Bareback porn

It's porn in which they screw without a condom. I don't quite get it, or why it's such a big draw, but apparently it is. Joe Mirabella at Bilerico is not happy about it. Adam Bink looks at the options available for change. Read More...

I’d have to think about whether I could support an openly stupid Senator

Southern GOP Senator John Cornyn (R-TX) has never been known as one of the brightest apples in the bunch:

Cornyn, a former Texas Supreme Court justice, was initially reluctant when asked if he would support an openly gay nominee — as Sen. Jeff Sessions (R-Ala.), the Judiciary Committee’s ranking Republican, said last year he might.

“I’d have to think about that,” he said. “As long as it doesn’t interfere with their job, it’s not a particular issue.”

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Gay vet on serving in Afghanistan

From David Frum's blog:

RD is the pseudonym of a 10-year armed services veteran recently returned from Afghanistan. A psychologist and long-serving veteran, this officer had to deal with both the traumas of the troops in front of him, and the psychic wound of his own situation: the risk that if he spoke frankly about his life to any colleague, he could find himself ejected from the war and the army. This is the fourth in a series of excerpts from his journal.

If I had accepted that I was gay I would never have joined the military – I naively thought I would “change” if only I met the “right” girl or was a good enough Christian. But when the people of California voted to strip the over 1,000 legal rights afforded married couples from gay Californians I decided I could no longer serve in the military. Why should I put my life at risk to defend the freedom of Americans who think so little of me and my relationships that they would take rights away from me? I was floored by the unfairness and the way rights were stripped away – by a simple vote – what the founding fathers called “the tyranny of the majority”. I am appalled that many Republicans support such attacks on freedom, liberty and limited government. One can be opposed to gay marriage by not entering such a marriage – but it is cruel to deny 1,000 legal rights to a couple just because you personally don’t believe in it. Barry Goldwater would be so ashamed of what has happened to the GOP. We are supposed to be the party of individual liberty. Ironic isn’t it? The party of big government favors government getting out of our lives while the party of less government favors more government involvement in our lives.

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67% of white Tea Party supporters think gays should be allowed to serve in the military

Mind you, white Tea Party supporters are terrible on lots of other gay issues, but on letting gays serve in the military, they're 67% in favor. And these guys are pretty much the far-right of the Republican party - they hate everybody. It just continues to show how out of touch with the mainstream both the President and Democrats in Congress are on issue after issue.

I mean, seriously, President Obama is to the right of Teabaggers on repealing DADT? (And spare me the "Obama is for DADT repeal" talk. No he's not. He's for "saying" that he's for repeal. The same way he said he was for the public option, and addressing climate change, and passing immigration reform, and on and on.)

Here's the study with all the results. Read More...

Missoula, MT passes gay rights law

Progress. Read More...

The DADT repeal pantomime road show

From Pam Spaulding:

One could also speculate that the leadership of HRC never had any juice with this White House to begin with and were just told by Jim Messina, White House Deputy Chief of Staff to the President that the 2010 goose was cooked on DADT -- what do they do then? They still have to raise the money to keep the bloated machine going, so why not just go out and do the whole DADT repeal pantomime road show? How are donors going to know the LGBT community is already screwed? They won't. It's pretty clear that we're not the side with any leverage -- the Administration is driving the train and clearly isn't scared of HRC or any other organization.

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Hell will freeze over before Obama appoints a gay Sup Ct justice

Wouldn't happen in a million years, so might as well take two of the names off the list right now. We discussed this same problem during the cabinet nominations. Three Latinos nominated, no openly gay men or women. Political homophobia is alive and well in the Democratic party, and the Obama White House. The most senior gay person in the administration doesn't even have a policy job. He runs the Office of Personnel Management. Which is the government's version of the officer manager. An important job in a huge government (and a job stereotypically given to women and gay men, in my office experience), but it hardly ranks up there with a cabinet position, or even a senior administration policy position outside of the cabinet.

President Obama has no intention of ever nominating someone openly gay to his cabinet or the Supreme Court, and I'm sure many Dems in Congress agree with him. We are not full and equal citizens, we are not equal members of the Democratic party. And that's why Jim Messina and Brian Bond are willing to pay lip service to our equal civil rights, while selling our community down the road, repeatedly breaking the President's promises on DOMA, ENDA, and DADT, and ordering our groups to accept their lumps because "we're at war" and the President just can't bother with those pesky (read: embarrassing) civil rights promises. Come back after terrorism is eradicated.

So, seriously, let's just stop the speculation now about whether Elena Kagan or Janet Napolitano are lesbian. Neither of them are ever going to be appointed to the Supreme Court by this President. Political homophobia lives to see another day in Democratic Washington.

Don't Ask, Don't Give. It's the only way we're going to get any respect.

PS I am, however, looking forward to HRC's campaign to push a gay Supreme Court nominee. The Latinos went full out to push for a Latino nominee, after they got three cabinet nominations. Where is our push? Or would that jeopardize Joe Solmonese's invite to the next cocktail party? Read More...

Our 'leaders' need to think more like the NRA

In Karen Ocamb's interview with Barney Frank, to which John already linked, the Congressman said:

"Lobbying legislators is hard work and people want to do everything else but. They want to have marches. They want to think of strategies. And all what we need to know is to do that. They ought to think more like the NRA.”

For many years back in the 90s, I worked against the NRA. I watched them in action every day for years. I learned a lot about how the group works -- and how it wields power.

I can tell you one thing: If Wayne LaPierre, the NRA's Chief Executive Officer, ever went to a White House meeting where he was admonished by the Deputy Chief of Staff, Wayne wouldn't cower. He'd fight back. If Wayne was told by that Deputy Chief of Staff that the President wasn't going to follow through on an oft-repeated promise, because he had other more important things to worry about, I'm pretty sure Wayne LaPierre wouldn't just accept it. Every single NRA member would know about it within hours. It would be all over the media. Then, those NRA members would start calling Congress and the White House -- and they wouldn't stop until they won.

Actually, Wayne LaPierre wouldn't meet with the White House Deputy Chief of Staff. That would be beneath the leader of a powerful special interest. He'd have met with the Chief of Staff or the President. It also helps that LaPierre and the NRA's leaders don't care if they're loved at the White House, or invited to cocktail parties in the East Room. They'd rather be feared than loved, if it means politicians will keep their promises.

After Prop. 8, I actually had a better understanding of how the NRA members felt. They fight for their rights. We just had rights taken away. Now, we have to fight for them too. So do our leaders. Too many of our leaders are still playing by the old rules. We've all been way too nice.

So, yes, everyone needs to act more like the NRA members do when they feel like their rights are at risk. And, our leaders need to take a page from the NRA, too. The next time White House Deputy Chief of Staff sits our gay leaders down and breaks the bad news that the President is reneging on yet another promise, they should ask: What would Wayne do?

We're not equal. We have to get equal. And, we can't be nice about it. Read More...

I got published in the Tulsa World

I had a letter published yesterday in the Tulsa World I wanted to share with you. There are some "Tea Party" groups that are becoming quite active in our area and I think it is important for all of us to always engage this type of political movement. The lessons from the past where dangerous right wing movements were ignored are legion. I can't think of a better birthday present than for the Tulsa World to have published this letter and take some air out of the local Tea Party movement:

Many of us gladly pay our taxes with the idea those taxes are used for Medicare, Social Security and programs for our fellow Americans who need our help. I am also co-director of the “Tables 2 Go!” program at one of the churches I’m a member of in Tulsa. We supply angel food baskets to people who have full-time jobs, but because of the outrageous cost of medical care in this country, are considered the working poor and struggle to put food on their tables. I didn’t realize how bad the problem was until I actually became involved in that program and the “Backpacks for Kids” program that feeds children whose parents, for whatever reason, do not feed them properly.

I am a Christian, as well, and I believe that Jesus Christ taught us to “Love our neighbor.” Believe me, I realize I require God’s grace on a daily basis, and I’m just as capable as members of the tea party crowd to impulsively say or do something I later regret. I do know that when I attended the health care reform rally in Washington there was a stark difference between the signs I saw from the tea party side and ours. For instance a tea party sign read, “If Senator Brown can’t do it maybe Browning can” and pictured a gun, and our side had signs that read “Love Thy Neighbor” and “People of Faith for Health Care Reform.” Congressmen were also spat on and called names from the tea party crowd, and now we are reading reports of bricks being thrown through the windows of the offices of some Democrats who voted for the health care bill. I think we can all agree that is unacceptable behavior.

I am not naive enough to realize there aren’t legitimate differences, and some common ground, between the tea party crowd and those of us who are more progressive and advocating on behalf of the poor. We must remember that even Jesus Christ said, “The poor will always be with you.” We have a choice in how we reach out and try to lighten the burden of our brothers and sisters. If we judge them for the reasons for why they have less, instead of simply helping them, then what good is that? I hope both sides become more civil, and I hope I become a better example of being the change I want to see in this world. I am a veteran, as well, and there are plenty of servicemen who are currently serving, who would hate to see our society devolve into what our service men and women experienced in some other countries.

Feel free to go there, read the rest of my letter and engage those who were offended by my words. Read More...