News: Million Muppet March, Atlanta Pride, Colbert, Mitt Myth

Scottish politician Gordon Wilson says that passing marriage equality would be a "step toward state fascism."

Stephen Colbert appeared on Meet the Press today and said he can't tell Barack Obama and Mitt Romney apart. "I'm not Ralph Nader. I don't think there's no difference... There is a difference. I don't know what the difference is, though." Video is here.

Singer Marsha Ambrosius has taken to Facebook to deny rumors that she is a lesbian, but still admits to having sexy dreams about the ladies: "I am not a lesbian! I am straight! I will never say I haven't fantasized or had sexually explicit dreams about women before! That would make me liar!"

The New York Times on the "moderate Mitt myth": "There isn’t really a Moderate Mitt; what is on display now is better described as Convenient Mitt. Anyone willing to advocate extremism to raise money and win primaries is likely to do the same to stay in office."

Kim and Khloe can't keep their hands to themselves.

A happy birthday to Roger Moore.

A stagehand is suing Adult Entertainment Broadcast Network after the company allegedly fired him following complaints that he pricked himself while injecting an actor's penis with TriMix, a prescription drug that induces an erection.

Useful information for Domestic Violence Awareness Month.

Los Angeles-based animation executive Michael Bellavia and Idaho college student Chris Mecham are organizing the Million Muppet March on November 3, three days before the election, to rally support for Big Bird and the other people and characters who would suffer should Romney and other Republicans get their wish: the end of federal funding to PBS.

Actor Stephen Amell looked attractive, of course, during a press appearance in Canada on Friday.

"At 0-32, gay-marriage forces seek 1st win at polls"

New bra designed to detect breast cancer.

The anti-gay American Family Association is now claiming that the 11-year old Mix It Up Day, a day when students are encouraged to eat lunch with people they typically don't hang out with, is an attempt by the organizers at the Southern Poverty Law Center to "promote a homosexual lifestyle." AFA leader Bryan Fischer claimed, "[This is] just another thinly veiled attempt to promote the homosexual agenda. No one is in favor of anyone getting bullied for any reason, but these anti-bullying policies become a mechanism for punishing Christian students who believe that homosexual behavior is not something that should be normalized.”

An estimated 200,000 people attended Atlanta Pride today.

Republicans used the Sunday talk shows to continue hammering Obama's Libya policies. Rep. Darrell Issa called the administration's response the recent attack on our embassy there Obama's "mission accomplished moment," while Sen. Lindsey Graham claims the White House has been "misleading" the American people with their various explanations of the attak.

Felix Baumgartner Breaks World Skydiving Record: VIDEO

After years of preparation, 43-year old Austrian skydiver Felix Baumgartner met at least one of his goals when he set the record for the highest ever jump today.

Ascending to 128,000 feet above New Mexico, 25,200 feet more than the previous record, Baumgartner hovered at the edge of space before plummeting back to earth, reaching estimated speeds of 706 mph, but it's unclear whether he indeed broke the sound barrier during his descent. (UPDATE: He did, in fact, break the barrier.)

Now that he's made headlines around the world, Baumgartner says he plans on taking it relatively easy in the years to come. "This is the end of my journey," he said. "I've always been trying to find my limit, and this pretty much it. For the second half of my life, I want to be a good helicopter pilot. Fight fires. Rescue people. That would be fun."

Watch video of Baumgartner's leap AFTER THE JUMP.

Will Obama And Romney 'Go Purple' To Support LGBT Youth?

This coming Friday is Spirit Day, a day on which people are meant to wear purple to support LGBT people who are bullied. As millions prepare to participate, 17-year old Katy Butler, one of the people instrumental in getting the MPAA to change the rating for the pro-equality flick Bully, is asking that President Obama and Mitt Romney don purple garb to show their commitment to ending bullying.

From her new Change.org petition:

If both of these influential men participate by simply wearing purple it will show LGBT teens like me that there are powerful people who care about us. I know what it’s like to feel alone, and seeing two of our country's political leaders show that they care about our lives could make a huge difference to. LGBT students, who are 3-5 times more likely to experience depression and attempt suicide than their counter parts. Barack Obama and Mitt Romney could take a big step towards ending that feeling of isolation.

So, what are the odds that the men will heed Butler's call?

Arlen Specter, Sen. Who Backed And Then Opposed DOMA, Dies At 82

Arlen Specter spent nearly three decades in the U.S. Senate, and before that he made a national name for himself as part of the Warren Commission that investigated John Kennedy's assassination, eventually helping pen the "single-bullet theory" that claimed Kennedy and then-Texas Gov. John Connally were hit by the same bullet. Today Specter's son confirmed that the former Senator, defeated during the Tea Party rise of 2010, has died of cancer, a disease he has battled since 2005. He was 82.

Specter was always a divisive personality in Washington, particularly toward the last few years of his career, like in 2009, when the Pennsylvania senator left the Republican Party after 44 years to become a Democrat. It was that same year that Specter came out in opposition of the Defense of Marriage Act, a federal ban on marriage equality he himself supported in 1996.

"Enacted 13 years ago when the idea of same sex marriage was struggling for acceptance, the Act is a relic of a more tradition-bound time and culture," he said at the time. "Connecticut, Iowa, and Massachusetts have already passed laws recognizing same sex marriage and other states are moving in that direction. The states are the proper forum to address this divisive social and moral issue, not the Federal Government with a law that attempts to set one national standard for marriage."

Specter also supported the repeal of Don't Ask, Don't Tell and urged Congress to pass an LGBT-inclusive Employment Non-Discrimination Act.

In 2010, Specter ran in the Democratic primary to retain his Pennsylvania seat, but was defeated by Joe Sestak. In the years since, Specter has spent his time helping Philadelphia University sift through his extensive archives and personal records to help form the basis of what will be The Arlen Specter Center for Public Policy at Philadelphia University, a center where the long-serving senator's often complicated and always intriguing legacy will live on.

Gay Marriage In Comic Books Mixes Business And Pressure

Among the rows and rows of comic books and star artists, New York Comic Con featured a number of panels on cultural and political trends in comic books, including the increased acceptance of gay characters like X-Men's recently married Northstar and Kevin Keller, the gay man who wedded in the pages of Archie Comics.

After the discussion, Skip Harvey spoke with some of the writers behind these and other LGBT characters to explore the behind-the-scenes environment in which these characters are tying the knot. It's as much about business as it is about inclusion.

"There’s a propensity for new characters to represent an entire group,” says openly gay comic creator Phil Jiminez. He admits there is a tendency to be overly careful with gay characters because “fairly or unfairly, they get stuck with that”.

Kevin Keller, the first gay character in Archie comics, is seen as an important figure in the cultural movement of sexual equality because "everyone in Archie is a good guy. They all try to do the right thing," Kupperberg adds... That, too is a double edged sword because some feel that gay characters and their relationships are defined by heterosexual standards.

"[Green Lantern] Alan Scott was re-introduced not as a playboy, but in a committed relationship," laments Phil Jiminez. "He was made safe to consumers,” but if "there’s money to be made, they’ll put some Queer s*** out there".

That's probably true.

Bill Maher Proves Focus On The Family Wrong: VIDEO

Yesterday I posted video of Bill Maher and Ann Coulter discussing conservative author Coulter's assertion that racism is a thing of the past. You can see that HERE.

At the bottom of that same post I mentioned that Maher had used the same episode of his HBO show to pick apart right-wing group Focus On The Family's warnings about an Obama presidency. Now we have video of that too, via JMG, and I've included it AFTER THE JUMP.