Last Thursday I had a chance to sit down with the news editor of the Advocate, Kerry Eleveld. Eleveld is an award-winning journalist who specializes in election politics. This winter, Kerry had the opportunity to interview Barack Obama in person and was the only journalist from the gay press that was invited to do so. In this interview we chatted about the implications of gay marriage on the economy its potential impact on California voters who face the marriage ballot in November. She also shares her insights into Obama and her experience meeting him.

Eleveld’s cover story in the Advocate this month is an investigative piece on the Gill Action Fund, an LGBT political advocacy group. Gill has been working to bolster our gay rights at the grassroots and state level. They have thrown their support behind pro-gay city council people and state legislators nationwide. As Eleveld explains, most of our gay rights, as we’ve seen with gay marriage, have occurred on the state level as the feds continue to ignore us. The intriguing facet of the Gill Action Fund is that many of the gays and lesbians involved had early careers working for GOP strategists. Gill has begun to turn the tactics used by the right against LGBTs in our favor.

I hope to bring you more discussions like this, but I have to apologize for the camera work and rough editing. Let's just say Gigi Nicolas did not shoot or edit this video. Speaking of Gigi, I wanted to make special mention that her documentary My Address that she and Kate Moennig shot last year is on the LGBT film festival circuit. A screening of My Address was held at the Provincetown Film Festival last Saturday. You can still watch it here on OurChart.