I would absolutely prefer McCain when it came to the SCOTUS, shockingly. If he had nominated sixth Catholic who had a history of anti-abortion rulings to the court, she would not be confirmed to the court. Sotomayor will be and two-thirds of the Supreme Court will be members of a church that is vociferous in its hatred of gay people and consistent in treating the rapists of children much better than the children they rape. If you doubt that Sotomayor would have voted with Scalia in Lawrence v. Texas, you have not read her opinions.

I mean this is me being gay and shallow, but I kind of find Dan Choi butt ugly. And shrill and annoying. Harvey Milk was irrepressible and enjoyable and made people happy, Dan Choi is one big pity queen.

Jess, your commentary is concise, factual, well documented and intelligently stated.

Unfortunately, our friend, who has repeatedly demonstrated his inability or desire to assimilate data that can and has been consistently and scientifically documented, will most likely chose to just side-step it, or ignore it altogether with another misinformed comeback that is insulting, lacking any documentation or evidence and simply over the top.

In my time, we called trying to have an intelligent conversation with close-minded, homophobic and argumentative people like this “pissing into the wind”. I don’t know what it would be called in today’s vernacular. In any event, it appears to be a fucking waste of time and energy, whatever it’s called. lol

But, Bless you for trying.

The British seem to be able to. The UK allows gay and bisexual people to serve openly in their military. Other countries that allow this are Argentina, Australia, Canada, Germany, Israel, The Netherlands, New Zealand, The Phillipeans, Romania, Switzerland, and Uruguay. Two countries that allow it but have markedly homophobic environments are Italy and Bermuda. This suggests that it is mainly the culture of a country that influences problems between hetero and homosexual soldiers, not their simple interaction. I don’t see Germany falling apart anytime soon because of their policies.

Remember those people called the Greeks and the Romans? At certain periods in their history, they encouraged relationships between older and younger men, partly to INCREASE the group cohesion of troops. This behavior was seen as morally acceptable by society at large. These cultures didn’t do so badly for themselves when it came to the military.

The decision on ending DADT should be made – not by politicians or Special Interest Groups in the GBLT community – but by the men and women who have to serve alongside homosexuals in the military.

No doubt many of them feel uncomfortable having to share accommodation in close quarters, showering facilities, etc with people who may have a sexual interest in them.

Allowing openly homosexual service members to have open access like this is no different from allowing heterosexual men and women to billet together.

You are right – almost. The only way you are different from straight people is your deviant sexual preferences. You may not agree with the word ‘deviant’ but that’s how most people see you.

And you already have all the same rights that they do! And special protections in some areas of the law.

Until you accept these truths, as held to be self-evident by the majority of your fellow Americans, there can be no progress.

I’m not suprised that Obama is attempting to ignore the results of the contention over Prop 8. Any highly controversial area is usually left alone by politicians unless they know for sure how they can use it to their advantage.

However, with same-sex marriage legalized in Connecticut and Iowa, and soon to be legal in Vermont and Maine, it shows that once ordinary people come together they can accomplish more than politicians, who above all are worried about keeping their own jobs. Although the Prop 8 ruling is discouraging, I think we have a lot to be proud of and should keep fighting until America realizes LGBT people are no different from straight people and deserve all the same rights that they do.

“As non P.C. as this sounds,…”

“Let the hating begin.”

Since you are obviously aware of that fact already, there really isn’t any need to bring it to your attention, is there?

“And if we’re appealing to the mainstream, the worst spokesman to have is some Asian dude.”

Umm…try subbing the word “black” for “Asian” and see how that plays back?

At least have enough respect for an American minority service person to capitalize the word Asian.

Frankly, I found your entire post not only really annoying, but very offensive as well.

And he and the crowd laughed.

Obama to gays, you are nothing but a punch line for me. Thinking Hillary was the wiser choice and gays fell for the smooth talker.

Your post no. 28 was excellent, InExile. My feelings exactly.

Thank you. Thank you. Thank you!!!

Landon, the only person you left out at the top of your list, was Donnie McClurkin, the ex-gay minister (re-closeted?) and biological father of a child spawned by the porking of a woman to whom he was not married.

Stop, please! You’re sinking deeper and deeper in the quicksand of your excuses, distortions, and black and white cluelessness.

It’s the STATE DEPARTMENT, not the Defense Department, that plans to give same gender partners of employees the same rights as straight marrieds. Whether or not he was involved, it was Evil Incarnate, er Hillary Clinton who led that change.

Then there’s your entire fools parade of “after this therefore because of this” logical fallacies:

The Matthew Shepard Act is NOT on its way to the Senate because of Obama.

Obama has had NOTHING to do with “several States have now allowed gay marriage” any more than McShame could have stopped them.

As for his hiring gays being the certification of his sainthood, sorry to burst ANOTHER bubble but Mr. Clinton established that precedent and, in fact, most of the people at the top of Obama’s hire list are THE SAME PEOPLE that Mr. Clinton hired. I guess it isn’t just the text of other people’s speeches such as MA governor Deval Patrick that he steals.

Given your insistence that Obama is the most gay luvin president ever, it follows that not only will he declare June gay pride month as Mr. Clinton did in his last two years, but also we’ll see march in a gay pride parade because Mr. Clinton never did. Right? And First Lady Michelle will absolutely have to given that First Lady You Know Who did.

But back to last night, regardless of the demonstrations outside, inside this was a Democratic fundraiser…not another whoring for bigots’ votes at St. Rick’s Basilica…. in still the most liberal state in the country, the day after it saw another landmark in the rapidly escalating war for gay equality… and, setting aside how many ‘Mos were sure to be in the audience, one of the organizers was DAVID GEFFEN….you know the GAY HOMOSEXUAL KINSEY 6 SODOMITE FEYGELA billionaire who switched his support from H to O during the primaries?

And another one of the organizers was straight Steven Spielberg who gave $100,000 against Prop H8TE. The organizer who introduced him [and apparently mentioned 8 at some point in the evening], Jeffrey Katzenberg, gave $25,000 to stop H8TE.

This was THE PERFECT audience for him to end his deafening INSULTING silence since his swearing in on his several and EXPLICIT promises to LGBTs to immediately become actively involved in advancing our equality.

He could have used his fabled eloquence to AT LEAST address his hosts/major contributors’ pain in the court’s decision. He could have invested just a couple of minutes in acknowledging the fact that his promises have [AT BEST] stalled, and offered some reasoned explanations why. He could have at least simply done what helped win him the nomination…simply dropped the G-word.

INSTEAD he made a joke…correction, he made US a joke.

It was a bit more than disappointing when he galvanized and sponsored the bigot vote for Prop 8 saying ‘gawd’s in the mix”. It was deliberate sabotage. He gave the theocrats the ammunition they needed to pass Hate8.

How very adult of you to support Obama’s role as lap dog for the rich looters who wrecked the economy. He hands them trillions to pay off their bad debt but orders union workers to adopt austerity measures.

How very adult of you to support Obama’s decisio9n to continue rendition, aka, kidnap-murder, to attack the constitution with votes for FISA and the Paytriot Act.

How very adult of you to support Obama’s war of terror on the people of Iraq and Afghanistan and the needless deaths and maiming of GI’s to raise the profit margins of Haliburton and Chevron-Texaco.

I don’t mean to be rude but you must be a Democrat or a Republican.

But after:

Rick Warren being honored

Gene Robinson being censored

No cabinet level appointments of out gay or lesbian people

No support for marriage equality or civil unions in his public statements

Nothing done on Don’t Ask Don’t Tell, backpedalling on language from “repeal” to “change” until pushed to change it back

Judy Shepherd invited in for a ten minute meeting that devolved into a 90 second photo op

Repeated jokes at the expense of gay rights

Dozens of gay men murdered in Iraq while the military Obama commands does nothing to stop it

At least two kids kill themselves because people say they’re gay and Obama has done ONE THING to show he gives a shit.

I appreciate his support for the hate crimes bill, I really do.

But yeah, his record on LGBT issues as president thus far is unambiguously shitty.

Maybe. There’s nothing inherently anti-gay about civil unions, certainly. But is this statement anti-gay?

“Homosexual couples are not equivalent to heterosexual couples. Homosexual couples should not have access to the institution of marriage, but they may be given access to alternative arrangements, including civil unions.”

I’d say that position is pretty anti-gay.

They used it? I never saw it. I actually saw the No On Prop 8 campaign admit they did not use it.

Obama has been shitty on gay issues?

For just 3 months in office-

The Matthew Shepard Act is on its way to the Senate

He has given @ 30 gay people Jobs in his Administration and included them in White House activities.

The Defense Department is giving equal benefits to partners

Several States have now allowed gay marriage- never would have seen that happen if McCain had won.

You all do not look at how much faster you will achieve equality issues state by state just by having him in office- try doing that with McCcain and Palin ruling Washington.

Also there is nothing anti-gay about being pro civil unions; it’s a position that many gay people take.

Good lord. Please, for your own sake, for your momma’s sake, find some other way to make excuses for Obama other than showing your abysmal, inexcusable, embarrassing, laughable, pathetic ignorance of the evolution of the black civil rights movement as if it started with the August 1963 March of Washington.

Jesus wept.

Enough with the lie about No on 8 not using that statement. They used it. The trouble was that it was worded deliberately in a way that made it impossible to use effectively. The bigger prob;em was that he NEVER EVER EVER said a public fucking word that could be used by our side. Part of his bending over to let Rick Warren fuck US was his VERY public statements, used in Robocalls that his campaign was asked to stop and refused to do so– that he believed gays should not have legal marriage rights because of his religious beliefs.

They used it. The problem is that it was unusable and no one noticed.

Actually, the problem is that Obama has been so shitty on gay issues thus far that his gay supporters have to LIE to make themselves look lijke anything other than idiots.

Its a shame because we do need this change in equality but I don’t think its going to come through the white house.

MLK took great pains not to alienate the most civil rights-friendly president of his lifetime.

MLK “petitioned” the president hard but respectfully. He did the same thing with LBJ.

The gay community lashes out so easily.

It’s also a Democratic Problem and not an Obama Problem.

You all are so ticked at Obama but it was the No On Prop 8 Camapign that did not use his letter in the camapign.

letter

http://obama.3cdn.net/b7c073b7.....6y7so7.pdf

“‘One of them said, ‘Obama keep your promise,’ ‘ the president said. ‘I thought that’s fair. I don’t know which promise he was talking about.”
And he and the crowd laughed.

I saw the clip of him doing this.
I was protesting there.
It’s not funny.

Obama just shredded the last bit of hope that I had for him to actually honor his promises to us.
It’s bad enough to be silent; it’s quite another to make jokes about us.
He’s got a LOT of ‘splainin to do.

My point is we as a community really did not have much to go on as to where Barack Obama stood on our issues. Of coarse after the dirty campaign he ran and with the help of Nancy Pelosi and Donna Brazil manipulating the primary which forced Hillary out, we had two choices to support Obama or McCain. Most of us supported Obama but my point is we still do not know if he “really” supports us or if we were nothing but cash and votes to get him elected.

His continued SILENCE seems to be answering the question!

There should be NO ONE at the DNC LGBT fundraiser in June: those who attend should be shunned and shamed. The Dems should be scared shitless about the gay money drying up, and the gays who are giving it to them today are among the principle enemies of our equality.

Good to hear. What’s your source?

“‘One of [the protest signs] said, ‘Obama keep your promise,’ ‘ the president said. ‘I thought that’s fair. I DON’T KNOW WHICH PROMISE HE WAS TALKING ABOUT.’ The people in the audience – who paid $30,400 per couple to attend – laughed as they ate a dinner of roasted tenderloin, grilled organic chicken and sun choke rosemary mashed potatoes.”

If I could read the end DADT, marriage equality signs, see the rainbow flags, in the split second they were on my TV screen then he damn well could read them from the windows of the Presidential limo/SUV a few yards away. Even if he couldn’t, IF he cared, he damn well could have asked someone to find out.

But, hey, this is another historical marker for him, placing him along side homophobic Dean Rusk [Pres. Johnson's Secty of State] who mocked gays demonstrating outside the State Dept. in 1965, and homophobic VP George Bush who mocked gays demonstrating against Reagan’s passive genocide in 1987.

[img]http://fromtheleft.files.wordpress.com/2008/12/obamadoesntgetit.jpg[/img]

The old game of “where are they gonna go” is one that I believe that the Obama Administration is using on us.

They have shown themselves completely unwilling to address any of their direct promises to our community. And I’m beginning to think its deliberate.

We do have choices.

1) We can cut off the fundraising machine. And that also goes for the ‘go along to get along’ so called ‘gay leaders’ that are only too willing to sign off on delays.
2) We can stay home next election day
3) We can cause problems in elections where there the Democrat is just as bad or WORSE than the GOP candidate. For example, anti-Gay Democrat Artur Davis is running for Governor of Alabama, Cong., Pro Gay Republican Anh Cao is running for reelection in Lousiana, Anti-Gay Democrat Chris Carney of Pennsylvannia, etc.

Micheal, one can vociferously protest the Dems while still understanding that the GOP isn’t better.

The Dems and Obama are taking us for granted. If ENDA isn’t passed and DADT repealed this term, I don’t care if the GOP wins, because those are my issues. And I donated THOUSANDS (thats plural) to the Dems over the last two cycles.

We’ll get more respect from the Dems when we show that we’re willing to sit on our hands even if that means a Republican gets elected. As of now, that’s what my plans are for the next election. I’m going to put as much of a priority on voting and donating as Obama has on LGBT equality issues.

The Dems need to EARN our votes.