I'm sure by now many of you have seen the Rachel Maddow Piece on Wednesday that focuses most of its attention on pressuring the White House, also bringing two more faces to the DADT repeal movement (John, Katie: Welcome. You have no idea what you're in for).

Though of course Rachel brought up That Thing Which We Don't Talk About, which is whether Obama should do an executive order halting discharges, and if so, when.

So let's talk about it.

Continue reading "So About That Executive Order Thing" »

I saw this graphic on a friend's Facebook wall. It's one of those post 'em and tag 'em grids that ask you to lump your friends into tightly defined categories. I don't usually pay attention to these kind of memes since they're mostly all the same thing just with different 1980s nostalgic references (the Care Bears come to mind). But this one from Manhunt caught my eye, if not for its sociological slice of gay life.

What surprised me is that despite the monolithic amounts of gay "types" with all the lingo to accompany it (for example: bears, cubs, otters, wolves, and panthers are not only different types of furries, but also types within the gay "bear" subculture... and that's just one gay subculture), gaymers made it to the grid!

Lodged between the "Frat Boy" and the "Sk8ter Boi" is our Star Wars wearing, PS3 playing avatar complete with a halo of D&D; dice. #awesome

Now I almost want to make a grid just for Gaymers!

*I also think it should be noted that on the grid of gay, there seems to be MAAAYYBBBBEEE two people of color... just sayin' is all.

crossposted from Scarlet Betch

The next time we saw Ellie he was wearing -- of all things -- a suit and tie! I didn't know he even owned a tie, let alone one made of imported Italian silk, and, as it turned out, he didn't. This and the suit was yet another present from Frank.

They'd gone to the opera the night before -- not because Frank thought Ellie would actually enjoy it, but because Frank had had this long-standing fantasy of making it with someone in one of the partierre boxes, and Ellie -- smitten Ellie -- agreed. They left right after the sex.

Ellie didn't remember too much about the opera itself, save that it was a lot of non-stop singing by people who, in his considered opinion, had missed far too few meals and far too many days at the gym.

Continue reading "Elliot IV" »

Editors' Note: Guest blogger Leslie Robinson hails from New England, lives in Seattle and is shacked up with a Southerner. Check out more of Leslie's humor columns at generalgayety.com

My partner Anne and I finally got around to seeing "The Kids Are All Right" the other night. We ran into several friends, proving we weren't the only ones slow in getting to the theater.

Slow, yes, but what lavender-blooded gal would miss the chance to see beauties Annette Bening and Julianne Moore play gay in a film written and directed by an actual lesbian? Puh-leeze.

I had steadfastly avoided reading any reviews of "The Kids," so they wouldn't influence my take on it. In fact, I'd done such a good job of avoiding reviews, blog posts, even ads that all I knew about the movie was this: long-term lesbian couple, two teenagers, sperm donor newly on the scene, attractive stemware.

In this age of souped-up media, how do I manage to insulate myself from information? How do I keep myself thoroughly ignorant? Downright stupid? It's a gift.

Continue reading "The Plot Twist That Twists Me" »

Reported by Chris Geidner and just confirmed by CBS News: at 12:45 Pacific time, Judge Walker announced effective August 18th at 5pm, the stay of his Proposition 8 decision in Perry V Schwarzenegger will expire. That means marriage equality will be--at least on August 18th at 5pm--law in California.

What now?

According to Chris Geidner from MetroWeekly, the Defense will immediately file a motion to maintain a stay of the ruling in the 9th Circuit, with a decision to come within the next few days, but almost surely today.

If they don't get what they want in the 9th Circuit the Defense will try to make an appeal to the Supreme Court Justice in charge of appeals coming up through the 9th district. That SCOTUS Justice happens to be Justice Kennedy, the most quoted Justice in Judge Walker's decision.

Continue reading "Prop 8 stay to be lifted in 6 days--now what? " »

I'm surprised that the numbers were this high, but here's what CNN found:

37. Do you think gays and lesbians have a constitutional right to get married and have their marriage recognized by law as valid? (ASKED OF HALF SAMPLE. RESULTS BASED ON 513 INTERVIEWS IN VERSION A -- SAMPLING ERROR: +/-4.5 PERCENTAGE POINTS.)

	Aug. 6-10, 2010	May 14-17, 2009
Yes	49%	45%
No	51%	54%
No opinion	*	1%

37A. Do you think gays and lesbians should have a constitutional right to get married and have their marriage recognized by law as valid? (ASKED OF HALF SAMPLE. RESULTS BASED ON 496 INTERVIEWS IN VERSION B -- SAMPLING ERROR: +/-4.5 PERCENTAGE POINTS.)

	Aug. 6-10, 2010
Yes	52%
No	46%
No opinion	2%

Continue reading "49% of Americans support same-sex marriage" »

When a tabloid ran photos of Neil Patrick Harris with his partner in 2006, the actor's agent quickly spouted off some mumbo-jumbo intended to make the public think the actor was straight. Harris stepped out front quickly, called bullshit, and came out of the closet publicly. He claimed that he was never actually in the closet since no one had asked him about his sexuality.

Last week photos were published showing Queen Latifah embracing her longtime partner, Jeanette Jenkins, while on a private yacht cruise. Latifah hasn't actually denied Jenkins is her partner just like she doesn't deny that she's a lesbian. Instead, she says her sexual orientation is no one's business but her own and says Jenkins is her trainer.

The comparisons between Harris and Latifah are stark and telling, but as I mused about this last night with Jerame, he asked me if I thought Harris was a better person. "Of course," I replied.

He said, "So you're saying that she needs to come out on your time and not her own?" and I replied, "Her time has already past. She's gone into the dodge-and-weave-to-make-more-money area now."

What do you think? Does she have an obligation to come out? Or is it fine that she just says it's nobody's business but her own?

Shorter Greg "mini-Glenn Beck" Gutfeld:

My dickish joke about a Muslim gay bar has demonstrated that Muslims and the left are working together to oppress American gay people and that only conservatives have proven themselves ready to save the gays.

When the temperature reaches 110 degrees in Arizona, even the lizards stay in the shade, but not those hearty souls from Right to Marry Arizona. They are walking a mile for each of the 98 years that Arizona has been a state without marriage equality for all its citizens.

The route this year (Equality Walkers' Route) started in Lake Havasu City, Arizona, and ends with the final miles this Saturday from Cesar Chavez Plaza at 201 W. Washington in downtown Phoenix to the State Capitol, where there will be a rally and speeches from those who walked. Temperatures that day will hover around 108 degrees so wear your cap and some sunscreen. Unlike the last two years, when they walked the Greater Phoenix area, for most of their trip this year they will be in Arizona's high country, which is much cooler.

They've been sharing stories with churches, town councils, mayors, business owners, and everyday people in Lake Havasu, Kingman, Prescott, Jerome, Sedona, Flagstaff, Winslow, Holbrook, Eager, St. Johns, Springerville, Globe and Payson. For all of those in Arizona who are reading this, come out on Saturday and walk the last miles with them. We must stand up proudly and declare that we will not be treated as second-class citizens - not in the US - and not in AZ. It is also your chance to celebrate the Walkers and their 98 mile pilgrimage for your equality.

Continue reading "Equality walks in Arizona" »

Found this interesting image as I was surfing for sideshow attractions and quickly looked to see if I could find something on Hobo Nell. Seems the image after the jump may have been a cover or publicity flyer for The Adventures of a Female Tramp (thank you, Google books!), a first-person account of the women who lived a homeless traveling life of "Wanderlust" in America of old.

Continue reading "Lost Histories: Hobo Nell" »

In the not too distant past, American farmers would occasionally look up from the plow to greet a stranger offering some news about national politics, revolution and war, the finding of gold, or perhaps the wonders of cities he would never visit.

The morsel of news, unverified and inaccurate, would fill his head and color his dreams for months. The few books he might own would be read to the point of decomposition and his entertainments were rare, mostly social, local and often church-based. In solitude, he built rock walls, worked the earth and loved someone based more on proximity and availability, and less on emotional and intellectual harmony. He typically died young.

Today, our national addiction to information and entertainment is serviced with astounding efficiency, leaving no square inch and no citizen of this country unsupplied. This has caused a new solitude of the American brain, even in our largest cities, where we sit before our screens in privacy and devour the realities of the entire world in real time and in high definition.

Oh, Pioneer, your stonewalls are crumbled and are replaced by the firewalls of our circuitry. We, your descendants, have paved your fields and live above them in concrete studios, honoring you from our Farmville.

Continue reading "In The New Solitude, How Do You Edit Yourself?" »

In case you missed it, Rachel Maddow did an entire show on DADT. Here's part 1, parts 2-4 are after the jump.

Continue reading "Rachel Maddow on DADT" »