Honestly, I'm still bowled over to be recognized for my work here on PHB; it's a labor of love and certainly not a lucrative endeavor. I mentioned in my thank you speech how I am the only honoree who does this reporting/commentary and activism in my spare time, since I have to put a roof over my head with a full time job in the "real world."
I actually managed to make it through my off-the-cuff speech (I only had a scrap of paper with the people to thank on it and winged the rest). I thanked my fellow baristas by name -- and for all of you out there, lurkers and commenters for making this community more than just my ramblings. It was also important to thank the WMC for recognizing the importance of new media/citizen journalism -- and women making a difference in this realm. Naturally I thanked Kate for her eternal patience as a "blog widow", Tim for providing support and advocacy for our civil rights and just being there; and my mom, who passed away in 1997; she didn't live to see how Tim and I have thrived professionally, but she laid the foundation -- stressing the value of education and hard work that kept us out of trouble back in the day, when too many young people in the "hood" in NYC were falling prey to crack, bad schools and broken homes after we moved north as children of an onerous divorce.
Oh, and I eviscerated the Obama administration re: the heinous DOMA brief as well -- when you see the video, people responded to that. Everyone I spoke to in the room was PISSED about the arguments and hateful language in the brief -- White House, DNC, are you listening?
Anyway, enough of that drama, my speech really wasn't very long. I'll have it up once it's processed. Here you go...
Carole Jenkins: ...Democratic National Convention. Pam received the 2006 Distinguished Achievement Award from the Manatt Horowitz Trust for making signifigant contributions in the eradication of homophobia, and she provides essential journalism and conversation. Pam, where are you, you're fabulous...
Pam Spaulding: I'm over here.
(Cheers)
Gloria Steinem: Pam, this is to you for creating a website that gives the LGBT community a strong and sightful voice and a center of action.
Pam: Oh my... gosh. Okay, I didn't make a speech, but I do have people I want to thank.
First I want to thank the Women's Media Center, Gloria and Carol; I can't believe that when I got this email, saying that I was going to be honored... I was like, "why?"
(laughter)
"Who am I; I'm just running this little, you know, blog..."
And I think what is most heartening is about being recognized for this award is because it's about new media. This is a catagory, a much maligned catagory, of 'journalism slash commentary, original reporting and muckraking' and we do alot of it at the Blend.
Obviously, same-sex marriage is in the news, and I'm giving the Obama administration hell right now on my blog. The last week has been exciting, to say the least.
I think that a couple of bloggers and I have made it, alot of pressure on our core advocacy organizations like HRC, to do the right thing and come out strong in making it clear that thate brief on DOMA was outrageous.
But I also want to recognize my readers; without my readers, I am just another voice out in the wilderness on the digital space.
I want to thank my co-bloggers; I had to write them down to remember them because I have so many of them now: Julien Sharp, Russ Bellville, Daimeon Pilcher, Terrence Heath, Louise and Lurleen, and I want to give a big shout-out to Autumn Sandeen, who is breaking new ground as a transgender blogger and advocate.
She covered so many issues that it was necessary for me to include her on my roster and it brought so much gratitude from a community that is fighting desperately for rights, and I'm glad we're getting noticed for that, too.
I also want to thank my ever patient wife, Kate; she is a 'blog widow', because I am probably the only honoree tonight who is being honored for something I do in my spare time.
I'm IT manager at Duke University Press, and my director is very kind to let me spend all of my paid time off covering the Democratic Convention last year and the rest of the race, so I am grateful for Duke University Press as well.
Kate, I love you; I love that we are married right now, as we're standing here in New York...
(applause)
We celebrate our fifth anniversary on July first, and we are about to return to our home in North Carolina, where we have no rights whatsoever.
(laughter)
So we're gonna work really hard, at our state level, to do what we can.
And to wrap, I want to thank my brother Tim, who has been with me through times thick and thin, from being nearly homeless for a time, and to my mom, who has passed away.
She died in 1997, so she never got to see her son earn his doctorate and become a professor at the University of Delaware; she never got to see me win this award, but one thing she did stress, all the time, is education.
Reading, from the time we were just out of the womb, she never- she always believed in us, and we always had the intestinal fortitude to go on, even in times of adversity, and Tim, you know we have that bond and we'll never lose it and I am just so grateful for everything. Thank you.
Gloria: I think we better stay on Pam's good side...
More below the fold.
What a day of news -- thank you baristas and diarists for picking up the slack for me while I was offline. I haven't seen anything about the Obama fed signing ceremony, so I can't comment on it. When I got back to the hotel, I had 150+ emails that filled my inbox since 5 PM when I signed off and I have yet to go through all the blog posts to catch up. I have to hop on the plane in the AM to head to back to Durham, so I guess that this will only further delay blogging on the matter. Believe it or not, I'll only be home about 12 hours and I turn around and head to Chicago to be a panelist at 
