From a recent New York Times editorial by Frank Rich:

As a young black man working as a nurse in a 1980s AIDS clinic memorably says in Tony Kushner's epic drama "Angels in America": "The white cracker who wrote the national anthem knew what he was doing. He set the word 'free' to a note so high nobody can reach it." ... But sometimes we do hit that note, however tentatively.

Highly recommended DVD (Currently available from Netflix):

The Mormon Proposition

Filmmaker and ex-Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints member Reed Cowan examines that church's nationwide efforts to prevent the legalization of gay marriage -- including California's Proposition 8, which was passed by voters in 2008.

Confidential church documents, statements by high-ranking church officials and other sources detail 30 years of efforts to turn back gay rights, particularly by the Mormon-sponsored National Organization for Marriage.

In a recent Huffington Post article, Jewish rabbi Michael Lerner discusses his beliefs regarding why Jews should rejoice at the overturning of California's Proposition 8, and I recommend that you read it.

I agree with the essential substance of the writer's well thought-out position, but I utterly disagree with this statement:

This is not the same as saying, as is commonly asserted, that they were all "really" homosexuals to start with. I don't believe that there is an essentialist sexual identity in that way.

While the good rabbi is certainly entitled to his own opinions, he's obviously not gay.  Of the literally hundreds of fellow gay people I've known over the years, I've never met one who honestly believes that his sexual orientation is a result of familial relationships.  Difficult or abnormal family relationships involving sexual identity are typically the result of innate sexual orientation rather than the cause of it.

And also ...

"Rather, I'm claiming that boys have constructed their sexual identity by having to repress their most loving parts ..."

Bullshit.  Alas, here, the rabbi wanders off into territory he's apparently unqualified to discuss.

As a happily gay man, I never ever "constructed" my sexual identity.  I was born with it.  I grew up in a supportive and emotionally balanced family created by a father and mother who loved each other as well as my sister and me.  And we loved and respected them right back.  Mom was a stay-at-home housewife of the 40's and 50's who cooked, cleaned, ironed, ran a girl-scout troop and was president of the PTA.  Dad was a cop on the local police force who taught me as a youth to admire and respect firearm marksmanship.  When, at the age of eleven or so, I realized I was gay (simply because I found other guys more sexually interesting than girls), that was not due to any "girly" sense of submissive vulnerability or anything whatever to do with my essentially balanced and healthy relationship with my mother and father.  It's simply the hand my Creator dealt me at birth, and I'm happy with that.

So, yes, I go along with the rabbi's analysis of the many ways in which Biblical teachings are frequently bent to fit the preconceived prejudices of a bigoted reader while selectively ignoring similar precepts, but in terms of his "girly" speculations, he's way off base.

Today the D.C. Court of Appeals has upheld the District same-sex marriage law, ruling in a 5-4 decision that opponents do not have the right to put the issue before voters.

For more information, visit washingtonpost.com.

BUENOS AIRES, Argentina — Argentina legalized same-sex marriage Thursday, becoming the first country in Latin America to declare that gays and lesbians have all the legal rights, responsibilities and protections that marriage brings to heterosexual couples.

Sen. Norma Morandini, a member of the president's party, compared the discrimination closeted gays face to the oppression imposed by Argentina's dictators decades ago.  "What defines us is our humanity, and what runs against humanity is intolerance," she said.

"Today's historic vote shows how far Catholic Argentina has come, from dictatorship to true democratic values, and how far the freedom to marry movement has come, as twelve countries on four continents now embrace marriage equality," said Evan Wolfson, who runs the U.S. Freedom to Marry lobby.

Wolfson urged U.S. lawmakers to stand up "for the Constitution and all families here in the United States. America should lead, not lag, when it comes to treating everyone equally under the law."

Read the Huffington Post article here.

Ever notice that your gaydar sometimes triggers when hearing a totally unremarkable speaking voice?  Someone who doesn't "sound" obviously gay?  There's apparently a reason for that.

Here is a very interesting essay entitled "Lavender Linguistics" which discusses voice and speech characteristics supposedly typical of gay men and lesbians.   For example, they note that gay men tend to use a much wider range of voice frequencies than straight men, and that lesbians generally speak in a lower register than straight women.

Robert J. Podesva, Sarah J, Roberts, and Kathryn Campbell-Kibler have also studied difference in gay male speech and have looked at the following traits to do so in their work "Sharing Resources and Indexing Meanings in the Production of Gay Styles":

   1. Durations of /æ/, /eɪ/
   2. Durations of onset /s/, /l/
   3. Fundamental frequency (f0) properties (max, min, range, and value at vowel midpoint) of stressed vowels
   4. Voice onset time (VOT) of voiceless aspirated stop consonants
   5. Release of word-final stops

Cogent quotes from Andrew Sullivan via The Daily Dish:

It took a federal judge to put two and two together. The Defense of Marriage Act was an assault on the core right of the states to define civil marriage as each sees fit; it was ... drum-roll please ... an assault on the Tenth Amendment! ...

But let me note right now the political ironies of this. The right is hoist on their own federalist petard and will now have to choose whether states' rights or marriage inequality is more important to them. The Obama administration, meanwhile, now has to decide whether it will further defend DOMA in the courts, fighting against the principles of the tenth amendment so dear to conservatives or the fifth amendment so dear to liberals. The incoherence of the Republicans and the cowardice of the Democrats are now exposed more than ever.

Or they could both listen to Ted Olson. This issue is neither right nor left; it is about human dignity, civil equality and civil rights. And it is way past time the American polity grappled with this, instead of exploiting it for mutual partisan purposes.

BOSTON — The federal law banning gay marriage is unconstitutional because it interferes with the right of a state to define the institution and therefore denies married gay couples some federal benefits, a federal judge ruled Thursday in Boston.

U.S. District Judge Joseph Tauro ruled in favor of gay couples' rights in two separate challenges to the Defense of Marriage Act, known as DOMA, a 1996 law that the Obama administration has argued for repealing. The rulings apply to Massachusetts but could have broader implications if they're upheld on appeal.

Read the Huffington Post article.

Comedian Louis C.K., on using the word "faggot" in his standup comedy routines: "Yes, I use the word faggot, but I believe that if you're going to work with nitroglycerin, you really need to read the label".

It's no secret that The Boy Scouts of America are outright bigots.

Since their inception, they've purposely, publicly, and hurtfully discriminated against gay boys and men.

Citing claimed "Christian" values as an excuse for their homophobia, news outlets have frequently reported BSA's conflicts with modern-day human rights ordinances, and the fact that they've correctly been ousted from taxpayer-supported facilities and services for their steadfast refusal to join the twenty-first century.

While valuing knot-tying, quasi-military uniforms, and being "morally straight", the organization has amassed millions of dollars in financial assets both nationally and locally, yet claims penury when faced with the prospect of either paying fines and rent on previously free facilities, or simply abandoning their myopically Victorian dogma.

Incredibly, the local scout council in Philadelphia -- The City of Brotherly Love -- believes it should somehow be exempted from the human rights non-discrimination policies by which all other local social groups abide.  Not only that, they arrogantly claim they should be allowed to hold offices and meeting rooms in a city-owned and taxpayer-supported building rent-free.

Obviously, city lawyers disagree.

Read about it here.