Jeremy Hooper's Blog, page 334
December 5, 2012
Could we get our first out gay Cabinet member in the coming year?
Fred Hochberg, who already has a nice role with the administration, is said to be in the running for Commerce Secretary:
Obama Considering Gay Import-Export Bank Chair Fred Hochberg for Commerce Secretary: Report [Washington Blade/Towleroad]
Of course it could be a double-edged sword. If Hochberg gets in, it's quite historic and another sign of our inevitable victory in this overall conversation. But then again, any slight blip in foreign or domestic commerce will be pinned on the gays and our...
December 4, 2012
Video: Frank Bruni & MSNBC panel talk Clintons, 'JET', equality (i.e. the inevitable future)
A New York Times columnist and a decidedly forward-leaning panel chat about equality:
It seriously feels like we're all stuck in mud. We all know we'll get out and that our inevitably-claimed ground will come to look like the islands of awesome that already dot our kingdom. But in the meantime, the march forward is still a slower and much dirtier slog than need be.
If not mud, then perhaps molasses. Why not? It's been a pretty sweet year.
12/9 @ Seattle City Hall: 140+ couples to marry, give local reporters stock footage for years thereafter
Dan Savage reports:
More than 140 couples have registered to marry at [Seattle] City Hall on December 9, the first day that all couples will be free to legally marry in Washington state.
December 9 City Hall Wedding Update [Slog]
(H/t Dick Mills)
Congrats to all who will marry there and elsewhere, both on the 9th and every day thereafter. And remember to never stop fighting. This day will be historic and awesome, remembered for all time. But in a weird way, the benign, non-newsworthy same-gender...
Video: This clip allows the efficient antagonist to marry his anti-gayness with his anti-Semitism
This exists:
And apparently they hate mid-'90s Comedy Central programs as well, since the Jonathan Katz pictured in the vid is actually the comedian from Dr Katz Professional Therapist and not the Jonathan David Katz who founded the Harvey Milk Institute.
But hey, it's hard making hit pieces. So many Google Images; so little regard.
'I will never admit I understand the concept of consent' vows AFA's uniquely obsessed voice
One is a state of being that involves a human, a brain, and a body. The other two are sexual acts—paraphilias, really—that involve the forcible violation of a person or thing that is unable to provide reasonable consent. But don't let that get between the American Family Association's Bryan Fischer and his daily attempt to stretch that organization's credibility to its very limit:
I love how he tells us to "watch for it," as if he has some great track record of soothsaying. The man who spent d...
No, President Obama is not 'ignoring' DOMA—he's keenly aware of its callous awfulness
I keep hearing social conservatives saying that the Obama administration is "ignoring" the so-called Defense of Marriage Act. This one comes from NOM's Damian Goddard:
Of course, it’s a law Barack Obama is completely ignoring, ordering the DOJ last year to stop defending DOMA in court.
It is obvious where the Obama Administration stands on the issue. [DamianGoddard.com]
But no. No, no, no, no, no.
The truth of why the Obama administration is no longer defending DOMA lies not in blind eyes or dea...
Conserv thinks phrase 'marry their house plant' is helpful; he's right—it's helpful to us!
Liberty Counsel attorney and all-around sayer of hostile things about LGBT people, Matt Barber, knows exactly why gay people shouldn't get married. Because it's just like how people can't marry their children, siblings, or house plants—duh!
"There are common-sense restrictions that are placed on the institution of marriage that we all must adhere to," Barber notes. "For instance, an adult cannot marry a minor child; a person cannot marry somebody who is too close to them from a familial standp...
'I will never move on to another debate!' vows military discrimination's loudest voice
Elaine Donnelly, who has spent the better part of two decades now focused on the issue of keeping LGBT soldiers from fighting and possibly dying for their country, is now condemning (surprise, surprise) the recent same-sex weddings at West Point. Elaine's tactics involve stirring up dissension among West Point alums:
"I think West Point is going to … disappoint many of its alumnus community," the military readiness watchdog submits. "And I think that some people may start to question, What is...
