NLGJA President Dies At 48

Michael Triplett, president of the National Lesbian & Gay Journalists Association, has died of cancer at the age of 48.  The NLGJA writes:

Michael was the assistant managing editor at Bloomberg-BNA, where he used his legal background to develop and lead reports on tax and labor policy, as well as grooming journalists around the world. NLGJA members often called on Michael to provide a legal perspective to policy issues and governance, and he frequently sat on panels covering legal issues at NLGJA conventions.  Michael played an enormous role in our joining UNITY: Journalists for Diversity in 2011 and was one of our first representatives to the UNITY board. There, he worked with members of our partner groups to fully incorporate sexual orientation and gender identity into UNITY’s mission. He also helped our organization connect with members as a principle contributor to the NLGJA RE:ACT blog. Michael was truly a joy for all of us to work with, and his loss will be felt among our organization for years to come. Our thoughts and prayers are with his partner, Jack and his family in Alabama.

Such horrible news. I first met Michael in 2008 when he invited me to DC to sit on the NLGJA's panel discussion on ENDA, where I tangled with then-Log Cabin president Patrick Sammon who ended up calling me a "Stalinist." Michael, well aware of my opinion of homocons, had wisely seated us at opposite ends of the dais.

Last April, Michael wrote movingly about his battle with HPV-related oral cancer.

In the past year, I’ve had: three surgeries, 42 days of traditional radiation treatment, five rounds of chemotherapy, and five days of advanced radiation treatment. My medical bills have surpassed the $600,000 mark—thank God for my employer’s great insurance plan. I’ve lost over 50 pounds and all my facial hair, had almost half of my tongue removed, undergone two high-tech robotic procedures, used up over 70 percent of my accumulated sick leave, and had my 76-year old mother living with me for about 12 weeks to assist in my care. From this birthday forward, my gifts better be pretty damn spectacular.

In particular, and rather selfishly, I'll miss Michael's keen eye on the evolution of gay journalism and what it means today to be a news blogger in the ever-shrinking world of print media.  I've quoted his words on that subject regularly over the years and you can read some of those posts here.

Read Michael Triplett's full 2012 essay, The Anniversary Of My Cancer.

One Gay Man's Battle Against Oral Cancer

Michael Triplett is a vice president of the National Gay & Lesbian Journalists Association and their most prolific blogger. He's also just reached the first anniversary in his battle against HPV-related oral cancer, about which he's just written for the Good Men Project. An excerpt:

In the past year, I’ve had: three surgeries, 42 days of traditional radiation treatment, five rounds of chemotherapy, and five days of advanced radiation treatment. My medical bills have surpassed the $600,000 mark—thank God for my employer’s great insurance plan. I’ve lost over 50 pounds and all my facial hair, had almost half of my tongue removed, undergone two high-tech robotic procedures, used up over 70 percent of my accumulated sick leave, and had my 76-year old mother living with me for about 12 weeks to assist in my care. From this birthday forward, my gifts better be pretty damn spectacular.

My cancer is part of a growing “epidemic” of oral cancer unrelated to smoking and drinking. Instead, there is an increase—primarily in middle-aged, white men—of tongue and other mouth cancers connected to the human papillomavirus (HPV). HPV has traditionally been connected to cervical cancer in women, but there is growing evidence of the virus being a major risk factor for getting head and neck cancer. I’ve never smoked and never been more than a social drinker. I’ve never even performed oral sex on a woman, which has been a working hypothesis behind the rise in oral cancers for men. While it’s nice to be special and unique, the only real comfort comes from knowing that HPV-related oral cancer is more responsive to treatment and that the prognosis is better than other oral cancers.

Read the entire essay.

HomoQuotable - Michael Triplett

"While the 'hate group' list is interesting, it is also largely meaningless in terms of who the media should talk to and who they shouldn’t. Included in the current list of 18 groups–who all, apparently, aren’t going to show up on the final list–are organizations associated with white supremacist and Christian Identity movements, but also major players in the social conservative political world: Concerned Women for America, National Organization for Marriage, and Family Research Council. While activists may not like the work these groups do, labeling them 'hate groups' based on SPLC’s designation and therefore off-limits for the media is nonsensical.

"Instead, the media needs to do a better job of deciding when and how it uses groups considered anti-gay. Part of the problem, of course, is relying on the same voices and people over and over again. This is a problem on all-sides of the debate where the same people are called by CNN and MSNBC and Fox to talk about gay issues, both on the pro-gay and anti-gay sides. If Perkins and FRC are overexposed, one could argue the same thing about a laundry list of gay male pundits and LGBT activist groups." - Michael Triplett, vice president of the National Lesbian & Gay Journalists Association.

Read Triplett's entire article on the NLGJA's blog.

Sirius XM At 2pm: Michelangelo Signorile Hosts Special Panel On Ethics Of Outing

On SiriusOutQ at 2pm today, Michelangelo Signorile hosts a special discussion on the ethics of outing. The show will be broadcast live from the convention of the National Gay & Lesbian Journalists Association, which is taking place this week in San Francisco.

Our panel includes Mike Rogers of Blogactive, who was at the forefront of reporting on Senator Larry Craig, Congressman Mark Foley, Ken Mehlman and many others; LZ Granderson, columnist for ESPN Page 2, host of the web-based ESPN360 talk show “Game Night” and a frequent commentator for CNN.com; and Michael Triplett, a contributor for the media analysis site Mediaite, assistant chief of correspondents for the Bureau of National Affairs, and a board member of NLGJA. They and other gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender NLGJA members in the audience, journalists from across the country, will be participating, asking questions and commenting, as will be listeners from coast to coast calling in.

You can stream the show online for free. (Registration required.)

How Sexy Is Too Sexy For Gay Blogs?

Over at Mediaite, Michael Triplett has posted an interesting look into the editorial decisions of (mostly male) gay bloggers, who must carefully tread the line between hard news LGBT activism and the desire of some of their readers to see the occasional bit of beefcake. The column arises out off a feud between (now former) Bilerico blogger David Badash and the site's editor, Bil Browning, after Browning wrote a post about a porn site featuring Mormon men masturbating.

Open up almost any LGBT newspaper or click on almost any gay blog and you are going to see a little sex. Whether it’s shirtless models posing in underwear (or less), ads for sex chat lines, escort classifieds, or just regular advertising that features guys busting out of their tight shirts or jeans, sex is everywhere. And it helps keeps gay publications and blogs afloat. In addition, there is the added layer that sexuality is what unites its readership. Sexuality isn’t a dirty word for many LGBT media consumers and glorifying–even objectifying–sexuality isn’t problematic. In responding to Badash’s concerns, Browning conceded “[s]exy pictures always bring in viewers. I’m not ashamed of using that mentality to continue to bring new readers to one of the smartest, sharpest and controversial LGBT websites where you can talk openly about anything remotely queer.” Browning called the correlation between sexy posts, increased page views, and advertising impressions that lead to more income a “win-win” and that the content of the site was not lessened by a few posts that have a sexual content that appeal to gay men. Browning’s site is not all “boys in underwear” and porn links; far from it. With a large number of lesbian and transgender columnists, it reads more like a queer studies lecture than a porn-script. In fact, there are actually very few photographs visible on the site’s homepage.

Triplett points to Towleroad as an example of a site that frequently features shirtless hotties as post subjects, yet has the reputation (and resultant traffic) as the top LGBT news site in the nation. As longtime readers know, I've only very rarely gone the beefcake route, although I think it's totally fine within limits. (I should probably start a Bear Of The Day feature or something.) Sometimes I do worry that the banner ads, which I don't see until you do, might cross the line into NSFW and cause a reader some problems at the office, but the service is very responsive whenever I ask for a change.

Triplett makes the excellent point that comparable straight sites often feature at least as much skin or frank sexual language as the average gay news site, but appear to suffer little criticism for it. Is JMG too porn-ish? Do you tend to dismiss an LGBT activism site as non-serious if they occasionally veer into sexual imagery? Obviously, this is a decades-old dilemma for gay print, but a relatively recent issue for gay blogs which are mostly read at work. Like you are doing right now.

DADT Controversy: Kathy Griffin Criticized For Calling Congressman A "Big Queen"

Gay heroine Kathy Griffin is in DC to participate in the HRC's lobby day for the repeal of DADT. But today she's under fire by some for her remarks to Capitol Hill's Roll Call.

Kathy Griffin might be a D-list diva, but she says House Majority Whip James Clyburn (D-S.C.) is royalty — of a sort. “I’m meeting with this big queen named Jim Clyburn,” Griffin, who is in Washington this week to lobby for an end to the military’s “don’t ask, don’t tell” policy, told HOH. “I’m going to be the first person to ever walk into his office and go, ‘Hey, girl!’” Griffin is also slated to meet with the chamber’s two openly gay Congressmen, Rep. Barney Frank (D-Mass.) (“Leave it to the gays to have two first names,” she joked) and Rep. Jared Polis (D-Colo.) (“Jared’s a good gay name”).

Mediaite's Michael Triplett calls Griffin's remark "perfectly calculated" to get her the kind of attention she loves and notes the harsh criticism from some LGBT bloggers.

But in a town where even her gays don’t necessarily find Griffin’s shtick funny when it comes to politics, there’s been some blowback by the oh-so-serious LGBT power bloggers. Joe Subday at AmericaBlog said “I get that she’s a comedian (I’m a fan), but lobbying is actually serious business, especially on LGBT issues. Yes, it’s funny to you and me when Kathy Griffin insults members of Congress by calling them “big queens.” It’s a dumb way to lobby on DADT.”

John Aravosis, also at AmericaBlog, chimed in on the comment page of his blog, calling it ” idiotic to choose someone like her for a high profile job on a serious issue like this. Invite her to your dinner, sure. Don’t invite her to Congress to represent us. It smacks of either HRC self-promoting or desperately trying to show the community they’re doing something. Either way, not good.”

Griffin is being trailed in Washington by a film crew from her hit Bravo show My Life On The D-List. For the record, Clyburn is married and isn't thought to be gay.

On The "Death" Of LGBT Print Media

Over on Mediaite, Michael Triplett of the National Gay & Lesbian Journalists Association covers the demise of the Washington Blade and other LGBT print titles and what physical gay newspapers have meant to us.

Like other “minority” media, it is easy to underestimate the significance of the LGBT press for the gay community. For many of us, it was the first glimpse into what it meant to be gay or lesbian or bisexual or transgender. We opened up those newspapers tentatively, almost afraid of what we would discover about ourselves and the world around us. We turn to the LGBT press to find out what’s happening on our street, to find a church, to find a lawyer, and even find a boyfriend or girlfriend.

I remember poring over the pages of personal ads in the mid-70's Advocate and After Dark, wondering what expressions like "French passive" could possibly mean and why so many of these men described themselves as "artistic" or "generous" - all while recoiling from the quarter-page ads featuring handsome men modeling black sheer harem pants and padded butt and crotch-enhancing underwear. Was I going to have to dress like that? But at the same time I thrilled to the bar and disco ads with their thinly-coded descriptions of dance floor and dark-room shenanigans.

To my embarrassment, I don't recall being particularly interested in the actual writing - that vital reporting of the brave, scary, heady days of our then young movement. Instead, I would memorize the address of places like Uncle Charlie's - you know, just in case I made a wrong turn between Algebra 2 and the cafeteria and found myself in lower Manhattan. In the above-linked article, Triplett discusses what the loss of these writers and reporters may mean for blogs like this one.

The irony of the fall of the Advocate and the Blade is that LGBT journalism is booming, at least when it comes to citizen journalism. From Pam Spaulding’s Pam’s House Blend and John Aravosis’ AmericaBlog to Andy Towle’s Towleroad and Joe Jervis’ JoeMyGod, LGBT voices are everywhere in the political and LGBT blogosphere. This citizen journalism takes many forms, from the progressive political coverage by Spaulding and Aravosis to the popular coverage by Towle and Jervis that mixes pictures of Levi Johnston in Playgirl and 80s disco videos with news about Proposition 8 and hate crimes. But the constant thread is that they rely on the mainstream press—and legacy LGBT media—to keep their operations running. They rely on reporters like Kerry Eleveld, the Washington correspondent for the Advocate, and Lou Chibbarro Jr. and Chris Johnson of the Blade to cover the ins-and-outs of the LGBT agenda at the White House and Congress.

He's completely right, of course. I have greatly depended on the timely and found-nowhere-else reporting of the Washington Blade and Advocate. Any loss of original reporting by the LGBT press means less content for this here website thingy, or at the least, less content provided with the unique gay perspective.

While I occasionally write for print LGBT publications, most of my original writing here on JMG tends to be event coverage (rallies, marches, protests, vigils, etc) or items about my personal life that I (perhaps solipsistically) think might be interesting or relevant. With diminished hard news coverage from real gay reporters, this or any LGBT news blog will suffer - how much it will hurt remains to be seen. It worries me.

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.