National Equality March: Laying of the Wreath at Arlington, and Interview with Lieutenant Dan Choi

I didn't have a chance to process this clip earlier this week. It featuresf the Knights Out 'Don't Ask, Don't Tell' ceremony at the Tomb of the Unknown Soldiers at Arlington National Cemetery during the National Equality March last weekend, and our interview with Lieutenant Dan Choi.

Watch, AFTER THE JUMP...

Towleroad Guide to the Tube #552: National Equality March Speeches

I didn't get a chance to post these over the weekend. Eight speakers from the National Equality March: Cleve Jones, Cynthia Nixon, Judy Shepard, Lieutenant Dan Choi:

Lance Black, Lady Gaga, and Julian Bond, AFTER THE JUMP...

AC360: Dan Choi and Elaine Donnelly Face off on 'Don't Ask, Don't Tell'

Anderson Cooper took on "Don't Ask, Don't Tell" last night, hosting discharged former Lt. Dan Choi and anti-gay crusader Elaine Donnelly of the Center for Military Readiness. 

As you may remember, Donnelly is the right-wing bigot nutjob assigned to this case. She dutifully brings up the 1,000 signatures of anti-gay retired military officers she presented last March to argue her case.

Responds Choi: "You can go to senior citizens center all the time and collect all the signatures you want, but they are so detached from reality. Those soldiers that are on the ground right now, they know people that are gay in their units...You can spend all the time that you want getting these petitions. But there are gay and lesbian soldiers that are serving right now. They don't have time to collect petitions like you do. And they are serving so they can protect your freedoms, so you can actually say the things that you're doing."

Watch, AFTER THE JUMP...

News: Harry Potter, Jamaica, Frank Bruni, Jiu Jitsu, John Barrowman

Walter Cronkite dies at 92.

Episcopal Church seeking growth through "inclusivity".

Gay overtones in Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince?

WATCH: Cyndi Lauper and Lil' Kim deliver Nelson Mandela a birthday performance of "Time After Time".

Former Lt. Dan Choi speaks at premiere of Silent Partners, a mini-doc on "Don't Ask, Don't Tell", in L.A.

NYT restaurant critic Frank Bruni on his unhealthy relationship with food: "I’d read some of the articles [on Karen Carpenter. I’d actually taken a weird sort of comfort from them, because they included details like her possible use of ipecac to make herself vomit. I’d never even heard of ipecac before. The articles included pictures of her looking cadaverous. I’d need several three-day fasts or two weeks of protein shakes to close in on bony."

Paula Abdul plays hardball: demands $20 million for Idol return.

Graffiti artist imploring New Orleans to READ.

Registered nurse in Australia calls for elimination of gays: “I certainly wouldn’t want him giving me my dose of morphine."

Coalition of groups opposing 2010 marriage ballot measure to over turn Proposition 8 in California grows: "The Alice B. Toklas LGBT Democratic Club -- the nation's oldest LGBT Demo club -- thinks 2012 would be better, too. After hearing a presentation from San Francisco pollster Amy Simon this week, the club's board decided -- after much debate -- that there might not be enough time to right the wrongs of the last campaign."

Gay-bashing thrives in Jamaica: "It is impossible to say just how common gay bashing attacks like the one against Sherman are in Jamaica — their tormentors are sometimes the police themselves. But many homosexuals in Jamaica say homophobia is pervasive across the sun-soaked island, from the pulpit to the floor of the Parliament."

Male model fix: Evandro Soldati.

The homoerotic undertones of mixed martial arts: "Brazilian jujitsu doesn't just look like gay sex, it feels an awful lot like it too."

CBS censoring Big Brother 11 slurs. Houseguest: 'If someone's a racist, they should be portrayed as one. You shouldn't edit it to make them look good.'

South Florida lesbian couple celebrates 70 years together: "In 1939 Leto and Magazzu met at a party in New York. Caroline thought Venera was stylish. Venera thought Caroline was funny. After a courtship of about a year, Magazzu, a teacher, and Leto, a telegraph operator, moved into a tiny house in New York. They spent most of their lives there, with only close family members and closer friends knowing about their relationship. Magazzu, a former Army medic, said she often fought the urge to tell others, but feared what  'outsiders' would think. She believes society back then was more receptive to two women living together than two men -- or at least less inquisitive."

Angela's Ashes novelist Frank McCourt dies.

WATCH: New trailer for Where the Wild Things Are.

Actor John Barrowman walks away from on-set 80 mph car crash.

NYT on Torchwood: Children of Earth: "Russell T Davies, the Welsh writer and producer who revived “Doctor Who” and created 'Torchwood,' has thrived by taking the low-rent, knockabout style of the original “Doctor Who” and giving it a nighttime-soap-opera gloss. This has meant, for one thing, employing much better-looking actors...It has also meant amping up the sexual tension and pushing against some of the same boundaries Mr. Davies did in his breakout show, 'Queer as Folk.' On 'Torchwood' Capt. Jack Harkness (Mr. Barrowman) and his aide-de-camp, Ianto Jones (Mr. David-Lloyd), are now a full-fledged, kiss-on-the-lips couple."

Naked: An EXCLUSIVE Interview with Gay Hero Daniel Choi

When President Obama took office, he did so with the high expectations of his supporters in the LGBT  community...and with the equally low expectations of his detractors among us. While the acknowledgment he has given to our issues may have surpassed that of previous presidents, it's fallen short (so far) of satisfying any of his major LGBT campaign promises. Worse, a number of questionable signals have been sent, the most controversial being the Department of Justice memo on same-sex marriage, which has been widely interpreted to compare marriage equality with incest in its defense of the Defense of Marriage Act.

Perhaps most surprisingly, President Obama has shown a troubling lack of resolve in repealing Don't Ask, Don't Tell—he insists it is something he wants gone, but also insists that it be done via a bill that arrives on his desk from Congress, refusing to exercise his apparent authority as Commander-in-Chief to put a stop to any expulsions while the law is being reviewed and eventually, we presume, rescinded.

If it sometimes feels like you're either a Kool-Aid drinking apologist about to be excommunicated from the LGBT ranks (a literal ex-gay) or a histrionic, tantrum-throwing child with no regard for the president's full plate—you're not alone. The middle ground is rapidly disappearing.

As a big supporter of President Obama's (full disclosure: I've cut off the DNC but would have attended the Stonewall event), I've been disappointed by and at times angered over his inactivity on gay issues. It's not that I don't have patience, but when he is taking a passive approach to even a slam-dunk issue like Don't Ask, Don't Tell, it's impossible for any thinking person not to begin to worry that all those anonymous, seething Internet commenters claiming that Obama will be all talk and no action will have the last laugh. It doesn't matter if the more far-fetched accusations of the LGBT people who despise this president the most ("he's a lying closet bigot who hates us!"), those whose vehemence, if not related to, certainly matches that of the right-wing birthers and conspiracy theorists and racists, are never proven true.

But what will matter to all of us is if the president fails to make progress on our issues, because that will be not only his failure, it will be ours if we allow it to happen.

Speaking to Daniel Choi—the now-famous Arab linguist and Iraq War veteran with a distinguished career in the New York Army National Guard who on June 30 was recommended for discharge after coming out as gay earlier this year on The Rachel Maddow Show—it is very hard to think in terms of pro-Obama or anti-Obama. His approach to the DADT issue is as pure as it gets and does not take politics into consideration.

For Dan, it's simply about telling the truth.

When I first called him, I was a bit nervous. I don't know too many army guys and this one has become a gay hero for bucking a wildly unpopular policy and a wildly popular president, all in the name of what is right. The first thing he told me is that he was naked, which broke the ice (shattered it, really), but which later seemed so appropriate to me even if it was a joke, because at no time during our interview did I get the impression that he was feeding me talking points or that he had any agenda outside of the one that all of us, the nutty Obama lovers and the nutty Obama haters, should embrace come what may: It's wrong to discriminate against LGBT people, and it has to stop.

With a grace the Obama haters should study, a resolve the Obama lovers should adopt and with a surprising sense of humor, Dan spent just over 40 minutes making nothing but sense.

I've uploaded my interview to YouTube in 18 separate files so you can hear Dan in his own voice as I heard him earlier today. He tells a great story about coming out to his West Point roommate, stresses he's coming out "for the next guy," says he's not angry at the military, wonders aloud where he's going to live and speaks of how his first real relationship taught him the importance of doing what he's been doing for the past several months.

All of Matthew Rettenmund's interview after the jump...

Choi For Now

I am nearing the end of my stay at Towleroad; Andy will be back next week, and I just have another couple of things to post.

One item I'll be posting later on is another interview, this one with the heroic Dan Choi—he had a lot of very interesting things to say in our phone conversation, and I'm hopeful that I asked him some good questions. The first thing he told me was that he was naked, but we'll get into that and issues with more substance soon enough.

It's been a pleasure and a nightmare taking over in Andy's absence, a pleasure as always to read the variety of comments and to have the ability to reach a large, appreciative, critical audience, and a nightmare trying to keep up with the day's news and maintain Andy's level of excellence.

If you like, please visit my blog Boy Culture, friend me on Facebook and/or follow me on Twitter.

Thanks to you and to Andy and Mike for having me.— Matthew Rettenmund