Entries in the 'gay' Category

No on 8: Google’s first ever social/political position

Posted on September 27th, 2008

Acting in their corporate interest — recognizing that Proposition 8 would affect their employees and thus their ability to succeed — led Google president to blog support for the No on 8 campaign yesterday, following in the footsteps of Microsoft, though with a more clear and committed path.

Our position on California’s No on 8 campaign
9/26/2008 03:23:00 PM
As an Internet company, Google is an active participant in policy debates surrounding information access, technology and energy. Because our company has a great diversity of people and opinions — Democrats and Republicans, conservatives and liberals, all religions and no religion, straight and gay — we do not generally take a position on issues outside of our field, especially not social issues. So when Proposition 8 appeared on the California ballot, it was an unlikely question for Google to take an official company position on.

However, while there are many objections to this proposition — further government encroachment on personal lives, ambiguously written text — it is the chilling and discriminatory effect of the proposition on many of our employees that brings Google to publicly oppose Proposition 8. While we respect the strongly-held beliefs that people have on both sides of this argument, we see this fundamentally as an issue of equality. We hope that California voters will vote no on Proposition 8 — we should not eliminate anyone’s fundamental rights, whatever their sexuality, to marry the person they love.

Posted by Sergey Brin, Co-founder & President, Technology

Equal rights should never be a matter of mob majority rule and so equal marriage rights should never have been up for a referendum.

Filed under: activism, gay, gay marriage by Goff - No Comments →

Press Release: From Brokeback to Foley and Beyonce: Towleroad More Than Doubles Visits in 2006 Becoming Go-To Site for Gay News & Entertainment ; Partners with Out Mag Founder to Expand

Posted on January 31st, 2007

towleroad logo and taglineTowleroad visitor numbers make the site “with homosexual tendencies” one of the most consulted sources for gay men. With 3.5 million unique users last year — 500,000 in January ‘07 alone — broad recognition of its key-site status for both political and entertainment stories, Towleroad clearly has many choices for expansion. As advertisers are increasingly interested Site founder Andy Towle, reveals a partnership to “combine efforts” wtih Out-magazine founder and former MSN general manager, Michael Goff, that has been operating in “stealth mode” for six months.

New York, NY (PRWEB) January 31, 2007 — Towleroad premium gay news for gay men (http://www.towleroad.com) attracted more than 3.5 million unique visitors in 2006, will hit 500,000 unique visitors for January, and served more than 20 million pageviews last year to its site “with homosexual tendencies.” Founder Andy Towle thanked [Read more →]

Filed under: blogging, gay, webnotes by Goff - No Comments →

Fantasy sports leagues? New Jersey Net Comes Out of the Closet?

Posted on December 12th, 2006

It’s all over the internet. This would be huge in that although the gays are everywhere somehow major league sports has kept the closet doors on tighter. Speculation of course through the blogs. I was always suspect of all the guys playing “fantasy” sports.which comes to the net?

Filed under: gay by Goff - No Comments →

John McCain’s (Kerry-esque) gay marriage doubletalk a chance to change debate.

Posted on October 19th, 2006

“I think gay marriage should be allowed if there’s a ceremony kind of thing if you want to call it that. I don’t have any problem with that…I think private ceremonies are fine. I do not think gay marriage should be legal.” –John McCain (via: Towleroad)

This double speak from McCain is what could lose him the election.

It had the power to bring down Kerry in the last election. Hillary’s lack of authenticity as pointed out regularly by Arianna Huffington(a May Huffington Post piece which also notes that McCain’s authenticity was “getting paler by the minute” even then.) and her coyness on gay issues is a big negative, not only in terms of not standing with us, but in terms of her ability to win if she’s given the chance to run and hasn’t gotten less coy by then.**

That said, McCain’s comments provide an opening for us to change this political discussion. I’ve been meaning to finish a post i started on this sometime back. Watch for it soon. Perhaps today. This might be just the news peg for me. We give the oppostion the edge by agreeing to discuss “gay marriage”. Gay marriage is allowed. We can get married with the blessing of many religions, communities, and most importantly by our own free will.

**ASIDE: And i remain wary of Ms. Clinton’s well-known and long-held position that democrats must not openly and unequivocably support gay and lesbian issues if they want to win, going so far as to blame her shortsighted, unpolitic attempt to change healthcare on her husband’s gays in the military issue and staying away from support ever since.)

Photos by Buck82 and Hot Rod (both Flickr cc)

Filed under: Politics---National, Sacred Religions, gay, gay marriage, homo, huffpost, marriage by Goff - No Comments →

Out mag’s redesign highlights new editor, reader relationship

Posted on October 13th, 2006

Over at Towleroad.com they’re discussing Out magazine’s redesign. (Disclosures**)

After two warm up issues, the new editor, Aaron Hicklin, is breathing life into the old guy. Though it’s stayed the most read gay magazine for 13 years, it’s had a tough time staying “must read.”***

Hicklin started nicely and from a tough position. I’ll reserve real judgment until i see the whole issue. The Planet out gay industrial complex PR team pumped out something more than standard launch hyperbole promising the redesign will bring a new day for all gays. Also,

“Out is repositioning itself in the hierarchy of sophisticated fashion magazines.”

…which is as unparseable as the non-sequitorial, sartorial equating of “more fashion” [Read more →]

Filed under: MyTake, gay by Goff - No Comments →

Part 1: Gay Marriage. 1963 vs. 2006 Tips for finding one

Posted on August 4th, 2006

One MagazineThe cover of the June 1963 issue of One magazine “The Homosexual Viewpoint” reads LET’S PUSH HOMOPHILE MARRIAGE. The poncey illustration is worth a click to the permalink page, as are the tips for finding and keeping a man. (Are the tips totally dated? You decide.)

Though i’m pretty familiar with the homo timeline, current events put it in my head to expect insight into the early days of our current fight for civil recognition of our relationships. That turned out to be a bit of an anachronism. In 1963–six years before Stonewall, 43-years before now, ten years before i was born (uh, ok three years)–it was so impossible to contemplate the
[Read more →]

Filed under: gay, homo, love, marriage by Goff - No Comments →

Webnotes 1: Hook Me Up with Yahoo, Free Skype. Hold the gay misogyny

Posted on May 15th, 2006
  • While I blogged at Yahoo’s expense in the previous post, we’re laughing with Yahoo’s new “reality show,” Hook Me Up (video link). I bow down in awe of the brilliant programming: Tech advertisers are among the biggest spenders per slot online PLUS, the reality show should bring in a more mass audience solving age-old problem of scarce tech inventory PLUS, Yahoo just happens to be launching a new tech property to take on CNET, PLUS it’s dorky enough to have a chance of getting a cult following, PLUS it’s actually informative, PLUS the first subject is hot but not threatening to other women, AND yes i’m still on the gay side, but a good huckster. (…and after a few beers)
  • New Yahoo front page launched as a Beta. It’s like AIMToday (the most beautiful and info-loaded page of its type) met MySpace and mixed things up with some really dorky icons. Definitely easier to use…but truth is–if the stats are similar to an analysis i saw a few years ag–no one uses this page. The Yahoo front page has served more as a branding image representing the depth of the service and has only been used for navigation by fewer than 15-20% of users on any regular basis. Most use search, my.yahoo.com, or deeper links. Also, is everything destined to become Myspace? The just-launched Goingon Network? It’s kind of a lot like Myspace for adults. And i think that’s just where it all should be headed.
  • Skype calls are free between computers, and for the rest of the year (8 months!) it’s free to call from your computer to phones in the US and Canada (usually a charge of about 2cents/minute). It’s not perfect. Lines drop sometimes, though at other times the sound is better than any regular phone. For the SlowTechies (see Slow Food movement) and who want nothing to do with being early adopters, it’s time for Skype.
  • Gay Prof’s discussing misogyny among gay men in his an East Texas blog and I couldn’t get it out of my mind. What he’s talking about is rampant, inexcusable, and embarassing. He cites gay self-loathing as the reason and notes leadership by women in winning gay rights. (Not that anyone should have to lead a movement to get respect.) Not sure why he didn’t go all the way. He wouldn’t be the first to point out that homophobia is misogyny. Effeminate gestures are the core of gay mockery, but the mere mention of a “female” sex role elicits the most contempt. (I’m talking the real homophobes here, not the majority of folks who are just unfamiliar.)
    They don’t hate us because we like guys. They hate the parts of us that remind them of women. So, misogyny among gay men doesn’t come from self loathing. It is self loathing. And, a homophobic streak is a telling indicator of how he thinks of women, my sisters.     I’ll be reading more Center of Gravitas, and not on my rss reader. I don’t want to miss the vintage Wonder Woman comic covers with each post.

Filed under: MyTake, gay, misogyny, sites, yahoo by Goff - No Comments →