Yesterday, I received an email missive from WGF Executive Director and Good-Friend-of Lesbians-Everywhere Heather Arnet about a topic near and dear to my heart ... Katie Couric's ascent to the CBS anchor seat. 

We caught her debute on Tuesday, missed Weds and saw Thursday and Friday.  Ledcat and I agree that she's doing a fine job and relish how powerful it is to see a woman in that position.  Its powerful (to me) that I take note of her outfit (where as I couldn't tell you what Bob Schieffer wore) only to completely forget about it when she starts doing her job.  Its powerful to me that there is a different dynamic than I am used to but that its a good and recognizable dynamic which fits my actual world experiences as a woman. 

I like it!

And Heather is hoping you like it, too.

It has been a revelation watching the news this week. As I have watched, I've found myself reflecting on how strange it is that this is the first time Americans are seeing a woman sitting solo in the anchor chair ? driving the show and delivering the world?s news to us. It makes me so proud that true social change like this can occur, but it also makes me so fearful to know that even major change like this is so easily undone. I remember when we had one woman on the Supreme Court?.and then two?and now we are back to one.  I remember when we got a woman president on the airwaves ? at least a fictionalized one ? and then they cancelled her too.

You'll remember the Women &Girls Foundation for the very high-profile Girlcott of Abercrombie & Fitch.  Katie was one of the first shows to bring national attention to the heroic efforts of our girls. Heather is now calling for women throughout Southwestern Pennsylvania to use those same tactics to support Katie and women everywhere.

1)       Let?s all commit to watching the CBS Evening News so that we can support Katie with the ratings she needs to stay on air.

2)       Please EMAIL the CBS Evening News to let them know that you are 100% in support of and totally impressed with CBS for making this gutsy move to finally have a woman in the anchor?s chair.

3)       Forward this email to a friend and ask her (or him) to do so as well.

Sometimes it is just as important to organize and support what is right as it is to demand change when something is wrong.

Thank you for your time and I hope you will join me in this effort!

Heather

You can forward a link to this post instead of the email or ask me and I'll send you the original email. 

This is a really simple thing to do.  We cannot afford to continue to just sit back and let the men in charge make decisions about women's lives.   Its important for women everywhere to have Katie Couric on the air and its important than we take a few moments to voice that opinion. 

Please, just do it.

Stunned is the lesbian to realize this slipped under blogging radars ..

From RawStory comes the startling fact that Karl Rove's father (stepfather to be technical but KR called him "Dad") was an openly gay man until his death.  This comes from a new book Karl Rove:  The Architect and the Master Plan for Absolute Power.  Rove has spoken movingly of his father. 

So your DAD is gay, you still love and value him and yet you make his community public enemy #1 in your relentless pursuit of power?  What the hell is that about?

In other news .... Ellen DeGeneres, openly lesbian comedian, will host the 2007 Oscars.  I liked John Stewart, but kudos to Ellen.  I just wish anyone who hosts it could be actually funny instead of pandering to network censors and middle America and all that crap.  And I must admit that if I see Ellen fawn over yet another misogynistic hip-hop performer and sell our her sisters in her quest to be the most beloved entertainment host of the decade, I'll vomit.  Still ... we'll see what happens ...

Maintaining a low blogging profile these past days.  You know when you just don't feel the inspiration .... its hard to blog.  It scares me when I lose my impulse to be snarky ... it even got to the point where I turned off the 6 PM news for a Frasier rerun and the gossip section of Rolling Stone!  I hate that section. 

Ledcat and I have a full day of anti-snark funk breakdown activities planned so stay tuned for your usual blogging fun ....

h/t Post-Gazette

A documentary about the Rev. Mychal F. Judge, a gay chaplain with the New York Fire Department who died on 9/11, will be screened in Pittsburgh on Sept. 11.

Ian McKellen narrates "Saint of 9/11," which had its world premiere at the Tribeca Film Festival earlier this year. All five festival screenings were sold out.

An obituary published at the time said the chaplain died amid a rain of debris as he went to the Twin Towers to minister to victims. He was 68 and lived in a Franciscan friary across from a firehouse.

His head was struck by debris, according to friars at the Holy Name Province of the Franciscan Friars. Firefighters carried his body to St. Peter's Church on Barclay Street, then to the firehouse, in a scene captured in a memorable Reuters photo.

When TWA Flight 800 exploded off Long Island in 1996, Judge helped console families of victims. Not long before his death, he went to Northern Ireland on a peace mission with a New York police officer who had been shot and left paralyzed.

The Pittsburgh showing of the documentary, sponsored by the Pittsburgh Lesbian and Gay Film Society and Pittsburgh Filmmakers, will be at the Melwood Screening Room, 477 Melwood Ave., North Oakland. The 90-minute movie will start at 7:30 p.m. on the fifth anniversary of the terrorist attacks.

Admission, $5, will benefit the Shepherd Wellness Center. Firefighters and members of the clergy will be admitted for free, with proof of identification.