News: Iran, Ohio, Big Tex, Chris Kluwe

Former Jersey Shore star Angelina Pivarnick now says that same-sex couples should be able to get married, even though she said precisely the opposite just last week.

A new Obama campaign ad running in the crucial swing state of Ohio hits Mitt Romney on his infamous "let Detroit go bankrupt" op-ed, while another commercial from the president's reelection effort criticized the Republican rival's education policy. Meanwhile, Romney's campaign claims that a second Obama term would bring more debt, more taxes and general malaise.

Justin Timberlake's got a ring on it.

Republican Congressman Joe Walsh, an advocate of curbing illegal immigration with moats and alligators,said that marriage equality is a "socioeconomic issue". "Walsh argues that 'male-female, two-parent households' produce children who do better in school, stay away from drugs and are less likely to be in poverty," reports the Chicago Tribune.

Check out the Michael Jackson BAD 25 trailer.

RIP Big Tex.

Just two days before Mitt Romney and President Obama's debate on foreign policy, officials say that Iran has agreed to nuclear talks. From the Times: "The United States and Iran have agreed for the first time to one-on-one negotiations over Iran’s nuclear program, according to Obama administration officials, setting the stage for what could be a last-ditch diplomatic effort to avert a military strike on Iran."

A profile on Elizabeth Emken, the GOP Senate candidate from California: "Prior to her friendship with Diaz, Emken had a similarly intense friendship with Tim Radi, a fellow member of the group, not realizing that he too would later come out as gay. 'It was the same pattern as with me,' Diaz states. 'She had intense feelings for him, but he didn’t want to date her. It was as if history were repeating itself.'"

In addition to allegations that she fixed the school's state-based ratings, a Queens principal named Nancy Casella is accused of making racist, homophobic and other offensive comments.

Minnesota Vikings punter Chris Kluwe made good and debated marriage equality with empty chairs representing various anti-gay foes, including Michele Bachmann. To Bachmann's lie that same-sex marriage will lead "all schools teaching homosexuality," whatever that even means, Kluwe responded, "I would say that that is a flat out falsehood. What we'll be teaching our children is tolerance. We'll be teaching our children that it is okay to be who you are." And to the argument that marriage equality is "redefining marriage," Kluwe says, "We're not redefining marriage to take away someone's rights. We're redefining marriage to give someone rights. It's about freedom." Video here. I'll try to find an embeddable version.

Former NFL player Kris Jenkins thinks it's time for a player to come out.

Flava Flav was arrested.

UPDATE: Federal Marriage Amendment DEFINITELY Still A Cornerstone Of Romney's 'Values'

After last week's debate, Mitt Romney campaign senior adviser Bay Buchanan told The Advocate's Julie Bolcer that the former governor thinks marriage equality should be left to the states. "He very much supports traditional marriage, but he's also a very strong advocate for the Tenth Amendment. It's a state issue," said the openly gay sister of Pat Buchanan. She also reportedly said Romney would not try to stop any state-based marriage rights fights.

BuzzFeed's Chris Geidner wonders today whether this means that Romney, one of the candidates who signed the National Organization for Marriage's pledge to fight for a Federal Marriage Amendment and also a NOM donor, is changing his tune to appear more moderate. Romney does, after all, have a habit of adapting policy to fit a political climate. "The decision to stop supporting the proposed Federal Marriage Amendment would be a moderating move for the Romney campaign, whose party platform includes support for the amendment," writes Geidner. The Romney campaign did not answer his repeated requests for comment.

There will be few opportunities to ask Mitt Romney whether he supports states' right or the conservative Federal Marriage Amendment, but if his website is to be believed, Romney's still firmly on the right.

From his campaign page called "Values":

Marriage is more than a personally rewarding social custom. It is also critical for the well-being of a civilization. That is why it is so important to preserve traditional marriage – the joining together of one man and one woman. As president, Mitt will not only appoint an Attorney General who will defend the Defense of Marriage Act – a bipartisan law passed by Congress and signed by President Clinton – but he will also champion a Federal Marriage Amendment to the Constitution defining marriage as between one man and one woman.

See a screenshot AFTER THE JUMP.

UPDATE: Bay Buchanan, whom I mistakenly said is a lesbian, responded to Geidner's report by making absolutely, positively clear that Mitt Romney wants a Federal Marriage Amendment to prohibit same-sex marriages from coast-to-coast, states' rights be darned:

Governor Romney supports a federal marriage amendment to the Constitution that defines marriage as an institution between a man and a woman. Governor Romney also believes, consistent with the 10th Amendment, that it should be left to states to decide whether to grant same-sex couples certain benefits, such as hospital visitation rights and the ability to adopt children.

I referred to the Tenth Amendment only when speaking about these kinds of benefits – not marriage.

Oh, so limited states' rights.

Bloomberg Says He's 'More In Sync' With Obama

New York City Mayor Mike Bloomberg hasn't made an endorsement in the 2012 presidential election, but told the New York Times he's "more in sync" with President Obama on matters like marriage equality and abortion. He also told the paper that he thinks Vice President Joe Biden deserves more credit than Obama on pushing the administration toward supporting gay marriage.

Though he is more likely to agree with Mr. Obama than with Mr. Romney — on same-sex marriage, climate change and abortion rights — he expressed disappointment with the president’s leadership.

“I am more in sync with President Obama’s views on social issues,” he said. “I will say that I don’t see as much action as I would like, and it’s nice to be on the side that I think you should be on, but unless you do something, so what?”

Mr. Bloomberg was asked how he could make that criticism given the president’s announcement last spring that he supported same-sex marriage.

“Let’s get serious here: it was Joe Biden that forced that issue,” he said, referring to the vice president’s surprise remarks backing same-sex nuptials that were credited with forcing Mr. Obama to follow. “Some people say he just goes off; I would say he’s a principled guy.”

Bloomberg's interview comes as the billionaire prepares his post-mayoral legacy: last week he announced the formation of Independence USA PAC, a super PAC that will only support candidates who believe in gun control, education reform and marriage equality.

Rev. Phil Snider Flips Gay Rights Script, Wants Bible Read With 'Integrity': VIDEO

Voters in Springfield, Missouri, spent much of their summer debating whether or not to expand their town's non-discrimination policies to LGBT people. At the height of the back-and-forth, a local reverend named Phil Snider appeared before the city council to deliver what is being described as a "fiery sermon" about gay rights.

"I worry about the future of our city," he said last August. "Any accurate reading of the Bible should make it clear that gay rights goes against the plain truth of the word of God. As one preacher warns, man in overstepping the boundary lines God has drawn by making special rights for gays and lesbians has taken another step in the direction of inviting the judgment of God upon our land.”

Then, toward the end of the nearly three minute remarks, Snider, who preaches at the Brentwood Christian Church, is on Twitter and has a blog, flips the script, admitting that all of his speech had been lifted from racist speeches calling for segregation.

I'm sorry, I brought the wrong notes with me. It turns out what I've been reading to you this whole time are direct quotes from white preachers from the 1950s and the 1960s all in support of racial segregation. All I have done is simply take out the phrase 'racial integration' and substituted it with the phrase 'gay rights.'

The non-discrimination measure was tabled, unfortunately, but Snider's incredibly clever appearance lives on in video form AFTER THE JUMP.

Before that, though, read this blurb from an essay he posted on his Facebook page last July, before his appearance. The essay is called "What Does the Bible Really Say About Homosexuality? - Part I":

The question, it seems to me, is not based on whether we have uniformity of interpretation but rather integrity of interpretation. Whatever our personal beliefs might be, we are charged with interpreting the Bible with integrity, to ask how it serves as a guide for our beliefs, which demands understanding it to the best of our ability, in relationship to its original context, and in light of the teachings of Christ.

Alright, find the August video of the august pastor AFTER THE JUMP.

Notre Dame Arts Center Thinks Equality Is 'Mature' And 'Adult'

Either the DeBartolo Performing Arts Center at Catholic Notre Dame University anticipates some kind of sexual revolution at an upcoming discussion about marriage equality or the center truly thinks a debate about people's rights crosses the line of decency, because the announcement for the event says that the talk "includes mature or adult content."

Or maybe they're just warning people about National Organization for Marriage's Maggie Gallagher, whose lies, to be lobbed at Wayne State University professor John Corvino next Thursday, definitely qualify as "adult content"

Oliver Darcy at Campus Reform offers more background on Notre Dame's long and complicated relationship with LGBT people:

Notre Dame University is a private catholic institution which is technically bound by Catholic Doctrine which teaches that homosexual behavior is a violation of divine law.

The Catholic institution, however, is also reconsidering some of their policies regarding LGBTQ issues.

Administrators have recently been urged to allow a proposed gay-straight alliance on campus. A petition, signed by 366 Notre Dame faculty and staff, was published in the student paper demanding the repeal of a long-standing policy that forbids such a club from being sanctioned.

Angela McCaskill Calls For Anti-Gay Group To Stop Using Her Image

Maryland Marriage Alliance, one of the conservative groups trying to stop marriage equality in that state, thought they hit the jackpot when Gallaudet University suspended diversity provost Angela McCaskill for signing a petition to put same-sex nuptials on the November ballot. She had been intimidated and threatened, they said, and they used that very point, and video of McCaskill, in a recent commercial.

"When marriage has been redefined elsewhere, as Question 6 does, people who believe in traditional marriage have been punished," says the ad. Unfortunately for them, McCaskill simply wants to be left alone.

"No one has the right to decide what my signature meant," she said yesterday. She and her attorney, Wyndal Gordon, are now asking Maryland Marriage Alliance to remove her from their propaganda.

"She has been neutral. She has not opined one way or another. The marriage alliance folks have taken a position for her. Well, that’s the same thing Gallaudet did on the other side of the spectrum,” said Gordon.

Citing copyright ownership of the McCaskill video, Gallaudet has also asked Maryland Marriage Alliance to stop playing the ad, but the group says they have no intention of stopping.