The Memphis Gay and Lesbian Community Center (MGLCC) is hosting two town hall meetings to approve and adopt the organization's amended and restated charter and amended and restated bylaws.

The first meeting will be held on Sunday, March 21st at 2:30 p.m. and the second is scheduled for Sunday, April 4th at 2:30 p.m. Both will be held at the MGLCC (892 S. Cooper).

Memphian Matthew Smart is hosting an event he's billing as the "First Semi-Annual O-So-Gay Yard Sale" on Saturday, March 20th at 3789 Healey Road.

The LGBT community and gay-friendly straight people are invited to sell their stuff at the yard sale. Anyone interested in selling should contact Smart at 552-0853.

Although the LGBT community and their straight allies continue to fight for gay marriage, an end to military discrimination, and inclusive hate crimes legislation, most will agree that gays and lesbians are much better off today than one hundred years ago.

• Read "Skip" Neal's story on the Old Lesbian Herstory website

In the early part of the 20th century, there were no LGBT magazines or newspapers, no public community centers or pride parades, no gay-centric radio and television stations. Yet the generation that remembers those days are slowly dying off.

The Old Lesbian Herstory Project attempts to collect oral histories from senior lesbians. In 1997, Arden Eversmeyer began documenting the stories of older lesbian women in Houston, Texas. Since then, the project has expanded across the country. A local group is organizing and will host a planning meeting at the Memphis Center for Independent Living (1633 Madison) on Saturday, March 13, from 2 to 4 p.m.

View samples of herstories, as well as photos and old newspaper clippings, at the Old Lesbian Herstory Project website.

Although the 2010 U.S. Census doesn't ask people to reveal their sexual orientation, people in same-sex relationships have an opportunity to make that known on the census form.

According to Memphis Gay & Lesbian Community Center (MGLCC) director Will Batts, LGBT people in relationships may opt to check "husband or wife" or "unmarried partner" in a section that asks questions about other people living in the home. The MGLCC (892 S. Cooper) is hosting an informational session with a 2010 U.S. Census worker on Thursday, March 11th at 6:30 p.m.

• Sample 2010 Census form

Since gay people aren't allowed to marry or have out-of-state marriages recognized in Tennessee, Batts suggest that people in same-sex relationships fill out the form according to how they view their relationship. In other words, even if you're not technically married, you should check "husband or wife" if you think of your partner in that role.

"They want us to share the most accurate information about our lives that we can. If we believe that we are married — like if we were married in another state but living in Tennessee — we need to record that," Batts said. "If we believe we are simply unmarried partners or roommates, that should be how we record our relationships. The census is not making judgment about our relationships. The census is collecting information from us about ourselves, so we should record that as honestly as we know how to."

A 1995 U.S. Supreme Court decision allowed Boston, Massachusetts' St. Patrick's Day parade organizers to ban gay groups from taking part in the annual march.

But Memphis' Beale Street Merchants Association doesn't discriminate. For the second year, the Memphis Gay & Lesbian Community Center (MGLCC) will be represented in the parade down Beale Street on Saturday, March 13th.

Currently, the MGLCC is seeking LGBT people and straight allies to join in the parade walking group. Anyone interested should e-mail or call 901-278-6422 to sign up. The parade begins at 4 p.m., but walkers will begin lining up at 2 p.m.

On Tuesday, March 2nd, gay rights advocates will gather in Nashville to push for pro-LGBT legislation on the Tennessee Equality Project's (TEP) annual Advancing Equality Day.

Specifically, advocates will be lobbying against a proposed bill that would prevent unmarried couples from adopting. They'll also be working to expand hate crimes protections.

For more information on how to get involved, check out this blog post.

Planned Parenthood of Memphis has teamed up with the Memphis Gay and Lesbian Community Center (MGLCC) to offer a seven-session program aimed at preventing HIV and other STDs among African American men.

Called "Many Men, Many Voices," the workshop series is aimed at black men who have sex with men, but the participants don't necessarily have to identify as gay. The target audience includes heterosexual men "on the down low," who enjoy gay sex unbeknownst to their female partners.

The intervention sessions will address sexual relationship dynamics, factors that influence the behavior of black men who live "on the down low," and the social influences that racism and homophobia have on HIV risk.

In order to participate in the seven-week program, men must show up for the first session on Sunday, February 28th at MGLCC at 6:30 p.m.

• Jack Robinson

During Mississippi-born photographer Jack Robinson's New Orleans period (in the 1950s, when he shot his famous Mardi Gras/Bourbon Street gay district photographs), he fell in love with a man named Gabriel.

Robinson became a bit obsessed with photographing his lover, often in the nude. His play with light and shadow created particularly sensual images.

Some of that work will be on display in an exhibit at the Jack Robinson Gallery (400 S. Front) through March. The show opens during the South Main Trolley Tour on Friday, February 26th from 6 to 9 p.m.

The monthly planning meeting of Tennessee Equality Project's (TEP) Memphis chapter will be held Tuesday, February 23rd from 6 to 8 p.m. at the Memphis Gay and Lesbian Community Center (892 S. Cooper).

On the agenda: Updates on the city's proposed ordinance to protect LGBT workers and planning for TEP's Advancing Equality on the Hill day.

For more information, check out TEP's Facebook page.

Since the Memphis Area Gay Youth (MAGY) group was founded 15 years ago, the youth-run, adult-advised support group has kept its meeting place a secret. At the time, group leaders wanted LGBT kids to have a safe place to retreat, and they feared that revealing the meeting location would put some kids at risk.

But on Friday, Feb. 19 from 7 to 9 p.m., MAGY members will finally open their doors to the public in the group's first-ever open house at First Congregational Church.

"We want to send a positive message about being out,” says advisor Mary Park, a former MAGY youth participant. “How can we encourage young people to come out of the closet if we as an organization don’t do the same thing?” 

Since its inception, MAGY has served as a support group for LGBT and questioning youth ages 13 to 20. Advisor Derek Norman says MAGY offers youth a safe place to be "out" since many regular members have to hide their identity at school, at home, and from their close friends. The group meets every Friday night at First Congregational Church.

“One of the challenges of growing up gay is that, unlike most people of ethnic or racial minorities, you often don’t share an identity with anyone in your family," says Norman. "There may be no one at home who understands what you are going through."

• Steve Mulroy at the June rally

Back in June of last year, hundred of LGBT rights supporters gathered on the steps of the First Congregational Church in Midtown to rally for the Shelby County Commission's proposed non-discrimination ordinance protecting LGBT county workers.

Later in October, many of those same people showed up for another rally held inside the First Congo Church. That time, the group was gathered to express anger over the destruction of a pro-gay billboard downtown. At that rally, representatives from the Memphis Gay and Lesbian Community Center (MGLCC) promised the fight wouldn't end there.

And they've kept that promise with a new group — called "Raise Your Voice: Speak Up, Speak Out" — aimed at uniting LGBT rights advocates in the fight against oppression. "Raise Your Voice" will hold its first planning meeting on Thursday at the MGLCC (892 S. Cooper) at 6:30 p.m. For more information, go here.