Tuesday, February 24, 2009

Gay Bloggers Rise

This is a really good Washington Post piece on rise of the LGBT blogs, and it is largely focused on Pam Spaulding, who we had on the show just yesterday. Many listeners know I have long been a fan of Pam and her razor-sharp analysis and witty style, and I'm glad to count her as a friend. We have to take a moment sometimes and just laugh at the sheer lunacy of our enemies -- which often disempowers them further -- and Pam knows exactly how to do that.

The Wash Post piece rightly notes Pam's influence. She often does the work that LGBT organizations and gay media should be doing but works out of her home and actually has a day job. It's a testament to what really could be done:

In the past, someone like Spaulding would have been relegated to the sidelines. She doesn't work for national gay rights organizations such as the Human Rights Campaign or the Gay & Lesbian Alliance Against Defamation. She lives with her partner, Kate, an audiologist, in Durham, far from San Francisco, New York or Washington, where gay activism has been historically based. But now she's helping shape the agenda, one voice in a chorus of sometimes dissonant, sometimes harmonious, often in-your-face voices that is pushing established gay groups and redefining the meaning of grass-roots action in this new media age.