I'm jazzed to read that Facebook is participating in Spirit Day on October 20, 2011. For those who don't know, Spirit Day is a day when we all can stand in support to end bullying against youth in the LGBT community.

According to the Gay and Lesbian Alliance Against Defamation (GLAAD) site:

"Millions of Americans wear purple on Spirit Day as a sign of support for lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) youth and to speak out against bullying. Spirit Day was started in 2010 by teenager Brittany McMillan as a response to the young people who had taken their own lives. Observed annually on October 20, individuals, schools, organizations, corporations, media professionals and celebrities wear purple, which symbolizes spirit on the rainbow flag."

There's no doubt that social media has given us the tools we need to reach and engage people at scale with our message and that social platforms have provided the opportunities we need to easily connect with likeminded people, such as those within the LGBT community.

But what about those who have been negatively affected by these platforms? What about those who have had their sexual identity or gender identity revealed when they didn't want it to, costing them their job, home, and even risking their general safety and security?

Since social media's inception, in particular Facebook, people have become accustomed to sharing just about anything, not only about themselves but about their peers too, on these platforms. As these platforms advance, there's been little in the form of guidelines that encourage people to question whether or not what a person shares may negatively affect someone else in their network. I hope that my research brings a voice to those who may be affected so that we can begin to consider the ethics that should come into play when using social media.

To help me, please take a moment to fill out this survey. I encourage you to share it with your broader networks. Thank you!

I'm on the board of Swish, a gay straight alliance that provides opportunities for people to get involved in LGBT advocacy in a way that is most comfortable for them. I oversee the organization's social media strategies. It was through my work with Swish that I met Jim Swimm.

I didn't know who he was when I met him. All I knew was that he was an insightful and thoughtful voice on Twitter. He tweeted me once asking me to check out his guest post on Bilerico. This was the beginning of a new friendship for us. I asked Jim if he would be willing to contribute a piece for Swish Voices, an online campaign section that we have on the site to highlight different voices in the community. He agreed and wrote this piece.

My heart ached after reading his piece. Jim Swimm was the one who found Tyler Clementi floating face down in the Hudson. A year after his death, I asked Jim if it would be okay to interview him about it and how his life has changed because of it.

Read my interview with Jim Swimm after the jump.

With the recent news that Buffalo, New York teenager Jamey Rodermeyer recently took his own life after enduring anti-gay bullying for months - especially online and specifically Formspring.me - I thought it would be appropriate to re-run this post from July 2010. It's important to know what tools are being used against our community if we plan on combatting it. Jamey also created his own "It Gets Better" video.

What is Formspring.me?

Every so often, a new player hits the Internet scene with the intent to do something innovative in the social media space. On November 25, 2009, the winner was Formspring.me. Since its launch, Formspring.me has grown rapidly, attracting more than 28 million visits per month.

Formspring.me took the micro-blogging functionality of Twitter and the anonymity of Facebook's 'Honesty Box' and created a platform that allows anonymous posting to friends' accounts in the form of updates or questions, or answers to questions that people post on their own accounts. It sounds cool, and can definitely be a lot of fun.

Shortly after the bust, others did more digging only to discover that the editor of the popular lesbian blog Lez Get Real was run by man - Bill Graber who used the pseudonym, Paula Brooks.

A fellow Bilerico contributor and I got into a Twitter debate over the Lez Get Real case. I argued that this kind of behavior was damaging to the credibility that we are both trying to build for LGBT media. The contributor argued that this happens all the time in mainstream media and then went on to say that perhaps the reason this individual posed as female was because the readers of the blog would never have been receptive to the posts had they known it was a man.

Perhaps this is true, but I believe that it is unethical to do such.

I've sent a tweet to Change.org, AllOut.org and Gay Tel Aviv in an attempt to see if there's anything that we can do to assist the LGBT Center. If you know someone that you can connect me with at the Center, I would be grateful. You can share my contact details located on my Bilerico bio page.

Last year, I covered my visit to Israel and discussed how social media played a role in bringing the world together after the shooting. I've reposted it for you to read below.

Klout is important because communication professionals like myself want to know how influential we are toward those who follow us and those we're influenced by. Prior to services like Klout, social communicators were left in the dark in determining whether or not our messages were being seen or heard.

To determine whether or not Klout is truly accurate, I thought I would take a look at what Klout had to say about me and my ability to influence.

The other day, Marriage Equality New York (MENY), an organization that I know well through my phone-banking with New Yorkers United for Marriage, flipped me a Facebook invite for an event they were hosting to celebrate the occasion. I smiled when I opened the Facebook event page because the image they were using in the invite is one that is near and dear to me.

In addition to these device findings, we pulled out empty boxes for our NOOKs, Canon Power Shoot, MacBooks, iPhone, Droid, an old Blackberry, one of the first Pay-as-You-Go phones, and even an alarm clock that talks to you.

Click on the photo below to access Bill's photo stream from New York City's 2011 Pride Parade.

[Caption from Bill's site] New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo marches in the gay pride parade in New York on June 27, 2011. Earlier in the week, Cuomo announced passage of the Marriage Equality Act, granting same-sex couples the freedom to marry under the law, as well as hundreds of rights, benefits, and protections that have been limited to married couples of the opposite sex.

Photo: Bill Kotsatos/The Bilerico Project

Like me on Facebook. Follow me on Twitter. Join me on The Bilerico Project.

In a piece written before the marriage equality vote, I noted that the hashtag #NY4M was tweeted over the course of one week 550 times, then the following week it was tweeted well over 6,000 times.

Now, let's look at how many times #NY4M was tweeted the days leading up to, during, and after the vote (Chart Below).

On Friday evening, Governor Cuomo told reporters:

"I am a proponent of marriage equality, and I'm working very hard to make that a reality in New York. I am also a proponent of religious freedom, and separation of church and state, so these are both very important principles. I don't see one in competition with the other."

Click here to connect to a video clip of Andrew Cuomo addressing the vote on gay marriage.

As noted in a previous post, New Yorkers United for Marriage is a coalition of major LGBT organizations, which includes Freedom to Marry, Marriage Equality New York, Human Rights Campaign, Log Cabin Republicans, and the Empire State Pride Agenda. This past spring, these organizations joined forces to ensure the passage of marriage equality legislation in New York State.

The votes needed to pass the marriage bill are uncertain. In order to avoid a repeat from 2009, Governor Cuomo, a staunch supporter of gay marriage, is hesitant to bring the bill to the floor until it is certain that there are enough votes to pass. There are a few senators who have not taken a stance on whether or not they support gay marriage. These senators are the key targets for the New Yorkers United for Marriage phone banks.