Tag Archives: activism

A new LGBT activist group called Queer Rising announced their existence earlier this week with Martin Luther King Day demonstrations around NYC. Visit their Facebook page here. This is the first I’m hearing about Queer Rising. Members – please weigh in with your plans and goals.

Lots of sites are posting their “Best of YouTube” recaps this week. We loved the parodies of NOM’s Gathering Storm ad, we giggled at all the Single Ladies tributes, and we got all teary-eyed over the many inspiring clips of impromptu marriage rallies/protests. But for me, one clip stands out above all the rest. Still makes me laugh, still chokes …

This week you’ll find yours truly on the year-end episode of Gay USA, the nationally broadcast weekly LGBT news show hosted by Ann Northrop and Andy Humm. Happy New Year! On this week’s show, Ann leads an end-of-the-year roundtable discussion of 2009’s events and issues. Our guests are Joe Jervis, author of the JoeMyGod.com blog; Pauline Park, veteran transgender activist …

It’s too long and covers too many subjects to effectively excerpt here, but I encourage you to check out Jesse Green’s fascinating profile of Larry Kramer in New York Magazine. Kramer is working towards finally publishing his decades-in-the-works 4000 page book, The American People, which among other things, claims that George Washington, Abraham Lincoln, and other notable historical figures were …

I did some long overdue housekeeping on my blogroll last week, taking out a few dead sites and a dozen others that haven’t been updated in several months. Newly added are some great sites that I recommend you check out.New Civil Rights Movement – By David Badash, a NYC-based activist and the creator of the Great Nationwide Kiss-In. LGBT news, …

Activist/author and former Clinton White House adviser David Mixner has posted five rules on political giving. 1. Do not contribute to Democratic party committees like the DNC, DSCC and DCCC. They will use the funds to not only elect our allies but also Blue Dog Democrats. Even if they set up a ‘special committee’ for us that will enable them …

Matt Foreman, director of Gay and Immigrant Rights at the Evelyn & Walter Haas Fund, points us to a just-released report (PDF) called A Decade of Progress on LGBT Rights. The report is a joint project of Foreman’s group and the LGBT Movement Advancement Project (MAP). The extensive report lists the advancements and challenges in LGBT rights over the last …

“It is with great regret and reluctance that I am standing down as the Green Party parliamentary candidate for Oxford East. My brain injuries from the Mugabe and Moscow bashings mean that I would not be able to campaign effectively in the general election or do the duties required of an MP, if I was elected. “The brain damage caused …

Longtime AIDS activist and former NYC human rights commissioner Dennis deLeon died in Manhattan today at age 61. He was one of the first city officials to disclose that he was HIV+. The cause was heart failure, said Bruce Kiernan, Mr. deLeon’s companion for 32 years. Mr. deLeon learned he was H.I.V.-positive in 1986 and had grown weaker in recent …

Activists are turning up the heat on the eight Democratic New York senators who voted down same-sex marriage. Yesterday’s actions including a protest at the Queens office of Sen. Hiram Monserrate and a similar event outside of Sen. Carl Kruger’s Brooklyn home. Minutes after the vote earlier this month, the unmarried Kruger, whose aide says the Senator “doesn’t comment on …

The gays took to one of Paris’ central shopping districts this weekend for a mass kiss-in against homophobia. Sweet stuff.

A crowd of over one thousand attended tonight’s rally in NYC’s Union Square, where Marriage Equality NY provided a roster of the state and city’s top political leaders and activists, all of whom vowed revenge upon the 38 state senators that voted against equality. Among the speakers: Gov. David Paterson, activist Corey Johnson, NY Sen. Tom Duane, NY Sen. Liz …

At last night’s marriage rally in Times Square, a family of tourists passed by the protesters’ pen with the mother shaking her head in disapproval at the activists. That prompted a trio of protesting women to alter their chant. “Leggings on are not pants! Leggings are not pants!” I love my people.

Marriage Equality New York will stage their own marriage rally tonight at Union Square, 6PM. MENY events tend to bring out the major politicos – City Council members, borough presidents, etc. Embiggen the above for the deets or go here for more.

Is it time to completely abandon state-level activism and focus all of our energy and resources on the federal government?

Within a couple of hours of today’s vote in the NY Senate, rainbow flag creator Gilbert Baker had made a 50-foot yellow “NY CRIME SCENE” banner and hundreds of pissed off New Yorkers had joined him in Times Square to express their anger to the national networks and thousands of tourists. NOTE: I ran into a couple of despised politicos …

During tonight’s marriage protest in Times Square, I decided to take my disgust to the new mega-Jumbotron above American Eagle at Broadway & 45th, where a purchase allows you “15 seconds of fame” via their in-store camera. The store’s manager disallowed my uber-angry signage, so with an “I Heart(Break) NY” sticker on my hoodie, I returned with Milk art director …

Syracuse University student Chris Pesto’s amusing story is here.

In a story published today on Bay Windows, veteran gay journalist Rex Wockner talks about the delay in moving ENDA forward in Congress, where the bill is mired in legal tinkering on the arcane (to us) issues of disparate impact, lawyers fees, and double-recovery. “Disparate impact” is when a policy or practice has the effect of being discriminatory even if …

The Missouri LGBT activist group Show Me No Hate has launched a month-long protest outside of the St. Louis Basilica in response to the diocese’s $10,000 donation to repeal marriage equality in Maine. Via the Catholic News Agency: According to The Vital Voice, Show Me No Hate has accused the Archdiocese of St. Louis of misusing the funds, saying the …