BARBARA'S TCHATZKAHS

By DAVID CRARY Joseph Rocha reported being cruelly hazed by Navy colleagues. Katherine Miller resigned from West Point halfway through, weary of concealing her sexual orientation. David Hall was outed by a fellow Air Force cadet and booted from the career he loved. The exits from military service were wrenching consequences of "don't ask, don't tell," the policy prohibiting gay and lesbian personnel from being open about their sexuality. Yet Hall, Rocha and Miller savored military duty and now — with "don't ask, don't tell" heading toward oblivion — they want to return. Rocha, 24, was in Washington on Wednesday, watching euphorically as President Barack Obama signed the bill clearing the way for repeal of the 17-year-old policy. Obama encouraged those who were discharged to re-enlist, and Rocha said he hopes to do just that by enrolling in the Marine Corps' Officer Candidates School in Quantico, Va. "I had a rough childhood, and th...

by Amy Siskind It's not been a particularly good press week for two well known misogynists: Rick Warren and Larry Summers. Both men were early selections of President Obama. If we are to judge our president by whom he surrounds himself with, then what do Obama's selections of Warren and Summers tell us? That Obama's version of diversity does not include gay and women's rights. And in fact, the selection of Warren and Summers will likely be a continual source of salt on the wound of inequality. President Obama's Inauguration was presided over by Rick Warren. Although Warren is perhaps best known for his opposition to gay rights, he also believes that women are second class citizens. Specifically, Warren's Saddleback Church has encouraged battered wives to stay in their abusive relationships. Hundreds of viewers wrote on our blog about their personal experiences at the hand of Rick Warren's church. Saddleback Church's advice to abused wives: "she...

by Yoav Sivan I usually have no interest in trying to understand the political and spiritual leaders who excel in fanning the flames of hatred against the lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) community. Their xenophobic language disgusts me and is not worthy of response, only of condemnation. Today, however, I would give a great deal to know what is going through the minds of, say, Interior Minister and Deputy Prime Minister Eli Yishai and his colleagues in the Shas party leadership, who seem to compete with each other in raising the bar of homophobia and ignorance. Do they feel sorrow in their heart of hearts this week? Or is their denial so profound that they can completely ignore their role in fomenting an atmosphere of incitement toward the gay community? Have they learned the lesson? Apparently, at least in part. They vehemently condemned the criminal shooting Saturday night at the youth club of the Association of Gays, Lesbians, Bisexuals and Transgenders in Israel (the ...

In the 7 or so months Obambi's been in office he seems to show how naive, inexperienced and full of cr*p he is at every turn. He flip flops, backpedals and/ or basically steps in it every day. Granted I have stepped in it numerous times in my life - I am human. That happens. But this guy's the POTUS. He's got advisors all around him. Where are these people? To my gay friends, I believe your day is well past due. And don't look to Obama for help anymore. Not that he got your vote, you're being dumped like a one-night-stand. MAKE THE ASK The NEW REPUBLIC has made no secret of its high regard for Barack Obama. Which makes it all the more distressing for us to observe the approach that his administration is taking on gay rights. During the campaign, Obama said all the right things (well, almost all--like most national politicians, he wouldn't endorse same-sex marriage). He invoked the importance of winning "equality" and "dignity" and ...

O.K. I have to give credit where's it's due. But Cheney? Yes, Cheney! Truly there should be head explosions over in Cheetoland. Their messiah has forsaken them. Cross-Posted. FROM The GREAT Uppity Woman & NoQuarter: While I have long thought VP Dick Cheney was the devil incarnate, no one ever said he wasn’t a smart guy. Cheney was also arguably our most unpopular Vice President evah! He looked to be hiding out in a bunker most of the eight years President Bush was in office, and was probably lucky to slink away without jail time. Who’d’a thunk he’d be getting a big bump in the polls for defending Bush era national security decisions and their safety record. He also rocked our new President, a man of enormous personal popularity, back on his heels. Obama made the terrible mistake of elevating Dick Cheney to his own level by insisting on doing dueling speeches with him the week before on the topic of national security. Why President Obama would wish to draw more attention t...

NOT THE GUY I'D WANT IN CHARGE NO WAY! Huckabee links gay sex to bestiality, abortion to slavery Republican presidential hopeful and former Baptist pastor Mike Huckabee linked gay sex to bestiality and abortion to slavery in an interview Thursday, explaining why, if elected, he would try to amend the constitution. "Marriage has ... as long as there's been human history, meant a man and a woman in a relationship for life. Once we change that definition, then where does it go from there?" he asked in an interview with online "Beliefnet" magazine. "Well, I don't think that's a radical view, to say we're going to affirm marriage. I think the radical view is to say that we're going to change the definition of marriage so that it can mean two men, two women, a man and three women, a man and a child, a man and animal," he added. "The Bible was not written to be amended. The Constitution was," he said, announcing his intention to ...

KNOCK 3 TIMES ON THE STALL DOOR IF YOU WANT ME Come on! We all KNEW this was coming, right? Either this guy's really on someone's hit list or horror-of-horrors, he's a closeted man. Maybe its because I live in Sodom on the Hudson but what's so bad about being gay? But, Larry, the bathrooms at the airport? Gay escorts? Paying so no one would tell on you? The same guy as Rev. Ted Haggart? And Larry, couldn't you have found more savory ways to get your trim? Perhaps Larry's wife gave him a verbal beat down at home and has him a pretty short leash these days. Maybe Larry is in some sort of serious denial. I don't know. I do know where there's smoke there's fire. I know what its like finding out about someone you really care about and then having them deny and deny. And I know how awful going to the police about it all is too. And then of course, the person says whoever found out - in this case the Idaho Statesman newspaper - is scorned or on a w...

LATEST SALICIOUS TOURIST ATTRACTION It had to happen, didn't it? There are followers of murderers & serial killers, tours of murder sites in New York (probably other cities too), books about them, television shows... people just flock to see "where it really happened." Like a bad traffic accident turning the LIE into even more of a parking lot, people slow down or go out of their way for the carnage. Have we become this sick & jaded? What ever happened to common decency? Don't answer that, I think I saw it jump off the Queensboro Bridge today. Travelers Ask to See Craig Bathroom When tourists ask for the bathroom in the Minneapolis airport lately, it's usually not because they have to go. It's because they want to see the stall made famous by U.S. Sen. Larry Craig's arrest in a sex sting. "It's become a tourist attraction," said Karen Evans, information specialist at the Minneapolis-St. Paul International Airport. "People are ...

THE FALLEN MIGHTY Why is it that the most self-righteous or homophobic or religious and/or outwardly Puritanical politicians (on either side of the aisle) always end up in some horrible scandal? Like David Vitter, Mark Foley, Bob Allen and now - Senator Craig's bathroom hijinks. It follows that the people I have known who make the most noise: "I would NEVER see a hooker!" or "I am not gay" (just two of the various comments I've heard over the years from hypocrites) are seeing high end hookers, having gay sex on their lunch hours or after work. And it seems the more extreme they are in their beliefs, the more pervy they are in real life. What the heck? Do these guys really think just SAYING it will help them cope? Or that we are that blind & stupid? If you're gay, so what - be gay and move on to the issues. And stop with the "my wife & I have moved on" crap. Vitter's wife said prior to this she'd cut his 'family jewe...

MORE HYPOCRISY FROM FALAFAL BOY Hypocrisy makes me laugh. And no one is easier to laugh at than Bill O'Reilly. My nightmare is that he and Ann Coulter have an affair and produce a love child who runs for President and wins. EEWWW!! Historically the biggest moralizers often end up being the biggest pervs. O'Reilly's 15 minutes was up a long time ago, yet Fox keeps him around as their resident 'creature of infinite jest' (apologies to Shakespeare!). Let's check out Falafal-Boy's latest: O'Reilly: "I think everybody's got to relax on all this gay stuff" Summary: When a viewer email questioned his previous remarks that Bill Richardson "looked bad by saying he believed homosexuality was a choice," Fox News' Bill O'Reilly responded, "I think everybody's got to relax on all this gay stuff." O'Reilly has repeatedly demonstrated his own inability to "relax on all this gay stuff" with a history of con...