Sounds like a joke huh? It's not. Disgraced Republicans David Vitter (Louisiana) and Larry Craig (Idaho) both signed on as sponsors for another attempt on a federal marriage amendment which I believe has already failed 3 times in previous years.

OK, so it's not news that politicians are hypocrites. But, my goodness. This just takes the hypocritical cake. As reported by PageOneQ.com, two infamous senators have signed on to the bill of Mississippi Republican Sen. Roger Wicker to establish a constitutional amendment codifying marriage as between a man and a woman.

You probably only need two guesses as to which two senators announced they were co-sponsoring the bill today -- David "John" Vitter and Larry "Wide Stance" Craig. The actual wording of the amendment and the status of Vitter and Craig as co-sponsors can be seen here.

I mean, really now. How much further down the rabbit hole can we go? A man who pleaded guilty to lewd conduct in propositioning an undercover police officer for anonymous sex in a bathroom, and a man who allegedly has a diaper fetish exerting their moral authority over the rest of us. How can it have come to this?

Get the rest of the story here.

Labels: another disgraced Republican, constitutional amendment, dick of the week, federal, marriage

Sen. Larry Craig (R-Idaho), encumbered by a scandal since last summer, did not file for reelection by his state's deadline Friday, keeping a promise he made and officially marking the end of his congressional career.

Boo hoo. At least he was honest about something though.

Read the rest over here.

Labels: federal, idaho, larry craig

All three major news networks have called the race. Obama for the D's and Huckabee for the R's. Very scary that Republicans would actually want more of the same from party leaders. I'll say it again. Very scary.

A tidbit of history for you. Mike Huckabee once advocated isolating AIDS patients from the general public, opposed increased federal funding in the search for a cure and said homosexuality could "pose a dangerous public health risk."

As a candidate for a U.S. Senate seat in 1992, Huckabee answered 229 questions submitted to him by The Associated Press. Besides a quarantine, Huckabee suggested that Hollywood celebrities fund AIDS research from their own pockets, rather than federal health agencies.

And this is who the Republicans want in office?

Compare Mike Huckabee's following stances on issues to that of George W. Bush:

"My faith is my life - it defines me. My faith doesn't influence my decisions, it drives them. For example, when it comes to the environment, I believe in being a good steward of the earth. I don't separate my faith from my personal and professional lives."

CHECK.

"I support and have always supported passage of a constitutional amendment to protect the right to life. My convictions regarding the sanctity of life have always been clear and consistent, without equivocation or wavering. I believe that Roe v. Wade should be over-turned."

CHECK.

"I support and have always supported passage of a federal constitutional amendment that defines marriage as a union between one man and one woman. As President, I will fight for passage of this amendment. My personal belief is that marriage is between one man and one woman, for life."

ALSO: "As Governor of Arkansas, I led the successful effort to pass a similar state constitutional amendment in 2002."

CHECK.

"I believe that we are currently engaged in a world war. Radical Islamic fascists have declared war on our country and our way of life. They have sworn to annihilate each of us who believe in a free society, all in the name of a perversion of religion and an impersonal god. We go to great extremes to save lives, they go to great extremes to take them. This war is not a conventional war, and these terrorists are not a conventional enemy. I will fight the war on terror with the intensity and single-mindedness that it deserves."

CHECK.

Are you fucking kidding me?

Labels: 2008 Presidential Election, federal

That's right folks! Your very own Larry Craig action figure! Now while I personally don't want to see his face in my house or wherever I would put it - you might love it. It would be a great gift for that closeted member of your family or group of friends too!

Did I mention he talks too?! He says, "Thank you all very much for coming out today. I will read a statement: 'I am not gay. I never have been gay."

Head on over to www.stupid.com

Labels: federal, idaho, larry craig

An update from Cris Johnson at HRC:

To temporarily roadblock ENDA, House Republicans use motion to adjourn to stop debate

BREAKING: Minutes ago, House Republicans used a procedural motion to adjourn the U.S. House as a desperate delaying tactic to keep ENDA from moving forward....

From the Library of Congress:
A motion to adjourn is a nondebatable motion to end the day's session of the House or Senate or a committee. It sometimes specifies the time or day for reconvening, or makes reconvening subject to the call of Chair. Since a motion to adjourn is of the highest privilege, it must be voted on immediately. It cannot be offered in the Committee of the Whole.

Unbelievable. Our opponents are determined to make this a long, ugly debate...

Labels: anti-discrimination, ENDA, federal

Yesterday the U.S. House of Representatives' Education and Workforce Committee voted 21-27 to report H.R. 3685, the Employment Non-Discrimination Act providing workplace protections on the basis of sexual orientation, out of committee and onto the floor of the House for a full vote expected next week. Four Republican amendments were offered in committee and were defeated.

To view the language and a description of each of the four amendments go to HRC's The Back Story.

Labels: anti-discrimination, ENDA, federal

Just days after Speaker Pelosi pledged to ensure to bring a trans-inclusive ENDA to the floor when their were sufficient votes, a 'gay-only' bill (House Resolution 3685) is moving in the House.

For a look at the national and statewide groups only supporting fully inclusive legislation and for a list of the 171 co-sponsors of this version of ENDA, visit www.unitedenda.com.

From the Washington Blade:

In a private meeting late Friday on Capitol Hill, congressional leaders told gay and transgender activists that they would move ahead with a version of the Employment Non-Discrimination Act that lacks trans protections.

Joe Solmonese, president of the Human Rights Campaign, and Mara Keisling, executive director of the National Center for Transgender Equality, attended the meeting and confirmed to the Blade that House leaders would first seek to pass the sexual orientation-only version of ENDA.

But in what Solmonese called an unprecedented commitment, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi agreed to give the trans-inclusive version of ENDA a floor vote "the minute" enough votes are secured to pass it.

"Our strategy throughout has been to stay at the table and fight for the ultimate goal that we all share," Solmonese said. "Today, that strategy has proven to be successful."

Keisling, however, said her organization would stand among the groups that continue to oppose the amended version of ENDA introduced by gay Rep. Barney Frank.

She said that bill, known as House Resolution 3685, lacked the support of "a single LGBT or other civil rights organization," and was inferior to the trans-inclusive version, House Resolution 2015.

"I can't stress enough how we are focusing on passing 2015," she said. "The truth is we feel the strategy around 3685 is bad strategy. We think it's been handled badly, we think it is harmful and we oppose it."

The decision by House Democrats to move ahead with the sexual orientation-only ENDA comes two weeks after Pelosi delayed a vote on that measure to give gay and transgender rights groups more time to persuade House members to back a trans-inclusive ENDA.

Solmonese said it was determined at today's meeting that there were not sufficient votes to pass the trans-inclusive measure and House leaders would press ahead with the other version.

Read the entire article over at the Washington Blade.

Labels: anti-discrimination, ENDA, federal

Reports started coming in yesterday that the Federal Employment Non-Discrimination Act (ENDA) was in jeopardy. The issue? Trans inclusive language in the bill.

From the Bay Area Reporter:

The federal trans-inclusive Employment Non-Discrimination Act that has been a centerpiece of LGBT legislation for the Human Rights Campaign and other gay rights groups appeared headed for collapse in the House of Representatives Thursday, September 27 with a plan by gay Congressman Barney Frank to introduce two versions of the bill – one addressing sexual orientation and one addressing gender identity.

This has had some pretty serious consequences. A letter went out to openly gay U.S. Rep. Frank and others stating that most of the nation's GLBT rights organizations would not support ENDA without trans inclusive language.

This issue? HRC refused to sign onto the letter and I am still not sure why they made that decision, which by all accounts is a very poor decision.

Matt Foreman, executive director of the National Gay and Lesbian Task Force, told the Bay Area Reporter Thursday afternoon that his organization was told of Frank's plan earlier in the day.

"We will oppose a non-inclusive bill," Foreman said.

[...]

"One thing we know is there are inevitable jitters at the end when it comes close to passing LGBT bills, and the answer is to go talk to members and move forward," Foreman said. "There were similar jitters with the hate crime bill and it passed."

The trans-inclusive hate crime bill passed the House in May; it passed in the Senate Thursday.

"In the last five years, gender identity has been added in state legislation and did not derail it," Foreman added. "We think they should take a step back and solidify support, not go forward with a strategy that leaves part of our community behind."

Labels: anti-discrimination, ENDA, federal, transgender

Labels: federal, idaho, republican, scandal

UPDATE: The Smoking Gun has posted the police report from the plain-clothes officer who nabbed Craig at the Minneapolis-St. Paul International Airport.

Idaho Republican Senator Larry Craig was arrested in June at a Minnesota airport for "lewd conduct" in a men's public restroom. On Aug. 8, he pleaded guilty to "misdemeanor disorderly conduct. He "paid more than $500 in fines and fees, and a 10-day jail sentence was stayed. He also was given one year of probation." The arresting officer's report explains:

My experience has shown that individuals engaging in lewd conduct use their bags to block the view from the front of their stall. From my seated position, I could observe the shoes and ankles of Craig seated to the left of me. [...]

At 1216 hours, Craig tapped his right foot. I recognized this as a signal used by persons wishing to engage in lewd conduct. Craig tapped his toes several times and moves his foot closer to my foot. I moved my foot up and down slowly. While this was occurring, the male in the stall to my right was still present. I could hear several unknown persons in the restroom that appeared to use the restroom for its intended use. The presence of others did not seem to deter Craig as he moved his right foot so that it touched the side of my left foot which was within my stall area.

A BIG SURPRISE
Senator Craig supported the Federal Marriage Amendment, voting for cloture on the amendment in both 2004 and 2006. He voted against cloture on a bill in 2002, which would have extended the federal definition hate crimes to cover sexual orientation.

Guess who won't be running for reelection? I hate love to say it but... another one bites the dust.

Hat tip to Think Progress.

Labels: federal, idaho, republican, scandal

This is too good not to post. John Stewart discusses the stupidity that is... Dr. James Holsinger, President Bush's Surgeon General nominee.

Labels: anti gay, bush, federal, video

Today in the Washington Post there is an editorial entitled "Dr. Dodgy" and it rips Dr. Holsinger a new one.

DR. JAMES W. Holsinger Jr. wants to be the next surgeon general of the United States. On paper, he's nearly perfect. His distinguished career spans nearly 40 years in Kentucky and Washington, D.C. If confirmed, Dr. Holsinger said, his three priorities would be combating smoking and childhood obesity and improving how the public health system responds to emergencies -- excellent goals. But his prurient 1991 paper for the Methodist Church on what he imagined to be the sex lives of gay men has gummed up his effort to become the nation's top doc.

The hope was that his confirmation hearing last week would bring some clarity to Dr. Holsinger's views on homosexuality. No such luck. Instead, he expressed his "deep appreciation for the humanity of everyone, regardless of their personal circumstances or their sexual orientation." That's excellent, but it doesn't answer the question.

"Pathophysiology of Male Homosexuality" is a six-page romp through sexual practices that would be extreme for anyone regardless of sexual orientation. Yet Dr. Holsinger ascribed these practices to all gay men and decreed that the practices marked all homosexuals as promiscuous and diseased. The idea that two people of the same sex could establish a relationship based on love was never broached. Instead, he concluded his NC-17 report by saying the hardware store popularity of male and female pipe fittings proves the primacy of heterosexuality.

[...]

Dr. Holsinger struck a that-was-then-this-is-now pose. "The paper does not represent where I am today," he said. Fine. But the question remains: Does Dr. Holsinger still believe that homosexuality is unnatural and unhealthy? If the answer is yes, he should not be confirmed.

Read the editorial in it's entirety here.

And here is some more enjoyable reading from some great gay blogs:

Queerty: Ex-Gays Love Ex-Gay Loving Holsinger

Surgeon General Nominee Holsinger Has Broad Anti-Gay Bias

Labels: anti gay, bush, federal, holsinger

A vote in the U.S. Senate on a GLBT inclusive hate crimes bill was put on hold this week after Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) abruptly withdrew a the controversial defense authorization bill to which the hate crimes measure was to be considered as an amendment.

From the WA Blade:

Sens. Edward Kennedy (D-Mass.) and Gordon Smith (R-Ore.) filed the Matthew Shepard Local Law Enforcement Hate Crimes Prevention Act of 2007 on the Senate floor on July 11 in the form of an amendment to the defense authorization measure. Gay and transgender activists were hoping the Senate would take a break from its heated debate on the war to vote on the Shepard hate crimes amendment late last week or early this week.

[...]

Supporters believe they have a filibuster-proof majority of more than 60 votes lined up for the hate crimes measure. The White House has said President Bush might veto a freestanding hate crimes bill, but supporters believe he would be much less likely to veto an important defense bill on which the hate crimes measure was attached.

The House passed an identical version of the hate crimes measure as a freestanding bill earlier this year.

Read more about it at HRC's blog as well.

Labels: federal, hate crimes

A Berkeley watchdog organization that tracks military spending said it uncovered a strange U.S. military proposal to create a hormone bomb that could purportedly turn enemy soldiers into homosexuals and make them more interested in sex than fighting.

Pentagon officials on Friday confirmed that military leaders had considered, and then subsquently rejected, building the so-called "Gay Bomb."

Via CBS 5:
Edward Hammond, of Berkeley's Sunshine Project, had used the Freedom of Information Act to obtain a copy of the proposal from the Air Force's Wright Laboratory in Dayton, Ohio.

As part of a military effort to develop non-lethal weapons, the proposal suggested, "One distasteful but completely non-lethal example would be strong aphrodisiacs, especially if the chemical also caused homosexual behavior."

The documents show the Air Force lab asked for $7.5 million to develop such a chemical weapon.

"The Ohio Air Force lab proposed that a bomb be developed that contained a chemical that would cause enemy soliders to become gay, and to have their units break down because all their soldiers became irresistably attractive to one another," Hammond said after reviwing the documents.

"The notion was that a chemical that would probably be pleasant in the human body in low quantities could be identified, and by virtue of either breathing or having their skin exposed to this chemical, the notion was that soliders would become gay," explained Hammond.

The Pentagon told CBS 5 that the proposal was made by the Air Force in 1994.

"The Department of Defense is committed to identifying, researching and developing non-lethal weapons that will support our men and women in uniform," said a DOD spokesperson, who indicated that the "gay bomb" idea was quickly dismissed.

However, Hammond said the government records he obtained suggest the military gave the plan much stronger consideration than it has acknowledged.

"The truth of the matter is it would have never come to my attention if it was dismissed at the time it was proposed," he said. "In fact, the Pentagon has used it repeatedly and subsequently in an effort to promote non-lethal weapons, and in fact they submitted it to the highest scientific review body in the country for them to consider."

Military officials insisted Friday to CBS 5 that they are not currently working on any such idea and that the past plan was abandoned.

Gay community leaders in California said Friday that they found the notion of a "gay bomb" both offensive and almost laughable at the same time.

"Throughout history we have had so many brave men and women who are gay and lesbian serving the military with distinction," said Geoff Kors of Equality California. "So, it's just offensive that they think by turning people gay that the other military would be incapable of doing their job. And its absurd because there's so much medical data that shows that sexual orientation is immutable and cannot be changed."

Labels: DADT, federal

Yesterday, the Food and Drug Administration announced on their website that the current lifetime ban on donating blood will remain in effect for gay and bisexual men. In March of 2006, the American Association of Blood Banks (AABB), America's Blood Centers (ABC) and the American Red Cross (ARC) testified before the FDA that the lifetime ban for men who have sex with men "is medically and scientifically unwarranted" and that "it does not appear rational to broadly differentiate sexual transmission via male-to-male sexual activity from that via heterosexual activity on scientific grounds."

"Yesterday's affirmation of this policy by the FDA reflects a commitment to prejudice over science," said Human Rights Campaign President Joe Solmonese. "Our nation's leading blood services organizations agree that there is no rational justification for treating gay and bisexual men different than straight men. Given modern testing and the fact that anyone can be vulnerable to infection, there is no medical or scientific rationale for this discriminatory policy.

"Natural disasters like Hurricane Katrina and the threat of catastrophic terrorist attack make our nation's need for a robust and safe blood supply even more acute. The real public health threat is closing the door on countless numbers of men who selflessly want to donate blood. We are extremely disappointed that the Food and Drug Administration chose not to heed the advice of the Red Cross and other groups and put science and our nation's security over misguided prejudice."

The FDA policy dictates that even a single incident of MSM (men who have sex with men) activity since 1977 places that potential donor on a lifetime deferral list, a policy that was established in the early days of the HIV/AIDS epidemic before the advent of sophisticated DNA and serologic testing mechanisms that eliminate the risk of introducing HIV and other harmful agents into the general blood supply.

Via a press release from the Human Rights Campaign.

Labels: anti gay, discrimination, federal

BIPARTISAN EMPLOYMENT NON-DISCRIMINATION BILL TO BE INTRODUCED ON TUESDAY

Washington, DC--Reps. Barney Frank (D-MA), Deborah Pryce (R-OH), Tammy Baldwin (D-WI) and Christopher Shays (R-CT), along with representatives from the religious, corporate and advocacy community, will hold a press conference to announce the reintroduction of the bipartisan Employment Non-Discrimination Act (ENDA) on Tuesday, April 24 at 1:00 p.m. The proposed legislation will extend important federal employment protections to gay men and lesbians and will prohibit employment discrimination based on gender identity. Every year, qualified hard-working Americans are denied job opportunities because of who they are. Countless others live in fear of losing their jobs. In 33 states, it is legal to fire someone who is otherwise qualified simply because of his or her sexual orientation; the same is true in 42 states based on gender identity. ENDA is aimed at addressing this problem on a national level.

Here it goes. For more information on ENDA you can go here.

Labels: anti-discrimination, ENDA, federal