What better way to do this than to raise $9,999.99 in support of Wingspan's work in the coming year, while sending a message directly to Mr. Stock that this money was raised because of his support for anti-LGBT ballot measures.
If you make an online donation of $9.99 or more, Wingspan will mail a postcard to the CEO of Cinemark Theaters, stating that a donation was made to Wingspan in his name.
Thanks to the generosity of an anonymous donor, your donation is worth twice as much!
Our anonymous donor will match your donation, dollar for dollar, up to $4,999.99. Please help us maximize this opportunity to support YOUR community and YOUR center by making a donation online today!
Apparently, Milk is showing in a Cinemark Theater in Tucson.
Ledcat and I caught Milk last night in Squirrel Hill. The movie is just wonderful and you should definitely go see it. One line in particular stands out to me:
If you want political change, you have to tell the truth for a change.
This is right after Milk realizes that the mighty-mighty gays with money (the owner of the Advocate) are going to play ball with the powers that be, so he takes his movement back to the students and the grassroots. And thus begins his "come out, come out wherever you are" storyline.
After reading the comments the past few days, it seems there's some latent anger at how decisions are being made and some unhappiness with the deciders. Posting anonymous snarky comments is one thing. Doing something to be part of change requires that you come out and use your name and state your case. If you think the Mayor isn't being well-advised by those who took the initiative to form a relationship with him -- tell the truth. Talk with your own City Councilperson and share your perspective on LGBT issues. Call your own County Councilperson and explain how the new legislation will impact your life. Then, and this is the critical part, tell the people in your life who are part of the mainstream community to do the same thing. Tell them -- your family, your friends, your neighbors -- about the discrimination you've experienced, the slurs you've endured, the lack of opportunity you face. Tell them the wonderful things about your gay community.
I think it is unfair to simply point your finger at any one individual, especially anonymously. I agree that the coziness between the business community and the Ravenstahl administration is disquieting. But who else is doing what? Who is to blame, really, but ourselves? We squander opportunities. Perhaps the looming recession creates additional challenges.
I know some of the charges are leveled at me. I do have a bias - I don't admire, respect or trust our current Mayor and I am skeptical of what's going on behind the scenes on this issue. I've been on high skeptical alert since the whole Domestic Registry came to light in the context of a woman of privilege being able to buy access for $350. Nothing I sawy on this blog will ever generate that kind of access.
But it has attracted people who use words like bombastic and reference the Founding Fathers. What a delightful change. And as the commenter mentioned, 60ish people joined my Facebook group to recruit nominees. That's uplifting.
I am about 75% convinced the Mayor's office won't ever answer my qestions. I am nominating people anyway because I want to say that I tried. I've got two people in mind and I'm talking to a third. I've had a few folks contact me privately, folks I would never have thought about. Wouldn't it be great to send it dozens of nominations?
I am trying to tell the truth. I dislike the way Gary Van Horn has organized this council. I've told him that. But I also recognize that no one else took the initiative to do so. I was contacted about this months ago by someone who asked me to help and then dropped the ball, as s/he has done in the past. Gary picked up the ball and ran with it. Nothing wrong with that. But we've reached a crossroads where the larger community has been invited to be part of the dialogue. Let's not drop the ball now and then cry foul when someone else picks it up.
But I don't dislike Gary. I'm somewhat of an opportuny seeker myself so perhaps we are kindred spirits. Please try to stay focused on the issue. The little jabs are just ridiculous and keep the issue in the background. That serves no one except the folks with a little axe to grind.
I've been reviewing the stats on this post ... we've been lined from PageOneQ, Pam's House Blend and my very first post on DailyKOS. People are voting in the polls. Links are coming in from the Facebook Group. Join if you are on Facebook. Keep the momentum going and prove my skepticism wrong.
This has been a great dialogue with nultiple perspectives. Very nuanced and that's a testament to the importance of the story. Keep it up, folks!
FURTHER UPDATE: If you wonder why campaign contributions matter, check out this PG article on the connection between contributions and City contracts. Transparency, my friends. Michael Lamb gets transparency.
UPDATE: In response to some community outrage (after 10 minutes), let me be clear that I am not suggesting any specific improprieties on the part of any individuals. I'm merely pointing out that the formation of this Council has been unexamined by the larger community and calling for transparency in the current stages of the process precisely to avoid any allegations of impropriety.
As I reported yesterday, the Mayor of Pittsburgh, Luke Ravenstahl, is launching a LGBT Advisory Council to provide an open line of communication between his office and Pittsburgh's LGBT community. The planning meeting held on December 10 was chaired by Deputy Chief of Staff Kristen Baginski and the Mayor's personal liaison to the LGBT community, Gary Van Horn, a local businessman and President of the Delta Foundation. 25 people were in attendance, along with two members of the media. The room was fairly even between men and women, but almost entirely Caucasian and middle to upper middle class. It was a pretty elite group and that didn't surprise me for a 5 PM meeting held downtown.
Represented were PFLAG, Persad, PATF, Steel City Stonewall Democrats, Gertrude Stein Club, the Steel City Softball League, TransPitt, and the Gay & Lesbian Community Center among others. Several private citizens attended on their own behalf.
During the meeting, Van Horn and Baginski indicated that City residency would be preferred for Council members and described the nomination process. Nominees must submit a resume and a cover letter outlining their interest in serving. Everything is due by January 15, 2009.
The conversation was fairly cordial if vague. Attendees were interested in details on the Council's mission and structure, but the Mayor's representatives indicated that the Council would self-define these aspects along with the term of service, the meeting schedule and other details.
I have asked the Mayor's office to clarify how they will make public any campaign donations made by the appointees to this committtee. I've also asked whether individuals who serve on the nominations review committee will be able to serve on the council. The Mayor's spokeswoman has declined comment. The Mayor's Deputy Chief of Staff who is staffing this project has declined comment.
We've been following this story for months. I had a tip from Van Horn's co-organizer and former Steel City Stonewall co-chair, Tara Reynolds, that this was on the horizon. Unfortunately, there was no further information forthcoming from Reynolds or the local advocacy community until Van Horn announced the meeting a few weeks ago.
In case you were not aware, DailyKOS (600,000+ readers) is coming to Pittsburgh this summer with a sizeable LGBT contingent (Netroots Nation). Pittsburgh has been prominent in the national LGBT blog/media with several big stories --- the election of Bruce Kraus to City Council, the trial of Janet Edwards, Doug Shields' letter to Sally Kern, and the dissolution of the local Episcopal Church in part due to gay ordination. The eyes of the nation will be upon us (and so will their keyboards).
Now is a time for transparency. I think these are two fair questions and the answers are self-evident to myself at least. Our community should know of any campaign connections between our Mayor and the people we nominate to represent us to him. Those contributions don't preclude serving, but it is reasonable to want balance between donors and others. Our community should also know that the nomination process is as fair as possible.
Let us not forget how far we need to bring the Mayor along. It was only a year ago that he publicly stated that he is opposed to "gay unions" during a public debate. In spite of a follow up meeting with his advisors, he held steadfast to that position based on his Catholic beliefs. The Mayor's only public appearances has been at social events such as OUTrageous Bingo and Pridefest, choosing not to attend public forums where he would be required to personally engage informed (and outspoken) members of the community. The Mayor did sign the Domestic Registry into law, but has not been proactive in implementing this resource -- only six couples have signed up and there is no indication that any company has added domestic partner benefits to their benefits. My partner and I are registered with the City Department of Personnel and have never been contacted about the Registry. There are no openly gay members of the Mayor's Administration. His Deputy Chief of Staff did not know the title (Equal Employment Opportunity manager) or name (Tamiko Stanley) of the staff member responsible for cultivating a diverse base of employees.
There's a lot of room for improvement.
Other questions remain unanswered. Will the entire list of nominees be made public? Will the Mayor reach out to Councilman Bruce Kraus to recruit nominees from his network within the LGBT community? Will the proceedings of the Council, including the nomination review process, be made available to the public?
We are not Illinois. Let us start this new chapter in local LGBT politics with transparency and fairness for the whole community.
The way you can best contribute to the process is to be proactive in nominating individuals from the LGBT community to serve on this Advisory Board. The more diverse and more qualified the nominees, the better chance we have as a community to make this a meaningful resource for our community. We need to take action to build a voice that represents the entire community and not just those who already have relationships with the Mayor because of their involvement in his campaign.
I stole this picture from the City Paper website where Harry Kloman reviews Milk.
The movie opens this weekend in Pittsburgh. Debate raged hotly at the recent LGBT Blogging Summit about the effectiveness of boycotting Cinemark theaters. Some cities are staging protests and candlelight vigils. Others are working with the Sundance Film Festival to address the issue. Cinemark has clammed up on the issue and will not return calls verifying their VP Bob Shimmin's claims that the company has an LGBT liaison. One colleague mentioned to me that Cinemark had a gay employee who used to "handle" those things. Not exactly the same thing, is it? Comparable to the person who "knows computers" being the tech person for a non-profit.
I definitely think you should see this movie.
This concern with Cinemark may not be an issue. According to fandango.com, Milk is showing at the Cinemagic and the Waterfront only. That doesn't preclude it opening elsewhere, but it is unlikely. Huh. We'll be seeing it at Cinemagic b/c its my favorite theater. The Waterfront is too "busy" for my comfort zone.
Still, you might want to reconsider future movie visits to Cinemark owned theaters. Why spend pink dollars where it is evident that the company is not fully committed to LGBT equality? I realize that holds true for most of the places we spend money, but when it is so glaringly obvious -- when the company CEO spends $10,000 to take away our rights and the company tries to mislead us with a fanciful letter to 365gay.com -- why would you give them your money? It is a valid question and one we face everyday if we try to be conscientious consumers (and voters).
But sometimes you have to draw a line. One of my lines is Wal-Mart. For othes, it was voting for anti-choice Bob Casey. Still others won't patronize Petland in East Liberty b/c they sell puppymill bred dogs and cats about 1.5 miles from a local shelter.
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.
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.
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
I'm sitting at the City County Bldg waiting for the planning meeting for the Mayor's Advisory Council to commence. It is ironic that in the land of Google, CMU and other technological feats, we can't get a decent wireless signal in the City County Building. I'm in the hallway doing contortions trying to get this posted. I'd love to liveblog, but I doubt that will happen when I enter the bowels of the Mayor's office. We'll see ...
Well, I couldn't resist as we had to crawl back through the mountains to Pennsylvania in the dark. Brrrrr. However, we are safely home and have rounded up all the critters from their various "band camps" much to their delight. The boys are studiously not talking to us and Ana is sleeping off her weekend. The cats forgave us pretty quickly.
It has been a hell of a night. We drove out of DC fairly smoothly until I got a little weary around Breezewood. So we had to eat at a Perkins Restaurant. The kind of place with processed everything, lots of folksy-cutsey decor and country music (Froggy 98) blaring in the bathroom. I swear they gave me Sanka. We both now have stomach aches from all that processed goodness. I knew we should have gone to Bob Evans. At least eggs are normal food. I think.
Then, Ledcat took the wheel. We kept the heat down so we didn't get sleepy. I tried to talk cheerily of holiday plans and presents. She grunted a lot and muttered something about setting all of our computers afire so there'd be no further need to travel to blog conferences. The guy at the toll booth told us the Steelers were losing. Ledcat was depressed. I was secretly hoping that meant no playoff game Steeler Nation folk in the Northside. Alas, they pulled it out. We stopped in Norwin to pick up the boys who were very low key and well-behaved, but smell alarmingly of kennel. I dropped Ledcat and the kids at home and went to pick up Ana. She had handled her first separation from us with surprising aplomb. I loaded her and her 10 tons of band camp junk in the car and then spent 30 minutes trying to capture a stray dog (with a collar) and avoiding the 50 million police cars cruising Brighton Heights. Apparently, my cell phone call to Ana's Aunt Debby was on speaker phone while I was trying to simultaneously find the bacon strips, secure Ana to the seat belt and use her Chihuaha leash to capture a 40+ dog. In the dark. I'm sure it was hysterical on that end of the phone call.
I couldn't find the dog. I am sad about that. I hope he went home.
After contending with cat litter, trash, unloading the car in the midst of the departure of the Steeler Nation and peeved dogs, I am worn out. I'm glad I checked Facebook because I forgot about a meeting. There is some weirdness on my inherited Palm Pilot that is preventing Datebook synching so I am very lost when it comes to all my appts. Is the Universe telling me to buy the damn Blackberry already?
So, that is the behind the scenes glimpse of a post-blogging-summit wrapup. My head is swirling with ideas and I need to rest with them for a few days so I don't dive in to even more overcommitment. Ledcat wants to track down the jeans Cathy Renna was wearing. I want to talk with the pastor-blogger from Massachusetts who reminded me of one of my favorite foster parents. We both have pledged to avoid the Hyatt chain of hotels in the future.
I have six minutes to get to bed. Did I mention that the alarm clock in our ritzy hotel room was broken and needed to be fixed by a "technician" who never showed up? And that my 6:45 wake up call came in at 5:00 AM? And that since there was no alarm clock, I got up and completely ready to go before catching a glimpse of the real time on my cell phone. That was great.
At least I am not forced to wear a country gal costume and work at Perkins. And drink Sanka.
The Post-Gazette editorial board comes out in favor of a Florida ruling that the state law banning LGBT adoption is unconstitutional. Let us take a moment to be grateful here in Pennsylvania that we are not fighting back a similar ban or another round of marriage amending garbage (not yet). Pennsylvania has 20,000+ children in the foster care system so a ban on gay foster parenting would be patently harmful to children. This past June, I facilitated a session on gay foster parenting and adoption. Everyone there -- 17 people -- wanted to adopt. I hope some of them followed through. (I was there for foster care so I'm not sure what happened.)
Frank Martin Gill, a gay man from North Miami, waged and won the legal battle so he could adopt two foster children he has raised for four years. But the case is likely to be appealed and could end up ultimately in the hands of the Legislature.
Before the lawmakers act next time, they owe themselves -- and Florida's children who are seeking a home -- a reality check.
Keep this on your radar, folks. Children's lives are at stake. I know someone who worked in the Florida child welfare system so I kid you not ...
It has been a busy day in the big city for us. The Initiative is just ... really cool sums it up best. The majority of yesterday's inconveniences were forgotten in the many small nifty things that we experienced today. I met Pam Spaulding and Autumn Sandeen from Pam's House Blend. Jake Kaskey from Equality Advocates is here and we had a nice chat during our walk over to lunch with the Victory Fund conference. Nick from PageOneQ.com, Jeremy, Lane, the list goes on and on. With apologies to Gab Bonesso's comedy skit, it was this surreal fusion of real-time cyberstalking, gushing groupie experiences. And that was before the coffee arrived.
Ledcat and I have been chatting about some of the great information we gathered today. We have some thinking to do about the real focus of this blog and to whom we are speaking. One thought that came to mind is how many heterosexual people tell me that they know about my blog because of referrals from other bloggers, such as the Political Junkies, MacYapper and Bram. It is sort of insulting to be a footnote, but I could reframe that as my being able to impact other bloggers with bigger readerships than my modest visitors and get our community messages in front of a larger audience.
One strength of what we've been doing for the past three years is our attempts to contextualize LGBTQ "issues" in terms of our actual lives. While I may often veer into the mundane, I try to make this blog a reflection of my real life experiences as a lesbian living in Pittsburgh.
The session that was very impactful was on activism and advocacy. We talked quite a bit about the consequences of generating attention via blogging and to what lengths folks will go to get the story for the cause ... hidden microphones, etc. I have a whole array of gadgets to purchase. LOL. Watch out! Seriously, it was inspiring and I wish more advocacy groups from Pgh were part of this conversation. We have a long way to go in terms of cyber-organizing.
Lunch, as I mentioned, was where we joined the Victory Fund conference going on concurrent to ours. Kate Clinton was emceeing and was quite hysterical. Barney Frank was the keynote speaker and was just brilliant ... he spoke with so much hope and optimism about the new Administration. I wanted to believe, I really did.
Something sort of unusual happened. A woman attending the Victory Fund conference joined Ledcat and me at our table. We chatted and it turns out that she is a former assistant women's basketball coach at Penn State. So, she and Ledcat (PSU alumni) swapped notes and we had a very interesting chat about Renee Portland. It was fascinating to get some backstory. I missed the whole panel discussion because I was enthralled with this insider glimpse into a story we followed pretty closely here at pghlesbian.com. Nothing earthshattering or that would surprise you. Just confirmation that PSU is better off without Portland.
Tonight, we relax and rest up for a full day of conferencing tomorrow, followed by the drive back to Pittsburgh. Through a snowstorm. Great. I have to pick up Ana at 8 AM and be at a meeting at 10 AM so a delay is not good. However, driving through a snowstorm in a Honda Civic is not my idea of good times either. I see a stop at a Motel 6 in our future. Thankfully, both Ana's Aunt Debby and my boss are aware of the situation. The price we pay for networking.
Speaking of Ana ... check out our girl at "bandcamp" with Aunt Debby ...
This is Ana and her BFF Trent, a pit mix who adores her.
Ana wearing her glow-in-the-dark winter coat. She gets positively ecstatic when we pull it off the coat rack and wriggles so much that it becomes quite a challenge to wrap her up. It proves very useful at night when you need to track her movements and assure she actually leaves the deck to visit the yard, but you are wearing socks/slippers and it is rainy and cold outside. We call it her "Bat Cape."
That's it from this end. Coming up in Pittsburgh's gay week .... the Steel City membership meeting on Tuesday evening and Mayor Luke's GLBT Advisory Council planning meeting on Weds. My goal is to live blog both events, but storm delays could hamper those plans. I'm sitting down to chat with City Councilman Bruce Kraus.
Have you figured out who to suggest for the Mayor's panel? This is important. Hope to see you at one of these meetings!
