If you live somewhere that is not accepting of you living an open honest life as a LGBT individual, then you can either step up and change it (Omaha NE didn’t have a PRIDE parade until an 18 year old made it happen a few years back), accept living a lie or come and join us in the rapidly growing readily accepting environments available to us. Come on in, the water’s fine.

I’ve noticed a few recent suicides from out but persecuted gays. I guess I find these even MORE disturbing than gay bashing, hate crime and even murder. If only these poor souls could just move somewhere they would feel acceptance. I know it doesn’t happen as often as it used too. But as long as one person feels unsafe to be who they are, We have work to do.

via WickedGayBlog

I’m so glad there are people in news and entertainment who are more than willing to cut through the web of lies spun by the McCain/Palin machine.

Oct. 6: Countdown’s Keith Olbermann points out in a Special Comment that while John McCain might want to use Sarah Palin to hit Barack Obama below the belt and accuse him of terrorist associations, he overlooked the unfortunate fact that “pallin’ around with terrorists” is one area where Palin has more experience.

I just worry that the demographic that McCain/Palin are targeting with their lies are unlikely to see any of the outlets speaking the truth. They don’t change the channel from FOX News.

via MSNBC

There is just so much great stuff to mock about Sarah Palin that I have to save up items and dole them out at my leisure…

You have to love the YouTube generation. Check out this footage of Sarah Palin’s beauty queen days. Palin was runner-up in the 1984 Miss Alaska beauty pageant after winning the Miss Wasilla contest earlier that year. Her pageant win gave her a scholarship to help pay her way through college. Palin was also voted Miss Congeniality and in the Wasilla pageant, and her talent was the flute.

I’m all for a woman in a position of political power. But does it have to be THIS woman? Lets hope she and McCain place second.

via Towelroad

Log Cabin Republicans, I hope you were paying attention. Palin made it clear that she “tolerates” Gays. But if we get too uppity and start acting like we’re as good as Straights, she served notice last night that she’ll quickly put us back in our place. She will oppose our interests in order to “protect” her Straight marriage from us.

If anyone had any doubts that Governor Palin is a bigot, she laid them to rest when Biden announced how happy he was that she supports Gay rights just like him! Biden was overjoyed to hear that Palin doesn’t just tolerate people who, in her own words from an earlier Couric interview, “choose” same-sex orientation. By pushing her freshly-spoken words of tolerance into something with a bit more substance, Biden dared her to give America some Straight talk in support of the LGBTQ community.

Biden’s challenged Palin to go beyond tolerating us and begin speaking out in our favor, as a proper vice president in 2008 should. When the moderator asked point-blank if she would champion Gay rights, Palin flat skirted the issue. She simply repeated her opposition to same-sex marriage.

***TRANSCRIPT***

IFILL: The next round of — pardon me, the next round of questions starts with you, Sen. Biden. Do you support, as they do in Alaska, granting same-sex benefits to couples?

BIDEN: Absolutely. Do I support granting same-sex benefits? Absolutely positively. Look, in an Obama-Biden administration, there will be absolutely no distinction from a constitutional standpoint or a legal standpoint between a same-sex and a heterosexual couple.

The fact of the matter is that under the Constitution we should be granted — same-sex couples should be able to have visitation rights in the hospitals, joint ownership of property, life insurance policies, et cetera. That’s only fair.

It’s what the Constitution calls for. And so we do support it. We do support making sure that committed couples in a same-sex marriage are guaranteed the same constitutional benefits as it relates to their property rights, their rights of visitation, their rights to insurance, their rights of ownership as heterosexual couples do.

IFILL: Governor, would you support expanding that beyond Alaska to the rest of the nation?

PALIN: Well, not if it goes closer and closer towards redefining the traditional definition of marriage between one man and one woman. And unfortunately that’s sometimes where those steps lead.

But I also want to clarify, if there’s any kind of suggestion at all from my answer that I would be anything but tolerant of adults in America choosing their partners, choosing relationships that they deem best for themselves, you know, I am tolerant and I have a very diverse family and group of friends and even within that group you would see some who may not agree with me on this issue, some very dear friends who don’t agree with me on this issue.

But in that tolerance also, no one would ever propose, not in a McCain-Palin administration, to do anything to prohibit, say, visitations in a hospital or contracts being signed, negotiated between parties.

But I will tell Americans straight up that I don’t support defining marriage as anything but between one man and one woman, and I think through nuances we can go round and round about what that actually means.

But I’m being as straight up with Americans as I can in my non- support for anything but a traditional definition of marriage.

IFILL: Let’s try to avoid nuance, Senator. Do you support gay marriage?

BIDEN: No. Barack Obama nor I support redefining from a civil side what constitutes marriage. We do not support that. That is basically the decision to be able to be able to be left to faiths and people who practice their faiths the determination what you call it.

The bottom line though is, and I’m glad to hear the governor, I take her at her word, obviously, that she think there should be no civil rights distinction, none whatsoever, between a committed gay couple and a committed heterosexual couple. If that’s the case, we really don’t have a difference.

IFILL: Is that what your said?

PALIN: Your question to him was whether he supported gay marriage and my answer is the same as his and it is that I do not.

IFILL: Wonderful. You agree. On that note, let’s move to foreign policy.

And here is the 2008 Vice-Presidential Debate in its entirety…

via Towelroad, Wicked Gay Blog and EdgeNewEngland

Is anyone else sick of Palin’s “folksy charm.” Hearing here refer to the Democratic ticket as “you guys” in a serious public forum is just plain embarrassing. It seems to me that the choice of Palin and her dreadfully informal speech patterns are an attempt to attract what the Republicans consider the “average” American. I realize that we have a lot of stupid people from sea to shining sea, but do we HAVE to sink to their level? Even my die-hard Republican parents agree she’s a hockey mom who is out of her league.

I found this handy flowchart detailing the complicated political processes that were taught to Sarah Palin during her grueling days of Debate Camp. As I read through it, I can almost picture the debate unfolding before my very eyes.

And here’s more folksy charm about the Michigan pull-out.

via Queerty and Mollygood

Awwwww… isn’t he cute?

SF Weekly’s exclusive cover story today, “The rise and fall of the Monster” is a frank and somewhat disturbing look into the roller-coaster that the life of superhung Raging Stallion and Monster Bang icon Michael Brandon has become as runs from seedy motel to seedy motel and faces charges for selling crystal meth (a potential 3rd strike).

Brandon had kicked a previous addiction to crystal meth, even lending his support, name and image to the anti-meth campaign “Hot Sex Without Crystal” before relapsing in 2007. The thoughts of his friends, family and fans are with him. I hope he has the strength he needs to find himself again.

For thos with memorys as short as your attention spans, here are some hot shots of Michael Brandon from his successful Raging Stallion / Monster Bang era…

via FleshBot

On Thursday September 18th, the Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF) filed a lawsuit against the National Security Agency (NSA) and other government agencies today on behalf of AT&T customers to stop illegal, unconstitutional, and ongoing warrantless domestic surveillance. Also named in the suit are President George W. Bush, Vice President Dick Cheney, Cheney’s chief of staff David Addington, former Attorney General and White House Counsel Alberto Gonzales.

Evidence in the case includes undisputed documents provided by former AT&T telecommunications technician Mark Klein showing AT&T has routed copies of Internet traffic to a secret room in San Francisco controlled by the NSA.

Another lawsuit filed by the EFF in 2006, Hepting v. AT&T, was derailed by a law passed by Congress earlier this year that unconstitutionally granted immunity to AT&T and other companies that took part in the surveillance. The EFF will likely be arguing over “whether the immunity is constitutional and applies in that case”

Read the full article with all the big brotheresque details here…

Since when is it a Palin / McCain ticket?

via Queerty

The media is definitely growing a pair (or they may have borrowed Hillary’s). Now in only the lemmings would listen to the truth about the lies.

via Towelroad

Barbara Walters pressed him on his specific reforms, Joy Behar made the accusation that his ads are lies, Whoopi questioned him on the separation of church and state and asks him if his selection of Palin gave him pause on the topic.

On abortion, McCain says he thought Roe v. Wade was a bad decision and he wants people who interpret the Constitution the way our founding fathers intended them to. Whoopi then asks if that means she’ll be returned to slavery.

Josh Marshall at TPM notes that McCain’s statement about Palin’s earmark rejections is a big fat lie:

via Towelroad

Senator Obama appeared opposite the always fair and balanced Bill O’Reilly on Thursday’s O’Reilly Factor.

In case you missed it while you were buying three cases of beer to prepare for your “How Many Times Can Republicans Say the Word ‘Maverick’?” drinking game last night, here is the clip

via Towelroad and NYMag

Oh Oh, seems like not EVERYONE has been drinking the kool-aid. I sense dissension in the ranks as MSNBC’s Chuck Todd, political consultant Mike Murphy and Wall Street Journal columnist Peggy Noonan have a frank discussion about the Republican VP pick while forgetting the desk has ears.

via Queerty

Who watches the Watchmen? Noone, if 20th Century Fox has anything to say about it. They want a piece of the pie or they may shut down the planned March 6th release of the epic comic book movie based on the most popular graphic novel in comic book history. Fox alleges alleges that they retained distribution rights to the graphic novel through a 1991 claim. The judge has refused a motion to dismiss and a trial date has been set for January 6th.

A federal court in Los Angeles on Monday refused to dismiss the Fox lawsuit — meaning Fox can proceed with an attempt to shut down Snyder’s movie in court. The ruling offered no comment on the quality of Fox’s case or its potential for success, but clearly the judge found enough merit in the rights claim to let Fox’s lawyers take it up a notch.

Most of the buzz suggests that Fox will most likely keep up the pressure until a settlement is made that allows Warner Brothers to distribute The Watchmen and rewards Fox with some of the profits.

via Wired and CBR

Here is Patrick Sammon, President of the Log Cabin Republicans, discussing his group’s recent endorsement of John McCain for President with CNN.

I just don’t see how any self respecting gay person can hop on the Republican bandwagon, especially now that McCain has added someone to the ticket who is as conservative and who has proven hostile to gay rights as Sarah Palin. The Log Cabin Republicans are just trying to stay relevant as they are being trotted out to show the inclusiveness of the Republican party. Its kind of sad. They are choosing the vote their wallet instead of voting their soul.

via WickedGayBlog

Sadly, gay marriage pioneer Del Martin died on Wednesday August 27. Ms. Martin died at UCSF Hospice after a long period of declining health and is survived by Phyllis Lyon her wife and partner of 55 years. Longtime feminist and gay rights activists Del Martin and Phyllis Lyon were the first same-sex gay couple married in California the first time it was legalized and Gavin Newsom married the couple himself on June 16th. Towelroad spoke to him about her death.

via Towelroad and sfgate

An unexplained industrial accident at Lucasfilm has unleashed hundreds of Star Wars special effects on an unsuspecting San Francisco… See for yourself.

via FanboysOfTheUniverse

Fratmen TV models “Nash” and “Cal” were outed by The Scarlet Project, a website about gossip and news at the University of Nebraska - Lincoln. Nash was a 2007 national champion in the 125-pound wrestling class and Cal was a 2007 national junior college champion before transferring to back to UNL last fall. Both athletes have been dismissed from the Huskers wrestling program due to NCAA rules stating that athletes may not use their likeness for ANY commercial (moneymaking) purposes while they are a NCAA athlete. It doesn’t matter if they are representing the school at the time or not. Their real names were published by Scarlet Project and most articles quoting them, if you have an “enquiring” mind, you can find them in the linked items.

(The wrestlers in question) “have been permanently dismissed from our wrestling program,” Nebraska wrestling coach Mark Manning said in a statement released Tuesday. “The history of behavior of these men, including the current matter, does not reflect the standard of excellence we aspire to on and off the mat.”

FratmenTV’s Nash

FratmenTV’s Cal

Solution… give athletic porn pups Robin-style domino masks to protect their secret identities?

via Fleshbot, Queerty, Dudetube, Towelroad, ABC news, Husker Extra and The Scarlet Project

OK he had an affair. We get it. But I just don’t get the reaching comparisons between this affair and the Clinton/Lewinsky scandal and Larry Craig’s bathroom cruising bust. The Clinton affair was a big news story because extramarital sex took place within the White House between the President and an young man-eating intern. Larry Craig’s gay bathroom sex bust was big news because he is an extremely vocal opponent of pro-gay legislation. As far as I can tell, Edwards neither had sex with an intern just out of her teens, nor did he attempt to entice an undercover police officer to engage in lewd acts in a public bathroom.

I HAVE noticed the press seems to be focusing on John Edwards affair, but ignoring John McCain’s marital indiscretions. That’s not fair, but then again what IS fair these days.

via ThoughtTheatre