There are many organizations in the Midwest that work hard as LGBT advocates and this month we spoke with First Friday Breakfast Club and Cedar Rapids PFLAG. The two organizations talk about their history, mission, and how they have made an impact. First Friday Breakfast Club is based in Des Moines, Iowa and Cedar Rapids PFLAG is based in Cedar Rapids, Iowa but both organizations attract followers from throughout the state.

Dear Dr. Olson,

I’m a mid-level professional and I would like to introduce my partner to my co-workers.  Is it safe to come out at work?

Greg

In 1986, I was freshly divorced, newly out (only to a very limited degree), and Medical Director of Psychiatry for one of Iowa’s largest hospitals, I was threatened to be “out-ed” to the hospital administration by a problem physician.  Fearing that my career and my only source of income was about to go down the drain, I confessed my sexual orientation to my vice-president.  She said, “Loren, we knew that when we hired you.”

So much fetish, so little February. It's been a wild month, Des Moines.

All four weekends in February marked the celebration of Fetish February, a massive collaboration between the Titans of the Midwest, the Cornhaulers Leather and Levis Club, the Central Iowa Power Exchange (CIPEX), the Imperial Court of Iowa Reign XX, Team Friendly Iowa, Project HIM, Pride Sports League, The Iowa School of Burlesque, Le Chateau Exotique and Liberty Gifts. Events at The Garden Nightclub, Le Boi Bar, Lime Lounge, Buddy's Corral, and the Blazing Saddle catered to different fetishes with events that emphasized education, charity, and participation for all who desired.

It's astounding how far this administration – and this president – have come in making good the promise on same-sex marriage

In his second inaugural address this past January, Barack Obama laid out an expansive vision of gay equality under the law, doing away with his earlier triangulations and declaring that "if we are truly created equal, then surely the love we commit to one another must be equal as well." For gay Americans, whom the president sometimes disappointed in his first term, it was a stirring moment. But it remained to be seen whether Obama's actions would match his rhetoric.