Most straight professional athletes could care less. I'd argue that gay professional athletes still have a lot of homophobia to overcome. posted by Blazecock Pileon

So true. As do lesbian and gay high school and college athletes. Check out Pat Griffin's lgbt sports blog, "It Takes A Team."
posted to MetaFilter by Carol Anne at 6:00 AM on October 6, 2008

Alaskan Way Viaduct history, complete with details of the three opening ceremonies.

I've lived in Seattle for 25 years, first with a shared car, now depending on Metro and my feet. I'd happily see the Viaduct torn down.
posted to MetaFilter by Carol Anne at 5:42 AM on September 29, 2008

"After Odyssey, Mr. Paulson -- no relation to the Treasury secretary -- ..."
posted to MetaFilter by Carol Anne at 10:38 AM on September 26, 2008

"Heroes"? Not to this red-diaper baby: my parents were members of the CPUSA then. I was six years old and didn't understand what it was all about; but, I do remember my mother and other party moms worrying about "the poor little Rosenberg boys." (They were adopted and their last name changed.)
posted to MetaFilter by Carol Anne at 6:56 AM on September 12, 2008

Father Was a Spy, Sons Conclude With Regret
posted to MetaFilter by Carol Anne at 1:57 PM on September 17, 2008

There's more about Shapiro and his wife in this article.
posted to MetaFilter by Carol Anne at 2:45 PM on August 29, 2008

Anyone walking around with a laptop full of valuable data should have it handcuffed to her/his wrist.
posted to MetaFilter by Carol Anne at 12:16 PM on August 5, 2008

Sappho would be so proud of this lesbian laureate!
posted to MetaFilter by Carol Anne at 2:38 PM on July 18, 2008

Has he never read of the Sacred Band of Thebes?

Plutarch reports that the Sacred Band consisted of homosexual couples and the reason was that lovers would fight more fiercely and more cohesively at each other's sides than would strangers with no ardent bonds.
posted to MetaFilter by Carol Anne at 6:13 AM on July 15, 2008

"Odell wrote a book, "Blinky Less Light," about the smallest star in heaven. The children's book, which took Odell 10 years to finish, has almost sold out of the 100,000 copies printed."
posted to MetaFilter by Carol Anne at 2:10 PM on May 28, 2008

Great blog! Thanks for the links. As for self-editing: been there, done that. It's exhausting.
posted to MetaFilter by Carol Anne at 8:42 AM on May 6, 2008

fiercecupcake: this winter, check out the spectators at Texas Longhorns women's basketball games, since you're looking for lesbians who aren't at home every night.
posted to MetaFilter by Carol Anne at 6:21 AM on May 7, 2008

For anyone who balks at the word "partner," the term "domestic partner" is in wide usage by business and government for unmarried, but committed couples.

Considering the subject of Teh Portly Dyke's blog post, hets coining "naughty" names in this thread for gay relationships are displaying rather juvenile behavior.
posted to MetaFilter by Carol Anne at 5:08 AM on May 8, 2008

An even simpler solution: all of us who can donate blood should.
posted to MetaFilter by Carol Anne at 1:14 PM on April 29, 2008

Where was all this closeted history when I, a 62-year old red diaper baby, grew up gay and alone? That the CPUSA was as homophobic as the rest of the USA needs to be mentioned. Still, when the party kicked out its known gay men and lesbians as "security risks," it meant that Harry Hay could co-found the Mattachine Society. I do hope that Lee Hays found love somewhere along the way.... [more]
posted to MetaFilter by Carol Anne at 5:54 AM on February 19, 2008

The GLBTQ Encyclopedia is another don't-miss website.
posted to MetaFilter by Carol Anne at 7:06 AM on February 3, 2008

Females are socialized to be nice to strangers, to not blow the whistle on co-workers, to be "good" girls. The last sighting of Meredith Emerson was of her walking with the man who eventually killed her, their two dogs playing. She was 24 and athletic and confident...and she is dead.
posted to MetaFilter by Carol Anne at 1:54 PM on January 8, 2008

A native San Franciscan, I was 30 in 1975 and a lesbian. Finding out that Oliver Sipple was gay thrilled me. Gay men and lesbians didn't make the headlines back then for anything positive.
posted to MetaFilter by Carol Anne at 5:42 AM on January 7, 2008

Aarrgh! Pink overload. Better the high school girls should read books.
posted to MetaFilter by Carol Anne at 5:49 AM on January 4, 2008

I really dislike this. The man and woman at the heart of this story are incapable of giving informed consent for its publication.
posted to MetaFilter by Carol Anne at 8:24 AM on November 19, 2007

Uh, it's kind of crucial to journalism that people don't have to give consent to be written about. The couple's son has chosen to speak about his life, and the people in it, to a TV station.

If this were hard news, I'd agree with you. But it's a feature, it's "awwww" fluff. It's a call for donations to Alzheimer's research. It's not news.
posted to MetaFilter by Carol Anne at 12:21 PM on November 19, 2007

Ron Radosh (like fellow Red Diaper Baby, David Horowitz) has made a living denouncing his parents' generation. I'm an RDB myself, by the way, and have fond memories of Pete Seeger in the 50s and 60s. What was Radosh doing back then?

A long-time member of the Communist Party´s youth group, the Labor Youth League, Mr. Radosh joined the party in 1956 after the Soviet invasion of Hungary and the so-called "Khrushchev report" condemning Stalin had... [more]
posted to MetaFilter by Carol Anne at 6:41 AM on November 16, 2007

ENDA passes House

Passage came after openly gay Rep. Barney Frank made an emotional plea to his colleagues.

"There are people who are your fellow citizens who are being discriminated against," said Frank, his voice choking in a rare display of emotion. "Please don’t turn your back on them."

The House erupted into applause. ...
posted to MetaFilter by Carol Anne at 5:02 AM on November 8, 2007

I'm sad that Barney Frank, long a hero of mine, is being attacked. Instead of beating up him, why not go after the homophobes in Congress? I'm a 62-year-old lesbian who supports the ENDA bill and hopes that transgender protection will come soon. Politics is the art of compromise.
posted to MetaFilter by Carol Anne at 10:54 AM on November 8, 2007

I think most coaches would prefer to hold FEMA-style press conferences (having their staffers ask the questions) than face the media. Just look at Mike Gundy of Oklahoma State and his recent attack on Jenni Carlson.
posted to MetaFilter by Carol Anne at 2:27 PM on October 29, 2007

This red diaper baby, born in 1945 in San Francisco, had had enough of Malvina Reynolds, years before she wrote "Little Boxes." She was a musical fixture of the left/labor world I grew up in. I still shudder at accordions.
posted to MetaFilter by Carol Anne at 11:03 AM on August 15, 2007

I'm a Kinsey 6 (100% lesbian). There aren't very many of us. Nearly all self-identified lesbians I've met have had one or more sexual experiences/relationships with men. Increasing numbers have married and had kids before they fell in love with a woman. Are they "bisexual"?

I couldn't help but notice that the cyber-sex started: ... We began a little performance for the men in the chat ... How much "hot girl-on-girl action"... [more]
posted to MetaFilter by Carol Anne at 6:43 AM on May 29, 2007

It's not uncommon for a man who has had sex with another man to say, "I was drunk. I didn't know what I was doing." (Women often say, "I was experimenting.") Some of the prison "rapes" probably were consensual or semi-consensual sex . Distribution of condoms in prisons would make sex safer.
posted to MetaFilter by Carol Anne at 5:50 AM on February 12, 2007

At last! I will now know what people are eating in British murder mysteries.
posted to MetaFilter by Carol Anne at 3:19 PM on February 7, 2007

No fair! I was born in 1945. There were records then: 78 rpm and breakable.
posted to MetaFilter by Carol Anne at 2:36 PM on January 25, 2007

An earlier march came to my mind: On Saturday, November 3, 1979, in Greensboro, NC, an anti-Ku Klux Klan march and rally called by the little-known Communist Workers Party (CWP) erupted into violence. A shoving and scuffling match between leaders of the CWF and about fifteen members of a KKK and neo-Nazi group erupted into violence. Press reports said the shoot-out was touched off when a CWP member fired a handgun during the scuffle. The Klansmen and Nazis then armed themselves with... [more]
posted to MetaFilter by Carol Anne at 10:05 AM on October 16, 2005

MSNBC.com has Andrea Mitchell's report. Look for "Video: Was Bush chat with troops staged?" When NBC shows segments like this, I know the country is changing its attitude toward Dubya...at last.
posted to MetaFilter by Carol Anne at 7:30 AM on October 14, 2005

I'm not sure that the tenth anniversary of his death went "virtually unnoticed." Yesterday, the Philadelphia Independent Media Center put on four, free public events. 'At each venue there will be a 15 minute introduction, screening of the powerful one-hour version of “Enough IS ENOUGH: The Death of Jonny Gammage” and a 45-minute community forum with Q & A conducted by local experts.'

(By the way, October 12, 2005 was also the seventh anniversary of the... [more]
posted to MetaFilter by Carol Anne at 6:54 AM on October 13, 2005

"My Bling Bling Barbie” is, her makers say, modelled on what the celebrities are wearing, complete with big earrings, necklaces, bracelets and “shirt skirts”. The more “grown-up” look, aimed at children aged between seven and ten, was on show yesterday in a church in West London, where the Toy Retailers Association also announced its predicted bestsellers for this Christmas. With more than £1 billion spent on presents by Christmas shoppers, manufacturers were at pains to depict... [more]
posted to MetaFilter by Carol Anne at 11:08 AM on October 8, 2005

"...the poorest 20 percent of Americans receive nearly all of their retirement income from Social Security, while the wealthiest fifth of Americans receive less than 20 percent of their retirement income from the system." Michael Tanner, Director, Cato Institute Project on Social Security Choice, Testimony before the Committee on Ways and Means, Subcommittee on Social Security -- May 17, 2005
posted to MetaFilter by Carol Anne at 7:05 AM on September 10, 2005

coda: "public records are public records, and providing people with the tools to access public records is a good thing."

There's access and there's access, however. I feel that representative democracy benefits from not operating at Internet speed.

If people have to go to the Secretary of State's office and look at actual signatures on paper petitions, it's going to take time and effort. On the other hand, if... [more]
posted to MetaFilter by Carol Anne at 6:55 AM on September 10, 2005

We say "hope for the best, prepare for the worst." We rarely face up to how awful the worst can be.

One example: "Brian Wolshon, an engineering professor at Louisiana State University who served as a consultant on the state's evacuation plan, said little attention was paid to moving out New Orleans's 'low-mobility' population - the elderly, the infirm and the poor without cars or other means of fleeing the city, about 100,000 people. At disaster... [more]
posted to MetaFilter by Carol Anne at 8:10 AM on September 4, 2005

From John Kass' column in the Chicago Tribune:

"...I liked your article on the rush to spread blame. Speaking as an engineer, there is certainly plenty of blame to go around: starting with Jean-Baptiste Le Moyne de Bienville who, in 1718, ignored the advice of his engineers and located the city of New Orleans on a very dangerous piece of ground. New Orleans sits not on bedrock but on unconsolidated silt washed down by the Mississippi River over eons. It is... [more]
posted to MetaFilter by Carol Anne at 6:53 AM on September 3, 2005

Sexual diversity is part of nature, not just a matter of jail-like conditions in zoos. Here is the first paragraph of a magnificent scientific work, "Biological Exuberance: Animal Homosexuality and Natural Diversity," by Bruce Bagemihl, Ph.D. (1999).

"In dimly lit undergrowth of a Central American rain forest, jewel-like male hummingbirds flit through the vegetation, pausing briefly to mate now with a male, now with a female. A whale glides through the... [more]
posted to MetaFilter by Carol Anne at 5:16 AM on February 15, 2005

Forty years ago, I took a class required for my economics degree at San Francisco State College. The instructor was a sixty-ish male who had taught the class for decades. On the first day, he looked out over the classroom and said something like, "Women shouldn't study economics." There were two women in that class--me and one other female econ major. Our eyes met for an instant and then we both huddled down in our chairs. It never occurred to me (or her, evidently) to protest, to... [more]
posted to MetaFilter by Carol Anne at 6:52 AM on February 13, 2005

The cat's antics are amusing, but the relationship between the mother and daughter is so weird (they often appear to flirting with each other!) that I can't read the strip anymore.
posted to MetaFilter by Carol Anne at 7:07 AM on January 5, 2005

Blood donation is not just for heterosexuals. Lesbians who meet the criteria are quite welcome to give blood. (My next donation at Seattle's Puget Sound Blood Center will be #83.)
posted to MetaFilter by Carol Anne at 5:32 AM on November 29, 2004

Vonetta Flowers gets my vote. Colby King of the Washington Post writes:

"The thrill of watching Vonetta Flowers, the only African American woman competing at the Winter Olympics, bobsled her way with teammate Jill Bakken to a gold medal and into history was matched only by Flowers's inspiring words in victory. "If something comes out of this, I hope other races -- not just the black community" -- will take up different sports and not "just... [more]
posted to MetaFilter by Carol Anne at 7:17 AM on February 24, 2002

"MetaTalk is a discussion area for topics specific to MetaFilter itself..."
posted to MetaFilter by Carol Anne at 6:21 AM on February 24, 2002

Some statistics from the Washington State Department of Health:

"...the prevalence of adult smoking in 1997 was 23.8%. The lowest recorded level of smoking among Washington adults was 20.2% in 1995. Smoking prevalence estimates have increased during each of the past two years." As for youth, "In 1998, 4.7% of Washington’s 6th grade students reporting smoking during the past 30 days. This percentage increased to 21.8% for 10th graders and 28.6%... [more]
posted to MetaFilter by Carol Anne at 6:16 AM on February 24, 2002

"Portagee" is Hawaiian slang. Mari Matsuda, Professor, Georgetown University Law Center, writes:

"In thinking this, I remember my mother's stories of growing up on a sugar plantation on Kauai. She tells of the Portuguese luna or overseer. The luna rode on a big horse and ordered the Japanese and Filipino workers around. The luna in my mother's stories is a tragic-comic figure. He thinks he is better than the other workers, but he doesn't realize... [more]
posted to MetaFilter by Carol Anne at 5:38 AM on February 24, 2002

Lance Morrow wrote "It Bugs Me That Chuck Jones Hasn't Got a Nobel": "The gaudy fuss everyone made over the millennium may have obscured the real significance of the year 2000: It mark[ed] the 50th anniversary of the debut of the Coyote and Roadrunner. As such, 2000 represent[ed] a milestone in the career of the greatest living American, Chuck Jones...Chuck Jones' work is a bridge that carries Isaac Newton across into Chaos Theory.... [more]
posted to MetaFilter by Carol Anne at 6:56 AM on February 23, 2002

"Mrs. Yates had a history of depression after giving birth and had spent time in a hospital for it after the birth of her fourth child. Soon after her fifth child was born last spring, Mrs. Yates spent 12 days in Devereux Hospital outside Houston, where, Mr. Yates believes, she was discharged before she was well enough to leave. ...Mr. Yates believes it all comes down to medical treatment. "If she received the medical treatment that she deserved, then the kids would be alive,... [more]
posted to MetaFilter by Carol Anne at 7:49 AM on February 22, 2002

Study: [American] Nursing Homes Understaffed: "You just don't have enough time to give patients the proper care that you are required to -- to bathe them and dress them," said Jeannie Holly, a nurse at Mariner Healthcare in Huntington, W.Va. "You try to do your best, but you can spend about seven minutes on each patient before you have to move on.... [more]
posted to MetaFilter by Carol Anne at 7:35 AM on February 22, 2002

There's an extremely recent precedent: BBC Saturday, 9 February, 2002, 16:53 GMT: "Hundreds of thousands of Ethiopians have packed the streets of Addis Ababa to welcome home an ancient Ethiopian relic looted by British troops more than 130 years ago. The 400-year-old "tabot" - a replica of the Ark of the Covenant - was found in a Scottish Church in December. ...Ethiopians now say they hope that this may lead to the return of all other ancient Ethiopian relics currently... [more]
posted to MetaFilter by Carol Anne at 6:03 AM on February 22, 2002