Saturday, November 15, 2008

Write My Name In The Book Of Love

Wow. Thank you New York City! Here's a quick slideshow of the rally at City Hall. For full screen versions go here. Hey, what happened to that supposed "93% chance of rain"? Bah! Please put links to photos from your town in the comments. I've gotten a couple hundred more emails today but there's no way I can get to them all. I wish I could, turnout looks to have been amazing all over the country.

ABOVE: One of 20,000 second class citizens at today's rally.
ABOVE: Former Task Force head Matt Foreman and friend.
ABOVE: The actual Adam & Steve.
ABOVE: Look at how YOUNG everybody was! It's a new youth revolution.
ABOVE: Epic Equality Fail! ABOVE: Supportive Canadians rally in Toronto. Photo via This, That, No Other who has some great photos of their rally.ABOVE: Joan Crawford visited the Dallas rally. Via Andrew Sullivan, who has a great series of photos up.ABOVE: Gilbert Baker's amended banner. I guess he read Peter Staley's post from Friday. Via Andre Duque who has many more photos.ABOVE: Holy cow! Rex Wockner reports over 25,000 marched in San Diego! He's got lots more like this one.ABOVE: In Las Vegas, Wanda Sykes used today's rally to officially come out and annouce that she'd married a woman on October 25th in California. Sykes: "I’m proud to be a woman, I’m proud to be a black woman and I’m proud to be gay." Welcome Wanda! Via Vegas Happens Here.ABOVE: Me and Curtis Moore via my pal Jon Nalley's excellent gallery on Facebook.ABOVE: Eli Sanders at Slog reports a massive turnout in Seattle.

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Friday, November 14, 2008

Tomorrow At City Hall In NYC

Tomorrow's protest in NYC will begin at 1:30PM, rain or shine. And rain is more likely, Weather.com is predicting a 93% chance of rain tomorrow afternoon. So wear your raincoat, bring your umbrella, and cover your signs with plastic wrap. I'll be meeting my peeps at the fountain in City Hall Park at 1PM. Let's get soaking wet!

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HomoQuotable - Peter Staley

"Okay, don’t get me wrong. Last night’s Prop 8 demo in New York City was inspiring on many levels. The turn-out was huge. The fact that it all happened virally online, starting with a single Facebook event posted only three days earlier by a 26-year-old (great work, Corey Johnson!), amazes me.

"And what happened last night is part of something huge – the reawakening of our national gay rights movement. As Rex Wockner said, this is Stonewall 2.0. But allow an old queen to bitch a little. At the risk of sounding like your grandmother saying “you should have seen how we did it in the old days,” these Facebook demos could use a facelift from the ghosts of ACT UP. Let’s start with the visuals.

"Instead of this:
"We got this:"God loves gay marriage? Yuck! Where were our leather-wearing East Village graphic artists when we needed them? Where were the affinity groups with their creative side-shows like hanging banners from the temple’s rooftop? How about an angry speech or two to get the crowd riled up? A PA system would have worked best, but even someone on a stepladder with a megaphone would have done the trick. Can you imagine if Whoopi had addressed the crowd?

"Instead, it was a very happy but low energy event by ACT UP standards. The chants died quickly, probably because half the crowd was busy talking or texting on their cell phones (“where r u? i’m sort of in the middle. where?”).

"But I couldn’t argue with the turn-out. It matched ACT UP’s biggest demos. And the diversity of the crowd was wonderful. It was obvious that many of the twenty-somethings (and younger) were demonstrating for the first time. They seemed thrilled by it.

"And that’s what matters most.

"Sure, there are distinct advantages to in-person planning sessions that Facebook doesn’t afford – how can folks achieve a strong creative focus on the World Wild Web? But you can’t argue with the speed and numbers of this new organizing method.

"So please don’t confuse this old-timer’s ramblings with some sort of negativity. I got to watch our community rise up again. I’ve been waiting for this for twenty years. The hornets’ nest has been stirred. If we can merge some of the old techniques with the new technologies, nothing will stop us." - AIDS activist and former ACT-UP spokesman Peter Staley, writing in his blog on Poz.com.

As I noted in my post that night, I too wasn't crazy about the "God Loves Gay Marriage" banner, although I appreciate the intent of its maker, Gilbert Baker. But this Stonewall 2.0 or Activism 4.0 (whichever you prefer) movement is a PEOPLE'S movement, completely unguided by any organization or political group like ACT UP or even the HRC (more about THEM on this fight in another post.) That's the banner Gilbert Baker brought, that's the one that was used - but ANYBODY could have brought a banner and lined people up behind it. Baker's banner was very useful in its massive size (75 feet) and served very well to help direct protesters once the march headed down Broadway.

The question that Staley is really asking is how angry do we want this new movement to be? Do we want to be in their FACE, a la ACT UP? Or do want polite "We Are Your Children" platitudes? I think we can find a nice, pissed-the-fuck-off, middle ground between what happened in Palm Springs (which is like nuclear fuel to our enemies) and kumbaya hand-holding. Let Peter Staley's message indeed be a call to those "leather-wearing East Village graphic artists" for tomorrow's protest. I can't wait.

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Tomorrow Night: Blowoff Brooklyn

Tomorrow night Bob Mould and Rich Morel bring their gonzo dance party to Park Slope's Southpaw, their first Blowoff in Brooklyn. Doors open at 10pm, tickets $15. If you're coming from Manhattan, you can use Hop Stop to plot your subway ride. I think the Atlantic Avenue stop on the 4 train is the closest station, somebody correct me if I'm wrong on that.

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Clown Car

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Secretary of State?

It's all over the news today - Hillary Clinton appears to be the favorite for Secretary of State in the Obama administration.
Could a plum spot in Barack Obama's administration be in the offing for Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton? Several news outlets reported last night that the New York senator was under consideration for secretary of state. The outlets all quoted unnamed Obama advisers. The Clinton camp refused to comment on the possibility. Senior adviser Philippe Reines said: "Any speculation about cabinet or other administration appointments is really for President-elect Obama's transition team to address." Throughout the Democratic primaries, Obama criticized Clinton's judgment in backing the war in Iraq. Many other names have been mentioned for the top diplomat job, including Sen. John Kerry (D-Mass.), New Mexico Gov. Bill Richardson, former Georgia Democratic Sen. Sam Nunn, and Sen. Chuck Hagel (R-Neb.).
I was sure it was going to be Bill Richardson.

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O'Reilly Vs. Stewart On Conservatism

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PhoboQuotable - Matt Barber

"With a unified voice amplified several million-fold through the ballot box megaphone, African-Americans have spoken on the issues of marriage, family and human sexuality. Whether young or old, male or female, Democrat or Republican, blacks are justifiably fed up with the deceptive antics of the self-described and craftily contrived "gay rights movement."

"For decades now, well-organized, well-funded and highly influential 'gay' political pressure groups have, with impertinence, hijacked the language of the authentic civil rights movement. In what amounts to a sort of soft racism, self-styled 'queers' have disingenuously and ignobly hitched their lil' lavender wagons to a movement which, by contrast, is built upon the genuine and noble precepts of racial equality and humanitarian justice.

"An illegitimate offspring of the '60s sexual revolution, the newfangled 'gay rights' cult is today's postmodern, sex-centric cause célèbre. Its core tenets include, among other things, mandated moral relativism, social androgyny and forced acceptance of a pleasure-based, though demonstrably destructive, lifestyle. Apart from practitioners of 'the sin that dare not speak its name,' its devotees are in large part institutional fringe elitists confined to blue-state America who almost universally suffer the insufferable pangs of white guilt.

"Like an addict jonesing for a hit, they long for that rush of self-righteous affirmation associated with belonging to something perceived as larger than themselves. Central to the movement's success is the ability to draft adherents who are easily manipulated through superficial slogans, appeals to emotion via anecdotal parades of horribles, and a mindless propensity to conform to nonconformity.

"By drawing artificial parallels between the systematic persecution experienced by blacks over centuries past to the inherent aversion most have toward biologically unnatural, traditionally immoral and objectively perverse sexual behaviors, the homosexual lobby trivializes and diminishes the African-American struggle for civil rights. It's dishonest and offensive for people who choose to define their identity based upon aberrant sexual proclivities to compare sexual temptation and volitional sexual conduct to immutable and innocuous biological traits such as skin color." - Liberty Counsel spokespig Matt Barber, from a piece posted today on the Christianist "news" site, WorldNetDaily. Barber's piece goes on to quote (again) from JMG readers and cites the Palm Springs incident as examples of the violent and murderous intent of LGBT activists.

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Ted Stevens Appears To Have Lost

Is this election STILL going on?
Sen. Ted Stevens' hold on the U.S. Senate seat he's held for 40 years is looking increasingly shaky in the face of more votes for Anchorage Mayor Mark Begich. Begich now holds an 814-vote lead he took after nearly 60,000 votes were counted Wednesday. Thursday, the Elections Division provided additional detail on where the more than 40,000 votes yet to be counted come from.

With many arriving from Democratic strongholds that favored Begich on Election Day, the challenger looks to be in a strong position to unseat Stevens, the longest serving Republican ever in the U.S. Senate. "Given where we expect the remaining votes are located, this looks very good for Begich," said polling analyst Nate Silver on the Web site Fivethirtyeight.com, a national polling site that has been looking at Alaska. The district with the most absentee votes left to be counted, 2,116, is Sitka, which Begich won 54 percent to 41 percent. "The remaining full districts ... those are good districts for us," Begich said Thursday.
Looks like Caribou Barbie is gonna be stuck as governor.

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Palm Springs Woman Pressing Charges After Cross Ripped From Her Hands

Most of you should remember Tuesday's ugly story of the elderly woman in Palm Springs who crashed a Prop 8 rally. She was screamed at, her crossed was ripped from her hands and stomped by gay men. Now she's pressing assault charges.
A woman says she wants to press charges against protesters at a gay marriage rally last week in Palm Springs, California. 69-year-old Phyliss Burgess is a supporter of Proposition 8. She showed up at a same sex marriage rally, with a cross. That didn't go over well and the scuffle happened during a live report. "It really peeled back a very thin veneer of a crowd that was calling me a Nazi."

Burgess remembers the names protesters called her Friday night as she marched with cross in hand in support of Proposition 8. One protester knocked the cross out of her hand. Others shouted at her while she left the scene. But, through it all, she never wanted to retaliate. Palm Springs Police, absent at the time of the alleged attack, convinced her to press charges. She has also received several calls from residents who saw the attack and support her position. Protesters took their fight to city hall Friday night. Now, Burgess intends to take her fight to the city council the next time they meet. Charges would likely be assault and vandalism. Both misdemeanors.
Video of the incident is here.

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Tomorrow: Nationwide Prop 8 Protests

Go to Join The Impact for information about the protests near you. Protest times are staggered by time zone, making this the very first time in the history of our nation that LGBT people will be standing up for ourselves in every major city in every state at the SAME TIME.

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Besen And Cannick Clash On O'Reilly

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Love Unites

Via Towleroad:
Shepard Fairey, the graphic designer and illustrator who created the iconic images for Obama's campaign, has turned his focus to the current fight for equality in the gay and lesbian community, designing a poster intended specifically for use at this weekend's rallies in California and elsewhere. The image is inspired by the art of a young man named Aaron Harvey. Thanks to the donations of two print sources, posters will be donated for the rally this Saturday at City Hall, which is part of the larger nationwide action called Join the Impact.

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Prop 8 Lawsuits See Action From CA Supreme Court

Things are moving quickly:
The California Supreme Court has asked state Attorney General Jerry Brown to reply by Monday to lawsuits challenging the voter-approved ban on same-sex marriage - a sign that the justices are taking the cases seriously and will not dispose of them quickly. Two groups of gay and lesbian couples and local governments led by the city of San Francisco filed the suits a day after the Nov. 4 election, when Proposition 8 passed with a 52 percent majority.

They argue that the initiative, a state constitutional amendment, violates other provisions of the California Constitution by taking rights away from a historically persecuted minority group and stripping judges of their power to protect that group. The couples' suits contend that Prop. 8 makes such fundamental changes that it amounts to a constitutional revision, which can be placed on the ballot only by a two-thirds vote of the Legislature.

Brown has said he will defend Prop. 8 in court while also supporting the legality of an estimated 18,000 weddings performed under the court's May 15 ruling legalizing same-sex marriage.

The filing the court requested from Brown's office will not address the ballot measure's validity, but will focus instead on the initial questions of whether the justices should accept the suits for review - and, if so, whether they should suspend Prop. 8 while they decide the case, said the state's lawyer, Christopher Krueger, a senior assistant attorney general. Suspending Prop. 8 would allow same-sex marriages to resume.

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Thursday, November 13, 2008

GLAAD Takes Over Commercial Closet, Fires Its Founder

In early 2008, GLAAD and the Commercial Closet, the fairness-to-gays advertising advocacy group founded by Michael Wilke, decided to merge. Milke says he thought he was going to continue to a position running the Commercial Closet for GLAAD, but only found this week out via press release that he'd been terminated.
Negotiations for a January 2009 merger had been all but finalized, and in June, Wilke and his editorial director had moved into GLAAD’s New York offices. On Monday, days after learning from his board of directors that the merger had gone through two months ahead of schedule, Wilke says he found out from an article on Advertising Age’s website that he would no longer be with the organization he saw blossom into a full-time venture almost eight years ago. “There wasn’t supposed to be a shutdown,” Wilke told Advocate.com. “That was never planned. I know the board was very concerned about being in the black at the end of the year, so their solution was to cancel our big fund-raiser and to let me go.”

Stephanie Blackwood, who sits on CCA’s board as the vice president and previously served as the associate publisher of The Advocate in the mid 1990s, says the Ad Age article couldn't possibly have been the first Wilke learned of his termination. She says he was let go at a board meeting held on the fourth of November. Wilke had just returned from a 10-day trip to Russia -- a trip Blackwood says she and the rest of the board had to hear about through second party sources. Wilke left for Russia on October 24. While he was gone, Wilke says the board made the decision to dissolve CCA.

Blackwood says the board called an emergency meeting the day Wilke was due to leave the country to discuss financial problems and possible solutions. Wilke didn’t attend. Blackwood says that in Wilke's absence, the board had to move forward with further discussions, but agreed to meet with Wilke upon his return. By the time he got back, Blackwood says the board had already been forced to take "drastic action."
Advocate has a lengthy story about the situation. According to GLAAD, Milke was resisting sharing the financials of Commercial Closet prior to the merger. I attended a Commercial Closet event a couple of years ago, story and photos here. It will be interesting to see how GLAAD moves forward with Wilke's important work.

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Whoopi Talks About Last Night


Whoopi Goldberg opened The View today by recapping her experience at last night's protest in NYC. And of course, Elizabeth Hasselbeck jumps in to say that gays are expressing prejudice against religion.

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T-Shirt Of The Week

I found this guy in a bar in San Francisco. It always makes me laugh that you can visit any city in the country and encounter the adamant opinion that theirs is a town of bottoms. Logic insists that if that's true, then somewhere there must be a town of tops. But when I point this out, the reaction is always, "WHERE IS IT???"

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NY Senate: Democratic Infighting Imperils Marriage Equality Vote

The infighting continues among Democrats over the selection of a new Majority Leader, the critical step to bringing marriage equality to a vote in New York. Things have gotten so bad that state GOP leader Sen. Dean Skelos (left) has declared that they will end up retaining the majority.
In some of his most detailed remarks since the Republican Party's historic defeat in statewide elections last week, Senate Majority Leader Dean Skelos denied the Democrats won control of the 62-seat chamber.

The state's top Republican said he hoped to cut a deal with three rogue Democrats and preserve GOP control of the Senate - the party's last toehold on statewide power. "It ain't over 'til it's over, as Yogi used to say," Skelos told Post State Editor Fredric U. Dicker on Dicker's Albany Talk 1300 radio show. "The way I see it, it's 30 Republicans, 29 Democrats and three outstanding."

Losses by longtime Republican Sens. Serphin Maltese and Caesar Trunzo last week gave the Democrats a 32-30 majority in the chamber. But three Democrats have withheld support from party leader Malcolm Smith in hopes of securing a share of the power next year. Each of the "Gang of Three" - Sens. Ruben Diaz Sr., Carl Kruger and Senator-elect Pedro Espada Jr. - has benefited from Republican ties in the past. In the days since the election, Skelos has tried to woo the three into a coalition.
The Renegade Three Democrats are all from NYC:

-Sen. Ruben Diaz Sr. is a Pentacostal minister representing the Bronx.
-Sen. Carl Kruger is Russian-language newspaper publisher representing the Russian section of Brooklyn.
-Sen. Pedro Espada Jr. represents the South Bronx, although his challenger brought charges that his Bronx apartment is a sham residence and that Espada actually lives in tony Westchester County. Espada owes over $60K in state penalties for refusing to submit campaign finance disclosure forms.

All three oppose same-sex marriage, but if a Democrat is made Majority Leader, it is hoped that enough votes would come from the Republican side for the measure to be approved. If the Republicans maintain the majority, that vote will never come. Kruger said earlier this week that he wants to put the issue before the voters as a ballot measure. A poll of New York voters taken in June indicated that only 42% would support marriage equality. It's unknown how the California debacle may have influenced New Yorkers' opinions since then.

New Yorkers should keep these three asshat Democrats in their minds and in their chants at Saturday's protest rally at City Hall.

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Not Everbody Enjoyed Last Night....

....Especially this woman trapped in the middle of a few thousand chanting queers. I waved my "Honk For Equality" sign at her, but she shook her head. Anyway, you should definitely head over to Towleroad where Andy has spent the entire day compiling photos and videos from around the web. And since I buried it at the bottom of last night's post, here's my slideshow again. Full-screen photos are here.

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Katy Perry, Gay Icon?

Gawker isn't pleased that Katy "I Kissed A Girl" Perry is on the cover of Out Magazine as one of the Out 100, the magazine's annual list of LGBT movers and shakers.
Singer Katy Perry is at best a pretty pop princess in retro riot grrl makeup and at worst an enemy of the gay civil rights movement. Her song "I Kissed a Girl" is a paean to girls getting drunk and sucking mug with other girls while their boyfriends watch. I don't want to sound uppity, but it's kind of a shitty song with a shitty message—that cutesy fake homosexuality is silly fun and good for attracting boys. So it pisses me off a bit that she's on the cover of Out magazine's "Out 100" issue this month. Why is this tittering dykesploitationist worthy of gay hero status?
"Tittering dykesploitationist." Heh. Well, at least we can say that the song really pissed off the wingnuts. I see Gawker's point, but that's got to count for something.

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Anti-Gay Musical Theater Guy Quits

Remember Scott Eckern, the musical theater artistic director who donated $1000 to Yes On 8 and caused a huge uproar? He's resigned from his job for the "protection of the organization."
California Musical Theatre's artistic director, Scott Eckern, resigned from his post today amid controversy over a donation he made to the Proposition 8 campaign to ban gay marriage. Eckern gave $1,000 in support of Proposition 8, a donation that sparked criticism from theater workers and the gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender community.

"We have released a statement that Scott resigned," said Chris McSwain, community affairs director for the theater company. He declined to comment further. According to the statement, the theater company's board of directors received notice today from executive producer Richard Lewis saying that Eckern has resigned. The theater company is a nonprofit organization "dedicated only to the mission of providing quality theatrical productions," the statement reads. At no time does it involve itself in political issues or ever impinge on the rights of its employees to engage in political activities of their choice," the statement reads.

The organization said the views and opinions of its employees do not necessarily represent those of the California Musical Theatre. The board also thanked Eckern for "25 years of invaluable service to the organization and the advancement of musical theatre as an art form."

Eckern also released a statement today saying that he quit "after prayerful consideration to protect the organization and to help the healing in the local theatre-going and creative community." Eckern said that he "honestly had no idea" that the contribution would spark such outrage and made the donation to act on his belief as the traditional definition of marriage be preserved. "I support each individual to have rights and access, and I understand that in California domestic partnerships come with the same rights that come with marriage," he said.

Eckern said his sister is a lesbian in a committed relationship and he loves her and is supportive of her and her family, just as she is of him and his family. "I definitely do not support any message or treatment of others that is hateful or instills fear," he said. "This is a highly emotional issue and the accusations that have been made against me are simply not true."

Eckern said he enjoyed his tenure with the California Musical Theatre and respects the people at the organization and in the theatrical community. "I am disappointed that my personal convictions have cost me the opportunity to do what I love the most which is to continue enriching the Sacramento arts and theatre community," he said.

What the hell was this guy doing in musical theater for the last 25 years? How is it that his anti-gay attitude only now came up? Weird. Anyway, you might be amused by Eckern's alumnus page on the Brigham Young University site.
"It is a privilege and a responsibility to represent the values of BYU and the Gospel of Jesus Christ. There is life after school. And it is fulfilling and wonderful as we are ever mindful that we are to serve the Lord in all that we do. No matter the audience, no matter the means by which you tell the story, as artists who are faithful Latter-day Saints we can win their hearts, and in so doing lead them to believe. In the sacred name of Jesus Christ. Amen."

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Sammon To Leave Log Cabin

Patrick Sammon, executive director of the Log Cabin Republicans, has announced his resignation.
Sammon said in a statement released Thursday that he would step down at the end of January. Sammon, a former television news reporter, became president of Log Cabin in December 2006. “After five years at this organization and more than two years heading Log Cabin, I am ready to tackle new challenges,” he said. “I’ll be doing documentary filmmaking, which is what I did before joining Log Cabin’s staff.”

Sammon joined the staff of Liberty Education Forum, the Log Cabin educational arm, in January 2004. He became interim head of Log Cabin in September 2006, following the departure of Patrick Guerriero.

Sammon’s departure comes following two national elections that battered Republicans, ousting many of the party’s more moderate members from Congress. The few new GOP members of Congress have not supported gay issues. All 14 freshmen House Republicans ranked in this year’s Human Rights Campaign Congressional Scorecard received zero scores. Three freshmen Senate Republicans also received zero scores; freshmen Sen. Bob Corker of Tennessee scored 20 of 100.

Despite the setbacks, the Log Cabin statement announcing Sammon’s departure notes several accomplishments. It says that under Sammon’s leadership, Log Cabin “built close ties with Sen. John McCain’s campaign” and “stood up to Gov. Mitt Romney’s use of gay and lesbian families as a wedge issue” during the presidential primaries. It also notes that Log Cabin “helped secure” 35 Republican votes on the Employment Non-Discrimination Act, which proved essential to passing the bill through the U.S. House of Representatives. The bill remains stalled in the U.S. Senate.

Sammon, who informed the Log Cabin board earlier this year that he would step down after the November elections, said he’s proud of the progress the organization has made.
The LCR is conducting a "national search" for Sammon's replacement. His predecessor, Patrick Guerriero, was the campaign director for No On 8.

UPDATE: It should be noted that Patrick Guerriero was brought in to head the No On 8 campaign in the final three weeks, once it became clear that our side was losing. Some are crediting Guerriero with the last minute surge in donations and the large number of celebrity endorsements that flooded in at the end. Besides working on Prop 8, Guerriero is the executive director for the Gill Action Fund, a progressive political advocacy organization founded by gay philantrophist Tim Gill.

(Via - Washington Blade)

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CNN: Dan Savage Takes On Family Research Council Over Prop 8


Another winning performance from Dan Savage as he rips Tony Perkins of the Family Research Council. I'm really sorry that I missed seeing Dan at the protest last night. We link each other all the time, but I've never met him in person.

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Jasmyne Cannick Reacts To The Reactions

Most of you didn't care much for Jasmyne Cannick's piece about racism and marriage equality. Here's her assessment of the reaction her piece got:
First, the way I can judge whether an article I wrote was any good is by the response that I receive about it. In the case of the L.A. Times’ op-ed, of the few the emails that I’ve had time to read, about 90 percent of white gays are angry at me and about 99 percent of black people loved it. Now ask me whose opinion matters more to me? Second, I am not losing any sleep over all of the anger around my article; I’d suggest that you don’t either. Third, if you can say it better, write it and submit it. Who knows, maybe they’ll even print it. And lastly, when you come for me, be ready.
Wayne Besen responds:
Actually, the worst way to judge success is solely by the size of the response. Does Cannick consider George W. Bush a great president because his invasion of Iraq drew millions of protesters around the world? According to her logic, he is the greatest president in American history. She should consider that the large response she received had to do with the fact her article was illogical and shockingly offensive. This is hardly anything to be proud of.

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Open Thread Thursday

Where will YOU be this Saturday? There will be a Prop 8 rally in every major city in every state. Me and my peeps will be downtown at City Hall by 1PM to demand that the New York Senate approve marriage equality. No excuses. Be there.

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HomoQuotable - Elton John

"We're not married. Let's get that right. We have a civil partnership. What is wrong with Proposition 8 is that they went for marriage. Marriage is going to put a lot of people off, the word marriage. I don't want to be married. I'm very happy with a civil partnership.

"If gay people want to get married, or get together, they should have a civil partnership. The word 'marriage,' I think, puts a lot of people off. You get the same equal rights that we do when we have a civil partnership. Heterosexual people get married. We can have civil partnerships." - Elton John, speaking in NYC on Tuesday at the annual Elton John AIDS Foundation gala fundraiser.

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More NYC Protest Video

Here's the clip from Eric Leven.

And this clip is from the NYC LGBT Center.

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Wednesday, November 12, 2008

NYC: Thousands Rally For Equality

NYC's first marriage equality rally/protest was a smashing success as a crowd estimated at 10,000 - 15,000 jammed the plaza across from the Manhattan Mormon Temple before taking over Broadway and marching to Columbus Circle. Major celebrities showed their support, dozens of television crews did interviews, news helicopters hovered overhead, and in general it was just an overwhelming show of force. However the evening news is already teasing the story as "about a thousand people showed up." [Top photo via Blabbeando, who has lots more.]ABOVE: Organizer Corey Johnson answered questions for a sea of TV crews.ABOVE: Whoopi Goldberg held a "For My Friends' Equal Rights" sign.ABOVE: Uber-blogger Andy Towle worked the crowd barrier as a Rally Marshall.ABOVE: Eric Leven brought the videographer fierceness and Gilbert "Rainbow Flag" Baker created the massive "God Loves Gay Marriage" banner that was carried at the front of the march. Gilbert enlisted me to hold one end of the banner before I realized what it said. (It was over 50 feet long and I only saw the "marriage" part.) When it hit me what the whole thing said, I asked a nearby lesbian, "Do you love Jesus?" Yes, I do. "Great, hold this." I'll have Eric's video as soon as he gets it posted.ABOVE: SiriusXM host Michelangelo Signorile was thrilled with the turnout.
ABOVE: Comedian Judy Gold took the bullhorn for some hilarious chants. Her sign: "Britney Spears, 55 hours. Me - Never?" ABOVE: Andy Humm of Gay City News interviews a tot-toting gay daddy Lavi Soloway and and his daughter Lily.
ABOVE: We all feel your pain, California.ABOVE: The NYPD was generally in good humor, but just in case they weren't, the NYCLU had protest observers on hand.

ABOVE: Video by Andres Duque of Blabbeando.

ABOVE: For full-screen images of this slideshow go here.ABOVE: I'm coming for YOU, Sen. Malcolm Smith. [Photo by Andre Duque.] Also click over for many more pics from Bob Johnson, Little David, Father Tony and from Matthew Rettenmund who has lots of celeb photos. BELOW: Video by Father Tony and a report from the NY Daily News.

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Ted Haggard: I Was Molested At 7 Yrs Old

Disgraced evangelical leader Ted Haggard has "broken his silence" on the second anniversary of his downfall to say that the reason he sinned with the menz is because a man that worked for his father molested him when he was seven years old.
Haggard gave a pair of sermons at a small church in Illinois where the pastor is an old friend of his. "The first thing I want you to know is I sinned," Haggard began. Haggard's comments were quite revealing. They were recorded on audiotape and put on the Internet at www.tedhaggard.com. [JMG: The site is currently down.]

Haggard told the congregation that a sexual incident with a man when he was 7 years old may be related to the scandal involving a male prostitute and crystal meth use that cost him his job two years ago. "My dad was pretty successful," Haggard said. "He had a lot of workers. One of those workers had a sexual experience with me. I was 7 years old." Haggard said that incident stayed with him throughout his life.
Oh, right. Sorry, Ted, it's a little too convenient that the reason you come up with is the same one that all the wingnuts point to as a primary cause of homosexuality. Not buying this for one minute.

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NOH8 By Len Peltier

Levi's sends us this excellent Prop 8 graphic created by their Executive Director of Overall Daddy Hotness, Len Peltier (right), which plays off of Robert Indiana's iconic LOVE sculpture. Peltier's image is perfect for your Prop 8 protest posters and Levi's invites you to "use it and pass it around."

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First To Marry In Connecticut

Via NYTimes, these ladies were the first to get a marriage license.
Barbara and Robin Levine-Ritterman left New Haven City Hall with the first marriage license issued to a same-sex couple in Connecticut on Wednesday. Robin is holding the license.
And these ladies were the first to marry.

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NY: Two Dem Senators Want A State Referendum On Marriage Equality

The battle for New York senate majority leader continues as a trio of Democratic senators say they want a Latino in the post, not current Minority Leader Sen. Malcolm Smith, who is African-American. And two of the three, Sen. Carl Kruger and Sen. Ruben Diaz, Sr. say they want a state referendum on marriage equality rather than a legislative approval.
Mr. Kruger and Mr. Díaz also said on Tuesday that they would seek a statewide referendum on same-sex marriage as a way of forgoing a legislative vote. The issue has been a sticking point for Mr. Díaz, a Pentacostal minister who has vowed not to support any leadership candidate who brings a same-sex marriage bill to the Senate floor.
The rest of the Democrats in the Senate are endorsing Malcolm Smith and are frustrated with the rebelling senators. For his part, Smith has refused to state whether he will bring marriage equality to the Senate floor. Whoever triumphs in the battle for majority leader, we may face more ugly minority-vs-minority politics on the issue of gay marriage. The Democrats have a one seat majority in the Senate.

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Dan Savage On Colbert


Stephen Colbert hits on the same issue that Bill O'Reilly does further down this page, but does it much funnier, bringing Dan Savage in for extra hilarity. Check out how Savage makes the usually unflappable Colbert break up.

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He Voted Yes On 8


Jesus' General hips us to this queen's "praise-ercize" clip on GodTube. "Feel the bongos!" He's the black Richard Simmons! Also, at 5:46, does he say "I gotta pee"? Too funny.

(Via - Pam Spaulding)

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LA Times: Prop 8's Lessons

Wondering where all those protesters were before the election, the Los Angeles Times doles out some blame.
Same-sex marriage advocates produced only one hard-hitting commercial, depicting a pair of Mormon missionaries ripping up the wedding license of a married gay couple, but didn't air it until election day. The campaign made little effort to reach out to the African American community, whose large turnout and overwhelming support of Proposition 8 were enough to put it over the top. And while it's nice that Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger now says he hopes that the courts will overturn the initiative, he was all but invisible before Nov. 4.

The failure of leadership extends beyond the governor. If there was a public face to the No on 8 campaign, it was San Francisco Mayor Gavin Newsom, who is (notoriously) heterosexual. Where were the gay leaders? It's hard to imagine the civil rights movement of the 1960s succeeding without Martin Luther King Jr. or Malcolm X, or to imagine the women's suffrage movement without the likes of Susan B. Anthony.

Wresting equal rights from a society reluctant to grant them isn't easy. It can take years of nonviolent resistance, passionate speeches and even in-your-face radicalism. If people who voted yes on Proposition 8 say they didn't see it as a civil rights matter, that's because until now there has been nothing resembling a civil rights crusade by the gay community. Courts can assist downtrodden groups, but they never have and never will be enough to guarantee equality on their own.
As I said here many times, the commercials were crap. They were timid, cloying and completely free of the actual faces of ACTUAL gay people. We snatched defeat from the jaws of victory with those pussy-footing messages. The one good ad mentioned above, which only aired on election day, wasn't even done by No On 8.

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Top Ten Most Irritating Phrases

Oxford University has issued a list of what they consider to be the top ten most irritating phrases.

1 - At the end of the day
2 - Fairly unique
3 - I personally
4 - At this moment in time
5 - With all due respect
6 - Absolutely
7 - It's a nightmare
8 - Shouldn't of
9 - 24/7
10 - It's not rocket science

(Via Jockohomo, who personally absolutely hates "embiggen". With all due respect, I disagree.)

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Bill O'Reilly Wants To See A War Between Gays And Blacks



Bill O'Reilly says that instead of protesting the Mormons, gays should be protesting at black churches, but won't because of fear of losing our "politically-correct cred." Stats guru Nate Silver debunks the "blacks did it" opinion:
Certainly, the No on 8 folks might have done a better job of outreach to California's black and Latino communities. But the notion that Prop 8 passed because of the Obama turnout surge is silly. Exit polls suggest that first-time voters -- the vast majority of whom were driven to turn out by Obama (he won 83 percent [!] of their votes) -- voted against Prop 8 by a 62-38 margin. More experienced voters voted for the measure 56-44, however, providing for its passage.

Now, it's true that if new voters had voted against Prop 8 at the same rates that they voted for Obama, the measure probably would have failed. But that does not mean that the new voters were harmful on balance -- they were helpful on balance. If California's electorate had been the same as it was in 2004, Prop 8 would have passed by a wider margin.

Furthermore, it would be premature to say that new Latino and black voters were responsible for Prop 8's passage. Latinos aged 18-29 (not strictly the same as 'new' voters, but the closest available proxy) voted against Prop 8 by a 59-41 margin. These figures are not available for young black voters, but it would surprise me if their votes weren't fairly close to the 50-50 mark.

At the end of the day, Prop 8's passage was more a generational matter than a racial one. If nobody over the age of 65 had voted, Prop 8 would have failed by a point or two. It appears that the generational splits may be larger within minority communities than among whites, although the data on this is sketchy.
(Via - Towleroad)

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YouTube Thinks I'm A Spammer

Somebody didn't like the comments I posted on various Yes On 8 clips on YouTube.
Text comments you posted to YouTube have been identified as spam, and have been deleted from the site. Your account has received one Community Guidelines warning strike, which will expire in six months. Additional violations may result in the temporary disabling of your ability to post content to YouTube and/or the termination of your account. For your reference, a copy of this message has also been emailed to the address associated with this account. Sincerely, The YouTube Team.
Apparently, violently racist and homophobic language is OK on YouTube, but a dozen non-profane comments about the Mormon Church is not.

UPDATE: I'm told that if you cut-and-paste the same comment into more than a handful of clips and somebody flags your comment as spam, then YouTube's spam algorithm is triggered. Lesson: No matter how pithy your message, change it up or you're screwed. There is apparently no appeal system once you've been flagged.

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Damage Control At Marriott

Marriott Hotels is doing some damage control in the face of calls for a boycott of the chain. Bill Marriott (emphasis mine):
As many of you may know I'm a member of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. Some might conclude given my family's membership in the Mormon Church that our company supported the recent ballot initiative to ban same sex marriage in California. This is simply untrue. Marriott International is a public company headquartered in Bethesda, Maryland, and is not controlled by any one individual or family. Neither I, nor the company, contributed to the campaign to pass Proposition 8.

The Bible that I love teaches me about honesty, integrity and unconditional love for all people. But beyond that, I am very careful about separating my personal faith and beliefs from how we run our business.

I am personally motivated to speak now because Marriott was built on the basic principles of respect and inclusion. My father, who founded this company along with my mother, told everyone who would listen: "Take care of your employees, and they'll take care of your customers, who will come back again and again."

For more than 80 years, our company has grown and changed, but that basic principle still holds up. We embrace all people as our customers, associates, owners and franchisees regardless of race, sex, gender identity or sexual orientation.

Our principle is backed up with a formal diversity program, which we established more than 20 years ago. Our Board of Directors has also focused on this priority and helped us be a leader and a better company. We were among the first in our industry to offer domestic partner benefits, and we've earned a perfect 100% score on the Human Rights Campaign's Corporate Equality Index for two years in a row. Many of our hotels have hosted LGBT community functions and events for years.

I am very proud of all of our associates at Marriott. And I want all our associates and guests, whom we welcome into our hotels, to know that we embrace your talents and thank you for your many contributions and your business.
John Aravosis at AmericaBlog responds: "First, I'm sure Domino's and Coors probably weren't particular anti-gay companies per se. But the people running the company gave their money to some pretty nasty conservative causes. That money came from us, their customers. And I suspect Bill Marriott, as a good Mormon, gives 10% of his gross income to the Mormon church as is required. And the Mormon church is personally responsible for taking away our rights in California. We were winning on Prop 8 until the Mormons parachuted in and dropped as much as $20 million (one estimate is that Mormons gave 77% of the entire budget the bigots had to push Prop 8). The Mormons did this to us. So I have a problem with enriching Bill Marriott so that he can enrich bigots who take away our civil rights"

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Andy Towle Zinged By Rick & Steve


Andy Towle got teased a little on LOGO last night. Towle: "I began watching this preview clip of tonights's season two premiere of LOGO's Rick & Steve yesterday on Pink is the New Blog (Trent, Arianna Huffington, and Perez Hilton are featured in it) without having any idea what was coming at the end of it. I laughed my ass off. Those bloggers. They're such bullies. Shame on them for picking on the short guy!"

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It's A New Day For LGBT Activism

I just wanted to take a quick moment and thank everyone for sending me all their info, links, and photos about Prop 8 protests around the country. Obviously I can't use all or even very many of them, but I do appreciate everybody writing. It's a new day for gay activism - energy and enthusiasm is at a level we've never seen. It's just plain amazing, not to mention historic. Hopefully, I'll whittle my inbox down over the next week.

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