People seem to be losing their momentum on issue based content.   And,  since I am no Hemingway or even Clancy, I will be borrowing what I consider to be a very relevant piece of content from one of our news stories.  So, whether we decide to get involved in our own communities or not, agendas are moving forward.  If you read the news section, you will see that the lionshare of that news is about our community.  It is easier to get involved than you might think.  At the end of this article is an opportunity to respond to what you have read.  Please take a moment to drop them a line, and let them know that their fight matters to us as well.   Any fight concerning Equal Rights,  should matter to ALL of us.

As always, much luv,

The Captain

FORT WORTH — Conservative groups are rallying against proposals aimed at making Fort Worth government policies more inclusive of the gay community.

The proposals include extending domestic-partner benefits to gay couples, considering a company’s record on gay and lesbian issues when approving tax breaks, and including gender reassignment surgery in the city health insurance plan. City employees would also receive training on dealing with gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender people.

The recommendations came from a task force appointed after the inspection and arrests at the Rainbow Lounge, a gay bar.

Many of those provisions are already in place in other cities and in major corporations. Dallas, Austin and El Paso offer health insurance to domestic partners, as do 59 percent of Fortune 500 companies, according to the Human Rights Campaign. Tarrant County cities such as Arlington, North Richland Hills and Grapevine do not.

A posting on the Tarrant County Republican Party Web site questioned whether the domestic-partner provision is legal in Texas. The site urged people to attend Tuesday’s City Council meeting, when members are scheduled to vote on the first of the proposals.

The council is scheduled to vote on expanding the anti-discrimination ordinance to prohibit bias against people based on gender expression. City officials have said more study is needed before the council can vote on adding domestic-partner benefits or changing the health insurance plan.

Tarrant County Republican Party Chairwoman Stephanie Klick questioned the cost of some of the proposals, particularly in light of Fort Worth’s budget problems.

"Private businesses can do what they want to do, but we’re talking about taxpayer dollars being used for this purpose," she said.

Kelly Shackelford, an attorney for the Liberty Legal Foundation, pointed out that a 2005 amendment to the state constitution defines marriage as "between a man and a woman" and bars governments from creating "any legal status similar or identical to marriage."

The amendment and a similar state law were intended to prevent Texas from recognizing civil unions for gays. The city could run afoul of those laws if it tries to give gay partners more benefits than it gives straight but unmarried couples, he said.

"If they’re saying everyone who’s an employee can get health insurance, that doesn’t affect this," Shackelford said. "The key is going to be how they’re defining it: What is this class of people and is it a counterfeit marriage?"

Jon Nelson, a spokesman for Fairness Fort Worth, called those arguments "scare tactics."

"What Ms. Klick conveniently leaves out is the tremendous economic benefit these proposals potentially bring to the city," he said. "The LGBT community spends $63 billion on travel each year. We no longer choose destinations simply because there is a 'gay’ section of town but decide based on the attractions and whether the city is 'gay-friendly.’ "

Estrus Tucker, a minister who chairs the city’s Human Rights Commission, supports all the proposals.

"What better way to ensure that Fort Worth remains an open and inclusive community . . . than to prohibit discrimination based on transgender, gender identity or gender expression?" Tucker said. "It’s the right thing to do."

Correspondent Kimmy Daycock contributed to this report.

MIKE LEE, 817-390-7539

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After watching Maine make a big mistake, I spoke to a conservative blogger and asked a question; What percentage of the population fall under the LGBTQ banner? His answer: 5%  As we know, the standard answer from the media and powers that be is a typical 10%. If you ask someone from the community, you will hear between 15 and 20%. My thoughts are that the truth lies somewhere within. But what I find terrible is that if you go to a Pride event, you would believe it is 25%, but on voting day, it seems closer to 5%. Why is this? I spent a great deal of time on the website last night, until about 2am texting with a member of the transgender community. Although the way we are identified are very different, our opionions were remarkably the same. As I had mentioned in a blog yesterday, there is no "unity" in the community. We all seem to march under the same flag, but refuse to fight the war together. Imagine the pride of marching under the flag of your country, stating your independence and individuality, but when attacked, you scatter and show no solidarity. Your country would not last very long. The difference in the LGBTQ community is that there is solidarity, but only on certain days of the year, certain events, or raliies and functions. Where are we the rest of the year? Do we deserve a flag? Or maybe just a G flag, an L flag, a T flag, etc. I can assure you this: If we all march to a different tune, we will never be united and heard. It is clear that each individual group has its own inherant set of issues, but as a whole, the functioning in society as a discriminated against minority is certainly a common bond. I look at the U.S the day before 9/11 and the day after. Everyone going about their own lives and worried about their own problems until one day when something terrible happens. On 9/12, we were ALL Americans, we were ALL united. We ALL stood together. What terrible event needs to occur for this community to stand together? Another Hitler? Maybe I am missing something, but for each stride that is made, it seems that the goal is another stride away. We formed MPower-Now.com to unite, put aside differences and build our collective voice. Some of us are on Facebook, some of us MySpace, some spend time on dating sites, some are on regional LGBTQ sites. There are 150,000,000 people on Facebook, and I can assure you that 15,000,000 do not fly the flag. We are scattered everywhere. Our site is here and was built to build our collective voices, to strenghten the community, put aside menial differences and work harder than ever towards a common goal. Are we ready to start acheiving? One thing I can tell you: IT IS TIME.  We have opened the site for full viewing even if you are not a member to see the direction we are going. This is your life, start making a difference in it. Kelly Kruse  www.mpower-now.com

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Last night, the state of Maine, in the U.S, shot down gay marriage. There is simple reason: Lack of unification in the LGBTQ community. From all of the work, research and personal experience we have had and done, it has been made clear that the community is too scattered to make its voice heard. There are plenty of regional LGBTQ sites, news sites, dating sites and other areas of the internet that we frequent, but none that can bring us all together. THIS is precisely why we formed MPower. To EMPOWER the community by bringing us together. The best chance at success from advocacy is by bringing all voices that fall under the banner together so that we can be heard. MPower is  not just another website. It is a HOME for the LGBTQ community, that is free, comprehensive and offers everything we could need while building our collective voice. www.mpower-now.com
MPower-Now.com  "For the REST of your life"

Now take a STAND and tell your friends! We have two choices.

1. Be reactive and complain when things dont work out.
2. Be proactive and MAKE SURE things work out.

I vote 2.
We will MPOWER the community one member at a time.

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KK, Johnny D. and Collin,

The new "M" is killer.  You guys never cease to amaze me. Everyday I can't wait to see what you will come up with next. Very creative!   Kudos on the new chat component as well.  I am telling everyone that I know about this place.  Keep up the great work.

The Captain

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Our live chat component will be installed and likely operational this weekend. This will make it easy for us to "get a room" and talk about site direction, our contributions and how to make it strong. I should be able to get a link to chat in the toplinks somewhere, so I will send out a bulk email when it is operational. Once it's up, BRING YOUR FRIENDS :)

Love yas!

Kelly

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Last night, I was asked by a user about the direction of the site. This morning, an associate of mine read the reply and thought it really captured the majority of the essence of what the original concept was. So I decided to just post it up here for everyone to get some understanding. Nothing is set in stone, but I hope most of you will agree that is close to a form that will work. I will also post it in the blog section for all to read.

"Ok, Im still up. Sleep just isnt working out. SO here goes.... When taking a good hard look at the letters LGBTQ, we obviously realized that although each group is represented under the same umbrella, they are hardly tied together. If you take Prop8 out of the equation, the GLT's hardly interact. Now, Im not saying that everyone should be best friends, but being that many similar struggles (in one capacity or another) are faced and could probably be addressed better in a forum that could give an open outlet to all parties. If you look at most of the gay sites, it is nothing more than hookup/dating sites. This gives just a horrible picture of what being gay is about (again, refer to "the rest of your life" motto. Same thing goes for the L community, and jeez, after talking to many transgenders in detail, I cant imagine what they go through. Now Facebook is a great community, but they offer little more than socialization, and the LGBTQ community still operates within the shadows there. So if you look at how we are developing the site, you will see the socialization arena (Facebook/Myspace, etc), the jobs component (Linkedin), the news component, the Classifieds component (Craigslist) and a biz directory where people can pump their favorite "friendly" places. Usually when ad agencies get a hold of resorts, hotels, clubs, etc, they will say ANYTHING to get people to go there (true or not, lol). This will be user generated. With the blogs and articles, we can allow users to express their positions in as great of detail as they want and send it right to the front page for everyone to see. And then with the News component, you can see the LGBTQ news, finance, sports and ALL of the news that is out there. I hate to say this is the Walmart of the social networking sites, but I guess in a sense, you get the "one stop shopping". The focus was to give members a place they could call home. Look for a job, read the news, talk to friends, make new friends, write an article, speak their minds, etc. This is exactly what made us attractive to our ad agency. We are working hand in hand with them right now to move things forward in a bigger way, but the grass roots method seems to be getting us higher quality users and it may just stay that way. We have more things we will be adding onto the site, but we want to make sure what we have is running right first. There is much to do, but we think we can make this a real success. We will be getting a write up in the largest L mag in Europe over the next month or so, so that will help as well, but we want to be as diversified as possible. We want unity and harmony, but also spirited debate, discussion and opinions. Not just about all things LGBTQ, but also what impacts "the rest of your life". I hope this makes sense to you because you may bring a lot to the table here, and being a young site, we sure can use it!!! Thanks again for being here, we are glad to have you! KK "

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Make sure you go to your Profile Page (under My-M) and click Applications>Browse> and add the My Articles application :)

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Responding to a question from last night, we are cleaning up a few issues on the "Articles" section, but the blogging is in full gear.  Just click on My-Social, then M-Blog and click on the little notepad to the far right to begin your blog. It takes a second to load, but you can add pictures, links, html, etc.  When you are done typing your article, click SAVE on the top right hand corner (green button) and you will be published.  We should have the articles component where we want it by tomorrow morning. Thanks so much!

Kelly Kruse

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Diversity is key to the success of the site.  It is my opinion that the transgender community does not recieve much representation, but we would like to welcome you all, and what you bring to the table, to the M. Your insight, opinions and positions will be a valued part of the "M". Make sure to tell your friends. Glad to have you!

Kelly Kruse

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MPOWER NOW is seeking the new face of the LGBTQ community.

In conjuction with the launch of www.mpower-now.com, MPower is searching for a face. Are you that person? Do you have the look? www.mpower-now.com is preparing for its national launch and is desperately seeking a the new "Face of the M". Sign up at the site, www.mpower-now.com and send us a 30 second video telling us why YOU should be that face. You can email the video to mpowernow@mpower-now.com . If it isn't you, it will be someone else! Have a friend in mind? Send them to the site, have them sign up and their video will be shown on the FRONT PAGE, along with the other possibles. Users will be able to vote right on the front page and keep track of who is winning the "Race for the Face"! Winner will receive a 2 week vacation to any world destination offered by Vacation Vistas International (www.myvvi.net). With over 15,000 resorts to choose from, just picking the vacation will be half the fun! Runner up will receive a 1 week stay at any resort in the continental U.S or Hawaii. So sign up, send in the video, tell us about yourself and become the Face of the M. Rules will be posted on the site at www.mpower-now.com!

Kelly Kruse

Administrator

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