When I heard that “Kathleen” over at Pam’s House Blend was banned for allegedly outing an anonymous blogger that just happened to be affiliated with GayINC, I was shocked… for all of about thirty seconds. As someone that’s been inside the belly of the “GLBT blogger beast“, I can tell you that there is a coordinated message that is put out by GayINC that is generally followed by the bloggers that are “in the know.” As with traditional media these days, access is controlled very tightly linked to following the message. If your ideas/opinions/thoughts are different from “the message” you’re likely to be readily dismissed and sent to the showers (I know this, I was kicked off this semi-secret list of “a mix of leaders in the national LGBT movement including senior staff members of state wide and national LGBT organizations, well known community bloggers, journalists, political folks, and others engaged in building alliances in and with the LGBT community”).
I’ve been preaching this for a while, but we will never be equals in this movement as long as we are riding on the coattails of GayINC. When you go and play on their blogs, you’ll need to play by their rules. Another popular LGBT blog said that the trans-community was “lucky that I give the trans-community a voice.” Until we build a community of our own, we’ll continue to be told to shut up and sit down.