Via AmericablogGay: NYT TV critic thinks it’s time for Anderson Cooper to come out

NYT: 

The one thing he hasn’t done yet — and the lacuna grows more obvious and awkward with each show — is talk about his love life. It’s hard to see how he can continue to leave that out selectively and preserve one particular zone of privacy while building a confessional talk show wrapped around his good looks, high spirits and glamorous adventures.

Gossip magazines like Us and People, and Web sites like TMZ.com follow his exploits, but he has so far managed to avoid mainstream prying. As he put it in a 2007 interview, “The whole thing about being a reporter is that you’re supposed to be an observer and to be able to adapt with any group you’re in, and I don’t want to do anything that threatens that.”

The whole thing about being a talk show host is that you stop observing and make a spectacle of yourself, and that usually entails losing control over what you disclose and what you hold back. “Anderson” raises the question of whether Anderson is quite ready for that, and its success may hinge on the answer.

I've defended Anderson in the past. He's done good work for the community on his show, and never commits hypocrisy. Sure, it'd be nice for him to come out, but I understood his desire not to, and respected it. I think what the Times is getting at is the fact that it was once a secret, but not any longer. At this point, it's almost interfering with his show(s): knowing the truth, but knowing that it must not be spoken.

I'm still not terribly worked up over this subject, but if the Times is writing about it publicly, then perhaps it's time to just get it out of the way.

Via Bjork Espana:

Foo Fighters sing to Westboro in counter-protest

Jay Leno confronts Michele Bachmann on gay marriage

Via AmericaBlogGay: Boehner’s lawyer suggests being gay is a choice. Does that mean Boehner is into dudes?

On pages 11 and 12 of a recent brief in the Edith Windsor DOMA case, US House Speaker John Boehner's lawyer argues that sexual orientation is a choice. Really? Then I guess it's time to ask the Speaker if he simply chooses to sleep with women, but could just as easily choose to do a dude.

Windsor filed an affidavit in response to Boehner's absurd suggestion that people choose their sexual orientation.

Via AmericaBloggay: Imminent demise of DADT could have far-reaching implications for gay rights

Next Tuesday is the day. 

From Chris Johnson at the Washington Blade: 

“They really took the time to train and educate the force on the various assets of this policy and hypotheticals,” Nicholson said. “It was an hour of instruction on gays and lesbians, on gay families, on gay partners and it was a really a normalization routine. It was really exposed to millions of America’s most conservative youth to the normality of gays and lesbians.”

Among the situations that the training addressed, Nicholson said, were gay troops holding hands, going on dates or participating in military events with their partners. Nearly 2 million service members received the “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” training before certification took place on July 22, according to the Pentagon.

Workplace discrimination against LGBT people could be an issue that gains new focus after “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” repeal. No federal law exists to protect LGBT workers against discrimination. Firing someone for being gay is legal in 29 states and firing someone for being transgender is legal in 35 states.

Krehely said open service could generate support for the Employment Non-Discrimination Act, which would prohibit discrimination against LGBT workers in most situations in the public and private workforce, or encourage other employers to add protections for LGBT workers.

“The military is probably one of the biggest and most visible workplaces in our country,” Krehely said. “I think Sept. 20 is a clear indication that this discrimination should not be there any longer, and that we need to move forward on ENDA, and educate people about the broader workplace issues that we’re up against.”

Via AmericaBlogGay: Are gay public figures supposed to remain celibate?

Shame on the Desert Sun newspaper and its reporter Kate McGinty. 

It seems reporters now think it fine to report on single public figures seeking love, or just a roll in the hay, online.  Good.  Then let's also report on all public figures, including reporters, who aren't married and who have sex.  Because that seems to the be standard for this story - oh, and the guy is gay too, so that just makes it all the more salacious, doesn't it?

Seriously, what is wrong with a local city councilman, who is single and openly gay, looking for sex in his off hours?  Do single straight people have sex?  I think they do.  Do they sometimes have it with people they've just met, at bars or parties?  Why, yes they do.  So is that the new standard - if you even vaguely intimate that you're interested in sleeping with someone else, it's news!  Because straight guys, when they go to bars, they never go looking to get laid.  Oh no.  It's only for a friendly platonic drink with friends.  No sex, please, we're straight.

There are a few things going on in this story. First, homophobia.  How salacious that a gay man was looking to get laid (oh my!).  Second, Internet-phobia.  How salacious that someone used the Internet to try to meet another human being.  Kate McGinty likely wouldn't have written a story about an unmarried heterosexual city councilman using eHarmony to meet women (and he indicated in his profile that he actually might just consider sleeping with those women!).

Oh, and let me guess.  Had this guy been "caught" going to a gay bar to meet guys, then the story would have been about him frequenting sleazy gay bars.

If there were any kind of hypocrisy here, I might understand the paper's rationale.  But what's going on here is that the hetero paper is simply not familiar with how people date in the modern era.  Especially gay people.  Straight people can reasonably assume that most "hot chicks" they meet are straight - I'm not saying they will be straight, I'm saying that in our society the assumption is that you're straight, so no one would look at you funny if you made a pass at someone of the opposite sex who ended up gay.

Try being gay.

Imagine what it's like being a gay man and wanting to make a pass at a cute guy at the office, at the bus stop, at church.  I'd be damn careful about doing any of those unless I knew, or strongly suspected, the other guy was gay.  Straight guys don't have that problem, worrying about getting the sh*t kicked out of them if they make a friendly pass at a woman who happens to be a lesbian.

There's a reason gay people were early adopters of online dating.  Other than a few bars (and the Whole Foods), there's nowhere else we can safely assume the other person is actually gay.  And I mean safely.

It's abominable that this newspaper thought it relevant to write about this.

Via AmericaBlogGay and TowleRoad: Brad Pitt on gay marriage and religion

Parade via TowleRoad:

He also had questions about same-sex marriage: 

 “What are you so afraid of? That’s my question. Gay people getting married? What is so scary about that? It’s complicated. You grow up in a religion like that and you try to pray the gay away. I feel sadness for people like that. This is where people start short-circuiting—instead of being brave and questioning their beliefs, they are afraid and feel that they have to defend them.

“I don’t mind a world with religion in it. There are some beautiful tenets within all religions. What I get hot about is when they start dictating how other people must live. People suffer because of it. They are spreading misery.

On the continuing battle for equality:

“Can you believe that we’re still fighting for equality in America? To be against marriage for everyone is utter discrimination. I feel strongly about that because if equality of marriage doesn’t happen now, the next generation will have to deal with it.

“It is an amazing thing that New York has finally gotten same-sex marriage. But the real problem is that the federal government hides behind states on this issue. It is blatant, ugly bigotry, and the federal government shouldn’t be doing that. You’re denying some Americans the right that all Americans have, to live their lives as they choose.

Via The New Civil Rights Movement: Anderson Cooper Profiles Michele Bachmann's History Of Lies (Video)

Michele Bachmann’s parroted lies about the HPV vaccine have reminded America that Michele Bachmann is a liar. Bachmann recounting some unnamed, unidentified woman’s false claim that the HPV vaccine made her daughter “mentally retarded,” on national television several times, as Cooper points out, is “incredibly irresponsible.” Cooper reminds us that there is absolutely no possible way the HPV vaccine could make someone “mentally retarded,” and says, “Bachmann is spreading an all-​out falsehood here.”

On last night’s AC 360, Anderson Cooper profiled Michele Bachmann’s long history of lies. Cooper shows clip after clip after clip of verified lies told by Bachmann. “There’s no political wiggle-​room here, no grey areas, no spin.”

In this clip, Ron Carey, Bachmann’s former Chief of Staff admits Bachmann “is very impulsive,” and says she reads a lot but sometimes leaves out the “ten or twenty percent that can change the outcome.”

make the jump here to read/listen to the full story here

Via AmericaBlogGay: Pat Robertson advises man to divorce wife with Alzheimer’s, because they’re "kind of dead" already

REALLY PAT?

Just when you think you've heard it all from this evil troll who claims to be some sort of Christian prophet, Pat Robertson, is now absolving his flock of opposite gender divorce if it gets too inconvenient due to sickness. Follow the promise made in the marriage vows of "in sickness and in health?" Nah, not if you are in a Fundamentalist Christian endorsed opposite sex marriage.

During the portion of the show where the one-time Republican presidential candidate takes questions from viewers, Robertson was asked what advice a man should give to a friend who began seeing another woman after his wife started suffering from the incurable neurological disorder.

"I know it sounds cruel, but if he's going to do something, he should divorce her and start all over again, but make sure she has custodial care and somebody looking after her," Robertson said.

The chairman of the Christian Broadcasting Network, which airs the "700 Club," said he wouldn't "put a guilt trip" on anyone who divorces a spouse who suffers from the illness, but added, "Get some ethicist besides me to give you the answer."

Can you just imagine the judgment that would be rained down upon our LGBT community if we claimed divorce was justified if our spouses became ill to the point it became inconvenient to stay with them? Robertson is right in one respect; it most certainly sounds cruel. In fact, I would go so far to say it is selfish, self centered and cruel to divorce one's spouse if the one who is ill has not made any kind of provision to release the other from that promised to be there in sickness and in health.

The only way I could begin to justify divorce due to sickness is if the two came to an understanding initiated by the sick spouse that the healthy partner was to move on with their lives when the sick person became incapacitated. Of course, we have to remember this exhortation to dodge the matrimonial promises comes from Pat Robertson who claims it is a sin to not follow the Bible's every word and commandment which leads us to some major hypocrisy.

Robertson speculates that having Alzheimer's is "a kind of death," which would seem at odds with the the hue and cry he raised over the Terri Schiavo case.

Pat Robertson echoed Dobson's statements. "The judiciary is out of control," he told the network, adding that he hopes Republicans use the so-called "nuclear option" to stop [liberal/progressive] fillibustering that has prevented the naming of several high-level judges who are not committed to liberalism and rewriting the constitution of the United States--judges who are not committed to making evil good and good evil.

Previously, Robertson had said the judicial rulings in the Terri Schiavo case amounted to "judicial execution."

Added the evangelist: "A convicted cop-killer wouldn't have gotten treatment like this. It's outrageous."

So, if you are brain dead then you aren't dead, but if you have Altheimer's you are dead?

Nice defender of marriage.