As part of the “It Gets Better” project, the Co-Chairs of the Congressional LGBT Caucus today released a video message of hope and encouragement to lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) youth and those questioning their sexual orientation or gender identity. Congresswoman Tammy Baldwin (D-WI) and Congressmen Barney Frank (D-MA), Jared Polis (D-CO), and David Cicilline (D-RI), produced the video.

Lady Gaga bought a top-tier ticket and attended an exclusive Silicon Valley fundraiser at the home of Facebook COO Sheryl Sandberg on Sunday night. Wearing a black, sleeveless lace gown and with her hair piled up, Lady Gaga was 2 feet taller than everyone including Obama, thanks to her super high heels and substantial up-do. Her outfit included a black veil. In recent days Gaga has been saddened and angered by the suicide of 14 year old fan Jamey Rodemeyer, and her choice of attire suggests mourning.

The latest Major League Baseball teams to participate in the It Gets Better Project (the award-winning grassroots video effort started by Dan Savage) designed to give hope to struggling LGBT youth are the Tampa Bay Rays and the Philadelphia Phillies.

New Hampshire seventh grader Sam Maden, an avid Boston Red Sox fan, wanted his favorite team to make a video for the project as well. He launched a petition on Change.org. The result? Almost 10,000 signatures in only a few days:

We should have paid closer attention to Tracey Baim, I suppose: she nicknames Barack Obama “The Great Equivocator,” having covered him since the beginning of his career. She was the managing editor of Outlines (the Chicago publication that since merged with Windy City Times) in 1996 when reporter Trudy Ring correctly reported on then-State Senate Candidate Barack Obama’s response to their candidate survey:

Thirty two years ago today at 10:55 AM, openly gay city supervisor Harvey Milk was shot and killed in his office at City Hall in San Francisco. The message of hope that he preached, however, continues on, and his strategy of building coalitions and rejecting life in the Veal Pen is one progressives need to remember and repeat — that’s how you give hope.

Thanks, Harvey.

I had the distinct pleasure of joining a group of over a hundred members of the United Church of Gainesville (home of the “If they can burn it we can read it” campaign in response to the planned Quran burning) who donned blue shirts reading “Gay and Straight Together” to march down University Avenue to the Bo Diddley Community Plaza as part of Pride Parade 2010. It was a spectacular day and the turnout was tremendous.

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.

The Human Rights Campaign, reliable lapdogs for the Obama White House and their lack of progress on LGBT issues, bothered to chastise GOP Senate candidate in Colorado Ken Buck — on Sunday! — for his remarks on NBC’s Meet the Press that being gay was a “choice.”

To hear how far out of the mainstream the Obama White House is, just listen to senior adviser Valerie Jarrett describe her conversation with the parents of suicided gay teen Justin Aarberg, and her description of Justin having “made a lifestyle choice.”