Mass. GOP Sends Hateful Mailer Smearing LGBT Friendly Dem

The Massachusetts Republican Party today sent out the above mailer smearing Democratic state rep. candidate Josh Cutler and his allies at MassEquality, which endorsed both him and a lawsuit that would have allowed state-funded reassignment surgery for a transgender inmate.

Apparently those two facts mean that Cutler is a "radical" or owes "these radicals" or something equally, nebulously frightening for the right.

You can check out the other sider of the flier AFTER THE JUMP.

News: Meth Vaccine, Ohio, Eric Bodenweiser, Amtrak

The National Organization for Marriage funneled $1.6 million into the Minnesota marriage equality ballot fight. "All told, Minnesota for Marriage raised more than $3.7 million so far this year, much of it from the Catholic Church, affiliated groups and the National Organization for Marriage. That's still far less than the group's opponents."

The Rock dressed up as "The People's Hulk" for Halloween, so the 1% better not make him angry.

Face it, gullibility is charming.

Hurricane Sandy may have permanently altered Fire Island's geography: Predicting "dramatic changes" to the island’s geography, [Fire Island National Seashore superintendent Chris Soller] mentioned several breaches on the far eastern end of the island, with one so deep that it could effectively divide Fire Island into two separate islands."

Always classy, Chris Brown attended a Halloween party thrown by Rihanna, a former girlfriend he abused, while dressed as a member of the Taliban, a group that wants to keep women barefoot, pregnant and uneducated.

Amtrak will hopefully have limited service between NYC and parts of New Jersey tomorrow.

Eric Bodenweiser, a 53-year old member of the Delaware Family Policy Council and GOP candidate for that state's senate, was indicted this week on multiple charges stemming from allegations that he sexually abused a boy from 1987 until 1990, when the boy was 10-13.

This is potentially good news: "Scientists at the Scripps Research Institute in California successfully tested the methamphetamine vaccine on rats. When given meth, the vaccinated critters showed few signs of intoxication."

On gay fathers on television: "Thinking about the latest crop of gay dads on television I can’t help but recall a popular chant from the Act Up demonstrations whenever someone was arrested or harassed: 'The whole world is watching! The whole world is watching!' The irony is that, too often, the world wasn’t watching then. But now, thanks to these primetime characters, people are definitely watching. They just aren’t seeing much of the truth."

Sandra Bullock and son Louis are potentially the cutest Halloween in Hollywood couple.

Uh-oh. Sorry, Sandy and Louie, but Neil Patrick Harris and David Burtka and their twins may actually be the cutest costume winners!

The Vatican loves the latest James Bond flick, Skyfall.

Let sleeping bunny rabbits lie.

The Kardashian clan dressed up as the Bat family for Halloween.

Is Helena Bomham Carter in costume?

The Seattle Times definitely does not approve of anti-gay marriage commercials that claim passing Resolution 74 and legalizing marriage equality will force homosexuality onto school curricula. "R-74 is about a legal covenant of marriage for loving couples and their families. Ignore the shameless scare tactics. Approve R-74," the editorial board wrote in an op-ed called "Anti-Referendum 74 school ad is shameless".

Dan Evans, the GOP governor of Washington State from 1965 to 1977 and a U.S. Senator from 1983 until 1989, came out for Referendum 74. "[The Referendum allowing marriage equality] just seems right and reflects the fundamental value of fairness that we treasure here in Washington," he said. 

Washington Post's The Fix on Ohio: "After reviewing all of the available public polling data as well as talking to operatives in both parties about the private polls they are privy to, we are convinced that Ohio is a 1-3 point race in President Obama’s favor at the moment."

If you're interested, you can travel to Ohio to stump for Mr. Obama.

President Obama today said campaign rival Mitt Romney's "bet is on cynicism".

In addition to endorsing President Obama and Elizabeth Warren, Massachusetts gay paper Bay Windows has endorsed openly gay GOP congressional hopeful Richard Tisei. Perhaps tellingl, though, Obama and Warren both got specific blurbs, Tisei's name is just part of a general list of candidates the paper prefers.

Mass State Senate Candidate Implies Gay 'Lifestyle' Is 'Sad, Meaningless'

In 2004, when she hosted a public access show called Speak Out!, Sandi Martinez claimed to know people who had been "cured" of gay desires and now realize that their gay "lifestyles" were empty.

"We've seen former homosexuals come out, who've been saved out of the lifestyle, who will tell you it was the love of God, that their lives were sad and empty and meaningless," said Martinez, currently a GOP candidate for the Massachusetts State Senate, during a 2004 Speak Out! episode in which she also slammed Halloween "not something that Christians should be involved in" and called it "a pagan invasion."

Martinez also implied in that episode that LGBT people don't deserve civil rights, saying, "They want to follow the same avenue of civil rights that many groups have done… The homosexual community has quite often used, 'we have our rights to do this, we have our rights to do that, and you're discriminating against us, etc.'"

Asked about the remarks, Martinez's campaign manager, Tom Firth, accused Lowell Sun reporter Grant Welker of "hav[ing] an agenda" and denied those comments were ever made. "There was no such remarks on the video. To suggest otherwise is a clear distortion and biased reporting."

Martinez, who told Welker "I don't consider what you're doing reporting," claimed she would take time to review the tapes and provide a longer comment but never called him back. Firth meanwhile insisted "[Martinez] doesn't have any anger toward homosexuals or cultists."

Gay Candidate Richard Tisei Releases Unconventional Ad: VIDEO

This actually is nice, Massachusetts U.S. House candidate Richard Tisei. Thank you. While airing a beach ad right after the East Coast's most devastating hurricane in history may be bad timing, a double-digit lead over Democratic incumbent John Tierney may allow for a little risk taking.

Watch Tisei's video AFTER THE JUMP.

News: Pipsqueak, NFL, Sandy's Full Moon, Scotland

You'll be happy to hear that Pipsqueak the adorable goat has been adopted.

Massachusetts Congressional candidate Richard Tisei again says that more voters have an issue with his GOP status than his being gay. "Being gay in Massachusetts isn't a problem," he told CBS News. "Being Republican is much more of a hurdle."

Female members of the Israel Gay Youth are lobbying for the group's senior leadership to appoint more women. "In recent days we find ourselves in a familiar state of agitation, after another woman is fired in order to make way for a ‘more suitable’ man," the women wrote. "This is even more outrageous than in other cases, since this is taking place in a relatively small gay organization, where most activists are volunteers; unfortunately, the move reflects an all-too-familiar alignment of the social power hierarchy."

LGBT activists in South Florida are mourning the death of Richard Cimoch: "A politically active Dolphin Democrat, who won their Volunteer of the Year Award in 2001, Cimoch had served for many years as the enthusiastic and energetic co-chair of Pride South Florida."

Take a listen to Lenny Kravitz and Aerosmith's new song for the NFL, written as a replacement for the one sung by homophobe Hank Williams Jr. That was dropped after Williams compared President Obama to Hitler.

Let it be known that Olympic diver Tom Daley has a Keek account.

Two New Zealand parliamentarian's, the National Party's Kanwaljit Singh Bakshi and Labour's Su'a William Sio, attended a protest against gay marriage this weekend. Bakshi is on the committee that considers civil rights legislation.

The Boston Globe covers the thawing relationship between evangelical and LGBT communities: "Another hopeful sign is that some evangelical leaders understand that they have a problem, too. 'We, the church, had utterly failed to reflect Jesus to gay people,' says Bill Henson, founder of the Acton-based Lead Them Home Ministries, which trains evangelical leaders to minister to gay, lesbian, and transgender people."

A new poll puts Obama three points ahead in Minnesota, where a question on defining marriage as one man, one woman will also be decidd.

Alex McQuillan on the secular nature of France's anti-gay movement: "The French Republic was founded on the ideas of equality and a French concept called laïcité—the complete absence of religion in governmental affairs. This means political discourse in France must be entirely free of religious rhetoric. So what you have in France is a large group of old people battling civil rights, not with religious ideals, but with science, sociology, and cold, reductive rationality."

The full moon may enhance Hurricane's Sandy impact. "When the moon waxes to its full phase Monday afternoon, high tides along the Eastern Seaboard will rise about 20 percent higher than normal, even without the help of Sandy's storm surge..." Stay safe out there!

Lady Gaga has a slew of great Halloween costumes to choose from.

John Deighan, the Catholic Church's Parliamentary Officer in Scotland, wrote a letter accusing LGBT activists of "intolerance". "Cultivating victim status has effectively put Stonewall beyond reproach in the public square. An attempt to counter their antagonistic ‘some people are gay, get over it’ bus advertising campaign was halted before it could even get off the ground by London Mayor, Boris Johnson," he wrote. "The constant promotion by the media and entertainment industry that anything gay is good has caused informed public debate to be dropped. In its place we have intolerance and intimidation."

College Football Players Get 'Served' Scholarships by the Cops: VIDEO

It's probably not good news when the cops show up to serve you with papers, which is the whole point of this awesome surprise scholarship announcement.

Check it out, AFTER THE JUMP...

(via buzzfeed)