Gay Activist Michelangelo Signorile to Host DC GLBT Town Hall

by Susan Marie Kovalinsky | April 16, 2010 at 06:54 pm

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Michelangelo Signore to Host Washington, DC Emergency Summit/Town Hall on LGBT issues

Gay activist and author Michelangelo Signorile will be hosting a Leadership Town Hall meeting in Washington, DC next week which will be broadcast live nationwide on his radio program on Sirius XM and streamed online.

Signorile rose to prominence in the '90s as a gay activist, speaker, and author of advocacy books about the GLBT community and their issues and goals. He was a spearheader of the ACT UP organization, and drew fame from his 1993 book "Queer in America".

Now, during the Obama Administration, Signorile hopes to do some damage control regarding the past year and a half of losses - Proposition 8, repeal of gay marriage in Maine, and its rejection by New York and New Jersey Senates - which have left the gay community dispirited.

The event, entitled, "The Path Forward" is to facilitate debate and discussion about the critical up coming months in Washington and how gay, lesbian and transgender people feel about leadership on Capitol Hill and in the White House. Calling the event an emergency summit meeting, Signorile says the urgency comes from the fact that Democrats may lose seats in Congress, "perhaps stalling the gay rights movement for years to come.".

Speaking of the President's recent advance made regarding new rules for hospitals which expand visitation rights for same-sex couples, Signorile adds :

And he did it literally with a few strokes of a pen, writing a memo to the Health and Human Services secretary. That underscores the fact that it could have and should have been done in February of 2009. The president has said he is a "fierce advocate" for LGBT rights, after all, and anyone so committed would have done whatever he could as soon as possible.

Disappointment over stalls on DOMA, DADT, ENDA, and Gay Marriage

He continued, pointing out the fact that Gays have been a loyal constituency that has donated much to the Democrats, but are rightly disappointed by the DNC's slow pace with the repeal of "don't ask, don't tell ", passage of ENDA (the Employment Non-Discrimination Act), and repeal of the DOMA (Defense of Marriage Act).

On Signorile's panel will be:

Joe Solmonese of the Human Rights Campaign;
Mara Keisling of the National Center for Transgender Equality;
Rea Carey of the National Gayand Lesbian Task Force;
blogger and activist Pam Spaulding of PamsHouseBlend.com;
Aubrey Sarvis of Servicemembers Legal Defense Network; and
Richard Socarides, former advisor to Bill Clinton on gay rights.

Signorile points out the slow pace and conflicting messages of the Obama Administration, since the earliest hours of the Inauguration and Rick Warren controversy, which have understandably caused disappointment and even rage among many in the gay community.

On Thursday, April 22, from 2-4 ET, the LGBT town hall that will be aired across the country on Sirius 109, and XM 98, as well as online at Sirius.com.

Questions will be taken from the studio audience and from listeners on the phones.