LaMont Wheat "STILL STANDING" Tribute to World AIDS Day - Rock Music Video - BEAT100

LaMont Wheat "STILL STANDING" Tribute to World AIDS Day - Rock Music Video - BEAT100

Marriage Equality Today is the day!

So much chatter about equality, human rights, gay rights, freedom of expression.  Well today the case is being heard.  We must understand that limited rights for some is limited for all.

Show your support -- make your profile image red & check out www.hrc.org/StandForMarriage for more ways to get involved!

I speak here today as one of the more than 130 Republicans and conservatives who signed Ken Mehlman's brief in favor of equal marriage rights.
Republicans and Democrats have enough to disagree about - no shortage. Yet there are some issues that are the property of no one party. The freedom of every American to pursue happiness under the law - that promise signed in the Declaration of Independence so many years ago is the promise that is coming true in our time.

For a conservative, the remarkable thing about the movement for same-sex marriage is that it is a civil rights movement that is less about claiming rights than it is about accepting responsibilities.
Marriage is a source of great joy. But - and I speak as one who'll celebrate a 25th anniversary this summer - it's also a solemn undertaking: an undertaking to care for another person, to nurse that person when ill, to sustain her or him in time of trouble, to raise children together, to provide for those children, to mourn when it comes time to mourn.

No agency of government can ever begin to do for anyone what loving spouses do for each other. The stronger our families are, of every kind of family, the less government we’ll need.
Today your families gather before this house of the law to claim the right to live as others do, without shame and without fear.

The mind of a nation is changing. It's an awesome thing to see - and to be part of. Your words - your actions -and your example have power. And will overcome.
Our song of the day is:  SKIN LaMont Wheat ft Faith Michaels (DJ Almond Brown Mix)
UNITY - ACCEPTANCE - LOVE

Gay Donors to the Front of the Line

In politics, money talks. And money from gay and lesbian donors is talking louder than ever in this election cycle.

That's partly a result of President Obama endorsing same-sex marriage, and it's partly because Republicans are starting to see contributions as well.
That's a huge change from just a few decades ago.
When gays and lesbians started the Human Rights Campaign in the 1980s, they knew that the path to influence in Washington is paved with cash. Write a politician a check, and he's more likely to listen to you. The problem was that back then, most politicians didn't want anything to do with gay people or their money.

"It was almost an embarrassment to be supported by the gay community," says Winnie Stachelberg, who used to work for HRC and is now with the liberal Center for American Progress.

In 1988, the presidential campaign of Democrat Michael Dukakis rejected a $1 million donation from gay donors. By the time Stachelberg became HRC's political director in the mid-1990s, things had not progressed very far. She tried to hand out checks to political candidates, and some of them told her to wait.
"They would count on the $5,000 contribution, but they wanted to make sure that it was dated after the Tuesday where it would appear on a filing," she says. That was so voters would not know the candidates were accepting money from gay donors, and because "clearly attack ads would have been made," Stachelberg says.

Less than 20 years later, times have changed dramatically.

::: To read more visit our source NPR

Download the new single SKIN by LaMont Wheat on iTunes today!

President Obama and the Fight for LGBT Rights

New Obama Campaign Video Spotlights LGBT Equality

By: Scott Ragan

It's been a month since the Obama campaign released a snazzy rainbow chart touting the progress of gay rights during his time in the Oval Office, and today the campaign has posted a new 5-minute video that further focuses on the support he's shown for equality as a part of Obama Pride: LGBT Americans for Obama.

"We've seen a profound cultural shift just in the last decade," Obama says in the just released video. The president also reveals being saddened by the deaths of young people who were bullied for being gay, and describes the impact of a meeting with Judy Shepard, mother of hate crime victim Matthew Shepard.

Watch the new video below, narrated by Jane Lynch.

Glee star Jane Lynch narrates this documentary about LGBT rights in America. The video features a candid interview with President Obama, who speaks about the repeal of Don't Ask Don't Tell, why he supports marriage equality, and what's at stake for the LGBT community in this election.

Photo of Judge Michael Fitzgerald (Washington Blade file photo by Michael Key)

Federal Judge Caught Emailing Racist Bestiality-Themed Joke About President Obama

by Tommy Christopher | 8:37 am, March 1st, 2012

The more things change, the more they stay the same. A federal judge in Montana is under fire forsending a racist, bestiality-themed joke aboutPresident Obama from his official email address. Chief U.S. District Judge Richard Cebull admitted to sending the email, and admitted that the email was racist, but says “I didn’t send it as racist, although that’s what it is.”

Judge Cebull forwarded the email to six acquaintances (plus to his own personal email address) on Feb. 20, who then forwarded it to some other people, until someone eventually sent it to The Great Falls Tribune.

The “joke” in question is pretty sick stuff, even by racist Barack Obama-opponent standards. FromThe Great Falls Tribune’s John S. Adams:

The subject line of the email, which Cebull sent from his official courthouse email address on Feb. 20 at 3:42 p.m., reads: “A MOM’S MEMORY.”

The forwarded text reads as follow:

“Normally I don’t send or forward a lot of these, but even by my standards, it was a bit touching. I want all of my friends to feel what I felt when I read this. Hope it touches your heart like it did mine.

“A little boy said to his mother; ‘Mommy, how come I’m black and you’re white?’” the email joke reads. “His mother replied, ‘Don’t even go there Barack! From what I can remember about that party, you’re lucky you don’t bark!’”

…”The only reason I can explain it to you is I am not a fan of our president, but this goes beyond not being a fan,” Cebull said. “I didn’t send it as racist, although that’s what it is. I sent it out because it’s anti-Obama.”

What does that even mean, “I didn’t send it as racist?” Does he think his email just ended up in the wrong pile?

The encouraging takeaway from this story is that it only took about a week for someone to do the right thing, and expose the judge’s sick email. Cebull actually had the balls to act offended by this,telling the Trib that he was “surprised the recipients of the e-mail passed it along with his name on it.”

“This is a private thing that was, to say the least, very poor judgment on my part,” Cebull said. “I did not forward it because of the racist nature of it. Although it is racist, I’m not that way, never have been.”

But incidents like this also underscore the fact that racism of the most despicable kind is alive and well in 2012. Take him at his word that he’s not a racist, and Cebull is guilty of not knowing that this kind of dehumanization is racist, or not caring. The thing is, racists never think they’re racists, they just think they’re telling the truth.

The important thing to note here is that Cebull isn’t in trouble for sending the email, he’s in trouble because he got caught. There will be many people who will cast this as an isolated incident, a curiously illogical bit of reasoning from people heavily invested in pretending that racism doesn’t really exist anymore.

Captain Happiness, a beacon of light for the Middle Eastern Gay Rights Movement and Beyond

By Jaime Sloane



Avner Even-Zohar has successfully combined two worlds that rarely mix: military work and gay rights activism. Now he shares his story with college students across the country.

Even-Zohar led a discussion titled “The Queer Liberation Movement in Israel” at UF Hillel on Thursday night. About 50 people attended the discussion, which focused on building bridges between the Jewish community and the lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender communities.

The decorated Israeli Defense Force veteran wasn’t always open about his sexuality. During his six years of service, Even-Zohar concealed his sexuality out of fear of being demoted or discharged like some of his fellow officers.

Even-Zohar’s military service ended in 1993, the same year Israel declared openly gay soldiers could serve without facing discrimination.

“Tel Aviv is a beacon of light for the gay rights movement in the Middle East,” he said in regard to Israel’s second most-populous city. “The laws our parliament has passed are leading the way for other countries to follow.”

However, many Middle Eastern countries have not yet followed suit. During his presentation, Even-Zohar showed photographs of public hangings of gays in Iran and discussed the oppression of women in Saudi Arabia.

He said his stories are the reason he’s touring colleges to promote activism and encourage students to defend their convictions.

“Hillel constantly has speakers coming, but this event was different,” political science sophomore Taylor Parker, 19, said. “He broke boundaries of what we in America have accepted as the norm and made us look at gay rights in a completely different light.”

Even-Zohar told the audience that part of every success is failure.
“I like to focus on the positives, but both Israel and the U.S. have a long way to go,” he said. “However, as long as there are inspired and empowered minds in the soul of youth, there can be change.”

Avner Even-Zohar aka "Captain Happiness" is a two time author of If you want to be Happy-Be and Acer the Rat Racer

DOMA found unconstitutional agai

DOMA found unconstitutional again

The federal Defense of Marriage Act was dealt another legal blow today in a federal district court in California.  Judge Jeffrey White ruled that using DOMA to deny a federal employee the right to enroll her same-sex spouse as a dependent on her health plan violates the U.S. Constitution.

The court found that DOMA “violates her right to equal protection of the law under the Fifth Amendment to the United States Constitution by, without substantial justification or rational basis, refusing to recognize her lawful marriage to prevent provision of health insurance coverage to her spouse.”

The ruling is a setback for Congressional lawyers who are defending DOMA now that the law is not being defended by the Justice Department or the Obama administration, and House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi called the effort a waste of money.

“In rejecting the arguments of the Bipartisan Legal Advisory Group, the court’s ruling also reaffirmed a core belief of the majority of House Democrats: that the House is not united in this case; that the BLAG lawyers do not speak for Congress; and that BLAG’s intervention remains a waste of taxpayer resources.  The court made it clear that there is no legitimate federal interest in denying married gay and lesbian couples the legal security, rights, and responsibilities guaranteed to all married couples under state law,” Pelosi said in a statement.

The constitutionality of DOMA is under legal attack across the U.S., with cases pending in several federal district and appellate courts.  Read more about this case at Metro Weekly.