10.01.08
Posted in D's Thoughts at 1:11 pm by pikapp44
IGLTA International Gay & Lesbian Travel Association
It’s the world’s leading travel trade association. It’s committed to growing and enhancing its members’ gay and lesbian tourism business through education, promotion and networking.
Travelers can search, contact and utilize our members around the world for all your travel needs.
Businesses can join IGTLA association and find themselves on the forefront of gay and lesbian travel.
IGTLA members offer: accommodations, airlines, car rental, cruises, travel agencies and more.
IGLTA newletter blog is the voice of the International Gay and Lesbian Travel.
www.iglta.org offers a complimentary internet link and listing hat advertises your business, location, and contact numbers. It also includes: website banner advertising opportunities, our global calendar of events, and a consumer portal to find your business.
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08.28.08
Posted in Advocate Articles, D's Thoughts, Gay Rights at 2:10 pm by pikapp44
Del Martin, who just this past June wed her partner of nearly 55 years when gay marriage was legalized in California, died Wednesday morning with her wife, Phyllis Lyon, by her side, according to the National Center for Lesbian Rights. She was 87.
In 1995, Martin and Lyon were named delegates to the White House Conference on Aging: Martin by Sen. Dianne Feinstein, and Lyon by Rep. Nancy Pelosi.
“We are greatly saddened by the passing of such an extraordinary and courageous woman,” Kathryn Kolbert, president of People for the American Way, said in a statement. ”Del Martin and her partner of 55 years, Phyllis Lyon, fought for decades to secure equal rights for all Americans regardless of sex or sexual orientation. In recognition of their legendary struggle, Del and Phyllis became the first same-sex couple to wed in California after the state supreme court mandated equal marriage rights for gay men and lesbians.
“We can see in retrospect that the ruling came just in time for Del and Phyllis to gain what they so dearly deserved — equal state legal recognition and rights for their 55 years together. It’s wonderful that the recent legal advances in California enabled such a fitting tribute.”
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08.18.08
Posted in D's Thoughts at 7:01 pm by pikapp44
A San Marcos, Texas, police officer has been accused of inappropriate behavior during a traffic stop which may have lead to a dog’s death.
Pet owners were stopped for speeding while rushing dying pet to vet.Officer Paul Stephens spotted driver Michael Gonzalez speeding down Interstate 35 and pulled him over for clocking 100 miles per hour.
After a brief pursuit, Gonzalez pulled alongside the highway and emerged from his car, saying, “He’s dying.”
“Who’s dying? Relax,” Stephens said as his cruiser’s dashboard camera captured the interaction.
“My dog,” Gonzalez said during the Aug. 5 traffic stop.
Gonzalez and his girlfriend said they were speeding because they were rushing their choking teacup poodle Missy to an emergency veterinary clinic for treatment.
But on the video, Stephens sounded less than empathetic as he berated the driver for putting others’ lives at risk as he sped down the highway.
“You’re driving down the highway at 100 per hour,” he said sternly. “It’s a dog, it’s OK. You can get another one. Relax.”
For 15 minutes, Stephens kept Gonzalez on the roadside.
“He said, ‘You need to chill out. It’s just a dog.’ And I said, ‘It’s not just a dog; it’s my family,’” Gonzalez said.
Missy died as Gonzalez waited for the Stephens to issue a citation.
Though Stephens’ supervisors found him not guilty of misconduct, they did agree he handled the situation poorly.
“His world was collapsing. And what the officer says to him, basically, is, ‘I don’t care,’” said San Marcos police department chief Howard Williams.
We feel this officer should lose his job, pay a large fine and if possible spend some much deserved time behind bars for the dog’s death.
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08.04.08
Posted in D's Thoughts at 1:18 pm by pikapp44
Oh I remember the old days of dating. Check out this funny video of two girls two girls on a date eating a hot dog and then giggling:
Lesbian Dating - Two Girls and a Hot Dog
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05.25.08
Posted in D's Thoughts at 3:49 pm by pikapp44
Seems that one of the new york gay dating sites - Pride Dating - we like was recently reviewed via video on vidilife.com. CHECK IT OUT HERE - New York Gay Dating
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05.20.08
Posted in D's Thoughts at 5:37 pm by pikapp44
The international guide to LGBT websites
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02.05.08
Posted in D's Thoughts at 3:04 pm by pikapp44
Check out PrideDating. We’ve reviewed it here before but we keep getting awesome feedback on it so we felt we should write another post on it. Besides being totally free to send messages, you can create a free gay dating profile. Just click here to signup - Pride Dating
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01.27.08
Posted in D's Thoughts at 1:45 am by pikapp44
Gay.com versus PrideDating.com? You might be surprised at the outcome…
So this is clearly David vs. Goliath. PrideDating.com, a new gay dating site versus the mighty Gay.com. Clearly gay.com wins right??? Well, maybe not – read on:
The problem with gay.com, who I personally love in many ways, is that it focuses on TOO MANY things. It does a lot of things ‘well’ but not great. So in order to make this a fair fight, let’s make it apples to apples – the gay personals of gay.com versus the gay personals of PrideDating.com.
Let me get my opinion out of the way right now – PrideDating.com is by far the clear and away winner of this contest when it comes to gaypersonals.
So let me tell you why:
First of all, the technology of Pride Dating is light years ahead of the competition. It’s new, just came out in late 2007 and is rapidly growing with new gay pesonals every day. In fact, if it was available I wouldn’t be surprised if it was called gaypersonals.com … and get this, everything is FREE. That’s right every single thing on this amazing gay dating site is free right now. You can email other gay men and gay women with no credit card required. Gay.com charges to even send messages.
Pride Dating has gay photo personal profiles that open in cool ‘ajax’ windows, a smooth instant messenger, a gaychat system and even a gay webchat recorder where you can add a gay video to your profile. It’s also got hot lists, gay photo personal tagging, and many other unique features.
So as great as gay.com is, it’s just not focused on gay personals the way PrideDating.com is. So, in my opinion, if you haven’t created a gay personal ad profile on PrideDating.com and started gay cruising, you should…or you may just miss outJ
—– David Sillerben
Author BIO
David Sillerben is an editor for Date Site Reviews, an online gay dating review site. His latest reviews include PrideDating.com – A New Gay Personals Site.
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01.17.08
Posted in D's Thoughts, E's Thoughts at 1:49 pm by pikapp44
Pink Banana World is a new GLBT website that’s the best. It offers, Blogs, Podcasts, GLBT News and lots more.
Pink Banana World focuses on the more advanced features of the Internet including blogs, social networking sites, online video and more, helping companies navigate this ever-changing world from both a mainstream and a GLBT outreach.
The company’s flagship website, PinkBananaWorld.com, and it’s companion site PinkieB.com, are new sites launching in January 2008 designed to bring the best of today’s Internet technologies and experiences to GLBT users worldwide, including integrations with Flickr.com, MySpace.com, FaceBook.com and more… integrations with a distinct gay & lesbian flair!
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11.25.07
Posted in Advocate Articles, D's Thoughts at 8:08 am by pikapp44
Some chronicle the news: the presidential race, sexual abuse scandals, gay marriage, adoption.
Others cover the flashier, more frivolous side of being gay in South Florida: entertainment, fashion, travel, circuit parties, and lots of pictures.
From the weekly newspaper to the monthly glossy magazines, niche publications targeting South Florida’s gay and lesbian community fill stands inside shops and restaurants, pile high near coffeehouse doors from South Beach to Vero Beach, and welcome tourists at guesthouses around Fort Lauderdale. In all, at least a dozen gay and lesbian print media are published and distributed around South Florida.
In the case of HotSpots Magazine, the longest-running gay and lesbian publication in South Florida, publisher and owner Jason Bell has tailored his magazine to be a weekly entertainment guide for South Florida gay and lesbian readers.
“We are not looking to write a Pulitzer Prize story. … We are not trying to be a church newsletter,” Bell said. “We are a weekly entertainment guide that the community uses to determine what they are going to do on the weekend. You’re not going to find in-depth investigations here.”
Nationally, publications like these have managed to expand their advertising revenue at almost three times the rate of most mainstream publications. The estimated total ad spending in gay and lesbian-oriented publications hit a record $223.3 million last year, up 5.2 percent from the previous year, according to the 2006 Gay Press Report, released earlier this year by Prime Access Inc. and Rivendell Media Co., a New Jersey-based media placement firm.
Todd Evans, president and CEO of Rivendell Media, attributes the growth to business savvy and the changing attitudes about gay men and lesbians in the United States.
“It’s because of the acceptance of gay people in the mainstream by companies who want to increase their sales,” Evans said. “As long as it’s not going to hurt their sales, companies want to target gay people.”
“Gays and lesbians will pay a little more for premium services, from our fashion, to the kind of cars we drive,” said Kevin Hopper, publisher of the Fort Lauderdale-based Express Gay News.
Calling itself “Florida’s leading GLBT Entertainment Magazine,” the Oakland Park-based Buzz Magazine has also seen an increase in revenue, said owner and publisher Bobby Blair, who bought the magazine in early August.
By contrast, Out on the Coast, a monthly magazine that circulates along the Treasure Coast, hasn’t seen the same ad dollars. Lee Newell, the magazine’s publisher, said the more conservative business community north of West Palm Beach worries “about advertising because they fear losing their business if they identify as gay-friendly.”
In South Beach, Carl Zablotny, owner of Wire Magazine, said he’s challenged by that city’s seasonal business.
“Ad revenue tends to drop off dramatically in summer and picks up dramatically in the winter,” Zablotny said.
Zablotny and the other publishers agree: whether they focus on weighty issues or entertainment, or whether ad dollars are up or down, the publications give gay and lesbian readers a place to find information, entertainment and a sense of community.
That advertisers target them as a community is essential, said Marc Martin, 72, of West Palm Beach. Martin, who is gay, regularly reads the Express, and has hired services like housecleaners and window washers from listings in that newspaper.
“What if the air conditioning repair man thinks a painting is inappropriate?” Martin said. “If I have a choice, sure, I’ll give my business to someone I know is not going to stone me in the town square.”
For Express, stories about politics and social issues remain the priority, but are also complemented with community profiles and features on local entertainment and night life. Ad revenue at the weekly newspaper has grown vastly since 2003, when Window Media, the nation’s largest owner of gay and lesbian newspapers, purchased the Express from founder Norm Kent.
The weekly newspaper has a staff of 17 and arguably is the newsiest of the publications. For example, on Aug. 23, the paper ran a cover story on development plans for a new community center in Fort Lauderdale, and on Aug. 16 another on the presidential candidates vying for the gay vote. The newspaper has managed to balance the pressure to publish entertainment with news, Hopper said, since Window Media also purchased the Fort Lauderdale-based 411 Magazine, which focuses solely on entertainment and lifestyle.
“We really saw a niche that there was more than beaches and bars in Fort Lauderdale,” Hopper said. “We strive to have a lot of news.”
Meanwhile, three other local publications — Latino Boys Magazine, She Magazine, and gir(L) Magazine – cater to an even smaller niche.
She Magazine and gir(L) Magazine target lesbians with coverage of health, entertainment, self-help and lesbian issues.
Tina Sordellini is one of four co-owners of She Magazine, which started as a local publication in 1999 and now also distributes in other areas of the country.
She attributes the magazine’s success to the company’s mission statement, “which is to show that the gay community is not obsessed with sex. …We’re interested in the same movies, we buy the same music, we do all the same things that the mainstream does.”
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