The website Open Artist Movement has launched a new campaign titled We Can Do It! The photo campaign aims to build solidarity and personal strength through positive messaging. The goal is to bring to life modern iconic individuals, by depicting them as powerful and not victims in support of the global LGBT movement worldwide.
We had a great night last night at the Fresno Express for the St. Patrick's Day Fundraiser for Gay Central Valley! The night was a great success and we thank all those who came out in support of the organization. Big thanks to Lee and Malibu at the Express, to our fabulous performers DivaLicious and Chantal and all the volunteers who came out to help with the festivities. Here are a few pictures of the night with more to come...
Dan Choi and Jim Pietrangelo were handcuffed to the White House fence today in protest of DADT. Local Robin McGehee, who participated in the action was arrested, as were Choi and Pietrangelo.
Restore Equality 2010 has made a strange and bold move in the last days of its signature gathering campaign to get a measure on the November ballot which could overturn Prop 8. They've announced they're now collecting electronic signatures as well as paper signatures. This has never been done before, and to help them with the effort, Restore Equality has enlisted the start-up company Verafirma.
The LA Times recently reportedthat Michael Ni, a co-founder of Verafirma, submitted an electronic signature to the clerk's office in San Mateo, signed through the touch screen of his iPhone for the measure to legalize marijuana. The purposeful act was done in order to challenge current law, which does not allow electronic signatures to be collected for the initiative process. Currently, no state allows electronic signatures for initiatives, which makes it confusing as to why Restore Equality would choose to go this route. Ni's signature will be considered by the State Attorney General's Office.
Three states are currently debating electronic signatures. California, in this case, and Nebraska and Utah in similar cases. Decisions in California and Nebraska are pending, while the Utah Attorney General has already issued a 5 page analysis of the matter in his state, ruling that "the laws governing initiatives do not contemplate or allow for the use of electronic signatures."
There still is no word from Restore Equality about how many signatures they have collected and how many they need to meet the requirement of about a million signatures by April 12th.
Looks like Fresno City College has called out Professor Lopez for his teaching style. After becoming a major news attraction recently, as well as a target of the ACLU, Lopez denied any wrong doing regarding his teaching methods. The College has now weighed in...
Fresno City College authorities found that Dr. Brad Lopez, a health instructor, “engaged in conduct that could result in the creation of a hostile learning environment by unreasonably interfering with students’ learning by making insulting comments directed at homosexuals.”
BIG NEWS! Central California Alliance (CCA) is bringing the San Francisco Gay Men's Chorusto the Tower Theater in Fresno on Harvey Milk Day, Saturday, May 22nd. Gay Central Valley encourages the community to purchase tickets to support this project, as a portion of the ticket proceeds will be used to help fund a planned LGBT Community Center here in Fresno. CCA has brought several community members in as an Advisory Board to assist with the goals and direction the planned Community Center will take. A Central Valley LGBT Community Center is long overdue and will be a monumental asset to LGBT citizen in the Central Valley. Only through the assistance of everyone in the community can this project take shape and flourish. Gay Central Valley fully supports this venture.
This performance by the San Francisco Gay Men's Chorus is part of their 2010 California Freedom Tour, which is described on their website...
The Chorus will present a concert of uplifting and joyous music that speaks directly to the experience of seeking freedom in the face of discrimination. This is the first time that San Francisco Gay Men’s Chorus has embarked upon a tour of California and the first time that the Chorus is collaborating with local charities in the Redding/Chico area to raise funds to help them with their work. 100% of all concert proceeds will be invested back into local community programs. The objective is to reach out to diverse communities in the universal language of music with an inspiring and affirming message of acceptance.
The concerts in Chico and Redding are the first leg of a statewide tour that plans to take in Fresno, Bakersfield and Tracy later in the year (May-July). More details of these events will be posted as it becomes available.
The tour has already appeared in Redding and Chico, California to sell out crowds. After Fresno, the tour is scheduled to move on to Bakersfield and Tracy.
The Official After Party for the concert in Fresno on Saturday, May 22nd, will be held that night, after the performance, at the North Tower Circle in Fresno. A $5 cover charge will be collected at the door. All door proceeds will go toward assisting the planned LGBT Community Center.
We urge the community to fully support this project during this event and in the future. The LGBT Community in Fresno and the Central Valley needs a space in which to disseminate information and come together, and an LGBT Community Center would be that place.
The head of the UN AIDS Agency, Michel Sidibe, is laying it on the line. With direct and pointed words, he stated yesterday that "it is unacceptable" that 85 countries still have laws criminalizing homosexuality. In fact, seven countries punish homosexuality with the death penalty.
Sidibe described the "growing conservatism" around the world frightening. The fact that conservative policies are increasing and that HIV is on the rise among groups which are not only being discriminated against but facing harsh criminal punishments, is a recipe for disaster. Sidibe warns of a rise in HIV of "epidemic" proportions.
He also pointed out that in Caribbean countries, most of which don't have repressive laws, that only about 5% of HIV is among men having sex with men. The United States, however, is shockingly seeing a spike in new HIV cases, with around 50% of those among homosexuals. Some of this, he concluded, is due to a new "complacency" about the disease.
"We must insist that the rights of the minorities are upheld. If we don't do that ... I think the epidemic will grow again," he warned. "We cannot accept the tyranny of the majority."
In his analysis we can see one of the most dangerous side effects of conservative and restrictive governments. While gays struggle the world over for basic civil rights protections, epidemic disease can be a result of isolation of various groups in the population, groups which are limited in their access to fair and available medical treatments and information. While these governments will undoubtedly entertain the thoughts that perhaps it wouldn't be too bad if certain groups in the population would start dying off, they're missing the piece that will in the end, be their undoing as well. HIV is alive and well among all groups in the population, and while they may not belong to the groups at highest risk now, they will eventually be the population left, the only population left for HIV to attack.
Governments choosing to criminalize and restrict certain groups based solely on some false morality they've created for themselves can come to no other result but to destroy civilization itself, not just the marked parties.
Read more about the warnings of Michel Sidibe HERE
VIDEO: GLAAD Awards - Will Phillips Acceptance Speech
I've written about 10 year old Will Phillips before. I'm not much of a hero person, but if anyone qualifies in my book, it's this brave young man. He garnered national attention for refusing to say the Pledge Of Allegiance in school until all LGBT Americans were granted equal rights. Now, GLAAD has bestowed an award on him for his courageousness. Watch his incredible acceptance speech...
If I were to type it in it wouldn’t be that bad. I mean I can just erase the history. But what if mom comes home early? It doesn’t matter; she won’t be home until like four. That gives me a hour and a half. I can just look at a couple of bad pictures and be done. What if she finds them though? What if somehow my brother hacks into the history and finds it? I don’t care. It is totally worth it.
I type in the raunchy gay pornography site and proceed to do what boys do. The only problem is I am wrong. Not because it is pornography but because it is the same sex. I feel guilty for being sinful and giving into my sins. I am demented by the devil for sure.
Who in the world could possibly think the same sex is attractive? I mean, there is something wrong with me for sure.
Gavin Newsom is back, baby...Although he dropped out of the Governor's race, he's just made the following announcement regarding a run for Lt. Governor...
Just announced that I am running for Lt. Gov.! I want to say thank you for eveyone's support today and over the years. I hope you will join me in this campaign to help take what is right about California and fix what is wrong in Sacramento.
A little more justice today as the employees of the Atlanta Eagle bar, who were arrested in September for supposedly "lewd dancing without a permit" (what century are we even living in??) have been declared NOT GUILTY.
Reading about Constance McMillen, the young girl in Mississippi who asked to take her lesbian girlfriend to the prom, resulting in the school cancelling the event completely, I was left feeling defeated. Many recent events concerning LGBT civil rights have resulted in organization simply "pulling the plug". It was evident recently when the Catholic Church changed their policies in reaction to same sex marriage becoming legal in Washington DC. They abandoned their foster care program and removed health coverage for employee spouses. Now we have a bill in Oklahoma which hopes to ignore the recently instituted Federal Hate Crimes Legislation. And the Virginia Attorney General told colleges they can't provide protection for LGBT students.
What's it coming to when we now live in a country that for the most part won't vote in our equal rights as citizens, but which is now working to remove protections already on the books and simply abandoning programs if we become involved? Aggression against LGBT Americans is on the rise, and becoming more prevalent each day.
So it was comforting to hear that the ACLU has now filed a lawsuit against the Mississippi school that cancelled the prom in fear of seeing a lesbian couple out in the open, wearing, GASP!, tuxedos. I hope they kick their butts and bring shame where it belong, to the school board of this small, Mississippi community.
After the recent story about conservatives in the Oklahoma legislature debating whether the government should be allowed to intrude on traditional marriage (while having zero problem with the government intruding on same sex relationships) here comes another stunner from the state.
Now, Republican Senator Steve Russell has taken a bill aimed at looking into secondary school education and inserted language to exempt Oklahoma from complying with the recently signed federal hate crimes bill. Basically, it would allow the state to not only ignore the federal law, but to destroy records in hate crimes cases which did not end in conviction.
From Russell...
"We just don’t want the pendulum to swing too far the other way,” he said. "This protects people to do or say whatever they want, as long as it complies with local ordinances.”
The bill has already passed the Oklahoma senate by 39-6 and now heads to the House.
It's bad enough that the courts aren't stepping in when the established equality of LGBT Americans is simply voted away by the populace, as in Maine, but now are we going to see the states literally thumbing their noses at FEDERAL laws, just to protect and continue to enshrine BIGOTRY into our lives? Why does the law only apply to heterosexuals where they "feel" it should apply, while the rest of us are daily being restricted more and more.
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