Sunday, October 11, 2009

Out Spotlight CI

Programming Note: Today's March for Equality (live) and highlights of President Obama's keynote speech to the Human Rights Campaign from last evening's event can be seen in the US, starting at 1:30 EST on C-SPAN.

Watch the National Equality March on C-Span's Live Feed here. (Thanks NEM)

In 1988, Dr. Robert Eichberg and Jean O'Leary celebrated the first National Coming Out Day, in honor of an historic march for gay and lesbian rights DC one year earlier. Since then, October 11th has been a day for members of the gay, lesbian, bisexual, and transgender community, along with their allies, to speak openly about their sexuality and encourage others to do so as well.

What do a former Marine, several peace activists, a handful of ministers, an interracial lesbian couple, and an average Joe have in common?

Their faces graced five billboards posted throughout the city of Memphis in conjunction with today, National Coming Out Day. The billboards, using the local LGBT community were paid for by the Memphis Gay and Lesbian Community Center (MGLCC), that also advertised the center's website. "We want people to realize that these are your neighbors. That's why we chose all local people, rather than using stock photos," "These are the people who go to your church. These are the people who you work with. These are the people in your community."

One billboard showed former Marine Tim Smith in uniform and reads, "I'm gay and I protected your freedom." Smith was ejected from the Marines under the "Don't Ask, Don't Tell" policy 20 days before he was set to deploy to Iraq.

The billboard, the only of the five, was ripped to shreds less than a week after it was put up. MGLCC director Will Batts said in a statement."We choose not to be stopped by fear. Instead, our community unites in solidarity and with the belief that we too deserve equality," "Although we are saddened by yesterday’s hateful expression of intolerance, we are proud of the local Memphian that chose to be the face on the billboard."


What could have been a roadblock to some has become a rallying point. Tim Smith's Coming Out Day billboard was put back up and last Sunday MGLCC members and gay rights advocates gathered in front of First Congregational Church to rally against hate in response to the destruction. 250 people filled the seats at First Congregational Church, to come together in response to the hatred, not to run but galvanize the community in fighting hate.

"The next time we hear somebody say, you're not fit to serve [in the military] because you're gay or lesbian, what are we going to do?" Batts asked. "Raise our voice!" the response yelled by the crowd.

Tim Smith,was greeted with a standing ovation upon approaching the podium after Warren's speech. The son of conservative parents in a small Mississippi town, he joined the Marines in 2001. He said it was the Marine code of "honor, courage, and commitment" that helped him find his voice and become honest with himself and others about his sexuality.


Smith came out to his friends and his church. When a military chaplain found out, Smith told the man he believed God loved him despite his sexuality.

"The chaplain had nothing else left to do but follow the rules," Smith said. He was discharged from the military under the Don't Ask, Don't Tell policy.

Regarding the destruction of the billboard bearing his image, Smith says the vandals actually galvanized his commitment.

"They will not rob me of my honor by making me run and hide," Smith said. "If anything, they've galvanized my commitment to this community."

After the rally, county commissioner Steve Mulroy agreed: "My message to the billboard vandals is thank you for galvanizing the community and symbolizing what we're up against in Memphis."

Last night in the keynote speech to the Human Rights Campaign, President Barack Obama recommitted to the repeal of Don't Ask Don't Tell.

Today at least 35 people from Memphis are joining the thousands of others in Washington, D.C. for the National Equality March.

In the last 40 years many brave gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgendered individuals have made themselves open and vulnerable coming out to family and friends. And as they have taken this risk in greater and greater numbers they have changed an astounding number of hearts and cultural attitudes. Their courage and fierce insistence on the right to be themselves and love who they love is still steadily increasing empathy and understanding and the generation who come after them are already benefiting so from it. For that we all say thank you.

Today we celebrate those Americans who have spoken out and acknowledged their sexual orientation, and we reaffirm our commitment to fighting the fear and discrimination that still prevents others from doing the same. National Coming Out Day reaffirms that there's more that unites Americans than divides us.


As we make progress on the path to equal rights, many are contributing in their own way by sharing their stories and standing up for tolerance in their communities. These actions will go a long way toward beating back the fear and discrimination that lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgendered Americans continue to face every day.
- Senator Barack Obama (2007)


The first step towards getting somewhere is to decide that you are not going to stay where you are. - John Pierpont Morgan

32 comments:

Lyrical said...

(((((Tim Smith))))

Wonderful Spotlight today, can't wait to hear President Obama's keynote speech. Have a great day, all of you OMG'ers who are in DC! :*

UK said...

RIP Stephen Gately of Boyzone

NEM said...

A rainbow has appeared over the march step off!

Special K said...

You can see the people at the March on the live traffic cams around downtown DC.

Live feed via Traffic cams

Special K said...

Some pics of the March via Twitter

NEM is #1 topic being tweeted.

In my lifetime our marriage was illegal too

82 and Still Waiting

Lady Gaga

NEM said...

You can watch the National Equality March LIVE on C-Span

destiny said...

I a$ sitting here at rhe rally with my girlfriend, PG, Tom and Wicked. It is a beautiful day, and looks like a good turn out despite some of the controversy of doing this at all and or now. So far just the usual rally blah blah blah :-D

:) said...

Enjoy and take a lot of pictures!

PR lie said...

Jake's too busy shopping in Tribeca with his gf; otherwise he would have been there at the rally.

Amazing said...

*shivers & tears*
Amazing 9th inning comeback
Angels 7, Boston 6
Angels sweep Red Sox out of playoffs
Nick Adenhart, we know you're watching.

Special K said...

Congrats the Angels on taking the series. Go beat the Yankees and take the Championship.

Going into a brief "Sox blew it" seclusion so I can mutter, curse and nurse the post season heartache.

Sox tickets for April-May 2010 go on sale in Dec. (You know what I'm asking for again this Christmas.)

Lyric said...

^^My OH wasn't thrilled either - but this year, I'm hoping for the Angels. I hope Nick Adenhart is watching too. Here's to you, Nick! :*

Wouldn't it be something if it were a Dodgers/Angels Series! Crosstown rumble!

Love today's music. :)

m said...

Wonderful post today. Hope you guys are having fun at the March.

NEM said...

ONTD - Broadway Impact and Cynthia Nixon at the National Equality March

destiny said...

The speache got better, but they were very short, and they saved the heavy hitters for the end after a lot of people had left: Cleve Jones, cast of hair, kate Clinton, Lance Black and Julian Bond.

Too many people wanting to get in their r minutes (rally should have been 2 hours, not 3).

Lady Gaga got the loudest cheers and most attention from the crowd. Proof of something I have said many a time: while it is important to have ordinary people out and working for the cause, it is really important to have cultural figures on board, and why having out stars would make a difference.

destiny said...

Sorry about the Sox Special.

Annie Savoy said...

Two, maybe three, league sweeps this season? Isn't that a little . . . cosmic? GO TWINS! (((Joe Mauer))))) :)

Special K said...

Austin pops up in LA at Hollywood Style Awards, with Sophia after a week of mystery man action.

E Online Party Girl tweet

Didn't do the red carpet Tweet 2

Him popping up with Sophia and Reese showing up with Jake on the same weekend does make you wonder about who was with who during the past week.

Because that wasn't Austin with Sophia earlier this week, and he wasn't at LAX with her when she came in.

Prairie Girl said...

Wow, what a day. I'll get my say in now because I doubt I'll have time in the morning as my flight takes off at 9:30. I'm up here on Wicked's computer and she's downstairs still watching that football game!! lol.

Incredible day;I'm so glad I was here to take part and experience it all. But man, couldn't they have put in waterless hand gel in those portajohns? Gee whiz. That's gross and totally unsanitary. Probably alot of colds passed along today because of that.

Anyway, Wicked, Tom & I were delayed because they had to close down the yellow & green Metro Lines due to the march. So we met up with Destiny & her gf along the parade route. It was incredible to be a part of that and with the Capitol straight ahead within sight. Signs everywhere. Cheering & chanting. People taking pictures with digitals & camera phones. Asking other people to take group pictures. There were people on an upper balcony of a large building with Canadian flags hanging all from it who were waving at everyone going by.

There were all ages, all races, all kinds of groups, there was a group from Alaska that I saw. There were groups who had on idential T-shirts. There were families. All kinds of signs, buttons, banners, T shirts with all sorts of slogans & sayings on them. It was very peaceful. Very fun. There were no incidents except for one that we saw and that was when a couple of young people let go of a large rainbow of purple & pink balloons and the one young gal got a ticket from the Capitol police.

Florida Tom said...

Really great day in DC. IT was so much fun spending the day at the rally with my friends from OMG. Seeing and hearing the speeches from Daniel Choi, Mrs. Sheppard, and Dusting Black were my favorites. So many different types of people attended the march. I felt great being a part of it. I am also happy that the turnout was good. My first wish is for openly Gay Americans to be able to serve their country. Time to end DADT.

Prairie Girl said...

Very emotional moment when the mother of Matthew Shepherd spoke. There were several good speakers but it went on just a bit too long. The cast of Hair singing Aquarius were very good.

We 5 then stopped on the way back and had dinner at a Mexican restaurant. There were moments of Reeke/Jake discussion so their ears may have been burning this afternoon, lol. These times are good because we can just rant & carry on a discussion & analyzation without worrying about unwelcome scoffers and PR dragging their eyes across the screen.

Sounds like Reeke was in NYC. And so Austin in L.A. I think I'm back to thinking those boys ain't together anymore.

Well, the TV's off and I better get to bed. So long & Tom should be home by now. Tom, you have a good day at work and you can nap when you get home, buddy!

Destiny, hope you all made it home alright, too, and have a good day at work tomorrow.

And I got to meet Maggie!!! What a cutie she is.

I better go. Will talk more once I get home.

Special K said...

Great news guys. How inspiring, and knowing that it will be one more step in bringing change.

Thank you for marching today.

C-Span will be rerun the speaking and the March again tomorrow afternoon for anyone who missed it or wants to check it out again.

Special K said...

Think Austin and Jake were together this past week and that's why you see Austin in LA with Sophia and Reese with Jake. For no news about Jake and Austin for the week and Jake not been seen out at night in Pittsburgh like he had been, coupled with the weekend pop ups just add more to J&A being together for the week.

As in the past when there was nothing going on and the Reeke happened it was always a hint that it was cover for something that happened. Think the same for this past week.

Moondoggie said...

Something OT for Atticus: Hang Twenty

m said...

I watched Dustin Lance Blacks speech on youtube. Very good. I wish he would get a decent hair style though. I know that's small considering the big issues he addressed, but I think it distracts from what he is saying.

I've been reading all the reviews of Dr Parnassus as they show up on the website. Mostly rave. I got a kick out of one today where a woman said that every time Heath so much as touched another woman in the film, she found herself feeling jealous. The man sure had sex appeal.

Thanks for sharing your thoughts re the march. I'm sure as you have time to absorb and reflect on the day, you will want to add even more.

Yahoo News said...

National Equality March photos

destiny said...

I had a great time in D.C. with PG, Tom and Wicked, and the fact that we got to participate in the Equality March and rally was icing on the cake.

Judge Sheppard was very touching, I can never hear her talk without getting upset though. Julian Bond I thought gave a great speach too, trying to bridge the perceived divide between the gay and black civil rights movement. Among other things he said that people who say there is no gay Martin Luther King are wrong because MLK is the MLK of the gay civil rights movement.

destiny said...

How can you look "mighy together...kinda"????

:) said...

LOL

wft2 said...

No more that 50, 000 people were at that march yesterday, not the 100,00 -200,000 quoted. No need to lie about the numbers, it doesn't help the cause. I watched it on C-SPAN and no way that was more than 50,000 based on other marches there in the past.

And now Lady Gaga is speaking on behalf? Sad.

Q said...

Adam Lambert + Roland Emmerich Make Sweet Movie Love Together

destiny said...

WFT2, you're making no sense. First of all, you posted here at 12:20, then the actual post you've referenced didn't go up over there until 1:07. There was no discussion here or at wft2 about the size of the march, so I don't know who here or at wft2 you're calling liars.

I would agree there were probably at most 50,000 at the rally--which is about ten times the size of the teabagger event that caused such a media frenzy.

Finally, there were probably around 50 speakers at the rally, but according to you, Lady Gaga was the only person their speaking on behalf of gay rights.

It could have been 1000 people and it would still matter. And since when does anyone with a sense of decency and justice measure civil rights by the number of people who show up for an event. That is really fucked up.

And you know what? Lady Gaga is ten times the man Jake will ever be.