New Read: "It's Not Over" By Michelangelo Signorile

LGBT activist and author Michelangelo Signorile has written a powerful new book, It's Not Over.

A long-time personal hero of mine, Signorile chronicles the gay rights movement in regard to not only where we've been, but where we go from here. The book serves cautionary notice that the fight is far from over, noting in Chapter One - "Victory Blindness," that folks can suffer from what he calls "Victory Blindness."

Speaking to the Huffington Post, Signorile shares this:

"Victory blindness is something we all succumb to at times. It's a term I use to describe the phenomenon in which we focus on the wins, so starved for validation, that we allow them to blind us to the continued bigotry we face. We become enthralled, intoxicated -- spellbound by even a little bit.

"The effect is that it obscures our reality -- literally our vision -- and it makes us lose our gumption, not wanting to rock the boat, fearful that we'll lose what we've gained and not get what little bit we think we need, when in fact we need a lot and we should be strong and confident knowing our allies will stay with us.

"In that chapter I use a vivid example, in a section titled "A Story of Victory Blindness," in which too many activists, claiming that we'd gotten a lot and had a banner couple of years, asked us to accept a situation that validated bigotry and urged us to be "magnanimous," fearful that the right would portray us as going too far -- but in fact this only allowed the backlash to grow because we seemed disjointed and that made us seem weak. We were and are still hated and despised by many -- despite having so many allies now -- and we have no rights in most states nor federal protections.

"So this is victory blindness, and it can have the terrible effect of actually allowing the backlash to grow because it telegraphs that we will back down.

Other chapters include "We Don't Serve Fags Here," "Hiding In Plain Sight," "Not Up For Debate" and an epilogue "Charting A Path Forward."

The entire book is required reading in my opinion. Eye-opening, compelling, and powerful, Signorile is exhilarating in his honesty, and illuminating with his insight.

A definite "must-read." Period.

Available online and in major book stores today.

Newt Gingrich: Gays should be more open and understanding of anti-gay

In a CNN Crossfire discussion about ex-NFL player Derrick Ward’s Twitter meltdown over the Michael Sam kiss, Newt Gingrich said that LGBT folks should be more "open and understanding" and tolerant of those who object to their existence.

Said Gingrich:

“You guys talk about how you want to be inclusive, except of course if somebody tweets this, then [there are] death threat or let's send them off to sensitivity training. I mean it strikes me as repression, that’s not inclusive. Shouldn’t you also be teaching people who are gay to be open and understanding [of anti-gay views]?”

Of course, the answer is "no." You don't teach African-Americans to be more tolerant of a racist.

(via Media Matters)

German GQ launches unique campaign to battle intolerance

GQ in Germany has launched a new campaign to battle intolerance, and it's definitely unique.

#MundPropaganda (translates roughly as “word of mouth”) brings together guys — straight men, specifically — in photos of tender kisses. Innocuous in some regions of the world, a simple kiss between men in conservative or repressive places could be the enticement to deadly violence.

Watch the video below of the photoshoot for GQ's project featuring actors Herbert Grönemeyer and August Diehl; rappers Moses Pelham and Thomas D; all three members of hip hop group Fettes Brot; Olympic champion volleyball players Julius Brink and Jonas Recker; ad actors Kostja Ullman and Ken Duken; and Johannes Strate and Jakob Sinn from rock band Revolverheld.

GQ.de (the site is in German) has images of the campaign, and tracks reactions from blogs and social media.

Although the video below is in German, you get the light-hearted sense of fun everyone brought to the photoshoot.

LGBT Tolerance Spectrum in US

Seth Stephens-Davidowitz has parsed public information to determine a sense of tolerance for LGBT folks across the country.  From the New York Times:

Using surveys, social networks, pornographic searches and dating sites, I recently studied evidence on the number of gay men. The data used in this analysis is available in highly aggregated form only and can be downloaded from publicly accessible sites. While none of these data sources are ideal, they combine to tell a consistent story.

• At least 5 percent of American men, I estimate, are predominantly attracted to men, and millions of gay men still live, to some degree, in the closet.

• Gay men are half as likely as straight men to acknowledge their sexuality on social networks.

• More than one quarter of gay men hide their sexuality from anonymous surveys.

• The evidence also suggests that a large number of gay men are married to women.

There are three sources that can give us estimates of the openly gay population broken down by state: the census, which asks about same-sex households; Gallup, which has fairly large-sample surveys for every state; and Facebook, which asks members what gender they are interested in.

While these data sources all measure different degrees of openness, one result is strikingly similar: All three suggest that the openly gay population is dramatically higher in more tolerant states, defined using an estimate by Nate Silver of support for same-sex marriage. On Facebook, for example, about 1 percent of men in Mississippi who list a gender preference say that they are interested in men; in California, more than 3 percent do.

No real surprises, but interesting to see how it breaks down. Read the full analysis by Seth here.

(h/t JMG)

South Carolina: Columbia police officers defy orders to march in Pride parade

Based on "religious beliefs," two Columbia, SC, police officers defied orders and went over their police chief's head:

Santiago had ordered a lieutenant and sergeant to join eight other officers in last Saturday's parade even though they cited religious beliefs in their opposition. On the day of the parade, City Manager Teresa Wilson and her assistant met with Santiago and reached an agreement to make participation in the parade voluntary since there were then enough officers to march.

The police chief says not following direct orders and going around the chief sets bad precedent.

"An officer cannot choose their assignments based on their religious beliefs. When you have a police department that really values strict discipline and adherence and obedience to directives, the Chief of Police is the person they look toward for that direction. Any department that expects to instill public trust, must demonstrate that by being visible to the public."

Richland County Sheriff Leon Lott agrees:

"A chief or sheriff has to be able to make the decisions, a person that works underneath him are not going to respect them if they don't have the ability to make decisions, and I think that's a problem with the Columbia Police Department, not just now but for many many years/"

wistv.com - Columbia, South Carolina |

Pope Francis: Church should not interfere in the spiritual lives of gays and lesbians

In yet another in a series of uncharacteristically tolerant statements regarding gays and lesbians on behalf of the Catholic Church, Pope Francis said today that the church should not interfere in the lives of the LGBT community:

"Religion has the right to express its opinion in the service of the people," Francis told Jesuit Roman journal La Civilta Cattolica in an interview published Thursday and previewed by CNN. "But God in creation set us free: it is not possible to interfere spiritually in the life of a person."

The Human Rights Campaign's Chad Griffin hailed the comments as a "reset" for the Catholic Church's treatment of gays and lesbians:

"With these latest comments, Pope Francis has pressed the reset button on the Roman Catholic Church's treatment of LGBT people, rolling back a years-long campaign at the highest levels of the Church to oppose any measure of dignity or equality.

"Now, it's time for the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops to catch up and drop their opposition to even the most basic protections for LGBT people. Otherwise, they risk being left far behind by American Catholics and this remarkable Pope.

"At a moment when Pope Francis is re-dedicating the Church to tirelessly helping the poor, it's unacceptable for American bishops to continue wasting millions of parishioner dollars on harmful anti-LGBT political campaigns that target members of their own flock. For the sake of LGBT Catholics, it's essential that Pope Francis' inspiring words lead to transformative change throughout the Church hierarchy."

(via Advocate.com)