Michelle Obama's remarks at the gay DNCC luncheon

Here's a YouTube clip of Michelle Obama's remarks at the luncheon for LGBT delegates at the convention yesterday:

LGBT for Obama has more.

Posted by Rebecca Armendariz, Online Edito| Aug. 27 at 11:27 AM | RArmendariz@washblade.com

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Day 4 in Denver: Michelle, Hillary and Cyndi

Peter Rosenstein is a Hillary Clinton delegate from D.C. and a Blade contributor. Check out his observations from Denver all week on washingtonblade.com.

Well the day begins at 8 a.m. with the usual D.C. delegation breakfast and picking up my credentials. I was asked if I can make sure to be in the Convention Hall (Pepsi Center) by 3 p.m. to see and hear Eleanor Holmes Norton make her speech on D.C. voting rights. When I said I didn’t think I could be there they asked me if I would lend my credentials so they could fill the seats for the speech. I unfortunately had to say no as I needed them to get into another meeting at the Colorado Convention Center because if you don’t have delegate credentials you need to wait on a long line to get in.

The breakfast session included a welcome by Council Chair Vince Gray. He is the co-chair of the delegation. Our other chair isn’t here yet and that is the mayor. We did have a glut of Council members and former members. Yvette Alexander and Harry Thomas, Jr., were there and I know Muriel Bowser is in town but I guess she slept late. Former members included William Lightfoot, Frank Smith, Arrington Dixon and Sandy Allen (one of the other pledged Clinton delegates). Missing was Jack Evans, maybe he is still home campaigning as he has a real race in the primary from Cary Silverman. Or maybe Jack is still trying to figure out whether he will flip again after the last flip-flop on who he is voting for since he is a pledged Clinton delegate. But I guess Hillary will make it easy for him as she will release her delegates before they have to vote.

Jerry Clark came in wearing his D.C. Vote T-shirt and we said we would see each other at the Barney Frank-Tammy Baldwin lunch later. I understand that more than 650 people have RSVP’d. I was told last night to come early and that it will take time to get in as Michelle Obama is coming so full security will be in force.

I actually spent some time on a conference call for my real job today before I headed to the lunch. It was a really great event. From the moment I got on line to check in I met the greatest people and we were part of more than 650 people in attendance at the oversold event. The first people I saw were Brad Luna and Trevor Thomas of HRC working hard as HRC was a sponsor of the event. I then met Diana Sands who is a state representative in Montana. Who do I run into next but Jack Jacobson who is also from Montana but more about him later.

I saw Justin Nelson and Chance Mitchell who are the founders of the National Gay and Lesbian Chamber of Commerce. I introduced Paul Smedberg to them and that is something I always like to do. We are a community that has to support each other. Lawrence Yanovitch who we miss in D.C. but now works for the Gates Foundation in Seattle was there as well as Dave Noble who is now the lead staffer for the GLBT Obama campaign. I bumped into Dave again at the HRC Melissa Etheridge concert later that night after he spoke to the crowd and ginned them up to work for Obama.

I sat with Justin Cole from GLAAD, Ray Quintero, lobbyist and boy about town in D.C. and Joel Kopperud who is friends with the entire A-list crowd in Rehoboth Beach but despite that he is a great guy. (Just kidding.) Alex Wagner of the Obama campaign was also at our table as were two cute guys from Colorado whose names I don’t remember but I do remember that they have two kids.

Barney and Tammy gave great speeches and Joe Solmonese and Chuck Wolfe did us proud. Barney gave a great speech as always even if we didn’t hear everything he said but one of his great lines was when he talked about being accused of promoting a radical homosexual agenda. He said his response was, “what agenda? All we want is the right to marry, the right to fight for our country and the right to have a job. Not very radical.”

Then the highlight of the lunch was an appearance by Michelle Obama who got a standing ovation. I actually think her speech to us today was even better than the one she gave last night. Maybe only because she was naturally more relaxed and comfortable. She hit every highlight and was sincere and natural. She looked beautiful as well.

From there I headed across the skyway to another ballroom in the Sheraton for the Emily’s List reception. It was great and crowded. I ran into a lot of other people who walked that skyway to the next event. Elizabeth Birch, Barry Karas, Mary Snider and Rich Jacobs of the Courage Campaign.

Ellen Malcolm, who founded Emily’s List, whom I had first met many years ago when I was with Bella Abzug, spoke from the heart and was great. I met Ellen again later at the HRC concert at the Fillmore. Barbara Mikulski spoke at the Emily’s List event and we all kidded about when she would finally come out. Guess it is just a different generation. But the highlight was the speaker Barbara introduced and that was Hillary Clinton. She was great and kidded that she had to go prepare for a little speech later in the evening. She looked beautiful and sounded better than ever.

From there it was a quick change and then off to the Gill Foundation event at the Contemporary Art Museum. What a great event. I found my way there with the help of Mike Sozan and his partner Rick Palacio. I met them on the 16th Street free bus. Mike works for Sen. Jim Webb and Rick for Steny Hoyer. Rick is from Denver so he got us there.

We wandered around the museum and I met a nice guy who is a legislator in Arizona, Ken Cheuvront. He also owns a restaurant of the same name. After a great snack of sushi and a glass of white wine we were ready to go to the Pepsi Center for the evening’s events. We walked from the museum and on the way I realized that I was passing Media Matters, and I had RSVP’d yes for their “Off the Record” Event. So I stopped in and had a drink and chatted with a few people. I was one of the original incorporators of Media Matters, which I did as a favor to David Brock.

After a few minutes there I once again headed to the Pepsi Center. Little did I know I would soon be at the back of a line of hundreds of people trying to get in. I bumped into Claire Lucas who tried to get to the head of the line but like us she was stuck. But it actually took only about 30 minutes and I stared at the cutest cop who was red from the sun. We all commiserated with him.

Then it was into the convention and the wait for the piece de resistance of the evening, Hillary Clinton’s speech. I met Jack Jacobson again and invited him to sit with me in the D.C. delegation. We had a good time and he enjoyed listening to the governor of Montana. Then came Hillary and I screamed my lungs out.
Hillary Clinton gave the speech of her life and no one can now say she hasn’t done all she can for Barack Obama.

Chelsea introduced her mom and looked absolutely beautiful. Hillary hit every note she had to and did it with passion and eloquence. She quoted Harriet Tubman about how we need to “keep going.” She talked about how this was the 88th anniversary of the signing of the constitutional amendment giving women the right to vote. The ovation lasted for minutes and she got so many standing ovations during the speech I couldn’t keep count.

Cora Masters Barry from D.C. who was a passionate Clinton supporter had tears in her eyes. She wasn’t the only one. But I really think Hillary helped her supporters move on but as she did so she also set herself up for whatever the future will bring for her. She is brilliant. One funny part for me was when she mentioned the word “gay,” Jack sitting next to me let out a shriek of delight, which had everyone in front of us turning around. But they did so with a smile of appreciation.

When Hillary’s speech ended we left and headed out to the Fillmore Theater for the Melissa Etheridge/Cyndi Lauper concert. I kept kidding that I had heard and seen Cyndi when she was still young. Tonight she had her 12-year-old son on stage with her and he was break dancing. He was cute as could be.

Brad Luna got us into the VIP section and we met Babak Movahedi and his nephew Darious and half of the gay contingent at the convention. Those there included Elizabeth Birch, Claire Lucas, and Barry Karas among others. Brad’s a good friend and someone I have come to know and like, Matt Young was there as well. We were drinking and looking down over hundreds of people on the main floor. Everyone happy and celebrating a great day.

It was a great night for HRC and Lauper and Etheridge were great. A fitting end to a great day in Denver.

Posted by Peter Rosenstein, Columnist| Aug. 27 at 9:55 AM | editor@washblade.com

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More reasons to love NKOTB

I've loved NKOTB since I saw them in concert when I was seven years old. Their reunion, forthcoming album and tour dates (of course, I have great seats for the Verizon Center show) excite me to no end.

Last week Perez Hilton and Gay Socialites reported that Jonathan Knight from New Kids On the Block is gay! And I couldn't be happier.

New Kids paved the way for groups like *N Sync, and then Lance Bass got the courage to come out. Now the gays can't get enough of him! Jonathan, though always known as "the shy one," has no reason to fear. I don't doubt that if he publicly came out, say, on the cover of People Magazine, the unsold seats for their arena shows would go fast.

Here is a picture of Joey McIntyre and I taken last year at one of his solo shows:

Posted by Rebecca Armendariz, Online Edito| Aug. 26 at 2:40 PM | RArmendariz@washblade.com

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On the bus with a reporter in Denver

Editor’s note: Blade reporters Joshua Lynsen and Chris Johnson are in Denver and will be posting their casual observations in addition to breaking news stories all week.

I had no idea what to expect Monday during my first trip to the Democratic National Convention’s main hall in Denver, the Pepsi Center. But armed with my trusty digital recorder, I decided to document the evening.

4:59 p.m. I am just about to leave my hotel room to make my way to the Pepsi Center. I just heard from my coworker that it took him two and a half hours to get there from the Colorado Convention Center and into the building. I’m not particularly hopeful for how quickly I’ll be able to get in, or even if I’ll be able to see Michelle Obama speak tonight, but I’m going to try.

5:16 p.m. I have just boarded the bus that will take me from my hotel to the Pepsi Center. While I was waiting for it to arrive, I had a fun conversation with a convention volunteer originally from Michigan. We debated what to call people from Michigan. She says the appropriate term is Michaganers, but I prefer Michiganites.

5:30 p.m. We are just pulling out of the parking lot of the hotel. I’m not sure why we had to wait there for 15 minutes when time seems to be of the essence this evening, but onward and forward.

5:52 p.m. We have exited the highway. We are now in a holding pattern behind a row of at least, one, two, three, four, five, six buses, but it goes around a bend and I can’t count the full number. I have no idea how long I’m going to be here waiting for things to progress. This could be interesting.

5:55 p.m. We are moving again. I think. We’re starting to go around the bend. And now we’re stopped again. Baby steps, I guess.

5:57 p.m. We’re moving again. I’m not sure what the holdup is yet for buses. It looks like they might be letting a few through at a time to empty and then they’re keeping the rest in a holding pattern. It’s start-and-stop service right now.

6:00 p.m. We have just crossed over into the Pepsi Center — field? Parking lot? I’m not sure what exactly this is, but the officer at the front of the bus just said, “Welcome to the Pepsi Center.” Off to our left is Invesco Field. The Pepsi Center is a few blocks to our right.

6:04 p.m. We have arrived.

6:07 p.m. I just breezed through security. There was no one in line. All I had to do was take off my backpack and empty out my pockets. It was surprisingly simple.

6:15 p.m. I just ran into three professional acquaintances and will be hanging with them for a while. And we have just entered the Pepsi Center.

6:19 p.m. We just got into the convention hall proper. Nancy Pelosi is on stage talking about how we need a president that believes health care is a right, not a privilege. We have a bad view, though, and we’re going to try to find some better seats.

6:32 p.m. I just bought a roast beef sandwich and a bottle of water for $8.25. All things considered, that’s really not bad.

6:41 p.m. We just ate dinner with a man from Montana who’s a rancher and a vice president of a community college. We talked about same-sex marriage with him, which he fully supports because, as he says, “People are people.” We’re now trying to work our way into the hall, but space is quickly running out.

6:44 p.m. We have finally found four seats together. We are at the extreme left of the stage, high up in what is accurately described at the nosebleed section. We truly could not be seated any higher. But we’re here.

7:05 p.m. We’ve been sitting here a while now and not a lot has happened, honestly. I didn’t recognize the speaker who was on stage when we entered. He was followed by some kind of annoying, protracted musical interlude. Then we had a video presentation for something I couldn’t make out because the acoustics were so bad. Something to do with building homes for disabled veterans? I’m not sure. And now we have two people on stage that I don’t recognize by face or name. So what I had thought would be a star-studded event is slightly less than expected.

7:09 p.m. If it comes to pass, the worst kept secret of the evening will be that Sen. Ted Kennedy is making a surprise appearance. I’ve heard the rumor twice now.

7:15 p.m. Caroline Kennedy just took the stage. Interestingly, as she did so, a sea of Kennedy signs materialized from delegates on the floor. I don’t think they would print all those signs up just for Caroline, but maybe I’m just overly suspicious. We’ll see.

7:20 p.m. I cannot disclose how, but I have acquired a floor pass that is mine for the remainder of the evening. I’m going to the floor.

7:31 p.m. Ted Kennedy has just taken the stage and I’m on the floor to listen.

7:35 p.m. Ted Kennedy just said that Obama has the potential to stop the rivalries that exist between certain groups. Among the groups he cited were straights and gays.

7:50 p.m. I have just returned to the walkway from a rather dangerous situation. I had tried to move past the center of the stage, in front of the camera area, and found, for lack of a better term, absolute gridlock. I’m not a claustrophobic person, but with so many people pushing so hard and getting nowhere, it made me uneasy. Tempers were flaring, people were yelling at each other, and the few convention staffers who were there did nothing to help the situation. And I fear it’s only going to get worse as the night and week goes on. I hope they can straighten that out before something bad happens. I am approaching what should be the Maryland delegation area and will look for a familiar face.

8:26 p.m. I just called my boss to brag that I scored a seven-minute interview with Maryland Gov. Martin O’Malley. Good thing I brought my recorder. I’m now just biding my time as I wait for Michelle Obama to take the stage, which should be momentarily.

8:29 p.m. I am standing next to the Minnesota delegation, an indulgence I couldn’t resist as that’s my home state. Michelle Obama is set to take the stage momentarily. Oh, and look. There’s Anderson Cooper.

8:51 p.m. I am cutting out early on Michelle’s speech in the hopes that I can actually make some decent time back to my hotel instead of getting caught in a sea of people and not getting back until 3 a.m. We’ll see if this strategy pays off.

8:59 p.m. I have boarded the bus that will take me back to my hotel. It’s sparsely populated at the moment. I think a lot of people actually want to hear the end of Michelle’s speech. Go figure. But hopefully we’ll be back by 10 p.m.

9:19 p.m. The bus is rolling. I am on my way back to the hotel. This will be my last check in before I return to my hotel room, which, again, I’m hoping can still occur before 10 p.m. because I’ve got a lot of work ahead of me.

9:47 p.m. I am back in my hotel room. It’s been a great night and I’m glad I made the trip. Now I just need to crank out some copy before I collapse.

Posted by Joshua Lynsen, News Editor| Aug. 26 at 10:28 AM | Lynsen

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Day 3 in Denver

Peter Rosenstein is a Hillary Clinton delegate from D.C. and a Blade contributor. Check out his observations from Denver all week on washingtonblade.com.

The day began with a D.C. delegation meeting in the hotel. We are sharing the Crown Plaza Hotel with both the Virginia and New Mexico delegations. I have seen and chatted with the gay delegates from Virginia, Jay Fissette and Paul Smedberg. I also had a conversation with Rep. Moran just after he was interviewed for Fox News.

I collected my credentials for the hall today and had lousy eggs benedict at the breakfast, which was hosted by the D.C. Hospital Association. We heard from Eleanor Holmes Norton who gave us a preview of the speech she will give to the convention Tuesday afternoon. D.C. Vote handed out T-shirts for the delegation to wear. Donna Brazile was there to collect her credentials and spoke as well.

Other D.C. luminaries were former Mayors Sharon Pratt Kelley, former Mayor and current Council member Marion Barry, our Shadow Sen. Paul Strauss (Phil Pannell is running against him) and Jerry Clark, one of the other D.C. gay delegates and a board member for NGLTF.

David Nakamura who covers the mayor for the Washington Post was there but the mayor was back in D.C. to open schools. He will fly back to Denver for tomorrow. Even though he chose not to stay at the hotel with the D.C. delegation, he will have to come and collect his credentials at the hotel so we hope to see him tomorrow morning.

Jerry Clark and I were a little upset when we saw the D.C. Daily Calendar prepared by our D.C. State Committee staff, David Meadows, and found that the GLBT caucus meeting, which will take place at noon today, was not listed.
I attended the Clinton Whip meeting at the convention center at 11 a.m. It was a funny meeting. Clinton has said she will release her delegates on Wednesday.

But that is the day we have to sign our voting sheets. The Clinton campaign is in a bind. They can’t tell their delegates to vote for her because Hillary doesn’t want anyone to think she isn’t doing everything she can to elect Obama. Yet it is important to so many people that what Hillary did in this campaign, getting nearly 18 million votes and being the first woman to win a primary be recognized. The result will be that Hillary as a superdelegate will vote for Obama and many of her delegates will vote for her in the roll call. Maggie Williams, Clinton’s campaign manager spoke and told people that there are various roads to unity but we must leave Denver unified. It was not a totally satisfying meeting.

But the next meeting was. It was the GLBT Caucus and was attended by hundreds of people. It was announced that the increase in GLBT delegates from 2004 to 2008 is 41 percent — a pretty incredible number. There are 278 out GLBT delegates and we figure a lot more that are still closeted but that is another story. It was also announced that 40 percent of the GLBT delegates are people of color, which is an impressive show of diversity.

There was a wide range of speakers including Rick Stafford and Mirian Saez who are co-chairs of the caucus. I got a chance to chat with Mirian who is a good friend and then spoke to Julian Potter, her other half. They are doing great in San Francisco but we in D.C. miss them. Keynote remarks were made by Tim Gill who spoke of the need to support his program of finding legislators who need new jobs. Those are the ones that oppose our rights. It is great that Tim has the money to support his ideas and he has been the most active and generous philanthropist in our community. He funds about 10 percent of the Stonewall Democrats’ budget at this time.

The meeting was capped off with Rep. Tammy Baldwin talking about the platform. Jeffrey Marburg-Goodman was there and that was a surprise because as of last week he said he wasn’t coming to Denver. Apparently Claire Lucas changed his mind.

It was then off to a tea honoring Tobias Wolfe, chair of Obama’s GLBT policy committee and Andy Tobias the gay DNC treasurer. It was an event co-sponsored by the Stonewall Democrats and all the familiar faces were there. There was Christopher Massicotte, Chuck Wolfe of the Victory Fund, Roberta Achtenberg from San Francisco, and Babak Movahedi and his sexy straight nephew Darius who is working with him in HALO Miami. It was drinks and little tea sandwiches.

From there it was off to the HRC co-sponsored event at the Westin. This was an event titled Celebrate Diversity. The food was better and the crowd was also great. Brian Johnson of the Task Force, Earl Fowlkes, Jr. from D.C., and Jeffrey Richardson who is now vice chair of the District of Columbia State Committee and is looking to unseat the current chair, Anita Bonds. I met a nice delegate from New York, Rafael Escalante who was there chatting with Jack Jacobson.

Jack who keeps his figure by not eating anything while the rest of us are devouring the shrimp and roast beef sliced in front of you and placed on those great little rolls.  It was a really good event.

Then Paul Smedberg and I found the shuttle to take us to the Pepsi Center and the first session of the convention. It took about 40 minutes to get there and then there was a half-mile walk after we went through security. Just like getting on an airplane but there was more food available here. Walking in you would have thought you were heading to a football game. Excitement and fun. It was a good first session. Paul went hunting for the Virginia delegation on the floor and I headed to the nosebleed area to look for the D.C. delegation.

Among other speakers like Nancy Pelosi, Jimmy and Roslyn Carter walked across the podium after a short tribute to Carter. Seemed a little like an afterthought and something they had to do if they allowed Bill Clinton to speak. You can’t have only one of the two living Democratic presidents at a convention without hurting someone’s feelings.

It was the night of Caroline Kennedy introducing a video tribute to her uncle Ted Kennedy and the surprise introduction of the senator himself, who gave a short but strong speech ending with the lines, “the dream lives on.” It was a take on his 1980 speech at the Democratic convention, which included the line, “the dream will never die.” It was a great thing that Kennedy could get there and this may be his last convention though he promised he would be in his seat in the Senate when Obama was sworn in on Jan. 20, 2009.

Then the main speaker of the night was Michelle Obama. She looked great and spoke well. The same hairdresser and make-up artist did all the women who spoke or so it seemed. Their hair all looked the same. Michelle Obama touched all the right notes but it seemed so planned and not as real as I would have liked, nevertheless it was a good speech. She mentioned Hillary Clinton and Joe Biden once each and then the big lines were about her giving back to America — the land she loves. But going after the emotional moment of Ted Kennedy it was a little hard to regain the momentum. I hope that the Bill Clinton speech won’t do that to Biden on Wednesday.

Tuesday night is Hillary’s night. It should be fun and I know she will give a great speech.

Posted by Peter Rosenstein, Columnist| Aug. 26 at 9:54 AM | editor@washblade.com

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