Servicemembers United, the nation’s largest organization of gay and lesbian troops and veterans and their allies, today announced the launch of a new online resource to serve the military partner community – www.MilitaryPartners.org. The website is designed to serve as the new home for Servicemembers United’s “Campaign for Military Partners” initiative and will provide links to LGBT-inclusive military resources, a robust blog about the experiences of military partners, a support forum for military partners, media coverage about the plight of partners, and more.
“The civilian partners of gay and lesbian military personnel are often forgotten in the debate over the ‘Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell’ policy,” said Alexander Nicholson, executive director of Servicemembers United. “These silent heroes must bear all of the same burdens of military family life, but they are not able to share in the support, benefits, or recognition that the military provides to the wives and husbands, and even the girlfriends and boyfriends, of straight troops.”
Nicholson continued, “Long deployments to warzones can be especially difficult times for families and loved ones back home, and the problems are only exacerbated by the difficulties that gay and lesbian couples face, including isolation and an inability to even communicate with the deployed partner. Our Campaign for Military Partners initiative has seen a lot of initial success in reaching out to military partners, and we expect the launch of www.MilitaryPartners.org to go a long way toward providing more and more support to military partners as the project grows.”
The Campaign for Military Partners grew out of the work of a Military Partners Advisory Group that Servicemembers United set up in mid-2009 to help the organization’s leaders identify ways to better support the military partner community. The Campaign’s mission is to reach out to, recognize, connect, and support the civilian partners of active duty LGBT military personnel.
Geoffrey Knight, author of the gay adventure series ‘Fathom’s Five’ joined us on SistersTalk Radio to discuss his career and his book ‘The Riddle of the Sands’ (volume 2 of the ‘Fathom’s Five’ series).
On Dec. 9, 2009, Belhue Press was informed that an ad for the book The Manly Art of Seduction by Perry Brass, after running for a week on FaceBook, had been “disapproved,” and that the site “will not allow the creation of any further FaceBook ads for this product. Ads for this service, product, or site should not be resubmitted.” During its run, the ad was seen for (approximately) 58,000 impressions. It received 183 “clicks” to the Amazon page selling The Manly Art of Seduction. The ad was specifically tailored to be seen by gay men and their friends, and during the creation of the ad, which FaceBook very quickly approved, the site informed Belhue Press that the target audience for the ad would be approximately “13,000 people”; in other words, the ad would not be placed in places where people outside a target audience might see it, although there was nothing in the ad that they deemed offensive at the time of the creation of the ad.
Is it safe yet to “come out” in Hollywood? Sure, we’ve got LOGO, Ellen, Wanda Sykes and several LGBT characters on TV. But, what about the aspiring actor? What are the rewards and ramifications of coming out in Hollywood?
Marcellas is the host of E! Network’s new reality TV show, Perfect Catch. He’s also a model, celebrity fashion stylist, entertainment reporter, writer and former star of Big Brother 3 and 7.
