The hate group behind the attacks on Kevin Jennings

Media Matters, which is quickly becoming our most effective national gay rights group, just put together a blockbuster piece on the man behind the right-wing attacks on Obama Dept of Education appointee Kevin Jennings. It seems that the man in question, Brian Camenker, runs a known hate group, MassResistance, and has in the past made more than one disturbing comment about homosexuality and Nazi Germany.

Someone is a few fries short of a happy meal.

But more importantly, this is who the media is embracing every time they report on the faux Kevin jennings story. A known hate group. That's about all we needed to know about the folks on the right targeting Kevin Jennings. Read More...

Longtime gay activist Robin Tyler on marriage and the Dems

Robin is an old friend, she cofounded StopDrLaura.com with me, and she and her wife Diane were the first gay (lesbian) couple married in LA county after marriage became legal in California last year (before it was banned).

I suspect she wrote me this email, below, in response to the news that the Democrats don't plan on doing anything about repealing DOMA during this session of Congress (meaning, until at least January of 2011).

Should we give up on fighting for marriage equality, because the Democratic Party has broken their word to us? Never.

No civil rights movement has ever said 'give us less, and we will be satisfied.' No civil rights movement has ever won without the strength to keep fighting no matter what the loss or setback was at the time. The LGBT community has survived mental institutions, penal institutions, science calling us sick, and religion calling us sinful. We have survived been thrown out of our homes, our schools, and rejected by everyone we knew. But we found each other. And we loved each other. And we supported each other through AIDS, when no one gave a damn. And we refused to be victims. We became survivors, and now, our resilience has made us tougher, stronger, smarter. No, we will not back down from the losses around marriage equality, or any other civil right issue. We deserve it all, and we will not rest until we have it all. That is what a movement is. We keep moving, forward. No retreat, not now, not ever.

Robin Tyler, age 67

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California Assembly will have a gay Speaker

Democrats in the California Assembly have chosen their next speaker -- and he's openly gay. Karen Ocamb has the scoop:

It’s official. The California Democratic Caucus just announced that they voted unanimously to support Assemblymember John A. Pérez (D-Los Angeles) to serve as the next Speaker of the Assembly. A floor vote is expected when the Assembly reconvenes in January.

Perez is the first openly gay person to be elected Speaker.

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Houston Mayoral race between two Democrats is now a campaign about homophobia

Keep in mind that the race for Mayor in Houston is a contest between two Democrats. One of the Democrats, Annise Parker, is running a positive "Houston First." She's got a strong record of serving her city as city councilor and city controller. She's also a lesbian.

One of the Democrats, Gene Locke, is a lobbyist. And, with the help of some notoriously anti-gay supporters, he's basically running one of the most viciously homophobic campaigns we've seen in a long, long time. It's disgusting on so many levels. But, it's particularly egregious that a Democrat has sunk this low.

As reported Tuesday, a couple of Locke's top supporters have been funding the homophobic attacks. Check out this cartoon from Nick Anderson at the Houston Chronicle.

Annise could use some last minute help. If you want to contribute, her ActBlue page is here. If you live in Houston, vote. And, if you know anyone who lives there, make sure they vote. Annise's campaign website with links to voting info. is here.

Here's an update from the Daily Beast on the relationship between Locke and leading homophobe Stephen Hotze:

Now the battles over gay rights of decades past may threaten her mayoral prospects today. Locke met with Hotze earlier in the race, and recently the anti-gay activist sent out mailers endorsing Locke—despite his endorsement of expanding work benefits for same-sex couples—and noting that Parker is backed by the “Gay Lesbian political action committee.” Asked in a recent debate whether he would repudiate the endorsement, Locke said he opposes “bigotry” but did not reject Hotze’s support, saying he would accept backing from those who think he is “the best candidate” based on his overall record. Locke’s finance chairman and another finance committee member of his campaign, meanwhile, donated a combined $40,000 to Hotze’s organization shortly before the mailers endorsing Locke went out, The Houston Chronicle reports.

Locke’s campaign has denied any coordination with Hotze, and the campaign did not respond to requests for comment or an interview from The Daily Beast. In a statement to the Associated Press, a spokeswoman for the candidate said he “is disappointed and wishes that [finance chair] Ned Holmes had not made that contribution…Gene Locke has fought against bigotry his entire life and knows that there is no place for it in this campaign and this city.”

“For a guy [Hotze] whose whole career has been based on divisive and ugly personal attacks, who has a 25-year anti-gay record—that suggests to me that would be an endorsement people do not want,” Parker said.

Unfortunately, Locke did want the endorsement of Hotze -- and that has defined his campaign and this race. Read More...

Isn't it a bit queer for Matt Drudge's protege to be joining the anti- Kevin Jennings bandwagon?

As you know, the homophobic right has been trying to get openly-gay Obama Department of Education official Kevin Jennings fired for a while now. Basically, because he's gay. The effort was started by bigoted religious right activists at the Family Research Council, which pretty much tells you what you need to know about the motivation and the veracity of the attacks. Considering the anti-gay tenor the entire effort has had from the get go, it's somewhat surprising to see a protégé of conservative activist Matt Drudge, Andrew Breitbart, now taking the lead in publishing an increasing number of disgusting, and rather disturbed, attacks against Jennings.

I'm not questioning Matt Drudge's sexual orientation. I'll leave it to David Brock:

David Brock, the former right-wing writer, wrote in his memoir Blinded by the Right about a "scary" date in which Drudge, after bringing Brock flowers and navigating the Santa Monica gay strip "like a pro," stepped on a competing suitor's foot "really hard" (in Drudge's purported words) in a nightclub to scare him away from Brock. He also reproduced an overly blunt email in which Drudge wrote, "Laura [Ingraham] spreading stuff about you and me being fuck buddies. I should be so lucky."

Here's some of what Breitbart has been writing lately about Jennings:

“John Podesta, as puppetmaster of left, will you get your hands around FistGate & get to bottom of it:

“EARACHE (Eric) BOEHLERT? You don’t find something stinky about this Obama Safe Sex Czar ‘Fisting for Teens’ story?

MEDIAMUTTERS & EARACHE BOEHLERT are just brown with envy that we keep getting scoop after scoop!

“Perils of Not Vetting Prez, MCLVII: Creates SafeSchoolCzar & Appoints Fella Fixed on Teaching Fisting to Minors:“

Fella? Get it. Jennings is gay. So Breitbart refers to him as a "fella." Isn't that funny? And did you catch all the references to feces?

What's most interesting to me isn't the anti-gay tone to all of this, it's the fact that it's coming at all from right-wing Netroots, as it were. Generally speaking, conservative bloggers have been surprisingly good on gay rights issues. Seriously. Roger Simon, for example, is pro gay marriage. And you'll note that a lot of the top conservative blogs really don't delve much into gay politics. I've spoken to several of them in the past, and they don't get involved because they just don't care. They're conservatives, to be sure, but they're not social conservatives.

In any case, if Media Matters is so upsetting a protégé of Matt Drudge that the man has to write about feces all day to try to get attention, then they must be something right. Read More...

Rick Warren finally denounces Uganda's "Kill Gays" bill

Rick Warren, who has close ties to the leading homophobes in Uganda, finally spoke out against the horrific "kill gays" bill. Via Joe.My.God:

After weeks of media criticism, Rick Warren has at last specifically denounced Uganda's now-dismantled "kill gays" bill. Previously Warren had said it was not his business to "interfere with sovereign nations," despite his years-long championing of the bill's chief proponent, Martin Ssempa.

Joe has the text of his letter.



I think Warren fears Rachel Maddow. She's been all over this issue. Read More...

Nadler: No DOMA repeal in this session of Congress

Rep. Jerrold Nadler did an interview with Chris Johnson from the new publication dcagenda.com (the reincarnation of the Washington Blade) on his DOMA repeal bill. No surprise that this bill won't see action in this Congress. By adding cosponsors, this does provide an opportunity to find out who our friends are -- and aren't. The looming question is whether Congress acts on ENDA and the repeal of DADT in this Congress:

The sponsor of a bill that would overturn the Defense of Marriage Act said repeal won’t happen in this Congress and that efforts next year will instead be focused on building support on the issue.

Rep. Jerrold Nadler (D-N.Y.) said in an interview with DC Agenda that lawmakers will work on passing other pro-LGBT bills next year, and could take up legislation to repeal DOMA — known as the Respect for Marriage Act — at the end of the two-year session starting in 2011.

“The Respect for Marriage Act is a bill that we can’t pass right now; we know we can’t pass it right now,” he said.

Nadler said Congress won’t take up the DOMA repeal next year because other LGBT-related bills, including the Employment Non-Discrimination Act, legislation providing partner benefits for LGBT federal workers and a repeal of “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell,” are taking precedence. Supporters hope to pass those measures by the end of 2010.

“The Respect for Marriage Act comes up after that, maybe at the end of the next Congress, maybe afterward,” he said.

Maybe. We could have a court decision overturning DOMA before Congress acts.

And, supporters do hope to pass ENDA and the repeal of DADT in this Congress. That could be a heavy lift in an election year. It would be smart politics for Democrats to pass these key bills, but Democrats aren't always smart about their politics. In what is shaping up to be a bad election year, Democrats may be hesitant to act on social issues. We'll need to keep a very close eye on this. Read More...

Uganda no longer wants to kill or life-imprison the gays

Now they just want to jail us, a lot. Read More...