Crazy GOP Senator says military uniforms should be banned from Pride parades

He says Pride parades are "partisan," because they support a gay civil rights, which is a "liberal" agenda.

Uh, it doesn't really work that way.  That we have an issue of civil rights, he doesn't like it, he's a Republican, so that makes the issue Democratic.

No, it only makes the issue Democratic by default because Republicans tend to be bigots.

Still, that has little to do with a Pride parade, as Zack explains.

This is the guy who "proudly" proclaimed during a debate on the Senate floor that in the recorded history of his family there's never been a homosexual.

Uh huh.  Because they're born purple, so you'd know.

Read the rest of this post...

Overflow crowd at Pentagon Pride event

Very very very cool.

Also, I love that this is on the Pentagon's home page:

And note the nuanced title on the post about Panetta - gay and lesbian service members and LGBT civilians - implicitly recognizing that transgender people aren't permitted to serve, a point that I blogged about a week ago. Read the rest of this post...

It's a little weird that the Pentagon is celebrating "transgender" Pride considering it bans them

Andy Towle has a very cool LGBT Pride poster that's going up at the Pentagon.  The only problem is that the poster reads "Lesbian Gay Bisexual Transgender Pride Month Event."  And the Pentagon bans transgender people from military service.  So you might want to think twice about attending if you're trans, unless you're looking to get on Nightline (which might not be such a bad thing, politically, in terms of moving things forward). Read the rest of this post...

Secretary of Defense Panetta releases Pride month video

A pretty remarkable video message from Defense Secretary Panetta in honor of Pride month.

 
Here are the responses from a couple of organizations:

SLDN Executive Director Aubrey Sarvis:

"A year ago, our brave gay and lesbian service members were still serving in silence due to the discriminatory DADT law. Today, in this historic message, Secretary Panetta has affirmed their invaluable contributions to our nation's military and in doing so, shined a bright light on how far we have progressed toward full LGBT equality in our military. There is still more to do, but today we pause to celebrate all mena and women in uniform and their patriotic service."

OutServe:

“This historic video confirms the message that the military supports all service members and civilian employees, based on their merit,” said Josh Seefried, Co-Director of OutServe. “This is a tribute to our core military values: respect and integrity. If there is any remaining doubt that the military has executed DADT repeal with excellence, and that LGBT people are serving our country with honor, Secretary Panetta has firmly put that to rest. This is leadership directly from the top.”

HRC:

“Secretary Panetta’s Pride video is a tremendous indicator of the progress we’ve made for lesbian, gay, and bisexual service members,” said HRC President Chad Griffin. “It sends a powerful message to the brave men and women of the military that they are valued for their dedication to our country and their expertise, and that they are deserving of the exact same respect and equal treatment that their straight counterparts receive. By embracing Pride month, Secretary Panetta also is telling LGBT youth in communities across our nation that they live in a country that values them for exactly who they are. We hope this is a sign that the Department of Defense will continue tackling the obstacles that prevent lesbian, gay, and bisexual service members from receiving full equality.”

Read the rest of this post...

GOP VA House member drops opposition to gay judge

Tracy Thorne, appearing
on Nightline in 1992.

I had no idea this story was about Tracy Thorne (now Tracy Thorne-Begland) when we wrote about it a few months ago. Tracy was one of "the" DADT heroes back in 1992-93 (and possibly the most famous of that era). As we wrote before, the Virginia Republican party was blocking Tracy's appointment as a judge, simply because he's gay.

A Virginia-based religious right anti-gay group objected to Tracy's nomination, days before he was to be confirmed, on the basis of Tracy having been discharged from the military for being gay.  They literally tried to use his discharge against him, and the Virginia GOP dutifully bought the argument.

Now, a key Virginia House of Delegates member has dropped his opposition to Tracy's appointment (he says he had concerns about Tracy allegedly having appeared in uniform on Nightline when he came out - in fact, Tracy did not appear in uniform).

Whatever the real reason, it's good that this delegate has changed his mind, though it's not clear if the rest of the VA GOP - it's a notoriously anti-gay state (and racist too - remember who was the defendant in Loving v VA, the anniversary of which was two days ago, not to mention "macaca") - will join the 21st century as well. Read the rest of this post...

What anti-gay chaplains?

Josh Seefried of OutServe writes about how the religious right is smearing military chaplains in their zeal to be anti-gay.

The military chaplain corps is one of the most respectable and professional careers in the military. They embrace not only their religion but their creed to respect, love, and serve every single sailor, soldier, and Marine in the military.

Right now there is a war being waged on the chaplaincy, and it is not coming from the gays in the military. It's coming from outside groups proclaiming that military chaplains are anti-gay. There are even gay chaplains who are scared of losing their jobs because of the misconception that gay people cannot be chaplains.

In the story, Josh gives a number of beautiful examples of military chaplains being supportive of gay troops. Do read them. Here's one:

I recently mentioned to my chaplain that I was going to get married to Chris a few months down the road. Now, in all honesty, I said it to see if my chaplain would react differently to that bit of news. "Was that the one you introduced me to at the Christmas party?" she asked... I nodded yes and waited for the reaction. "Praise be to God! I am so happy for you. You two will make such a great couple!" Honestly, I wasn't expecting that, it was quite a welcome declaration. She then went on about how people should be with whoever they are happiest with and that is good in God's eyes. She even offered any help with the matter! (Navy Petty Officer, Hawaii)

Read the rest of this post...

Transgender advocate talks about trans in the military to CNN

Read the rest of this post...

Air Force Academy graduates first openly gay cadets

Very cool story from Devin Dwyer at ABC:

“It’s just been really open, a lot of acceptance. I haven’t heard anyone say, ‘I hate this. I can’t serve in the military with this,’” said 3rd Class Cadet Kevin Wise, a second-year management major. “It’s a sense of ‘OK, this is their lifestyle, but they’re still the person I’ve spent 21 credit hours a semester next to or I’ve gone through this with,’” he said.

Wise said he knew several classmates who chose to come out in the past few months. “Honestly, for me, it was, ‘Oh well, I kind of had a suspicion since I’ve known you for two years now, but you just move on,” he said.

“There wasn’t any sort of repercussion against them or anything,” said 2nd Lt. Jenny Kavalstan of her gay classmates who graduated with her today. “I thought of them the same way I did before; most people do.”

Read the rest of this post...

Interview with Hawaii gay Marine and his partner, from the kiss photo

Steve Rothaus in the Miami Herald:

Marine Sgt. Brandon Morgan returned Feb. 22 from Afghanistan to Hawaii and jumped into partner Dalan Wells' arms. (Morgan is 5-feet 11-inches tall; Wells is 6-foot-6.)

A friend, David Lewis, photographed the family reunion.

"With all that was going on, we didn’t even know he was there taking pictures," Morgan says. "The world went away for a few minutes."

One of the couple's Facebook friends sent at critical message to Morgan's mother, driving her to tears.

One of the couple's Facebook friends sent at critical message to Morgan's mother, driving her to tears.

"What did you do to mess up as a mother to make him do this?" read the comment.

Says Morgan, a Christian who grew up in Oakdale, Calif., near Modesto: "She loves me and my sister, who's a lesbian. She said, if you don't like my children and how I raised them, I don't care. My mother is awesome!"

Read the rest of this post...

Justice Dept refuses to defend laws that discriminate against service members with same-sex partners

Excellent. Now we need to win back the House so John Boehner will stop defending these cases.  From Chris Geidner at MetroWeekly.

The Department of Justice sent a letter to House Speaker John Boehner (R-Ohio) today stating that the Defense and Veterans Affairs departments would not be defending the government's laws preventing equal treatment for servicemembers who have same-sex spouses, a decision confirmed by Metro Weekly that was first reported by Talking Points Memo's Ryan Reilly.

The move by Attorney General Eric Holder comes in the context of the Servicemembers Legal Defense Network's lawsuit in McLaughlin v. Panetta. Metro Weekly reported on Thursday, Feb. 16, that the parties to the case had agreed a day earlier to a 60-day delay in the government's deadline for filing a response to the lawsuit.

McLaughlin raises challenges involving DOMA and two military-specific statutes implicated by today's decision -- 38 U.S.C. 101(3) and 38 U.S.C. 101(31) -- and could potentially involve other issues relating to the military-specific context, but today Holder told Boehner that these other provisions also "violate the equal protection component of the Fifth Amendment."

Read the rest of this post...

OutServe will hold conference on Army property

It's a brave new world.

CONTACT: SUE FULTON, sue.fulton@outserve.org, 908-256-6727

OUTSERVE ANNOUNCES 2012 INTERNATIONAL LEADERSHIP CONFERENCE WILL TAKE PLACE ON ARMY RESORT

LGBT Military Group Will Meet Oct 25-28 in Orlando, FL; Conference Expected to Double in Size from 2011

WASHINGTON, February 16, 2011 – Today OutServe, the association of actively-serving LGBT U.S. military personnel and one of the largest LGBT employee resource groups in the world, announced that its Second Annual OutServe International Leadership Conference will take place October 25-28, 2012 at the military’s Shades of Green Resort in Orlando, FL.

The Conference will welcome currently serving LGBT and straight military members, veterans, spouses/partners, and allies to join workshops and meetings. Like the 2011 Conference, it will provide an international forum on creating an environment of respect in the military with regards to sexual orientation and gender identity, and provide the LGBT military community a venue for building professional networks, sharing best practices and formulating strategies that help build a stronger military community. OutServe’s International Leadership Conference is the only conference designed around and for LGBT members of the largest fighting force in the world.

The 2011 OutServe Conference in Las Vegas boasted maxing out capacity at over 200 attendees, including several from allied nations and an Assistant Secretary of Defense. With the ongoing veteran employment crisis, OutServe will also host a job fair during the event that will be open to veterans and employers. OutServe events during the conference will take place at various locations on Walt Disney World properties.

“Disney’s support of the military and LGBT communities goes hand in hand with the support and sponsorship provided by Orlando Gay Travel, Come Out with Pride Orlando and the Metropolitan Business Association of Orlando and is why we chose Orlando as our 2012 destination,” said Ty Walrod, Co-director of OutServe.

“We have made tremendous progress over the last few months with the repeal of ‘Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell,’” said Josh Seefried, active duty Air Force Lieutenant and co-director of OutServe. “LGBT military members must be visible and confident, showing the leadership that will set the example for future generations of service members.”

The Human Rights Campaign, Servicemembers Legal Defense Network, and Courage Campaign will be co-sponsoring the OutServe Conference, as well as others. Announcements regarding schedule of events and additional sponsors and attendees will be forthcoming.

Registration can be completed at www.outserve.org/2012conference/

For information on sponsoring the conference, contact Tom Nibbio at tom@outserve.org.

Press interested in attending must register with Sue Fulton at Sue.Fulton@outserve.org

Media are welcome to use any photos from last years conference. Available photos are located on our facebook page at www.facebook.com/outserve/

Read the rest of this post...

Trans in the military, has their time come?

A big story in MetroWeekly about trans in the military, and how the DADT repeal group OutServe has given the trans issue the cover story on its most recent magazine.

I remember working on the DADT battle we fought in 1993, during the first six months of the then-new Clinton presidency.  Every single day there was a slew of DADT stories in the daily paper (this was before the World Wide Web) nearly every single day for a period of six months.  I remember at the time thinking how significant of a cultural shift this was.  Families across America were going to be forced to address, to think about, to talk about, gay issues at the breakfast table as mom and dad read the morning paper.  The gay visibility was unprecedented.  (And one could argue that unlike articles about the AIDS epidemic, these stories were a more positive spin.)

I don't think the trans community has had that watershed visibility moment yet.

It's been said that the trans community, politically, is twenty years behind the gay community, at least at the federal level.  In a number of cities and states, trans civil rights ordinances, or LGBT civil rights ordinances, have passed, when they haven't passed at the federal level.

Twenty-one states plus Washington, D.C. outlaw discrimination based on sexual orientation, and fifteen states plus Washington, D.C. outlaw discrimination based on gender identity or expression.

At the federal level, while we've slowly made progress on gay civil rights, trans civil rights' successes have been fewer, and smaller - meaning, while Clinton appointee Roberta Achtenberg was the first openly gay assistant secretary, one of the first (the first?) ever openly trans appointees - but not an assistant secretary - was appointed by President Obama in early 2010, a good 15 years or so later, and again, not at the same level as Achtenberg.

And culturally, we had the 1993 March on Washington that certainly brought hundreds of thousands of gays and their supporters to Washington, DC.  No equivalent trans march has been so visible (for a variety of reasons, including the simple fact that their total numbers are fewer).

So it's an uphill slog for the trans community.  Visibility is a big part of the fight.  And that visibility needs to happen early and often.  We didn't really start fighting DADT - with organizations devoted exclusively to repealing the ban - until 1993.  And it still took us nearly 20 years to beat it.

The trans community is also disadvantaged by its lack of a national organization akin to an HRC.  Back in '93, HRC was already a big and decently powerful place. No similar trans rights organization exists today. And while HRC, NGLTF and GLAAD all embrace trans rights as part of their agenda, it's only part of their agenda.  And while some might perceive NGLTF and GLAAD as more pro-trans than HRC, NGLTF has been missing in action for years on federal issues (remember, NGLTF took over the lead on ENDA four years ago - how's that been going?), and GLAAD's mission is narrower than other groups, only focusing on the media (important, but not enough).  The trans community needs its own civil rights powerhouse, and I think it needs to be independent of other allied communities.

What the trans community really needs is a big rich trans donor to set up a real - meaning, big money and big staffing - trans rights organization in Washington, DC.  Chaz, are you there? Read the rest of this post...

Facebook shuts down page of lead DADT repeal group based on fake complaint

UPDATE: I contacted a friend at Facebook who got someone on this immediately, and Josh Seefried, another co-founder of the organization reports that the page is back up! Thanks to Facebook for getting to this quickly.
________

OutServe played a key role in repealing Don't Ask, Don't Tell. They're an organization of active duty gay, lesbians, bisexual and trans members of the military.

I just spoke with OutServe's co-director Ty Walrod, and as it stands, OutServe says that someone using a fake name and fake email address contacted Facebook to complain that the OutServe Facebook page was somehow infringing on OutServe (they used a fake OutServe "legal department" email address). So Facebook simply shut it down. Now Facebook is telling OutServe that it needs to get the fake complainant to rescind its complaint or they won't put the page back up. But of course, how do you get a fake person with a fake email address to rescind their fake complaint?

This reeks of SOPA/PIPA. Of Internet types shutting people down with no due process, at the slightest whiff of someone, anyone, even a fake person, making a claim against you. And then the burden is on you, after you're shut down, to try to prove you're innocent - though this is actually worse, making you find the person who lied to shut you down. This isn't right.

Not only does Facebook need to reopen this page, pronto, but Facebook also needs to establish a better process than simply telling people they're out of luck unless they can get the fake complainant to rescind his fake complainant. This is starting to reek of an anti-gay action by the fake complainant, and we can't have Facebook setting up a precedent where they pull down the pages of legitimate gay groups every time a homophobe makes up a lie.

Here's the email paper trail from Facebook, it looks pretty dumb.

From: Ty Walrod
Date: January 11, 2012 4:25:26 PM PST

Hi all,

OutServe might be able to use your help. Last Friday, without announcement, Facebook shut down our public page at facebook.com/outserve/ citing a baseless report of intellectual property violations. The page has more than 11,000 followers and is a key component of our communications strategy.

If this happened to us, it could happen to ANY organization's public page.

Per Facebook guidelines, we took steps to remedy, immediately contacting ip@fb.com (dialogue below). Of course, the complaining party used a fictitious name and a fake email account (from Mailinator), and we have made FB aware of this fact. After their initial response, we've heard nothing back, even after numerous tactful follow-up emails to FB User Operations.

We're trying to play by all the rules but apparently we're not pushing the right buttons. Any help from this group would be appreciated. The attached screenshot and messages below are yours to use/post/forward or disseminate. In the end, we just want our page back online.

Thanks!
Ty

=====
Hello,

We have removed your Fbpage: OutServe from Facebook because we received a report alleging that it infringed or violated the rights of a third party, and/or because we have reason to believe that you are not authorized to represent the subject matter of the Page.

We strongly encourage you to review the content you have posted to Facebook to make sure that you have not posted any other unauthorized or infringing content. Please keep in mind that it is our policy to terminate the accounts of repeat infringers/violators when appropriate.

If you believe that we have made a mistake in removing this content, then please visit http://www.facebook.com/help/?page=1108 for more information.

The Facebook Team
=====
Hi Josh,

Thanks for your email. As you know, we received a claim of alleged rights infringement regarding the removed content. Per Facebook's Statement of Rights and Responsibilities, users are prohibited from posting infringing content on the site.

If you believe that we have made a mistake in removing this content, then please contact the complaining party directly with the following information to resolve your issue:

Notice #: [355141187832687]
Contact Information:
Name - [Mary Drescher]
Email - [outservelegal@suremail.info]

If both parties agree to restore the reported content, please ask the complaining party to contact us via email with a copy of the agreement so that we can refer to the original issue. We will not be able to restore this content to Facebook unless we receive explicit notice of consent from the complaining party.

Thanks for contacting Facebook,

Marissa
User Operations
Facebook

Read the rest of this post...

The photo and video of the two female sailors kissing

Adorable.



Even longer interview with the couples. Read the rest of this post...

Two female sailors share traditional first 1st kiss on Navy ship returning home

They were chosen randomly, in a raffle.  I'm impressed they wanted to do this.  Very cool. Read the rest of this post...

It’s finally our Veterans Day too

It's the first Veterans Day since DADT was lifted. It's weird to think of all these holidays and things that we were always left out of. Now we're not. CNN:

"One day we'll have a gay veterans monument here, memorializing our sacrifice for America, our fight for equality, and our battle for love," tweeted Dan Choi, an Iraq war veteran who was discharged from the Army for acknowledging that he is gay. His discharge occurred while the policy was still in effect.

Read the rest of this post...

Romney refuses to tell GOP debate audience that booing a gay soldier is wrong

He's such a panderer. I'm sorry, but I learned my less on 08. You have to identity character traits early on. And Romney's flip flops, and now waffling pandering, is becoming scarier by the day.

From Politico:

“You’d have to look at it,” he said. “I don’t know when they booed and I don’t know why people booed. I will tell you that the boos and the applause has not always coincided with my own views. But I haven’t stepped in to try and say, ‘This one’s right, this one’s wrong.’ Instead I try to focus on the things I want to say.”

Someone needs to ask Romney the Kitty Dukakis question, then see if he gives a wishy washy answer about not stepping in to say what's right and what's wrong.

Not to mention, he's running to be the candidate of a party that bases itself on telling people what's right and what's wrong, so he'd better get with the program. Read the rest of this post...