Burke’s story was happy in that it revealed that a sport as drenched in testosterone as hockey could accept Brandon with a shrug. His father, his coach, an his team were all supportive and even when reporters went searching for a story they could not find anyone in hockey willing to be disrespectful to him.

On Friday, Brendan Burke was in a fatal accident. While driving on a treacherous snowy road in Michigan Indiana, his vehicle slid sideways into the path of a truck and he and his passenger were both killed.

But Brandon Burke will be remembered for being brave. And for helping to illustrate to the next generation of hockey kids that homophobia need not be part of the sports world and helping to dispell the stereotype that gay men cannot be physically tough competitors.

Our thoughts and prayers go out to his family, friends, and teammates at this time of their grief.

In “Gay on Trial,” Gabriel explores the complexities of Perry v. Schwarzenegger, the case that is currently being heard in Federal Court challenging California’s Prop 8. He describes what’s at stake in the case, and the unusual case that the plaintiffs are forced to present. They have to prove that gay people are a distinct and well-defined group before they can be treated just like everyone else.

By the way, Gabriel is the driving force behind our new Podcast, which is also available on iTunes.

Congratulations Gabriel! We want pictures of you in your tux.

So we will give you an opportunity to discuss matters of concern to you which may not have been recent thread topics.

Discuss away…

Click here to view the embedded video.

Please join Daniel, Gabriel and me at the 2009 Anti-Heterosexism Conference November 20-22, 2009 in West Palm Beach, Florida. Early registration is open now.

Facing a $6 million budget shortfall, Focus on the Family is shifting control of its Love Won Out conference to an outside organization.

Exodus International, a group that claims people can overcome unwanted same-sex attractions with the help of its ministry, announced Tuesday it will take control of the program starting in November.

“Exodus is the ideal organization to transition Love Won Out to,” said Melissa Fryrear, director of Love Won Out. She noted that Focus on the Family and Exodus have been closely aligned for years.

Funny. I’d noticed that also.

Tonight, President Fierce will try to make amends by signing either a memorandum, a directive, or an executive order, directing some federal agencies, but not others, to provide some benefits, but not others, to some gay federal employees, but not others, at some undisclosed time in the future. (And the benefits may reportedly go away when Obama leaves office.)

First problem, federal agencies already have the right to provide these benefits to gay employees — and several, including at least one DOD agency, do. Second problem, the administration can’t tell us exactly which benefits they’re talking about and for which employees. That’s because this was all hastily thrown together after the incestuous and pedophilic gays nearly brought down a Democratic National Committee gay pride fundraiser scheduled for next week. A gay blogger got hold of the event’s guest list and published it, and once Washington, D.C.’s gay paper, the Washington Blade, announced that it would be staking out the entrance to the event with camera and video, the $1,000 a head attendees started dropping like flies.

Jennifer Vanusco at the Huffington Post gives details of the rather uninformative statements by John Berry:

Berry also said that a memo would be sent out to all Federal departments asking them to look for additional benefits they could extend, and instructing them that making employment decisions on the basis of anything other than job performance – including sexual orientation and gender identity – is not acceptable.

but she reminds us

this guidance was already extended by Bill Clinton and was followed by George W. Bush. And the “benefits” are already provided by many supervisors at their discretion.

Update: Equality Network is passing around an email saying they have it from “reliable sources” that the decision will come down Thursday. All speculation on what that decision would be is just that: speculation. The Court will give twenty-four hours notice of their announcement of the decision on its web site at 10:00 a.m. PST.

Regardless of the decision, good or bad, there are Day of Decision rallies planned across the country for Thursday. Please check here for details.