NEWSBYBELINDA BALDWIN

While the street corner Santa with his waving bell and bucket are an essential part of our Christmas imagination, it is important to understand what the Salvation Army believes before throwing money into that bucket.

The Salvation Army's Web site lays out the organization's antiquated beliefs on human sexuality.

"Sexual attraction to the same sex is a matter of profound complexity. Whatever the causes may be, attempts to deny its reality or to marginalize those of a same-sex orientation have not been helpful. The Salvation Army does not consider same-sex orientation blameworthy in itself. Homosexual conduct, like heterosexual conduct, requires individual responsibility and must be guided by the light of scriptural teaching," their statement says. "Scripture forbids sexual intimacy between members of the same sex. The Salvation Army believes, therefore, that Christians whose sexual orientation is primarily or exclusively same-sex are called upon to embrace celibacy as a way of life. There is no scriptural support for same-sex unions as equal to, or as an alternative to, heterosexual marriage."

So while the Salvation Army does not condone mistreating a person for his/her sexual orientation, the organization believes that homosexuality is an aberration and proposes celibacy and "scriptural teaching" for gay people.

The "It Gets Better" online video campaign started by Dan Savage received significant political backing on Tuesday when Secretary of State Hillary Clinton told at risk youth to "hang in there."

"Your life is so important to your family, your friends and to your country," she says in her YouTube video. "And there's so much waiting for you, both personally and professionally. There are so many opportunities to develop your talents and make your contributions."

Clinton said she was "terribly saddened" by the suicides of young people who were bullied because they were gay or thought to be gay. In the video, Clinton says "these most recent deaths remind Americans that we have to work harder to overcome bigotry and hatred."

As Secretary of State, Clinton expanded health and welfare benefits to include same-sex partners of State Department employees even before President Obama authorized same-sex benefits throughout the federal government. "Here at the State Department," she says, "I'm grateful every day for the work of our LGBT employees who are serving the United States as foreign service officers and civil servants here and around the world."

"So take heart," Clinton says. "Please remember that your life is valuable and that you are not alone. Many people are standing with you and sending their thoughts, their prayers and their strength. Count me among them. Take care of yourself."

Check out Clinton's video after the jump below.

On the twelfth anniversary of the death of Mathew Sheppard, Utah gay rights advocates and Human Rights Campaign  president, Joe Solmonese, deliver 150,000 signatures to The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints' Utah headquarters, demanding that leader Boyd K. Packer retract his anti-gay statements made in an Oct. 3 sermon.

Packer, 86, is the second-highest ranking Mormon church leader and the next in line for the presidency of the 13.5 million-member faith. His Oct. 3 statements came during the church's biannual conference, and in light of the recent spate of gay suicides due to bullying. He called same-sex attraction unnatural in God's eyes and reiterated the church's opposition to same-sex marriage.

At Tuesday’s news conference, Solmonese said, "the danger with the statements (Packer) made is that they will be believed as revealed truth and then used by some to rationalize discrimination or violence."

In an op-ed submission to the St Louis Post-Dispatch on Sunday, Isaac Katz, son of  notoriously homophobic Washington University professor Jonathan Katz, came out of the closet as a proud gay man.

In his op-ed piece for the Post-Dispatch, the 22-year-old Katz reflects on his personal experiences growing up inside of an outwardly homophobic family. He writes, "when I was perhaps 10 years old, my brother called me a faggot ... My dad was angry not because my brother used a curse word — but because, simply and literally, he said that I was gay."

In 1999, when Katz was eleven, his father published an essay entitled "In Defense of Homophobia," which argues, among other things, that gay men should be ostracized because they are responsible for the AIDS epidemic. Several years later, the tenured physics professor responded to protests over the exclusion of sexually active gay men from university blood drives with additional vitriol. He wrote, “In order to satisfy their demand for full acceptance by society, the homosexual movement demands to kill some transfusion recipients by infecting them with AIDS, or to kill patients who need transfusions by making it impossible for blood banks to collect blood.”

Following the tragic suicide of Rutgers University student Tyler Clementi, openly gay actor Neil Patrick Harris has created a recorded message for MTV encouraging gay youth to "be proud."

In the video message, the 37-year-old star of hit television show "How I Met Your Mother" says:

"When you're young, when you're in elementary school, when you're in high school, it's important to try and fit in and be accepted and to be part of the average. Everyone does it, that's the way it goes. But let me assure you, if you're getting bullied and feeling like you're on the outskirts, it gets better. Because, when you get older, you find that people are actually drawn to individuals with different points of view who are proud of who they are and who make interesting and different and unique choices for them — at least I am."

Harris encourages LGBT youth to act with strength, courage, and class. "But, for Pete's sake," he added, "don't cut yourself or jump off a bridge. Please." He says, "This is a good time that we live in, and we're being granted more and more rights, and that's awesome, and it will continue in that direction. And, yeah, be proud."

With just 32 days left until the New York State Senate election, Brooklyn-born actress Rosie Perez has just released a video in support of marriage equality through Fight Back New York.  In the video, Perez, perhaps best known for her muscular interpretation of "Fight The Power" in Spike Lee's Do The Right Thing (1989), starts the video by expressing her overall disappointment with her home state, comparing New York’s position on marriage equality to that of Iowa, where it is now legal for gay people to wed.

She says, ”Are you kidding me? Iowa’s got the jump on us, New York?...We’re the world’s freakin’ city. We take the lead and dictate to the rest on how to do this, and you can’t tie the knot if you bat for the other team, how whack is that? This is an embarrassment.”

More pointedly, Perez calls out fellow Puerto Rican and State Senator Ruben Diaz Sr. of the Bronx, stating “I’m extremely disappointed with your position on this matter. With all due respect, sir, your stand represents a lack of justice and equality on this issue. Please take note: You are not speaking for the majority of New York Latinos.” Diaz Sr. was one of eight Democrats last year who voted against the marriage equality bill that failed the state senate by a 38-24 vote.

“Where I’m from,” Perez ends the video, “they got this saying: whatever creams your Twinkie. Live and let live.”

Check out the video below.

GLAAD’s 15th annual “Where We Are On TV” study has found that the number of  LGBT characters on television continues to rise year over year. Of the 587 series regular characters counted across 84 programs on the five broadcast networks – ABC, CBS, The CW, Fox, and NBC – GLAAD identified 23 as LGBT. This number accounts for 3.9 percent of the total series regular characters in the 2010-2011 broadcast television season, up from just 1.1 percent in 2007.

According to the study, for the 2010-2011 broadcast television season:
• ABC continues to lead all other broadcast networks for the fifth straight year with 11 LGBT series regular characters;
• FOX, which in 2007 featured no series regular LGBT characters, now offers five LGBT series regulars;
• Due to the cancellation of shows like Trauma, Southland, and Mercy, NBC is the only network to report a decline in LGBT characters year over year;
• CBS is in last place with just one regular LGBT character

Judging from the films about us, lesbians all but invented being hot for teacher. From the soon to be released Bloomington, by USC film school grad Fernanda Cardoso, to Katherine Brooks’ 2006  Loving Annabelle, attractive teachers occupy our thoughts today much like they did some seventy years ago, when Mädchen in Uniform (1931), the first feature film ever produced with a lesbian storyline, introduced the student teacher crush to the lexicon of lesbian themed cinema.

Adding to this history, Wolfe Video has released the DVD of the 1958 remake of Mädchen in Uniform with a bonus featurette, From Manuela to Annabelle, featuring filmmaker Katherine Brooks discussing how Mädchen inspired her to make Loving Annabelle, a modern tale of forbidden love in a repressive all-girl boarding school.

Tennis legend and LGBT icon Martina Navratilova was honored Monday night during the opening ceremonies of the U.S. Open in New York.  The honor, for “those who dream, succeed and inspire” according to organizers, is fitting for Navratilova who has battled "nasty curveballs" in her personal and professional life but always come out a winner.

“It’s the positive attitude that gets you through life and it is a choice,” she said. “I’ve always been too much of an optimist where I sort of ignore bad stuff until it sits right there in front of me. I’m saying nothing is going to go wrong and, when it does, that’s when I deal with it. That’s how I’ve gotten through life. I think it’s done me pretty well.”

The 53-year-old Czech native knows something about grit as well as attitude. Earlier this year, she was diagnosed with noninvasive breast cancer and underwent surgery and radiation only to win the Wimbledon ladies' invitation doubles in June.

Martina also spoke to the crowd about publicly coming out of the closet as a lesbian the year she made it to her first U.S. Open final. “In 1981, I came out as a gay woman," she said to loud applause. "That was not a good thing to do back then. There were a lot of doors that were shut in my face because of that, but you know what, I could still play tennis, no matter what.”

When country music singer Chely Wright was deciding how she was going to publicly come out of the closet, she happened upon a movie poster for a documentary she had seen on LOGO in a publicist’s office in New York City. The film, Be Real, by Beverly Kopf and Bobbie Birleffi, had made an impact on Chely, after having lived so many years in the closet, and she tracked down the filmmakers to find out if they’d be interested in documenting her journey to becoming the first openly gay mainstream country music singer.

“We hadn’t heard of Chely and we couldn’t imagine why she wanted to see us,” recalls Beverly and Bobbie, “But after about five minutes of meeting her and listening to her story, we were hooked! We knew this could be the project of a lifetime.”

Two years and one very touching memoir later, Chely Wright’s coming out might just be the most well planned in celebrity history. If you hadn’t heard of her before, then you certainly have by now. She has appeared on Ellen and Oprah as well as People magazine, countless local morning television shows, radio shows, and a handful of gay pride parades. She has danced all night at Melissa Etheridge’s birthday party and signed books all day at the West Hollywood book store. She’s so out, she’s contagious. Just last week, progressive radio talk show host Stephanie Miller came out of the closet while interviewing her!

All of which is to say — Beverly and Bobbie have some good footage on their hands. In order to find out more, I asked them a few questions about their process, what it was like to talk to people in Nashville about coming out, and how Chely’s decision to “be real” has made a difference in other people’s lives.

Did you have a difficult time getting folks in Nashville to talk to you about this subject?

Chely decided early on that she wanted to come out in a public way because she wanted her story to reach as many people as possible. In order to do that, everyone around her had to keep her secret. So we were not able to contact people in Nashville until after Chely came out. We had about 2-3 weeks to research and lock in our Nashville interviews. We were very fortunate in receiving lots of support from people like legendary producer Tony Brown, Rodney Crowell, the producer of her new CD, Lifted Off the Ground, and Bill Cody, the WSM (Grand Ole Opry) radio DJ. However, when it came to trying to book A-list stars who are friends and colleagues of Chely’s to appear in the film, it turned out to be trickier than we expected. That will play itself out in the film.