The Bilerico Project

Weekly Reader: Gay Geeks, Election Night, & Equality March Controversy

bil@bilerico.com (Bil Browning) — Sat, 07 Nov 2009 18:00:00 -0500

Thanks to this week's election night open thread and our liveblog of the Senate ENDA hearing, this was the highest traffic week ever on Bilerico Project. While those two posts were two of our highlights, out of the many posts published this week, here are some of the best:

Happy Birthday Sesame Street!

bil@bilerico.com (Bil Browning) — Fri, 06 Nov 2009 15:00:00 -0500

Today is Sesame Street's 40th birthday! Google has a special front page image for the show and I automatically thought back to my dad's favorite story about me as a kid.

We'd gone to visit my sister who lived in Chicago. I was about 6 years old, but she was quite a bit older than me and had children of her own. They youngest was just old enough to start talking gibberish with a good dose of the occasional real word thrown in.

The kid and I played together around the house as only kids can and my dad came in the room as we were "talking" together - except it was all nonsense. He asked me what we were talking about since the toddler didn't make sense. I apparently told him, "She's speaking Spanish. I learned it on Sesame Street so I can understand."

Happy birthday, Sesame Street. While Cookie Monster was/is my favorite character, my favorite sketch was with Ernie. (I put the video after the jump.) What's your favorite memory of the show? And who was your favorite character?

Continue reading "Happy Birthday Sesame Street!"...

Video: Trans inclusive pre-ENDA press conference

bil@bilerico.com (Bil Browning) — Fri, 06 Nov 2009 07:00:00 -0500

Thanks to Senator Merkley's office for sending us the video of Thursday morning's press conference about the Employment Non-Discrimination Act. When committee members decided not to include a trans person for public testimony during the recent hearing, Sen Merkley worked the national LGBT orgs to arrange a press conference where trans folk could be featured.

The Finances Behind the National Equality March

bil@bilerico.com (Bil Browning) — Thu, 05 Nov 2009 17:00:00 -0500

National Equality March leaders have discovered they have money left over after paying all the bills. Organizers raised approximately $260,000 to put on the event in Washington DC that drew 200,000 activists.

March leaders budgeted $282,000 for the event - including all March, administrative, and contingency costs. Treasurer Chip Arndt renegotiated several contracts and brought the total price down to $156,000. By reducing costs to less than $1 per attendee, Equality Across America is able to save approximately $90,000 to use for future endeavors according to Jones.

Some online donations and merchandise sales have not been included in the total since those numbers aren't yet available. The group is still accepting donations on their website.

The organization plans to release a full accounting soon. Requests to see the official reckoning were declined until the organization puts out a press release about the finances.

Since EAA is a project of the Tides Center, organizers are not free to use the funds without approval from the fiscal sponsor and could not have donated the money to any of the recent political campaigns.

Continue reading "The Finances Behind the National Equality March"...

Look who's joining the family: Donna, Michael & Kip!

bil@bilerico.com (Bil Browning) — Thu, 05 Nov 2009 08:30:00 -0500

I'm excited to announce three new Bilerico Project contributors this morning!

Donna Pandori is a Bilerico-Indiana blogger making the jump to the main site. Donna is a research analyst by day and a mother of two sons by night. She and her partner have been in a committed relationship for 15 years and were one of the first Hoosier couples to be granted second-parent adoptions.

Michael Rajner is a Bilerico-Florida blogger who's joining us on the main site now as well. Michael has been recognized by several organizations for his contributions to the HIV/AIDS and LGBT communities. In 2007, the State of New Jersey passed a Joint Legislative Resolution commending him for his contribution to the AIDS movement.

Kip Williams co-founded the grassroots action group One Struggle, One Fight after Prop 8 passed, and served as Co-Director of the National Equality March. Professionally, he is an online campaign strategist for progressive nonprofits, and was formerly the online organizer for the League of Young Voters.

Please join me in welcoming the newest voices to the Bilerico family!

Senate ENDA hearing: Where are the trans witnesses?

bil@bilerico.com (Bil Browning) — Wed, 04 Nov 2009 19:00:00 -0500

Tomorrow morning the Senate will hear testimony on S. 1584 - the Employment Non-Discrimination Act. The legislation would provide employment protections for LGBT people. In a strategic move endorsed by the Human Rights Campaign and other prominent leaders and activists, transgender protections were stripped from the legislation to make it more palatable to squeemish Democrats. It didn't make it far in the legislative process since then-President Bush indicated he'd veto it - trans protections or not.

President Obama has indicated that the fully-inclusive legislation is a priority for his administration and that he would sign it into law immediately. So far, our slowdown has been in Congress as the economy and health care took top billing on the national agenda. ENDA, however, is slated to be the next major piece of legislation coming on the heels of the health care debate. The House has held hearings on ENDA already and tomorrow's hearings will be the first in the Senate this session.

The Senate Committee on Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions, however, originally overlooked an integral part of our community. Us. All the witnesses testifying were straight people.

So the Committee added a gay man to the witness list. Tada! Problem solved.

Hardly.

Continue reading "Senate ENDA hearing: Where are the trans witnesses?"...

Steele: Election not a referendum on Obama

bil@bilerico.com (Bil Browning) — Wed, 04 Nov 2009 07:30:00 -0500

Funny. Michael Steele says that the Republican wins aren't indicative of a referendum on Obama. I, however, look at my "fierce advocate" and then the Maine election results and I think, "Yeah. How did Obama actually advocate for me there?" Knowing how he "helped" with Prop 8 too, that seems to be indicative of how much support we can expect from him when our lives are being voted on.

Glee star Corey Monteith gets naked

bil@bilerico.com (Bil Browning) — Tue, 03 Nov 2009 13:00:00 -0500

The blood feud between Glee star Corey Monteith and out actor Neil Patrick Harris over control of my heart just got even more heated. This morning, an alert reader sent me these screen grabs from Bloody Mary, a 2006 horror flick, where Monteith lets it all hang out.

I'm not a horror fan, but I'm willing to reconsider. What I'm seeing isn't scary at all!

Not safe for work pictures after the jump. Clickety to embiggen, of course.

Continue reading "Glee star Corey Monteith gets naked"...

Maine campaign raises $68k online yesterday

bil@bilerico.com (Bil Browning) — Tue, 03 Nov 2009 07:00:00 -0500

When Adam Bink sounded the alarm yesterday about fundies dumping an extra $25k into Maine, he asked you to donate online. The netroots came through and donated almost $70,000 - allowing the campaign to buy extra ad time through the close of the last polling place.

Equality March Co-Directors Resign; Group Reorganizes Amid Controversy

bil@bilerico.com (Bil Browning) — Tue, 03 Nov 2009 00:30:00 -0500

Kip Williams and Robin McGehee, Co-Directors of the National Equality March, have left Equality Across America citing differences about the direction the new group should take. The march, held less than a month ago, attracted about 200,000 LGBT people to Washington DC to demand full federal equality under the law.

EAA founder Cleve Jones confirmed that both activists had stepped down from their leadership positions. Everyone involved agreed that the parting of ways resulted from concerns about financial security and the leadership of the new organization.

"We're still not sure this is a viable organization," Jones said. "It's still not clear to me that EAA is going to happen yet. There needs to be a working group to take EAA forward. I'll be inviting [the March's] steering committee and executive committee members to participate."

Executive committee members elected Tanner Efinger as the interim Project Director responsible for the org's legal contracts with the Tide Foundation. Underlying tensions in the committees, however, have many frustrated activists at the breaking point as various factions vie for control of the organization's leadership.

Continue reading "Equality March Co-Directors Resign; Group Reorganizes Amid Controversy"...

Why does God hate kittens?

bil@bilerico.com (Bil Browning) — Mon, 02 Nov 2009 16:00:00 -0500

Okay, we can have too much fun with this idiotic video hoping to sway Maine voters and promoted by the Yes on 1 campaign. It claims that God sent a tornado to Minneapolis minutes after the Lutherans narrowly voted to approve a gay-positive resolution at their national conference.

"No Christian can truly maintain this was mere coincidence," the video claims. So following this same line of thought...

On June 5, 2009 in Goshen Co, Wyoming, an unmarried stray cat gave birth to four kittens under an old lady's porch. God hates bastard kittens. Repent, kitties. Repent.
On April 26, 2009 in Northwest Oklahoma, a redneck bought a used Buick from a friend. God hates unpatriotic Americans who buy cars with French names like Le Sabre. Repent, Chrysler. Repent.
On June 17, 2009 in Aurora, Nebraska, a local baker made a batch of snickerdoodles. God hates pastries. Repent, Cinnabon. Repent.
On July 3, 2009 near Salina, Kansas, a Baptist minister bought hotdog buns and bratwurst in anticipation of the church's Independence Day cookout. God occasionally hates leavened bread, but he always hates sausage parties.* Repent, Jimmy Dean. Repent.

Your turn.

*The tornado was really just retribution for the buns, for the pork sausage, see: Swine Flu.

Got Courage? See you in New York next week!

bil@bilerico.com (Bil Browning) — Mon, 02 Nov 2009 12:00:00 -0500

As we've seen in the recent spate of hate crimes in New York City - and not just LGBT folks - there's still a lot of work to do around preventing violence based on arbitrary prejudices. The NYC Anti-Violence Project has been working on the issue for years, but it's a never ending job unfortunately. You can support them by attending the 13th Annual Courage Awards fundraiser next week.

The New York City Anti-Violence Project (AVP) will hold its 13th Annual Courage Awards on Monday, November 9, 2009 at the W New York Ballroom at 541 Lexington Avenue, New York. The evening includes cocktails and a chefs' tasting and a program featuring the award presentation.

At this year's event, AVP has the privilege of honoring Pulitzer Prize winning playwright Tony Kushner, author of Angels in America: A Gay Fantasia on National Themes and The Intelligent Homosexual's Guide to Capitalism and Socialism With a Key to the Scriptures, for his truthful and cutting edge political writing and analysis; Weblog creators Bil Browning (The Bilerico Project), Joe Jervis (Joe.My.God.), Pam Spaulding (Pam's House Blend) and Andy Towle (Towleroad), in recognition of the impact of LGBTQH weblogs have made in the fight for civil rights and against violence in our communities; and Clifford Chance US LLP, for their commitment to lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, queer and HIV-affected (LGBTQH) rights and extensive work on behalf of the communities AVP serves.

I'm honored to be included in such an all-star lineup of bloggers. We've chosen Pam to do the acceptance speechifying for us, but we'll all be attending the ceremony. If you've ever wanted to meet any or all of us, this is your chance. Purchase your Courage Awards tickets here.

Welcome two new contributors

bil@bilerico.com (Bil Browning) — Mon, 02 Nov 2009 08:30:00 -0500

Please join me in welcoming two new contributors to the Project. Two of our recent guest bloggers are making the jump to full-fledged family members!

Adam Bink is the Online Strategy Manager at Progressive Strategies, LLC, and manages design and advertising at OpenLeft.com, a blog covering national progressive politics. He is a Dupont Circle resident and enjoys cooking, cycling, ultimate frisbee, and independent shops of all kinds.

Recent guest posts: Guess Who Just Played the Gay Card? and You Made the Bed, Now Sleep In it (Alone)?.

Cassandra Keenan is a professional journalist living in Las Vegas who works as a copy editor for print media. She also writes about gender, trans issues, queer sexuality and other LGBTQ topics on her blog, Metaphysical Bombshell.

Recent guest posts: Halloween is a busy time of year for gender

Welcome to the Bilerico family, Cassandra and Adam!

Bully prevention tips for the effeminate gaybie

bil@bilerico.com (Bil Browning) — Mon, 02 Nov 2009 07:00:00 -0500

Are you an effeminate baby gay who's always getting picked on by bullies? Then this video is for you! You can learn all sorts of new macho self-defense techniques like hair pulling, slapping, hitting the bully in the nuts, biting and running away!

Weekly Reader: Faggots, Child Witches, & Ryan White

bil@bilerico.com (Bil Browning) — Sat, 31 Oct 2009 18:00:00 -0500

I think this was one of Bilerico's best weeks ever. Not only did we have some highly popular emotional and entertainment posts this week, but our political coverage was spectacular. What other LGBT site covered the hate crimes bill signing - and gave you personal posts from contributors who attended? Combine that with our Ryan White Act reporting and a big dose of health care breaking news and you've got a recipe for Bilerico! Here are the posts you won't want to miss from the past week:

PS - Did you go vote for Bilerico Project as the best blog from Indiana? Help us win first place (We're in 10th currently! A bunch of corporate blogs are beating us!).

Sunday

TV ads aren't the answer in Maine Filed by: Matt Foreman
The Gay Hate Crimes Crisis Isn't Over Yet Filed by: David Badash

Monday

I have a problem with faggots Filed by: Bil Browning
War is anti-LGBTQ Filed by: Alex Blaze

Tuesday

Bend (Over) It Like Beckham Filed by: Prince Gomolvilas
Drag memorabilia: vintage Finocchio's postcard Filed by: Gloria Brame Ph.D.

Wednesday

WWJB: Where Would Jesus Bank? -or- Jesus Doesn't Bank Here Any More Filed by: Bil Browning
Child witches, demons, and LGBT youth Filed by: Rev Irene Monroe

Thursday

The beginning of the end Filed by: Cathy Renna
LGBT History: A British Bisexual and American Religious Liberty Filed by: Patricia Nell Warren

Friday

When the Government does Right Filed by: Rebecca Juro
Dragon Age: Origins and Buttsex Filed by: Jason Tseng

Bilerico Nation

William & Mary Students Pick Transgender Homecoming Queen Filed by: Michael Hamar (B-DC)
Transgender Comics: "Between the Lines" Filed by: Austen Crowder
Help Us Stop Murder Music in Miami Filed by: Nadine Smith (B-FL)