Ameriqueer

Two weeks ago, I was very fortunate to interview that amazing Representative Deb Mell, Illinois' only openly lesbian lawmaker. I am only now getting the interview up--thanks so much start of the semester--but its awesome. There's a lot of good stuff there. This is just tip of the iceberg. I really think you should finish this piece over at Bilerico. Near the end we talked about the plan for relationship recognition and how Illinois is going to help the nation pass ENDA. Its really worth checking out. Here's my Bilerico piece " Profile: Openly lesbian Illinois lawmaker Deb Mell " Over the past few months I've told you a lot about the folks who are aspiring to be out LGBT elected leaders in Illinois, but two people I would love to tell you a lot more about are our two openly gay lawmakers Deb Mell and Greg Harris . Both serve the state in the Illinois Assembly. I got a chance to interview Chicago resident, political family scion and freshman lawmaker Deb ...

Check out my newest Bilerico post: Illinois' Jacob Meister aims to be the first openly gay Senate candidate [Part II] . Last week I had a delightful conversation with Jacob Meister , the openly gay Chicago lawyer who has high hopes for winning the Democratic primary and seeking the seat previously held by President Barack Obama and Carol Moseley Braun before him. We opened by talking about Meister's long history working with small businesses, and his experiences on Capitol Hill as an intern in the 1980s. We continued to talk about his plan for education, his telecommuting tax credit plan and his 2020 Vision for America which includes building a strong stable of green jobs in manufacturing to move the United States to the forefront of the global green economy, and get all Americans back to gainful employment. Next we moved on to the very reason why I sought an interview with the candidate: why does Jacob Meister believe that he is going to be the first openly gay man elect...

Please check out my latest Bilerico.com post, ILLINOIS' JACOB MEISTER AIMS TO BE THE FIRST OPENLY GAY SENATE CANDIDATE Jacob Meister and his campaign manager, Lowell Jaffe, were standing outside of a CVS Pharmacy on DuPont Circle, in Washington DC the morning of the National Equality March. Jaffe stuck his hand out as I passed and they started a campaign pitch, and I smiled and rolled my eyes. Candidates are always stopping folks outside of Wal-Mart or inside of Bob Evans, and I think at a certain point most politically active people have been desensitized to these awkward attempts to schmooze. Hearing that Jacob was openly gay and was running for a state-wide seat in Illinois got my attention, however, and we exchanged information before I ran off to get my press pass and line up. I didn't think much of the encounter, and let it roll to the back of my mind until I started getting emails from the campaign. Last week, Jacob Meister opened up a local campaign office here in ...

Check out my latest BILERICO.COM POST-- THE HISTORY MAKER'S HISTORIAN: JON KNOLL ON JIM MADIGAN (THIS IS NOT THE FULL POST, YOU HAVE TO CLICK THROUGH TO FINISH AS IT IS OWNED BY THE BILERICO PROJECT!) Illinois has had its share of making history lately, but we have the opportunity to make history once again with an unprecedented number of openly gay candidates going into this Spring's primaries. Cook County (Chicago) is leading the pack with dozens of openly gay candidates for various offices on all levels. One of those offices is the 7th State Senate district currently being held by Democrat Heather Steans who is being challenged in the Primaries by openly gay former Executive Director of Equality Illinois, Jim Madigan . The district includes Andersonville, which is the up-and-coming new 'gayborhood' for the city of Chicago, no doubt part of the reason that Steans introduced a Marriage Equality bill and transgender friendly legislation in the Illinois state Senat...

Please read my latest post at Out & About Illinois: JACOB MEISTER FTW ? Phil Reese November 13, 2009--It will admittedly be an uphill climb for openly gay Illinois US Senate Candidate, and Chicago lawyer Jacob Meister , who spent the week touring the state opening campaign offices in every nook and cranny of Illinois to kick off his campaign. However, being the first openly gay Senate candidate in US history should not make anyone think for even a moment he cannot do it. Meister himself notes that this was the same Senate seat of history-makers Carol Moseley Braun and President Barak Obama. I interviewed Jacob Meister on Thursday for the LGBT website Bilerico.com , and wanted to share first with you my personal reactions upon spending the day talking with the underdog that is bound and determined to make US History: Jacob Meister is the real deal. This is my own personal take, of course, and this is in no way an official endorsement. But I do encourage others to meet Jacob in ...

-HEY #p2! (Progressives). We can't do this alone. Lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender Americans have been fighting for over half a Century to have basic Civil Rights. We have so much to do, and we are such a small group. Without an army of Progressive allies, we can't win. Our rights as American citizens are constantly being compromised, despite life-time service to our nation as good, contributing citizens. We can't wait any longer. We need our Progressive allies to step up and go to bat for us TODAY. We must demand Progressives have got to make LGBT rights a top priority in 2010, or we will keep being put on the back-burner. There will ALWAYS be something more important than LGBT equality affecting America--issues like Health Care Reform and the Economy effect LGBT people too! However, when we are discriminated against under the law every single day, we can't give our all to fixing these problems. We are long overdue to be counted as equal citize...

You really got to check out my latest Bilerico piece: IS ALAN GRAYSON A POLITICIAN, A ROCK STAR OR A NUT JOB ? Here is just a little taste of what I'm saying in this multi-media piece: Guts like that aren't common on the hill today. Folks sick of the wishy-washy back-and-forth over health care reform took notice of Rep. Grayson. LGBT people especially perked up. You're going to want to read the rest of IS ALAN GRAYSON A POLITICIAN, A ROCK STAR OR A NUT JOB ?

Since the school year began, you've probably noticed that the blog isn't putting out the post/day it was doing before, and the Daily Recap has completely disappeared. Well, don't fret, if you're wondering where you can get your diverse LGBT news from, I've got an RSS feed for you. http://twitter.com/statuses/user_timeline/60435126.rss This is the Ameriqueer twitter RSS feed . Every day @Ameriqueer tweets dozens of news stories from the best LGBT/PWA news sources across the web. From amazing blogs like Bilerico , Pam's House Blend , Joe.My.God , Blabbeando , Rod 2.0 , Good As You , to time-honored LGBT/PWA publications like 365gay.com , the Advocate and Poz Magazine . There are also some interesting new players like @latestlgbtscien , @TransNewsGirl and the @NathanOUTLoud Podcast. Find out when a new episode of your favorite LGBT PodCast is up-- Lundon Calling . Don't forget that @Ameriqueer will also let you know what there's new content at yo...