I guess …… the Dems will be planning to come to Charlotte, once they see this.

you know they willbecause they will try to use the convention as a way to win the electoral points in NC again.

A kind suggestion to people who put together charts like this…Instead of two columns for employment protections, can we just have one?  That column would be titled “Employment protections — sexual orientation and gender identity.”  I’d rather not buy into the incrementalists who try to separate the two.
I realize that the person who made this table had no ill will, and I appreciate the research otherwise.

The South has been written off as a wasteland so many times, that I’m hoping Charlotte will get it.
Not that the Democrats are worth much these days, but one way of looking at this is which place most needs a culture a change, and Charlotte wins that race.

You realize the reason this separation is necessary, right?The history of the radical lesbian separatist/Mattachinist axis that acted as a wrecking ball on trans rights – and still is having its effects now – makes it necessary.
When there is no difference in the tally of cities, counties and states that have protections for sexual orientation ONLY and those that have protections for sexual orientation AND gender identity, then the separate columns will not be needed.
Until then, they need to be there. If only to remind the gay and lesbian community of its moral failures.

Charlottean hereDP benefits are under study and should come up for a vote this fall. We have a Dem majority with a new gay friendly Mayor.But not all Dem City Council members are pro-equality. I think we have the votes but it will be close.
Local advocacy groups are still fighting for gender identity to be added along with the recently adopted non-discrimination sexual orientation clause.  

You’re missing the point of what I said.If they don’t include all of us, it’s not worth giving them partial credit.

Really? “The South has been written off?”Let’s see…
Edwards–North Carolina
Gore–Tennessee
Clinton–Arkansas
Bentsen–Texas
Carter–Georgia
Gephardt–Missouri
LBJ–Texas
I’m really, honestly, and truly sorry that every Democratic candidate in the modern era has not been from the South.
If only we could have an entire Senate full of Zell Millers (Georgia), Blanche Lincolns (Arkansas), and Mary Landrieus (Louisiana) then we’d have probably the perfect Senate.  Imagine how much could be accomplished today if there weren’t some bad Senate holdouts from northern and western states like Bernie Sanders, then everything would be perfect.  An absolute American Wonderland.
Or if, perhaps, the South would get over its petty xenophobia we might have a party not quite so obsessed with capturing the Southern vote.

Minneapolis has been the home of many pioneer LGBT leaders…
ALLAN SPEAR: the ACTUAL first gay man elected to a major office in the US; he represented Minneapolis in the Minnesota State Senate for 28 years, the last seven as its President, after coming out in 1974 during his first term. Spear was one of the leaders trying to prevent repeal of  St. Paul’s gay rights ordinance in 1978 in the wake of Anita Bryant’s success in Miami, but lost, as gays in Miami did, 2-1 [the Twin City Minneapolis ordinance didn't allow for voter repeal]. He insisted that gender identity be included in the fight for state job, housing, and education protection, and when it succeeded in 1993 Minnesota became the first state in the nation to do so. He was also very active in fighting for black civil rights, and against the Vietnam War, and was a history professor at the University of Minnesota for 36 years. He passed two years ago, survived by his longtime partner, Junjiro Tsuji. No less than President Obama noted his life and death in a press release.

Spear, 1981 protest on the steps of the state capital.
STEVE ENDEAN was one of those who worked tirelessly side-by-side with Spear. Among many other accomplishments, including founding Minnesota’s first gay rights group, he would go on to found and be the first executive director of the Human Rights Campaign [Fund]. It is safe to say that if anyone ever spun in his grave for what something he’d created has become, it would be Steve whom I casually knew from working together in the last days of the anti-Anita campaign in Miami. In 1987, he was arrested with David Mixner, Troy Perry, Leonard Matlovich, and other activists in front of the White House protesting Reagan’s AIDS neglect, of which Steve died in 1993 but not before watching from his wheelchair Allan Spear pass Minnesota’s Human Rights Law.
From his death bed, he wrote:

“Confronting such gutless liberals–who address the issue only when the time is right or when forced to–poses a serious challenge for mainstream, within the system groups…. Because of my now independent status, I’ve considered starting a group called ‘Silence Isn’t Golden!’ to make the point that so many others have made: all that must happen for evil to prevail is for people of good will to remain silent.”

Steve Endean, circa 1980.
JACK BAKER, another co-combatant with Spear and Endean [though not always agreeing], was elected the country’s first gay student body president in 1971 at the University of Minnesota Twin Cities campus. The previous year, he and his partner, MIKE McCONNELL, made history applying, in Minneapolis, for the first same-gender wedding license. They were denied, sued, and consistently lost up to the Supreme Court who denied certiorari. In fact, Sonia Sotomayor was asked about it during her nomination hearings to become a Supreme, and the ODOJ has referenced it in their defenses of DOMA, but legal scholars challenge its relevance in light of subsequent gay rights-related rulings. Another county issued them a license in 1971 and they married in Minneapolis, still fighting years later for recognition by the IRS.

McConnell, left; Baker, right.
KAREN CLARK was first elected to the Minnesota state legislature from Minneapolis 30 years ago where she still serves, making her the longest serving openly lesbian member to serve in a state legislature in the US. Below she speaks briefly in May about the Final Wishes bill to allow same gender partners to have a say in the burial of his or her loved one…..before ineffably despicable Gov. Tim Pawlenty, his cold eye on the White House, vetoed it!

There’s no point in going to NC or MOWe’re not going to win either of those states in 2012; we didn’t even win MO in 2008.  Ohio would probably be the best bet, since it’s usually a swing state, and Minn. usually isn’t.  Nice to see how progressive Minneapolis is, though.

Why write off NC?Dems control the state house, state senate, and governorship here.  We have one democratic senator in the US senate, and according to polls we have a real chance to get another in this 2010 off-year election.  If in this environment we can field can a democrat who consistently polls between 1%, 7%,& %5% points of her opponent, what makes you think we cant do even better during an on year election?
We went blue last time, and I think we can do it again.

Well obviousl Minneapolisif one used gblt rights as the sole criteria, but since that is hardly the case (and maybe shouldn’t be the only consideration) my guess would be Charlotte since NC is a swing state.

I don’t want the DNC confab in my stateIf it’s going to be an Obama renomination coronation, then we need to be trying to make it as hard to have the convention anywhere.
The conventions are launching pads for presidential races.
I don’t want “free speech zones” in my state, well…anymore than there already are.
F@ck the DNC.  You’re not welcome in NC.
What’s the best city to prepare protests and maybe successfully nominate someone other than Obama?
That’s the criteria to look at.

I thought DP benefits were going into effect this fall?Well, at least DP benefits for County Government employees anyway. My girlfriend works for the County, and I would be eligible to get on her insurance in September when they have open enrollment. I’m not sure about the City Government, you are probably right there. But since the County passed it, it is very likely the City will as well.

I cannot celebrate Endean.His heartlessness began a longtime tradition of throwing trans people under the bus to advance the “larger Gay and Lesbian community.” Endean sabotaged the 1974 Minnesota equal rights bill because it contained an amendment that would have extended rights on gender identity as well as sexual orientation, he lobbied HARD on the 1975 Minneapolis ordinance that protected both gender identity and sexual orientation to get the gender identity provisions stripped out, and again on the 1993 Minnesota Human Rights Act.
Endean deserves SCORN, not praise.

My pick is CharlotteObama is, after all, from the Midwest and may have a little bit of a homefield advantage in the Great Lakes states (now if Indianapolis were on thie list…).
St. Louis would also be a good choice but show the South and North Carolina some love…after all, Obama did win the state and who knows how that might reverberate…after all, isn’t Georgia within reach of going blue (if people can get employed again, that is?)

Who cares where Republicans or Democrats meet?Unless there are going to be demonstrations it’s of no interest to us.  

Thanks for giving St. Louis City its due for recently passing gender identity protectionSt. Louis COUNTY is another matter.