Group Demands DC Mayor Adrian Fenty Be Uninvited From Pride Over PFOX Flap

Led by activist Lane Hudson, a group of activists is saying that DC Mayor Adrian Fenty should be uninvited for this year's pride celebration unless he apologizes for the accidental recognition of the "good work" of the "ex-gay" group, PFOX. From their Facebook page:

Six months after the Certificate was discovered, a spokesperson from the Mayor's office blamed a "low level staff error" for the Certificate. However, the Mayor has been silent on the issue and refuses to apologize and retract this Certificate. This is a serious matter and must be addressed in a serious way by the Mayor. His refusal to take responsibility is a complete abdication of leadership. We as a community must stand up to anyone that gives credence to harmful organizations like PFOX. Please join others who are demanding that Mayor Adrian Fenty be un-invited from participation in Capital Pride until all three of the following conditions are met:

1) Formally retract this Certificate of Appreciation
2) Personally take responsibility for your office's actions instead of blaming a "staff level error"
3) Issue a statement condemning PFOX.

The certificate of appreciation to PFOX was issued last November, but only came to the attention of the LGBT blogosphere last week.

Gay Activist Heckles Bill Clinton

Gay activist and blogger Lane Hudson heckled Bill Clinton about DADT and DOMA during Clinton's speech at the Netroots Nation conference in Pittsburgh yesterday. Andres Duque has the full transcript of Clinton's response, which he began by telling Hudson he'd fit in as one of the town hall screamers.

Hey, you know, you ought to go to one of those congressional health care meetings. You did really well there. I’ll be glad to talk about that. If you will… If you will sit down and let me talk, I’ll be glad to discuss it. But if you stand up and scream I won’t be able to talk. But the other guys would love to have ya. I wanna talk a little about that too.

But anyway, so, here we are in a different world. Now, it’s not like the 1990’s. You wanna talk about ‘Don’t Ask Don’t Tell’, I’ll tell you exactly what happened. You couldn’t deliver me any support in the Congress and they voted by a veto-proof majority in both houses against my attempt to let gays serve in the military and the media supported them. They raised all kinds of devilment. And all most of you did was to attack me instead of getting some support in the congress. Now, that’s the truth.

Bolthouse Farms Boycott Ends

Californians Against Hate has called off their boycott of Bolthouse Farms.

The food fight is over. Nearly a month ago, opponents of Proposition 8 -- which would amend the state Constitution to ban gay marriage -- started a "soft boycott" of Bolthouse Farms, among the largest producers of fresh-cut carrots in the world and the maker of juices and smoothies sold in foodie haunts and upscale markets.

Company patriarch William Bolthouse Jr. had donated $100,000 to help get the measure on the Nov. 4 ballot, and Californians Against Hate wanted gay and lesbian shoppers and their friends to know it. The group figured it was truth in labeling.

Demonstrations at the "rock 'n' roll" Ralphs on Sunset Boulevard in Hollywood and Whole Foods markets in New York City and Washington, D.C., ensued. The gay blogosphere lit up, indignant.

But on Wednesday, the company and the advocacy group made peace, and the prickly pear cactus lemonade can flow again.

The "Don't Buy Bolthouse" campaign ended because the company's chief executive "has provided us with a compelling perspective which clearly demonstrates the separation between Bolthouse Farms and ... its founder, William Bolthouse," Californians Against Hate said Wednesday in a written statement. That perspective, the statement continued, "provides us with confidence that Bolthouse Farms is committed to working productively with the [lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender] community."

For its part, the Bakersfield-based food giant "thanks Californians Against Hate for recognizing our work to meet our mission of showing respect and integrity to our employees, our vendors and our customers," company spokesman Lane Hudson said Wednesday in another written statement.

Californians Against Hate are continuing their boycotts of the San Diego hotels owned by Doug Manchester and A-1 Self-Storage, whose owner Terry Caster donated almost $300K to Yes On 8.

No Charges For Mark Foley

Disgraced former Rep. Mark Foley (R-FL) will not face charges for sending lewd emails and instant messages to congressional pages, according to sources that say an official announcement is about to be released.

Foley's attorney, David Roth, has acknowledged that Foley sent the messages to the teenagers, but has maintained that the Florida Republican never had inappropriate contact with minors. Roth had no immediate comment on the pending announcement.

State or federal charges were not able to be made because Foley apparently never met the teens in person, all of whom were over the age of consent.

Foley resigned in 2006 shortly after the scandal was made public by former Democratic staffer Lane Hudson, whom Foley had attempted to pick up in a DC bar eleven years earlier. Hudson was later fired from his job at the Human Rights Campaign for using his employers' computers to anonymously leak the story on his blog.

NLGJA Convention: In Which I Get Called A Stalinist

This weekend's trip to the National Lesbian & Gay Journalists convention in DC turned out to be a lot of fun. Friday night I met my pal, personal blogger Jimbo Barrett, who treated me to dinner and cosmos at gay fave Duplex before we headed to a party at the Adams Morgan home of outing kingpin Mike Rogers, author of BlogACTIVE and PageOneQ.

Tons of bloggerati and LGBT activism stars were in the house, including Truth Wins Out author and anti-ex-gay activist Wayne Besen, Mark Foley's outer Lane Hudson, SiriusXM radio host Michelangelo Signorile, Box Turtle Bulletin author Jim Burroway, North Carolina activist and Soulforce rider Matt Comer, Advocate editor Jon Barrett, Sen. Larry Craig's one-time rentboy David Phillips, and furniture mogul Mitchell Gold. Many more folks were in attendance, but looking at all the business cards on my hotel room desk the next morning, I was having a hard time connecting faces and names.ABOVE: SiriusXM producer David Guggenheim, Michelangelo Signorile, David Phillips. BELOW: Mitchell Gold and Lane Hudson.
BELOW: Matt Comer (L), Wayne Besen (R).












The next morning I spoke on the convention's ENDA panel where award winning journalist and panel moderator Michael Triplett did a fantastic job of keeping Log Cabin Republicans head Patrick Sammon and I from strangling each other. All seemed to be in agreement that the gay press and blogosphere had done a poor job in educating the public about the true ramifications of a trans-exclusive ENDA.

Aside from the utter unfairness of ditching our trans friends, another point I tried to drive home was that without gender identity and gender expression protections, only Jimmy Jock and Suzie Creamcheese would have true job protection. Non-trans but feminine men or masculine women could still be fired for presenting what their employers considered a "non-professional" image. We'd be protecting the "passable", but not the people at the fringes of traditional gender behaviors, even though they are not transgender.

Triplett turned the conversation to the other big divisive issue, gay Republicans, and LCR head Sammon spoke with the measured eloquence of the television reporter he used to be. Triplett then pointed out that whenever the gay press mentioned the LCR, it tended to be in a "let's take a trip to the zoo and look at the funny gays" sort of vein. (Guilty!) Advocate editor Jon Barrett promised an end to that sort of treatment of the LCRs, much to Sammon's satisfaction. (Barrett also revealed that the Advocate's ENDA cover story issue had been the lowest selling of the year, another example of the work that needs to be done there.)

And then we came to the McCain/Manhunt story. Sammon said that it was "Stalinist" of bloggers (looks at me) to rebuke a private businessman for his personal political opinions and complained about a double standard, saying (paraphrasing here), "If a Democrat was fired from the board of directors of Walmart for his party affiliation, you guys would scream bloody murder." I countered that you can't compare a publicly-held non-gay business to one that is not only entirely funded by gay men, but is arguably largely responsible for a massive redrawing of modern gay culture. Sammon: "Oh, so you'd refuse to patronize a gay bar owned by a gay Republican?" Me: "If I knew in advance, yes I'd refuse." Sammon: "Well, at least you're consistent."

Triplett then asked me about some of the hot buttons here on JMG, including his impression that any time I quote Andrew Sullivan, some you folks completely lose your shit at the mere mention of his name. He also wondered why this here website thingy has the most vociferous commenting community of the LGBT blogosphere. I lamely said something like, "Oh, they're just a bunch of really chatty people." (I should have said "smarter" instead of "chatty", but there were other bloggers in the room. I kid, I kid.) After the panel ended, I had to ask Triplett about the seating arrangement on the dais, but he swore it was pure coincidence that Sammon and I were placed at opposite ends of the podium. Hmm.

That evening I attended the Not So Silent Auction party in the host hotel's ballroom, the same room where the White House Press Correspondents Dinner is held every year. The rear exit of the ballroom is where Reagan was shot, hence the hotel's moniker, "the Hinckley Hilton." At the auction party I met lots of gay folks from the MSM, including reporters from the NYTimes and Washington Post. Again, I can't match faces to names, so no photos of those people.

After the best burger I've had in a long, long time, I did a quick change at the hotel and headed for the DC Eagle to meet up with longtime pal Mike, author of Manhattan Chowder, and JMG reader Rich, a handsome funny fellow with a great laugh, despite his seemingly grim job working at the National Institute of Drug Abuse, where he works on drug-related HIV infections. Towards the end of the evening, we had a very amusing encounter with a spectacularly drunk twink, but that story is not quite suitable for this post. All in all a fantastic weekend and I give much thanks to the NLGJA and Michael Triplett for having me.

Gay Blogger Makes Waves For Thompson

Blogger Lane Hudson, whom you may recall was the guy who anonymously posted the infamous Mark Foley IM transcripts, has filed a complaint with the Federal Elections Commission, charging prospective Republican presidential candidate Fred Thompson with violating the FEC's "testing the waters" rule. During the "exploratory period" of deciding whether to run, a candidate does not have to file financial reports.

According to Hudson, Thompson has raised far more money than should be allowed under the rule, more than $3.5 million. Candidates are prevented by law from hoarding money raising during the exploratory period and then using it to fund their campaign. Thompson continues to benefit from the exposure of reruns of Law & Order, where he played a district attorney. Thompson has 15 days to respond to the complaint, after which the FEC will decide how to proceed.