News: Rea Carey, Justice Dept, Olympics, Monet, Barack Obama

Conservative Orange County Register says high court's decision on marriage was justified.

MAG: What's on Obama's iPod.

Matt Damon's summer look: flab with pornstache.

Rea Carey to succeed Matt Foreman as executive director of Gay and Lesbian Task Force.

REPORT: Justice Dept. politicized hiring practices to favor Republican candidates: "'Many qualified candidates' were rejected for the department’s honors program because of what was perceived as a liberal bias, the report found. Those practices, the report concluded, 'constituted misconduct and also violated the department’s policies and civil service law that prohibit discrimination in hiring based on political or ideological affiliations.'" FLASHBACK: DOJ Looking into Possible Firing of Atty Over Sexual Orientation...

Ad campaign for Dexter in Portugal features severed limbs in butcher cases and knifed corpses on the street!

British soldiers see 13 UFOs in sky above barracks: "I was on duty in the guard room when the other boys outside began shouting. I went out to see what the commotion was about and could see thirteen craft in the skies. They were zig-zagging, but I filmed two before they disappeared. They were like rotating cubes with multiple colours. I made a full report to my commanding officers and gave them my footage. The other lads were as amazed by it as I was."

Monet water lily painting goes for $80.5 million at Christie's, doubling previous record for the artist.

Washington D.C. city councilman and former mayor Marion Barry says he would support a bill legalizing same-sex marriage there.

Bill Clinton offers support to Obama; Obama asks donors to raise money for Clinton.

Orlando Bloom reveals his back end in the Canary Islands.

Justin Timberlake's 'Play' fragrance may smell clean but his feet are filthy.

Out swimmer Andrew Langenfeld to compete for a spot on the Olympic team in the 100-meter butterfly.

NYC Chelsea nightclub 1 Oak reacts to reports yesterday that they covered up a gay bashing at the venue. Page Six: "Club sources say the night was not promoted as a 'gay night' and that the attacker was re strained by security but broke away. The victim said 1Oak owner Scott Sartiano insisted on giving him a car to the hospital instead of calling an ambulance. A rep for the club said, '1Oak is committed to providing an environment of safety and security to patrons every night. This incident was handled by security and staff immediately and this type of inappropriate behavior will not be tolerated at 1Oak.'"

Art Fag City talks to Nayland Blake about who they'd all like to fuck.

Anti-gay assault suspect under arrest in Minneapolis: "A gay Twin Cities man, the apparent victim of a hate crime, was badly beaten last Saturday. He claims a stranger approached him near 6th and Cedar Ave. South in Minneapolis, and asked if he was gay. The victim answered yes proudly, and the suspect hit the man in the face, yelling that he hated homosexuals. Abdirizak Mohamed has been charged with assault in the fourth degree with bias—a hate crime with enhanced penalties."

Michelle Obama to give keynote address at Gay and Lesbian Leadership Council Gala DNC fundraiser on Thursday in New York.

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SF Politicos Recognize Boycott of Human Rights Campaign Dinner

San Francisco Supervisors Tom Ammiano and Bevan Dufty are among those local politicians supporting a boycott and protest of the Human Rights Campaign dinner in that city next month, over the organization's failure to support a trans-inclusive employment non-discrimination bill (ENDA) last year. According to the San Francisco Chronicle, "The city's two LGBT Democratic clubs support the boycott, as does the San Francisco Labor Council. Assemblyman Mark Leno and state Sen. Carole Migden, both of San Francisco, also are not attending the event."

It's a scene that has played out in New York (pictured) and other cities.

The paper reports: "On Tuesday, San Francisco Supervisors Tom Ammiano and Bevan Dufty introduced a resolution at City Hall calling for a bill that includes transgender people and recognizing the boycott. 'The Human Rights Campaign should not be human rights cowards,' Ammiano said at a news conference at the San Francisco Lesbian Gay Bisexual Transgender Community Center. He said the organization seems uneasy with transgender issues. Dufty said he will skip the fundraising dinner for the first time in 23 years and instead will make dinner at his home for people protesting outside the event."

Matt Foreman, former executive director of the National Gay and Lesbian Task Force, will be among those protesting outside the event. Said Foreman: "What is going on here is an emperor-has-no-clothes moment. We still don't have one single federal law that protects gay people, let alone transgender people."

HRC defend its actions in a statement from President Joe Solmonese: "HRC's position is that we could not oppose - and, in fact, should support - legislation to provide crucial civil rights protections that would be brought to the House floor for a vote, even though we did not and, certainly, would not have chosen that course...At a time when our community is threatened, once again, with a cynical election-year ploy that could hurt our families, we believe that it's time to set aside our differences and fight for what we all want."

The HRC dinner, which will benefit marriage equality (the organization has already made an initial pledge of $500,000 to the Equality for All marriage coalition), takes place on July 26th at the Westin St. Francis hotel.

Activists to boycott gay-rights group dinner [sf chronicle]

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News: Orcas, Dax Shepard, Homecoming King, Alabama

NPR runs heartbreaking piece on two boys who identify as girls: "It’s really hard for him. He’ll disappear and close a door, and we’ll find him playing with dolls and Polly Pockets and … the stuff that he’s drawn to...He really struggles with the color pink. He really struggles with the color pink."

Dax Shepard appears to be acting out the role of Abercrombie door dude in the new film When in Rome.

Neil Patrick Harris's Barney shows off his new trophy date, Britney Spears. Watch it.

Jay Bakker to spend Mother's Day in honor of the late Tammy Faye pressuring megachurch pastor Joel Osteen of Lakewood Church to sit down and talk to LGBT activist group Soulforce: "I want to celebrate my mother's life, and help spread the message she lived and preached. We need to stop thinking of ourselves as 'us' and 'them.' We hope the families of Lakewood Church will open their hearts and minds to us and sit down and have a conversation and share a meal. ... Let's put our differences aside and share the love and hope of Christ."

Details on the first dates of Madonna's "Sticky and Sweet" world tour.

Arizona Christian group Alliance Defense Fund has hand in New York same-sex marriage cases.

Shawnee Mission East High School loves its gay Homecoming King.

Investigators say photographers won't be charged for photos of teenage water polo players that turned up on gay porn websites: "The Orange County district attorney's office says a four-month investigation determined Scott Cornelius and Allen Rockwell didn't commit any crimes. Cornelius, a University of California, Irvine, police employee currently on paid leave, is still being investigated by the university to determine if he violated college policies. Photographs of youths as young as 14 taken by Cornelius and Rockwell appeared on homosexual pornographic Web sites. But district attorney's office spokeswoman Farrah Emami says 'legally there were no criminal charges we could file.'"

Killer whales photographed hunting dolphins for the first time ever.

Matt Foreman's new perspective.

Your money's worth: Mario Lopez embroiled in Broadway bicep controversy.

Two card stud.

Alabama legislature passes two pro-gay bills: "In an email from State Rep. Patricia Todd, she announced that the Alabama House of Representatives passed the Hate Crimes Bill sponsored by Rep. Alvin Holmes of Montgomery by a vote of 46 to 44, mostly along party lines. While the fate of the bill is unsure as it moves to the Senate, this is huge progress, as the legislation was defeated last year. Also passed (unanimously) was an anti-bullying bill sponsored by Rep. Betty Carol Graham of Alexander City and Sen. Parker Griffith of Huntsville. This is also going to to the Senate."

Truce Off: McGreevey's fail to reach a settlement in their divorce trial.

Don't sit on the benches in New York subway stations unless you want bedbugs.

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Governor Paterson Vows to Bring Full Marriage Equality to NY

New York Governor David Paterson delivered a funny and eloquent video message (watch it) to the crowd at last night's National Gay and Lesbian Task Force Leadership Awards dinner since he was being "held hostage" in Albany and couldn't be there in person.

Joked Paterson: "If any of you can hear me, please contact the FBI or Interpol. I'm being held hostage in the dysfunctional Albany. I wanted to come to this dinner tonight. I'm actually tied to this chair and a gun is being pointed at my head. They're trying to get me to reverse my opinions on a number of issues, but I won't do it. If I am shot or killed during this interview, remember that I did the right thing."

Paterson praised outgoing Executive Director Matt Foreman as well as former Governor Eliot Spitzer: "I am proud to have run on a ticket with Eliot Spitzer that became the first ticket in this country to actually advocate for marriage equality for all citizens and to win on that premise."

He added: "Marriage equality in NY may not come just this moment but it is no longer an issue mostly for conviction, it is an issue for courage. People more and more understand that when people love each other they should express it in whatever way they deem necessary and possible. They should have all the rights that the rest of us have. And so, we willl push on and bring full marriage equality to New York State. And when we have done that, we're going to do more. We're going to protect young people from bullies. We're going to protect against the discrimination of people in the transgender community, and we're going to fight for decent and affordable healthcare for all citizens in this state. If you will join with me, and if we work hard enough, we can change the face of New York, which will be the catalyst to changing national policy."

Watch Paterson's clip, AFTER THE JUMP...

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News: Oscar Wilde, Tasmania, Project Runway, Erotic Jesus

Gay property developers driven from Tasmania by homophobic locals after dead kangaroo is found nailed to door. Stephen Roche: "It's been an interesting ride. But I don't feel as though I've been pushed out at all. It's a very small minority that have had any sort of homophobic prejudice. Tassie's probably got a way to go with acceptance of gay people."

Shopping with Milo Ventimiglia.

Lifetime poaches Project Runway from Bravo and NBC is MAD AS HELL.

Joe.My.God reports on the National Gay & LEsbian Task Force's New York Leadership Awards which said good-bye to Executive Director Matt Foreman.

Over 100 "pro-family" leaders applaud Romania's bigotry.

iTunes Canada removes Jamaican dancehall "Murder music": "This action followed a campaign led by the Canadian LGBT rights group Egale and Stop Murder Music. The songs include advocating or approval of killing gays: 'iTunes is exercising its corporate responsibility by pulling this murder music and raising the bar for other retailers and distributors to do the same,' says Akim Larcher, founder of SMM. He calls iTune’s decision a victory for the gay community in Canada and in the Caribbean."

Oscar Wilde brand alive and well and living in Paris: "In his day, Wilde - iconoclastic, bisexual, Irish - found fame and, briefly, fortune by dint of genius, charm and application. In his own time, he was an outsider and an exotic. Now he’s one of us. We understand his craving for celebrity. We share his obsession with youth. ('Youth is the one thing worth having,' he wrote in The Picture of Dorian Gray.) Gay or straight, we are easy with his sexuality. Indeed, so prejudiced are we in his favour, we tend to overlook the fact that most of the young men in whom he took an interest were little more than boys."

Christian radio station miffed over Wisconsin school district's dress-up day: "Students at Pineview Elementary in Reedsburg had been dressing in costume all last week as part of an annual school tradition called Wacky Week. On Friday, students were encouraged to dress either as senior citizens or as members of the opposite sex. A local resident informed the Voice of Christian Youth America on Friday. The Milwaukee-based radio network responded by interrupting its morning programming for a special broadcast that aired on nine radio stations throughout Wisconsin. The broadcast criticized the dress-up day and accused the district of promoting alternative lifestyles."

Will you make it to third base with Neil Patrick Harris. These bitches did.

UC-Berkeley blood drive encourages gay men to find donors to take their place.

Sex and the City girls the star attraction at a benefit for The Point Foundation.

Erotic Jesus exhibit sparks outrage in Austria: "The source of the dispute, which Austrian media has dubbed Vienna's version of the Mohammad caricature row, is a retrospective honoring Austria's cherished artist Alfred Hrdlicka, who turned 80 earlier this year...The Church hastily removed the main picture, 'a homosexual orgy' of the Apostles as Hrdlicka describes it. But the protest has continued, much to the surprise of the small Cathedral Museum which is nestled down a narrow street in Vienna's historic Gothic quarter. The museum's director defends both Hrdlicka's work and his decision to host the artist's controversial versions of biblical imagery in a museum tied to the Catholic Church. 'We think Hrdlicka is entitled to represent people in this carnal, drastic way,' Bernhard Boehler said in his small museum office, across the street from Vienna's imposing St. Stephan's Cathedral. He said the museum never intended to offend people but that art should be allowed to provoke a debate."

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Matt Foreman Charges Barney Frank "Squeamish" on Trans Issues

Noting that he is leaving his job and therefore able to talk candidly about some of his experiences, outgoing National Gay & Lesbian Task Force Executive Director Matt Foreman told Michelangelo Signorile on his radio show Wednesday that he felt Representative Barney Frank was "squeamish" on transgender issues.

Said Foreman: "Of the many things I've loved about being in the Task Force, is that, you know, we're a progressive organization, and we're proud of it, and that we have a history of speaking the truth and seeing the world in a bigger way than just a 'gay-specific,' 'me-first-all-the-time' attitude that affects so much of our movement. I think what really happened [ on ENDA] is [Speaker Nancy Pelosi's] people said 'Look, Congress has a terrible reputation right now, they're not delivering for any progressive causes... What do we have to do to deliver to our progressive allies?' That means labor and health and environment and gays. And, so, I mean, I don't know this for a fact, but I would bet my life that this is what happened: They went to Barney Frank and said 'What do we need to pass ENDA?' Representative Frank, who has always been pretty squeamish on the trans issue, and I guess I can say these things because I am leaving my job...you know, said 'Look the best way to pass ENDA, and the easiest way is to -- let's take out gender identity,' and I don't think the Speaker's people thought this through--didn't think it through--and then they said 'OK, let's do it'."

Frank called the remarks "absurd" and has scheduled an appearance on Signorile's Sirius show today at 3:30 to respond.

PageOneQ has audio clips of Foreman's appearance.

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Towleroad Guide to the Tube #243

STATE OF THE MOVEMENT: Outgoing Nationsl Gay & Lesbian Task Force Executive Director gives his 'State of the Movement' Address at the 20th National Conference on LGBT Equality: Creating Change. Parts one and two. (source: good as you)

JOHN MCCAIN: The Double-Talk Express rides again.

BRIDESHEAD REVISITED: A music video about the doomed love between Charles and Sebastian with music by ABC.

Check out our previous guides to the Tube here.

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News: Vanity Fair, Matt Foreman, AIDS Self-Medication, Eric Dane

New Republic editor James Kirchik questions legacy of National Gay & Lesbian Task Force's outgoing executive director Matt Foreman: "He was an outspoken opponent of the war in Iraq. He fought against privatizing Social Security. He stood foursquare against the erosion of abortion rights. But what any of these issues have to do with lobbying for gay rights -- presumably Foreman’s job description -- is beyond me. His job description, though, was the problem. Foreman, after all, is just a symptom of the larger problem with NGLTF: It's a garden-variety liberal interest group posing as a gay rights organization."

Rolling Stone on Spears: an American tragedy.

"100 Reverends" to march in Sydney's Gay and Lesbian Mardi Gras parade to apologize for the church's hostility to LGBT people, but not everyone's happy about it: "Not everyone who is part of that approves of homosexual people, they’re just apologising for the way the church has behaved.We’re listed but we’re not going to be one of the main ones because that could be seen as too narrow."

British Christian group lobbies against gays adopting children: "The decision to campaign against same sex adoptions comes after a city magistrate and CPA member, stood down over the issue. Andrew McClintock, 63, resigned from his position in the family courts after he was refused permission to opt out of cases that resulted in children being placed with same sex parents. Former city councillor Sid Cordle from CPA, said: 'People in Sheffield have a right to say if they were tragically killed in an accident and their children had to be adopted, then their children should go to a father and a mother.'"

Grey's Anatomy doc Eric Dane has skin cancer scare.

Two gay/bi men, Joshuah and Neil, join posse of 20-somethings for Big Brother 9.

Gay ball marks the end of Brazil's Carnival: "Thousands of onlookers gawked as men in glittering miniskirts, evening dresses, bead-studded lingerie and feathered headdresses shimmied down a wide avenue to the sounds of ABBA's 'Dancing Queen,' for a party that would last until dawn Wednesday. After a week that saw everything from a scandal over a planned Holocaust-themed float — later nixed by a judge — to a samba queen's quest to set a world record for the most plastic surgeries, revelers spent Carnival's last hours dancing the samba behind street bands."

Two Australian police officers may face prison after telling an inmate that his girlfriend was a transgender woman: "When he got out on bail he went around to her house and seriously assaulted her. Constables Tyrone Stacey and Brendan Ritson have pleaded not guilty to the charges. Back in September 2006 26 year old Jacobson was arrested under suspicion of theft. Constable Stacey looked up information on his girlfriend Brigitte Fell and discovered that her gender was actually male. Constable Ritson saw the screen and yelled out to Jacobson, 'You’re rooting a bloke.' When he refused to believe it the Police actually showed him written proof, saying, 'See, it’s a guy.'"

Vanity Fair cancels annual glam Oscar party amid writer's strike.

In rare sell-out appearance, poet Mary Oliver charms Seattle.

Time: Gay men self-medicating with experimental AIDS drugs. "'There's a philosophy in parts of the gay community that says its okay to take some risks in having sex,' says Dr. Dan Bowers, a senior partner in Pacific Oaks Medical Group in Beverly Hills, Calif., one of the country's largest private practices treating the HIV/AIDS community. Based on results of lab studies that suggest ARVs may confer some protective benefit when taken prior to virus exposure, some people have begun self-administering the drugs like a morning-after pill, in the hopes that the drugs' pre-exposure prophylactic benefits may apply after unsafe sex too. The antiretroviral drug tenofovir, for example, which was used in the recent Texas study, is often packaged as a potent cocktail with Viagra and Ecstasy or Valium, and sold in dance clubs for $100."

Amy Winehouse buzzes back to Rehab.

Log Cabin Republicans facilitate Laguna Beach resolution against anti-gay marriage amendment: "Working with the City Council, California Log Cabin Republicans helped secure a resolution at the city council meeting this evening reiterating it’s opposition to anti-marriage equality ballot measures. The vote was 5-0 in favor of the resolution and the position was to be conveyed to the California Supreme Court which is considering a lawsuit on marriage equality."

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News: Tina Turner, Galveston, Matt Foreman, Best Buy

Gays and lesbians in Washington state ask for divorce rights: "Supporters of the legislation unveiled Tuesday say it seeks to provide financial security for same-sex couples by establishing community property rights, probate protections and joint responsibility for debts. Murray, who is one of a handful of openly gay lawmakers in Olympia, say gays and lesbians seek not only the protections, 'but we are also asking for the responsibilities that go to marriage.' Senate Bill 6716 and House Bill 3104 also would provide domestic partners end-of-life rights, nursing-home visitation, veterans benefits and spousal testimonial privileges that married couples enjoy."

Best Buy quickly takes advantage of Heath Ledger's death: "A small sign, created by the company’s finest 1998-era laser printer, informs its customers that they should 'Remember a Great Actor Through Great Performances', tastefully suggesting that customers — who may not have even been aware of his passing — grieve the only way they know how: By reliving the romantic hijinx that is 10 Things I Hate About You."

Tina Turner and Béyonce to duet at the Grammys.

Matt Foreman to resign from National Gay & Lesbian Task Force, to lead Gay & Lesbian Program at the Evelyn & Walter Haas, Jr. Fund: "I will always love the Task Force, our work, our board, and our staff. Having served for 18 years as the executive director at three LGBT organizations, I’m incredibly privileged to be able to continue to work in and for the movement in a new role at the Haas, Jr. Fund. I have no doubt that the Task Force will continue to be the uncompromising progressive voice of the LGBT movement and to thrive and help lead our community to complete equality.”

Republican Fred Thompson drops presidential bid: "Today I have withdrawn my candidacy for President of the United States. I hope that my country and my party have benefited from our having made this effort. Jeri and I will always be grateful for the encouragement and friendship of so many wonderful people."

Madonna, Marilyn Monroe, and Shakira team up for Super Bowl commercial.

In new online game, user assumes role of presidential candidates and then shoots his or her opponents in the halls of the White House: ". While the ammo is paintball, the game on the highly trafficked miniclip.com site allows kids to train a rifle scope on six presidential aspirants and squeeze off a hail of shots (which are accompanied with a rat-a-tat sound). The game, 'Presidential Paintball,' features six candidates in the crosshairs: Barack Obama; Hillary Clinton; John Edwards; Mitt Romney; John McCain; and Rudy Giuliani (it seems the game was developed before the ascension of Mike Huckabee). If a candidate wins a head-to-head confrontation, he/she advances to a new shootout, which occurs in various White House settings, including outside the Oval Office."

Brad Renfro had a son nobody knew about.

Galveston, Texas opens LGBT visitors center.

David Beckham makes UNICEF trip to Sierra Leone.

New poll reveals attitudes toward gay people and sex in Britain: "18 percent of those surveyed consider gay relationships are always wrong, while 32 percent see homosexual sex as always or mostly wrong. Moreover, four in 10 people (42 percent) think gay male couples are not as capable of being good parents as heterosexual ones -- although three in 10 (31 percent) believe they are."

Sydney lawmakers begin dealing with the homophobic violence issue that plagues their city: “We’re not blaming any specific person for this, but violence is obviously a complex issue and we need to be using all opportunities to raise it. It’s got to be policies on the ground. Clearly the local council needs to work with police, but there’s a real role for it in changing what that entertainment precinct is used for. It’s quite a different place during the evening than during the day time. We support the measures to bring back the shops people need – fruit and veg, butcher, etc."

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NGLTF to Senate Ethics Committee: Larry Craig Probe Homophobic

According to The Hill, the National Gay and Lesbian Task Force today will deliver a letter to Senator Barbara Boxer and Sen. John Cornyn, the Republican vice chairman of the ethics panel, claiming that the committee has singled out Craig for investigation because his behavior is homosexual while ignoring equally repugnant behavior by heterosexual Senator David Vitter of Louisiana.

Vitter's name was found in the records of Deborah Jeane Palfrey, the D.C. Madam, and since then, according to The Hill, "allegations have surfaced that Vitter consorted with prostitutes in New Orleans. Jeanette Maier, who was convicted in 2002 for running a brothel, has claimed Vitter was a client." Vitter has been an outspoken defender of "the sanctity of marriage".

An ethics probe of Vitter has yet to be launched. The Hill says that the NGLTF sees it as evidence of a "witch hunt motivated by the homophobia of GOP Senate leaders." The group is demanding a response.

The letter from NGLTF vice chairman Matt Foreman is scheduled to be delivered today and reads, in part: “We are writing to state the inherent contradiction between your treatment of allegations of ethical misconduct by Senator Larry Craig and Senator David Vitter and to insist that you open an investigation into Sen. Vitter’s conduct. There is no explanation for the diametrically opposed responses to these two situations, other than hypocrisy tinged by homophobia. There are only two ways to resolve this: drop the investigation into Sen. Craig or investigate the allegations surrounding Sen. Vitter."

The Hill notes that although there has been no investigation of Vitter he did receive a standing ovation from the Senate Republican Conference after apologizing for the DC Madam allegations.

Groups press ethics panel on Sen. Craig [the hill]

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Barney Frank and Activists Dig in Their Heels Over ENDA

Above, highlights from Barney Frank's press conference yesterday on ENDA.

The conflict between the Democratic legislature's will to pass a bill that excludes transgender people and the desire of the vast majority of LGBT groups to pass an inclusive bill has spilled into the mainstream media over the past 24 hours.

The AP reports: "The debate over including transgender people has sharply divided gay rights activists, many of whom are trying to kill a stripped-down bill without protections for transgender workers that Frank and Democratic leaders hope will win House passage this year."

Both Frank and the executive director of the National Gay & Lesbian Task Force Matt Foreman have acknowledged that it's strange for the two groups to be on opposing sides of a progressive issue.

Said Foreman: "We're not going to be split off this way. We're driven by principle. No civil rights movement has ever left a part of its community behind - and we're not about to be the first. I never thought in a million years we would be on the opposite side of Barney Frank and it is painful."

Frank countered, "Politically, the notion that you don't do anything until you can do everything is self-defeating. These things take awhile. The transgender issue is of relatively recent vintage. Fighting your friends can sometimes be difficult."

Gay Rights Backers Split on Bias Bill [ap]

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Matt Foreman to Dem. Candidates: End Your Spineless Silence

National Gay and Lesbian Task Force Executive Director Matt Foreman, who recently spoke at the Fort Lauderdale rally protesting statements by Mayor Jim Naugle, has a message for the Democratic Presidential candidates. He's sick and tired of gays and lesbians being thrown "under the political bus by politicians either in the White House or those who want to get there."

In a statement issued yesterday, Foreman calls on the Democratic political candidates, particularly frontrunners Clinton, Obama and Edwards to stop "parsing their support" of gays and lesbians "in the language of careful legislative reform."

Says Foreman: "We deserve and we must demand from the Democratic 2008 presidential candidates the simple and straightforward statement that our humanity requires full respect and fair treatment by all and, further, an equally simple and straightforward condemnation of those who seek to use our lives for political gain. This needs be said in front of all audiences — not just in front of us."

Read Matt Foreman's full statement after the jump...

--TEXT of MATT FOREMAN statement--

The Democratic candidates for president, as a group and individually, express more support for lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) issues and legislative and policy initiatives to improve our lives than any prior set of presidential candidates in the history of American politics. These new standards of support for LGBT people are worthy of our applause, our appreciation and our accolades.

Still, no major Democratic candidate has made the kind of sweeping statement of inclusion as did Gov. Bill Clinton in 1992, when he declared to a huge crowd of LGBT people in Los Angeles, “I have a vision for America and you are part of it.” His words brought tears to the eyes of the audience and rang out across the United States. Even the most skeptical of us in the LGBT community knew that we heard something previously unspoken by any major political figure.

We also know and painfully remember that Clinton’s vision of America did not translate into much of anything positive for us at the federal level. We can recount our bitter disappointments during Clinton’s time in the White House: the crash and burn of the effort to rescind the Department of Defense policy of discharging gay and lesbian service members, the secret late-night signing of the Defense of Marriage Act, and an ushering in of abstinence-only sexuality education in the public schools. Clinton couldn’t or wouldn’t deliver on the specifics, but at least he held us in his larger vision of a healthy society.

Since 1980, we have suffered the gross indignities of defamations and slanders from a ravenous and rapacious right-wing anti-gay movement, a veritable industry churning out anti-LGBT propaganda at every turn. We endured the AIDS epidemic and the Reagan administration’s cruel indifference while our people fell to illness and then to death. We saw the U.S. Supreme Court uphold state laws that branded us criminals for our sexuality. We have been clubbed by an onslaught of ballot questions that put our lives up to popular vote. Time and again, we’ve been thrown under the political bus by politicians either in the White House or those who want to get there.

All of this misery has been exacerbated exponentially by the spinelessness or unwillingness of all but a few national leaders to take a stand for us and denounce the animus unleashed on us. Many of our “friends” have simply looked the other way.

We bear our scars and yet remain unbowed. But, we are still waiting for the country’s political leadership to defend our right to live and thrive as a matter of principle, not parse our dreams as a matter of misguided political calculation.

This far into the 2008 race, things don’t look all that good. People who think GOP candidates are backing away from using us to inflame and divide are simply wrong. Republican rhetoric is peppered with code that thinly disguises — and affirms — anti-LGBT sentiment with references to safeguarding the family, the sanctity of marriage, the foundation of civilization. For example, Mitt Romney said in Derry, N.H., “The source of America’s strength is the American people…family oriented American people.” And, John McCain on his official Web site: “The family represents the foundation of Western Civilization and civil society and John McCain believes the institution of marriage is a union between one man and one woman.” Let’s be clear: Romney and McCain do not include our families when they speak of “the family.” The Web sites of other Republicans, except for Ron Paul and Rudy Giuliani’s, explicitly reject full and equal recognition of our relationships.

But, what of the Democrats? Sadly, mostly silence. You can find our issues explicitly referenced on only three candidates’ sites (Kucinich, Richardson and Gravel). Frontrunners Clinton, Obama and Edwards carefully parse their support of our people into specific reforms. We find no evidence that the Democratic frontrunners counter Republicans’ anti-LGBT speech with routine and positive inclusion of LGBT people in their visions for a whole and healthy society.

It’s déjà vu all over again — the GOP often slyly and sometimes audaciously whips us for political gain. The Democrats include us — sorta — but only in response to a direct question and typically in the language of careful legislative reform.

This must change, starting now, because at this moment in history, reforms are both important and insufficient.

We deserve and we must demand from the Democratic 2008 presidential candidates the simple and straightforward statement that our humanity requires full respect and fair treatment by all and, further, an equally simple and straightforward condemnation of those who seek to use our lives for political gain. This needs be said in front of all audiences — not just in front of us.

We need leadership. We need strength of vision. And we need to know that the promises of reform come from the candidates' understanding of LGBT people as inseparable from the national community in which we live. There can be no more equivocating or silence about the goodness of our personhood, our families, our relationships. Period.

--END--

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