March 11, 2008
Making the gay blog Top 13
Posted by: Chris
Top 13? Well yeah that's the way it worked out in an article in Edge San Francisco, one of the chain of LGBT news sites across the U.S. The article took a look at the range of gay blogs out there with this lil' tease:
For the recent law school graduate concerned with the social advancement of queers everywhere there’s "Citizen Crain" or for those who consider Perez Hilton a role model, there’s Trent’s "Pink" blog. Whatever it is you may be searching for, these 10 blogs are likely to have it!
Yes it says 10 blogs, but I counted 13. Regardless, here's the blurb about this here blog:
Started by a former Harvard-educated lawyer, who takes on politics and government, this guy does not write much in the way of pop culture and currently has a heavy focus on what makes the current presidential candidates viable options - or not - for LGBTQ causes. With a bit of spin in his blogging, backed by a journalistic feel and quotes to boot, the blog can feel a bit heavy. In the end, spin or not, this Southern, Christian, right-wing boy-turned-gay journalist/lawyer makes you think, which is always good.
A bit heavy but makes you think. Fair enough. Those who know me know the (much) lighter side; I've just always had a bit of a struggle finding my "lighter" voice on here. Any suggestions? Is it a good idea to even try?
I cringed a bit at the header that calls the blog "Citizen Chris." In case you've ever wondered, the Citizen Chris - Citizen Crain misfit is the fault of no one but good ole Citizen Me.
When I launched "Citizen Crain" in a big hurry during the Mark Foley scandal in October 2006 as a Yahoo-based blog, I was overconfident about my ability to master SixApart's Movable Type software. A few weeks later, with an ugly blog and a lot of frustrating late night design attempts, I ditched in favor of SixApart's much much (much much) easier TypePad.
But Yahoo was stingy about giving up CitizenCrain.com, so I went with an alternative URL using CitizenChris. Eventually I wrangled CitizenCrain.com away from Yahoo and pointed it at the CitizenChris TypePad URL, but the latter has been out there so long that I'm pretty much stuck with this lasting badge of early blogging shame.
And that, I'm sure, is more than you ever wanted to know about that. Be sure to check out Michael Wood's blog reviews in Edge. I was also pleased to see the fine gents at Malcontent were included, along with obvious entries like Queerty and Andy's irrepressible Towleroad.
January 29, 2008
Welcome 'Andoni' to The Citizen
Posted by: Chris
I'm happy to announce that another regular reader of The Citizen and a longtime friend and associate of mine will also be doing some guest blogging. Don George is always in the middle of things in Atlanta's gay and lesbian community and in a wide variety of causes has always put his money where his mouth is.
Don is a retired physician who practiced for years in Massachusetts before coming down to Atlanta, where he lives now with his partner. In addition to medicine, Don has worked as an engineer, inventor, teacher and in real estate as well. A lot of the work he does now is in philanthropy, much of it through his own Andonios Foundation.
Way back in 1996, when William Waybourn and I proposed creating Window Media, a group of gay and lesbian publications, Don was the very first person to get out his checkbook, and it's by no means the only gay business he helped launch.
In contrast go Kevin Ivers, our other guest blogger, Don is a lifelong Democrat, something he attributes to growing up in the inner city in a lower middle class household. He sits on the national board of the American Civil Liberties Union and regularly contributes to a wide range of political candidates, including so far in the Democratic presidential primaries, Hillary Clinton, Chris Dodd, John Edwards, Dennis Kucinich and Barack Obama -- with Obama receiving more than the others to date.
I have long appreciated Don't outside-the-box thinking, even if we don't always agree, and his articulate writing style has put him on the New York Times op-ed pages -- albeit in letters -- more times than I can remember. I know that we'll all enjoy his contributions here; look for them under his blogger nickname, "Andoni."
January 16, 2008
With a little help from my friends
Posted by: Chris
Ever since I launched Citizen Crain in October 2006, it's been all me, all the time, posting on a variety of (usually) gay-related politics and news subjects. As a result, the really dynamic debate often happens in the comments section, where readers weigh in and debate me and each other. I'm especially proud of the comments on this blog because they are generally substantive and thoughtful in ways I find in very short supply elsewhere -- especially the "amen chorus" blogs that try my attention span.
So I thought I would try an experiment here at the Citizen that I've seen tried successfully on a number of other blogs. I'm inviting several friends who I think will add provocative, thoughtful commentary to submit guest posts here -- not to be an "amen chorus" so much as a "hey but what about this chorus" instead.
There will be some views from my right and others from my left, but each one of us will share a commitment to an open and respectful debate and cutting through the spin and bunk that obscures the real issues at the stake in the gay rights movement and politics generally.
First up, from a bit to my right, will be Kevin Ivers, a fellow U.S. "love exile" here in Brazil, where his public affairs consulting firm advises international corporate and non-profit clients in the U.S. and elsewhere on policy and trade strategies.
Before moving down to São Paulo -- where luck would have it we both are today -- Kevin was a 20-year veteran of the Washington political scene. We first met around 2000, through his role as Director of Public Affairs for the Log Cabin Republicans, whose national office he co-founded in 1993.
Kevin was a journalist's dream, always ready with a provocative quote and never shying away from a challenge or a battle, whether with gay Democrats and the Human Rights Campaign (one and the same?) as well as the forces of intolerance within the Republican Party.
Unlike me, Kevin remains a registered Republican although his voting trends independent. If you've visited Club Whirled, his hilarious, eloquent, touching and often personal blog, then you already know that he thinks in an independent way as well.
Please join me in welcoming Kevin, and if you would like to suggest other guest bloggers, or you're interested yourself, please don't hesitate to let me know.
January 08, 2008
Gabbing live from Buenos Aires…
Posted by: Chris
A special thanks to Bruce and Dan over at Gay Patriot for inviting me on to their New Hampshire primary show on Blog Talk Radio from 9 to 11 p.m. Eastern time. Check it out if you get the chance…
CLICK ICON BELOW TO
LISTEN TO THE LIVE BROADCAST
CALL-IN NUMBER: (646) 716-8574
Join us for live New Hampshire coverage….and be part of the conversation!
January 03, 2008
A new look for a new year
Posted by: Chris
After 15 months on the blogosphere as Citizen Crain, I thought it was long past time for a makeover. The old design was adequate, borrowing some patriotic-ish colors from the TypePad template. But the new one puts my own "stamp" on the blog.
This new design actually pre-dates the old TypePad design. When I first prepared to launch the blog in October '06, I used Apple's iWeb software to create a design that played off of the newspaper "Citizen Kane" idea as well as a spy theme, since the blog name also brings that to mind.
After hours playing with the design and preparing to launch, I discovered that as good as iWeb was for design, it pretty much sucked as blog management software: no comments (!) or many of the other basic blog elements that we've all come to know and love. Apple may have improved iWeb since, but I ditched it off the bat and headed to TypePad.
When I thought about a redesign, I looked around at the blogs I thought had the coolest look, among them the gay blog Scott-o-rama. (He has since done another redesign that I'm less crazy about.) I checked out the designer responsible, Lisa Sabin-Wilson from E Webscapes Design, and was very impressed with the other blog designs she had done.
So I signed up with Lisa, and showed her my old iWeb design template. She souped it up and improved it considerably and now you see the results. My thanks to Lisa for all her hard work and patience with me. We still have some tweaks in the works, so feel free to offer up your suggestions -- as some of you have already done in response to the last post I had up under the old design.
There will be some adjustment, of course. I still remember when we launched the redesign of the Washington Blade in early 2002, the paper's first new look in more than a decade. You would have thought we went ex-gay. But within weeks, readers adjusted and the response we got was overwhelmingly positive (and it's still in use today).
As for the blog redesign, I don't expect to please all of the people even some of the time, but I'm excited to take the new look public. And stay tuned -- there are more changes at the blog still to come!
December 19, 2007
Watch this space!
Posted by: Chris
The end of the year will bring some exciting changes to "Citizen Crain" that I hope will make it more interesting and relevant to those interested in gay politics, news, culture and more. Some of the changes will be cosmetic -- ye olde Typepad template is finally gonna get souped up into something more customized -- and some will be more substantive.
The changes could begin as early as this week, with more on the way soon thereafter.
In the meantime, several of you have had trouble posting comments on the blog, apparently getting an error that says the comment has been trapped by a spam filter. I can assure that I have not tagged any words as automatically spam-worthy and have only banned two commenters in the history of this blog.
The problem stems from Typepad's addition of a spam filter to all of its blogs. I'm not sure why they did it, since spam has never been a big problem for me, but I can't opt out. Your comment isn't "lost," however. It goes into a spam folder, and I can publish it from there. Feel free to give me a heads up (click "Email Me" below my photo on the right) if your comment is trapped. Typepad promises that the filter "learns" after I publish a trapped comment, so hopefully the glitch is temporary.
And as always, thanks for reading and feel free to pass on your suggestions for how to improve the blog.
December 05, 2007
Blogging H-free sex scandals
Posted by: Chris
An interesting debate is shaping up over how or whether gay media and bloggers will cover the arrest of gay Senate aide Mike McHaney (pictured here from his Friendster profile) for allegedly showing up for a three-way involving a 13-year-old male. I have argued that sex scandals like McHaney's illustrate the illogic and, at least, the over-emphasis on "hypocrisy" as the only factor in whether a sex scandal is newsworthy or blogworthy.
I wrote:
There can be little doubt that if McHaney were an aide to, say, Mississippi Sen. Trent Lott or some other anti-gay Republican, the blogosphere would be having a field day with the arrest. But as it turns out, McHaney works for gay-friendly Sen. Maria Cantwell, a Washington state Democrat.
The logic here is what fascinates me. It would be hypocritical for the aide to an anti-gay Republican to be busted as a sexual predator, but it's not hypocritical for the aide of a pro-gay Democrat. What does that say about pro-gay Democrats exactly? That we expect this sort of behavior from them and their staff? Or is that so long as you don't legislate morality, your own immorality and that of your staff doesn't "stick" on you?
Matt over at The Malcontent points out the one-sidedness:
Say what you want about Larry Craig, but no one is calling him a pederast.
And herein lies one of the chief problems with the leftists who decide whom they choose to out based on their political party: While they busy themselves with Republican closet cases and politicians who aren’t in favor with HRC, they tend to lose sight of equally bad or worse behavior in their own midst.
Now comes a response from Joe.My.God, who has been among the first and most extensive with coverage of gay sex scandals involving anyone right of center politically. Joe passed on the McHaney scandal entirely at first, then posted about it in response to my report that McHaney previously worked as Joe Solmonese's scheduler at HRC. Even still, Joe posted mainly to explain why he thinks the scandal still isn't blogworthy:
Sex crimes, gay and straight, occur every day. Does the gay blogosphere have a moral imperative to cover the crimes of relative nobodies, just because they work for politicians, especially when the perpetrators have no known anti-gay track record? I don't think so.
I've exhaustively covered the stories of major hypocrites like Ted Haggard and Larry Craig, and dangled unproven theories such as the recent Trent Lott hooker nonsense. But I've also left other unpleasant stories about Democrats and Republicans alone, for the reasons mentioned above.
By Malcontent's standards (and probably Chris Crain's), my hands are not clean. There may indeed be some "meat" to the McHaney story, that remains to be seen, and Crain is absolutely correct that we need to call out our own, even if it damages the movement. I just don't agree that we've been doing that bad of a job.
Joe's thoughtful post touches on the two central problems I have with how left-leaning gay bloggers handle the sex lives of those involved in politics (or, in Haggard's case, religion).
First, this exaggerated focus on the importance of hypocrisy as the only newsworthy or blogworthy angle to the sexual conduct of those in politics leads to all sorts of horrible intrusions into personal privacy. Gay bloggers on the left routinely traffic in rumor and unconfirmed innuendo involving the alleged intimate details of the sex lives of those they "report" on, whether or not misconduct or a crime is involved.
Second, these bloggers traffic in a double standard that says sexual misconduct is blogworthy only if it suggests hypocrisy; that is, only if it's committed by conservatives or those who work for them. Or, in the case of those bloggers who attempt to out conservatives and their staffers, no mis-conduct is required at all -- simply alleged gay sexual conduct, or even gay affiliation, such as showing up at gay parties or bars.
Of course I understand that hypocrisy is newsworthy and blogworthy, but if sexual misconduct says something about the credibility of conservatives, why doesn't it say anything about the credibility of liberals when it happens to one of their own?
If McHaney worked for Trent Lott, for example, we'd be told that the scandal reflects on the legitimacy of Lott's position on gay rights and moral values. Why doesn't the same hold true for McHaney's boss, gay-friendly Democrat Maria Cantwell? Is liberalism associated with a culture of permissiveness in which a Senate staffer could spend work time setting up a three-way with a 13-year-old? Or in which someone with a history of sexual impropriety could be shipped around among a top gay rights group, two Democratic presidential campaigns and a U.S. senator without anyone raising a red flag?
I don't necessarily think so, certainly about the permissiveness theory, but my point is it's one-sided and unbalanced -- and dare I say it? hypocritical -- to only make political judgments about the sex scandals of those you disagree with.
November 14, 2007
Trans character assassination
Posted by: Chris
UPDATES: At the end of the post.
The latest attempt at attacking my character by a transgender activist comes from Autumn Sandeen, who submitted a false and libelous post about me on Pam's House Blend. With the smug sarcasm we've come to know and love from so many of our trans activist sisters, Ms. Sandeen accuses me of plagiarizing her on the Richard Curtis cross-dressing blackmail scandal:
I really liked Chris Crain's New York Blade article Cross-dressing and blogger hypocrisy. As well I should: It sounded a lot like The Hypocrites' Exposed Closets And The 'Flinch Factor'.
After a few choice excerpts of Sandeen's earlier PHB post and my Blade column -- which was actually in both the Washington Blade and the New York Blade -- she concludes:
The similarities seems between the two pieces seem so ... correlative? Perhaps I should mention here that my piece was posted here at PHB on November 1st, and Chris Crain's was posted on November 9th. Since we know Chris reads PHB, it really does look like I might really be doing all of the "thinnin around here, Baba Looey!"
There are a few problems with Ms. Sandeen's false and libelous accusation. Not only would I never plagiarize -- much less borrow ideas from the likes of Autumn Sandeen -- the Blade column she responds to was based on a blog post I published on Oct. 31, one day before Autumn Sandeen's Nov. 1 post she claims I copied.
Also, I sent out the Blade column to dozens of newspaper editors (any of whom could confirm receipt) by email on Oct. 31 -- again, one day before Autumn Sandeen's post:
From: chris@citizencrain.com
Subject: A late-breaking column by Chris Crain about the Wash. gay blackmail scandal
Date: October 31, 2007 8:09:53 PM EDT
Pam Spaulding has promised Sandeen's offending post will be taken down, and I appreciate the quick response. But since it was out there, it can't simply be erased. It ought to be retracted, by Ms. Sandeen herself, and an apology ought to be forthcoming.
I have a great deal of respect with Pam Spaulding, and I do regularly visit the Blend, although to be honest I'm put off by all the smug nicknames they use for anyone they dub the enemy. I do not, however, read anything by Autumn Sandeen, who was responsible for several of the most hateful emails I've ever received over the course of a decade in the gay press. (Nothing I got from the Phelps clan can touch her!)
It's unfortunate that Pam has chosen to give Sandeen's vitriol a larger pulpit than it ever would have on its own. The particular irony here is that Sandeen's attempted character assassination was based upon my having agreed with her -- well, actually, she agreed one day after me -- about how even media lefties treated the cross-dressing angle of the Curtis scandal for laughs.
No good deed goes unpunished.
UPDATE: Thank you to Kevin Naff, the Washington Blade editor, for publicly standing by my column in his own blog post today.
UPDATE: Both Pam Spaulding and Autumn Sandeen have posted apologies alongside the original post. That was the right way to handle the situation, and it is appreciated.
October 11, 2007
Ca-ching!
Posted by: Chris
Regular readers will notice a few changes to the blog today, some subtle but the primary difference is the addition of several new advertisements from the Gay Ad Network. Mark Elderkin, the founder of Gay.com, launched the Gay Ad Network in August to pool together the premium gay media websites and blogs -- there's an incomplete list in the graphic below this post -- to reach a higher grade of corporate advertiser than the member websites could on their own:
"Independent web publishers have been successful in creating great quality content and attracting loyal and passionate audiences, but they have been less effective in attracting national advertisers due to their limited individual size," said Elderkin. "By developing content-rich marketing programs that span our aggregated audience, we can provide unique marketing vehicles for our advertising partners."
I am delighted that Gay News Watch and this blog have both been accepted into the network. Initially you'll see public service announcements in the ad slots I've set up for the Gay Ad Network, but eventually somebody will love me enough to pay for the honor of getting your attention.
I am wary, of course, of cluttering up the site with too many ads or detracting from your experience as a reader. But as my partner and I continue on our international journey -- we're both soon to be expats, but more on that in a few days' time -- some revenue driplets will make a difference.
And as I said just a few days ago when celebrating my first blog birthday, thank you very much for your support.
For a complete news summary on gay media, click or bookmark: gaynewswatch.com/gaymedia
October 07, 2007
Happy blog birthday to me
Posted by: Chris
Amidst all the hullabaloo this week over ENDA and such, I missed marking the one-year birthday of this here blog, which commenced Oct. 3, 2006.
I knew even before I decided to leave the Washington Blade and move to Brazil that I would start my own blog. I had been along with my close friend and colleague Steve Koval the primary blogger for the Blade Blog ever since it debuted in August 2004. Even still, I launched Citizen Crain in a hurry, only a couple of weeks after I left the Blade, because the Mark Foley scandal was enveloping Washington, and it killed me to stay silent, when I had been covering Foley for years.
Despite those years writing for the Blade Blog, having my own was an adjustment for me, after a decade of writing 1,000-word editorials week in and week out. I appreciate those of you who wade through my longer posts. It was also an adjustment to write without pre-publication feedback. I made some early mistakes, and was taken to the woodshed (thankfully in private) by my friend Andrew Sullivan for what he saw as my campaign to villify Jeff Trandahl, the chief House clerk who oversaw the page program.
Trandahl and Kirk Fordham, who both found themselves in the white hot glare of press scrutiny based on someone else's odious conduct, are both good people who deserved better, including from me. I continue to believe that I raised important questions about how the closeted and semi-closeted gay Republicans on the Hill dealt with "the Foley problem," but I no doubt fell guilty to assuming the worst in the way I asked the questions.
Since that scandal, I've reveled in the freedom to opine on whatever subject, without worrying how my view might impact a larger institution, like the Blade , Southern Voice and the other gay papers I edited. (Some would say I didn't worry so much about that before, but in fact I did.) Because a blog is so personal, it was personally very gratifying that so many of you have visited over the first year.
I appreciate the early links and support since from Andrew and the guys over at Gay Patriot, North Dallas Thirty and The Malcontent. I've always felt more accepted by gay conservatives, perhaps because of my own Republican past or because they "get" my criticisms of "gay-friendly" Democrats. But the truth be told, I am much more comfortable as an independent and except in local D.C. votes I haven't pulled the lever for more than a handful of Republicans in more than a decade. When I watch the news, I generally view positive developments for Democrats as positive for me, and the contrary with Republicans.
I'm not sure exactly how to label myself, although "progressive" probably fits the best.
Reading Andrew's book "The Conservative Soul," I was struck by just how hard he was working to reclaim the conservative name, even as those who self-identify as such had moved leagues away ideologically. I long ago gave up that fight, and maintain a very optimistic view about the march of human progress in all things.
Some commenters on this blog and elsewhere have accused me of sucking up to Andrew or trying to be his twin. I'll plead innocent to both. I disagree with him regularly, including on very big things like the Iraq war, which I opposed from the outset. At the same time, I will freely acknowledge here what I have never told him personally: I have been an ardent admirer of his work and the way he has lived his life since his days at the New Republic. I am one of many who have been greatly influenced by the example he sets, and I am happy to say so.
I also want to give special thanks to a couple of bloggers who helped me out in simply figuring out the medium. At the top of that list is Jeremy Hooper (pictured), who blogs over at Good As You (G-A-Y). He has endured with cheerful patience my endless questions about the inner-workings of Typepad and HTML. He was so kindly and gentlemanly, in fact, that I had assumed he was some elderly retired gent sharing niblets of what he knew about the world of the Net. You could've knocked me over with a feather when I saw his photo recently -- "Que gato!" as they say down here in Brazil.
Speaking of Brazil, I'm grateful for the small but incredible network of gay bloggers opened up to me by my move here. At the top of that list are two of my very best friends here in São Paulo: Marcos (Carioca Virtual) (pictured) and my fellow gringo Kevin (Club Whirled), who like me left behind the Beltway life for the love of a Brasileiro.
I enjoyed a very blogger moment just last weekend when the three of us adopted-Paulistas (as natives of São Paulo are called) were at a birthday party here for a friend from Belo Horizante when we were joined by Juliano, the popular blogger over at Made In Brazil -- a must-read English language blog for all things gay, Brazilian and fashionista. (Juliano, like Jeremy, is a very pleasant surprise to the eyes in person. Not all bloggers are the stereotypical scruffy, underwear clad slobs).
More thanks go to Augusto, a Brasileiro living in Canada with his U.S. boyfriend, who commiserates with me about America's discriminatory immigration policy. Augusto's must-read gay-sensitive film reviews are over at Queer Beacon. And although he's Colombian and not Brazilian, Andrés Duque (Blabbeando) has been a lifeline for gay news from Latin America, and a wonderful supporter along the way.
But the Brazilian most responsible for this blog is my partner Anderson, who has come to accept that I'm glued to my MacBook at all hours, even when the beaches of Ipanema were calling our names from just three blocks away. His love and support have meant everything to me.
And last but certainly not least, thank you. I am grateful that you take the time to visit, whether or not you agree with anything I have to say. Thank you as well for all your comments, on the blog and by email as well. I hope you will join in the debate here. We'll all be the better for it.
July 18, 2007
Blog groveling for Gravel
Posted by: Chris
The progressive gay blogosphere is all a-twitter this week, flush from victory over the big bad Human Rights Campaign and its partner in crime, the Logo TV channel.
The two corporate gay behemoths announced they are cosponsoring a “forum” featuring the Democratic candidates for president. Initial reports called the event a “debate,” although it turns out the candidates agreed only to appear one after the other on stage, where they will “engage in conversation” with, of all people, lesbian rocker Melissa Etheridge and HRC chief Joe Solmonese.
Logo and HRC called the event a “historic first,” even though the Democratic field subjected themselves to real questioning on gay issues by ABC’s Sam Donaldson in a similar forum four years ago, broadcast nationwide on basic cable channel C-SPAN.
But progressive gay bloggers weren’t upset by that downgrade of fortunes. Their beef was over the exclusion of fringe candidate Mike Gravel, who wasn’t invited to participate because, according to HRC, the former senator from Alaska didn’t meet a cutoff for candidates to have raised at least $100,000 in campaign funds — later amended to mean $100,000 in the last quarter.
It was ludicrous, of course, for HRC to claim that the $100,000 cutoff wasn’t aimed at Gravel. It was similarly silly for HRC to argue that the cutoff was intended to limit the event to “candidates who could actually be elected,” considering an invitation was extended to Ohio Congressman Dennis Kucinich, whose campaign like Gravel’s is all protest or ego, or perhaps both.
But Gravel and Kucinich are alone among the Democrats in the race to have come out in favor of marriage equality, so the diss by HRC-Logo got Gravel, and the bloggers who have his back, hopping mad. Gravel often comes off like Billy Crystal’s “grumpy old man” on “Saturday Night Live,” so it was a cinch for him to go from zero to livid over his exclusion.
“Fighting for a hated minority is a pretty dumb way to get elected president,” grumped Gravel with a Huff and a Po on Huffington Post. “And obviously it hasn't helped with my fundraising. But I want to live in a country where there are no second-class citizens.”
Leftie gay bloggers swooned in response, but does Gravel’s claim make any more sense than HRC-Logo’s? Since Gravel has zero chance of being elected president and has no constituency except the “none-of-the-above” anti-war folks that he and Kucinich are splitting, a play for the gays isn’t dumb at all. It’s a smart, even obvious move. Far from hurting Gravel in the wallet, some gay bloggers began fund-raising for him, arguing gay donors should do their part to hoist him over the $100,000 cutoff.
Still, none of that stopped the bloggers from soaking in the thrill of victory when HRC-Logo reversed its decision and invited Gravel to the big dance.
“The progressive gay blogosphere has arrived and the rest of the political world is cordially invited to take notice,” boasted Mike Rogers, who cut his blogo-teeth outing closeted Republican staffers on Capitol Hill, in a piece on Huffington Post.
Rogers is right that we can learn quite a bit from this gay blogosphere triumph, but he might not like the real lessons. The influence of the blogosphere generally has long been sidelined by quixotic quests, lost causes and misdirected “netroots” resources. The gay grovel for Gravel is unfortunately a classic case.
How exactly does it help the cause of gay rights to be associated with a man whom most Americans dismiss as fringe and probably unbalanced? Is the push for gay marriage boosted or burdened if Gravel and Kucinich are seen as its champions?
It’s not just that they have no chance of actually winning; the same could be said of Senators Joe Biden and Chris Dodd, but at least they are serious candidates taken seriously by the public and the media.
Gravel and Kucinich, like Ron Paul on the GOP side (who, gulp, also apparently supports gay marriage), are nothing more than political sideshows, and it doesn’t help convince legitimate, mainstream candidates to take our views if they’re espoused by the likes of these guys.
What’s worse, the exclusion of Gravel was much less potent a problem with the HRC-Logo “forum” format than the exclusion of real journalists to ask real questions of the candidates who might actually win. Four years ago, Sam Donaldson pressed John Kerry and the others on gay marriage, forcing them to explain their opposition to our equality.
Does anyone expect Melissa Etheridge — and I’m a fan — to do the same, and as effectively? Anyone who has heard Joe Solmonese’s chatfest on XM Radio already knows he makes even a big softie like Larry King look like, well, Sam Donaldson by comparison.
Fortunately, in addition to responding to the leftie bloggers on Gravel, HRC and Logo also heard criticism from others about their panelists. Now a top-notch, mainstream journalist is being recruited to participate. Now that's a victory worth actually celebrating, for those whose eyes remain on the prize.
July 13, 2007
Eternally-bitter, combative me
Posted by: Chris
"Bloggernista," an occasional reader of this blog who hides behind a pseudonym on his own, takes a shot at Andrew Sullivan and me for criticizing the Human Rights Campaign-Logo "forum" of Democratic presidential candidates. In a cross-post on his blog and Pam's House Blend and Bilerico, he writes this under the headline "Fight the Right, Not Each Other":
Even now as the Senate is set to debate the federal hate crimes bill, much of the energy among progressive LGBT activists is focused on attacking the Human Rights Campaign for a political forum featuring presidential candidates. … This just goes to show that we are not nearly as politically sophisticated as we would like to believe ourselves to be and that our activism is steeped in personal self-expression rather than a focus on political effectiveness. … HRC staff should have recognized that eternally bitter homocons like Andrew Sullivan and Chris Crain would piss all over their efforts no matter what…
He goes on to acknowledge "comments" by Pam Spaulding that criticized HRC for not including a real journalist as a moderator and Bloggernista's own view that Mike Gravel should have been invited.
You just have to love the irony in a blog post with the headline "Fight the Right, Not Each Other," which then proceeds to fight each other, and not the right.
So "Bloggernista" thinks Andrew Sullivan and I are being "eternally bitter homocons" for registering criticism about the HRC candidates forum, while Pam Spaulding's "comments" about the event were on point. How does that work exactly? Pam and I raised the same issues, as did Andrew. But we're bitter while her points are well taken. I'm glad we're not wasting time on senseless fights with each other!
In fact, I posted a second time yesterday crediting HRC with deciding they need a real journalist moderator and saying I wasn't bothered by the exclusion of Mike Gravel. So, in reality, "Bloggernista" and Pam were more critical of HRC than eternally-bitter me.
Here's our fundamental difference in strategy, from my point of view (and crazy me for thinking the blogosphere was supposed to be the kind of place we had these types of open discussions without shushing each other up): "Bloggernista" seems to think we win our equality by "fighting the right." I disagree. I think we win our equality -- and much faster, btw -- by pressuring those who say they support our rights to expend political capital on our behalf.
Otherwise, they will act only after the societal consensus is so overwhelming that there's no risk at all to supporting us. "Bloggernista" can wait for that distant day, and in the meantime make himself feel better by pointing out obvious silliness of "wingnuts" and the like. I'd rather focus on the here and now, and converting gay-friendly rhetoric into the passage of gay-friendly legislation.
You want to see the hate crime law passed? The immediate problem is not "the right." It's whether leading Democrats will make it a priority to keep the amendment in the DoD authorization bill and then not blink if Bush threatens veto.
June 26, 2007
One-way blogging over at HRC
Posted by: Chris
The Human Rights Campaign launched a blog today called "Back Story," which promises to "weigh in on issues, provide some perspective and commentary and hopefully add to the daily dialogue," according to an initial post by Joe Solmonese, the gay group's leader.
It's a good idea in principle, especially given how remote the Washington, D.C.-based organization can be from its members — at least between black-tie dinners.
I've added the blog over at Immigration Equality to my daily read, not only because gay immigration rights are a personal issue for me, but because I.E.'s Adam Francouer is refreshingly open in discussing tactics and encouraging feedback. Having spent 10 years observing the gay rights movement, I can't tell you how refreshing it is to see one of our organizations treat strategy as something other than a "state secret" that only the rich and well-connected can discuss behind closed doors.
Unfortunately, the initial posts on HRC's Back Story aren't too encouraging, at least when it comes to encouraging real discussion and "adding to the daily dialogue." Most of the early entries by HRC's designated blogger Chris Johnson — who handles the group's "blog outreach," as if we needed further evidence of staff bloat — are either glorified press releases or news blurbs repeated on a thousand gay websites and blogs.
It's not fair to judge a blog by its early posts, so there's still hope HRC might offer more meaty discussion and even (gasp!) take a few risks. I know firsthand that it takes awhile to grow accustomed to the blog form, and its drive-by commentary is still an imperfect fit for me. But I can make one very specific suggestion to HRC: enable reader comments.
I've been plenty critical of HRC, of course, in my years editing Southern Voice and the Washington Blade , in syndicated columns since and here on this blog. But I have always given over more space for responses and criticism than I took to use myself and, of course, this blog includes comments, and I don't censor.
In the early days of the web, I added a comments section to SoVo and the Blade websites, but we had to remove the feature after a small but determined bunch used it to write incredibly personal, nasty and defamatory comments about individual staffers (no, not me). The Blade recently opened up its site to comments again, and I wish them well with it.
Every comments section depends on a certain degree of respect and decorum, both qualities all too often missing from the Internet. But if I can handle the heat, and so can the Blade and Immigration Equality, then HRC can, too. Otherwise, we're left to conclude what we already suspect, that "improving communication with members," one of Solmonese's goals for "Back Story," is really just a one-way street.
June 22, 2007
RSS, tickers and widgets, oh my!
Posted by: Chris
A few weeks ago, I made my big gay announcement about Gay News Watch, a new website that compiles, sorts and customizes all the gay news and views from the U.S., Europe and worldwide. I'm very pleased to say that traffic has been better than anticipated for a start-up project, and is growing every day.
Several of you commented at the time, however, that you were disappointed you couldn't subscribe to Gay News Watch via RSS feed. Well, be disappointed no longer. Starting today, an RSS subscription is available, either by going to the site and clicking on the RSS symbol in your browser URL window, or simply by clicking here, or if you want more info first, by going here.
But that's not even the most exciting part. I've partnered with a fantastic company called MuseStorm to create headline ticker "widgets" that you can use to add Gay News Watch headlines to your blog, website or MySpace-type online profile. You can see an example in the right column here, which I created using my own design, background, text color and size specs.
You can create your own Gay News Watch widget by going here. The ticker will scroll the last 20 headlines on Gay News Watch, which means you'll always be displaying the breaking news from the last 24 hours. So by simply pasting a snippet of code into your blog, website or online profile, you can be your own gay news service.
And even that's not all. (OK, I'm starting to sound like a QVC salesman, so sue me.) With a click of your mouse you can also create Gay News Watch headline ticker desktop widgets, either from Yahoo by going here, or from Google by going here.
There's more good stuff where that came from. Soon you'll be able to download Gay News Watch desktop widgets for your Mac Dashboard, Vista Gadget, mobile phone and even your favorite instant message application.
OK enough with the sales claptrap. Now back to our regularly scheduled programming…
March 22, 2007
Idiots of a feather
Posted by: Chris
It seems that Sean Bugg over at Metroweekly here in D.C. isn't the only former competitor who has a bone to pick with me. Duncan Osborne, longtime associate editor of Gay City News and its predecessor LGNY, jumped into the fray today with an editorial dismissing me, Andrew Sullivan, Michael Petrelis and anyone else with the temerity to criticize the Human Rights Campaign as "idiotic."
There's history there. I went up against Osborne when I oversaw the New York Blade for some five years, and I will certainly credit the LGNY/GCN crew with being fierce. When my company, Window Media, purchased the Blade, LGNY changed its masthead so as to claim to be the only "gay-owned" gay newspaper in New York. That came as a something of a shock to me and the other 26-some-odd homosexuals (including the principle of our equity firm backers) who owned the Blade. Then, when LGNY went under and was salvaged by a publisher who happened to hetero, the blurb mysteriously disappeared.
More recently, Osborne went off on me last September during the National Lesbian & Journalists Association conference in Miami for daring to characterize the gay press as liberal. With CSPAN cameras rolling, Osborne angrily defended the supposed objectivity of GCN, which regularly publishes first-person coverage from a left-wing slant. When I asked him why, then, his gay newspaper devotes space each week to a list of Iraq war dead, and the overall Iraq death and injury toll, he claimed that was conservative support for America's troops. 'Nuff said.
When someone's head is buried that far into ideological ground — from whatever stripe — an honest debate can be hard to come by. So it's not surprising that, in addition to labeling us "idiotic," Osborne conveniently misstates the criticisms of HRC before taking down his newly created straw man.
Where to start:
- I never criticized Joe Solmonese for making too much money. I only said that I refuse to be told by someone who only joined the movement a year ago to the tune of a cool quarter-million annually that I am somehow "bad for the movement."
- I never criticized the financing logic behind HRC's shiny new headquarters; I questioned siphoning $26 million out of the gay community's limited resources at a time when we were losing the marriage battle in Washington and around the country. Having visited the offices, I can also vouch that it is nicer than most Washington law firms I've seen. More wasted money.
- I assume since Osborne didn't mention it that he's peachy with HRC paying off former president Cheryl Jacques, pushed out in 2004 after only one year, a massive severance that included $160,000 payment in 2006, two years after she left. More wasted money.
- I never said HRC "was wrong to back the Democrats in 2006." That, dear Duncan, would be idiotic. I have said until I'm blue in the keyboard that of course Democrats are better on the whole than Republicans on gay rights and there are definite advantages when they control Congress and other legislative bodies.
My central criticism of HRC, should Osborne choose to actually address it, was that the organization under Jacques and now Solmonese has aligned itself too closely with the Democrats, treating the interests of the movement as secondary to those of party, when they conflict. Or, probably more accurately, drinking Howard Dean's kool-aid and buying into the idea that what's good for the Dems has to be good for the gays, even if it means our issues take a backseat and our lives aren't defended.
When Solmonese et al told the Boston Globe that their aim was for HRC to be positioned like labor unions as a Democratic Party special interest, well that just said it all. So tell us, Duncan, why is it you think the path to political oblivion followed by organized labor makes sense for the nation's largest gay rights group?
(Illustration courtesy of GCN)
March 17, 2007
The emperor wears thin skin
Posted by: Chris
The Boston gay paper Bay Windows published an excellent article by reporter Ethan Jacobs on Friday detailing recent criticism of the Human Rights Campaign from the gay blogosphere, your's truly included.
Of greatest interest to me was how Joe Solmonese, HRC's president, said he decides which critics are worth listening to and which are "bad for the movement." Just what makes an HRC critic "bad" according to this joey-come-lately to the struggle? Well, either they are too partisan (allegedly Andrew Sullivan) or too personal (allegedly me) in their critiques.
It's true, of course, that Andrew has been a vocal supporter at times of the Republican Party and George Bush. He has also been among their most strident critics. Can Solmonese or anyone else associated with HRC (or its supporters) demonstrate anything close to that level of partisan independence?
Solmonese told Bay Windows that he regularly reads the "thoughtful" criticism of HRC by Pam Spaulding over at Pam's House Blend and appreciates it. Well of course he does. She is a proud progressive Democrat. Is that the only direction Joe's head will turn?
It's unconscionable for Solmonese to dismiss criticism from someone like Sullivan, who has a far longer and more impressive record on gay rights than Solmonese himself, as (supposedly) "a conservative Republican." Agree or disagree with him on any given issue, Andrew Sullivan has already done more for the lives of gay people and those with HIV than Solmonese will if he stays on the job at HRC for another 10 years.
On the substance of the charge that HRC is partisn, Solmonese points out to Bay Windows that HRC backed a few Republicans in congressional races last fall. That's like saying a bill is "bipartisan" if it has 125 Democrats and one Republican as sponsors. In reality, HRC endorsed fewer Republican congressional candidates this cycle than ever before and even abandoned gay-friendly GOP incumbents in favor of Democratic challengers.
But my primary criticism of HRC under Solmonese has never been about not supporting Republicans enough. And neither Sullivan nor I has ever suggested that the two parties are equal on gay rights. Those are red herrings that HRC likes to use because so few gays are sympathetic to the GOP.
To the contrary, I have stated the obvious time and time again: Democrats are far better at every level of government than Republicans on gay rights, and that difference is magnified when their party leaders are compared. With the exception of a couple of gay and gay-friendly Republicans in local D.C. races, I haven't voted in the GOP column in recent memory.
But all that says far more about just how bad the Republicans have been than it does about how good the Democrats are. My criticism is from the left, not the right, and it is that HRC does not stand up to Democrats enough when they are too weak-kneed to spend political capital on our issues.
In the end, Solmonese's dismissal of me as having some sort of "personal fascination" with him is a bit ironic, since he admits (finally) to Bay Windows that he is the one who has taken things too personally:
HRC has made several attempts to respond to the current wave of criticism from bloggers, but more often than not those efforts have only further alienated bloggers and, in one case, the LGBT media more broadly. Last month Crain wrote a column for the San Francisco Bay Times critical of the Gay and Lesbian Alliance Against Defamation’s (GLAAD) and HRC’s response to a Snickers ad aired during the Super Bowl that the two organizations argued was homophobic. In response Solmonese wrote a letter to the paper accusing Crain of having a “fascination” with him and arguing that “[g]iving Chris Crain a platform to spout his misguided rhetoric sets back the work of the entire movement.” His response was criticized not only by Crain himself on his blog but by [blogger Michael] Petrelis, who accused Solmonese of being “thin-skinned” and of declining to answer legitimate criticism, and by the Bay Area Reporter, which published an editorial accusing HRC of acting like “the 800-pound gorilla in the room” by attacking its critics.
Solmonese admitted that his letter to the Bay Times struck a sour note and said, “I think that that is a really good example of where it was the one and only time I let what I felt was a personal attack get under my skin.” He said he would never again “lose sight of who our real enemies are” in responding to criticism.
I'm a bit shocked to think that Solmonese needed reminding I'm not "the real enemy." I have been involved and committed to the gay rights movement for far longer than he has, and I have sacrificed much more. After a half-decade of working as a pro bono lawyer and activist within the movement, I left a lucrative law career in 1997 to go into the gay press — all because of my commitment to that struggle. I'm not asking for a medal or sympathy, but to have that commitment questioned by someone making almost a quarter-million dollars annually in the very first year of his very first ever gay rights job is just beyond silly.
What's most surprising is that Solmonese (and the communications department at HRC) still hasn't grasped the role the media (old and new) plays within any power structure, including non-profit political lobbies and civil rights movements. The Bay Windows story does an excellent job of highlighting how that tin ear has damaged HRC's image so much in recent weeks and months.
We in the media are here to ask the tough questions and demand accountability. When we see things going astray, it's our job to say so. It's not (at all) personal; it's professional. It's also the kind of thing it would be nice to see HRC do more of on all of our behalf.
January 30, 2007
AWOL in São Paulo
Posted by: Chris
My apologies to regular visitors that the blog went dark over the weekend. I've tried to post consistently ever since I launched the blog in October. Those of you who've blogged yourselves know how difficult that can be, and it has certainly been a big change from writing every week, or every other week, for the Washington Blade, Southern Voice and their sister publications.
Speaking of which, Window Media, the gay publishing company I co-founded in 1997 with William Waybourn, announced last week that it was closing the Houston Voice, which the company purchased in 1998. It was a very sad development for all of us who have worked with the publication over the last eight years, but one that was understandable and certainly not unexpected. Only those of us who have been on the inside know how much time, effort and money was spent trying to make the publication a financial success.
The Houston metro area ranks in the Top 5 nationally in population, but the city generally eschews zoning laws and so is sprawled out over an enormous area. The gay community is sprawled as well, though its sou