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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 on the Bilerico Project: Public Health cuts could leave Chicago HIV+ in the lurch . Chicago was recently hit with the bad news it has some of the highest HIV infection rates of any city in the nation--especially high in the adult African American men who have sex with men population. The state has already made cuts to Chicago's bare-bones AIDS/HIV budget , forcing the HIV services organizations and Public Health to plan to soon make choices between providing housing to infected homeless, and providing much needed medication. The AIDS Foundation of Chicago is sounding the alarm that a $4.6 million cut in Public Health funding could mean the end of many of the support services that the city's HIV+ population have come to rely on... Continue reading Public Health cuts could leave Chicago HIV+ in the lurch .

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 ...