Category Maryland
Organizing For Our Lives
For all of my adult life, I’ve self- identified as a “Gay Activist.” I became politicized while attending a Jesuit university in New York City, where I worked in a progressive student’s organization and loosely affiliated with the newly emerging gay student’s organization. The virulent homophobia of other students on the campus politicized me and […]
A Way Forward
Late last month, a small group of concerned folks gathered in front of the KAGRO building at the corner of Maryland and North Avenues in Mt. Vernon. After a few minutes, another small group joined the assembled people, having just marched from Maryland Institute College of Art. The reason for the gathering? A series of […]
Same Song, Different Verse
Anyone who has been paying the least bit of attention to Baltimore City politics knows at least two things – incumbent Mayor Stephanie Rawlings-Blake is under attack from a number of corners for her perceived inability and perennial candidate Carl Stokes thinks he is the man needed to reshape the city and take the helm […]
Group Protection vs Individual Rights
Last April, the world watched in horror as video of Teonna Brown and a juvenile beating Chrissy Polis at a Rosedale McDonald’s aired repeatedly on major national and international media outlets and spread virally over the World Wide Web. In response, a number of local activists, including me, organized a rally against hate and violence. […]
Baltimore Pride History Lesson
Every June, gays and lesbians across the country celebrate Pride, an event marked by festive parties, parades, and copious amounts of alcohol consumption. The current incarnation of Pride has seemingly lost much of its sense of history as a time to recognize the progress made politically by gay and lesbian people since the Stonewall Rebellion […]
Preserving the Distinctly Private and Personal
On November 21, the Howard County Council will take up County Bill 54-2011, which intends to ban discrimination based on “gender identity” in housing, employment law enforcement, financing and public accommodations. Like many of the bills pushed by the National Gay and Lesbian Task Force and others, the bill defines “gender identity or expression” as […]
Ch-ch-ch-ch-changes
Recently, Stonewall Democrats of Central Maryland announced its dissolution. Over the several years of its existence, Stonewall worked to endorse candidates that supported a “LGBT Agenda.” Like many LGBT political organizations, Stonewall apparently struggled to reconcile a Gay Identity with other interests important to individual gays and lesbians. What Stonewall wanted to be may never […]
Betting the Farm on Gay Marriage
Fifteen years ago, a University of Maryland law student named John Pucker worked diligently to promote marriage equality for gay folks. At that time, working to defeat anti-gay marriage bills took up most of the time Pucker’s Same-Sex Marriage Advocates Coalition (with its fantastic acronym “SSMAC”) dedicated to the cause. As a result of the […]
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