Queerty contributor Daniel Villarreal spent most of the Creating Change conference in the hotel bar meeting committed queer activists. This week we’ll be sharing his audio interviews with LGBT folks working in marriage equality, political activism, new media, sexual freedom, and transgender representation.
WHO: Mike Rogers is publisher of the queer political blog Blog Active, Managing Director of investigative news site Raw Story, and an organizer behind Netroots Nation, an annual convention for training web activists. Rogers also worked as development director of the Harvey Milk High School . His 100% accuracy in outing-anti-gay politicians (like Ken Mehlman) made him the subject of the documentary Outrage and also made anchorman Doug McKelway threaten to punch Rogers in face.
WHAT: We discuss his start in blogging; his secret method of outing closeted anti-gay politicos; his work at Blog Active, Netroots Nation, and Raw Story; and what supporters of the “It Gets Better” campaign can do to help creating lasting change for LGBT students.
QUOTE: “Everybody should have the right to come out on their own terms. I’ve always believed that. The right to come out on your own terms ends when you wanna stand in the way of other people who are coming out and want justice and equality… there are plenty of members of congress who are in the closet who don’t spend their days going after gay people. But if you’re somebody who’s a right wing hypocrite… and you’re out there making the lives of people like you and me miserable, then they need to be exposed.”
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kernelt
a valuable allies against hypocrisy
Cam
Well said!
Harbo
I agree with Mike Rigers. I’m against outing people for no reason. ButRogers is right, political (or religious) hypocrites deserve it. He’s doing a valuable service.
Heh
Right. “People should be able to come out as they wish — as long as they agree with me. People who don’t agree with me, they should have their personal decisions and privacy overturned by my fiat.” Yup, that’s a classy position.
mudgeboy
Mike Rogers is doing the LGBT community a huge favor, and I completely agree with him: everyone has the right to come out under their own terms, as long as they are not trampling on the rights of the rest of us. We have a senator in SC who does exactly that — he consistently votes in favor all anti gay bills, and he supported the previous president’s attempts to put marriage discrimination into the constitution. Yet everyone in SC knows he’s gay, or “different” as they call it. I wish Rogers would “out” this SC senator because it’s infuriating to have a gay senator who actively campaigns against gay people.
artenyc
@Heh: did you read the rest of the quote!!! … love the selective reading.
Paul A.
Outing homophobes is good.