Author: Brett

Missouri Lawmaker Says He Is Gay, Denounces School Bill

Brett

http://www.ksro.com/news/article.aspx?id=2286570

JEFFERSON CITY, Mo. (AP) — A Republican Missouri House member who previously served in the U.S. Air Force publicly announced Wednesday that he is gay and called upon GOP leaders in the state Legislature to withdraw a bill that would limit discussion of sexual orientation in public schools.

Rep. Zachary Wyatt, a 27-year-old cattle farmer from the rural northern Missouri town of Novinger, said the legislation had motivated him to disclose his sexual orientation publicly for the first time. Wyatt was joined by nine other Democratic and Republican lawmakers in denouncing Missouri legislation that would prohibit teaching, extracurricular activities or materials that discuss sexual orientation, unless they relate to the scientific facts about human reproduction.

“I will not lie to myself anymore about my own sexuality,” Wyatt said during a news conference at the state Capitol. “I am still the same person that I was when I woke up this morning and I will be the same person when I go to bed tonight. Today I ask you to stand with me as a proud Republican, a proud veteran and a proud gay man who wants to protect all kids addressing bullying in our schools.”

Wyatt is not running for re-election in Missouri, because he plans to move to Hawaii and study marine biology.

A spokesman for the Gay and Lesbian Victory Fund, a national group that backs gay, lesbian, bisexual and transsexual candidate, said Wyatt is the only openly gay Republican in the nation who is currently serving in a state legislature. Other gay Republicans have served in state legislatures in the past. Two other members of the Missouri House, both Democrats from urban areas, are openly homosexual. One Democratic Missouri state senator is also openly lesbian.

‘Don’t Say Gay Bill’ To Die With Adjournment of 107th

Brett

http://blogs.knoxnews.com/humphrey/2012/04/dont-say-gay-bill-to-die-with.html

The so-called “Don’t Say Gay bill,” which perhaps brought more national attention for the Tennessee Legislature than any other piece of legislation, will not be put to a final vote needed for passage, the measure’s House sponsor said Sunday.

The decision by Rep. Joey Hensley, R-Hohenwald, means that SB49 will die with the adjournment of the 107th General Assembly. Legislative leaders hope that will be today.

Hensley said the officials of the Department of Education and the state Board of Education have pledged to send a letter to all Tennessee schools “telling them they cannot teach this subject in grades kindergarten through eight.”

“With that assurance and the opposition of some people who didn’t want to vote on it, I’ve decided simply not to bring it up,” said Hensley.

The bill passed the Senate last year and recently won approval in modified form from the House Education Committee on an 8-7 vote. It needed only the approval of the Calendar Committee, usually a routine matter, to be set for a floor vote.

Montana Candidate for U.S. Congress Airs Marriage Equality Campaign Ad

Brett

http://www.lgbtqnation.com/2012/04/montana-candidate-for-u-s-congress-airs-marriage-equality-campaign-ad/

MISSOULA, Mont. — Montana Congressional Candidate Dave Strohmaier, who is running as a progressive Democrat for Montana’s single seat in the U.S. House of Representatives, has released his first political commercial, a groundbreaking campaign ad that endorses marriage equality.

Strohmaier, a straight ally who is married and the father of two children, received the ACLU’s Jeannette Rankin Award and the Montana Human Rights Network Walt Brown Award for his work and co-sponsorship of Missoula’s 2010 non-discrimination ordinance, the first, and still only, non-discrimination ordinance in the state of Montana that prohibits discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation, gender identity, and gender expression.

The Braiser, A Site for Coverage of Celebrity Chefs

Brett

As Dan Abrams interviewed editor candidates for his next Web site start-up, one of his questions must have stood out. “What’s your favorite celebrity chef feud?”

Mr. Abrams wanted experts for his newest site, The Braiser, which will go online in mid-May and will cover chefs who have cultivated worldwide reputations.

The Braiser will be the latest Web site in a flourishing space — foodie media — and will also be the latest expansion for Mr. Abrams, the television analyst and lawyer who has been creating niche Web sites for the last three years. His best known site, Mediaite, covers the media industry where it intersects with politics; others cover technology news, fashion, women in business, and women who follow technology.

“What will distinguish The Braiser from Day 1,” Mr. Abrams said, “is that it’s in an underpopulated yet very attractive space for particular advertisers.”

In the chase for brand advertising dollars, his company, called Abrams Media Network, is joined by networks like the Sugar Network and Business Insider. Mr. Abrams’s recipe for a new site starts with a topic like celebrity chefs. He then hires a few writers and editors to collect the Web’s best material and create original pieces about the topic, with an emphasis on boldface names. In Mediaite’s case, that would be people like Bill O’Reilly and Keith Olbermann, the names that stand out in headlines and stir up page views.

New TV Channels Load Web

Brett

http://www.crainsnewyork.com/article/20120429/MEDIA_ENTERTAINMENT/304299979

Dancing cats never got a reception like this.

On Wednesday evening at the Beacon Theater, a thousand advertising and marketing executives will gather for what looks to be a watershed event: the coming-out party for YouTube’s 90 or so new channels a year after the world’s largest video platform announced it would spend $100 million on original content.

Collectively, the channels represent the Google division’s challenge to cable and broadcast’s reign over the television kingdom, and it doesn’t matter that the world at large may never have heard of CafeMom or The Nerdist Channel. A change is taking place in Web television, and for New York producers, who are working territory more commonly associated with San Francisco or Los Angeles, the channels have opened a new frontier.

Wednesday’s event will be the culmination of a first-time, two-week event called the Digital Content NewFronts—a digital version of the upfront presentations television networks have long held for advertisers every spring. Six Web giants, including Hulu, AOL and Google, have been the hosts.

Web video has a long way to go before it’s even approaching the $60 billion in advertising that mainstream television attracts annually. Research firm eMarketer is forecasting 40% growth in online video ad spending in 2012, to $3.1 billion. But some in the industry now see the kind of opportunities that led to the launches of MTV and USA Network in New York three decades ago.

NY State Assembly Passes Transgender Rights Bill

Brett

http://www.advocate.com/society/transgendered/2012/04/30/ny-state-assembly-passes-transgender-rights-bill

The New York Assembly keeps approving the bill, for the latest time on Monday, while the Senate lets it stall.

The New York State Assembly today passed a bill banning discrimination based on gender identity and expression, but its prospects in the Senate are uncertain.

This is the fifth time the Assembly has passed the Gender Expression Non-Discrimination Act, according to the Empire State Pride Agenda, the statewide LGBT rights group. However, it has stalled in the Senate every time.

The bill passed the Assembly with broad bipartisan support, Pride Agenda reports. The chamber “has consistently set an example on transgender rights, and today is no exception,” said Lynn A. Faria, Pride Agenda’s interim executive director, in a press release. “Now it is time for the State Senate to remedy the patchwork of protections that cover transgender people in localities and counties across the state and pass this statewide law.”

Forget Recipes, Food52 Wants to Crowdsource Cooking Itself

Brett

Forget recipes, Food52 wants to crowdsource cooking itself

When Amanda Hesser and Merrill Stubbs founded Food52 in 2009 they were looking for a way to create the world’s first crowdsourced cookbook. After 52 weeks (hence the name) of online recipe contests, they had the 140 dishes needed for their cookbook, but they also discovered they had inadvertently created a community of passionate home and professional cooks, all willing to share their recipes and their culinary wisdom.

Since then Food52 has become a premier destination for community-vetted recipes online, but its founders have grown even more ambitious. Hesser and Stubbs want to crowdsource how we actually cook.

In a recent interview with GigaOM, Hesser laid out how Food52 plans to become a central clearinghouse for cooking questions and food knowledge throughout the Web — sort of a Quora or Yahoo Answers for food. The idea is that anytime a cook has a question about a specific recipe, technique or general cooking topic, he or she would be able to ask that question from any cooking website – or from a mobile app or social media site – and get an answer within minutes.

Start-Ups Look to the Crowd

Brett

When Eric Migicovsky, an engineer, wanted to develop a line of wristwatches that could display information from an iPhone — like caller ID and text messages — he went the traditional route of asking venture capitalists to finance his company.

But he couldn’t even get a foot in the door, let alone secure any money for what he called the Pebble watch.

So he turned to Kickstarter, a site where ordinary people back creative projects. Backers could pledge $99 and were promised a Pebble watch in return.

 

On Our Radar-Out on the Street: LGBT Friends In High Places

Brett

http://thenewcivilrightsmovement.com/on-our-radar-out-on-the-street-lgbt-friends-in-high-places/politics/2012/04/29/38665

Out On The Street may be the most important LGBT professional organization you have never heard of. This week they hold their second annual summit. Why that gathering could mean good news for the gay agenda, is On Our Radar.

Someday, someone will write a book recounting the behind-the-scenes intrigue in 2011, as New York Governor Andrew Cuomo maneuvered to get a marriage equality bill passed by the same state senators who had rejected it in 2009. Governor Cuomo may not be gay, but he will forever be a hero in gay history.

The governor began by learning as much as he could about each and every senator who had voted “no” the first time around. He knew which senator had a wife with a beloved gay relative. Which senator might be receptive to the personal stories of gay couples who longed to marry. Which senator would base his decision solely on the level of response he received from his own constituents, and which one only considered the statewide polls. Governor Cuomo is said to have watched and rewatched videotape of the first unsuccessful vote on marriage equality, studying the facial expressions of the “no” votes to see which members looked unhappy or not decisive when they cast it, and then reached out to form personal relationships with them. There were dozens of phone calls, meetings at his office and meals at the governor’s mansion. “I am more of an asset than the vote will be a liability.” He told the senators. “I will help you.”

Next, Cuomo persuaded the same-sex marriage advocates to change their tactics. During the first vote, when Cuomo was serving as Attorney General, there had been five different advocacy groups, all giving him contradictory advice on whom to lobby and what tack to take. Cuomo united them into a single group with a new name, New Yorkers United For Marriage, and a new hand-picked leader, Jennifer Cunningham, while promising to remain personally involved in directing their efforts.

Ordinance Would Add Protection For Gay, Transgender Citizens

Brett

http://www.news-leader.com/article/20120429/NEWS06/304290030/springfield-city-council-human-rights-council-gay-lesbian-bisexual-transgender-rights

Given a choice, Josh Castillo would prefer his life to be considered unremarkable.

“I’m a fairly average guy. I live in a middle-class neighborhood, I have a mortgage, a son … I run and go fishing,” said Castillo, a hospital social worker. “If I didn’t tell you I was transgendered, you wouldn’t know.”

Castillo, 40, was born female. As a woman Castillo served in the military, married, had a child and divorced. He transitioned to living as a man about five years ago, went through sex reassignment surgery and changed his name.

“I was fortunate because I did pass very easily” after starting hormone treatment, Castillo said. Even so, “there was a long period of time when I wouldn’t use a public bathroom at all … (out of fear) that someone’s gonna say, ‘You’re not supposed to be here.’”

Restrooms — and determining who uses which ones — have been a focal point of discussion as City Council considers adding protections for transgendered residents to the city’s non-discrimination ordinances.

The changes, endorsed by the Mayor’s Commission on Human Rights and Community Relations, would make it illegal to deny someone a job, housing or public services based on sexual orientation or gender identity.

State and federal law don’t explicitly offer such protection, supporters say, although recent policy changes and legal interpretations at the federal level are heading in that direction.

An April 20 opinion from the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission, for example, ruled that discrimination based on a person’s transgender status runs afoul of Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, which prohibits discrimination based on sex.

Supporters say more comprehensive protection is needed.

“I don’t want special treatment because I’m transgendered … but it’s not OK to fire me just for that,” Castillo said. “I’m not a second-class citizen.”