Gay Soup - Gay Blog

Tonight on the show it's gay activist and blogger John Aravosis. John is the editor of Americablog, one of the most popular progressive political news and commentary blogs on the Internet, as well as a consultant for progressive politicians and causes. We'll be talking with John about ENDA and other relevant LGBT issues, the Democratic Party and its relationship with the LGBT community, LGBT community media and its place in the overall movement for LGBT equality in America, and more!

While Aravosis has publicly said some pretty controversial things about the trans rights movement in the past, that's not where we'll be going tonight. Aravosis has a long history with the Democratic Party and its support and advocacy of LGBT-relevant political issues, and we'll be getting into how he sees the future of our movement on the political front and how LGBT - and especially trans - Americans can most effectively work on achieving our goals during the approach to the next election and beyond.

After the interview, we'll be taking your calls at 928-277-4921. Voice your opinion and your ideas on how we move forward in an era of unabashed Republican bigotry and inexcusable Democratic cowardice toward the goals of American LGBT and transgender equality.

(Tune-in info after the jump)

Continue reading "Tonight on The Rebecca Juro Show: John Aravosis"...

Last week, AdWeek featured the "50 Gayest Ads Ever," including a host of gay-themed commercials from around the world.

The introduction to the feature asked:

Why is it still so shocking to see gay people in mainstream ads? At a time when every other demographic is practically shoehorned into marketing for the sake of diversity, gays and lesbians are still all but invisible in the TV advertising landscape. But while you might not have seen many yourself, gay-themed TV ads are definitely out there.

Unfortunately, for the most part, gayness in TV commercials is used as a punchline. The AdWeek feature separates the commercials into several troubling categories: "Surprise! He/She is Gay!," "Lesbians Are Hot," "Don't Tell Mom," "Swings Both Ways," "Actually Straight," and "Activist."

In a minority of advertisements, gayness is portrayed as normal and ordinary, with little "wink-wink-nudge-nudge" reference to the characters' sexuality. My favorite of the ads, a 1995 U.K. spot produced by Ogilvy & Mather for Guinness that never made it to the airwaves because of anti-gay backlash, falls into this category.

Companies would do well to invest in more LGBT-themed advertising. According to a study by Echelon, LGBT people are more likely to consume products from companies they perceive to be LGBT-friendly. More importantly, of course, are companies that actually are LGBT-friendly. The Bilerico Project's look at the 20 most popular brands among LGBT people compared with the companies' ranking on the Human Rights Campaign's Corporate Equality Index shows that LGBT people generally seem to care about the corporation's actual policies on sexual minorities, too.

Continue reading "'Gayest Ads Ever' Still Cast Gayness as a Punchline"...

My friend and documentary photographer, Bill Kotsatos, has been active in the equality movement for the last few years. He has journaled the Washington, D.C. equality march in 2009, and led photo shoots for the Standing On The Side of Love campaign. He emailed me some photos that he'd taken at the 2011 New York City Pride Parade. On that lovely weekend, New York City felt truly alive. I hope these photos give you a chance to feel it too.

Click on the photo below to access Bill's photo stream from New York City's 2011 Pride Parade.

[Caption from Bill's site] New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo marches in the gay pride parade in New York on June 27, 2011. Earlier in the week, Cuomo announced passage of the Marriage Equality Act, granting same-sex couples the freedom to marry under the law, as well as hundreds of rights, benefits, and protections that have been limited to married couples of the opposite sex.

Photo: Bill Kotsatos/The Bilerico Project

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Yesterday the National Gay & Lesbian Journalists Association announced the winners of its 2011 Excellence in Journalism Awards. The entire list of winners is at the NLGJA's website.

Among the winners is The Bilerico Project founder Bil Browning. He's being recognized as a first-place winner in the Excellence in Online Journalism category for his coverage of Betsie Gallardo's story. Betsie was an HIV+ girl from Haiti who was adopted by Jessica Bussert, a transgender missionary, who also took in Betsie's sister. Betsie responded well to HIV treatments in the United States, and she blossomed into a beautiful young woman who danced ballet.

Bil's first story about Betsie describes the tragedy further:

Betsie moved to Florida recently and was in a car accident. When the emergency responders arrived, she flashed back to the horrendous abuse she suffered at the hands of that Haitian policeman and resisted arrest. She spit at a cop. The state of Florida sentenced her to five years in prison for battery on a police officer using spit as a deadly weapon - even though it isn't possible to transmit HIV through saliva.

Betsie has now been diagnosed with stage four cancer and is dying. After she didn't contact her family for over a week, her family traveled to Florida to check on her and discovered that doctors had discovered an inoperable bowel blockage. Betsie is unable to take in any food and is slowly starving to death in prison. The state has decided to refuse Betsie IV nutrition saying, "She's going to die sooner or later."

The Broward Correctional Institution warden has allowed her family to visit with her twice in the infirmary but was notified yesterday that there will be no more "special consideration." Since Betsie is too ill to have visitors during normal visiting hours, her family has been barred from seeing her. Their request to be at her bedside as she died was also denied.

After a childhood filled with misery at the hands of local authorities, the state of Florida has sentenced her to die alone and in pain for a "crime" that basic science proves spurious.

Continue reading "Congrats to Bil & Other 2011 NLGJA Award Winners "...

Earlier this month, I posted a blog that took a look at how social media was helping New York win marriage equality. As you know, we won, so I thought I would take a look at the final numbers of some of the hashtags that were used on Twitter for the marriage equality conversation.

In a piece written before the marriage equality vote, I noted that the hashtag #NY4M was tweeted over the course of one week 550 times, then the following week it was tweeted well over 6,000 times.

Now, let's look at how many times #NY4M was tweeted the days leading up to, during, and after the vote (Chart Below).

Continue reading "Twitter Hashtags that Promoted NY Marriage Equality"...

Who would have thought a Google Doodle could instigate such outrage in the LGBT community? This month, in honor of LGBT Pride month, the company decided to throw in a Pride-themed treat in its search engine. When users searched "gay," "lesbian," "bisexual," "transgender," "transsexual," "LGBT," "marriage equality," or other related terms, a rainbow popped up to the right of the search bar.

Critics have spoken out in the past week about Google's attempts to stuff away its Pride proclamation in the closet. The Atlantic called it "disappointing." The Daily Mail called it a "small gesture." And many other publications have questioned the company's Doodle decision. In 2009 the company did something similar with its Pride-related searches during June.

The primary concern is valid: That Google is restricting the profession of Pride to people who would be searching for those terms and would thus be more likely to be sympathetic to the LGBT community. But that concern isn't reason enough to write off Google as anti-gay.

Continue reading "Google's Pride Doodle Controversy "...

John Galliano, the Christian Dior designer caught on tape making anti-Semitic remarks, had his trial this week. Under the law he could face prison and a fine, but prosecutors are just seeking a fine:

Once beloved Dior designer John Galliano is facing a hefty fine of up to $32,000 for spewing anti-Semitic slurs in a Paris cafe, but no prison sentence is being sought. [...]

The 50-year-old designer is charged with "public insults based on origin, religious affiliation, race or ethnicity," a crime which can mean up to six months in prison and up to 22.500 euro ($32,175) in fines.

It's interesting to me that after two celebrity legal processes in the United States involving people famous in France - against Roman Polanski and Dominique Strauss-Kahn - and all I heard from the French elite about how the United States just loves to put people in prison who didn't really do anything (in the words of Jack Lang re Strauss-Kahn allegedly raping a woman, "It's not like a man was killed"), how it's proof that no one can do or say anything in the United States without being put in prison, etc.

I haven't seen any defense of Galliano coming from these corners recently. Perhaps Galliano just didn't have friends in the right places, or maybe hate speech is considered worse than rape.

Continue reading "Designer Prosecuted for Hate Speech in France"...

The New Republic has a story out on trans rights. It details the story of Caroline Temmermand, a transsexual woman, who recently transitioned. (That's not her on the cover, but Sam Berkley. Berkley is a plaintiff in a lawsuit against New York City, which requires sexual-reassignment surgery in order to change genders on a birth certificate.) As the author notes, the story evolved from a lead on speech therapy for trans women, and Ms. Temmermand was profiled last year in the GW student newspaper in a well-done article on that subject.

The New Republic, a magazine of politics and the arts, is generally considered liberal, though it is to the right of many progressives. Its readership is generally considered to be older, influential establishment liberal types, and so a story in The New Republic is going to reach a lot of people who don't read much about transgender or transsexual people.

The magazine hasn't discussed trans issues much, although there was a good article last year, Obama's Transgender Quota: One And Counting, about the crazy right wing response to the appointment of Amanda Simpson.

Continue reading "The New Republic Cover Story On Trans Rights"...

Too often the LGBT community is perceived to be purely white and male dominated, with little interest outside their plush ghetto silos. But as California-based, 30 year old journalist Jose Antonio Vargas illustrates in his moving revelation in the New York Times magazine, gays have a myriad of issues and concerns that intersect with all other communities. Vargas, for instance, now pursues immigration reform with Define America.

As a 12 year old, Vargas says, his mother bundled him up and brought him from the Philippines to Mountain View, California to start "a better life." In this story, he reveals that he is still an undocumented immigrant and a prime example of the young people meant to be helped by the Dream Act. "Tough as it was, coming out about being gay seemed less daunting than coming out about my legal status. I kept my other secret mostly hidden," Vargas says in the Times story, excerpted below. And here's Vargas on video:

Continue reading "Gay Journalist Jose Antonio Vargas Comes Out as Undocumented"...