Give Your Best Ideas & Get Funded: Knight Arts Challenge has March 4 deadline

From the Knight Arts Challenge/Miami:

South Floridians can submit their ideas for the Knight Arts Challenge, a community-wide contest funding cultural projects that engage and enrich Greater Miami. The deadline is March 4.

In each application, reviewers look for two key attributes: artistic excellence and ways the project will engage the public. Anyone can apply. The process is easy, with just three rules:  Projects must be about the arts, take place in or benefit South Florida and match Knight’s funding.

The challenge is a project of the John S. and James L. Knight Foundation, which has invested more than $86 million over the past six years in both arts institutions and grassroots projects as a way to weave culture into people’s everyday lives. Because of the challenge's success, Knight Foundation recently renewed the contest through 2015.

“We’re looking for the best ideas - truly Miami ideas - that help bring art to our neighborhoods and make culture ubiquitous in South Florida,” said Dennis Scholl, Knight Foundation’s vice president/arts. “In a truly creative town like ours, we see the challenge as a chance for everybody to participate, to dream, and ultimately see their ideas through to reality.”

Financial advisor Darcy Beeman, marketing manager Lee Rubin appointed to Our Fund board

News release from Our Fund:

Fort Lauderdale, FL (February 18, 2013) – Our Fund, South Florida’s only LGBT community foundation, is pleased to announce the appointment of Darcy Beeman and Lee Rubin as new board members. Ms. Beeman and Mr. Rubin are both well known in South Florida’s LGBT community and bring to Our Fund extensive experience in business and community involvement.

Darcy Beeman, a principal with Edward Jones, began her career as a financial advisor for them in 2000, opening a branch office and building a successful business in Fort Lauderdale. Since 2008, she serves as a regional leader for an area in Southeast Florida where she supports and guides over 60 financial advisors. Before joining Edward Jones, Ms Beeman worked for Hormel Foods for 10 years in sales and management, including serving as manager of international management for Mexico and Central America.

She is an active member of her community and currently serves on the Board of Directors of Kick for Life. She is also involved with the Greater Fort Lauderdale Chamber of Commerce, where she is past Chair of the Beach Council and received the 2004 Salute to Business Award. In addition, she is a past board member of the Sunshine Community Foundation, Pride Center and past president of the Business and Professional Group.

Lee Rubin has a B.A. in Organizational Psychology from George Washington University and more than 20 years experience in sales and marketing management at technology companies including Savvis, Digex, and France Telecom. He currently is Global Reference Program Manager at Citrix.

Mr. Rubin has always been at the forefront of National LGBT rights movement. In 2009, he was elected co-chair of the National Gay and Lesbian Task Force Foundation and in 2010 was appointed Chair of the National Gay and Lesbian Task Force's 401c3 Action Fund Board of Directors and currently serves as Development Co-Chair for the Pride Center of South Florida. Mr. Rubin was also on the National Board of Governors of the Human Rights Campaign (HRC). He is an avid social media devotee and recently relocated to South Florida from Washington, DC with his longtime partner, Jim Walker, a member of the board of directors of The Pride Center of South Florida.

“We are delighted to have Darcy and Lee join the board and help us as we expand our mission throughout South Florida” Anthony Timiraos, CEO/President of Our Fund. “Their business backgrounds, non-profit experience, networks and talents will continue to strengthen our Foundation to benefit current and future LGBT generations”.
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Our Fund’s mission is to promote a culture of philanthropy by uniting donors with organizations supporting the LGBT community. Focused on expanding philanthropy in South Florida and working to develop stronger non-profit organizations, South Florida’s only LGBT community foundation has been established to help build endowments that support donor’s charitable interests including organizations providing services throughout the LGBT community.

Videos | Boston frat brothers raise money for trans prospective member's FTM top surgery

On the web at indiegogo.com:

Brothers of a Frat in Boston are raising $ for our prospective brother to receive top surgery. He was denied funds from insurance; we are looking to cover cost.

So far, with 40 days left, they've raised nearly $8,000.

Click here to read more at Out.com.

Under pressure from the ACLU, Connecticut school OKs anti-gay shirt worn by student

ASSOCIATED PRESS

WOLCOTT, Conn. -- Officials in a Connecticut school district have backed down in a fight over free speech rights, allowing a student to wear a T-shirt bearing an anti-gay message.

The lawyer for the school district this month wrote to the American Civil Liberties Union of Connecticut, saying Wolcott High School student Seth Groody may wear the T-shirt, which bears a slash mark through a rainbow. The other side showed a male and female stick figure holding hands above the message "Excessive Speech Day," the ACLU of Connecticut said.

The ACLU said Groody wore the shirt April 20, which was designated as a day of awareness of harassment toward gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender people.

Groody complied with an order from a school administrator that he remove his shirt and replace it with one depicting a Wolcott High School symbol, the ACLU said.

Sandra Staub, legal director of the ACLU of Connecticut, said the district's reversal teaches students that the First Amendment "is not merely a theoretical discussion topic but a real and vital guarantee" of free speech rights.

The ACLU prepared a lawsuit to be filed in federal court demanding that the school district be stopped from enforcing its T-shirt ban and that no disciplinary measures be taken against Groody.

Without elaborating, school lawyer Christine Chinni wrote to the ACLU on Feb. 14, saying Groody may wear the T-shirt. She did not return a call seeking comment.

Edward Groody, Seth's father, referred questions to the ACLU.

The ACLU disagrees "very strongly" with Seth's views on gay rights, but its opinion has no bearing on his right to express those views, Staub said.

Gallery | South Florida Gay News celebrates third anniversary with party in Fort Lauderdale

Attorney Norm Kent, publisher of South Florida Gay News, on Monday celebrated the paper's third anniversary with a party at J. Mark's restaurant in Fort Lauderdale. Dozens of friends and fans joined Kent, including Boardwalk owner Victor Zepka and Sean David of Johnny's.

Kent also has just been elected national board chairman of NORML, the group seeking to legalize marijuana in the United States.

Click here to view more photos from the SFGN party. Photos by STEVE ROTHAUS / Miami Herald Staff.

Republicans sign brief in support of gay marriage, reports The New York Times

The New York Times on Tuesday reports that at least 75 influential Republicans, including U.S. Rep. Ileana Ros-Lehtinen of Miami (the first House Republican to co-sponsor a law to repeal DOMA, the Defense of Marriage Act), have signed a legal brief declaring that gay couples should be able to marry:

The document will be submitted this week to the Supreme Court in support of a suit seeking to strike down Proposition 8, a California ballot initiative barring same-sex marriage, and all similar bans. The court will hear back-to-back arguments next month in that case and another pivotal gay rights case that challenges the 1996 federal Defense of Marriage Act.

Click here to read the complete NYT article.

Here's reaction from HRC, Human Rights Campaign:

Washington - As the New York Times reported last night, a number of prominent Republicans have signed an amicus brief with the U.S. Supreme Court in Hollingsworth v. Perry supporting the freedom for gay and lesbian couples to marry. The following is a statement by Chad Griffin, president of the Human Rights Campaign.

“There's nothing partisan about standing up for American values like freedom, liberty, and equality. We're proud to have these prominent Republicans join Ted Olson in supporting a freedom-based Constitutional argument for equality. None of us--Democrat, Republican or Independent--would want to be told that we can't marry the person we love, and these signatories are blazing the trail for the next generation of fair-minded Republicans still to come. "

Perry has been found unconstitutional by the Federal District Court and the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals because it violates our nation’s fundamental concepts of liberty and equal treatment under the law.  The Supreme Court is scheduled to hear oral arguments in the case on March 26.

From Freedom to Marry:

Washington, DC -- Current and former Republican officials announced their participation in an amicus brief in the Hollingsworth v. Perry case today, speaking out in support of the freedom to marry. The case, now before the U.S. Supreme Court, challenges California's Proposition 8, a constitutional amendment pushed through by anti-gay activists in 2008 to strip same-sex couples of the freedom to marry in California.

Evan Wolfson, founder and president of Freedom to Marry, released this statement:

"A who's who of the Republican Party has come before the Supreme Court to affirm that support for the freedom to marry is a mainstream position that reflects American values of freedom, family, and fairness, as well as conservative values of limited government and personal responsibility. As opposition to the freedom to marry becomes increasingly isolated and the exclusion from marriage increasingly indefensible, Americans all across the political spectrum are saying it's time to end marriage discrimination, do right by families, and get our country on the right side of history."

Oscars videos | Double Divas: Shirley Bassey, Barbra Streisand sing at Academy Awards

Two highlights of Sunday's 2013 Academy Awards ceremony:

Shirley Bassey sings Goldfinger. Robyn Beck / AFP / Getty Images. Click here to watch video.

Barbra Streisand sings The Way We Were in tribute to late composer Marvin Hamlisch. Kevin Winter / Getty Images. Click here to watch video.

Video | Go-go dancer helps subdue man wielding ax at Phoenix gay bar

From FOX10 in Phoenix:

A go-go dancer at a Phoenix gay bar helped subdue an unruly bar patron on Feb. 17.

PolitiFact Florida: Do places with domestic partnerships have fewer marriages?

"In other jurisdictions where (a domestic partnership registry) has been enacted, we have seen that fewer people enter into marriage."

-- Florida Conference of Catholic Bishops on Tuesday, February 19th, 2013, in a committee hearing on domestic partnerships

The Truth-O-Meter Says: Mostly False

Click here to read the complete article.

Video | Seth MacFarlane and Gay Men's Chorus of Los Angeles at the Oscars: 'We Saw Your Boobs'

Depending on who you ask, a highlight of Sunday's Oscars: Seth MacFarlane and the Gay Men's Chorus of Los Angeles sing 'We Saw Your Boobs.'

Click here to watch.