Ready to March Again?

The National Equality March got us results, was organized quickly and cheaply, and got the grass roots passed the Human Rights Campaign, which needs a new strategy if it doesn’t want to be completely irrelevant. We need to be prepared to march again and should begin planning it. I lay out the case -- and a lot about the rift between the Human Rights Campaign and the grass roots and what needs to be done -- in my newest column in the Advocate:

The National Equality March, which Time magazine estimated brought roughly 200,000 people to the National Mall earlier this month, was such a huge success even before it happened that we must plan another one — even if it never happens. That’s because we’ve learned a few things in this first year of Barack Obama’s presidency.

First off, this administration responds to pressure, and unlike the previous Democratic administration, these White House officials cannot contain our discontent by going to groups like the Human Rights Campaign or politicians like Barney Frank (more on that and the reasons why farther down).

They want to keep LGBTs at arm’s length, but we continue to make that difficult, and we force them to move — ever so reticently — each time we have applied pressure.

Read the full column and let me know your thoughts.

Sweet -- On The Advocate Top 15 List

The Gist (Signorile.com) has been named one of the Top 15 Gay(Ish) Blogs by the Advocate, which is sweet. It's nice to be called "always-intriguing," which is also kind of funny.

Michelangelo Signorile, a founding editor of the controversial, now-defunct magazine OutWeek and a current Advocate contributor, offers his always-intriguing take on the state of gay rights and other political and cultural topics. You can also view clips of his television appearances -- such as a debate with conservative pundit Laura Ingraham -- and get a free three-day pass to listen online to his eponymous radio show, which airs daily on Sirius XM’s OutQ.

Here's the full list, in no particular order:

• AmericaBlog.com:
• Gawker.com
• DListed.com
• HuffingtonPost.com
• OhLaLaMag.com
• Signorile.com
• PamsHouseBlend
  
• TowleRoad.com
• WorldofWonder.net
• PerezHilton.com
• Slog.TheStranger.com
• PinkIsTheNewBlog.com
• Popnography.com
• Rod 2.0
  
• GoodAsYou.org

A Tale of Two Sex Scandals

My new Advocate column is about what I view as the correlations and differences between the most recent Ted Haggard sex scandal and the Sam Adams (Portland mayor) sex scandal. The reaction to one, I suggest, is really a product of the reaction to the other.

Anyway, I'm getting hammered a bit in the comments over on Advocate.com, so maybe some of you might want to give it a read and comment there -- and here -- if you disagree with them. Of course, you may agree with my detractors, and that's fine too. I'm always up for a good discussion. The basic crux of my argument, summed up toward the end of the column, is this:

Haggard, though a victim of a homophobic culture himself, is what we want to tell the world we aren’t -- and certainly what we want to tell the world our openly gay politicians aren’t. But not being like Ted Haggard doesn’t mean openly gay people, including our politicians, must be -- or can be -- perfect. We fall into a trap when we hold ourselves to heterosexual ideals, ideals even heterosexuals can’t uphold, particularly when it comes to sex and our sex lives—the very things that make us different.

Some of our greatest gay political heroes -- from Barney Frank, whose boyfriend ran a prostitution ring out of the congressman’s house, to the late representative Gerry Studds, who was involved in an underage page scandal -- have been at the center of sex scandals much more serious than Sam Adams’s. I hate to think where we’d be if, at the time, Frank or Studds had resigned and slunk away. We certainly would have made much less progress. And, when it comes down to it, we’d definitely have far fewer truly human role models.

But go read the whole thing (and the Advocate.com commenters) and let me know your thoughts.

New Advocate Column, and Some Context

I've started a new column for the Advocate, the gay newsmagazine that is now going monthly.

This first column was written shortly after my interviews with Rachel Maddow and Pam Spaulding, but before the Rick Warren controversy erupted. I stress that because Rachel did a highly commendable job on that controversy -- and I gave her kudos right here --- but the coverage wasn't indicative of her coverage on Prop 8 and LGBT issues before Pam's criticisms of her and before her appearance on my show. The column went to pres two days before the Warren controversy, and I did add a note to the online version as you will see. Just wanted to give some context to this, as I'm sure many will say, "Wait, look at what she did with Rick Warren." But again, that came after the criticisms, and I would say back to them, precisely -- an example of how powerful Rachel can be, how I hope she covers gay issues from here on, and how thankful I am that we have her.

P.S. The comments do seem to be back up, but don't count on it. And many have lost while many people are still telling me they can't post. We'll be going to Js-kit fully in few days and saying good-bye to haloscan forever.