Catching up with Gay Former Senator Barrios

It’s been a little over a year since Jarrett Barrios, the first openly gay man to win election to the state Senate, left Beacon Hill to head the Blue Cross Blue Shield of Massachusetts Foundation, the healthcare philanthropy that was a driving force behind the enactment of the state’s landmark health insurance reform law. For those of you wondering what he’s been up to since he left the political stage, we recently did a quick catch-up with Barrios and got the scoop.

For one thing, the man who was a leader on LGBT issues in the legislature has managed to continue that advocacy in his new post by working with BCBSF board chair Phil Johnston to expand the criteria for the administration of the foundation’s grants so that healthcare disparities within the LGBT community can be researched and remedied. “It’s a lot less dramatic than gay marriage,” said Barrios, who served a total of nine years in the legislature, first as a state representative and later in the Senate.

Read the rest at baywindows.com.

Tennessee Blogger and Podcaster to Cover DNC

This year’s presidential race is opening up more and more opportunities for bloggers. The national progressive blog Daily Kos along with the Colorado’s largest progressive group Progress Now, GOOGLE & others are sponsoring a 9,000 sq. foot two story facility for journalist, bloggers and new media content producers to work out of.

There will be a Digg Stage with prominent national leaders, as well as a Google Retreat with a YouTube kiosk where bloggers can make their own YouTube videos. The Big Tent will be open throughout the Democratic National Convention, Aug. 25- 28. The facility will be located steps away from the Pepsi Center which will play host to the 2008 Democratic Convention. In addition to live feeds from the convention floor, high speed internet access, food & beverages and entertainment, the big tent will also host daily discussion panels featuring some of the top progressive leaders in the country.

Middle Tennessee new media producer Valerie Reynolds host of AVALON FARMCAST & AVALONFARMBLOG will be covering GLBT news from the convention including interviews with Tennessee’s first transgender Delegate Marisa Richmond, members of Denver’s Gay & Lesbian Center and HRC’s Premier Convention event: Rock the Vote, a concert featuring Melissa Ethridge, Cindy Lauper and others yet to be announced.

A former Florida radio & TV professional Ms. Reynold’s is also a graduate of M.T.S.U’s mass communications program. She produced and hosted Nashville’s Gay TV on community access TV for 5 years and in Nashville is perhaps best known as a singer/songwriter. She performed regionally with her 5 peace blues band : The d Cactus Blues Band in the 90’s and received a Grammy nomination for her CD GOOD WOMAN BLUES in 1995. Reynolds currently is in post production on a documentary about Nashville’s 1960’s R&B music scene that included a guitarist yet to be known as Jimi Hendrix. During the upcoming convention, Her blog entries may be accessed at avalonfamblog.wordpress.com with additional guest blog entries at Tennessee Equality Project’s (TEP) new blog, grand-divisions.blogspot.com. Her podcasts will be at avalonfarmcast.com and on itunes (AVALON FARMCAST) and her videos from Denver can be downloaded at youtube.com/avalonfarms.

You can also help send GLBT bloggers to Denver by making a contribution here.

GLBT Ally Tubbs-Jones in Critical Condition

According to ontopmagazine.com, Ohio Rep. Stephanie Tubbs Jones, the first African-American woman to represent Ohio in Congress and a GLBT ally, remains in critical condition in an East Cleveland, OH hospital after suffering an aneurysm last night.

Officials say the Congresswoman collapsed while driving in the suburb of Cleveland Heights Tuesday night and was taken to Huron Hospital in nearby East Cleveland.

At an afternoon press conference today, Dr. A. Gus Kious said she had suffered a “very serious brain hemorrhage caused by an aneurysm that burst in an inaccessible part of her brain.”

“This morning, a team of medical doctors and neurosurgeons from Huron Hospital and Cleveland Clinic evaluated her medical condition and determined that she has very limited brain function.” he said.

Tubbs Jones, a rising Democratic star who has served five House terms and is expected to win her sixth, is a long-time GLBT ally. She is a co-sponsor of Rep. Ellen Tauscher’s Military Readiness Enhancement Act aimed at repeal of the military’s ban on gays & lesbians serving openly and she scores high on the Human Rights Campaign GLBT index.

The Cleveland Plain-Dealer reported the Congresswoman had died, but now says she is in critical condition.

Obama Campaign Reaches Out to GLBT Press

The campaign of presumptive Democratic nominee Barack Obama is stressing the Illinois senator’s strong support for passage of the Matthew Shepard Act, which would expand the federal definition of hate crimes to include crimes motivated by a victim’s sexual orientation or gender identity and/or expression.

The brother of one victim of a hate crime spoke Monday during a telephone conference call from the Obama campaign to reporters from the gay press.

Damien Skipper said that in March last year he received a call he never wanted to get. He was told that his 25-year-old brother, Ryan, was dead.

“Ryan was stabbed over 20 times, his throat was slit. His body was dumped on a dirt road,” Damien said. “I think everyone can relate to the tragedy and how difficult it is to lose a loved one. Now imagine how we lost him.”

Two men have been arrested and charged with Ryan Skipper’s death. Skipper was killed March 14, 2007, and the accused killers are expected to go to trial in the next six months. They allegedly told investigators from the Polk County Sheriff’s Department in Florida that they killed Skipper because he was gay.

“I think most Americans would be shocked and appalled if they knew how often attacks like this happen,” Damien told the call. He said that after getting the news of his brother’s death, he spent time digging up the statistics on anti-gay bias crimes, and that while they were hard to find, they were “appalling.”

Obama agrees that the statistics about anti-gay bias crimes are overwhelming, and as a result, he got Rep. John Conyers, chair of the House Judiciary Committee, as well as Matt Nosanchuk, convener of the Obama for America LGBT Steering and Policy Committee, to tout his record and support for passage of hate crimes legislation.

The Matthew Shepard Act has run into roadblocks since passing the House in April. But Nosanchuk said that will change with an Obama presidency.

Read the rest at michiganmessenger.com.

GLBT Community Making a Mark at the DNC

The Gay, Lesbian, Bisexual, and Transgender (GLBT) Community will be well-represented at the Democratic National Convention and many GLBT Leaders and Organizations will play a role in convention events.

There will be a ground-breaking number of GLBT delegates at this year’s convention. The Stonewall Democrats estimate that When final number counts are released in Denver, more than 350 GLBT participants will attend the convention. This represents approximately 6% of total convention attendees and is 27% increase from the 282 LGBT participants who attended the Democratic National Convention in Boston in 2004.

The Stonewall Democrats National Convention will be held the weekend of August 21-24 prior to the Democratic National Convention.

Openly gay U.S. Rep. Barney Frank, along with the Gay & Lesbian Victory Fund and The Human Rights Campaign will host a GLBT Delegate Lunch at the Convention. Guests will include another openly gay U.S. Rep. Tammy Baldwin, who will also speak at the Democratic National Convention on Tuesday night.