I've been sitting here in NC blogging about national regime change since July 2004. The Blend rode the wave as part of the whole citizen journalism movement/new media and I've had the chance to report from debates, forums, town halls and the Dem convention. It would be a once-in-a-lifetime kind of thing to go see Barack Obama sworn in to cap off the work I've put into the blog.
I've had a couple of Blenders kindly offer to house Kate and I if we can find a way to get up there to DC for inaugural weekend in January. I'm still mulling over whether to go; I don't have any ticket or media pass to cover this, btw, I'd just be out there with the rest of you who plan to show up. I do know quite a few Tar Heels are planning to head up there since we turned NC blue for Obama and dumped Dole - we have a lot to celebrate.
Personally I think attending some of the events surrounding the inauguration and the big fetes would be more even fun to cover than standing out in the cold on the Mall to see history, but maybe that's just me imagining the physical pain I would be in standing out there for hours with who knows how many millions of people who plan to descend into DC.
See how Gay DC and our advocacy orgs plan to party -- if you have $375 a head to spare -- below the fold.A lot of folks in the flyover country don't have the means or opportunity to go to DC to celebrate the inauguration of Barack Obama with HRC and the rest of the advocacy orgs, think tanks etc. so they'll be watching on C-SPAN I guess. Even Netroots Nation is having some big inaugural bash. I wonder how many non-DC-based bloggers will be able to attend.
There are going to be a lot of events like this during that weekend, high-priced affairs where the glitterati will schmooze; there will probably be a dearth of color at a lot of the events, hardly what one would call "change," but this time around, the country will probably get a good look at a slice of the black bourgeoisie front and center.
Human Rights Campaign Foundation, Gay & Lesbian Victory Fund & Leadership Institute, National Gay and Lesbian Task Force, PFLAG, Gay & Lesbian Alliance Against Defamation, National Black Justice Coalition, Service Members Legal Defense Network, Freedom to Marry, BiNet USA, DignityUSA, Out & Equal Workplace Advocates, Equality Federation, National Gay and Lesbian Chamber of Commerce, National Coalition for LGBT Health, LGBT Community Center of NY, International Federation of Black Prides, CenterLink: The Community of LGBT Centers, and Family Equality Coalition
present:
OUT FOR EQUALITY
The LGBT community commemoration of
Barack Obama & Joe Biden's Inauguration
Tuesday, January 20
7 p.m. - Midnight
Mayflower Hotel
1127 Connecticut Avenue, NW
Washington, D.C.
Tickets go on sale Wednesday, December 3, 2008 at 9 a.m. at
www.boxofficetickets.com/outforequality
Featuring entertainment and appearances by:
Melissa Etheridge 
Cyndi Lauper 
Rufus Wainwright 
Thelma Houston
and others to be announced
Open bar and cocktail buffet And stay tuned for more details about the event below!
Tickets are $350 per person before December 16 and $375 thereafter.
Attire: Festive or Formal
Dance for Equality
An Inaugural Commemoration
Tuesday, January 20
9 p.m. - 3 a.m.
Town Danceboutique
2009 8th Street, NW
Washington DC
Tickets will be released for sale mid-December.
Talent to be announced.
Human Rights Campaign Foundation, Gay & Lesbian Victory Fund & Leadership Institute, National Gay and Lesbian Task Force, PFLAG, Gay & Lesbian Alliance Against Defamation, National Black Justice Coalition, Service Members Legal Defense Network, Freedom to Marry, BiNet USA, DignityUSA, Out & Equal Workplace Advocates, Equality Federation, National Gay and Lesbian Chamber of Commerce, National Coalition for LGBT Health, LGBT Community Center of NY, International Federation of Black Prides, CenterLink: The Community of LGBT Centers, Family Equality Coalition
***
What's kind of ironic when I look at the above event is that during the primary season it was pretty clear that some at HRC were all about Hillary, but now they've got to get their political posteriors in gear for the new game in town.
Remember, it's a company town no matter who is in the White House or on the Hill, and the rules of the game involve ingratiating yourself with the new power brokers (and retaining your standing with the existing ones).
Opponents in 2007 argued the proposal would have unintended consequences, such as making it impossible to file domestic violence charges involving unmarried heterosexual couples. Supporters disagreed, but with the amendment starting from scratch, Marion Representative Eric Turner says he's tweaked the wording to answer those objections.
Turner says the new version is modeled on amendments in other states which have stood up to similar scrutiny.
Turner notes about half of House Democrats voted for the amendment in 2005, and says he expects some Democrats to file their own version of an amendment this year. He says he hopes they'll be able to persuade [House Speaker Pat] Bauer to allow a hearing.
Will the amendment return? I'd imagine the rightwingers in the Statehouse will attempt to push an amendment to try and distract from the ruin our state economy is in. With all of the problems our state has - unemployment, brain drain, a poor economy and a national recession - I can't imagine Speaker Bauer wasting any time with yet another hearing on gay marriages that haven't happened. As the Speaker was quoted in the Star article:
"I've been asking people to show me that the current law has been broken, and they haven't showed me yet. I want to see the couples that were illegally married."
Speaker Bauer was instrumental to the defeat of the amendment in last year's session of the General Assembly. Barring some last minute trick by Republicans, I feel comfortable about any introduced legislation's fate.
Still, it's worth remembering that the Indiana Democratic Party paid for an anti-gay campaign mailer in the last election. The DNC, National Stonewall Democrats, and the Indiana Stonewall Democrats all condemned the mailing, but the state party refused to comment to reporters or acknowledge any complaints by activists.
Speaker Bauer was not involved in the anti-gay campaign ad.
(Crossposted at Bilerico Project)
Add another name to the ranks of moral crusaders who were knocked off their pedestals: "[Birmingham, AL mayor Larry] Langford was arrested Monday after being charged in a federal indictment that accuses the former Jefferson County commissioner with receiving more than $236,000 in expensive clothes, designer watches and cash to pay his personal debt as part of a conspiracy to funnel county financial business to two of his friends."
For those not intimately acquainted with Langford's various Political Grandstanding Greatest Hits, they include but are not limited to the sackcloth, ashes, and Rolex watch city-funded "pray away crime" service and his refusal to follow standard city policy and sign Central Alabama Pride's parade permit/let city staff hang Pride banners.
Now that, I say, is change you can believe in.
I've been sitting here in NC blogging about national regime change since July 2004. The Blend rode the wave as part of the whole citizen journalism movement/new media and I've had the chance to report from debates, forums, town halls and the Dem convention. It would be a once-in-a-lifetime kind of thing to go see Barack Obama sworn in to cap off the work I've put into the blog.
I've had a couple of Blenders kindly offer to house Kate and I if we can find a way to get up there to DC for inaugural weekend in January. I'm still mulling over whether to go; I don't have any ticket or media pass to cover this, btw, I'd just be out there with the rest of you who plan to show up. I do know quite a few Tar Heels are planning to head up there since we turned NC blue for Obama and dumped Dole - we have a lot to celebrate.
Personally I think attending some of the events surrounding the inauguration and the big fetes would be more even fun to cover than standing out in the cold on the Mall to see history, but maybe that's just me imagining the physical pain I would be in standing out there for hours with who knows how many millions of people who plan to descend into DC.
See how Gay DC and our advocacy orgs plan to party -- if you have $375 a head to spare -- below the fold.A lot of folks in the flyover country don't have the means or opportunity to go to DC to celebrate the inauguration of Barack Obama with HRC and the rest of the advocacy orgs, think tanks etc. so they'll be watching on C-SPAN I guess. Even Netroots Nation is having some big inaugural bash. I wonder how many non-DC-based bloggers will be able to attend.
There are going to be a lot of events like this during that weekend, high-priced affairs where the glitterati will schmooze; there will probably be a dearth of color at a lot of the events, hardly what one would call "change," but this time around, the country will probably get a good look at a slice of the black bourgeoisie front and center.
Human Rights Campaign Foundation, Gay & Lesbian Victory Fund & Leadership Institute, National Gay and Lesbian Task Force, PFLAG, Gay & Lesbian Alliance Against Defamation, National Black Justice Coalition, Service Members Legal Defense Network, Freedom to Marry, BiNet USA, DignityUSA, Out & Equal Workplace Advocates, Equality Federation, National Gay and Lesbian Chamber of Commerce, National Coalition for LGBT Health, LGBT Community Center of NY, International Federation of Black Prides, CenterLink: The Community of LGBT Centers, and Family Equality Coalition
present:
OUT FOR EQUALITY
The LGBT community commemoration of
Barack Obama & Joe Biden's Inauguration
Tuesday, January 20
7 p.m. - Midnight
Mayflower Hotel
1127 Connecticut Avenue, NW
Washington, D.C.
Tickets go on sale Wednesday, December 3, 2008 at 9 a.m. at
www.boxofficetickets.com/outforequality
Featuring entertainment and appearances by:
Melissa Etheridge
Cyndi Lauper
Rufus Wainwright
Thelma Houston
and others to be announced
Open bar and cocktail buffet And stay tuned for more details about the event below!
Tickets are $350 per person before December 16 and $375 thereafter.
Attire: Festive or Formal
Dance for Equality
An Inaugural Commemoration
Tuesday, January 20
9 p.m. - 3 a.m.
Town Danceboutique
2009 8th Street, NW
Washington DC
Tickets will be released for sale mid-December.
Talent to be announced.
Human Rights Campaign Foundation, Gay & Lesbian Victory Fund & Leadership Institute, National Gay and Lesbian Task Force, PFLAG, Gay & Lesbian Alliance Against Defamation, National Black Justice Coalition, Service Members Legal Defense Network, Freedom to Marry, BiNet USA, DignityUSA, Out & Equal Workplace Advocates, Equality Federation, National Gay and Lesbian Chamber of Commerce, National Coalition for LGBT Health, LGBT Community Center of NY, International Federation of Black Prides, CenterLink: The Community of LGBT Centers, Family Equality Coalition
***
What's kind of ironic when I look at the above event is that during the primary season it was pretty clear that some at HRC were all about Hillary, but now they've got to get their political posteriors in gear for the new game in town.
Remember, it's a company town no matter who is in the White House or on the Hill, and the rules of the game involve ingratiating yourself with the new power brokers (and retaining your standing with the existing ones).
Opponents in 2007 argued the proposal would have unintended consequences, such as making it impossible to file domestic violence charges involving unmarried heterosexual couples. Supporters disagreed, but with the amendment starting from scratch, Marion Representative Eric Turner says he's tweaked the wording to answer those objections.
Turner says the new version is modeled on amendments in other states which have stood up to similar scrutiny.
Turner notes about half of House Democrats voted for the amendment in 2005, and says he expects some Democrats to file their own version of an amendment this year. He says he hopes they'll be able to persuade [House Speaker Pat] Bauer to allow a hearing.
Will the amendment return? I'd imagine the rightwingers in the Statehouse will attempt to push an amendment to try and distract from the ruin our state economy is in. With all of the problems our state has - unemployment, brain drain, a poor economy and a national recession - I can't imagine Speaker Bauer wasting any time with yet another hearing on gay marriages that haven't happened. As the Speaker was quoted in the Star article:
"I've been asking people to show me that the current law has been broken, and they haven't showed me yet. I want to see the couples that were illegally married."
Speaker Bauer was instrumental to the defeat of the amendment in last year's session of the General Assembly. Barring some last minute trick by Republicans, I feel comfortable about any introduced legislation's fate.
Still, it's worth remembering that the Indiana Democratic Party paid for an anti-gay campaign mailer in the last election. The DNC, National Stonewall Democrats, and the Indiana Stonewall Democrats all condemned the mailing, but the state party refused to comment to reporters or acknowledge any complaints by activists.
Speaker Bauer was not involved in the anti-gay campaign ad.
(Crossposted at Bilerico Project)
Add another name to the ranks of moral crusaders who were knocked off their pedestals: "[Birmingham, AL mayor Larry] Langford was arrested Monday after being charged in a federal indictment that accuses the former Jefferson County commissioner with receiving more than $236,000 in expensive clothes, designer watches and cash to pay his personal debt as part of a conspiracy to funnel county financial business to two of his friends."
For those not intimately acquainted with Langford's various Political Grandstanding Greatest Hits, they include but are not limited to the sackcloth, ashes, and Rolex watch city-funded "pray away crime" service and his refusal to follow standard city policy and sign Central Alabama Pride's parade permit/let city staff hang Pride banners.
Now that, I say, is change you can believe in.
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