The Gender and Sexuality Center (GSC; formerly the Office of GLBT Concerns) at the University of Illinois-Chicago (UIC) hosted a town hall March 12 to discuss its future directions and the search for a new director. The previous director, Patrick Finnessey, left in November and Liz Thomson was appointed interim director. Thomson has been keen to engage the larger LGBTQ community with the mission of GSC.
In the Chicago area, the number of donations to the No on 8 campaign (to defeat the Proposition) far outnumbered contributions to support. As it turns out, this reflects the national trend. According to Advocate.com, opponents of Proposition 8 raised about $43.3 million while the measure’s backers amassed $39.9 million.
On Thursday, March 5, the California Supreme Court began hearing arguments about Proposition 8. Join the Impact Chicago organized a candlelight vigil on the evening of March 4 to draw attention to the issue. This was part of a nationwide series of such events designed to draw attention to what organizers feel is a critical testing point for the validity of the legislation. Similar vigils took place in cities like San Francisco; Santa Barbara, Calif.; and New York.
Gender JUST (Justice United for Societal Transformation) is a Chicago grassroots organization. In recent months, the group has been working on what it describes as the problems of heterosexism and violence against LGBTQA students in Chicago’s public schools. On March 4, Gender JUST hand-delivered a letter to Ron Huberman, the new Chicago Public Schools (CPS) chief, asking him to attend a public forum convened by the group.
When AT&T unveiled its U-Verse television programming service, the company waxed about the new technology that allows subscribers to access 320 channels. Recently, however, the company has come under fire for limiting access to public-access programming. The Illinois chapter of the National Association of Telecommunications Officers (NATOA) and CAN TV (Community Access Television) have joined a nationwide coalition to file a petition with the Federal Communications Commission (FCC). On its Web site, NATOA says that customers of “AT&T … can’t switch between commercial and PEG channels, set a DVR to record a PEG program, or depend on getting timely local emergency alerts. AT&T’s system deprives PEG channels of basic capabilities such as closed captioning.”
The passage of the anti-same-sex-marriage measure Proposition 8 in California created a furor in the LGBT community. Across the country, both groups and individuals have rallied at large protests and actions to show their support for overturning the measure. Anti-Prop 8 work has relied on the tools of Web-based technology and social-networking sites like Facebook and Twitter. These tools don’t just allow quick and easy ways to mobilize large numbers of people at protests; they also make it easy to disseminate information about events and the supporters of Prop 8.
