A quick shout-out to a fellow media outlet addressing some gay issues: KERA’s noon talk show, Think, will discuss recent developments in “Don’t ask, don’t tell” on Tuesday. It airs on 90.1 FM.

David King asks in the comments to the below post, about The DMN’s Saturday editorial in favor of repealing “don’t ask, don’t tell,” whether anyone remembers the newspaper’s infamous 1977 piece saluting anti-gay bigot Anita Bryant. Well I can’t say I remember it — I was 2 years old at the time — but I did manage to pull it up using the NewsBank archives. And King is right, it was a real doozie. A little background for our younger readers: Anita Bryant was a famous singer who led the 1977 effort to repeal a Dade County (Fla.) ordinance banning discrimination based on sexual orientation. She also traveled to other cities around the country, including Dallas, rallying against gay rights. Here’s The DMN’s editorial from June 1977, a few days after the Dade County gay rights measure was overturned at the ballot box:

Today’s Dallas Morning News has an article on child suicide that leaves out one important detail.

Sure, they talk about bullying in schools being a major reason children commit suicide. They mention that children ages 5 to 12 can certainly be depressed, something thought impossible just a few years ago. They have anxiety, pressure, trauma.

But they leave out one important fact. According to the National Anti-Violence Coalition, a group I met this week at Creating Change, 25 to 40 percent of child suicide is among gay and lesbian youth. Yes, some estimates are as high as 40 percent. Bullying is certainly a top factor, but most bullying in schools is related to sexual orientation and gender identity.

Omitting this fact, leaves out any possibility for a cure. Stop anti-gay (and all other) bullying in schools. Force parents to accept their gay and lesbian children or provide safe places for these kids to live.

According to the National Gay and Lesbian Task Force’s studies, general anti-bullying laws do not work as well as those that enumerate the types of bullying that must stop. Without sexual orientation and gender identity specified, schools stop bullying in other instances and allow it continue against gay and lesbian students. And child suicide rates continue.

For the Morning News to do such an extensive article and omit this major fact is unconscionable. Maybe if they had taken a quick DART ride four stops from their office and visited the conference attended by more than 2,200 people rather than devote so much time to the Tea Party Convention, which occurred in another city and attracted 600 people at a registration cost of double our local conference, they would have written a more useful article.

The article was written in response to the recent suicide of a 9-year old in The Colony. If bullying was the cause and legislation to stop bullying might have prevented it, our legislators who have prevented passage of this bill since the early 1990s are guilty of manslaughter. And the Morning News has done little to help parents or teachers.

What an amazing day at Creating Change.

As I walked into the hotel, I met an old friend, Marilyn Bennett. She is the former development director of Resource Center Dallas and now lives in Montana and is working on a video project called Truth in Progress. Well, first we had to catch up and then I helped her with rustling up the gays. So much for workshop sessions 5 and 6 this morning.

I got back on track with an award presentation to Aiden Aizumi, 21, from Trevor Project in Los Angeles.

He said, “I wouldn’t have been able to overcome my problems without my friends in the community.” But I think his mom helped as well. She was there and got as big a standing ovation as Aiden.

Writer Kai Wright moderated a panel of youth from across the country. The guys from Youth First Texas, Cynthia and Jesus, did us proud. What was interesting was that some of the lack of services and problems faced by LGBT youth elsewhere have been well addressed in Dallas.

And favorite Kate Clinton line of the day. She reminded us how Cheney attended Obama’s inauguration in a wheelchair. The story was he hurt is back carrying boxes. “Oh, please,” Clinton said. “He shredded everything months ago.”

Then I met Yousif and Nawfal. They’re two gay Iraqis who escaped to Syria and then to the United States. They’re currently living in Houston and seeking asylum. More about them in this week’s paper.

I attended a workshop on intergenerational storytelling. Yes, I was one of the old people, for any of you who were going to add a snotty comment.

Had lunch with Alex, my KNON intern/”Lambda Weekly” helper. We went over to the food court at Plaza of the Americas where it was all queer. What fun. Had dinner with the Bi’s. BiNet’s hospitality suite kept us well-fed and where people of all colors had a spirited discussion about whether or not Matt Goodman was a person of color. I settled the argument by explaining that green was not a color.

Trans slam poet Kit Yan (powerful) entertained and so did New York comedian Vidur Kapur (hysterical). But the hit of the evening? Youth First Texas put on the pre-show. Two of their members were Lady Gaga and Beyonce. They and their backup dancers were incredible. The entire house was on their feet.

Creating Change ends Sunday morning with Vogue Evolution. And our guests from the Philadelphia and Washington areas (and there are lots of them) may be here for an extended stay. Because of snow, their airports are closed, American Airlines has already canceled more than 500 flights today. And Creating Change may just continue.

The Dallas Morning News ran an editorial today that begins, “It’s not the military’s business what a service member’s sexual orientation is.”

Whether timed to coincide with the Creating Change conference, being held in Dallas this weekend that has attracted more than 2,200 activists from around the country, or not, this editorial is momentous. When the Dallas Morning News, one of the most conservative newspapers in the country, says it’s time to end Don’t ask, don’t tell, times have changed.

Of course the letters in response? Priceless.

NGLTF Executive Director Rea Carey delivers her State of the Movement Address on Friday afternoon during the Creating Change conference at the Sheraton hotel in downtown Dallas. (David Taffet/Dallas Voice)

Rea Carey, executive director of the National Gay and Lesbian Task Force, called out President Barack Obama today during her annual State of the Movement Address, delivered at NGLTF’s Creating Change conference in Dallas.

Speaking to a crowd of thousands at the Sheraton hotel downtown, Carey recalled that a year ago, the LGBT community was filled with hope following the election of Obama and a new Congress.

But Carey said Obama has failed to live up to his campaign promise of being a “fierce advocate” for LGBT equality.

“We were eager to see what a fierce advocate could do, but now it’s a year into this new administration, it’s a year into this new Congress,” Carey said. “There have been glimmers of advocacy, but certainly not fierceness. Speeches aren’t change. Change is more than words. Change is action.”

As an example, Carey pointed to “don’t ask, don’t tell,” the military’s ban on openly gay servicemembers.

Obama has repeatedly said he favors repealing the ban, including during his recent State of the Union Address. This week, the nation’s two top military commanders told Congress they’ll conduct a yearlong study to determine how the DADT repeal should be implemented.

“Let me be clear — a yearlong study does not a fierce advocate make,” Carey said Friday. “A year is far too long to wait, and it’s time the president used the executive branch to stop these discharges now, while the military and Congress move to bring this shameful and discriminatory chapter of U.S. history to an end. Mr. President, the ball’s in your court. You have the opportunity to go down in history as one of the few presidents who acted decisively to move human rights forward.”

Carey added that Congress should be held “equally if not more accountable” than Obama, and she said it will ultimately be up to the community to “create change.”

“We thought we were finally going to have leadership that would stand with us, work with us and for us, but that hasn’t fully happened yet, and so it’s still up to us to push and in fact, to lead,” she said.

To read a full transcript of Carey’s remarks, go here.

Just saw this on the Eatzi’s Facebook page for those perhaps looking to land a snazzy foodie job. Here’s the post.

DON’T FORGET TO STOP BY TOMORROW FOR OUR JOB FAIR! SATURDAY, FEBRUARY 6 from 10 am – 2 pm at our NEW location (5600 Lovers Lane, #136). We’re hiring both hourly and management positions, so stop by and let us know why you want to be a part of our team!

Encouraging the LGBT community to be counted in the census

Conference director Sue Hyde

Transgender activist Grace Sterling Stowell received the Sue J. Hyde Activism Award for Longevity in the Movement.

Comedian Kate Clinton is serving as Mistress of Ceremonies for the plenary sessions

First of all, if you’re following the Creating Change feed, it’s kind of addicting, like a reality show, only without the images. Continuous hashtags and retweets keep the feed moving along. I’m expecting a whole slew of repeated quote posts as the State of the Movement is underway.

But, after all is said and done today and you’re on information overload, try decompressing a bit at Bilerico’s Twitter and blogger reception which looks to be a casual gathering of activist bloggers and the people who love them. Drinks and nosh are said to be on hand and they say no keyboards required. But I imagine TwitPics and updates will still come out of it. That’s at 8:30 p.m in the San Antonio Room B at the Sheraton Dallas.

OK, and thanks to the feed, people are meeting at the Draft Media Sports Lounge (in the hotel) at 9:30 for some Glee karaoke. And by the response and retweets, this is where the crowd’s going to be tonight. You can get the lowdown at #creatingglee.

And of course, there’s always the bars.

In my e-mail inbox this morning, I got a message titled “An Open Letter to Sarah Palin About Rick Perry From Independent Texans.” I couldn’t resist reading it.

The letter is interesting, and I will include the whole thing after the jump. But first, let’s talk about the group that sent the e-mail. It is “respectfully” signed, “Linda Curtis, Independent Texan,” and there is a link to a site called BootPerry.Org. And let me tell you, these people really don’t like Rick Perry.

In fact, their motto is “Anyone But Perry” for Texas governor in 2010.

The site includes articles like the one comparing the governor to “Lawn Chair Larry,” that guy in California who tied a bunch of big helium ballons to his armchair so he could float around over the house drinking beer, but then ended up getting untethered and floating into the flight patterns at the L.A. airport. There is another that accuses Perry of “depraved indifference” and lists the “evidence” for the charge.

Apparently, these folks really don’t care who gets to be governor of Texas this year, as long as it isn’t Rick Perry. Me, I don’t know what’s going to happen come Election Day, but it should be interesting, at the very least.

Anyway, here’s the letter to Palin, after the jump:
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