Cool Site of the Week: The Bilerico Project

This week's pic for Cool Site of the Week is long over due. When I first started blogging last year, some of my biggest supporters were the folks at The Bilerico Project, Started in 1998 by Bil Browning and his partner Jerame Davis as a website focused on LGBT issues in Indiana, called Bilerico.com, the site has grown into a nationally recognized source of news, information and opinion, featuring over 75 regular contributors, including a weekly Vlog from out comedian Kate Clinton.

Last year, as I was struggling to find my way in the blogosphere, Bil was kind enough to post one of my stories as a guest blogger. I was bowled over that he and Weekend Editor, Dana Rudolph of Mombian.com liked my story enough to post it. I was even more blown away when they published a second submission a couple of months later.

Dr. Jillian Weiss, Associate Editor of the site, has been an invaluable source of information for me on transgender issues and has been a tireless lobbyist for the passage of the Employment Non-Discrimination Act (ENDA) and provides regular updates on its status.

What I love best about Bilerico is that it's a one-stop shop for a true diversity of opinions, commentary and humor from every corner of our community and sets the standard of excellence for bloggers every where. Bil has become a nationally recognized citizen journalist and is a regular contributor to The Huffington Post on LGBT issues. He and Jerame recently relocated to DC, when Jerame took a new job there. This puts the Unambiguously Gay Duo right in the heart of the fight.

If you're looking for a site that is truly representative of the diversity of the LGBTQIA community, I strongly recommend that you check out The Bilerico Project, just don't forget to stop by and see The Rev. now and then. Don't make me come looking for you.

 

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One Click to Lobby Your Reps on ENDA

I just love those creative folks at the Bilerico Project. Trans activist and Bilerico Editor Dr. Jillian Weiss has set up a page on the site where readers can go to lobby their elected representative via e-mail to pass the Employment Non-Discrimination Act (ENDA).

Don't know who your reps are? That's okay. Just enter your zip code and the site will ID them for you.

Don't know what to what to say? That's okay too. There is a message already in the body of the e-mail asking your Senator and Congress person for their support. You can also change or add to the text. Then you just key in your name and address and click send. The whole thing takes seconds.

This effort is especially important to those of us living in Virginia and states like it. Our embarrassment of a governor Bob McDonnell and his fascist henchmen Ken Cuccinelli have stated for the record that protection from employment discrimination is not needed at the state level because federal law offers all the protection we need.

For the record, there are no federal laws protecting LGBT Americans from employment discrimination. That's why we need ENDA.

Click here to go to The Bilerico Project's ENDA Now page.

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Sonoma County, Ca. Separates Elderly Gay Couple in their Final Days Together

Blogger Kate Kendall of The Bilerico Project posted an incredibly sad and heart-wrenching article this weekend that is burning its way across FaceBook and Twitter in the wake of President Obama's directive granting hospital visitation rights to same-sex couples.

The story tells of an elderly couple, Clay and Harold, who had been together for twenty years. The tragic story unfolded when Harold fell on the front steps of the rented home the couple had shared for many years. Harold was whisked off to the hospital, where Clay was denied visitation rights and his medical power of attorney was ignored.

Yes, Harold, 88 and Clay, 77 had done everything they were supposed to do to protect themselves legally, but a court ruled that they were only room mates and Harold was made a ward of the state. The entire contents of the couple's home were auctioned off to pay for Harold's care. Clay was removed from his home by the state and involuntarily confined to a nursing home. The couple were kept apart and denied visitation. Harold died just three months after his fall. Clay is currently filing a lawsuit against the county and has won his release from the nursing home.

This tragic story not only underscores the significance of the president's actions last week, but drives home the fact a marriage certificate clearly defines a couple's relationship and legal rights. The fight continues.

Read the full story at The Bilerico Project. 

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LGBT Bloggers Up in Arms over CNN's Gay Conversion Therapy Segment

It seems like everybody but me is up in arms over a segment that CNN's Kyra Phillips did Tuesday morning, called "Can Homosexuality be Cured?". The piece discussed the subject of whether gays and lesbians can be made straight by conversion therapy. The panel included so-called experts in the field from both side of the argument, but interestingly enough, none of them were gay, or should I say "still" gay.

Everyone, from Joe Jervis at Joe.My.God to Pam Spaulding at Pam's House Blend and my friends at the Bilerico Project are really pissed off about this story. But the best take on all of this hooplah came from my buddy Lyndon Evans at "Focus on the Rainbow" (FOR), in his piece called "CNN’s Big Fail Or Just More Overreaction From LGBT Bloggers?" 

Lyndon and I have a sort of a mutual admiration society going on. We read each others stuff and share comments with each other. Lyndon and I don't always agree on everything, but we do agree that sometimes bloggers sensationalize stories and feign outrage in order to get attention. Granted, we all do it from time to time, but it seems like the more famous a blogger becomes, the more often this phenomenon occurs.

I have to be honest, I didn't watch the segment yesterday. I was getting ready for work and when I heard the lead in, it sounded like I'd heard all of this before. Here's the comment I left on FOR:

Well, Lyndon, I guess I did something most people wouldn’t think of doing this morning when I heard the intro to this piece on CNN. I ignored it. Yes, that’s right. When I saw that something I might find offensive was about to be aired on TV, I changed the channel.

Kyra’s intro was intentionally — and quite obviously — scripted to be provocative and to spark interest in a story that’s been done to death and by much better journalists. And having seen way too many of these reports over the years, I knew immediately what it was about, that nothing new could possibly be learned by watching it and I chose not to waste my time.

I may not have generated any new hits to my site by feigning offense, but, honestly, there were far more interesting things to write about today. I live in Virginia for Christ’s sake! McDonnell is going insane again and pissing off the gays, the blacks and even the white supremacists. Virginia’s Bigot in Chief is a queer blogger’s gold mine! Who cares about what CNN does in the dullest time slot of their broadcast day? Had there been an aftershock in California, a plane crash or a baby in a well, the piece never would have been aired.

Now, don't get me wrong, I admire the hard work that Pam, Joe, the folks at Bilerico and all the others do and how hard they work. But I think that when you become the "go-to" person on all things queer, (Pam and Bilerico's Bil Browning now also blog for the Huffington Post) there is a certain self-expectation. That is to say that when you achieve a certain level of success and recognition, you have to keep topping yourself in order to keep the spotlight and grow within your field. You have to raise the bar for yourself or people stop paying attention. It becomes easy to fall into the trap of reacting in a way that is expected of you, but may not be a genuine reflection of what's really going on.

As I wrote in my comments on Lyndon's site, we have a bigot in the state house here in Virginia and his lackey Cooch is rolling back decades of progress in civil rights. IMHO, it's much ado about nothing. I've got more important things to think about.

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Blog Swarm Strikes Again: Call Speaker Pelosi and Demand Action on ENDA

Just received this message this afternoon from the Bilerico Project's Bil Browning:

Hello my fellow bloggers and general trouble makers,

Bilerico Project is leading a blogswarm today to demand that Speaker Nancy Pelosi move the Employment Non-Discrimination Act to a House vote. ENDA is the bill that would provide employment protections for LGBT people. It's currently stuck in committee as it waits for markup. Rep Andre Carson, Tammy Baldwin, and Jared Polis all personally promised (on video and in a guest post on TBP) that the legislation would be voted on by the end of March this year when it was postponed last year. So far, nothing has happened all year.

To participate, just call Speaker Pelosi's office and demand that ENDA get some movement. At the end of our post is a link to a form you can fill out to tell us what any staffers have to say.

Dr. Weiss has been leading the charge for ENDA in the blogosphere and she's put together an impressive array of top LGBT and political bloggers for this swarm - including some folks outside of our usual circle. About 30 sites are original participating co-sponsors and some queer papers and magazines are also participating. It should be an interesting day as readers grasp what's going on and also take action offline.

Will you help the swarm by blogging about ENDA today and linking our article? Will you put our post (and yours!) on Facebook and tweet it, add it to Reddit, Digg, etc? If you post about it, send me a link and we'll add you to our list of participating sites in a roundup of today's events.

Thanks for any help possible,

Bil

Please call Speaker Nancy Pelosi at 202-225-4965. Ask that the Employment Non-Discrimination Act, HR 3017, move to a vote.

For more info, visit the Bilerico Project.

HRC's Joe Solmonese finally gets it "...our time is now"

With the entire city of Washington, DC consumed with passing and/or blocking health care reform for the past year it's become abundantly clear to many in the LGBT community that very few, if any, of the promises made to us by President Obama during his campaign were going to be kept.

We were fortunate last year to see the passage of the Matthew Shepard Hate Crimes Prevention Act.But when we pushed for Washington to move forward on repealing "The Defense of Marriage Act" (DOMA) and "Don't Ask, Don't Tell" (DADT), we were told by Human Rights Campaign president Joe Solmonese and other dyed in the wool gay Democrats to slow down and be patient. The "slow and steady" crowd told the rest of us we were whining like spoiled brats demanding instant gratification and that we didn't understand the political process. Solmonese even told us to wait until after Obama's second term before we assess his record.

As Washington insiders, Joe and his crowd where awfully short-sighted not to see that the president was spending so much political capital on health care reform, that there would be precious little left to advance LGBT rights. They ignored the growing nationwide discontent with the Democrats, who squandered their super-majority over the last year and accomplished virtually nothing. They didn't seem to understand until this week that the mid-term elections would mean a reshuffling of the balance of power in DC. They didn't see the window of opportunity slamming shut... until now.

A couple of weeks ago I reported on the "blog swarm", a coalition of LGBT bloggers, including John Aravosis of AmericaBlog, Pam Spaudling of "Pam's House Blend", Bil Browning of The Bilerico Project, Joe Jervis of Joe.My.God, Andy Towle of TowleRoad on several others, that was formed in order to put pressure on the Human Rights Campaign (HRC) to use its influence in Washington to push the president and congress to move more quickly on repealing "Don't Ask, Don't Tell" this year. As expected, HRC initially poo-pooed the gay net roots and again called for patience.

Pam Spaulding attended the HRC Carolinas Gala fundraiser in Raleigh, NC Saturday night. Guest speakers included Clay Aiken and Meredith Baxter, but the real show stopper turned out to be Joe Solmonese himself, who made some bold pronouncements that appear to signal a reversal in strategy for the nation's largest LGBT advocacy organization.

Pam reports that Solmonese made the following four promises to the crowd:

1. "We are going to eliminate the tax that you pay on domestic partner benefits. We're going to get rid of that this year at long last."

2. "We are going to extend domestic partnerships to federal employees."

3. "We are going to get people living with HIV/AIDS treatment much earlier if they are on public assistance."

4. "And finally, finally this year we are going to bring down the discriminatory policy known as 'Don't Ask, Don't Tell'...once and for all."

Solmonese added, "I also get that there is a drumbeat coming from our community to put more pressure on, to make more demands of the President and members of Congress to get it done this year because who knows what's going to happen at the mid-term elections and frankly they are right and our time is now."

I'm not quite sure how Joe can make such grandiose promises, but it should be interesting to see how all of this plays out. The year-long Pentagon study on repeal of DADT hasn't even begun yet and there has been no timetable put forth for full repeal. Solmonese has a habit of making grand pronouncements only to reverse himself weeks later. I'm glad he's finally gotten on board, but I can't help but wonder for how long. 

The following video of Joe Solmonese's speech at the HRC Gala is courtesy of Pam's House Blend:

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