Though the Democratic race marches on, there's already a debate about who Barack Obama could - and should - pick as a running mate.

While old favorites Hillary Clinton and Bill Richardson have been suggested, people are chattering that Obama may ask adviser and former Senator Sam Nunn, who once chaired the Armed Services Committee, to be his vice-president.

Nunn, of course, pushed hard for Don't Ask, Don't Tell, which bars out gays from serving in the military. That said, you can be sure the gays are none-too-pleased about the politico's veep prospects. Take, for example, homo-journo Wayne Besen, who penned a column blasting Nunn:

When it comes to the idea of Sam as Veep, I'm having Nunn of it. Beyond his DADT disaster, the senator's weakening of Clinton helped enable and propel the Gingrich revolution in 1994 - a huge setback for gay and lesbian equality…

It is crucial that Obama's gay staff members make it clear to the candidate how unacceptable Nunn would be. The campaign shouldn't even float his name unless it is attached to a runaway blimp drifting towards outer space.

Now, now - that's a bit harsh. We don't need to send him into space. There are plenty of places on earth we could send him, like Iraq.

For those of you who missed it, here's gay activist Wayne Besen talking gay with Bill O'Reilly.

The gents squared off on Jay Leno's gay face scandal, an offense which O'Reilly simply can't comprehend. The Fox News man goes on to lament the death of diverse comedy:

It looks to me in America that you can't ever make fun of any minority group. Ever. In any way. Anymore. In this country. I think that's where we are really. You can make fun of white Christian men. You can make fun of, famous people. But if you make fun of a minority, any minority…

A national tragedy, indeed.

O'Reilly also insists that he would never make fun of a social group. He will, however, fabricate stories about lesbian gangs, decry "gay apartheid," and generally spread gay panic, all of which are far more incendiary than Jay Leno's gag.

Longtime journalist Wayne Besen recently wondered when we'll have our first gay president. History student and aspiring journo Shaun Jacob Halper, meanwhile, thinks Barack Obama may be the ticket:

If Bill Clinton was, as Toni Morrison once argued, our first Black president, could Barack Obama be our first gay? Is Obama the hope lesbians and gays have been waiting for — and if not, why should all Americans care?
…
Gays are still objects of amusement or fear or hostility, but little else. As one scholar put it over a decade ago, "No one wants to be called a homosexual."

No one, perhaps, but Obama. Obama is rewriting and reframing the cultural discourse on gay and lesbian rights… Obama is creating the cultural conditions within which political, legal, and social change can take place.

Sounds like young Halper's got himself a bit of a crush.

• New York City got a taste of Iowa today when Ford and some real life cowboys celebrated the Invasion of the Bulls.

• Gay activist Wayne Besen endorses John Edwards.

• Baywatch actress Alexandra Paul discusses playing gay and her lesbian twin!

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Wayne Besen ain't happy with Mike Huckabee's recent Meet The Press appearance. The gay activist released the following statement:

It is alarming that a man with such backward views is a serious contender for the GOP nomination. [Ed. note: But not surprising]
…
In the real world, people either act on their sexuality in healthy ways or act like Ted Haggard and Sen. Larry Craig – a tragic lesson that seems lost on Mike Huckabee.
…
Huckabee should explain why he is freely associating with known extremists and how this squares with his professed sunny and optimistic vision for America. Furthermore, the comparison of homosexuality to pedophilia and necrophilia is as ignorant as it is offensive. As the primaries approach, Mike Huckabee is beginning to show his true colors - and they are quite dark and intolerant.

These are all true statements, but also endear him to social conservatives.

• Jeff Corwin, Anderson Cooper and Dr. Sanjay Gupta looked smart at the Planet In Peril premier.

• Latino parents neglecting gay discussions.

• Wayne Besen on the Closet's construction.

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An enthusiastic Wayne Besen and his Truth Wins Out crew are taking a new approach to everyone's favorite day of gay explosion, National Coming Out Day.

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The Ex-Gays are at it again. We just ran into Truth Wins Out's Wayne Besen - welcome back to NYC, Wayne! - and he told us that Pat Robertson and his cronies will release a new "study" on the benefits of religion-based conversion.

Though it's too early to know just how flawed the study will be, Besen's skeptical:

It comes as no shock that anti-gay ‘researchers’ at Wheaton College and Pat Robertson University would release a study that claims you can pray away the gay. I suppose their next study will provide support for Pat Robertson’s theory that homosexuality causes meteors and hurricanes.
…
This study may be a deceptive sham with the goal of making it appear as if science backs fundamentalist beliefs on homosexuality.

Any ‘ex-gay’ study that does not include physical components that measure truth are essentially meaningless.

"Essentially meaningless"? Ha!

Oh how the mighty fall! Chris Austin made a name for himself and his Renew Ministries as an ex-gay activist. Unfortunately, it seems Austin himself couldn't stay "ex-gay". The Texas-based preacher's just been sentenced to ten years in prison for sexually assaulting a client. Truth Wins Out reports:

Truth Wins Out expressed relief today that Christopher Austin, an ‘ex-gay’ counselor in Irving, Texas, was convicted of sexually assaulting a client. Austin was sentenced to 10 years in prison, but received seven years probation, had to register as a sex offender and was ordered to pay a $2,500 fine.

The abuse apparently involved a bit of unwanted penetration.

Perhaps Austin thought he could fuck the gay away?

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Truth Wins Out dedicates its non-profit practices to combating ex-gay groups - the religious-minded organizations attempting to "cure" homosexuals. No doubt, then, that TWO has a few words to say about Dr. James Holsinger, President Bush's anti-gay nominee for United States Surgeon General.

Holsinger's got quite a homo-hating past, not least of all his founding Hope Springs Community Church, which believes it is man's "intent to reproduce the following core values in every area of our church life and remain firmly committed to living out our purpose in everything we do".

As part of their campaign against homo-hating Holsinger, Truth Wins Out has released the above video statement, in which executive director Wayne Besen blasts the "good" doctor's medical approach:

Holsinger is an ideologue whose medical views on gay and lesbian people resemble sorcery more than sound science. The last thing America needed was another deplorable nominee who isn’t up to the job, but this is exactly what Bush delivered.

Besen goes on to say "It is clear that James Holsinger is to medicine what Alberto Gonzales is to justice." That, of course, ain't good…

Wayne Besen and his homo homies over at Truth Wins Out have produced a new video aimed at exposing the ex-gay movement. While certainly it's intriguing to hear an ex-gayer talking about how he and his pious peers lurked about malls drooling over men, we're entirely distracted by the announcer's wavering, yet always sensational tone.

Is this the trailer to a horror movie, an action flick or a non-profit dedicated to exposing the controversial conversion therapists?? We're confused…