A jolt was sent through the LGBT blogosphere when the groundbreaking lesbian blogger, Pam Spaulding, “blogmistress” of Pam’s House Blend, announced this week that after 9 years she is closing down her blog on July 1. One of the first LGBT political blogs to rapidly rise in the early years of political bloggers, Spaulding had become a must-read for political junkies and LGBT people across the country, offering her perspective as a black lesbian living in North Carolina, far beyond the big cities in the North and West Coast that dominate LGBT politics.
Initially blogging in 2004 due to frustration of the state of politics under President George W. Bush Pam became ranked in the top 50 progressive political blogs. Michael Rogers, editor and publisher of gay blog PageOneQ.com (now Raw Story Media) noted:
“Pam is certainly the most important lesbian blogger in America. She’s a lesbian in a gay blogging world that is overwhelmingly gay men. She’s a blogger as a woman in an overwhelmingly male-dominated world and she’s of color and the internet is so skewed to the privileged.” Read More…
Over the years Pam has acquired several milestones and awards…
- Performed the first-ever live-blogging events for the Servicemembers Legal Defense Network’s annual dinner in May 2006 and the National Black Justice Coalition’s Second Annual Black Church Summit in March 2007.
- Landed exclusive interviews with the first openly gay man to run for the U.S. Senate, Jim Neal, as well as the only out lesbian serving in Congress, Tammy Baldwin.
- In 2006 received Distinguished Achievement Award from The Monette-Horwitz Trust for making significant contributions toward the eradication of homophobia.
- Named one of Huffington Post’s Ultimate Game Changers in Politics in 2009
- Provided commentary on CNN during the 2008 presidential election cycle
- Honored with the 2009 Women’s Media Center Award for Online Journalism
- Received the 2009 Courage Award from the New York City Anti-Violence Project “for the significant contributions you have made to raising awareness about anti-violence work.
- In 2009 selected as one of the OUT 100 for the year.
- 2010, named one of TheGrio’s 15 LGBT leaders of tomorrow
- 2010: held the first-ever candidate liveblogs on LGBT issues with all the Democratic candidates running for the U.S. Senate from North Carolina.
- 2011: GLAAD Media Awards: Nominated for the inaugural Best Blog prize
- Honored in 2012 by the Gay, Lesbian & Straight Education Network for Black History Month: Black Heroes of the LGBT Movement
- In 2012 honored with the Bob Page Equality Champion Award by the Equality NC Foundation for online and offline work against Amendment One, the ballot initiative that bans legal recognition of same-sex couples.
The cause is not forgotten, a new channel debuts on FireDogLake.com(FDL), Justice For All, that will take on many of the same issues covered by PamsHouseBlend. Pam is still interactive online and can be reached on facebook, twitter, and google plus.
Listen below as Pam explains why she has chosen to close her blog:
https://soundcloud.com/siriusxmentertainment/signorile-pams-house-blend
