OutQ News: Washington United For Marriage Announces Marriage Equality Fight (11/14/11)

Originally broadcast on Sirius/XM OutQ News on 15 November 2011.

Two years after state lawmakers secured Washington State’s “everything but marriage” law, they have announced plans for the next step.

In the Seattle suburb of Bellevue, leaders from various gay rights groups joined together to announce a coalition to continue the fight for full marriage equality in the state. Washington United for Marriage outlined plans to lobby the State legislature for a gay marriage law.

While organizers explain the new law will not grant additional rights and responsibilities, it would remove the stigma associated with same-sex relationships in the Evergreen State.

The coalition, comprised of the Human Rights Campaign, the ACLU, Lambda Legal, Equal Rights Washington and dozens of local and regional business groups, recognize a tough road ahead.

Equal Rights Washington director Rod Hearne said in a statement that "countless individuals have a story to tell about why civil marriage matters to them." He added that they will work "neighbor-to-neighbor to ensure the voices of the loving and committed couples in Washington, many raising children, are heard.”

Despite Democratic control of the Senate and House, along with a supportive Governor, openly-gay State Senator Ed Murray says some conservative Democrats voting against gay rights in past efforts will need to be replaced by Republican votes.

Murray told The Seattle Times he will work with the coalition to raise funds and increase public awareness.

If gay marriage passes, Washington State would join Connecticut, Iowa, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, New York, Vermont and the District of Columbia, where those unions are also legal.

READ: Full press release from Washington United for Marriage (PDF)



For more on this story, listen to my radio report (MP3), as heard on Sirius/XM OutQ News on 15 November 2011:

Orientation vs. Preference: Why It Matters

Often it's the subtleties in life that make all the difference. Individually, quite shruggable. Collectively, contributing to a - perhaps subconscious? - bias.

Today's example comes from a KGW.com (KGW-TV/NBC, Portland) story updating readers about the latest in the Sam Adams debacle currently distracting (consuming?) my second home.

The concern begins here (the subject: Mayor Sam Adams):

He also said that this was not an issue of sexual preference; rather, it was an issue of a public official lying, in his opinion.

"I don't think this is fundamentally an issue about sexual orientation. Other people can debate that," he said.

In introducing the quote, our writer uses the volatile (and, inaccurate) term "preference". But in the quote itself (admittedly absent the full transcript of Adams' remarks), we see the word "orientation".

For reference, from Dictionary.com:

pref⋅er⋅ence
   /ˈprɛfərəns, ˈprɛfrəns/ Show Spelled Pronunciation [pref-er-uhns, pref-ruhns] Show IPA Pronunciation
–noun
1. the act of preferring.
2. the state of being preferred.
3. that which is preferred; choice: His preference is vanilla, not chocolate.


The Associated Press, in its' own stylebook recommends:

Include sexual orientation only when it is pertinent to a story, and avoid references to "sexual preference" or to a gay or alternative "lifestyle.

(I'd certainly argue the story in question passes the pertinent test.)

And, finally -- in all fairness -- KGW.com is by no means the only outlet confusing the word "orientation" with the slight "preference". A quick search of Google News found other examples. (Including a BizJournals.com [as found in Google cache, the story titled: "Editorial: Adams must go" appears to now have been removed] editorial on why the Mayor should resign. While I disagree as incorrect the use of the word "preference", in an editorial setting the word choice does give evidence to your position on the matter, context to your bias, and frankly-- a clue we won't agree.)

I encourage newsrooms everywhere to visit the NLGJA.org website, review the NLGJA Stylebook Supplement and avoid future offensive and inaccurate mistakes.

UPDATE 21 JAN 2009 17:00 -- I emailed a copy of this post to KGW.com site editors who quickly wrong back with the following responses:

"Thanks for the input, Brian. I looked up correct usage in AP and you are correct." (Eric Adams, story author)

"Right you are, it might seem to some like a small distinction but we recognize its importance - it matters to be precise in every aspect of every story, and this has been fixed." (Frank Mungeam, site manager)

I'm assured this was an oversight and feel confident the author will avoid making this mistake in the future.

Vote For Me! UPDATE: I won, or... did I?!

Regular readers of this blog (big shout out to all three of you!), recall my August post where declaring my write-in campaign for the position of Democratic Precinct Committee Officer for Washington State Precinct #87-1895.

I'm please to announce that I received this letter, dated 13 October 2008, last month from the King County Elections Division. The letter reads, in part:

"At the August 19, 2008, primary and special election, you were elected as SEA 37-1895 Democratic Precinct Committee Officer. A cermonial certificate of election has been sent to the party to which you were elected."

Congratulations, right? Not so fast...

So while I'm waiting for my "ceremonial certificate" (and presumably instructions on how to fulfill my duties as official flier-boy/intern for my fellow Democratic neighbours, today I receive a second letter -- this time from Mr. Dwight Pelz (Chair WA State Democrats) himself.

"I want to thank you for offering to serve as a Precinct Committee Officer (PCO)," Chair of the Washington State Democrats writes.

He continues with a boldface slap to my pride, "However, I must inform you that you have not met the threshold for PCO as defined by our State Party."

It seems, after reading the complete letter [page 1 | page 2] a few times over (being new to this process, as I suspect many are) that there is some disagreement between what, exactly, it means to be PCO. You see, according to Pelz, Secretary of State Sam Reed waived rules requiring a PCO candidate (via. votes or write-ins) to receive 10% of that of the highest vote getter. (In all likelihood, we're talking 10% of the votes cast for Gov. Christine Gregoire [or Barack Obama?].)

The best part of this letter, in my opinion, is the justification. Mr. Pelz explains that the reason for this system is: "One person could write in the name of a Republican as a joke and she would be the 'elected Democratic PCO' under these rules."

(I digress, but wouldn't it make sense to disqualify the 'bad apples' rather than discourage those, like myself, legitimately interested in the position?)

I'm informed that my name has been passed along to a County Chair for possible consideration as an 'Appointed PCO'. (Appointed PCO's, I learn, are not able to vote in Re-Organization Meetings, only those PCO's that were Elected. Discouraging.)

I'm no political expert (and if you're counting obvious statements, that's number four), but this entire circus is somewhat frustrating. Either I am the Democratic Precinct Committee Officer, or I'm not... I'm either receiving a 'Ceremonial Certificate' or I'm not... Either I'm the local volunteer representative of the Democratic party... or, well, not...

[Before you ask: Yes, I had every intention of serving as PCO and taking the position seriously. I was actually a bit excited to have "won" my write-in candidacy. Until today I was looking forward to serving in my official (pseudo-official?) capacity.]

I'll keep you posted.

For now, however, I think I'll hold off on any further write-in campaigns until I've sorted this one out. :-/

I look forward to your comments, suggestions and similar experiences.

Happy Coming Out Day!

With recent celebrities making public their homosexuality, or "coming out" as it's colloquially known -- it seems each year's "Coming Out Day" just get more relevant.

Some resources for those who may be struggling with coming to terms with their sexuality:

• The Coming Out Project, from the Human Rights Campaign helps GLBT, as well as straight-supportive people live openly and talk about their support for equality at home, at work and in their communities each and every day. The resource contains coming out guides, a list of National Coming Out Day events, and helpful information for straight supporters.
  
• The Trevor Project runs the nation's only 24/7 "crisis and suicide prevention helpline for lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and questioning youth." The helpline can be reached at 866-4-U-TREVOR. I'm proud to donate my time and efforts each year during Gay Days Anaheim to producing the Wonderland kick-off party where all proceeds benefit this extraordinary organization. Consider making a donation in honor of those struggling for the acceptance many of us take for granted.

R.I.P. Northwest Afternoon (1984-2008)

Word today is that KOMO TV's Northwest Afternoon will soon end its 24-year run. A local talk show produced by Fisher-owned KOMO (Ch. 4 / ABC), "NWA" featured a 15-20 minute "Soap Report" by anchor Cindi Rinehart followed by variety topics ranging from "Ambush Makeovers" to interviews with celebrities, authors and experts.

As you've no doubt learned from my countless shameless plugs and blog posts, I've been a regular guest covering gadgets, websites, and technology for the show. Each time, the entire gang at Northwest Afternoon has been very enthusiastic, supportive and a pleasure to work with -- a far cry from the fake "made-for-TV" pleasantries you might expect.

View some of my past appearances on NWA here.

The show wraps in August to be replaced by the nationally syndicated show "The Doctors," this Fall.

My Campaign for One Page Trip Results

I need a haircut.

Many "Green" initiatives are complex, involved projects that span multiple agencies and take months to complete. Here's one tip for the Metro KC website that can save precious resources with a few lines of code (or, more likely, a few *less* code).

My mother is in town. I lent her my vehicle today so she could trek out to Bellevue Square in (as my friends and I refer to the other side of the lake) "Eastern Washington". Hopefully she'll return with plenty of expensive gifts for me. Meanwhile, back to that haircut... I'm heading out of town for the weekend and have a busy week next week. Fortunately, I was able to schedule an appointment with Liana @ noon today. Without my car... I'll be taking the bus. Yay, fun!

So I go on to the Metro KC Transit Planner ("Plan Trip" @ transit.metrokc.gov) and enter the address of my office (1501 4th Avenue) and that of Liana’s Hair Salon (1125 E Olive Street) with an arrive-by time of 12:00 Noon. The trip results suggest three single-bus itineraries on routes 11, 10 and 49. Sorted! I print the results to take with me… two pages spit out of the printer behind my desk. (See PDF)

The second page is merely footer information and links to "plan a new trip" and invitations to "investigate alternatives". All the essentials are on the first page.

Suggestion: Compress the trip results page so that most single-bus itineraries print on one page. I suspect I'm not alone in printing my results – and all those extra wasted pages throughout the Metro transit system could be conserved. A few minutes of simply eliminating line breaks (do we need a solid bar at the top of the results?), reducing font size, or merging some results to one line (could "send feedback", "plan return trip" and "revise original entries" be place on the same line?).

Now with page two in the blue bin for each of my outbound and return trips – I'm ready to get my haircut and the world will no longer be subject to my shaggy do.

Thanks for listening and joining me in the fight for single-page transit results!

Will Wikle interviews The View's Elisabeth Hasselbeck

Will Wikle is host of LOGO's Round Trip Ticket (a runner-up to my dream job of hosting The Amazing Race) and Radio With A Twist (Gay Days Anaheim sponsor). He sat down recently to interview Elisabeth Hasselbeck on the set of The View. Hasselbeck is the conservative voice of the daytime talkshow on ABC. The two blonde had an interesting "hot topic" dialog about Rosie's replacement, gay rights... and more. Jason Bellini, the gorgeous anchor of CBS News on LOGO, is Will Wikle's boyfriend and host of the online video blog "Here and Now". View Jason's video blog for Will's interview on the set of The View


Will Wikle (L), Jason Bellini, and Brian M. Westbrook (R) at Gay Days Anaheim (photos by Brian M. Westbrook)

Silverado: Gay strip / dance bar in PDX about to close... :(

From Just Out (Portland):

http://www.justout.com/archives/issues/03_02_07/14.pdf

Seems Silverado is the latest establishment on the condo-redevelopment chopping block.

Hilarious video from today's snow storm (Portland)

I know there are millions of video clips out there. This one, really -- just watch it. It seriously makes me want to buy a video camera... just in case! :)

Watch the clip: Snowstorm Bumper cars video (NWCN)

--BMW.