Perez Hilton Is A Father

From his website:

Dear Friends, I want you to hear this directly from me, right here. I am ready to announce that earlier this month I was blessed with the birth of my first child, a beautiful and healthy baby boy - with lots of hair on his tiny head! My family is overjoyed at this newest and most cherished addition. Thank YOU for welcoming PerezHilton.com into your homes, offices, classrooms, cell phones and wherever else you may read my five websites. And thank you for welcoming ME into your lives! I am so humbled to welcome this little man into my life. And I am honored and ready for the challenge of guiding him through his. With love, Perez.

Jezebel is seeing a lively discussion.

Folks On The Other Side Of Your Screen

Here's a shot of this weekend's 2012 Haas Convening, where LGBT journalists gathered in Houston for training and updates on the movement's latest issues. Attending were such well-known bloggers as Jeremy Hooper (Good As You), Bil Browning (Bilerico Project), David Badash (New Civil Rights Movement), Rod McCollum (Rod 2.0), Zack Ford (Think Progress), Noah Michelson (HuffPo Gay Voices) and Scott Wooledge (Daily Kos).

Also in the house were writers from print outlets such as the Bay Area Reporter, Windy City Times, South Florida Gay News, Miami Herald, Gay City News, Frontier Magazine, The Advocate, Metro Weekly, Seattle Gay News, and the Washington Blade.

Among the presenters were Jerame Davis (Stonewall Democrats), R. Clark Cooper (Log Cabin Republicans), Mara Keisling (National Center for Transgender Equality), Denis Dison (Victory Fund), Mike Rogers (Netroots Connect), Marc Solomon (Freedom To Marry), and Steve Walker, the Deputy Political Director for the Democratic National Committee. A particular highlight was the welcoming speech from openly gay Houston Mayor Annise Parker (below). Big thanks go out to Haas exec (and former NGLTF director) Matt Foreman for another great event.

Leftist Gays Are Poisoning His Cocktails!

"I’ve become a pariah in Boystown not just for my support of Sarah Palin and the Tea Party and my opposition to Barack Obama and the Left, but mainly for my insistence that it’s childish and flat-out wrong for the 'gay community' to direct hatred at Christians for refusing to allow the word 'marriage' to be redefined as something this sacrament is not. [snip] I was genuinely afraid of being 'accidentally' tripped or pushed down the many stairs in the bar or otherwise harmed physically by Sidetrack staff or patrons at Dan’s encouragement.

"That’s above and beyond these people doing petty things like putting something in drinks that I’d order to punish me. I reasonably became convinced that if I kept going to Sidetrack that Dan would escalate things with customers and his fellow staff to the point where I’d be physically assaulted on the premises because of my religion and my outspoken personal beliefs which did not jive with what Art Johnston and other 'gay community leaders' mandated for gay guys living in Boystown." - Hillbuzz blogger Kevin DuJan, claiming that Chicago's leftist gays are secretly conspiring to deny him dates with hot twinks and are poisoning his cocktails at his favorite bar.

Afternoon View - Right Wing Watch

Folks, meet Right Wing Watch bloggers Brian Tashman and Kyle Mantyla. Between the two of them, they probably provide more JMG video and hate-quote content than any other site I regularly reference. Big props and snaps to them both!

Naples News Boots Pamela Grothaus

The Naples Daily News has finally booted hate-blogger Pamela Grothaus after she posted a nasty attack on PFLAG over the group's inclusion at a "religious freedom day" at Collier County, Florida public high schools. Last month Grothaus proudly declared that she was hoping to be named "JMG Bigot Of The Year" for her attacks on LGBT rights. That prompted many of you to contact the Naples Daily News and probably contributed to their decision to shitcan her ass. On her personal blog, Grothaus is complaining that the newspaper "didn't even have the decency" to tell her she was fired. So sad, too bad.

Sending Our Love To Pam Spaulding

As readers of Pam's House Blend are nervously aware, our pal and fellow blogger Pam Spaulding is undergoing major surgery this morning in North Carolina. Pam's illness is forcing an unpaid leave from her day job, so if you'd like to kick her a few bucks her team has set up a Paypal fund. Best wishes, Pam! We're all thinking of you today.

Ouch

(Via - Daniel Baylis)

NYC Gay Bloggers At Pride 2010

Oh what a difference Section Two makes, as yesterday we crossed the finish line at 2:30pm, four hours earlier than last year. At times we moved so quickly it felt like a Pride run, so kudos to the volunteers and organizers at Heritage of Pride. As is our tradition, near the end of the route we posed for the above shot in front of the historic Stonewall. Visit Queer New York Bloggers for the names and blog URLs of some of this year's participants. Thanks to everybody for your cheers and waves, we felt the love. And feel free to embed any photos in the comments of this post.

[Photo credit - Baad Lamb]

Join Us In This Year's NYC Pride March

New York City Gay Bloggers & Digital Activists invite you to join us in this year's NYC Pride March. We had a great group last year and this year we've been promised a spot near the front of the parade. (Unlike last year when our ass-end section of the parade didn't start moving until almost 2pm.) I'll post the time and place for us to meet next Friday. You don't have to be an actual blogger to join us, so this is your excuse to finally take part in the world's oldest and (arguably) most famous gay pride parade.

Google Shuts Down MP3 Blogs

Google has shut down a number of popular MP3 blogs on its Blogger service for copyright infringement. More shutdowns are promised.

Over the course of the past day, the Google-owned blogging service Blogger has shut down a number of popular mp3 blogs, including Pop Tarts Suck Toasted, I Rock Cleveland, LivingEars, and It's a Rap. If you follow the links to any of those blogs, you'll see that they've been wholesale deleted. All you'll find is the Blogger message, "The blog you were looking for was not found." The apparent reason? The music posted on the blogs allegedly violates Blogger's terms of services.

From Google's official blog:

Earlier today, word spread about some popular music blogs that were recently removed from Blogger. While we make it a policy to not publicly discuss individual users or their accounts, we wanted to clarify a few things about how and when Blogger enforces its Terms of Service as they relate to our DMCA policy. Last summer, we updated our enforcement of the DMCA. Our current policy is that when we receive a DMCA complaint, we: 1) Notify the blogger about the complaint by e-mail and on the Blogger dashboard. 2) Reset the offending post to ‘draft’ status, allowing the blogger to remove the offending content. 3) Send a copy of the complaint to ChillingEffects.org. When we receive multiple DMCA complaints about the same blog, and have no indication that the offending content is being used in an authorized manner, we will remove the blog.

The blogs being shut down often offer free downloads authorized by labels in order to promote releases. They also post a disclaimer that unauthorized downloads will be removed upon request. Obviously, those disclaimer notices do not protect MP3 bloggers from charges of copyright infringement.

You Can't Turn The Lights Off

Courtesy of 33 collaborators who were attending the Sundance Film Festival, here's a cute Schoolhouse Rock-ish take on the decision not to broadcast the Prop 8 trail. The message is that in world of live-blogging and Twitter, the words of bigots will be known. The video was made by HitRECord, which was founded by actor Joseph Gordon Levitt.

(Tipped by JMG reader Jessica in Salt Lake City)

Tenth Annual Weblog Awards

Voting ends tomorrow in the Tenth Annual Weblog Awards, where this here website thingy writer is somehow nominated for a "Lifetime Achievement Award." I feel like Betty White! In a good way! You have to scroll horizontally all the damn ass hell to the far right to see my ballot. I love the far right! Anyway, this (I think) concludes this year's crop of blogger beauty pageants. Do check out the other categories, particularly photography, travel, and music. There's some great stuff there.

Brad Graham, Gay Man Who Coined The Term "Blogosphere", Dies At 41

Brad Graham, the gay blogging pioneer who coined the term "blogosphere" in 1999, has died unexpectedly at the age of 41.

His body was found Monday at his home in the city’s Shaw Neighborhood. Although the time and the cause of death remain unknown, Graham seems to have died of natural causes, said Steven Woolf, artistic director of the Repertory Theatre of St. Louis. Graham was the theater’s longtime public relations manager. “We are all mystified,” Woolf said. Woolf said he last saw Graham on Dec. 31. “He was in a terrific mood, very upbeat,” Woolf recalled. “We had a great conversation. He was an important part of our family. Actors and artists all liked working with him, and he loved this theater. He was a real professional.” Although Graham started out as a writer in conventional media, he embraced new technology. He loved to blog and Tweet, and was known as a generous coach to those who needed advice and encouragement in new forms.

Graham's blog Bradlands, had not been updated since January 2009. Six years ago he gave me some very kind advice on setting up my blogroll. Nice guy.

A Gay First For Martha Stewart

Popular Good As You blogger/activist Jeremy Hooper and his husband Andrew have become the first gay couple to be featured in Martha Stewart Weddings. Jeremy and Andrew were married in Connecticut in June. Congrats, guys!

Bloggers Honored By NYC's LGBT Anti-Violence Project

Last night Pam Spaulding of Pam's House Blend, Andy Towle of Towleroad, and Bil Browning of The Bilerico Project and I attended the NYC Anti-Violence Project's Courage Awards, where we were honored for our work as "citizen journalists" - a term Pam calls "the glamour word for bloggers, don'tcha know, since we didn't have PJs on." We had elected Pam as our spokesperson and here is the speech she made on our behalf after our introduction by SiriusXM host and activist Michelangelo Signorile.

Because crimes against LGBT people are seldom reported on a national basis, and covered mostly in local papers, if at all, we have a valuable opportunity to raise awareness about how severe and widespread these crimes are, and the frequency at which they occur. As one of the few forums, and perhaps the most effective, that exist right now to communicate these crimes to other gay people and our heterosexual allies, we can inspire them to take action.

We will never stop standing up for my fellow LGBT citizens when they are struck down by hate, and never ease the pressure on those who would choose to strike us down, whether by words or by fists. Whether it be a young trans woman in Colorado referred to as "it" by a lover she thought she trusted and struck down in a rage, or a bar goer who beats a gay man with his fist to the surface of a parking lot late at night after a night of drinking in South Carolina, or a man who decides he doesn't like the look of a lesbian couple in Provincetown so he decides to push them through a plate glass window, or two deadbeats in Laramie, Wyoming who decide to mete justice on a young gay man by beating him and leaving him to die on a frigid fence, we will continue to report each and every story.

We are humbled and challenged by the ability to communicate the amount of information we have regarding hate crimes to such a wide audience, and we will continue to be vigilant in my continuing coverage of violence against the LGBT community. It's a vigilance that would not be possible without my fellow bloggers Andy, Joe, and Bil. We cast a wide net and I am proud to be honored alongside them.

Pam has lots more photos and videos, including speeches made by co-honoree Tony Kushner, the Pulitzer-winning author of Angels In America, and Kushner's presenter, Law & Order's handsome BD Wong. It was a fantastic night. Please consider supporting the important work of the Anti-Violence Project - the people who, in the words of executive director Sharon Stapel, "come to the rescue of LGBT people at the absolute worst time of their lives."

HuffPo Blogger Responds To Palin Threat

Huffington Post blogger Shannyn Moore calls Sarah Palin "a coward and a bully."

Bloggers On The March

If you attend NYC's Pride Parade, keep an eye out for the marching bloggers. We're in Section 8 (heh) right behind the float for Club Atlantis. That should be interesting. We step off at noon from West 54th Street & Fifth Avenue.

Warren: Bloggers Are Lying About Me

Rick Warren says that bloggers "really need to get a life" and stop lying about him. And then he goes right on to LIE that he's never compared same-sex marriage to incest and pedophilia. Here are his exact words from his December 15th interview with BeliefNet.

"The issue to me, I’m not opposed to that as much as I’m opposed to redefinition of a 5,000 year definition of marriage. I’m opposed to having a brother and sister being together and calling that marriage. I’m opposed to an older guy marrying a child and calling that marriage. I’m opposed to one guy having multiple wives and calling that marriage"

Seems pretty clear to us, Rick.

Ms. Helen Philpot Speaks

The interwebs are buzzing over whether Margaret and Helen, the hilarious pro-Obama blog purportedly written by two 80-something women, is real or not. No conclusions yet, but check out this post from one of the authors, Helen Philpot.

I am surprised that some of you are up in arms about my calling Sarah Palin a bitch, or John McCain an ass or even George Bush a jackass. I read your comments about how I should be more respectable and not call Sarah Palin a bitch. Some of you are actually praying for me because I called John McCain an ass. In particular I am struck by the comments that suggest the problem with our country is that we can’t have an intelligent conversation to solve our problems without resorting to name calling like when I called George Bush a jackass.

Well this old broad is hurt. Clearly I didn’t start this blog to call Sarah Palin a bitch…or John McCain an ass… or even George Bush a jackass. I am so sorry if I have offended any of you. What was I thinking when I called Sarah Palin a bitch?

New rules:

I will stop calling George Bush a jackass when he stops calling me a terrorist: Either you are with us, or you are with the terrorists.

I will stop calling John McCain an ass when he stops calling Barack Obama a socialist at every dog and pony show on the Straight Talk Express tour.

I will stop calling Sarah Palin a bitch when she stops calling Obama a terrorist sympathizer. And I will stop calling Sarah Palin a bitch when she stops calling the parts of the country where I don’t live more Pro-American than the part of the country where I do live. And I will definitely stop calling Sarah Palin a bitch when she stops acting like a bitch.

I’m old enough to remember the Republican party of Barry Goldwater - when the party stood for fiscal responsibility, small government and personal freedoms. I remember when I could talk with friends about politics and just agree to disagree. And then religious nut cases decided that if you didn’t agree with them you were immoral. So they went and elected George Bush President so he could take the Republican Party from being a party full of respectable people to a party filled with asses, jackasses and yes - bitches like Sarah Palin.

I am tired of Rush Limbaugh suggesting that feminism is a dirty word. How hard did he fight to gain the right to vote? Or own property in his own name? Or get equal pay for equal work?

And I am tired of Sean Hannity suggesting I am un-American because I don’t think that war is the answer to everything. How many bullets has he taken defending his country in battle?

And I am tired that Sarah Palin can decide what she wants to do with her body but other women can’t make that decision for themselves.

NEW, New Rules:

If you are not for me, you are against me. I’ll get over it. Now kindly return the favor.

Oh…and one last thing. Elisabeth Hasselbeck is still a moron. There is just no way around that, Folks.

So. Real or not real? The rest of the blog is just as good.

8 Against 8: Lesbian Bloggers Unite

Eight prominent lesbian bloggers have united to work with Equality California and raise funds to fight Proposition 8. Visit their page on the EQCA site where all donations go directly to the No On 8 effort.

8 Against 8:
Grace Chu and Grace Rosen - Grace The Spot
Lori Hahn - Hahn At Home
Kelly Leszczynski - The Lesbian Lifestyle
Dorothy Snarker - Dorothy Surrenders
Pam Spaulding - Pam's House Blend
Sinclair - Sugarbutch Chronicles
Riese - This Girl Called Automatic Win
Renee Gannon - Lesbiatopia