There's always money to be found when a Republican wants to bash a gay or invade a country

Because the White House decided to dawdle over DOMA, because they spent two years trying to convince you that it was simply impossible for the administration not to defend DOMA in court, we lost precious time. How precious? Well, today we found out that the House Republicans have hired one of the DC's top Republican lawyers to defend DOMA in court.

Had the President stopped defending DOMA two years ago when we told him to, we'd have had a good two years of no one defending the law in court. Why? Because Democrats controlled the House, and it's the House's prerogative as to whether they want to defend in court laws the President refuses to defend. A Pelosi House wouldn't have spent the money or time defending DOMA. John Boehner's is.

Had this been done two years ago, when we asked, we could have had two years of victories. Now we have this.

PS And just how much of the taxpayers' money is John Boehner wasting on this five million dollar a year lawyer?  There's always money to be found when a Republican wants to bash a gay or invade a country. Read the rest of this post...

Beautiful "It gets better" video by Apple employees

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Enviros looking to gays as success story for forcing President to keep promises

And they're right. We did force him, and it worked. It didn't work 100% - to wit, we're still waiting for ENDA, and the President should have stopped defending DOMA from day one. Had he done that, re DOMA, we'd have had two years of no defense of the state in court, rather than the GOP House now picking up the defense. Still, a group of us, including the gay blogs, GetEqual, Dan Choi, SLDN and SU stood up to the White House and forced them to act. They'd have done much less had we accepted the conventional wisdom that HRC had everything under control.

From Politico:

Young environmentalists looking for a success story in pressuring a Democratic administration to advance their goals have found it from an unusual source: the gay rights movement.

Environmentalists, especially youth activists who were a large part of President Barack Obama’s 2008 electoral victory, had high hopes for the past two years. But after the death of cap and trade, an oil spill that led to little action from Congress and the GOP gains last fall, disappointment reigns.

For the greens, there are numerous emotional parallels between their movement and the gay rights movements, most notably frustration over the lack of action on what they see as an obvious endgame.

They are seeking a major victory, like the December repeal of “don’t ask, don’t tell,” and are looking at how the advocacy tactics used in that debate could be adapted to environmental goals.

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Gay kissing pic banned from Facebook, so why are all the hetero pics still there?

UPDATE: I just received a statement from Facebook. The photo was removed in error.

"The photo in question does not violate our Statement of Rights and Responsibilities and was removed in error. We apologize for the inconvenience"

Too risqué for Facebook

A rather famous photo (in the UK) of two gay men kissing just got banned from Facebook.  Facebook says, understandably, that the problem with the photo isn't that the couple is gay.  I suspect the "problem" is simply that Facebook doesn't like pictures of couples kissing, period, on their site (though I'm not entirely sure why).  Then, why are there pictures of straight couples kissing on Facebook?

Now, Facebook can feel free to delete Meghan Fehlman's photo with, we assume, her boyfriend, in order to prove that their policy is gender-neutral, but I'm guessing Meghan isn't going to be any too pleased about it.

And this:

And possibly this.

And this:



And buh bye, Elizabeth.

Then there's this guy here and here and here.

Or this:

And this:

And this:

And this:

And this:

And this and this and this. Read the rest of this post...

Republicans wasting money on gay marriage hearing; why not cut their own juicy budget to pay for it?

At a time when Republicans want to destroy necessary government services for the poor and elderly, under the false auspices of "balancing the budget," and after having blown a huge hole in the budget with two wars and government wealthcare for the ultra-rich, now they are wasting our non-existent resources to hold another gay marriage hearing.

Michael Cole-Schwartz, spokesperson for the Human Rights Campaign, said in response to Boehner’s remarks that the upcoming hearing will “no doubt showcase the [Republican] majority’s obsession with ensuring continued discrimination against same-sex couples.”

“They’re welcome to think that’s a legitimate way to spend their time but the vast majority of Americans will be scratching their heads wondering why House Republicans have held a third hearing in as many weeks to demonize LGBT people,” Cole-Schwartz said.

Cole-Schwartz was counting two earlier hearings that House committees held to oversee implementation of “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” repeal as anti-gay hearings and the upcoming testimony on “defending marriage” as the third anti-gay hearing this year.

Of course, the first recipient of the "Anita Bryant award", Dame Gallagher, will be the Republican's star witness.

UPDATE from JOHN: And now Boehner wants to take the money to defend DOMA from the Justice Department.  The Senate ought to tell him to take a hike.  Boehner can cut Congress' own fat budget - starting with the absurd socialist subsidies the government pays for Boehner's health care premiums.  It's funny how socialist is always a bad thing unless Republicans benefit from it directly and exclusively, then it's the best thing ever. Read the rest of this post...

Obrigado, Michael Souza!

Earlier, in response to Kobe Bryant's use of the word faggot and his initial apology-non-apology, I encouraged closeted gay male American professional, major league athletes to come out of the closet. A prime example of how this action can positively affect the treatment of our gay community can be found in Brazil where out volleyball player, Michael Souza, sustained homophobic treatment by an opposing team's fans when they hurled the Portuguese word "Bicha!" or "Faggot!" at him during a match.

Thanks to Michael Souza's unapologetic proud representation of our community, by his willing to admit to being gay, he and the Brazilian volleyball community beat back the assault with an undeniable show of support for both Michael and the LGBT Brazilian community at large.

Michael’s teammates wore pink warm-up shirts in support and one player wore a rainbow-colored jersey during the match. And fans rapturously clapped pink thundersticks emblazoned with “Michael” all throughout the match. And after Volei Futuro won a pulsating five-set match to stay alive, the sound system played “I Will Survive.” It was quite a scene as this video shows.

From an online translation of the account of the game, Michael said: “The music I want? You’ve heard the [song], right? ‘I Will Survive.’ This song can be it then.”

Glorioso! Read the rest of this post...

NOM threatens ex-strategist Marinelli with lawsuit

During an interview with Mike Signorile on Friday, Louis Marinelli revealed that NOM is trying to intimidate him and threatening legal action:

Specifically, he said that NOM president Brian Brown (photo, left) has privately been using intimidation tactics and legal threats against him since he left, demanding he remove some of his critical blog posts (even though NOM, in its damage control of the defection, has tried to claim Marinelli was not very influential in their organization, which is obviously a lie.)

“…I’ve received a message or two from Brian, who basically has – he’s trying to intimidate me to stop talking. He’s saying that if I don’t remove the posts I’ve posted on my site and I don’t stop telling the truth about who they are he may pursue legal action…I considered it an intimidation tactic…On two occasions he wrote me a message saying if I don’t comply with his wish that I remove certain posts from the site…that he would have no option but to pass it on to his attorneys and pursue legal action...”

Brian's trying to play hardball. NOM doesn't want the truth to be told.

I seriously doubt anyone from NOM really wants to go under oath in a legal suit. Brian and Maggie didn't testify in the Prop. 8 trial for a reason. Perjury is a crime. Read the rest of this post...

New documentary on Maine's marriage campaign

In a must-read column for anyone who followed the No on 1 campaign in Maine, Bill Nemitz previews a new documentary that is coming out which looks at the campaign in Maine with footage from inside both camps during the election. Marc Mutty, the manager for the Yes on 1 side (against equality) has some stunning confessions, including fearing that this campaign will be what he's remembered for (or that it might affect is career down the road). Mutty works for the Diocese of Maine. From Nemitz's piece:

"We use a lot of hyperbole and I think that's always dangerous," says Mutty during a Yes on 1 strategy session, at the time on leave from his job as public affairs director for the Roman Catholic Diocese of Maine.

"You know, we say things like 'Teachers will be forced to (teach same-sex marriage in schools)!' " he continues. "Well, that's not a completely accurate statement and we all know it isn't, you know?"

"No," interjects a woman off-camera. "We don't say that."

"Let's look back at our ads and see what we say," Mutty persists. "And I think we use hyperbole to the point where, you know, it's like 'Geez!' "

You can find out more on the documentary here or watch the trailer below.

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