"Legalize Gay. Repeal Prop 8." We've all seen it. American Apparel has made sure of that. Their brightly-colored T-shirts emblazoned with an amazingly simple yet strongly impactful slogan have been passed out to thousands at LGBT Pride festivals and other events the nation over. The slogan has even made its way into print on tank tops, string tops and underwear (panties and thongs included).

Now, in response to a perceived lack of full inclusion, a transgender activist who's worked on several LGBT equality projects is taking matters into his own hands and creating the "Legalize Trans" campaign.

Continue reading "'Legalize Trans' campaign takes on American Apparel, gender equality issues" »

Editors' Note: Guest blogger Rev. Rick Elliott has been a minister since June 1973 and has frequently handled the overflow of weddings from a university chapel. He has received an M/Div from Austin Presbyterian Theological Seminary, and did five-sixths of a D.Min at Perkins School of Divinity (SMU).

A rich word has been misappropriated and nobody seems to care, much less challenge the wrong usage. Evangelical is a beautiful word, full of meaning: it refers to good news, spreaders of good news. It comes from the Greek word Euangelion--good news. In Old English it's Godspell--or gospel.

Some may wonder if I'm playing semantic games: getting worked up about the misuse of some Greek word that most folks wouldn't have any notion where the word came from, much less see that a good word is being manipulated by folks to put a nice face on their activities and make them feel all pious about themselves.

You got me pegged! To me it's personal.

Look at the group who has glommed onto the word to identify themselves. Are the following behaviors examples of good news:

Continue reading "When Does Good News Become Bad News?" »

I write to you who are still ambivalent about the issue raised by Judge Walker's repeal of Proposition 8 in California: is it a sin to support the marriage of two people of the same sex? Let me explain why I believe it is my call as a Christian to support marriage equality.

I study the Bible with the understanding that not all things in it are equal. Every Christian is a "selective" Christian; that is, we all choose which parts of the Bible we will embrace. Even those who claim to take the Bible literally do not stone to death those found guilty of blasphemy or adultery. We must be selective because not all of the warnings and exhortations of the Bible apply to today's world in a modern context.

Our interpretation of the Bible has changed with improved scholarship of translation. New insights into ancient languages and the people who used them have given us a better understanding of the writers' intent. The word "abomination" used in the King James Version conveys a deep sense of moral transgression in English that does not exist in the original Hebrew words used in Leviticus. Those words are more fittingly defined as "ritual taboo" or "moral offense." The term Paul created in 1 Corinthians was employing a stem word that meant "shrine prostitution" for centuries before and after 1 Corinthians was written. The word "homosexual" was coined in 1896 by a social scientist and included in a Bible for the first time in 1947. Languages change and so do meanings. We must be careful to employ context when translating.

Continue reading "An Open Letter To My Fellow Straight Christians About Marriage Equality" »

The airwaves (and the print and blog waves, for that matter) are filled with the news that a federal judge in California has declared that state's Proposition 8 to be unconstitutional, which could clear the way for the resumption of same-sex weddings in the State.

Ordinarily, this would be the point where I would present to you a walkthrough of the ruling, and we'd have a fine conversation about the legal implications of what has happened.

I'm not doing that today, frankly, because the ground is already well-covered; instead, we're going to take a look at some of the tactics that were used to pass Prop 8, as they were presented in Judge Vaughn's opinion.

It's an ugly story--and even more than that, it's a reminder of why it's tough to advance civil rights through the political process, and what you have to deal with when you're trying to make such a thing happen.

Continue reading "On Organized Fearmongering Revealed, Or, "Lock Up The Kids...It's The Gay!"" »

This is a great video that I saw when I was reading my daily headline email yesterday from the New York Times, that posted a video (with no embed code!?) found on bloggingheads.tv

Of course I had to immediately tweet and FB it, and recommend it via my TimesPeople network, and blog it here, of course.

Anyway, the concept of information obesity is an analogy made in the video to the idea that our bodies evolved in a time of food scarcity, so we want to eat as much as we can whenever we can find it. Their idea is that we also evolved at a time of information scarcity, so we want to consume as much data as we can find, which is why some of us are constantly twittering, facebooking, phoning, blogging and foursquaring or whatever, even when walking down the street, driving, or chatting up romantic partners.

They don't pose any solution; in fact, they seem to like it.

So do I.

How does that go? Admitted we were powerless over data? That our lives were unmanageable?

Continue reading "Information Obesity" »

Yesterday marked another sad anniversary.

It was the 15th anniversary of the death of Tyra Hunter on August 7, 1995 at the hands of Washington DC transphobes.

Transphobes who sadly held the titles of doctor, nurse and emergency medical technician.

While her mother Margie Hunter eventually won a multimillion dollar settlement for EMT Adrian Williams' reprehensible actions at the corner of 50th and C Streets in Southeast DC, I'd wager she'd be willing to give up every penny to have her child back.

Unfortunately the lack of medical treatment and medical transphobia that prematurely ended Tyra's life is still being experienced by transpeople 15 years later.

Continue reading "Tyra Hunter Medical Transphobia Death 15th Anniversary " »

On this week's Same Sex Sunday, I start off the episode with an interview of Congressmen Jim McDermott (D-WA). We discuss the holdup of the Employment Non Discrimination Act (ENDA) in the House, Citizens United, how to end the war in Afghanistan and much more.

Phil Reese and I also interview David Fleischer about his new study that, "changed everything we know about Proposition 8."

The American Federation for Equal Rights is funding Perry vs Schwarzenegger for the Plaintiffs. Spokesperson Yusef Robb shares an exclusive update about the case after last week's historic federal court ruling overturning Proposition 8.

And finally, the Same Sex Sunday round table returns when Courage Campaign's Rick Jacobs, journalist and LGBT POV blogger Karen Ocamb, California grassroots activist Sara Beth Brooks, Metro Weekly Senior Political Writer Chris Geidner, and GayPatriot.net blogger Bruce Carroll, debate and analyze the historic week.

You can subscribe to SameSexSunday on iTunes or join our Facebook page. Listen to this week's episode after the jump.

Continue reading "#SSS: Rep. Jim McDermott, David Fleisher's Prop 8 Study, Prop 8 Ruling" »

While the Prop 8 decision overwhelmed this week's LGBT news, there were plenty of other great queer posts on Bilerico Project this week. Here are a couple from each day:

Sunday

Monday

Tuesday

Wednesday

Thursday

Friday

• Subscribe to the Bilerico Project Report to get all of the previous day's posts sent to you every night at midnight Eastern time.
• Follow Bilerico Project on Twitter for links to new posts, breaking news and contest opportunities.
• Subscribe to the Bilerico Project RSS feed to read posts via a feedreader like Google Reader or Bloglines, or include the feed in a customized homepage like My Yahoo! or iGoogle.
• Want to read a faster version of TBP on your phone? We have a mobile version!

From Emma Goldman's 1911 essay Marriage and Love:

Love, the strongest and deepest element in all life, the harbinger of hope, of joy, of ecstasy; love, the defier of all laws, of all conventions; love, the freest, the most powerful moulder of human destiny; how can such an all-compelling force be synonymous with that poor little State and Church-begotten weed, marriage?

Just a friendly reminder that queer and feminist critiques of marriage are nothing new and those of us presently critiquing gay marriage will not succumb to historical amnesia or the seductive promises of neoliberalism.

Continue reading "Marriage: A Poor Little State and Church-Beggoten Weed" »

Ann Coulter probably isn't as anti-gay as she pretends. After all, we all know that sensationalism makes lots of money. Look at Madonna. Look at Gaga. Look at Liberace.

Regardless, however, the woman who throws around "fag" like I throw around "um" and "like" on SameSexSunday is not exactly someone who I would consider as an honored guest for an LGBT fundraiser. Enter constant contrarians, GOProud, stage right.

GOProud is throwing their coming out party, HOMOCON (as in homosexual conservatives, so, you know, transgender and bisexual not included) on September 25--apparently somewhere in New York City, but the location is unspecified (witness protection?). And their keynote? None other than the tallest blondest jack ass in the world, Ann Coulter! It only costs $250 a plate to get into this three-ringed circus.

Joe and I are expecting to discuss this and more with Bruce Carroll of GOProud on SameSexSunday this week.

Continue reading "You flippin kidding me? GOProud books Ann Coulter for party" »

As regular readers know, my happy little niche here on Bilerico is to share some of the buried or obscure images I dig up as I research all aspects of sex all over the Internet. Not sure if you know much about me, but my professional life is devoted to sex research, writing books/articles, and therapy (my bread and butter). Meaning that, in fact, I'm a super opinionated, passionate advocate of sexual freedoms.

As one of the few hets to blog on Bilerico, I thought my beloved readers here ought to know just how I really feel about it. So I'm stepping out of my "photo lady" role for a moment to share what I recently posted on my personal blog about the reversal of Prop 8, after the jump. (Suffice it to say the irresistibly adorable image below is as G-rated as it got on my blog.)

Continue reading "A het lady on marriage equality" »

As I pointed out last week, activism that focuses on the relationship between consumers and brands, that depends on personal lifestyle changes instead of government action, won't accomplish any major goals. I don't say that because I want to stop people from engaging in boycotts and letter writing campaigns and demos in front of stores, but because we should be clear that those tactics aren't enough.

Looking specifically at Target's donation to MN Forward, some of the inadequacies are already apparent. If Tom Emmer were gay-friendly, would people be protesting? Why are people less mad at Best Buy, which donated $100K to MN Forward, but not mad at all at Polaris and Securian, which also donated? Why are corporations like the Red Wing Shoe Company and Cold Spring Granite still donating to MN Forward, even after watching all this outcry against Target? And how long can this last if every corporation gets the blood of rightwing donations on its hands?

In a few years, these sorts of donations will be normalized. And the consulting industry (of course) is already creating PR solutions to Target's woes so future brands:

Continue reading "Lesson learned: Target's problem was public relations, not the donation itself" »