Today Cyndi Lauper and the True Colors Tour announced an exciting partnership with CenterLink and GLBT Community Centers around the country. The True Colors Tour is hitting the road this summer, spreading the message of GLBT equality and highlighting the important work of GLBT community centers along the way.

The tour will feature five hours of non-stop music and entertainment by headliners Cyndi Lauper, The B-52s, and exciting special guests including Rosie O'Donnell, Wanda Sykes, Indigo Girls, Tegan and Sara, Regina Spektor, Joan Jett and the Blackhearts, Joan Armatrading, Nona Hendryx, Deborah Cox, The Cliks and many more. Hosted by Carson Kressley, the tour will visit 24 cities across the United States and Canada from May 31st to July 5th.

Here in Washington DC, The True Colors Tour will perform at the historic DAR Constitution Hall. I'm really excited for the opportunity to spread the word about the great work of the The DC Center.

The Advocate reports "a critical mass of John Edwards's LGBT steering committee is going public with support for Sen. Barack Obama over Sen. Hillary Clinton. Twenty-two members of the Edwards campaign's original 59-person gay and lesbian committee will now be working for Obama victories next Tuesday and throughout the rest of the primary season. The new Obama converts include Eric Stern, who headed up Edwards's LGBT steering committee, and longtime gay activist David Mixner, who famously campaigned for Bill Clinton in 1992, holding some of the first gay fund-raisers for a U.S. presidential candidate."

Smack dab in the middle of Lake Bygod County, California, Angela came out on the first day of her junior year. She’d attended a queer youth leadership workshop in San Francisco over the summer and arrived at school wearing a rainbow necklace, a rainbow pin, and a rainbow patch. Nobody got it.

During English class, students were asked to stand up and say something about themselves. Already irritated by the inefficiency of symbols, Angela said she was a lesbian. She’d spent the better part of her summer in internet chatrooms discussing Xena, Warrior Princess. She was sure.

Several years ago on Christmas Eve I received a very nice e-mail thanking me for setting up the Barry Winchell website.  It came from someone close to Barry who was surfing the web that first Christmas since he passed away and took comfort in the fact that so many people remembered and honored  Private First Class Barry WInchell.

Pat, if you're visiting the site this Christmas, please know, I still remember Barry, and am taking a moment on my Christmas Day to remember Barry Winchell, and Fred Martinez, and Matthew Shepard, and Tyra Hunter, and all victims of hatred and intolerance. 

Facing Christmas for the first time without a loved one is hard, but if you are in this situation, please know you are not alone.

Peace on Earth - Good WIll To All

David

Will Roscoe has been active in the the Gay movement since 1975, when he helped found Lambda, the first Gay/Lesbian organization in Montana. The following year, he served an intern at the National Gay Task Force, and in 1977, as coordinator of the Gay People's Alliance at the University of Oregon, he spearheaded the formation of the Oregon Gay Alliance, a statewide coalition of Gay/Lesbian groups. In 1978, he completed an internship at the Pacific Center for Human Growth in Berkeley, where he coordinated a successful campaign to win United Way funding, the first Lesbian/Gay social service agency in the country to do so. He also served as voter registration coordinator for the No on 6 campaign in San Francisco (the Briggs initiative), registering over 10,000 new voters.

By Russell Olivera Jr

Ari Gold has become one today's hottest openly gay recording artists in the world. His honest lyrics and truth is found in all his music, and his look on life makes him an outstanding artist and person, a true reflection of positive energy. He has remained true to himself since the beginning, and even as he has and will continue to skyrocket into an incredible career, he has managed to do it being "real".

In a world where celebrity is becoming more and more blurred and role models are harder to fine, we are happy to have Ari Gold in our community. I caught with Ari earlier this month as he released his latest album "Transport Systems", what follows is some of my interview with this Out & Proud Recording Artist.-Enjoy!

German Film Tells the Story of Iranian Immigrant

The original title of this film is 'Fremde Haut', which means 'in Orbit' - the term officially used by the UN to refer to asylum-seekers who find themselves orbiting around planet Earth because they can actually find legal domicile nowhere at all. This is a perfect description for the main character in this film, Fariba, brilliantly performed by Jasmin Tabatabai.

Throughout the film, Fariba is constantly in conflict: not quite at home in Germany or Iran, not not quite at peace as either straight or gay, not quite at ease as man or as woman.

I've been a fan of Marcellas Reynolds since I first saw him  on Season 4 of Big Brother.  I recently got a chance to touch base with Marcellas and find out more about what he's been up to and his new Style Network show.

You first appeared on the CBS show 'Big Brother' in Season 3. How has your life changed since being on the show?

Wow my life is sooo different than before. I think the biggest difference is how many people know me. Not a day goes by without someone saying "Hi Marcellas." And of course now I'm now on TV a lot. Big Brother really changed my life & the direction of my entertainment career.

By Jennifer Medvin: Many of us were probably surprised and very upset by the passing of Dana Fairbanks on the L Word. Yes, she was just a fictional character, but the impact allowed the threat of cancer to hit home. The writer's showed that youth, an athletic build and even fame will not stop you from being affected by cancer. No one knows that more than Melissa Etheridge who underwent two cancer surgeries in 2004.

Discovery of a lump can generate fear in a woman. This may strike at the core of a women's self image through the thought of breast cancer, of losing her breast and maybe even losing her life. Women are eight times more likely to die of heart disease than breast cancer and lung cancer kills twice as many women every year than cancer of the breast. But the main reason breast cancer is a woman's worst nightmare is the fact that it kills more women age 35 to 55 than any other disease.

Last week, I traveled to Iowa to campaign for John Edwards in Des Moines, Ames and Iowa City.  The campaign set up a number of great local events where I had the opportunity to talk to Iowa’s voters about why I am supporting Edwards for President and to personally invite them to join our team.  Many of the events at which I would be speaking were geared towards Iowa’s lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) communities.  However, as I learned quickly, every Iowa voter I encountered—whether on the plane, at the gas station or at a diner—was eager to talk about the caucuses and to learn more about why I had taken time off from work as a volunteer to campaign for Edwards.