Hang on to your chads
Activists in Florida have about two weeks to put a constitutional amendment banning same-sex couples from marrying on the general election ballot next November. If they succeed, the question could prove to be a factor in the presidential election.
Fighting on all fronts
It's pretty clear that Republicans looking to use Florida's anti-gay marriage ballot initiative to gay bash for partisan gain could be in trouble during this presidential election cycle, thanks to their own muddied positions on the issue. Another factor that might further neutralize the issue is the formation of Florida Red and Blue, one of the two groups that have formed to fight the amendment. Evidenced by its name, Florida Red and Blue aims to create a bipartisan coalition of activists who will work to defeat the amendment.
The whistle blower
No one in Boston writes a more thoughtful rave, or a more stinging pan, than theater critic Thomas Garvey. Considering his reputation for expressing his opinions forcefully, ("I'm tough but fair," he demurs) some members of the Boston theater community may be sharpening their own poison pens now that Garvey is returning to directing. Zeitgeist Theater has found the perfect match for Garvey: The acidic satire <I>Blowing Whistles</i>, Matthew Todd's up-to-the-nanosecond comedy of gay manners. Garvey chats about the state of Boston theater, going up against two other gay plays, and importance of blowing whistles.
GLAD turns 30
This year marks GLAD's 30th anniversary, and the organization plans to honor its history through a series of events and public education programs. On Jan. 23 Buseck joins pundit Keith Boykin, sexpert Susie Bright and cultural commentator Michael Bronski for a forum at Old South Meeting House looking back at the BPL sting that triggered GLAD's formation and examining America's changing attitudes toward sex.
Blueprint for change
Most of the states that passed gay rights bills in the 1980s and early 1990s, like Massachusetts, have not updated their laws to include protections for transgender people. In fact, only four states -- Rhode Island, California, New Jersey and Vermont -- have accomplished that goal. And many of the factors that made victory possible are not present in Massachusetts.
Trial by fire
Gunner Scott took the reigns of the Massachusetts Transgender Political Coalition (MTPC) as the organization's first paid director this week just as a controversy over MTPC's association with the Human Rights Campaign was attracting national attention.
The next chapter
South End bookseller enters the publishing realm
Chic Ironic Bitterness
In the wake of the destruction of the World Trade Center, pundits heralded the end of the "Age of Irony," claiming that the tragedy would awaken America into a new seriousness.
Somerville Police decline to press hate crimes charges
The Somerville Police Department announced Jan. 15 that it will not pursue hate crimes charges against Richard Malloy, a Methuen man who a group of lesbians claim followed them to a friend's apartment in Somerville last November, shouted homophobic slurs at them and assaulted them. In a statement the department said that after an investigation, detectives determined that there was no evidence to find probable cause to charge Malloy with a civil rights violation.
Trans bill briefing draws a crowd
About 40 people, a mix of lawmakers, aides and LGBT advocates, turned out at the State House Jan. 16 for a legislative briefing on House Bill 1722, which would update the state's non-discrimination and hate crimes laws to make them transgender-inclusive.
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