The Movement: May 2010
Making Change One Story at a Time
Filed by Guest Blogger | May 30, 2010 | 1:00 PM |Editors' Note: Masen Davis is the Executive Director of the Transgender Law Center, a civil rights organization advocating for California's transgender communities. California has been a real leader in transgender civil rights. We have legal protections in employment, housing, schools,...Read More
No More Sex
Filed by Steven Cheslik-DeMeyer | May 29, 2010 | 12:00 PM |Now, apparently, homosexuality has nothing to do with sex. Andrew Sullivan has begun using "affectional orientation" instead of "sexual orientation," and this guy has suggested "romantic orientation." So, Christian bigot, you hate us because we engage in sexual behavior you...Read More
Incrementalism Shoe on the Other Foot on DADT
Filed by Dr. Jillian T. Weiss | May 28, 2010 | 4:00 PM |John Aravosis of Americablog yesterday called out the liberal Center for American Progress (CAP). As he notes, CAP has been on a rather public campaign to take credit for the entire Don't Ask, Don't Tell compromise that has much of...Read More
DADT: Are we pulling a Veruca Salt?
Filed by Bil Browning | May 28, 2010 | 2:00 PM |Kudos to Projector Aaron for this great analogy to the recent debate on repealing the discriminatory Don't Ask Don't Tell policy. Grassroots activists' sturm und drang has stood in direct contrast to the more conciliatory tones taken by some of...Read More
Am I A Smug, Privileged Jerk?
Filed by Dr. Jillian T. Weiss | May 28, 2010 | 1:00 PM |Recently, someone suggested to me that I am condescending and obtuse towards low-income transgender people of color. She noted that I insist on putting white wealthy trans women as the judges of what is legitimate, and worthy of further action....Read More
NSFW Sumptuous Naughtiness: Two by Gerda Wegener
Filed by Gloria Brame, Ph.D. | May 27, 2010 | 11:30 AM |The wondrous early 20th century woman artist Gerda Wegener (1886-1940) is perhaps known as much for her unusual personal life as for her deliciously naughty erotic illustrations. Privately, Wegener was married to a fellow artist and transwoman who completed surgical...Read More
WPATH Statement on Gender Identity Disorder
Filed by Dr. Jillian T. Weiss | May 27, 2010 | 10:30 AM |There's been a lot of controversy in the trans community over whether "Gender Identity Disorder" should be removed from the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of the American Psychiatric Association, and from the World Health Organization's psychiatric manuals as well. I've...Read More
Vanguard's 'Missionaries of Hate': The American Architects of Uganda's Anti-Gay Bill
Filed by Waymon Hudson | May 26, 2010 | 2:00 PM |Current TV's Vanguard series will be showing a powerful report on Uganda's horrendous anti-homosexuality "Kill the Gays" bill in a documentary entitled Missionaries of Hate. It premiers tonight, May 26th, at 10/9c. Vanguard correspondent Mariana van Zeller travels to Uganda...Read More
Smart, Sexy and Making A Difference: Transgender Legal Defense Fund Celebrates 5th Anniversary
Filed by Dr. Jillian T. Weiss | May 26, 2010 | 10:30 AM |In my role as your fabulous celebrity style correspondent, I attended a benefit for the New York City-based Transgender Legal Defense Fund last night. This was smart, sexy and making a difference, but it was no empty, glitzy, shallow fund-raiser....Read More
GetEqual gets organized
Filed by Bil Browning | May 25, 2010 | 7:00 PM |After raising hundreds of thousands of dollars, new activist organization GetEqual has started hiring staff. National Equality March co-chairs Kip Williams and Robin McGehee will be part of the upper management and the New Organizing Institute's Chief Operating Officer, Heather...Read More
Jim Crow? Really?
Filed by Guest Blogger | May 25, 2010 | 3:30 PM |Editors' Note: Guest blogger Aaron Belkin is an Associate Professor of Political Science and Director of the Palm Center at UCSB. I am so glad that I was wrong. For two years, I have been predicting that Congress would not...Read More
The Burden of Being the First
Filed by Terrance Heath | May 25, 2010 | 2:30 PM |I wonder what Lena Horne would say to Miss USA Rima Fakih. Much has been written and will be written about Fakih’s pageant win. Not being a big fan of beauty pageants, I didn’t watch this one. So, my thoughts...Read More
Plus they forgot to end all war
Filed by Alex Blaze | May 25, 2010 | 1:30 PM |I went to bed early last night (around 4pm Eastern), and woke up to the news that DADT is being repealed. Congrats to the people who worked on that, and thanks to those people who protested for these last few...Read More
Thank you for helping us end DADT this year
Filed by Guest Blogger | May 25, 2010 | 8:30 AM |Editors' Note: "Stories from the Frontlines: Letters to President Barack Obama" is a new media campaign launched to underscore the urgent need for congressional action and presidential leadership at this critical point in the fight to repeal "Don't Ask, Don't...Read More
The kind of girl I am
Filed by Cassandra Keenan | May 24, 2010 | 7:00 PM |A lot of guys, I make them abruptly blurt out, "What's your name?" after talking to me for a mere minute or two. They are overcome with excitement because I am a bubbly type and also naturally friendly to the...Read More
My Captain opposed my DADT discharge
Filed by Guest Blogger | May 24, 2010 | 8:30 AM |Editors' Note: "Stories from the Frontlines: Letters to President Barack Obama" is a new media campaign launched to underscore the urgent need for congressional action and presidential leadership at this critical point in the fight to repeal "Don't Ask, Don't...Read More
You Gotta Give Em Hope: Saturday Is Harvey Milk Day
Filed by Dr. Jillian T. Weiss | May 21, 2010 | 4:00 PM |On Saturday, the nation's LGBT community will remember Harvey Milk. Nationally, thousands of activists, allies and community members are organizing local actions to demand full federal equality for all on Harvey Milk Day and during the week of the International...Read More
Pentagon hires firm to survey 350,000 troops on DADT for $4.4 million
Filed by Alex Blaze | May 21, 2010 | 2:30 PM |Maybe I'm just having a sudden memory lapse, but I don't recall anything of this scale going on before the war in Iraq. In an effort to get around the interview catch-22, the Defense Department authorized the hiring this week...Read More
Harvey Milk Day 2010: Being Out Is No Longer Enough
Filed by Marc Solomon | May 20, 2010 | 7:00 PM |As much as any other leader, Harvey Milk is my hero and inspiration. Like so many others, I drew tremendous strength from his belief in the fundamental goodness of all LGBT people in spite of what society too often tells...Read More
Great Global Kiss-in: Reports from Around the World
Filed by Waymon Hudson | May 19, 2010 | 5:00 PM |A huge number of cities around the globe took place in the Great Global Kiss-in Protest. May 17th was the International Day Against Homophobia and Transphobia (IDAHO), a worldwide rallying event offering an opportunity for people to get together, reach...Read More
My Queer Agenda: Puerto Rico, Palestine and Indigenous Sovereignty
Filed by Lisa Weiner-Mahfuz | May 18, 2010 | 12:30 PM |Self-determination over one's body and land are core to my personal and political principles. I'm going to go even further and say that I think that self-determination over one's body and land should be a central tenet of the queer...Read More
Blog contest to go to Netroots Nation
Filed by Alex Blaze | May 18, 2010 | 10:30 AM |Michael Crawford's org, Freedom to Marry, is sponsoring a contest to send three same-sex marriage bloggers to Netroots Nation in Las Vegas, July 22-25. To enter, you'll need to provide: Either two written blog posts OR one video blog demonstrating...Read More
Special for the little ladies: vintage, uhh, humor
Filed by Gloria Brame, Ph.D. | May 17, 2010 | 9:30 AM |Actually, I've never seen a better argument for female separatism. *cough cough* It's after the jump....Read More
Great Global Kiss-in in Paris
Filed by Alex Blaze | May 16, 2010 | 5:30 PM |Waymon posted about the Great Global Kiss-in last week, with events all over the world in advance of the International Day Against Homophobia and Transphobia. I went this afternoon; more on that after the jump. Did you participate? NYC and...Read More
Is It Time To Rise Up Yet?
Filed by Dr. Jillian T. Weiss | May 15, 2010 | 4:00 PM |The LGBT civil rights movement is in disarray. We must live in shame and secrecy to serve the country we love, but which seems to hate and despise us. Is it time to rise up yet? AIDS funding has dropped,...Read More
Sacramento Activists Demand Employment Protections
Filed by Joe Mirabella | May 15, 2010 | 12:00 PM |Lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender activists entered public bathrooms Friday afternoon at Arden Fair Mall in Sacramento, CA. They handed out fliers and engaged the public in conversation about the importance of employment nondiscrimination policies, like the ENDA. Organizer Sara...Read More
Senator Jim Webb's Office Responds to my Post on Bilerico, and I respond to him
Filed by Michael Hamar | May 15, 2010 | 10:00 AM |One thing about being a blogger is that you never know who may be reading what you write and/or what kind of sensitive nerve you might touch upon. A case in point is an e-mail I received Friday afternoon in...Read More
Texas rebuffs nonbio mom in spite of previous court order with bio mom's consent
Filed by Nancy Polikoff | May 14, 2010 | 4:00 PM |Sheila Haley and Charlena Renee Smith went to court in 2002, when their twin children were four months old, and obtained the equivalent of a joint custody order giving them both rights to the children. Those children were born to...Read More
Pucker Up to Fight Discrimination: The Great Global Kiss-in for the International Day Against Homophobia & Transphobia
Filed by Waymon Hudson | May 14, 2010 | 3:00 PM |Get out the chapstick and breath spray! It's time for the Great Global Kiss-in! May 17th is the International Day Against Homophobia and Transphobia (IDAHO), a worldwide rallying event offering an opportunity for people to get together, reach out to...Read More
Propaganda: Vintage Sex Ed Poster
Filed by Gloria Brame, Ph.D. | May 14, 2010 | 10:30 AM |Sometimes I just feel so sorry for our mothers and grandmothers, growing up on this kind of propaganda. Wait a minute! Some of us grew up on this too! Agh. A doozie after the jump....Read More
LGBT BootCamp: training the next generation of LGBT activists
Filed by Michael Crawford | May 14, 2010 | 9:30 AM |You want equality? Well, equality costs and New Organizing Institute's LGBT BootCamp is where you start paying in sweat! Okay, leaving aside the somewhat cheesy reference to the 70's TV show Fame, winning full LGBT equality is going to take...Read More
Check Out the New Podcast 'Gay Street Beat' (Featuring Me)!
Filed by Waymon Hudson | May 13, 2010 | 3:00 PM |This was my first week as a regular contributor to the new LGBT podcast "Gay Street Beat"! Be sure to download it free on iTunes and hear all the fun interviews. This week featured interviews with Darryl Stephens (of Noah's...Read More
How Many Things are Wrong With this Picture?
Filed by Gloria Brame, Ph.D. | May 12, 2010 | 4:30 PM |It's seldom one finds a single image that explains everything that is wrong with patriarchal culture. Eureka! I think I found it! It's after the jump....Read More
ABC's Modern Family: How "Modern" is its Gay Couple?
Filed by Waymon Hudson | May 12, 2010 | 1:30 PM |Updated with Statement from ABC at the End of the Post It seems the internet has been buzzing with a debate that has been going on for some tim in our house after a recent episode of ABC's newest hit...Read More
Obama Needs to Fire Gates Now!
Filed by Michael Hamar | May 11, 2010 | 4:00 PM |Contributor's note: I live in the Norfolk, Virginia, area and know many discharged under DADT. Hence, my emotions on this issue are high. I have previously drawn the parallel between Harry Truman's firing of General Douglas MacArthur for insubordination and...Read More
Young girls: from prim and proper to primordial
Filed by Cassandra Keenan | May 11, 2010 | 2:00 PM |There are these three little girls who live across the way from me. Looks like they range in age from maybe 7-10. I get a kick out of watching their behavior as a group whenever they're outside playing. A couple...Read More
Girls Always Wanted to Have Fun: Vintage Photo
Filed by Gloria Brame, Ph.D. | May 11, 2010 | 12:30 PM |Another of those beautiful photographic enigmas: appears to be early 20th century (give or take a decade). Married ladies on a raucous night out? Libertine women whooping it up? It's just sweet to see how much fun they are having...Read More
Caught in a Bad Hotel: San Francisco queers support hotel worker boycott
Filed by Guest Blogger | May 11, 2010 | 11:30 AM |Editors' Note: This post comes to us from Pride At Work San Francisco. On a bustling Saturday afternoon at San Francisco's Westin St. Francis Hotel, there was a strange disturbance at the check-in counter. A seemingly innocuous gay couple had...Read More
The catch-22 of trans activism
Filed by Cassandra Keenan | May 10, 2010 | 12:00 PM |I'm guessing that there have been many transgender folks who have struggled with this dilemma at some point: they're mistreated because of who they are, they subsequently want to do something about it, but then they ultimately decide against it...Read More
Be The Math
Filed by Kate Clinton | May 09, 2010 | 4:00 PM |My dear girlfriend cheerfully admits she is a numbers nerd. She can read, remember and interpret a pie chart or a power point graph like nobody's business. While she's parsing the percentages, I tend to muse about the color palette...Read More
Wiesel's Lesson for the Gays
Filed by Guest Blogger | May 08, 2010 | 2:00 PM |Editors' Note: Guest blogger Michael Petrelis is gay man living with HIV, and his 221 t-cells in San Francisco's Mission District. He's been happily partnered to Mike Merrigan since 1995. Oy, vey. Those Jews are like the gays, in that...Read More
"The Lost Coast": A Study in Straight Guys Who Make Mistakes? Gay Guys Who Cower in the Closet? Or Bisexuals Who Come to Terms With the "B" in LGBT?
Filed by Prince Gomolvilas | May 08, 2010 | 10:00 AM |I used to make fun of cat ladies. But then I met one. And I came to realize: "Hey, cat ladies are people too!" I also used to make fun of men in capri pants, those girls who pump lemonade...Read More
My business philosophy: straight allies are a good investment
Filed by Guest Blogger | May 06, 2010 | 3:30 PM |Editors' Note: Guest blogger Mitchell Gold is the co-founder of the successful and innovative furniture design and manufacturing company Mitchell Gold + Bob Williams. The Advocate magazine recognized Mitchell as a Person of the Year in 2006, calling him a...Read More
Advocacy alone won't change the status quo
Filed by Guest Blogger | May 06, 2010 | 8:30 AM |Editors' Note: "Stories from the Frontlines: Letters to President Barack Obama" is a new media campaign launched to underscore the urgent need for congressional action and presidential leadership at this critical point in the fight to repeal "Don't Ask, Don't...Read More
Immigration reform in a recession
Filed by Alex Blaze | May 05, 2010 | 7:30 PM |A few months ago there was a lot of hand-wringing among LGBT progressive activists over the possibility that comprehensive immigration reform might not include same-sex partner sponsorship. If it benefits LGBT immigrants but doesn't include same-sex partner sponsorship, do we...Read More
Small Appliance Orgasms
Filed by Gloria Brame, Ph.D. | May 05, 2010 | 7:00 PM |The two stages of the toaster-gasm - intense arousal and fireworks! - are after the jump....Read More
The Outing of Anti-Gay George Rekers: A Discussion on Celebration vs Compassion
Filed by Waymon Hudson | May 05, 2010 | 3:00 PM |A question was recently posed to me that has me thinking about the recent news of virulently anti-gay Family Research Council co-founder (and confidant of James Dobson) George Rekers' outing after being discovered hiring a 20 year old male prostitute...Read More
Census 2010 - It's Not Too Late!
Filed by Michelle Marzullo | May 05, 2010 | 11:30 AM |The point of the Census is an accurate count of people in the US. It matters to everyone because it determines representation in congress, like how many US representatives are assigned per state. It also affects how more than $400...Read More
Current ENDA Language Regarding Transgender Workers Revealed, Concerns Mount
Filed by Rebecca Juro | May 04, 2010 | 4:00 PM |During his show Sunday night, TransFM founder and host Ethan St. Pierre received a call-in from International Foundation for Gender Education (IFGE) Executive Director Denise LeClair, who revealed for the first time what the current language regarding transgender workers and...Read More
Open Letter to an Isla Vista Activist
Filed by Davina Kotulski | May 04, 2010 | 3:00 PM |This weekend I flew on a tiny prop plane to Santa Barbara to speak at UCSB's LGBTIQ Pride Event. It was the first ever pride celebration on campus. My speech was sandwiched between funny but raunchy comedians and a helluva...Read More
Stripping for a living ain't so bad
Filed by Cassandra Keenan | May 02, 2010 | 2:30 PM |Last night I finished reading this nonfiction book called Bare: The Naked Truth About Stripping. It's got a feminist slant, and it's probably the most well-written, insightful book I've read about the topic. The author, Elisabeth Eaves, doesn't really condemn...Read More
Privacy and the 2010 Census: Count Me In
Filed by Guest Blogger | May 01, 2010 | 10:00 AM |Editors' Note: Masen Davis has been an activist in the movement for lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender equality since 1990. He currently serves as Executive Director of the Transgender Law Center, a civil rights organization advocating for transgender communities. Starting...Read More
