Blog days are over
An Open Letter to GLAAD
regarding the 2016 Media Awards
We, the undersigned, respectfully but strongly disagree with your decision to remove the category of Outstanding Blog from the GLAAD Awards and with your rationalization behind this decision.
LGBT blogs and independent media play a crucial role in relaying information, providing new and diverse voices, and bringing attention to LGBT issues that have been overlooked and omitted by the mainstream media. Bloggers are the last truly independent voices of lived LGBT experience, and those who undertake this task typically do so without pay or recognition. They don't grace the cover of magazines. They don't get book deals. They don't win Oscars. What they accomplish through their sacrifice of time and energy is the proper dissemination of information which serves to make our community stronger and better educated.
The Outstanding Blog award bestowed by GLAAD was one of the only few ways LGBT bloggers has been given their due. The idea that these voices will now have to compete with larger and more powerful news entities such as The New York Times, MSNBC and Buzzfeed is unfair and, frankly, humiliating. The elimination of the category implies that unless one is a celebrity or affiliated with a publication with a high profile and finances to match, you are held without regard in the LGBT media landscape, or at least as GLAAD sees it.
It is sadly ironic that GLAAD, an organization which prides itself on lifting up positive LGBT portrayals, has rendered grassroots LGBT voices invisible and unworthy of recognition. While an initial statement from GLAAD explained that bloggers are still welcome to compete with national outlets in other journalism categories, a simple fact speaks for itself: Among the 2016 award nominees, there is not a single blog ( or community-based LGBT outlet, for that matter ) to be found anywhere on the list. The crucial voice of first-person LGBT voices has simply disappeared from the GLAAD Awards. This is a troubling message to send to the general public, to up-and-coming LGBT writers, and to the LGBT community itself.
In the spirit of a community in which every voice is an asset in our march to full equality, we ask that the Outstanding Blog category be fully reinstated immediately. Please conduct a nomination process at once so that this critical error might be rectified before your 2016 awards dinner. Actually announcing the winner of this category from the stage, unlike in year's past, would also be a nice touch.
Sincerely,
Diane Anderson-Minshall
CEO of Retrograde Communications & Editor in Chief of Plus Magazine
Hivplusmag.com
Bil Browning
Founder of The Bilerico Project
Bilerico.com
2011, 2012 GLAAD Award Nominee
JD Davids
Managing Editor, TheBody.com
Zack Ford
LGBT Editor, ThinkProgress.org
Michael Hamar
Michael in Norfolk - Coming Out in Mid-Life
Michael-In-Norfolk.blogspot.com
Rebecca Juro
Columnist, South Florida Gay News
Mark S. King
MyFabulousDisease.com
2015 GLAAD Award Nominee
Will Kohler
Back2Stonewall.com
Alvin McEwen
Holy Bullies and Headless Monsters
holybulliesandheadlessmonsters.blogspot.com
2014, 2015 GLAAD Award Nominee
Noah Michelson
HuffPost Queer Voices
Huffingtonpost.com/queer-voices
Michael Rogers
Netroots Connect
lgbtnetrootsconnect.org
Dana Rudolph
Mombian.com
2012 GLAAD Media Award Winner
Michelangelo Signorile
Sirius XM PROGRESS
Signorile.com
Pam Spaulding
Pam's House Blend
PamSpaulding.net
Joe Sudbay
Longtime Blogger
Berlin Sylvestre
Editor, OUT FRONT Magazine
Brynn Tannehill
Independent Writer
Daniel Villarreal
Editor in Chief, Unicorn Booty
UnicornBooty.com
Ashton P. Woods
Strength in Numbers
ashtonpwoods.strengthinnumbershouston.com
* * * *
Accountability
Dear Editor:
This letter is in response to the Windy City Times Article "Fewer entries planned for 2016 Pride Parade," which Matt Simonette wrote.
The Chicago Police Department, like the organizers of the Gay Pride Committee, have lost trust of those who once trusted in their leadership. Like the police, the organizer of the Gay Pride parade must be held accountable and responsible questions must be asked.
What exactly will cutting back 200 entries to 150 do, except bring the Pride Parade in compliance with city guidelines? Event organizer Richard Pfeiffer said in the Windy City Times article, "The reduction is an effort to get all the entries to the ending point quicker," which would put the parade into compliance with cities guidelines that govern the parade. That begs the question: Why was the parade not in compliance in past years? Exactly how does this help crowd control and irresponsible alcohol consumption?
Like the Chicago Police Department, we cannot hide behind a code of silence, while the very safety of paradegoers are put in question. Crowd control and response to an irresponsible partying environment, in my opinion, are at the heart of the problem. Trying to tell someone to drink responsibly in such an environment only denies the reality of the situation.
Has Pfeiffer, for instance, asked the bar owners on Halsted Street in Boystown to volunteer to not open their bars until after the parade is over? That would go a long way in sending the message that public and private boozing will no longer be tolerated by either the Pride Parade, or by the bar owners when it goes to the streets. We all need to take responsibility. If the police are enforcing the open-container law, I don't think it too much to ask the bar owners to also step up to the plate in trying to get a handle on irresponsible alcohol consumption.
I would also like to know who is paying for the extra security that is being put in place. Are we talking about off-duty police, on-duty police or a separate security company?
Even more troubling for me is that the parade attracts crowds from outside the Lake View area who, at times, do not show respect either for the local residents or their property—and this behavior is usually motivated by alcohol abuse. Has any thought been given by the event organizer to have sponsored activities after the parade to give options to a mindless boozing environment?
Finally, I think 52 arrests are way too much for a 2015 parade that celebrates our better selves. I don't see fewer parade entries affecting this number. We can and should do better.
Joe Murray
Rainbow Sash Network
See additional letter, "Using the charge of "anti-Semitism" 2016-02-05, at the link: www.windycitymediagroup.com/lgbt/LETTERS-Using-the-charge-of-anti-Semitism/54189.html .
