Six LGBT’s Nominated for DNC At-Large Positions

According to various reports, it looks as though the Democratic National Committee (DNC) may be adding six more openly LGBT Democrats to their 447 at-large members.

Last week, the DNC chairman, Virginia Governor Tim Kaine, announced a list of 75 nominees for the at-large positions and stated they will be confirmed next weekend by a vote of committee members.

The openly LGBT nominees are:

Terry Bean – Portland, OR: Co-founder of the Victory Fund.

Earl Fowlkes -D.C.: Board member of the Gay & Lesbian Leadership Institute, and president of the International Federation of Black Prides.

Evan Low – Campbell, CA: Elected member of the Campbell, CA City Council.

Lupe Valdez – Dallas, TX: Elected Sheriff of Dallas County, Texas since 2004.

Barbra Casbar Siperstein – NJ: Transgender president of the New Jersey Stonewall Democrats.

Randi Weingarten – NY: President of the American Federation of Teachers, AFL-CIO.

Obama Picks Kaine as DNC Leader

Barack Obama has chosen Tim Kaine to run the Democratic National Committee. This is a little bittersweet for the LGBT community in the respect that Kaine was the only candidate who responded to the Washington Blade’s 2005 request for Virginia Governor’s candidates to answer questions about gay issues (and was very positive about the LGBT community),but then when he became Governor of Virgina, he signed the Marshall-Newman Amendment, which defines marriage in Virginia as being between a man and a woman, even though he had previously opposed it.

So, Tim Kaine is polite and nice to gays, but perhaps lacks the guts to stand-up against anti-gay measures.

Michelle Obama:Promise of Equality for Gays

Michelle Obama won thunderous applause from gay activists and officials Tuesday when she said, “discrimination has no place in a nation founded on the promise of equality.”

Speaking during a Democratic National Convention luncheon for gay delegates and dignitaries, the wife of presidential hopeful Barack Obama recalled how her husband once rallied neighborhood groups by challenging them to transform “the world as it is” into “the world as it should be.”

Read the rest of this blog at restoringlove.com.

Afterthoughts From the Democractic Convention

Here is one person’s outtake of the DNC, out of the thousands, but, A very interesting one.

I have now been home nearly 24 hours, and I’ve had a chance to digest the experience of the Convention; one of the key hallmarks of the event is that there’s so much going on that you don’t have time for a whole lot of reflection midstream. I suspect there’s more reflection to be made, but before we go to far past the event, I thought I’d recap what I now know that I didn’t a week ago.

Read the rest of this at blueoregon.com.

Yes We Can! Yes We Can! Yes We Can!

The time is 10:58 p.m. EST and Barack Obama just finished his DNC acceptance speech in front of a live audience of over 84,000 people, and I have goose bumps, a lump in my throat, tears running down my cheek and a renewed since of pride in my heart and soul.

Barack Obama just gave what I would consider to be the best speech ever given.  I agree most completely with the Presidential candidate when he said, “America, we can not turn back!”  We have so much at stake and we can not afford another year, not to mention 4 of what we have had for the past 8.  This man has not only took a stand against what he sees wrong with this country, but he stood up for what he sees can be done by all of us as citizens individually and as a whole.

He made it clear this election is not about who is more patriotic, this is not about red and blue, but this is about the United States of America and what is wrong and right, what is bad and good and what it encompasses as a whole which is the lives of all citizens as equals.  As he said, “we may not all believe in abortion, but we can all agree we need to reduce the number of unwanted pregnancies.”  And then, for me, the highlight of the speech, “We may not all agree on same-sex marriage, but certainly we can all agree that our gay and lesbian brothers and sisters deserve to have equal rights and not to be discriminated against.”

As he also mentioned, “Change doesn’t come from Washington, change comes to Washington.” He is the change that can make this country the great nation it once was.

Michelle Obama caught a lot of flack for saying earlier that for the first time, she was proud of her country, but I must admit, for the first time in 8 years, I too am finally proud to be American and am proud of my country.  I truly have a renewed sense of passion and hope for what’s to come!

In closing, he said “God bless the U.S.A and I say God bless you”.  I would like to return the thought with GOD BLESS YOU Mr. Obama, and may you be the next President of this great nation!

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