OK: 'Outdoors girl' Sally Kern is packing...

by: Pam Spaulding

Thu Jul 24, 2008 at 07:45:00 AM EDT

Iowa GOP denies Sen. Grassley delegate slot over his televangelist investigation

by: Pam Spaulding

Thu Jul 24, 2008 at 06:00:00 AM EDT

What's interesting is that this is clearly a move of desperation by the Iowa GOP, as the party's fortunes are suffering because of the fundie influence.

See Pastor Dan's take at Street Prophets.

Related:
* Flim-flam televangelists ignoring Senator's requests for financial records

Ashwin Madia: Beating Discrimination, One Battle at a Time

by: The Bilerico Project

Tue Jul 22, 2008 at 20:05:40 PM EDT

( - promoted by Pam Spaulding)

This guest diary came to us at The Bilerico Project from Minnesota Congressional candidate Ashwin Madia. He wanted to share with us his experiences fighting against discrimination in the military and ask for the blogosphere's help in his competitive race to take a Republican's seat. More info below the fold.

I am a Marine Corps veteran, an Iraq war veteran and the Democratic candidate for Congress in Minnesota's Third District, so I hear a lot about patriotism these days. But real patriotism sometimes means taking on the system if you know what you're doing is the right thing. As a Marine Corps lawyer, I was one of the first attorneys to successfully defend a gay Marine from discrimination by the military.  

Robaire Watson: gay, black and served openly under DADT

by: Pam Spaulding

Wed Jul 23, 2008 at 22:00:00 PM EDT

In light of the hearings on the Hill today debating the issue of "unit cohesion" and working in close quarters, I though it would be appropriate to excerpt of an interview with Watson by Denny Meyer of  The Gay Military Times (a publication of the Military Equality Alliance), shows people like Elaine Donnelly that serving openly is much ado about nothing.

Robaire Watson was a US Navy Ship's barber who served aboard the USS Kansas as it traveled the seas promoting freedom during the Gulf War and Operation Southern Watch--off the coast of Somalia in 1993, traveling to Singapore, Thailand, Hong Kong, Dubai, Jebel Ali, UAE, British Columbia, Mexico, and the Philippines during his two enlistments.  He is black and openly gay and never encountered the slightest discrimination aboard his warship.

...What was he thinking, I asked him, joining the Navy knowing that he was gay?  He said that he decided that, "I'm going to be who I am, I'm not going to let them change me; people don't need to feel threatened by my lifestyle."  Easy to say perhaps, difficult to do.  Robaire Watson seemed to have designed his own personal freedom by sheer willpower and personality.  During the early 1990s, it also helped that there was an expectation in the military that President Clinton would issue an executive order allowing gay and lesbian patriots to serve openly.  It did not happen, but in many commands there had been a preparedness to enable those who did their jobs well to be able to serve without discrimination.  Petty Officer Watson and many others benefited from that brief bubble in time when some commands demonstrated that they could make it happen without difficulty.  When the Don't Ask Don't Tell law was passed, his shipmates told him, "Watson, we don't have to ask and we don't have to tell."

..."I'm very fortunate that I was able to be openly gay and live my life accordingly during active duty," he said,  "I want other men and women who enter the armed forces who are gay to be able to live their lives just as openly as their straight counterparts and when they become veterans to be treated with dignity and respect."

To Me, It's Become Too Much About Joe

by: Autumn Sandeen

Wed Jul 23, 2008 at 21:00:00 PM EDT

Mr. Solmonese has morphed into a true lightning rod of a public figure due to last year's ENDA debacle. Wherever he goes now, he's a reminder that the HRC flip-flopped horribly on basic civil rights legislation for all of their stated gender variant constituencies -- constituencies which include transgender people.

But he's not going away -- He's staying very visible. In fact, the San Diego Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, And Transgender Community Center sent out an email indicating he's coming here to my hometown of San Diego on Thursday evening to talk about Proposition 8/marriage equality -- but oddly, when I checked online on Wednesday afternoon, the event wasn't listed on The Center's community calendar.

Due to his public statements on ENDA over the past year, I'm one who believes that if there ever is an HRC operative that has zero credibility on equality issues, it's Joe Solmonese.

Frankly, with the possible exception of David Smith, I believe pretty much any other HRC operative could come to San Diego from the Washington DC office to talk about marriage equality and speak with some credibility. But Joe...Joe...to me, he really is a special case because he was the mouthpiece of the HRC's flip-flopping on only supporting a fully inclusive ENDA.

With perhaps some true irony, on Monday I received an email from the San Diego Democratic Club (SDDC) with a subject line of A Transgender Inclusive Democratic Platform - Make It Happen! The email announced a meeting that will discuss the adding of a plank to the Democratic Party Platform in support of transgender civil rights. This event is scheduled for the same day as Joe Solmonese's talk on Proposition 8/marriage equality.

I talked to people at both the SDDC and The Center, and apparently neither was aware of the other's event when these two events were scheduled. Fortunately, the meetings are scheduled at different times during the day Thursday, so at least I don't have to choose whether basic civil rights for transgender people or marriage equality is the more important issue to me -- frankly, both issues are extremely important to me.

But I did learn something about myself when I was thought I was going to have to choose between which of these events I was going to attend. And, what that was: I found I may have mixed feelings about the HRC and their mixed record with their gender variant constituencies, but I have no mixed feelings at all about Joe Solmonese. I would have attended the SDDC meeting not because I felt it was the more important of the two meetings, but it's because I really, really dislike like Joe Solmonese on a very, very personal level.

There. I said it. I'm not proud of myself for saying it; I'm not happy to realize how much I don't like Joe and how much that impacts my objectivity regarding the HRC. But it is what it is.

It isn't up to me, but if it were -- well, I honestly wish Joe Solmonese would just go away. As a public voice of the LGBT activist community, he's just become too much of a controversial, lightning rod of a public figure within the LGBT community to be a truly effective voice for LGBT people within and without the LGBT community. Plus, after all of his ENDA flip-flopping last year, I don't believe a word that passes through his lips -- he has absolutely zero credibility with me on equality issues, which includes Proposition 8/marriage equality.

I'm not proud of saying that either.

The Peter's call to preserve DADT illustrated with graphic from fetish porn site

by: Pam Spaulding

Wed Jul 23, 2008 at 20:12:38 PM EDT

Jeremy of G-A-Y noted that The Peter must have been engaging in deep research to locate the image, since "after digging for about half an hour, the only place we could track it down is on a site called 'Gay Pervs,' which is a links list to all kinds of porn sites."

To Kill a Black man

by: aappundit

Tue Jul 22, 2008 at 21:00:58 PM EDT

Some Thoughts about Charlotte, N.C. and on-site pre-trial police electrocution.

The Charlotte Observer recently wrote an editorial on the brutal slaying and torture death of Darryl Turner at the hands of a member of the Charlotte Police Department. They wrote about how the officer delivered, what black social activist and blogger, Francis L. Holland and I call, 'on-site pre-trial police electrocution." It's interesting the the Charlotte Obeserver failed to ask for the termination of the officer in question after he gave his own brand of on-site pre-trial police electrocution or as some would say, continuous 37-second electric shock of a black man until he is dead...

You see black life is only worth five days of pay. The Charlotte observer makes some good points and raises good questions for all police departments to address like: Do police officers lean too readily on Tasers rather than reasoning with suspects? Do guidelines leave too much up to the discretion of officers? Has training kept up as Tasers have become more powerful and sophisticated? We at Tasered While Black agree that Mr. Turner's death is proof more must be done to protect the public. Tasers ought to be used sparingly and with strict, consistent limits.

Yes, it's true Charlotte Observer It's true, nothing can undo what happened to 17-year-old Darryl Turner. but its one hell of a way to start off an editorial about the electrocution of a teenager.

Don't Ask, Don't Tell supporter Donnelly provides comic relief during House hearing

by: Pam Spaulding

Wed Jul 23, 2008 at 15:43:17 PM EDT

Elaine Donnelly, president of the Center for Military Readiness, testified at today's House Armed Services Personnel Subcommittee's hearings on "Don't Ask, Don't Tell," and if I were on the side of the folks who want to continue the ban on gays and lesbians openly serving, I'd lock her up for the duration. She was literally laughed at during the proceedings, the room erupting at her lunacy, which included visions of rampant "lesbian assaults" and contorted gay sex on submarines if the ban was lifted. But she was ready for her closeup. Look at her ridiculous testimony (courtesy of HRC; Chris Johnson liveblogged it):

Staff Sergeant Eric Alva testified. Here is the text of his remarks. A snippet is below the fold.

Someone (Else) is Missing

by: TerranceDC

Wed Jul 23, 2008 at 13:41:48 PM EDT

I guess I have to admit that I have been drawn in by the Washington Post's series on the 2001 disappearance/death of Chandra Levy. I've been reading each installment as they are published. It's likeI can't help it. Before Natalie Holloway, before Elizabeth Smart, before Kristin Smart, before Laci Peterson, before Laurie Hacking, before the Runaway Bride, there was — at least here in D.C. (I don't know how the story played elsewhere)— there was Chandra Levy.

It's long since turned into a syndrome. It has several names, and one rather of them popular. I have my own name from it, taken from a scene in Scary Movie.

And Eugene Robinson has the best working definition.

The damsel— the "White Woman in Trouble" — thanks to the Post, is back.

Robert Novak denies hit and run, even as witness saw victim on his car

by: Pam Spaulding

Wed Jul 23, 2008 at 12:53:17 PM EDT

This and that

by: Pam Spaulding

Wed Jul 23, 2008 at 12:00:00 PM EDT

UPDATE: That report on the gay teen who said his father beat him with a baseball bat for being gay has been charged with filing a false police report, according to QNotes. Matt Comer has the story.

* Info on today's hearings on the Hill on DADT: you can watch the House Armed Services Personnel Subcommittee live at 2:00 pm EST at http://armedservices.house.gov/audiocast.shtml.The hearing will also be shown on C-SPAN 3. Here are the links:

- http://c-span.org/watch/cs_cspan3_wm.asp?Cat=TV&Code=CS3 (Windows)
- http://c-span.org/watch/cs_cspan3_rm.asp?Cat=TV&Code=CS3 (Real Media)

HRC's Chris Johnson is liveblogging the hearings.

* The Librarian of Congress named the new Poet Laureate - and she's an out lesbian named Kay Ryan, and her partner was acknowledged in the LOC announcement.

* LAPD Police Chief William J. Bratton not only supports marriage equality, he put his money where his mouth is -- as a wedding gift he and his wife made a donation to Equality California to fight Prop 8, as did all of the friends of Howard Bragman and his longtime partner, Chuck O'Donnell, who recently married.

* I hadn't heard of The Sutherland Institute, Utah's wingnuttery machine and its anti-gay facilitator Paul Mero before, but blogger Ed Firmage certainly has. Read "Government, Your Partner in Reproduction: A Modest Proposal."

* Box Turtle Bulletin has awarded Jack Chick the Certified Cameronite prize, a limited collector's edition.

* Pennsylvania LGBTs launch allies campaign. The Delaware Valley Legacy Fund has launched the Straight Allies Initiative Campaign. "Part of the effort is not only the fundraising but to find and engage allies who are tired of hearing that their LGBT friends or family members can't share the same benefits [of marriage]," DVLF executive director Perry Monastero said.

More after the jump.

MN: Republican family values hypocrite Mark Olson - no shame

by: Pam Spaulding

Wed Jul 23, 2008 at 10:00:00 AM EDT

Ken Avidor of Dump Mark Olson sounds disappointed that he'll have to keep blogging about the co-sponsor of a state marriage amendment in his post "Rep. Mark Olson Un-Dumps Himself and Runs for Senate": Crap... and I thought I could put this blog in mothballs...

Olson, btw, was ordered to attend two counseling sessions after reports surfaced that he was abusive to his staff in 1997 (example: throwing a typewriter at a secretary); no charges were filed.

Snickers and its ad agency court the homophobes - again

by: Pam Spaulding

Wed Jul 23, 2008 at 07:30:00 AM EDT

You might recall that during the last Snickers dust up, the company trotted out a spokesbot with this corporate defense:

Q Of The Day: In Uniformed Employment, Should Government Enforce Societal Clothing Norms?

by: Autumn Sandeen

Wed Jul 23, 2008 at 04:00:00 AM EDT

The Boston Globe is reporting, in an article entitled Mailman seeks comfort in kilt, about one letter carrier's effort to make a kilt option available for male letter carriers:

So when creating uniforms for it's uniformed jobs and uniformed services, is it a function of government to only allow women to wear unbifurcated garments? And even beyond allowing men to wear MUGs, should biological males be allowed wear government uniforms designed for females, and vice-a-versa, should biological females be allowed to wear government uniforms designed for males?

When thinking through your answer, remember that the military services are uniformed services too.

Open thread, faux diva edition

by: Pam Spaulding

Tue Jul 22, 2008 at 22:30:00 PM EDT

Here's a random NN amusement, aka faux diva moment for your entertainment...

So they had this big shindig in Austin during Netroots Nation --  the Huffington Post/GQ party on Friday night. The purported glitterati of the blogosphere were mingling with the much more well-coifed and dressed GQ/Huff Post crowd.

Anyway, I was there hanging out with Mike Signorile and David Guggenheim (lame drinker that I am, I nursed a wimpy mimosa the whole time) when the photographer came by and asked to take a picture of us. We posed, then they asked us to speak into the camera, which had some kind of recorder, so they could get our names for accurate captions. Later on, Mike said he posed with several other people as well and did the same thing each time.

So the piece is now up at Huff Post, and well, I look heinous in the photo, but the funny thing is that Mike and David are unidentified in the photo, so it looks like they are some sort of fanboys of mine -- "Pam Spaulding of Pam's House Blend blog surrounded by friends."

UPDATE: Mike just emailed me the link to the GQ coverage of the party at Lambert's and the mag identified David and Mike in the caption of the same photo, so they are no longer my unidentified fanboys.