Tony Perkins must be hitting the sauce — or hoping that his donors are. Take a look at the latest fund raising email from his anti-gay hate group, Family Research Council. Here’s the zinger: We are also a powerful voice for our troops, their religious liberty, and your security regarding liberals’ pushing open homosexuality in [...]

It’s an open thread! Pleeeeease feel free to chat, blogwhore, and link-share in the comment thread… So, this is what my cartoon sockpuppet Bookworm Bob have been looking at since our last This & That post. • This is from a bit more than a week ago, but we post on it. From the Baltimore [...]

From National Public Radio‘s (NPR’s) Pentagon Will Certify An End To A Ban On Gays In Military: NPR’s Rachel Martin reports that tomorrow, the Pentagon will announce Defense Secretary Leon Panetta has signed a certification that states the military is ready to allow gay men and women to serve openly. President Obama will then be [...]

On July 6, the Ninth Circuit Federal court ordered the Department of Defense to stop enforcing the “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” law, as a result of the Log Cabin Republican’s successful challenge on the law’s Constitutionality. Shortly after, the Department of Justice filed a motion to reinstate it.

The Department of Justice was dealt a partial victory on Friday. The Ninth reinstated DADT partially and temporarily. The military could continue to enforce it in regards to new recruits, admissions to military academies, and ROTC program (which are ironically, returning to the campuses, even as they continue to enforce DADT, and trans recruits will continue to be denied). Their order did prohibit “investigating, penalizing, or discharging” servicemembers under DADT.

Today, the Department of Justice said “not good enough.” They filed another appeal for full reinstatement.

Photo by Rex Wockner.

From Karen Occamb at LGBT POV come this report from about 350 active duty servicemembers who joined a movement to appear in San Diego Pride's event held today. 

Marine Commandant Gen. James Amos helped fan the flames of unfounded fear prior to the December, 2010 repeal of the anti-gay military mandate known as “don’t ask, don’t tell”. “When your life hangs on a line, on the intuitive behavior of the young man… who sits to your right and your left, you don’t want [...]

This has me absolutely fuming.  Once DADT has been repealed, Harvard University will reopen its campus to ROTC.   I look forward to pursuing discussions with military officials and others to achieve Harvard’s full and formal recognition of ROTC. I am very pleased that more students will now have the opportunity to serve their country. [...]

Will Ending ‘Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell’ Affect America’s Ability to Defend Itself? This has got to be giving Fox News’s GOP handlers heartburn.  The Fox News “You Decide” poll on Saturday asked “Will Ending ‘Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell’ Affect America’s Ability to Defend Itself?“. In classic biased Fox News style, the answer choices are all [...]

Has Marine Commandant Gen. James Amos just come out for the whole Marine Corps?  Why else would he be wiling to imply that the soldiers under his command are so inept and undisciplined that they’d become distracted by the outness of gay fellow soldiers unless he believes they harbor uncontrollable homolust?  Or is this more [...]

About an hour ago, as Sen Bernie Sanders (I-VT) wrapped up his heroic 8-hour speech about the GOP-Obama tax proposal, Sen Kirsten Gillibrand (D-NY) took the podium in the Senate and introduced S. 4022 S. 4023, “A bill to provide for the repeal of the Department of Defense policy concerning homosexuality in the Armed Forces [...]