Amazingly, the sky is still up

One year ago today, President Obama oversaw the end Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell. Today, we celebrate its death.

President Obama’s statement on the one-year anniversary of the repeal after the jump.

Welcome to the real world

It’s a big day for LGBT rights in America today. First, a new Pew poll shows that a plurality of Americans support the rights of same-sex couples to marry. Then, on the same day, we learn that the Democratic Party are set to place support for same-sex marriage in the party’s 2012 platform.

Lots to cheer about after the jump.

THIS is how we treat our heroes?

Astronaut and Stanford physicist Sally Ride passed away this week from pancreatic cancer. She was the first woman American* and the youngest American of either gender to travel into space. My family has a small but important (to us) connection with Dr. Ride. When my daughter was in grade school, she had a project where they dressed as their heroes and, during an open house, played the role of their hero, answering questions and chatting with the parents that visited. My daughter was there, dressed in a blue jumpsuit and sporting my motorcycle helmet, a third grade astronaut. Her picture even ended up in the local newspaper.

When Dr. Ride, a lesbian, passed away this week, she left behind her partner of 27 years, Dr. Tam O’Shaughnessy. Because of the federal Defense of Marriage Act (DOMA), O’Shaughnessy will receive no federal benefits, benefits she would receive if she were a man. Despite their life-long partnership, she is treated as if she were just an acquaintance.

The two met when they were 12 years old.

Yeah, well, at least Newt is honest about his position on LGBTQ rights: Republican Presidential contender Newt Gingrich had one message for a gay Iowa man: Don’t bother with me, vote Obama. Or so says a professor who met Gingrich at the Smokey Row coffee house in Iowa, according to the Des Moines Register. “I asked him if he’s elected, […]

This is unlikely to get much fanfare but it’s big new for the fight to protect the LGBT community all over the world. It’s an Presidential Memorandum mandating that U.S. Government agencies step up their efforts to protect the rights and safety of lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgendered (LGBT) people all over the world. The memorandum directs agencies to: Combat […]

Local control, local government, local self-determination. These are the hallmarks of the tea party Republicans and conservatives in general. Recent efforts by Michigan Republicans prove conclusively that this is a lie. They are not interested in local control; they are interested in conservative control. Period. In September, I wrote about two bills passed by the House to limit domestic partner […]

Hooray! A Wisconsin man who left his Presbyterian ministry in California more than 20 years ago after telling his congregation that he is gay was welcomed back into the church leadership on Saturday as its first openly gay ordained minister. In a quavering voice ripe with emotion, 56-year-old Scott Anderson told the hundreds of friends and backers who packed Covenant […]

Thank Goddess this man is president. The ban on gays serving openly in the U.S. military will end in 60 days, President Barack Obama said on Friday after notifying Congress that all the requirements to repeal it have been met. The armed forces are ready to set aside the 18-year-old “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” policy that forced gay recruits to […]

Well, at least the Catholic church is consistent. A senior adviser to the Vatican, who is a theology professor in Detroit, is blasting the Catholic governor of New York for his strong backing of same-sex marriage, saying he should be punished for his “brazen” violation of Catholicism by being denied Holy Communion, a key part of the Catholic faith. Edward […]

I have written about the pathetic excuse for a public servant that is Andrew Shirvell before (here and here). To recap, he was stalking University of Michigan student body president, Chris Armstrong, posting offensively Photoshopped images on an anti-Armstrong website, writing defamatory things about Armstrong (an openly gay man) and conducting one-man protests outside the home of Shirvell and his […]

Like many of you, I am truly frustrated with many of my liberal compadres who hoped for nearly instant gratification after Senator Barack Obama became President Barack Obama. I don’t have to tell you how absurd it is to expect years and years of conservative damage to be repaired, reversed and rejected in just a couple of years, particularly in […]