Bay Windows
Donoghue campaigns on local connections
When Kate Tyndall began organizing a candlelight vigil in response to an anti-gay hate crime last month, she rapidly called City Councilor Eileen Donoghue, her friend and an ally to the local LGBT community. "And she said, ’Whatever you need,’" Tyndall recalled. Tyndall asked Donoghue to speak at the event. "I’ve heard her talk about equality and she’s very eloquent," she explained. "And she’s speaks from the heart."
Youth commission to focus on health issues, hold meetings across state
During Mitt Romney’s gubernatorial administration, the now-disbanded Governor’s Commission on Gay and Lesbian Youth occupied a tenuous position, working to promote LGBT youth programming on behalf of a governor who was often openly hostile to the LGBT community. Listening to Jason Smith, chair of that commission’s successor, outline next year’s agenda for the Massachusetts Commission on Gay, Lesbian, Bisexual and Transgender Youth, it is clear that those days are over.
MA nursing home to cater to LGBT elders
Barry Berman, executive director of the Chelsea Jewish Nursing Home Foundation, is working to provide a new model for the care of LGBT elders that could end the days when LGBT people who enter nursing homes feel pressured to go back into the closet. Berman and the foundation are currently engaged in a capital campaign for the construction of the Leonard P. Florence Center for Living, a nursing facility slated for construction on Chelsea’s Admiral’s Hill consisting of 10 "houses," semi-autonomous residential centers that will provide specialized care to different types of elder populations. One of those houses, the Elsie Frank House, will focus on addressing the needs of LGBT elders.
AIDS Action, Victory Programs partner on program for families affected by addiction
The adjoining bedrooms at Joelyn’s Family Home, which are painted in warm shades of green, yellow and orange, are still empty. But Rebecca Haag and other staff members from AIDS Action Committee (AAC) left the residence after a June 20 open house awed by the sense of community embodied by Joelyn’s Family Home, a new substance abuse treatment program for women with children.
BAGLY moves to Community Church of Boston
After holding its weekly meetings for 25 years at Beacon Hill’s St. John the Evangelist, the Boston Alliance of Gay and Lesbian Youth (BAGLY) will move its meetings to the Community Church of Boston in Copley Square on July 11.
Cirignano back in court on June 28
Larry Cirignano, former executive of Catholic Citizenship, goes back to court June 28 for a pre-trial hearing in connection with the charges against him for allegedly assaulting a pro-marriage equality demonstrator at a VoteOnMarriage.org rally in Worcester last December.
Lambda Legal hosts contests for gay comics
Earlier this year, Lambda Legal launched a competition for cartoonists to submit cartoons about the importance of fair courts for LGBT and individual rights, and from now until July 15 visitors to the organization’s website can compare the five finalists and cast their vote for the winner.
Housewives Gone Wild!
Next week Wolfe Video brings back two low budget lesbian themed movies: That Tender Touch (1969) and Just The Two of Us (1975.) Both films feature troubled female couples and are not only historically interesting, but surprisingly entertaining - albeit mostly in the so-bad-it’s-good way.
Rep. Christine Canavan on the MA gay marriage vote
Rep. Christine Canavan had largely been written off as a potential vote change by marriage equality activists - so the Brockton Democrat’s "no" vote at the June 14 constitutional convention was a shocker. She talks about how, after three years of voting the way she believed the majority of her district wanted her to, she decided to follow her conscience.
VoteOnMarriage.org spokeswoman says another ballot campaign unlikely
On June 14, VoteOnMarriage.org leader Kris Mineau expressed confidence that he still had a margin of victory. Minutes later, he watched as nine of his votes went into the pro-equality column, and two freshmen lawmakers who campaigned on a pledge to support the amendment followed suit. What went wrong?
Sealing the deal for gay marriage
Though he attends Mass every Sunday, State Rep. Paul Kujawski confesses he was a little nervous as he walked through the doors of his Roman Catholic parish this past weekend. Just days before, Kujawski had cast a vote against an anti-gay marriage constitutional amendment, a controversial about-face from his vote in favor of the amendment back in January. The majority of congregants, said Kujawski, welcomed him. "They grabbed my arm or they patted me on the back or they hugged me," he said. "And it was a good feeling."
Health risk survey for LGB youth shows increased pregnancy
Carol Goodenow, director of coordinated school health education for the Department of Education in MA, led a presentation at the state’s Department of Public Healthheadquarters June 19 about health risks faced by LGBT youth. The results were highly unexpected.
Sue Hyde and Lisa Keen on GLBT Youth’s Legal Rights
The first two books in Boston-based Beacon Press’s series of titles aimed at the LGBT community take aim at a much-needed subject: political organizing and legal rights for LGBT youth. In Come Out and Win: Organizing Yourself, Your Community, and Your World, longtime political activist Sue Hyde offers not just a how-to on political organizing, but an informative, easily digestible history of the LGBT movement. And Lisa Keen’s Out Law: What LGBT Youth Should Know about Their Legal Rightsis an often-times startling look at the attacks currently being launched against LGBT youth by right-wing activists. Bay Windows’ editor Susan Ryan-Vollmar spoke with both writers - here’s the interview!
Blogging the gay marriage vote at the Constitutional Convention :: Bay Windows is live at the State House
1:45 p.m.
In front of the State House, it’s noticeably warmer on the pro-marriage side of the street, where the crowd is tightly packed. The anti-marriage group is already dispersing. When news of the vote reached the crowd, the pro-marriage people began screaming and waving their hands in the air. Everywhere, people could be spotted crying and kissing each other.
Boston Pride Wrapup :: We all had a ball at Boston City Hall
Lesbian librarians, leather queens and all those Unitarians. The Boston Pride parade just wouldn’t be as smart, sexy or spiritual without the marchers who have populated the annual extravaganza for ages, and plenty of them took to the streets on June 9. Nonetheless, this year’s Boston Pride offered up plenty of the new and different, from a new route that took marchers past the State House, to the first-ever participation of a sitting governor in the parade and a festival on City Hall Plaza.
Sending a Message :: Black and gay in Boston
On June 8, the morning of the launch of JRI Health’s new ad campaign drawing attention to the lives of gay men in Boston’s black communities, JRI Health executive director Douglas Brooks got the chance to see the impact of the new campaign firsthand.
Marriage fight casts shadow over historic Pride Interfaith Service
Stepping to the pulpit after the six-member Union United Methodist Church Men’s Choir brought the hand-clapping congregation to its feet with a joyful rendition of the spiritual "I Love To Praise His Holy Name," Drayton Freeman, co-chair of the Boston Pride Interfaith Coalition offered an apology as people settled back onto the cushioned pews of the South End church. "I realize having an Episcopalian following that is probably lethal," said Freeman.
Man attacked in Fens
A gay man cruising in the Fens May 27 was attacked by a group of about seven teenagers, who hit him with a wooden plank. The victim, who asked Bay Windows not to use his name, was not seriously injured, but he said he believes the young people came to the Fens with the intent of targeting the gay cruisers who frequent the area. According to the Boston Police incident report of the attack, at least one witness also claimed that the group of teenagers was targeting gay men.
Lawmakers withdraw support for anti-gay proposal
A bill sponsored by the anti-gay group MassResistance to restrict discussion of LGBT issues in schools has lost the support of nearly half its co-sponsors after a campaign by the group KnowThyNeighbor.org and its supporters asking lawmakers to reject the bill. In an unexpected twist, some of the co-sponsors who withdrew told Bay Windows that their decision was not a change of heart; they claimed that they never agreed to co-sponsor the legislation in the first place, and they were uncertain how their name was added to the co-sponsor list to begin with.
Fenway Community Health launches anti-meth program
Fenway Community Health’s New Champions, a peer education program designed to show the gay male community the dangers of crystal methamphetamine, launched a new ad campaign June 11 that New Champions program manager Jed Barnum hopes will make gay men feel empowered to fight the epidemic of meth use in the community.