UPDATE x2!: Actually now that I'm thinking about it, it'd be pretty cool if you could show your support for this by donating a little bit to P8TT!
UPDATE: I'm having trouble with images but here's a tweet from Courage Campaign, and here's mine! Retweet, please?
UPDATE x3! My first 'real' post is up! GLAAD announces new Commentator Accountability Project
Oh, man. So I finally got a job. And, really, it's not just any job. I get to write about LGBT-related court cases (along with some other topics) for Courage Campaign Institute's Prop 8 Trial Tracker. I don't think I need to express how perfect this opportunity is for me. I've been writing about these issues for so long, anyway, and now I'll get to have more direct experience talking to the people involved in this fight and writing about the equality struggle in the courts.
Obviously I've spent my whole life immersed in the battle for our human rights, cheesy as that may sound. I live this reality every day in pretty much the bleakest part of the country for an LGBT person to be and I care about changing things very much, so I'm just happy I am able to do something that could make an impact in at least some way. I always talk about how I feel trapped down here in the south in an incredibly hostile and unwelcoming environment and isolated from all the people who are doing real work. Now I don't have to be so disengaged.
I will be writing at the Prop 8 Trial Tracker's main site and you should all definitely bookmark the site, and follow me. Oh, and register to participate and comment on the ongoing discussions we'll be having. In case you don't remember, it's the site that was launched after the decision came down that there would be no video broadcast of Perry v. Brown(/Schwarzenegger). They actually stopped everything they were doing in order to go to the courtroom and type out live blogs so that people could read the testimony from the Proposition 8 trial.
Anyway, now the site is beginning to cover more than just that trial. The blog focuses on LGBT equality in the courts for the most part and there are discussions of DOMA and other issues. (Sometimes they do cross-posts from other LGBT bloggers and some lawyers as well; and you've more than likely seen quite a few of us cite their work here from time to time.)
I'm sure I don't need to tell you this, but it'd be really cool to know that you people were following me over there and reading my stuff. I'll be new and all nervous about the whole experience, so having some old friends around along with the new ones would be great.
I wanted to post this here to let people know where else they can find me (and you should do it! It's a great site and really informative and more people should be over there!), but I am also posting it as a disclosure of sorts since I will now be employed as a writer. I can't imagine it would really affect very much here; I've been writing the same stuff for so long anyway. Now I'll just be spreading it around and actually working. I will still be here, of course, but I hope you'll visit P8TT as well. I'm utterly thrilled and I wanted everyone to know how awesome this is! I'm really grateful for this awesome opportunity.
My first post over there is here: Scottie Thomaston joins the Prop 8 Trial Tracker team: Please welcome Scottie!
Adam Bink says:
Today, I’m pleased to announce that Scottie Thomaston will join us as a new Contributor to the site. Scottie has been blogging for six years on DailyKos under the username “indiemcemopants", up until last month), Huffington Post Gay Voices and Firedoglake.com, covering LGBT legal issues and many other topics of interest to the LGBT community. I’ve joined tens of thousands of others who have read Scottie’s work for some time, particularly on the “Recommended” diaries list at DailyKos, to which his diaries have been promoted a remarkable 103 times. He also has been a reader of Prop 8 Trial Tracker from day one in January 2010, and ever since. He’ll be joining Jacob Combs and I to cover the topics in which you’re interested every day here on the site.
Please see below for an introduction from Scottie, and take a moment to welcome him in the comments!
Adam Bink
Director of Online Programs
Courage Campaign