Will Democrats let Republicans co-opt their progress on gay rights?

A fictional gay rights speech I’d like to see the President give.

The fight for marriage for gays and lesbians is gaining support in every state and even among prominent Republicans, and the National Organization for Marrriage rallies this summer have galvanized marriage equality advocates.

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

Ken Mehlman left the gay closet earlier this week, asking for understanding if not support from the glbt community. That would be easier to find if Mehlman demonstrated a bit of understanding of that community and the toll that the Bush White House and RNC took on it while Mehlman was working there. No matter how much he did in his Off-The-Record political closet, it’s going to be hard to overcome what happened on the record.

Gay porn stars occupy an ambiguous and delicious role in modern gay culture: they are the gods and monsters of our sexual universe, really. The three most enticing words to hear about that man you’re ogling across the bar? “He does porn.” The most derisive insult to aim at him when he turns down your invite of company? “He does porn.”

The right-wing is in overdrive attacking Judge Vaughn Walker’s bias, since they say he is ‘openly gay.’ Of course, Walker isn’t openly gay by any stretch of the imagination. But Michaelangelo Signorile perpetuates a dangerous stereotype, difficult to shed for men of my generation and Vaughn Walker’s, by calling these lies ‘smears’ in his otherwise excellent HuffPost article today. It’s not a smear to call someone openly gay, since there’s nothing wrong with being gay in the first place.

Today’s book salon with Lee Badgett discussing her book, ‘When Gay People Get Married’, is incredibly timely. On the heels of Judge Walker’s order finding Prop 8 unconstitutional, America has begun anew a conversation about whether same sex couples ought to be afforded the same right to marry as opposite sex couples.

Few people are as studied and knowledgeable as Lee Badgett on this subject. Aside from her professional roles as an Associate Professor of Economics at the University of Massachusetts, Amerherst and as Research Director for UCLA’s Williams Institute on Sexual Orientation Law and Public Policy, she and her wife are married under Massachusetts soon after it became the first state in the U.S. to afford marriage rights to same sex couples.

Roman Catholic Cardinal Roger Mahony, the soon-to-be-retired Archbishop of Los Angeles, is of the opinion that Judge Vaughn Walker was wrong in his ruling on Prop 8, because he failed to make his decision based upon religious beliefs that bless only male-female relationships.

Mahony ends up proving Walker’s point, that the only basis for the kind of discrimination that Prop 8 sought to enshrine in law grows out of certain religious and moral positions.

Cardinal, you may be free to discriminate against gays and lesbians within the Catholic church as a matter of faith, but the state of California is not free to do the same as a matter of law.

During the Prop 8 aftermath I watched as the manager of the landmark El Coyote restaurant sobbed through a community meeting, trying to stave off a boycott of her family business. Her Mormon bishop had told her to write a check to support Prop 8, and she did, even though she claimed she loved her LGBT customers and employees. It was stunning and appalling. 8: The Mormon Proposition takes us into the mindset of Mormon leaders and their followers like Margy who were just following The Prophet’s orders.