Your Morning LGBT News Roundup

Warning! Lots of marriage ahead... with some other stuff sprinkled in.

• The ACLU is threatening to sue Tennessee school districts if they do not restore access to LGBT educational websites. Tennssee has a statewide blanket blocking software that individual districts can click in or out for certain topics. A recent check indicates that upwards of 80% of school districts have blocked non-sexual, gay-themed websites.
• Rudy Giuliani is against gay marriage -- although we're not quite sure if he's making waves for a 2010 run for NY Governor, or a 2012 run for President. Regardless: Giuliani is a loser who could only win an election for NY Mayor. Seriously, folks. His best gay friends, with whom he lived with for six months, thinks that the opinion is ok -- it comes from political and religious views, not personal ones. *raises hand* I have questions!
• The Maine legislators is set to hear arguments from both sides on equal marriage. A poll released yesterday indicates 43.3-49.5-3.3 pro-con-maybe split in the state. Actually, that's not bad.
• Headline-grabbing Republicans endorse gay marriage to the (what we thought was) defunct Log Cabin Republicans (LCR)! Steve Schmidt, former NJ Governor Whitman, and Meghan McCain all said gay is OK this week.
• The NY Assembly has passed the Gender Equality Non-Discrimination Act (GENDA -- clever, folks) that would extend protections to cover gender identity and expression, and expand the current hate crimes statutes the same. Considering the recent announcement by the LCR that the state Republicans would allow representatives to "vote their conscience," people are wondering whether this once defeated bill will cause problems for marriage in the Empire State. (Take them both, I say!)
• Louisiana begins the fight: couples in New Orleans are suing for the right to marry after being denied licenses at their local county clerk's office.
• And Tango Makes Three, a children's book about gay penguins that adopted a pup, remains at the top of the "Challenged" book list by the American Library Association. Really? Really?
• Nevada's Senate passed a partnership bill giving most of the rights of marriage to same-sex couples, and it is expected to pass the Assembly. However, Gov. Jim Gibbons may veto it and the 12-9 vote is not enough to overturn the veto.
• The Church of Scotland has published an opinion asking parishioners to come to terms with gay relationships, noting conservatives' "selective" use of Biblical verses.
• Miss California says that her opinion on equal marriage cost her her crown. Yadda, yadda, yadda. Apparently, God was testing her faith. God does that for people a lot when it comes to two people loving each other, doesn't he?
• In the murder trial of Angie Zapata, which is the first under Colorado's gender-inclusive hate crimes statute, alleged killed Allen Andrade heard his own voice on a voicemail saying, "It's gay. Gay things need to die." It's in reference to a cellphone, btw. Also fun is that they found a vibrator... with Andrade's DNA on it, and not Zapata's. Strange, yes?
• John A. Farrell at US News and World Reports thinks that Reagan would not have spent as much time on social issues as the Republicans who are championing his name, these days, are. Yea, too bad he spent so little time on it that he completely ignored this thing we call "AIDS."
• Another pre-teen -- 11 year old Jaheem Harrera -- has killed himself over school bullying, some of which was focused on his supposed sexual orientation. But, you're right, Day of Silence was completely unnecessary. *rolls eyes* Nobody needs to hear more about bullying in school.
• The Florida Supreme Court hears arguments for and against same-sex partner adoption today. You can hear the arguments online here.
• Despite the US government promising to change the law, HIV+ individuals are still being denied access into this country. No word yet from the Obama administration -- which is something that I'm writing a lot these days.

And now you're all caught up! Don't you feel better?

ELECTION 2008: I can't wait

I have to share this with you this morning...

I am so excited about Tuesday I almost can't breathe. There is some sort of energy in me these last couple of days and it was hard to pinpoint until I found myself showing political websites to every one of my coworkers, whose disinterested stares and polite non-committal questions should have shut me up.

I can't believe it's almost here. This is by far the most exciting election I have been in with date... and I mark my first "interested" election in 1992, when I cheeringly ran up to my parents and proclaimed that I had VOTED for Bill Clinton (in our school's election) and now he's WINNING (ironically, the only time I've ever voted for a winning presidential candidate... I was a 2000 Nader voter).

I know it seems sometimes like it's been too much, that we've been dealing with this date in full drive since October 2007 when the Hillary Clinton and Rudy Giuliani steamrollers were threatening to dominate the airwaves for the next year.

That never happened, and it's probably for the best.

John McCain is done. Period. Don't even try to argue it. With the combination of national polls showing Obama 6-13 points ahead in the popular vote and ahead by 3-10 points in ever swing state except Missouri and Georgia (and the fact that that's a swing state should tell you something, and the fact that early voting is done and... well, you can't change that vote)... there's little chance left.

I am so excited to vote on Tuesday I can barely speak, and I know I annoy people when I talk about it... I know I've annoyed so many of my readers by focusing on it so severely on this blog for the past ... in reality, it was this election that made this blog what it is...

...but, for all my jaded disinterest in the world, I have hope.

I have a tremendous amount of hope.

Such a simple little bauble... untouchable and unmeasurable, like faith or love. But I think we are all tired of numbers and dates and bills and laws... and we are all tired of having people point at us and tell us about plans and policy. I think, sometimes, we just need someone to say, "let's do this together, let's do this as best we know how, and let's be better." You can't point on a graph and say what the measure of that is...

...but when I hear McCain, I hear desperation, I hear the dream deferred I had predicted when Clinton lost. McCain's dream exploded. His was no raisin in the sun.

...and when I hear Obama, I hear better things ahead.

Thank you, Barack Obama. Thank you.

ELECTION 2008: Stupid Republicans

First of all, so so so so happy that McCain -- once near-dead -- is appearing to be the front-runner for the GOP endorsement. Huckabee is terrifying, as he tends to be more conservative than Bush, though his "rough and tumble" style of politics is entertaining and GSD (gets shit done) ... what he gets done, though is bothersome. It reminds me of my own home state's governor, Gov. Sanford, who took two pigs under his arms into the statehouse to protest the pork barrelling of the SC budget. And Romney... well, we thought KERRY was a flip-flopper. Didn't Romney once support abortion and gay rights? Or was that just in Massachusetts? Funny that he will likely not get his own state but will, instead, win Utah soundly makes me laugh.

Secondly, Edwards is out. Thank god. He's pretty, though.

Third, Clinton will win in a landslide in (most of) the 20 states for Super Tuesday. I'm sorry folks, she's hugely far ahead in a lot of those states... 20 points plus in most. I don't care if Obama has a little of momentum after winning two -- yes, only two of six, primaries. Clinton has won four of six, and she still dominates the rest of the field.

Fourth, haven't I always said that a McCain-Giuliani ticket would be the Republican choice? Haven't I also said you can't beat it?

My official predictions for the 2008 election come down to:
Republican ticket: McCain-Giuliani
Democratic ticket: Clinton-????
(I'm trying to limit my choices down to the following for VP: Obama, Richardson, Vilsak, and Bayh... I'm actually leaning towards Richardson, but, the way the primaries are shaking up, I'm thinking Obama as VP is not entirely unbelievable)

Fifth, Bill Clinton had no chance of doing anything right in this election. Leave the man alone. He's trying to help.

FINALLY:

If only the Republicans would get their shit together on gay rights, they would take the vote right from underneath the Democrats. Not joking. And I base it off a quote by Chrissy Nakonski, a transsexual seeking the Republican nom to her state legislative district: "I've voted Republican all my life...Republicans swear by not raising taxes, and raising taxes would hurt families in poverty, like mine." The gay community spends money and, by and large, is becoming increasingly suburban and middle class. Ideologically, I think the gay community is far more Republican and the only reason it's not universally so is that they don't support us. If they just became a little more libertarian, the years and years of "assuming they're with us" the Dems have been playing would be over.

ELECTION 2008: Republican CNN/YouTube Debate

I hope you all are watching the Republican CNN/Youtube Debate.

Well, the first 5 minutes anyways.

Giuliani came out swinging, accusing Romney of running a "santuary mansion" (as opposed to a "sanctuary city" like NYC) in hiring illegal immigrants. I seriously thought Romney was going to walk over a hit Giuliani in the face.

He didn't, sadly, but it would have been funny. So, far, however, after that little bit, it got really boring and we realized that it's just a old white guy debate.

REALLY OLD, btw, Fred Thompson and John McCain.

They look ANCIENT don't they.