GLAA Forum

Belmont University students organize sit-in for equality

Outsports reports:

Since Belmont University fired soccer coach Lisa Howe for being lesbian there has been an outpouring of support for the fired coach from students, faculty and the media....

School Trustee Emeritus Mike Curb sent a letter to Belmont demanding action and promising to work with the Board to get them to reverse their decision.

The student organization Bridge Builders held a sit-in earlier this week in protest. Derek Moore of Total Sports Mag was there and filed this video report.

(Hat tip: Craig Howell)

"She should have been the candidate"

NBC News analyst Chuck Todd, speaking this evening to Chris Matthews on MSNBC, made the above comment about Elizabeth Edwards, who died this morning at 61. Amen to that. Condolences to her family and friends.

Corrective rape as a joke?

Amanda Hess at TBD skewers editors at Daily Caller who seem to think that joking about raping lesbian servicemembers to make them straight is hilarious. Such jokes tend to be funnier to men in a position of privilege who take it for granted that the tables will never be turned on them. And I think that, at base, is the source of the resistance by people like John McCain to repealing the military gay ban: they feel their sense of privilege, of exclusivity, is threatened. The situation faced by gay servicemembers is thus similar to that of women servicemembers when that glass ceiling was being challenged. The intransigent old men like McCain are right to feel threatened in this respect. It just has nothing to do with the reasons like military readiness, unit cohesion, good order and discipline that they like to toss around.

Is GW's women's only swim for Muslim students legal?

Amanda Hess at TBD writes:

Last month, the George Washington University announced its new women-only swim hour, a weekly "Sister Splash" meant to accommodate Muslim women on campus who feel that swimming in the presence of men conflicts with their religious beliefs. In Sister Splash's wake, we entertained the opinions of students on campus: Those who have the chance to swim at college for the first time; those who find the event an idiotic and sexist act of politically correct nonsense that represents the dangerous "Islamization of America"; and those who don't really care if they can't access the exercise pool one hour a week.

Hess then gets four different legal opinions. Click on the link above. Here are my own comments from Facebook:

It probably violates the D.C. Human Rights Act, but I'm not inclined to fight it, as with the Phase One's policy of only allowing men who are escorted by a woman. With the latter, my attitude is, there's only one lesbian bar in town, let them have their space. Similarly, I see no great harm in setting aside a women's only swim to accommodate a cultural difference.

Oh, but I forgot Lace, over on Rhode Island Avenue NE, "where every night is ladies night." I can't tell from a quick perusal of their website at www.lacedc.com/ whether they have as strict a policy as the Phase.

(Photo by Associated Press)

Choi makes unbelievably sexist comment to Village Voice

Tanya Domi at The New Civil Rights Movement writes:

My friend Dan Choi uttered a truly despicable analogy of Harry Reid, Majority Leader of the Senate, last week by likening him to a “pussy” that “will bleed once a month,” because of Reid’s “weak” leadership in failure to pass a “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” repeal measure in September.

Just so happens, Dan’s very demeaning analogy was recorded by Village Voice journalist Steve Thrasher on Oct. 27, who reported his words in a lengthy feature for all the world to see and read.

The statement Dan made had nothing to do with sexual orientation, or DADT. Rather, his words reveal deeply-held beliefs that are predicated upon sexism that equates women with weakness. His rationale: Women bleed, women are wounded, thus unable to wield power effectively....

Dan’s ugly insult to all women evoked righteous anger from the Service Women’s Action Network (SWAN), National Center for Lesbian Rights, the National Gay and Lesbian Task Force and Servicemember’s Legal Defense Network, who released a joint letter addressed to Dan late yesterday condemning his words and wrote ”there is no room for misogyny, racism or other forms of hate speech among people who are working to end discrimination and bring about equality in the military”.

The signatories have demanded an authentic apology from Dan that indicates that he truly understands–really gets, just how insulting his utterances were. SWAN has also offered to meet personally with Dan to discuss the issues raised by his comment.

For many of us, this incident is an ugly reminder of having been hazed and sexually harassed by men in the military....

I have thought for some time that Dan Choi was not as ready for prime time as he seemed to think, and this is evidence. Wow. What in the world was he thinking?

(Hat tip: Beth Corbin and Brandon Fitzgerald)

Update: Last February at GLAA Forum, Miguel Tuason posted a fine discussion of the fact that, in its essence, the cause of gay people seeking to serve in the military is the same cause as that of women in the military. If Choi understood that, it is hard to imagine how he could have said what he did to the Village Voice reporter.

Randall Terry is Missy Smith's campaign manager

Amanda Hess reports at TBD:

Randall Terry — he of the chain yourself to the sink of an abortion clinic, declare bankruptcy to avoid making legal payments to the National Organization for Women, run for Congress under the "Right to Life Party," hire a Bill Clinton impersonator to discredit your opponents, compare the University of Notre Dame to Judas, list your "three black foster children" on your resume, disown one for converting to Islam, disown another for becoming pregnant, disown the third for being gay, respond to George Tiller's murder by calling Tiller a murderer style of politics — is now officially campaign manager for D.C. congressional candidate Missy Smith.

Well, this will show us how strong the anti-choice movement is locally here in D.C. (Having watched Rachel Maddow's program on the assassination of Dr. Tiller last night, I'm not inclined to call Mr. Terry and his allies "pro life.") I plan to attend a breakfast fundraiser for incumbent Congresswoman Eleanor Holmes Norton on Friday morning; but that is to show my support for our longtime ally and champion, not because I am worried about Missy Smith. If, heaven and the voters forfend, the GOP retakes the House in next week's election, the Congresswoman will have her work cut out for her — in significant measure because whackjobs who could not get elected in D.C. did get elected elsewhere.

Update: Amanda reports that a complaint has been filed with the FEC against some of Missy's yard signs for not having the requisite identification, "Paid for by Missy Reilly Smith for Congress."

Anita Hill: No reason to apologize to Thomas

(The Thomases and Professor Hill. Photo by AP)

NBC reports:

Anita Hill said she has no reason to apologize for accusing then-Supreme Court justice nominee Clarence Thomas of sexually harassing her, in an issue that Thomas's wife has reopened 19 years after his confirmation hearings.

Virginia Thomas left a voicemail message on Hill's office phone over the weekend, asking her to say she is sorry for the allegations that surfaced at Thomas' confirmation hearings for a seat on the high court bench in 1991.

Hill, now a Brandeis University professor, called the message "inappropriate" and she has no reason to atone.

"I have no intention of apologizing because I testified truthfully about my experience and I stand by that testimony," she said in a statement obtained by NBC News.

This is a creepy story. 19 years later, Ginny Thomas decides to leave such a message on Anita Hill's voicemail? Can you say "Let it go"? Incidentally, I believed Anita Hill in 1991 and I still do. As I recall, others' stories about Clarence Thomas jibed with hers. In any case, it is hard to imagine why Mrs. Thomas thought it a smart idea to dredge all that up again.

Graham attacked by anonymous, anti-abortion robocalls

Metro Weekly reports on another sleazy campaign tactic.

It seems that the more the 'phobes lose, the nastier they get.

He said, she said

BBC Radio 4 announces:

Stephen Fry examines whether men and women really use and understand language differently.

Is there a genuine gender language barrier, or is it just something we made up to amuse ourselves, or to castigate each other?

As a former presenter on Woman's Hour, Sue MacGregor has a unique insight into the way men used to use language to patronise or dominate, and recalls one of her guests on the programme referring to her as 'my dear'.

But as women began to win equality there was a genuine need to discover whether and how women and men differed in the way they spoke.

Cast aside all memories of cartoon strips, Woody Allen movies, sitcoms and diatribes on political correctness or questionable seaside postcards.

This programme gets to the truth, with the aid of academics, a bit of comedy from Ronnie Barker, a sex change surgeon and a speech therapist. Do people who want to change their sex also want to change the way they use language?

Click here for an audio clip.

(Hat tip: Cartwright Moore)

Poll: 7 of 10 LGBT Americans say U.S. remains far from gender equality

Steve Rothaus reports on the Miami Herald blog:

In 1920, 144 years after the signing of the Declaration of Independence, women in the United States achieved the right to vote. Ninety years later, the issues of gender equality remain debated and unresolved.

Among all American adults, 63% agree that the U.S. still has a long way to go to reach complete gender quality. While three-quarters of women (74%) agree with this, so do just over half of men (52%). By comparison, when this question is posed to lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) adults, 73% say the U.S. still has a long way to go, including 95% of lesbians (an especially notable finding when compared with 74% of heterosexual females.)

When querying whether things are fine between men and women, the nation is split – just over half of Americans (52%) disagree that things are fine between the genders while 43% say things are fine. But men and women have a different take on the situation with over half of men (55%) believing things are fine compared to just one-third (32%) of women who say the same.

However, when these overall findings are contrasted with the attitudes of lesbians, gay men, bisexuals and transgender adults, the differences become even sharper. Only 22% of lesbians (and 32% of gay men) suggest that things are fine between genders, as well as only one-third or 34% of all LGBT adults sampled.

Data tables are here.

(Hat tip: Bob Witeck)

Top-ten West Point cadet resigns over DADT

Knights Out, the GLBT West Point alumni group, reports:

WEST POINT, NY, August 9, 2010 – Ranked # 9 in her class overall, she routinely “super-maxes” her physical fitness tests. One of her blogs was featured in the Sunday print edition of the Washington Post as part of “The Gray Zone: West Point on Leadership.” However, today Cadet Katherine Miller tendered her resignation, coming out as gay to her superior officers at West Point....

"While at the academy, I have made a deliberate effort to develop myself academically, physically, and militarily, but in terms of holistic personal growth I have reached a plateau. I am unwilling to suppress an entire portion of my identity any longer because it has taken a significant personal, mental, and social toll on me and detrimentally affected my professional development. I have experienced a relentless cognitive dissonance by attempting to adhere to §654 [colloquially known as 'Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell'] and retain my integrity, and I am retrospectively convinced that I am unable to live up to the Army Values as long as the policy remains in place."

Miller will be transferring to Yale University this fall on a Point Foundation Scholarship. She has indicated her desire to become an Army Officer should the "Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell" policy be removed, and gay and lesbian people allowed to serve freely.

The latest obstacle to DADT repeal is an unrelated dispute: the President's threat to veto the FY 2011 defense spending bill due to its funding of an extra engine for the F-35 Joint Strike Fighter which the Pentagon does not need. The bill is due to be taken up by the Senate in September. I share President Obama's and Secretary Gates's opposition to military waste. But any bargaining away of DADT repeal as a result of that fight will be a difficult pill to swallow. The administration needs to get the repeal done. If it does not, its priorities will be clear and it will change from difficult to impossible the task of those who have defended the administration. More importantly, thousands of qualified and motivated patriots like Cadet Miller will continue to be either lost to military service or given an unfair additional burden as they continue to serve in silence. Get this done, Mr. President.

Pam Spaulding has the full text of Miller's resignation letter here.

(Photo: Cadet Katherine Miller)

If you think we have it bad...

Amazing Women Rock posts twenty-three shockingly sexist vintage ads, including the ones above and below. My question is, what exactly is this woman planning to do with the Hoover that is going to make her so happy? I'll have to ask my friend Ester about this.

(Hat tip: Denise Sudell)

Vatican tries to clarify statement that the real problem is ordination of women

Check out this passage in NYT's article on the Vatican's latest response to child sexual abuse by priests:

Monsignor Scicluna also attempted to blunt the impact of the Vatican’s linking of the attempted ordination of women with grave crimes like pedophilia.

“Sexual abuse and pornography are more grave dealings, they are an egregious violation of moral law,” he said. “Attempted ordination of women is grave, but on another level; it is a wound that is an attempt against the Catholic faith on the sacramental orders.”

Yet in what appeared to be an acknowledgment of concern among American Catholics, the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops was expected to hold a news conference on the issue later on Thursday.

The revision announced on Thursday codifies a 1997 ruling that made attempting to ordain women as priests a crime punishable with excommunication.

The Rev. Roy Bourgeois, an American priest with the Maryknoll religious order, said that the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith sent him an excommunication letter within two months after he participated in a ceremony ordaining women, but that the Congregation had taken years while it considered the requests of bishops to defrock pedophiles.

“What I did, supporting the ordination of women, they saw as a serious crime,” Father Bourgeois said. “But priests who were abusing children, they did not see as a crime. What does that say?”

He added, “It’s leading to this ever-deepening crisis in the church in which so many people have left or are questioning how they can stay.”

As my GLAA colleague Craig Howell says, you can't make this stuff up.

Trailer: The Kids Are All Right

Here's a trailer of a new movie starring Annette Bening and Julianne Moore as a lesbian couple with two kids and the troubles that ensue when they meet the kids' sperm donor (played by Mark Ruffalo). I attended a preview screening last evening. I wouldn't call this the Hallmark card of lesbian relationship flicks; there's a lot of negative energy running through most of the movie, inasmuch as it deals with something that threatens a longtime couple's relationship. However, it's respectfully handled and the performances are strong. There's a funny moment when their son asks why they prefer gay male porn movies to lesbian ones, and Bening says that with lesbian flicks the filmmakers usually cast two straight women, and the inauthenticity is bothersome. Bening, however, is quite convincing in her role.

Clinton speaks at State Dept. Pride celebration

Chris Johnson of the Blade reports on Secretary of State Hillary Clinton's remarks at an LGBT Pride observance today:

“Just as I was very proud to say the obvious more than 15 years ago in Beijing that human rights are women’s rights — and women’s rights are human rights — let me say today that human rights are gay rights and gay rights are human rights,” she said. ...

“In some places, violence against the LGBT community is permitted by law and inflamed by public calls to violence,” she said. “In others, it persists insidiously behind closed doors. These dangers are not gay issues. This is a human rights issue.” ...

One of the arms of the State Department that Clinton commended for taking the lead at confronting anti-gay abuses was the Bureau of African Affairs, which she said directed every U.S. embassy in Africa to report on the conditions of local LGBT communities. Clinton noted that she’s asked every regional bureau “to make this issue a priority.”

Clinton said Foreign Service officers in the State Department are siding with pro-LGBT groups overseas despite threats to personal safety. She cited the participation of U.S. officials last month in Slovakia’s first ever Pride parade as one example.

“There were anti-gay protesters who became violent and the police used tear gas, which our chargée and other diplomats were exposed to — a quite unpleasant experience, but a service to a just cause,” she said.

Carly Fiorina's unguarded moment

California Republican Senate nominee Carly Fiorina has gotten plenty of attention for this video of her unguarded comments while waiting for an interview Wednesday morning. The best part is at the end, where she dishes Barbara Boxer's hair right before realizing that she's talking into a live mic and shuts up. I have disliked her since the first time I saw her on television; but what I like about this video is how revealing it is. Considering how perfectly she channels the catty comments of fashion-obsessed gay men watching a beauty pageant or Oscar broadcast, how believable is the anti-gay pandering that she has done as a candidate? She may have just set off some damaging cognitive dissonance among right-wing voters. There are moments during this video where you can glimpse her inner Mrs. Danvers (from the Hitchcock movie Rebecca). If she loses to Boxer (as I dearly hope), perhaps she has a future as a character actress.

Lesbian couple weds in Portugal's 1st gay marriage

(Pires and Paixao at civil registry office. Photo by Francisco Seco/AP)

AP reports from Lisbon:

Two lesbians who were pioneers in bringing gay marriage to Portugal wed on Monday, becoming the first couple to enjoy the benefits of the law they helped usher into this predominantly Catholic country.

Teresa Pires and Helena Paixao, divorced Portuguese mothers in their 30s who have been together since 2003, married in a 15-minute ceremony at a Lisbon registry office, taking advantage of a law introduced last month when the country's conservative president reluctantly ratified the legislation.

"This is a great victory, a dream come true," Pires said as the couple kissed and hugged.

"Now we're a family, that's the important thing," Pires said, adding they would continue to fight for equal rights for homosexuals, including adoption.

Study: Children of lesbians may do better than their peers

Alice Park writes in Time:

The teen years are never the easiest for any family to navigate. But could they be even more challenging for children and parents in households headed by gay parents?

That is the question researchers explored in the first study ever to track children raised by lesbian parents, from birth to adolescence. Although previous studies have indicated that children with same-sex parents show no significant differences compared with children in heterosexual homes when it comes to social development and adjustment, many of those investigations involved children who were born to women in heterosexual marriages, who later divorced and came out as lesbians.

For their new study, published on Monday in the journal Pediatrics, researchers Nanette Gartrell, a professor of psychiatry at the University of California at San Francisco (and a law professor at the University of California, Los Angeles), and Henry Bos, a behavioral scientist at the University of Amsterdam, focused on what they call planned lesbian families — households in which the mothers identified themselves as lesbian at the time of artificial insemination....

The authors found that children raised by lesbian mothers — whether the mother was partnered or single — scored very similarly to children raised by heterosexual parents on measures of development and social behavior. These findings were expected, the authors said; however, they were surprised to discover that children in lesbian homes scored higher than kids in straight families on some psychological measures of self-esteem and confidence, did better academically and were less likely to have behavioral problems, such as rule-breaking and aggression.

If these results are borne out by further studies, I wonder what effect there will be on those who support adoption by same-sex couples but only as a last resort. Will they favor putting lesbian couples first in line? If not, that will pretty well eliminate the best interests of the child as their criterion.

Update: Jim Burroway writes at BTB:

This study is one of the very few to suggest more positive outcomes [for children of lesbian parents] than children from heterosexual families, a claim that would require more research before it could be regarded as anything more than an outlier. But it’s easy to imagine one reason for this surprising finding. These parents were recruited because they were about to undergo artificial insemination. This means that in every case, these children were brought into the world because they were wanted and planned for. None of them are the product of a drunken tryst in the back seat of a Chevy. These mothers had to investigate options, invest money, and really want to become mothers. This alone can account for the difference.

Opponents to gay equality often warn that children raised in gay or lesbian households are allegedly harmed by the experience. This study joins about 200 others which, to date, have found no significant negative outcomes. If their argument had any hint of validity, you would think that at least a few peer-reviewed studies would support it. But so far, none of them looking specifically at gay- or lesbian-led families have. I guess opponents to LGBT equality will have to keep on looking.

Sister Margaret’s Choice

Nicholas Kristof writes in NYT about another case that shows the moral obtuseness of the Catholic Church hierarchy:

The excommunication of Sister Margaret McBride in Phoenix underscores all that to me feels morally obtuse about the church hierarchy. I hope that a public outcry can rectify this travesty.

Sister Margaret was a senior administrator of St. Joseph’s Hospital in Phoenix. A 27-year-old mother of four arrived late last year, in her third month of pregnancy. According to local news reports and accounts from the hospital and some of its staff members, the mother suffered from a serious complication called pulmonary hypertension. That created a high probability that the strain of continuing pregnancy would kill her.

“In this tragic case, the treatment necessary to save the mother’s life required the termination of an 11-week pregnancy,” the hospital said in a statement. “This decision was made after consultation with the patient, her family, her physicians, and in consultation with the Ethics Committee.”

Sister Margaret was a member of that committee. She declined to discuss the episode with me, but the bishop of Phoenix, Thomas Olmstead, ruled that Sister Margaret was “automatically excommunicated” because she assented to an abortion.

“The mother’s life cannot be preferred over the child’s,” the bishop’s communication office elaborated in a statement....

I heard about Sister Margaret from an acquaintance who is a doctor at the hospital. After what happened to Sister Margaret, he doesn’t dare be named, but he sent an e-mail to his friends lamenting the excommunication of “a saintly nun”:

“She is a kind, soft-spoken, humble, caring, spiritual woman whose spot in Heaven was reserved years ago,” he said in the e-mail message. “The idea that she could be ex-communicated after decades of service to the Church and humanity literally makes me nauseated.”

“True Christians, like Sister Margaret, understand that real life is full of difficult moral decisions and pray that they make the right decision in the context of Christ’s teachings. Only a group of detached, pampered men in gilded robes on a balcony high above the rest of us could deny these dilemmas.”

(Photo of Sister Margaret McBride, RSM)

Colby King: Elena Kagan's unhelpful supporters

Our friend Colby King writes:

Elena Kagan's supporters don't do her or gay Americans any favors by publicly expressing their views on her sexual orientation. Whether or not a future justice is a heterosexual or homosexual is irrelevant to questions about fitness to serve on the Supreme Court. That there are some bigoted Americans who would make sexual orientation an issue is no reason to grant them any legitimacy, which occurs when their perverse and offensive interests are addressed. The proper response is to treat the question of sexual orientation as the non-issue that it is and place the burden on the bigots to make their case in the public square… if they dare.

What's worse, by finding it necessary to declare that Kagan is not a lesbian, her supporters, wittingly or unwittingly, have lent credence to the specious argument that homosexuality carries with it a stigma, that it is a perversion and, thus, a disqualification.

In their zeal to protect the Kagan's nomination, her defenders have given standing to those who would discriminate against gays, sanctioned similar inquiries into the sexual orientation of future judges, and further lowered the level of debate on qualifications necessary to serve on the highest court in the land.

Yes. The White House in particular handled the gay rumors very badly. What could they have been thinking?

Senate Confirms Lesbian Judge to D.C. Superior Court

Towleroad reports:

Embattled judicial nominee Marisa Demeo, whose nomination was held up by Senator Jim Demint (R-SC) and opposed by the Traditional Values Coalition who claimed she was a "radical lesbian", was approved by the Senate late last night, On Top magazine reports:

"Republicans opposed to Demeo have blocked her confirmation to the D.C. Superior Court bench since her March 2009 nomination by President Obama...Demeo, a D.C. magistrate judge since 2007, has worked as a lobbyist and advocate for Hispanic causes. She also has a history of gay activism and holds membership in several groups that advocate for gay and lesbian rights, including the Human Rights Campaign (HRC) and Lambda Legal Defense and Education Fund. In a letter by the socially conservative group Traditional Values Coalition, senators were urged to reject Demeo because she's openly gay. The letter, obtained by the progressive website ThinkProgress.org, was published Tuesday."

The 66-32 vote to approve Demeo fell largely on party lines, On Top adds.

Of course, for the so-called Traditional Values Coalition, every out lesbian is by definition a "radical lesbian." But count this a victory for our side. Congrats to Judge Demeo.

Dorothy Height at HRC dinner, 1997

GLAA President Mitch Wood paid tribute to the late Dorothy Height last evening at the GLAA anniversary reception. Here is a video of the renowned civil rights activist speaking at the 1997 Human Rights Campaign National Dinner. May she rest in peace, and her example live on.

(Hat tip: Bob Witeck)

Busybody pharmacy goes bust

Petula Dvorak writes in today's Washington Post:

The Divine Mercy Care Pharmacy in Chantilly proudly and purposefully limited what it would stock on its shelves. But it turns out that no birth control pills, no condoms, no porn, no tobacco and even no makeup added up to one thing:

No customers.

The self-described "pro-life" pharmacy went out of business last month, less than two years after it opened to great fanfare, with a Catholic priest sprinkling holy water on the strip-mall store tucked between an Asian supermarket and a scuba shop.

No word on whether he returned for last rites.

Good.

Stupak is as Stupak does

The Maddow Blog writes:

Rep. Bart Stupak (D-MI) has been threatening to derail health reform over the issue of abortion. Stupak objects to the idea that any federal money would go toward abortion services, to the point where he'd ban women from using their own money on a public exchange to buy private insurance that covers abortions.

Repeatedly Stupak has cited a block of Democrats who'll vote with him against health reform, saying at various times that he had as many as 20 lawmakers lined up to vote no. More recently, Stupak has said he has 11 lawmakers on his side -- a group that, taken with Stupak, has come to be known as the Stupak Dozen.

Yet Stupak never names the people in his dozen. Now a senior House leadership aide who has conducted an informal whip count on the abortion issue tells us this about the "Stupak dozen": "We do not see more than four or five members standing with Bart when this bill is actually brought to the floor."

The kicker here is that what Stupak is asking for -- that the Senate adopt the same anti-abortion amendment he tacked on to the House bill -- can't be done. Health reform can pass now only through the budget reconciliation process, and the only changes to the House and Senate bills that are allowed under reconciliation are ones that directly affect the budget....

What's more, the Senate bill already clearly bans the use of federal money for abortions. Stupak is asking for an impossible fix to an imaginary problem.

Also, Stupak refuses to discuss the absurdly low rent he paid for years at the C Street House. If he accepted rent subsidies without reporting them, that's going to be a problem for him. Let's see how long he can stonewall. Meanwhile, The Hill reports, Stupak's anti-abortion shenanigans have earned him a Democratic challenger, Connie Saltonstall.

Tim Tebow Super Bowl ad: much ado about nothing?

Cyd Zeigler Jr. at OutSports writes:

What were they thinking? The Focus on the Family ad that aired during the Super Bowl aimed at fighting abortion instead promoted domestic violence with Tim Tebow tackling his mother. When it aired, everyone at the party looked at each other with a “what in hell did I just see” look.

Okay, does her son tackling her represent a man trying to force a woman to have an abortion, or force her not to have an abortion? Or is it a reference to incest? Or was the commercial supposed to have been created by someone with so-called Post Abortion Stress Syndrome? Or what? One of the advantages of free speech is that it gives people the chance to demonstrate how disturbed they are.

Roeder convicted of murdering Kan. abortion provider

AP reports swift and sure justice for a cold-blooded, unrepentant murderer:

A man who said he killed prominent Kansas abortion provider Dr. George Tiller in order to save the lives of unborn children was convicted Friday of murder.

The jury deliberated for just 37 minutes before finding Scott Roeder, 51, of Kansas City, Mo., guilty of premeditated, first-degree murder in the May 31 shooting death.

He faces a mandatory sentence of life in prison with the possibility of parole after 25 years when he is sentenced March 9. Prosecutor Nola Foulston said she would pursue a so-called "Hard 50" sentence, which would require Roeder to serve at least 50 years before he can be considered for parole.

37 minutes is about the time it takes to read the judge's instructions. Not only was there no reasonable doubt, there was no doubt whatever.

Female genital mutilation occurring in U.S.

Lynn Harris writes in Salon:

Some girls came back from this past winter break with Christmas loot, ski tans, still more to say about "Twilight: New Moon." But others, women's health experts suspect, came back with deep, and literal, wounds to heal. According to human rights advocates and service providers, families in the U.S. who have immigrated from countries where female genital mutilation (FGM) is practiced often take their daughters home, when school is out, to be cut.

Yes, FGM is practiced -- or at least planned -- on U.S. soil, on girls in immigrant families who were born and/or raised here. Perhaps even among people you know: Not long ago, a concerned mother posted on my Brooklyn-area parenting list-serv that she believed an eight-year-old friend of her daughter's had undergone some form of the procedure in her home country in the Middle East (and appeared to be markedly traumatized). Archana Pyati, an asylum attorney for Sanctuary for Families in New York, has encountered dozens of FGM cases just in the past six months. "The majority of our African clients have been through it, and most often, they are fighting to protect their daughters," she says. (Older relatives with "seniority" often push for the procedure.) "It is our hope that by recognizing that FGM may be occurring under our noses we will become better able to respond to it, just as we would any other form of violence against children," she says.

FGM is already against federal law (and is against the law in 17 states), but that isn't enough. Attention needs to be brought to bear against this violent, cruel, deeply misogynistic, traditional practice.

Seattle lesbian couple helps rescue woman from D.C. Metro tracks

The Washington Post reports:

"Help!" the disabled woman cried, her motorized wheelchair overturned a few feet away as she lay sprawled on the Metro tracks at Union Station just before midnight one day last week.

Michelle Kleisath, a 29-year-old anthropology doctoral student from Seattle, was among a crowd gathered on the platform, watching aghast. She pulled her phone from her pocket to call 911 but realized there was not enough time.

"She's going to die," Kleisath, who was in the District attending a conference on race relations, recalled thinking. "Someone has to get her off."

But thanks mainly to Kleisath and her partner, Chilan T. Ta, 26, a transportation engineering student from Seattle, disaster was averted. The couple, with help from other bystanders, rescued the woman....

Kleisath, a bicyclist, said that when she reached the woman, she realized she would be unable to lift her alone. She looked up to the platform, spotted a tall man in a dark jacket, and realized he was the panhandler she had just given a dollar to after he had complained about rising Metro fares.

"Please, come down and help me," she called. The man immediately jumped down. Another man followed, and a third. Together, they lifted the injured woman onto the platform.

(Photo by Chilan T. Ta shows Ta, left, and Michelle Kleisath in a photo from a New York trip.)

Coakley's pre-mortem blames national Democrats, not herself

Democratic senatorial candidate Martha Coakley (or is that Croakley?) doesn't even wait for the polls to close in Massachusetts before lashing out. Marc Ambinder gives us a tartly annotated look at her pre-mortem memo, leaked by a Coakley adviser. I am not sure what to excerpt, but have a look yourself. I am still rooting against the odds for the Democratic turnout machine to pull out a victory, but this candidate gets less appealing the more she reveals about her attitude. If she loses as expected, can we please get a another candidate for 2012, preferably one who is delighted to stand outside Fenway in the cold talking to people?

Chait to Democrats: take a deep breath

In the face of Martha Coakley's apparently dire situation in today's special election in Massachusetts for U.S. Senator, Jonathan Chait at TNR urges Democrats not to panic:

The difference between the parties is that Republicans ignore the establishment’s advice. After Obama’s election, conventional wisdom insisted that the GOP would have to move to the center. Instead the party moved further right. And whatever the policy merits, it has worked politically. If Republicans had cooperated more with Obama, it would have given him bipartisan accomplishments and made him even more popular.

The GOP’s ability to ignore establishment nostrums in the face of defeat is its great electoral strength. Democrats, by contrast, have a congenital tendency to panic. Abandoning health care reform after they’ve already paid whatever political cost that comes from voting for it in both houses would be suicide. Even if Coakley loses, the House could pass the Senate bill as is, avoiding the need to break a filibuster, and tinker with it in a reconciliation bill that can’t be filibustered. The only thing preventing the Democrats from following through would be sheer panic.

Remember the classic scene in It’s a Wonderful Life? Facing a run on his building and loan, George Bailey tries to explain to his frantic customers how to look after their self-interest. “Don't you see what's happening?” he pleads, “Potter isn't selling. Potter's buying! And why? Because we're panicking and he's not.” President Obama’s great challenge right now is to be his party’s George Bailey.

One thought I have is that, if the Democrats are going to be harangued endlessly for not being able to pass their agenda despite having a "filibuster-proof majority" — when it is painfully evident by now that having 60 senators caucusing with them does not automatically translate into 60 votes on any given substantive or procedural vote — then they might be better off losing a seat or two so that some of the attention can properly return to GOP obstructionism.

Another thought is that, if Coakley loses tonight (or whenever the final result is known), Scott Brown only has the seat for two years before he has to run again. His telegenic b.s. will look a lot less compelling after his true colors are displayed in office. That, along with a lot of reawakened Democrats, could make for a big difference in 2012. And a setback in the congressional midterms could end up helping President Obama, just as it helped Bill Clinton after 1994. In any case, Chait is right: the worst thing the Democrats can do is panic. I have been wanting for some time to order an emergency airdrop of surplus spines onto the U.S. Capitol grounds, but I seem to have misplaced the go codes.

Scott Brown suggested Obama was born out of wedlock

Scott Brown, the smiling Republican candidate for U.S. Senate in Tuesday's special election in Massachusetts, suggested during an interview at the 2008 Republican National Convention that Barack Obama may have been born out of wedlock.

What a sleazy, gratuitous insinuation. And how was Obama's mother's age when she bore him relevant to the presidential election? This looks like the same anything-goes politics of the Teabaggers and Birthers that are supporting Brown. Martha Coakley, the Democratic candidate, should not have taken the race for granted, but I sure hope the voters of Massachusetts don't end up with morning-after pangs as some of their neighbors in Connecticut did after re-electing Lieberman.

(Hat tip: Joan Walsh, Salon.com.)

Palin signs on with Fox News

Howard Kurtz reports:

Sarah Palin, who regularly rips the media, is becoming a television pundit at a place where she's likely to feel at home.

A Fox News executive says the network will shortly announce that the former vice-presidential nominee is signing on as a contributor.

Palin, who resigned as governor of Alaska last summer, will appear as a commentator on various Fox shows. She will also host an occasional program that will examine inspirational tales involving ordinary Americans.

No surprise here. Why should she make her comments free via Facebook when she can get paid by Rupert Murdoch?

My far-flung correspondents

Bay Windows has already posted my latest column, "Feedback Farrago," on its website. This week I rummage through my mailbag. Here's an excerpt:

On Christmas Eve, "ex-gay" advocate Sharon Kass copied me on a message to Chicago-based gay writer Paul Varnell: "Untreated homosexuality, like other untreated emotional disorders, involves rage, depression, anxiety, and narcissism ... In 1999, the victim of ’gay’ lust-aggression was thirteen-year-old Jesse Dirkhising. In 2006, it was thirty-two-year-old Robert Wone ... Do you really think the American people are gonna stand for this? The plain illogic of homosexuality works against it politically. And ex-gay information is spreading. There is life after ’gay.’ And it’s better."

Instead of responding with rage, depression, anxiety, and narcissism, I wrote, "Your reference to the illogic is a nice touch, given your preposterous generalizing from a few cherry-picked horror stories. And heterosexuality should be suppressed because of the crimes of [straight serial killer] Ted Bundy ... Get help. You are making Baby Jesus cry."

After I wrote in defense of abortion rights last June, a reader identified as "Pat_1425" wrote, "Abortion is genocide. Your moral equivocation and your advocacy of genocide undermine your credibility. You are no different than Adolf Hitler or Pol Pot. The only good abortionist is a dead abortionist." I accused him of "an authoritarian perspective fundamentally at odds with American governing structures and traditions of liberty." Since he appeared to call for my violent death, I also forwarded his email to the police, and he soon received a visit from the FBI. I love a good argument, but saying you want me dead? Not cool.

One anti-gay obsessive sent me a series of obnoxious rants. I finally replied: "I thought you should know that someone using your name has been sending me the most absurd letters." (This was once written by a member of Congress to a constituent, and as a taxpayer I feel entitled to use it.)

Last week, a woman named Salwa sent the following: "As determined by the Bible, if you are non-Israelite, you are a foreign woman; and the Bible makes known that the foreign women are but prostitutes, rubbish, dirt, robber etc." I replied, "Dear Salwa, I have no idea who you are, but I am rather sure that I am not a foreign woman." Not that there is anything wrong with that.

As usual, the column will also appear in this Thursday's Metro Weekly.

Lisa Miller remains on the lam after violating custody order

The Associated Press reported on Friday that Lisa Miller failed to obey a judge's order to turn over her daughter to her former partner Janet Jenkins. Miller's whereabouts, and those of her daughter Isabella, are unknown:

Miller and Jenkins were joined in a Vermont civil union in 2000. Isabella was born to Miller through artificial insemination in 2002. The couple broke up in 2003, and Miller moved to Virginia, renounced homosexuality and became an evangelical Christian.

When Vermont Family Court Judge William Cohen dissolved the couple's civil union, he awarded custody to Miller but granted liberal visitation rights to Jenkins.

The supreme courts of Virginia and Vermont ruled in favor of Jenkins, saying the case was the same as a custody dispute between a heterosexual couple. The case was appealed to the U.S. Supreme Court, which declined to hear arguments on it.

Cohen awarded custody to Jenkins on Nov. 20 after finding Miller in contempt of court for denying Jenkins access to the girl. The judge said the only way to ensure equal access to the child was to switch custody.

Box Turtle Bulletin has an update here. Truth Wins Out reports:

Debbie Thurman, ex-gay activist, has deleted her blog titled The Formers following a post in which she affirmed the kidnapping of young Isabella Miller by her non-custodial parent. Thurman had called the apparent parental abduction an act of Christian “civil disobedience” which constituted “true motherhood.”

God help that child.

Coakley: her own woman

AP a few days ago profiled Massachusetts Attorney General Martha Coakley, who is the frontrunner in the special election to fill the U.S. Senate seat of the late Ted Kennedy. It says "she is crafting a campaign largely free of the Kennedy mystique":

Although she shares Kennedy's position on key issues and is appealing to the same liberal Democratic voters who returned him to office during his 47 years in the Senate, Coakley is helping usher in a post-Kennedy Massachusetts - a state whose politics have been inextricably linked to the family for generations....

While she's avoided using his image in ads, Coakley has mentioned Kennedy at some public appearances. She referenced his battles against discrimination to frame her opposition to the Defense of Marriage Act, which denies federal benefits to married gay couples in Massachusetts.

But Coakley's efforts to avoid direct comparisons with Kennedy is also helping focus attention on her own story - one that includes breaking political gender barriers in a state that considers itself one of the most liberal.

The 56-year-old was the first woman elected to the state's highest law enforcement office. If she succeeds Jan. 19, she'll be the first woman elected to the U.S. Senate from Massachusetts.

Obama's phone message to Houston Mayor-elect Annise Parker

Towleroad shares this audio clip of President Obama leaving a congratulatory phone message last weekend for Houston Mayor-elect Annise Parker.

Obama said:

Madam Mayor-elect, this is President Barack Obama. I'm just calling to congratulate you on an extraordinary victory. A victory for the people of Houston as well as yourself. I think you're going to be just a great mayor, so hopefully we'll get a chance to see each other soon or talk. But I wanted to let you know that we're watching and very proud.

Rally Held Before D.C's Gay Marriage Vote

NBC Washington reports on Monday evening's rally for marriage equality. Pictured above is rally emcee Nick McCoy of the Human Rights Campaign.

WaPo: Poised to mark a milestone

Washington Post reporter Tim Craig has a profile of D.C. Councilmember David Catania on the occasion of today's second and final reading and vote in the Council on Catania's marriage-equality bill.

The reporter, to advance a point he wanted to make, took a quote of mine somewhat out of context. What I said was that Catania's involvement in the hearings on the bill were his finest hour. The reporter suggests that what others describe as Catania's vindictiveness and bullying are necessary to prod a lethargic Council. In fact, as GLAA's candidate questionnaire compilations have shown, marriage equality has enjoyed overwhelming support on the Council for many years. Disagreements over timing were purely a matter of strategy. The importance of sustaining the push for marriage equality against the efforts of our opponents was underscored by the creation earlier this year of the Campaign for All D.C. Families, which was proposed five years ago by GLAA as part of an analysis of what was necessary to defeat a proposed anti-gay ballot initiative.

The point here is that civil marriage equality in the District of Columbia has been decades in the making. David Catania has made an invaluable contribution and has played a key role this year, but so have many others including Judiciary chairman Phil Mendelson, independent activist (and former GLAA president) Bob Summersgill, DC for Marriage, the Stein Club, and GLAA. At Monday evening's rally for marriage equality, David himself acknowledged the decades of efforts that brought us to this moment. The press should not short-shrift that history, especially when we have documented so much of it for them.

Today, in the D.C. Council chamber, we are indeed, all of us, poised to mark a milestone. Thanks and congratulations to everyone who helped bring us to this moment, including David, Phil, Bob, Congresswoman Norton (who has defended us on Capitol Hill), and many others.

Kurtz: Houston makes history

Howard Kurtz writes in WaPo:

"Annise Parker's comfortable rise to mayor is drawing attention from national news outlets who are noting the significance of the nation's fourth largest city making history by electing an openly gay leader," the Houston Chronicle observes.

"The New York Times, The Christian Science Monitor and MSNBC, for instance, emphasized that Parker won the race in a state that outlawed gay marriage and in a city that defeated a referendum granting benefits to same-sex partners of city workers. With Parker winning nearly 53 percent of the vote late Saturday, Houston became the largest city with to elect an openly gay mayor. Others include Cambridge, Mass., Portland, Ore., and Providence R.I.

"From The Christian Science Monitor: 'The distinction neatly sums up the American mood. As gays and lesbians become broadly accepted in society and politics, that acceptance is marked by a firm boundary beyond which voters do not yet appear willing to cross: same-sex marriage.' " This would have been unthinkable in the South a decade ago.

Annise Parker's victory speech in Houston mayoral race

Towleroad posted this video of Houston Mayor-elect Annise Parker's victory speech:

(Hat tip: Ester Goldberg)