HRC President Chad Griffin Talks to NPR About Growing Up Gay in Arkansas: VIDEO

NPR follows HRC President Chad Griffin back to his home state of Arkansas and talks to Griffin and his childhood friends about what it was like to grow up gay there, and his high school job at Walmart!

Watch, AFTER THE JUMP...

LGBT Groups And Neo-Cons Both Angry Over Potential Hagel Nomination

This doesn't happen very often: progressive LGBT groups and neo-conservatives actually agree on something, namely that former Republican Sen. Chuck Hagel should not be President Obama's pick for Defense Secretary. Though they have decidedly different reasons.

For equality-minded activists, Hagel's objectionable for his anti-gay voting record and, more to the point, comments he made in 1998, when openly gay James Hormel was being considered as ambassador to Luxembourg.

"They are representing America," Hagel said of ambassadors. "They are representing our lifestyle, our values, our standards. And I think it is an inhibiting factor to be gay - openly aggressively gay like Mr. Hormel - to do an effective job." Hormel did eventually get the job.

HRC called Hagel's comments "unacceptable," according to BuzzFeed, while Victory Fund's Denis Dison quipped, "Today openly LGBT Americans serve throughout the three branches of the federal government, and at very high levels; those who are still openly, aggressively anti-gay in 2012 probably won't be able to function very well in Washington."

Meanwhile, over on the right, the Weekly Standard's Bill Kristol is trying to portray Hagel as "anti-Israel." "Anti-Israel propagandists are thrilled," Kristol wrote. "Hagel certainly does have anti-Israel, pro-appeasement-of-Iran bona fides. While still a senator, Hagel said that 'a military strike against Iran, a military option, is not a viable, feasible, responsible option.'"

Writing on the right's attacks on Hagel, Robert Wright at the Atlantic notes, "[The magazine] is employing what you might call a two-tiered strategy: the low road and the lower road."

For its part, and its concerns about Hagel's past anti-gay comments, HRC says hope the former senator explains himself. "We look forward to hearing from Senator Hagel on these issues should he be nominated," said spokesperson Michael Cole-Schwartz.

News: Joe Manchin, Kyoto, Traveling Weave, Design

Celebrate some totally radical 90s holiday movies.

Anti-apartheid leader and former South African President Nelson Mandela, 94, has been hospitalized. "Former President Mandela will receive medical attention from time to time which is consistent with his age," read a statement from current President Jacob Zuma's office.

HRC leaders past and present discuss SCOTUS' decision to hear two gay marriage cases.

The Supreme Court's decision to hear two gay marriage cases puts more pressure on President Obama to spell out his own opinion on the matter: should this be a federal matter or, as he said before, simply left to the states? From Josh Gerstein: "When Obama announced in May that he favored same-sex marriage ... his nuanced language stopped well short of endorsing the idea that the U.S. Constitution guarantees a right to marry for same-sex couples. He said the issue was best left to the states to decide in the near term."

The New York Times' editorial board on SCOTUS: "Fifty-eight years after it banned discrimination in public education, the Supreme Court has set the stage for the defining civil rights decision of this era — agreeing to hear two cases challenging laws that define marriage to exclude couples of the same sex. To us, and a growing number of Americans, the right course seems clear: that the justices continue the march toward real equality."

Democratic West Virginia Sen. Joe Manchin is appalled by MTV's new reality show, Buckwild. The show, which he calls a "travesty," "plays to ugly, inaccurate stereotypes about the people of West Virginia."

Lindsay Lohan gets what she wants.

Rihanna loses her undies.

If this weave could talk.

Dustin Hoffman play-kissed One Direction member Niall Horan last night.

Officials at the University of Saskatchewan sent a campus-wide note this week giving students and staff a heads up about an anti-gay pamphleteer wandering around town. "U of S officials sent out the advisory to the campus community Thursday morning after receiving complaints that day about a man distributing a leaflet titled Say No to the Homosexual Agenda. The advisory encouraged staff and students to contact the U of S discrimination and harassment prevention services if they were concerned about the material."

Almost 200 UN member countries voted today on an extension of the Kyoto Accord to combat global warming. "The extension was adopted by a U.N. climate conference after hard-fought sessions and despite objections from Russia. The package of decisions also included vague promises of financing to help poor countries cope with climate change, and an affirmation of a previous decision to adopt a new global climate pact by 2015." The United States never signed onto the Accord.

Despite the fact that scandal-plagued, tax-evading Silvio Berlusconi resigned as Italy's premier last year, he's still going to make another run for the office.

Jonathan Adler draws inspiration from his mother and the coffee cup chandelier she made and hung in their home when he was a kid.

Congratulations to Liz Carmouche, the UFC's first openly gay fighter.

Liberal lawmakers in Trinidad and Tobago are hoping to extend anti-discrimination laws to gays and lesbians.

HRC Rates U.S. Cities Based on LGBT Protections, Policies in New Municipal Equality Index

The Human Rights Campaign has released The Municipal Equality Index (MEI), the first ever rating system of LGBT inclusion in municipal law:

The MEI rates cities based on 47 criteria falling under six broad categories: non-discrimination laws; relationship recognition; the municipality’s employment practices; inclusiveness of city services; law enforcement; and municipal leadership.  Key findings from the MEI create a snapshot of LGBT equality in 137 municipalities of varying sizes drawn from every state in the nation – these include the 50 state capitals, the 50 most populous cities in the country, and the 25 large, 25 mid-size, and 25 small municipalities with the highest proportion of same-sex couples.  Seattle and other 100-point cities serve as shining examples of LGBT inclusivity, with excellent policies ranging from non-discrimination laws, equal employee benefits, and cutting-edge city services.

According to HRC, "while many U.S. cities lag behind in protections for LGBT people, some of the most LGBT-friendly policies in the country have been innovated and implemented at the municipal level, including in states with laws that are unfriendly to the LGBT community."

Find out how your city did HERE.

Morgan Freeman Narrates HRC's New Marriage Equality Ad: VIDEO

Human Rights Campaign's breaking into political primetime: the Sunday morning news shows.

The group this morning will begin running a new 30-second commercial, "Dawn of a New Day for Marriage Equality," in which actor and famous narrator Morgan Freeman spells it all out.

"America stands at the dawn of a new day," he says as images of women's suffrage and Martin Luther King Jr leading the Million Man March flash across the screen. Just as people did during those civil rights fights, we must now all come together to support our gay and lesbian comrades.

"Now, across our country, we're standing together for the right of gay and lesbian Americans to marry the person they love," Freeman says. "And, with historic victories for marriage, we've delivered a mandate for full equality. The wind is at our back, but our journey has just begun."

In a statement celebrating the commercial, HRC President Chad Griffin remarked, "This year proved to be a pivotal turning point in the movement for marriage equality and now we press onward with renewed vigor and public opinion squarely on our side."

"As we continue the march toward full equality in legislatures and the courts, it is crystal clear that the prospect of an equal future is no longer up for debate; the question now is how soon it will arrive," he said of the ads, which will run throughout the week after premiering on the Sunday round-tables today.

Watch it AFTER THE JUMP.

News: Michael Urie, Linda Harvey, RuPaul, Israel

Some bad news for gay actor Michael Urie: CBS decided his latest television venture, Partners, based on Will & Grace creators Max Mutchnick and David Kohan's real-life friendship, didn't meet the ratings mark and gave it the ax.

"Who killed the Twinkie?"

The gay conservative group GOProud, in an email called "Unions Killed Twinkies," say they've stocked up and will give one to people who donate at least $50 to their right wing cause. Is it worth it?

David Petraeus' affair is the gays' fault. Because, you know, why not?

Rihanna and Kanye remix "Diamonds".

Baby ducks and kittens make a great match.

University of Michigan professor and author David Halperin discusses his new book, How To Be Gay. Part of the book looks at why gay men often celebrate certain types of celebrities, like Lady Gaga. Says Halperin, "What my analysis implies is that one way to explain gay male culture’s investment in some of these figures is to say that gay culture is responding to certain hierarchies of gender and sexuality that pervade the cultural field."

The sun has been exceptionally gassy this week.

At least 42 Palestinians and 3 Israelis have been killed in the increasingly violent and worrisome conflict between the two sides.

The White House says Israel "has the right to defend itself".

Take a listen to Will.i.am and Britney Spears' new single, "Scream and Shout".

Zac Efron pumping... his gas.

Gay activists in North Carolina are preparing for a fight to pass employment non-discrimination across the Tar Heel State. Said Stuart Campbell, executive director for Equality North Carolina, "We’re going to have to grow the base by creating coalitions and working with folks on the local level with lots of different communities. We’ll be building a movement that will ultimately lead to a statewide effort.”

The Twin Peaks bar in San Francisco's Castro District has been given landmark status.

Happy birthday, RuPaul!

The United Nations have until Tuesday to decide whether or not to come out against state-sponsored discrimination against LGBT people.

Rather than getting with the times and learning to accept the fact that there are gay people in this world, Linda Harvey and her conservative group, Mission: America, are trying to boycott all of the companies that scored well on Human Rights Campaign's Corporate Equality Index. From their form letter: "You are highly-rated by the [HRC] as a company supportive of many aspects of the homosexual activist agenda. I am hoping you have done this out of ignorance about the true nature of both homosexuality and the goals of aggressive homosexual advocacy."