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By Katherine Boo
Playing President
By Robert Scheer
Paperback $13.16
$13
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Pascal (CC-BY)
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Federal prisons must now provide “current, accepted standards of care” for transgender inmates. “Care” could mean therapy, hormones and possibly even gender reassignment surgery. The change in policy was outlined in a May memo sent by the U.S. Bureau of Prisons to 116 federal facilities. (more)
Posted on Oct 3, 2011
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JD Hancock (CC-BY)
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A child born on the day “don’t ask, don’t tell” became the military’s official policy would today be old enough to enlist (with parental consent). DADT ends Tuesday, but it remains to be seen how the military’s long-established culture of discrimination will adjust. (more)
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mediacutts Productions (CC-BY)
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North Carolina has been the only state in the Southeast without a constitutional ban on same-sex marriage, but that may change. A state House committee approved a measure that, if passed by a supermajority of legislators, would put the amendment to a public vote in May.
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Piers Morgan is going to have trouble replacing Larry King if he can’t get his guests to sit sill. Tea party sensation Christine O’Donnell grew increasingly uncomfortable with the CNN host Wednesday, finally walking off the air rather than respond to a question about whether she supports gay marriage.
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JD Hancock (CC-BY)
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Defense Secretary Leon Panetta and Joint Chiefs Chairman Adm. Mike Mullen have a meeting with the president Friday and, according to numerous reports, Panetta will inform the commander in chief that the Pentagon is ready to end the military’s policy of discrimination against gay troops. (more)
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David Goehring (CC-BY)
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The president is still hedging his bets on gay marriage, but his decision to back a bill that would repeal the hateful Defense of Marriage Act, signed into law by Bill Clinton, won him praise this week from some of his toughest critics. Dan Savage called it a sign that backing gay rights is now “the politically smart thing to do.”
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Mr. Fish
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By Mr. Fish — The mustache that I was looking for on a full-grown woman was the mustache that an 11-year-old boy discovers on himself, with his face four inches away from the bathroom mirror, that all of a sudden makes his whole existence seem just on the brink of becoming worthwhile.
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Flickr / mediacutts
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Same-sex couples suffered a bitter legislative defeat in Rhode Island on Wednesday night when a bill allowing only civil unions—but not marriage—passed the state Senate, less than one week after New York granted gays and lesbians the right to marry. (more)
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AP / Louis Lanzano
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By Larry Gross — New York’s action last week signifies more than just one more state added to the list of those permitting same-sex marriage.
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Flickr / David CC-BY-NC-ND
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By Larry Gross — Among the many landmarks of the turbulent decade of the 1960s, few have achieved the fame and symbolic resonance of events that began as a fairly routine example of police harassment on a hot June night in 1969.
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White House / Pete Souza
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While asking wealthy New York gays for their money at a fundraiser Thursday, the president gave a big thumbs-up to the state’s lawmakers who are toiling to legalize gay marriage. He failed to mention, however, that he still opposes gay marriage. (more)
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nysenate.gov
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New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg made a special trip to Albany on Thursday to try to persuade GOP state senators to vote in favor of legalizing gay marriage, but by the end of the business day the issue was still undecided. Above, state Sen. Mark Grisanti, potentially a key political figure in the matter.
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The “war on drugs” is failing; a teen in China sells his kidney for an iPad 2; and “Sesame Street” admits to spreading propaganda. These discoveries and more after the jump.
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whitehouse.gov
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In honor of the hard work they clearly feel they’ve done for the community, socially minded members of the Obama administration this week launched a special sitelet aimed at LGBT voters as an adjunct to the White House’s online hub.
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Associated Press
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By Scott Tucker — Why is Manning’s mind the only relevant site of weakness, disability and pathology in the big media stories so far? Why not the sorry condition of our corporate state passing as a democratic republic?
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GOP presidential candidate Newt Gingrich started his week on the wrong foot with ill-advised TV tirades and a huge Tiffany tab, but the glitter on the cake came Tuesday when a gay rights advocate dumped a bag of the stuff on Gingrich and his wife Callista.
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Flickr / albany_time
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After more than 30 years of fighting, advocates of permitting gay people to serve as ministers in the Presbyterian Church have won the day after a majority of its congregations voted in favor of the move.
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AfricanVeil.org
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Legislation that critics call the “Kill the Gays” law is under deliberation by a Ugandan parliament committee. It could make homosexual acts punishable by life in prison and add penalties for those who “aid and abet” homosexual activity.
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More than 100 graduates of the University of Michigan Law School left mid-ceremony Saturday to protest commencement speaker Sen. Rob Portman’s position against gay marriage and adoption.
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By Ruth Marcus — It’s easy to beat up on a big corporate law firm for acting cravenly in its financial self-interest. In the case of King & Spalding, the Atlanta firm that abruptly reneged on its commitment to defend the Defense of Marriage Act, the pummeling is entirely deserved.
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By Ruth Marcus — Mike Huckabee made a great argument for gay marriage. The once and perhaps future Republican presidential candidate didn’t mean it that way, of course.
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Flickr / laverrue
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Just in time for campaign season, the Obama administration appears to be picking up the slack, ever so slightly, on the gay rights front by refusing to defend part of the notorious Defense of Marriage Act in court.
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bbc.co.uk
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David Kato, a 43-year-old gay rights activist (above, right) in Uganda, was murdered in his home near Kampala on Wednesday, less than four months after his picture was published in a Ugandan tabloid under the words “Hang Them” in a story about gays “recruiting” local schoolchildren.
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AP / Maya Hitij
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By Larry Gross — Who would have thought that the political capital of Washington would be ahead of the entertainment capital of Hollywood when it comes to allowing gay folks to serve openly?
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Photo illustration from an image by Colin Grey
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Truthdig editors, contributors and collaborators share their insights into the corporate takeover of the free and fair Internet and the repeal of “don’t ask, don’t tell.” Plus: Richard Schickel’s picks for the best movies of the year.
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Photo illustration from an image by Colin Grey
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Truthdig editors, contributors and collaborators share their insights into the corporate takeover of the free and fair Internet and the repeal of “don’t ask, don’t tell.” Plus: Richard Schickel’s picks for the best movies of the year.
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White House / Samantha Appleton
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President Obama’s take on gay marriage may get less absurd. Obama told The Advocate that his view is “evolving” and he struggles with his oft-repeated belief that marriage ought to be between a man and a woman (because such marriages never fail and are the will of the same supreme being who digs slavery).
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AP / Alex Brandon
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By Larry Gross — It would appear that all us gay folks should don our gay apparel and go caroling from 1600 Pennsylvania Ave. to the Capitol, thanking our elected representatives for finally giving us the right to kill and be killed without simultaneously hiding in the closet.
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By Eugene Robinson — President Obama must be tempted to respond to his progressive critics with a quote from the old-school rapper Kool Moe Dee: “How ya like me now?”
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Daryl Cagle, Cagle Cartoons, MSNBC.com —
Posted on Dec 20, 2010
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Flickr / kikasso (CC-BY)
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Last year 95 percent of France’s civil unions (known as pactes civil de solidarité) were signed by heterosexual couples, according to the New York Times. ... (more)
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Flickr / Center for American Progress Action Fund (CC-BY-ND)
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Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid postponed a test vote Wednesday while he worked on a deal with Republican Sen. Susan Collins, but he earlier said he believed he could get the 60 votes needed to end the military’s ban on openly gay soldiers.
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Center for American Progress Action Fund / UNLV / Geri Kodey (CC-BY-ND)
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Senate boss Harry Reid, pictured, says that before his majority shrinks, he intends to push ahead with a vote that could potentially allow gays to serve openly in the military. The measure is currently tied to a defense authorization bill that Reid plans to bring up during the lame duck session.
Posted on Nov 18, 2010
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Flickr / The U.S. Army (CC-BY)
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The findings summarized in a lengthy report that the Pentagon is preparing to send to President Obama about the potential effects of repealing the military’s “don’t ask, don’t tell” policy have been relayed to The Washington Post ahead of the game, and ... (continued)
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youtube.com
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It appears that the Gay and Lesbian Alliance Against Defamation is taking the direct approach in responding to Hollywood studios’ less-than-enlightened portrayals of GLBTQ characters and use of certain slang terms, but we’re not entirely sure that the watchdog organization is “Hollywood’s Latest Bully,” as The Wrap suggested Tuesday.
Posted on Nov 9, 2010
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U.S. Air Force / Tech. Sgt. Francisco V. Govea II
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Sens. Carl Levin and John McCain of the Armed Services Committee are reportedly working to shelve the legislative effort to end the military’s ban on openly gay service members. (continued)
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By Ruth Marcus — In one of Tuesday’s most disturbing election results, the losing candidates didn’t even have opponents.
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youtube.com
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Although gay marriage and adoption by same-sex couples are still not fully sanctioned in the real world, things are different in at least one corner of the virtual realm. Take “Fable III,” for example, which gives gamers free rein ... (continued)
Posted on Oct 26, 2010
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AP / Manuel Balce Ceneta
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By Jarrod Chlapowski —
Repealing “don’t ask, don’t tell” should have been easy. Now opponents of the policy have to watch the administration oppose a court order prohibiting discrimination against gays in the military.
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AP / Kathy Willens
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Carl Paladino has made a joke of the New York governor’s race, but on Sunday the tea party candidate showed he could be hateful as well. Speaking to a group of Orthodox Jews just days after it was reported that two teenagers and an adult were tortured nearby in the Bronx for being gay, Paladino said children should not be “brainwashed” into thinking homosexuality is “equally valid.” (continued)
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By Eugene Robinson — Bishop Eddie Long tells us that he—and not the young men he is accused of coercing into sexual relationships or the gays and lesbians he has condemned—feels “like David against Goliath.”
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Flickr / Norbert Blech (CC-BY)
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A Florida appeals court has struck down that state’s draconian ban on gay adoption, the only explicit prohibition against adoptive gay parents in the country. The court really had no choice, since there’s nothing wrong with gay parents and they appear to raise superior children.
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AP / Pat Wellenbach
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By Larry Gross — We live in two simultaneous but radically incongruous realities, where undemocratic arrangements negotiated in the 18th century contend with commercial media industries that covet the enlightened youth.
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Senate Republicans and a couple of conservative Democrats killed a measure that would have made it possible to end the ban on gays in the military. Because the bill probably won’t be brought up again until after November, and the next Senate is expected to grow more conservative, it could be years before gays are allowed to serve openly.
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