The Daily Tweets 2011-06-16: Netroots Day 1

Posted on Fri, 17 June 2011 by Mel Green
  • Good morning from Netoots Nation. More tweeting all day long. Mostly keeping it off Facebook – follow me or hashtag #nn11 on Twitter. #fb#
  • Ill also still use hashtag #nn11lgbt for LGBT relevant stuff. #fb#

8:00-8:50 AM. Morning News Dump with Lizz Winstead and Friends
“Friends” included Alaska’s Shannyn Moore and Pam Spaulding of the LGBT blog Pam’s House Blend. I missed some of this because of a registration issue.

  • Morning newsdump about to start. #nn11#
  • Missed a buncha morning news dump due to a registration issue – but hearing now abt a new progressive voices app. #nn11#
  • @Pam_Spaulding of Pam’s House Blend talking about fake lesbian bloggers. She’s a real lesbian (so’m I). #nn11 #nn11lgbt #

That was a reference to the two very recent cases of supposedly lesbian bloggers who were exposed to be heterosexual males.

  • @shannynmoore on Sarah Palin & what Alaska exports that’s much better than crazy, like wild salmon. #nn11#
  • @shannynmoore now talking abt mining issues in AK – Pebble Mine – mining soon to rival oil as source of AK political corruption. #nn11#
  • Mining in AK is also a national issue – a food security issue. #nn11#
  • RT @Pam_Spaulding: My pithy quote: “We just lost two lesbian voices in the #lgbt movement.” #nn11 // funniest quote of morning. #nn11lgbt#

9:00-10:15 AM. Life Since Vegas: How the Netroots Forced Action on DADT and DREAM

  • RT @FreedomToServe: @AMERICAblogGay ‘s Joe Sudbay opens discussing links to opposition forces who fought DREAM act and #DADT #nn11 #nn11lgbt#
  • should not have had that donut. Blood sugar humming. #thingsnottodo #nn11 #
  • Trevor Thomas on last year situation re: repeal of DADT – & how online social media & bloggers crucial to repeal effort. #nn11lgbt #nn11 #
  • News from outside #nn11 : Weiner resigning. h:t @Gryphen2009http://t.co/I7L28VA#
  • Felipe Matos abt how faith groups support immigrant rights, but don’t always support LGBT immigrants. #nn11lgbt #nn11 #dream#
  • “Political homophobia”: when politician is not per se homophobic, but fears political backlash for supporting LGBT rights. #nn11 #nn11lgbt #
  • stepping out of session hoing for final resolution of registration mixup… #NN11#

10:30-11:45 AM. Managing a State Community Blog

  • Now at session on managing a state-level community blog. This is goal for @bentalaska : getting more ongoing bloggers & voices. #fb #nn11 #
  • How can state blogs connect w/ other blogs? #nn11#
  • Biggest need for @bentalaska : expanding front page crew: more consistent & committed blog writer so it’s not just on 1 or 2 people #nn11#
  • RT @deciminyan: #NN11 state-wide blog advice – get subject matter experts to write for your blog (eg transpo or other niche interests) #
  • FOOD FOR THOUGHT >> RT @jenancona: RT @soiledhands: Messages are not nuanced. Policies are. #nnecon #nn11 #
  • @bentalaska is both an events & news blog as well as re: LGBT AK & natl politics. We need people in all areas. #nn11#
  • getting orgs & politicians to pass on press releases. We already do to some extent on @bentalaska #nn11#
  • Stats of who our readers are on front page? #nn11#
  • traffic management: when do we get lots of traffic, when not? Analytics #nn11#
  • Turns out in this state blogs session I’m sitting right next to David Bremer of AK Democratic Party. Go AK! #NN11 #fb #
  • Now told we shd tweet this session w/ hashtag #local – all my tweets in last half hour gave been abt this session. #nn11#
  • driving traffic back to site by commenting on other state blogs & related issue blogs. #local #nn11 #
  • Discussing Soapblox & WordPress MU (multiuser). @bentalaska now on WordPress. Dunno we need more, but can change template. #local #nn11 #
  • Chris Dykstra of Warecorp talking abt Soapblox & other platforms. They have a booth. Also may be informal session later: watch #local #nn11 #
  • Biggest challenge of #nn11 : keeping all your devices charged. #
  • Talking at #local session abt “one state blog” w/ nodes for diff regions/cities. Exactly: @bentalaska needs ANC, FBX, JNO etc. #nn11 #fb #
  • leftyblogs.com a good place to link state blogs so progressives can find state blogs when big stories break. #local #nn11#
  • Get all blog staff to tweet & FB posts to help bring traffic. I know some @bentalaska folks have no Twitter. #local #nn11 #
  • I knew lots of this stuff, but presented in a cohesive way helps systematize it in my mind. Lots to do when I get back to AK #local #nn11#
  • imp for state blogs to do partisan analysis. In @bentalaska‘s case, LGBT analysis (as Dems often fail us as much as Repubs) #local #NN11 #
  • Thanks to the folks who did the state #local session – very helpful. #nn11#

“Lunchtime” — mostly spent in a hallway plugged in and dealing with connectivity problems

  • Finally got my #NN11 badge. I am now a Real Person ™. #nn11lgbt #fb #
  • It’s lunchtime! Time to feed some current to my iPod & laptop. #NN11#
  • Shoutout to all the other Alaska peeps at Netroots Nation!! #NN11 #fb #
  • Spotty Internet at #NN11 is Driving. Me. Crazy. Ahhhhhhhhhh! #
  • Uploading pics from the morning at #nn11 to my Flickr photostream. When it’s working, lots faster Internet here than at Hilton. #
  • Back at home: @Ch2KTUU (among others) reports 5.2 magnitude earthquake centered 50 miles SW of Anchorage at 11:06 AM. Tsunami not expected. #
  • I am now officially bored w/ sitting on my butt in hallway recharging & computer maintenance. Time for exhibit hall. #nn11#
  • goin to session on “when the prez is not that into you” mainly to hear Dan Choi, but wish session on faith wasn’t at same time… #nn11#
  • … as one of my big issues is how LGBT & progressives tens to cede religion to narrow spectrum rightwingers. #nn11#
  • Ina Jaffe of NPR here as media for this session. Panel abt to start. #nn11lgbt #nn11#
  • This is the “the president isn’t our boyfriend anymore” session. #nn11lgbt #NN11 #
  • People who stand up to Prez more likely to get what they want. Problem: Dems don’t tend to stan up to him. #nn11#
  • Moved over to Moving Forward w/ Faith session – practically speaking, faith issues imp to what LGBTs in AK face. #nn11lgbt #nn11 #
  • Internet connectivity at #nn11 keeps dropping out again. #
  • Beth Dahlman of Faithfulamerica.org talking abt advocacy of Catholic sisters in health care debate. #NN11#
  • “Feeding the Becklash” against extremism of Glenn Beck by faith orgs. #NN11#
  • Conservatives claiming “morals” & “values” as reasons to hurt poor. Eg Paul Ryan inspires by Ayn Rand refused Bible presented to him #nn11#
  • DailyKos guy pointing out that Republican Party a la Paul Ryan being taken over by anti-Christian Objectivist movement. #NN11#
  • “There is no one more antiChrist than Ayn Rand.” — Eric Sapp #NN11#
  • What are progressive Christian groups like Sojourners doing about Islamophobia? Need much more education abt Islam. #NN11#
  • Many LGBT people are Muslim & many LGBT faith people part of effort to fight Islamophobia & educate abt Islam. #NN11#
  • RT @elise_foley: Dan Choi just ripped up Organizing For America paper and threw it in the face of an Obama organizer. Intense shiz at #nn11#
  • Sounds like heavy stuff happening back at that “When the Prez is not that into you” session I left. I’m betting on news headlines… #nn11#
  • … but still glad I came over here, practically. Hope the live feed over there becomes perm video though. #nn11#
  • Attempts again to explain why Sojourners refused the Believe Out Loud ad. It rots, but still gotta work w/ Sojourners. #nn11lgbt #nn11 #
  • Agree! RT @MikeElk: Nichols: I dont care abt presidential politics…we need local politics covered by alternative media #nn11#
  • Got my #NN11 swag bag, now at session on “How to be the media.” #
  • Eli Pariser: now that we’ve written this, how do we get it out for as many as possible to see it? #NN11#
  • Davey D: telling our own stories. Corporate media won’t do it. #NN11#
  • Davey D: are we following the very media we’re trying to break free of? #NN11#
  • Eli Pariser: b/c very little media before Internet, we might gave artificially high regard for preInternet journalism… #NN11#
  • … Davey D: mainstream media wasn’t really that good to begin with. #NN11#
  • I.e., citizen journalism often very much much much better than what corporate & mainstream media does. #NN11#
  • Are we going to fall into same trap if just telling same story over & over that MSM does? #NN11#
  • @cathysherwin @oneunionmom That echoes what’s being said in How to be the media panel. We have to tell our own stories, MSM won’t. #nn11in reply to cathysherwin#
  • Davey D: interviews on local
    Media that gives lots of time & context to story v 2 minutes on Fox that disses you…. #NN11#
  • Support media that tells your stories accurately and well. To he’ll with those that give your story short shrift & treat you badly. #NN11#
  • Jason Barnett: we’re in trouble now – Comcast wants to own the Internet. Need for net neutrality. #NN11#
  • RT @RyanNewYork: American Constitution was attempt to break cycle of rise and fall of empires. Did they fail? #NN11 / It was a stopgap #
  • RT @RDispatches: Archbishop’s Theology Wearing No Clothes: Panic @ possibility of same-sex marriage passing in NY drive http://bit.ly/jWTabf#
  • Someone @ Huffpo blogging some shit abt progressives divorcing Obama b/c of incident at #nn11 w/ Dan Choi. It’s stupid. Simplistic. Shit. #
  • Listening to Russ Feingold abt corporate power, “Citizena United” & Wall Street/Republican corruption @Netroots_Nation #nn11#
  • RT @ZackFord: “Speech doesn’t corrupt; money corrupts. And money isn’t speech.” -Russ Feingold #nn11 // Citizens United = SCOTUS fail #
  • At @bentalaska: Netroots Nation is not just one nation http://goo.gl/fb/0wXQ8 #nn11 #nn11lgbt #
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The Daily Tweets 2011-06-15: LGBT Netroots Connect

Posted on Thu, 16 June 2011 by Mel Green

LGBT Netroots Connect

These are my tweets for the day; a less fractured narrative account of the day can be found in my post for Bent Alaska called “The day at LGBT Netroots Connect.” This was the LGBT preconference for Netroots Nation.

For the less Twitter-savvy, RT stands for retweet: this means that I was simply retweeting or passing along something that someone else originated. Sometimes I’ll add a comment, usually after a / or two. //  #nn11lgbt is the Twitter hashtag we used for LGBT Netroots Connect, #nn11 for the Netroots Nation 11 conference itself. #fb is the hashtag I use when I also want my tweet to show up as my Facebook status.

  • At LGBT Netroots Connect preconference at Hilton Minneapolis. We’re just getting started. #nn11lgbt #nn11 #fb #
  • “This pen doesn’t have a spellcheck so I don’t want to hear spelling complaints on Twitter.” #nn11lgbt #fb #
  • Taking further LGBT Netroots Connect preconference tweets off Facebook. If interested follow me or follow hashtag #nn11lgbt #fb #
  • Matt from NC: DNC meeting next year in city that still has no LGBT employment protection. Nor at NC state level #nn11lgbt #nn11 #
  • Naming antigay/antitrans hate groups for what they are: hate groups #nn11lgbt #
  • Speaker just advocated more use of inflammatory tactics/language. I don’t agree. #NN11LGBT #
  • BTW — for anyone who wonders who I am, I’m blogger/coadmin of Bent Alaska, Alaska’s statewide LGBTQ blog. #NN11LGBT #
  • RT @wondermann5: I have to remember to write off the South when it comes LGBT issues. #nn11lgbt / AK is now most northern “southern” state. #
  • RT @RyanNewYork: Calling people “bigots” isn’t gonna win anyone support for anything. #NN11LGBT #NN11 / absolutely right. #
  • Damn autocomplete. Last tweet shd read: Jos from Feministing: health acces for transfolk in ICE detention & prisons. #NN11LGBT #
  • @wondermann5 I understand. I have hard time w south too – AK has gotten much redder bc of southerners coming there in military. #nn11lgbt in reply to wondermann5 #
  • RT @Clarknt67: @interstateq I think “bigotry” concept– has been helpful for helping middle see how deranged the far right is. #nn11lgbt #
  • @Clarknt67 agree – use of term/concept “bigotry” needs to be used carefully, intelligently, not as epithet for namecalling. #nn11lgbt #
  • Someone just spoke up about discussion of religion re: LGBT. #NN11LGBT #
  • It’s official: am now known here as “Alaska.” 😉 #NN11LGBT #fb #
  • Just spoke up abt need not to cede religious ground to right wingers, to bring LGBT-friendly & inclusive faith community in. #NN11LGBT #
  • LGB relationship w/ trans people — LGBs not getting to know Trans people. #NN11LGBT #
  • RT @zackford: Unprecedented: #LGBT event ahead of schedule. #NN11LGBT / we rock! #
  • @jillmarcellus MT? Let’s talk! I’m wearing orange! #nn11lgbt in reply to jillmarcellus #
  • @Scallywag195 unfortunately no direct flights PDX-MSP either. I’m still pretty wiped, propped up on caffeine. in reply to Scallywag195 #
  • Now we’re going to “problem solve the movement.” In 45 minutes! #NN11LGBT #
  • We’ve been at lunch at #nn11lgbt but we should be reconvening here shortly. #
  • Before lunch we had a session on “problem-solving the movement” – brainstorming on 5 issues of concern… – see next 5 tweets! — #nn11lgbt #
  • 1. Identify 5 key gaps in movement for LGBT equality. #nn11lgbt #
  • 2. How can we engage more effectively across race/ethnicity? #nn11lgbt #
  • 3. How can we engage more effectively across generations? #nn11lgbt #
  • 4. How can we engage more effectively across faith/non-faith lines? #nn11lgbt (this is a big concern of mine personally) #
  • 5. How can we ensure the LGBT blogosphere is strong & well-funded? #nn11lgbt (hey, someone, send me some $$$ this is all volunteer for me!) #
  • In ~5 mins. we’ll start up again: utilizing blogging/social media to effect change, & building coalitions. #nn11lgbt #
  • We will later talk about “Immigration reform through a queer lens” #nn11lgbt #
  • And later yet again, “Is fighting for marriage equality strategic?” #nn11lgbt #
  • Meanwhile, of AK concern, I told a few folks at lunchtime about Fairview Block Party… #nn11lgbt #
  • .. about how “little” things like that are important signs both of ongoing homophobia, but also of how things are changing. #nn11lgbt #
  • Now going back into session. #nn11lgbt #
  • Moving back to my iPod which makes for slower tweeting, but doesn’t lose charge as fast as my laptop does. #nn11lgbt #
  • (feeling dangerously fried. No partying for me tonight: it’ll be time for downtime) #fb #
  • Breaking into 2 sessions. I’m w/ the one abt using blogging/social media to effect change #nn11lgbt #
  • Indiv bloggers not sustained, but needed to retain independent voices. #NN11lgbt #
  • Common fund by orgs to support blogs w/out dictating their message? #NN11lgbt #
  • Quid pro quo issues between orgs & bloggers is an issue for Bent Alaska, but at diff level then most talking abt here. #nn11lgbt #
  • Bent Alaska doesn’t deal much w/ HRC or GLAAD etc. But we do w/ AK orgs like ATE, ACLU of AK, Identity, etc. #nn11lgbt #
  • @Pam_Spaulding talked abt need even more for more time than $ given blogs usually not enough for us to quit day jobs. #NN11LGBT #
  • Most of Bent Alaska’s expenses come out of our own time, our own pockets. & I work a fulltime job, need downtime, etc #NN11LGBT #
  • How do LGBT bloggers move messaging into wider main stream media? #NN11LGBT #
  • This convo is abt building infrastructure for the movement. Yes. #nn11lgbt #
  • Speaking personally, “sustainable” blogging is mainly abt keeping people like me from burning out. So it’s also abt more people. #nn11lgbt #
  • “Immigration reform through a queer lens” panel abt to begin. #nn11lgbt #
  • This session and the later one on marriage equality will be posted online later. I’ll get them up on Bent Alaska when available. #nn11lgbt #
  • RT @Clarknt67: “Raise your hand if you’re an immigrant. Or a descendent of immigrants.” LOL. Be honest. #nn11lgbt // [raising hand] #
  • Immigration another area where personhood/humanity trumped by prejudice on arbitrary grounds placed into law. #NN11LGBT #
  • @MichaelRogersDC just a reminder re: table sighn up sheets during #nn11 #nn11lgbt #
  • RT @COLAGENATIONAL: #NN11 #NN11lgbt “18 family members of mine were deported :(” // strong example how asylum system is broken/inhumane. #
  • [Typo correction] How to help: every time you see immigrant-hate in media: comment to counter it. #NN11LGBT #
  • Last session today: Is fighting for marriage equality strategic? How can it get us closer to full federal equality? #NN11LGBT #
  • Freedom to marry v “mandate” or “obligation” to marry. #NN11LGBT #
  • In Maine, marriage equality movement led to great increase in LGBT org funding #NN11LGBT #
  • Though in AK in 1998, $ aimed toward LGBT orgs greatly dwarfed by Outside $ aimed AGAINST marriage equality. & we lost. #NN11LGBT #
  • The prob w/ marriage: who sets the agenda? “There are throwaway states in this movement.” Yeah, & Alaska is one of ’em. #nn11lgbt #
  • What I said abt marriage equality & AK is my view, I don’t pretend to speak for all LGBT Alaskans…. #NN11LGBT #
  • … But yeah. AK lost marriage equality early (1998). We’ve been forgotten except by ourselves. #NN11LGBT #
  • Being told that “throwaway states” are responsible to make other states care abt them. #NN11LGBT #
  • “anchorage has a chance to pass a local ENDA now.” no, ours defeated 2 yrs ago. ACLU trying to pass… #NN11LGBT #
  • …but does AK ACLU have local politics favoring it? I personally don’t think so. And I know the players. #NN11LGBT #
  • I hear Freedom to Marry on winning it for ALL states. But the question is abt strategic & for my state now, other ?s are at fore #NN11LGBT #
  • Done for day except reception & blogwriting. I made an opinionated stink abt a coupla things. Hope AK will still talk to me. #nn11lgbt #fb #
  • RT @scoutout: LGBT pre-conf ends with a standing ovation for the organizer @MichaelRogersDC. Great job Mike! #NN11LGBT // WOOT!!! #
  • @PhilAttey I’m interested in this. I have an unfinished long piece I need to finish abt Catholic hierarchy v laity on this. in reply to PhilAttey #
  • RT @Clarknt67: “Throwaway staters”? I am here help. You are not abandoned, forgotten or left behind. How can I help? #nn11lgbt let’s talk! #
  • RT @f_matos007: I didn’t like someone calling the underground railroad as “incovenient”. #NN11LGBT / “convenience” be damned! #
  • RT @vanessacoe: i want sustainable long-term organizing focused around cultural and systemic change. marriage is one tool. #NN11LGBT / agree #
  • RT @redrummy: @yksin Ah, the summer of hate. Crowds of red shirts still give me nightmares. / oh yeah. Sweet reminiscence. #nn11lgbt #
  • RT @EqualityAmerica: New York Assembly Approves Marriage Equality in Vote of 80-63. #LGBT #NY // Go NY!!! #
  • Photos from today’s LGBT Netroots Connect preconference to Netroots Nation 11. http://bit.ly/mmqY16 #nn11lgbt #nn11 #
  • RT: @bentalaska: Bent Alaska contributor reports on LGBT Netroots Connect preconf in Minneapolis http://goo.gl/fb/rtrml #nn11lgbt #nn11 #
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The Daily Tweets 2011-06-14: From Portland to Minneapolis

Posted on Wed, 15 June 2011 by Mel Green

After four nights in Portland — one camping on the street along the Rose Parade route with Right 2 Survive, another with my friends Genny & Deirdre, & two more with my beloved ex-partner Ptery at Dignity Village — it came time to fly on to Minneapolis for LGBT Netroots Connect and Netroots Nation. This was my travel day: three flights and ten hours from Portland to Seattle to Denver to Minneapolis.

  • At PDX on way to MSP (via SEA & DEN) for #nn11lgbt & #nn11 And if you can interpret that, I congratulate you, I barely can myself! #fb #
  • Now at SEA boarding for DEN. Hope there’s a meal on this plane! #fb #
  • One more damn plane. DEN to MSP, where there will be a bright shiny hotel & #nn11lgbt in the morning. #fb #
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The Daily Tweets 2011-06-11: Right 2 Survive & Portland’s Rose Parade

Posted on Sun, 12 June 2011 by Mel Green

My first night in Portland was spent with homeless activists — some actually homeless, others housed people who support homeless rights — on the streets of downtown Portland on the eve of Portland’s annual Rose Parade. There’s apparently some city ordinance which automatically grants a camping permit along the Rose Parade route to anyone who wants to camp there to get primo parade viewing the following day. So Right 2 Survive, a homeless activist group, decided: let’s pitch tents and camp to bring attention to how the homeless are prohibited from camping every other night, and are in constant struggle just to find a safe place to sleep. (Or, for that matter, pee.)

We were camped at SW 4th & SW Washington. I’ll add photos later after I get them processed & uploaded.

The following morning — Saturday — I went across the street for a cup of coffee, a breakfast wrap, & some wifi time. Turns out the business’s wifi signal reached all the way across the street, so I was also able to livetweet the veeeeeeery long parade.

  • Hanging out w/ Right 2 Survive ( homeless org) in DT Portland watching Rose Parade. We camped here @ SW 4th & Washington overnight. #fb #
  • Homeless situation in PDX similar in many ways to Anchorage, but also many ways different. #fb #
  • One way same: just trying to find a place to pee, or to sleep w/out getting rousted. & need for housing. #fb #
  • One way different: orgs like newspaper Street Roots which gives homeless folks chance to earn $ as vendors … #fb #
  • … & has wellwritten articles from homeless & other advocates abt homeless issues, causes, analysis. Homeless speaking for themselves. #fb #
  • Beautiful day in Portland for a parade! #fb #
  • Rockin’ out w/ some John Philip Sousa! #fb #
  • Parades in Anchorage don’t last this long. #fb #
  • True story. Ortland Rose Parade lasted abt 3 hrs. I’m fried. #fb #
  • RT @yksin: True story. Ortland Rose Parade lasted abt 3 hrs. I’m fried. # // that shd say “”Portland.” p on my iPod keeps sticking. #
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The Daily Tweets 2011-06-10: Packing for Netroots

Posted on Sat, 11 June 2011 by Mel Green
  • Packing for 7 AM flight for weekend in PDX, followed by #nn11lgbt & #nn11 in Minneapolis. See all you AK Netroots folks in MN next week! #fb #
  • Enjoyed witty social repartee w/ classic AK homophobe @ http://bit.ly/lMvTTp – check it out #nn11lgbt it's what makes Palin's AK special #fb #
  • But now packed, showered, & ready to go catch my plane. On the way to PDX for the weekend, then to MSP for #nn11 #nn11lgbt #fb #
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My first Anchorage Pride, 1983 — and (some of) Identity’s early history

Posted on Sat, 11 June 2011 by Mel Green

Crossposted at Bent Alaska

My first Pride in Anchorage, just short of a year after I first arrived in Alaska, was in June 1983. This was my second Pride march overall — my first had been in Boston in 1981, the summer after I graduated from college. Boston newspapers reported that about 12,000 people marched that year.

Anchorage was a little different. There were just 19 of us trying to fill up the street. And yes, just as several marchers in 1978 had worn paper bags over their heads for fear of losing their jobs because of discrimination, so did one of my friend’s in 1983.

Here’s the photo I sent to Gay Community News (GCN), the nationally circulated Boston gay newspaper I used to read in those days. This is on 6th Avenue under the Penney’s skywalk. The banner had been carried by Alaska participants in the First National March on Washington for Lesbian and Gay Rights on October 14, 1979.

1983 Anchorage Pride march

I can’t find a copy of my letter as published, but at some point I transcribed my handwritten draft of it. Relevant excerpts:

Dear GCN:

Enclosed is a photograph of this year’s Lesbian/Gay Pride March in Anchorage, Alaska. There were nineteen of us in this city of about 200,000, so a rough estimate is that for every one of us on the street, there were 1,000 at home in Anchorage (1,000 more in the rest of the state). Despite the small numbers in our march, I am told that this is the march’s 5th consecutive year. I am told that the maximum participation was two years ago, with about 50 people….

[S]omehow a very disparate group of people came to be walking down 6th Avenue behind the Alaska banner that is a veteran of the National March on Washington…..

The last march (and my first march) was in Boston in 1991 when there were 12,000 marchers. This was more frightening — it is like one of the marchers in our parade said in comparing marching in San Francisco with marching here. He said in San Francisco the march is very much a celebration, but coming here reminded him that there are still many places where the issue for us is not yet celebration — but simple survival….

But let me backtrack a little: it so happens that 1982/1983 was a pretty important period for the organization that’s now behind Anchorage’s Alaska Pride celebrations every year — Identity, Inc. Back in August 1982, when I arrived in the state, it wasn’t called Identity: it was called the Alaska Gay and Lesbian Community Center (AGLRC), and this was its building:

Alaska Gay & Lesbian Resource Center, Dec 1982

Alaska Gay & Lesbian Resource Center, Dec 1982You’ll notice the sign at the left has the initials AGCC, for the Center’s original name: Alaska Gay Community Center. The building was located on 837 I Street — not on I Street directly, but just east of it behind a bakery called the Bread Factory. Landlord problems led us to move the AGLRC in December 1982. In fact, I took these photos on our move-out day. I remember taking a lot of photos: the landlord had gotten quite creepy and homophobic, and we wanted to document how spiffily we were cleaning the place up, so he didn’t try to charge us for leaving it a mess.

I say our move-out day because at that time I was secretary on AGLRC’s board of directors. Here’s some of the other board members on move-out day:

Alaska Gay & Lesbian Resource Center, Dec 1982

From left to right, that’s Jay Brause, who at that time was board president — one of the first people I ever knew in Anchorage’s gay & lesbian community. Lounging on the floor is his partner Gene Dugan. The three of us lived roommates back then, living in the house of a terrific straight ally named Sami & her three kids. I don’t think Gene was on the board, but he certainly pitched in to help us move out and clean up. Gene, a theatre professional, was founder of the company we now know as Out North Contemporary Art House, where Jay also worked for many years after a long period as first board president and later executive director of Identity. Longtime community members will also remember Jay and Gene as the gay couple who sued Alaska for the right to marry in 1994, kicking off the so-far unsuccessful fight for marriage equality here. Jay & Gene are married (though their marriage is not recognized by the State of Alaska) & now live in London, England.

Okay, next in line: Fred Hillman, who still lives here in Anchorage and is still active in the fight for LGBT equality; and next to him is Les Baird. Les was a fireman with Anchorage Fire Department. I most remember for his grief and anger over the death a few weeks after this photo was taken of a young man — an AGLRC volunteer, actually, whose name I regrettably don’t remember — who was the first person in Alaska to die of AIDS.

From that old shacky building behind the Bread Factory, we moved into this building on 5th Avenue:

Alaska Gay & Lesbian Resource Center, June 1983

The building no longer exists. It was on the block on 5th Avenue just west of the Egan Convention Center, which was nearing completion at the time this photo was taken in June 1983 on the day of that year’s gay/lesbian pride march. We were in an apartment on the second floor — the two leftmost windows apartment — which consisted of a large squarish room with a large walk-in closet, just large enough to fit a desk for volunteer staff members who staffed the Gay & Lesbian Hotline (later “Helpline”). That little blue car in front of the building belonged to Jay.

At the end of June 1983, the AGLRC closed its physical facility due to our inability to continue paying rent. Shortly thereafter, our board of directors renamed the organization Identity, Inc. — the name it’s held ever since. We take it for granted now, but at the time the name change was hugely controversial within the community. Identity did its work for nearly two decades without a physical office until it opened the Gay and Lesbian Community Center of Alaska (GLCCA) on Northern Lights in 2001 (moving to its present location on E. 5th Avenue a few years later).

But just before we moved out, the AGLRC was where we assembled for our 1983 Pride march.

1983 Anchorage Pride march

That’s Michael Day there on the left — he was a good friend of mine in those days. Fred Hillman again, and Dee Cox, at the time my roommate. She used to run the coat check at the Village Lounge & Disco, the gay bar located where the Kodiak Bar & Grill is today. By the time of this photo, my first Anchorage landlady, Sami, had remarried, and I had moved in to become Dee’s roommate. She died in the early 1990s of complications of Type 1 diabetes. The bearded fellow in the blue sweatshirt is David McCartney, who created and produced the radio program “Gay and Lesbian News Review” on KSKA, Anchorage’s public radio station (both Jay & I also worked on the program for awhile). And that’s Jay with his back to us. I’m afraid I’m not sure of the other two people.

Here we are after getting out the banner. You can see the Egan Convention Center in the background, near completion of construction but still surrounded by plywood. That’s me in the middle with the blue sweatshirt & painter’s pants.

1983 Anchorage Pride march

Mel Green in the 1983 Anchorage Pride march Here’s a closer look at what I looked like back then. Younger, more freckly, with longer hair and some really abysmal eyeglass frames. Ugh. And still wearing a sweatshirt from the college I’d graduated from a couple of years previously. (I missed my 30-year class reunion just last weekend: heys there, 1-9-8-1-Wellesley-rah!) This must have near the end of the march, on 9th Avenue by the Park Strip. You can see the Chugach Mountains there in the background.

And back to the photo we began with, marching along 6th Avenue under the Penney’s skywalk:

1983 Anchorage Pride march

We’ll see just a few more of us along 6th Avenue come June 25, don’t you think?

I hope others will share their memories of past Prides, whether in Anchorage or anywhere else. Happy Pride!

Posted in LGBTQ history | Tagged , | 1 Comment

Prepping for Netroots Nation — #nn11 #nn11lgbt

Posted on Fri, 10 June 2011 by Mel Green

Crossposted at Bent Alaska

A couple of weeks ago I announced that I’m going to Netroots Nation 11 on full scholarship through the LGBT Netroots Connect initiative. Now it’s time to finish preparing for it — if only because I’m just about to fly outta here.

Netroots Nation, Minneapolis, June 2011I’m sticking a couple of hashtags in my post title so this post will tweet nicely. FYI, #nn11 stands for Netroots Nation 11, to be held starting next Thursday in Minneapolis, and #nn11lgbt is the hashtag for LGBT Netroots Connect program, via which I got the full scholarship to the LGBT preconference next Wednesday as well as NN11 itself. Got that? Cool. Too geeky for you? Oh well, sorry. I’ll translate: it’ll make my post, when Twitter picks it up, easily findable by other geeky NN11 attendees & vicarious spectators who want to know what’s being said about NN11 and NN11lgbt.

Bow ties are cool. — The Eleventh Doctor

Bow ties are cool. — The Eleventh Doctor

A few days ago I wrote on Henkimaa about the cool-as-bow-ties Netroots Nation 11 mobile app that I downloaded onto my iPod Touch. So cool that it turns my iPod Touch into a veritable sonic screwdriver.  Don’t get that reference either?  Here, I’ll help you out: it makes my iPod Touch even more useful a tool than it was before.  Especially, it makes it easy for me to figure out which sessions I want to go to at the conference, and where they fit in my overall conference schedule.

Then the app went funky on me. Obviously, the good folks of NN11 were fixing it. They loaded some Netroots Nations sessions into the app that hadn’t been in it before. But other sessions disappeared completely, including some of those I was most interested in.  The attendees registered in slowly started climbing, though. For awhile there it looked like 90% of them would have first names starting with M. Now other letters are starting to fill out.

And now most or all of the sessions seem to be in there too.  Again with the bow-tie coolness and sonic-screwdriverly usefulness.  And so I can, again, better prep for NN11.

Good thing, too, because I’m flying out tomorrow morning.  (I’m writing this Thursday night.  By the time you read this, I’ll be on my way.)

Portland

Obviously, since even the LGBT preconference doesn’t happen until next Wednesday, I must be doing something else first.  Yes: I’m flying to Portland — the one in Oregon — to see my ex-but-still-beloved Ptery.  Ptery, a transman, is currently (& somewhat by choice) homeless, and is a homeless activist living in Dignity Village, a city-recognized homeless camp. But tomorrow — that is, Friday — he’ll be participating in a peaceful & direct action for homeless rights: camping with homeless & formerly homeless community members on the Rose Parade route. And since it’s Friday I’m getting there, I’m participating too, and thus will be sacking out in a tent Friday night somewhere along that route.  I’ll spend a couple of nights at Dignity Village, too, with in-between a night with my friends Genny & Deirdre, who I haven’t seen in a couple of years.

I hope to write a blog post or two while I’m in Portland. Homelessness issues… the trans community of which Ptery is part… the incredible community response to a viscious gaybashing that occurred recently on Portland’s Hawthorne Bridge, about which we included an item (including video) in Bent News a few days ago.

Then Tuesday I’ll fly on to Minneapolis via Seattle & Denver… yeah, that airport layover thing again. Arriving there quite late Tuesday night.

Minneapolis

And it’ll be pretty strange, after one night in a tent and a couple more at Dignity Village, to be residing for several days in the Hilton Minneapolis. Hopefully a hotel that’s not subject to the unfair labor practices that have been plaguing workers at Anchorage’s Hilton (as well as our Sheraton) the past few years.

The LGBT preconference will be all day Wednesday.  I have no idea what’s in store there, except to know that Mike Rogers, the guy behind LGBT Netroots Connect (as well as a whole lot else!) tells me that a lot of the folks down there are pretty excited that an LGBT blogger from Alaska will be there.  (I am still, by the way, waiting to see if anyone got the joke I inserted in my “I’m going to Netroots Nation” post about which famous Alaskan Mike was curious about. First person to write the correct answer in comments on this post gets some kind of cool NN11 swag from me.)

I should have Wifi, & whenever I do — here we go Twitter, again.  I intend to tweet from Netroots quite a bit.  So if you’re interested in what I or other LGBT Netroots Connect and NN11 participants are doing, get used to those hashtags. Here they are again: #nn11 and #nn11lgbt. Interested persons can also follow me on Twitter @yksin.  And my Tweets will be automatically compiled, as usual, into Daily Tweets posts at Henkimaa (but not at Bent), to which I’ll try to add descriptive subtitle & useful commentary as I have time.  I’ll also be writing regular posts (as indeed I’m required to by the terms of my scholarship), which will be posted at Henkimaa, and/or Bent Alaska (especially those that are directly LGBT-relevant), or both.

Netroots Nation itself begins Thursday, June 16.  If you’re curious, you too can download the cool-as-bowties NN11 mobile app from iTunes or whatever Android users use (assuming the app is there too). Or you can simply visit the Netroots Nation website.

Now, the reason I’m going to NN11 isn’t for Henkimaa.  The kind of conference Henkimaa would want me to go to would be one in which a whole bunch of writers sat at tables with laptops and coffee and wrote, wrote, wrote, wrote.  But hey, I do that with my writing buddies every Side Street Saturday and every Sugarspoon Tuesday — just a walk up the street or a brief ride on the People Mover.

No, I’m going to NN11 for Bent Alaska. Which is an LGBT blog.  And a blog, furthermore, which — well, let me quote from my scholarship application:

In 50 words or less, what do you hope to gain from your participation in Netroots Nation?

I recently became coadminstrator of Bent Alaska, Alaska’s LGBTQ blog. I hope to get counsel on how to bring in other writers/bloggers to enrich Bent Alaska with more content from more voices.

That question, that answer, is my single biggest reason for going to Netroots.  Hand-in-hand with it is the desire to connect with other LGBT bloggers and allies around the country to talk about our common goal of LGBT equality and how we, as the “media voices” of our movement can help to bring that about.

Thus, the very first session I added to my schedule as a “must go” was Managing a State Community Blog — “Need ideas for expanding your state blog’s reach? Trying to build your frontpage crew?” — no kidding, yeah.  I am. Especially to build the frontpage crew — because, y’know, I’m still that reluctant political blogger, who still wants to be a Henkimaa‘s version of a conference, where I can write write write write my “own” stuff.  We want to get more people in on Bent — more bloggers, more voices, more parts of the state represented.  (And not just on “political” stuff, but on the whole gamut of LGBTQ life, culture, politics, interests.)

Then I went through and added everything in the LGBT topic:

But there’s also lots of other sessions I’m interested in, and none — well, let’s say “not all” —  of these are cast in stone.  If there’s any Bent Alaska reader of an activist nature who sees something in the NN11 sessions that you think I should really consider going to — please get in comments or message me via my Facebook profile and tell me why.  And I’ll consider it. I really will.

If I had a highest goal of this Netroots: it’s that my participation in it this year could lead to the participation of someone else from LGBTQ Alaska next year. Someone, I hope, who becomes as committed to the health & welfare of Bent Alaska & the whole of the Alaska community we serve, as we strive to be.

* * *

But there’s one last item of note in my preparing for NN11.  I wrote on my scholarship application,

[B]y far the most important work I’ve done for the cause of LGBTQ equality and progressive politics in general is to live openly and matter-of-factly as who I am — as a lesbian, yes, but also as a writer of poetry and science fiction/fantasy; as someone with a B.A. in Religion who continues to be fascinated by the human religious impulse; as someone who has struggled lifelong with depression/despair; and as everything else I am .

Emphasis added.  That bolded item is another big part of why I initially had no interest in going to NN11.  It’s also the reason I didn’t go to my college class 30-year reunion, which was held last week, despite the urging of friends that I come.  And one of them — a classmate I didn’t know well in college, but with whom I’ve recently been getting better acquainted (no, not that way) — seemed just a little hurt, or at least dissapointed, when she learned that I’d stood up reunion, but was going to Minneapolis.  So I wrote to her:

I basically decided to go if & only if I got that LGBT Netroots Connect scholarship … & mainly because I felt (& continue to feel) that the conference can drop some wisdom on me about how to get other folks involved, consistently & reliably, with the blog. Because I am subject to burnout, thanks to my well-known (because I write about it) propensity to go into some Very Bad Places Inside Myself when I become overwhelmed with too much to do that doesn’t feed my spirit, that isn’t “mine.” (Like my writing is.) I want to do what I can for Bent, but not at my own expense.

I just wanted you to know that. I didn’t just stand up reunion in order to go to Netroots. Either of them is somewhat dangerous for me, b/c the Bad Places Inside Myself shit —

… (I don’t much like calling it “depression” anymore b/c what used to be a term of convenience for what I consider primarily a spiritual issue, though it does have it’s biological components, has been so medicalized & psychiatrized)…

— can easily have its wire tripped by big social events containing lots of people wanting to be talked & schmoozed with, with little downtime. Kinda like reunion. Kinda like NN. In fact, I’m just about to start writing a blog post about prepping for NN that will include some discussion of this: the care I’ll need to take to avoid derailing myself through what is otherwise a pretty cool thing.

I don’t mean to give the impression I’m some fragile vase or something that will shatter at a touch… but it was a long hard haul, figuring out how to take care of myself around this stuff — my dance with despair is the central stuff of my life — & I pay it mind.

So while you’ll find a lot of afterhours parties and late entertainments on the NN11 schedule — I doubt I’ll be going to many of them. With all the excitement of learning lots and meeting lots of cool people, I know I’m likely to become overhwelmed.  And I’m going to need some heavy duty downtime, and plenty of sleep.  If anyone wants to drop in the occasional reminder for me to remember that, please do.  I want to come back to Alaska invigorated… not swamped in a pit of my own making.

Did I say plenty of sleep?  And here it is 12:10 PM, with a 7:00 AM flight.  And I haven’t even packed yet. Gee, Mel, that’s a great start.

I’m prepping this for posting at 8:00 AM, Alaska time.  By that time I’ll be an hour in the air on my way to Portland.  Fast asleep, I hope.

See you on the other side.

Posted in depression, Journal, LGBTQA | Tagged , | 1 Comment

An indictment of the Christian heresy followed by Palin & friends

Posted on Mon, 6 June 2011 by Mel Green

Cross & flagI join Wickersham’s Conscience in saying:

As usual, Sullivan nails it.

The blog post by Andrew Sullivan that WC points at begins,

The relationship between religion and politics is, to my mind, the central question of our time. As the false totalisms of the twentieth century – communism, fascism, Nazism – have been revealed as oppressive, murderous lies, insecure and inadequate human beings in need of totalist solutions to the human dilemma have returned to religion. But more accurately, they have returned to fundamentalism, because only fundamentalism, with its absolute certainty and literal precision and binding, unquestionable authority, can assuage the anxieties of a world dislocated from tradition, up-ended by capitalism, globalized to the point of cultural panic….

And later,

This ideology comes perilously close to arguing that something must be right because America does it, or has done it. It paradoxically removes the potential for moral improvement and reform by arguing that America was immaculately conceived, and that all that is required for its revival is what Sarah Palin calls a “fundamental restoration”. The core moral narrative of the country – its founding on slavery and its bitter brutal internal conflict to achieve racial justice over the centuries – is simply ignored. This is what we are hearing from Santorum and Romney and Palin: American fundamentalism.

All of this is routine for authoritarian nationalist movements. What distinguishes this one is a co-optation of Christianity. But, of course, Christianity cannot be co-opted by nationalism. It is opposed to all such distinctions:

There is neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither bond nor free, there is neither male nor female: for you are all one in Christ Jesus.

Yes, the Messiah came from a Chosen People, but in Christianity, Jesus’s death and resurrection made the whole world that chosen people. At the Feast of the Ascension yesterday, we Catholics heard at Mass the words of Jesus from Matthew:

Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, and teaching them to obey everything that I have commanded you.

And so the notion of America as a unique nation in the eyes of God is a Christian heresy.

But read the rest.

Here, again, is a reminder of what Christianism is.  Also known as Christian dominionism, also known as Christianity as political ideology, rather than religion. In this case, it’s a form of nationalist idolatry, or idolatrous nationalism — the stuff, in any case, that theologian Paul Tillich wrote about in in a passage of Dynamics of Faith whence comes this quote:

In true faith the ultimate concern is a concern about the truly ultimate; while in idolatrous faith faith preliminary, finite realities are elevated to the rank of ultimacy.

Among which idolatrous faiths counts the style of Christian dominionist nationalism practiced & preached by Palin & her ilk.

Posted in No Way Way | Tagged , , | 2 Comments

The Daily Tweets 2011-06-05: Crushing on Dr. River Song

Posted on Sun, 5 June 2011 by Mel Green

Alex Kingston as Dr. River Song in "Doctor Who"Yep, I’m a Whovian now.  I also really like Dr. Song.

  • Graham Norton has been spoiling me. Last wk: kd lang. This wk: Alex Kingston — my latest crush Dr. River Song on “Doctor Who.” Mmmmmm. #fb #
  • (I’ve never heard that Dr. River Song is a lesbian icon or anything. But I don’t care. I’m crushing on her anyway.) #fb #
  • It’s cool on Graham Norton how all the guests turn into this sorta ad hoc ensemble cast, playing off each other but not to upstage. #fb #
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The Daily Tweets 2011-06-04

Posted on Sat, 4 June 2011 by Mel Green
  • RT: @Mari_Kurisato: Noomi Rapace set a high bar for Millenium Trilogy. Also high bar for being "jam my fist in my mouth" hot. / oh yeah #fb #
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