After keeping his private life out of the spotlight for years, David Hyde Pierce has announced his marriage to longtime partner Brian Hargrove.

The former “Frasier” star spoke candidly in an appearance on ABC’s “The View.” Wearing a wedding band, Hyde Pierce revealed they tied the knot “very quietly” in California on Oct. 24.

The actor and Hargrove, a producer, are still legally wed despite the California Supreme Court’s decision Tuesday to uphold Proposition 8. The gay-marriage ban was approved by voters in November, stopping legal nuptials going forward.

Angered by the ruling, Hyde Pierce said Thursday: “It’s like, `Oh great, we made the cut.’”

He called it a “very odd thing” that strangers have a vote on his private decision to marry.

Congratulations, David and Brian. May you enjoy many years of happiness together.

“Not only is it objectionable in and of itself, it also suggests that Sotomayor is a committed believer in the identity politics school of left-wing thought,” wrote Ilya Somin, an assistant professor of law at George Mason University School of Law. “Worse, it implies that she believes that it is legitimate for judges to base decisions in part on their ethnic or racial origins.”

That’s precisely why we need diversity on the Supreme Court. Basing “decisions in part on their ethnic or racial origins” is what justices have done since there has been a Supreme Court. Until recently “privileged white male” was the common ethnic and racial origin.

There’s nothing wrong or illogical about expecting the court to reflect the nation as a whole. The diversity of background and social viewpoint makes for a stronger, more balanced court. I would not want to return to a Supreme Court of old, white rich male lawyers.

It is indeed sad that Harvey Milk became a victim of the bigotry and insanity that still remains a real threat to members of the LBGT community. But there is good reason to celebrate his life. He was and is a role model for many young LGBT people. He showed us all that nothing can stop a person of character from realizing their dreams.

Harvey Milk

“I cannot prevent anyone from getting angry, or mad, or frustrated. I can only hope that they’ll turn that anger and frustration and madness into something positive, so that two, three, four, five hundred will step forward, so the gay doctors will come out, the gay lawyers, the gay judges, gay bankers, gay architects … I hope that every professional gay will say ‘enough’, come forward and tell everybody, wear a sign, let the world know. Maybe that will help.” Harvey Milk, 1978

“I fully realize that a person who stands for what I stand for, an activist, a gay activist, becomes the target or the potential target for a person who is insecure, terrified, afraid, or very disturbed with themselves.”

“It’s not my victory, it’s yours and yours and yours. If a gay can win, it means there is hope that the system can work for all minorities if we fight. We’ve given them hope.”

And perhaps the statement of his I love the most:

“All young people, regardless of sexual orientation or identity, deserve a safe and supportive environment in which to achieve their full potential.”

If you’re a member of the LGBT community, celebrate today be being yourself, openly and honestly. Peace, love and long life to all my brothers and sisters.

(Thanks to Queer Vision for the quotes)

The Obama administration has held “preliminary discussions” with Pentagon leaders about lifting the ban on open military service by gays and lesbians but is not rushing into a legislative battle to repeal the Clinton-era policy known as “don’t ask, don’t tell,” retired Marine Gen. James Jones said May 10.

Jones, Obama’s national security adviser, appearing on the ABC News program “This Week,” would not predict the outcome of the hotly contested policy issue, and even supporters of repeal in the House of Representatives are warning they would be unlikely to prevail in a vote on the issue if one was held today, which is part of the reason why the administration has been moving slowly and trying to build more momentum for change.

In a personal note sent to former Army 2nd Lt. Sandy Tsao, discharged earlier this year after announcing she was a lesbian, Obama said he still plans to push for change.

“It is because of outstanding Americans like you that I committed to changing our current policy,” Obama said in the undated, handwritten note to Tsao, a copy of which was posted on www.glaadblog.org, the Web site of the Gay and Lesbian Alliance Against Discrimination.

“Although it will take some time to complete (partly because it needs congressional action) I intend to fulfill my commitment,” Obama said in the note. (Source-Air Force Times)

I know the LGBT community is focused on the gay marriage issue these days, and I know that the community does not always feel that the military is a suitable place for LGBT people to be. Still, this is an issue which requires the vocal and visible input of every community member.

Thousands of us have served honorably throughout history. We have been on the front lines and we’ve served in support. We’ve flown planes and treated the wounded. We’ve been held prisoner and we’ve been in foxholes.

The fear-mongering that the conservative right is engaged in is transparently nonsensical. “They’ll never be able to restrain themselves in the barracks“. Then why aren’t you equally opposed to gays in school or your local health club? Because you know that you’re spreading lies. We have “restrained” ourselves for years, in many venues, and most likely you never even knew the guy or gal changing clothes next to you was gay. If sexual attraction can’t be controlled or suppressed when necessary, why do we allow men to be gynecologists?

Those opposed to gays serving in the military, as well as those intent on keeping the dishonest DADT policy in force, have no reasonable objections, provide no research, can cite no studies supporting their position. Their only interest is in spreading fear, uncertainty and doubt. They ignore the hundreds of years of honorable service already performed by members of the LGBT community.

They get away with this because too few of us veterans are willing to speak up and openly confirm our service. We allow them to make it appear this is a small matter concerning only a few members of the military. We have given them the opportunity to parade their lies as reality.

If you are a LGBT veteran of the U.S. military, let people know. Talk about it, blog about it, write your congress person about it. Hell, write Obama and let him know that this DADT policy is absurd. It’s unworkable and an insult to every proud military person who happens to be gay. It needs to be done away with and LGBT folks need to be allowed to serve openly and honestly. It wasn’t easy for Truman to integrate the military, yet now we think nothing of whites and blacks serving together in the same units defending this nation formed on the premise of e pluribus unam, out of many, one. We are one, we are all American citizens. Obama needs to do what is right, not always what is popular.

Since it was implemented in 1993, over 12,500 men and women have been dismissed from the Armed Forces under the provisions of “Don’t Ask Don’t Tell”. More than 800 of those individuals have held positions deemed “mission critical” by the military. They were not dismissed for the failure to perform their duties, they did so, often with honor and distinction. They were not dismissed for refusing to serve and possibly die in the service of their country. They were not dismissed for a lack of patriotism.

They were dismissed for the sole reason that to the military the act of honestly stating your personal sexual orientation as a homosexual is a homosexual act. They have not, in the vast majority of cases, been accused of sexually assaulting another person or for engaging in sexual behavior with another person. They were not even accused of flaunting their sexual orientation.

Gays have served honorably in the U.S. military for decades, for the most part undetected and unnoticed. If gays serving in the military is sure to lead to disruptions in the barracks and a lowering of overall moral, as many opposed to their service contend, where’s the evidence of this? Surely with the thousands of gays who have served there must have been hundreds of incidents of assault and homosexual rape, since we are told by those who oppose their service that they cannot possibly control themselves and would be a real and present danger to heterosexual troops.

There is a historical precedent for refusing to allow discrimination in the military.

When President Truman ordered the military to desegregate in 1948, the vast majority of the military — not to mention the population in most of the countries from the South where a big portion of the members of the military come from — had sharply racist tendencies against the blacks. When he sent his 10-point program to Congress on February 2, 1948, instructing “the Secretary of Defense to take steps to have the remaining instances of discrimination in the armed services eliminated as rapidly as possible,” he endured a storm of criticism from Southern Democrats in the run-up to the national nominating convention. But even when support for discrimination spread so far beyond the military and political stakes were so high, his response was not to postpone doing what was right. Instead, he responded by saying “My forebears were Confederates….But my very stomach turned over when I had learned that Negro soldiers, just back from overseas, were being dumped out of Army trucks in Mississippi and beaten.” President Truman ordered the military’s desegregation because he understood that the traditional culture of the military and appeasement to any biases and racism that may have been associated with it was not a condition that he had to accept as the price of having a strong army.

(Source)

How hard would it be for President Obama to end the practice of Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell? Not hard at all.

A new study, about to be published by a group of experts in military law, shows that President Obama does, in fact, have stroke-of-the-pen authority to suspend gay discharges. The “don’t ask, don’t tell” law requires the military to fire anyone found to be gay or lesbian. But there is nothing requiring the military to make such a finding. The president can simply order the military to stop investigating service members’ sexuality.

An executive order would not get rid of the “don’t ask, don’t tell” law, but would take the critical step of suspending its implementation, hence rendering it effectively dead. Once people see gays and lesbians serving openly, legally and without problems, it will be much easier to get rid of the law at a later time.

(Source)

Dan Choi, a West Point graduate and officer in the Army National Guard who is fluent in Arabic and who returned recently from Iraq, recently revealed on the Rachel Maddow show that he was gay. He has now been informed that he is to be dismissed from the National Guard. This is Obama’s first chance to act on his stated goal of repealing DADT.

During a presidential forum held by the Human Rights Campaign in August of 2007, candidate Obama said, “I will task the Defense Department and the senior command structure in every branch of the armed forces with developing an action plan for the implementation of a full repeal of Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell…. America is ready to get rid of the Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell policy. All that is required is leadership.”

Until recently, on the White House Web site’s Civil Rights page, the following was posted.

Repeal Don’t Ask-Don’t Tell:
President Obama agrees with former Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff John Shalikashvili and other military experts that we need to repeal the “don’t ask, don’t tell” policy. The key test for military service should be patriotism, a sense of duty, and a willingness to serve. Discrimination should be prohibited. The U.S. government has spent millions of dollars replacing troops kicked out of the military because of their sexual orientation. Additionally, more than 300 language experts have been fired under this policy, including more than 50 who are fluent in Arabic. The President will work with military leaders to repeal the current policy and ensure it helps accomplish our national defense goals.

This has since been altered to read, “He supports repealing Don’t Ask Don’t Tell in a sensible way that strengthens our armed forces and our national security“, a change that worries some that he is weakening in his resolve.

This is not the time to let old and irrational fears destroy the lives of so many young men and women proudly and voluntarily serving their country in the military. Now is the time for President Obama to disallow the termination of Lt. Choi and take a stand against the worthless DADT rule.

I’ve been house bound for the last 5 days due to a cold, or the flu, who knows. Whatever it is, it sucks.

Now that I’m recovering, I’m able to reflect a bit on illness after 55. I realize that what merely inconvenienced me at 25 just might kill me at my age now. And maybe that’s what dying is going to be like, all stuffed up and miserable, unable to walk around without getting dizzy, preferring to just stay in bed and snooze. And that’s if I’m lucky.

So for nearly a week I’ve been musing and feeling sorry for myself contemplating my inevitable demise. Then I watched this classic bit by my philosophical hero, George Carlin, and realized that growing old wasn’t all bad.

Thank you, Chris.

Those who oppose marriage equality want to make us afraid.  There is nothing to fear when loving, committed couples gain legal recognition for their marriages and their families.  As more states recognize this, it will become even clearer, perhaps even boring.  This is simply a question of people who want to be happy, who want to protect their families, and want to live their lives with the person they love.  We all share these goals.  The fight for marriage equality may be teaching us that we lesbian, gay, and straight people have far more in common than we thought.

Read his full article at the Seminole.

Rabid far-right commentator Ann Coulter is known across America for sliming everyone and everything she disagrees with. Al Gore is a “total fag” and another one-time presidential candidate, John Edwards, is the same. Democrats are “gutless traitors” and their convention a “Spawn of Satan” gathering. Muslims are “ragheads” and America should “kill their leaders and convert them to Christianity.” Jews are people who need to be “perfected.” The New York Times building and its editorial staff should be bombed. Supreme Court Justice John Paul Stevens should have “rat poisoning” mixed into his food. Princess Diana “ostentatiously [had] sex in front of [her] children.” The Rev. Al Sharpton is “a fat, race-baiting black man.” President Bill Clinton was “a very good rapist,” and North Korea should be “nuked.”

But despite denouncing school desegregation as a “spectacular” failure, Coulter has generally avoided bolstering white supremacist hate groups. Until now, that is.

In her latest foaming-mouth tome — Guilty: Liberal “Victims” and Their Assault on America, released on Jan. 6 — Coulter spends the better part of three pages defending a group called the Council of Conservative Citizens (CCC), which The New York Times had described as a “thinly veiled white supremacist organization.” Coulter begs to differ. The CCC, Coulter opines, is “a conservative group” that has unfairly been branded as racist “because some of the directors of the CCC had, decades earlier, been leaders of a segregationist group.” “There is no evidence on its Web page that the modern incarnation of the CCC supports segregation,” she says. “Apart from some aggressive reporting on black-on-white crimes — the very crimes that are aggressively hidden by the establishment media — there is little on the CCC website suggesting” that the group is racist. Indeed, its main failing is “containing members who had belonged to a segregationist group thirty years earlier.”

Coulter could hardly be more wrong. And even if she can’t find time to read beyond a page of the CCC’s website, she really ought to know — after all, the organization where she frequently speaks, the Conservative Political Action Committee, has publicly banned the CCC from its annual gathering because it is racist. Also in the late 1990s, Jim Nicholson, then-chairman of the Republican National Committee, asked GOP members to stay away from the CCC because of its “racist and nationalist views.”

One day, the CCC ran photos on its home page of accused Beltway snipers John Muhammad and John Malvo, 9/11 conspirator Zacharias Moussaoui and accused shoe-bomber Richard Reed. “Notice a Pattern Here?” asked a caption underneath the four photos. “Is the face of death black after all?” On another occasion, its website featured a photo of Daniel Pearl, the “Jewish Wall Street Journal reporter” who had just been decapitated by Islamic terrorists. In the photo, Pearl was shown with his “mixed-race wife, Marianne.” The headline above the couple’s picture was stunning even for the CCC: “Death by Multiculturalism?” The CCC Arkansas chapter ran an essay waxing nostalgic for the days “when racial separation was the norm.”

But to Ann Coulter, there is “no evidence” on its website that the CCC “supports segregation.” Mostly, she says, the group — which was formed from the debris of the White Citizens Councils that Supreme Court Justice Thurgood Marshall once called “the uptown Klan” — is about “a strong national defense, the right to keep and bear arms, the traditional family, and an ‘America First’ trade policy.” Indeed, she says, The New York Times and other critics of the CCC are simply liberals “who have no principles.” (Source-Southern Poverty Law Center)

I’m at a loss to determine what attraction Coulter holds for anyone who possesses even a modicum of human decency and common sense. Isn’t there enough violence and hate in our society without a self-styled pundit spewing crap disguised as opinion? Some have compared her to Micheal Moore, but that’s not fair to Moore. She’s far more similar to a female Rev. Phelps. She offers nothing positive, she has no solutions for the issues she sensationalizes and exploits.

Coulter's office on first floor

Hate speech is a touchy subject. It raises issues of freedom of speech, and as Americans, we shy away from anything that even hints at censorship. Yet we should remember freedoms come with responsibilities. We don’t object to the restriction on yelling “Fire!” in a theater. We understand that inciting a crowd to riot and cause personal and property damage is illegal.

The Constitution protects her right to free speech from censorship by the government. She enjoys no such protection from personal opinions like mine or from being justifiably booed off stage at commencement ceremonies. She has earned the scorn of every American concerned for their country.

On a personal level we ought to freely express our contempt for those who, while too cowardly to act out their hatred themselves, have no compunction over inciting others to hate. Political pundits, religious leaders, racist inbreds, anyone who chooses to encourage hate and violence deserves our scorn and outspoken condemnation. I admit Coulter has the right to be as stupid and disgusting as she wishes inside her own tiny little mind. Once she opens her mouth and releases her bile on others, it’s time to stand up and demand she shut up.

As punishment for the divisiveness she has encouraged in the U.S., she should be bound face-to-face with Fred Phelps and locked in a padded cell for the rest of her unnatural life.

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No deep philosophical comment, no long wordy post. Just a video to enjoy.