I had an errand downtown Saturday, but alas, the block I was trying to reach was closed off. Parked police cars with lights flashing sat at either end, and in between were what appeared to be either soldiers or the baddest-ass SWAT unit in the tri-state area. Bomb scare? I [...]
Sad news this morning from Out Word Bound bookstore as the 11 year old business announces it will be closing immediately after Christmas.
The closing of Indy's only LGBT bookstore is a huge loss for our community. It will leave a [...]
Over at A Loyal Opposition aloyalopposition.in, we have posted our interview with Pete Buttigieg who has opened an exploratory committee to run against Richard Mourdock for State Treasurer.Here is a brief excerpt:
It is more than apparent that Pete Buttigeig (pronounced Boot-uh-jig) is a guy who could do all [...]
Nothing is more boring than a blogger whining about how elected officials don't kiss his or her ass enough.' [...] Hello. My name is Craig Skinner. I am a [...]
Most of my under 40 friends get their news from on-line sources, USA Today and CNN. I don’t know if that includes you, but that means that most LGBT citizens focus more on national issues and have relatively no idea how important the state lawmakers are to their lives.
With the [...]
While this week brought news that ENDA has been delayed for a few weeks, we didn't let that stop us from bringing you a ton of popular posts about almost every aspect of our community. Here are the best from this week.
Sunday The sexual politics of a hug Filed' [...]
Glenn Beck has a plan to save America that apparently involves giving Glenn even more money for his books and appearances. [...] 
Obama and Pelosi better keep the government away from my mother's Medicare! [...] 
Kerry Hubbard chooses to open his article on Palin by discussing hand cramps. I hope his wife doesn't read this stuff.' [...] 
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You have enough anniversaries, I guess you start forgetting them. November 15 would have marked the 5th anniversary of this blog. I think the quality ebbs and flows, but I’m still enjoying having a place to spout off and perhaps, occasionally, pass along pieces of information folks find valuable. The [...]
Indy Pride Inc has announced their scholarship recipients for the 2010 year. Among those that have been selected is Indiana Equality’s own Brandon Monson, Communications Chair for IE and IE Action.
Each year, Indy Pride, Inc. provides scholarships to students who have worked to make Indiana a better place for the LGBT community. Monies [...]
I favors a .45.
Late edit explanation: Alan said, “Brother Mouzone favors a Walther PPK380. Omar was the one carrying the .45. He said the Walther tends to jump in the hand.” Whatever. But I admit the error.
[...]The Post-Tribune, while offering the opinion that Mitch Daniels has been a decent governor for Indiana, finds his environmental record to be very bad, noting that Gov. Daniels has done the following:
Since Daniels came into office, under the direction of Easterly and his boss, Indiana has:
* Closed the [...]
Someone at the gym sent me one of the parody videos for the Shake Weight. No links here, as they’re about as difficult to find as Vi@gra spam, and I don’t want to be responsible for offending any of you. But it raises the question of what, exactly, the [...]
The marriage equality drumbeat has rumbled on with news that several states will be attempting to re-examine their state constitutional amendments banning same-sex marriage and/or civil unions. Surprisingly, this hasn't received as much attention as I assumed it would in the LGBT blogosphere.
Just two days after 70 Senators voted to break the deadlock and move forward with his nomination, Hoosier Judge David Hamilton was confirmed by the full Senate this afternoon by a vote of 59-39. Senator Lugar was the only Republican to vote for confirmation.
Judge Hamilton, a Bloomington native, has [...]
Earlier today, I caught a horrendous anti-healthcare reform ad, targeted at Hoosiers, on the radio. Everything in the ad was either factually wrong or dangerously misleading, so I listened closely for the supplier of this misinformation campaign. As it turns out, it was the Employment Policies Institute, one of [...]
(H/t Chris Spangle and Josh Gillespie) The Onion gets in on the Patriots-love.
Patriots Lead Colts at Halftime
INDIANAPOLIS—At the time of this writing the New England Patriots, playing on the road against an undefeated Indianapolis team, are headed into halftime with an all-but-insurmountable 24-14 lead.
Barring an almost [...]
Here are some blog posts from around the internet that I thought readers of Blue Indiana would find interesting.
This first one is about the nomination of Judge Hamilton, who has Indiana roots:
Senate Dems CRUSH GOP judicial filibusterI'm not sure why this isn't getting more attention in the media. Senate [...]
Alan came back from a short fishing trip yesterday, which took him through western Michigan. Our many commenters who hail from that whiter, Dutchier, more pious part of the state can attest it has a lot in common with northeast Indiana — Fort Wayne with more blueberries, if you will. [...]
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Indianapolis Public Schools seems to be itching for a lawsuit based on its Internet policy (pdf) (via Dispatches from the Culture Wars and a number of other sites). The Freedom from Religion Foundation is calling them on it. The policy includes in the list of blocked categories:
Alternative [...]
Today is the Great American Smokeout 2009, the American Cancer Society’s annual effort to get smokers to quit for a day in the hopes that it will convince and enable them to quit permanently.
Hoosiers need this program more than most. Per capita, Indiana has the second greatest [...]
It’s time for another edition of Short Attention Span Theater:
In honor of “unfriend” being christened a word by the New Oxford Dictionary, I decided to do some. My Facebook is becoming ridiculous, not only a time suck but a ceaseless update on the lives of people I wouldn’t [...]
An Open Letter to President Barack Obama
Dear President Obama,
We greet you in the name of Jesus Christ, the Prince of Peace.
We, Bishops of The United Methodist Church, whose names appear below, are deeply concerned about the escalating war in Afghanistan.
We call upon you to set a [...]
Organization Day was today, and the first few bills of the Indiana General Assembly have been introduced. In the Senate, there was one bill:
SB 23 on unemployment contribution rates was introduced by Senator Hershman and co-authored by Senators Kenley, Kruse, and Charbonneau. It delays from January 1, 2010, [...]
Low, broken clouds/beaten, bare fields/raw wind, a hesitant drizzle/Verdant June so far away [...] 
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This is just going to be a drive-by post, since I haven’t thought it through and probably don’t have the expertise to think it through if I tried. But, it seems to me that health care financing has both a risk management component and an entitlement component. Maybe we need [...]
Last week, Jerame and I traveled to NYC where I was honored to receive the NYC Anti-Violence Project's Courage Award alongside fellow LGBT bloggers, Joe Jervis (Joe.My.God.), Pam Spaulding (Pam's House Blend), and Andy Towle (Towleroad). The honor is two-fold: the AVP [...]
The Los Angeles Times online crossword is easier than the New York Times’. It also has a faultless interface that never falters, making speed part of the experience and leading to my daily back-and-forth e-mail with Eric Zorn; if you can beat 7:23, you can beat me today. (Late-breaking [...]
Maureen Groppe, writing for Gannett News Service, has an article about Judge Hamilton’s nomination to the 7th Circuit Court of Appeals. Conservatives are stalling a vote on his nomination. One case he has gotten particular grief about is his ruling that sectarian prayer could not be part of [...]
Today is Organization Day at the State House. Legislators meet for a day to perform mostly ceremonial functions and then don’t typically return until January when they get to work. Organization Day always struck me as being a little like the first day of school – any divisions between [...]
The House Committee on Education and Labor, which was due to mark up the Employment Non-Discrimination Act (ENDA) on Wednesday of this week, has announced that it is postponing its markup. A terse statement on the Committee's website states simply that "This markup has been postponed."
I had posted [...]
Since 1988, World AIDS Day has been recognized as a time to bring individuals and organizations together to remember those who have died from HIV/AIDS, increase awareness of this ongoing pandemic, and celebrate the progress being made in the fight against the disease. World AIDS Day events will involve millions [...]
Dan Carden' [...]
Today is Alan and Kate’s birthday, and if birthdays aren’t a reason to get out your Fostoria square cake stand, I don’t know what is. Square cake stands require square cakes, however, and I didn’t have any square cake pans. We were at a mall on Saturday, so I stopped [...]
Good has defeated evil, Frodo has dropped the Ring in the Cracks of Doom, Aragorn has claimed his crown, and none of it would have been possible if Sauron hadn’t stupidly decided to go for it on 4th & 2 at his own 28 instead of punting.
And Collinsworth is [...]
shorter gary welsh: when a muslim shoots people, it's terrorism. when a white christian tries to shoot someone, it's understandable. ¶ [...]
According to One News Now the American Medical Association (AMA) is ignoring health facts in homosexual advocacy with it's passage of a resolution that opposes "don't ask, don't tell" and declaration that gay marriage bans contribute to health disparities:
Elaine Donnelly, the never served in the military but president of [...]
Bill Engle, writing for the Palladium-Item has an article with Richmond-area lawmakers reacting to a newspaper sponsored proposal concerning lobbying reform (Speaker of the House, Pat Bauer had some lobbying reform proposals recently as well, I’m not sure if that’s related to this newspaper push):
# Prohibit legislators from [...]
While I took a few vacation days this week to travel to NYC, the Editorial Team kept things plugging right along and the great contributor content didn't stop for an instant. These posts really stood out this week:
Sunday Fellatio in fruit bats Filed by: Gloria Brame Ph.D.American Civil Liberties Union of Indiana
ACLU Award to go to Indiana Equality Field Organizer Dino Sierp Recognized for Work on Behalf of LGBT HoosiersThe American Civil Liberties Union of Indiana has announced that Dino Sierp, Indiana Equality Field Organizer is the 2009 recipient of the Chris Gonzales Award for her role [...]
On Thursday, December 10, 2009 at 6pm, friends and supporters will gather to celebrate the accomplishments of the year and further the cause of equality for all Hoosiers.
The second annual fundraising event will take place at the home of Joe Everhart and Ken Ramsay in their historic home located in [...]
I tell friends from elsewhere that, despite what they may have heard, Hoosiers aren’t a bunch of rubes. Then, I see things like the report that Indiana is passed only by West Virginia in percentage of adult smokers. At 26.1%, we have more smokers than Kentucky. In this day [...]
Over the past few years, the Colts have stood up to the Patriots well enough that I realized I’ve gone from simply hating the Patriots to loving hating the Patriots. In honor of the occasion, here is one of xtrarant’s Colts/Pats propaganda posters from a few year’s back:
[...]
Over the past few years working here at Bilerico, I've become something of a free speech fundamentalist. A few years ago I was all in favor of "safe spaces," etc., but now it all seems quaint and counterproductive. I guess helping several dozen people who disagree with you express themselves' [...]
Today one of my friends, with whom I do not see eye-to-eye politically, posted a complaint about trying Khaleed Sheikh Mohammed in the United States District Court for the Southern District of New York. His complaint was that our criminal justice system was not meant for war criminals. Also [...]
No rhyme or reason, just some stuff I felt like sharing...
Boy George twittered a link to Phil Reese's post about the Top 10 Out Gay Male Pop Stars. He protested Phil's description of him. While I was mad that AirTran canceled me and Jerame's flight to NYC for [...]Bennett, through his proposed Rules for Educator Preparation and Accountability (REPA), [...]
A byproduct of me searching the intertubes...The Court of Appeals centered its discussion upon the argument that [...]
I’m about to put the Vietnam Veterans Memorial back in my attic-brain, but before I do, I want to consider monuments and memorials a bit longer. What happened to the wall in its early years — the addition of the two sculpture pieces and the flags — is probably nothing [...]
From John Clower, Indiana Equality Field Operations
It’s a small step. But a path breaking step for Indiana.
On October 21, 2009, Bloomington City Council voted 7-0 to approve Ordinance 09-18 (Responsible Bidder Ordinance).
The ordinance gives the City more control and better tools for awarding large contracts (worth $150,000 or more) to [...]
now that the "believe" license plate has been ruled unconstitutional, south carolina's going to need some new license plate designs!
[...] Some interesting news and opinion I've read on other sites around the Indiana blogosphere:
CBS Investigates Indianapolis’ Untested Rape Kit ControversyJust a heads up for those interested in such things and who had not yet heard. CBS News will apparently be airing an investigative piece on Rep. Buyer’s Frontier Foundation tonight.
The short version is that the Frontier Foundation, ostensibly a charity to provide scholarships to Hoosier students, got [...]
A week from tomorrow (November 17), the Monroe County Plan Commission will meet to discuss the proposed Monroe County Comprehensive Plan (also known as the Growth Policies Plan). The purpose of this document is to guide development in Monroe County in such a way that our rich natural heritage [...]
Indiana’s Painfully Objective Political Analysis goes to the credit-where-credit-is-due file to extend some praise for Gov. Daniels. Go read the entire post, but the Governor deserves some credit for not being knee-jerk anti-Muslim and for recognizing that the pretense of water based casinos is a little bit ridiculous.
On [...]
I wonder if, in years to come, some bright scholar will name Maya Lin as the fulcrum upon which everything we believe about dying in service to one’s country shifted. Lin, the designer of the Vietnam Veterans Memorial in Washington, D.C., pulled off something magical and strange with her beautiful [...]
Please take a moment today to reflect on those that have given the most so we could have what we do.
It’s Veteran’s Day, a grim, solemn holiday in my mind. We owe our soldiers, past and present, a debt of gratitude for the service they have provided and the sacrifices they have made. But I suggest that we should use the holiday less to celebrate the sacrifices they have made, [...]
This is the lady the teabaggers will line up to see at Meijer next week.
[...]
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