Bilerico.com Co-Opted 
by Corrupt GLAAD

Have you noticed that in the past few months, there has been more toxic gushing than the Gulf Coast oil spill, spewing from assorted contributors to Bilerico.com about one of their favorite Gay Inc groups, the Gay and Lesbian Alliance Against Defamation?

I have, as I've look over this starry-eyed coverage and see how the group blog is co-opted by a worthless social-climbers' organization sucking up gay dollars for six-figure salaries.

We really don't need Bilerico.com serving as a docile lapdog to this organization, abandoning all watchdogging responsibilities. Some examples of the gushing, with my comments italicized:

1.
In this town of red carpeting, you can always trust that GLAAD's Director of PR, Rich Ferraro, will make you glad you showed up, and with extra batteries for your camera. -Father Tony, November 11, 2010.

(And you can pretty much trust that any Bilerico.com piece about GLAAD will mention the carpeting.)

2.
I got the amazing opportunity to cover the 21st Annual GLAAD Awards in New York City. It was my first time at a glitzy awards ceremony or covering a red carpet (even though the carpet was technically more of a cerulean... but who's counting). -Jason Tseng, March 14, 2010.

(What's so amazing about a politically useless, money-making scheme involving a carpet?)

3.
We've been honored to be nominated for a 2011 GLAAD Media Award in the Outstanding Blog category. You can check out the nominees for all the other categories to see a star-studded list of media personalities and properties. -Bil Browning, January 20, 2011.

(How can a politically-oriented, allegedly independent blog even think of accepting, much less think it's any sort of honor, an award from a non-profit organization they should be scrutinizing more often and in depth beyond the carpeting colors?)

4.
I'll be joining others from the press to cover this year's GLAAD Media Awards. I've never covered an event like this before for my blog, nor have I contributed content for an awards show for The Bilerico Project, which just so happens to be up for a nomination...so all sorts of excitement surround this event for me. -March 19, 2011, Leone Kraus.

(She should get out more often, if she thinks these awards and the faux glam are worth getting excited about.)

5.
The blue carpet (don't ask) was filled with members of the press last night, including Joe Jervis from Joe.My.God and me, for the 22nd Annual GLAAD Media Awards in New York City. -March 20, 2011, Leone Kraus.

(Another reference to carpeting!)

6.
If you are on Twitter and follow @glaad, then you know that social media was a huge part of the GLAAD Media Awards this year. Almost every memorable moment was captured on Twitter, thanks to Allison Palmer, director of digital initiatives at GLAAD. Allison was responsible for executing the event's social communications via the @glaad Twitter account. There wasn't a red carpet or show moment that Allison missed. -Leone Kraus, March 21, 2011.

(One more day, one more fawning piece by this writer who again references the damn carpet and its color.)

7.
When I attended the GLAAD Media Awards in New York City on Saturday, March 19, I thought I would be star struck when I saw Ricky Martin or Tina Fey but I wasn't. I didn't feel anything. -Leone Kraus, March 22, 2011.

(The fourth and final puff piece on the awards at Bilerico.com)

Three examples of the closest we get to anything the least bit critical from the group blog site about this organization:

A.
GLAAD has a petition up, which might help if The Mike Gallagher Show legitimately thinks they're helping and isn't looking at this as a publicity stunt. -Alex Blaze, January 15, 2011.

(Yawn, a limp-wristed tap on the wrist of the GLAAD folks over a show most of us have never heard of.)

B.
Karen [Ocamb] has a long video of Craig Zadan's introduction of Ricky Martin at the GLAAD awards, and Zaden outlines why Martin won: he's hot, he's charming, he came out, he had a successful album last year, he wrote an autobiography entitled Me (yup, no ego there), and he's done some very fashionable charity work. -March 24, 2011, Alex Blaze.

(Sheesh, more criticism is heaped upon Ricky Martin than GLAAD. Is there a limit on allowable criticism at Bilerico.com and did Alex use up all of his criticism ration cards?)

C.
Look, I know these awards are there to get a big star to show up so then a nonprofit corporation like GLAAD can fundraise a bit. I'm not criticizing the fact that Ricky Martin got this award - the schmoozy side of show biz isn't going to die without me. -March 24, 2011, Alex Blaze.

(Alex is not criticizing anything about the whole rotten GLAAD awards scam either. And these awards are there to also co-opt blogs like Bilerico.com by nominating them for supposed honors.)

If ever awards are given out for a gay group blog least likely to challenge the status quo, corruption, lack of democratic engagement and town halls, no commitment to open-invitation organizing ways of Gay Inc, rest assured Bilerico.com will be honored with a plaque.

A disclosure is required of me, at this point. I have cross-posted several of my post at Bilerico.com in the past two years.

SF Chron: Mainstream Reporters 
Scrum at News Conference

Remember a few weeks back the report at the SF Appeal about the police department revoking and denying press passes to new media types like bloggers, and how the public info officer for the SF cops said he'd received complaints from traditional media folks, saying some people with the passes were disruptive at news conferences?

Okay, maybe you forgot about it so let me remind you the point was the police, under whose control the press pass process rests, were clamping down on non-mainstream news people because they allegedly weren't as responsible as others with passes.

Well, lo and behold, those corporate media professionals themselves sure know how to act up with each other without any assistance necessary from bloggers. The Chronicle yesterday noted the following disorderly behavior from reporters:

The most gripping drama in the Chauncey Bailey homicide trial so far was when the impromptu noon-hour news conference with defense attorneys in the lobby of the Alameda County courthouse turned ugly between two reporters covering the story.

Eyewitnesses say KTVU's John Sasaki tugged Bay Area News Group investigative reporter Tom Peele with his hand, hoping to get the reporter out of the line of sight of his camera operator. Peele glowered at Sasaki, then sputtered, "Don't ever touch me again, Pretty Boy."

... But when the media scrum was over, witnesses say, Peele marched over to the TV newsman, got into his face and let loose with an expletive-laced tirade - once again warning Sasaki not to touch him. Peele was eventually pulled away by another reporter. ...

Peele called it a "minor incident ... the sort of thing that happens all the time" when reporters jockey for position during a news conference. ...

Happens all the time? Then why are the SF police revising their approval-process for non-traditional online reporters and bloggers who want an official press ID card? There are quite a number of inconsistent standards at play here.

LA Weekly: EQCA's Lack of Forums
and the Search for a New ED

What would Harvey Milk do (WWHMD?) about the outrageous lack of regular, open community forums with the executive director and board of directors at Equality California? Would he only appear at EQCA galas and not set a good example of holding his own town hall meetings, like Mark Leno, Tom Ammiano and John Perez?

Might he hide behind a lawyer's verbiage when asked about full democratic engagement with the grassroots, as the A-gays ruining EQCA are doing?

These questions came to mind as I read Patrick Range McDonald's post this morning at the LA Weekly about EQCA's very-less-than-open search process for a new leader. Recall that Patrick in early January wrote an excellent and comprehensive cover story about longstanding lack of accountability and transparency matters at this statewide group.

We could certainly use more reporters and bloggers demanding more of EQCA and the process to replace Geoff Kors. Hello, Karen Ocamb and Syd Peterson of LGBT POV, and your guest essayists?

Please don't settle for business as usual at EQCA with minute changes, my friends. Our out vibrant, economically and politically diverse community in the state is only minimally embodied, represented and engaged by EQCA. That should not be the status quo.

What I would like to happen during the search process is for the top candidates to hold a public forum and discussion, so the community could size them up before one of them is presented to us as our new leader. Let us ordinary gays, and not just the straight search firm and EQCA board, get a look at potential EDs.

Why is it we demand political candidates debate openly before we cast our ballots, but when it comes to choosing Gay Inc executive directors, the community largely says it's okay to keep the selection process behind the curtain before someone is hired?

Kudos to Patrick for keeping tabs on EQCA's board and their murky search process to replace Geoff Kors. From his post:

Asked if Equality California has held town hall meetings as Petrelis and others have suggested, Cary Davidson, chairman of EQCA's search committee, says in a prepared statement to L.A. Weekly:

"Morris & Berger [the consulting firm spearheading the effort to replace outgoing executive director Geoff Kors] have contacted more than 1,000 people in the course of the search and are continuing to have conversations. They have spoken with people from grassroots organizations, unions, large and small nonprofits, foundations, elected officials, and a diverse array of advocacy organizations, per the recommendation of the search committee."

Davidson is a practicing attorney, so we'll simplify his answer: No town halls meetings have been conducted. Not only that, the above list of people and groups are largely gay rights insiders, not the general public. ...

That heavily hints that EQCA board members such as comedienne Wanda Sykes, Harvey Milk's nephew Stuart Milk, and labor union icon Dolores Huerta have no plans to face ordinary gays and lesbians in person and hear what they have to say. ...

Wonder if people will go to the EQCA web site and recommend town hall meetings? What will happen then?

Russia's Top Human Rights Advocate
is Sued by a Gay Liar

(Russia's most dedicated and famous dissident advocate, Lyudmila Alekseeva, when she was detained by cops on New Year's Eve 2009 for attempting to stage a protest at the Kremlin. Credit: Reuters.)

Lyudmila Alekseeva is widely revered veteran human rights advocate in her 80s and is still active in the struggle for justice in Russia. She's led quite the courageous life, standing up for truth at times of great risk to herself, according to her Wiki page:

In the late 1960s she signed petitions in defense of other dissidents who were prosecuted by the Soviet authorities, including Alexander Ginzburg and Yuri Galanskov. In April 1968, Alexeyeva was expelled from the Communist Party and fired from her job at the publishing house. Nonetheless, she continued her activities in defense of human rights. In 1968-1972 she worked clandestinely as a typist for the first underground bulletin “The Chronicle of Current Events” devoted to human rights violations in the USSR.

In early 1976, Alexeyeva became a founding member of the Moscow Helsinki Group. As a member, she signed a number of documents issued by the Group, helped compose some of them, and collected information for some of the documents. Her responsibilities also included editing the Group’s documents and hiding copies of them from the authorities. ...

She's withstood decades of intimidation and woe from when the Soviet Union existed and now into the post-communist years under Vladimir Putin, and now the controversial and thin-skinned ego-driven gay Russian activist Nikolai Alekseev has sued her.

After dealing with Nikolai and seeing his many lies, obfuscations and inability to accept valid criticism during his disastrous American tour recently, I say with all honesty that Lyudmila speaks much truth about him. By the way, she has a blog giving readers a glimpse into her current causes.

This is excerpted from an autumn 2010 story on a Russian economic news site, and give the basic background. Pardon the Google translation:

Leader of the Russian gay community and the organizer of the Moscow authorities banned a gay parade Nikolai Alexeyev has sued the head of the Moscow Helsinki Group Lyudmila Alekseeva and radio station Ekho Moskvy. ...

In late August, [on Ekho Moskvy radio, Lyudmila was asked about Nikolai, the way their last names are almost the same, and his tactics. She said:] "Well, yes, this is my namesake. It is, thank you, Lord, not my son, not my brother, not because he was gay. It's just I'm quite calmly refer to these people. And because he is a man who is often lying. I personally experienced this, unfortunately." ...

It is reported that regardless of the outcome of the case, the Moscow Helsinki Group intends to continue its support of sexual minorities. ...

For stating the obvious reality about Nikolai, who has a law degree, the iconic Lyudmila was slapped with a nuisance lawsuit by him. The case is threading its way through a Russian court, and this week Nikolai gave an update on the latest court hearing:

On Monday, March 21 Meshchansky district court of Moscow postponed consideration of the claim organizer of Moscow Pride Nikolai Alekseev to the well-known human rights activist, the head of the Moscow Helsinki Group Lyudmila Alekseeva and radio station Ekho Moskvy. ...

Learning about the transfer of the case, Lyudmila Alekseeva said that she no longer intends to appear in court. ...

In its lawsuit to the court Nikolai Alexeyev said that Lyudmila Alekseeva circulated by the media discrediting his business reputation information. He demanded a formal apology ...

Organizer Pride stressed that "sought from Ms Alexeeva apology out of court, but they never came. In this connection, I had no other options but to restore his reputation in court." ...

The only way Nikolai will have his tattered and shameful reputation restored to something approaching decency can only come from him. No lawsuit, defamatory accusations about other Russians both gay and straight, attacks on his growing number of critics in Europe and the United States, or bad logic and lousy arguing skills can perform the magic that is required if Nikolai truly wants a good reputation.

I stand in solidarity with Lyudmila. Nikolai is a liar.

CA Sen. Leno has Never Held
a Town Hall for Gays

A friend asked me recently if openly gay state Senator Mark Leno, whose district includes most of San Francisco, has ever held a town hall meeting with the gay community in his capacity as a member of the city's Board of Supervisors, when he was in the state Assembly or in his current political position.

I couldn't recall any public forums with Mark, and I'm not talking about state or city hearings he convened on either legislation or budget issues. We're talking open forums in the gay community, and after extensively searching the web, I found no proof of Mark ever holding town halls.

In numerous calls yesterday with his staffers Anna Damiani, Reese Isbell and messages left for his press secretary Ali Bay, I posed two simple questions. When was the date for the last time Mark held a public forum and what is the date of any future forums. Anna and Reese repeatedly cited the state budget crisis as taking up their boss's time, implying the crisis, which is longstanding and not going away any day in the near future, prevents Mark from holding forums.

Ali sent this message late Tuesday afternoon:

Senator Leno has participated in town halls that were designed for all the constituents of Senate District 3, and he also interfaces with the LGBT community through legislative activities, public and private events, personal meetings and the media. This year, he is the author of two bills that would help strengthen existing rights and protections for LGBT people. As Anna has shared with you, Senator Leno is currently focused on the state’s budget crisis. We will let you know when we plan any future town halls.

Not a single date is provided and I'm not sure why Ali mentions the two bills that have nothing to do with town halls.

For comparison's sake, let's look at Congresswoman Jackie Speier's track record on gay town halls. The Inside, Looking Out blog reported on Speier's general town hall in May 2009 in which gay immigration issues came up. According to the Bay Area Reporter, she held a forum at SF's gay center on August 31, 2009, open to all, and a similar event on June 26, 2010, at a church.

If a Bay Area Congresswoman can hold two gay open forums and other town halls, why can't Mark do likewise? Permit to further say that Speier's forums are organized by her and not gay Democratic Party groups, and Mark should not wait for any such group to host a forum on his behalf. He needs to follow Speier's great example.

He can make time to show up at the February 12, 2011, gala at SF City Hall for Equality California where the tickets were priced at $350, and pose for pix like the one above.

Mark was able to make the Human Rights Campaign pricey-dinner at the Fairmount hotel on October 24, 2010. I believe he regularly attends all EQCA and HRC dinners, if I'm wrong about this, I'll publish a correction.

My point is that Mark is available very frequently for social galas and the like for EQCA and HRC, two groups that don't hold regular town halls with the gay community, showing there is disturbing common ground of non-engagement with regular gays who are not big donors or Democratic Party hacks.

To be fair, I must acknowledge that Mark has also shown up at street rallies, including one I helped organize on May 17, 2009, at Harvey Milk Plaza on behalf of gay Iraqis, and he and his staff have been helpful with statements and proclamations on many crucial global gay issues. For these favors, I have expressed my thanks.

But Mark and his staff should build upon his appearances a A-gay fundraisers and activist protests, and get with the town hall agenda already, and stop using the state budget issues as a lame excuse for avoiding forums.

Is it coincidence or collusion or something else that prevents Mark, EQCA and HRC from democratic public forums? Why are these entities unable to put on regular open meetings? This fear of using town halls create much distrust, unnecessary divisions and betrays weakness on the part of Mark and Gay Inc.

I look forward to Mark Leno's first gay town hall, which I hope is scheduled in the next month or so, and that the forums become regular events.

New Ken Doll Model = Dark, Beefy, Jock

(And a few thousand gay wet dreams thus are born. Meet Kurtis Taylor. Credit: BarbieMedia.)

Dolls didn't interested me in the least growing up. I was more the hopscotch kind of sissy boy. Whether it was Barbie or GI Joe, dolls bored me. That is changing. I may buy my first doll.

Today's NYT Advertising column was about Mattel choosing a fresh body and face for its Ken Doll line. A courtesy photo from the toy giant showed the young male candidates and the beefiest of the crop caught my eye, without knowing he was the winner of the model competition. His all-American name is Kurtis Taylor and he's a football player from Iowa.

Oh, if only there were a shirtless pic of him on the web, I'd like to eye it, ran across my mind. Sure, he's not mature, hairy-chested and won't see a streak of gray for decades, my usual fave, but I can be flexible about an attractive male. Not only is there that shirtless pic out there, I also found the official video for Kurtis Taylor in his run-up to scoring the contract for the Ken gig. Eye-candy in motion:



Not that Mattel asked me for my gay view, but I lustily approve of their olive-skinned, dark haired slab of young gridiron beefcake. Someday, I hope he plays for the gay team. From my lips, to the goddess's ear when she is dispensing favors.

Kurtis formerly played for the Iowa Cyclone's team and when rooting around their photo galleries, I came across this fellow's image and thought I had stumbled upon the Mormon Adonis Training Camp for Hunks with Shaved Heads:

Meet Jake McDonough, boys. Click to enlarge and see every little hair on his hard bicep and the stubble on his scalp and around his chin. A good reason to run a gratuitous pic of one more young beefy football player from the heartland, wouldn't you say? But let's close this post with one more vid of Kurtis and his body. This vid is from his work out at 2010 football try out in Iowa:

LGBT POV: 
EQCA Must Hold Town Hall Meetings

(Sara Beth Brooks of Sacramento. Courtesy photo.)

Over at Karen Ocamb's blog LGBT POV, assistant editor Syd Peterson has been running lots of essays from too many Gay Inc types and an abundance of boring lawyers about the future of Equality California. Radical ideas have not been part of the series.

I've been surprised at the high number of folks who've called for what I label the "Kumbaya plan of action" regarding what the next executive director ought to with this organization that is supposed to represent the full diversity of California's full gay diversity, and more than just wealthy donors, Democratic Party hacks, Gay Inc folks and attorneys.

To my delight, an essay from Sara Beth Brooks, whom I've never heard of before and who I want to keep an out for, broaches the thus-unspoken challenge at LGBT POV to have EQCA hold public meetings, a subject long discussed here. She wrote:

In local cities across the state, regularly scheduled LGBT community leadership meetings provide a place for local community to share information, network, and get training. This concept can be translated statewide if someone built that conversation. ...

As a movement we have a communication problem: we are not doing enough communicating. Statewide conversation stopped when tensions ran too high.

There has not been an all-inclusive forum for conversation among leaders since the San Bernardino meeting almost two years ago. It’s time to start talking again. EQCA could begin that conversation by holding regular open meetings and publishing information about them widely (both before and after). ...

Brava! Cheers! Hooray! Those words from Sara Beth, especially the last sentence, could have been written by me, and I'm so happy to see a younger activist understands the crucial need for ongoing public forums.

By the way, the last time the current executive director of EQCA appeared at a community meeting in San Francisco open to all was in February 2009. Two years without regular meetings like this is unhealthy and dysfunctional. Also, EQCA has no forums listed on their events calender.

It's becoming quite disgusting that EQCA can put on endless and continuous galas, hand out award, throw cocktail receptions, arrange invitation-only strategic meetings with rich donors, make decisions without grassroots input and then claim to representing all of us. They aren't and getting EQCA to open the doors, let fresh voices be heard and decide our statewide gay agenda is going to be a monumental struggle.

The absence of this basic component of democratic engagement, in-person town halls, in the organizing toolbox of EQCA is a serious flaw that is not even acknowledged by the group's boosters or the traditional gay print media, and forget about thinking that EQCA leaders want to seriously deal with this missing component.

Why does EQCA fear democratic discussions open to everyone?

Memo to Sara Beth: Thanks much, for endorsing regular open forums with EQCA. Keep calling for them until the organizations get with the democratic engagement concept.

Russian Lesbian Activist Speaks
in S.F. March 30 at Gay Center

Today I have the pleasant honor of sharing the exciting news that a lesbian leader from Russia, Polina Savchenko (above), will speak on Wednesday, March 30th at 7:30 PM at San Francisco's gay community center. The center is located at 1800 Market Street, at Octavia.

She is the coordinator of international programs for the Vykhod (Coming Out) group in St. Petersburg, where she produced the Queer Cultural Festival and she co-moderates the newly-launched Queerussia online discussion group, where discussions are conducted in English and membership is open to Russians and their friends from other countries.

Polina is traveling through America this month visiting friends and family, and when longtime lesbian advocate Gloria Nieto heard she was coming to the Bay Area, reached out and invited her to hold a public forum.

She said yes, and before you knew it, Gloria, in coordination with Kate Kendell at the National Center for Lesbian Rights, which is sponsoring the talk, and Rebecca Rolfe at the SF LGBT Community Center, arranged for the March 30 forum to take place.

I'm planning to be at the event to hear Polina speak about lesbian life in Russia, the current state of the gay movement and how American activists can work in solidarity with our Russian counterparts. One idea I've proposed to her is the establishment of a sister city agreement and relationship between San Francisco and St. Petersburg. More on that idea later.

Many thanks to all the lovely lesbians involved in making the forum with Polina happen, and in such a short time, too. Come out on March 30 for what will be a very informative and educational meeting.

Japanese Lesbian, HIV Pozzie Reports;
Gay Jamaicans & 'Homo' Killer Updates

(Azusa Yamashita, co-founder and editor of GayJapanNews who lives in Iwate, Japan. Credit: Fridae.com.)

I have reports from Jamaica and Japan to share, and instead of writing a post for each country, this post contains snippets of news with a number of links back to the sources.

The gay Asian news and social networking site Fridae contacted Japanese lesbian, gay and HIV poz persons, soliciting reports of how the tsunami and earthquake affected them. The comments from the Japanese activists were published on March 18. Here are two:

Though I have not talked to many PLHIV after the earthquake, privacy and medication compliance will be the biggest challenges among them. I am worried about access to treatment.

- Toma Nemoto, member of Global Youth Coalition on HIV/AIDS - Nagasaki

We usually have some earthquakes in Iwate so I don't usually get scared. But the tremours on 11 March were horrifying. One of the TV programmes told us that they lasted for about five minutes. There are still many aftershocks day and night. My family and I still put clothes and socks on when we go to bed. I've spent my time looking at the survivors' list and listening to a local radio to find out whether my relatives, friends, friends' families and friends' friends are alive.

My experience is still ongoing and I'm afraid I can't still describe them well. I don't watch TV now because it's more than what I can handle to see heartbreaking news in towns where I have relatives and friends and also where I used to live (I used to live Miyako.) Towns I know are completely gone in the coastal areas in Iwate. I don't have words to describe my feelings. I feel as if my feelings are also gone.

- Azusa Yamashita, co-founder and editor of GayJapanNews who lives in Iwate, one of the worst hit areas

From Kingston, where the Jamaica Forum for Lesbians, All-Sexuals and Gays has a glorious new look and fabulous layout for their site, the group issued a declaration to parliament regarding a charter that impacts gays will be debated:

J-FLAG is urging the Jamaican Parliament to make provisions to protect the human rights of all Jamaicans, and provide a framework to reduce discrimination against all persons including lesbians, gays, bisexuals and transgenders (LGBT); persons with disabilities and persons affected by particular health conditions such as HIV in the Charter of Fundamental Rights and Freedoms.

J-FLAG wishes to advise that this Charter should serve as the basis of human rights recognition for all in a society, where its basic laws are based on the concepts of inclusivity and dignity, and on an appreciation of contemporary science on human sexuality, not on prejudice, fear, habit and misinformation.

Lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender persons continue to be the victims of extortion, physical abuse and harassment by non-state and state actors. In 2010, over 40 incidents of human rights violations were reported to J-FLAG. ...

The biased (and proud of it) Gleaner newspaper carried a story that essentially was the J-FLAG news release. Under the offensive headline "Man before court for killing alleged homo", the paper reported on a gay-related murder case working its way through the courts:

A painter accused of killing a man who made sexual advances towards him was offered $300,000 bail when he appeared in the Corporate Area Resident Magistrate's Court Friday.

Kevon Martin, 33, of Spanish Town Road in Kingston, was arrested and charged last November for the stabbing death of 59-year-old Steve Lindo ...

The accused, who is charged for murder, was offered bail by Senior Magistrate Judith Pusey, despite objection from the prosecution on the grounds that Martin had no permanent address.

But the magistrate, after looking at the statement, said that based on the Crown's case, Martin was acting in self-defence. ...

According to the accused, he was coming from the bathroom when Lindo held onto him saying that he must have sex with him. In the ensuing scuffle, he stabbed the deceased. ...

It is reported that a fight ensued in which Martin used a scissors to stab Lindo several times in his chest, back and neck. ...

Another sad situation in which the alleged killer of a gay man, think of David Kato in Uganda, attempts to justify his bloody and deadly behavior using the gay panic defense. Wouldn't surprise me in the least to learn how many times this bogus defense is successful.

As I read this story, my mind was trying to recall a single instance in which the Jamaica criminal justice system had ever convicted and appropriately sentenced anyone in any of the brutal murders against gays and transgender people. Nothing came to mind. If you know of any such conviction and sentencing, kindly let me know.

WSJ Omits Gay US Insurance
Czar McRaith's $36K Donations to Dems

The openly gay insurance chief for Illinois, Michael McRaith (above), was named last week to be the head of the Federal Insurance Office, a new initiative within the Treasury Department, according to the Wall Street Journal:

McRaith will become the first person to head the office, which has the task of advising the Treasury secretary on insurance issues. He also will serve as a nonvoting member on a new federal panel created to determine which financial firms present a risk to the financial system and be the U.S.'s public face in negotiating international insurance agreements. ...

The WSJ piece curiously omitted mention of McRaith's federal donations totaling $35,896 since 2000, and all his checks went to Democrats and their affiliated PACs, including $1,395 to Barack Obama. Those figures come Open Secrets.

I would expect this financial publication would provide readers with this info, not because I think in any way his donations played a significant role in McRaith getting his appointment, but simply to give as much info as possible about his political donations and fully vet the man.

Regarding the gay angle, none of the mainstream coverage thus far about McRaith's appointment mention his being out of the closet. The Advocate's site mentioned his new federal position and that he served on the board of the Chicago AIDS Foundation, but like their straight media colleagues, the Advocate omitted his political contributions.

A search of the Treasury Department's press office's site turned up no release on McRaith's appointment. Anyone know if it's standard operating procedure for the department to refrain from issuing a release and biographical info on significant appointees?

Here's are a few radical notions. Let's have the mainstream and gay media mention McRaith's qualifications, his almost $36,000 in federal political donations and the fact that he's openly gay. Oh, an official news release from Treasury that references the gay angle. That's not asking too much, is it?