amanda Harris is an activist-artist-queer-southern-feminist-femme. She is currently a Clinton Fellow at the National Gay and Lesbian Task Force. Recently an organization that I am a part of in New York called the Femme Family NYC...Read More
A Different Kind of Herstory: Longing for Femme Mentors
Filed by Guest Blogger | March 23, 2009 | 9:30 AM |Editors' Note: Guest blogger Amanda Harris is an activist-artist-queer-southern-feminist-femme. She is currently a Clinton Fellow at the National Gay and Lesbian Task Force. Recently an organization that I am a part of in New York called the Femme Family NYC...Read More
The Kids Aren't Alright : The Gay Marriage Movement and its Manipulation of Children and Youth
Filed by Yasmin Nair | March 22, 2009 | 4:00 PM |The Religious Right is notorious for its manipulation of children, especially in its anti-gay tirades. The passage of Proposition 8 was prompted in part by the incitement of fear about what children might have to endure: the spectacle of gay...Read More
The Kids Aren't Alright : The Gay Marriage Movement and its Manipulation of Children and Youth
Filed by Yasmin Nair | March 22, 2009 | 4:00 PM |The Religious Right is notorious for its manipulation of children, especially in its anti-gay tirades. The passage of Proposition 8 was prompted in part by the incitement of fear about what children might have to endure: the spectacle of gay...Read More
Should Straight People Be Allowed in Gay Spaces?
Filed by Aidan Tharp | March 22, 2009 | 2:00 PM |With the emergence of Gay-Straight Alliances in high schools and the call for "allies for the cause" one question enters my mind: What does it mean for the queer community when straight people enter gay spaces? As co-president of my...Read More
We need an Omnibus Equality Bill
Filed by Juan and Ken Ahonen-Jover | March 21, 2009 | 4:30 PM |What if we asked for legal equality all at once in one comprehensive omnibus bill? What would a bill for total legal equality look like? We asked attorney Karen Doering, a very experienced and savvy civil rights attorney, to prepare...Read More
Gender Autonomy, Transgender Identity and Substantive Due Process: Finding a Rational Basis for Lawrence v. Texas
Filed by Dr. Jillian T. Weiss | March 21, 2009 | 2:30 PM |I've been thinking a lot lately about the relationship between gender identity and sexual orientation. I just finished an article that is coming out in the Touro Journal of Race, Gender and Ethnicity. That's the title of the article above....Read More
Notes from an Arizona radical
Filed by Bobby Parker | March 21, 2009 | 10:30 AM |Statement: Arizona GLBT organizational leadership just cannot get its shit together. Because of that we are miserable failures, patting ourselves on the back now and then for small successes, when we could have set and achieved Heroic Goals. There, I've...Read More
"Hope" Is Not Enough: LGBT Activists and Scholars Call on Obama to Improve Agenda
Filed by Michelle Marzullo | March 20, 2009 | 1:00 PM |Editor's Note: William Leap and David Peterson assisted in the writing of this post. There are reasons for "hope," but hope is not enough, agreed community activists, lobbyists, students and scholars who gathered at a pre-conference workshop entitled "Is "Hope"...Read More
Gays being executed on video in Iran... really?
Filed by Alex Blaze | March 20, 2009 | 11:00 AM |Yesterday I saw a video making the rounds in the LGBT blogosphere, purportedly of gay men being pushed off a building in Iran as punishment for homosexuality. First Gays without Borders posted it, then Jim Burroway at Box Turtle Bulletin...Read More
The End of "Gay Affluence:" LGB People More Likely to be Poor
Filed by Guest Blogger | March 20, 2009 | 10:00 AM |Editors' Note: Guest blogger Dr. Gary J. Gates serves as the Williams Distinguished Scholar at The Williams Institute, UCLA School of Law. He is a recognized national expert on the geography and demography of the gay and lesbian population and...Read More
DC Queer Studies
Filed by Brett Abrams | March 20, 2009 | 9:30 AM |Have you wanted to bone up on your queer studies lately? Curious to see how queer theory applies to current politics in the U.S. and worldwide? DC offers that opportunity next month. On April 17 and 18th, graduate students and...Read More
Support the G, L, B, and T troops
Filed by Alex Blaze | March 19, 2009 | 4:30 PM |Brandon Friedman, vice chair of VoteVets.org, wrote a post on the HuffPo opposing DADT entitled "No, Gay Soldiers Won't Be Allowed to Cross-dress While on Duty." Normally I'd leave this sort of thing alone, but our allies apparently need a...Read More
Marriage redefined
Filed by Alex Blaze | March 18, 2009 | 10:30 AM |Via JMG, Merriam-Webster's Dictionary updated their definition of the word "marriage" to reflect common usage of the term, which now includes same-sex couples: So now the Religious Right will stop using quotation marks when they discuss homosexual "marriage," right? I...Read More
Breaking News: U.S. to Sign U.N. Gay Rights Declaration
Filed by Michael Crawford | March 17, 2009 | 10:00 PM |This just came over the AP wire service: WASHINGTON (AP) -- The Associated Press has learned that the Obama administration will sign a U.N. declaration calling for the worldwide decriminalization of homosexuality that President George W. Bush had refused to...Read More
What Would Harvey Milk Say If He Were Here Today?
Filed by Guest Blogger | March 17, 2009 | 11:00 AM |Editors' Note: Michael Adams is the Executive Director of SAGE (Services & Advocacy for GLBT Elders), the oldest and largest organization in the country providing services and advocacy for LGBT seniors. Prior to joining SAGE, Michael was the Director of...Read More
Hate crimes increase after Prop 8
Filed by Alex Blaze | March 16, 2009 | 6:00 PM |Remember, the people who fought for Prop 8 were innocent victims in the face of the wrath of the LGBT community in California after the election. Teh gayz committed such atrocious crimes, like boycotts and sternly-worded postcards, that average, pro-family...Read More
Bisexuality: Who's Using Whom?
Filed by Guest Blogger | March 16, 2009 | 11:00 AM |Editors' Note: Guest blogger Ellyn Ruthstrom is the President of the Bisexual Resource Center and the Calendar Editor of Bi Women Boston. One of the things I really value about the bi community is the way we provide a wonderful...Read More
A Picture from a New Perspective - Inside the White House
Filed by Guest Blogger | March 14, 2009 | 4:00 PM |Editors' Note: Guest blogger Mara Keisling is the Executive Director of the National Center for Transgender Equality. Mara was recently invited to the White House to witness the signing of a presidential executive order. This picture represents something you have...Read More
The "Global Arc of Justice" Bobs and Weaves Toward Justice
Filed by Karen Ocamb | March 14, 2009 | 2:00 PM |Every now and then there are international events that startle me sufficiently to look beyond our national borders: the death of Princess Diana, "shock and awe" in Iraq, Sir Elton John performing in Russia. So how cool was it to...Read More
LGBT Parenting Roundup
Filed by Dana Rudolph | March 14, 2009 | 10:00 AM |News about LGBT parenting and kids came fast and furious this week. Here's a compilation of some of the highlights: The good: Adoption News A Kentucky bill to ban unmarried couples from becoming foster or adoptive parents is effectively dead...Read More
Out, Proud, and in Elected Office
Filed by Waymon Hudson | March 12, 2009 | 5:30 PM |The past few days have been a whirlwind here in sunny South Florida for my husband Anthony Niedwiecki and me. Hopefully you've heard by now that Anthony was elected to the City Commission in Oakland Park, a part of the...Read More
Freedom to Serve Rally Friday, March 13th at Noon
Filed by Michael Crawford | March 12, 2009 | 5:00 PM |Nothing makes the case for the repeal of the anti-gay Don't Ask Don't Tell better than this article from the San Francisco Chronicle: The Army fired 11 soldiers in January for violating the military's policy that gay service members must...Read More
What We Can Learn From Rush Limbaugh
Filed by Rebecca Juro | March 12, 2009 | 4:30 PM |There's been a lot of talk lately about Rush Limbaugh's level of power and influence in the Republican Party and the conservative movement, but there's another aspect to Limbaugh's rather sudden rise from radio star to bonafide political player that...Read More
U.S. Census and Same-Sex Families: Epic Fail
Filed by Dana Rudolph | March 11, 2009 | 6:00 PM |Thanks to the Defense of Marriage Act (DOMA), same-sex couples who live together will be defined as "unmarried partners" in the 2010 U.S. Census. Their children will be counted as belonging to single parents, even if the couples are legally...Read More
Why I am a Bi Ally
Filed by Cathy Renna | March 11, 2009 | 9:30 AM |One of the most interesting parts of being an ally--for me at least--is the reaction of other people. "I had no idea you were [fill in the blank]" has been said to me so many times I cannot count. I...Read More
How To Be an Ally To a Bisexual Person
Filed by Guest Blogger | March 10, 2009 | 5:30 PM |Editors' Note: Guest blogger Ellyn Ruthstrom is the President of the Bisexual Resource Center and the Calendar Editor of Bi Women Boston. I was walking down the street in Jamaica Plain a few days ago when two people with clipboards...Read More
How To Be an Ally To a Bisexual Person
Filed by Guest Blogger | March 10, 2009 | 5:30 PM |Editors' Note: Guest blogger Ellyn Ruthstrom is the President of the Bisexual Resource Center and the Calendar Editor of Bi Women Boston. I was walking down the street in Jamaica Plain a few days ago when two people with clipboards...Read More
Possible L-on-T hate crime in DC
Filed by Alex Blaze | March 10, 2009 | 4:30 PM |In Washington, DC, last week, two transmen were allegedly beaten up outside a gay club on lesbian night by several women. One of the men ended up with a concussion. "They said, 'What the fuck are you? Are you a...Read More
Racism: The Cancer that Slowly Consumes Our Very Souls
Filed by Wyatt O'Brian Evans | March 10, 2009 | 2:00 PM |In the early 1990's, I viewed a fascinating PBS series on racism conducted by Frances Cress Welsing, the distinguished African-American behavioral scientist and general and child psychiatrist practicing in Washington, D.C. Famous for her "Cress Theory of Color Confrontation," which...Read More
Covenant marriage, same-sex marriage: let's call the whole thing off
Filed by Alex Blaze | March 09, 2009 | 5:00 PM |Via Pam, the founder of Beliefnet, Steven Waldman, wrote up another "compromise" for same-sex marriage advocates to advance. This one, like the silly Rauch/Blankenhorn compromise proposed in the NY Times a month ago, asks for us to push for a...Read More
Principle vs. Incremental Change
Filed by Guest Blogger | March 09, 2009 | 3:00 PM |Editors' Note: Guest blogger Michael Guest is Senior Advisor to the Council for Global Equality. Mr. Guest was America's first openly gay, Senate-confirmed Ambassador (to Romania, 2001-04). He ended his 26-year diplomatic career in December 2007 after having sought, without...Read More
You can help repeal Florida's adoption ban
Filed by Guest Blogger | March 09, 2009 | 2:00 PM |Editor's Note: The American Civil Liberties Union of Florida is freedom's watchdog, working daily in the courts, legislatures and communities to defend individual rights and personal freedoms guaranteed by the Constitution and the Bill of Rights. The time has come...Read More
Quick Report-Back: Fusion Opening Night
Filed by Jessica Hoffmann | March 08, 2009 | 3:30 PM |I hope some of you L.A. readers are out at Fusion events today while I'm in my room reading make/shift submissions. Quickly, thought I'd post a little report-back from opening night of the festival: Turnout was fantastic (sold out!); path-crossing...Read More
Speak: Radical Women of Color Media
Filed by Jessica Hoffmann | March 08, 2009 | 9:30 AM |Happy International Women's Day! I just discovered (via brownfemipower) that the Speak CD is now available for purchase. It's a compilation of poetry, spoken word, and music featuring radical-women-of-color artist/activists from all over the U.S. -- and it's being sold...Read More
What Kind of Country Do We Want to Be?
Filed by Terrance Heath | March 07, 2009 | 9:30 AM |In a previous post, I wrote: Or you’d have to just not care, something which these days is increasingly referred to as being “post-racial.” Yet that the Post would publish a cartoon like this is evidence that we’re not anywhere...Read More
Bulletproof
Filed by Guest Blogger | March 06, 2009 | 2:00 PM |Editors' Note: Guest blogger Kathy Padilla has been advocating on transgender issues since 1984. She's been a key leader in passing local civil rights legislation, served as a delegate to the 2004 Democratic Presidential Convention and as a Commissioner on...Read More
Prop 8 and Families: A Compilation
Filed by Dana Rudolph | March 05, 2009 | 6:30 PM |I've been writing for some time now about how Prop 8 impacts families and children. Here's a compilation of posts from Bilerico, my own blog, Mombian, and 365gay.com on the subject. The right-wing has long tried to own the argument...Read More
Yet more on marriage equality
Filed by Juan and Ken Ahonen-Jover | March 05, 2009 | 12:00 PM |Today, the California Supreme Court will hear oral arguments about whether Proposition 8 should be overturned and whether the marriages of 18,000 same-sex couples that occurred last year in California are still valid. This critical ruling can come any time...Read More
Paying the price for marriage equality
Filed by Bil Browning | March 04, 2009 | 6:00 PM |Yesterday I put up a post lamenting GLAD's decision to challenge DOMA in federal court. Sara Whitman put up a post celebrating the decision. The two posts make nice bookends for the issue of marriage equality and provide unique perspectives;...Read More
Parental Notification Bill: Not in Children's Best Interests
Filed by Dana Rudolph | March 04, 2009 | 5:00 PM |Three weeks ago I registered my son for his first year in our public school system. It was one of life's strange coincidences that news also broke that week about my very own state representative, House Minority Leader Bradley Jones,...Read More
It's not "judicial activism," it's homophobia
Filed by Alex Blaze | March 04, 2009 | 1:00 PM |It's becoming more and more vogue outside of conservative circles to say that the reason people oppose same-sex marriage, the reason that there was a back-lash after Hawaii in the 90's, Massachusetts earlier this decade, or in California last year,...Read More
A Bright, Shining Light
Filed by Sara Whitman | March 03, 2009 | 6:00 PM |Today, the Gay and Lesbian Advocates and Defenders (GLAD) filed a suit in federal court in Boston, MA to challenge the denial of critical federal benefits to same-sex couples. Yes. It's time for the Supreme Court. Years ago, when GLAD...Read More
HRC: Corporate Equality 3.0
Filed by Guest Blogger | March 03, 2009 | 2:30 PM |Editors' Note: Guest blogger Samir Luther is an expert on employment non-discrimination policies and benefits for lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender workers in the United States. In his capacity with the HRC Workplace Project, he works with employers to develop...Read More
Please Help Your Local Community Champions in the Upcoming Elections!
Filed by Nadine Smith | March 03, 2009 | 2:30 PM |Broward Municipal Election Endorsements from Equality Florida Action PAC. These are Champions for our Community! Please vote and donate! Support these Trailblazers and Champions! FINAL DEADLINE FOR CAMPAIGN CONTRIBUTIONS IS MIDNIGHT MARCH 6 Equality Florida Action PAC only endorses candidates...Read More
The hidden inequalities behind the anti-DOMA litigation
Filed by Nancy Polikoff | March 03, 2009 | 1:30 PM |I don't like the Defense of Marriage Act. It's an anti-gay measure, pure and simple. As a political matter, GLAD's lawsuit seeking to overturn one part of the statute on Equal Protection grounds may turn out to be brave, or...Read More
HRC to announce changes to Corporate Equality Index
Filed by Bil Browning | March 03, 2009 | 12:30 PM |HRC will announce changes to their annual Corporate Equality Index that will take effect in the 2012 report (which comes out in September of 2011). One of the largest changes will center around transgender health care. At a conference call...Read More
Rep. Eric Cantor: GOP Needs to Be Inclusive on Gay Issues?
Filed by Waymon Hudson | March 02, 2009 | 12:00 PM |Someone needs to tell the Republicans that their messaging is a little all over the place. Karl Rove must be gnashing his teeth in his lair at Fox News. Even after RNC Chairman Michael Steele said "No, No, No" to...Read More
Prop. 8 - it's not about us, it's about you
Filed by Guest Blogger | March 02, 2009 | 11:00 AM |Editors' Note: Guest blogger Robin Tyler and her wife, Diane Olson, of Los Angeles were plaintiffs in the lawsuit that won marriage equality for same-sex couples in California. They now are plaintiffs in the California Supreme Court case to overturn...Read More
