A wife of one of my co-workers found these pictures of the girl that beat out VP pick Palin for the Miss Alaska contest in 1984, Maryline Blackburn. Blackburn went on to become a failed gossipal singer. Palin - Republican nomination for Vice President of the United States. Maybe Palin can finally get over the loss and stop throwing darts at Blackburn’s picture.
My travel feature about Manchester Pride appears in today’s edition of Dallas Voice.
The first restaurant I dined at was Ithaca, which was insanely hip. So hip, that Victoria Beckham chowed down there last night, Perez Hilton reports. Today Posh launched her new smell, “Beckham Signature,” at Harvey Nichols in Manchester. Read the rest of this entry »
It’s official, John McCain has chosen a pro-life, NRA member and ex-beauty queen as his running mate. Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin is known as the women who cleaned up Alaskan government and cut pork barrel spending. Although according to an Alaskan political blog, Palin faces an on-going ethics investigation herself for allegedly trying to get her ex-brother-in-law fired.
Her record on LGBT issues seems to be pretty slim — and it’s actually in our favor.
After much political pressure, Palin used her first veto in office to nix a bill that would have kept the state from giving domestic partner benefits to employees on the grounds that it wasn’t constitutional. This made her administration the first Alaskan governor to back domestic partner benefits. But it is important to note that she consulted with the state’s AG first to make sure the bill wasn’t constitutional. (Maybe she was hoping it was)
Other than that, her record on LGBT issues is almost nonexistent. We’ll do some more digging and get back to you later with more.
In today’s edition of Dallas Voice, UnShaunte DeFox, pictured, she said she saw Grace Jones dripping in foxtails perform “Do or Die.” And her Grace obsession instantly began.
I just found the video. And it’s homolicious [Photo by Terry Thompson]
We have a story in Friday’s print edition (link to it here) where columnist Hardy Haberman opines about the (bad) decision of NBC not to show gay Olympic gold medalist Matthew Mitcham’s partner or even profile the upset diving victor.
Now comes this news report online:
“NBC Olympics President Gary Zenkel has apologized to Australian gold-medal winner Matthew Mitcham for not profiling the openly gay diver during the network’s coverage or showing his partner in the stands at the time of his victory. ‘We regret that we missed the opportunity to tell Matthew Mitcham’s story. We apologize for this unintentional omission,’ Zenkel said.”
Maybe four years from now, NBC can enter the 21st century.
I was driving along Turtle Creek Boulevard around Lemmon Avenue in Uptown a few minutes ago, and the cops are out in force. Looks like they’re planted at the intersection, just itchin’ to hand out tickets, and my guess, based on the one sap I saw getting one, is that they are targeting non-seat-belters. So buckle up or pay the city!
Gay — seriously. The final two came down to lesbian Dee from Miami, above left, and gay Charlie from Denver, center. And the crown goes to… DEE! We’re all happy about that who think Charlie represented the mean, bitchy gay stereotype typical to reality shows. So finally a nice guy (or girl) wins.
But while Dee may have won the title, the fan favorite turned out to be none other than Daniel Lewis of Denton, who took home $10,000 in the online poll.
I just got an e-mail from Patti Fink who is at the Democratic National Convention in Denver. (Her partner, Erin Moore, is there as an Obama delegate.)
Patti wrote to tell me that Hillary Clinton is holding a private meeting with her pledged delegates right now and that someone in the meeting had sent her a text telling her that Barbara Rosenberg, another gay delegate from Dallas, had been chosen to introduce Hillary at the meeting.
Barbara is turning out to be quite the celebrity at this convention! As I wrote in an Instant Tea post yesterday, she was interviewed on NPR about the convention two days in a row, and now she gets to introduce Sen. Clinton!
NPR really seems to like the Dallas gay folks at the convention: Yesterday afternoon, in a different story, they interviewed Neal Emmons.
Del Martin, one of the nation’s foremost lesbian activists, died today at UCSF Hospital in San Francisco at the age of 87.
Martin and her lifelong partner, Phyllis Lyon, were the first same-sex couple married in California in 2004 when Mayor Gavin Newsom declared the city would recognize gay marriages. And they were married again — in the city hall with Newsom officiating — in June this year, after 55 years together, after the California Supreme Court ruled the state must recognize same-sex marriage.
But their activism dates back to the 1950s when they co-founded the Daughters of Bilitis and started publishing the lesbian newsletter “The Ladder.” Del Martin co-founded the Council on Religion and the Homosexual in the 1960s, and she was the first open lesbian elected to the board of N.O.W., among many other firsts.
Martin was also known as an author and an advocate for women, especially battered women.
As Kate Kendall, executive director of the National Center for Lesbian Rights, said in an e-mail announcing Martin’s death: “Today, the LGBT movement lost a real hero.”
Watch Friday’s issue of Dallas Voice for a complete obituary.
