Taking some time off

Going on hiatus until January. The family and I are taking some long-awaited R&R.

<<< "The Times of Harvey Milk" available free online | Home | Marilyn Musgrave, sore loser >>>

Marilyn Musgrave, sore loser

Rep. Marilyn Musgrave (R-CO-04), author of the first anti-gay federal Marriage Amendment, was thoroughly trounced in her re-election bid last week by Democrat Betsy Markey. Musgrave still has not conceded or congratulated the victor. Sore loser.

<<< Taking some time off | Home | Tell Obama your thoughts on LGBT issues >>>

Tell Obama your thoughts on LGBT issues

From the Change.gov web site for the Office of the President-elect:

An American Moment: Your Story

Start right now. Tell us your story in your own words about what this campaign and this election means to you. Share your hopes for an Obama Administration and a government for the people.

Tell President-elect Barack Obama your thoughts about gay marriage, an inclusive ENDA, DOMA, Don't Ask Don't Tell, gay adoption, gay immigration equality, the need for national leadership in fighting anti-gay ballot initiatives, and more at http://change.gov/page/s/yourstory .

<<< Marilyn Musgrave, sore loser | Home | Feeling down about the California marriage vote? >>>

Feeling down about the California marriage vote?

Dr. Maya Angelou tells us that we will prevail against the haters. An abbreviated version of her poem, "Still I Rise":

You may write me down in history
With your bitter, twisted lies,
You may trod me in the very dirt
But still, like dust, I'll rise.

Does my sassiness upset you?
Why are you beset with gloom?
'Cause I walk like I've got oil wells
Pumping in my living room.

Just like moons and like suns,
With the certainty of tides,
Just like hopes springing high,
Still I'll rise.

Did you want to see me broken?
Bowed head and lowered eyes?
Shoulders falling down like teardrops.
Weakened by my soulful cries.

Does my haughtiness offend you?
Don't you take it awful hard
'Cause I laugh like I've got gold mines
Diggin' in my own back yard.

You may shoot me with your words,
You may cut me with your eyes,
You may kill me with your hatefulness,
But still, like air, I'll rise.

Does my sexiness upset you?
Does it come as a surprise
That I dance like I've got diamonds
At the meeting of my thighs?

Out of the huts of history's shame
I rise
Up from a past that's rooted in pain
I rise
I'm a black ocean, leaping and wide,
Welling and swelling I bear in the tide.
Leaving behind nights of terror and fear
I rise
Into a daybreak that's wondrously clear....
I rise
I rise
I rise.

<<< Tell Obama your thoughts on LGBT issues | Home | "Godless" smites Dole; Hagan projected to win >>>

"Godless" smites Dole; Hagan projected to win

CNN is calling it for Democrat Kay Hagan in the North Carolina Senate race.

Incumbent Republican Elizabeth Dole enraged LGBT and HIV/AIDS activists earlier this year by trying to rename the federal AIDS bill for deceased GOP ogre Jesse Helms. Helms spent years demonizing gays and people with HIV/AIDS, and he repeatedly abused his power to gut funding for HIV/AIDS prevention and treatment, condemning tens of thousands of gay men and others to early deaths. Dole was Scylla to Helm's Charybdis.

Dole's infamous "Godless" attack ad on Sunday school teacher Hagan backfired badly and was the final nail of Dole's coffin, costing her several points in the polls since the ad ran.

The seat returns to Democratic hands after being held by a Democrat throughout the twentieth century until Helms won it in 1972. Helms did not seek re-election in 2002, and Dole was elected in his place.

<<< Feeling down about the California marriage vote? | Home | Matthew Shepard, Gwen Araujo, and Barry Winchell can't vote... >>>

Matthew Shepard, Gwen Araujo, and Barry Winchell can't vote...

...but Fred Phelps, Larry Craig, and George W. Bush can.

Take back your country and vote today.

<<< "Godless" smites Dole; Hagan projected to win | Home | Hollywood Reporter gives Milk a rave review >>>

Hollywood Reporter gives Milk a rave review

The Hollywood Reporter is giving Gus Van Sant's Milk biopic of assassinated San Francisco supervisor Harvey Milk two thumbs up.

According to reviewer Kirk Honeycutt, the film "is the first great film to look at civil rights from the perspective of the gay movement" and is "superbly crafted, covering huge amounts of time, people and the zeitgeist without a moment of lapsed energy or inattention to detail".

Honeycutt notes that the cast is excellent, but singles out Sean Penn's performance for "extraordinary depth and wisdom".

Read more.

<<< Matthew Shepard, Gwen Araujo, and Barry Winchell can't vote... | Home | THAT'S who they remind me of! >>>

THAT'S who they remind me of!

<<< Hollywood Reporter gives Milk a rave review | Home | Long Beach city council opposes California's Prop. 8 >>>

Long Beach city council opposes California's Prop. 8

The city council of Long Beach, CA, unanimously opposed Proposition 8, the anti-gay marriage ballot question, at their 19 Aug 2008 meeting. The vote was 6-0, with three absences. The motion to oppose was made by Councilmember Gerrie Schipske, an out Democrat.

The video of the meeting can be viewed at the link below. There are some interesting comments made during the citizens' input section (lots of right-wing disinformation and lots of bigots insisting they don't really want to discriminate). Bonus points if you can spot the obvious closet case who spoke against same-sex marriage.

Councilmember Schipske is eloquent, as always. Vice Mayor Val Lerch spoke heatedly against bigotry, which is interesting because of his gay marriage record. At the council's 01 Jun 2004 meeting at which out Democratic councilmember Dan Baker introduced a resolution to oppose Bush's Federal Marriage Amendment, Mr. Lerch repeatedly spoke just as heatedly about how the resolution was a waste of his time. The Baker resolution died on a 4-4 tie vote; Mr. Lerch was the deciding vote against it. He was also the only vote against a watered-down substitute motion to support "equal protection under the law and to oppose any amendments that deny equal protection"; that motion passed 7-1.

In the archive search box below, either type or copy and paste "40. (08-0842)" ; include the quotation marks. That will get you to the relevant agenda item number for the 19 Aug 2008 meeting. The relevant section of the video is 39 minutes long (from 02:00:12 to 02:39:34). Click here for the archive search box.

<<< THAT'S who they remind me of! | Home | North Carolina GOP smears Senate candidate Kay Hagan over gay marriage >>>

North Carolina GOP smears Senate candidate Kay Hagan over gay marriage

The North Carolina Republican Party has sent out a scurrilous mailer attacking Democratic U.S. Senate nominee Kay Hagan for her opposition to a state constitutional amendment banning gay marriage. Hagan is in a competitive race against incumbent GOP Senator Elizabeth Dole and is ahead in most polls.

From the mailer, via PageOneQ:

Across America, liberal judges are overturning state laws banning gay marriage. In North Carolina a state constitutional amendment is needed to protect traditional marriage and prevent liberal judges from imposing their gay marriage agenda on the state.

Kay Hagan is actively opposed to this needed amendment to ban gay marriage in North Carolina. Hagan opposes defining a marriage as a union between one man and one woman in our state constitution.

Dole is desperate, out of ideas, and out of time.

<<< Long Beach city council opposes California's Prop. 8 | Home | Rachel Maddow ridicules Kit Bond for his latest rant >>>

Rachel Maddow ridicules Kit Bond for his latest rant

Sen. Kit Bond (R-MO) made a buffoon of himself Friday at a GOP campaign rally with vice presidential nominee Sarah Palin. He dodderingly railed against Obama's desire to appoint judges who have "a heart, have an empathy for the teenage mom, the minority, the gay, the disabled." That's all apparently bad in Kitland.

The gay comment might have played well with the hand-picked GOP crowd, but the "teenage mom" bit might not have gone over very well with Bristol Palin's mother, who was sitting nearby.

Bond's most recent HRC scores have been 20, 11, and 0. He will be up for re-election in 2010, when he will be 71.

MSNBC talking head Rachel Maddow takes Bond to task for his assininity:

<<< North Carolina GOP smears Senate candidate Kay Hagan over gay marriage | Home | Indiana Democratic Party funds anti-gay mailer >>>