This is sweet...

Love Means

The state of Texas doesn't want anyone's grubby gay hands on the sacred institution of divorce.

Via JMG: Country Star Chely Wright To Come Out

TMZ has broken the news that the big celebrity coming out scheduled for this week by PR king Howard Bragman is country star Chely Wright, who has a memoir and new album both debuting this Tuesday. I never heard of her until today, but apparently she's a big deal and has had a lot of hits, including the below, which went to #1 on country in 1999. I was really hoping it was to be Queen Latifah, dammit.

a repost from JMG

Via JMG: Howard Dean Speaks At DC DADT Rally

And six more protesters have chained themselves to the fence of the White House. Clip by John Aravosis at AmericaBlog.

via JMG

Filme - Povos do Xingu contra a construção de Belo Monte

My Straight collegue Sonja in the Netherlands sent me this:

clic the pic to make the jump to see the fotos of the event

photo is of Sonja in sunglasses during the 'hand-in-hand' homo walk, wearing her 'mana' (Maori carving)

to see the work of Sonja van Kerkhoff jump to:

ART: http://www.sonjavank.com
BLOG:www.sonjavank.blogspot.com
DESIGN: www.sonjavank.com/design
VIDEOS: www.youtube.com/sonjavank
BOOKMARKS: http://del.icio.us/sonjavank

Via 365gay: Corvino: The message of marriage

If I’ve asked it once I’ve asked it a hundred times: how does marriage equality hurtRecently I posed the question yet again to Maggie Gallagher, outgoing president of the National Organization for Marriage (NOM), as she visited my ethics class at Wayne State University via audio conference.

I “get” that Gallagher wants children to have mothers and fathers, and ideally, their own biological mothers and fathers. What I’ve never quite gotten is why extending marriage to gays and lesbians undermines that goal. One can be married without having children, one can have children without being married; and (most important) same-sex marriage is not about gay couples’ snatching children away from their loving heterosexual parents. No sane person thinks otherwise.

Maggie Gallagher is a sane person. (Wrong, but sane.) For the record, she is not worried that marriage equality would give gays license to kidnap children. Nor does she oppose adoption by gay individuals or couples, although she thinks heterosexual married couples should be preferred. So what’s the problem?

Jump here to read the full article

From HRC:

Dear Daniel,

Late yesterday in a strongly worded letter to House Armed Services Committee Chairman Ike Skelton on "Don't Ask, Don't Tell," Secretary of Defense Robert Gates and Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Admiral Mike Mullen wrote that they oppose "legislation that seeks to change this policy prior to the completion of" the Pentagon Working Group implementation study. Of course this statement flies in the face of the President's commitment in the State of the Union address to work with Congress to repeal the discriminatory "Don't Ask, Don't Tell" law this year. Later last evening the White House issued a statement that did little to clarify the conflicting signals being sent.

The question for President Obama now is: does he want to mark this issue in the failure column as President Clinton was forced to do, or does he want to deliver on the change we were promised? It is inconceivable that the Secretary of Defense would so blatantly undermine the Commander-in-Chief's policy commitment and now the country looks to the President to exert his authority and leadership. If the President is going to fulfill his pledge to the American people it is essential that he address this issue.

Secretary Gates himself has said repeatedly that the Pentagon Working Group is designed to review how to implement a change in DADT, not if a change should occur. If those statements were true, there should be no reason that he wouldn't support the plan for which we have advocated where Congress moves forward with repeal while providing additional time for the Pentagon review to complete before implementation.

Action by Congress this year, in the National Defense Authorization bill, will not, as the Secretary suggests, 'send a very damaging message to our men and women in uniform.' But failure to act this year will, without a doubt, continue to send the message to the thousands of gay and lesbian Americans serving their country in silence – and those of us who support them – that their views and concerns, and the impact on them and their families, do not matter to the military leadership, including their Commander-in-Chief.

Clearly this news changes the landscape, but we haven't given up before and we refuse to now. The service of the more than 13,000 discharged men and women under DADT demands that we fight back. The silent service of soldiers, sailors, airmen and marines living under the law right now demands that we fight back. Until "Don't Ask, Don't Tell" is no more, we will fight back.

Sincerely,

Joe Solmonese
President, Human Rights Campaign

Via JMG: PhoboQuotable - Wendy Wright

"But Justice Scalia - this was a big surprise for me, his skepticism on this argument. But it's making me think that in fact he's thrown down the gauntlet for many of us who want to protect the privacy of those who are afraid of being intimidated. He said, and this is the quote that's gonna make it in all the news items when we hear about this case, he said 'Running a democracy takes a certain amount of civic courage'. Well, I think in a sense he is right. And if we lose this case I think that's the gauntlet thrown down to each one of us. Are we up to it? Are we willing to do what is right? Are we willing to put a name on a paper that clearly states a biblical viewpoint like being in favor of marriage even if we know we could face intimidation and harassment for it?

"When I wrote an article and did one of these multi-media commentaries regarding our amicus brief that was titled 'Secret Ballot, Secret Petitions', I began it by saying, would you be willing to sign your name on a petition if it meant you could face death threats, intimidation, losing your job? And Mario Diaz, our director of legal policy here at CWA responded and said yes, that he would be willing to sign his name onto something if he was intimidated. And I thought, he's right, he's right. We need to be willing to stand up and put our name on a paper. We're willing - we need to be willing to stand up and speak out for what is right, even if there are consequences to doing that." - Concerned Women for America president Wendy Wright, changing her tune from victim of homofascists to martyr for Christ in the face of Supreme Court's obvious intent to rule against Protect Marriage Washington.

(Thanks to Lurleen at Pam's House Blend, who provides us with the above transcript.)reposted via JMG

Via JMG: House Speaker Nancy Pelosi Calls For Suspension Of DADT Dismissals

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi has fired back at yesterday's statement by Defense Secretary Robert Gates.

Washington, D.C. – Speaker Nancy Pelosi released the following statement in response to a letter sent this afternoon by Admiral Michael Mullen, Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff and Defense Secretary Robert Gates concerning the repeal of the “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” policy:

“We all look forward to the report on the review of the ‘Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell’ policy by the Defense Department. In the meantime, the Administration should immediately place a moratorium on dismissals under this policy until the review has been completed and Congress has acted.”

The ball's in your court, Secretary Gates.reposted via JMG

Rev. Eric Lee, California president of the Southern Christian Leadership Conference, has a very important message to share with you regarding the new law in Arizona that enables racial profiling. We stand with Rev. Lee and the thousands of people marching today in 80 immigration rallies across America for the right of every person to live their life free of racial injustice. Rick Jacobs Chair, Courage Campaign

Dear Daniel --

I've spent my life fighting institutional racism. That's why it outrages me to see it happening now just across the border from California.

Arizona -- the state that for years refused to recognize Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr's birthday as a holiday -- is once again targeting people of color. Arizona's governor just signed SB 1070, a law which allows police officers to question anyone they believe to be in the country illegally based on nothing more than "reasonable suspicions."

And now this law could have a devastating impact on California as well. Republican Senate candidate Tom Campbell -- who could face Sen. Barbara Boxer in November's election -- just came out in support of this draconian new law that turns Arizona into a police state.

In fact, Californians have already been targeted. According to ABC 30 TV news, a truck driver -- a U.S. citizen of Latino heritage from Fresno -- was pulled over last week by Arizona police and arrested simply because he didn't have his birth certificate on him. The same could happen to any of us if the Arizona law is allowed to stand.

Tom Campbell, who wants to be one of California's two U.S. Senators, doesn't see a problem with that. On Wednesday he told the Sacramento Bee "I support [the law]. I don't believe it deserves the negative attention it received." Tom Campbell believes the Arizona law to be constitutional. However, there is nothing constitutional about the bigotry of racial profiling.

I don't support it -- and neither should Tom Campbell. That's why I'm joining the Courage Campaign and the California Federation of Teachers in signing a letter to Campbell showing him that Californians will not accept his support for Arizona's racial profiling. Sign here now and we'll hand-deliver your signature to Campbell. DEADLINE: Tuesday, 5 p.m.:

http://www.couragecampaign.org/StopCampbell

Tom Campbell's support for the law is out of step with the rest of California.

Polls show Californians support President Obama's plan to secure our borders and provide a path to citizenship to undocumented immigrants. That is the just and sensible approach to this issue.

Californians do not support racial profiling, and they do not want law enforcement to waste their time asking for people's papers instead of chasing down violent criminals. But Tom Campbell does.

We have to hold Tom Campbell accountable. Join me and add your name to the Courage Campaign and California Federation of Teachers' letter -- tell Campbell you won't let him take California down the dark path of racism that Arizona has followed. DEADLINE: Tuesday, 5 p.m.:

http://www.couragecampaign.org/StopCampbell

Thanks for taking a stand for justice and fairness.

Rev. Eric Lee
California President, Southern Christian Leadership Conference

The Courage Campaign is a multi-issue online organizing network that empowers more than 700,000 grassroots and netroots supporters to push for progressive change and full equality in California and across the country. Supported by thousands of small donations from our diverse community, the Courage Campaign holds politicians accountable to progressive values, works for fundamental reform to our state's broken government, and trains and organizes activists to change their communities.

To support this people-powered campaign, please chip in what you can today: