Log Cabin New York & Gay Marriage

On April 21st, Log Cabin Legislation Direction, Jeff Cook is quoted in The Advocate. The New York GOP is going to “allow” members to vote their conscience on the Gay Marriage Equality issue and not force a caucus vote.  BRAVO! One step closer…

Meeting with PFLAG Palatine

Lois Strzyzewski of PFLAG Palatine invited Log Cabin to speak at their April Meeting. It’s always a pleasure to reach out to other GLBT organizations. I presented to the group what Log Cabin is doing to advance the cause of equality for the GLBT community, covering the topics of DADT, Prop 8, HB 2234, etc. I promoted the idea that Log Cabin helps further GLBT friendly legislation by approaching the issues from a different perspective, that we try to look for the conservative or business friendly reason for advancing equality not just the promotion of rights for a historically disadvantaged group.

PFLAG recently hosted their “Stand up for Equality” fundraiser, and they were very grateful for our financial contribution towards the event. Log Cabin Illinois purchased a half page ad.

There was a spirited discussion on how mainstream GLBT organizations have failed the gender identity community (aka “T’s”). I have to say that I was unprepared to address the “T issue” in any real depth. It’s just not one of the issues that comes up in the course of daily business at Log Cabin Illinois. The group was very curious about how Log Cabin approaches legislation that effects the T Community, and I really had nothing to say on the issue except that, advancing the cause of equality seems quite disingenuous if we as a community continue to make short term political sacrifices by continously distancing ourselves from the less visible participants of our movement.

2009 Convention

We had several members serving as delegates to the 2009 National Convention, myself, Gregg Katz, Mark Stevens and Pete Kingma. Highlights included some great speeches from Steve Schmidt, Christy Todd Whitman and Meghan McCain.

Last year I live blogged the event, this year, not so much.  I’ll pass along more info as I get time…

A Salute to Springfield re: Transit Compromise

How many times can we say “Thank You Springfield!”

You worked hard and exacted a compromise, fabulous!  I’m just curious about what exactly was compromised? Faced with a transit budget shortfall, the legislature passed an increase in the state sales tax.  Was the compromise, downsize the CTA or pass a tax hike? That doesn’t sound like much of a compromise to me. It sounds more like shifting the problem right onto the backs of taxpayers. At least legislators dragged their feet making it at least appear as though they were really working on a solution to the budget woes of the RTA.

According to the  Chicago Tribune, about 2,400 CTA employees and 200 Pace drivers and administrative workers would have been laid off had this $560 million tax increase failed to pass.  And approximately 160 routes would have been discontinued. That’s 16.25 employees per route!  This seems like more of a gift to organized labor than it is for public transportation users.

Taxing is easy, raising taxes isn’t a compromise, it’s a cop-out.

New Drug For Hillary Clinton Syndrome

LOL

Saltwater as Fuel!

No government subsidies needed for this gasoline alternative, just good ole American ingenuity. American’s have a long history of achieving a higher standard of living without legislative or financial incentives from the American government. Sometimes that motivation falls under the auspices of “the profit motive” in other cases, its stumbling upon a solution to a problem while focusing on solving a different problem. Watch the story of how this man searched for a cure to his wife’s cancer, and possibly discovers an alternative fuel!

Rudy at Chicago Rally

Meeting Tonight!

• Regular Membership Meeting
• Red Lion Pub, 2446 N. Lincoln Ave, Upstairs (MAP)
• 7:00PM-9:00PM
• Guest Speaker – Collin Hitt – Illinois Policy Institute
  
• We’ll be discussing Charter Schools and Vouchers

Join us!

TODAY!

1. Seminar Beyond the Bible and Homosexuality: An Affirmation of Gay Christians includes lunch!

• Starts at 9am, pre-register or pay at the door.
• Center on Halsted’s Hoover-Leppen Theater, 3656 N. Halsted St., Chicago, IL
• $15 in advance (or $20 at door) INCLUDES LUNCH

2. Spirit of Lincoln Celebration

• Starts at 6:30pm
• Conact jsinovic@logcabin.org to RSVP
• $35 (dinner and drinks)
• Politicians to be honored include: Beth Coulson, Judy Baar Topinka and Mark Kirk

Problem Posting?

Some of you have had trouble posting comments to the blog…it was originally set up to require you to have a WordPress account in order to comment.  They are free and you can sign-up at wordpress.com. This was just a security measure to make sure those posting are who they say they are…

I’ve turned this functionality off, now you should be able to post comments easier, without signing up for an account.

Happy posting!