LGBT

Obama campaign manager Jim Messina sent out a message marking the end of Don’t Ask Don’t Tell.

Gay men and lesbians in the military no longer have to hide who they are, and the service members who were discharged under this policy can re-enlist.

This is one of the administration's signature achievements. Countless Americans fought hard to end this law over the course of nearly two decades, and President Obama is proud to have signed the repeal.

But today's news isn't just a policy promise kept -- it's a personal promise kept to the thousands of people who needed and deserved this change.

The campaign also sent out a video highlighting members of the armed forces who can now live openly under this change in policy.

PROMO, Missouri's leading LGBT equality advocacy organization, is currently working to raise money for their work in an online fundraising contest called Pepsi Refresh Everything.   Participating organizations have already won $1M so far, and the PROMO Fund is joining the effort.   To participate and vote for PROMO, supporters can click here.   Supporters who would like daily reminders for voting can sign up with The Progressive Slate here.    

Here's the message from PROMO to supporters:

We're asking that you sign-up to be a daily voter http://www.theprogressiveslate.com/january/signup.php?name=promofund for the PROMO Fund in January.

As a daily voter, you'll receive a short email each morning in the month of January with a link where you can go and cast 10 votes each day for all the organizations on the Progressive Slate (that's what we're calling all of our groups working together).

The contest runs through January and we'll know by the end of the month whether we won or not.

Originally posted at St. Louis Activist Hub.

Shortly after the recent Tea Party convention in Nashville Tennessee, a new group emerged in St. Louis dedicated to fighting against funding for public transportation in the St. Louis region. The misleadingly titled "Citizens for Better Transit" (CBT) was publicly represented by spokesperson John Burns, a relative newcomer to St. Louis politics. Despite the fact that Burns had no particular credibility and was using wildly misleading talking points (which I'll have to discuss at a different time), the local media has been quite willing to treat him as the spokesperson for a legitimate group and to provide him with equal airtime to the pro-transit campaign. In this post and the following, I want to examine the recent political activities of John Burns characterized by the blatant use of misinformation, sketchy connections, and contempt for the LGBT community.