Rep. Clyburn Comes Out in Support of Marriage Equality on a National Level

Going even farther than President Obama, today Congressman James Clyburn  (D-SC) said that he believes legal recognition of Marriage Equality should not be left to state laws, but instead ought to be decided at the national level.


Clyburn told NBC's Chuck Todd, "If we consider this to be a civil right - and I do - I don't think civil rights ought to be left up to a state-by-state approach. I think we should have a national policy on this."


"Sometimes it takes the federal government to step into the breach to resolve many of these issues," Clyburn continued.


Video of the full interview:

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Newsweek Blows It Again!

The cover for the next issue of Newsweek (not even on the stands yet) is already causing some consternation in the LGBTQ community.

Just as many persons of color found it inherently condescending when Bill Clinton was referred to as the first Black President, so too will many LGBTQs find this to be insulting. Despite his statement of personal support for the concept of Marriage Equality, his insistence that it is still a matter of States Rights over Civil Rights has many of the people he expected to come to his side in support continuing to challenge him. We want to know, if he truly believes that we should all be treated equally under the law, why does he still refuse to sign the Executive Order that has been waiting on his desk for 3 years now and ban discrimination against LGBTQ employees by Federal contractors?

Even among those in the community who have vocally expressed their gratitude and support for the President for his interview the other day, few believe he has achieved the status of Sainthood this cover implies.

But more troubling (to me, at least) is that this cover reveals the complete lack of any appreciation of American history that one should expect from a publication that would like us to consider it as a reputable source of news.

At least, at the time people were referring to Bill Clinton as the first Black President, we had never had one. But we HAVE had a gay President!

Leaving aside the speculation about Abraham Lincoln for now (speculation being given increasing attention in academic circles) there is very little doubt in the minds of all but the most homophobic historians that James Buchanan was gay.

Even Wikipedia, notorious for trying to whitewash their biographies of LGBTQ people (as if a President who has been dead for over one-hundred years were going to threaten a lawsuit, a la Tom Cruise or John Travolta) tacitly acknowledges the fact that he was, at the least, bisexual. From their biography:

For fifteen years in Washington, D.C., before his presidency, Buchanan lived with his close friend, Alabama Senator William Rufus King... Buchanan's and King's close relationship prompted Andrew Jackson to call King "Miss Nancy" and "Aunt Fancy", while Aaron V. Brown spoke of the two as "Buchanan and his wife." Some of the contemporary press also speculated about Buchanan's and King's relationship. The two men's nieces destroyed their uncles' correspondence, leaving some questions about their relationship; but the length and intimacy of surviving letters illustrate "the affection of a special friendship", and Buchanan wrote of his "communion" with his housemate. In May 1844, during one of King's absences that resulted from King's appointment as minister to France, Buchanan wrote to a Mrs. Roosevelt, "I am now 'solitary and alone', having no companion in the house with me. I have gone a wooing to several gentlemen, but have not succeeded with any one of them. I feel that it is not good for man to be alone, and [I] should not be astonished to find myself married to some old maid who can nurse me when I am sick, provide good dinners for me when I am well, and not expect from me any very ardent or romantic affection."

"I have gone a wooing to several gentlemen... not expect from me any very ardent or romantic affection..."  Is there any other rational way to interpret these quotes other than as revealing the depth of his relationship with King?

Maybe we should all chip in and buy Andrew Sullivan and his editors at Newsweek copies of a few American history books!

Exclusive Video - ACT UP's 25th Anniversary Commemoration

On Wednesday, April 25, 2012, ACT UP NY   commemorated its 25th anniversary with a march on Wall Street, returning to the scene of their first demonstration on March 24, 1987. Joined by Occupy Wall Street, Queering OWS, Housing Works, Queerocracy, Fed Up Queers, and others, the activists are demanding the passage of a Financial Speculation Tax (better known as the Robin Hood Tax) to fill AIDS funding gaps.

During the course of the day's events, 19 protesters were arrested for acts of civil disobedience. Traffic on Broadway was halted twice. Demonstrators, chained together, formed a line across the avenue. After the NYPD had cleared the street, another group blocked traffic again, this time by dragging furniture into the street to illustrate the plight of the many homeless people who are infected with HIV, forced to live in the streets because they are unable to get adequate support from HASA (NYC's HIV/AIDS Services Administration).

(More on this story below, after our exclusive video coverage of the protests.)


ACT UP at 25 from David Wallace on Vimeo.

Representing those charged, noted attorney Richard A. Luthmann stated, "The District Attorney's office has made no offers of outright dismissal with respect to the 19 arrested at the ACT UP protest. What is clear is that anything less than an outright dismissal of all the pending charges shows a failure of District Attorney [Cyrus] Vance's office to recognize the pivotal significance that ACT UP has had in combatting the global AIDS pandemic for tyhe past quarter-century towards bring about the day when AIDS is no more... ACT UP has had a seat at the table in informing and molding public health policy in every Presidential administration, with the United Nations and with the World Health Organization. The group remains a powerful force for social justice and change, and we are going to assure that they are treated fairly."

ABOUT THE FINANCIAL SPECULATION TAX: The FiST would not target individual investors and would not affect regular banking transactions. It would place a small tax on speculative trading by Wall Street investment banks, hedge funds and other large financial institutions, the kind of transactions that largely precipitated the economic recession of the last few years. Nine member-nations of the European Union are currently considering such a tax, and the International Monetary Fund agrees that such a tax would not have a negative impact on domestic financial markets in countries in which it is implemented.

Larry Kramer Rocks ACT UP's 25th Anniversary

While I work on editing the rest of the footage I shot yesterday at ACT UP's 25th Anniversary action on Wall St., I thought I'd share a little "teaser," Larry Kramer's impromptu address to the crowd, complete and unedited:



MUCH more video coming up soon!

Queer Rising Protests Cuts for Homeless LGBTQ Teens

My video footage of Saturday night's demonstration in Times Square:

Just a quick thought regarding the recent GOP Presidential Debate...

Boycott the Blue Bunny?

Mmmmmmm!  Tasty, and just a few colors short of a rainbow.

Blue Bunny Ice Cream is finding itself at the center of a controversy. What could this company, the third largest manufacturer of ice cream in the United States, have possibly done to cause people to be calling for a boycott of its delicious products?


Well, it all starts with THE FAMiLY LEADER's 14-point Marriage Fidelity Pledge, which asserts (among other things) that homosexuality is a choice and that people of color had stronger family units during the era of slavery. 


The President of THE FAMiLY LEADER is Bob Vander Plaats, serial Iowa gubernatorial candidate and long-time anti-LGBTQ activist. Bob was one of the leaders behind the successful movement to recall the three Iowa Supreme Court judges who ruled that Iowa could not deny same-sex couples the right to marry. Bob believes that homosexuality is a "public health risk," just like second-hand smoke:





And here's Bob enjoying a relaxed moment laughing at a "fag" joke:

Now how could this involve something as innocuous as ice cream?

Bob enjoys considerable financial support from Mike Wells and his family, and Mike is the CEO and President of Wells Enterprises, manufacturers of Blue Bunny and Weight Watchers ice creams as well as Disney ice cream novelties. (You'll see the Wells family name featured prominently in the center of the Blue Bunny logo.)

Quickly responding to the growing controversy, Blue Bunny has posted the following statement on their website:

Regarding Recent Posts About Political Contributions: 

Blue Bunny and Wells Enterprises have never donated money to Bob Vander Plaat’s political campaign. Everyone, including our employees, has a right to support political activities within their role as a private citizen. What our employees support personally is in no way an endorsement by our brand or our company.

Technically, of course, they're right. Unlike Target, for example, Blue Bunny as a corporation has not contributed to Vander Plaats' political campaigns. But we're not talking about the contributions of an individual, low-level employee of Wells Enterprises. We're talking about the CEO and President.


Consider the contributions made by individual members of the Wells family:

• $184,500 from Wells family members for Bob Vander Plaats' 2010 gubernatorial race. (The Wells family were the largest source of his campaign funding in 2010.) 
• $246,000 from Wells family members for his 2006 gubernatorial race.
• $25,500 from Wells family members for his 2002 gubernatorial race.
• $25,500 to the Iowa Family Center PAC, a group associates with the FAMiLY Leader.

So even though the corporation may not have directly contributed to Vander Plaats, the fact is that most of the profits from your purchase of Blue Bunny's products go straight into the Wells family's pockets, and from there, into Vander Plaats'.


So, as much as I may like ice cream, as long as the Wells family continues to fund extreme right-wing candidates such as Vander Platts, I'm going to have to find a more friendly and supportive source to satisfy my addiction. Anyone care to join me for a dish of Ben & Jerry's Hubby Hubby?