Just a little hint.  If you are contemplating holiday purchases, two excellent local businesses that are owned by members of our community (and employ others) are worth your consideration.

A Pleasant Present is a great little gift store in Squirrel Hill. They sell a wide array of rainbow/pride merchandise and tons of other stuff.  We buy all of our gift baskets there ... they can do a wide range of themes.  Michael is a huge supporter of the community -- he sells tons of tickets, passes and so forth for nothing in return.  He advertises in local newsletters and newspapers.  He employs individuals from our community. If you are one of those people who says "I haven't been to A Pleasant Present in a long time," now is the time.  Stop in to pick up some gay themed cards or order a great gift for some hard to please person in your life.  The prices are very competitive and the service is excellent. 

K.S. Kennedy florist is on the Northside and has been a great find for us.  We go there for all floral needs and the prices are great.  Kerry Kennedy has proven to be a great friend and concerned member of the community.  He has all sorts of fun side stuff, like barbecue sauce.   You never know what you are going to find.  Again, you'll be supporting a family owned business and Kerry sells organically grown roses.  Who can beat that?  If you are sending flowers to your mom or need a wreath, check out K.S. Kennedy.

(Then go to Hoi Polloi.  I have to throw that in b/c someone at the Summit I attended asked me about the lesbian owned coffee house I'm always blogging about.  So now I'm going to work it in even more often!)

I left tonight's meeting with some unanswered questions that I have submitted to his staff, so I'm going to give you a brief overview of the proceedings and save my analysis for a later date.

There 25 people in attendance, plus two folks from the media (City Paper and Rustbelt Radio).  They are accepting nominations through January 15, 2009.  Nominees should submit a cover letter and a resume.  City residency seems to be very important, but they might allow for exceptions in the case of significant GLBT organizations. 

The advisory council will determine its own agenda, timeframe, term limits and other issues.  The nomination review committee will include Deputy Chief of Staff Kristen Baginski, local businessman Gary Van Horn and other yet to be identified individuals. 

Start combing your networks for nominees.  Stay tuned for analysis. 

Just in:

Today at 3:56pm

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This is a message from Garden State Equality:

This is huge. The New Jersey Civil Union Review Commission has completed its final report. In a unanimous vote, the Commission pronounces the civil union law a failure and recommends to Governor Corzine and the legislature that they enact a marriage equality statute.

The report will be posted online at 10:00 am ET Wednesday, December 10, 2008 athttp://www.nj.gov/oag/dcr/curc.html

Now more than ever, we ask you to attend Garden State Equality's FED UP WITH INEQUALITY Town Meeting for North Jersey on Wednesday, December 10 at 7 pm, The Baird Center, 5 Mead Street, South Orange; or Garden State Equality's FED UP WITH INEQUALITY Town Meeting for South Jersey on Thursday, December 11 at 7 pm, Scottish Rite Auditorium, 315 White Horse Pike, Collingswood. Please tell all your friends.

Harvey Milk's nephew Stuart Milk is speaking live at the Wednesday night town meeting in South Orange. On Thursday night in Collingswood, we'll show video excerpts of Stuart's speech.

If you would like to email Governor Corzine and key New Jersey legislators telling them to enact the Commission's recommendation of marriage equality, we've already prepared an email letter for you. All it will take is a couple of clicks and 30 seconds of your time. To email our letter to officials, visithttp://eqfed.org/campaign/FinalCommissionReport