gay

Summit on Sex Work in the South

Please save the date of December 2nd, 2011 for the Summit on Sex Work in the South.

This event will be hosted by the North Carolina Harm Reduction Coalition, Asheville Sex Worker Outreach Project, Sex Workers Without Borders, Women with a Vision, North Carolina Sex Workers Alliance & Helping Individual Prostitutes Survive (HIPS) and will be attended by the awesome Human Rights Watch and other allies.

We will be discussing sex work in the South, human rights & sex work, the negative public health & criminal justice effects of criminalization of condoms, advocacy for sex worker related issues, risk reduction for sex workers, drug use & sex work, bad date reporting and more!

Please let us know if you have any questions.

Event Contacts:
1.) Sarah Danforth (828) 337-1257, sarahdanforth@hotmail.com
2.) Robert Childs, (336) 543-8050, robert@nchrc.net

Today was National Coming Out Day. An event that was started over 2 decades ago. Today at NCSU hundreds of students got their I <3 Diversity shirts from the NCSU GLBT CA and about 100 of them came over to my Democracy NC table and registered to vote. The free expression tunnel was painted in recognition of this event. There are a whole week of celebratory events. It was a good day for democracy and equality.

National Coming Out Day (NCOD) is an internationally observed civil awareness day celebrating gay, lesbian, bisexual, transgender, queer, etc. people and communities. The name coming out describes their process of publicly identifying their sexual orientation. It is observed annually by members of LGBT communities and their straight supporters on October 11.

The annual North Carolina Pride Parade happened today as it has now for many, many years. In addition to the celebration of the diverse community that Pride always represents, there was also a special urgency created by the recent passage of a bill to put the marriage discrimination amendment on the ballot this coming May. This was a moment to both enjoy how far we've come, and organize for the challenges ahead.

You'll be glad to know that Art Pope is not gay. Neither is Tom Fetzer. And just to say it, teh Google never lies. What else you got for us today?

(Cross-posted from InterstateQ.com)

The National Organization for Marriage, an anti-marriage equality organization, bussed into Raleigh from out of state today for a summer afternoon protest. I imagine they were surprised to find they were in the minority here in NC when they held a rally that almost no one showed up to. The counter-demonstration however had a little over 200 people.

Most of this insider audience on BlueNC has already heard the story of Dr. George Rekers.

But Dr. Rekers fought back against the naked display of his blatant hypocrisy by saying Jesus would do the same.

That was enough for Colbert to weigh in and make Dr. Rekers his Alpha MaleDog of the Week.

Time to laugh! And dance!

Come out, come out wherever you are...

You have to admire Tom Fetzer's gumption. He'll stand in front of a room of grown adults and say whatever pops into his pretty little head, as he did on Saturday when he got all excited about his new BFF, New Bern Mayor Lee Bettis. (I suppose that makes them both switch hitters, but that's another story.)

The President of the American Family Association (nationally) is stepping down due to bad health. The AFA is mostly known for near daily boycotts against anything it believes to be anti-Christian. Boycotts have included Disney, Ford, Pepsi, and T.V. shows of all stripes. AFA is one of Christian Extremist groups that is furthest to the right. They called for gay Republican Congressman Jim Kolbe of AZ to be thrown in jail under sodomy laws in 2000 even though he was married with kids at the time. (More proof the anti-gay right wing doesn't "hate the sin" only, since they had no evidence of gay sex).

Don Wildmon's resignation comes after months of illness following a mosquito bite. A giant of right wing barbarism, taken down by a tiny bug.
http://pageoneq.com/stories/afa030310.html

Just when I lose my faith in Congressional Democrats (the ones in Washington), the bigot brigades of the NC GOP remind me why I do everything possible to keep Republicans out of power here at the state level in Raleigh.