Ah, the confusion that reigns when folks talk about church and state . . . SCOTUS rules in favor of religious freedom on one day, and the next day — the very next day! — religious conservatives come out screaming about the threat to religious freedom.

No one could have anticipated . . .

Something has indeed changed in race relations, author Ellis Cose concludes. There is less anger and rage, more hope and faith toward the future among African Americans of all income levels than there has ever been; more willingness by most white Americans to regard their fellow black citizens on an equal footing. This is especially true among the younger generations within both groups.

My question for tonight is: who would you cast off the airplane? Whom would you return to the jetway? Who doesn’t fly with Pilot You?

The collective here at Firedoglake has carved out quite a niche on LGBT issues from the gavel to gavel liveblog coverage of the Perry v. Schwarzenegger (now Brown) Proposition 8 trial in the Northern District of California, to the Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell DADT) case brought by the Log Cabin Republicans in the Central District of California, to the recent change in policy by the Obama Administration regarding the Defense of Marriage Act (DOMA) to the broad based and excellent issue coverage of LGBT matters generally by Teddy Partridge. But that coverage has been centered on somewhat antiseptic and theoretical policy issues and statutory/Constitutional interpretation. There is another, darker, and more brooding area of LGBT law that is every bit as important, and quite arguably more directly important, to the relevant community.

North Carolina State Representative Larry Brown, proving that ignorance about public health knows no bounds even in the 21st century, wants to deny state assistance to citizens who contracted HIV through their own “perverted lifestyle.” This returns the debate to the era of the Innocent Victim, when only little children who got AIDS through botched blood transfusions or while being born to junkie moms were worthy of America’s attention and assistance. There’s a reason the most comprehensive federal assistance for HIV patients is named after a boy who was shunned at school, not a friendless San Francisco drag queen tossed out on the street.

Voting Yes on Proposition 19 should be a no-brainer. Laws banning drugs, especially those that are mostly innocuous, are discriminatory. Legalizing marijuana will help save lives, and put a serious dent in the power of the drug cartels and criminal gangs preying on the defenseless.

As I watch the “It Gets Better” videos, I can’t help but remember one of the best concerts I ever attended – the gay a cappella group The Flirtations. The most powerful moment of an incredibly wonderful evening came near the end, as the Flirts sang a lullaby to the audience: “You can be anybody that you want to be, you can love whomever you will . . .”

It gets better. Especially when we hear — and sing — lullabys like that.

Someone should tell the Times’ obits editor: Perpetuating historical discrimination is still discrimination. Saying “it’s always been done this way” is no way to break down old boundaries and crack glass ceilings.

The “I have a Dream” speech and its meaning today.

[Welcome Professor Michelle Alexander, and Host Paul Street] [As a courtesy to our guests, please keep comments to the book.  Please take other conversations to a previous thread.  - bev] Michelle Alexander, The New Jim Crow: Mass Incarceration in the age of Color Blindness Early in her courageous and important book The New Jim Crow: [...]