Politics: January 2013

[Part 2] The GOP & Obama's Second Term: Rage of an Unprivileged Class
Filed by Terrance Heath | January 31, 2013 | 2:30 PM |The irony of Republicans complaining that the president didn't reach out to them in his inaugural address is that few Republicans bothered to be there to hear the speech.Read More

The GOP & Obama's 2nd Term: Rage of an Unprivileged Class
Filed by Terrance Heath | January 29, 2013 | 5:00 PM |Republicans would have objected to any policies the president introduced in his speech. But Obama didn't do much of that. Instead he gave a speech that both signaled and embraced changes that conservatives struggle comically with at best, and at worst willfully ignore.Read More

A Moment in History
Filed by Norm Kent | January 28, 2013 | 12:00 PM |The record will reflect that the inaugural address of President Barack Obama on January 21, 2013 was only 20 minutes long, but its reach and breadth will forever be recorded centuries hence in the history of gay and lesbian America.Read More

Assault Weapon Ban: Feinstein Recalls Finding Harvey Milk's Body
Filed by Karen Ocamb | January 27, 2013 | 1:00 PM |As she introduced a strong assault weapons ban, California Senator Dianne Feinstein talked candidly about the experience of having discovered the body of assassinated openly gay San Francisco Supervisor Harvey Milk in 1978. Read More

Rhode Island House Passes Marriage Equality Bill
Filed by Karen Ocamb | January 25, 2013 | 12:00 PM |Marriage equality legislation has passed through the Rhode Island House of Representatives.Read More

The Intersections of Race & LGBT Issues [Video]
Filed by Waymon Hudson | January 24, 2013 | 4:00 PM |Constitutional Law Professor Olympia Duhart sits down to discuss how race and LGBT issues connect, how lack of visibility for LGBT people of color hurt both their rights and the movement as a whole, and how we combat cynical efforts to divide minority communities.Read More

Obama & the Future Present
Filed by Sean Bugg | January 24, 2013 | 2:30 PM |There are moments in life that sneak up on you, but when you recognize them they take your breath away.Read More

Freezing Your Employees Should Be Illegal
Filed by Alex Blaze | January 24, 2013 | 11:30 AM |I saw someone in Indiana holding a sign in front of a parking lot for a pizza deal. I don't know if this person was a man or a woman or anything about them - it was so cold they were all bundled up.Read More

Obama Linking Selma to Stonewall Divides Black Community
Filed by Rev Irene Monroe | January 24, 2013 | 10:00 AM |Some scoff at comparing the black civil-rights struggle to today's LGBTQ civil-rights struggle because of this: They expected more gains under the first African-American president.Read More

Obama Is the Messiah
Filed by James Holmes | January 23, 2013 | 4:00 PM |Be afraid!Read More

Obama's Inauguration Wove Our Families Into the American Fabric
Filed by Terrance Heath | January 23, 2013 | 2:30 PM |When the president included the gay movement among the major progressive civil rights movements, he was merely putting it in the context in which it has always belong -- in the company of ever other movement that has worked to extend the promise of America to those whom the founding fathers left out.Read More

Did Roe v Wade Lead to Same-Sex Marriage Rights?
Filed by Karen Ocamb | January 23, 2013 | 1:00 PM |E.J. Graff has an interesting piece in The American Prospect arguing that the LGBT community actually has Roe v Wade to thank for same sex marriage.Read More

Inauguration Reflections: Seneca Falls, Selma & Stonewall
Filed by Waymon Hudson | January 23, 2013 | 11:30 AM |Presidential inauguration days are often filled with pomp, circumstance, cheering crowds, and moments to remember, but rarely do they so perfectly illustrate a dramatic shift in our country's understanding and acceptance of cultural changes.Read More

Obama Calls for Marriage Equality in Inauguration Speech
Filed by Sarah Blazucki | January 22, 2013 | 10:00 AM |With a nod to the Stonewall Riots, the president equates gay rights with women's and civil rights fights, advocating for equality under the lawRead More

Did MLK Have an LGBTQ Dream, Too?
Filed by Rev Irene Monroe | January 20, 2013 | 3:00 PM |As I learn more about Martin Luther King Jr.'s philandering, sexist attitude toward women and his tepid relationship with gay March on Washington organizer Bayard Rustin, I wonder if King would support LGBTQ rights?Read More

NARTH-affiliated Doc: Trans Individuals Deluded, Psychotic
Filed by Mercedes Allen | January 17, 2013 | 11:30 AM |Joseph Berger, a former spokesperson for NARTH, opposes gender-identity protections in Canada because "there is no such thing" as transgender. Read More

God, Guns, Gays & Conservatism's Slow Grift
Filed by Terrance Heath | January 17, 2013 | 10:00 AM |Though considered a political bully, the NRA might be losing influence: In the 2012 general election the NRA PAC only had a 10.74 success rate. In contrast, Planned Parenthood spent about as much as the NRA PAC and had a 98 percent success rate.Read More

Why Young Adults Don't Vote Republican
Filed by Alex Blaze | January 15, 2013 | 4:00 PM |Not that this entirely accounts for why young people don't like Republicans, but surely if conservatives stopped openly hating The Kids Today they could make some inroads.Read More

Justice For Sale
Filed by Rebecca Juro | January 15, 2013 | 2:30 PM |As someone who's worked in the retail industry, I know that when you treat people badly, fail to deliver on your promises, and misrepresent the truth, people start shopping around for a better deal.Read More

'Death Panel' of GOP Governors Refusing Medicaid Expansion Grows
Filed by Terrance Heath | January 14, 2013 | 3:30 PM |A growing number Republican Governors are refusing to expand their state Medicaid programs. Since the last time I wrote about this subject, four more Republican governors have joined what amounts to GOP's own death panel. Read More

'Can't Hardly Wait' For The Hagel Confirmation
Filed by Andrew Belonsky | January 13, 2013 | 5:00 PM |I watched Can't Hardly Wait to unwind after covering the ever-changing Hagel story at a breakneck speed. I needed a break from all that, and the teen comedy romp, I recalled, was a favorite. And then I remembered all the homophobia.Read More

Why Ronald Reagan Should Be on the $1 Trillion Platinum Coin
Filed by Terrance Heath | January 13, 2013 | 3:30 PM |By now, you’ve heard all about the “platinum coin option”, in which the president averts the next debt limit “crisis” by issuing a trillion dollar platinum coin. It’s a solution right out out of The Simpsons. No seriously. It’s...Read More

LGBT Leaders Do Not Want Your Parents
Filed by Mark Segal | January 10, 2013 | 4:00 PM |For most of you, the reactions you got when you came out to your parents and the statements they subsequently made would -- if made public -- most likely rule them out as contenders for the role of U.S. Secretary of Defense.Read More

Gay Couple Kicked Out of Bowling Alley
Filed by Alex Blaze | January 10, 2013 | 3:00 PM |A gay couple in Plano, Texas, got kicked out of a bowling alley after they asked to switch lanes a few times.Read More

The First Step Is Young, Thin, White Female Marriage
Filed by Alex Blaze | January 10, 2013 | 12:30 PM |Could there be a more obsequious protest against homophobia?Read More

Bilerico & Other LGBT Sites Censored by the Pentagon
Filed by Toshio Meronek | January 10, 2013 | 11:00 AM |So... Bilerico: national security threat? Read More

Homophobic Pastor to Speak at Inauguration
Filed by Alex Blaze | January 10, 2013 | 10:00 AM |Obama's second term will apparently start with reruns: he's elected to have an anti-gay preacher deliver the benediction at the inauguration.Read More
Homophobes for Marriage for All
Filed by Alex Blaze | January 09, 2013 | 5:20 PM |French homophobes have a lot to learn from their American counterparts.Read More

SCOTUS to Hear Prop 8 & DOMA Cases in March
Filed by Karen Ocamb | January 08, 2013 | 2:30 PM |The Supreme Court will hear oral arguments in the Prop 8 case (Hollingsworth v. Perry) and the DOMA case (United States v. Windsor) on Tuesday, March 26 and Wednesday, March 27, respectively.Read More

Could Chuck Hagel at the Pentagon Be Like Nixon Going to China?
Filed by Karen Ocamb | January 08, 2013 | 11:30 AM |If President Obama's nomination of former Nebraska Republican Senator Chuck Hagel as Secretary of Defense illustrates anything, it is that the LGBT community is not monolithic.Read More

Some Common Sense Gun Control Suggestions
Filed by Mark Segal | January 07, 2013 | 11:30 AM |Guns. We believe in the Second Amendment, the right to bear arms -- but, like the First Amendment, the right of free speech, we believe in limits. With that in mind, a similar limitation and several others should be placed on guns.Read More

He Won't Win an Election This Way
Filed by Bil Browning | January 06, 2013 | 11:00 AM |Something tells me that Thomas Lopez-Pierre, a candidate for the New York City Council, isn't going to win any votes with a racist, sexist, and homophobic email he sent to one of his opponent's supporters.Read More

Tammy Baldwin Sworn In as America's First Openly Gay U.S. Senator
Filed by Karen Ocamb | January 04, 2013 | 4:29 PM |Vice President Joe Biden swore in 12 new U.S. senators for the 113th Congress Thursday afternoon - including Tammy Baldwin of Wisconsin, who made history as the country's first openly gay U.S. Senator.Read More

Democratic Women in the House
Filed by Terrance Heath | January 04, 2013 | 3:00 PM |Let me make this easy to understand...Read More

The 'Fiscal Cliff' Deal in Black, Brown, & White
Filed by Terrance Heath | January 03, 2013 | 3:00 PM |Now that the "fiscal cliff" deal has gone down, we have a couple of months to argue over the "winners" and "losers" before the country is dragged into the next of DC's shenanigans. It's a good time to consider how it will impact people of color.Read More

PA: You Take the Good, You Take the Bad
Filed by Sue Kerr | January 03, 2013 | 1:30 PM |It was the best of the times, it was the worst of times... for Pennsylvania. Read More