John Aravosis
Encyclopedia
John Aravosis is an American
Democratic
political consultant, writer, gay
activist and blog
ger. Aravosis, an attorney
who lives in Washington, D.C.
, is the founder of AMERICAblog
and a co-founder of StopDrLaura.com.
Aravosis is a lawyer and worked on Capitol Hill as a foreign policy adviser for Ted Stevens
, a Republican senator in the late 1980s and early 1990s before becoming a Democrat. He subsequently worked at the World Bank
, the Children's Defense Fund
, and then started his own political Internet consulting business in 1997 and AMERICAblog
, a liberal news blog dealing in politics (because, according to its masthead, "a great nation deserves the truth"), in 2004. He has also written as a stringer for The Economist
and Radar
. He has a joint law degree
and masters in foreign service from Georgetown
, where he studied under former Secretary of State Madeleine Albright
.
In June 2009, The Advocate
listed AMERICAblog on its list of top fifteen gay blogs. The blogs were not ranked.
(not to be confused with the terrorist Timothy McVeigh
), who was being kicked out of the military because he was gay after he was outed by America Online. Nine days before McVeigh was to be discharged, Aravosis came to his defense and launched an online campaign that got McVeigh and his case on ABC News
' World News Tonight, Time, Newsweek
and beyond. The publicity Aravosis generated for McVeigh in this pro bono
campaign got a lawyer interested in helping the sailor, and he won his case against the military and was able to get an honorable discharge and reportedly large settlement with AOL.
In 2000, Aravosis and a small group of friends launched StopDrLaura.com, the first-ever successful boycott of a TV show. StopDrLaura, a one-year long pro bono campaign, got 170 of Dr. Laura Schlessinger
's television advertisers to pull their endorsements after Dr. Laura called gays and lesbians "biological errors", compared gay men to pedophile
s, and routinely denigrated women and abortion.
Aravosis launched a campaign against vice presidential daughter Mary Cheney
in 2004 for accepting a US$100,000 a year job running the vice president's re-election campaign. Aravosis' website, dearmary.com, was immediately profiled in Newsweek and the Washington Post, and his image of Mary on a milk carton "Have you seen me?" was reproduced widely.
Aravosis outed Jeff Gannon
as "a conservative operative and as an alleged male prostitute" while Gannon (real name James Guckert) was working as a White House
reporter for the Talon News
. }}
In response to complaints from the religious groups, Microsoft pulled its support for a Washington state gay rights bill and then said it was rethinking its support for civil rights nationwide. Aravosis launched a campaign to highlight Microsoft's change of heart.
Aravosis took on the Ford Motor Company
when, in response to a boycott from a conservative organization, Ford was pulling its support for gay advertising and gay organizations. Ford maintained that it was re-structuring its advertising for business reasons unrelated to any social agenda, and, indeed, Ford continued to buy advertising space in gay media for its Volvo division. Aravosis launched a campaign on his blog to get Ford to recommit itself to the gay market, even though Volvo pulled advertisements, Ford never left the gay market.
Aravosis started hosting his own Internet television
show, DemsTV. As of February 2006, DemsTV became PoliticsTV, restructured its programming, and added many specials.
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
Democratic
Democratic Party (United States)
The Democratic Party is one of two major contemporary political parties in the United States, along with the Republican Party. The party's socially liberal and progressive platform is largely considered center-left in the U.S. political spectrum. The party has the lengthiest record of continuous...
political consultant, writer, gay
Gay
Gay is a word that refers to a homosexual person, especially a homosexual male. For homosexual women the specific term is "lesbian"....
activist and blog
Blog
A blog is a type of website or part of a website supposed to be updated with new content from time to time. Blogs are usually maintained by an individual with regular entries of commentary, descriptions of events, or other material such as graphics or video. Entries are commonly displayed in...
ger. Aravosis, an attorney
Lawyer
A lawyer, according to Black's Law Dictionary, is "a person learned in the law; as an attorney, counsel or solicitor; a person who is practicing law." Law is the system of rules of conduct established by the sovereign government of a society to correct wrongs, maintain the stability of political...
who lives in Washington, D.C.
Washington, D.C.
Washington, D.C., formally the District of Columbia and commonly referred to as Washington, "the District", or simply D.C., is the capital of the United States. On July 16, 1790, the United States Congress approved the creation of a permanent national capital as permitted by the U.S. Constitution....
, is the founder of AMERICAblog
Americablog
AMERICAblog is a liberal American blog founded by John Aravosis in April 2004, with several co-bloggers. The blog helped expose Jeff Gannon in 2005, and in 2006 helped make cell phone privacy an issue by obtaining Gen. Wesley Clark's call records. The blog focuses on U.S...
and a co-founder of StopDrLaura.com.
Aravosis is a lawyer and worked on Capitol Hill as a foreign policy adviser for Ted Stevens
Ted Stevens
Theodore Fulton "Ted" Stevens, Sr. was a United States Senator from Alaska, serving from December 24, 1968, until January 3, 2009, and thus the longest-serving Republican senator in history...
, a Republican senator in the late 1980s and early 1990s before becoming a Democrat. He subsequently worked at the World Bank
World Bank
The World Bank is an international financial institution that provides loans to developing countries for capital programmes.The World Bank's official goal is the reduction of poverty...
, the Children's Defense Fund
Children's Defense Fund
The Children's Defense Fund is an American child advocacy and research group, founded in 1973 by Marian Wright Edelman. Its motto Leave No Child Behind reflects its mission to advocate on behalf of children...
, and then started his own political Internet consulting business in 1997 and AMERICAblog
Americablog
AMERICAblog is a liberal American blog founded by John Aravosis in April 2004, with several co-bloggers. The blog helped expose Jeff Gannon in 2005, and in 2006 helped make cell phone privacy an issue by obtaining Gen. Wesley Clark's call records. The blog focuses on U.S...
, a liberal news blog dealing in politics (because, according to its masthead, "a great nation deserves the truth"), in 2004. He has also written as a stringer for The Economist
The Economist
The Economist is an English-language weekly news and international affairs publication owned by The Economist Newspaper Ltd. and edited in offices in the City of Westminster, London, England. Continuous publication began under founder James Wilson in September 1843...
and Radar
Radar (magazine)
RadarOnline is an American online publication. It started as a magazine first printed in 2003 as a test issue, relaunched twice in 2005 and 2006, and ceased publication in 2008. The magazine published articles on entertainment, fashion, politics, and human interest...
. He has a joint law degree
Law degree
A Law degree is an academic degree conferred for studies in law. Such degrees are generally preparation for legal careers; but while their curricula may be reviewed by legal authority, they do not themselves confer a license...
and masters in foreign service from Georgetown
Georgetown University
Georgetown University is a private, Jesuit, research university whose main campus is in the Georgetown neighborhood of Washington, D.C. Founded in 1789, it is the oldest Catholic university in the United States...
, where he studied under former Secretary of State Madeleine Albright
Madeleine Albright
Madeleine Korbelová Albright is the first woman to become a United States Secretary of State. She was appointed by U.S. President Bill Clinton on December 5, 1996, and was unanimously confirmed by a U.S. Senate vote of 99–0...
.
In June 2009, The Advocate
The Advocate
The Advocate is an American LGBT-interest magazine, printed monthly and available by subscription. The Advocate brand also includes a web site. Both magazine and web site have an editorial focus on news, politics, opinion, and arts and entertainment of interest to LGBT people...
listed AMERICAblog on its list of top fifteen gay blogs. The blogs were not ranked.
Activism
In 1998, Aravosis defended U.S. sailor Timothy R. McVeighTimothy R. McVeigh
Timothy R. McVeigh is a former United States Navy sailor, best known as the first person to win a court case under the U.S. Military's "Don't ask, don't tell" policy.-Early life:McVeigh spent 17 years in the Navy before retiring in 1998...
(not to be confused with the terrorist Timothy McVeigh
Timothy McVeigh
Timothy James McVeigh was a United States Army veteran and security guard who detonated a truck bomb in front of the Alfred P. Murrah Building in Oklahoma City on April 19, 1995...
), who was being kicked out of the military because he was gay after he was outed by America Online. Nine days before McVeigh was to be discharged, Aravosis came to his defense and launched an online campaign that got McVeigh and his case on ABC News
ABC News
ABC News is the news gathering and broadcasting division of American broadcast television network ABC, a subsidiary of The Walt Disney Company...
' World News Tonight, Time, Newsweek
Newsweek
Newsweek is an American weekly news magazine published in New York City. It is distributed throughout the United States and internationally. It is the second-largest news weekly magazine in the U.S., having trailed Time in circulation and advertising revenue for most of its existence...
and beyond. The publicity Aravosis generated for McVeigh in this pro bono
Pro bono
Pro bono publico is a Latin phrase generally used to describe professional work undertaken voluntarily and without payment or at a reduced fee as a public service. It is common in the legal profession and is increasingly seen in marketing, technology, and strategy consulting firms...
campaign got a lawyer interested in helping the sailor, and he won his case against the military and was able to get an honorable discharge and reportedly large settlement with AOL.
In 2000, Aravosis and a small group of friends launched StopDrLaura.com, the first-ever successful boycott of a TV show. StopDrLaura, a one-year long pro bono campaign, got 170 of Dr. Laura Schlessinger
Laura Schlessinger
Laura Catherine Schlessinger is an American talk radio host, socially conservative commentator and author. Her radio program consists mainly of her responses to callers' requests for personal advice and has occasionally featured her short monologues on social and political topics...
's television advertisers to pull their endorsements after Dr. Laura called gays and lesbians "biological errors", compared gay men to pedophile
Pedophilia
As a medical diagnosis, pedophilia is defined as a psychiatric disorder in adults or late adolescents typically characterized by a primary or exclusive sexual interest in prepubescent children...
s, and routinely denigrated women and abortion.
Aravosis launched a campaign against vice presidential daughter Mary Cheney
Mary Cheney
Mary Claire Cheney is the second daughter of Dick Cheney, the former Vice President of the United States, and his wife, Lynne Cheney. She is openly lesbian, has voiced support for same-sex marriage, and has been credited with encouraging her father to support same-sex marriage as well...
in 2004 for accepting a US$100,000 a year job running the vice president's re-election campaign. Aravosis' website, dearmary.com, was immediately profiled in Newsweek and the Washington Post, and his image of Mary on a milk carton "Have you seen me?" was reproduced widely.
Aravosis outed Jeff Gannon
Jeff Gannon
James Dale Guckert is a conservative columnist better known by the pseudonym Jeff Gannon. Between 2003 and 2005, he was given credentials as a White House reporter. He was eventually employed by the conservative website Talon News during the latter part of this period...
as "a conservative operative and as an alleged male prostitute" while Gannon (real name James Guckert) was working as a White House
White House
The White House is the official residence and principal workplace of the president of the United States. Located at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue NW in Washington, D.C., the house was designed by Irish-born James Hoban, and built between 1792 and 1800 of white-painted Aquia sandstone in the Neoclassical...
reporter for the Talon News
Talon News
Talon News is an American website which became newsworthy in January 2005 because alleged irregularities in the background of its chief correspondent, known as Jeff Gannon, came to light. Gannon, born James Dale Guckert, resigned from Talon on February 8, 2005...
. }}
In response to complaints from the religious groups, Microsoft pulled its support for a Washington state gay rights bill and then said it was rethinking its support for civil rights nationwide. Aravosis launched a campaign to highlight Microsoft's change of heart.
Aravosis took on the Ford Motor Company
Ford Motor Company
Ford Motor Company is an American multinational automaker based in Dearborn, Michigan, a suburb of Detroit. The automaker was founded by Henry Ford and incorporated on June 16, 1903. In addition to the Ford and Lincoln brands, Ford also owns a small stake in Mazda in Japan and Aston Martin in the UK...
when, in response to a boycott from a conservative organization, Ford was pulling its support for gay advertising and gay organizations. Ford maintained that it was re-structuring its advertising for business reasons unrelated to any social agenda, and, indeed, Ford continued to buy advertising space in gay media for its Volvo division. Aravosis launched a campaign on his blog to get Ford to recommit itself to the gay market, even though Volvo pulled advertisements, Ford never left the gay market.
Aravosis started hosting his own Internet television
Internet television
Internet television is the digital distribution of television content via the Internet...
show, DemsTV. As of February 2006, DemsTV became PoliticsTV, restructured its programming, and added many specials.
External links
- AMERICAblog
- Aravosis questions transgendered inclusion in the gay movement on Salon
- Politics TV
- StopDrLaura.com
- Democrats.com (On Aravosis's advocacy)
- DailyKos.com (Markos on Aravosis's blogging)
- Geek Philosophy (Aravosis named "Geek of the Week")
- Vanity Fair on Aravosis's role in Jeff Gannon story