But more importantly, two talented women from Atlanta also made the list — the sexy, sultry burlesque star Vagina Jenkins as well as Melissa Scott, founder of Traxx Girls, one of the top party promoters in the city and throughout the country.
Vagina Jenkins and Scott have been featured in Southern Voice and we congratulate them on getting the national recognition we always knew they deserved. You go, grrrls.
One of my favorite things that Dan Savage writes is his "Every Child Deserves a Mother and a Father" column, which debunks any fundie's argument that a same-sex couple is an unfit parenting match for a child by providing examples of opposite-sex parents who abuse their children in the manner that fundies think all same-sex couples do.
The point is, there are some horrible people in this world who will do effed up things to their children, regardless of the sexual orientation of the parent.
This week in North Carolina, it was revealed that a gay parent of an adopted child allegedly advertised sex with his kid on the Internet. Luckily, the guy on the other end was a detective, and Frank Lombard has been arrested by the FBI. Lombard's partner is not being charged in this case.
Mike ... -more...
Herman Put Down The Gun with lead singer Sonia Tetlow is making viral waves on the internet thanks to a DIY video for their song “Lonely Street.” Tetlow, a lesbian, was featured in Southern Voice as one of its “next generation of gay Atlanta.”
With no money and using an old video camera in making the just over 3-minute video, the Atlanta-based rock band was written up by the Huffington Post about its use of Facebook and Myspace to spread the video that has now been linked to numerous other sites as well.
The Huffington Post article, written by Georgianne Nienaber, quotes Tetlow about the filming of the video and Tetlow’s suffering of a heat stroke after performing at an Atlanta Roller Derby bout. See how many landmarks you notice. Here's what Tetlow had ... -more...
Last night, the Fort Worth Police Department held a community forum to address the policemen's actions at the bar. Tonight, there is a candlelight vigil at the Rainbow Lounge for Chad Gibson. Police chief Jeff Halstead said Monday that the officers who entered the bar were touched inappropriately, and that he's "happy with the restraint used when they were contacted like that," according to WFFA.com. The Texas Alcoholic Beverage Commission has admitted that Gibson was injured in their custody.
Though Chief Halstead seems to think that an ass-grab should get you a few months in a coma, he's requested to meet with LGBT community leaders in the area so he can tell his side of the story.
Last night, Keith Olbermann slammed President Obama on his failure to move forward with his promised repeal of the military's "Don't Ask, Don't Tell" policy. Yesterday, a military administrative board voted to boot Lt. Daniel Choi from the National Guard under the policy.
Olbermann had Dan Savage on the show to talk about how Obama has the authority to suspend the policy himself. Olbermann himself said Obama is "goddamned wrong" on "DADT."
Openly gay Rep. Jared Polis (D-Colo.) was on "Hardball" last night to talk about President Obama's speech to the LGBT community yesterday. Obama specifically addressed "Don't Ask, Don't Tell," of which he advocates repeal, but asked for patience in doing so.
Polis: "This is a policy that continues to weaken our military every day it's in existence ... I'm proud to take Obama at his word today."
Obama may be making headway with the gays after yesterday's White House Pride celebration, but something very backwards is going on at the Labor Department. Labor Secretary Hilda Solis had to issue a warning letter to departmental employees last week because some of the 'round-the-workplace Pride posters had been defaced.
The New York Times quoted the letter:
“It appears, however, that some members of the Labor Department team have a different view, as it has come to my attention that most of the posters have been continually defaced or removed,” Ms. Solis wrote. “On several occasions, even the poster frames have been torn completely off the elevator walls. I do not believe these actions represent the majority of our employees, so I refuse to let this situation define us."
Thirty-five ... -more...
The Servicemembers Legal Defense Network held a protest Saturday, June 27, regarding "Don't Ask, Don't Tell." The protest was staged outside the White House. Watch video below:
Today's White House reception to celebrate Pride month (featuring invitees from the LGBT community) will be broadcast live here beginning at 4:25 p.m. Deputy Director of the White House Office of Public Engagement Brian Bond, who is openly gay, wrote a blog post commemorating the Stonewall anniversary here. You can read the Blade's coverage of the event here.
CNN did a piece on Pride parades and the 40th anniversary of Stonewall. View it below:
Editor's note: This is a guest commentary by Frank Bragg, president of For the Kid in All of Us, a non-profit, all-volunteer organization that hosts two major events each year — Toy Party in December and this weekend's Backpack in the Park — to help underprivileged children.
On that fateful night in June 1969, our LGBT ancestors at Stonewall had the courage to stand up fully, authentically and fearlessly. LGBT citizens and supporters resisted police harassment that had become all too common for members of our community. Out of this resistance, the LGBT rights movement was born. Their riots sounded an alarm against intolerance, bigotry, oppression and hate, resounding through the past four decades.
I came out twenty three years after the Stonewall Riots when I was 23. ... -more...
Wow, what a day. And not in a good way. Like much of the world, I’m mourning the deaths of Farrah Fawcett and Michael Jackson, the former, sadly, expected, the latter — one of those “what-the-fuck” moments, similar to what I felt when I heard John Ritter or Aaliyah had died.
I was fans of both Farrah and Michael, though I never thought I’d be mentioning them in the same sentence. Their photos are both included in a crazy quilt pop culture collage I have above my desk — more than once, in fact. I have a shot of the famous “Charlie’s Angels” silhouette (which Josh Lynsen hates seeing because then he can’t get the theme out of his head for the rest of the day), another of Farrah with Kate and Jaclyn. There’s a shot of Michael ... -more...
The hoopla surrounding the already infamous YouTube clip of a 16-year-old boy being “delivered” from homosexuality raises one key question: Why haven’t the adults in the video been arrested?
They are clearly assaulting the youth; he can be seen suffering apparent convulsions and even vomits during the beating.
If this isn’t child abuse, then what the hell is?
Connecticut authorities should investigate and arrest those responsible for beating this innocent teenager.
Contrary to the claims of the Manifested Glory “Church,” this reprehensible act has nothing to do with religious freedom. None of us is free to assault a child, no matter the circumstances.
Arrest the perpetrators immediately and send a message that our society will not tolerate grownups abusing, assaulting and terrorizing youth — and then bragging about it by posting clips to the web.
As we remember the events at the Stonewall Inn 40 years ago this week, it’s instructive to revisit media coverage of the rebellion, which provides startling evidence of just how far the movement has come.
The article below was published in the “New York Daily News” on July 6, 1969, and is filled with anti-gay stereotypes from the headline right through to the final paragraph. This was a time before LGBT media outlets existed to any significant degree; there was no HRC or GLAAD to protest the biased news coverage. The Washington Blade, like many other publications, was founded just after Stonewall. The events at the Inn were a powerful catalyst for the formation of gay newspapers and activist organizations that sprouted in the 1970s.
Take a minute to read this story, just ... -more...
More than 50 years after firing Frank Kameny from his job for being gay, the federal government today officially apologized.
John Berry, the gay director of the Office of Personnel Management, presented Kameny with an official letter of apology along with the department’s most prestigious award, the Theodore Roosevelt Award.
“In what we know today was a shameful action, the United States Civil Service Commission in 1957 upheld your dismissal from your job solely on the basis of your sexual orientation,” the letter states. “… And by virtue of the authority vested in me as Director of the Office Of Personnel Management, it is my duty and great pleasure to inform you that I am adding my support … for the repudiation of the reasoning of the 1957 finding by the United States Civil Service Commission to dismiss you from your job solely on the basis of your sexual orientation. Please accept our apology for the consequences of the previous policy of the United States government.”
“Apology accepted,” Kameny replied.
The full text of the letter follows below.
Dear Dr. Kameny: In what we know today was a shameful action, the United States Civil Service Commission in 1957 upheld your dismissal from your job solely on the basis of your sexual orientation. In one letter to you, an agency official wrote that the Government “does not hire homosexuals and will not permit their employment...” He went on to say that “the homosexual is automatically a security risk” and that he “frequently becomes a disruptive personnel factor within any organization.”
With the fervent passion of a true patriot, you did not resign yourself to your fate or quietly endure this wrong. With courage and strength, you fought back. And so today, I am writing to advise you that this policy, which was at odds with the bedrock principles underlying the merit-based civil service, has been repudiated by the United States Government, due in large part to your determination and life’s work, and to the thousands of Americans whose advocacy your words have inspired.
Thus, the civil service laws, rules and regulations now provide that it is illegal to discriminate against federal employees or applicants based on matters not related to their ability to perform their jobs, including their sexual orientation. Furthermore, I am happy to inform you that the Memorandum signed by President Obama on June 17, 2009 directs the Office of Personnel Management—the successor to the CSC--to issue guidance to all executive departments and agencies regarding their obligations to comply with these laws, rules, and regulations.
And by virtue of the authority vested in me as Director of the Office Of Personnel Management, it is my duty and great pleasure to inform you that I am adding my support, along with that of many other past Directors, for the repudiation of the reasoning of the 1957 finding by the United States Civil Service Commission to dismiss you from your job solely on the basis of your sexual orientation. Please accept our apology for the consequences of the previous policy of the United States government, and please accept the gratitude and appreciation of the United States Office of Personnel Management for the work you have done to fight discrimination and protect the merit-based civil service system.
For the last six months I’ve been playing piano and organ at a United Methodist Church in Alexandria, Va. It’s been a wonderful experience on several levels — after playing in churches pretty much every Sunday since I was 15, I’d missed it the last two years since I arrived in Washington. But it’s also been an incredibly affirming experience to be able to take a leadership role in a Christian church and be out of the closet.
For some, in Christian denominations like the United Church of Christ and the Fellowship of Metropolitan Community Churches, this is no big deal. But having grown up in a conservative Fundamentalist and Evangelical church in small-town West Virginia (Independent Bible Church in Martinsburg, W.Va., where listening to Amy Grant was considered ... -more...
