Andrew Sullivan: Big Think

Andrew Sullivan is perhaps the best known and most influential political gay blogger out there.  His The Daily Dish blog, which is hosted at the online site for The Atlantic magazine, recently celebrated it's 10th year online (that's like 100 years in blog-life!).  In light of this milestone, the site Big Think has just posted a fascinating interview with Andrew on the blogging life, his politics, his appreciation for "South Park" and the fact that President Abraham Lincoln was probably gay. He is certainly someone whose intellect and passion I have long admired, even before his blogging days.

In this segment, Andrew talks about marriage equality, the current political moment and Dan Savage's "It Gets Better" Project (be patient as it uploads):



You can watch the full 42 minute interview here. Big Think has also split it up into segments.

Related:

• Andrew Sullivan on Homocons and GoProud: They are Nauseating (Joe.My.God.)

OMG: "Police are confused by the tradition of Puerto Ricans gathering outside their homes..."

"Police are confused by the tradition of Puerto Ricans gathering outside their homes or storefronts. In Puerto Rico, that's how people socialize" and "Police officers should not assume that ALL Asians are new immigrants" and "People from Central and South America may also be insulted if police make an assumption that, if they look Hispanic or speak Spanish, they must be from Mexico" and "Be sensitive to transgender dress!"

"Mexicans" you will be glad to know "are NO exception!"

I kid you not! From a Chicago police department's "sensitivity" training video as posted by Everything is Terrible and picked up tonight by Andrew Sullivan. I. Just. Had. To. Share.

A-Twitter

There is been a marked slow-down of blog posts on Blabbeando as of late. It might be related to certain life changing developments that have taken place in the past few months (don't worry, my health is OK), the feeling that one is on a blogging treadmill where - if you don't write everything. right now. at this. very. moment. - you lose momentum. Or the selective attention span of those who might check on the blog from time to time.

Or perhaps it has to do with the natural life-cycle of a blog. Several of my favorite blogs over the last few years have slowed down as well, including Bejata (who expressed a similar sentiment back in September) and The Republic of T (who also expressed similar feelings on June 10th), just to think of two.

It might be a phase, it might not. But here is an alternative: I first joined Friendster because... because... hm, I forget? Then I dug MySpace for the access it gave me to new music from my favorite artists - but I have long abandoned that page. I moved on to Facebook and invited nearly everyone I knew to join my page before I knew how pervasive Facebook was (I am sorry to those who endured my Friend Buying ways early in my Facebook experience).

Now I am Twittering. Just like Barbara Walters and Ophra!

I have had a Twitter account for a while but it took me a while to 'get it'. It took Michael Crawford of Bilerico to launch #SameSexSunday to make me realize the power of Twitter.

Now in full bloom, thanks to the way that it's allowing people in Iran to circumvent government crackdowns on media and communication in the aftermath of last week's election, I've joined those who have changed their online avatar colors to green in support of those who are challenging the official election returns (to access info just follow the #IranElection posts or follow Andrew Sullivan's amazing series of posts on his Daily Dish blog).

So take a look at Twitter and visit me there if you want by adding my Twitter feed. And if it takes you a while to 'get' Twitter please feel free to ask me about it to see if I can make it somewhat clearer for you. Will be blogging again soon. Just don't hold your breath.

Update: My brother, Iowa, Vermont and marriage equality

I won't write much about the tremendous marriage equality victory today in Iowa or yesterday's vote by the Vermont House of Representatives to pass a marriage equality bill. Other sites have better analysis and information than I would be able to offer. But I will share a personal anecdote and also tell you how you can make the Vermont vote stick in light of the state governor's threat to veto marriage equality this Monday.

Iowa: My brother Gabriel (right), who lives in Iowa City, called me this evening to give me an up to the minute report on a celebratory rally taking place downtown Iowa City this evening. He was at a restaurant sitting near a wide window and was watching dozens of gay and lesbian Iowans walk by holding hands and carrying signs on the way to the rally. He even spotted some co-workers and said he was glad for them.

No biggie, just a brother speaking to a brother. But that's why I love my family. They are always there with me - and celebrate these LGBT rights victories with me - in a way that makes me so grateful for having the parents and the brothers that I have.

BTW, blogger Andrew Sullivan predicted that Iowa might go this way at last Sunday's "The Chris Matthews Show" on NBC. His exact words?

Vermont's legislature has just overwhelmingly voted to have marriage rights for gay couples, but the big future shock will be Iowa, where we will have marriage rights.

Vermont: Which brings us to VT. Andrew's 'overwhelmingly' comment means that the Vermont House of Representatives voted in favor of marriage equality by a margin of 95-52. A HUGE margin except that it falls five votes short of the 2/3rds majority needed to avoid a governor's veto that could come as soon as Monday!

But WAIT!! There is something you can do tonight and over the weekend! You can e-mail VT legislature to ask them to override the veto. Please do because marriage equality in VT may be only still in play if you take action between now and Monday.

Again, if you would like to see Vermont join Iowa, Massachusetts, and Connecticut in granting equal rights to same sex couples, please click on the previous link.

And, if you have some time on your hands, please head over to this video which has some incredibly moving testimony from last night's VT House debate on the marriage bill.

Rex Wockner: Gay VIP's on Obama

Lookie here: It's President-elect Barack Obama's first official presidential portrait taken by photo-journalist Pete Souza.

Weird! Life circumstances ruined my chance to celebrate the presidential election results on Nov. 4th after months of pushing for Obama. So things like this still send chills up my spine and make me tear up a li'l bit.

In any case, Rex Wockner has begun a series of blog posts on reactions from what he calls 'Gay VIP's' to Obama's nomination as president to the United States..

So far here is the breakdown (I'll keep updating the post as he updates his):

• Edmund White
• Larry Kramer
• Lorri Jean
• Dan Savage who blogs at SavageLove
  
• Andrew Sullivan who blogs at The Daily Dish
  
• Paula Ettlebrick
• Kate Kendell
  
• Peter Tatchell
• John Aravosis who blogs at AMERICAblog
• Felice Picano
• Jon Davidson
• Michael Musto who blogs at La Daily Musto
  
• Scott Long
• Patrick Sammon
• Evan Wolfson
• Anne Northrop
• Amy Balliett
• Chuck Rernslow
• Geoff Kors
• Joe Jervis who blogs at Joe.My.God
• George Bakan
• Michaelangelo Signorile who blogs at The Gist
• Pam Spaulding who blogs at Pam's House Blend
• Nicolai Alekseev
• Bruce Vilanch
• Rex Wockner
  

More to come...

My votes for the Weblog Awards

[Title stolen from Godless Liberal Homo who voted for Blabbeando saying "I'm going with this one because it has the most information that I have trouble finding out about in the rest of queer media." I know he has been a long time reader of the blog but I was surprised nervertheless... Thanks so much!].

Not that you should take my word for it (you should actually take a few minutes to look at which categories match your interests and explore the nominated blogs before you vote) but here is a breakdown of how I have been voting at this year's Weblog Awards (basically, you can vote once every 24 hours until January 13th, 2009).

Best Individual Blog: No contest here. Field Negro is it. Vote here. Trust me.

Best Latino, Caribbean or South American Blog: I guess I'll go for the gossipy PopNografia 'cause the other ones don't do it for me. Vote here. Should have, could have? LakeBlog, Monaga or Guanabee? Perhaps next year.

Best Large Blog: Mombian's got's the stuff's. Vote here.

Best Midsize Blog: Hands down. Rod2.0. Vote here.

Best Blog: This is a toss-up between two blogs, both of which I consistently checked on a daily basis during the presidential elections (and usually even more than that):

• Ben Smith at Politico says "This blog somehow got nominated to the 'Best Blog' category of the Weblog Awards, along with the likes of Gawker, Andrew Sullivan, Hot Air, and DailyKos. So, you know, vote for me!" ("Dept. of Shameless Self-Promotion", Jan. 5, 2009).
• Andrew Sullivan of The Daily Dish says "The Daily Dish, after a large number of votes, is now neck and neck for lead in the Best Blog category. Thanks so much for the support. As I've said, none of this means very much in the grand scheme of things - and the main benefit of the awards is to surf around and find new blogs worth reading ("The Dish in Play", Jan. 9, 2009).

Conundrum #1: I have actually met both briefly. Ben at local gay wunderkind Allen Roskoff's place when he used to work for The New York Observer and write on The Politicker blog; and Andrew at a Ranch 1 Restaurant on Broadway and 16th Street (I am embarrassed to say I dropped my tray and spilled my Diet Coke all over the floor which had my boyfriend in a laughing fit over how star-struck I was in Sullie's presence).

Conundrum #2: Click by click, I probably logged in a million visits to The Daily Dish last year. I might not agree with Sullivan on some issues, but his take on the presidential race probably moved thousands of undecided voters to reconsider a politically conservative interpretation of the presidential race in ways that made it OK for them to vote for Obama (read his seminal piece for The Atlantic titled "Good Bye to All That" which basically served as an early harbinger of the Obama victory).

Verdict: Now that the presidential race has been decided, this year stands to be Ben Smith's year but for pure 2008 best blogginess you should cast a vote for Andrew Sullivan. And not because what I wrote above. Or because he's gay. Or a hottie (not that Ben isn't a hottie even if he is straight). Or the fact that Sullivan likes chicken burgers at Ranch 1 (not that Ben doesn't like Ranch 1 chicken subs because he just might). But it is just a matter that 2008 was AS's year (and is Ranch 1 around anymore anyway?). Anyway cast your vote here before I sink in deeper and get into trouble.

And, finally, Best LGBT Blog: By all means! Do not vote for Blabbeando!!! I'll come in last anyway so the vote might be a wasted one!! Joe.My.God knows we love him (and he is a past winner plus he's got enough voters clicking anyway due to his unorthodox - and some may say deceitful - ploys). We also love Pam and Bilerico. And TransGriot also certainly deserves a vote or two or ten or forty...

But This Girl Called Automatic Win has certainly has shown some moxie this year. She has also given me a choo-choo train and called me "an excellent blogger" which is certainly enough to buy my vote! Plus she also knows the Joe.My.Godness so why not vote for Girliness?

Vote for TGCAW here! Yay, kitty!

Mexico: As Pope slams the gays, the gays await Vatican-led international "Family" confab

As expected, international LGBT-rights organizations and leaders are not too happy about the latest homophobic rantings by Pope Benedict XVI. If you haven't heard, on the eve of the Christmas holidays, his Holiness implied that saving the world from homosexuality was akin to saving the world from environmental destruction ("Gay Groups Angry at Pope's Remarks," BBC, Dec. 23, 2008).

Neither the Pope's comments nor the angry reaction should surprise anyone but they certainly come right on time for the Vatican-sponsored 6th World Annual Meeting of Families taking place in Mexico City from January 13th to January 18 of 2009. It's not clear if the Pope will attend but the event, the 6th organized by the Catholic Church since 1994 and the first to take place in North America, is expected to draw an estimated 30 Cardinals and 200 priests from around the world in addition to laymen interested in taking part.

Of course, by "families" the confab doesn't really mean all families. Just the heterosexual ones. And by "families" they also mean specially NOT the gay ones. Which is why a few Mexican LGBT-rights advocates are planning some actions.

Diego Cevallos, writing for Inter Press Service in a Spanish-language article published online today, says that some "social activists" as well as same-sex couples are planning to let their voices heard at the event ("Gays raise arms against hostile meeting of families").

From the article:

"They say we are not family, but we are and, additionally, Catholics and proud of it," said to IPS Esteban Castillo, a professional in electronics that lives in a common law partnership with another man.

Carrillo and a group of friends plan to be present at the site of the encounter in Mexico, which will be at the convention center that belongs to Banamex, and loudly, with posters and a "surprise", will claim "our right to be who we are, to be respected and recognized as Catholic believers", he said.

For his part, Víctor Espíndola, Director of the widely read online Mexican LGBT news portal Anodis.com, said that several important protests were planned but would not divulge details. He told IPS that the diversity of those who were planning demonstrations meant that there was also the possibility that certain actions might arise from one day to the other without much planning and that he expected some of them to be just as big.

Mexico City, as IPS notes, has in the last few years adopted resolution granting partnership rights to same-sex couples, allowed transgender individuals to change their identity and name in public documents, allowed terminal patients to decide if they should end their lives and allowed women to have access to an abortion within the first twelve weeks of pregnancy - all of which clashes with the Catholic hierarchy of a deeply Catholic country.

By the way, somewhat related, in terms of the Pope's latest statements is the following blog post by Arthur Leonard which I recommend:

• Pope desperate to preserve the Catholic Church (Dec. 23, 2008)

And here is Andrew Sullivan:

• What Benedict actually said (Dec. 24,2008)

Despicable: John McCain links Barack Obama to Hugo Chávez

One of those truly shameless John McCain attack ads has finally brought me out of blog post hibernation.

So far, most of the McCain smears on Barack Obama have been almost humorous in their obvious desperation but this one, supposedly meant only for Spanish-language media, really crosses the line (apparently an English-language version - above - has been posted on the McCain's YouTube page just for kicks).

Translation:

Announcer: Have you seen who Obama wants to talk with?
Hugo Chávez: Shitty Yankees! Go to hell, you shitty Yankees!
Announcer: Obama says that he would meet Chávez without conditions.
Hugo Chávez: Shitty Yankees, go to hell a hundred times!
Announcer: He said he would meet in the first year of his government.
Hugo Chávez: The United States which is behind all the conspiracies against our country.
Announcer: He said it was a disgrace that we haven't done it.
Hugo Chávez: If any aggression were to come against Venezuela, then there will be no oil for people or the government of the Unites States!
Announcer: Do you believe we should speak to Chávez?
Hugo Chávez: We, you shitty Yankees, know that we are resolute to be free, no matter what happens, and at any cost!
Announcer: In November, you decide.
John McCain: I'm John McCain and I approved this message.

The McCain camp calls the ads "Obama Chávez" obviously relishing the naughty opportunity to link Obama with South America's biggest anti-US dictator clown (the fucker, pardon the French, threw out two Human Rights Watch monitors earlier today based on a newly released report criticizing the Chavez government for human rights violations).

If this is what it has come to, perhaps blogger Andrew Sullivan is right in predicting that the McCain-Palin camp is about to fall off a cliff. We should all hope for a rout but until election day there's no surrender!

Except this is pure Chávez cat-nip! Watch him respond to the ad in ways that plays directly into McCain's hands!

Previously:

• Pride marchers are critical of President Chavez' record on LGBT rights (June 30, 2008)
• Top Venezuelan court says no to same-sex marriages (March 5, 2008)
• Hugo Chavez wants to be master of his domain (December 2, 2007)
• President Chavez is too macho to be gay (September 16, 2007)
• Venezuelan embassy in Spain defends Chavez from gay rumors (September 12, 2007)
• Is Venezuelan president Hugo Chavez - gulp! - gay? (September 8, 2007)

Andrew Sullivan: The HIV Travel Ban Is Repealed

Something huge happened today but few of you might know - or care. Nevertheless, for someone who has worked with hundreds of HIV positive individuals - straight and gay - who met every possible requirement to gain immigration rights in the United States EXCEPT for the fact that they were HIV+, this is a victory long time coming.

Tonight I will share this with you: Political pundit Andrew Sullivan (pictured) has posted the following on his site (The Daily Dish). I'm not HIV positive so I'll let him do the talking. After all, he also played big part in reaching this point. I hope he does not mind that I've lifted the whole post from his site. I just thought that it best reflected the moment!

I'm not usually speechless but I'm ecstatic to report that the Senate just passed PEPFAR without the Sessions amendment, and Senator Biden, who managed the bill, just said they will probably avoid a conference with the House and send the bill forthwith to the president's desk. Barring some unforeseen event, the HIV Travel Ban - a relic of the days when HIV was a source of fear and stigma and terror - is finally over.

Obviously, the bigger achievement in PEPFAR is the funding for continued help for those with HIV and AIDS in the developing world - people whose plight is unimaginably worse than mine or so many others trapped by this HIV law. Bush's legacy in this is one for which he is rightly proud. But for those of us who have long dreamed of becoming Americans, and have been prevented by 1993 law from even being able to enter or leave the US without waivers or fear or humiliation, this is a massive burden lifted.

I'm not exaggerating when I say that it's one of the happiest days of my whole life. For two and a half decades, I have longed to be a citizen of the country I love and have made my home. I now can. There is no greater feeling.

Thanks go to many, many people, chiefly Senators Kerry and Smith, who made this a bipartisan priority. Gordon Smith proved how Republicans can reach out to those in genuine need, even if some are gay. All of us with HIV and with spouses or loved ones with the virus are in his debt. But also: Rob Epplin and Alex Nunez, Smith's and Kerry's amazing staffers, who made this possible. The Human Rights Campaign came through too, with insistent, diligent lobbying and a last-minute member email blitz. Immigration Equality, the group that does all the heavy lifting on LGBT and HIV immigration issues, were indispensable. Thanks, Rachel and Adam in particular. A word too to Senators Lugar and Biden, who shepherded the bill forward. I'm grateful too for those behind the scenes, Democrats and Republicans, who helped enormously: Carl Schmid and Jeff Trandahl, in particular. I will not forget Yuval Levin's support. And a word to my friend, David Kuo, who helped me through some of the bleakest days I experienced because of this law. My closest friends know who they are and they know what they've done.

I've lived with this awful sense of insecurity, of fear of leaving the country, of visiting my family, of the lingering sense that my virus rendered me potentially deportable, that any roots I put down might be dug up suddenly one day - for fifteen years. The lifting of this threat - the sense that I now have a home I know will be secure for me and my husband - is indescribable.

And thank you, too, especially. Dish readers really helped - emailing your Senators and telling your stories. This blog can be really draining and a little exasperating. But the sense of support I've gotten these past few weeks has been amazing. It really is like family. And now you've made it possible to make an honest American out of me. Maybe you'll regret it soon enough.

But you're stuck with me now.

I'm gonna celebrate now, so no promises on the timing of my next post.

Andrew Sullivan on Obama and same-sex marriage

Andrew Sullivan on Obama's take on yesterday's California marriage ruling:

Obama's position strikes me as transparently flimsy. His only defense of his support for full marriage rights without the m-word is a function, in his description, of comfort and religion. But he is very comfortable around gay people, gay couples and our families. And his own church actually favors equal marriage rights for gay couples - and its inclusion of gay people was obviously a reason why TUCC was attractive to Obama. Marriage is the one issue where Obama is still politically afraid, intellectually vacuous, and a moral coward.

That from one of the biggest Obama cheerleaders on the center-right. As always, astute. Full post here.

By the way, if you haven't read Sullivan's "Goodbye to All That" from December of 2007 head here.

And here is his take on marriage even before he thought it would be possible to marry his partner Aaron Tone.

My New York: Is Grand Theft Auto IV a gay love story?

I'm sorry. I have been as enthralled by what I've heard about Grand Theft Auto IV as many out there.

Yes, I know it plays up stereotypes and that the goal is to get you to do dastardly deeds on your way to conquering the game but key culprit for making me drool over the game is Dave Itzkoff who rhapsodized about the game in the May 4th edition of New York Times ("A Strange City Called Home").

Then came JockoHomo's initial appreciation of the games' images and his subsequent post on the game's gay storyline. And Slates's take on its sophistication and Andrew Sullivan's link to it.

And that doesn't take into account Fruit Brute's take on it! I am not about to spend money on getting a video gaming system just about now but I have a feeling that down the line I will somehow succumb.

Bruce endorses Obama

At the moment, critics have tried to diminish Senator Obama through the exaggeration of certain of his comments and relationships. While these matters are worthy of some discussion, they have been ripped out of the context and fabric of the man's life and vision, so well described in his excellent book, Dreams From My Father, often in order to distract us from discussing the real issues: war and peace, the fight for economic and racial justice, reaffirming our Constitution, and the protection and enhancement of our environment - From Bruce Springsteen's Barack Obama endorsement posted on his website today.

Not that a Springsteen endorsement is enough to make or break the race but I keep thinking about his words today as I watch tonight's debate (Andrew Sullivan's take on the debate here and he's mostly right on point).

BTW - Soon enough, I'll get back to regular blogging.

So. Freakin'. Cute!

I have been so amazed and perplexed that a same-sex marriage has taken place in the United States in a state other than Massachusetts and it hasn't really mattered much in terms of right-wing outrage (I guess they seem to be diverted to anti-immigration issues this time around - or the Larry Craig thingie).

But that does not mean that I am not tremendously moved by the tale of 21 year old Tim McQillan and 24 year old Sean Fritz (above) having pulled it off in Iowa the name of love - and tried to go as far as sorta having a honeymoon, according to the DesMoines Register.

It was the same emotions that pulled the strings of my heart this week when I saw photos of political pundit Andrew Sullivan marrying his partner Aaron Tone (below).

I mean they better stop 'cause the fevah seems to be spreading all the way down to Bolivia.

I guess only my partner knows how jittery I got when I spotted Sullivan at a Ranch 1 restaurant a few years ago and spilled all the contents of my tray out of nervousness and awe and such.

In any case happy marriages to both cute couples, courtesy of Blabbeando.

So many protests, so little time: Garrison Keillor in NYC

So, somewhere among the e-mails received and sent this week, Rex passed along a tidbit from advice columnist Dan Savage saying that instead of protesting General Peter Pace, people should maybe be acting up against A Prairie's Home Companion's Garrison Keillor.

The reason? A column Keillor wrote for Salon.com this week available here in which he tackles, among other things, his supposedly humorous thoughts on gay parenting including the following:

And now gay marriage will produce a whole new string of hyphenated relatives. In addition to the ex-stepson and ex-in-laws and your wife's first husband's second wife, there now will be Bruce and Kevin's in-laws and Bruce's ex, Mark, and Mark's current partner, and I suppose we'll get used to it.

The country has come to accept stereotypical gay men -- sardonic fellows with fussy hair who live in over-decorated apartments with a striped sofa and a small weird dog and who worship campy performers and go in for flamboyance now and then themselves. If they want to be accepted as couples and daddies, however, the flamboyance may have to be brought under control. Parents are supposed to stand in back and not wear chartreuse pants and black polka-dot shirts. That's for the kids. It's their show.

Savage failed to see the joke and shared his thoughts on why people should "Fuck Garrison Keillor" over on his blog (which then got noticed by Andrew Sullivan over on his blog).

And somewhere along the way, Savage's wish seemed to inspire real call for a protest at today's live broadcast of A Prairie Home Companion here in New York at the Town Hall on 43rd Street off Sixth Avenue.

Problem is the call for a protest apparently never got to too many people cause it was just Gay USA anchor Andy Humm (pictured above outside the Town Hall earlier today) holding a sign that read "Garrison Keillor: Stop Slurring Gay Parents" on one side and "Boycott Prairie Home Anti-Gay Bigotry" on the other. He was also and handing a statement to the people in line for the show that read, in part:

Heterosexual people don't need any qualifications to become parents nor do they have to be married. And they don't need any qualifications to be married other than to be of different sexes.

But Garrison Keillor is so repelled by the idea of gay parents and same-sex marriage that he needs to employ trivializing stereotypes to put them down.

Bigotry like this is shameful and we hope the NPR audience will tell Keillor what they think of his prejudices.

A Keillor rep actually came out and handed Andy a printed copy of yet another post made on a blog, in this case, Keillor's own, in which he responds to the criticism this way.

I'm not sure that explains some of the cringe-worthy passages away even if it was an attempt at humor. He does have some defenders out there though.

So many blog posts, just one person protesting at the theatre. Some theatre goers at least were receptive to the statement that Andy was handing to them.

I guess some controversies are made for the blogosphere if not necessarily for outdoor demos.

Or perhaps they all were at that other queer protest today?

UPDATE: Rex on Keillor here.

When Andrew Sullivan's blog tags you

Who knew? Within the past hour pundit Andrew Sullivan added a link to my Fotki photo site, on his Time Magazine owned blog. On Fotki, I've uploaded photos of different LGBT-related events that I have attended and also acted as a host to images that accompany reporter Rex Wockner's weekly columns for several newspapers. Well, within that hour more than 1,400 people have visited with more than 7,300 hits. Kinda scary.

The direct link on Andrew's site is to a folder of photos in one of the Wockner folders taken by Nikolai Alekseev of GayRussia.ru at an anti-gay pride rally in Latvia last week (pictured: A religious woman with holy water and an icon flings herself upon a car carrying gay activists).

Bt the way, Rex Wockner's report on the Latvia gay pride disaster can be read here.