National Equality March Route Approved

Permits for the National Equality March are being issued, as the city has approved its route. According to Equality Across America, the organizing group, the march was approved last week, but the application needed a final signature from an official who was out of town.

The map of the 2.33-mile march is available on the Equality Across America blog.

 

Ted Kennedy Remembered as LGBT Hero

When Sen. Ted Kennedy's death was reported, the leader of the Human Rights Campaign, Joe Solmonese, said we mourned the loss of the nation's "greatest champion and strongest voice for justice, fairness, and compassion."

"There was no greater hero for advocates of LGBT equality than Sen. Ted Kennedy," Solmonese reflected. "From the early days of the AIDS epidemic to our current struggle for marriage equality, he has been our protector, our leader, our friend. He has been the core of the unfinished quest for civil rights in this country, and there is now a very painful void."

Senator Kennedy hailed from a famously influential family. Two of his brothers, President John F. Kennedy and onetime attorney-general and presidential candidate Bobby Kennedy, were tragically assassinated, in 1963 in and 1968, respectively. Years earlier he lost his oldest brother, Joe, who was killed in action during World War II.

MIT Researches Facebook Gaydar

Wanna find out if he's gay? There's an app for that.
Internet mavens are excited about some breakthrough social networking research, fresh out of the minds of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. So what's the technology that's garnering the extra attention? An apparently proven gaydar application.
Yep, with Carter Jernigan and Behram Mistree's new software, an examination of 947 profiles correctly "identified all 10 of 10 men the students knew to be gay, but who had not declared so on Facebook, according to a summary in The Boston Globe," reports Gawker.com. The researchers say their goal was to uncover what social networking users are unknowingly telling about themselves in this new age of oversharing and online friending.

Hate Crimes: Facebook Support for Victim Jake Raynard and Judy Shepard Fights On

Jake Raynard was the victim of a brutal attack over Labor Day weekend in his hometown of Thunder Bay, in Canada’s Ontario province. Raynard is recovering in a hospital after being beaten with a brick by a group of men. His sister, Jackii Raynard, has no doubt that "what happened that night was a hate crime. They broke the whole left side of his face. His face speaks for itself."
Raynard and two friends were confronted by an aggressive man early Saturday morning outside a bar. When they tried to walk away, Raynard and his friends were followed by a group of men shouting derogatory comments about gays.

California Hall of Fame 2009 inductee Harvey Milk

Gay rights advocate Harvey Milk to be inducted to The California Museum’s California Hall of Fame. The names of the 2009 inductees were announced today by Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger and First Lady Maria Shriver.

"The California Hall of Fame celebrates our most influential women and men, and honors them for their drive, willingness to take risks, dedication and success in touching the lives of millions of people - not just in this state, but around the world," said Governor Schwarzenegger.

"Really? You Don't Look Gay"

Something funny happened the other day that I wanted to share.  I was on my lunch hour, paying for takeout at a nearby deli and the always friendly cashier was making small talk with me as she usually does.  But this time, she got more up close and personal, and the conversation went something like this:

Cashier: Are you excited for the weekend?

Me: Totally!  I am so glad it's Friday.

Cashier: What are you going to do?

Me: I really don't know yet, but I think I'm just going to play it by ear. 

Cashier:  Do you have kids?

Is Pale the New Tan?

For decades, gay men have been forerunners of fashion and style, trendsetters in every field of culture and lifestyle. What gay men do, mainstream follows. We take chances, push the limits and people tucked away in quiet burghs pick up on the buzz, sometimes light years later. So now that the veil has been lifted on the apparent evils of the fake and bake, will gay men lead the charge toward making it chic to be—gasp!—pale?

They're the Total Package. Why Are They Single?

Sometimes you meet people who immediately engage you. You're taken by their energy, their good looks, their kindness. They talk to you—not at you. They ask you questions, are genuinely interested in finding out about you. You learn about them. They have a great job, have loads of friends, always are doing interesting things. But then you find out they're single, and have been for a long time.

Should Hollywood A-listers Come Out?

Over the last week, controversy arose out of comments by two out Hollywood directors during discussions at OutFest, the Los Angeles Gay and Lesbian film fest. Both directors, Todd Holland and Don Roos, basically told actors not to come out.

Holland's comments, told before a small audience of just 30 people, were then supposedly taken out of context. The blogosphere interpreted his comments to mean that young, gay male actors should stay in the closet. Perez Hilton wrote that Holland said hiding your sexuality was a necessary choice in Hollywood. Holland, in an article he wrote on July 20, said he didn't tell people not to come out, rather he couldn't advise someone to come out, especially if they reside in the upper echelon of Hollywood's elite.

Roos, on the other hand, didn't sugarcoat his opinion in that he feels the viewing public can't disconnect an actor's personal life or actions from a character they play. “I prefer more mystery," he said. "I don’t want to know about [his or her] political views, whether they’re gay or straight.” He referred to Mel Gibson's infamous drunken Malibu rant and Tom Cruise's couch-hopping incident as things he would consider before casting those actors. He went on to say that he has "a deep respect for homophobia [in America] and I don’t think it will ever go away. I don’t think actors coming out is going to help end homophobia. I think doctors, teachers and lawyers coming out will end homophobia.”

I personally feel that someone's private life should be kept private—if they want it to be (unless they're a politician passing anti-gay legislation and then living a hidden gay life. To that I say, out the bastards!). However, if someone in a position of power is gay and not out it not only hurts them, but also everyone else who is not out or afraid to come out. Roos' comments that doctors, teachers and lawyers coming out has a bigger impact then someone like Johnny Depp, Brad Pitt or Shia LaBeouf (I'm not implying these actors are gay; merely that they're big-name A-listers) aren't exactly correct. The bigger a person is and the more in the public eye they are, the more impactful their coming out would be. Who cares about a judge in Cleveland coming out other than maybe people in Cleveland, or said judge's friends and family? But if Tom Cruise came out (again, not saying he's gay; I wouldn't want to get sued for $100 million!), it would have a seismic effect around the world.

So by a gay director telling young, gay Hollywood, particulary guys, to stay closeted, does that inversely affect every other young, gay person afraid to come out? And do you think people wouldn't pay to see a leading-man type or action hero if they came out? Do you base your movie-or TV-viewing choices on what a celebrity does in their personal life? It seems that people forget that actors act; they create characters that are often larger than life, that allow us to escape from our own realities. So why would it matter what they do in their personal life or behind closed doors? Until everyone who is gay comes out and is comfortable living, as Holland said, an authentic life, who else is going to respect the gay community if they don't now?

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Is Aging Harder When You're Gay?

Last week my partner and a friend both told me, almost simultaneously, that I had a few gray hairs coming in on the side of my head. Instead of realizing I often think that men with some salt-and-pepper are sexy and maybe I, too, could be sexy, my first thought was to panic and think I had to color my hair and maybe go blond ... again. Then I came to my senses and remembered getting older isn't a bad thing. It happens to everyone. But can everyone age gracefully? Is there such a thing as "gayging" gracefully?