Thank you all, I really didn’t expect so many comments, given I posted at a really dead time of the week. Guess I was trying to slip under the radar.

I will miss blogging, or rather the capacity I had to do it. Accepting where I am now took some time, but it will be better. It was a good ride.

What I feel kind of sad about this is that there still is a dearth of high-traffic blogs run by women of color (and in terms of NC I’m still the only out lesbian blogger with a national profile) even after 9 years. Thank goodness for Michael Rogers, who was a big booster of PHB and has at Netroots cultivated scholarships to bring in new voices of all colors from around the country and not just in the gay metropolis areas.

So far these fears about pols not getting re-elected for their pro-LGBT views have not borne out to be true (I’d have to find the polling on this, but it’s out there several time).

In NC the problem for Hagan will be did she do anything to bring jobs to the state — to help the economy here. More people care about that than federal/SCOTUS goings-on related to marriage.

Ryan, I (and Matt Comer of QNotes) have first-hand experience getting the brush-off from Hagan’s staff for polite questions about LGBT issues during her first campaign — she _was_ behind the curve compared to the later slew of Democrats who ran after her. I didn’t say she didn’t support the issues you mention, just that she (along with our last governor, Bev Perdue), had to be dragged kicking and screaming to make declarative statements about that support until late in the game after other dipped their toes into the water. I also didn’t say she doesn’t care about NC or that didn’t oppose Amendment One. None of that changes her history — she studiously dismissed polite questions from LGBT media about her prospective votes on ENDA or DADT at that time — a time when the mainstream media wasn’t asking her about those issues.

John IS and has been a notable voice is the movement, and he made contributions during the DADT fight and others that advanced the LGBT movement. My choice of words there is quite specific.

He is also controversial for the reasons Teddy stated — his willingness to throw transfolk under the bus during the ENDA debacle, and more recently, a pretty display of bi-ignorance in referring to Chris Christie’s position on an ex-gay therapy bill as “going bi on the issue.

This post isn’t about John Aravosis (to do so would inevitably take this thread off of the subject) — it’s about giving credit to those activists willing to go to prison to repeal DADT and other LGBT issues during a time in the Obama admin where the vast majority of the progressive movement was telling the LGBTs to “be patient” and were seen as ungrateful. That story is much more revealing because of how internally, the professional LGBT movement was also spellbound by this President and also told bloggers and other activists to “be patient.” Our voices were quite alone out there.

LOL. It is Nail. On. Head.

Excuse me, my post on THIS TOPIC has nothing to do with prioritizing one topic over another (nor will my opinion here ultimately change/affect Obama’s drone policy). My blog, my reaction to this news event. End of story. Feel free to blog about drones 24/7 if that makes you feel better.

I agree on Arinze. The conventional wisdom the last time around is that they talked up African cardinals and ones from Latin America (giving the impression that non-white candidates were top prospects), when in fact, Benedict was always the “next in succession” from the get-go. The question is whether they would even consider a pope from the continents where it is fastest growing or cling to European selections?

I only took the Tylenol during the fever spells (8-10 hours), two 500 mg at a pop, so I wasn’t maxing out. I am not on hydrocodone or any mix. Since I thankfully have a high pain tolerance it doesn’t take much to quell the acute pain, and I’ve already backed off what they’ve said I can take by more than half and I’m only a few days out from surgery. I can’t tolerate large doses of narcotics, so I get off of high-test pain meds after a week or so.

No direct cause. I wasn’t lifting anything at the time; just walking from my car to a building and the pain seized my whole leg, like an electric jolt. I ended up in the ER later that day back in Aug.

I hope I heal quickly, but I’m realistic that it will take months if even if it all goes as expected. I won’t be pain-free since I had other conditions that vexed me pre-surgery, but the level of pain I have lived with since August was just getting intolerable.

Today I went out to the store to get some walking in (too cold outside this AM), and now I’m back and completely exhausted. I just want to pass out from the pain. But it’s good to get out even for a short while as opposed to being bedridden.

Hunter, it’s my post, not Alvin’s. And I specifically said I wasn’t giving the WH a pass. I said I personally think this wasn’t a battle worth taking on. The White House needs to act on more important actions, IMHO that will specifically benefit LGBTs — like the ENDA executive order.

He is the chairman and chief executive officer of the Las Vegas Sands Corporation, the parent company of Venetian Macao Limited which operates The Venetian Resort Hotel Casino and the Sands Expo and Convention Center.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sheldon_Adelson

You know, Matthew, no one forced you to read this if you consider it beneath you. I write about a lot of issues (there’s a long back catalog to show for it), some with analysis, some without, some about personal matters. It’s called “The Blend” for a reason. You’re free to find more suitable news analysis elsewhere — I won’t be offended at all. Peace out.

It doesn’t all die — we have to wait in NC for SCOTUS, but not in the Windsor case. It is only about section 3 of DOMA, the portion about federal recognition. It doesn’t consider the full faith and credit clause regarding cross-state recognition of marriages.

I have a Canadian marriage (same as Windsor), but she lives in NY where there is marriage equality.

Not trapped at all. I don’t see it as a Dem/Rep binary. Having lived for many years in both NYC and NC, by far the most racist environment was NYC, a purported liberal haven. Racism and perceived privilege knows no party boundary, and the racism and assertion of privilege is just as onerous in the progressive movement, particularly because of the insistent denial that they are incapable of being racist, which is laughable. Our entire society is still bathed in racism, classism, sexism and privilege, and the truth is that too many who manage to “ascend” out of oppression (as a group or individually) are perfectly fine with pulling up the ladder behind them.

Beyond that, you’re still looking at the world IN black and white, as if the Dems had some kind of monopoloy on virtue, which is tiresome.

No, actually it’s the opposite; I see (and live) in a world of diversity, including my own family tree. The issue is this nation is still living its history of seeing things in black and white. The fact that each successive “white” ethnic group that immigrated to the U.S. has achieved white privilege status first had to endure comparisons to apes, savages…and blacks shows you how polluted the path to privilege is. And that’s by choice of the dominant culture. The legacy of this is the GOP’s Southern Strategy, pitting poor and working class whites against blacks.

I’d probably rate a few other groups can be included this unfortunate fate of outlandish discrimination — Arabs (regardless of faith), those of Muslim faith, and, of course, atheists. It’s ironic that some of Arab descent considered themselves white, yet after 9/11, that privilege was for all intents and purposes erased. Ah, the American racist mindset at work. It’s why the blending and browning of America is so confounding to people fixated on putting people in racial boxes. I find it refreshing that the “state of confusion” is making many uncomfortable.

The only reason the Irish etc. were able to assimilate to the extent they did is that they were white.

If you think that the Irish were always viewed as white, you’ve forgotten some blatant examples of history that shows this wasn’t true:

http://thesocietypages.org/socimages/2011/01/28/irish-apes-tactics-of-de-humanization/

http://static.thesocietypages.org/socimages/files/2011/01/1.gif

In the last few hundred years, dark-skinned peoples have been likened to apes in an effort to dehumanize them and justify their oppression and exploitation. This is familiar to most Americans as something that is done peculiarly to Black people (as examples, see here, here, and here). The history of U.S. discrimination against the Irish, however, offers an interesting comparative data point. The Irish, too, have been compared to apes, suggesting that this comparison is a generalizable tactic of oppression, not one inspired by the color of the skin of Africans.

I was extremely fortunate to have been able to handle the trip to Greensboro to receive this and to spend the day with so many energy-filled activists and allies. I wish I had enough stamina to have been able to party with all of the award winners and great folks at Equality NC, but I had to retreat to the hotel to coat up with Icy Hot. Need to put an economy-sized box of that and Biofreeze on my Amazon wish list, lol.

Seriously, though, since the progressing RA and the herniated disc (I will need open discectomy surgery soon) are really wearing me down in every way imaginable, the award and the conference makes me feel good that even when I retire from the public eye, so many talented people are there to take the torch. North Carolina will see equality, perhaps in my time, but it will be based on the young people who are willing to stay here and fight.

Uncle Pat may have the record for the most bigoted crap ever emitted by a public figure. Glad he’s relegated to Liddy’s show.