Maddow to Obama: Do the right thing
MSNBC.com, August 11, 2010
In a special comment on her TV show, Rachel Maddow criticized the “soul-sucking” insistence of the Obama administration on putting political calculations above doing what’s right. "If you are changing the policy soon, why not hold off the ruination of lives under the policy now, in the meantime? Why not do that? I’ll tell you why. Because that would take some political capital. That would take some guts.”

Obama stand does gay Americans no favors
By Leslie J. Gabel-Brett, Bloomberg, September 3, 2010
President Barack Obama has a problem with the lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender community: He keeps making steady progress on some very important matters, and we keep complaining that he has let us down. Our glass is half empty and his, it seems, is half full.

Are Republicans 'co-opting' gay rights?
By Adam Sewer, Washington Post, September 2, 2010
Pro-gay rights Republicans seem to be less of an oxymoron these days. Former Solicitor General Ted Olson is, along with Ted Boies, leading the fight in the courts against California's ban on same-sex. Former RNC Chair Ken Mehlman has come out and begun raising money for the pro-equality group Americans for Equal Rights. Conservative commentator Ann Coulter, who once called Democratic presidential candidate John Edwards a "faggot," is headlining a political convention for gay and lesbian conservatives.

End the silent segregation in the U.S. military
By Tracy Emblem, San Diego Gay & Lesbian News, September 1, 2010
In 1948, President Harry Truman issued Executive Order 9981 proclaiming that "there shall be equality of treatment and opportunity for all persons in the armed services without regard to race, color, religion or national origin." Compare President Truman’s proclamation of equal opportunity and treatment in the military to today’s efforts to repeal the 1993 "Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell" policy imposed by Congress.

Now, clean out the closet
Editorial, Boston Globe, August 31, 2010
When former Republican National Committee Chairman Ken Mehlman announced last week that he is gay, he expressed remorse for not doing more to advance gay rights when he was in a position of power in the Republican Party. Addressing those who doubt the sincerity of his regret, he added: "If they can’t offer support, at least offer understanding.’’ That’s a lot to ask for.

View from Washington
By Kerry Eleveld, Advocate.com, August 30, 2010
The White House may continue to wear blinders on same-sex marriage, but the world is transforming around them as conservatives take up the mantle of equality.

Will GOP official's self-outing help gay rights?
By Max Fisher, TheAtlanticWire.com, August 26, 2010
Ken Mehlman, a former Republican National Committee chairman and the manager of George W. Bush's 2004 campaign, has announced that he is gay. The news has provoked strong reaction in gossip-hungry Washington and especially among liberals who are wondering why Mehlman worked so hard for a campaign and political party that have been less than receptive to gay-rights issues. Many observers write that Mehlman's sexuality was long an open secret. Here's what people have to say.

Don't serve, don't promote
By Kara Speltz and Eugene McMullan, Bay Area Reporter, August 26, 2010
While all of us oppose the discriminatory policy known as "Don't Ask, Don't Tell," as people who take seriously the biblical injunction against killing we are concerned about the lack of conversation in our community regarding the morality of military service.

Save the 14th Amendment
By Rachel B. Tiven, Advocate.com, August 23, 2010
Gay people have a real interest in fighting the effort to strip birthright citizenship from the 14th amendment, says Immigration Equality executive director Rachel B. Tiven.

Laura Schlessinger -- Over and out
Editorial, Bay Area Reporter, August 19, 2010
One of the most vile and bigoted voices on the airwaves is leaving – and not a moment too soon. Laura Schlessinger, the conservative talk show commentator who has spent the better part of her career lambasting gays and other minorities, announced on CNN's Larry King Live Tuesday night that she was ending her long-running radio show.

On Prop 8, it's the evidence, stupid
By Lisa Bloom, CNN, August 18, 2010
There's a big difference between a political debate about same-sex marriage and the recent hard-fought court challenge to the California ban, Proposition 8.

How I learned to stop worrying and love the Prop 8 lawsuit
By. E. J. Graff, The Nation, August 18, 2010
After a few days of talking with a number of LGBT advocates, I’ve been reassured, on several counts. First, the lawyers all tell me that, contrary to the common wisdom, Perry isn’t necessarily on a fast track to the Supreme Court. It could stop short at the Ninth Circuit on a number of grounds.

Same-sex marriage is about equality, not religion
By O.C. Allen, CNN.com, August 16, 2010
I am a product of the "The Black Church." It shaped me into who I am today: a Christian pastor aware of God's amazing grace and love. When I announced I was gay, the church limited that grace and love. Although I had no doubt that God loved me, I discovered that God's love and the church's love can be two different things. To be Christian is to be inclusive of people who love one another. This is why I support same-sex marriage.

Angels in America
By Frank Rich, New York Times, August 15, 2010
In 1985, Judith Peabody, a frequent contributor to the traditional good causes favored by those of her wealthy class, did the unthinkable by volunteering to work as a hands-on caregiver to AIDS patients and their loved ones. Those patients were then mostly gay men.

In Defense of Marriage
Editorial, New York Times, August 14, 2010
If same-sex couples in California have the constitutional right to be part of the mainstream of society, then so should every couple in America.

A judge with no right to judge?
By Leonard Pitts, Miami Herald, August 12, 2010
Vaughn Walker is the federal judge, originally appointed by Ronald Reagan and generally regarded, according to the Associated Press, as "a conservative with libertarian leanings," who struck down Proposition 8, California’s ban on same-sex marriage. It turns out there is a rumor — never confirmed or denied — that Walker himself is gay. That has launched proponents of the ban into a full-fledged tizzy.

Working to empower black LGBTs
By Sharon Lettman, Bay Area Reporter, August 12, 2010
In African American communities only some of us feel comfortable going home. In our communities, only some of us feel safe enough to be who we are in the company of those who raised us. Only some of us can show up and be all of ourselves all of the time with the people we love most. The pain of moving through our families – closeted, and, in many instances, alienated – is devastating black families everywhere.

My fellow conservatives, think carefully about your opposition to gay marriage
By Margaret Hoover, FoxNews.com, August 11, 2010
As a conservative Republican representing the next generation of attitudes towards gays and lesbians, I encouraged the readers of FoxNews.com last January to take a careful look at the arguments and evidence in the Prop 8 trial, Perry v. Schwarzenegger.

The great (gay) surname debate
By Tracy Clark-Flory, Salon.com, August 11, 2010
What's the next step after a same-sex marriage? A same-sex name change -- at least, that's the case for Portia de Rossi, who has petitioned to adopt wife Ellen DeGeneres' last name. To gay couples everywhere: Welcome to the surname wars!

Is there really a "fight" for gay marriage?
By Vanessa Carmichael, Huffington Post, August 10, 2010
The tipping point for gay and lesbian equality is clearly on the horizon but I'm afraid it's going to need a little more activism on the part of gay and lesbian Americans. If you understand Obama is the president of a rather conservative country and not the Gay Civil Rights Leader, you get the need for marriage equality supporters to invest diligently in winning this struggle.

The marriage ideal
By Ross Douthat, New York Times, August 9, 2010
Here are some commonplace arguments against gay marriage: Marriage is an ancient institution that has always been defined as the union of one man and one woman, and we meddle with that definition at our peril. Lifelong heterosexual monogamy is natural; gay relationships are not. The nuclear family is the universal, time-tested path to forming families and raising children. These have been losing arguments for decades now, as the cause of gay marriage has moved from an eccentric- seeming notion to an idea that roughly half the country supports.

View from Washington: No change
By Kerry Eleveld, Advocate.com, August 9, 2010
Even as White House aides responded to the historic ruling overturning Prop. 8, they were at pains to communicate that Obama's position on the issue was simply business as usual.

For politicians, a marriage of inconvenience
By Lou Cannon, New York Times, August 9, 2010
Can Meg Whitman take advantage of a federal judge’s decision to overturn the ban on same-sex marriage in California?

Homosexuality and the law
Editorial, Los Angeles Times, August 9, 2010
Tucked away in U.S. District Chief Judge Vaughn R. Walker’s opinion is something that could carry weight not only in this lawsuit, as it moves through the courts, but in other same-sex marriage cases and debates about the rights of gays and lesbians. It is a brief statement addressing whether homosexuals should be regarded as the kind of minority group that deserves special protection by the courts under the 14th Amendment of the Constitution.

A judge's mighty arguments for marriage equality
By Eugene Robinson, Washington Post, August 6, 2010
The 14th Amendment is a mighty sword, and U.S. District Judge Vaughn Walker used it Wednesday to slice and shred all the specious arguments -- and I mean all of them -- that are used to deny full marriage rights to gay and lesbian Americans. Bigotry has suffered a grievous blow.

Why are anti-gay Texas leaders silent on Prop 8 ruling?
By John Wright, Dallas Voice, August 6, 2010
Perry v. Schwarzenegger could eventually result in Texas’ same-sex marriage bans being struck down by the U.S. Supreme Court. So you’d expect politicians in Texas to be lining up to sound off about U.S. District Judge Vaughn Walker’s ruling that declared California’s Prop 8 unconstitutional. Or not.

Proposition 8 and S.B. 1070: Sisters under the skin?
By Sandip Roy, Salon.com, August 6, 2010
I have no idea if Judge Robert Vaughn Walker and Judge Susan Bolton know each other, but within one week, they had suddenly brought together two parts of who I am. As a gay immigrant, I am used to juggling identities, never sure which one is acceptable in which setting, which one I should check at the door.

Marriage is a constitutional right
Editorial, New York Times, August 5, 2010
Until Wednesday, the thousands of same-sex couples who have married did so because a state judge or Legislature allowed them to. The nation’s most fundamental guarantees of freedom, set out in the Constitution, were not part of the equation. That has changed with the historic decision by a federal judge in California, Vaughn Walker, that said his state’s ban on same-sex marriage violated the 14th Amendment’s rights to equal protection and due process of law.

Donations off Target
Editorial, Bay Area Reporter, August 5, 2010
If Target really has an "unwavering commitment to the LGBT community," as Target CEO Gregg Steinhafel said last week, it wouldn't have given money to a candidate who says that LGBT people should be treated like second-class citizens.

Prop. 8 lessons
By Lorri L. Jean, Advocate.com, August 4, 2010
L.A. Gay and Lesbian Center CEO Lorri L. Jean explains what the new Prop. 8 analysis means for changing the grassroots game plan and winning over voters.

Why we are protesting against "Americans for Truth about Homosexuality"
By Andy Thayer, Huffington Post, August 3, 2010
Beginning August 5, a group which calls itself Americans For Truth About Homosexuality is organizing what they call an "academy" to "train young people (as well as older pro-family advocates) how to answer 'gay' activist misinformation and fight the homosexual-bisexual-transsexual agenda." AFTAH has a long history of telling lies about LGBT people, and recently was designated a "hate group" by the Southern Poverty Law Center.

Dems need to get a spine
Editorial, Bay Area Reporter
The national Democrats need to toughen up and not succumb to right wing distractions, which have stalled the congressional calendar. Congress has one week before the August recess and then doesn't return until after Labor Day, leaving only eight working weeks before the November midterm elections.

This is why I was arrested, Speaker Pelosi
By Shannon Cuttle, Washington Blade
I have held meetings, I have lobbied, I have phone banked all in support of passing the Employment Non-Discrimination Act. Speaker Pelosi, what more can I do to "push," you as requested? Everyday lives are on the line and hang in the balance for lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender individuals in and out of the workplace. I am asking you to please bring ENDA for a vote before the end of 2010.

The Kids Are All Right? No Way!
By Joan Garry, Huffington Post, July 27, 2010
You're wondering how a lesbian mom and gay rights activist can possibly have any issues with the first mainstream feature film with box office stars as lesbians who raise a family together. Do I have to be so damned picky? Yes, I do.

(Gay) Life, on the Small and Big Screen
Opinion, New York Times, July 23, 2010
It’s a long way from "Brokeback Mountain" to "The Kids Are All Right," the critically praised film about a lesbian couple played by Julianne Moore and Annette Bening. As A.O. Scott wrote in his New York Times review, the movie "starts from the premise that gay marriage, an issue of ideological contention and cultural strife, is also an established social fact." What effect have these portrayals played in gaining social acceptance for same-sex families and in changing social perceptions?

Looking for time bombs and tea leaves on gay marriage
New York Times, July 20, 2010
An aside about laws affecting gay men and lesbians in a recent case is being viewed as a potential signal for a future Supreme Court ruling on same-sex marriage.

The Vatican and women: Casting the first stone
By Tim Padgett, Time Magazine, July 20, 2010
The Vatican issued an avowal, as obtuse as it was malicious, that ordaining women into the priesthood was a sin on par with pedophilia. Rome's misogynous declaration, tossed into its new guidelines on reporting clerical sexual abuse, did more than just highlight the church's hoary horror at the idea of female priests — or its penchant of late for sticking its papal slippers in its mouth every chance it gets. It also pointed up an increasingly spiteful rhetoric of bigotry.

A summer for gay rights
By Richard Socarides, The Huffington Post, July 19, 2010
This is shaping up as the summer of gay rights in the courts. The twin victories last week from the US District Court in Massachusetts striking down as unconstitutional key portions of the anti-gay "Defense of Marriage Act" and the eagerly anticipated decision in the federal Proposition 8 case in California have made for enormous excitement in the legal and civil rights communities.

Rome fiddles, we burn
Maureen Dowd, New York Times, July 19, 2010
If the Vatican is trying to restore the impression that its moral sense is intact, issuing a document that equates pedophilia with the ordination of women doesn’t really do that.

Why the US should adopt the UK stance on gay soldiers in the military
By Phillip Dayle, The Guardian, July 16, 2010
The US Congress is poised to get rid of the military's "Don't ask don't tell" policy, which prevents gay and lesbian people from serving openly. The discussion in the US mirrors what took place in the UK before the European Court of Human Rights' decision on Lustig-Prean and Beckitt v the United Kingdom in 1999 that eliminated the service ban on gay and lesbian people in the military.

How the GOP is saving gay marriage
By Joshua Green, The Atlantic, July 15, 2010
Last week, a U.S. District Court judge in Boston struck down a significant portion of the Defense of Marriage Act, ruling that the controversial 1996 federal law violates the equal protection clause of the Constitution by denying gay and lesbian couples the federal benefits afforded to straight couples. Nearly as significant as the decision itself is the political affiliation of the judge who made it: 79-year-old Joseph Tauro, a Republican and the longest-serving appointee of Richard Nixon.

Tauro ruling on DOMA should stand
By Sen. John Kerry, TheHill.com, July 15, 2010
In 1996, I voted against DOMA because I believed—and still believe—that it was unconstitutional and unconscionable for Congress to actively legislate against gay Americans. I thought back on this last week when a United States District Court declared DOMA’s restrictions unconstitutional.

Pentagon survey on gays distracts from real issue: Leadership
Aaron Belkin, Huffington Post, July 13, 2010
The Pentagon survey is flawed, to be sure. Several questions ask whether gays or lesbians impact unit cohesion "a lot," "a little," "some," or "not at all," with no way to indicate whether that effect is positive or negative. Perhaps even more troubling, the survey asks questions that would never be posed of other minority groups.

Same-sex marriage sanity
Editorial, Los Angeles Times, July 13, 2010
What is the rational basis for laws that deprive gay and lesbian couples of the right to wed? The arguments that have emerged so far — that same-sex marriage is bad for child-rearing and that it damages heterosexual unions — fall apart under the slightest scrutiny. A judge in Massachusetts recognized this in a case involving the federal Defense of Marriage Act; now the judge in the lawsuit against California's Proposition 8 should do the same.

Letters to QSanAntonio
Do you have an opinion about something that you've read in QSanAntonio? All letters should include your full name and telephone number. You will be called to verify the letter’s publication. Your letter can be published with your initials only if you wish. Letters should as brief as needed to make your point. We reserve the right to edit letters for length and clarity. All letters become the property of QSanAntonio Publishing.