Giving Thanks

As yesterday was Thanksgiving, my house was filled with the sweet aromas of turkey roasting in the oven, sweet potatos baking, and my grandmother's Italian Wedding Soup simmering away on the stove.  My relatives from all over the Northeast came to our house to celebrate and eat way too much (as is the tradition in many American homes), and it was a beautiful autumn day to catch up with family and enjoy some of our favorite holiday treats.

Due to the introspective, sentimental nature of the holiday, I decided to take the opportunity to think long and hard about what I was thankful for this year.  Ultimately, I came up with a list of "Ten Things I'm Thankful For," and posted each one on Facebook throughout the day.  Here is my list:

1. I’m thankful for the friends I still keep in touch with here in Westport – they keep me grounded and remind me that there is always someone behind me every step of the way. “You’re angels, all of you.”

2. I’m thankful for my hilarious, if somewhat "unique," family for giving me a warm and kind place to come home to whenever I need it most.

3. I’m thankful for the friends I made at college who made the past four years quite an adventure. I’m graduating in just a few weeks and will miss those good times.

4. I'm thankful for this delicious food - nothing beats an Italian thanksgiving. Bon appetite!

5. I'm thankful for the awesome new apartment I found right by the office with two really friendly housemates. Can't wait to move!

6. I'm thankful for Vanessa Carlton, KT Tunstall, Lady Gaga, Enya, P!nk, and so many other strong, brilliant, beautiful artists who always keep me inspired.

7. I’m thankful for getting to live my dream of working on Capitol Hill. Since 2006 I’ve wanted to work on the Hill and I can finally say I’ve achieved that goal and am enjoying every minute of it.

8. I’m thankful for all of the incredible opportunities I have had – studying in DC, trips to Disney World, a semester in London, and all of the other things that have made life special. I’m especially thankful to my parents, without whom I wouldn’t have had most of those experiences.

9. I’m thankful to God for giving me all that I have, and in particular for touching my soul this past semester and showing me the beauty of this life. As my mother said tonight, “We took a couple of hits this year, but we are lucky for all of the people sitting around this table – and so we count our blessings, and we thank God.”

10. Lastly, I’m thankful for this warm bed, and the roof over my head, and all of the things that we here take for granted – so many people will sleep on sidewalks and park benches tonight. “There but for the Grace of God I go.” Goodnight one and all, and a very happy Thanksgiving to you and yours.

What about you all out there in the blogosphere - what are you thankful for this Thanksgiving?

Speaking of things I'm thankful for, check this out: Those who know me well know that Vanessa Carlton and KT Tunstall are two of my favorite singers ever.  Well here they are, singing a duet of Carlton's new single "I Don't Want to Be a Bride."  It's almost too good to be true... but it is.

Music Break: Vanessa Carlton, "Hear the Bells"

I was wondering if my favorite artist, Vanessa Carlton, would ever release a holiday album.  Her new sound - which is simplistic yet soulful, with lots of string and the pretty melodies characteristic of all her past records - is really made for holiday music, but I never really saw it panning out.  But her new EP, "Hear the Bells," which was a surprise to even the most loyal of fans when it was announced last month, hits all the right notes for the season.

The four-track record includes covers of "Do You Hear What I Hear?" and "Happy Xmas (War is Over)," as well as acoustic versions of two of her songs, "Hear The Bells" off her newest album, "Rabbits on the Run," and "A Thousand Miles."

"Happy Xmas" is the strongest of the four, in my opinion, although Nessaholics will disagree with one another given how different they all are within the singer-songwriter genre.  It starts off very simplistically - just her and the guitar - but slowly builds to include the piano, violin, and haunting children's choir.  It's the sort of song you have to hear all the way through to really "get," but is definitely worth the price.  (You can buy the whole album, by the way, for just $4.99 on iTunes, which is an amazing deal for four songs these days.)

"Hear the Bells" was one of my least favorite tracks on ROTR, and it remains my least favorite on this album.  The pizzicato of the strings tweaks the ear in the most unpleasant of ways; while I can always appreciate a reimagining of a preexisting song, this track was definitely better the way it was.

I was disheartened to hear that "A Thousand Miles" was going to be on this album - it's just so overplayed and I feel like she's limiting herself by staying with the one song of hers that people recognize - until someone mentioned to me that this is actually the first time she's ever recorded an acoustic version of the song.  It's very interesting to see how the song is reimagined for a more minimalistic record, and unlike "Hear the Bells," this update is really successful.

Ultimately, this is not one of my favorite holiday albums - that honor would almost certainly go to Enya's "And Winter Came," but it's nice to get more music from Carlton and this music is, for the most part, a pleasant addition to your holiday playlists.

Senate Committee Passes DOMA Repeal

The Senate Judiciary Committee passed last week a bill that would repeal the "Defense of Marriage Act," the law that keeps gay couples from receiving the over 1,000 federal benefits that straight couples receive.  This in spite of Republicans' attempts to delay a vote as long as possible.

The vote was entirely along party lines, with every Democrat voting to repeal DOMA, and every Republican voting to keep it.  This just underscores how out-of-touch Republicans are, backing discrimination at a time when public opinion is on the side of justice and equality for same-sex couples.

I am proud that every Democrat on the committee, including my own senator, Richard Blumenthal, voted to repeal this discriminatory law.  While it is highly unlikely that the full Senate will take up the bill, and even less likely (read: absolutely impossible) that the Republican-controlled House will consider the bill, this is a very important victory for the LGBT community.  We showed last week that, yes, gay rights is a cause worth supporting.  Even though the victory is largely symbolic, it remains one worth celebrating.

@Unicorn Booty: Senate Committee Takes Aim at Defense of Marriage Act

My second Unicorn Booty post is now up, so head on over there and take a look.  This week, I take a look at the most recent news regarding the Defense of Marriage Act, including a Senate Committee on track to repeal the law - despite one Republican's best efforts - as well as 130 House Democrats and 70 corporations announcing formal support of a lawsuit in the First Circuit Court of Appeals challenging the constitutionality of the law.

Lots of DOMA-related news this week, so check it out.  And please feel free to comment, tweet, share, and +1 the post!

Shake That (Unicorn) Booty

I'm extremely pleased to announce that I am now writing for Unicorn Booty, one of the most widely-read gay news sites on the planet.  I will be publishing a weekly political column every Saturday/Sunday.  You can read my first column, "NH Republicans Vote To Replace Gay Marriage With Civil Unions Open to Siblings," here.

When I first started "Justifiable Anger" way, way back in 2006 - and, more pertinently, this LGBT incarnation of it in October 2010 - I never thought I would be given such a wonderful and exciting opportunity as this.  It's amazing to think about how many people will be reading to (and responding to) my words now that they have been given such a prominent platform.

What do you know, hard work pays off!

I will always link to my columns on here, so that JA readers will be able to continue reading my work.  And there will definitely continue to be original material posted on here, as well, even if it may be a little less frequent (not that I was ever as consistent as most other LGBT bloggers).

Thank you to everyone who has read my blog and encouraged me to always speak my mind, even when what I'm saying isn't necessarily popular.  You've inspired me to keep my voice raised.

Music Break: Kelly Clarkson, "Stronger"

Kelly Clarkson is a favorite of mine, and so her new album, "Stronger," was one of my most highly-anticipated releases of the year.  While I wasn't extremely impressed with the lead single, "Mr. Know It All," it was still a pretty good pop song.  "Stronger" as a whole follows in these footsteps: it's pretty good for what it is, but most of it, like the single, is nothing particularly inspired.

Most of the tracks presented here are, like "Mr. Know It All," good pop songs, but nothing that you can get really excited about.  "What Doesn't Kill You (Stronger)," "Hello," and "Don't Be a Girl About It" are examples of songs that make for good pop and which I could see getting some good radio play, but that don't have that certain je ne sais quoi that made me such a fan of Clarkson's in the first place.  It's clear throughout the album that her voice is just as powerful as ever, but there's something lacking beneath that.

Some of the songs, though, are just as good as Clarkson has ever been.  "Alone" deserves an honorable mention; it is the type of song that hooks you immediately.  Starting out sounding like something straight out of the 80's glam rock era, it develops into what can only be described as Clarkson's signature style: belted-out chorus, solid beat, and really catchy melody.  "Dark Side," "I Forgive You" and "Let Me Down" are also incredible standouts for very much the same reasons.  It's these pop-rock anthems that are really going to get fans old and new excited and sell albums.  It makes you wonder exactly why "Mr. Know It All" was chosen as the lead single.

Then again, some of the songs are just dreadful.  "Einstein" is boring and strange, with a chorus that just repeats "Dumb + dumb = you."  Yikes.  The ballads (including "Standing in Front of You" and "Breaking Your Own Heart") are uninteresting as well, which is a shame given some of the ballads she's released in the past ("Breakaway," "If No One Will Listen," and "Save You," to start, not to mention the extremely popular "Already Gone").  I'm amazed some of these boring songs made it to the final album at all, frankly, and the album as a whole would have been stronger if some of these were replaced with more compelling pieces.  As it is, this is the type of album you buy by the track, as some of the songs are must-own's and some of them just aren't worth the money.

Most of this album will not surprise anyone who knows the first thing about Clarkson: it's the same old girl-power pop that made "Behind These Hazel Eyes" and "Since U Been Gone" such huge smash-hits.  This is a good thing, and it's when Clarkson is on her A-Game in that genre that she's the most pleasing.  While most of "Stronger" doesn't live up to the standards set by her iconic anthems of the past (although some of it certainly does), Clarkson fans will still be pleased with what they find here.

United Online: Maximizing the LGBT Community's Collective Power (Part II)

This is Part II in a three-part series that will explore how the LGBT community can maximize its online presence in order to more efficiently organize, engage, and act.  In Part I, I asserted that the LGBT community is not currently functioning at maximum capacity when it comes to social media:

There is no doubt, then, that social media have removed the barriers to collective action and allowed us to exercise our Constitution-given rights more easily. But is the LGBT community harnessing these tools to the greatest extent that it can?

I will submit that it does not. The LGBT community has yet to fully realize the potential of social media, and thus is not yet operating at maximum capacity.

The problem, I wrote, is fragmentation: the LGBT community is so segmented and self-isolated in its current form that we are hindering our own ability to organize online.  This has serious implications for our ability to undertake collective actions:

When we isolate ourselves in our own blogs and side-projects, we are limiting our collective power and our potential for broad and far-reaching collective action. To maximize our social media efficiency, we must eliminate that segmentation.

I will now discuss how we can overcome this barrier and join together as a singular, unified movement, online.  My "prescription" may at first seem startling, naive, or unrealistic, but I fervently believe that it will greatly increase our ability to organize quickly and easily.  It will revolutionize the way we interact, engage, and act together as a movement and make us a true political force to be reckoned with.

If the problem we are currently facing is segmentation, then the only solution is to foster greater unity.  We need to bring the entire LGBT movement together in one place where we can discuss the issues, organize collective actions, and spark one another's creative activism. 

During the Civil Rights Movement of the 1960's, the African American community had such a meeting place: the church.  The Black Church was the anchor of their movement, acting as a physical meeting place where many of the most famous acts of non-violent civil disobedience were first crafted (Source).  Having a cultural and geographical center where the African American community could come together, air their grievances, and organize protests allowed the movement to truly flourish. 

The LGBT community does not have this sort of social center.  Yet. 

The LGBT movement really is an example of a "digital movement" - one that is primarily shaped and organized online.  Even though the Stonewall Riots occurred long before the invention of the web, LGBT advocacy as a true social movement was weaned on the internet.  Given this history - as well as the fact of how small the LGBT community is and how geographically dispersed we are - it is only appropriate that we create this sort of central hub online.  One does not yet exist, and that needs to change, for the benefit of our activism.

In the most basic of terms, what I am proposing is an LGBT mega-site where everyone in the LGBT community can come together to engage their fellow advocates, bounce ideas off one another, and organize collective actions.  There is no doubt that such an "online hub" for LGBT activism will ignite this movement and greatly increase our ability to advocate for our rights.

What would such a hub look like?  What would it offer to LGBT advocates, and how would it bring us together in a way that is currently missing from our movement's online activity?  I will now lay out some of the central, defining characteristics of this LGBT mega-site in order to give you a clearer picture as to exactly what I am proposing.

REPOST: Music Break: Lady Gaga, "Marry the Night"

Now that "Marry the Night" has been confirmed as the next single off Lady Gaga's hit album, "Born This Way," I thought I would repost my review of the song, which I wrote after it was released as a promotional single the week before the album came out.  Not much has changed for me since writing this review: I still think "Marry the Night" is altogether underwhelming, and I don't think it'll top the Billboard Charts.  In fact, I wouldn't be surprised if "Marry the Night" became Gaga's least successful single to date.  A fan favorite like "Sheisse" or even "Bloody Mary" would have been a smarter choice.

Yesterday, Lady Gaga released "Marry the Night," a new song off her third album, "Born This Way," to Farmville players, the idea being that if you completed a certain task on Farmville, you'd be able to hear the song before anyone else. Fortunately, thanks to Gaga Daily, I don't have to play that awful, awful game in order to hear a new Gaga song.

Right on the heels of "Hair," which I can tell is going to be a fan favorite (or one of mine, at least), "Marry the Night" leaves a lot to be desired: it strives to be what "Hair" was so easily, but isn't quite able to make it there. Gaga's going for another pop/rock dance anthem in the footsteps of "Bad Romance" and "Hair," but the chorus isn't catchy or big enough to sing along to, and the music isn't fun enough to dance along to. For me, it's too much electric/rock, and not enough pop/dance: she has all the right ingredients, but in all the wrong proportions.

It's possible that future listens will find me warming up to the song (for instance, I did not care much for "Judas" when I first heard it but I've come to like it a lot more), but I highly doubt "Marry the Night" would find much success if released as a real single. "Hair" would be a much better choice; heck, even "The Edge of Glory," which is certainly not as mainstream as most of her past singles, would probably fare better.

It is my understanding that "Marry the Night" is really just "album filler" (that is, one of those songs that just goes into the album but isn't really supposed to stand out), so I'm not too bent out of shape by the fact that I don't like it that much: "Hair" will definitely tide me over until the album release next week. And if not, apparently Gaga's releasing two more songs on Farmville over the next couple of days, so we're going to get a much better sense of how "Born This Way" will shape up over the course of the next week.
Check out my past Gaga reviews:
"Born This Way" (album)
"Fashion of His Love"
"Electric Chapel"
"Marry the Night"
"Hair"
"The Edge of Glory"
"Judas"
"Born This Way" (single)
"The Fame Monster"

Senate Committee Will Repeal DOMA

...that is, if it actually comes up for a vote.

Those who know Congress well know that promises get made and get broken; bills that are supposed to be marked up get pushed away as priorities shift, as elections draw near, and as new situations arise.  But the fact remains that, if the Senate Judiciary Committee votes on the "Respect for Marriage Act" - which would repeal the so-called "Defense of Marriage Act" and allow married gay couples the same federal rights as straight couples - it will have enough votes to pass.

Sen. Patrick Leahy (D-Vt.), who chairs the committee, has announced that DOMA repeal will be considered by the committee next month.  If this happens, the 18-member committee has enough votes to pass the bill; every single Democrat on the committee is a co-sponsor of the bill:

Sen. Patrick Leahy (D-Vt.)
Sen. Herb Kohl (D-Wisc.)
Sen, Dianne Feinstein (D-Calif.)
Sen. Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.)
Sen. Dick Durbin (D-Ill.)
Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse (D-R.I.)
Sen. Amy Klobuchar (D-Minn.)
Sen. Al Franken (D-Minn.)
Sen. Christopher Coons (D-Del.)
Sen. Richard Blumenthal (D-Conn.)

It would be historic for the Senate Committee to vote in favor of repealing DOMA, which has kept gay couples from being treated equally under federal law.  Doubtlessly, the Senate as a whole would not be able to pass the bill this Congress - as we would need not 51, but 60 votes to do so and currently only have 29 cosponsors - but this is an incredible and encouraging first step towards federal marriage equality.

United Online: Maximizing the LGBT Community's Collective Power (Part I)

We are living in an era in which exercising our civic duties and democratic rights is easier than ever before. With social media – including blogs, social networks (Facebook, Twitter), content-sharing sites (Flickr, YouTube), and wikis – we can connect with one another, share information, engage in important discussions, and organize collective action at almost no cost. 

As Clay Shirky writes in Here Comes Everybody, “most of the barriers to group action have collapsed” (pg. 22). The internet has, as Yohai Benkler writes in The Wealth of Networks, made it so much easier for citizens to become active participants in the public sphere – to not just passively receive information from some elite source, but to actively engage that information, discuss it with others, and act on it (pg. 212-213). 

The internet, particularly with regards to social media, has a profoundly democratizing effect because it allows us to fulfill our democratic duties – such as, as Richard Butsch puts it, to become informed and deliberate over the issues (The Citizen Audience, pg. 1, 12-13) – much more easily and cost-effectively than before. It allows us to come together, sometimes from great geographical distances, and deliberate over the issues, organize collective action, and hold our government and one another accountable – with just a few clicks of the mouse.

There is no doubt, then, that social media have removed the barriers to collective action and allowed us to exercise our Constitution-given rights more easily. But is the LGBT community harnessing these tools to the greatest extent that it can?