NEWSBYDAVID BADASH

Dan Choi, forever the activist, set off a firestorm late Wednesday night when he tweeted, "To the U.S. Marshals who came to my friend's NYC apartment looking for me: I don't couchsurf there anymore. I'm at 6 Traymore Cambridge MA," which was then followed by, "Well, I do owe the Army a few thousand $ for my DADT discharge (and refuse to pay a cent.) Or it could be for D.C. direct actions."

Dan Choi's "direct action" -- chaining himself to the White House fence -- didn't win him much love from the government the first time, but the last time he did it seems to have garnered some "attention." Dan, along with some of his fellow members of the "White House 13" -- the 13 GetEQUAL activists and LGBT vets who chained themselves, for the last time, to the White House fence in November -- received visits from the U.S. Marshal, "generously" reminding them of upcoming court appearances. Intimidation, much? John Aravosis speaks to this vindictive, abusive use of power here and here.

Robin McGehee, GetEQUAL Co-Founder and of the "White House 13" told me today that the U.S. Marshals have attempted to contact all 13 protestors. She adds, "I believe the efforts being made by the U.S. Government to collect the debt of soldiers who were unjustly and unconstitutionally thrown out under DADT is unethical and morally wrong. These individuals did nothing but serve their country -- many of them not coming out to themselves or to others until after serving years in the military. Asking those who have served our country, and then were discriminated against to repay such a loan is completely absurd and should easily be forgiven.  As for our U.S. Marshal visits, I am willing to take whatever punishment set forth, as I was aware that I was taking such a risk -- but, that risk was taken to highlight and illuminate the homophobic and transphobic policies of our U.S. government and as our government begins to right a wrong -- they might consider dropping charges since our actions were used to bring mainstream attention to their oversight.  At the very least, save tax payer money and send us a letter about future court dates, instead of the "attempted" intimidation of a U.S. Marshal."

The Senate has been dragging its feet all year, thanks in large part to Republicans who have made it their mission to stall, block, threaten, obstruct, and, now, take America hostage over tax cuts for millionaires and billionaires. (One down, dozens more to go...) And after all this wasted time, Democratic Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid has announced that the Senate will go home for the Christmas recess on December 17, one full week before Christmas even begins. Given the short schedule, there now very well may be no time left to vote on the defense authorization bill that houses the "Don't Ask, Don't Tell" repeal bill.

Mitch McConnell, the Republican Senate Minority Leader on Sunday had the gall to proclaim, “I don’t see how we can possibly finish the defense authorization bill, a two-week bill, wholly aside from these controversial items that are in it … before the end of the year.” (Never mind the fact that the defense bill rarely has ever taken two weeks to pass.)

I don't know about you, but when I was in school, Christmas recess began Christmas Eve, not one week before Christmas. And I don't know about you, but with so many Americans unemployed, those who are employed should be working awfully hard to keep their jobs, especially when their job is to help those who aren't employed get jobs.

After decades of anti-gay demonizing rhetoric, the Family Research Council has finally been designated an official hate group by the Southern Poverty Law Center (SPLC). On the November 29 edition of MSNBC's Hardball, Mark Potok, director of publications and information for the Southern Poverty Law Center, explained SPLC's criteria, and that one comment made by them, actually on Hardball earlier this year -- that “gay behavior should be outlawed" -- was so offensive it was enough to place the Family Research Council on the list of hate groups. Potok then noted many more examples.

It should be noted that the SPLC, founded in 1971, has a long history of defending and protecting civil rights, and that they are considered the organization when it comes to hate group designation. Much to my chagrin, there are other groups that I believe should be on their hate group list, but SPLC has a very high bar; if a group is on the list, they belong there.

On Hardball, Potok explained, "it's purely about ideology. Do groups demonize entire groups of people with falsehoods and other propaganda? The Family Research Council among many other things has associated falsely gay men with pedophilia. That's simply a falsehood and a known falsehood."

"They have suggested that homosexual men molest children at rates that far exceed that of heterosexual men, and that's simply a falsehood and a known falsehood."

But that's not the only issue with the Family Research Council. The FRC relies on discredited research by discredited researchers to spread their particular brand of hate and to encourage others to do the same.

Here is a sampling of hate from the Family Research Council:

Senator John McCain, who has had a dozen different positions on the repeal of "Don't Ask, Don't Tell," repeatedly has claimed that the Pentagon's study, which took ten months and cost reportedly $4.5 million dollars, was the wrong study to undertake. The study specifically was designed to learn how to implement "Don't Ask, Don't Tell" repeal. Senator McCain now wants another study to determine if "Don't Ask, Don't Tell" should be repealed.

McCain is trying to get Congress to spend millions of dollars more, simply to determine what 23 studies over the past two decades have already determined: repeal of "Don't Ask, Don't Tell" will not negatively impact military readiness or unit cohesion.

Senator McCain is simply stalling, trying to drag out repeal of "Don't Ask, Don't Tell," and he is willing to spend your tax dollars to fund his anti-gay bigotry.

Senator McCain, you have flip-flopped on your positions against "Don't Ask, Don't Tell" repeal time and time again. In fact, you have, on record, eleven different positions on "Don't Ask, Don't Tell." It's clear that your words are meaningless. But here's something for you to ponder. Many, many gay and lesbian service members have fought -- just like you -- and many have died, so that you could be free today.

In World War II, partly because of poor screening practices, and partly because demand for soldiers was so high, up to one million LGBT soldiers fought for their country, according to Allan Berube (1946-2007,) author of the 1990 book Coming Out Under Fire.

Via a New York Times review of the book when it was published:

Update: Earlier this evening, the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals issued a temporary stay of an order issued by Judge Virginia Phillips in Log Cabin Republicans v. United States halting the enforcement of the military's "Don't Ask Don't Tell" policy. For more information, click here to view Metro Weekly's coverage of what the Ninth Circuit's decision means for the short-term future of "Don't Ask, Don't Tell."

"Let’s push that one down the road a little bit,” is what Secretary of Defense Robert Gates said last year about ending "Don't Ask, Don't Tell." It's been 19 months since he first uttered those words. And, despite President Obama's vociferous plea to Congress to repeal "Don't Ask, Don't Tell," ("It's the right thing to do!") Congress has not acted. Nor, to be fair to Congress, has the president. But yesterday history was made, as Lt. Dan Choi, an Asian-American West Point grad, Iraq War veteran, infantry officer, and Arab linguist who just this summer was officially discharged under "Don't Ask, Don't Tell" for being gay, re-enlisted in the Army — thanks not to Congress nor to President Obama — but to a federal judge, the Log Cabin Republicans, countless gay organizations, activists, allies, and yes, the Constitution.

Judge Virginia Phillips continued her judicial pursuit of upholding and preserving the Constitution Tuesday by telling the Department of Justice, the Department of Defense, and all of America that the government's request to place a "stay," (in essence, a "hold,") on her ruling last week that required the entire U.S. military, worldwide, to immediately stop all enforcement, investigations, and discharges related to what she has determined to be the unconstitutional law better known as "Don't Ask, Don't Tell," would not happen, at least by her order.

The judge had ruled last month that "Don't Ask, Don't Tell" was unconstitutional, under the first and fifth amendments to the Constitution. Last week, she ordered the government to stop enforcing "Don't Ask, Don't Tell," and yesterday she reiterated that demand.

To comply, the Department of Defense issued an order to all military recruiters, telling them that they can accept all applications, even from those “who admit they are gay or lesbian.”

But now, as Chris Geidner at MetroWeekly reports, "[t]he Department of Justice has asked the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit for an emergency stay of U.S. District Court Judge Virginia Phillips order halting enforcement of the "Don't Ask, Don't Tell" policy. The injunction, which was issued on Oct. 12, was the result of her September decision in Log Cabin Republicans v. United States that DADT is unconstitutional."

The media has been awash in news of recent teen suicides, teens literally bullied to death. Much of the mainstream press is reporting there were five or six teen suicides in the back-to-school month of September, all the result of anti-gay bullying. Sadly, that number is much higher. After reports from my readers, and after much research on local news sites, it is clear there were at least ten male teen suicides across the country in the month of September alone. There are reports that almost all of these teens -- many who had either come out as gay or were perceived as gay -- were bullied, and most if not all of the bullying was anti-gay bullying.

But let's be honest. What enables and maintains this culture of hate are groups like the National Organization for Marriage (NOM) which exists to tell America that gays and lesbians aren't good enough for marriage. Or groups like Focus on the Family (FOF) which exists to tell America that gays and lesbians aren't good enough for anything, and even has a "pro-bullying" website, "True Tolerance," dedicated to teaching parents how to rid their schools of anti-bullying programs.

These are but two hate groups, groups whose real missions are neither to "protect" marriage, nor to "focus" on the family.

The Southern Poverty Law Center five years ago listed "a dozen of today's most influential anti-gay groups," including several they today classify as hate groups: American Vision, Family Research Institute, and the Traditional Values Coalition. Others, like the Family Research Council, Focus on the Family, the Minnesota Family Council, and the Alliance Defense Fund should qualify as well.

Earlier this year my partner, Caleb Eigsti, wanted to address and give hope to the younger members of our community, many of whom he saw as being unsupported and, as we all sadly know, at much greater risk of committing suicide. A week ago Wednesday, September 22, Caleb wrote, "October: National Coming Out Month At The New Civil Rights Movement," dedicating the entire month to daily postings of coming out stories. He wrote:

"This year as we approach National Coming Out Day (NCOD) I’ve had a different feeling than in the past. Normally, I would let the day slide by and not really think about it. It’s never held a huge significance in my life. And I’ve always thought, why just one day out of the year? However, this year it hit me — the connection finally hit me — LGBT youth are three times as likely to attempt suicide. LGBT youth need role models. LGBT youth need hope."

Sadly, just hours later that day, Tyler Clementi, an 18-year old Rutgers freshman, jumped to his death off the George Washington Bridge, after being videotaped in his own dorm room, in an apparently intimate moment with another man, and, in real-time, outed by his own college roommate via video and Twitter.

One day later, a 13-year old gay teen, Asher Brown, put a 9mm Beretta to his head and killed himself. He had been physically and emotionally harassed and bullied, while his school ignored complaints from his parents.

Thursday, September 30, Seth Walsh, also 13, gay, and relentlessly bullied, was taken off life support after his suicide attempt -- by hanging. He had spent nine days on life support.

Earlier this month, on September 9, Billy Lucas, a 15-year-old gay teen, died after hanging himself.

And now, today, news comes that a fifth student, Raymond Chase of Johnson & Wales University, hung himself this past Wednesday. Authorities are still investigating.

In 1958, more than a half-century ago, a book titled The Ugly American was published. Exposing American arrogance and "ugly" behavior in foreign lands, it quickly became a bestseller. But in a twenty-first century America, that arrogance and ugly behavior has come home.

Thursday morning, President Obama addressed the United Nations, touting America's accomplishments in the battles of terrorism, climate change, and civil rights. Thursday evening, his Department of Justice filed to narrowly restrict a federal court's ruling that found "Don't Ask, Don't Tell" to be unconstitutional. And all this just two days after the U.S. Senate failed to pass a bill to end "Don't Ask, Don't Tell," an unconstitutional and discriminatory law that 78 percent of Americans want repealed.

If you're sensing irony, hold on, because there's a lot more to come. But keep in mind, this isn't about President Obama, so much as it is about America. Our hypocritical, "ugly America."

The President had promised to be our "fierce advocate." In his January State of The Union address this year, he promised "to work with Congress" to repeal "Don't Ask, Don't Tell." ("It's the right thing to do," he roared.) He had promised to repeal the Defense of Marriage Act (DOMA) and help us pass the Employment Nondiscrimination Act (ENDA) too, but it looks like those are off the radar until the end of his second term.

Just after Prop 8 passed in 2008, the phrase sweeping America was "gay is the new black." You could see it printed everywhere, from t-shirts to protest signs, to the cover of The Advocate. An MSNBC story published in late November of that year included this quite au courant quote.

"Black people are equal now, and gay people aren't," said Emil Wilbekin, a black gay man and the editor of Giant magazine. "I always have this discussion with my friends: What's worse, being a black man or a black gay man?"

Of course, we know "Black people are equal now" wasn't true then or now, but for a moment, perhaps to some, it felt like it.

Times have changed in two short years, and while then it felt like gay was the new black, today it's feeling like gay Republican is the new black.

And, according to those in the know, it's reaching "critical mass."

Up until last week, the worst-kept secret that everyone knew (everyone, except, reportedly, Ken Mehlman,) that Ken Mehlman is gay, came as no surprise inside the Washington Beltway. But it was in fact the climax in an already slowly-growing tale that has shaken to their core the radical, extreme, and religious Right. Conservatives are either "coming out," or coming out in support of gay rights, especially marriage equality. And this has the Right and the Republican party shaking.

The GOP has suffered the greatest schism in recent history. Two years ago, with the failure and subsequent persona non grata status of George W. Bush, even before the end of his presidency, and with John McCain's loss of his presidential run, no one was left to lead the Republican party. Hence the rise (again) of Rush Limbaugh, not to mention Glenn Beck, Bill O'Reilly, Sean Hannity, and their now-co-worker and the now-Mama Grizzly-In-Chief, Sarah Palin.

The squeaky wheel gets the grease, and these third-wheel fourth-estate pundits are the squeakiest. They have taken the reins and, along with their Tea Party compatriots, stolen the direction of the Republican Party, effectively splitting it in two.