GEORGIA: Activists To Protest At Atlanta Office Of Sen. Saxby Chambliss

Angry about his inaction about an anti-gay death threat left on this blog, Georgia activists plan to protest at the Atlanta office of Sen. Saxby Chambliss this afternoon.

The Queer Justice League of Atlanta has called on Senator Saxby Chambliss to immediately respond to allegations that a member of his staff posted a defamatory remark on a popular LGBT-oriented blog. [Snip] Members of the Queer Justice League have called on the Senator to respond. Art Izzard, also with the organization stated: “We want an official, contrite apology for Senator Chambliss, to the LGBT community and to all Georgians. We also want Senator Chambliss to commit to engaging his employees in sensitivity training, to equip them to better handle the concerns of his constituents.” The group has requested an in-person meeting with Senator Chambliss on Wednesday, September 29, 2010 at 4:00pm to respond to their requests. They invite members of the LGBT community and their allies to join them in front of the Senator's Atlanta offices, located at 100 Galleria Parkway, Atlanta, GA 30339. A press conference will follow.

Queer Justice League spokesman Jeff Schade: "Senator Chambliss was elected to represent all Georgians, not simply those that represent his ideological or other views. The fact that he has chosen to try to ignore this very serious action by a member of his staff speaks volumes on his character and ability to be an effective leader for the state of Georgia."

Queer Justice League To Protest Caliente

On Sunday at 1pm the Queer Justice League will be protesting in front of the West Village's Caliente Cab Company restaurant in response to their Pride Sunday ejection of a butch lesbian for using the ladies restroom. They plan to repeat this action every Sunday until the restaurant "resolves the situation favorably", which I presume means agreeing to QJL's demand for gender identity sensitivity training for Caliente's staff.

Queers Of The Piers

The Queer Justice League is staging their first action tonight:

Celebrate the "Queer of the Piers" Meeting and Rally at the Christopher St. Piers. TODAY Friday May 25th at 8PM. Our action is to introduce who we are, our mission, gain support and bring visibility to a number of queer related issues occuring at the pier. Please come dance, kiss, chant and celebrate our visibility in the summer sky! ALL ARE WELCOME!

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QJL Meeting Tomorrow

Following along on the Queer Justice League's listserv, it's impossible not to be reminded of Monty Python's Life Of Brian.

REG: Listen. If you really wanted to join the Peoples Front of Judea, you'd have to really hate the Romans.
BRIAN: I do!
REG: Oh, yeah? How much?
BRIAN: A lot!
REG: Right. You're in. Listen. The only people we hate more than the Romans are the fucking Judean People's Front.
JUDITH: Splitters.
FRANCIS: And the Judean Popular People's Front.
LORETTA: And the People's Front of Judea.
JUDITH: Yeah. Splitters!
REG: What?
LORETTA: The People's Front of Judea. Splitters.
REG: We ARE the People's Front of Judea!
LORETTA: Oh. I thought we were the Popular Front.
REG: People's Front!
FRANCIS: Whatever happened to the Popular Front, Reg?
REG: He's over there.

The next meeting of the Queer Justice League takes place tomorrow night, 7pm, at the LGBT Community Center.

Queer Superheroes Hold First Meeting

Last night I attended the first organizational meeting of the Queer Justice League, where about 100 activists gathered to discuss the purpose, structure, rules and procedures of the group. During an interesting opening exercise, attendees were asked to give their first names, preferred gender pronoun, and a one-word description of their mood about the meeting. Curious, optimistic, hopeful, ready, excited, intrigued, angry, and anxious were the most common responses. Very LiveJournal.

Although the meeting got bogged down in the discussion regarding rules and procedures, including a hearty debate on the nature of Robert's Rules Of Order, the room was alive with a sense of bottled-up impatience, a palpable need to these folks to become part of something bigger than themselves.

Longtime activist Ann Northrop suggested that the meeting was a reflection of "Our need to reclaim our self-respect and our place in the world." Larry Kramer concurred, saying, "There is an enormous amount of interest and energy out there. All eyes are on us." As this was the first meeting, most of the time was eaten by discussion of the purpose of the group, with questions about a mission statement, tactics, structure, outreach to non-activists, and the group's relationship to ACT-UP among those raised.

The next meeting of Queer Justice League takes place Thursday, April 19th at 7pm in the LGBT Community Center.

RELATED: I left the QJL meeting after ninety minutes to catch the end of the New York Boys Of Leather (NYboL) taking place in the basement. The tiny NYboL meeting had decided different tenor than the one upstairs, with discussion about car washes, beach parties, fundraisers, Folsom, IML, and a safer sex conference. Then the boys voted to extend the lease on their basement meeting space because they dug its "dungeon feel."

Reminder: Queer Justice League Tonight

There will be a meeting of the Queer Justice League tonight at NYC's Gay Community Center at 7:30pm, which is billed as "a space for long-term ACT UP members and new young activists to come together and discuss the future of the fight for LGBT equality." Please consider joining the next generation of gay activists. You can subscribe to their listserv here.

Queer Superpowers, Unite!

The first meeting of the Queer Justice League will take place at NYC's Gay Community Center on Thursday, April 12th at 7:30pm.

This meeting will be a space for long-term ACT UP members and new young activists to come together and discuss the future of the fight for LGBT equality. If you want to have a voice in the next generation of queer activism, join us! Everyone is welcome. The conversation is also happening online - click here to join our listserv! If you're located outside the New York area, we especially encourage you to share your ideas and opinions through the listserv.

Visit our blog to read some background on the Queer Justice League* and Larry Kramer's call to action, or check us out on MySpace and join our growing list of friends. Questions? email queerjusticeleague@hotmail.com.

The Queer Justice League notes that their name may be changed, which I think is a shame. Think of the costumes! Isn't there already a Gay Avenger or something out there in comic-land?