From the editor: I remember growing up in Ohio and seeing really low-budget commercials hyping country music shows or gospel shows or trucking shows - you know, good old middle American shit.

Now, fast-forward 147 years, and I see this commercial for the "Bearapalooza Road Trip" and realize that we gays may have finally made our mark on blue-collar American culture.

Yee-fucking-haw!

Nine out of ten doctor's agree: Barack Obama's "race speech" spurred some serious discussion. Of course, yesterday's remarks were more than just a speech - and they were definitely about more than just race.

Obama wasn't simply addressing political woes. He wasn't making excuses for past associations. This was not some political media play. It was a lesson in liberation - and it's up to Americans to take up the Senator's challenge.

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"Meltdown". That's one word a friend used when describing the trans-centric squabbling over the ENDA. Politicians, lobbyists and journalists have been debating over whether or not transgendered people should be included under ENDA, which could forbid discrimination based on perceived or actual sexual orientation and gender identity. A test vote showed that the majority of politicians objected to the trans-inclusion. Under such pressure, openly gay Representative Barney Frank, who co-sponsored the inclusive ENDA draft, slipped into acquiescence. To keep the bill above water, Frank effectively split ENDA in two: one version protecting gays and another for trans folk. They're now floating alone in an ocean of inequality.

Our government - and much of our culture - deny transgenders their rights because, quite frankly, they can't understand the trans's existence. Our culture does not have mechanisms to deal with "gender deviants." Trannies are a threat to our nation's very foundations. The Alliance Defense Fund's Doug Napier said the law will "strike at the very heart of our American liberties." He must be using the word "liberties" liberally. Napier's not alone, of course. Millions of people - gay and straight - simply cannot muster the imagination to consider trans folk equal. What's more, we have no use for trans people. And, as contributor Dan Avery and editor Andrew Belonsky assert, the American stonewall against trans rights goes much further than 1974 - and even our borders. "Trans" populations exist all over the world and crop up in seemingly unlikely locales, like Iran.

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Peter Akinola will not rest until he's destroyed the Anglican Communion. The Nigerian archbishop and his pals in the conservative "Global South" movement gave North American "brothers" until the end of September to cease and desist in ordaining queer clergy.

If American Episcopals refuse, Akinola and his anti-gay comrades will refuse to attend next year's Lambeth Conference, thus striking another blow to the already tenuous, 44-million "strong" Christian movement.

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The United States' government looks a little haggard for a mere 231 years old. Congress folk are gunning for the President. The President's gunning for even more disaster in Iraq. And President Cheney's gunning to tear down the power balance between the legislative and the executive branch. The Supreme Court, meanwhile, has been leaning so far right, one wonders why it hasn't fallen over.

As for the gays – well, we’re the government’s the legislative bottom. We may all be able to vote, but not all of us can marry, adopt and, despite 2003’s Lawrence v. Texas, legally fuck in some states. National public approval of gays, however, stands at record high.

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