Please post this to as wide and varied an audience as possible! This kid is terriffic.

Texan councilman Joel Burns uses his time wisely, compassionately

We've seen a lot of Dan Savage's It Gets Better Project in recent weeks, but here's a particularly heart-felt and well-placed offering in the category:

It Gets Better Project -- Youth Pride Chorus sings truth

This deserves your time . . . as do many of the It Gets Better Project videos, but this one is not to be missed.  General Hope for the Future starts 0:01, Singing at 1:00, Dancing at 3:50.  If this doesn't get ya, you're steel.

Can Anderson come OUT to play?

Harvey Milk said the single most powerful thing we can do to make the gay stigma go away is COME OUT.  One has to wonder what Mr. Cooper is waiting for.  Still, he's doing good good work.

Reason number 349 why marriage is a right.

Thank You For Your Call from Shawn Nee / discarted on Vimeo.

Rob rocks another great video

You've got to be carefully taught. UPDATE

THIS VIDEO WAS MADE PRIVATE BY ITS CREATORS.  That's cool.  Everybody has the right to privacy, I suppose.

No trauma, no irreversible damage, nothing more than a few questions for clarification, a relatively mild shift of world-view, and acceptance.  Those who claim that teaching children about same-sex couples is harmful should watch this candid moment and repent.  Rather, teaching children that some love is inherently despicable and to be shunned is the real abuse of the easily-molded young mind. 

You've got to be taught
To hate and fear,
You've got to be taught
From year to year,
It's got to be drummed
In your dear little ear
You've got to be carefully taught.


You've got to be taught to be afraid
Of people whose eyes are oddly made,
And people whose skin is a diff'rent shade,
You've got to be carefully taught.


You've got to be taught before it's too late,
Before you are six or seven or eight,
To hate all the people your relatives hate,
You've got to be carefully taught!

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R&H, South Pacific

The Best Thing He's Read All Year -- 10 Years AGO.

Though this is now nearly ten years old, the voice is clear, and the battle is no nearer won.
from Andrew Tobias:

The Best Thing I've Read All Year

Published on May 04, 2000

Sunday, April 30, 2000
By SHARON UNDERWOOD
For the Valley News (White River Junction, VT)

Many letters have been sent to the Valley News concerning the homosexual menace in Vermont. I am the mother of a gay son and I've taken enough from you good people.
I'm tired of your foolish rhetoric about the "homosexual agenda" and your allegations that accepting homosexuality is the same thing as advocating sex with children. You are cruel and ignorant. You have been robbing me of the joys of motherhood ever since my children were tiny.
 
My firstborn son started suffering at the hands of the moral little thugs from your moral, upright families from the ...

Melanie DeMore Performs Over the Rainbow for Federal Prop. 8 Rally

In the early morning hours of January 11 -- the beginning of the Federal challenge to California's Proposition 8 (restricting marriage to straight Americans) -- Melanie DeMore entertains the assembled crowd at the Federal Court Building in San Fransisco.

"If happy little bluebirds fly beyond the rainbow, why o why can't I?"

Pretty astoundingly beautiful,  I think.

And if you're confused about what is going on with this challenge:

Visit msnbc.com for breaking news, world news, and news about the economy

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NYS Senators Ruth Hassell-Thompson and Diane Savino speak on marriage equality

Really start listening at 3:13, she lays the issue out so clearly.

"We in government do not determine the quality or validity of peoples relationships -- if we did we would not issue three quarters of the marriage licenses we do"

"we're giving away husbands on network TV"

"or . . . the littlest groom, where thirty desperate women competed to marry a dwarf."

"they stand up there before god and man, even in Senator Diaz's church, and swear to love honor and obey, and they don't mean a word of it."

She really hits the nail on the head. Please forward this to anyone and everyone, and let the argument speak for itself. And let the hysteria abate.

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Liars!

UPDATE!!



I checked out the protest in Times Square . . . not bad for a last-minute rainy afternoon/evening . . . several hundred turned out to chant for NY1 and boo the Dems who voted against rights despite the unflagging financial and vocal support of many many gays. From towleroad:

Here are the eight "no" votes from Democrats on marriage equality in New York state today, along with their email addresses if you'd care to speak your mind. The percentage before their names (thanks to Towleroad commenter Tanner) represents — FYI — their 2008 general election percentages.

53% Aubertine (Upstate) - aubertin@senate.state.ny.us
53% Stachowski (Upstate) - stachows@senate.state.ny.us
58% Addabbo (Queens) - addabbo@senate.state.ny.us
81% Onorato (Queens) - onorato@senate.state.ny.us
93% Diaz (Bronx) - diaz@senate.state.ny.us
93% Kruger (Kings) - kruger@senate.state.ny.us
100% Huntley (Queens) - shuntley@senate.state.ny.us
100% Monserrate (Queens) - monserra@senate.state.ny.us

Looks like efforts need to focus on Queens, where four of the eight senators reside.

phone numbers for NYC Democrats who voted NO on Marriage Equality:

Joseph Addabbo (D) (518) 455-2322;
Darrel Aubertine (D) (518) 455-2761;
Ruben Diaz (D) (518) 455-2511;
Shirley Huntley (D) (518) 455-3531;
Carl Kruger (D) (518) 455-2460;
Hiram Monserrate (D) (518) 455-2529;
George Onorato (D) (518) 455-3486;
William Stachowski (D) (518)-455-2426.

Call em up if you need to vent . . . and see you at the rally tonight 6pm Times Square.

This day in history. . .

More HERE on H.M.

"If a bullet should enter my brain, let that bullet destroy every closet door."

1978. . . SEVENTY-EIGHT!

Here we go again. You listening, choir?

HERE's yet another attempt to explain the bigotry and ignorance that is passing for religious freedom . . . I don't know if it's the best article ever written on the topic, but it's clear and bears repeating.

"Here's what's going on here: Religious opponents of gay marriage don't have a good understanding of why a modern state should recognize civil marriage in the first place; they view marriage primarily as a religious tradition that has made their lives satisfying and secure and so they are most comfortable justifying it in terms of what's been -- this is one of the roles of a religious narrative. If they thought honestly and rigorously about the civil, rather than just religious, reasons why the state recognizes marriage today, they'd see that gay unions fit into those reasons in the modern world."

How many times must we lay this out? We can't wait for the lowest common denominator thinkers to catch up. That's why we have elected leaders. Or was.