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RELATED: According to rumors circulating on Twitter this afternoon, President Obama will not endorse marriage equality at tonight's LGBT fundraiser in Manhattan.
With a demand that the president complete his "evolution" on same-sex marriage, tonight GetEQUAL will stage a protest at an Obama reelection fundraiser in Manhattan.
Or tried to, anyway. I think this whole "glitter-bomb" thing is expired, folks. Mildly interesting the first couple of times, not so much anymore.
Mike Rogers is at the podium kicking off today's Netroots 2011 LGBT Conference. In the room: Pam Spaulding, Jeremy Hooper, Michael Crawford, Rod McCullom, Jillian Weiss, Jarrod Chlapowski, Jerame Davis, Fred Sainz, Corey Johnston, Chris Johnson, Phil Reese, and about 100 more hard-working LGBT activists.
The U.S. State Department has issued a letter condemning the arrests of gay activists in Moscow over the weekend.
STATEMENT BY MARK TONER, DEPUTY SPOKESPERSON
Concern about Freedom of Assembly in Russia
We note with concern that in Moscow on Saturday, May 28, a peaceable demonstration of Russians advocating for the rights of gays and lesbians, joined by international supporters, was forcefully disrupted by counter-protesters, and that Russian security forces then detained people from both groups, including American citizens. Some protestors were seriously injured according to media reports.
Freedom of assembly is a fundamental right all members of the OSCE committed to, including in the Moscow declaration and as recently as the Astana summit. As nationwide legislative elections approach, constraints on the ability of Russian citizens peacefully to gather and express their views will be closely watched in evaluating the integrity of the electoral process. We call on Russian authorities to work with municipal officials to find better ways to safeguard these fundamental freedoms.
"We witnessed a high level of fraternisation and collusion between neo-Nazis and the Moscow police. I saw neo-Nazis leave and re-enter police buses parked on Tverskaya Street by City Hall. Our suspicion is that many of the neo-Nazis were actually plainclothes police officers, who did to us what their uniformed colleagues dared not do in front of the world’s media. Either that, or the police were actively facilitating the right-wing extremists with transport to the protest.
"During the Second World War, Mucovites stood against the Nazis. Now the Mayor of Moscow is colluding with neo-Nazis. He gave the neo-Nazi groups permission to stage a protest calling for violence against gay people, while denying Moscow Gay Pride a permit to rally for gay equality." - Famed British activist Peter Tatchell, reporting from yesterday's demonstration in Moscow.
UK Gay News is running a live blog from the pride protest in Moscow. Here are the latest entries at this writing:
14:00. Andy Thayer is confirmed as having been arrested, along with Dan Choi and Louis-Georges Tin, Anna and three other Russian gay activists.
13:40. Report just in that four Russians participats in Pride have been arrested outside Moscow City Hall.
13:31. Dan Choi and Louis-Georges Tin both confirmed as having been arrested.
13:29. "All participants of Moscow Pride at Alexandrovski Gardens was been "brutally arrested", Chad Meacham has just reported. The arrest were made as participants arrived at the Gardens. One person, Louis-Geroges Tin was allowed to give an iterview with the world's TV and press. No names of those arrested are not known, apart from Anna.
Shortly after the failure of Maryland's marriage equality bill and a gender identity measure, Equality Maryland is facing shutdown over financial problems. Chris Geidner reports at Metro Weekly:
Equality Maryland could shut down operations at the end of June if it does not collect $20,000 to $25,000 in donations to cover operating expenses, according to members of the statewide LGBT-advocacy organization's board. Those expenses include rent for its Baltimore office headquarters, as well as salary for current staff. Equality Maryland has two full-time staff members, while interim Executive Director Lynne Bowman earns roughly $7,000 per month, employed as an independent contractor. Charles Butler, board president of Equality Maryland Inc., the lobbying arm of Equality Maryland, says the organization had ''gotten away from engaging the community as far as fundraising goes to cover operating costs'' under past leadership.Yesterday Equality Maryland issued a plea for donations.
A website has been already been launched to fight Minnesota's 2012 ballot referendum to install a constitutional ban on same-sex marriage.
"There are gay organizations with multi-million-dollar budgets, and none of them can seem to scrounge up an executive director who can string a few persuasive lines together and win an argument on basic cable. Why is that every time someone from the Human Rights Campaign is on TV, you just know that we already lost the fight? Whatever the argument is, whatever the question is, it’s over. Some people will say to me, 'Who made you spokesperson?' You know what? Nobody. I’m a spokesperson by default." - Dan Savage, who says he's "appalled" with his role as the go-to gay on television news.
Erica Diaz, NY Sen. Ruben Diaz' openly lesbian 22 year-old granddaughter and a victim of DADT, held a press conference across from the Bronx Courthouse this afternoon shortly before the hate marchers arrived. Reading from her iPhone, Erica denounced the fact that she is denied the right to marry her girlfriend, with whom she posed for the cameras shortly after her statement. However at the end of the rally, Sen. Diaz brought Erica up onto the stage for some uncomfortable hugging as he boasted that he really truly loves all the gay members of his family. (The elder Diaz also has two gay brothers.) The crowd went wild. Those of us in the press area cringed at this entire scene, which we all agreed was a PR win for the haters. Erica then returned to the counter-protesters area across the square, which this year was populated primarily by young Latinas. Fewer than 50-60 counter-protesters turned up in all. 
Village Voice reporter Steven Thrasher just texted me the above photo of Queer Rising's fun with a Ruben Diaz standee at the AIDS Walk. I'll see some of you folks in the Bronx shortly.
A peaceful rally against homophobia was ruined in Adelaide, Australia yesterday when a Christianist hate group unexpected showed up to shout anti-gay epithets and generally disrupt the event.
About 200 people gathered outside parliament today to rally in support of International Day Against Homophobia and Transphobia when members of the Adelaide Street Church showed up. Rally organiser Jason Virgo said one woman was pushed out of her wheelchair and police had to be called. "A small number of right-wing Christians came out and started waving their flags and getting in people's faces, yelling quite loudly, some of them got in a bit of a fight," Mr Virgo said. "(They had) signs saying 'God hates sinners' ... no sign should say 'God hates'. "It's an International Day Against Homophobia and for them to come to us and come to our rally and say things which we find homophobic, it's disrespectful. "We would never go to their church and disrupt things the way they did today."
