Online Journal of Politics and Foreign Affairs
The religious nuts who have been going around the country picketing the funerals of soldiers killed in Iraq have been hit with an $11 million civil judgment. A Baltimore federal jury awarded nearly $11 million Wednesday to the father of a Marine killed in Iraq, deciding that the family’s privacy had been invaded by a [...]
The NYT today laments the the demise of gay neighborhoods. There has been a notable shift of gravity from the Castro, with young gay men and lesbians fanning out into less-expensive neighborhoods like Mission Dolores and the Outer Sunset, and farther away to Marin and Alameda Counties, “mirroring national trends where you are seeing same-sex [...]
After spending the week getting hammered for inviting a gay-bashing gospel singer to tour with him in South Carolina, Barack Obama has added an openly gay minister to the line-up. In response to an uproar from gay activists, Democrat Barack Obama’s presidential campaign on Thursday added a gay minister to the lineup for its weekend [...]
The Obama campaign has organized a gospel tour of South Carolina featuring controversial anti-gay activist Donnie McClurkin. A Gospel concert tour organized by the Barack Obama campaign on behalf of the candidate is stirring controversy among some gay activists. The three-day tour through early-voting South Carolina starts this Friday and finishes Sunday with a concert [...]
Harry Potter’s mentor, Dumbledore, is a closeted homosexual, author J.K. Rowling has revealed. Harry Potter fans, the rumors are true: Albus Dumbledore, master wizard and Headmaster of Hogwarts, is gay. J.K. Rowling, author of the mega-selling fantasy series that ended last summer, outed the beloved character Friday night while appearing before a full house at [...]
The U.S. military inadvertently placed thousands of job ads on a gay website. The Army, Navy and Air Force unwittingly advertised for recruits on a website for gays, who are barred from military service if they are open about their sexual orientation. When informed Tuesday by USA TODAY that they were advertising on GLEE.com, a [...]
Former Bush speechwriter Michael Gerson defends the neo-conservative agenda — and trashes liberals and traditional conservatives — in a WaPo column entitled “Why Fight For Anyone’s Freedom?” In the backlash against President Bush’s democracy agenda, conservatives are increasingly taking the lead. It is inherently difficult for liberals to argue against the expansion of social and [...]
Senator Larry Craig apparently likes to make creepy advances on strange men in airport bathrooms. Unfortunately for him, one of his random targets was a Minneapolis airport policeman. Sen. Larry Craig (R-Idaho) was arrested in June at a Minnesota airport by a plainclothes police officer investigating lewd conduct complaints in a men’s public restroom, according [...]
A majority of Americans now think homosexuality is A majority of Americans believe that gays and lesbians could not change their sexual orientation even if they wanted to, according to results of a CNN/Opinion Research Corporation poll released Wednesday. It’s the first time in a CNN poll the majority has held that belief regarding homosexuality. [...]
The United States Air Force briefly considered building a bomb that would make enemy soldiers turn gay. A Berkeley watchdog organization that tracks military spending said it uncovered a strange U.S. military proposal to create a hormone bomb that could purportedly turn enemy soldiers into homosexuals and make them more interested in sex than fighting. [...]
The military has discharged 58 gay Arab linguists under Public Law 103-160 (10 U.S.C. § 654), otherwise known as “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell.” Lawmakers who say the military has kicked out 58 Arabic linguists because they were gay want the Pentagon to explain how it can afford to let the valuable language specialists go. Seizing [...]
The most interesting exchange from last night’s Republican debates was between Ron Paul and Rudy Giuliani over the cause of the 9/11 attacks. Paul asserted that they were “blowback” resulting from American interventionism in the Middle East, putting him right in Giuliani’s wheelhouse. Is Ron Paul crazy as loon? Or is he on to something [...]
Senator John McCain did an interview with the folks at YouTube which was, not surprisingly, made into a YouTube video: Highlights: “I assume that there’s a camera there at all times. You really have to.” Quite right. He’s also quite accommodating when asked to give a brief “rant” about government spending. He dodges, however, what [...]
Out magazine has produced its list of the “50 Most Powerful Gay Men and Women in America.” The Daily Intelligencer notes the controversy it will spark, as well as how quickly things are changing: When New York did a “Gay Life Now” issue in 2001, only seven of the forty prominent New York gays asked [...]
An Army recruiter engaged in a vulgar, ranting email exchange with a gay activist, according to a report in the Jersey Journal. Using a military email address, U.S. Army recruiter Sgt. Marcia Ramode fired off an email in capital letters that ” IF YOU ARE GAY WE DON’T TAKE YOU. YOU ARE CONSIDERED UNQUALIFIED.” After [...]
Marine General Peter Pace, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, told the Chicago Tribune that the ban on gays on the military must be kept because homosexual acts are immoral. Responding to a question about a Clinton-era policy that is coming under renewed scrutiny amid fears of future U.S. troop shortages, Pace said the [...]
Factions within the Iraqi government may be supporting anti-gay death squads. Some officials in Iraq’s government are colluding with death squads responsible for the “sexual cleansing” of GLBT Iraqis, activist Ali Hili told the Faith, Homophobia and Human Rights conference in London last month. “Iraqi LGBTs are at daily risk of execution by the Shia [...]
Andrew Sullivan begins a somber discussion of the implications of using anti-gay slurs as fodder for jokes with a pretty good line: I watched Ann Coulter last night in the gayest way I could. I was on a stairmaster at a gym, slack-jawed at her proud defense of calling someone a “faggot” on the same [...]
“Star Trek” star George Takei, who recently came out as gay, made this video for Jimmy Kimmel commenting on former NBA star Tim Hardaway’s anti-gay comments: This has been going around for awhile, apparently, as my co-bloggers Alex Knapp and Chris Lawrence both had it on their personal sites some time back and Steven Taylor [...]
A recent Gallup poll reveals that Americans are much more likely to elect a black man or a woman president than a Mormon or an old man. More interestingly, they’d rather be governed by a homosexual than an atheist: Now, these numbers are prospective. People know, for example, that John McCain is an old man [...]
The 11th Circuit has yet again upheld Alabama’s statute making it “unlawful for any person to knowingly distribute any obscene material or any device designed or marketed as useful primarily for the stimulation of human genital organs.” [Opinion PDF.] Michael Hayes reports that conflicting rulings on this matter in other states might ultimately force the [...]
Rape is the de facto sentence for prisoners placed in many of our prisons and penitentiaries.
A Michigan appeals court has ruled that adultery is constitutes first-degree criminal sexual conduct, a felony punishable by up to life in prison, under the literal reading of the law. “We cannot help but question whether the Legislature actually intended the result we reach here today,” Judge William Murphy wrote in November for a unanimous [...]
John Shalikashvili, Chairman of the Joint Chiefs during the Clinton Administration’s introduction of the “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” policy on gays in the military, believes it may be time for rethinking our policy. Not only do the current difficulties in recruiting and retaining personnel make turning away qualified candidates harder to justify, he believes there [...]
Some researches at Oregon State may have discovered a cure for gay sheep. SCIENTISTS are conducting experiments to change the sexuality of “gay” sheep in a programme that critics fear could pave the way for breeding out homosexuality in humans. The technique being developed by American researchers adjusts the hormonal balance in the brains of [...]
Tensions in the American Episcopal Church are finally causing a long-anticipating schism, with several Virginia churches pulling out. For about 30 years, the Episcopal Church has been one big unhappy family. Under one roof there were female bishops and male bishops who would not ordain women. There were parishes that celebrated gay weddings and parishes [...]
WorldNetDaily writer Jim Rutz has found the enemy… and it is soy: There’s a slow poison out there that’s severely damaging our children and threatening to tear apart our culture. The ironic part is, it’s a “health food,” one of our most popular. Now, I’m a health-food guy, a fanatic who seldom allows anything into [...]
The Defense Department has decided that homosexuality is not a mental disorder but merely a condition akin to bed-wetting. Pentagon guidelines that classified homosexuality as a mental disorder now put it among a list of conditions or “circumstances” that range from bed-wetting to fear of flying. The new rules are related to the military’s retirement [...]
A gay prostitute claims he had a three-year pay-for-sex relationship with National Association of Evangelicals president Ted Haggard. A gay man and admitted male escort claims he has had an ongoing sexual relationship with a well-known Evangelical pastor from Colorado Springs. Mike Jones told 9 Wants to Know Investigative Reporter Paula Woodward he has had [...]
Trey Parker and Matt Stone have managed to make the news again, this time by making fun of the late Crocodile Hunter Steve Irwin on South Park.” The creators of South Park have never been afraid to upset celebrities – and many of the show’s viewers. From jokes about religion and homosexuality to four-letter tirades, [...]
For the first time, households headed by married couples are a minority. Married couples, whose numbers have been declining for decades as a proportion of American households, have finally slipped into a minority, according to an analysis of new census figures by The New York Times. The American Community Survey, released this month by the [...]
Gerry Studds, whose name has been in the news a lot lately because of parallels with the Mark Foley scandal, died this morning at the age of 69. Former U.S. Rep. Gerry Studds, the first openly gay person elected to Congress, died early Saturday at Boston Medical Center, several days after he collapsed while walking [...]
A longstanding controversy at the nation’s only college for deaf students reached its inevitable apex yesterday as dozens of protesters at Gallaudet University were arrested. At least two dozen people were arrested Friday night as students continued to block the entrance to the nation’s only liberal arts university for the deaf and hearing-impaired in a [...]
Accuracy In Media editor Cliff Kincaid believes the Foley scandal is the price Republicans have paid for pretending that gay sickos can actually be real Republicans: The complex nature of the “dirty trick” against the Republicans over the Mark Foley scandal is beginning to emerge. It doesn’t involve a George Soros-funded group or emails that [...]
Over at Cato Unbound Markos Moulitsas attempts to make the case as to why Libertarians should vote for Democrat Candidates next month. The reason I say he attempts to make this case is because he basically wants people who have a strong libertarian streak to think that up is down and black is white. Moulitsas [...]
It was forty years ago today (well, actually, yesterday) that Captain Roddenberry taught the band to play. Or, at least, created an iconic space western called “Star Trek.” Cue the iconic theme music: Forty years ago, on September 8, 1966, “Star Trek” lifted off into TV and cultural history. Over the subsequent decades, the sci-fi [...]
Actor Brad Pitt gave Esquire a rather interesting explanation as to why he isn’t married to the mother of his daughter, Shiloh, and two adopted children, Maddox and Zahara: Brad Pitt, ever the social activist, says he won’t be marrying Angelina Jolie until the restrictions on who can marry whom are dropped. “Angie and I [...]
A conservative critic of the military is questioning West Point’s decision to give an award to a cadet for a pro-gay paper. Second Lieutenant Alexander Raggio describes himself as the straightest guy imaginable; but in his senior thesis at West Point Academy, he argued that the military’s policy banning homosexuals from service is not only [...]
Or, “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell–in Any Language.” AP has the story of Bleu Copas, a gay former soldier who was dismissed even though he seemingly complied with the terms of the “don’t ask, don’t tell” policy. A decorated sergeant and Arabic language specialist was dismissed from the U.S. Army under the “don’t ask, don’t tell” [...]
Ryan Sager argues that the Republican party is in danger of losing its majority status in national elections by courting Southeastern Evangelicals too much while alienating Western Libertarians. In fact, it’s looking more and more likely that the eight states of the Southwest and the broader interior West — Arizona, Colorado, Idaho, Montana, Nevada, New [...]
Milipundit, a former enlisted sailor who now works for Representative Jack Kingston, laments that the NYT and other media outlets continually divulge secret operation, snarking, “Who needs a security clearance when you’ve got the Times?” Michelle Malkin continues sounding that tune as well, with a lengthy roundup this morning of people lambasting NYT editor Bill [...]
Katharine Jefferts Schori, whose weekend election as the leader of U.S. Episcopaleans was already likely to spark incredible controversy, has wasted no time adding fuel to the fire, telling CNN that not only is homosexuality not a sin, it’s a gift from the God. Newly elected leader of the U.S. Episcopal Church Bishop Katharine Jefferts [...]
Today’s Examiner editorial on free speech and political correctness begins with an anecdote: Robert Smith, Roman Catholic and now-former Metro board member, believes homosexuality is a form of “deviancy.” Jim Graham, District of Columbia Council member, believes Smith’s beliefs are “ancient and archaic.” Graham’s views cost him nothing. Smith’s cost him his job. Graham and [...]
American Episcopalians have chosen a woman, Katherine Jefferts Schori, as their leader despite the fact that the ordaination of women is prohibited by the Anglican Communion to what the church ostensibly belongs. Episcopal Bishop Katherine Jefferts Schori has tackled male-dominated fields before as an oceanographer and a pilot. Now, she is taking on an even [...]
Steve Bainbridge sees no reason why the Senate’s meaningless non-vote on the Marriage Protection Amendment, the amendment itself, should “energize conservative voters.” While I can find no rational reason for government to deny homosexuals the opportunity to marry and am a “conservative” on this particular issue only insofar as I oppose grandstanding by politicians to [...]
Via Memeorandum, I noted with amusement a post entitled “Ned Lamont Deserves Enthusiastic GLBT Support” by Pachacutec at Firedoglake. While I have no doubt that a theoretical Senator Lamont would be more predisposed to vote for legislation favoring gays, lesbians, and transgendered persons than an actual Senator Joe Lieberman, one would think Lamont will need [...]
Congress has passed a law placing restrictions on protests at military funerals. One presumes President Bush will eagerly sign it. Demonstrators would be barred from disrupting military funerals at national cemeteries under legislation approved by Congress and sent to the White House Wednesday. The measure, passed by voice vote in the House hours after the [...]
Former New Jersey Governor Jim McGreevey reveals his life of seedy debauchery before press revelations of an affair with a male aide forced him into coming out of the closet. Jim McGreevey shockingly admits that before he became governor of New Jersey, he’d have anonymous gay sex at Garden State highway rest stops. “All I [...]
Andrew Sullivan, quoted by Hugh Hewitt, explaining why he is peddling the term “Christianist” to refer to those generally termed “the Religious Right” or “Christian Conservatives”: He says his goal is to “take back the word Christian while giving the religious right a new adjective: Christianist. Christianity, in this view, is simply a faith. Christianism [...]