The Times of Harvey Milk

The complete documentary of Harvey Milk's life, political life, assassination, and the trial of Dan White from the 1980s. It's available for free online. Everyone should see this. A great companion to 'Milk'.

Jon Stewart vs. Some Bigoted Cracker

I will be the first to admit that Jon Stewart can represent all that is despicable about liberalism (his comment at the beginning of this interview about abortion exemplifies this.) But here, he represents the best. "I think it's a travesty that people have forced someone who is gay to have to 'make their case.'"

The Daily Show With Jon StewartM - Th 11p / 10c

Mike Huckabee Pt. 2

Barack Obama Interview
John McCain Interview

Sarah Palin Video
Funny Election Video

Take that Mormons!

A Connecticut judge ruled today in favor of gay marriage. The knots are getting tied as we speak! The stage is also being set for a massive day of action against Prop 8. The victory in Connecticut and the outrage in California that is spreading across the nation is going to be a crisis that Obama and the Democrats are going to have to address. While it is premature to call it a civil rights movement, a movement that takes up the issue of gay marriage has to explicitly stand in the fight for civil rights. The radicalizing effect of the ban is spurring people to the type of action needed to make real change in this country. Sherry Wolf also has a great piece challenging the assumption that Blacks are somehow disproportionately homophobic and argues that linking the fight for gay marriage to civil rights is the way to forge the multi-racial/sexual orientation fightback in this country

Are you serious?

Earlier today General Peter Pace, Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, declared that he believed, due to his upbringing, that homosexuality is immoral. GENERAL Peter Pace, as in director, architect, and adviser to the Bush doctrine thinks that two adults of the same gender having sex (which I'm sure is occurring very frequently giving all the leisure time troops in Iraq and Afghanistan have) is evil. A man who has undoubtedly supported torture, extraordinary rendition, the invasion, and continued occupation of Iraq and Afghanistan which has led to the slaughter of hundreds of Iraqis and Afghanis THINKS that consensual sex is immoral. Are you shitting me?

It's very telling, given the upcoming election year and the fact that the democrats are often seen as the more friendly (or less blatantly hateful) alternative to the LGBT community, that after several Code Pink anti-war protesters jeered at the General's comments that the Democratic chairman, Senator Robert Byrd, stopped the session, had them removed and sealed the doors before resuming the session. Even more disconcerting were the only dissenting remarks from the Dems reported by AP in the article from Sen. Tom Harkin (Iowa), who said he found Pace's previous remarks as "very hurtful" and "very demoralizing" to homosexuals serving in the military. He continued by saying that the General should have a chance to clarify his marks (to me the fact that he already said the same thing in a March Chicago Tribune interview indicates that this expression of his warped moral compass is crystal clear). He ended his stalwart defense of the LGBT community by stating: "It's a matter of leadership, and we have to be careful what we say."

Tisk tisk General, please keep your hateful thoughts to yourself. By the way, great job on the war. We respect you as a leader. We who stand against this kind of hate and as well as the murderous war this guy has helped to carry out need to demand more from the party that claims to stand to the left of the Republicans in the upcoming election year. Only by protesting and outspoken in our criticism and continuing to hold their feet to the fire will we get them to cough up the changes we demand.

Lewd Act or Lewd Response?

So, I haven't really been paying attention to the recent controversy surrounding Idaho Republican Senator Larry Craig. Frankly, given the Republicans' track record of sex scandals, I cynically assumed he had done something involving minors of the same sex. However, after I read a recent article from CNN, I discovered that earlier this summer Craig was arrested by a plain-clothes cop in the Minneapolis airport for attempting to pick him up. Now, I personally don't find anything wrong with a man trying to pick up another man in an airport bathroom. No money was shown, exchanged, or offered by Craig and the cop was clearly an adult. Nonetheless, he plead guilty to the misdemeanor and paid a $500 fine. Now, apparently, the press and taken hold of this.

Here are my thoughts: a) It's fucked up that we live in a world where a man (or a woman) is so afraid to be openly homosexual that they have to pick people up from a hiding place in a bathroom stall (and that given the fact that we do live in a highly homophobic society that does have real consequences for many LGBT individuals such as loss of employment, ostracism, or violence) b) that given said reality, it is against the LAW to be secretive about your sexuality even if it between two consenting adults and cops try and take advantage of this extremely vulnerable but probably very necessary act for many people and c) that the Republican party is proposing and ethics investigation because one of their flock shows a glimmer of not being straight as an arrow.

That said, my sympathy for Craig does not run deep as he has biggoted track record including support for DOMA, a federal constitutional ban on same-sex marriage, has earned top ratings from social conservative groups such as the American Family Association, Concerned Women for America and the Family Research Council, and probably most dispicabley he:

opposed expanding the federal hate crimes law to cover offenses motivated by anti-gay bias and, in 1996, voted against a bill that would have outlawed employment discrimination based on sexual orientation, which failed by a single vote in the Senate.

Frankly, his claim that he is the victim of a 'witch hunt' is ludicrous considering his circumstances. The worst thing he faces is the boot from the Republican party and a soon to be rocky marriage. This case highlights the reality for millions of LGBT individuals though who do face the threat of jail the next time they try to pick someone up. And given the consequences of revealing one's sexuality to a hateful person in a bar, a cop, your spouse, or your boss, Craig should count himself lucky that an early retirement from the US Senate is the worst of his worries.