I usually start my mornings watching the “Today Show” as I get ready for work. About 80% of the time, Anne Curry, Al Roker and the gang make me feel awkward and uncomfortable with their deliveries, quirky comments and interruptions. Yesterday morning, The Today show gang emphasized how “mooching” is making a comeback as the new “smart way to save.” People across the country are creating new sites and blogs featuring food coupons, top ten lists of places to shop as well as creative tips on how to be a creative shopper. I recently came upon this week’s featured site, QueerInMySoup.com. This past week, the site has delivered in posting about great restaurant coupons and excellent resources for thrifty foodies. Here’s what the founder of the blog, Cogito, who wishes to remain incognito, told TNG about his new site:

There’s A Queer In My Soup” is a site dedicated to culinary news, restaurants, money saving food coupons, cooking, chefs, recipes, reality shows and everything in between — but filtered through blogger Cogito’s fuscia-colored strainer. Essentially, it’s the food section of the paper your mother warned you about.

Spawned out of love for cooking and any food-made-with-love, Cogito just couldn’t just his trap shut and just HAD to share his experiences with the world. Hence, the birth of QueerInMySoup.com. Join us each day as we observe theworld in all its fabulous, culinary splendor!!

All in all, I think Cogito’s blog provides a good foundation for queer foodies who want to look for fun new recipes and become fiscally healthy. The actual content of the site, however, often falls short and I find myself wanting more surrounding context and observations. If Cogito keeps posting and allows his love for “any food-made-with-love” to grow, this site could fulfill its mission more successfully.

In February’s post about Holla Back NYC, I referenced DC’s “slightly less thrilling, but equally as important” sister site “Holla Back DC.” This site had the beginnings of an excellent foundation of resources for men and women in DC who have been victims of harassment based on their gender, race and sexual orientation. Recently, Shannon, Co-Founder of Holla Back DC, redesigned the local resource giving the site the surge of power it deserved. I was lucky enough to hear from Shannon about the details of the new and improved, Holla Back DC:

I started Holla Back DC! with a friend of mine in March after we found out about Holla Back NYC and realized the one in DC had been down since last year.   Holla Back DC! aims to raise awareness and track street harassment as well as other forms of gender-based violence in the Washington, DC area.  We know that street harassment is rampant in this area and believe that it is a community problem that has largely been ignored.  Holla Back DC! is not only a space where individuals can email us their stories about being harassed, we will also plan to provide tips on how to prevent and protect yourself as we work to make the DC streets/public transportation safe.  Through the use of Google maps, the blog will eventually provide a way to track where street harassment is occurring most often. Our goal is to build a movement of individuals invested in creating a community free of gender-based public sexual harassment.

Also, we are hosting the Holla Back DC! launch party on April 29th from 6pm-8pm at Cafe Citron. Here we will celebrate the blog, collect stories from individuals,  discuss the need for grassroots activism, and hear from several activist who have been working to raise awareness on the problem.

Holla Back DC can only survive if we as readers share our experiences with street harassment as well as solutions to end this issue. You can follow the site on Twitter and e-mail the writers directly at dchollaback@gmail.com.

In the summer of 2007, I was only working three days a week during my grad school summer vacation, and an abundance of free time led to an important time-killing discovery — blogs. I began reading dozens of D.C.-based blogs that touched on a range of topics (restaurants, the arts, events), and I realized that there wasn’t really a blog that combined everything I was interested in. And so Ms. Cavanaugh Goes to Washington was born.

From my first post on a bag-making event at Marimekko in Silver Spring, to more recent posts on the orchid show at the Museum of Natural History and new restaurants in National Harbor, I’ve tried to cover the metropolitan area from a range of angles. I cover new exhibits at art museums and promote shows for artists I’m friends it. I write about restaurants new and old, local chef gossip, and cocktail parties. I keep a calendar with cool events around town that I’m going to. There are non-D.C. posts on occasion, about trips I’ve taken or Gossip Girl dresses I’m coveting, and I also do a weekly post where I link to the most interesting articles I’ve written for other outlets that week (I work full time for the Washington Blade, and freelance for a number of papers, including the Washington Post Express and The Onion).

Many of you know me as one of the early writers of The New Gay, and while I’ve also had to move on from writing for other web sites as my freelance writing jobs take up so much time, Ms. Cavanaugh Goes to Washington is a chance for me to share my knowledge of the city with a large number of readers. People tell me they read my site when they have friends or family coming into town and need to know the best art exhibit to take them to, and others read it to stay on top of local restaurant openings. I write it for these reasons, but my blog is also a love letter to the city I’ve called home for three years.

Although changing legislation to protect all citizens is one of the most influential ways to diminish prejudice, we all know that issues like this are rarely solved from the top down. People all over the country take steps in their daily lives to call out prejudice behavior and create larger waves of change. This week’s featured blog, So Your EnGAYged is doing just this. Kelly Prizel and Lara Swanson, founders of the blog, acknowledge that weddings do not always feature a woman pretending to be a virgin in a white dress; that love does not always come in one tradition, it manifests in all colors, personalities and styles. The site acts as an informational hub for reception ideas, fun party favors, and wedding vendors that cater to the queer community and truly believe that everyone deserves to celebrate love. Most importantly, So You’re EnGAYged acknowledges that activism can and should be a part of any business.

Kelly, Lara and Natalie (Kelly’s partner), took some time to write to me about the evolution of their site. Look below the fold to learn more about this great resource.

So You’re EnGAYged (www.soyoureengayged.com) grew out of experiences Kelly Prizel of Film Noir Photography (www.fnoirphoto.com) had both as she planned her own same-sex wedding and as she graduated for the Corcoran College of Art & Design and launched her wedding photography business. From posing same-sex couples in silly gendered poses to making offhand homophobic comments to “lighten the mood”, Kelly found that many wedding vendors displayed inadvertent homophobia, heterosexism, and plain ol’ sexism that was off-putting to same-sex couples and their allies. When she met Lara Swanson of Lara Swanson Photography (www.laraswansonphoto.com), a veteran wedding photographer specializing in off-beat, non-traditional weddings, Kelly knew she had found a kindred spirit. So, together they decided to form So You’re EnGAYged, an online wedding-planning resource for LGBT and allied couples.

So You’re EnGAYged is both a blog, online community, and vendor referral site. Kelly and Lara work to bring the LGBT and allied community together to discuss the challenges and excitement of planning an LGBT-friendly wedding or commitment ceremony. Much like socially responsible investing, So You’re EnGAYged seeks to help couples plan weddings that reflect their values. So You’re EnGAYged is committed to promoting LGBT rights, including but not limited to same-sex marriage, as civil rights. We hope to play a small but vital part in creating a world in which the diversity of family relationships is respected and valued.

On many same-sex wedding referral sites, any vendor who pays can be featured as gay-friendly, whether he or she is or not. So You’re EnGAYged is different because each of our vendors, including those who pay for advertising, must answer a questionnaire in order to ensure we are featuring vendors who are actively involved or catering to same-sex couples. We’re not interested in vendors who view the LGBT community as a “niche market”; rather, we seek out those who want a relationship with the LGBT community. Furthermore, we are working to show the diversity of couples planning weddings and the unique challenges each couple faces. For example, one of our bloggers is a transman who identifies as queer and is confronted by the assumption that he and his fiancee are heterosexual. As the site grows, we hope to become even more diverse: gay guys, we need you!

So You’re EnGAYged hopes to become the go-to site for LGBT and allied couples planning their weddings. We also hope to become a major player in the wedding industry that vendors strive to be a part of and look to for advice on serving the LGBT community.

I am someone who is comfortable living in ambiguity. However, as many of TNG readers and writers have experienced, this makes outsiders uncomfortable. We acknowledge the importance of enlightening others, rather than sitting back bitterly awaiting for mutual respect. This is why I have decided to feature BiTheWay for Blog of the Week. It is completely dedicated to creating new dialogues and new ways of approaching discussions about male bisexuality. The anonymous founder of the blog dispels common myths used when speaking of bi sexuality such as “bi-curious” or “confused” or “insecure;” He is one of the first bloggers to write with such a grounded approach to this topic, and the only blog I have seen to successfully reach out to a global queer community.

BiTheWay also explores bisexuality within the political sphere. It gives readers tools on how to approach ambiguity within the gay community and shows us that we should not define others to selfishly satisfy our own curiosities. Below is Bi The Way’s mission as described by its founder:

I’m male, 29, and I’m bisexual. Now that’s not how I’d normally introduce myself, because my sexuality is not the cornerstone of my self-identity. However, for the purposes of this blog its a fitting place to start, because this web site is about exploring male sexuality, in particular male bisexuality.

Bisexuality is a topic that remains largely taboo for a lot of men, despite the fact that there are millions of men out there who find themselves attracted to both men and women. There is a lot of pressure, particularly on young men to either identify themselves as straight or gay, and whilst peer pressure makes it hard to come out as gay, its even more difficult to come out as bisexual as there is no clear peer group where you can turn to support.

So I decided to write this blog for several reasons: The first is to explore my own sexuality. The second is to let others who are struggling with their sexual identity know that they are not alone and there are others out there like them. And finally to educate others and dispel a few myths about bisexuals and bisexuality.

There is a 4th supplemental reason and that is that I was curious to see how easy it was to set-up WordPress on a Windows platform, thanks to Nuclear Internet it was an absolute breeze.

Its also worth pointing out that this is a blog about sexuality not sex, so you won’t find the sordid details of my love life plastered across the world wide web or any sexually explicit images here. So please don’t ask. (Well OK – ask, I’ll be flattered, but you won’t get anything.) That said if you do have any suggestions for the site or questions you’d like to ask please post a comment, this is an interactive web site and your contributions are as important as my own. You can also write to me by email: editor[at]bitheway[dot]co[dot]uk.

Good as You acts as a one-stop shop for gay and lesbian news, media and pop culture and puts a new spin “G-A-Y” commentary. Jeremy Hooper, founder of Good as You, composes posts that are provocative, often tongue and cheek yet retain meaningful substance. He tells people how they can get involved in queer activism and reaches out to all minorities/genders. What keeps me interested in this blog is that it feels like an interactive site. Most posts feature a TV clipping, a radio interview or recent political dialogue that grabs the audience’s attention and showcases the various societal deficiencies that continue to hold gays back from truly being seen as “good as” everyone else. Here is what Jeremy Hooper had to say about his popular blog:

I started Good As You back in 2005 as a way of bringing a fresh perspective to the “culture war’ debate. At that point I was very drawn to some of the entertainment, media, and political blogs. I loved the immediacy, the conversational tone, and the irreverence. I found myself learning and retaining more from this presentation than I often did from traditional media. So my thought was that I could adopt this tone and apply it to the LGBT rights fight — taking often depressing or enraging issues and making them just a little more palatable.

Since then the site has evolved, shaped by the fight itself. The balance changes depending on the subject, sometimes tipping more to unapologetic advocacy than humor. But the idea is always that the site does not take itself too seriously.

About G-A-Y: Using humor and irreverence to tackle weighty issues, Good As You represents a new generation of gay activism. Now is the time for intelligent, progressive-minded individuals to step up and fight for the common rights of which they might be denied. We’re here to rally the troops.

Our tone is light, but our message is firm: We will not sit back and be led to a society that favors discrimination over diversity.

Check out the major press Good as You has received below the fold.

Recent national press for Good as You and Jeremy Hooper:
*Profile in HRC ‘Equality’ magazine: http://www.hrcbackstory.org/2007/10/goodasyou-blogg.html

*Feature on the PBS program “In the Life”: http://www.inthelifetv.org/html/episodes/11.html

*Profile from The Advocate: http://www.goodasyou.org/JeremyHooper.jpg

*Advocate first person: http://www.goodasyou.org/advocatefirstperson.jpg

*Featured on the Logo channel’s 2008 “Year in Review”: http://www.goodasyou.org/good_as_you/2008/12/video-a-snippet.html

**I was nominated for This Brave Nation’s 2008 Young Activist Award (a project of The Nation magazine, The Brave New Foundation, and Rock The Vote): http://bravenation.com/vote.php

Jasmyne Cannick, writer and creator of JasmyneCannick.com, is someone women should look up to. Her site stresses the importance of national politics, gives her candid observations about racism and prejudice within the gay community, and shows her readers a sense of who she is and what she believes in. She is a writer, a journalist and an activist who writes with firm conviction and a sardonic edge.

Here is what Jasmyne Cannick has to say about her “online alter ego…”

Really, it’s just my little space on the world wide Internet to share what’s good and what’s not so good in the hood, and in my life. Ocasionally, I start a little shit here and there, but who doesn’t? I actually started my site because my boy Keith Boykin had KeithBoykin.com and I was like–oh hell to the no! I can’t let Keith have a site and I don’t, so I had to get my act together…

While I love my website, unfortunately it doesn’t pay the bills,…–okay it doesn’t pay the big bills. By that I mean that I am not a 24/7 blogger. I don’t have a degree in blogging. I work in politics and in the media. So when I can update my site, I do. When I can’t, I don’t. And for me to update my site over the weekend–well let’s just say it has to be something really important because I am a Monday through Friday kind of girl. I do have a life. Nah, who am I kidding, I don’t have a life outside of work, but the weekends are mine.

I do all of my own design work on my site so I don’t have to wait on anyone. From html to PHP scripts, I got it covered. My friend Bobby Jones aka Son of Ellis (www.sonofellis.com) designs the wonderful cartoon graphic of me that are featured on my site. I encourage all people who read my site to get to know my F.A.Q.’s page. It will save them the trouble of sending me an email the won’t get read and me the trouble of deleting it. There are rules of decorum for my site as people can get a little testy and all bent out of shape forgetting that they are reading JasmyneCannick.com and not BlackGayAmerica.com or some shit like that. It’s my site, my rules, my thoughts, my life. I tell people who don’t like, don’t read it, don’t come to the site. I will survive. But for those haters that just have to come and bitch and complain, I set up a special email box for them… askmeifigiveafuck@jasmynecannick.com. My girl Jenifer Lewis says it best in the movie “Jackie’s Back.”

Cannick is not just someone who writes about her experiences; she mobilizes others to live better and fight against prejudice with knowledge, confidence and wisdom. She acknowledges the complexity of major political and human rights issues, not giving in to generalizations that can set back societal advances. Cannick’s activism and life experiences, in my mind, make her the ultimate powerhouse.

While walking to Target in Columbia Heights, I saw a man waiting at the bus stop. He smiled at me, I smiled back and kept walking. A few seconds later this guy started hissing at me and making kissing noises. This lasted a few minutes. He sounded like a squirrel on crack. Unfortunately, women of all metropolitan areas are familiar with variations of this weird mating ritual. Sure, these experiences can be funny, even flattering at times. But sometimes a girl just wants to go to Target and shop for a $10 cardigan in peace.

Founders of the blog Holla Back NYC understand the fine line between an annoying street gawker and someone who makes pedestrians feel offended or unsafe. TNG has featured many articles about our experiences with street harassment in the District, and our own discomfort with it on many occasions. Holla Back NYC interconnects the humor of these common stories with a larger mission; “building communities where everyone feels comfortable, safe and respected. ” This site and its network gives men and women the tools to end racism, harassment and homophobia, while giving people the tools to act safe in their city.

Check out Holla Back NYC’s slightly-less-thrilling-but-equally-as-important DC network.

Remember when you were looking through old photos of your parents and you came across a picture of your dad wearing unflattering plaid pants, fashioning dorky hair and leaning awkwardly against some brick building with a cigarette in his mouth? You said “Dad you smoked? I didn’t know that,” overlooking the other funny elements in the picture. Then your dad replied “Oh yeah, well we didn’t know smoking was bad for you back then.” “How?” You’d reply. “Well, we knew it was bad for us…but we didn’t know it was THAT bad for us.” While it is difficult for us to see how our parents generation couldn’t “know” that inhaling smoke could possibly be detrimental to their health, we can understand how many of us have applied similar reasoning when eating meat, consuming dairy products, or buying any product made from an animal: If no one TELLS us that something is troubling or unhealthy we will most likely continue our destructive habits. We assume that “it can’t be THAT bad for us.”

What is different from our parents generation is that we have the ability to see things via technology that have helped us become more aware of our surroundings and more demanding of transparency. Not just in our government but in areas that affect our daily lives. Each generation may have different battle, but usually has one motive: to know. The blog “The Discerning Brute” combines important information of how we can improve our daily lives with a harsh awareness of how our meat gets to the table, how our leather shoes are constructed and how fur goes from the animal’s skin to warming our bodies. What makes this blog different from other vegan/vegetarian activist blogs is that this “discerning brute” gives tangible fashion, home and decorating advice for men who want to have a chic, eco-friendly style. Although most of the fashion advice is for men, I love reading up on the blog’s newly featured vegan recipes, articles and clothing stores.

The discerning brute and founder of the blog, Joshua Katcher, manages to do this while examining the spiritual awareness that comes with being vegan; how vegan-ism does not equal deprivation, but rather provides healthier, conscious choices for all of us. Check out the video above to witness Katcher’s in-your-face playfulness and style.

Read more about what Meaghan , a member of QCC, has to say about how this community began:

Amanda, founder of TheSexist, writes about her quirky, progressive and provocative blog:

I had been writing a weekly column about arts & nightlife for the City Paper called “Show & Tell” for about a year when my editor unveiled a new plan for all the reporters—from then on we’d be unveiling content in blog format, posting multiple times a day and writing extended pieces for the print edition of the paper. I had been struggling with the arts beat for, oh, about a year, and told him I’d love to blog but that I didn’t think I could do it on D.C. arts. He instantly agreed to allow me to write about sex & gender, which had been my dream for a really long time.

Thinking up the name was excruciating: Imagine sitting in your office with a bunch of older men and making puns on sex terms. Some of the initial ideas still make me cringe—The Ballbuster; Dot.Come; Bloggy Style. Then one of my editors suggested The Sexist, and it sounded about right. It’s still silly to refer to myself that way—my boyfriend makes fun of me by calling me that—but it helps me remember that my blog persona, the one that interviews anonymous 50-year-old Craigslist dudes looking for sex, is different from my off-line persona, which is mostly interested in eating fried chicken.

The blog’s been around for less than half a year now, and it’s still getting its legs. I try to keep it a good mix of ridiculous material and commentary on the important stuff—hate crimes, contraception access, rape, etc. The best stuff comes from reviewing local pro-life pharmacies, or sitting in court watching lawyers argue over a strip-club fire, or interviewing guys about how they plan to get laid on election night by evoking Obama. I’m interested in finding out where women really stand in our city, but the blog definitely is drawn to the more ridiculous aspects of our experience—the funny stuff and the really ugly stuff, too.

Oh—and let me add that the very best thing that’s come out of this is getting in touch with other young feminists and GLBT bloggers and commenters, who are all contributing to a first draft of third-and-fourth-wave feminism, and who blow me away every day with their wit and insight.

People like Amanda are helping to create a new wave of social awareness, combining news and social atmosphere. Her views on current events and culture add to the growing group of people who want change, but don’t take themselves too seriously.

I love Suze Orman. But sometimes she gives me a headache with all her FICO, “you can’t afford it,” “STOP LYING TO YOURSELF” talk. Other well known financial advisers tend to color money issues as habits of a particular gender, equating spending with what’s between the legs.

To me, good financial advice is more than learning how to diversify your portfolio. This is why TNG has decided to feature Queercents.com as the blog of the week. We asked Serena Freewomyn, staff contributor to the blog, and all around great writer, to elaborate on how this blog began, how it has flourished and why it has helped the queer community:

“Queercents, founded in 2006 by Nina Smith, is a syndicate of personal finance writers serving the lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender (LGBT) community. Financial tips and insights are aggregated daily from the distinct voices of several money writers.

Money spends the same whether it is carried in a purse or a wallet. At Queercents, we don’t really care about sexual orientation, but at times it might impact our perspective on money and that’s something that you’ll likely never find in an issue of SmartMoney or Kiplinger’s.
It’s also worth noting that we don’t pretend to be licensed financial professionals. Most of us are working stiffs in a variety of professions just willing to share our financial quest . . . kind of like the money equivalent to group therapy. “

There you have it. Before you reach for your wallet, reach for your keyboard and type in Queercents.com in your webrowser. Read some non threatening money talk before you deplete your funds.