The Gay & Lesbian Alliance Against Defamation, whose board members (read: financiers) appear to be fleeing the organization, was supposedly setting up a $80,000 grant fund for LGBT bloggers, although no web scribes can be found who received any of that cash. Which sort of makes sense, since most gay blogs out there criticize GLAAD at least weekly. But! If the money is still somewhere, can we dedicate it a full-time staffer to check the IPs of all the bigoted comments left on these sites? That could be educational and sensational! UPDATE: GLAAD clarifies Michael Petrelis’ report on what the funds were for: “The blog post that Queerty references in this article says that GLAAD received an outside grant to set up a ‘grant fund for LGBT bloggers’ where GLAAD was supposed to delegate funds to LGBT/progressive writers. This is wrong. The grant was not intended or given for this reason. It was given to build GLAAD’s internal capacity to better work with bloggers and to do media advocacy in the digital space. “
TerranceD
This post is so misleading. You are linking to Petrelis as a credible source? Have you asked GLAAD for stats on their board turnover? I’m a GLAAD donor and haven’t seen anything amiss. Board members come and go for a variety of reasons, and GLAAD is attracting and keeping very impressive people on their board. Disparaging comments by a departed board member who apparently left under a cloud say more about that departed board member than the organization he/she departed, don’tcha think?
toyotabedzrock
So they got a grant to pay there own staff to get bloggers to write more glbt content or perhaphs pay for people to answer email from bloggers?
Plus a few more ads?
TerranceD
Yes, those are the questions Toyota. And to add to my earlier comment: GLAAD is definitely going through a transitional phase with more than one member of the board of directors leaving. There is a bit of a cloud over the board at this point. I did not mean to suggest that any particular departing board member had a cloud over his or her head but that the board itself has had a bit of a shakeup as reported by Petrelis, who I concede can be credible now and then. GLAAD is an important organization and deserves to survive and get stronger. We need it.