TurnOut.org is live!
TurnOut.org (http://www.TurnOut.org) is an integral part of the Gill Foundation's new TurnOut campaign to empower the lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) community by increasing the number of LGBT people and their supportive friends and families who vote.
The project is initially focused in two metropolitan areas – Detroit, MI, and Tampa Bay, FL – with the objective of increasing voter turnout in the November 2004 general election.
When you visit http://www.TurnOut.org for the first time, be sure to take the pledge to ensure equal opportunity for all people and sign up to receive monthly updates and news from TurnOut.
For every dog a web page
Okay, so this isn't an LGBT site, but it's so fun we had to feature it here. Dogster.com (http://www.dogster.com) is a place where your dog can have his or her very own web page. A take off of the popular Friendster site (http://www.friendster.com), Dogster allows dog owners to upload photos of their beloved canine-friends complete with bios and factoids. Users can connect to each other's dogs creating a virtual network of four-legged friends. Warning: may become addicting. Sorry, no cats.
DearMary.com takes gay marriage battle to Vice President
A new project of Don'tAmend.com has thrust US Vice President Dick Cheney's openly lesbian daughter Mary to the center of the nationwide debate over gay marriage. DearMary.com (http://www.DearMary.com) is soliciting public letters to Mary Cheney that will be published on the site and in nationwide newspaper and magazine ads paid for by money raised via the site.
Mary Cheney, 34, has been openly lesbian for years, and worked as a "professional homosexual" advocating for the gay community while working as the paid gay liaison at Coors and while serving on the board of the national Republican gay rights group, the Republican Unity Coalition (RUC). Mary Cheney has since quit the RUC and now runs her father's re-election campaign where she is reportedly earning $100,000 a year (source: Washington Post).
During the 2000 election, then vice presidential candidate Cheney said during a debate that he believed the gay marriage issue should be left to the states. Just a few weeks ago in an interview with the Colorado press, VP Cheney flip-flopped, saying he'd now support a federal constitutional amendment to ban gay marriage.
Victory Fund works to get LGBT folks on the ballot and into office
With an election year upon us and the issue of marriage for same-sex couples a topic contentious debate, many LGBT people are hoping that 2004 brings some much needed change in the left direction. It seems far too few elected officials stand up for LGBT equality and far too many work to undermine it. One way to change that, of course, is to get actual LGBT people into office.
Since 1991, the Gay & Lesbian Victory Fund (http://www.victoryfund.org) has been working hard to get qualified LGBT people into public office. So far they've raised over $3.5 million to support openly gay and lesbian candidates in 34 states. Since its inception there has been a five-fold increase of openly gay officials from 49 in 1991 to around 250 today.
