Obama's Ableist remark on Leno

Obama can't bowl...

Friday's Musical Number

Because she is Fabulous and it the FIRST DAY OF SPRING!!

Gay Word of the Day

Zebra Stripe: is a term describing an inborn trait or behavior that is consistent since a young age, such as sexual orientation and gender identity.

There is a new Dora in town

And with her new look she might be doing some new exploring too...
Longer hair, smaller waist, a little lip gloss...
here is her before and after.
What so you think of the new explorer?

DC Queer Studies Symposium

On April 17 and 18th, graduate students and faculty from American University, George Washington, Georgetown and University of Maryland will run the second DC Queer Studies Symposium. Papers, presentations, poetry readings and a reception will occur on Maryland's College Park campus.

The first afternoon features queer writers reading their works and ends with Judith Halberstam on queer negativities.

The final day includes queer histories, and analysis of poets such as Emily Dickinson and performers including Ethel Waters. Most intriguing to me is a paper that features the queerness of Hip Hop.

New Study: Gays not as Rich as they seem

A new study was just released today down by professors at the University of Michigan and the Williams Institute (UCLA). The study shows quite profoundly that the myth that Gays and Lesbian are disproportionately wealth is not true at all.

"[They] used three different population-based (meaning findings can be generalized to the population) and publicly-funded data sources: the 2000 Census, the 2002 National Survey on Family Growth (NSFG), and the 2005 California Health Interview Survey (CHIS). Analyses from all three surveys confirm that large numbers of LGB men and women are living in poverty, perhaps as many as a quarter of lesbian/bisexual women and one in seven gay/bisexual men. We also find that lesbian/bisexual women are more likely than their heterosexual counterparts to receive public assistance."

"As each day seems to bring more glum news about home foreclosures, job losses, and recession, our findings suggest that LGBT people might be particularly vulnerable in this economic downturn. Policy initiatives designed to help struggling homeowners, enhance unemployment and public assistance benefits, and create new jobs should all be understood as an important part of the gay political agenda. Broadening engagement on these issues may be very important for the short-term needs of the LGBT community."

See the entire study and read more at Bilerico Project

Beyonce vs. Andy Griffith

If you are bored and have a second to waste click on this link

http://www.partyben.com.nyud.net:8080/PartyBen-SingleLadies(InMayberry).mp3

It's really funny.

Sin Nombre

West Side Story Photo Shoot with J.LO

Pictures from Vanity Fair

MARCH MADNESS

I know this is a gay blog, but there are some queers who like sports. I have engaged in a NCAA bracket picks thing at work and I am very excited about it. I will keep you all posted on how I am doing and if my teams are winning.

GO CHATTANOOGA!!

Marc Jacobs is ENGAGED

To a really cute boy.
I think I will celebrate by buying a new pair of sunglasses :)

WWD reports:

Marc Jacobs and Lorenzo Martone are engaged. The designer and his ad executive boyfriend, who have been together for about a year, will go public with the news beginning Thursday, when they arrive in Brazil wearing
rings. The couple is headed to Martone’s native Sao Paolo for a fete celebrating the Marc Jacobs multibrand store there, which opened in January. They have not set a wedding date.

US finally Endorses the UN gay rights text

WASHINGTON (AP) -- The Obama administration on Wednesday formally endorsed a U.N. statement calling for the worldwide decriminalization of homosexuality, a measure that former President George W. Bush had refused to sign.

The move was the administration's latest in reversing Bush-era decisions that have been heavily criticized by human rights and other groups. The United States was the only western nation not to sign onto the declaration when it came up at the U.N. General Assembly in December.

Read full article at Associated Press

What Do You Plegde?

MySpace Celebrity and Katalyst present The Presidential Pledge

Spring is COMING!!

WOO WHOO!!

I had quiet the day

So many things happen today that I still have not gotten the time to process all of them. But I am soo happy and very very blessed.

Thanks to everyone in my life for everything you have given me I greatly appreciate you!

MUAH!!

Gays not Allowed to march in St. Patrick's Day Parade

Well it looks like this has been an issue for a couple of years now according to the article on 365gay.com

The organization that organizes and puts on the nationals largest St. Patty's day parade in New York is extremely Catholic and has refused to allow gay Irish groups to join in the parade. "For 18 years the Ancient Order of Hibernians which organizes the parade has barred Irish gay groups from marching. "

Some of the LGBT community find this completely disrespectful and did not join in on the festivities. "The city’s highest ranking gay politician, City Council Speaker Christine Quinn, boycotted the parade again this year. As she did before last year’s parade, Quinn attempted to set up a meeting between the Hibernians and gay representatives and again this year the conservative Catholic men’s group ignored the invitation.The Hibernians claim the parade is a private, religious procession in order to to justify keeping LGBT groups out."

So are religious processions normally followed by Irish car-bombs and green beers till you can't see straight? Because if that is the case then sign me up!

Gay Rainbows are Offensive

Here is another story to add to the absolutely ridiculous list.

An openly gay high school student has been forbidden to wear his "Rainbows are Gay" wristband to school anymore, because some TEACHERS found it OFFENSIVE!?!

Are you F#*&ING KIDDING ME!!

You have to read this story on Joe.My.God

Gay Word of the Day

Same Gender Loving: or SGL for short is a term coined within the African-American LGBT community. The term is preferred because it is seen as separate and distinct from queer slang that is seen as white dominated. The term is also popular among people of color because it emphasizes emotional relationships and not just relationships purely based on sexuality.

If you were gay...

Britney Fans Beware- Targeted Gay bashing outside of concert

Police are investigating after a gay couple from Kearny complained they were beaten by a crowd a few blocks from the Prudential Center in Newark after attending a Britney Spears' concert there Saturday night.

Joshua Kehoe, 25, said he and his partner, Bobby Daniel Caldwell, 36, were returning to their car near Raymond Boulevard and Broad Street when a group of 15 to 20 youths surrounded the couple and began beating them.

The Star-Ledger

Obama names another LGBT to OPM

The Obama administration has appointed lesbian attorney Elaine Kaplan as general counsel for the U.S. Office of Personnel Management, where she will serve under the office’s gay director, John Berry, according to a source familiar with the appointment.

Kaplan has worked as senior deputy general counsel for the National Treasury Employees Union in Washington since 2004. She began working as an attorney for the NTEU in 1984 and became known as an expert in federal workforce issues. The NTEU represents federal workers at the Department of the Treasury as well as workers in other federal agencies.

[Washington Blade]

Gay Word of the Day

Significant Other: is an individual who is regarded as special in anothers life, it could be their romantic and/or sexual partner or a close friend. The term is ambiguous which makes it applicable for all all orientations and gender identities.

Teacher fired for Lamamie Project?!

I cannot believe that this is still happening. Teachers getting fired for trying to impart understanding and tolerance on their students for people who are different from themselves. Shouldn't she have gotten an award for making the world a better place!? You can Call/Email the Superintendent Ed Turlington and tell him how inappropriate and unjust these actions are. His contact info is listed at the bottom.

Queers United reports:

Grandfield High School's Debra Taylor the school’s Ethics and Street Law class teacher has been fired over controversy surrounding the showing of gay-themed film The Laramie Project. The movie is about Matthew Shepard's murder and the teacher wanted to facilitate discussion and promote tolerance after initial approval by the schools principal.

After the school principal reneged on his decision and Superintendent Ed Turlington told Ms. Taylor she could no longer show the film due to its subject matter, the teacher held a mock funeral in a nearby park where students could write down their thoughts and release them into balloons to develop a sense of closure on the topic.

The district says she was suspended and then fired by the board for her actions in the park, but others believe it is due to the nature of the play.

Superintendent Ed Turlington can be contacted at:

580-479-5237
eturlington@grandfield.k12.ok.us

Vampires are so Gay.

Things are about to get a lot more hard-core for Pattinson. RPattz is ready to share his first onscreen love scene with the world, but for girls who are hoping it's between Bella and Edward, they better think again.

"In a lot of ways, I was kind of crossing lines of what I thought I was comfortable doing," he said about his new movie "Little Ashes," in which he plays surrealist painter Salvador Dalí. "I had to do all this naked stuff.

"I thought I'd never get another acting job again," Pattinson continued. "So I was like, 'Yeah — why not try to do something weird?' There's all these gay-sex scenes. And, you know, I haven't even done a sex scene with a girl in my whole career."

Pattinson said it wasn't so much having to play gay that was hard, but having an audience there for it. "Here I am, with Javier [Beltrán], who plays [Federico Garcí] Lorca, doing an extremely hard-core sex scene, where I have a nervous breakdown afterward," he said. "And because we're both straight, what we were doing seemed kind of ridiculous. ... And it wasn't even a closed set. There were all these Spanish electricians giggling to themselves."

How progressive are you?

Take the test and see...

Take the poll based on one the Center for American Progress employed to gauge the political leanings of our nation. Read more from the Center for American Progress at: <http://www.americanprogress.org/issues/2009/03/progressive_quiz.html>.

Everyone Matters: Watch. Please.

Portia on The Ellen Show

Friday's Musical Number

Because I forgot!! Oh no!!

Here's one of my favorite's because I can't wait for those Summer nights.

What do you get when you cross...

Tina Turner + the LA Gay Men's Chorus??



A bunch of PROUD MARYS!

Gay Word of the Day

Queerspawn: is a term used by children of LGBTQ parents for purposes of self-identification and to feel a sense of community.

Hey Hey, Ho Ho, Transphobia has gotta go!!

This is extremely dis-heartening to hear, especially with the LGBT movement going in full force, and the recent appointment of the first openly-Trans person to Barney Frank's congressional staff Diego Miguel Sanchez.

Trans phobia is apparently not only found outside the LGBT community but within it as well and this is not acceptable. How can an Gay, Lesbian, or Bisexual person fight and argue to stop hatecrime against them and then turn around and do the exact thing they are fighting against to someone else??

Well that is exactly what happen on Friday, March 13 outside of Fab Lounge in Dupont Circle to two transgender men according to the D.C. Police Department’s Gay & Lesbian Liaison Unit. After being verbally harrassed by three bar patrons, two women and one man, inside the club the two men left. As they were walking away from the bar the harrassers followed them out and physically assulted the transmen.

How do we as a community expect others to treat us with respect and create safe spaces when we can not even do that for each other??

Next week is the National Transgender Lobby Day and if you have a chance I strongly encourage you to attend. Even if you can't attend show your support in other ways by showing respect and being an active ally to the T within our community, because they have ever right to it as anyone else. It sound cliche but it's true: UNITED WE STAND. DIVIDED WE FALL.

Discrimination or Safety? Another strike in Orange County

Now growing up on the border of LA and Orange County in California I personally know the distinct differences between the two. Although I live in Whittier, which is in LA County, I often was in Brea, La Habra, and other parts of Orange County because there was better shopping. So I know the area very well. Orange County is much more conservative, wealthier, and white.

Now during the time that I was living there I was not "out" and did not know what the gay scene was like. However, it's been about five years since I have been there and even after Prop. 8 and the still recurring events following it there are still anti-gay events occurring.

This is the latest one.

There was a "gay night" event at the Lucky Strike, a block of Orange bowling alley, that is a recurring event. Apparently, the event was getting "out of control" and police had to come and break it up. By out of control they meant "too well attended." They accused the promoters of turning the bowling alley into a suedo-nightclub. Well DUH! We turn every place we go to into a night club. Seriously though, for underage LGBT youth there is no other place to go to find community and not the police have taken this place away from them. The event planners claimed discrimination, and the police claimed "safety."

Read for yourself. What do you think?
LATimes.com

First Israeli gay man to get "maternity" leave

The National Insurance Institute authorized Israel's first-ever "maternity" leave for a male couple on Thursday. Yonatan Gher, director of Jerusalem's nonprofit Open House Pride and Tolerance organization, has received institute approval of a 64-day leave from work on the occasion of the birth of his biological son, born of a surrogate mother in India. His partner of seven years commenced formal adoption procedures, so that the child will be formally recognized as his as well.

Despite confirmation of the leave, Gher has not received an answer to his request for reimbursement of NIS 10,000 in hospitalization costs (Gher and his partner also stayed in the hospital prior to the delivery) from the NII.

Read the rest at Haaretz.com

Mexico's first gay Mayoral Candidate

This is a really big step in looking at LGBT issues on an international basis. He will be on the ballot but sadly does not have a chance of winning. But to have one of the party's actually put him on their slate is a step forward.

Queerty reports:

Miguel Antonio Galán is running on the Social Democratic Party, or PSD ticket in Guadalajara for Mayor, making him the first openly gay candidate to run for a mayoral seat in Mexico, according to gay rights groups in the country. That's the good news. The bad news is that he doesn't have a shot in hell of winning– the most optimistic projections give the PSD, a super-liberal party that supports decriminalizing drugs, among other things, a 3% chance of winning.

This is college in one snap shot

ANTM auditions go Wrong

So what happens when you fence in a couple hundred thousand hungry, wannabe supermodels all in one place...
This...
These are the auditions for the next ANTM in NYC.