The Republic of T.

This is what’s happening in my city right now.

I didn’t know about it until my husband called to tell me about it (and to make sure I’m wasn’t anywhere near the Holocaust Museum).

(more…)

With all due respect to Cleve Jones — who, in fact, is due a lot of respect for his years of activism — we do not need another LGBT march on Washington.

An activist who worked alongside slain gay rights leader Harvey Milk announced plans Sunday for a march on Washington this fall to demand that Congress establish equality and marriage rights for the lesbian, gay and transgender community.

Cleve Jones, whose character in last year’s award-winning movie Milk was played by Emile Hirsch, said the march planned for Oct. 11 will coincide with National Coming Out Day and launch a new chapter in the gay rights movement. He made the announcement during a rally at the annual Utah Pride Festival.

In an interview Friday, Jones said a confluence of events — a new president, the success of Milk which earned Sean Penn an Oscar, and Proposition 8 — makes this the right time to intensify the fight for equality.

“All of this working together has opened this new chapter,” Jones said. “I intend to make the most of it.”

As usual, I’m late to this story. I read it late last night, but at this point in my life, writing/blogging is near the bottom of my list. It comes after everything and everyone else. So by the time I get around to blogging a story like this one, it’s already been beat to death and much of what I’m going to say has been said already.

Nonetheless, I’ll say now what I said last night. We don’t need another march on Washington. Not now. Maybe when we have a victory to celebrate, but not when we have so much work to do.

(more…)

iii

On some positions, Cowardice asks the question, “Is it safe?” Expediency asks the question, “Is it politic?” And Vanity comes along and asks the question, “Is it popular?” But Conscience asks the question “Is it right?” And there comes a time when one must take a position that is neither safe, nor politic, nor popular, but he must do it because Conscience tells him it is right.

~

Ultimately a genuine leader is not a searcher for consensus, but a molder of consensus.

~

The time is always right to do what’s right.

~ Martin Luther King Jr.

During the presidential election, candidate Barack Obama had the following to say to LGBT voters, in an open letter posted at Obama Pride:

(more…)

For the master’s tools will never dismantle the master’s house…

~ Audre Lourde

That’s for Marion Barry, a number of D.C.’s black ministers, and many African-Americans who seem to need the reminder.

When the D.C. city council voted to recognize same-sex marriage, I blogged about it. I didn’t blog about the theatrics that ensued afterwards.

I knew about it. I read about it. But I didn’t comment on it for a couple of reasons, until now.

(more…)

Three years ago, we went to the White House Easter Egg Roll, as part of a lot of other families from the Family Equality Council. It started off as simply a quiet event where we’d all participate as a group — wearing leis so that we could spot each other and so that people would wonder “Who are those people wearing leis?” — and mabye afterwards issue a statement that people rolled eggs on the White House lawn with a bunch of gay parents and their families and … somehow survived.

But it turned to much bigger deal once the right wing got hold of it and Drudge leaked it on the web. Suddenly, it became a “protest” even though it was not a protest. Rather, it seemed the best way to counter then president Bush’s rhetoric about gay parents and our familes was to … well .. show up and let people see us for themselves.

Instead, we became the story.
(more…)

I saw this ad on the DC Metro this week, and wanted to blog about it, but hadn’t had time until now.

And just in time for Xmas. Has anyone alerted Bill O’Reilly yet?

(more…)

Well, as it D.C.’s transit system didn’t have enough problems’ from the bus that arrived late to pick me up yesterday morning, to the delay on the red line in the afternoon, to the rather inconvenient construction project at Silver Spring.

Now it looks like NDC’s Metro system may be in financial trouble.

The Washington area’s transit agency is seeking a temporary injunction against a Belgian bank that is demanding a $43 million payment by Friday.

KBC Group is requesting the money following the collapse of insurance giant American International Group, which had guaranteed a financing deal the bank made with Metro in 2002.

But AIG’s financial problems have triggered a clause that allows the bank to demand the money all at once.

Now, I know DC doesn’t count as “Main Street” or the “real America,” but it looks like the credit crisis has arrived on Main Street, by bus. Besides Metro 30 other transit systems could be forced to pay up now.

I don’t want to think about what happens if Metro has to fork over $43 million by Friday, but my guess is that it’s probably something a lot worse than non-working escalators.

In all the chaos of going to the Democratic convention, and the process of recovering from it, I completely forgot about the fact that I was one of several D.C.-area bloggers profiled in MetroWeekly this week, until someone emailed to compliment me on the write-up and photograph. It just happened that the day the photographer came by was a day I took off and spent with Parker before heading off to Denver.

Advances in technology are often heralded as labor-saving enhancements of our way of life. Yet the technology often seems to simply create avenues for even more labor. Be that as it may, with a partner, a day job and two young sons in Chevy Chase, Md., Terrance Heath has embraced the new and carved out a blogging niche of his own during his spare time, despite his claim that ”somebody in my house always needs something.”

Without the advent of the Web, Heath likely wouldn’t have to make time in his schedule for blogging on his site, The Republic of T. Then again, he probably wouldn’t be able to leave as big a mark on the world, either.

”I don’t consider myself a reporter or journalist,” he says. ”I’m not going out and breaking stories or interviewing people. If I had the time and resources, maybe I would. What I do — what a lot of people do — is take things happening in the news in areas we’re looking at, that wouldn’t otherwise get national prominence or widespread reading, and amplify them.”

Heath cites the example of Zach Stark, a gay Tennessee teen sent by his parents to an ”ex-gay” camp in 2005 and who wrote about the experience on his MySpace page.

It was great to be included with the other bloggers in the article — Lara Varlas and Ben Carver – The New Gay, John Aravosis – Americablog, Andrew Sullivan – The Daily Dish, Jim Barrett – jimbo.info, Mike Rogers – Page One News Media — and it was particularly fun to do the photo-shoot. The photographer wanted to photograph us in the context our lives, including our blogging.

As you can see, Parker was more than happy to join in the photo-shoot, rounding out the “blogger/gay dad” theme. (He also supplied the toy cars you see on coffee table, which is actually where they are most of the time when they’re not on the floor.) In fact, I think he was in most of the pictures. We’d just come from seeing Star Wars: The Clone Wars (his pick) and visiting the National Air and Space Museum. So, when we got home Parker donned his Power Rangers regalia, and strike several poses. He was tickled to see his picture on the computer when I showed him the article online, and to be in a magazine with Daddy.

Oh, and as for where I find the time to blog? Lately, it’s costing me a coupla hours sleep every night.

The Washington Post has wrapped up its 13-part “Who Killed Chandra Levy” series, and I’ve been following it; unable to resist a combination of local interest and the kind of crime story that has always fascinated me. (I think in another life I’d like to be a crime writer of some sort. I channeled some of that into the LGBT Hate Crimes Project, I think.)

But as I followed along I never forgot about some of the cases I wrote about in the previous post. In the process of researching that post, I came across many more cases that I didn’t include because the length of the post made me decide to limit it to the cases of those women mentioned in the comments of a WaPo blog post about the Levy series. Since the series on the Levy case is wrapping up, I wanted to take the opportunity to post about a few more cases that have gotten less attention than the Levy case.

(more…)

I’m officially blaming it on gas prices, which probably isn’t too far off the mark. Metro ridership in D.C. is way up, and recently hit a new record.

Metro says it counted 854,638 riders on Friday, beating the old record by 4,000 passenger trips. Officials attribute the spike to a Washington Nationals baseball game, a Women of Faith Conference at the Verizon Center and tourists visiting the city.

So far, 20 of Metrorail’s top 25 highest ridership days in its 32-year history have been recorded this year. Many of the busiest days are generated by baseball games or big events like the Cherry Blossom Festival or the Smithsonian Folklife Festival.

No wonder I can’t find a seat on the Metro. I used to let packed trains go by, because I could be almost certain that I would get a seat on the next train. That means I’d be able to take out the laptop and use that little bit of quiet time between work and home to catch up on some of the stuff I’ve been wanting to read.

But the trains are all crowded now, and by the time the third packed train goes by, I have to get on or get home late. So, what’s a guy to do?

(more…)

My previous posts on the Supreme Court overturning the D.C. gun ban stirred up more debate than I expected, second amendment rights being pretty far outside the realm of issues I usually cover. (Interestingly enough, it’s sparked quite a discussion over at Bilerico, which focuses mainly on LGBT-related issues.) So, why not continue? Especially since some people have come forward and answered the question I asked at the end of the last post.

I don’t pretend to know, and the suggestions above are nearly ridiculous (but in one case, very real) extremes. So, I’ll ask the same question I asked before that I don’t remember being answered: to gun rights advocates, what would you consider to be “reasonable” gun laws?

Well. When I saw this story, I wanted to add it to the mix. After all, states are already dealing with the question of whether felons should have the right to vote. It may not be the intention of the court, or the intention of the people who filed the suit to overturn D.C.’s gun law, but now felons are suing for the right to own firearms.

(more…)

And nobody came? This was apparently the case with the D.C. gun registry, following the Supreme Court decision.

With the ban lifted after a momentous, years-long legal battle that led to the landmark high court decision last month, here’s how many applications the city received by day’s end: one.

Bracing for a crowd at the registration office, at police headquarters on Indiana Avenue NW, officials set up a reception counter in the lobby and used portable metal railings to reserve one of the building’s entrances for “gun registry applicants.” Officers stood guard at the door, and a dozen reporters and TV cameras were waiting expectantly at 7 a.m., when the registration process was to begin.

But in the eight hours that the office remained open, there was no crush of people eager to avail themselves of the newly affirmed right to own a revolver in the nation’s capital. Police gave out 58 registration packets to people stopping by for the materials. But only two people showed up to apply to register handguns, and one was turned away by police officials because he didn’t bring his weapon with him, as the registration rules require.

And the beauty part?

(more…)

I’ve got some stuff in mind to post, but first I have to get lunch and do any number of things. And I might not get around to posting anyway.

Since a big portion of my day job is promoting other people’s writing, I might as well do the same here. Besides, I come across more worthwhile content than I have space to promote at work. And if I’m not creating any content myself….

Anyway. Here’s some of what I’ve been reading this morning.

(more…)

I really should have paid more attention in English class. Or, rather, I should have paid more attention to my grammar lessons. (Probably any hard-core grammarian who’s read the blog would concur.) But I spent the better part of my time as an English Lit. major in creating writing classes, and post-war literature. (My advisor finally told me I had to take the requisite pre-1800 literature classes. I realized then that I’d have been better off as a comparative lit. major.)

Had I spent more time diagraming sentences, then maybe I could make sense of the recent Supreme Court ruling on D.C.’s gun ban.

(more…)

Image details: DC Mayor Reacts To Supreme Court Ruling On DC Gun Ban served by picapp.com

Well, the finally did it. I first mentioned it years ago, when this blog was in its infancy. So I guess now I should say, thank you Kay Bailey Hutchison. Thank you. By the time you take your ass back to Texas, there will undoubtedly be more guns on the streets of Washington, D.C.

(more…)

There are natural disasters and man-made disasters. There are those who look upon the aftermath of disaster and see things as they should be. We call them conservatives.

As I write this, the seeds of disaster and an aftermath of Katrina-like proportions have been and are being sown in the shadow of the nation’s capitol, by a conservative philosophy that—as a matter of principle and policy—neither prepares for or prevents disaster, nor provides relief in its aftermath And when disaster befalls those most vulnerable to its ravages, conservative philosophy declares disaster the fault of and its consequences deserved by those least able to defend themselves against either.

When disaster strikes Washington, D.C.—whether in the form of a disease outbreak, a dirty bomb, or another terrorist attack—it will be the fault of those who cannot get themselves out of harm’s way, and not the fault of conservative philosophy that makes disaster all but inevitable. (more…)

Apparenty, and without my knowing until now, this blog was nominated as one of worst DC blogs, only to be eliminated rather early into the contest when commenters at Best DC Blog demanded it be removed or "rescued" from the list of nominees. (Thanks, by the way, to my defenders.) I guess it just goes to show that it's not always an honor to be nominated, and sometime winning isn't everything. It's also a clever strategy to draw attention and traffic to what appears to be a brand new blog. After all, I noticed they were linking to me, checked out the blog, and now I'm writing a post about it.