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Burlesque marshmallow man, via The Candy Pitch
* Seventy-five-year-old Mamie “Peanut” Johnson, the “first and only woman to pitch in the Negro American League,” is set to be commemorated with her own field in Northeast D.C.
* The National Area Woman’s Foundation doles out some advice to the new cast of “Real Housewives of D.C.” “Since I moved to Washington, D.C., I have been incredibly impressed by the number of intelligent, genuine, caring, friendly and strong women I’ve met,” writes Mariah Craven. “Those women will not be on the ‘Real Housewives of DC.’”
* The Washington Blade factors heavily into the Village Voice’s story on the “death rattle” of gay print media:
Making things even harder for gay media—new and old—is the not-unpleasant problem of continuous and thorough examination of LGBT issues in big media like The New York Times, the Washington Post, and the Voice. Their coverage threatens to make already-threatened gay community weeklies, with their much more limited resources, redundant. Consider this: The photo that caught notorious professional homophobe George Alan Rekers with a male escort at an airport two months ago wasn’t taken for a gay paper, but for the Voice’s sister paper, Miami New Times.
It’s true that LGBT news has gone mainstream, but it’s a bit odd for the Voice to lump itself and Miami New Times together with such “big media” dailies as The New York Times and the Washington Post. The Miami New Times, like the gay papers that the Voice declares as dying, is a weekly with limited resources and an equally uncertain future.
* Metro Weekly profiles a “model blood donor” who is ineligible to donate because he has sex with men. Says Lee Storrow: “I think it’s powerful that I am someone who … would have been a lifetime donor—-and could potentially be a lifetime donor—-but isn’t eligible because of this policy.”
* LGBT activist Peter Rosenstein on why he’s not voting for Adrian Fenty:
Candidate Fenty promised support for marriage equality but Mayor Fenty never spoke up for it. He didn’t testify for it or allow his director of the Office of GLBT Affairs to do so. Compare that to the advocacy of mayors like Gavin Newsom and now even Michael Bloomberg and it really comes up short. He did sign a veto-proof bill and held a signing ceremony to be in on the celebration. He did sign a veto-proof bill and held a signing ceremony to be in on the celebration.
Candidate Fenty promised to fight against hate crimes. Mayor Fenty never even managed to get the words hate crimes out of his mouth. He refused to meet with the community at-large even though these crimes have been increasing. Candidate Fenty promised to hold a GLBT Economic Summit. Mayor Fenty refused to make this an event of the mayor’s office and has never found time to attend one. Candidate Fenty promised to take the message of fighting HIV/AIDS to the community, including the faith community. Mayor Fenty has never spoken to a faith-based group about HIV/AIDS.
Rick Rosendall‘s take: “This is too long, too one-sided, and too much about Peter Rosenstein.”