News: Mitt And Ron, Navy, Birtherism's Return, Impersonation

Hoping to ease any remaining tensions with Ron Paul's rabid supporters, Mitt Romney is airing a tribute video to the libertarian congressman at the Republican National Convention.

Whatever happened to Ace The Bat-Hound?

Floyd Corkins has pleaded not guilty for his alleged role in the Family Research Council headquarters this month. He's currently being held without bond.

Healthcare professionals and HIV/AIDS activists in New York are strategizing on how to deliver newly approved drugs to thousands of patients. "We need more community groups involved, like faith communities, fraternal organizations, block associations or health entities, to really take on HIV and AIDS," said Dr. Marjorie Hill of GMHC.

Pam Mullarkey, a prominent advocate for abstinence-only sex education, is also a fan of Uganda's "kill the gays" bill. Shocking.

It's okay to be curious about new details about Katie Holmes and Tom Cruise's divorce settlement?

An Alabama man has written a heartfelt and heartbreaking letter to the Dothan Eagle about how his lesbian daughter came out, tried to "cure" herself because of anti-gay attitudes and then committed suicide. "Sometime after Patti died [in 1995], I attended church and a visiting preacher was preaching. About 10 minutes into the sermon, he bashed gays the rest of the way... I was ashamed of myself for sitting there and not defending Patti. I have not been much since."

In this video, pro-equality journalist E.J. Graff and hateful activist Maggie Gallagher discuss sex, marriage and everything in between.

Justin Hawkins from The Darkness won't say if he's gay or not, but will say that he connects to a gay audience.

Mitt Romney tried to crack a birth certificate "joke", saying at a campaign stop in Michigan: "I love being home in this place where Ann and I were raised, where both of us were born. Ann was born at Henry Ford Hospital, I was born at Harper Hospital. No one's ever asked to see my birth certificate. They know that this is the place that we were born and raised."

The California state senate is endorsing a proposal to name a Navy ship after legendary gay activist Harvey Milk.

Zach Udko says Hit & Run, though a heinous film, offers an important lesson on the word "fag".

The Sun tabloid ignored Buckingham Palace and printed those nudie pics of Prince Harry "for the public interest".

Are you buying Kim Kardashian as Diana Ross?

Tank + water = splash!

Doctors in New Zealand say the age of sex-related phone apps is leading to a spike in syphilis cases.

One Million Moms is now going after Skittles for a commercial in which a girl kisses a walrus.

Alex Pettyfer continues to look dashing on the set of Butler.

Evan Rachel Wood has apologized after saying Miley Cyrus' new haircut makes her look like a lesbian.

An Ohio judge refuses to grant a lesbian couple a divorce in Ohio.

San Francisco Gay Men's Chorus Announces Yearlong Tribute to Harvey Milk: VIDEO

The San Francisco Gay Men's Chorus has announced a yearlong 2013 tribute to Harvey Milk, focusing on his legacy, and they made the announcement at the California State Capitol in Sacramento this week, on Harvey Milk Day, in a special ceremony.

Starting in April of 2010 and gathering pace since then, SFGMC, along with several partners such as the Harvey Milk Foundation, has been planning for Harvey Milk 2013: Living The Legacy. Joining SFGMC to co-commission the work are the Atlanta Gay Men’s Chorus and the New York City Gay Men’s Chorus. This commemoration will include region-wide events and will culminate in a world premiere, multi-media concert and exhibition event presented by SFGMC in June 2013.

Included in the event will be the winners of a call for artistic submissions from the general public, as well as a commissioned work by Broadway composer Andrew Lippa (The Addams Family Musical). Harvey Milk 2013: Living the Legacy will proudly articulate the legacy of a man who changed the landscape for the generations who followed him.

Activist and videographer Sean Chapin put together a great video of the ceremony, explaining what the tribute is about.

Watch, AFTER THE JUMP...

Said SFGMC Artistic Director Dr. Timothy Seelig: "The Chorus has been preparing for this since its very birth 34 years ago. We have been seriously planning for over two years. During that time, we have realized that so many of the things that Harvey loved and lived for are the very same things the Chorus exists to promote – we are Harvey! Putting this story to music is one of the greatest joys and challenges we have ever faced. To say we are thrilled would be an understatement."

Supervisor Exits Board Room Rather Than Address Orange County's Snub of Harvey Milk Day

Supervisors in Orange County, California won't recognize slain gay civil rights leader Harvey Milk, on his state-sanctioned day, the L.A. Times reports:

Activists, for the second year, asked Orange County supervisors Tuesday to recognize Milk's birthday with a proclamation, but the board declined the opportunity, as it did last year. One of the supervisors, Janet Nguyen (pictured), walked from the board room shortly after the activists began their presentation. Last year, Nguyen also left the meeting as the activists spoke.

Dave Hoen, a 28-year Santa Ana resident, and other activists waited more than six hours before they could step to the podium, and by then the room was almost empty. Hoen read a poem, saying he suspected that fear was the reason the five supervisors have yet to endorse a proclamation honoring Milk.

"You're happy to keep your job instead," he said.

A campaign pressuring the supervisors began two months ago, to no avail.

The L.A. Times notes the significance recognition from the OC would have:

One of Milk's final battles was to take on then-state Sen. John V. Briggs, a Fullerton resident who championed a state initiative that would have essentially given school boards the right to fire openly gay teachers...Stuart Milk, the former supervisor's nephew, said in an interview Tuesday that he remembered his uncle talking about Briggs as someone who used hate and exclusion to get ahead.He said it would be symbolically significant for Orange County to recognize the day.

"The important element is because you have a history of non-acceptance doesn't mean you need to continue on that path," he said. "Harvey Milk Day is the way to do that."

UPDATE: A note received by Towleroad from Christy Delp, Office of Supervisor Janet Nguyen.

On behalf of Supervisor Janet Nguyen, I'd like to inform you that the LA Times article titled “O.C. declines to honor Milk” did not report accurate information when it stated that Supervisor Nguyen “walked from the Board room shortly after the activists began their presentation.”  This statement is incorrect; the Supervisor was present throughout the entirety of the public comments section. She left after all of the public comments were made, right before CEO and Board of Supervisor’s comments.

In addition, just for your information, last year Supervisor Nguyen coincidentally left the Board meeting before public comments in order to nurse her infant son, as she had done in other Board meetings. It's important to note that when the Supervisors step off of the dais, they do still have the capability to listen to the Board meeting.

I have already been in contact with Nicole Santa Cruz, the author of the LA Times article, and she will make the correction.

Harvey Milk Street Unveiled in San Diego: VIDEO

Couldn't make it to San Diego's Hillcrest neighborhood last night for the ceremonial unveiling of the first street in the nation named for slain gay civil rights leader Harvey Milk?

We've got it for you, AFTER THE JUMP...

LGBT Weekly reports:

Stuart Milk was visibly moved by San Diegans’ commitment to the goal of making their city the first to successfully rename a street in his uncle’s honor, noting that his uncle first came to San Diego as a lieutenant in the U.S. Navy. In one of the lighter moment of the ceremony, Milk, himself a gay man, said his uncle also “… fell in love with the beautiful boys here.”

But there were solemn moments during the dedication.

“Harvey always said, ‘you’ve got to give ‘em hope,” Stuart Milk told the crowd, adding that his famous uncle urged lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender people as well as their allies to fight hate with hope. ’“You are the hope Harvey was talking about,” he said. “More than any street, school or ship that might be named after him, it was you that he took a bullet for.”

Nicole Murray Ramirez, a nationally prominent LGBT activist and columnist for LGBT Weekly, likened Harvey Milk to Cesar Estrada Chavez, Robert Fitzgerald Kennedy, and Martin Luther King, all but one (Chavez) of whom were killed by assassins’ bullets.

Harvey Milk's Nephew Remembers, as San Diego Plans Street Dedication on Third Official 'Harvey Milk Day'

Harvey Milk's nephew Stuart writes about his uncle, on the third official Harvey Milk Day, which is today, Milk's birthday:

Today my uncle would have been 82 years old, however, he gave us his life 32 years ago knowing that the first of any civil rights movement, who so clearly and loudly proclaim their right to equality, most often meets a violent and sudden end.

I am frequently asked if I am deeply saddened that my uncle Harvey did not get to see all those elected officials who would come to stand on his shoulders, or all the places where the light of equality burns brighter than the darkness of antiquated prejudice, and I have long replied that he did see those open and proud candidates running for office and winning, and he did see those cities and states and nations that would etch equality into both their laws and their societal values, for he could not have given his life without seeing and visualizing that dream, for he would leave us with a compass of hope, hope born of bullets, not smashing into his brain, but smashing our masks and our fear of authenticity.
 
82 years ago Harvey came into this world with all the promise and potential that my grandparents Minnie and Bill could have imagined, and he also came into a world that soon would be rocked by a global war driven at its very core by fear, division, and separation.  My uncle was profoundly affected by the capacity of communities and nations to turn on each other when the narrative of lies and the myths of prejudice were fed around the globe during WWII. He also was able to see at a young age, visible through his college writing, that we could learn through collaboration, understanding and inclusiveness that we are not weakened by our differences, in fact, that our potential is only reached when the full diversity of all those that make up our communities is celebrated. And today it is this very celebration of our diversity that Harvey had dreamed, the celebration of all of us, not in-spite of our difference, but because of our differences.
 
Today is the celebration not of a people or community or nation being better than another, but a celebration of the knowledge that we are so much less when we do not embrace, without qualification, all members of our unique and varied humanity. 

My uncle’s legacy has many monuments, all those openly LGBT elected officials, all those who live an authentic and open life, all those strong allies like our President in the United States that fight to keep us embraced, the hope givers who help to full fill our potential of equality.
 
President Obama said it best, “Harvey gave us hope, All of us, Hope unashamed, Hope unafraid” My uncle was very much with us in spirit as we watched the President and then Speaker Pelosi sign the Matthew Shepard Act and then the repeal of Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell.  And we were all standing on his shoulders  just last week when the President, true to his word in staying on the side of  justice, basic dignity and human rights as he endorsed Marriage Equality, becoming the first sitting US President to make that courageous move.
 
These are the tangible monuments to Harvey’s legacy that have the impact to effect change, real societal change. Today we are here are voicing the hope of a global community set on the path of inclusion – there is no more fitting tribute to my uncles dream, a dream that remains alive in each of us. Today is a day of recognition and appreciation of our own authenticity and that of others, a day to collaborate and reach out to those who still struggle with either self-acceptance or societal acceptance.
 
Harvey Milk day is a reminder to put hate and separation in their place, a place of learning of wrongs that have been righted and reminders not to repeat them, a day to create the dream and vision of what is possible, even in the all too many places around the world where it is still so hard to visualize that dream, as it was when my uncle spoke out over 38 years ago in the US.
 
I and the Milk family and Harvey Milk Foundation thank all of you who are working collaboratively today, in dreaming what my uncle dreamed, for seeing, visualizing and making great efforts to co-create our collective full potential.  We are are thankful in the celebration of my uncles legacy of hope,  hope that tomorrow will be more inclusive then today and that inclusivity is without exception and without qualification.  As my uncle said, we gotta give ‘em hope!

San Diego will dedicate the nation's first Harvey Milk Street today at 5 pm in Hillcrest.

And the nation's first Harvey Milk Park will be dedicated in Long Beach!

San Francisco Debates Request to Name Navy Ship for Harvey Milk

Officials in San Francisco are debating a resolution supporting a proposal to name a Navy ship for slain gay civil rights leader Harvey Milk, the SF Chronicle reports:

Critics of the idea, led by Supervisor Christina Olague and a contingent from the San Francisco gay Democrat club named in Milk's honor, don't think he would have wanted his name associated with a military ship.

Milk was "against the Vietnam War and war in general," Olague said of Milk, who was gunned down at City Hall in 1978 by disgruntled former colleague Dan White. A more fitting tribute would be to get a national holiday named in Milk's honor, she said.

San Diego Rep. Bob Filner, the ranking Democrat on the House Armed Services Committee, has asked the Navy to christen a ship the USS Harvey Milk, and San Francisco Supervisor Scott Wiener authored a nonbinding resolution urging support.

What having the ship might mean, according to a vet:

Zoe Dunning, a lesbian and retired Navy commander, testified in favor of Wiener's legislation, noting that naming a ship after Milk would have global reach. Every time the ship pulls into a port of call, there would be Milk's name emblazoned on the exterior, and the sailors and officers assigned to the ship would wear his name on a uniform patch, she said.