Rep. Todd Akin: I Will Outlaw Things I Know Nothing About (VIDEO)

The biggest practical problem with letting elected officials meddle in people's personal lives is this: They often don't know anything about the things with which they're meddling.

AFTER THE JUMP, hear US Rep. Todd Akin, a Republican of Missouri, defend the outlawing of the morning-after pill, which he insists causes abortions, which it does not. (Rather, it prevents fertilization from occurring in the first place. It takes a while for even a very determined sperm to rendezvous with a willing and waiting egg.) 

Rep. Akin has just become the Republican nominee bound to take on Sen. Claire McCaskill in November. Sen. McCaskill was a vocal proponent of the repeal of Don't Ask, Don't Tell, and is currently engaged in an Obamaesque evolution on marriage equality. Rep. Akin is undergoing no such evolution -- he thinks marriage equality is likely to destroy civilization.

Missouri Woman Says She Was Brutally Attacked by Group of Teen Neighbors Because She is Gay

A Cape Girardeau, Missouri woman is recovering from injuries she sustained from an attack by teenage neighbors, directed at her over her sexual orientation. She says the teens have been harassing her and her partner, Southeast Missourian reports:

The couple say the teen began shouting slurs at them, as had happened on several other occasions, and they responded by telling her to get off their property. There have been other times in the past several months, the couple said, that they have told the children's parents that they were concerned with anti-gay slurs coming from the children. But no physical threats had happened until now.

The couple say the 16-year-old girl brought her younger brother onto the couple's porch and pulled Terry outside when she opened the door, then began hitting her. The fight was then joined, Terry said, by the 13-year-old sister and two friends, who neighbors say were summoned by the oldest girl by phone just before the commotion began. Neighbors said the two friends were able to get away before police arrived. They are not in custody.

Another neighbor says she's terrified now:

"Now I am afraid to come down here and visit," Poole said Friday as she sat in the couple's living room.

What she said she saw when she looked out her front door last Tuesday evening is why.

"They were kicking, stomping and beating the hell out of her," Poole said of the alleged attack on Terry, 41, by three siblings who live in a house across the street. Two girls, ages 16 and 13, and their 11-year-old brother are still in custody in the Mississippi County Regional Juvenile Detention Center, authorities say, charged with assault and burglary.

Terry and Lange are gay, and believe what they experienced -- they say the oldest girl rounded up her siblings and some friends and came onto their front porch with the intention of an attack -- is a hate crime, though the juvenile's mother tells a different version of events.

Much more at the Southeast Missourian....

Doug Pitt Addresses Jane Pitt's Anti-Gay Letter On 'Today:' VIDEO

Doug Pitt, brother to actor Brad, showed up on The Today Show this morning to discuss his new Virgin Mobile Australia ad — you know, the one in which he plays himself, "the second most famous Pitt" — but the conversation soon turned to another Pitt, their newly infamous mother, Jane, and the anti-gay letter she published in the Springfield News-Leader last week.

Asked about the letter and its opposition to marriage equality, something Brad Pitt supports, Doug Pitt handled himself like a pro, simply saying that parents and kids can agree to disagree and that their family endorses health discussion.

“Moms and dads and kids agree to disagree all over the world, so why would our family be any different?” he told Matt Lauer. "There can be healthy discussion when people disagree with you, and I think there should be. The bad thing is when it turns into venom and negativity and we don’t have that in our family. It’s open discussion, we can learn from each other … maybe you learn something."

Watch the video AFTER THE JUMP.

Lawrence O'Donnell Talks to the Missouri GOP Lawmaker Who Came Out, Asks Him Why He's a Republican: VIDEO

Lawrence O'Donnell spoke with Missouri GOP state Rep. Zach Wyatt, who came out of the closet this week in a speech to Republican colleagues. O'Donnell talks to Wyatt about his motives for coming out and given his party's stance on LGBT issues and its support for the "Don't Say Gay" bill, how he can be a Republican.

Watch, AFTER THE JUMP...

(h/t Think Progress)

Stephen Colbert is Looking for a Bad Gay Man to Teach Him a Lesson: VIDEO

Stephen Colbert discusses the importance of the "Don't Say Gay" bill that is advancing through the Missouri legislature and agrees with Rep. Dwight Scharnhorst who is concerned that discussion of homosexuality will only lead to talk of boys marrying goats.

Watch, AFTER THE JUMP...

Coalition Comes Together To Fight Missouri's 'Don't Say Gay' Bill

Republicans hoping to pass a "don't say gay" bill that would among other things ban gay-straight alliances are about to face some stiff competition.

The Riverfront Times out of St. Louis reports that a coalition of lawmakers, teachers and doctors are rallying to defeat the disgusting measure:

This week the Missouri National Educators Association, the state's largest teachers organization, blasted the bill, stating: "[L]egislation like the "Don't Say Gay" bill, proposed by Representative Steve Cookson shackles educator's efforts to prevent bullying in our public schools."
 
"Schools, above all, need to be safe havens for students - places where students can learn and realize their full potential," reiterated MNEA President Chris Guinther in a statement. "MNEA members realized a decade ago the need for a comprehensive program to counter the bullying culture in public schools in Missouri. That's when we invested in developing the No More Bullying program."

Yesterday the Missouri Chapter of American Academy of Pediatrics also issued a public statement, saying: "…All children and teenagers need to feel safe in their schools, and HB 2051 takes that assurance away from them."
...
Meanwhile, some 37 Democratic members of the House have called on the 20 Republican sponsors of the bill (including John Diehl of Town & Country and Tim Jones of Eureka) to withdraw their support of the measure.

State Rep. Stacey Newman told the paper that "public outrage has shown us that we are not doing enough to protect all students in schools."