Gay Soup - Gay Blog

In the wake of last night's passage of marriage equality in New York, Democracy for America and Senator Kirsten Gillibrand are looking to capitalize on the momentum by making a renewed online push to repeal the Defense of Marriage Act.

On Daily Kos and Pam's House Blend, and in an e-mail blast from Democracy for America, Gillibrand urged marriage equality supporters to sign a petition to repeal DOMA and share their own story about how the prohibitive law has impacted their life. The organization and senator have wasted no time in trying to take advantage of last night's huge step toward national progress. In her letter urging participation (larger excerpt after the jump), Gillibrand writes:

"Much like the historic vote last night in New York, it's going to take a lot of hard work and our collective grassroots advocacy. And I believe it's going to take telling more of the stories of those who experience the injustices of DOMA every day."

You can sign the petition to repeal DOMA and share your story here.

Continue reading "Gillibrand and Democracy for America Target DOMA Repeal"...

Here's something quick and easy you can do to make the world a little better. Please pass this on also.

I have started a petition on the Change.org web site asking the San Jose Sharks to do an It Gets Better video. Since the San Francisco Giants were the first professional team to make a video (way to go Sean Chapin), the Sharks can be the first National Hockey League team to produce a positive message in the United States and Canada.

A number of other baseball teams are committing to doing their own IGB videos including the New York Mets and Minnesota Twins. I am asking for a little help here to move a team that, I believe is willing to make this effort.

Please sign and share!

In a dramatic change of course, Seattle's Space Needle has announced that they will fly the Pride flag again this year during Seattle Pride Weekend, if the community can help them raise $50,000 for four organizations that support the lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender (LGBT) community. The news comes after 9,000 people signed a Change.org petition started by Seattle resident Josh Castle.

The Space Needle's $50,000 fundraising challenge will benefit four different organizations that support the LGBT community: the Greater Seattle Business Association (the GSBA) LGBT and allied scholarship fund; the It Gets Better Project, which supports the Trevor Project; Lambda Legal; and Mary's Place, a trans inclusive women's shelter in Seattle.

On June 3, the Space Needle told Seattle's LGBT community they would not fly the Pride flag again as the organization did last year for the first time. Lifetime Seattle resident Josh Castle wanted to urge the Space Needle to change their mind, so he started a petition asking the Space Needle to, "Please raise the Pride flag during Seattle Pride weekend."

Continue reading "Space Needle: If Community Raises $50k We'll Raise the Pride Flag"...

Many communities of color contend with the double challenge of integrating their queerness with their ethnicity and cultural heritage. Often times, many communities of color perceive queerness as being a primarily white phenomenon, and that any examples within their own communities are examples of cultural penetration by dominant western society. This occurs markedly so in Asian American & Pacific Islander communities which navigate a complicated relationship with issues like immigration, westernization, assimilation, and maintaining cultural identity.

It is often misperceived by the prevailing discourse in the media regarding people of color and LGBT & queer issues that people of color are more homophobic than white folk, or that parents who are black, brown, and yellow are more likely to have a negative reaction to their children coming out than white parents. The Asian Pride Project seeks to dispel this myth by documenting the stories of LGBT AAPI folk and their families.

Through community building and organizing, The Asian Pride Project empowers the parents, family, and friend of LGBT AAPIs to speak publicly about their journeys to acceptance as a model that other AAPI families and friends can look to when their own family member comes out.

Currently, the Asian Pride Project is competing for a grant from Verizon to support their efforts in documenting these precious and uplifting stories. If you would like to help The Asian Pride Project, go to this video and follow the instructions below:

Continue reading "The Asian Pride Project Needs Your Help"...

Texas law allows transsexual and intersex individuals to get married upon the presentation of a court order recognizing sex reassignment.

This change honors the self-identification rather than basing access to marriage licenses on sex assigned at birth. The Texas Senate is considering Senate Bill 723 to prevent district clerks from accepting the court order recognizing a sex change.

At the same time, Texas resident Nikki Araguz is enmeshed in a horrific lawsuit after the tragic death of her beloved husband, Thomas, a firefighter, who perished while fighting a fire a little under a year ago. Thomas's family is seeking to declare that their marriage was void and that she is not a woman, because she was born with an intersex condition known as Androgen Insensitivity Syndrome, and had surgery to correct that condition and corrected her birth certificate to reassign her sex as female. Of course, the motivation is money -- Thomas's ex-wife wants his survivor's benefits.

SB 723 appears to be a mean-spirited attempt by Texas Senator Tommy Williams aimed straight at Nikki's heart.

The bill was thought to be sidelined for the year, but it appears there is a last-minute attempt to sneak it through. Don't let it happen!

If you're from Texas, you should call your legislator now and ask that they vote no on SB 723. More info, and a trailer from the documentary "Courting Nikki," after the jump.

Continue reading "Action Alert: Texas Legislature Mulls Voiding Marriages, And One In Particular"...

This past March 8th, at the onset of our Florida's legislative session, thousands of Floridians rallied on street corners throughout the state, in 31 cities, to send Florida's state legislature a strong message. It was a warning to lawmakers that Floridians were dead set against the harmful conservative Tea Party agenda Republicans had in store that would drag us back to the Jim Crow era, punish the poor and working middle class and generations to follow.

As you may recall, other fair-minded, hardworking, tax-paying residents of other states across the country also rallied against a similar evil political agenda in their own state. Perhaps the nation's most memorable rallying cry was in Wisconsin where Republicans ordered the Capitol Building to be shut down while Americans were horrified and watched arrogant lawmakers ignored the will of the people.

I had the pleasure to not only participate in the Fort Lauderdale Awake the State rally on March 8, but with my bullhorns (yes plural), I helped lead demonstrators in chants and worked with law enforcement to assure that the near one thousand people gathered in Fort Lauderdale remained peaceful. Among the highlights was when I took immense pleasure to have the police remove belligerent and pigheaded Tea Baggers who infiltrated our designated area.

After the jump, read about the upcoming May 10 rally and watch a video of the March 8 rally.

Continue reading "Florida: Awake the State Again on May 10"...

The right wing is so threatened by the existence of gay people that they are trying to make it illegal to mention us in school in Tennessee.

According to Change.org

On Wednesday, April 13, State Senator Stacey Campfield will introduce his "Don't Say Gay" bill (SB049) to the Senate Education Committee. As introduced, the bill requires that "no public elementary or middle school shall provide any instruction or material that discusses sexual orientation other than heterosexuality. "

This bill would tie the hands of school counselors, school psychologists, teachers, principals and other school employees in protecting our children. If a child is experiencing issues relating to their sexual orientation or identity, they would be unable to discuss those issues with the adults who are supervising and teaching them. Early detection of the signs of depression can help prevent suicides among lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender youth.

As a board member for the Greater Seattle Business Association (GSBA), it is my pleasure and honor to interview candidates for our annual scholarship program to recognize LGBT and allied leaders. Students arrive in the Seattle region from all over the country. Their stories of survival our gut wrenching.

Continue reading "Stop the Don't Say "Gay" Bill "...

The right wing is so threatened by the existence of gay people that they are trying to make it illegal to mention us in school in Tennessee.

According to Change.org

On Wednesday, April 13, State Senator Stacey Campfield will introduce his "Don't Say Gay" bill (SB049) to the Senate Education Committee. As introduced, the bill requires that "no public elementary or middle school shall provide any instruction or material that discusses sexual orientation other than heterosexuality. "

This bill would tie the hands of school counselors, school psychologists, teachers, principals and other school employees in protecting our children. If a child is experiencing issues relating to their sexual orientation or identity, they would be unable to discuss those issues with the adults who are supervising and teaching them. Early detection of the signs of depression can help prevent suicides among lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender youth.

As a board member for the Greater Seattle Business Association (GSBA), it is my pleasure and honor to interview candidates for our annual scholarship program to recognize LGBT and allied leaders. Students arrive in the Seattle region from all over the country. Their stories of survival our gut wrenching.

Continue reading "Stop the Don't Say "Gay" Bill "...