Cindy McCain does video opposing DADT, accuses 'our government' of sending signal that bullying is okay - her hubbie is the lead defender of DADT

John McCain is leading the filibuster against the "Don't Ask, Don't Tell" "repeal" legislation in the Senate (it's not an actual repeal, but we'll leave that for another time).  Today, Cindy McCain joined a number of celebrities in a video about gay youth suicide and bullying.  Mrs. McCain's part of the video condemned DADT and then accused our government of sending bullies a message that what they do is okay.

The woman basically accused her husband of sharing the blame for gay kids killing themselves.

I'm astonished.  And impressed as hell.



CINDY MCCAIN:

Our political and religious leaders tell LGBT youth that they have no future.

They can't serve our country openly.

VARIETY OF SPEAKERS:

What's worse, these laws that legislate discrimination teach bullies that what they're doing is acceptable.

CINDY MCCAIN:

Our government treats the LGBT community like second class citizens, why shouldn't they?

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Dan Choi and Alex Nicholson talk DADT on Hardball

Two of our good friends were on Hardball tonight. Matthews said he is trying to figure out why Congress won't repeal DADT, but wasn't really helpful at all tonight. Alex Nicholson said "we've really lost part of our principle of civilian control of the military." Yeah, the Commander-in-Chief needs to reassert that control.
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Called a 'faggot' while being beaten doesn't make it a hate crime in San Diego?

Queerty reports on two obvious hate crimes that aren't being prosecuted as such for dubious reasons. What good is having hate crimes statutes in the arsenal if they aren't going to be used? These two cases are in obvious need of federal prosecution as hate crimes.

Jacob Harshbarger, the San Diego man called a "fucking faggot" during a Halloween gay bashing he suffered while walking his dogs, might see his assailants meet some justice: 23-year-olds Michael Brandon and Christopher Blount have been charged with felony battery counts. Police initially called the attack a matter of "being in the wrong place at the wrong time," and not a hate crime. It appears they're sticking to it: prosecutors aren't levying any hate crime element to the charges.

Meanwhile a second San Diego attack is being reported, with Martin Niwinski and Daniel Crawford getting beat up the following day after Crawford was called "faggot" while dressed up as Freddie Mercury. Neither men are gay, which has Det. Gary Hassen brushing off any hate crime element, because while "a disparaging remark was made … he [Crawford] was sitting with his girlfriend. He is not gay, and as such, can not be a victim of a hate crime."

The same goes with bullying in schools. One doesn't need to actually be gay or transgender to be perceived as such and to experience a hate crime because of it. If someone were beaten and called racial epithets then I'm sure hate crimes would be attached, so why not when gay epithets are used while beating a victim? Read More...

The impact of a gay teenage dream on Glee

John posted the clip of Teenage Dream from this week's Glee, but I also wanted to share an interesting perspective on its impact. This show almost never fails to impress me in how it tackles such serious issues facing LGBT kids (and adults). I wrote a thesis looking at gay characters on television four years ago and I never would have anticipated this kind of progress in the depiction of gay characters. I have a longer post up on my thoughts on this and the other scene that resonated with me at Leave It To Seaver.

From Tom & Lorenzo

"To the straight people reading us: remember high school? Remember your favorite songs and movies, TV shows and music videos from that period? Imagine if all of that media bombardment telling you what to like, what to wear, and how to be attractive, popular, and cool, imagine that all of that aimed for and addressed everyone else but you. Imagine what it’s like when every sappy love song (or angry breakup song), every rom com, every trendy TV show and blockbuster movie, even every video game, imagine if they all depicted a form of romantic love that simply isn’t available to you. Imagine going through high school without even so much as a hint of yourself reflected in any of the things you watch and listen to, any of the things that literally every other kid is talking about. Imagine the one thing you want more than anything in the world: to be kissed, please god, just to be kissed, imagine you have never seen that depicted anywhere or referred to in any way but as something to be mocked and shunned.

"We grew unexpectedly teary-eyed watching this number. Not because sappy teenage pop songs get us worked up, but because the sight of a sappy teenage pop song being sung by one cute teenage boy to another cute teenage boy is still, sad to say, an extreme rarity. All we could think while watching this number was, “My god. What would it have been like to see this at 14?” To have the media offer up a romantic fantasy that actually reflected what we secretly yearned for...

"…Gay kids get none of that. Not one bit of it. The fact of the matter is, bullying is the natural result of all that socializing that reinforces heterosexuality as the norm and everything else as… well, so under-represented that it might as well still be a taboo. Teenagers see thousands of murders depicted onscreen by the time they reach 18 but most of them never see a boy kiss another boy or sing him a sweet love song. You want to prevent gay kids from killing themselves? Push for more scenes like the above. Giving a young gay boy the dream that someday Prince Charming will come and sing a love song to him? You cannot imagine. You simply cannot imagine how revolutionary such a thing is."

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Log Cabin's Cooper: 'White House legislative affairs is AWOL' on DADT

Now, some people may dismiss this as the grumblings of the Log Cabin Republicans. But, it fits the pattern for the Obama White House. We got a number of reports that there was no lobbying effort from the White House on the Defense Authorization bill in September. And, we've yet to see evidence of the promised strategy to get the Defense bill with the DADT language passed in the lame-duck session. Kerry Eleveld reports:

The leader of the Log Cabin Republicans said Wednesday that the White House is “MIA” – or Missing In Action – on Capitol Hill after he had met with nine Senate Republican offices about the effort to pass “don’t ask, don’t tell” repeal during the lame duck session.

“I’ve been on the Hill yesterday, today and the end of last week – no one has reached out to Republicans. White House legislative affairs is AWOL,” said Clarke Cooper, executive director of the Log Cabin Republicans. “One office said, ‘It’s quieter than crickets chirping.’ They’d love to get a call.”

Legislative affairs is the arm of the White House responsible for liaising with Congressional members on Capitol Hill and lobbying them on the administration’s legislative priorities.

The White House did not respond to inquiries from The Advocate for this article.

We would love to know that there is, in fact, a White House strategy. On October 27th, the President told me that there was a strategy and he was involved:

Q Well, can I ask you just about “don’t ask, don’t tell,” just following up? (Laughter.) I just want to follow up. Because you mentioned it -

THE PRESIDENT: Yes, sure. Go ahead.

Q Is there a strategy for the lame-duck session to --

THE PRESIDENT: Yes.

Q -- and you’re going to be involved?

THE PRESIDENT: Yes.

Q Will Secretary Gates be involved?

THE PRESIDENT: I’m not going to tip my hand now. But there is a strategy.

As Kerry notes in her article, Obama also said he had pushed the Log Cabin Republicans to deliver him some GOP votes. Looks like the Log Cabins have taken Obama up on that challenge, but the GOP Senators need to hear from the White House, too. Read More...

Sen. Mark Udall on DADT repeal: 'I'm very concerned it might be stripped'

As noted in the post below, very important news broke last night about the Pentagon study on implementing DADT repeal. It will have "minimal" impact. But, that implementation can only happen when the law is gone.

Prospects of repealing DADT in the lame duck session are not looking good. Senator Mark Udall, one of the strongest allies we have in the Senate, is "very concerned." And, he isn't hold back about voicing those concerns:

Carl Levin, the Democrat who chairs the Armed Services Committee, told a local paper in Michigan on Tuesday that he wants the defense bill passed and he also wants don't ask, don't tell repealed — but Levin added that he did not know whether both things could be accomplished in the lame-duck session.

Other senators fear the repeal could be taken out of the bill.

"I'm very concerned it might be stripped," says Colorado Democrat Mark Udall, who's also on the Armed Services Committee. Udall says despite Defense Secretary Robert Gates' call over the weekend for don't ask, don't tell to be repealed, it's not clear Republicans will let it come to a vote.

"So I have joined with a number of other senators to call on the Senate leadership and others in the Senate to open the floor of the Senate to debate the National Defense Authorization Act and the repeal of don't ask, don't tell that's included in it," he says.

Udall's concerns are real, especially in light of those remarks from Carl Levin. Both of those things can be accomplished if the Senate will do its job.

We need to up the pressure on Levin and Majority Leader Harry Reid. The Senate should not adjourn til the Defense bill with the DADT language is passed. I don't care if Senators are tired and want to go home in early December. They are very well paid and if they have to actually work for a couple more weeks to finish their jobs, well, isn't that just tough.

Force the hand of John McCain. Make him filibuster the Defense Authorization bill over a policy that is supported by 78% of the American people, including Dick and Liz Cheney. Make him say no to the troops. Play hard ball, Harry Reid.

And, Barack Obama better really step on this one. Read More...