Combined Gay News Headlines (T5T-1)

SF Mayor Gavin Newsom Giving Up on Governor's Race

The gayest straight mayor America has ever known just dropped his Democratic bid for the governor's mansion. CONTINUED » Permalink | 4 comments | Add to del.icio.us Tagged: California, Gavin Newsom, Politics, San Francisco

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Just days after a glowing profile in the Dallas Morning News of Paul Colichman and Stephen Jarchow's Regent/Here Media comes word from inside the company: it's a sinking ship. CONTINUED » Permalink | 20 comments | Add to del.icio.us Tagged: Advocate, Gay.com, Here Media, hiv plus, Media, Out, Paul Colichman, regent, Regent Media, Stephen Jarchow, The Advocate

Teacher Suspended Over Gay Animal Assignment … Gay Domestic Violence Reports Up 93%?!

ON OUR GAYDAR â€" News, notes, clicks, and quips from around the web. • Illinois high school English teacher Dan DeLong suspended over an optional assignment for students to read a Seed magazine article about documented homosexuality among 450 species. There's a special board meeting on Monday to decide his fate. More than 750 supporters on [...]

INTEGRATION breaks ALL the records

Wow.  That’s all I can say.  This week’s Halloween party at Starline was OFF DA’ HOOK!!!!  It was our best night yet all the way around.  Our previous best was 268 and we blew the doors off that record with 306 in attendance throughout the night!  Special thanks to the Starline staff for helping up [...]

Obama lifts HIV travel ban

For whatever reason for the past  two decades the United States hasn’t allowed people with HIV or AIDs into this country. Granted we also don’t let gay people donate blood because, y’know, queers all have HIV. Today though that first issue was rectified by President Obama signing the Ryan White HIV/AIDS Treatment Act. From the [...]

ATTENTION FRIDAY NIGHT AT RED LATERN YOSEMITE KNIGHTS PRESENT CHEEKS AND CHAPS

SATURDAY- TODAY- Open Voting in Maine!

Ya know, I have GOT to clean out my RL email box more often... ;)

Hi Louise --

I know we're being nags about this, but having strong supporters like you vote early is extremely important.

Is there any way you can take a few minutes to go to your city or town hall today and vote early?

There are only four 3 days left. We need our staff and volunteers focused on voters who may not make it to the polls, instead folks like you.

Let us know you voted so we can take your name off our list. That way we can reach one more extra No on 1 voter instead of hassling you on the phone.

Click here to tell us you voted:

Karin Roland
Online Communications Team
NO on 1/Protect Maine Equality

P.S. In the following towns you can also vote on Saturday. Call your town hall for specific hours.

Acton
Cutler
Limerick
Portland
Auburn
Denmark
Limington
Raymond
Bethel
Eagle Lake
Lovell
Rome
Biddeford
Eastbrook
Mount Vernon
Saco
Bremen
Fairfield
New Canada
Scarborough
Brownfield
Frye Island
Norridgewock
Shapleigh
Brownville
Fryeburg
Northport
South Portland
Canton
Gardiner
Norway
Stoneham
Caratunk
Gorham
Oakland
Sumner
Caribou
Hartford
Ogunquit
Swanville
China
Knox
Old Orchard Beach
Waldo
Cumberland
Lamoine
Old Town
Waterville
Wellington

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Trick Or Treat For Equality With 'No On 1'!

Trick or Treat for Equality: NO on 1 Campaign Offices

Saturday, October 31, 2009 4:00pm - 6:00pm

In keeping with the season, the NO on 1 campaign invited volunteers and supporters to bring their families and stop by one of its five offices statewide and grab some candy and cider.

"From day one, this campaign has been about all Maine families and we want to show our thanks and affection by making sure that we have plenty of candy and treats on hand for Halloween," said Jesse Connolly, the NO on 1 campaign manager.

"So come on by, say hello and bring the family."

The NO on 1 campaign invites trick-or-treaters from 4-6 PM at the following campaign offices:

Ogunquit Office - 718 Main Street Ogunquit, ME

Portland Office - 550 Forest Avenue Portland, ME

Lewiston Office - 110 Lisbon Street Lewiston, ME

Augusta Office - Capitol Street Augusta, ME

Brewer Office - 250 State Street Brewer, ME

ACTION ALERT: 'NO ON 1' CALL FOR EQUALITY

Call for Equality

Training Schedule

Get started with Call for Equality by signing up for a training and call shift!
Click here.

Our campaign has been working hard to identify marriage equality supporters across the state. Now, just weeks before the election, we've made our list of likely NO on 1 voters who we need to turn out to the polls-- and it just happens to be the number of votes we need to win.

If you've got a phone and an internet connection, you can be a part of our massive Get Out The Early Vote program. It only takes two hours to make a difference.

To get started, sign up for a training and call shift (right). Or, if you've already done a training, sign up for a call-only shift here.

Looking for our script? Click here.

Maine’s super-volunteers and passionate student allies

In the days leading up to my departure for Maine, I wasn't sure what to expect from the people I'd meet here. I'm no stranger to ballot campaigns; we've had our share of those in Oregon. I rode on Tuesday to a suburb outside of Portland, Maine with another volunteer staff to meet with nine high school students about their interest to get involved with the No On 1 campaign. Our goal was to start a “Friends and Family” Volunteer Recruitment Phone Bank with them on the spot, and to organize a few times when they and their friends could volunteer together, canvassing door-to-door the weekend before Election Day. We rolled up to their neighborhood Starbucks at about 3 o'clock and met the students inside. They'd come straight after school, and had heard about the campaign at an all-ages concert, where they'd bes concert, where they'd been watching their favorite local band. Three of the youth were band members! A few of them had worn their No On 1 buttons to school that day, and mentioned that they'd started conversations with other students about the issue, and what it meant to them. After introducing ourselves and briefly describing the state of the campaign, we read through a script and role-played it, making sure to arm the students with the facts needed to express to their friends and family members how much this means to them and why we need their help in the last two weeks of the campaign. When we asked the students to get out their mobile phones and start calling to sign their friends up for volunteer shifts with the campaign, they excelled at the task! After about a half hour, the students made a plan to gather together with their newly signed up volunteers for a morning canvass on Halloween, knocking on doors to get out the vote. None of the nine students were affiliated with the Gay Straight Alliance at their school, (and none mentioned that they identified as LGBT,) but all shared a sense that whoever you are and whomever you love, couples deserve to be recognized equally under the law.

From Maine with Love

We are 11 days away from the November Election. The Portland, Maine office is humming with volun We are 11 days away from the November Election. The Portland, Maine office is humming with volunteer activity. Every day, volunteers drop off food provisions for all the other volunteers. The first day we had homemade chili, yesterday egg salad sandwiches, and this morning someone brought in some carrots from their own yard. Mainers are chipping in any way they can. My time has been spent in the office working in the communications department while Travis Prinslow and Meleanie Altaras have been adopted into the Data and Campus Outreach departments. We work 9 to 9, when we're lucky and have been working on a variety of projects. From confirming volunteers, to getting people to vote early and in person volunteer recruitment. The amount of work that goes into a campaign is astounding. You walk into any office and you hear typing, people on the phone, stapling, paper shuffling and people being directed. It's a small preview of what Oregon will be dealing with soon enough. However, Oregon's fight will be much larger-- Maine's population is a third the size of Oregon's. I'm grateful that Basic Rights Oregon is starting early and getting all our ducks in a row before we enter our own fight. Maine's latest YouTube celebrity goes by the name of Phillip Spooner. Mr. Spooner is 85 years old, a WWII vet, and a lifelong republicanâ€"he is also in favor of marriage equality. Click here to watch his testimony in April during the Marriage hearings. His video has officially gone viral, with close to 500,000 views. Mainers are excited to have someone like Mr. Spooner speaking up for equality, so much so that he has unofficially become the face of the campaign. Click here to watch a segment of Mr. Spooner being interviewed about his views on Marriage Equality. The opposition is using children to scare voters into voting against equality. They are running ads claiming that "gay sex education" will be taught in schools. Fortunately, the Maine campaign has been very diligent about countering their ads and has caused a stir by featuring a French catholic woman who supports her son's right to get married. Yolande Dumont is also a Maine celebrity and has inspired Catholics and other religious denominations to come out and support the No on 1 campaign. Of course the Catholic DIoces is bankrolling the opposition's campaign along with National Organization marriage and Shubert Flint of prop 8 fame. When Yolande first came on the airwaves the Catholic Diocese was up in arms and started to spend resources countering Yolande's message. This is exciting because the opposition is now on the defensive. Not only do they have to counter multiple legislators, and educators on the whole "Teaching gay in Schools" issue, now they have to make sure that other fair minded Catholics reject Yolande's message. If the No on 1 Campaign wins on Election Day it will be a model on how to defeat the oppositions' vitriol and lies. Although, Maine is literally the farthest place from Oregon in the country, their efforts will have a huge impact on our work. They need all the help they can get. If you have not donated to the NO on 1 campaign you can do so by clicking here. If you cannot afford a donation but have some extra time on your hands you can phone bank from Oregon with their Call for Equality Program sign up here. I'm going to get back to work now but feel free to shoot me an email if you have any questions about getting involved in the Maine campaign. In solidarity, Alejandro Juarez Communications Coordinator Basic Rights Oregon (503) 222-6151 x 105 alejandro@basicrights.org

“You Have Always Been Welcome Here”, a play about the lives of four transgender people as they explore their relationships to family, gender, Christianity and spirituality is coming to Pendleton thanks to Pendleton PFLAG!

“You Have Always Been Welcome Here” here Presented by PFLAG Pendleton in cooperation with Communities of Welcoming Congregations & The Drama Queens    -   “You Have Always Been Welcome Here” portrays the lives of four transgender people as they explore their re; “You Have Always Been Welcome Here” portrays the lives of four transgender people as they explore their relationships to family, gender, Christianity and spirituality.   Rev. Tara Wilkins, executive director of Community of Welcoming [...]

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