Feb
23
Back at the beginning of February I became amused by the swirling controversy after the Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC) accepted a sponsorship and participation from GOProud, a Log Cabin Republicans splinter group for LGBT Republicans and conservatives. Some folks praised CPAC’s inclusion of the group. Others, like Liberty University’s Law School, condemned it. In fact, Liberty Law pulled out of the CPAC event altogether, deciding instead to host their own two day conference/symposium in Lynchburg, Va.
Liberty’s legal symposium — entitled “Homosexual Rights and First Amendment Freedoms: Can They Truly Coexist?” — featured speakers such as ex-gay leader Alan Chambers of Exodus International; Julie Harren-Hamilton, president of the so-called National Association for the Research and Therapy of Homosexuals; rabidly anti-gay “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” defender Elaine Donnelly and a host of academics and scholars from Liberty University and other right-wing “schools.”
All of this didn’t really surprise me. Liberty’s decision to pull out of the conference was just par for the course. But, I kept thinking as the news rolled out that these gay Republicans, trying so desperately to fit in where they aren’t wanted (dead or alive), was just kind of sad. Get the whole story »
Feb
15
On February 9, the Asheville City Council voted 4-2 to begin a study of the costs and implementation of domestic partner benefits for LGBT city employees and their partners. Their move last week is quite similar to Mecklenburg County Commissioners’ strategy when first looking into the same issue back in January 2009. After a year of research, Mecklenburg officials voted in December to extend domestic partner benefits.
Of course, Mecklenburg’s decision didn’t come without the obligatory controversy from resident board conservative, Bill James. His “homo” remarks to fellow Commissioner Vilma Leake spawned calls for some sort of disciplinary action. Regardless, the benefits succeeded and will be offered starting in 2011.
Get the whole story »
Feb
03
There is a fifth dimension beyond that which is known to man it is a dimension as vast as space and as timeless as infinity it is the middle ground between light and shadow between science and superstition and it lies between the pit of man’s fears and the summit of his knowledge this is the dimension of imagination it is an area which we call- the Twilight Zone.
And for many, although not all, LGBT Republicans, that’s exactly where they find themselves.
DC Agenda’s Chris Johnson reports today on further developments with GOProud’s sponsorship of the Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC). GOProud, an offshoot of the more LGBT-focused Log Cabin Republicans, has come under fire by conservative activists and organizations for their involvement in and co-sponsorship of the event, which takes place this month in Washington, D.C. When calls for CPAC to rescind the GOProud co-sponsorship were ignored, the late Jerry Falwell’s Liberty University’s Law School announced it would boycott the conference. Get the whole story »
Jan
09
If the LGBT community ever hopes to win equality on issues such as marriage, we will have to start facing the issue of religion and using to our advantage.
That’s the gist of what I wrote back in November on Bilerico.com, in a post entitled, “For marriage victories, we must face and use religion.”
For a lot of LGBT folks, religion is sticky issue. We’ve spent years of our own lives reconciling ourselves with the faith of our childhoods. Many of our churches, synogogues, and other spaces of worship have rejected us and hurt us deeply. Our relationships with the divine have been repeatedly torn to shreds, and we have been the ones left to patch the quilt back up.
As a movement, we’ve spent years insisting on a separation of church and state. We’ve repeated time-and-time again that personal religious views should not be used to keep us from equality.
We’ve lost 31 times in a row. Get the whole story »
Jan
01
Another year has come and gone. Since I began blogging, first on Blogger, then my own hosted blog and then here at InterstateQ.com, I’ve always done a year-end recap of my biggest stories of the year.
This year’s rewind is kind of sad, to be honest with you. As the economy continued to falter and challenges mounted up for print media across the nation, we felt our own sting at my day job. My friends and fellow staff at QNotes managed to hold our own, but responsibilities there led to a decline in my frequency of writing here.
Regardless, I managed to pull off some good stories here although many weren’t the “breaking news” I used to publish before I made the leap from blogger to “traditional media” gig.
So, in a way it was the “year that wasn’t” here at InterstateQ.com. Regardless, catch my Best of 2009 after the jump…
(P.S. — Be sure to check out my “The defining decade of my youth” at Bilerico Project.)
Get the whole story »
Dec
12
Dr. Michael Brown, founder of several Charlotte-area ministries including the activist Coalition of Conscience, says he has “serious concerns” about the anti-gay Ugandan law that would punish homosexuality by death.
His statement was emailed to me as I was writing an article on the subject for Q-Notes. Despite his “concern,” his statement falls far short of a outright condemnation of the law. More below the fold…
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Dec
10
North Carolina state Sen. David Hoyle (D-Gaston) announced Dec. 9 he’d step down at the end of his term in 2010. Hoyle, chairman of the Senate’s Finance Committee, had been considered the third most powerful member of the Senate’s leadership, after President Pro Tempore Marc Basnight and former Majority Leader Tony Rand.
One advocate thinks the senator’s consistent, conservative social views might have played a key role in the body’s slow progress on pro-equality issues.
Get the whole story »
Dec
10
County commissioners in the sleepy, liberal town of Asheville, N.C., have made a “consensus” decision to end public prayer at their meetings.
The Buncombe County Board of Commissioners are set to bring the topic up for official discussion on Jan. 5. They’ll likely vote to stop opening board meetings with prayer. The move comes after a federal magistrate recommended a similar public prayer policy in Winston-Salem, N.C., violated the the First Amendment.
Get the whole story »
Dec
09
Freedom to Marry, a national advocacy and education organization on marriage equality issues, is saluting North Carolina’s Triad Equality Alliance for their media advocacy efforts. The organization has funded several LGBT awareness building billboards in Greensboro and Winston-Salem.
Freedom to Marry writes:
Freedom to Marry salutes the Triad Equality Alliance for their brilliant work in delivering effective messages to their North Carolina community that have put a face and personal spin on the marriage equality debate!
[Disclosure: I've appeared on two billboards for the organization.]
Dec
09
Former N.C. State Sen. Cal Cunningham, a Winston-Salem, N.C.-native living in nearby Davidson County, has announced his challenge to Republican U.S. Sen. Richard Burr, also of Winston-Salem.
Other than the interesting regional connection between the two pols and what that means for the continued East-to-West political shift in the Tar Heel State, I was also intrigued by a portion of Cunningham’s announcement. More below the fold…
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