Dot Gay May be on the Horizon

Move over .com and make way for .gay!

...or .love, .eco, .car, .health, .radio, .ski, etc. In fact, there's a large list of all the possibilities various groups already want to see when the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN) completes its tasks to implement the new Top level Domains over on the .NXT Conference site. The custom domain will also mean cities and states can have their own top level domain like .nyc or .florida. We may also see brand ones like .coke (.canon and .unicef are already listed).

What's the catch, you may ask? Having your own top level domain like this will be coming with a hefty price tag. $185,000 plus a $25,000 annual fee according to the Washington Post. Pretty big catch! Luckily, the dotGAYalliance and dotGAY will be pushing to have the .gay extension included so we may see eventually sites like hotel.gay, sports.gay, or health.gay popping up.

Unfortunately, as has happened in the past with the Bush Administration stopping the .xxx extension, the Obama administration is quietly pushing to allow countries, including the US, to veto top level domains. That then leads to the trouble that having a central domain such as .gay (or any number of potentially controversial extensions like .abortion, .aids, etc) would allow countries who aren't friendly towards a particular subject to block any domain with that extension if it was approved by the ICANN.

Confused About "Don't Ask, Don't Tell"? You're Not Alone...

As one of my followers on Twitter mentioned recently, the news about "Don't Ask, Don't Tell" has been less than clear. He is, of course, absolutely right as it seems things are constantly going back and forth about whether it will be repealed or not (and even if it will be included in the Defense Authorization Act this year). I've been reading the stories as they appear on various news sites and have seen everything from the White House not approving any defense bill without the repeal of DADT to the lame duck congress won't be able to pass the defense bill with or without it due to the small time span.

While I won't be able to make anything clearer about "Don't Ask, Don't Tell" myself as I'm not a member of congress, at least I can do some of the legwork by giving you a list of the most informative articles I've read lately to do with DADT.

While Wikipedia has its flaws in the communal editing and potential of false information being edited in by those who aren't up on their facts or are trolling, generally, it is always a good place to look for quickly updated information and source linkes. Don't Ask, Don't Tell article on Wikipedia

Advocate.com is also another source and is where most of the articles I've been reading has stemmed from. The latest one posted as of November 16, 2010 is A Midwestern DADT Repeal Effort.

Others Articles Posted Recently

• http://voices.washingtonpost.com/plum-line/2010/11/yes_dadt_repeal_could_still_pa.html


• http://voices.washingtonpost.com/plum-line/2010/11/mccain_is_still_on_the_wrong_s.html


• http://voices.washingtonpost.com/plum-line/2010/11/the_morning_plum_131.html


• http://voices.washingtonpost.com/plum-line/2010/11/on_dadt_its_imperial_presidenc.html


• http://blogs.abcnews.com/thenote/2010/11/gates-launches-investigation-of-dont-ask-dont-tell-review-leak.html


• http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=131223266


• http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/nation/wire/sc-dc-1114-court-gays-military-20101112,0,6155475.story


• http://abcnews.go.com/Politics/cindy-mccain-opposes-john-mccain-dont/story?id=12131423


• http://www.cbsnews.com/8301-503544_162-20022790-503544.html


• http://www.washingtonblade.com/2010/11/17/obama-restates-commitment-on-keeping-dont-ask-in-defense-bill/

Overall, we're going to have to wait and see what comes out of the lame-duck congressional session. Taking a look through some of those links will help to piece together a semblance of where things are currently standing. If it's anything like a couple recent days though, tomorrow it may very well be a different story.

Lady Gaga Wins 8 VMA's

Lady Gaga swept the MTV’s Video Music Awards with eight wins. Her wins tie her with A -ha's "Take on Me" in 1986 for the 2nd highest number of wins in one night.

Lady Gaga received the following awards:

Collaboration: Lady Gaga featuring Beyonce, "Telephone"

Female video: Lady Gaga, "Bad Romance"

Pop video: Lady Gaga, "Bad Romance"

Dance music video: Lady Gaga, "Bad Romance"

Choreography: Lady Gaga, "Bad Romance"

Direction: Lady Gaga, "Bad Romance"

Editing: Lady Gaga, "Bad Romance"

Video of the year: Lady Gaga, "Bad Romance"

Power Ranger Comes Out of the Closet

The Blue Power Ranger from the show Mighty Morphin Power Rangers has come out of the closet.

David Yost, 41 played on the show from 1993 – 1996 and in a 1995 feature film. Yost quit the show for being harassed and discriminated against because of his sexuality.

"I was called 'f*ggot' one too many times [by the show's] creators, producers, writers, directors," Yost explains.
He adds, "I know that my costars were called in a couple of times to different producers' offices and questioned about my sexuality, which is kind of a humiliating experience to find that out."
Yost recently completed work on a new 2010 film, Degenerate.

Lesbian Mississippi Teen Left Out of Yearbook for Wearing a Tuxedo

A teenage lesbian is suing a Mississippi school district for refusing to print her senior yearbook picture of her wearing a tuxedo.

Last Tuesday, the American Civil Liberties Union filed a federal lawsuit for Sturgis, claiming the Copiah County district discriminated against her on the basis of sex and gender stereotypes. Her photo and name were kept out of her senior yearbook.

"The thought of a portrait of her in the 'feminine' clothing as a representation of her senior year embarrassed her, and she began crying," the lawsuit states.

The school district, superintendent Clopton and school principal Ronald Greer are named in the lawsuit. It seeks unspecified damages and attorneys' fees.

The filing comes a few weeks after McMillen reached a settlement in her federal lawsuit against the Itawamba County School District.

The north Mississippi district had canceled its prom rather than allow McMillen attend with her girlfriend. The district agreed to pay $35,000 and follow a nondiscrimination policy as part of the settlement, though it argued such a policy was already in place.

Gay Marriage Approved in Argentina

After 14 hours of debate and hundreds of deomonstrators rallying in the near freezing temperatures, a vote of 33-27 senators approved the proposal of gay marriage.

They became the first Latin American country to allow gay couples get married and adopt children.

"We're now a fairer, more democratic society. This is something we should all celebrate," Maria Rachid, a leading gay rights activist, said as supporters of the law hugged each other and jumped up and down after the vote.

Church leaders rallied tens of thousands of protestors outside against the vote. Anywhere from a child to elderly nuns were in attendance to demonstrate.

Argentina became one of the very small number of countries to allow gay marriage. Netherlands, Sweden, Portugal and Canada allow same sex marriage. Five states and Washington DC allow gay marriage in the United States.

Fighting back against hate crimes

Daniel Hauff was attacked on January 10th. He was a young gay male being gay-bashed on the train. He was assaulted, battered and called names.

He finally smeared his own blood on his attackers and then told them he was HIV Positive. He's not."

Nobody touched him after that. But they didn't go away, either.

Police say three men were still yelling anti-gay slurs when they were arrested. They were charged first with misdemeanor battery and then later the charge was upgraded to felony hate crime.

According to Chicago police, the number of gay-bashings, attacks based on sexual orientation, was down from 26 in 2007 to 18 in 2008.

But the Center on Halsted sees a much different picture.

Total reports to its anti-violence project are up in those same two years - 105 in 2007 to 125 in 2008.. "

More than ten reports a month of attacks with lesbian, gay, bisexual or transgender victims. They know it's common but they also know they don't know the half of it because many cases aren't reported.

Some people have an experience of shame related to being attacked.

You might think the shame and fear would be decreasing. It's been months since the President signed a law making it a federal offense to assault someone based on sexual orientation or gender identity. It was a measure named for Matthew Shepard, a gay Wyoming college student beaten to death in 1998.

The administration is also working to end the long-standing military policy of "Don't Ask, Don't Tell'," allowing homosexuals to serve openly.

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It might seem that acceptance is at a historic high, but science suggests the opposite.

The more mainstream exposure gays and lesbians get, the more violence against them increases.

Daniel Huff was discriminated against on the CTA and, he says, for most of his life. He is still recovering from the wounds he suffered in that January attack. But he's also grateful.

"I'm certainly grateful that the Chicago Police department and the State's Attorney's office went back and looked at the case, reviewed the evidence and upgraded the charges to hate crimes, because that's what it was," he says.

National statistics show that almost 10% of gay-bashing victims are actually straight. In those cases, the attack still falls under the hate crime law, because the attack was motivated by hate.

Places like Chicago's Center on Halsted just want all victims to come forward - whether they're out or not.

For information on how to do that confidentially visit centeronhalsted.org or call their 24-hour crisis line at 773-871-2273.

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