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Happy Summer! We at NBJC hope that you have been keeping cool as you weather the heat waves and the debt ceiling fiasco.
We have a lot of news to share. By now, you may have noticed the new format for the E-Digest. We've also changed the distribution schedule to every two weeks.
This past Friday, the Obama Administration finally put an end to "Don't Ask, Don't Tell (DADT)" by notifying Congress that the policy, which barred lesbian, gay and bisexual servicemembers from serving openly in the military, must come to an official end by September 20, 2011. Repealing DADT has been a major issue focus of NBJC's work, and we've been celebrating ever since we learned of this last and most important step toward ending lesbian and gay discrimination in the military.
Lastly, we've been proudly promoting the July 2011 Black Enterprise (BE) cover story, "Black & Gay in Corporate America: Breaking through Isolation & Fear." We had the privilege of working with the editors at BE to identify interview sources and to collaborate on the substance included in the story. Please be sure to pick up an issue available at newsstands across the country and check out the extensive online coverage: www.blackenterprise.com/blacklgbt/.
In the coming weeks, we'll be deep in the throes of organizing the 2nd Annual "OUT on the Hill" Black LGBT Leadership Summit, which happens September 20-25, during the Congressional Black Caucus Foundation's Annual Legislative Conference. Please be on the lookout for our registration announcement next week.
Call to Action: Get Your July Issue of Black Enterprise
 If you haven't already done so, pick up your July issue of Black Enterprise. NBJC spent months working with BE to assist in the production of the landmark cover story "Black & Gay in Corporate America: Breaking through Isolation & Fear," which offers compelling testimony from Black LGBT professionals about their experiences with homophobia and workplace discrimination.
We need our members and supporters to:
Take The Survey: LGBTQ Discrimination in the Courts
– John Jay College of Criminal Justice
 There are many disheartening stories about the inequality and maltreatment that LGBT persons continue to endure at the hands of a system which was created to protect the rights of all citizens. However, there has been little to no empirical research investigating the systematic biases that lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender people of color may face in the court system. To share your feedback, take the survey now.
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Casting Call: Looking for Couples and Single Parents Looking to Start a Family
DiGa has teamed up with an award winning documentary filmmaker as well as a major network to tell the stories of gay and lesbian singles/couples that are about to have kids. The series will focus on the challenges, decisions, joy and love that comes with the journey of becoming parents in the LGBT community.
If you are about to start this journey please send us a photo of you and your partner and a brief paragraph to casting@digallc.com that tells us about yourselves, your relationship, your goals and what you both do for a living.
WATCH: Being Black & Transgender
 Some may recognize Tiq Milan from MTV's 2007 reality series, I'm From Rolling Stone, where several aspiring writers competed for a chance to win a full-time position with the entertainment magazine. Back then, he still went by his birth name, Tika, and responded to "she." Today, however, the education specialist/HIV prevention counselor and editor-in-chief of IKONS Magazine, a LGBT lifestyle publication, lives life as a transgender man.
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Gay Rights v. Civil Rights
 "As both of these movements have reached maturation we have multiple generations working for civil rights," says J. Bob Alotta, executive director of the Astraea Lesbian Foundation for Justice. "Right now you would be talking about grandchildren and children of civil rights activists. Our elders were Black Panthers and marching with [Martin Luther King Jr]. Not only have we learned from them, but when we start talking about identity politics it's apparent that many of us embody multiple identities."
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"No Disrespect To The Gay And Transgender Community"? Brother, Please!
– Washington Blade
 The sad part is that in 2011, Black professional athletes feel they still have to use derogatory comments to get under other players' skin or draw a reaction as if they are playing a game of the dozens to gain credibility on their street. They fail to realize that they are no longer young kids who are still wet behind the ears and don't really understand that the words they utter carry profound meaning.
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Gay, Lesbian, Bisexual Teens Often Homeless: Study
– DoctorsLounge.com
 Researchers from Children's Hospital Boston found that one-quarter of gay and lesbian high school students are homeless, and these homeless teens are more likely to be on their own, without the support or supervision of their parents or guardians.
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Emotions Run High At Vigil For Slain Trans Woman
– Washington Blade
 More than 200 people turned out Saturday night, July 23, for a vigil to honor Lashai Mclean, a 23-year-old transgender woman who was shot to death three days earlier in Northeast Washington.
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Zanele Muholi Photographs Lesbian Love In South Africa
– ColorLines.com
 Dancing across, and often blurring, the line between the overtly political and outstandingly gorgeous, photographer Zanele Muholi captures the lives and love of Black lesbians in post-Apartheid South Africa. The artist self-describes her work as representing "the black female body in a frank yet intimate way that challenges the history of the portrayal of black women's bodies in documentary photography."
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The Gay Harlem Renaissance
– The Root
 Next month's National Black Theatre Festival in Winston-Salem, N.C., features a play called Knock Me a Kiss. It dramatizes a black wedding of the early 20th century — the 1928 marriage of Harlem Renaissance poet laureate Countee Cullen and Nina Yolande Du Bois, the daughter of W.E.B. Despite a lavish event — she had 16 bridesmaids! — the marriage was short-lived. Three months after the wedding, Cullen sailed to Paris with his best man, and bride and groom officially split up shortly after.
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FAQ: The Employment Non-Discrimination Act
– Center for American Progress
 Get answers to frequently asked questions about ENDA, the scope of gay and transgender employment discrimination in the United States, and why ENDA's passage would represent a significant step toward eliminating workplace discrimination for gay and transgender Americans.
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American Airlines Endorses ENDA
– Windy City Media
 "On behalf of our 80,000 employees, American Airlines is proud to express our strong support for S. 811 and H.R. 1397, the Employment Non-Discrimination Act, which would extend basic job protections to gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender Americans. We are proud to have been the first major airline to implement same-sex domestic partner benefits, first to implement both sexual orientation and gender identity in our workplace non-discrimination policies, and first to have a recognized LGBT employee resource group — GLEAM.
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Secretary Panetta's Statement on Certification of Readiness to Implement Repeal of Don't Ask, Don't Tell
– Defense.gov
"All men and women who serve this nation in uniform — no matter their race, color, creed, religion, or sexual orientation — do so with great dignity, bravery, and dedication. As secretary of defense, I am committed to promoting an environment free from personal, social, or institutional barriers that prevent service members from rising to the highest level of responsibility that their talents and capabilities warrant. They put their lives on the line for America, and that's what really matters. Thanks to the professionalism and leadership of the U.S. military, we are closer to achieving the goal that is at the foundation of America — equality and dignity for all." Secretary Panetta
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Pentagon: Don't Ask Don't Tell Policy Repealed
– Associated Press
 President Barack Obama on Friday formally signed off on ending the ban on gays serving openly in the U.S. military, doing away with a policy that has been controversial and making good on his 2008 election campaign promise to the gay community.
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Gay Rights Foes Denounce DADT Repeal As Attack On Religious Freedom
– On Top Magazine
 Opponents of gay rights have denounced repeal of "Don't Ask, Don't Tell" as an attack on religious freedom. "Our troops' religious liberties are in unprecedented jeopardy because the government has caved in to pressure from small groups of activists to impose homosexual and bisexual behavior in our military," Daniel Blomberg of the Alliance Defense Fund said in a statement.
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Prepping for the End Of The HIV/AIDS Epidemic
– BlackVoiceNews
 Now 30 years after the first AIDS case was diagnosed in America, evidence is quickly mounting that we are turning the corner and the tools that could end the HIV pandemic lay in our hands. Recently the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) announced the results of two clinical trials involving heterosexual men and women that demonstrated for the very first time that antiretroviral (ARV) medications taken daily can dramatically reduce their risk of becoming infected with HIV
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Fair Care: Nurses ensure oncology services meet needs of LGBT community
– Nurse.com
 In a recent announcement, the New York City Health and Hospitals Corporation shared its plan to provide competency training for all 38,000 employees system wide in a commitment to provide better care for the LGBT population, including those with cancer.
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Hundreds of same-sex couples win New York marriage lottery
– CNN
 The New York city clerk's office has been flooded with more than 2,600 requests for marriage licenses since the wording on the online application was changed from "Groom and Bride" to "Spouse A and Spouse B." The office could handle less than a third of those requests — gay or straight — on Sunday, according to a press statement the city released last week.
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President Obama moves closer to supporting same sex marriage
– CNN
 President Obama is now supporting the Respect for Marriage Act, a bill that would repeal the Defense of Marriage Act (DOMA), the ban on same sex marriage President Clinton signed into law in 1996. It may seem like an incremental move but one Democratic source I spoke with actually described it as "momentous" because the president has taken a nuanced view on DOMA, calling it "unconstitutional" (as recently as June) but never outright calling for its repeal.
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NY gay couples wed as thousands of Christians protest
– Global Post
 Sunday marked the first time that gay couples could legally marry in New York after the state Senate voted 33 to 29 to approve same-sex marriage on June 24. The law did not take effect for 30 days, which is why today was the first day that city clerk's offices could issue marriage licenses to gay couples.
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Black and LGBT in the Black Church
– BlackEnterprise.com
 Kenyon Farrow says he was 10 years old when he learned that being openly gay was a liability. As a member of his uncle's church in Cleveland, he says he remembers when the congregation's openly gay choir director and his male partner would bring food for the church potluck, folks would whisper about which dish it was so nobody would eat it and "catch AIDS."
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