We need to take a serious look at things, my friends.

Anti-gay organizations like Focus on the Family have spent close to one million dollars in California in order to qualify a ballot measure to permanently ban marriage for same-sex couples. Blasphemy!

With just three weeks left to gather the required signatures, anti-gay activists are reporting that they have collected nearly all of the 1.1 million J. Hancocks needed.

We need to help keep them from reaching their goal. First of all, if you live in Cali, be careful what you sign at the grocery store or wherever else these signature collectors may be. Several news stations in CA have reported signature gatherers falsifying or distorting the truth about what people were actually signing.

Have you ever been duped into signing something like this?

Contact Equality California (eqca.org) to see what you can do. As a founding member of the Equality For All campaign, EQCA is at the forefront of efforts to thwart ant-gay activists.

Remember the ridiculously bigoted remarks made by Oklahoma lawmaker Sally Kern? (How could anyone forget?)

Well, 1,000 people ralied this week to her defense. (An earlier rally organized by PFLAG drew only about 300.) This is insane:

Kern was cheered when she told the crowd that their support affirmed the rights of conservative Christians "who want to stand up for the truth of God's word."

"What has happened to me has served to advance the gospel," said Kern, who was greeted with chants of "Sally, Sally" and was frequently interrupted by shouts of "Amen."

[via 365gay.com]

Seriously. Religious fundamentalists. Running our country. No wonder everyone else in the world thinks we're nuts.

Here's an interesting story: The Washington Post ran an obituary on March 22 of Major Alan Roberts of the US Army, who died from the explosion of a makeshift bomb in Baghdad. Roberts died on Jan 27. Incredibly, he apparently shielded two other soldiers with his body, who probably would have also died. Here's more about this incredible man:

"What an exceptional, brilliant person -- just well-spoken and instantly could relate to anybody," Col. Thomas Fernandez, his commanding officer in Iraq, said in an interview. "He had a gift. He was unlike anybody I've met before."

The Army officer was awarded a Purple Heart posthumously and his second Bronze Star, then laid to rest March 14 at a morning service set against the bare trees of March and attended by more than 150 mourners. Friends and fellow soldiers came from as far away as Iraq and South Korea.

The story didn't mention the fact that Roberts, in most civilian circles, was openly gay. Moreover, he actively fought against the Don't Ask, Don't Tell policy with organizations like AVER (American Veterans for Equal Rights) and was friends with people in the Servicemembers Legal Defense Network.

A local Washington DC gay publication took the Post to task and ran a story that led with Rogers' sexuality, citing close friends:

Smith said he thinks it’s very important for Rogers’ “whole story to get out,” including information that he was gay.

“It’s something I know that Alan would want,” he said. “I don’t know why they decided to leave the story out that he was gay, but … it saddens me as a gay veteran myself. It saddens me that part of his life … can’t be told.”

The Washington Post's Ombudsman, in response to the controversy, has a story that ran this weekend that reveals that the Post did in fact heavily debate whether or not to include mention of his sexuality in the original story, but decided to leave it out. For her part, the Ombudsman thinks they should have mentioned it.

What do you think? Invasion of privacy? Or internal censorship?

"They say Christianity can be inherited, just like baldness." Classic. Thanks Doug and Robert for the forward! 

(Apparently CNNNN is a British deadpan parody of conservative news programming, ala Steven Colbert? Anyone know more?)

World of Wonder has been following this ridiculous story:

A Wichita, Kansas, woman sat on her boyfriend's toilet until her body became stuck to the seat. When, after two years, her boyfriend finally called police, they found the 35-year-old's legs had atrophied and the skin of her ass had grown around the seat, which was pried off the toilet and sent with her to the hospital, where it was removed by, presumably, a team of doctors.