Out of Annapolis – Gay Alumni of the U.S. Naval Academy

This trailer is for the new film Out of Annapolis a new documentary tracing the experiences of gay alumni of the U.S. Naval Academy. This film provides more proof that the military’s ban on openly gay soldiers is damaging to our soldiers and our military.

See also 10 Gay Documentaries Everyone Should See.

“Domestic Partnership” Does Not Equal Marriage

An editorial on marriage in the Portland Press Herald laid out in the clearest language possible why the debate around relationship recognition should about marriage and not just the collection of rights and responsibilities accessed through marriage.

A domestic partnership law is the wrong place to start the discussion. Those who object to the state applying family law norms to same-sex relationships see it as a way to sneak gay marriage into the law books.

Those who support same-sex marriage view it as a less-than-equal legal status that does not carry one of the most important benefits of marriage – its universal recognition.

In a school, hospital or courthouse, everyone understands the family relationship of marriage and the rights that go with it. A new institution with an unfamiliar name would not have the same weight.

We support full marriage rights for same-sex couples because we believe they are entitled to equal protection under the law. Marriage is the best building block for stable, supportive families, and families led by same-sex couples should have same legal rights and obligations as those led by heterosexual couples.

Being Gay is a Gift From God

Being gay is indeed a gift from God. And, the fact that not one, but two, ministers affirmed this on Oprah is amazing.

We too often hear religious leaders denigrating LGBT and attempting to scapegoat us for everything they see wrong with the world.

To have these men state clearly and unequivocally that being gay is a gift from God is something that gay and straight people need to hear again and again.

Equality Matters: Online March for LGBT Equality

Equality Matters is launching an Online March for LGBT Equality set for the week of the presidential inauguration January 17-24.

Equality Matters is using the power of social networking sites like Facebook, MySpace and Twitter to spread the message about the importance of equal rights for LGBT people. The group is asking people to change their profile pics to one of several Equal Matters created graphics, post links for the event to their profiles and status to with a message promoting equal rights for LGBT Americans.

“Yes” Obama Will Repeal Don’t Ask Don’t Tell

Obama’s incoming press secretary Robert Gibbs gives an unequivocal “Yes” when asked if Obama will repeal Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell.

The question was asked on Open for Questions. The section of www.change.gov where Americans can ask questions of the new administration and vote on the questions that should be answered.

Repeal of DADT will allow the thousands of gay and lesbians service members to serve openly and honestly.

DC Community Prepares for Marriage Fight

Here’s a quick update on efforts to win marriage equality in Washington, DC and info on an upcoming event for folks wanting know more about getting involved.

In this excerpt from a DC community forum on marriage organized by DC for Marriage last month, I outline the challenges and opportunities we face in winning marriage in the District.

Sarah Palin Unleashed

You gotta love that Sarah Palin.

Rather than acknowledge that voters wanted something more than stunt casting out of a vice-presidential candidate, Palin goes on the attack against the “liberal media elites and anonymous bloggers” and blames them for the disastrous campaign that she and John McCain ran.

Democrats everywhere have to be celebrating that Sarah Palin is now unleashed.

Rather than acknowledge that voters wanted something more than stunt casting out of a vice-presidential candidate, Palin continues her meme that it was media bias particularly Katie Couric and Tina Fey that doomed her candidacy for the vice-presidency.

When asked about her incoherent interview with Couric Palin says “Couric is not the center of the universe.”

Palin even claims that if she had run as a “reformer” on the “Democrat ticket,” we would have a seen a different and “prettier profile of Sarah Palin and the Palin family.”

Sorry Sarah, but unlike the McCain and the Republican Party, Barack Obama and the Democrats would never have made the embarrassingly cynical choice of having you on a presidential ticket.

Gay Man Named As Deputy Director Of Obama’s Public Liaison Office

President-Elect Barack Obama has named longtime gay Democratic operative Brian Bond as Deputy Director for the White House Office of Public Liaison.

Bond, a political veteran who has headed the Gay and Lesbian Victory Fund and held several positions at the Democratic National Committee, will have managerial and strategic responsibilities for the entire Public Liaison office as well as function as the point person on LGBT issues. The liaison office is tasked with communicating and promoting presidential policies to individual constituency groups and serving as a sounding board for the president on policies that affect certain interest groups.

Bond served as Director of Constituency Outreach for the Obama-Biden campaign.

This appointment follows the appointments of two other openly gay people to the Obama administration including Brad Kiley as Director of the Office of Management and Administration and Nancy Sutley to head the White House Council on Environmental Quality.

You Don’t Know Barney Frank

Jeffrey Toobin has an exhaustive profile of Rep. Barney Frank in the New Yorker. Frank is the dean of gay members of Congress and widely considered the funniest member of Congress for his quick and biting sense of humor.

While Frank has become the congressional go to gay and all issues LGBT, his status as one of three openly gay members of Congress has taken a back seat to the credibility and influence that he has built over the years specifically on financial and economic issues. As chair of the powerful House Financial Services Committee, Frank has had a key role in the federal responses to the banking and auto industry crises.

There’s nothing like a gay with real political power.

Knowing Our History

An intense discussion is being played out over the film Milk and whether or not it offers a sanitized version of Harvey Milk’s life and gay movement history.

In the Huffington Post Nancy Goldstein says:

Was Van Sant afraid that audiences wouldn’t be sympathetic if 70s-era gay activists were people who suffered, swore, fought back, and fucked like they meant it? If the street kids actually looked like dirty, starving, broke-ass teen hustlers?

Gay history — unedited — is ugly, angry, and violent. It’s police dragging us out of cellar bars and down to the station to gang fuck the femmes and face-rape the butches, queens, and trannies. It’s military witch hunts; suicides and “experimental therapies,” from lobotomies and electro-shock to Christian boot camps. It’s Stonewall, where we showered raiding police with bottles, locked them in the bar, and set it afire. It’s ACT UP and chaining ourselves to pharmaceutical companies’ fences to protest AIDS drugs price gouging.

Of course, Milk offers a sanitized version of Harvey’s life and that particular moment in gay movement history. It is a film produced and distributed by Hollywood that stars mainstream actors like Sean Penn, Diego Luna and James Franco. But, that doesn’t make it any less an important film.

I say that not because the film is likely one of the first film’s about a hero of the gay movement that straight people will see. Or, even that it is the first film about a gay movement hero that a lot of gay people will see.

The importance of Milk is that it will open the eyes of young people, both gay and straight, to a key figure in the movement for gay rights and ideally will whet their appetites to learn more.

Along with telling stories about how they walked 12 miles to get to the lone gay bar in the next town over across unpaved roads wearing homemade outfits cobbled together with pluck and a Bedazzler, older gays love to point fingers at young gays and accuse them of being ignorant of gay history and the gay movement. This may be true, but ignores the reality that the straight majority has colluded to render us and our history invisible. And, it ignores the fact that older gays have a responsibility to do more than pass judgment about what younger gays may or may not know.

We have a responsibility to share that knowledge and to create opportunities for gay and straight, young and old to learn about the history of gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender and the straight allies who have stood with us in our fight for equal rights.