Yesterday, former President Bill Clinton introduced the premiere of MTV's new feature film Pedro, a biopic about Pedro Zamora, one of The Real World's most memorable cast members. In his Reuters blog entry "Pedro's Story Still Relevant Today" yesterday, Clinton commented on Zamora's impact: "For the first time, viewers saw an openly gay, HIV-positive young person on national television. As we followed his story each week, Pedro humanized the growing epidemic, reducing our ignorance and fears and increasing our determination to act. By living bravely and allowing MTV to show his story, Pedro set an extraordinary example of what a tremendous impact a single person can make in our world."

MTV used the latest season of its flagship reality series to screen Pedro for preview audiences last fall. The cast of The Real World: Brooklyn, the season finale of which also aired last night, helped organize and promote a screening at New York's Lesbian Gay Bisexual & Transgender Community Center. One of the cast members on the Brooklyn installment of the series was Katelynn, a 24-year-old, recently post-op transgendered woman from West Palm Beach, Florida who piqued the interest of her housemates, including a straight Iraq War veteran who quizzically referred to her as "it." MTV isn't the powerful medium is once was, but The Real World's producers are evidently still interested in breaking new ground and helping to expand viewers' awareness. Katelynn's evolution, from dealing with her deadbeat boyfriend back home to coping with how and when to come out to new people she meets, has given her an opportunity to be an advocate in the same way Pedro was more than a decade ago.

Both Pedro and The Real World: Brooklyn are both airing on MTV now, so check your local listings!

Former presidential nominee and Massachusetts State Senator John Kerry has been a long-time supporter of the Uniting American Families Act (UAFA), which earned a mainstream press endorsement by The Washington Post last week, and now the outspoken Democrat has taken on the challenge of trying to overturn a federal judge's decision to send Genesio "Junior" Oliveira back to Brazil after the man was denied asylum. (Read Kerry's statement on the issue at The Huffington Post.) Oliveira claims he was raped by a Brazilian doctor, and despite the country's anti-discrimination laws, violence against gays and lesbians continues at an alarming rate, including 186 murders last year. Oliveira is married to Tim Coco, and Kerry is pressuring Attorney General Eric Holder to overrule Immigration Judge Francis Cramer's rejection of Oliveira's plea for asylum. Coco has made it a personal crusade to change U.S. law so that gay couples can sponsor their partners for permanent immigration. It's an issue that our friends over at Immigration Equality have been courageously working on, and one that's close to our hearts.

Jamie Durrant, Xbox 360 designer and long-time friend of Big Queer, has filed a lawsuit against Microsoft for £45,000 (approximately $66,000) for discrimination based on his sexual orientation. The software giant bought the U.K. company for which Durrant works, Lionhead Studios, two years ago. Durrant claims he began receiving harassing emails over a year ago and that his complaints to the company's human resources department were "blatantly disregarded." He agreed to refrain from filing a formal grievance and was told that a memo would be sent to Lionhead employees reminding them to "behave responsibly," but no such memo was issued and a message with the title "Fag Boy Jim" was posted in the office kitchen.

Durrant was offered counseling and was asked to sign a document agreeing not to pursue any further action against the company, but he rightfully declined. BQ reached out to Durrant to find out if he or his attorney has a copy of the proposed agreement, but he declined to comment on the issue or make any other on-the-record statements due to the pending suit. Durrant has been on sick leave due to depression and is seeking payment for lost pay and, according to the U.K. press, "hurt feelings." (We took issue with the references to our friend's "hurt feelings," but apparently "injury to feelings" is a legitimate legal complaint on the other side of the pond.)

As for Microsoft, the company has a history of providing domestic partnership benefits and has included sexual orientation in its anti-discrimination policies, though its lack of support for Workplace Fairness legislation was an issue in 2005. BQ will post more information as it becomes available.

Less than a month after Floridians voted to pass a constitutional amendment banning gay marriage, a Miami judge has ruled that a 31-year-old law in the Sunshine State prohibiting gay couples from adopting children is unconstitutional. It's a victory for civil rights activists and supporters who suffered several blows on November 4th, including an Arkansas measure blocking "unmarried" (read: gay) couples from fostering or adopting children in that state. "It is clear that sexual orientation is not a predictor of a person's ability to parent," Miami-Dade Circuit Judge Cindy Lederman wrote in her 53-page ruling. "A child in need of love, safety and stability does not first consider the sexual orientation of his parent. The exclusion causes some children to be deprived of a permanent placement with a family that is best suited to their needs." An appeal is expected to be filed on behalf of the state Department of Children & Families. John Stemberger, an Orlando attorney who chaired the November vote against gay couples responded: "Everywhere in the law where children are affected, the standard must always be what is in the best interest of the child. What is stunning to me is that when it comes to dealing with gays, that standard goes out the window. Children do better with a mother and a father." Perhaps, but children with two dads or two moms do better than kids with none at all.

Relatedly, there's an interesting interview with a Mexican-American Catholic author Richard Rodriguez in Salon today examining the real fears behind the church's scapegoating of gay couples who wish to marry and start their own families. Check it out here.

Barack Obama and Joe Biden have unveiled their plan to strengthen civil rights, including support for the LGBT community. According to the Office of the President-elect, Obama plans to expand hate crimes statutes, and though there's no specific details about what the new administration will do on that front moving forward, Obama's record as an Illinois State senator is clear: He helped expand hate-crime legislation in the state. He also supports the Employment Non-Discrimination Act and believes that there should be a federal legal remedy to discrimination based on sexual orientation in the workplace.

While both Obama and Vice President-elect Biden do not support redefining "marriage," they do support full civil unions with all of the federal rights afforded to straight married couples. Separate but equal, some might say, but a step in the right direction. Obama opposed Proposition 8 in California, wants to repeal the Defense of Marriage Act, is against a Constitutional ban on same-sex marriage, and wants to expand adoption rights.

In an effort to avoid the mistakes made by President Bill Clinton in the early '90s, Obama aims to repeal the U.S Military's Don't Ask, Don't Tell policy by working with military leaders on the issue. The next president also plans to promote AIDS prevention by implementing more than just an abstinence-first agenda, using common-sense approaches to contraception and even supporting more taboo issues like contraception education in the prison system and lifting the federal ban on needle exchange.

Now here's where I start preaching. It's nice to have a progressive voice in the Oval Office, but it our responsibility to hold Obama and Biden accountable and make sure they live up to their promises, particularly on these issues. For more information, check out the official Office of the President-elect transition website.

Keith Olbermann is known for his outspoken, often angry rants on everything from the Iraq War to Sarah Palin's alleged shopping sprees, but earlier this week he struck a more saddened tone when he spoke about the passage of Proposition 8 in California last week. His "Special Comment" on the issue is currently the most viewed video on MSNBC's Countdown with Keith Olbermann website:

The election of Barack Obama, who included the phrase "gay and straight" in his acceptance speech on Tuesday night, is a cause for celebration in the LGBT community, as the next president likely won't be writing us out of the Constitution anytime soon. But this week was also marked by several ballot initiatives that impinge the progress gays and lesbians have seen in regard to marriage and family. Despite a state Supreme Court ruling that granted same-sex couples the right to marry and opposition by Obama and Governator Arnold Schwarzenegger, California voters passed Proposition 8, which amends the state constitution by defining marriage as a union between a man and a woman. A staggering $74 million was spent on the proposition, including millions raised by the Mormon Church. Prop 8 wasn't the only dark cloud hanging over Obama's victory: Amendments banning same-sex marriage were also passed in neighboring state Arizona as well as Florida. The Sunshine State already prohibits gays from adopting children and now Arkansas can be added to that list. The state passed an initiative prohibiting unmarried couples from adopting or fostering children, a victory for religious fundamentalists and homophobes but a loss for gay couples that want to start a family. The biggest losers however, are the children currently living in the state's dismal foster care system. If you live in California, Arkansas, Arizona or Florida, you can take action by contacting your local representative.

First Clay Aiken and now Lindsay Lohan? Rumors have been swirling about La Lohan’s relationship with Samantha Ronson for months but the formerly troubled (and heterosexual) actress finally spilled the beans. The 22-year-old told “Loveline” host Ted Stryker that she’s been dating the 31-year-old DJ “for a very long time.” It remains to be seen how Dina feels about this development, or whether Lohan’s tryst is just a phase a la lesbian defector Anne Heche or if it’s part of a more long-term discovery. Either way, Lohan’s public statement is likely to keep her front and center on the gossip blogs and tabloid circuit while her career—which currently consists of a recurring role on Ugly Betty and an upcoming feature in which she fakes being pregnant to avoid losing her job—continues to wane.

While the gossip rags pat themselves on the backs for claiming to know Clay Aiken was gay the first time he stepped onto the American Idol stage five years ago, the singer's admission in the upcoming issue of People magazine that he is indeed homosexual raises some larger issues for the LGBT community. In a statement, Executive Director of the Family Equality Council Jennifer Chrisler said: "Much like Rosie O'Donnell, the announcement that Clay Aiken is gay reinforces a simple reality: the American public can no longer say it does not know a gay or lesbian parent. Clay Aiken's desire to raise a child in an open and honest manner will make his life, and his son's, all the better. We hope he and his son find all the happiness they deserve, and the Family Equality Council will work toward the day that Clay and Parker Foster Aiken can enjoy the same rights as other American families." Long before he chose to father a child with his 50-year-old female pal Jaymes Foster, many in the media and the public suspected Aiken was gay, and even before pictures from a webcam conversation surfaced online, it was pretty obvious that Aiken was not a ladies man. The idea that Aiken and O'Donnell are gay isn't all that shocking; teenage girls across the country likely won't be burning their Measure of a Man CDs in the town square this week. But what about the countless other actors, musicians and politicians who have (thus far successfully) kept their sexuality under wraps? Humanizing the face of the LGBT community is the first step toward tolerance and acceptance and as long as public figures in positions of power bite their tongues, the cycle of silence, violence and fear will continue.

Last week, newly minted gay icon Brad Pitt donated $100,000 to help fight an initiative in California that would overturn the state Supreme Court's legalization of gay marriage. Gays have won the right to wed in only two states, the other one being Massachusetts. The November ballot is the first time voters will be given the chance to vote against gay marriage in a state where it's already been granted. Pitt said in a statement: "Because no one has the right to deny another their life, even though they disagree with it, because everyone has the right to live the life they so desire if it doesn't harm another and because discrimination has no place in America, my vote will be for equality and against Proposition 8." Pitt and his partner, long-time gay icon Angelina Jolie, with whom he shares custody of six children, have refused to get married until gay marriage is made legal in the United States. "Angie and I will consider tying the knot when everyone else in the country who wants to be married is legally able," he said in 2006. To find out more about Proposition 8 or to donate to the cause, check out Californians Against Eliminating Basic Rights' Vote No on Prop 8 website.