Box Turtle Bulletin

List Of Straight Kids Bullied To Death By Gays

There’s been a lot of attention given to gay teens — or teens whose peers believe they are gay — who commit suicide following years of torment and bullying by their classmates. If one wanted to compose a list, there would be far too many to count. But one web site says we should provide some balance to the story, by listing the names of “straight kids who have been bullied by gays and lesbians until they were driven to take their own lives.” Their complete list is here.

The Daily Agenda for Thursday, September 15

TODAY’S AGENDA:
Congressional HIV/AIDS Caucus Launches: Washington, D.C. Administration officials, experts and advocates will join Reps. Jim McDermott (D-CA), Barbara Lee (D-CA) and Trent Franks (R-AZ), co-chairs of the Congressional HIV/AIDS Caucus, to announce the launch of the Congressional HIV/AIDS Caucus at a press conference on this morning 10:30 a.m. at the House Triangle, on the East Front of the U.S. Capital. The purpose of the caucus is “to examine methods by which the United States can maintain global leadership in the response to the epidemic in the U.S. and around the world. The Caucus will also provide opportunities to galvanize new leadership in preparation for the International AIDS Conference to be held in Washington, D.C. in July 2012.” At least fifty house members have signed on to the caucus.

AIDS Walks This Weekend: Cranbrook, BC; Detroit, MI; Edmunton, AB; Hamilton, ON; Hazelton, BC; Kamloops, BC; Kingston, ON; London, ON; Nelson, BC; Niagara, ON; North Bay, ON; Prince George, BC; Rochester, NY; Sacramento, CA; Saskatoon, SK; Sydney, NS; and Vancouver, BC.

Pride Celebrations This Weekend: Dallas, TX; eKurhuleni, South Africa; Hartford, CT; Honolulu, HI; Las Vegas, NV; Modesto, CA; Rehoboth Beach, DE; Roanoke, VA; Sapporo, Japan; Stratford, ON; and Valdosta, GA.

Also This Weekend: North Louisiana Gay & Lesbian Film Festival, Shreveport, LA.

TODAY IN HISTORY:
President Reagan Mentions AIDS For The First Time: 1985. There is something of an urban legend out there that holds that President Ronald Reagan never mentioned AIDS during his presidency. Another version has it that he did mention it, but not until 1987. The truth is that Reagan didn’t talk much about AIDS during his administration even after many thousands had died, in sharp contrast to the government’s vigorous and immediate response when 34 military veterans (and presumably not homosexual ones) came down with what would be known as Legionellosis — Legionaries Disease — at an American Legion convention in 1975. It was on this date in 1985 when Reagan finaly mentioned AIDS, briefly, during a news conference when he was asked about budget allocation for research:

Q: Mr. President, the Nation’s best-known AIDS scientist says the time has come now to boost existing research into what he called a minor moonshot program to attack this AIDS epidemic that has struck fear into the Nation’s health workers and even its schoolchildren. Would you support a massive government research program against AIDS like the one that President Nixon launched against cancer?

President Reagan: I have been supporting it for more than 4 years now. It’s been one of the top priorities with us, and over the last 4 years, and including what we have in the budget for ’86, it will amount to over a half a billion dollars that we have provided for research on AIDS in addition to what I’m sure other medical groups are doing. And we have $100 million in the budget this year; it’ll be 126 million next year. So, this is a top priority with us. Yes, there’s no question about the seriousness of this and the need to find an answer.

The mother of Ryan White, the 13-year-old teen with AIDS who was forced to attend classes via telephone because his Kokomo, Indiana school district prohibited him from attending, was disappointed that Reagan take the opportunity to tell parents they shouldn’t fear that their children could catch AIDS through casual contact. And Rep. Gary Studds (D-MA) disputed Reagan’s statement that AIDS research was a top priority:

“… The president said last night it is one of the top priorities of the last four years,” the Massachusetts Democrat said in an interview Wednesday. “Under those circumstances, it is more than a little difficult to imagine why he has never mentioned it once before in public.”

…At his news conference Tuesday night, Reagan, responding to reporters’ questions, said more than $500 million had been spent to try to find ways of combatting AIDS, a fatal virus which attacks the body’s ability to fight disease. But Studds said Reagan’s requests to Congress for fiscal years 1982 through 1986 were far less than that amount, and the money was appropriated only because Congress went beyond administration requests. “The administration’s request for the five fiscal years in question, ’82, ’83, ’84, ’85 and ’86, adds up to $213.5 million,” Studds said. “The way I read that, it’s less than ‘over half a billion’ by a substantial amount.”

If you know of something that belongs on the agenda, please send it here. PLEASE, don’t forget to include the basics: who, what, when, where, and URL (if available).

And feel free to consider this your open thread for the day. What’s happening in your world?

Marriage Bans Don’t Make Clint Eastwood’s Day

GQ has an interview with the veteran actor and director Clint Eastwood, whose biopic J. Edgar starring Leonardo DiCaprio is due in theaters soon. Eastwood made it clear to GQ that he sees no reason why same-sex marriage should be so controversial:

“These people who are making a big deal about gay marriage?” Eastwood tells the magazine. “I don’t give a fuck about who wants to get married to anybody else! Why not?! We’re making a big deal out of things we shouldn’t be making a deal out of … Just give everybody the chance to have the life they want.”

…”I was an Eisenhower Republican when I started out at 21, because he promised to get us out of the Korean War,” Eastwood tells the magazine. “And over the years, I realized there was a Republican philosophy that I liked. And then they lost it. And libertarians had more of it. Because what I really believe is, let’s spend a little more time leaving everybody alone.”

J. Edgar, which hits theaters on November 9, was written by Dustin Lance Black of Milk fame. There are already high expectations for the film among Oscar prognosticators.

Role of Herman Cain’s Gay Aide Questioned in Former Staffer’s Quest for Unemployment Benefits

The Iowa Straw Poll coordinator for GOP Presidential Candidate Herman Cain alleges that the campaign tried to cover up the role of a top adviser who had been ousted as the leader of a gay pride group in Wisconsin amid financial scandal. The Associated Press reports that the coordinator, Kevin Hall, made the allegation in a letter while applying for unemployment benefits and in testimony during a hearing last week.

Hall alleged that the campaign sought to cover up the role of Scott Toomey, senior adviser and treasurer of Cains’ PAC once Toomey’s sexual orientation became known, along with his role as treasurer for Madison Pride Board. In 2008, Madison Pride removed Toomey after discovering that bills weren’t being paid along with other “financial discrepancies.” The group folded after a downsized 2008 Pride.

On June 6, Cain said he would have no problem appointing a gay While House staff member as long as the individual was qualified. Cain supporters pointed to Toomey as an example. But Hall alleges that on July 9, campaign staff was told that Toomey was no longer involved in the campaign in any capacity, but Hall said he learned weeks later that Toomey was still “very much involved” as an outside consultant. Hall claims that this exposes Cain to charges of hypocrisy. Here’s his reasoning:

“A conservative candidate, Mr. Cain is on the record as stating that he believes homosexuality is a sin and a choice. And they know that, if his top adviser, his highly paid adviser, is openly gay that it would cast a negative light on Mr. Cain and would cost him in his efforts to become president,” he testified. “Basically the campaign was trying to cover up the fact that Mr. Toomey was still involved. They asked … me to help them cover up that fact.”

Whatever religious reservations Cain may have about gay people, he did say he would have no problem appointing a qualified gay person to his White House staff. It seems that the fact that he has appointed Toomey, first as treasurer and later as an outside consultant, is in line with his June 6 statement. Toomey’s actual qualifications, of course, are subject to debate.

However, on the other hand, Cain’s decision to try to hide Toomey’s role in the campaign would appear to contradict his July 6 statement if his decision to do so were based on fears of fallout from having a gay person on staff. That would indicate that Cain would, in fact, have a problem with a gay person on his staff. And that would be hypocrisy, although I don’t believe it’s the kind of perceived hypocrisy that Hall’s concerned about. What Hall sees as hypocritical and what I see as hypocritical are two very different things.

Either way, instructing staff to say something to the press which they later discover not to be true could, I suppose, negatively impact the staffer’s future employment prospects. That is, if one were to expect campaign staffers to always be truthful.

All of this is came out when Hall petitioned for unemployment benefits, which are not granted to those who resign their jobs voluntarily. And it’s an attempt that was ultimately successful. Hall claimed that he had no choice in resigning, and Administrative Law Judge Bonny Hendricksmeyer agreed with that reasoning:

Hendricksmeyer ruled Hall resigned “due to a change in the contract of hire” and said the alleged cover-up could have damaged his career as a political consultant.

“The presence of the gay person on the campaign was misrepresented to the staff, which caused Mr. Hall and others to inadvertently misrepresent the fact to others,” Hendricksmeyer wrote. “(Hall’s) credibility and his future job prospects would have suffered. It is possible if the situation had been discovered it would have also created a negative impact on (Hall’s) job duties. He felt it was possible the candidate would lose credibility and the straw poll results would be very poor.”

Cain’s campaign did not dispute Hall’s allegations in court.

This incident however does appear to shed light on an exodus of campaign staffers in July in which many of them were accusing each other of affairs, homosexuality and professional misconduct. Hall and others resigned just before Iowa’s critical Straw Poll, in which Cain came in a distant fifth.

Justice Dept: Bullying Complaints On the Rise

From The Washington Blade:

Thomas Perez, assistant attorney general for the Justice Department’s Civil Rights Division, said on Tuesday there has been a growing number of reported bullying cases during an oversight hearing before the Senate Judiciary Committee.

“The bullying of kids who are LGBT is probably the largest growth area in our docket,” Perez said. “This is about safety — whether it’s kids who are gay, whether it’s kids who are Muslim, whether it’s kids who speak English with an accent, whether it’s kids with disabilities, and we have in Tennessee a case involving bullying of kids with disabilities — this is an emerging growth area, I regret to say.”

Perez made the remarks on bullying in response to questioning from Sen. Al Franken (D-Minn.), who introduced legislation known as the Student Non-Discrimination Act that aims to protect LGBT youth from bullying and harassment in school.

It’s unclear whether the increased reports of bullying are the result if increased awareness or an actual rise in bullying incidents.

Perez voiced his support for the proposed legislation, saying that while current law prohibiting gender discrimination can be interpreted to include discrimination based on conformity to gender stereotypes, “it would obviously be much simpler if you could expand the universe of cases involving people who have been victimized if you were to expand those definitions” to include sexual orientation and gender expression. He compared that with what he called the success of the Matthew Shepard Hate Crimes Act, which was passed by Congress in 2009:

“One of the really remarkable and helpful ways that this has transformed our government is that is has facilitated additional cooperation with state and local authorities,” Perez said. “We’ve trained over 4,000 local law enforcement officers. I have participated personally in many of them. Our message is this: this is not a law simply for the feds, this is everyone’s law.”

Perez also reiterated the administration’s support for the Employment Non-Discrimination Act.

The Daily Agenda for Wednesday, September 14

TODAY’S AGENDA:
AIDS Walks This Weekend: Cranbrook, BC; Detroit, MI; Edmunton, AB; Hamilton, ON; Hazelton, BC; Kamloops, BC; Kingston, ON; London, ON; Nelson, BC; Niagara, ON; North Bay, ON; Prince George, BC; Rochester, NY; Sacramento, CA; Saskatoon, SK; Sydney, NS; and Vancouver, BC.

Pride Celebrations This Weekend: Dallas, TX; eKurhuleni, South Africa; Hartford, CT; Honolulu, HI; Las Vegas, NV; Modesto, CA; Rehoboth Beach, DE; Roanoke, VA; Sapporo, Japan; Stratford, ON; and Valdosta, GA.

Also This Weekend: North Louisiana Gay & Lesbian Film Festival, Shreveport, LA.

TODAY IN HISTORY:
Disgusting Depravity: 1822. The following notice appeared in the September 14, 1822 edition of The Times of London:

DISGUSTING DEPRAVITY — On Monday last Benjamin Candler, late valet to the Duke of Newcastle, was committed to Lincoln Castle by Sir R. Heron, Bart., charged with an unnatural offence. On the same day was committed to the same place by the Alderman of Grantham, William Arden, Esq., of Great Pultney-street, Golden-square, London, charged with the same offence; and on Tuesday was committed to the Castle , by the Alderman of Grantham, John Doughty, of Grantham, joiner, charged with the same. A discovery of the abominable intercourse which had been carried on it, it is stated, was made through the circumstance of a letter from Rantham, intended for the valet at Clumber, but accidentally not addressed on the outside, falling into the hands of the Dike of Newcastle. His Grace, on discovering the nature of the contents, proceeded with due caution for furthering the purposes of justice, and the consequence has been the commitment of the above persons to Lincoln Castle for trial at the next assizes. The person committed as an Esquire, was apprehended in London after the first examination of the others at Grantham, and was brought down in safe custody in one of the mail coaches on Sunday morning. We understand that he had apartments at Grantham during the last hunting season.

The “unnatural offence” was a capital crime, and the three men were hanged at Lincoln Castle on March 21, 1823.

ACT-UP Protests At NY Stock Exchange: 1989. Chaining themselves to a banister at the New York Stock Exchange and unfurling a sign reading “SELL WELLCOME,” five AIDS activists protested the price the Burroughs Wellcome had set for the price of AZT, the only drug that had been approved in the U.S. to fight AIDS. Burroughs Wellcome had been charging from $7,000 to $8,000 per year for the drug, which was far beyond the ability for many people to pay. Four days later, Burroughs Wellcome announced a twenty percent reduction in the wholesale price of the drug. A spokesman denied that the announcement was connected to the high profile protest.

Another one for his fans.

TODAY’S BIRTHDAY:
Ben Cohen: 1978. The former England Rugby Union player for Northampton Saints and Sale Sharks, Cohen was already a well-liked gay icon before retiring from professional rugby earlier this year. He often speaks highly of his gay following, a fan base which he has rewarded by almost never wearing a shirt (or so it seems). In 2010, he released this video as part of the “It Gets Better” project, and since retiring, he has devoted his time to the Ben Cohen StandUp Foundation, which he established as the world’s first foundation dedicated to combating anti-gay bulling and homophobia. He was inspired by two things in his life: his father was killed when he stood up for an employee who was being attacked, and Cohen’s clinical deafness (he has about a 33% hearing loss in each ear) has made him keenly aware of how being different can make someone stand out.

If you know of something that belongs on the agenda, please send it here. PLEASE, don’t forget to include the basics: who, what, when, where, and URL (if available).

And feel free to consider this your open thread for the day. What’s happening in your world?

So What’s Holding Up Jesus’s Return?

Why it’s the Jews, of course.

NC Senate Rushes To Enshrine Marriage Ban In State Constitution

Reflecting the horrendous crisis which must be enveloping the state, the North Carolina Senate rushed through a proposed constitutional amendment to make same-sex marriage even more illegaler, barely twenty-four hours after the previously unseen bill made its debut in the lower house. The bill passed both houses with the required two-thirds three-fifths majority without public notice, debate or input.

State law already bans same-sex marriage, and the 30-16 vote in the Senate, voters will decide to enshrine discrimination in the state’s constitution, along with a wider constitutional ban on civil unions and domestic partnerships. The vote will take place during next May’s primary election. With a hotly contested GOP presidential primary and an uncontested Democratic field, the election will likely boost turnout for the amendment’s supporters, while also give an edge to social conservatives in the GOP primary.

Mexican Lawyer Faces 14 Months Imprisonment For Defending Gay Educator

In 2009, a gay man, Agustín Estrada Negrete, was fired as head of a school for children of disabilities in the state of Mexico, just west of Mexico City. Jaime López Vela, a human rights lawyer with Agenda LGBT,  agreed to help him. They set up a meeting with officials with the state of Mexico in Toluca. A group of supportive parents organized a protest in front if the state offices, when police came in and arrested López and charged him with “insult to police and obstruction on the road.” Other protesters, including, mothers and children, were beaten as they tried to prevent the arrests. López, who would later be the first to be married by the mayor of Mexico City when same-sex marriages became legal, was beaten several times during his detention and is still facing 14 months in prison for that incident. Estrada was also arrested and beaten, and he has since fled to the U.S. and is seeking asylum. And Paul Canning has the gory details.

Oregon GOP Removes Anti-Gay Language From Party Platform

The Oregonian reports that the state’s Republicans, who have seen their fortunes in the state slide in recent years, have removed several anti-gay planks from the party’s platform:

Wording that essentially condemned same-sex marriage and civil unions, and that stated such couples were unfit to be parents, was removed from the official party platform during a weekend convention in Bend.  “We want the public to take another look at the Republican Party and our policies,” said Greg Leo, spokesman for the state party. “It’s fair to say we’re more centrist.”

The once-dominant party has faded in Oregon. Democrats hold every statewide office and no Republican has been elected governor since 1987. The one bright spot is the Oregon House, where Republicans managed a 30-30 split with Democrats last election.

Part of the problem the Oregon GOP faced in the late 1980s is that the party became too closely associated with extremists Christian groups, most notably the Oregon Citizens Alliance, which was headed by Lon Mabon and is where Scott Lively first came into prominence. Oregon’s notorious Measure 9, which would have amended the state constitution to bar the state from using “monies or properties to promote, encourage or facilitate homosexuality, pedophilia, sadism or masochism,” proved a significant turning point. It was then that Lively first put forward the historical fiction that the Nazi party was a homosexual organization and that violent fascism is the inevitable result of gay rights. Measure 9 went down in defeat in 1992 due largely to the outrageous rhetoric from the OCA and Lively. The OCA was soon disbanded amid controversy and financial irregularities and Lively fled to California to pick up his anti-gay work again in Sacramento and Temecula. Meanwhile, the GOP, which had been among the earliest state parties to align themselves to the Christian Right, have struggled to recover from that close association.

Today, the state GOP is turning over a new leaf, largely on the strength of younger members. The latest changes were pushed through by 26-year-old Xander Almedia, described as a former College Republican president at Portland State University and now a Portland vaudevillian who works with a local band:

(Alemdia) said, “a lot of younger Republicans don’t feel as though this kind of rhetoric has any place in a small government agenda. If we want to do small government, shouldn’t we get government out of the bedroom as well?”

Language supporting marriage as between one man and one woman remains intact in the party’s platform, but that merely comports with Oregon’s constitution, he said. The national Republican Party platform contains a section that strongly supports traditional marriage and calls for a constitutional amendment that would prevent states from adopting other legal arrangements.

The Oregon GOP change “makes a strong statement,” said James Moore, political analyst at Pacific University. “The statement that it makes is they have seen the social conservative platform hasn’t really gained them many new voters.”

DC Police Register Alarm Over Transgender Shootings

A transgender woman was shot in the neck around 2:00 a.m. Monday in the Southeast section of Washington, D.C., making the incident the fourth reported shooting of a transgender person in D.C. since July. The woman, whose name is not available, suffered a non-fatal wound and walked into a district police station to report the attack. She is reportedly in stable condition at a local hospital. A suspect has been identified in that shooting and D.C. police expect to make an arrest soon.

The latest incident prompted the D.C. police to call a news conference yesterday to discuss the attacks. Transgender advocates Earline Budd and Ruby Corado, who also spoke at the media event, said the latest shooting was among more than a dozen attacks against transgender women in the district this year.

The latest rash of shootings began on July 20 when another transgender woman, 23-year-old Lashai Mclean, was shot to death at about 5:00 a.m. in Northeast Washington. Another transgender woman who was with Mclean told police that two men approached Mclean to ask a question, and shot her with a semiautomatic handgun before she could answer. Police do not yet have a suspect.

On July 31, an unidentified male shot at a transgender woman just a block away from where Mclean was shot. The woman was uninjured, but police say the shooting may point to a “potential emerging pattern.”

On August 26, an off-duty Police officer shot his service revolver at three transgender women and two male friends. Two of the women and one male were injured. Officer Kenneth Furr had reportedly proposition one of the transwmen for sex earlier that morning. Furr is being held without bail and has been charged with assault with a dangerous weapon.

One August 31, two transgender women were threatened by a man in Northeast Washington, who told them they had five minutes to leave before would come back and shoot them.

On Sept 10, three other transgender women were threatened by a man with a gun in D.C.’s Chinatown. Police have arrested a suspect and are preparing to charge him with assault with a dangerous weapon with hate crime enhancements. The suspect’s name has not been released.

During the conference, police discussed the death, also on September 10, of an unidentified person who may be a transgender woman, although transgender advocates say that the person may be a man dressed in drag rather than someone identifying as female. The person was found dead in the Columbia Heights neighborhood at about 5:20 a.m. on September 10. Police are awaiting toxicology tests before determining the cause of death. There were no signs of trauma or external injuries. The deceased was found with money and jewelry, which rules out robbery as a motive for the possible crime.

What Goes Into Constitutions Stay There Forever

That’s the argument Rep. Henry M. Michaux, Jr. (D) made to the North Carolina General Assembly yesterday before they voted to send a proposed constitutional ban on same-sex marriage to the state Senate:

Don’t put this into a living document. The constitution is a living document. And if you think it’s hard to get something out of that living document, you take a look at the United States Constitution where it says that I am three-fifths of a person. Even though we have had amendments that come along to sort of change that, it still says it in that Constitution. And what you put in a constitution is there permanently. I know you all think you’ve got the votes to do it, but you need to think about what you’re doing and you need to think about the greater good of the people of this state.

Also, lawmakers who approve such an amendment will find their names forever attached to discrimination. Dan Savage has an example of a Presbyterian minister by the name of Thomas W. Miller, whose name is remembered for his religious-based opposition to efforts to prohibit deed restrictions and other forms of discrimination preventing African-Americans from buying or renting a home. I wonder what Miller’s grandchildren think about their grandpa’s legacy?

The Daily Agenda for Tuesday, September 13

“You helped this happen.”

TODAY IN HISTORY:
Jerry Falwell Blames Gays and Others For 9/11: 2001. The ashes were still smoldering at the site of the World Trade Center, the western facade of the Pentagon, and an abandoned strip mine in rural Pennsylvania. The relatives, friends and co-workers of three thousand dead were still grappling with their loss, and three hundred million Americans were still numb from shock. The search for victims had just barely begun, the search for heroes led to the first responders in New York and Washington, D.C. and the 33 brave passengers of United Airlines Flight 93, and the search for the guilty case a glare on Islamists extremists. At least that’s the reaction of normal people. For others obsessed with a wider net of enemies, that wasn’t enough. On Thursday, September 13, 2001, Jerry Falwell appeared on Pat Robertson’s 700 Club, and together they accused a wide assortment of enemies responsible for the worst tragedy to strike American soil since Pearl Harbor:

Falwell: What we saw on Tuesday, as terrible as it is, could be miniscule if in fact God continues to lift the curtain and allow the enemies of America to give us probably what we deserve.

Robertson: Well Jerry, that’s my feeling. I think we’ve just seen the antechamber to terror. We haven’t even begun to see what they can do to the major population.

Falwell: The ACLU’s got to take a lot of blame for this.

Robertson: Oh, yes.

Falwell: And I know I’ll hear from them for this but throwing God out successfully with the help of the court system, throwing God out of the public square, out of the schools… The abortionists have got to bear some burden for this because God will not be mocked. And when we destroy 40 million little innocent babies, we make God mad. I really believe that the pagans and the abortionists and the feminists and the gays and the lesbians who are actively trying to make that an alternative lifestyle, the ACLU, People For the American Way — all of them who have tried to secularize America — I point the finger in their face and say, “you helped this happen.”

Robertson: Well I totally concur.

The next day, Falwell reportedly apologized in a phone call to CNN, but it wasn’t much of an apology. “I would never blame any human being except the terrorists, and if I left that impression with gays or lesbians or anyone else, I apologize,” he told CNN, before citing scripture to back up what he originally said. “I do believe, as a theologian, based upon many Scriptures and particularly Proverbs 14:23, which says ‘living by God’s principles promotes a nation to greatness, violating those principles brings a nation to shame,” he said.

If you know of something that belongs on the agenda, please send it here. PLEASE, don’t forget to include the basics: who, what, when, where, and URL (if available).

And feel free to consider this your open thread for the day. What’s happening in your world?

NC House Passes Anti-Gay Marriage Amendment

After three hours of debate and without public notice or input, the North Carolina General Assembly passed a proposed constitutional amendment by a vote of 75-42. A three-fifths approval was needed to put the measure on the ballot. Eight Democrats joined Republicans in passing the measure. The proposed amendment would not only place a constitutional ban on same-sex marriage, but it would also bar civil unions and, possibly, domestic partner benefits. Some details from today’s decorous debate:

State Rep. Marcus Brandon (R-Guilford), the only openly gay state lawmaker, told his fellow lawmakers that people yelled “abomination” at him as he walked through the capitol building that afternoon, and said he was told he was “going to hell.”

State Rep. Mickey Michaux (D-Durham), a black lawmaker, had an exchange with (House Majority Leader Rep. Paul) Stam on the floor in which he pointed out that the U.S. constitution “still says I am three-fifths of a person.” Michaux said on the floor that he was attempting to highlight how hard it would be to remove the discriminatory language in the future.

At one point, state Rep. Jennifer Weiss (D-Wake) called out Stam for eating popcorn during the debate “while other’s rights are stripped away.”

The house voted to put the proposition on the ballot for a special election in May rather than holding the referendum during the Presidential election in November. Democrats feared that putting the vote on the November ballot would hurt President Barack Obama’s chances for carrying the state in 2012. Republicans agreed to move the date in order to increase Democratic support for the Amendment. However, with the May date coinciding with the Republican primary and with no Democratic presidential primary taking place, the earlier date is likely to significantly boost turnout for amendment supporters. Other observers also believe those same supporters would then boost the chances of socially-conservative candidates like Texas Gov. Rick Perry or Minnesota Rep. Michele Bachmann.

Given the pressing crisis of massive numbers of same-sex couples battering county courthouses demanding marriage licenses, the Senate is expect to take the measure up very quickly, perhaps as early as Tuesday.

USMC Times: “We’re Gay. Get Over It.”

This week’s  edition of the Marine Corps Times celebrates next week’s end to “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell.” This is what will remain on the newsstands and PX’s all over the world for the next seven days.

Update: Servicemembers United is claiming credit. Servicemembers Legal Defense Network has published guidelines for what servicemembers can and cannot do while celebrating DADT’s repeal.