Click On Over To The New JMG!

The new JMG is live right now so you can click right over and create a bookmark for JoeMyGod.com. But keep the old bookmark for a bit as we're going to keep this here Google-hosted version live for a day or so. After all, something could go horribly wrong during the launch and we'll want you beautiful people to come back here during the fix. Also, surprise, it's taking a rilly rilly long time to port over millions of your brilliant comments. So until your Disqus histories are finished loading onto the new site, you can still come back here and finish up this weekend's arguments. Anyway, off you go, there's a full page of new posts waiting for you.

Open Thread Thursday

Quarterly book report. What are you reading?

Some Changes Are Coming To JMG

After more than 11 years on the Google, late this weekend this here website thingy will migrate to Wordpress and will be hosted on JoeMyGod.com, which I've owned for a decade and has been redirecting to this Blogspot address. Things won't look very different on your end, but you should be pleased by a much zippier site load, added social media interactivity, and more searchable archives. The biggest visible change will be fewer posts on the main page with a "next page" clicky-thing at the bottom. And of course, you'll want to bookmark the new URL.  There may be a glitch or two during the change and we'll likely be making more tweaks in the coming weeks. I'll be participating in the comments of this post to answer any questions and tell you a bit more.

JMG Commenting Reminder

As I do a couple of times a year, today I again caution you that even the most idle and "jokey" threats of physical harm to any person or property are completely unacceptable on JMG.  Also strongly discouraged are expressed wishes of physical harm to others by any means, including natural ones. Please remain aware that JMG comments are often scoured by the enemies of civil equality who look for any opportunity to republish ill-considered reactions to the news reported here.

We sometimes see more than 50,000 - 100,000 comments per month and I cannot personally read but a fraction of them. Therefore I must rely on the JMG community to stay self-policing and notify me by email should any comment concern you. Be advised that in many cases these comments are posted by drive-by trolls in order to grab triumphant screen-shots for use elsewhere. You've been remarkably great about observing these very few commenting rules and I thank you for that.

JMG Reader Meetup In Tampa

JMG reader Dan writes: "A few of us in the Tampa Bay area are trying to organize a meet-up at the Tampa Theatre on Sunday, Aug 2nd for the Summer Classics Movie Series feature Gone With the Wind. Although we interact regularly with other locals on your forum, we thought it might be fun to meet in person. Can you help us get the word out?"

RELATED:  Built in 1928, the Tampa Theatre reopened in 1978 after decades of disrepair. It's probably the most beautiful theater in the South after Atlanta's Fabulous Fox.

Morning View - Provincetown

Reminder: Today is our JMG meetup at the Boatslip. We'll try to corral everybody on far west corner of the deck at 6PM for a group photo, so wear your t-shirt. (Unless you're taking part in "Singlet Day." Because that would look silly.)

TONIGHT: JMG Reader Meetup At London's Duke Of Wellington Pub

We won't have the marriage ruling to celebrate tonight, but I'm sure we can find another reason or three to lift a few pints at the Duke Of Wellington pub in Soho. And the first three guys that come up to me and say "Obergefell" get a free JMG t-shirt. I'll be there around 9PM providing I don't get lost.

NEXT WEEK: JMG Reader Meetup At London's Duke Of Wellington Pub

As I mentioned on Facebook a few days ago, the overlords at Pride Magazine have rather abruptly decreed that I'm to go to London next week for a few days of "synergy and digital integration planning" with the team of sister publication, Pride Life.  This mean that I'll miss NYC Pride for the first time since I've lived here (argh!) and that I'll be out of position time-wise (so to speak) when the SCOTUS ruling comes down. On the other hand - free trip to London - so after consulting the Facebook mind hive, we've decided on the Duke Of Wellington pub in Soho for a JMG reader meetup on next Thursday at 9PM. We'd do it earlier, but I'll be blogging on my regular US schedule while I'm there. London Pride is that Saturday, so if you don't make the meetup, look for me with the Pride Life crew.

TODAY: Eleven Years Of JMG

Today is the eleventh blogiversary of this here website thingy. As is tradition for today, here is my very first post.

April 29th, 2004

I was born and raised in rural North Carolina.

My fondest childhood memory is of playing in the dense, acrid, poison fog that was belched out by the county mosquito control truck during its daily dusk-time trip down our dirt road.

The cry of "Smokey! Smokey!" would fly up and down Nine Foot Road once the first faint sound of the pest control truck's generator was detected in the distance. Trailer screen doors would slam open and kids would pour into the street for ten minutes of gleeful, giddy, mad dashing around in the thick white clouds of DDT. We would smash into each other with full force in the blinding swirls and just scream and laugh hysterically, pick ourselves up and start running again. Parents had not a whit of concern about their children playing directly behind the spewing pipes of a pest control truck. In fact, NOT being allowed to play in the poison fog was often held out as potential punishment for misbehavior.

I think this explains a lot about me.

Counting this one, we're at 52,321 posts over eleven years, the last seven of which have been without a day off. Because I'm crazy committed or am crazy and should be committed. I very much appreciate all of you being here for these last eleven years. Help yourself to some well-deserved punch and cookies. Please don't let the cat out. And onward to JMG year twelve.

Here Are The Winners Of Signorile's Book

Michelangelo Signorile's latest book It's Not Over goes on sale nationwide today. The publisher provided us with three copies to give away and the winners of last week's swag contest are JMG readers TimCA, Mike In Texas, and David Milley. The winners were selected using a random number generator and have been notified via Disqus.

JMG Commenting Reminder

As I regularly do, today I again caution you that even the most idle and "jokey" threats of physical harm to any person or property are completely unacceptable on JMG.  Also strongly discouraged are expressed wishes of physical harm to others by any means, including natural ones. Please remain aware that JMG comments are often scoured by the enemies of civil equality who look for any opportunity to republish ill-considered reactions to the news reported here.

We sometimes see more than 50,000 - 100,000 comments per month and I cannot personally read but a fraction of them. Therefore I must rely on the JMG community to stay self-policing and notify me by email should any comment concern you. Be advised that in many cases these comments are posted by drive-by trolls in order to grab triumphant screen-shots for use elsewhere. You've been remarkably great about observing these very few commenting rules and I thank you for that.

IRELAND: JMG Reader Gets His Straight Friends To Pledge "Yes" Vote On Marriage

JMG reader Gerard took part in Ireland's #VoteWithUs social media campaign by getting his straight friends to pledge their "Yes" votes in the May referendum. Gerard owns the Copper Kettle pub in County Cavan.

Open Thread Thursday

Quarterly book report time. What are you reading?

Open Thread Thursday

Many JMG readers have already friended each other on Facebook. This week JMG reader SpiderPig suggests ramping up the community connectivity by sharing your Twitter handles.

Happy New Year, JMG Community!

Yet another eventful year has come and gone for this here website thingy, which hit the decade mark back in April. In 2014 we saw about 28 million pageviews on about 7000 posts on which you crazy kids left over a million comments. As I mention in this post every year, blogging is like a homework assignment that is never done, but is always due. Nevertheless, you all make it a lot easier with your emails, your story tips, and your encouragement.

Last year I noted that 2013 would be remembered as one of the most momentous years in our movement's history due to the fall of DOMA, Prop 8, and the advance of marriage equality into several more states. While we saw no such landmark rulings in 2014, the nearly unbroken avalanche of pro-equality decisions that swept the nation will certainly put this year into the history books as well.

I thank you all for your robust opinions and for making the JMG comments section the most lively in the entire homo-blogosphere. I'm happy to have met so many of you at JMG meetups and look forward to meeting many more of you over the next year. Tonight, I'll be raising my glass to each and every one of our flying monkeys. I'll be raising it a lot!

Open Thread Thursday

Where are you today? Who are you with?

Morning View - Island House

All is quiet at this early hour at the Island House. As usual there are some JMG readers here this week: two self-proclaimed "flying monkeys" from Minneapolis, Mike from Atlanta, Russ from Manhattan, and a boisterous bear couple from Surrey, England. Say hello, boys!

Open Thread Thursday

Where will you be in one week? Who will you be with?

JMG Reader Prevails: NYC Eases Birth Certificate Rules For Trans Citizens

The New York City Council today approved an ordinance that allows transgender citizens to correct the gender on their birth certificates without undergoing surgery. Today's action comes after JMG reader Joann Prinzivalli (top left) and three others sued the city. From the Transgender Legal Defense & Education Fund:

“We are thrilled by the passage of this legislation,” said TLDEF Executive Director Michael Silverman. “Today’s action will dramatically improve the lives of transgender people born in New York City. We thank Councilmember Corey Johnson, the City Council and the Board of Health for taking action. The city’s policy served only to harm transgender people and they moved to change it. We also thank the many activists and advocates who have worked tirelessly to ensure that the city’s harmful policy will be changed.” “My birth certificate was incorrect when it was filled out, and it is still incorrect to this day,” said Joann Prinzivalli. “The old policy was unfair to me and to other transgender people who just want ID that reflects who we are. I am extremely relieved and grateful for the City’s action.”

Similar legislation has been enacted in several states and Washington DC.

Guest Post: Carl Siciliano

"We won't have a faggot in our house."

Those are the words M heard after his mother died of cancer. He was 16. His mom had loved and accepted him. But not his aunt and uncle. They took in his little brother, but left M to fend for himself in the streets.

M lived in a town in Florida that had no youth shelter. He and about 20 other homeless kids slept on the floor of an unlocked building in the town park. He used his knapsack with his school books and his toothbrush and deodorant inside as his pillow. Those were the good nights. The bad nights were when the police chased them out. On those nights he tried to sleep in an abandoned lot, hidden in the weeds. Those nights his allergies tormented him; his eyes and throat swelled, and he struggled to breath.

No matter what kind of night he had, M went to school every day. He did it to honor the memory of his mom, who said she would kick his butt in the afterlife if he didn't get an education. Despite the soul-shattering hardships he endured, he graduated at 18.

"As soon as I get the chance, I'm going to kill you, you fucking faggot."

Those are the words one of M's friends heard when he walked through the courtyard into the youth shelter where most of the beds for New York City's homeless youths are located. Despite local and federal regulations that mandate that youth shelters be in homelike environments with no more than 20 beds, NYC has crowded hundreds of kids into that shelter. Many LGBT kids report being bashed and harassed by the numerous gang members who stay there. M came to New York City after he graduated from high school, and tried to stay at there. But after being attacked too many times he ended up sleeping in the subways.

I met M the day he moved into one of the Ali Forney Center's homelike shelters after sleeping in the subways for six months. That was a really good day for M. He has had some wonderful days since; like the day he was accepted into college, and the day he got hired for his job counseling other teens. Those were good days for the Ali Forney Center as well, as have the been the joyful days in recent months when over 40 of our youths in our new job training program have been hired.

But we have had some really bad days. Since the federal sequestration and it's vast cuts we have lost about $1 Million in government funding. I have been struggling to pay our rents and our food bills, and keep our programs going. I don't sleep in a vacant lot, but I have had more than my share of sleepless nights worrying about the future of the Ali Forney Center.

But in the end I trust we will go forward. Our work of housing and protecting homeless LGBT youths must survive and grow. Too many of the LGBT kids we care for have endured cruelty, violence and contempt in their homes and in other shelters. Over 1,300 kids a year from across our country rely on the Ali Forney Center to provide a home where they are protected and accepted for who they are. I trust that our work will go on, because I trust in the goodness of our community. I was very frightened after Hurricane Sandy destroyed our drop-in center, and yet so many in our community showed me that they would stand by our us in our devastation. The sequestration is a different kind of storm, a storm made by cruel politics, not weather. But no less devastating, especially for the poorest, most vulnerable youths of our community.

I thank Joe, and all of the members of the JoeMyGod community for standing by us with kindness and generosity for many years. Once again, I ask that you stand by us and our youths in a difficult time. Happy Thanksgiving!

NOTE FROM JOE: I'd like to echo Carl's thanks to the JMG community. Carl gives a lovely shout-out to you folks every year at the Ali Forney Center's annual fundraiser, as so many of you have been so very generous over all these years. It's a wonderfully proud moment for me. If you are considering make a donation this year, you can do that here. You can also make donations on PayPal by using this email: mramos@aliforneycenter.org.

In addition, there's an AFC's campaign at IndieGoGo, where "perks" are awarded at various donation levels. The top donation level gets you lunch with famed Brat Pack actress Ally Sheedy, one of Ali Forney's most ardent supporters. Again, thanks so VERY much to all you. Have a wonderful Thanksgiving, whether you celebrate with your biological family, or as Armistead Maupin famously calls it, your logical one.

RELATED: The Ali Forney Center's financial records are viewable here.