Category: Newsmakers

Former RNC chair, GW Bush campaign manager: ‘I’m gay’

LGBTQ Nation • Thursday, August 26, 2010 • Filed under: Coming Out, Newsmakers • Comments (0)

Ken Mehlman, a former chairman of the Republican National Committee and the campaign manager who helped win a second term for President George W. Bush on his anti-gay marriage platform has announced that he is homosexual.

Mehlman

During his tenure as chairman of the RNC, the party’s strategists encouraged state referendums banning same-sex marriage, but Mehlman now says he wants to become an advocate for gay marriage.

“It’s taken me 43 years to get comfortable with this part of my life,” Mehlman said in an interview with Atlantic magazine.

“Everybody has their own path to travel, their own journey, and for me, over the past few months, I’ve told my family, friends, former colleagues, and current colleagues, and they’ve been wonderful and supportive.

“The process has been something that’s made me a happier and better person. It’s something I wish I had done years ago.”

Mehlman is widely considered one of the key architects of the Bush-era Republican election machine that exploited anti-gay prejudices to motivate its conservative base. His revelation comes after years of speculation, and to date is the highest-profile national Republican figure to come out as gay. Continue reading…

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Choi discharged from National Guard under ‘Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell’

LGBTQ Nation • Thursday, July 22, 2010 • Filed under: Don't Ask Don't Tell, Newsmakers • Comments (0)

Lt. Dan Choi, an Iraq war veteran who has emerged as one of the most outspoken critics of the “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell,” the military ban on openly gay service members, has been discharged from the Army National Guard.

In a telephone call from his battalion commander on Thursday morning, Choi was notified of his honorable discharge, coming almost a year and a half after he came out on national television.

Choi

Choi issued this statement:

“This morning I received notification of my honorable discharge from the army under “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell.” After 11 years since beginning my journey at West Point and after 17 months of serving openly as an infantry officer this is both an infuriating and painful announcement.

“But my service continues. To all those veterans who have endured similar trials and injustices or prematurely ended their military service because of the unjust policy: our fight has only begun.

“The true honor and dignity of service does not come from a piece of paper, a pension or paycheck, a rank or status; only an unflinching commitment to improve the lives of others can determine the nature of one’s service. From the first moment we put on our nation’s uniform and swore our solemn oath, we committed ourselves to fight for freedom and justice; to defend our constitution and put the needs of others before our own. This is not an oath that I intend to abandon. Doing so at such a time, or remaining silent when our family and community members are fired or punished for who they truly are would be an unequivocal moral dereliction that tarnishes the honor of the uniform and insults the meaning of America.”

Choi’s discharge order here (PDF).

Since outing himself, Choi has become a vocal opponent of “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell.” In March, he criticized Defense Secretary Robert Gates for only relaxing enforcement of the policy rather than unilaterally ceasing enforcement.

On two occasions earlier this year, Choi was arrested for handcuffing himself to the White House fence in “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” protests. He was charged with two counts of failure to obey a lawful order, but last week prosecutors dropped all charges.

Earlier this week, Choi was arrested in Las Vegas during a demonstration calling on Nevada Sen. Harry Reid, the Democratic senate majority leader, to do more to pass the federal Employment Non-Discrimination Act.

Meanwhile, efforts to repeal “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” continue to move through Congress and the military. The Pentagon is currently conducting a study into a possible repeal’s effects. A report on that study is expected to be presented to President Obama and military officials by December 1.

Since 1993, when “don’t ask, don’t tell” was introduced, more than 14,000 servicemen and women have been discharged because of their sexual orientation, and tens of thousands of others have voluntarily ended their military careers.

Choi announced he is gay on The Rachel Maddow Show on March 19, 2009, prompting the U.S. Army to initiate discharge proceedings. His discharge became effective on June 29, 2010.

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Remembering Ted Olson’s Newsweek op-ed about gay marriage

Kelvin Lynch • Wednesday, July 21, 2010 • Filed under: Newsmakers, Proposition 8 Trial • Comments (0)

Ted Olson said he fully intends to take the Prop 8 trial to the US Supreme Court

Ted Olson, a staunch conservative and one of the attorneys challenging the constitutionality of California’s Proposition 8 (and the state’s ballot initiative process) in federal court wrote a lengthy but brilliant op-ed piece for Newsweek titled The Conservative Case for Gay Marriage:  Why same-sex marriage is an American value.

As we patiently await Judge Vaughn Walker’s ruling, let’s take a few moments to remember the highlights:

  • The very idea of marriage is basic to recognition as equals in our society; any status short of that is inferior, unjust, and unconstitutional.
  • Conservatives should celebrate gay marriage.  Same-sex unions promote the values conservatives prize. Marriage is one of the basic building blocks of our neighborhoods and our nation.  The fact that individuals who happen to be gay want to share in this vital social institution is evidence that conservative ideals enjoy widespread acceptance

    • Continue reading…

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Gay service members subpoena Obama in defense of DADT protest

LGBTQ Nation • Saturday, July 3, 2010 • Filed under: Don't Ask Don't Tell, Newsmakers • Comments (0)

Two openly gay U.S. Army National Guard soldiers who were arrested for handcuffing themselves to a White House fence have subpoenaed President Obama to defend them in court, citing they were following orders of their Commander-in-Chief’s to lobby him for gay rights.

Choi and Pietrangelo at a March 18 White House protest.
Photo credit: John Aravosis of AmericaBlog.com

Lt. Dan Choi and Cpt. James Pietrangelo II have been charged with two counts of failure to obey a lawful order after they were arrested on two separate occasions back on March 18 and April 20, 2010.

According to their attorneys:

The Defendants seek to use their trials to highlight the ongoing effects of the “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” law and policy of the U.S. Armed Forces toward gay and lesbian service members.

They seek to compel the testimony of President Barack Obama who has, on several occasions as President and Commander in Chief (and previously as a Senator and Presidential Candidate) called on the LGBT community to “pressure” him to change the DADT law and policy, thus allowing gay service members to serve their country openly and honorably.

[Full memorandum .pdf]

The defendants claim they were following the President’s orders regarding his support for public pressure to abolish the “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell,” the military ban on openly gay service members.

In an October 2009 speech at a Human Rights Campaign event, Obama called upon gay rights to put pressure on him for the advancement of LGBT rights, including the repeal of “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell.”

From the President’s speech:

If we are honest with ourselves we’ll admit that there are too many who do not yet know in their lives or feel in their hearts the urgency of this struggle….

And that’s why it’s so important that you continue to speak out, that you continue to set an example, that you continue to pressure leaders — including me — and to make the case all across America.

The two servicemen are expected to appear in D.C. Superior Court on July 14 to face charges in the non-jury trial.

While it is unlikely the President will testify at the trial, attorney Ann Wilcox plans to use the President’s remarks as part of the defense.

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Mike Huckabee on gay marriage: ‘Ick’

LGBTQ Nation • Monday, June 21, 2010 • Filed under: Newsmakers • Comments (3)

In a rather extensive New Yorker magazine profile, assessing his chances in the 2012 Presidential race, former Arkansas governor Mike Huckabee expounded upon his opposition to gay marriage with this well considered prose:

“We can get into the ick factor, but the fact is two men in a relationship, two women in a relationship, biologically, that doesn’t work the same.”

Earlier this year, in an interview with The Perspective, a student publication at The College of New Jersey in Ewing, NJ, Huckabee compared gay marriage to incest and polygamy:

“You don’t go ahead and accommodate every behavioral pattern that is against the ideal,” Huckabee said of same-sex marriage.

“That would be like saying, well, there are a lot of people who like to use drugs, so let’s go ahead and accommodate those who want to use drugs. There are some people who believe in incest, so we should accommodate them. There are people who believe in polygamy, so we should accommodate them.”

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Ted Haggard, cured of gay ‘compulsions,’ to launch new inclusive church

LGBTQ Nation • Wednesday, June 2, 2010 • Filed under: Colorado, Newsmakers, Religion • Comments (0)

Haggard

Ted Haggard, the disgraced pastor who resigned from his ministry in 2006 amid an embarrassing gay sex scandal, was back in his home town Wednesday to announce he was starting a new church in Colorado Springs.

According to the AP:

Haggard said his new venture would not be a megachurch like New Life Church, the congregation he founded in 1985 and then left in 2006 after a male prostitute said Haggard paid him for sex.

Haggard said he doesn’t know how many people will attend his new church, but he said the ordeal he and his wife, Gayle, went through has prepared them to help others.

“I have an incredible heart for broken people,” he said. “I think we’re qualified to hold people’s hands” in times of trouble.

Haggard, once an outspoken opponent of gay marriage, resigned as the head of his 14,000-member megachurch and as president of the National Association of Evangelicals in 2006 when male prostitute Mike Jones said that the pastor had been paying him for sex for the last three years and had bought methamphetamines from him. Continue reading…

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‘Rent boy’ describes anti-gay Christian leader’s sexual massages, another escort comes forward

LGBTQ Nation • Friday, May 7, 2010 • Filed under: Newsmakers • Comments (0)

The 20-year old “rent boy” that accompanied notoriously anti-gay Christian leader George Rekers on a Eurpoean vaction, told media outlets this week the he was contracted to provide his client with “sexual massages” in the nude.

Jo-vanni Roman (aka Lucian)

In his first interview since the Miami New Times broke the story Tuesday, the escort, who prefers to go by the name Lucien, contradicts Rekers’s contentions that he hired the escort to help carry his luggage and that he was trying to save the soul of a lost sinner.

According to the New Times, Lucien was paid to provide Rekers body rubs once a day in the nude, during their ten-day vacation.

Rekers allegedly named his favorite maneuver the “long stroke” — a complicated caress “across his penis, thigh… and his anus over the butt cheeks,” as the escort puts it. “Rekers liked to be rubbed down there,” he says.

In an interview with Randi Kaye on CNN’s Anderson Cooper 360 Friday night, Lucien said Rekers paid him $75 a day plus airfare and expenses to travel with him for two weeks in April to London and Madrid. Continue reading…

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Prominent anti-gay Christian leader takes European vacation with ‘rent boy’

LGBTQ Nation • Tuesday, May 4, 2010 • Filed under: Newsmakers • Comments (3)

Rekers

A Christian leader and prominent neuro-psychiatrist who co-founded the notoriously anti-gay Family Research Council with evangelist James Dobson, took a ten-day European vacation with a callboy he met through RentBoy.com, reports Miami’s New Times.

The escort said he met George Rekers, professor of Neuropsychiatry and Behavioral Science at the University of South Carolina, on RentBoy.com.

According to the article, the escort (identified only as “Lucien”) arrived at Miami International Airport after a 10-day trip to Europe on April 13. Moments later, Rekers followed him off the plane.

Rekers later told the paper he only learned his companion was an escort midway through the trip. “I had surgery,” Rekers said, “and I can’t lift luggage. That’s why I hired him.”

"Lucien" aka BOYNEXTDOOR (Rentboy.com image via unzipped.net)

In his interview with New Times, Lucien didn’t want to impugn his client, but he made it clear they met through Rentboy.com, which is the only website on which he advertises his services.

Rekers, a Baptist minister, is considered one of the most prominent anti-gay activists in the U.S., and a board member of the National Association for Research & Therapy of Homosexuality (NARTH), an organization that systematically attempts to turn gay people straight.

He frequently testifies for the Christian right in court cases involving gay rights. Rekers was an “expert” witness for the Christian right in a 2008 case defending Florida’s ban on gay adoption and in a 2004 case in Arkansas, also on the same issue.

By Tuesday evening, Family Research Council had removed Rekers’ name from its website.

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Potential Supreme Court nominee target of gay ‘whisper’ campaign

LGBTQ Nation • Friday, April 16, 2010 • Filed under: Newsmakers • Comments (0)

Kagan

Leading gay rights group are accusing Republicans of trying to rile up their conservative base by launching a whisper campaign against potential Supreme Court Justice Elena Kagan — suggesting the current Solicitor General is a closeted lesbian, reports the Huffington Post.

In its first entree into the upcoming Supreme Court nomination process, the Human Rights Campaign blasted the increasingly public discussion of Kagan’s sexuality, calling it a play “straight out the right-wing playbook.”

“Even though the majority of Americans couldn’t care less about a nominee’s sexual orientation, the far right will continue to be shameless with their whisper campaigns to drum up their base and raise money off of prejudice,” Michael Cole, an HRC spokesperson, said in an email statement to the Huffington Post.

On Thursday, the Obama administration charged CBS News with being out of line for publishing a blog post that suggested Kagan is a lesbian.

In a post on CBS News’ website, Ben Domenech, a former Bush administration aide and Republican Senate staffer, wrote that President Obama would “please” much of his base by picking (Kagen) the “first openly gay justice.”

CBS eventually pulled the article, and posted an apology, dismissing the original reporting as being sourced in “a Harvard rumor.”

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John McCain: Guy with iPhone

LGBTQ Nation • Saturday, March 27, 2010 • Filed under: Arizona, Newsmakers • Comments (17)

Is Senator John McCain (R-Ariz.) wooing the gay vote?

Look who showed up on the website “Guys with iPhones” on Friday, a website that caters to mostly gay (and naked) men with nothing more than an iPhone and a mirror.

Thankfully, McCain’s pic was G-rated.

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