I announced yesterday afternoon that Jerame has taken a job with the National Stonewall Democrats and that means there will be some big changes in our lives. The biggest change for both of us is that we'll be moving out of state. We're leaving Indiana.

Dozens of you have e-mailed since that post went live asking what the big move will mean for Bilerico Project. One of our selling points has always been that we're not a blog from the East Coast or West Coast. We're based out of Indiana and, while we have contributors from all over the world, the site has kept its Midwestern common sense and pragmatism.

While there will obviously be some changes soon - including our about-to-launch redesign - put together all of the transformations will result in a much better site. Thankfully, my job can go anywhere and being able to be where the action is will be a big plus. It'll help with some of the more personal connections that only happen at conventions or by flying around the country currently.

One thing that won't change though is my criticism of the Democratic Party. More on that after the jump...

Continue reading "Leaving Indiana: What does it mean for Bilerico?" »

In case you missed it, Republican leadership has completely gone off the deep end. I mean, completely.

From Texas's Congressmen Lou Gohmert (whose insanity brought us "terror babies." I swear they are real. There was one at brunch on Sunday who wouldn't stop screaming. No, I don't have evidence. Stop badgering me!) to Newt Gingrich's attack on the First Amendment. Gingrich has led some low IQ Americans into a frothy idiotic mess over a mosque in Manhattan that happens to be near the 9/11 wound on New York. Manhattan is a small Island. Everything on Manhattan is near the 9/11 memorial. (Even this NSFW link.)

President Obama, wisely and accurately, made a statement on Friday defending the First Amendment and the right for every American to practice the religion of his or her choosing.

What did Newt Gingrich do? He poured gasoline and lit a match.

Continue reading "Terror Babies, Mosques in Manhattan, and Gay Marriage" »

As I explained in my previous post, Judge Walker held that Prop 8 failed the easiest of constitutional tests, even though it perhaps deserved a much more difficult test.

In other words, he could have used a sledgehammer to test the Prop 8 brick, but he threw some jello at it and it collapsed. Which it deserved to do, because Prop 8 has no rational basis except for "we hate teh gayz," and that is not a "legitimate government interest."

Justices Scalia and Thomas, however, would definitely love to strike down Judge Walker's ruling with lighting and thunder. Not because they hate gays, but because they don't believe in using the Constitution's Due Process clause to invalidate laws unless it involves gun restrictions. They wouldn't use the jello test like Judge Walker does.

But there are nine justices on the Supreme Court. Five are needed for a majority. Do we have five?

Now, scientific studies show that there are 101 ways to eat jello. (That hilarious video after the jump.)

Our job is to figure out how each of the Supremes like their jello, and what that will mean for Judge Walker's opinion.

Continue reading "Which Supreme Court Justices Will Uphold Judge Walker's Ruling?" »

Last month, Facebook announced that the site has over 500 million users, making it the second largest site - Google is the first. According to Wikipedia, Twitter attracts over 190 million monthly users and according to BlogPulse there are over 126 million blogs in the blogosphere.

So what do all these numbers mean? Find out after the jump but first, watch this video on the State of the Internet by Jess3.

Continue reading "A Quick Look at Social Media Usage by the LGBT Community" »

In the weeks leading up to the Proposition 8 trial, much was made in the media, blogs, and everyday conversations about the unlikely duo leading the legal challenge against the shameful California ballot measure that stripped marriage from same-sex couples.

The two, Ted Olson and David Boies, are an unlikely pairing on many levels.

They are political adversaries, and famously opposed each other in Bush v. Gore.

They are each high-powered and highly paid inside-the-beltway lawyers.

Ted is a long-time darling of the conservative movement, a former U.S. Solicitor General and a founder of the Federalist Society. David is a Democratic Party insider and an advisor to a number of key Democratic leaders.

And, finally, both are straight, and had no apparent prior interest or experience in lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender issues.

Continue reading "Ted and David's Most Excellent Adventure" »

At least until after the appeal hearing on December 6th, there will be no joy in Mudville--call off your Wednesday wedding plans, the 9th Circuit has just released this decision on the Defense's request for a stay of Judge Walker's decision in the Perry V Schwarzenegger case. Walker had previously set his stay to expire tomorrow.

"Filed order (EDWARD LEAVY, MICHAEL DALY HAWKINS and SIDNEY R. THOMAS) Appellants' motion for a stay of the district court's order of August 4, 2010 pending appeal is GRANTED. The court sua sponte orders that this appeal be expedited pursuant to Federal Rule of Appellate Procedure 2. The provisions of Ninth Circuit Rule 31-2.2(a) (pertaining to grants of time extensions) shall not apply to this appeal. This appeal shall be calendared during the week of December 6, 2010, at The James R. Browning Courthouse in San Francisco, California..."

Thanks to Rex Wockner for getting the news out so quick!

Continue reading "9th Circuit stays Walker's Prop 8 decision" »

Quality sex education in public schools would go a long way to reducing homophobia in the US. Here's Exhibit A; he doesn't seem to know much about anything related to sex and I wonder if anyone ever tried to sit him down and explain the birds and the bees. Through the anger and weirdness in this video, what stands out is an underlying fear of sexuality itself that education could only ameliorate. At least he has an interest in the topic:

Now no one go and tell him about Lawrence. His poor head might just explode.

You really, really gotta feel for this kid. He's a Springer episode waiting to happen.

Continue reading "Tripp Palin!" »

The print ads for a South Florida Karate School featuring young boys doing stereotypically "feminine things" like wearing their mother's high heels or playing with make-up have been making their way around the internet this past week and causing lots of debate and anger. The ads seem to use gay panic and gender shaming to say that the cure for this "shocking" behavior and the best way to "man up" your obviously queer kid is to take karate classes to "straighten them out."

I spoke to the Zubi Ad Agency, whose motto is to "Erase Sterotypes", which created the ads to try and get clarification about the situation that led to these ads being made public and learned some interesting background. Here's the explantation from Joe Zubizarreta, the chief operating officer of Zubi Advertising:

The ads in question were posted by an individual that works at our agency on a site that creatives use to share ideas and get comments from others in their line of work.  The art director who developed them told me that he had posted this campaign as well as three others to get feedback from other creatives as to their opinions of the work. We want you to know that we don't condone this action and we are taking steps to make sure something like this never happens again. I apologize to you and anyone else that may have thought we knowingly allowed these ads to leave the agency. These ads were never produced nor would they have seen the light of day had they come across my desk. 

The creator of these ads is very apologetic and never intended to offend anyone however, we as the owners, understand that they can be considered offensive and would not under any circumstances have ever let them ever be produced.  Zubi Advertising embraces and celebrates all religions, lifestyles and ethnicities as part of our "Erase Stereotypes" philosophy. 

Much more after the jump, including information about the Karate School that the ads were created for...

Continue reading "Karate/Sissy Ad Update: A Teachable Moment in Stereotypes, Gender Roles, & Shaming" »

Steven Wayne Foster is almost a Native Floridian. Though he was born in Virginia in 1943, he moved with his family to Miami a year later and grew up in Miami Shores. Foster studied at Miami-Dade College and the University of Miami, where he received a Bachelor of Arts in English with a minor in History. Now retired, Foster lives in an apartment in Coral Gables that he first occupied in 1975, having lived through almost a century of South Florida gay history and culture.

When Foster was 17-years old and in high school, he discovered gay history. "I came across Sir Richard Francis Burton's translation of the Arabian Nights from 1880 which included a very long article about the history of homosexuality. But for many years I didn't know where else to look for it [gay history]. In 1969 I went to Washington, D.C.. I went to a newsstand and bought a copy of GAY, the Jack Nichols publication. I took the issue home with me and read an article by Dick Leitsch of New York Mattachine about gay history in which he said that nobody was writing about gay history and that there was a need for this. So I felt that if anybody was going to do it I should do it."

Continue reading "Steven Wayne Foster, Activist & Scholar" »

I wrote this piece a week before President Obama announced that we were pulling out of Iraq by the end of August. I am reminding myself that this is not the end of the war.

Today was a beautiful day. I pulled weeds from the garden and harvested more cucumbers. There is a pile of them in the refrigerator. I am thinking of making pickles this weekend. I've never done that before, make pickles. I bought the white vinegar at the store this afternoon and read the recipe twice. There's a war on right now.

In the afternoon I went with my eight-year-old daughter to our weaving class. We're learning some basic stitches. We started with plain weaving, three colors of stripes repeating one after another. Today we decided to switch it up a bit. We took one of the stripes and made it thicker at the side. Then we practiced curving it up, making it end in the middle of another color's space. It felt brave to try new stitches, our hands sweaty in the afternoon sun while the mosquitos bit us. And there's a war going on even this second.

Continue reading "When you're writing about war, there aren't any good headlines" »

A cute little video from Dean Spade, founder of the Sylvia Rivera Law Project, that really has us radicals laughing our little booties off! A great quick read of the gay marriage movement with some serious humor thrown in for good measure.