The Bilerico Project

Richard Noble Nearing End of His Walk Across America

Karen Ocamb — Wed, 23 May 2012 15:30:00 -0500

This moving video was produced by Ann Sappho. She writes: "On June 9, 2012 I'm going to be at the finish line when Richard Noble walks across it. Being a DJ, I wrote and asked him what song he would like to hear as he crossed the finish line. His answer - please blend the song "Amazing" by One EskimO with Hillary Clinton's LGBT speech at the UN. This is the result of that conversation with him."

See Richard's 2,700-mile journey - the people he's met, the proclamations of support he's elicited, the joys and troubles he's overcome at his website Walk Across America.

NAACP's Ben Jealous Talks About Org's Marriage Equality Vote

Karen Ocamb — Wed, 23 May 2012 11:15:57 -0500

NAACP President Ben Jealous was on Rachel Maddow's show Monday night talking about the historic vote the full NAACP board took over the weekend endorsing marriage rights for same sex couples. For him, it's personal.

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But the reaction from Religious Right African Americans was swift. Here is an excerpt from two antigay black religious conservatives issues in a press release May 22.

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Happy Harvey Milk Day! Event Notice and Video

Karen Ocamb — Tue, 22 May 2012 14:30:00 -0500

There are a number of events happening today to commemorate the late Harvey Milk, including this one:

On Tuesday, May 22, at 7 p.m. in the Council Chambers at West Hollywood Park, 625 N. San Vicente Blvd, there will be a panel discussion entitled "Got Milk - The Collision of the Arts & Social Justice in the Post-Harvey Milk Era." The program will feature a panel discussion moderated by Tony Valenzuela, Executive Director of the Lambda Literary Foundation and will feature special guest speakers including actor/director/playwright Peter Paige and Jon Imparato, Director of Cultural Arts at the LA Gay & Lesbian Center. Film clips from The Times of Harvey Milk will be shown, as will a student film on Milk's legacy. A dessert reception will follow the panel discussion. Please call (323) 848-6823 to RSVP for this event. Admission is free to all events. Two hours of free parking will be available in the West Hollywood Park Parking Garage with validation.

Milk's friend Cleve Jones has posted a number of photos and comments about Milk on this Facebook page and Harvey's nephew Stuart has posted a commemoration on the Harvey Milk Foundation website. But for those wondering why Harvey Milk is such an iconic LGBT hero - watch him discuss the 1978 antigay Briggs Initiative after the jump - arguments we are still making today!

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Assistant Secretary of State on Protections for LGBT Refugees

Karen Ocamb — Tue, 22 May 2012 12:30:00 -0500

Last Thursday, May 17, Anne Richard, the U.S. assistant secretary of state for population, refugees and migration, was among those who participated in an event at the Human Rights Campaign headquarters marking the International Day Against Homophobia and Transphobia (IDAHO). Additionally a new report from Human Rights First was released - The Road to Safety: Strengthening Protection for LGBTI Refugees in Uganda and Kenya. Metro Weekly reported on the event, including these remarks from Assistant Secretary Richards:

US Assistant Secretary of State for refugees Anne C Richard (Photo via the State Department)

"I commend your work highlighting the plague of homophobia,. And I commend Human Rights First for launching a report to bring attention to the threats against LGBT refugees.

"When we read the accounts of abuse and exploitation included in this report, we have but one option: We must stand squarely on the side of the most vulnerable. We must do what we can to provide them an environment where their safety and security is ensured, and their rights and dignity upheld. That must be our priority."

And then this photo surface today on the Daily Beast showing a beating in Kiev, Ukraine on May 20 of Svyatoslav Sheremet, head of Gay Forum of Ukraine, when he met with the media to say that a scheduled gay pride parade had been cancelled. And the media stood and watched as he was viciously beaten.

Photo and Richard's remarks are after the break.

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Dharun Ravi Sentenced to 30 Days for Webcam Cyber-Bullying

Karen Ocamb — Mon, 21 May 2012 15:00:00 -0500

Superior Court Judge Glenn Berman in New Jersey sentenced Dharun Ravi to 30 days in jail for what he called a "bias crime," not a hate crime in the landmark case about cyber-bullying. Ravi was also sentenced to probation for three years; must serve 300 hours of community service, attend counseling regarding cyber bullying and "alternative life style;" $10,000 to state-licensed community based organization that provides assistant to victims of bias crimes. The judge also imposed other mandatory $11, 905 starting Aug. 1 at $300 a month over three years. The judge said he's opposed to Ravi being deported.

Dharun Ravi at his sentencing hearing May 21, 2012 (Photo via CNN)

The judge said he would grant the mandatory 10-day stay while Ravi gets his affairs in order but would not grant prosecutor McLure's request for a stay of the entire sentence pending an appeal of what she apparently feels is a light sentence.

Much more after the break.

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Wanda Sykes on Obama & NAACP Support for Same-Sex Marriage

Karen Ocamb — Mon, 21 May 2012 12:00:00 -0500

On the red carpet at the L.A. Gay & Lesbian Center's "An Evening with Women" Saturday night, May 19, actress/comedienne Wanda Sykes - a lesbian who is married with children - talked with Renee Sotile & Mary Jo Godges of Traipsing Thru Films about President Obama's declaration that he supports same-sex marriage and the surprise vote by the board of the NAACP to unequivocally support marriage equality.

Wanda Sykes at the LA Gay & Lesbian Center's 'An Evening with Women' May 19, 2012 (Photo screen capture)

[On Obama] I am thrilled. I'm so proud of him. I knew he would get there. But I believe it's earnest and I'm just so proud because I flash back to this time four years ago and watching the vice presidential and presidential debates and when the topic of same sex marriage comes up, it was almost like they laughed. It was like a mockery of same sex marriage. And that hurt. I mean, you're sitting their watching and you're like 'Ow.' But you know what, I still voted for him because it was what I thought was best for the country and I just hope people who are - have a problem with him coming out for same sex marriage that they will still go with their instinct of what's good for the country.

[On the NAACP] Yea! I'm so proud of the NAACP! I mean - this is huge! Really is huge because the NAACP - their roots are so instilled in the church. That's where their meetings and all of that - are held - in churches. So to come out and support same sex marriage - I'm so thrilled that they have gotten past the point that it's not about religion, it's about rights. Marriage reallyt doesn't have anything to do with religion. That's why athetists get married. It's about all the rights that comes along with it. So I'm very proud of the NAACP right now and I think I'm going to join! Maybe I'll up my membership now.

Video of Sykes' interview is after the break.

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Justice Department Issues New Rules on Sexual Assault of LGBT Inmates

Karen Ocamb — Fri, 18 May 2012 15:00:00 -0500

This is a big deal.

The US Justice Department released a new set of rules on Thursday in conjunction with a new Memorandum from President Obama to address the epidemic of sexual assaults in prison that particularly impacts LGBT inmates. It remains to be seen how these rules will be implemented in California’s over-crowded prison system that some still call a “prison industrial complex.”

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Boxer Manny Pacquiao to Gays: 'I Apologize'

Karen Ocamb — Fri, 18 May 2012 11:00:00 -0500

A firestorm erupted Wednesday, May 16, after a May 12 "exclusive" interview in the National Conservative Examiner with professional boxer Manny Pacquiao came to light in which the boxer cited the Old Testament.

Professional boxer Manny Pacquiao on Extra

Pacquiao’s directive for Obama calls societies to fear God and not to promote sin, inclusive of same-sex marriage and cohabitation, notwithstanding what Leviticus 20:13 has been pointing all along: "If a man lies with a man as one lies with a woman, both of them have done what is detestable. They must be put to death; their blood will be on their own heads."

Pacquiao, bearing a conservative stance on the Reproductive Bill which is still pending in the Philippine Congress for approval even after contemptuous debates, believes the sweeping campaign of Obama favoring the gays and lesbians to legally marry is nothing more than a direct attack on the moral society and against the creative power and will of God.

Pacquiao continues: “God only expects man and woman to be together and to be legally married, only if they so are in love with each other.”

“It should not be of the same sex so as to adulterate the altar of matrimony, like in the days of Sodom and Gomorrah of Old.”

Twitter and Facebook lit up and the Courage Campaign asked its members to call on Nike to drop Pacquiao as a spokesperson and Rick Caruso, developer and owner of The Grove and possible LA mayoral candidate, banned the boxer from The Grove mall where he was scheduled to tape an interview with Mario Lopez of Extra. The Grove tweeted: "@TheGroveLA is a gathering place for all Angelenos, not a place for intolerance."

But it turns out the National Conservative Examiner is a "community" site where people can post stories with little editorial oversight - and the writer of that "exclusive," Granville Ampong, subsequently revealed that he - not Pacquiao - quoted the horrid death-to-gays Biblical passage. And he blamed other reporters for not reading his story properly.

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Harvey Milk Day Celebrations in LA & WeHo

Karen Ocamb — Thu, 17 May 2012 11:00:00 -0500

LGBT Icon Harvey Milk would have been 82 years old next Tuesday - had he not been assassinated in 1978. In 2009, Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger signed openly gay Sen. Mark Leno's SB 572 designating every May 22 as "Harvey Milk Day." The Harvey Milk Foundation and others are holding numerous events before and on that official day, including several in Los Angeles and West Hollywood.

Today, Sacramento holds the third annual Harvey Milk Day with the Harvey Milk Foundation, the California Legislative LGBT Caucus and Equality California with a breakthrough conversation at the California Museum on the implementation and benefits of Senate Bill (SB) 48, the Fair, Accurate, Inclusive, and Respectful (FAIR) Education Act. The FAIR Act, which has been threatened with repeal by the Religious Right since it was signed into law by Gov. Jerry Brown last year, requires public schools to teach LGBT history and the contributions of LGBT people. Though the law officially went into effect on Jan. 1, 2012, is has not yet been fully implemented or integrated into California's public school curriculum standards, though individual schools and teachers have implemented their own programs that address LGBT history and antigay bullying and discrimination.

On Sunday May 20, LA Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa and Stuart Milk, founder of the Harvey Milk Foundation and nephew of Harvey Milk, will host the 3rd Annual Harvey Milk Day of Service at Robert F. Kennedy Community Schools.

At the first commemoration in 2010, Villaraigosa pledged to honor Harvey Milk through a day of service every year to acknowledge Milk's legacy of community engagement. This year's We Serve LA" project - held in conjunction with Gay for Good, Enrich LA, FAIR, Latino Equality Alliance, UCLA Family Commons, Wilshire Center Business Improvement District, principals, teachers and students from the Los Angeles Unified School District, among others - will paint commemorative canvas murals, build two sets of edible produce gardens to be used in educating parents and students alike about nutrition and sustainability, and complete a campus wide clean up at Robert F. Kennedy Community Schools.

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Freedom to Marry Founder Evan Wolfson Honored

Karen Ocamb — Wed, 16 May 2012 15:30:00 -0500

Freedom to Marry's Evan Wolfson being honored at Barnard College (Photo courtesy Barnard College/David Wentworth)

In my Frontiers story on President Obama's profile-in-courage announcement that he supports marriage equality, I mention and quote attorney Evan Wolfson, founder of Freedom to Marry, who's been advocating for marriage rights for same sex couples since the early 1990s, often against a tide of naysayers. Yesterday, Wolfson was honored with the Medal of Distinction by Barnard College, along with President Barack Obama. This morning Wolfson told me, via email, what the experience was like:

It was such a joyous day - looking out over these inspiring Barnard women, being presented the Medal of Distinction by a civil rights champion like Judge Judith Kaye who spoke generously of my work and how far we've come, sharing the Medal with President Obama the very week he embraced the freedom to marry, and then hearing the waves of cheers and applause first for the freedom to marry and then as the President followed by invoking the arc "from Seneca Falls to Selma to Stonewall" as a call to further action - and happily, my parents, my sister, my brothers, and my husband were all there to share the big day with me. Truly the honor of a lifetime.

Obama Should Appoint an LGBT Cabinet Member in 2nd Term

Karen Ocamb — Tue, 15 May 2012 15:30:00 -0500

President Barack Obama sits with Barnard College President Debora Spar (l) and Chairwoman Jolyne Caruso-Fitzgerald at Barnard College in New York, May 14, 2012. (White House Photo by Lawrence Jackson)

President Obama delivered a stirring commencement address at the private, all-women's Barnard College in New York, Monday. (Excerpts below; click here for the complete transcript.) He spoke lovingly about the powerful women who've influenced his life and dispensed three pieces of advice: fight for a seat at the head of the table; never underestimate the power of your example; and persevere. But when he told the story of former California State Sen. Hilda Solis, now Secretary of Labor, a flashing neon light went off in my brain: the same message applies to LGBT people.

It's time to appoint an LGBT Cabinet member! Think what that would mean to an LGBT kid? Here's what President Obama said - do you see the same flashing message?

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Obama's Gayloed & Romney's Rewarded: Both Satanic to Evangelicals

Karen Ocamb — Mon, 14 May 2012 16:00:00 -0500

Newsweek/Daily Beast editor Tina Brown decided to adorn President Obama with a rainbow-colored "gaylo" and ordain him America's "first gay president" as a kind of homage to poet Maya Angelou calling Bill Clinton the country's first black president. "If President Clinton was the 'first black president' then Obama earns every stripe in that 'gaylo' with last week's gay marriage proclamation," Brown told Politico today, via email. "Newsweek's cover pays tribute to his newly ordained place in history." That cover story was written by openly gay Catholic Andrew Sullivan, who has been talking about marriage equality for decades.

One can only imagine the gasps from Religious Right. Meanwhile, Republican Mitt Romney, Obama's re-election rival this November, drew a standing ovation from evangelicals at Christian Liberty University this weekend as he tried to win over young voters who think Mormonism is a cult. But he didn't go too far with his antigay rhetoric since, as I wrote this weekend, many conservative Republicans are worried the party is headed over a cliff if it continues ideological purity.

And then there's St. Petersburg, Florida-based Bill Keller, touted as "the world's leading Internet Evangelist and the founder of LivePrayer.com, with over 2.4 million subscribers worldwide," who just launched a new website - votingforjesus.com - to encourage people to sign up and commit to write in the name of Jesus for President this November.

"A Christian is faced with a difficult dilemma this November. It is literally satan flipping a two-headed coin with his head on both sides. How can a Christian in good conscience vote for President Obama, who has proven to be the most pro-baby killing, pro-radical homosexual, pro-enemy of Israel President in our nation's history.

On the other hand, how can a Christian in good conscience vote for Mitt Romney, a 5th generation member and priest in the satanic Mormon cult. His Presidency would give his cult the mainstream acceptance they have always wanted since being founded 200 years ago. Conservative estimates are that his cult will add at least 1 million converts in the US alone. For a Christian, that means 1 million souls who will buy into a false Gospel and end up in hell for all eternity!"

Keller explains it all for you in a video (with transcript) after the break.

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Are Log Cabin Republicans Influencing the GOP?

Karen Ocamb — Sun, 13 May 2012 16:00:00 -0500

Andrew Sullivan, reported on Saturday about an apparently leaked memo from highly regarded pollster Jan van Lohuizen, who polled for the Bush re-election team in 2004 when Karl Rove put 11 antigay marriage initiatives on state ballots to drive turnout among conservatives and evangelicals. The memo to GOP insiders and operatives warns that if Republicans continue their rhetoric and attacks on gay people after President Obama announced his support for marriage equality – they could well render the party irrelevant.

One of the key talking points of the memo is about Conservative fundamentals:

"As people who promote personal responsibility, family values, commitment and stability, and emphasize freedom and limited government we have to recognize that freedom means freedom for everyone. This includes the freedom to decide how you live and to enter into relationships of your choosing, the freedom to live without excessive interference of the regulatory force of government.

R. Clarke Cooper, executive director of the Log Cabin Republicans, has been saying this for months, including issuing a warning on Friday:

Log Cabin Republicans Executive Director R. Clarke Cooper with openly gay Houston Mayor Annise Parker at the Haas Convening on March 11, 2012 (Photo by Karen Ocamb)

Marriage equality has captured the nation’s attention, and the response to President Obama’s announcement is evidence of the tide turning in favor of equality for all.....Americans can be certain that the President would not have made this decision at this time if it were not in his best political interests. In addition to energizing his base and distracting attention from a failed economic record, the trap is laid for any Republican who responds with intolerance....

Governor Mitt Romney’s statement in opposition to not just marriage but civil unions jeopardizes his ability to win moderates, women and younger voters, especially as a large majority of Americans favor some form of relationship recognition for their LGBT friends and neighbors. Ultimately, the response of the Republican candidates this election cycle will determine not just endorsements by Log Cabin Republicans, but the votes of millions of Americans who are simply tired of the culture wars.

Romney either didn't get the memo or the LCR press release or didn't care. On Saturday, May 12, in an effort to win over young antigay evangelicals who think Romney's Mormon faith is a cult, the candidate evoked Religious Right extremist Rick Santorum and the culture wars in addressing students at Christian Liberty University in Lynchburg, Virginia.

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Seattle & LA Hail the Conquering Obama

Karen Ocamb — Fri, 11 May 2012 11:30:00 -0500

The day after his historic announcement supporting marriage equality, President Obama headed to the West Coast for a Big Bucks re-election fundraising blitz. The George Clooney/Jeffrey Katzenberg event in Studio City raised $15 million, according to Katzenberg. During his remarks to the Hollywood crowd, Obama said of his historic announcement: "the truth is it was a logical extension of what America is supposed to be."

His first stop was Seattle, Washington, where he disembarked with Sen. Patty Murray, head of Senate Dems campaign committee, and was greeted by, among others, Washington Gov. Christine Gregoire who signed the state's marriage equality bill on Feb. 13, 2012.

Opponents of marriage equality are collecting signatures for Referendum 74 to repeal the marriage law on the ballot (See Washington United for Marriage for more) but local gays think Obama's support will help them. "When you have the president of the United States come out in favor of your issue, it's hard not to be energized," openly gay state Rep. Jim Moeller (D-Vancouver) told the Columbian.

As he traveled to his first gig, his motorcade passed well-wishers, "including a woman sitting in the grass holding a hooded infant and a bright yellow sign with black-lettered sign: 'Thank You! Mr. President for standing up for my Mommys,'" according to the pool report.

Much more - including President Obama's remarks at George Clooney's home - after the break.

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Standing with Barack Obama

Karen Ocamb — Thu, 10 May 2012 13:30:00 -0500

The front page of BarackObama.com features President Obama's historic position on marriage equality. Additionally, Obama sent out this email to supporters:

Today, I was asked a direct question and gave a direct answer:

I believe that same-sex couples should be allowed to marry.

I hope you'll take a moment to watch the conversation, consider it, and weigh in yourself on behalf of marriage equality:

http://my.barackobama.com/Marriage

I've always believed that gay and lesbian Americans should be treated fairly and equally. I was reluctant to use the term marriage because of the very powerful traditions it evokes. And I thought civil union laws that conferred legal rights upon gay and lesbian couples were a solution.

But over the course of several years I've talked to friends and family about this. I've thought about members of my staff in long-term, committed, same-sex relationships who are raising kids together. Through our efforts to end the "Don't Ask, Don't Tell" policy, I've gotten to know some of the gay and lesbian troops who are serving our country with honor and distinction.

What I've come to realize is that for loving, same-sex couples, the denial of marriage equality means that, in their eyes and the eyes of their children, they are still considered less than full citizens.

Even at my own dinner table, when I look at Sasha and Malia, who have friends whose parents are same-sex couples, I know it wouldn't dawn on them that their friends' parents should be treated differently.

So I decided it was time to affirm my personal belief that same-sex couples should be allowed to marry.

I respect the beliefs of others, and the right of religious institutions to act in accordance with their own doctrines. But I believe that in the eyes of the law, all Americans should be treated equally. And where states enact same-sex marriage, no federal act should invalidate them.

If you agree, you can stand up with me here.

Thank you,

Barack