While this week brought news that ENDA has been delayed for a few weeks, we didn't let that stop us from bringing you a ton of popular posts about almost every aspect of our community. Here are the best from this week.

Sunday

The sexual politics of a hug Filed by: Cassandra Keenan
The DC Catholic Church's red herring Filed by: Nancy Polikoff

Monday

LGBT Resistance to the Coup in Honduras Filed by: Jessica Hoffmann
Toward a better understanding of age in the gay community Filed by: Alex Blaze

Tuesday

Don't Ask, Don't Tell: "Jess, Bend, Oregon, 2009" Filed by: Jeff Sheng
Needed: A Better Definition of Bigotry Filed by: Patricia Nell Warren

Wednesday

Jorge and Will: Tragedy and Hope Filed by: Kate Kendell
Simon LeVay and the Biology of Sexual Orientation Filed by: Betty Greene Salwak

Thursday

In My Grandmother's Dress Filed by: Father Tony
What will President Obama do about that pesky federal Prop 8 suit? Filed by: Phil Reese

Friday

Irene Vilar's Impossible Motherhood: Testimony of an Abortion Addict Filed by: Paige Schilt
Historic Declaration of Christian Conscience? Filed by: Donna Pandori

I was as shocked and saddened as anyone on Monday when it was revealed the Washington Blade (along with other Windows Media publications) had been shut down on Monday.

But, the great news is Kevin Naff and the former Blade team have launched a new publication called DC Agenda. The first issue was released today. The issue is slim compared to previous issues of the Blade, but it is an impressive effort considering they only had a few days to put it together.

Kevin had this to say about DC Agenda's mission:

The former staff of the Washington Blade remains united and DC Agenda represents our effort at continuing the important mission and work of the Blade. It will grow and evolve to include a much larger and more diverse group of voices. But the core of the Washington Blade's work remains unchanged. We will cover Congress, the White House, the LGBT rights movement, the D.C. marriage fight, local hate crimes and other political issues important to the LGBT residents of the city.

Ty has a list of locations where you can find the DC Agenda.

Follow DC Agenda on Twitter.

Stephen Colbert takes on the DC marriage equality issue in the way only he can.

The Colbert Report	Mon - Thurs 11:30pm / 10:30c
The Word - Skeletons in the Closet
www.colbertnation.com
Colbert Report Full Episodes Political Humor U.S. Speedskating

Word has started to leak out surrounding the closure of Windows Media's LGBT publishing empire - including the Washington Blade and Atlanta's Southern Voice. While blame originally fell on the Small Business Administration for unexpectedly pulling the plug on LGBT newspapers around the country, today's revelations throw the blame back on Windows Media itself.

First came word that another owner had been found for the Washington Blade and negotiations were in progress when the paper abruptly shut down yesterday.

Nicholas F. Benton, owner of the Falls Church News-Press, a Washington, D.C.-area weekly, confirmed today that his corporation, Benton Communications, Inc., had won a bid from parties that included the SBA in September to obtain the assets of the Washington Blade from its bankrupt parent company for purposes of a seamless perpetuation of the nation's oldest gay community newspaper. The Blade was closed without Benton's advanced knowledge on Monday.

Benton said he regrets that the negotiations to complete the transfer of ownership failed to be completed, and that as a result he is unable to carry forward the Blade, its legacy, its employees, and its service to its community regionally and nationally.

"Everything was in place, although moving slowly, to make the seamless transition we hoped for. But I remain unaware of what happened, and as a result of Monday's events, the Blade is gone after 40 years of publication, its employees are out of work, and the nation's and region's LGBT community has been stripped of an invaluable institution." Benton said.

Sirius OutQ News though, found out who the real culprit is. According to the SBA, the owners decided to refuse the buyout offers and shutter the doors.

The global economic recession has been rolling over the world full force for over a year now. We have seen the markets flowing in red, homeowners being turned out at a rate not seen since the great depression, and the economy "shedding" jobs by the millions--a term far too positive and faceless for the gravity of the situation.

I was riding along in my car one fine afternoon wondering how all of this impacts LGBT people when the National Public Radio (NPR) show called "Marketplace" began. Since I am no economist, I always find the reporting on this show to be factual yet pithy, exactly how I like my economic information. Get to the point. Be entertaining. Speak my language. Good. Well, until they covered a story about how DINKs (Dual Income, No Kids) are handling the recession.

Continue reading "The Recession and LGBT Communities: A Series" »

The House Committee on Education and Labor, which was due to mark up the Employment Non-Discrimination Act (ENDA) on Wednesday of this week, has announced that it is postponing its markup. A terse statement on the Committee's website states simply that "This markup has been postponed."

I had posted on Wednesday about rumors of a possible slow-down on ENDA. DC insiders said there was no slow-down, and that the bill is "on track." However, it appeared, after comparing statements made when the bill was introduced with later statements, that the House vote, initially thought to be in October or November, was now being discussed in a "December or February" timeframe. That would put the bill up before the Senate during midterm election campaigns, which could make it more difficult to gain support among conservative Democrats and liberal Republicans.

Since the House is not in session next week, the earliest date for markup would be in December. That would make it difficult to obtain a House vote on ENDA before year's end.

Continue reading "BREAKING: ENDA Postponed" »

UPDATED AT THE END

Disturbing news this morning. Window Media--the Publisher of the Washington Blade, the South Florida Blade, the Houston Voice, the Southern Voice, David Atlanta and 411 Magazine--has officially closed its top publications: The Southern Voice, David Atlanta and the Washington Blade.

At publishing time I had not received any confirmation on Houston Voice or The South Florida Blade's closure (both their websites were down once again, most likely due to high traffic), though an update on Fresh Loaf from former Southern Voice Editor Lauren Douglass-Brown confirms that all Window Media publications are affected.

The Blade website has been up and down all morning, presumably because of increased traffic from this story, but their Twitter feed officially confirmed the bad news:

More after the jump.

Continue reading "Washington Blade, Southern Voice closed in Window Media demise" »

To hear the Catholic Church tell it, if same-sex couples can marry in DC they will have to stop providing social services here. At least that's their threat, as reported earlier this week in the Washington Post.

I heard the same thing at the October 26 committee hearing. Their representative said the marriage equality bill would "hurt the people who count on Catholic Charities." (To view the whole hearing click here and select the October 26 meeting of the Committee on Public Safety and the Judiciary).

After their representative lamented about what would happen when they sought relicensing as a foster care agency, Committee Chair Phil Mendelson asked why foster care would be implicated and the answer was that the Catholic Charities would not place children with same-sex couples.

Well, I have news for the church (except I suspect it's not news to them).

Continue reading "The DC Catholic Church's red herring" »

While I took a few vacation days this week to travel to NYC, the Editorial Team kept things plugging right along and the great contributor content didn't stop for an instant. These posts really stood out this week:

Sunday

Fellatio in fruit bats Filed by: Gloria Brame Ph.D.
Are you normal? Filed by: Michele O'Mara

Monday

Is Violence Inevitable In Our Fight For Equality? Filed by: Father Tony
Vegas still casts desert mirage of equality Filed by: Cassandra Keenan

Tuesday

About that LGBT boycott of the Obama Campaign, the DNC, and Organizing for America.... Filed by: Alex Blaze
Zenyatta: Why Should We Care About a Horse? Filed by: Patricia Nell Warren

Wednesday

Why I'm So Damn Frightened of You Filed by: Diane Silver
Counterpoint: trans-inclusion is distracting to LGB legislation Filed by: Austen Crowder

Thursday

For marriage victories, we must face and use religion Filed by: Matt Comer
I've signed on to Don't Ask, Don't Give (and you should too) Filed by: Bil Browning

Friday

When Its Not Your Fight Filed by: Antonia D'orsay
Video WH 'held for review': Obama official Melody Barnes' support for marriage equality Filed by: Pam Spaulding

As the recent Yes on 1 campaign confirmed, two of the key elements utilized by Christianist enemies of gay equality are the myths that (1) sexual orientation is a "lifestyle" choice as opposed to an immutable aspects of GLBT individuals and (2) gays can "change" their sexual orientation and become heterosexual if they but want to.

These myths bolster efforts to spread the lie to the general populace that gays will recruit children to the "lifestyle" as was just seen in Maine with the repeal of same-sex marriage.

The Christianists also use these myths to argue to politicians that since being gay is a "choice," there is no need to grant GLBT citizen "special rights" and legal protections. There are numerous Christianist organizations that promote these myths such as Exodus International, Focus on the Family, and a host of others - often making lots of money preying upon religiously conflicted gays and their families in the process. Legitimate medical and mental health associations condemn these myths and just this past August, 2009, the American Psychological Association ("APA") formally condemned the practice of so-called "reparative therapy"to cure gays as basically unethical because there is no legitimate evidence that it works.

Continue reading "The Pernicious "Choice Myth" and "Change Myth" " »

The Catholic Archdiocese of Washington, D.C., is saying it might not be able to continue its social services programs if a marriage equality bill is passed by the D.C. Council.

The Washington Post reports that Archdiocese officials say the proposed marriage bill might threaten their religious freedoms. They say that without a religious exclusion, the bill could force them and other religious groups receiving money from the city to "give same-sex couples medical benefits, open adoptions to same-sex couples and rent a church hall to a support group for lesbian couples."

Continue reading "For marriage victories, we must face and use religion" »

Updated: Fundie Scarborough says Anti-Gay Activists Are Just Like MLK (seriously) after the jump.

I posted the rather unbelievable story last week that got a lot of you talking about Pastor Gary Cass of the Christian Anti-Defamation Commission losing his mind over the passage of the Matthew Shepard & James Byrd Hate Crimes Prevention Act. Cass and his group of hate-mongers had decided to head to DC on November 16th to protest the Hate Crimes Act in front of the Department of Justice in hopes of getting arrested, saying:

We're basically going to defy the law, and challenge it. We're going to declare the whole counsel of God, including those parts that some may consider 'inciting a hate crime'

Of course, we all know that the Hate Crimes Law has nothing to do with speech or religious freedom, but don't try any of that pesky logic on Cass and his cohorts.

Well, it looks like the putrid party of hate is getting a little bigger now with support from all the usual suspects in the "hate on gays" army...

Continue reading "The WWJD Hate Crime Inciters are Getting Some Support for their DC "Protest"" »