he Democratic leader in the Iowa Senate is becoming a bit of a worldwide celebrity as people around the globe listen to his speech on marriage equity.

Video of Sen. Mike Gronstal’s speech Monday had attracted over 65,000 hits on YouTube as of Wednesday afternoon. It was the 10th most viewed YouTube video worldwide, edging out “SpongeBob Burger King” and highlights from the Michigan State vs. North Carolina men’s college basketball championship game. It was still behind a video of Eminem with a Sarah Palin look-alike, though.

Staff said e-mails from around the world have arrived at the Statehouse to thank Gronstal, who some bloggers have hailed as a “hero.” BBC Radio interviewed him Wednesday.

“He is a cult hero as it relates to this change,” said Sen. Matt McCoy, a Democrat who is openly gay. “He’s Iowa’s own version of Harvey Milk. He’s instilling hope and pride and happiness in a community that’s been out wandering in the desert for a long time.”

On Monday, Gronstal told fellow senators he will not bring up legislation this session that would help reverse the Iowa Supreme Court’s decision to legalize gay marriage – and explained why. Gronstal can single-handedly block debate of legislation in the Senate.

Meanwhile, a speech by Senate Republican leader Paul McKinley of Chariton, calling for Gronstal to stop obstructing Iowans’ chance to vote on gay marriage, had racked up only about 700 hits on YouTube.

 See Gronstal marriage speech is a big draw on youtube DesMoinesRegister.com

he Democratic leader in the Iowa Senate is becoming a bit of a worldwide celebrity as people around the globe listen to his speech on marriage equity.

Video of Sen. Mike Gronstal’s speech Monday had attracted over 65,000 hits on YouTube as of Wednesday afternoon. It was the 10th most viewed YouTube video worldwide, edging out “SpongeBob Burger King” and highlights from the Michigan State vs. North Carolina men’s college basketball championship game. It was still behind a video of Eminem with a Sarah Palin look-alike, though.

Staff said e-mails from around the world have arrived at the Statehouse to thank Gronstal, who some bloggers have hailed as a “hero.” BBC Radio interviewed him Wednesday.

“He is a cult hero as it relates to this change,” said Sen. Matt McCoy, a Democrat who is openly gay. “He’s Iowa’s own version of Harvey Milk. He’s instilling hope and pride and happiness in a community that’s been out wandering in the desert for a long time.”

On Monday, Gronstal told fellow senators he will not bring up legislation this session that would help reverse the Iowa Supreme Court’s decision to legalize gay marriage – and explained why. Gronstal can single-handedly block debate of legislation in the Senate.

Meanwhile, a speech by Senate Republican leader Paul McKinley of Chariton, calling for Gronstal to stop obstructing Iowans’ chance to vote on gay marriage, had racked up only about 700 hits on YouTube.

 See Gronstal marriage speech is a big draw on youtube DesMoinesRegister.com

Last month’s passage of California’s Proposition 8, which banned same-sex marriage, unleashed anger among gay and lesbian Americans. One target: Marriott Corp., mostly because the company’s founding family and current CEO, Bill Marriott, are members of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Days Saints.

Mormons, of course, played a crucial role in passing Prop 8. News reports say that half of the $40 million spent to support Prop 8 came from LDS members, who also canvassed neighborhoods and staffed phone banks. This is ironic, at the very least, as Hendrik Hertzberg noted in The New Yorker:

You might think that an organization that for most of the first of its not yet two centuries of existence was the world’s most notorious proponent of startlingly unconventional forms of wedded bliss would be a little reticent about issuing orders to the rest of humanity specifying exactly who should be legally entitled to marry whom But no.

But why go after Marriott? According to my friend Bob Witeck, who runs a consulting firm called Witeck-Combs that specializes in gay issues and advises Marriott, neither Bill Marriott nor members of his immediate family donated to the campaign on behalf of Prop 8. What’s more (and this is undisputed), Marriott as an employer has an exemplary record around diversity in general and LGBT employees in particular. It gets a 100% rating in the Corporate Equality Index, an annual survey of corporate practices done by the Human Rights Campaign, an LGBT advocacy group. The HRC’s inaugural gala next month will be held at the Mayflower Hotel, a Marriott property in Washington. GLAAD, an activist group that focuses on the media portrayals of gays, has held its awards ceremony at Manhattan’s Marriott Marquis.

So it would appear that the Marriott Corp. is under fire only because the family belongs to the Mormon church. Bob Witeck says this is unfair. “Their policies and practices have been good for a long time,” he told me. “This notion of targeting people because of their faith is deeply troubling.”

At first, I agreed. Anti-Mormon bias is no less troubling that anti-gay bias. Then I saw Milk, the wonderful new movie about the life of Harvey Milk, the first openly gay man elected to public office in America. Part of it is about a notorious California ballot proposal to ban gay teachers from schools that was defeated in the 1970s. Milk argues, persuasively, that singling out gays and lesbians for discrimination in any way, shape or form is simply un-American.

The broad issue raised by the backlash against Marriott is this: What role should CEOS and big companies play when confronted with controversial issues? Certainly they make themselves heard when it comes to the issues directly affecting them, like taxes, trade, labor and environmental laws, not to mention multibillion dollar bailouts. Ought they not take a stand on social issues, too? Indeed, some do — Microsoft endorsed a gay-rights measure in the state of Washington and Procter & Gamble donated money to a gay rights group to help defeat an anti-gay law in its hometown of Cincinnati, as I wrote in a Fortune story called Queer Inc. in 20006.

Bill Marriott responded to the boycott threats last month on his blog. “Neither I, nor the company, contributed to the campaign to pass Proposition 8,” he wrote. “We embrace all people as our customers, associates, owners and franchisees regardless of race, sex, gender identity or sexual orientation.” Later, he recorded a Thanksgiving message around the diversity theme, mentioning sexual orientation. Clearly the company is worried about the gay backlash.

My guess is that Bill Marriott, who is 76 and a political conservative, has come a long way on the issue of gay rights. But for all his talk about diversity, he has yet to take a position on gay marriage or Prop 8. He has no obligation to do so, but if you believe that gay marriage is a civil rights issue, just as interracial marriage was once a civil rights issue, silence or neutrality is unacceptable. On this point, Milk the movie and Milk the activist are unequivocal. Either you’re for us or against us, Harvey Milk would have said.

 See Marriott and Milk
Huffington Post – New York,NY,USA

West Hollywood, California  - Reacting to the exclusive cyber town hall run by the No On 8 campaign a fortnight ago, to which access was limited to non-Apple platform users and those with high speed Internet connections, grassroots activists gathered at West Hollywood Auditorium on Sunday for a traditional town hall meeting on the loss of the No On 8 campaign.

Most of the voices heard expressed frustration and/or anger at what they called the insular and inept leadership of the campaign.

Organized by Robin Tyler, one of the plaintiffs in the lawsuit that won Californians the right to marry, and the organization Marriage Equality, on whose board she sits, a panel of long time activists listened to speakers and then opined themselves on the No On 8 campaign’s shortcomings.

As the meeting wore on, it became apparent that a consensus developed that the grassroots part of the movement had been used poorly, at best, and ignored completely at worst.

Prominent gay movement icon Ivy Bottini, a West Hollywood Lesbian and Gay Advisory Board member and veteran of anti-gay initiative politics, having led the successful fight against 1976’s Proposition 6, the Briggs Amendment, noted immediately that she had not even been called by the small No On 8 executive campaign committee.

 See Prop 8 Town Hall Casts Blame For Loss
WeHo News, CA

Oh, Ricky, they’re so fine.

Twins Matteo and Valentino, we mean.

Born via surrogate in August, Ricky Martin‘s 4-month-olds make their mini debut in this week’s People and People en Español, on newsstands Friday.

The Puerto Rican singer, 36, opened up to the mag about the experience.

”Being a father feels amazing. This has been the most spiritual moment in my life,” says Martin, who doesn’t use a nanny.

“I’m the one who changes the diapers, the one that feeds them, the one that bathes them, the one that puts them to sleep.”

Why a surrogate mom?

”Adoption was one option, but it’s complicated and can take a long time.” Surrogacy was “intriguing and faster.”

Some 500 gay and straight young people gathered at San Francisco’s Everett Middle School Saturday to attend the Youth Empowerment Summit 2008.

The event was designed to discuss how life is changing for gays of all ages.

Newly elected California Assembly member Tom Ammiano was among the keynote speakers.

“Someone like me who has been around for a long time really is happy to play as the torch. These young people have a lot of energy [and] they’re really sophisticated,” said Ammiano.

He says the conference focused mostly on Proposition 8, the measure that banned same-sex marriage in California.

Ammiano says the young people were also interested in his long career in San Francisco politics, and his memories of gay rights pioneer, Supervisor Harvey Milk.

 See Ammiano Inspires Gay and Straight Youth
KCBS, CA