News from around the country:

Meet Mike Heath, the Chairman of Americans for Truth About Homosexuality (nice name , I know).

He has declared that, "The people of Maine know what marriage is. Politicians pretend this debate is complicated and emotional. It isn't. Maine people know the difference between right and wrong. What has been going on in Augusta for the past 20 years is a horrific farce."

Whatever. The orgainization has called for a "People's Veto" against Marriage Equality in the state. For more on the story and others like it, check out a great blog Joe.My.God.

PHILADELPHIA: via TOWLEROAD - This past weekend, hundreds of demonstrators marched in the rain in Philadelphia as part of the largest demonstration in a decade, and the first outside the nation's capital since 2000. If you attended and have stories and/or pics, please comment!

The event was part of Equality Forum 2009 an event held each year in the city.

YOUR DAILY CARRIE PREJEAN INSPIRED VIDEO:

Getting to Know You....

Recently I was made aware that 40 is the new 30. I am not sure in what universe this math adds up, but I am certainly grateful. This year, you see, I did not hit 40, so much as 40 hit me.

In this missive about the new 30, Hugh Jackman and Daniel Craig were held up as shining examples, uber-mensches as it were, for this new equation. I would venture they are the "New 30, v2.0", while I am sadly still in the beta testing stage.

For some time now, I fought starting a blog. I saw it as a vanity project. I finally realized that whis was merely false modesty on my part, because if there is one thing I am, it is vain, so why not make it a project? Plus, with all that is going on in the world right now, why shouldn't I have a voice? It's my turn to incite lunacy and craziness in the blogosphere.

So that you know a bit about me, and why I think I am uniquely qualified to mold your opinions and monitor discussions on a wide variety of topics, I will regale you with some of the finer points of my curriculum vitae:

I am a gay man who was raised in New York City and its liberal suburbs. Being gay was certainly an issue for me outside my family in the eighties and nineties, but for the most part, my family was supportive. There were many other issues other than the gay one with which they could hold me in disdain.

After grad school, I went to work in 1992 for a prestigious political polling firm in Washington DC. We handled several groundbreaking races and even worked on some of Clinton's internal polling. I never thought I'd wind up doing that, and quite frankly, I faked a lot of it, but it planted the seeds of a lifelong passion with the political game. Back then, it was a game of chess. For the past eight years it has been more like a playground olympics of hopscotch, marbles and jacks. Thank God that is over now!

After I left the polling firm, I wound up back in New York working for a large media research company. I traveled all over the country on someone else's dime; a pretty cool thing for a 25 year old. I was everywhere from Honolulu, Hawaii to Frankenmuth, Michigan. When I was in each city, I made it a point to go to a local gay bar.

I was involved at the time, so there was no hooking up (seriously, Kyle!). It was more a social experiment to see what gay life is like in places outside my very protected world. I fancied myself a young Jane Goodall in a cashmere turtleneck and a suede blazer. Growing up with parents who were not dismissive about my gayness and living in cities that had whole neighborhoods devoted to "Gays in the Wild" had jaded me. Some of the depressing sights I took in in these smaller cities in conservative strongholds were disheartening to say the least. I had never been to a bar that painted its windows black, like a cheery venue in Springfield, MA for instance, or encouraged patrons to go in and out through a discreet back door, like the Silhouette Lounge in Scranton PA. More often than not, that was the norm in these places. The most depressing was going into a bar in Flint MI, where the desperation of the economy and their disenfranchisement was as palpable as the stench of the ten cent tequila shooters (Editor's note: never drink ten cent tequila). Back in NY, my friend Robert owned a bar and it had a large window with a hightop table in the front. We would always insure an attractive group was sitting there on full display to welcome gay and straight people in. That's right, both "worlds".

When that gig was up, I went to work for an ad agency that targeted the gay and lesbian market. We also developed the first ever study of the Gay and Lesbian Consumer Market. I have since parlayed that experience into a full-time consulting career, where I work with major companies and agencies to develop marketing strategies to target the LGBT Consumer.

Briefly, I also worked as a lifestyle and entertainment reporter for a couple of television networks. I have also done some really bad acting and a lounge act with some friends. It was all in fun though. At least it was for me; not too sure about the audiences or the people with whom I worked.

I have lived in NYC, Washington DC, Dallas, LA, Philadelphia and I am currently, but not for much longer, in Atlanta. I am moving back to the left coast (SF this time) to get back to a place where being a gay man is not a sin and where I may be able to do something productive in fighting the causes of Basic Human Rights for LGBT America.

This growing sense of duty has been coming for awhile, and I think it is true of a great deal of people my age. Stonewall was immediately before us; Harvey Milk was barely mentioned to kids when he was fighting the cause; the AIDS epidemic exploded in our teenage years; now we are watching as states all over the country are actually discussing Marriage Equality and Equality for LGBT persons. Even in California, where Prop 8 was approved this past November, the State Supreme Court is revisiting the issue on June 3.

I apologize to everyone who has been fighting for this for much longer than I. I should have been there with you. Not to toot my own horn, but I am pretty good at this sort of thing. Yet I remained complacent on this issue, assuming that others would take care of it. Unfortunately, we are a reactionary society, and many of us are only now reacting to the defeat in CA. Better late than never, though, I guess. If we're to do this like anything else we do, I guess it will be on "gay time".

Ultimately, I have started this blog as a way to provide news about the gay experience all over the country; not just in the liberal coastal cities. Please share with me and any others who read this blog. Let us know through your pictures and words what it is like where you are; if there is anything we can do to help. I get it. You need to make others who have never experienced the constant hum of gay-bashing and scorn that is always on your periphery understand what it feels like. Those of you who have left these places and moved on, it is urgent to let the others back home know that there is hope, whether they leave or not. By painting a truly three-dimensional picture of our LGBT experience, we can learn from the best of the nation and win this fight!

President Obama has been criticized lately for backpedaling on some of his campaign promises as they relate to the LGBT population. I don't know that that is completely true, as the man does have so much on his plate that he has to address the issues that affect the largest groups first. We need to stay vocal though, to keep our fight alive. As long as we keep shouting, people will not forget. We need to shout with a purpose, though, and not just to hear ourselves scream.

During his campaign, the president did a brilliant thing. He made sure he was on the ground in all 50 states, even those where there was no hope of a Democratic win. He included those disenfranchised liberals in his process, so they too could feel the hope and change that just one person can generate. We must do the same in our own campaign to end discrimination against LGBT Americans.

We are at an amazing crossroads in history. Racism and discrimination are not gone, but certainly they are on the mend. Let's rise to the occasion as we join together not just as a local community, but a national one where we demand the rights that are ours under the Constitution of the US!

I called this blog "I Am Topher, Hear Me Roar" because of a silly thing that happened during the March on Washington in 1993. My friends Rod and Carlos came down to march and we were stuck in traffic on Dupont Circle. I had my top down, and Rod put in a tape (yes it was a tape back then) of Helen Reddy singing "I Am Woman, Hear Me Roar", the anthem used by women as they fought for the ERA. We played it loudly, and soon every gay man, lesbian, drag queen, and transgendered person on the Circle was singing along with us. It was one of the most surreal yet most moving moments of my life. For that one moment, all the hope that song engendered was ours as we fought for something we believed was truly possible. Of course, it did not turn out that way completely, but there is still hope. So, I Am Topher, Hear me Roar!

I welcome you all to join me on my journey of fighting the good fight and learning a bit about ourselves in the process.