Tag Archives: LGBT History

Remembering Milk & Moscone

Sean Chapin made this fantastic clip which recaps the events that have taken place in SF over the last few days to mark the 30th anniversary of the assassinations of Harvey Milk and George Moscone. From the clip description: The evening started out as a Memorial Concert and featured performances from the San Francisco Gay Men’s Chorus, the San Francisco …

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Milk Opens Big

The opening weekend grosses for Milk are very, very good. Gus Van Sant’s “Milk” scored a huge Thanksgiving opening, according to initial estimates from Rentrak early this afternoon. The Focus Features release, a biopic of gay rights activist Harvey Milk, grossed $1,381,484 on just 36 screens over the three-day weekend, for a $38,375 average. This ranks as the highest opening …

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NYTimes: Milk Is A Marvel

Milk gets a fantastic review from A.O. Scott in today’s NYTimes. An excerpt: That power lies in its uncanny balancing of nuance and scale, its ability to be about nearly everything — love, death, politics, sex, modernity — without losing sight of the intimate particulars of its story. Harvey Milk was an intriguing, inspiring figure. “Milk” is a marvel. Last …

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HomoQuotable – David Mixner

“[W]e laughed Brokeback Mountain right out of an Academy Award. Please lets not allow the same thing to happen to Milk this year. “Milk is a movie about our history, our heroes, our struggle and the power of one individual to create change. The movie is a universal story to inspire and give hope to everyone. The movie depicts how …

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Obama Site Lists Lengthy Plan To Improve LGBT Civil Rights

From Barack Obama’s site, Change.gov: Expand Hate Crimes Statutes: In 2004, crimes against LGBT Americans constituted the third-highest category of hate crime reported and made up more than 15 percent of such crimes. Barack Obama cosponsored legislation that would expand federal jurisdiction to include violent hate crimes perpetrated because of race, color, religion, national origin, sexual orientation, gender identity, or …

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Tomorrow: Nationwide Prop 8 Protests

Go to Join The Impact for information about the protests near you. Protest times are staggered by time zone, making this the very first time in the history of our nation that LGBT people will be standing up for ourselves in every major city in every state at the SAME TIME.

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It’s A New Day For LGBT Activism

I just wanted to take a quick moment and thank everyone for sending me all their info, links, and photos about Prop 8 protests around the country. Obviously I can’t use all or even very many of them, but I do appreciate everybody writing. It’s a new day for gay activism – energy and enthusiasm is at a level we’ve …

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The People’s Premiere Of Milk

Last night at the Castro Theater I attended the “People’s Premiere” of Milk, the Harvey Milk biopic by Gus Van Zant that opens nationwide on November 26th, the day before the 30th anniversary of Milk’s assassination. My longtime buddy Robert Cameron is the VP of Brand Marketing for Levi Strauss, the presenting sponsor of this premiere, and he was kind …

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The Next March On Washington

As I’ve said here before, I consider the 1993 March On Washington to have been the single most thrilling event of my entire life. I will never forget the rush of goosebumps and tears as my posse of Florida queers rode up that enormous subway escalator into Dupont Circle as hundreds of our brothers and sisters applauded our arrival from …

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Oregon Town Elects Nation’s First Transgender Mayor

Another one for the history books. Barack Obama wasn’t the only candidate who made history Tuesday. On the same day the United States elected its first black president, the tiny town of Silverton, Ore., elected the country’s first openly transgender mayor. Stu Rasmussen served two terms as Silverton’s mayor in the 1990s, but he was still living in the closet …

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ACLU: We’ll Be Back, And We’ll Win

Matt Coles, Director of the ACLU Lesbian Gay Bisexual Transgender Project: Even in famously liberal San Francisco, we had to go through the process of trying to pass a simple domestic partnership law five times, and we lost twice. If you run up an unbroken string of victories in any battle for civil rights, that simply means you waited too …

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Jared Polis Elected Colorado’s First Openly Gay Congressman

Internet mega-millionaire Jared Polis was elected Colorado’s first openly gay representative in Congress yesterday. Democrat Jared Polis defeated Republican Scott Starin in the 2nd Congressional District race Tuesday, becoming the first openly gay person from Colorado elected to Congress. With 20 percent of the vote counted, Polis had 60 percent to Starin’s 36 percent. “The voters of our district have …

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Life Imitating Milk

The New York Times notes the uncanny similarities between the Harvey Milk story and what is happening today in California. Call it life imitating “Milk,” or vice versa, but the parallels between the campaign chronicled in the movie and the real-life battle over Proposition 8 are striking. Social conservatives pitted against gay activists? Check. A Republican governor (and former movie …

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It’s National Coming Out Day

Today is the 20th annual National Coming Out Day. Are you out to family, friends, coworkers, and neighbors? Your doctor? If not, why not? Do you know somebody struggling with coming out? What can you do personally to ease their journey? Coming out is a lifelong process. You are never finished. Never.

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Matthew Shepard: Ten Years Later

It was ten years ago today that gay Wyoming college student Matthew Shepard was brutally beaten and left to die. Ten years and Wyoming still does not have a hate crimes law. This morning Matthew’s mother Judy Shepard appeared on CBS News to discuss the continuing battle. (Via – Towleroad)

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Governator Vetoes Harvey Milk Day

Bowing to the ferocious pressure of Christianists, Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger has vetoed the bill designating Harvey Milk Day as a statewide holiday in California. In his veto message issued Tuesday, the governor said that while he respected the measure’s intent, he thinks Milk’s “contributions should continue to be recognized at the local level.” Conservative groups had lobbied Schwarzenegger not to …

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Matthew Shepard Memorial Opens

Via AP: The nation — and the city of Laramie — has become more accepting of gays and lesbians in the 10 years since a gay University of Wyoming student was beaten, lashed to a lonely fence and left to die, his mother said Saturday. “We’ve learned a lot, we’ve talked a lot; we do it in public forums now,” …

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October 12th: Remember The Red Party

Probably the best disco classics party in the universe is approaching. San Francisco’s seminal Trocadero Transfer holds it annual Remember The Party reunion on October 12th, with the supreme ruling DJ Jerry Bonham once again at the helm. Red Parties were all about the love of the party, and the passion for dancing. Songs would include expressions of love’s red …

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LGBT Activism Pioneer Del Martin
Has Died At Age 87

Del Martin (at right above in a photo from 2004) has died at age 87 in San Francisco. Phyllis Lyon, her wife of 55 years, was by her side. The co-founder of the world’s first lesbian rights organization and with Lyon the first gay person to legally marry in California, Del Martin lived a long, proud, beautiful life of service …

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Gay Mayor Of Paris To Run For President Of France In 2012

Wildly popular Paris mayor Betrand Delanoe has announced that he will seek the leadership of his Socialist Party and afterwards will seek the presidency of France. Delanoe’s declaration in an interview with Le Monde newspaper puts to rest months of speculation. “Yes, I will put all my energy at the service of my beliefs,” the mayor told Le Monde newspaper …

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