GLAA Forum

Dan Savage Talks About Birth Control

The way Obama talks to black people

The above topic has arisen from time to time in the black community since Barack Obama became President. Tonight at 7:30pm ET on Sirius/XM Left (Channel 127), Mark Thompson talks with Morehouse alumnus Rev. Kevin Johnson on the subject. Johnson wrote on April 14. Ta-Nehisi Coates wrote on May 20. Jonathan Capehart wrote today.

I can't help thinking that a real Morehouse man wouldn't complain.

Obama will award posthumous Medal of Freedom to astronaut Sally Ride

AP reports.

Obama: #time4marriage in Illinois

Politico reports that President Obama supports the marriage equality bill in Illinois.

Jason Collins Honored with GLSEN Courage Award

Amid the continued violence, the need for role models is all the more clear. This guy is golden.

Ellen on A&F: "Fitch, please."

I am a Kinsey 6, but I love this woman.

May 22 - Rally for Scouting Equality

This just in from Equality Maryland:

On Thursday, May 23 the National Council Delegates of the Boy Scouts of America will be voting on whether to repeal the decades-old policy that homosexuality goes against the core values of the BSA. We at Equality Maryland, agree its time to lift this discriminatory ban so that every child can experience the joys of Scouting. However, some delegates from Maryland are still on the fence!

TOMORROW at 4pm Scouts for Equality is hosting a rally in Washington, DC to show the delegates from Maryland and around the region that they have our support to vote in favor of inclusion. Supporters from across the Mid-Atlantic region will be gathering at the Scouting Memorial on the Eastern Side of the Ellipse in Washington, DC at 4pm. Click here to RSVP and lend your voice to equality in Scouting!

Former GLAA President Craig Howell comments:

This will be worth going to if only to see the campiest memorial in DC, the Boy Scouts Memorial. Not sure if it's the best background image we want to project, however, since the memorial stars a Greek-like or Stalinesque nude man towering over a Boy Scout.

Then there's the Military Instruction sculpture at the northwest corner of Lafayette Square. Hey, what pervs at the Fine Arts Commission approved this stuff?

Dr. Saul Levin named head of APA

(Photo by Michael Key for Washington Blade)

Lou Chibbaro reports:

Dr. Saul Levin, who last year became the first openly gay head of the D.C. Department of Health, was named on May 15 as the new chief executive officer and medical director of the American Psychiatric Association.

An APA spokesperson said Levin, a psychiatrist who has specialized in substance abuse treatment, becomes the first known out gay person to head the APA, which was founded in 1844 and represents more than 33,000 psychiatric physicians in the U.S. and abroad.

Dr. Levin testified in support of the birth certificate bill last Thursday. (But that link is to GLAA's testimony.)

A mountain lion in an aqueduct is treated better than gays in the immigration bill

The above video from San Diego has nothing to do with this.

Now it appears that the hopes of binational gay families like mine are pinned on DOMA being overturned in United States v. Windsor. That does not, however, make me happy with Chuck Schumer, Dianne Feinstein, or Barack Obama. (Michael Bedwell, please note.)

Update from Chris Geidner.

More anti-gay violence in NYC

(Photo by AP)

The latest attack came hours after the rally against hate violence. All I can do right now is shake my head.

Update: NYPD is beefing up patrols in the gayborhood.

His mistress's voice

A tornado survivor was being interviewed next to the rubble of her home, when her lost dog heard her voice and emerged from the ruins.

May 21, 2013

Today would have been Frank Kameny's 88th birthday.  This clip is from an interview he gave for the documentary The Lavender Scare.

Right-wing activist kills self in Notre Dame Cathedral over same-sex marriage

Wow. A shocking reminder that there are some very disturbed people out there.

Fred Phelps Jr. blames tornado deaths on Jason Collins

Seriously. Gay Star News reports.

(Hat tip: Alan Sharpe)

NY1: Gay Rights Advocates March Against Hate Crimes

AP video: raw footage of Oklahoma tornado

Associated Press says that this footage is from Sunday. So the big one on Monday was just one in a series. Life in Tornado alley.

Coburn wants disaster relief to be offset

(Photo by Steve Gooch / AP)

The deadly tornado in Oklahoma has already reportedly claimed 91 lives, and rescue efforts are still ongoing, but Oklahoma Senator Tom Coburn is already insisting that federal disaster relief be offset by spending cuts. Emily Pierce of Roll Call reports.

At least Coburn is being consistent. He voted against relief after Hurricane Sandy for the same budget-hawk reasons. He voted against federal relief after the Oklahoma City bombing in 1995. I can't believe this will go over well. There is something to be said for consistency, but this is consistently wrong. The aftermath of a devastating natural disaster is the worst time to be holding emergency services hostage to ideology.

Rep. Trent Franks wants to expand his DC abortion ban nationwide

Tara Culp-Ressler reports in ThinkProgress:

Not content with attempting to impose his anti-abortion agenda upon the women who live in the nation’s capital, Rep. Trent Franks (R-AZ) now intends to push for a nationwide bill to criminalize abortions after 20 weeks. Franks, who invoked the illegal abortion provider Kermit Gosnell to justify his decision to re-introduce a 20-week abortion ban in DC, now says that Gosnell’s crimes have compelled him to amend his bill so it applies to women across the country....

However, that’s a gross mischaracterization of the state of legal abortion services throughout the country. Abortion opponents have repeatedly attempted to twist the facts surrounding Gosnell’s high-profile murder trial to make it appear as if his crimes are rampant throughout legal abortion clinics. But that’s simply not the case. The Philadelphia-area abortion doctor was guilty of much more than simply breaking Pennsylvania’s law that criminalizes abortion after 24 weeks of pregnancy; he was also able to offer discounted prices for his services because he didn’t employ medical professionals or adhere to safety standards. Gosnell’s “house of horrors” isn’t analogous to the way that legal, sanitary late-term abortion clinics provide care to the women who need it.

I can't believe we have to fight this all over again, 40 years after Roe v. Wade. I am so tired of the religious fanatics and bullies in this country.

Video: Anti-violence rally in NYC

A brief excerpt from yesterday's anti-violence rally in honor of Mark Carson, who was murdered in an anti-gay hate crime early Saturday morning.

(Hat tip: Joe Jervis)

President Obama's gay-inclusive remarks at Morehouse

President Obama's commencement speech over the weekend at Morehouse College, the all-male liberal arts school and one of the nation's most renowned Historically Black Colleges and Universities, included these remarks:

Keep setting an example for what it means to be a man. Be the best husband to your wife, or your boyfriend, or your partner. Be the best father you can be to your children. Because nothing is more important. [...]

As Morehouse Men, many of you know what it’s like to be an outsider; know what it’s like to be marginalized; know what it’s like to feel the sting of discrimination. And that’s an experience that a lot of Americans share. Hispanic Americans know that feeling when somebody asks them where they come from or tell them to go back. Gay and lesbian Americans feel it when a stranger passes judgment on their parenting skills or the love that they share. Muslim Americans feel it when they’re stared at with suspicion because of their faith. Any woman who knows the injustice of earning less pay for doing the same work — she knows what it’s like to be on the outside looking in.

So your experiences give you special insight that today’s leaders need. If you tap into that experience, it should endow you with empathy — the understanding of what it’s like to walk in somebody else’s shoes, to see through their eyes, to know what it’s like when you’re not born on 3rd base, thinking you hit a triple. It should give you the ability to connect. It should give you a sense of compassion and what it means to overcome barriers.