Get the First Openly Gay Chief of Military Appointed

Equal Rep.com has made a CALL TO ACTION to the community to help get William White appointed Navy Secretary and to become the first openly gay chief appointed to a military branch.

As quoted from their site: "In more than 200 years, the United States military has never included an openly gay chief. Growing national focus on GLBT civil rights has therefore made the Secretary of the Navy appointment a national issue in the struggle for equal representation. Also, it highlights the antiquated policy of "Don't Ask, Don't Tell" which needs to repealed."

Go to their site to see his qualifications.

What can you do?

Starting: Wednesday, December 31, 2008 at 7:00am
Ending: Friday, January 2, 2009 at 8:00pm

STEP 1. Call Obama: 202-540-3000 (press "2")
STEP 2. Email Obama
STEP 3. Email the GLBT liaison: parag.mehta@ptt.gov
STEP 4. Repeat on Jan. 1st and 2nd

For more info, go to their Facebook Event Page.

Courge Campaign Calls for You to Put a Face to the Fight

The Courage Campaign is CALLING FOR AN ACTION. In an email I received, they've asked the following:

Is your marriage . . . threatened by Ken Starr's action? Do you know anyone who may have their marriage nullified? Or would you just like to express your support for those couples who may be forcibly divorced?

If so, please take a picture with a plain 8.5" by 11" piece of paper that sends a special message, like "Please don't divorce us," "Please don't divorce my mothers," "Please don't divorce my friends, Name and Name," or "Please don't divorce Californians." Print it out, or write it clearly in big, block letters. Then send your pictures to us at:

PleaseDontDivorce@CourageCampaign.org

Happy Holidays!

The fight for our equal rights never takes a holiday. However, many of us who are fighting need to stop and reflect and remember what we do have and be grateful.

Many bad things happened this year for the LGBTQ community, but many good things have happened as well. Remembering these is part of that fight, to motivate us to cross the finish line.And though I may not post as much these next couple days, I'll still be working. Lots of things are happening, and I will do my best to keep up as I visit family. I'll will return fully afterward, starting December 26th. Until then . . .

HAPPY HOLIDAYS!!!!

Sunday's Rick Warren Protest

Organized by Gays United Network, a protest was held in front of Rick Warren's church this past Sunday, December 21st.

Founder of the Gay UN, Nakhone Keodara, gave the following account:

"We had about 20 people show up for the. . . peaceful protest. The only people who were abusive were the church attendees that gave us the finger on the way in or out of the services.

"One lady came out to meet us on the sidewalk and spoke with one of the attendees and based on what I was told they had a civil conversation. . . He mentioned that she even got teary-eyed during the course of their conversation.

More...

"One thing that stuck out in my mind was this older gentlemen driving by us twice and giving us the finger and telling us God doesn't love us. That too seems to be a common theme among the believers. He proceeded to yell at us saying that we should respect other people's beliefs.

"This protest was in response to the Obama transition team's announcement that Rev. Rick Warren has been invited to deliver the invocation at President-elect Obama's inauguration. As disappointing and painful as the news was, we wanted to send a message to Rick Warren to debate with Rev. Eric Lee. . . and to tell our president that we expected more from our President who happens to be a Constitutional lawyer, and we hoped for more from our president who's a visionary and we, too, also believed in the beauty of his dream, that change has also come to Gay America."

"Drop Rick Warren" Campaign

Thanks to our friends over at Queers United, I've been informed of a call to action to drop Rick Warren. For more information on what you can do, view the Queers United post and go to it!

Light Up the Night Coverage

As I keep finding more coverage for Light Up the Night, I'll update this post. If you have videos or local news coverage, please feel free to send it to me and I'll post it.

UPDATE: Be sure to click on "SEE more" at the bottom of the post to see more coverage!

SAN FRANCISCO



SAN DIEGO



SEE More...

STUDIO CITY



NEW YORK CITY



BOSTON



MONTEREY, CA



VARIOUS CITIES

Atrocities US Allows by Not Signing the UN Resolution

I was forwarded an article about Saudia Arabia and its treatment of homosexuals being some of the worst in the world. I was going to do a post about this article to follow up my UN Community Call to Action when I found this post on Be One City, "We Are Being Beheaded and Beaten." It sums up the article and its context very well.

It's a long read, but I feel necessary to fully understand how horrible homosexuals are being treated far from our borders. This distance doesn't excuse our government from turning a blind eye, however. If we're suppose to be leaders in human rights, how can we not easily add our signature to the UN's resolution to put an end to this?

It boggles my mind.