The Bilerico Project

New Zealand Joins Foul Mouthed Pro-LGBT Campaigns

Bil Browning — Fri, 25 May 2012 11:32:03 -0500

Just when you thought the FCK H8 campaign was the only campaign using naughty words to prove a pro-LGBT point, allow me to point you to New Zealand's version. Unlike the American version which constantly hawks their merchandise and promised a portion of the proceeds will benefit an LGBT cause, these folks just ask for a donation of $5 to get the word out. (That's a little under $4 in US dollars. What a bargain!)

CNN Host Calls Bullshit During Tony Perkins Interview

Bil Browning — Fri, 25 May 2012 11:20:00 -0500

Watch as CNN's Brooke Baldwin interviews hate group leader Tony Perkins and doesn't allow him to spew his lies and insinuations as most "newscasters" do. I've never understood why various anchors allow these oafs to say anything without regard to actual facts, so it's heartening to watch as Baldwin simply calls bullshit on many of his talking points.

GLAAD is also celebrating Baldwin's interview - especially compared to Wolf Blitzer's kowtowing and facile acceptance of Perkin's twisted views on the LGBT community.

Here are a few of the key questions, along with Perkins' answers.

Baldwin asked Perkins if he had ever been to the home of a married same-sex couple. He had not.

She asked how he would explain to a married gay couple that they should not have the protections of marriage. He did not answer.

Baldwin asked Perkins why gay people bother him so much. He said they don't ... but he did so very uncomfortably, and it was evident he was not telling the whole truth.

When he implied that his was the majority position, she corrected him, citing the latest polls showing only 39% of Americans believing marriage equality should be illegal, opposed to 53% who say it should be legal.

And when he told her it was a policy issue, she corrected him, and told him it was a human issue.

Watch the interview after the break.

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Memories & Memorial Day

Kergan Edwards-Stout — Fri, 25 May 2012 10:15:00 -0500

On Monday, here in the United States, folks near and wide will be gathering to celebrate Memorial Day, although many may not know what, exactly, it is that they are celebrating. Originally intended to honor the Civil War fallen, the concept of Memorial Day has since expanded, becoming different things to different people.

For some, it is now a day to honor all U.S. veterans, fallen in combat. For others, it has morphed into a celebration of family, long weekends, and the return of warmer weather. For me, however, Memorial Day is about honoring not only those who died fighting for our freedom, but also those closer, lost to far different battles, particularly AIDS.

This Monday, as others unpack their picnic or place flowers on a veteran's grave, I'll be thinking of Edward, cracking jokes in his room at Cedars Sinai, bullwhip at his side, so pale and thin, with a smile that belied his true condition. I'll think of David and our cherished time at his cabin, out on his deck in the dappled sunlight, singing along with Bette Midler's Bette of Roses CD amidst the fresh scent of pine. I'll remember Jon, a guy I'd dated, who simply disappeared one day. I later learned that he too had died of AIDS, but kept it hidden beneath a cloak of silence, from all of those who loved him. I'll acknowledge, too, cynical Howard, who wasn't always easy to like, but whose presence is still missed. I'll think of these, and many more, but most of all, I'll think of Shane.

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LGBT Rights Take Away from Women's Rights?

Bil Browning — Fri, 25 May 2012 08:00:00 -0500

"Mothers were given the talent to bear children. That talent doesn't belong to men. When a man says he wants to get married to another man, we in Zimbabwe don't accept it. We can't talk of women's rights at all if we go in that direction. It will lead to extinction."

-- Zimbabwe President Robert Mugabe speaking at a women's HIV/AIDS and gender rights conference in Harare. Should someone point out that lesbians are women?

I'm Fun. & Gay Today

James Holmes — Thu, 24 May 2012 17:00:00 -0500

I swear I was not trying to coordinate with the timing of this video, but my washer is broke so it was time to break out my newest t-shirt I purchased when the band Fun. was at the 9:30 Club recently. I've been waiting for the right gay occasion to break it out, and Bil had to snap a picture.

I first came to know Fun. before I had even heard a song when my partner, David, also a 9:30 Club employee, bought me a t-shirt when he first saw them opening for another band over a year ago. It's a pretty awesome (and rather gay) shirt in itself. Thoughts?

I quickly became a fan and have caught their show the last two times they were in DC.

That brings me back to the new shirt. This newest purchase comes with a message as you can see me model after the jump. The proceeds from this shirt will be donated to Revel and Riot to help promote LGBTQ rights, awareness and equality. Buy your own here.

Fun. has also teamed up with HRC's Americans for Marriage Equality campaign and released a new video yesterday starring lead guitarist Jack Antonoff. Oh Fun. I love you even more. Check out the video and the new t-shirt after the jump.

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Western Pennsylvania LGBTQ Bloggers Team Up

Sue Kerr — Thu, 24 May 2012 16:30:00 -0500

I've been blogging for just shy of six and a half years this June. For a while it was just me. A few other blogs existed, but they weren't updated on a consistent basis.

Thomas Waters started blogging in November 2008. We don't see eye to eye on all things and we often go in vastly different directions with our blogging. We do agree that 1) most Pennsylvania LGBTQ residents do not understand the true situation about their (lack of) rights and 2) we need more voices.

Hence, the launch of the 2012 Western Pennsylvania LGBTQA Bloggers Summit. We hope to meet in June.

It is a pretty simple concept - we want to invite everyone using social media to promote LGBT equality to sit down face to face. It isn't a formal training, there's no predefined agenda. It is about building relationships and finding ways to share our tools for the shared agenda of equality.

The first step is for interested Western PA LGBTQA social media users to complete a very brief survey here.

What can we accomplish? Well, anything.

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Did the Obama Campaign Just Snub Barney Frank?

Bil Browning — Thu, 24 May 2012 15:10:00 -0500

The blogosphere is alight today with the new video from the Obama campaign to kick off their LGBT outreach efforts for pride month. But did the campaign snub retiring gay Congressman Barney Frank in the process?

At last month's National Stonewall Democrats event to honor the Congressman for his long service and tenacity in fighting for LGBT rights, the Obama campaign sent a "video message" from the President to play at the event. With all eyes on Representative Frank that evening, it was expected that the video would feature the President actually saying something about Barney Frank.

Instead, several attendees and party insiders complained after the event that the video wasn't a tribute to Representative Frank. In fact, the Congressman's name wasn't even mentioned in the campaign montage of Obama's achievements in office. The only "Barney Frank moment" came when a photo of Obama and the Congressman flashed on screen for a brief second.

So when I saw the campaign's "new" video to showcase the President's history on LGBT rights, I was blown away at the sheer audacity on display. While there are a few extra scenes at the beginning about Obama's new-found support for marriage equality and Jane Lynch now narrates the video, it is the same video sent to "honor" Barney Frank's retirement and legacy.

Not only did the campaign snub Representative Frank at his own retirement party by sending over a campaign video instead, now they're pawning it off on the rest of the community as new outreach.

Bilerico contributor Karen Ocamb ruminates on her own site, "Timed to coincide with the new Obama Pride launch Wednesday from President Obama's re-election campaign, this is an extraordinary video that I suspect LGBT activists fighting in North Carolina might have wished had come out before their state passed the horrid antigay constitutional amendment." The sad truth is, it was available - or at least 99% of it. The President's support of marriage equality was still missing before the amendment passed.

Video is after the break.

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Even Colin Powell Supports Marriage Equality

Bil Browning — Thu, 24 May 2012 13:00:00 -0500

When I have to report stories like Indiana Democratic candidates touting their support of a marriage amendment and loudly proclaiming how much they want to discriminate against the LGBT community, it makes me incredibly angry and ashamed. You often hear from Hoosier progressives that "Indiana Democrats are more like moderate Republicans."

But now the truth is coming out. They're not like moderate Republicans; they're more like the conservative Republicans who've been pushing their brand of religious extremism for years. For some reason the Dems have decided that conservative voters will choose a wannabe conservative Republican with a D after their name than an actual conservative Republican.

The proof is in the pudding. Moderate Republicans like Mayor Michael Bloomberg, Governor (and former Senator) Lincoln Chafee, Rep Illeana Ros-Lehtinen, and even super conservative former Vice President Dick Cheney all support marriage equality. Now former Secretary of State and Republican statesman Colin Powell has joined their ranks.

Where are Indiana's gubernatorial candidate John Gregg and Senate hopeful Joe Donnelly? The Democrats are still pounding the pavement with their anti-gay animus. Come November, they'll be wondering why they lost as the country moves beyond their outdated views.

After all, if your candidate can't keep up with the times, how are they going to solve any problems? Imagine if your doctor tried to cure you with leeches. Instead, Gregg and Donnelly are leeching off of the LGBT community by demanding our money and votes while simultaneously prescribing a bloodletting.

Showtunes Sing-Off: 'Don't Cry For Me Argentina'

James Holmes — Thu, 24 May 2012 12:00:00 -0500

This sing-off is inspired by my walk home with my partner, David, Saturday night after a bit too much fun after my shift at the 9:30 Club. A gay dance party followed at a bar nearby, and it seemed to put us in a showtunes mood.

We sang "Don't Cry For Me Argentina" from David's favorite musical Evita from beginning to end - so if you were in the U Street area of DC around 2:30AM Sunday morning and heard two gays screeching, that was us. There may be video on my phone, but I have yet to be brave enough to watch it - so no premier today.

Instead, I bring you some of the greatest versions of the song. Between Elaine Paige and Patti LuPone there are enough versions online to include videos of them alone - and I considered it. But instead I am going to give some of the other divas a chance.

As usual, let me know who you think did it best, and if I left someone off that deserves a chance, send me the link and I'll through them up.

I can't choose between Paige and LuPone, but I am sure there are plenty of Madonna fans out there as well. Check them out after the jump. Let the sing-off begin.

And as a side note, I have always dreamed of seeing Hillary Clinton sing this song off a balcony of her choosing - just a thought.

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The (Gay) Jury Is Out: The Power of a Single Voice

Guest Blogger — Thu, 24 May 2012 11:00:00 -0500

Editors' Note: Guest blogger Lori Hahn is an essayist, activist, and observer of human nature who resides in California with the last of her three beautiful multi-racial adopted children, two dogs, and a manageable mortgage payment. She operates a donor prospect research firm, working with non-profits to help them connect the right donor with the right cause.

From the "I really needed this to keep from becoming completely jaded and cynical" file: A member of our LGBT community showed up at the Forsyth County Courthouse in Winston-Salem, NC today for jury duty. I'm sure there's one of "us" there every day. What doesn't happen every day is the individual who showed up performed a small act of bravery.

Diana Coe, of Winston-Salem, decided last night that she would peacefully protest against North Carolina's recently passed Amendment One, the constitutional amendment barring same-sex marriages as well as any domestic partnership or civil unions. With little time to plan, she prepared a statement and this morning, headed off to the courthouse, intent on following her conscience.

She reported to the Clerk of Courts and read her statement: "As a lesbian, I am no longer considered a full citizen of the state of North Carolina due to the recent passage of Amendment One and therefore I decline to fulfill my civic duties until my civil rights have been restored to me in full."

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Ask Dictionary.com to Correct the Definition of Marriage

Joe Mirabella — Thu, 24 May 2012 10:00:00 -0500

More than 7,000 people have signed Mike Raven's Change.org petition urging Dictionary.com to correct its definition of the word "marriage" to be more inclusive of gay and lesbian couples.

Raven, an MFA student in creative writing who lives in New Hampshire, said that he started his campaign after North Carolina passed a constitutional amendment banning gay and lesbian couples from getting married.

"I started this campaign, in part, from my love and fascination with words; and most of all, from the love I have for my twin sister Ashley, who is gay," Mike explained, "I decided that if this whole argument comes down to an intangible definition, then it's time for that definition to be corrected."

Dictionary.com sees nearly 50 million visitors a month, with millions of words looked up each day. When visitors look up "marriage," they find two separate definitions, one for heterosexual couples and one for gay and lesbian couples.

"There is only one kind of marriage, and that's one between two loving adults," Raven said. "Regardless of gender, marriage only needs one definition."

It Could Be a F--king Trap!

Bil Browning — Thu, 24 May 2012 09:00:00 -0500

I have no idea who Skweezy Jibbs is, but he's got a very important warning for "THA GAYS." Yes, Obama supports same-sex marriage now, but what if it's a trap?!?

Indy's Tea Party Mayor Supports LGBT Benefits

Bil Browning — Thu, 24 May 2012 08:00:00 -0500

"He understands it could help attract talent to the city. Many of our larger employers do offer those benefits, so if the council passes the resolution extending benefits it's something he'd take a look at."

-- Marc Lotter, spokesman for Indianapolis' Republican mayor, Greg Ballard, about a recently introduced proposal to provide domestic partner benefits to city employees. Ballard was the first of the Tea Party candidates to sweep an incumbent out of office. John Gregg and Mike Pence, the Democrat and Republican running for Indiana governor, have both announced their support of a constitutional amendment that would not only ban same-sex marriage but also take away all domestic partner benefits in the state.

Did My Marriage Cause Obama's Evolution?

Steven Cheslik-DeMeyer — Wed, 23 May 2012 17:30:00 -0500

We so wanted our marriage not to be a political event - impossible to avoid, we know, but we aspired none the less - so it was almost comical on our honeymoon cruise in the Mediterranean to read in the "USA Times" (the 4-page news digest they tucked in our cabin door on the ship every morning) that C's home state of North Carolina voted by a large margin to extra-double-duty outlaw and ban gay marriage (I don't know which is the bigger sin: bigotry or redundancy) and then a day or two later that President Obama came out in favor of same-sex marriage. Big week for gay marriage.

I had been so disgusted and to be honest bored with Obama's gay marriage dilemma that I expected to just roll my eyes when, at of course politically the perfect moment, he finally completed his evolution. But instead I was quite moved. I mean, seriously, the fucking president. I know, it's marriage, and I have all kinds of trepidation about marriage as the flagship issue of our movement. But I came of age politically in the Reagan 80s and lived through Clinton and god-help-us Bush, and now the president of the United States says that he thinks gay people should be able to marry each other.

That's massive.

And then there's North Carolina. Of course at our wedding there was a big contingent of North Carolinians, many of them politically conservative, but most of whom expressed their dismay about Amendment One and did what they could to persuade their friends to vote against it. They came with open hearts to celebrate our marriage, to welcome me into their family, and to join mine with theirs. Being from a traditional background, they know what marriage means.

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Newt Gingrich & Cory Booker: Dragged Into A Conversation They Can't Hold

Terrance Heath — Wed, 23 May 2012 16:30:00 -0500

This strange political season gets stranger by the day. The things I’m hearing and seeing from Newt Gingrich and Cory Booker today reminded me of a song from one of the last (and, in my opinion, underrated) albums by Culture Club; my favorite band from my 80′s youth. The lyric that comes to mind is from the band’s 1984 single, “Mistake No. 3,” when Boy George sings of people getting “dragged into a conversation they can’t hold.”

It’s been 28 years, and I still can’t figure out what that song’s about. But, it’s not hard to figure out that, despite coming at Mitt Romney’s Bain Capital history from opposite sides, Newt Gingrich and Booker let themselves get dragged into conversations they can’t hold.

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Richard Noble Nearing End of His Walk Across America

Karen Ocamb — Wed, 23 May 2012 15:30:00 -0500

This moving video was produced by Ann Sappho. She writes: "On June 9, 2012 I'm going to be at the finish line when Richard Noble walks across it. Being a DJ, I wrote and asked him what song he would like to hear as he crossed the finish line. His answer - please blend the song "Amazing" by One EskimO with Hillary Clinton's LGBT speech at the UN. This is the result of that conversation with him."

See Richard's 2,700-mile journey - the people he's met, the proclamations of support he's elicited, the joys and troubles he's overcome at his website Walk Across America.

Summer Bilerico Internships Available

Bil Browning — Wed, 23 May 2012 14:30:00 -0500

We're currently accepting applications for interns to assist with running the site and learn the ropes of online publishing and marketing. We're seeking a couple of brave souls who'd like to learn about communications and marketing.

The details are after the jump if you're interested.

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Gatsby Goes Glam

James Holmes — Wed, 23 May 2012 13:30:00 -0500

When I read over a year ago that Baz Luhrmann was doing a 3D remake of F. Scott Fitzgerald's The Great Gatsby, I was a mix of emotions.

First, I love Baz Luhrmann - at least what I have seen. I'll admit to skipping Australia, but from the reviews, I was not alone (feel free to convince me to give it a try). But Romeo + Juliet and Moulin Rouge! are still two of the most beautiful movies I have every seen. The visuals, the acting, the writing, and the music - all spot on and mesmerizing.

Second, I have read and reread The Great Gatsby more than any other book (sorry Harry Potter) since I first read it in 6th grade. I didn't understand half the references then, but I fell in love.

Third, can Gatsby be effectively translated to 3D? I tend to fall into Roger Ebert's school of thought on 3D films. Mostly, they give me a headache and serve as not much more than a gimmick. The one exception in my experience was Avatar, but it's epic size and James Cameron's mastery of whatever he tries (and the fact that he invented the technology used) made it seem necessary. But Gatsby? I mean, the story is big, but epic? Can Luhrmann pull off a James Cameron? The trailer gives me some hope.

Check out the first look after the jump. Will he do the book justice? Can the 20s roar in 3D? I've already decided it will be worth an over priced ticket. What about you?

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What the Bain Argument Is Really About

Terrance Heath — Wed, 23 May 2012 12:30:00 -0500

The 2012 presidential election may go down as one of the strangest political seasons in recent memory, for the simple reason that the influence of the financial sector in politics, policy and the economy has caused Republicans to sound like Democrats and Democrat to sound like Republicans -- usually with confounding results.

When Republicans sound like Democrats, like Newt Gingrich attacking Mitt Romney’s record at Bain Capital, they tend to start arguments they can’t win. When Democrats start sounding like Republicans, like Cory Booker defending Bain Capital, they tend forfeit arguments they could win. That’s because, in both cases, the politicians are arguing about the wrong things, in order to avoid the real argument -- the one America needs to have, and Americans need to win; the argument over what kind of economy we will have going forward.

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NAACP's Ben Jealous Talks About Org's Marriage Equality Vote

Karen Ocamb — Wed, 23 May 2012 11:15:57 -0500

NAACP President Ben Jealous was on Rachel Maddow's show Monday night talking about the historic vote the full NAACP board took over the weekend endorsing marriage rights for same sex couples. For him, it's personal.

Visit msnbc.com for breaking news, world news, and news about the economy

But the reaction from Religious Right African Americans was swift. Here is an excerpt from two antigay black religious conservatives issues in a press release May 22.

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