witola.com

This kid is amazing, and at just 10 years old, seems so well-adjusted and bright. He gets it. His name is Will Phillips of Arkansas and he is speaking up for gay rights! Kudos to his open-minded parents. I now have a different view of Arkansas for sure.

Here he is again being asked a simple question at the 21st Annual GLAAD Awards:

Dear Friends,

They compared same-sex marriage to a marriage between an uncle and a niece. Or between two children. No, we're not talking about Rick Santorum. We're talking about the Obama administration's Justice Department. The brief the DOJ presented defending the Defense of Marriage Act (DOMA) in federal court was not just wrong. It was offensive. The New York Times called it "disturbing" in its lead editorial.

Back in the days of the 2008 campaign, Senator Obama promised he would work to overturn the Defense of Marriage Act. But now that a gay couple in California is challenging DOMA in federal court, President Obama has chosen to take action to defend a law that prevents legally married same-sex couples from receiving any federal benefits, or from having their marriages recognized in other states.

I just signed a petition to tell President Obama and Attorney General Holder to withdraw this offensive brief and apologize for its contents. (The website also has a great video of Rachel Maddow and Howard Dean discussing the importance of this issue!) Please have a look and take action.

PLEASE click here to sign and tell friends...

OK, so Virgin America charges you for the Wi-Fi, heck I thought this was for free so I'm writing this on my TextEdit program. More later... we're landing!

Well after landing I was greeted by Kenny and the news that again I am regarded as a second class citizen here in my beautiful state of California. The California Supreme Court ruled in favor of upholding the Prop H8 measure. I've posted a few images here of the protest we went to in front of the San Francisco City Hall and the balance of images will be on my Photos page.

Here is the latest news update from Equality California:

The California State Senate passed the Harvey Milk Day Bill today in a 24-14 vote with bipartisan support. The bill, authored by Senator Mark Leno (D -- San Francisco) and sponsored by Equality California (EQCA), calls for a "day of special significance" in honor of slain civil rights leader Harvey Milk. The bill also seeks to educate Californians about the former San Francisco City Supervisor, who became the nation's first openly lesbian, gay, bisexual or transgender (LGBT) person elected to political office in a major city.

"Harvey Milk risked everything to change the course of history and to advance civil rights for the LGBT community," said EQCA Executive Director Geoff Kors. "There is no one else more fitting to be honored in this way by the state of California."

Milk's groundbreaking service as an openly gay official helped bring LGBT people out of the closet and into civic life. During his time in office, he was responsible for both passing San Francisco's first gay-rights ordinance and helping to defeat the controversial Briggs Initiative, which sought to ban gay and lesbian teachers from public schools. Milk, along with San Francisco Mayor George Moscone, was assassinated in November 1978.

"Harvey Milk is an inspiration to Californians who believe in fairness and equality," said Senator Leno. "He fought for many of the issues we value today, including access to education, public transportation, affordable housing and protecting the environment. Harvey Milk gave his life for what he believed in, and with that courage and sacrifice he gave hope to an entire generation of gay and lesbian people whose basic humanity and freedom had been denied and dishonored," he said.

The legislation was originally introduced last year by Sen. Leno, but Governor Schwarzenegger vetoed the measure at the time, claiming Harvey Milk was not well known enough beyond San Francisco. Since that time, however, Harvey Milk has become a focal point of national conversation following the release of the successful biographical film Milk, for which both actor Sean Penn and screenwriter Dustin Lance Black received an Academy Award. In March, Penn joined Equality California's campaign publicly calling for the day; earlier this month, Black testified before a Senate Committee on the need to appropriately honor the civil rights leader.

The bill will now go before the Assembly.

From one of my favorites Keith Olbermann, enjoy!

The gay marriage bill that already passed the Maine Senate just passed the Maine House of Representatives today, Tuesday.

To get where this all started, please read April 30th's post "From the Horses Mouth" four posts down...

Rep. Holt Speaks (D-New Jersey) in Favor of the Hate Crimes Prevention Act

Rep. Barney Frank (D-Mass.) speaks during Hate Crimes hearing in Congress 4/29/09

As I mentioned yesterday after the Howard Stern posting and his support of Gay Rights, I inserted a video of the North Carolina congresswoman Virginia Foxx's statement on the House floor. I am so disgusted by her homophobia, ignorance and insensitivity, especially with the fact that Matthew Shepard's mother was in attendance. So much for Christian compassion.

Well today the backlash and responses are pouring in. Here are some awesome feedback videos from Chris Matthews Vs. Rep. Virginia Foxx Over Matthew Shepard Comment and Keith Olbermann taking the ignorant to task!

"My feeling about gay people is that we have a responsibility not only to make gay marriage acceptable and to make gays feel accepted as much as heterosexuals…Gay people are downtrodden. They are beaten. They are abused for their sexuality, and it goes across race. In the white community and the black community gay people are the bastards of the world. And in order for things to change, because any one of you could have gay children, or gay relatives, or gay friends…we have a responsibility to make this acceptable, to get all this bullshit so that some gay kid going to high school doesn't get the shit beaten out of him just because he's gay…I'm as heterosexual as they come. What is this hang-up about gay marriage? Who cares? Get on with your life!"

From none other than the King of All Media himself, Howard Stern

And then there are idiots like this, North Carolina's Virginia Foxx: