Barack Obama called on Gene Robinson three times this year to ask him advice on being "the first."

Robinson, you'll recall, is the Episcopal Church's first openly gay Bishop and received death threats before his ascension in 2004. Obama, you may have heard, had just been elected our nation's first black president, a position that's sure to be a bit stressful. Thus, in his quest for understanding and advice, Obama gave Robinson a ring:

[Robinson] said That Mr Obama’s campaign team had sought him last year and he had the “honor” of three private conversations with the future president of the United States last May and June.

“The first words out of his mouth were: ‘Well you’re certainly causing a lot of trouble’, My response to him was: ‘Well that makes two of us'.”

He said that Mr Obama had indicated his support for equal civil rights for gay and lesbian people and described the election as a “religious experience”.
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The Anglican church’s first gay bishop and the United States’ first black President-elect discussed in depth the place of religion in the state.

Bishop Robinson said: “He and I would agree about the rightful place of religion vis-a-vis the secular state. That is to say, we don’t impose our religious values on the secular state because God said so. Our faith informs our own values and then we take those values into the civil market place, the civil discourse, and then you argue for them based on the Constitution. You don’t say to someone, you must believe this because this is what God believes."

Of Obama's personality, Robinson gushed, "He is impressive, he’s smart, he is an amazing listener. For someone who’s called on to speak all the time when he asks you a question, it is not for show, he is actually wanting to know what you think and listens." Sounds like the perfect date.

Openly gay Anglican Bishop Gene Robinson got a bit sneaky with some Catholic priests a few years back:

Robinson said he led a confidential retreat a few years ago for gay Roman Catholic priests.

Robinson, the first openly gay bishop in the Episcopal Church and world Anglican Communion, said the Catholic priest group that organized the meeting had invited him to attend.

About 75 Catholic clergy from around the U.S. participated without notifying their bishops or provincial leaders, Robinson said.

Robinson wouldn't disclose details of this mens' weekend, but did reveal that he urged them to fight for women's rights within the priesthood: "I believe that if you work for the ordination of women in your church, you will go a long way toward opening the door for the acceptance of gay priests."

Judith Light and Gene Robinson were on hand last night to celebrate the release of Save Me, a flick that looks at the ever-dramatic ex-gay movement. In the movie, directed by Robert Cary, Chad Allen and Robert Gant play two gay men who battle with their gay demons, while Light encourages them to - well, see the light.

GLAAD's certainly thrilled about the movie's release and even sponsored last night's premiere to raise awareness of religious abuse. Because such things make them and their Religious, Faith, & Values division sad. And us, too.

The movie hits theaters tomorrow.

While we're on the subject of Robinson, the openly gay bishop penned a piece over at LGBT for Obama in which he says "it's time to get serious" about electing Barack Obama: "As LGBT voters, it’s time to put our differences and disappointments aside, and get behind the one candidate who has our interests at heart. If you’re still stinging over the unsuccessful bid for nomination by Hillary Clinton, it’s time to look forward, even if the disappointment still hurts."

It's function over fashion for Gene Robinson. The openly gay Anglican Bishop revealed last night that he wears a bullet proof vest after receiving death threats. He also travels with a body guard - just like a Hollywood celebrity!

The secure sartorial details came during a speech at Kent University in England, during which Robinson lamented the treatment of queer families.

Always an optimist, however, the preacher man insisted that happier days are on the horizon:

Heterosexism is the problem with today’s society. Homosexual families are still viewed as second class citizens, but what we are seeing today is the death of patriarchy. In order for the Church to come round to the idea of gay marriage, we need to separate the civil right from the religious right. If we can do that, we might get more religious support for the issue.
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It’s an exciting time to be alive.

Robinson also speculated that anti-gay hate would break God's heart. God has neither confirmed nor denied said speculation.

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Right wing Anglicans have been threatening a gay-related schism for years. And now it seems the time has come:

Hardline church leaders have formally declared the end of the worldwide Anglican communion, saying they could no longer be associated with liberals who tolerate homosexual clergy.

The traditionalists dealt a serious blow to the Archbishop of Canterbury by claiming he can no longer hold the church together.

They warned that the church is gripped by its most serious crisis since the Reformation, and could only be saved by the repentance of the Americans who triggered the row by ordaining an openly homosexual bishop, the Rt Rev Gene Robinson, five years ago.

The 89-page declaration makes the Reformation comparison even more explicit with assertion, “We see a parallel between contemporary events and events in England in the sixteenth century. Now, after five centuries, a new fork in the road is appearing.”

The Anglican Communion's gay drama continues.

As some hint at a schism over gay inclusion, Uganda's Archbishop Henry Luke Orombi says division can be prevented if pro-gay preachers simply apologize and fall in line:

The rift in the Church can only be bridged if the liberal bishops, espousing sexual perversion, repent and return to Christ's teachings.
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For us to come back together, it will take repentance and for them to abide by the Lambeth Resolution 10 of 1998 on sexuality. The resolution states that the Anglican Communion upholds the Biblical view on sexuality, but when these people went back to the US, they decided to disown it and do their own things.

And by "own things" Orombi means the ascension of gay bishop Gene Robinson, who has become the most divisive figure in Communion. We gays are always making an impression!

Gay Anglican Bishop Gene Robinson's upcoming nuptials get more press this morning. While we've all heard about Robinson's plans, fresh new stories offers some more insight about why he planned the event for June, right before the Anglican Communion's Lambeth Conference:

He planned his civil union for June, he said, because he wanted to provide some legal protection to his partner and his children before he left for England for the conference. Bishop Robinson has received death threats, and he wore a bulletproof vest under his vestments at his consecration in 2003.

Robinson has not been invited to the conference, for his gay ways have caused quite a drama in the movement, but will set up shop in a market place adjacent to Lambeth HQ.

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Gene Robinson's politics are personal.

The Anglican Archbishop, whose 2003 ascension sparked outrage in the international Anglican Communion, will have a quite a summer as he married his long time boyfriend, Marc Andrews, and then heads to England to protest not being included in the church's Lambeth Conference, an every-ten-year-event during which Anglican leaders discuss their evolution. Robinson, of course, wants the Church to expand its guidelines to include the gays, but senior leaders are skittish over the idea, which led to Robinson's exclusion.

Now, as we've mentioned, Robinson's headed over to put some pressure on his pious peers:

Bishop Robinson’s decision to be active on the “outside” of the conference will add to the pressures on the Archbishop, who is struggling to keep his church united in line with the Gospel imperative of “one Church”.
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[Robinson] said that he will enter a legal union with his partner Mark Andrew in June.
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There is speculation that Bishop Robinson and Mr Andrew will take the opportunity of the Lambeth Conference to “honeymoon” in England. But Mr Andrew dislikes the media spotlight and may prefer to stay away.

We would, too. Who wants a socially aware honeymoon? No one, that's who. Except for Robinson. Obviously.