I have a Microsoft Certification Boot Camp coming up which sends me up to the North East of the country for 10 days, 9 nights to take… 8 full classes AND tests. These are MCSA, MCSE, MCP, MCTS (3), MCITP and another to migrate the MCSE to 2008 standards.

This is a series of HELL classes and as such, while I’m there, I highly doubt I’ll be doing a lot to the website here. I will still be able to get some stuff done remotely. But it will be fairly quiet as I won’t be able to start up any projects.

And when I return I’ll let everyone know how I did. With luck, I’ll actually pass a few of these and be well on my way to a raise… or barring that, some place that WILL give me a raise. (Not getting one for three years sucks. And still having a partner trying to find a job while I’m going through credit counseling, double whammy.)

So wish me luck… and if you MUST get something posted, get it to me before Thursday. After that, I’ll be off and on again on here at odds hours whenever I can until after Labor Day. Enjoy!

While the cats are away… the mouse play. Except when the cat has an iPhone. So watch out!

You will note that the Festival scheduled for Sunday has had the location changed. Originally it was due to be in Kiener Plaza, but due to permit issues, it has been moved to Benton Park at Arsenal & Jefferson. See below for a map.

For information on change: Facebook
Or for more information on the event itself: St-LouisBlackPride.org

I encourage everyone to go over and vote your opinions!

http://www.mayorslay.com/polls/20100819samesex.php

Schlessinger, 63, has been under fire for using the N-word repeatedly during an on-air conversation with a caller last week.

In announcing her decision “not to do radio anymore” after being in the business for more than 30 years, Schlessinger said, “I want to be able to say what’s on my mind and in my heart and what I think is helpful and useful without somebody getting angry or some special-interest group deciding this is a time to silence a voice of dissent.”

[Webmaster Note: I admit, I didn't realize she even had a show anymore. Gaystlouis.com participated in the protests against her TV show in 2000. I need to get those pictures back online.]

Missouri legislators passed two laws in 2006 in response to protests at servicemembers’ funerals by members of Westboro Baptist Church of Topeka, Kan. The church contends the deaths are God’s punishment for the U.S. tolerating homosexuality.

U.S. District Judge Fernando Gaitan ruled the laws violate the right of free speech guaranteed by the U.S. Constitution.

Rep. Carnahan’s Office Broken Into and Torched [St. Louis Activist Hub]
Carnahan Campaign Office Broken Into, Small Fire Set [FOX]
Fire hits campaign offfice of Mo. Rep. Carnahan [STLToday]
Police say suspect is in custody in arson at Carnahan office [STLToday]

I will note that I’ve seen more links to Russ Carnahan’s pictures here from Pridefest. Initially I assumed it was fans, but now I’m wondering. (They were via TinyURL posted via Facebook, so I can’t really trace it back further.)

I’ll do my best to explain what happened and why I think this is an utterly reckless decision and one which will harm more people than anyone anticipates.

So, let’s see what happened:

Target donated $100,000 to MN Forward. A pro-business organization. No surprise there. However, this organization then endorsed a candidate (and gave some funds) who has anti-gay virtues.


My take: Target should’ve read the fine print, but frankly, this happens every election. A company gives money to a groups that will help promote it. Welcome to politics. The only reason this is different is the Supreme Court now allows corporations to donate as much as they want. So the large $$$ signs catch attention.

Target came out and apologized. Makes sense. It wasn’t their fault, but they can’t exactly ask for the money back (because they didn’t give it to the candidate).

But… for many, this is not enough. They feel Target has to make a direct donation to the Gay Community to “make up” for this.

And this is where I walk away from the debate. This is extortion. We know you committed a crime, so you need to pay us off first. Let’s just call it “Gay Protection“. Might be easier to comprehend.

Personally, I don’t want Target to donate to any group. Here’s why.

Every one of us in the community has done EXACTLY the same thing with our own cash. We all have given one organization a bunch of money which it then gave to candidates that openly opposed gay marriage. And they’ve been doing this for 20 years or more.

Pissed yet? Well, it’s the Human Rights Campaign.

They have given funds to candidates who have openly stated they were against gay marriage, yet no one called for a boycott. It was assumed that this was part of a greater purpose. (These candidates support Civil Unions or wanted to banish Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell but not full Gay Marriage.)

Here’s my objection: How dare we say that what we did was okay but what Target did, is not? Just because we are millions of people and they are one company, must they make decisions smarter than we do? I think we all know better.

And so with that… I ignore the hype.

BUT…

If there’s one thing I would encourage everyone to take a thought about first.

How will a boycott help anyone out at this point?

Will it drop the value of their stock? Sure. Oh my god, the shareholders’ value will sink from $9 million to only $8 million. *gasp* It won’t hurt them enough to worry them. A few might sell, but they’ll adjust…

But for every 10% decrease in stock, their stores will be pushed to make even more than 10% in cuts to make up for the loss. So, the poor stock clerk who gets a pink slip, will have the gay community to thank. Even though they did not support this, they did not make that donation, they’ll be caught in the crossfire.

Are these considered Acceptable Losses?

What about this candidate? He’s gotten millions of dollars in press to spew his hate far and wide… for free. Far more than his minor share of the original $150,000 was. Congrats Boycott community. You did that.

And this is where I feel people are out of touch. People who refuse to participate in Pride Events or the real protests of Prop 8 start rapidly pushing that “like” button on a Facebook protest without so much as having picked up a single sign. Go to Target and talk to the employees and you’ll find that they aren’t supporting an anti-gay candidate. So why are they being targetted?

It’s because people assume that their actions will “punish” the corporation and that isn’t how corporations work. Corporations adapt, usually by cutting workers or features.

Before you are ready to bury the whole company think about what is really happening here.

HRC wants money. This is a good excuse to get a lot of money. The boycott isn’t about fairness. It’s about extorting money to the largest GLBT Corporation in this country.

While I like the HRC and while I think they do good work, they are above this and they should walk away from being part of this boycott.

But it’s hard to do with the cameras flashing and the media all ready for a fight.

So… do we as a community stand up for our beliefs and doom hundreds, if not thousands, of workers to the unemployment line in the worst recession of the last 80 years all because of one donation…

Or do we accept the apology we were given and simply make sure it doesn’t happen again?

I’m all for the forgiveness. Let’s leave the armchair quarterbacking of corporations to their boards.

And that is why I have posted nothing about the boycott on the website here. And why, most likely, this will be the only post on the topic. If you don’t like it, feel free to start your own website. This is mine to do as I please, including to NOT post “silly furor”. And if you don’t like it, by all means, boycott the website if you like. Makes about as much sense as boycotting Target in my opinion.

The decision, issued by a three-judge panel of the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals, trumps a lower court judge’s order that would have allowed county clerks to begin issuing marriage likenses to same-sex couples on Wednesday.

Walker’s comments were the first public airing of a possibility that has been increasingly under discussion by legal experts — that the fight over the constitutionality of Proposition 8 might not be decided by the U.S. Supreme Court, as many have expected. Instead the case could be brought to an end by the strict legal rules about who is allowed to pursue a dispute in federal court.

The defendants in the case were Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger and Attorney General Jerry Brown. As the losing parties, they have authority to appeal Walker’s ruling. But Brown and Schwarzenegger have hailed Walker’s decision and said they would not appeal. A spokesman for Schwarzenegger repeated that position Thursday.

Jeffrey Goldone, who has been a vice president of the Society of St. Vincent de Paul of St. Louis board of directors for five years, was barred from running for president because he is in a 20-year gay relationship.

“I was told that I could not run for president because my living relationship goes against the Catholic moral teaching,” Goldone wrote in a letter to “fellow Vincentians.” In the letter he asks people to sign a petition saying an “injustice has been done” and asking for the group’s rules to be modified.

Jeffrey Goldone, who has been a vice president on the Society of St. Vincent de Paul of St. Louis board of directors for five years, was nominated for president in May. He accepted the nomination but was dropped from the running several weeks later.

“I was told that I could not run for president because my living relationship goes against Catholic moral teaching,” which could bring ‘shame and embarrassment” to the society, Goldone wrote in a Aug. 2 letter addressed to “fellow Vincentians.”

Goldone has been in a relationship with his partner for 20 years.

Highlighting the black tie event, the organization will present its Equality Award to two long-time leaders in St. Louis’ lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender community, Scott Emanuel and Ed Reggi.

“You couldn’t ask for two people who better exemplify a life of ‘No Excuses,’” stated Dinner co-chair Don Eakins.

For the past nine years, Emanuel has volunteered as an adult leader with Growing American Youth. He has hosted “Lavender Limelight” and “Outspoken,” St. Louis’ only GLBT radio talk shows, and currently serves on the board of the LGBT Community Center. Founded in November 2008, Reggi’s Show Me No Hate organization has lead numerous peaceful demonstrations, including rallies at St. Louis’ Old Court House, Cathedral Basilica, and the Harvey Milk Day march to City Hall, helping unify an often fractured community and bringing much-needed visibility to the fight for LGBT rights.

A married couple, Emanuel and Reggi are fierce advocates for marriage equality. Since May 2009, they have organized four Marriage Equality Bus trips to Iowa, enabling dozens of local gay and lesbian couples to obtain legal marriage licenses. They plan a fifth trip for August 13.

In keeping with the No Excuses theme, HRC St. Louis is debuting a new ticket structure for this year’s event, including student pricing and a payment plan option allowing guests to split the cost into payments. “So you have no excuses for not attending,” added event co-chair Robyn Berkley. Tickets are available now at www.boxofficetickets.com.

The Human Rights Campaign represents a grassroots force of over 750,000 members and supporters. As the largest national lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender civil rights organization, HRC envisions an America where LGBT people are ensured of their basic equal rights, and can be open, honest and safe at home, at work and in the community.

The HRC is the nation’s largest group working toward equal rights for lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender Americans.

The couple’s work on behalf of LGBT equality in our fair city speaks for itself: Emanuel has long been an activist on behalf of LGBT citizens and youth, and Reggi founded Show Me No Hate, an active grassroots coalition.

Katherine Miller of Findlay, Ohio, also said she wants to fight for repeal of the “don’t ask, don’t tell” law, a subject she was studying and writing about as a sociology major at West Point.

“I intend for my resignation to offer a concrete example of the consequences of a failed law and social policy,” she wrote in her resignation letter, referring to the law against gays serving openly in the military.

Miller wrote proudly of her accomplishments as a student, athlete and soldier and said that she had not been pressured by anyone to resign. But she wrote of being “coerced into ignoring derogatory comments towards homosexuals for fear of being alienated for my viewpoint” and that she “endured sexual harassment for fear of being accused as a lesbian.”

The complaint is brief. Lucas says nothing about why it thinks that these users downloaded its film except to note that “monitoring of online infringement of Plaintiff’s motion picture is ongoing.” Instead, it has simply presented the judge with a list of 53 IP addresses, all of which are said to have visited gay-torrents.net (“a private website known for its vast index of videos depicting gay pornography”) and then shared the film in question.

Chief U.S. District Judge Vaughn Walker in San Francisco struck down the state’s ban on same-sex marriage last week, ruling that voter-approved Proposition 8 violates the U.S. Constitution. Walker had issued a temporary stay on his decision, which on Thursday he said he would lift.

This years’ event weekend is September 24 – 26, 2010, at Bad Dog Bar & Grill in St. Louis, MO. The host hotel is Sheraton St. Louis City Center Hotel & Suite. The Mr. Midwest Leather title covers 13 states: Illinois, Iowa, Wisconsin, Indiana, Missouri, Minnesota, Michigan, Ohio, North Dakota, South Dakota, Kansas, Nebraska, and Kentucky. The emcee and judges for this event will be from across the Midwest region, representing a spectrum of leather and non-leather communities.

The winner of the contest will be named Mr. Midwest Leather for 2010 and go on to compete at International Mr. Leather on Memorial Day Weekend, 2011, in Chicago, IL.

Friday night, September 24, is the meet & greet event at Bad Dog Bar & Grill where contestants will be introduced and meet the judges. The contestants will also draw their contest numbers. Saturday night, Sept. 25, will be the contest and Charlie Schoenherr, the current titleholder, will be passing on the title to the next Mr. Midwest Leather. Sunday, September 25, will be the victory brunch and the Victory Ball/Beer Blast, hosted by The Gateway Sisters of Perpetual Indulgence.at Bad Dog Bar & Grill.

Despite what some people may think, this is not a beauty contest (though a hot body doesn’t hurt.) Like other Leather title events, points are given for attitude, community involvement, knowledge of the Leather Community, leadership qualities and presentation.Contestants will face a panel of judges for the interview portion of the event before hitting the stage Saturday night.

For more information, visit www.MrMidwestLeather.com

Alas… that has changed! The Guide is back!

You can find it on the menu bar on the website.

I need YOUR help though in adding new entries and adding descriptions to existing entries. Many of these groups/places I only know in passing so I’d love more information to share with the community! Just email to webmaster@gaystlouis.com and I’ll add the information.

That fear prompted Frieda Keough to show up in Clayton’s Memorial Park on Thursday, homemade sign in hand, to join about 70 others protesting Wednesday’s decision by Chief U.S. District Judge Vaughn Walker. He ruled that California’s Proposition 8, approved by voters in 2008, violated the rights of gays and lesbians who wish to marry.

…

A few yards away stretched at least 150 gay-marriage supporters (organizers contended twice that number) who lined the Central Avenue sidewalk for most of the block to show their support for Walker’s decision. County police kept the two sides well apart.

Overall, the two groups’ demonstrations were pretty civil. NOM had a permit from St. Louis County police to occupy Memorial Park, the green space on the campus of the police department. Plenty of county officers were on hand to keep the rainbow-flag waving counter-demonstrators corralled on the sidewalk, where their signs elicited plenty of supportive honks from passing cars.