Some of the biggest names in the LGBT and progressive blog world participated Feb. 15 in a coordinated effort to encourage the Human Rights Campaign, the largest gay rights organization in the country and a frequent object of blogger scorn, to put its heft behind efforts to repeal Don't Ask, Don't Tell.

The "blog swarm" was coordinated by John Aravosis and Joe Subday of Americablog and include LGBT bloggers and activists Pam Spaulding (Pam's House Blend), Michelangelo Signorile (Sirius OutQ & the Gist), Andy Towle (TowleRoad), Joe Jervis (Joe My God), Bil Browning (Bilerico) and Dan Savage (Slog). Also joining in are two big names in progressive blogging, Markos Moulitsas at DailyKos and Taylor Marsh at TaylorMarsh.com.

Aravosis told Mediaite that the idea for the "blog swarm" was hatched over the weekend in a conversation between Aravosis, Subday and Signorile where they were lamenting the "vacuum of leadership" and lack of momentum in Washington over the ban on gay and lesbian servicemembers.  They decided to focus on HRC because they "are the only group in town that has the power to snap their fingers and get the White House's attention.  And they clearly haven't snapped nearly enough."

In their posts, the bloggers launch a direct attack on the White House over concerns that President Obama's State of the Union pledge to eliminate the ban on gay servicemembers appears to be surrounded by chaos on Capitol Hill and the White House.  "Unfortunately, too many D.C.-based progressive groups have not challenged the Obama administration's failure to follow through on campaign promises," the bloggers say today. "They've enabled the inaction in order to maintain access. But, we've started to reach a point where allies are publicly demanding action, or promises are never kept."

Aravosis cut his activist teeth on Don't Ask, Don't Tell and has become a leading voice in using social media and the Internet for political action.  His career has included StopDrLaura.com, the first-ever successful boycott of a TV show and the outing of John Gannon--a conservative activist with White House press credentials--who allegedly worked as a gay escort.

In an email, Aravosis told Mediaite that the idea of a coordinated blog effort came from a desire for "a positive result, our civil rights" but that it also required placing "a little negative pressure on both HRC and the White House." While "blog swarms" often have a negative connotation, Aravosis said he thought the image was unfair but that he believed "successful advocacy involves a mixed bag of tactics, including carrots and sticks.  The problem is that HRC has been using a lot of carrots and not enough sticks.  We're hoping our blog swarm helps to convince them to even things out a bit."

While the LGBT community is among the most wired and has been on the forefront of using social media advocacy, Aravosis said it was important to include "honorary gays" Moulitsas and Marsh in this effort. He said many of the netroots object to the idea that only the "gay community" is concerned about LGBT civil rights and so "we wanted to involve them to recognize that this isn't a "gay" battle.  It's something we all believe in, care about, and want."

UPDATE:  The Human Rights Campaign sent Mediaite a statement in response to the "blog swarm." The statement is largely pro-forma and doesn't specifically mention the coordinated effort.  They do say, however, that they "have been lobbying the White House relentlessly and we’ve seen more movement in recent weeks than in the previous 16 years.   Our nation’s top defense officials testified, before the Senate Armed Services Committee, that Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell should be repealed.  That did not happen in a vacuum. These events are just the start.  There is a clear path to repeal, and that’s the one we’re on."

A local HRC chapter in Orange County and Palm Springs responded more directly to the blog swarm.

With the Supreme Court blocking a federal court in San Francisco from broadcasting the Proposition 8 trial on YouTube, two California men have done the next best thing to give the public a peak into the trial: re-enact it for YouTube, based on transcripts, liveblogging and tweets. Knowing people were clamoring to see expert testimony by economic experts and anti-gay ministers, John Ireland and John Ainsworth are giving the trial the "let's put on a show" treatment and reenacting the trial in a University of Southern California law school courtroom with actors filling in for the judge, lawyers, and witnesses. “There is a huge buzz on the web about this trial," USC law professor and video consultant David B. Cruz said in a statement announcing the project. "I think a lot of people across our country were poised to watch the opening statements on the first day.  When access was blocked, the thirst for information just grew exponentially.” When Ireland and Ainsworth first announced they were going to re-enact the trial, they said they were basing their scripts on liveblogging by progressive blogger Firedoglake, gay rights grassroots activists Courage Campaignand other bloggers.  That plan has been altered, according to their website, by the release of actual transcripts provided by the attorneys challenging Proposition 8. In the just-released preview, the men have done a great job of getting an actor who looks a lot like Judge Vaughn Walker. The preview reel is pretty dry, which means they are likely being very accurate about what is going on inside the courtroom. The video project's creators--who both opposed Proposition 8--have vowed to keep things neutral and it will be interesting to see how the re-enactment gets edited and produced as the project advances.
The decision to block broadcasts has put a chill on same-sex marriage advocates' desire to get their message out via video.  What was expected to be a public relations and legal coup has meant that same-sex marriage supporters--who have been very successful at using social media and viral video in their losing efforts to win marriage battles--have turned to other ways to get information out about the trial. With the judge overseeing the case opening up the courtroom to laptop and texting, citizen journalists (and activists groups) have used the opportunity to tweet and liveblog the trial in ways rarely seen before in a federal court case.  Using the hashtag #Prop8, tweeters inside the courtroom have been giving a play-by-play of the trial. Some of the best have included Dan Levine (@fedcourtjunkie) of The Recorder, The Advocate (@TheAdvocateMag), two tweeters with the National Center for Lesbian Rights (@NCLRights and @Chris_Stoll) and the tweets by the American Foundation for Equal Rights, the folks funding the lawsuit ( @AmerEqualRights). Opponents have been late to the social media game and are not doing much coverage of the trial. The Alliance Defense Fund ( @ADFMedia) has been tweeting the trial and ProtectMarriage has been doing limited blogging. Despite the wall-to-wall coverage by the progressive and LGBT blogosphere, the trial has not exactly been full of legal revelations.  The expert testimony has been cathartic for same-sex marriage supporters, but unsurprising. Until late this week, there have been few fireworks in the courtroom with none of the bombshells which are likely to get people tuned-in to the trial. That changed when there was finally a heated dispute over admitting evidence of religious groups' involvement in pushing Prop 8 and some fascinating testimony by a defendant who wanted to be dropped from the case because he feared attacks from Prop 8 opponents and said he relied on the Internet for evidence that homosexuality was bad for marriage. With the trial about to end, the producers need to start releasing the videos or interest in the trial could wain.  Still, who doesn't want to kick back and watch a little expert evidence cross-examination on YouTube.

When looking ahead at the next year, pundits turn into prognosticators. Bloggers covering all sorts of topics and industries are now giving their predictions for what's to come in 2010. Conventional wisdom says to go the conservative route with these choices in order to avoid looking foolish when none of your projections pan out. At the same time, there's a key difference between picking things that are realistically possible and those that are already on the road to happening. I've assembled my favorite predictions covering a variety of fields and what's supposedly in store for the near future: (more...)

Following the news of the assault on Yoani Sánchez and other bloggers by security forces last Friday in Havana, the United States has decided to intervene. Late on Monday, the Department of State issued the following statement, openly denouncing the Cuban government and promising “inquiries” on the status of the bloggers: (more...)

Exclusive In the two years since she started writing her blog Generation Y, Yoani Sánchez has become one of the most notorious voices of Cuban dissidence. Using different methods to overcome the restrictions for Internet access on the island, this former philologist has turned posts on her daily struggles into metaphors for the Cuban drama. Her blogging has also produced two books and received awards such as Spain’s Ortega y Gasset and Columbia Journalism School’s Maria Moors Cabot. But the Cuban government has denied her permission to travel to receive them. What makes Sánchez’s story more compelling is that she emigrated to Europe in 2002, but decided to return to the island two years later “for family reasons and against the advice of friends and acquaintances.” Last Friday, while she was on her way to a demonstration for nonviolence in Havana with friends, Yoani says she was kidnapped and beaten by men in plain clothes — presumably state agents — in what seems to be the first documented physical attack on members of the growing network of Cuban bloggers. She described her injuries as "No blood, but black and blues, punches, pulled hairs, blows to the head, kidneys, knee and chest.'' (Update: The U.S. Department of State has written a letter to the Cuban authorities saying it “strongly deplores the assault on bloggers.”) We spoke to Yoani on Sunday night. (more...)

Yoani Sanchez, a Cuban blogger known for her critical online missives about the communist government, was detained and beaten yesterday on her way to a march, CNN is reporting. Sanchez's website Generation Y gets around 1 million hits per month, and the government says she's "gone too far," according to her account of Friday's kidnapping. (more...)