thomascwaters.com

I friend sent me the link below- I’m guessing as a follow-up to my post yesterday. I wanted to pass it along. I started to write this blog post about it, and then realized after 500 words, that what I really was writing was my State of the Blog post. I promise to tie the two things together by the end.

I have to admit, I have really been in a funk recently. While I was not extremely active in the last presidential campaign, I did some work to get Obama elected. I was not a Hillary fan. I expected that if Hillary was the candidate, she may not be electable, given how much conservative Hilary hating there was out there, and I wasn’t sure if she would be much different than Bill Clinton, who got elected for the right reasons, and then blew it in the White House (poor choice of words maybe). Clinton was the start of the deregulation of Wall Street and the changes to the Banking industry that set up  the recent financial collapse.

I not so sure if Hillary would be in any better place right now. Obama did bring so many Clinton types into his administration. But I did expect him to follow through on his promises and to be smarter than he has been. But, I do think it is time to start considering who to support for a Democratic competitor for the 2012 election.

And, while I have no trouble pointing a finger at Obama, he alone isn’t the problem. The Democratic leadership in both the House and the Senate are incompetent, while the democratic caucus seems utterly clueless. and one of my biggest worries is the recent Supreme Court decision about corporations and Free Speech. Imagine: if the group, focus on the Family (which is supposed to care about families?) will lay off hundreds of workers who need a salary to support their own families, but they will buy advertising for the Super Bowl- I can imagine how much more various groups and corporations will pour into politics to buy the elections of far right conservatives who will work to take away what few rights GLBTQ’s have now.

And, I’m doing much work around the issue of issue advocacy. I started working on a book; I’m now on the board of the Delta Foundation, and leading the development of a Western Pennsylvania GLBTQ Issue Advocacy initiative; I’m still writing this blog and posting the 2 Minute Activist to YouTube. But much of this (especially writing for the book, and writing for the blog, has become excruciatingly hard., I think partly because I am not sure how we continue to make progress on GLBTQ issues while our political system is so utterly broken.

I couldn’t watch the President last night. I knew that I was already so angry that it would just infuriate me more . But as he laid out his assessment of where we are and plans to move forward, I’m doing the same.

More than 100 students, faculty and community members walked onto Notre Dame’s campus Wednesday to protest the university’s anti-discrimination policy and to push for a gay-straight alliance group.

There is an alternative to being so enraged at the Democratic Party, and our broken government. Get involved. Not involved in the simple, get out and vote way, but really engaged at giving voice to your needs and demands. Like the protesters at Notre Dame did, demanding a GSA. One of the things I liked about this action was the non-political aspect of it. Our political system isn’t working for gay, lesbian, bisexual, trans, and queers. We can’t give up on it entirely- we must stay engaged and work for change within it. but we also need to seek out other avenues for change. I’ll write more about this idea in another blog post where I can focus on it alone.

Get involved also means that we must deal with the politicians that we have, even if they seem utterly useless (so many of the democrats) or hostile (so many of the republicans). We have to “protest” them in ways that will make a difference. Marches and big protests are not always very effective at causing real change. They are good to build enthusiasm among supporters, and they work, like this blog: as a way to articulate ideas to an audience. But they can be hard to organize, and can be dismissed by the people who really need to hear those ideas. Another way to “protest” our elected officials is to talk with them. To sit down, face to face, and have a dialogue about the issues that are most important to you the constituent. I’ll devote a blog entry to this idea too.

via Group protests Notre Dame’s “anti-gay” policies.

Daily visits to my blog have been on the rise since I started this blog, but recently, I’ve been looking for another method to promote my blog. The result is an online shop at CafePress.com with some clothing and other items.

I am very humbled and appreciative for my loyal blog readers. A large percentage of readers have visited my blog over 200 times since I started it 13 months ago. Help me spread the word, and look stylish at the same time!

http://www.cafepress.com/thomascwaters

How Gay is this cake?

Today’s post requires interactivity and some singing. As I try and blow out the candle on my blog’s birthday cake, I expect to hear everyone singing on or off tune- I don’t care, but sing! Exactly 1 year ago, today, I posted my first blog entry to thomascwaters.com, and now, 775 posts later, I’m celebrating! That first post wasn’t much, except it was the start, and over time a lot has happened, not to mention al those posts, and the almost 40 drafts I have started but haven’t finished. I want to do three things in this post today. 1) I want to say a bit about my story, and how or why this blog has come about; 2) I want to point out a few of my favorite posts from the last year; and 3) I want to say something about what I hope will happen over the next year.

Why I’m blogging at thomascwaters.com

I have blogged on and off for a number if years, on my .mac site, since iWeb has a built in blogging capability. Some of those posts still exist, others have been wiped away, as I have messed up that site and the only way  to move forward was to redo it from scratch. Blogging there, was never very focused, and always more personal. For example, one of my favorites from there, is a post about visiting the Betsy Ross house in Philadelphia, and now gone, there was a series of posts about masculinity, identity and growing older written while I was on a gay cruise. Sites published to a .Mac account aren’t indexed by Google, and while some friends visited, the posts had limited traffic. Still it was a start. I also had worked on a podcast called Queer Look at the Bible, also published to my ,Mac account, and distributed via iTunes. Not many episodes were created, but I fell away from working on the show, not sure if anyone was really listening. However it remained an important project to me.

Last September I read about Podcamp Pittsburgh on Twitter. I had been following Chris Brogan, and then, Justin Kownacki- and I decided to attend PCPGH as a way to get back on track with my podcast. I wanted to learn WordPress, move my blog to WordPress and become rich and famous, or at least get a few people to actually listen to my podcast. I met Andy Quayle of Tubu.net, and set up two domains on his site. The idea was to use a personal site, thomascwaters.com, as a place to experiment and learn WordPress and then implement what I learned on my podcast’s site, QLATB.com.

I have heard over the past few months, a number of younger LGBT activists talk about how last year’s election and defeat in California- Prop 8- inspired them to become activists and bloggers. It impacted me heavily too. I had made only 3 posts, and then came Prop 8! My partner and I were away on vacation at an all gay resort, and watching Obama win and Prop 8 pass was exhilerating and maddening al at the same time. After the first few posts, my focus turned to the election, election results, prop 8 and the fight for gay rights, and all of a sudden, thomascwaters was a gay activist blog and I haven’t regretted a single moment of it. I have used it as a way to learn WordPress, and there have been a few attempts to really get the podcast going, but my time, energy, passion and purpose have all found a home here on this blog. I didn’t become a blogger or activist because of Prop 8, but Prop 8 was an instigation to turn my voice towards something meaningful to me in a way I hadn’t experienced before.

A Few Favorite Posts

There have been a few real highlights over the year, but today I wanted to mention just a few that were important to me for a few reasons. They aren’t in any particular order.

Gay Kiss, El Paso Texas and Follow up post

These two posts marked a change in the way I was treating information I found on the web, especially in blogs. I usually spend some time surfing around and reading stuff. But at one point I started to look specifically at right-wing blogs. Rather than just respond to them, I started to investigate what they were saying, and this was a fun example. I found the claims being made to be insane, so I called the city council, the mayor’s office and the newspaper in El Paso to get the real story.

Posts about Transgender, Transexual, and Intersex

The linked post started a long dialogue about if the “T” in LBGT or GLBTQ belonged there, and if it included or silenced Transexual and Intersex individuals. There are a number of other posts that talk about the same or related topics, just search by keyword. In my opinion, this is one of the most important things I’ve written about all year. The issue of having agency, and voice for all those who are covered (this is debatable) within the pink alphabet soup communities of LGBT/GLBTQ/[add your initials here]  is a topic that we must talk about and explore if the goal is understood as full equality for all. Here in the US, we have states where a same-sex couple can get married by a Transgender or Transexual person can be fired, simply for being TG/TS. That is as far from equal rights as we can get, although there may be some gay and lesbian activists OK with it.

Mommies, Babies, and Ideas

This was a post where I felt I was doing, in a blog post all the stuff I really want to be doing. Not only passing along information, but offering my ideas as to what is underneath the story.

I can probably find a bunch more posts that were favorites for one reason or another, especially from some of the earlier posts, but I’m happy to point out these three. Al of my blog posts are searchable via keyword, or category.

Looking Ahead

At this year’s Podcamp Pittsburgh, I listened to a blogger talk about how to make your blog successful. for her, successful meant writing a blog that is honest and will provide something meaningful to be read. For her, that meant read by her daughter, and for me, it is broader than that, although I am going to work hard not to be focused on the number or hits, and number or subscribed readers or feeds. Am I glad I have added [whatever post] as content to the world today? Is the blogosphere a bit more complete because of it, or is it just a bit more cluttered? That will be a guide.

I do expect to try and dig into Queer Look at the Bible again. Maybe this time I’ll get it off the ground and keep it running. I still believe it is a critical dialogue needed , especially in today’s political climate where religion is a powerful force in the battle to oppress full equality. God, isn’t the problem. I expect, I’ll be writing a post similar to this over on that site, so check it out.

Shameless plea: in lieu of a birthday gift to the blog, please consider clicking the “Buy me a Cup of Coffee” banner in the far right or at the bottom of the post. Donations to the blog made this way are few and far between but it really helps defray the costs of keeping the blog going. Pretend this is public radio and go ahead and make a donation to keep me on the air, OK?

I have a few other projects I’d like to work on, so at times thomascwaters.com, may take a bit of a back seat, or it may just be the frame for these new ventures. But I have a clearer sense of where I’m going today, unlike those early posts about prop 8 written reactionarily to my frustration and anger.

Two people in the last week have commented that my blog is a place they turn to find out who they need to call, or what they need to know about queer politics. I haven’t really intended to be that type of blog per se. There are a number of good, and much bigger blogs than mine that cover a wider assortment of queer news. But It has me thinking about how can I better highlight calls to action? How can I do a better job of giving readers a sense of how can they make a difference by doing one thing- making a call or sending an email or whatever. I’ll probably try and focus a bit more on this as the next year unfolds.

Thanks to you my readers for being there and supporting me and my blog. Here’s to another great year of blogging!

Photo by by Shoshanah

I’ve been blogging on this site for almost a year, and have turned out over 700 blog entries. I have watched my readership grow from a few sporatic visits to many dozens of returning visitors everyday. I have seen some really wonderful exchange of ideas and comments here as well. Sometimes it is the depth of the comments and discussion, and sometimes it is just the genuine honesty of a comment that has been special for me.

But I want to ask my now larger (and hopeful growing) regular readership to do more. If you love me, or love  reading my blog, or even if you don’t like what I say- how about joining the dialogue? Leave your comments, add an idea, offer some validation or a different perspective. Let me know you are out there in ways other than, when I look at my Google Analytics and see the hard numbers.

And if you read my blog through an RSS feed, break out of it once in a while to pop into the blog itself and at the very least, say Hi!

Yesterday, was my birthday, and as I take inventory of my life, at this stage of life, I am extremely happy with who I am, what I’m doing and how I spend my time. but if there is one thing I want, it is some more interaction on my blog. So, for my birthday, or if you love me, join the dialogue and comment more frequently, OK?

Thanks! I’m off now on a birthday adventure, pictures to follow!

Podcamp Pittsburgh asked, and so here is my reply:

What does social Media mean to you? Check out Podcamp Pittsburgh!

I have written a bit about blogging, and my process of blogging, while spending most of my time and energy blogging about the subject matters that interest me the most. I think originally, I thought other bloggers may be a part of my audience- those who want to learn something from my experience of blogging. I haven’t really thought that way for some time however. I believe that most of the bloggers who follow my blog are those who care about the same content areas. It would be cool if someone cared to follow because they want to learn from how I’m doing this, but I really doubt that is the case.I often think I have more to learn than I have to share in that regard.

But do you think I’m a parasite? In one telling of the “old media vs the new media” folks like me are considered the bad guy parasites stealing content and killing the ability for traditional media to make money and survive. Or maybe Jon Hutson, who just started to follow me on Twitter is the parasite, stealing Mashable’s content by Stan Schroeder, which is using Techdirt’s content. Or maybe all of us are the bad guys? Or none of us? So this story (or content) has three different titles :

• Is There Really A ‘Piracy’ Problem For Newspapers? (Techdirt)
• Some Thoughts on “Real” Reporting (Mashable)
• What is “real” reporting? Traditional media fails to “get” blogs (jonhutson)
• Am I a Parasite? (thomascwaters.com)

But I don’t think it is accurate to call this one story or the same content. Each level of this discourse has had a different perspective or reason for writing. Techdirt comments on the myth that news aggregators and bloggers harm news sources by taking ad revenue from the real publishers. On Mashable, the focus is on what it means to report, or be a reporter. Jon, reframes that slightly with an implied commentary that traditional media does’t understand new media. I’m starting to wonder if I have any point to make here. Ha ha.

I decided to jump into this one because I think the dichotomy of traditional media/reporting vs new media/aggregating really misses the mark entirely. The internet and new media provide a greater venue for both the act of reporting a story, as well as the distribution of the story. It allows more people to be reporters and more people to be publishers and disrupts the hard line that used to separate these tasks or roles.

As a blogger, my first intention was to share my own opinion and perspective on things, believing that my voice would be useful to others. Thus I started with a theory, that there were more voices needed in the public discourse and no one was already sharing my perspective- mine was a voice missing from the discourse. Quickly however,it becomes clear that some are not even aware the discourse is happening or are not aware of elements of it. So, a natural transition begins where the blogger introduces other’s ideas and perspectives and then comments either directly on them, or in conjunction with them. Some aggregation begins.

Now that I’ve been blogging for close to a year, I’ve begun to also recognize the need for more reporting. Traditionally, someone (the publisher??) decided what did or did not get presented to the consuming audience. Some traditional news sources continue to do an awesome job of this. For example, I have written about the same-sex kiss incident in a Texas Chico’s taco business. Here is a case with the local paper, the El Paso Times has done an excellent job reporting. In other cases, it is less clear. I wrote about the Charlotte Pride and the counter protest by ultra-conservative Christians. There was far less published about this, and I felt that what I had read wasn’t very objective or had enough of a real story to it.

Maybe that’s the bottom line- what is the real story?

My minimal excursions into reporting have been increasing. Some of these have been fact checking. For example, I found a quote attributed to a Philadelphia elected official that seemed strange to me. I contact the official and found that they had been misquoted. I was able to write about this. That was real reporting in my book.

I think another aspect of real reporting is the very act of considering “what is the story.” In the past, the story was however it was handed to the consumer. Today, more people are asking if there are other perspectives- new directions from which to see the story, and therefor, new and different stories to tell.

The controversy arrises less over the reporting and the publishing, but in the realm of how any of it is monitized. I’m just a little blogger with a small audience, doing what I do in the mornings before work, in the evenings and the weekend. My house is a wreck, laundry undone, and the grass not cut, but I’ve blogged al week. To grow my audience however, I will need to spend more time researching, investigating, fact checking and otherwise reporting as well as more time improving my ability to publish. I will need to consider how do I monitize what I do now, all for nothing. Aggregating news is one way to build your site to attract more visitors. More visitors means more potential to distribute the story and build accountability. Or I can keep being a small blogger doing what I do now. Either way, I am not a parasite.

Resources:

jonhutson: What is “real” reporting? Traditional media fails to “get” blogs – Mashable.

http://mashable.com/2009/07/31/thoughts-on-real-reporting/

http://techdirt.com/articles/20090730/0423325715.shtml

Podcast Album Art for the G-Spod Episode #170

I’m so excited about the ways blogging has been getting me out in front of people. Previously, as an artist, I had little trouble putting my artwork out there for others, but I was generally a quiet and reserved buy who would rather stay in the studio working than go out and be around others. In other times during my life I was a teacher, and a lay preacher, and in both of those capacities, I loved putting myself out there, but in both cases, it was within the confines of the prescribed environments- the classroom or the Sunday morning service. Blogging, on the other hand is encouraging me to be out there in front of others in a wider variety of ways, spaces and endeavors, and this is very exciting.

I suppose, it would be easy to be a blogger, and never leave my computer. To sit, alone, reading the web, and adding to it for others, but detached from the rest of the interacting world, but for me, becoming a blogger has done just the opposite- opportunities have presented themselves to step out of my comfort zone- what an awesome gift!

This week, a neighbor, Linda mentioned that she had seen me on TV. She was referring to the televised proceedings of the County Council meeting where I spoke in favor of the Allegheny County Human Relations Ordinance. This is something I would not have done before becoming a blogger. Even as late as January, when the legislation had a public hearing, I would not have done it. I sat through the hearing, listening to others, till I knew that I had a perspective to share and saying it aloud, was in many ways like writing a blog entry- I can do that!  So, at the meeting for the vote, I placed myself on the list of speakers. Blogging provided this growth.

Yesterday, I made my debut as a podcast guest on The G-Spod (iTunes link), episode #170. I wrote about it just after we taped, but now the damage is done and the evidence is out there for everyone to hear. DJ G and Carman pride themselves on producing a real gay podcast that isn’t 60 minutes of talking exclusively about Brittany or Cher. Their result is a fun filled listen of great music (podsafe)  and interesting dialogue and conversation. And their show is a real winner in my book. I hope my presence doesn’t lower their ratings- they are both quick witted, intelligent, and fun on air.  I had listened to the show a number of times, starting almost 2 years ago, but haven’t been a regular listener recently. I wasn’t nearly as prepared as I thought I was, for G’s interviewing style, but afterwards, I thought it went well. I hope you enjoy it, and become regular listeners for their show.

This is something I never would have done, had I not started blogging! And I hope it wasn’t the last. We talked about a regular 3-5 minute segment about politics- maybe that will happen. But either way, I love the way, that sitting behind a computer is also bring me out in front of other people. Bringing all of me out there my thoughts and ideas as text, and the whole of me as well. Blogging is good stuff!

So, I’ll close this with a plug for Podcamp Pittsburgh 4, October 10-11, 2009

PodCamp Pittsburgh is a FREE community UnConference, run by and for people who create, enjoy, or are interested in learning more about blogging, podcasting, and social media.PodCamp Pittsburgh started out as an UnConference for a very specialized group of techies – podcasters – but has grown over the past four years to include sessions aimed at helping all sorts of groups–teachers, nonprofits, corporations, job hunters– harness the power of social media.

I met Carman and G at Podcamp last year. another example of how blogging took me out of my comfort zone and the result was opened doors and opportunities.

I tend to do two types of writing on the web”

1. I write blog posts.
2. I comment on articles and other’s blog posts.

I’m linking the article below, because it is a good example of a situation ripe for the second of these. Frequently, people ask me how they can get involved in issue advocacy, and help in the movement towards equal rights for all. I urge you to consider how you can make a difference by commenting on the web.

The article itself, like many posted on the web contains gross problems, some might call poor reporting, but at the very least, is biased reporting containing misinformation. There are a number of people who have already commented on it, but even these comments don’t necessarily contain factual information.

One of the easiest ways to do your part to promote equal rights is to add a comment to things like this where your comments reflect real, honest, accurate information. The process is a simple one and often takes no more than a few minutes. There are three types of readers out there. Those who have made up their minds and see things as you do; those who have made up their minds and see things differently than you do; those who are open to consider a different point of view. Your goal in web commenting is to speak to this last group- people with an open mind. Here is what you do:

1. Read the article, and begin to formulate a response to it.
2. Research as much as you need to so that whatever you write is accurate.
3. Post your comment.

Because the goal is to address the person(s) with an open mind, using facts and identifying the inaccuracies of a post is the most important thing to do. It doesn’t change anyone’s mind in a good way to simply write and dismiss the post, or participate in name calling. When commenting on a blog post or article, always post  using a name. It undermines your credibility to post anonymously. Even if others have already added comments, add yours as long as your focus is about clearing up inaccuracies or misinformation. The only way to counter a lie is with the truth, every time.

via SPEAK OUT: State should be getting help for transgendered, not taxing the rest of us – Quincy, MA – The Patriot Ledger.

A little over a week has passed since the adrenaline -filled night of the County Council vote that brought protection from discrimination to the whole of Allegheny County. Since then, I’ve been thinking about two ideas that I wanted to blog about concerning the efforts to get the ordinance passed. I want to blog about the way various groups across Allegheny County worked together to support the passage of the ordinance. The cross section of groups and the way in which all played a role, is a process we don’t often see here (or anywhere for that matter. It is common many places for various groups to struggle working together). but before I pen ideas on that front, I was offered a guest post about that subject, so I’ll hold off and see what my guest blogger has to say.

But I want to begin to dig into the other topic, which is looking at what role social media may have played in the passage of the ordinance. In the statement released by the coalition of organizations, three blogs were thanks for their role in this process, Pittsburgh Lesbian Correspondents, The Pittsburgh Comet, and my own blog, so I decided to ask these bloggers for their ideas as to how social media played a role. Bram, of the Pittsburgh Comet sent me his thoughts, and Sue Kerr declined to comment directly, but said she would probably add comments to this blog post once published. And as important as it may be to look at what role social media did play, I want to open the floor for some dialogue about what we can do differently or more of down the road. How do we take this success, learn from it and use it in other GLBTQ rights struggles?

Social Media is a big, broad category of stuff, and far more people played a role than three bloggers. I hope that this post will generate a discussion and if you have stuff to add, please do.

Bram wrote:

I’d say this case was a good illustration of how social media can keep things on the front burner.  It is a tactic of government officials — it’s not always nefarious, sometimes it’s a survival instinct — to put tough issues on the back burner until passions cool down, and maybe things get forgotten about.  When you have someone like Sue [Pittsburgh Lesbian Correspondents] raising the alarm a couple times a week for everybody to read, it not only keeps issues front and center but makes the dilly-dallying politicians look kind of cheap.

Another way social media impacts obviously is mobilization.  On Wednesday the room was packed at least 3/4 in favor of the pro-civil rights crowd, and I think that’s because that crowd skews a little younger and was made aware of the meeting swiftly and repeatedly through blogs, through Facebook, through Twitter.  People were summoned to arms in a big big hurry.  In addition, at the very last minute there was a flurry of amendments discussed on the matter, and in this case I actually think the electronic media allowed citizens to weigh in as the elected leaders were just becoming familiar with them, and as a result the amendment that the Steel City Democrats felt to be superior was enacted.

Social Media: A category of sites that is based on user participation and user-generated content. They include social networking sites like LinkedIn or Facebook, social bookmarking sites like Del.icio.us, social news sites like Digg or Reddit, and other sites that are centered on user interaction. searchenginewatch.com/define

There may be far more than can be said on this subject, so what do you think? Leaver a comment and be a part of the dialogue.

This may not be a good title, but wondered if it would provoke some interest. and it relates to have I have felt lately. I am most likely guilty of getting too caught up in my web stats and wondering if I’m being successful enough at getting out to a broad audience. This is an ongoing identity crisis for me- is my blog what I want it to be and if not, what am I going to do about it. But then I read this article about GLBTQ’s reading more blogs than the average straight person, and it got my head turned around again to the significance of every LGBT blog no matter how big it is or how little.

So there are a few really large LGBT blogs, like Joe.My.God, Towleroad, Pam’s House Blend and Bilerico Project. All are good and sometimes have the same links but each has a personality and feel to it, and often cover different news. And there is a long list of smaller blogs, of which I think mine falls into this category. and of course, there is a huge number of blogs that are not necessarily GLTBQ blogs, but of interest to anyone within these communities. According to the article on Box Turtle Bulletin, 51% of gay or lesbian respondents reported reading blogs compared to 36% of their straight counterparts. So why is that?

One reason may be the fact that GLBTQ’s have always been on the cutting edge of many trends, and many of us are really into technology. But I think another reason is there is a thirst for information. And especially now, with so much happening in the political arena, people want to know what is going on. I think there is a third reason as well. Since the earliest days of the modern” gay rights movement, as a diverse and inclusive group of people, we have sought to give voice to everyone within our communities. Sometimes with more success tan others, but even when we have stumbled and failed to be as ideally inclusive as some want, we continue to seek that level of full inclusion and full expression. That we use an alphabet soup of initials to label ourselves (GLBTQ, LGBT, LGBTQ, GL, etc) is just one illustration of the ways “we” strive to better represent the whole of who we are.

So, if you are like me and wonder if what you are doing is meaningful, stop wondering. It is no matter how many readers, or subscribers, or commenters you have on your blog. Someone needs to read what you have put out there, so keep doing it.

Here is just a few of my favorite blogs to visit that each provide a unique perspective:

• Blue Truck, Red State
• Asterisk
• End Bigotry in Venango County
• Mike Tidmus
• Her voice was clear and musical, but deeper than a woman’s wont.

Of course there are a ton of blogs out there. Just a few for you to check out.

LGBT Adults Are More Likely To Read This