Renna Communications
Working to Change the World
With nearly two consecutive decades of communications experience and special expertise in lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) issues, Renna Communications’ team brings sophisticated and nuanced communications strategies to organizations and people who are working to change the world for the better.
Whether your goals are to gain media coverage and shape national political dialogue or to expand your visibility and reach more people in need, you have something you need to communicate. You have an important story to tell. As a client of Renna Communications, you can be certain of one thing: We’ll get your story told.
A Long Road Traveled
There will undoubtedly be political struggles ahead, but for one gay activist, meeting with President Obama on the anniversary of Stonewall was a deeply emotional event.
posted: 30 June 09
Forty years after famous riots at Stonewall Inn, gays are still 'fighting to be seen as full humans'
They were the riots that spawned a revolution, the nights of protest that led to the dawn of the gay rights movement.
posted: 29 June 09
Capital Pride Covered by Voice of America in China
RennaComm worked with Voice of America to coordinate this video coverage of Capital Pride that was broadcast all over China.
posted: 23 June 09
RennaComm Highlighted in Story about LGBT Organizations and the Stonewall Anniversary
Services and Advocacy for GLBT Elders (SAGE) is hosting a 40th reunion with members of the Gay Liberation Front, an organization founded after the riots. The event, on June 25 at the LGBT Community Center in New York, is about “presenting that history to younger LGBT people so they can take inspiration from it,” said Tom Weber, the director of community services department for SAGE.
Read more...posted: 23 June 09
Cathy Shows You Behind The Scenes at D.C. Pride
So what is the best part of working behind the scenes at one of the largest LGBT Pride events in the country? Taking away a memory of watching, hearing and feeling thousands of us make the air vibrate and the ground shake while Martha Wash sings “It’s Raining Men.”
posted: 16 June 09
Cathy Renna Talks about the State of the Movement on IN THE LIFE
In a special one-hour Pride episode, IN THE LIFE celebrates the 40th Anniversary of Stonewall, and look at the history of our ongoing struggle for civil rights and true equality.
posted: 11 June 09
Listen To Williams Institute Research Director Lee Badgett on BloomingOUT Radio
Badgett offers an economist’s insight into the effects of sexual orientation and queer families on public policy decisions and inherent legal issues.
posted: 8 June 09
Gay synagogue’s new siddur arrives
Jewish Telegraph Agency writer, Ben Harris blogs:
The siddur we wrote about last year, published by the gay New York synagogue Congregation Beth Simchat Torah, has arrived. The shul also announced that New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg will speak at a special service on June 19.
posted: 4 June 09
CA Supreme Court Cuts the Marriage Equality Baby in Half - and It Hurts
Originally posted May 26, 2009 03:15 PM I am in my kitchen crying while my 3 year old is parked in front of the television in the other room so she won’t see my tears.
Earlier today, I wrote a brief post noting that it is a “significant and beautiful day for our nation” because we had a qualified president nominate a qualified jurist for an opening on the Supreme Court — and they both happen to be people of color.
posted: 3 June 09
Driving Mr. Kameny
We have been doing some great Stonewall 40 related work at Renna Communications and a lot of it has been about contextualizing our history. One of the highlights of this work has been spending time with a founding activist in the LGBT movement, Dr. Frank Kameny.
posted: 3 June 09
Obama Jokes About Same-Sex Marriage in Iowa
Cathy Renna loved Obama’s joke about Iowa at the White House Correspondents Dinner, but what about a more serious conversation about same-sex marriage?
“I can still remember … that day that I called Ax so many years ago and said, ‘You and I can do wonderful things together,’” said Obama. “And he said to me the same thing that partners all across America are saying to one another right now, ‘Let’s go to Iowa and make it official.’”
posted: 14 May 09
Has Being Anti-Gay Become Uncool? Read what Cathy Thinks!
Several major media personalities have either renounced their past homophobia or have attempted to distance themselves from it, as evidenced by the recent statements by Dr. Laura Schlessinger and the Rev. Rick Warren. Cathy comments on the story in Edge.
posted: 22 April 09
Obama Commemorates Stonewall at White House Gathering
President Barack Obama Monday, with First Lady Michelle Obama standing at his side, delivered a sweeping, nearly 20-minute speech that paid tribute to the LGBT movement and promised concrete steps toward equality would be taken during his administration.
Stonewall Panel Held by the Ali Forney Center
Forty years ago, gay street youth started a riot at a bar in New York City that would forever change the struggle for gay rights in America.
SAGE FIRST ORGANIZATION INVITED TO JOIN LEADERSHIP COUNCIL OF AGING ORGANIZATIONS
The Leadership Council of Aging Organizations (LCAO) has invited the Services and Advocacy for Gay, Lesbian, Bisexual, and Transgender Elders (SAGE) to join its membership as the first organization dedicated to LGBT elders.
Generations Speak Out
The Washington Blade invited five LGBT youth and five LGBT elders from the D.C. area for a roundtable discussion about issues facing the community. With Stonewall’s 40th anniversary later this month and Pride celebrations this weekend, it seemed an apt time to explore some of the generational differences in the community.
DC Pride Festival Honors Gay Rights Pioneer Kameny
Franklin Kameny had been a government astronomer for just five months when he was fired for being a homosexual. In that moment in 1957, one of the cause’s earliest and most effective activists was born.
Now 84, Kameny is being honored at events this month during Washington’s annual Capital Pride celebration, and artifacts from his half-century of activism are going on display at a D.C. gallery.
