FORMER RNC CHAIRMAN KEN MEHLMAN GAY

Another Republican comes out of the closet - surprise surprise.

Ken Mehlman, a man who formerLY held the highest (non-elected) office within the Republican party has come out as gay.

For at least four or five years of his involvement with George W. Bush and the Republican party, he was the mouthpiece for a group of rich, bigoted, white men and had to demonize and criticize his own community in order to get his boss re-elected.

I cannot imagine the self-hatred this man must have internalized - just to make a living!

To him I say congratulations for finding peace and honesty, but also shame on you for not standing up for yourself and for allowing Karl Rove and other puppet masters to pull your strings.

Interestingly enough, Bill Mahr outed him on CNN's Larry King Live back in 2006. See below:

TWINKLE TWINE (OF MY EYE)

Papa Fettit taught Noelle how to play Twinkle Twinkle Little Star, or at least the first couple of notes and next thing I know she is play the entire song - much to my amazement.

Arizona immigration law: Arizona's immigration law should be overturned, says Rev. Josh Pawelek - Courant.com

Arizona immigration law: Arizona's immigration law should be overturned, says Rev. Josh Pawelek - Courant.com

This article first appeared in the Hartford Courant. My response: AMEN

After praying long and hard, I have decided to go to Phoenix to add my voice to the growing chorus of protest against Arizona's tough new immigration law. Barring an injunction from the U.S. District Court, the law goes into effect next Thursday.

Dubbing this Arizona's "freedom summer," civil rights organizations and faith groups have vowed to resist the law's implementation and are calling on all those concerned about the humane treatment of immigrants to lend their voices and bodies to the struggle. The law's most controversial provision is known as Article 8 B. It requires police to make a "reasonable attempt" to determine the immigration status of a person if they have a "reasonable suspicion" that "the person is an alien who is unlawfully present in the United States."

Unfortunately, Article 8.B does not define "reasonable." It is so vague that even my untrained legal eye can see that police officers, on a whim, will be able to stop, question and detain anyone they choose. This opens the floodgates for racial profiling, which has been cause for dismay among civil rights activists across the nation.

With Article 8. B at its core, Arizona's law has the strong potential to result in separation of families, unnecessary incarcerations, erroneous deportations of legal citizens and lost productivity. It has struck fear and terror into the heart of Arizona's Hispanic communities. This law is an affront to the moral sensibilities of our nation.

I am not in favor of open borders. Given the reality of drug smuggling, human trafficking and the potential movement of international terrorists, I recognize the need for tough, consistent and well-resourced border control. I also recognize that the Arizona legislature and Gov. Jan Brewer were frustrated by the lack of federal progress on immigration reform and felt compelled to act. But, in the end, the new law doesn't "get tough" on immigration.

It gets tough on people already living in the United States. That is its moral failing.

Some estimates put the number of undocumented people in the United States at 20 million. The vast majority of them have come here out of economic desperation.

There is considerable evidence that in most cases, they take jobs most citizens don't want. There is clearly a robust market for their labor, otherwise they wouldn't come. We cannot intimidate, arrest and deport our way out of this situation as if such activities can somehow contain the larger economic forces at work. Undocumented immigrants work extremely hard, for long hours, with very little recognition and few rights. Like so many previous generations of immigrants, they provide the unseen backbone of our economy. The Arizona law completely ignores this reality.

I am moved by the words of Moses who said "when an alien resides with you in your land, you shall not oppress the alien. The alien who resides with you shall be as a citizen among you; you shall love the alien as yourself." I don't turn to this scripture for legal advice, but I do seek moral inspiration from it.

Our nation needs immigration reform desperately, but let us achieve it in a manner that respects the integrity of undocumented people and honors their contributions to our society. Let us achieve it in a way that doesn't tear parents from their children in the dead of night. Let us achieve it in a way that doesn't criminalize whole communities based on skin color, language and accent. Let us achieve it in a way that doesn't return us to our white supremacist past. Let us achieve it in a way that is grounded in the same love toward the alien of which Moses spoke.

Arizona is better than its new immigration law. So is our nation. That is why, when the call went out for clergy and others to come to Phoenix, I could not refuse.

The Rev. Josh Pawelek is minister of the Unitarian Universalist Society: East in Manchester and president of the Greater Hartford Interfaith Coalition for Equity and Justice.
Copyright © 2010, The Hartford Courant

THE COOLEST YOU'LL LOOK POOPING YOUR PANTS

Fettit and I stopped by the Conforti-Wiley's earlier today on our way home from lunch and while there this commercial came on the television.

A toddler is all swagger and charm as he struts his chic down the sidewalk, capturing the attention of two beautiful sidewalk cafe diners and the nodding appreciation of a motor scooter rider. A slack-jawed pedophile (in a gray Pee Wee Herman suit) is so taken by the denim diaper wearing stud that he releases his balloons. (Okay, what the hell was JWT thinking - that part is beyond creepy.)

Other then that last part, I love this advertisement. It made me want to run out and buy jean diapers for my kids - then I remembered they are nearly 28 years old. They can buy their own!

My diaper is full
Full of Chic
When it's a number two
I look like number one
I poo in blue

PRAY FOR OBAMA

Today I returned from work and found an email in my inbox. The subject line read "PLEASE DO NOT BUY THIS." As I scrolled down the above picture was displayed and the text of the email read:

The scripture on the T-Shirt reads: Psalms 109:8 - If you look in your Bible it reads: "Let his days be few and let another take his office (or place of leadership)."

Please Black people - show them that you just don't buy and wear ANYTHING!

It was signed by Dr. Leslie Agard-Jones, Historic Paterson, NJ. This prompted me to look up the passage, as well as the supposed author (Dr. Agard-Jones), and that is what it says and Dr. Agard-Jones is the former Dean, College of Education, William Paterson University.

I initially found it a bit humorous that Dr Agard-Jones, a black man himself, addressed his statement to "black people." Perhaps he felt it necessary, but what disturbed me (yet didn't surprised me), was that a white sheet wearin red neck would be making such t-shirts. Is nothing beneath these cowardly racists. Perhaps it was the brain child of one of the neanderthal low-lifes that pass as Arizona state senators, you know, the ones that still want President Obama to hand them his birth certificate in order for him to be allowed on the ballot in 2012.

CHRISTOPHER'S FIRST HAIRCUT

Yesterday my 21 month old grandson, Christopher, had his first haircut. I wasn't there but I am told he handled like a trouper.

BARBRA STREISAND - ONE NIGHT ONLY

Yesterday, fours days after its release, I purchased "One Night Only Only - Barbra Streisand and Quartet at the Village Vanguard." I typically purchase her music and videos on the day they are released, but this week I procrastinated.

While Fettit was away playing his organ for the masses, I snuck off to Target and bought the DVD/CD combination, came home and cued it up for viewing later that evening, and once the sun went down, and it was apparent our Arizona Diamondbacks were going to lose against Milwaukee, I switched over to the concert.

At 67 years old, Barbra Streisand's voice is still as captivating as ever and she continues her reign as the preeminent interpreter of the great American songbook. In the case of this concert, the 123 lucky people in attendance (and now everyone else,) were able to experience her in an intimate setting, reminiscent of her beginnings in the small clubs of New York's Greenwich Village.

This private concert was to kick off the release of her last CD "Love is the Answer" - the jazz inspired work of art that surprisingly debuted at number 1 on the charts, making her the only artist to have a number one album in five decades (breaking her own record).

Barbra puts her stamp on several standards: In The Wee Small Hours Of The Morning, Nobody’s Heart (Belongs To Me), Make Someone Happy, My Funny Valentine
Bewitched, Bothered And Bewildered, and stripped down versions of two of her most well known songs, Evergreen and The Way We Were.

One of my favorite moments in the concert came near the end, after finishing her classic "Evergreen," she leaves the stage and when she returns she realizes that she walked off a song too early. Known for her perfection to detail and production, and releasing carefully controlled product, her realization (however brief) is priceless - a brief glimpse into a human Streisand.

Sarah Jessica Parker sits at the front table with Barbra's husband, James Brolin, and is clearly mesmerised throughout. As Babs finishes her final song, "The Way We Were," she is visibly moved and is seen wiping tears from her face - a reaction I can relate to from the four times I have seen her, whether from the rafters in Detroit's Palace in 1994 or 30 feet from the stage here in Phoenix in November 2006.

Nearly 50 years after becoming an international sensation, Barbra Streisand's connection to the lyrics and emotions of a song remain unequalled. She still touches a special place in my heart and getting to experience this exclusive, unplugged performance was a pleasure to watch from beginning to end.

DOBSON'S SUCCESOR GIVES MEGA-MINISTRY NEW FOCUS

I stumbled upon the following article this morning featuring Focus on the Family's new leader Jim Daly. Is there a softening of the evangelical right? Are they starting to see the light?

COLORADO SPRINGS (April 24) -- Jim Daly is certain there is "a right way and a wrong way" to live one's life, and it's all about Jesus Christ and a literal reading of the Bible. But the new leader of the evangelical ministry Focus on the Family isn't going to get in your face if you disagree.

At a time when the conservative movement is dominated by raucous tea party demonstrations for lower taxes and smaller government, Daly seems oddly disconnected. "Don't know much about it, to be honest with you," he said, even though a recent poll showed that many tea party supporters are social conservatives like himself.

Instead, he spends more time worrying about so-called "Christian militias" plotting against the government. "The 'Christian' label means a lot to me," he said. "We don't want a theocracy. We want a government informed in moral principle.”

Focus on the Family "will weigh in on the big social issues before us and provide an opinion, but in all of that I want to express respect for everyone, for all human beings," he said. "It's not about being highly confrontational. It's about results."

Daly may be getting them. On a wall in the organization's offices here is a framed editorial from The New York Times, a publication not known for its sympathy toward religious conservatives. It defends Focus on the Family's right to air a TV ad during the Super Bowl featuring Denver Broncos draft pick Tim Tebow and his mother, who ignored doctors' advice that she should abort her fifth child, the future Heisman Trophy winner himself. The Times editorial attacked "would-be censors" and called protests by abortion rights groups against the then-unseen spot "lame."

When the actual commercial turned out to be an understated, feel-good message about motherhood, in fact, it was the group's most ardent supporters on the right who had a problem. "Some on our side criticized us for being too soft," Daly said in an interview with AOL News. "CBS wasn't going to allow, you know, 'DO NOT ABORT YOUR CHILD!' It's ridiculous."

In any event, traffic to the group's website surged after the Super Bowl, and Daly cited surveys saying it prompted millions to reconsider their position on abortion. "That's a game changer," he said.

Don't Say 'Unlike Dobson'

The biggest game changer for Focus on the Family, though, was the departure of its fiery founder, James Dobson. The child psychologist-turned-radio minister started the group in 1977 to help strengthen traditional marriage and give advice on parenting. But in recent years Dobson, 74, had become more involved in politics, and before the 2008 election he gave Sarah Palin a sympathetic platform and published a letter predicting that in "Obama's America" gays would get bonuses for joining the military and pornography would be televised in prime time.

In an era of kinder, gentler evangelical leaders like Rick Warren and Timothy Keller, who appeal to a younger generation of believers, Dobson may already have been an anachronism.

"The hard-edged politics of the original Christian-right leaders is increasingly out of style, partly due to generational change, and partly because evangelicals have been involved in politics for a long time and many have adopted a more pragmatic approach," said John Green, a University of Akron political scientist who studies religion.

Daly certainly has. He joined the ministry in 1989 and ran its international division -- which broadcasts to 130 countries, including Muslim Indonesia -- before becoming president in 2005. In February, he took over the organization after Dobson left to host his own radio show. (Dobson declined to be interviewed for this article.)

Dobson's departure angered some Christian conservatives even as liberal bloggers rejoiced. But Daly, who hates when journalists describe him as "unlike Dobson," says on matters of principle there is no daylight between him and his mentor. In tone and style, though, they are like night and day.

Speaking of the heyday of the religious right in the 1980s, Daly, 48, suggested that the influence of social conservatives like Jerry Falwell and of Dobson himself may have been illusory.

"When you look back from a pro-life perspective, what were the gains there?" he asked, noting President Ronald Reagan's judicial choices. A generation later, "we see a bit of fatigue. We don't see the results for the energy, the money, everything else that's been poured into the political sphere," said Daly, who keeps a desk plate reading "Laugh" in his office overlooking Pike's Peak.

"We as a Christian community need to refocus a bit on what's important in the culture. For us, it's family. That's our mission."

'Not Fearful of Change'

Earlier this month, hundreds turned out for a community discussion on homosexuality in a strip mall movie theater-turned-church in this city known as "the Evangelical Vatican" for its dozens of Christian ministries. Among the six panel members were those comfortable with their homosexual orientation and others who were less so. One of the latter was Focus employee Jeff Johnston, who told of "my journey out of homosexuality."

Daly was out of town but taped a welcome message. "We're not always going to agree," he said on the video, but added, "I'm not here to tell you what to do."

Bill Oliver, a local gay rights activist who has protested outside the 81-acre Focus campus, said Dobson disparaged gay families, but under Daly, "the rhetoric has definitely been lowered."

One sign: the group's recent decision to stop offering "reparative therapy" for gays and lesbians. Focus officials say the transfer of its Love Won Out program to Exodus International -- which has been attacked by gay rights groups and criticized by mental health professionals -- has to do with getting back to "bread-and-butter" issues and doesn't signal a change in policy.

Yet it's clear Daly, who has met with gay activists, sees diminishing returns in continuing the culture wars.

"I'm not fearful that change will happen in America. It will happen. ... I don't know what will happen with same-sex marriage, but I'm not going to be discouraged if we lose some of those battles," he said, noting that for "98 percent" of people, traditional marriage will remain relevant.

"It's going to be difficult in this culture and the way the demographics are going right now," he went on. "You look at the under-35 age group. I think it's splitting 60-40 support for same-sex marriage. There's a lot of people in the U.S. [who] basically come to the conclusion that this is something between two adults. I will continue to defend traditional marriage, but I'm not going to demean human beings for the process."

As with the Tebow ad, the new approach hasn't always pleased the Focus faithful. Daly sparked an uproar last year after he attended a White House conference on fatherhood and said the president was a good role model for African-American men.

"It caught me by surprise," Daly said of the criticism from conservatives. Like them, Daly finds little political common ground with Barack Obama, but, considering the president is married to his "first wife" and is raising his own biological children, "does anybody doubt that if we had more families like that in America, we wouldn't be better off?" he asked.

Daly told Obama that both know what it's like not to have a father around. In his autobiography, "Finding Home," Daly writes of being abandoned by his alcoholic father, then orphaned at 9 when his mother died and sent to a nightmarish foster home before finding God in high school.

That dysfunctional childhood, in fact, informs Daly's priorities at Focus: Since he took over, Focus has started a program to reduce the number of legal orphans in foster care by recruiting families to adopt hard-to-place children. Wait No More is in five states and has already halved the number of children in foster care in Colorado. The Denver Post called it "a perfect example of how faith-based organizations can partner with government to best utilize the strengths of both."

Faithful to Its Mission

Amid the recent economic decline and falling donations, Focus on the Family has had to scale its ambitions back a bit. The organization's budget has fallen from $151 million in 2008 to $136 million this year. In 2004, there were 1,400 employees; today, there are 830 (many of them working in modern buildings incongruously adorned with seven miles of oak trim donated by a wealthy supporter).

But the group hasn't abandoned its more traditional activities. For instance, it still buys ultrasound machines for pregnancy centers, boasting that has "saved" 80,000 babies whose mothers had considered abortion. And it still rates popular entertainment for its suitability for Christian families -- Daly recently devoted his radio show to an interview with the executive producer of a wholesome made-for-TV movie sponsored by Wal-Mart.

Indeed, despite media stories emphasizing the differences between Dobson's Focus and Daly's, much remains the same. The campus bookstore sells such titles as "The Feminist Mistake: The Radical Impact of Feminism on Church and Culture" and "What Darwin Didn't Know: A Doctor Dissects the Theory of Evolution." And the latest print edition of the group's Citizen magazine features articles on the "unprecedented wave of anti-life legislation and executive orders" under Obama and, under the headline "What We're Really After Is Cultural Change," how state-level activists can get like-minded candidates elected to public office.

Tom Minnery edits the magazine, and as head of government and public policy for Focus, he lobbies against same-sex marriage and abortion rights. He notes that just 45 Focus employees are involved in policy issues, even if they do get most of the media attention.

That doesn't include the Family Research Council, a separate but closely aligned advocacy group Dobson helped found. Earlier this month, it was almost alone in speaking out against a White House order extending hospital visitation rights to the partners of gay men and lesbians.

Daly may be dialing back his public image, but Minnery's shop is more active than ever. Last year, Focus opened its first Washington office. In February, the group took part for the first time in the annual meeting of CPAC, the Conservative Political Action Conference. Minnery said the group's lobbying arm, which may soon change its name from Focus Action to something less identified with Dobson, plans to speak out soon on immigration. He called current laws "terribly wrong" because they often lead to family separations.

"Whether we're big players or small players or quiet players," Minnery said, "we'll keep playing."

Jesus First, Policy Second

Yet it's clear his boss may be playing by new rules.

"Policy is important, but Jesus is more important," Daly has said. Which may explain his hesitancy to talk about one of the biggest policy issues of the day.

"Now you're going to get me in hot water," he said when asked his views about health care reform. No, he didn't like the language about abortion and would have preferred a go-slow approach. Mandating health insurance "doesn't come out of our free will," he noted. "Tax collection is not an act of love."

But he also noted that early Christians opened the first hospitals and hospices and that after "gladly" ceding responsibility to the government during the 1960s Great Society era, the church was "muddled" on its role.

"Many people would put their hand up, Christians, and say, 'Well, that's something the church should do.' But the church has failed to step up. That's a big task, to try to insure 30 million people. I don't know that anybody but the government could do something for those people," he said. "As we've focused a lot more on the political issues and trying to defend those things we believe in that arena, I'm concerned we may be forgetting the social issues that we need to be engaged in."

The above article is from AOLNews' Senior Washington Editor Andrea Stone.

HAPPY 68TH BIRTHDAY BARBRA

FIRST THEY CAME

In Germany they first came for the Communists,
and I didn't speak up because I wasn't a Communist.

Then they came for the Jews,
and I didn't speak up because I wasn't a Jew.

Then they came for the trade unionists,
and I didn't speak up because I wasn't a trade unionist.

Then they came for the Catholics,
and I didn't speak up because I was a Protestant.

Then they came for me —
and by that time no one was left to speak up.

By Pastor Martin Niemöller

BOYCOTT ARIZONA NOW

BOYCOTT ARIZONA NOW

Today Republican Governor Jan Brewer signed the Republican legislature backed Senate Bill 1070 which makes it a state crime to be in the country illegally. It requires local law enforcement to determine an individuals immigration status if an officer suspects that person is in the country illegally. In other words, they have just passed a law to that allows racial profiling.

Playing to the fears of many, Brewer stated, "I've decided to sign Senate Bill 1070 into law because, though many people disagree, I firmly believe it represents what's best for Arizona. Border-related violence and crime due to illegal immigration are critically important issues to the people of our state, to my Administration and to me, as your Governor and as a citizen."

The police of this state have more important things to do then check the immigration papers of every dark skinned person they encounter.

How many more legal, brown skinned U.S. citizens will be unnecessarily stopped and harassed - simply because of the color of their skin, and how will they prove their legal right to be here? I have not been issued my United States ID card.

Today I am ashamed to say I am an Arizonan and believe it is time to call for a boycott of my state. Spend your money in New Mexico or California. Do not support this racist state!


BOYCOTT ARIZONA NOW

SNACK FOOD PERSONALITY TEST

Along with the horoscope, four temperaments, personality types and psychological tests, those who seek the gnosis of the world can take a very simple test that will reveal secret knowledge about their personalities. This is a very brief, simple test that does not require psychological interpretation. As soon as you take the test, you can turn to the profiles and find out the essence of your personality. Furthermore, you can keep an eye on which snacks your friends choose and thereby have secret knowledge about them, which will naturally help you socialize more effectively.

Furthermore, this test might save Christians lots of time and money, because it may be about as reliable and valid as most other personality tests that mission agencies and other Christian organizations use in evaluating candidates. In fact, this test was administered to 800 volunteers along with other personality tests and the results were comparable.

The only prerequisite for the test is that you must answer the question as if you are not on a diet and as if all the choices are equally beneficial to your body. Now, just pick your favorite snack from the following list:

(1) Potato chips
(2) Tortilla chips
(3) Snack crackers
(4) Pretzels
(5) Cheese curls
(6) Meat snacks

Discover your own Snack Food Personality Profile.

According to Alan Hirsch, MD, a researcher at the Smell and Taste Treatment and Research Foundation in Chicago, the following are snack food personality profiles:

(1) Potato chips: "Potato chip lovers are successful, high achievers who enjoy the rewards and trimmings of their success—both in business and in family life."

(2) Tortilla chips: "Perfectionists in regards to their own actions and to the community at large, people who crave tortilla chips are humanitarians who are often distressed by the inequities and injustices of society."

(3) Snack crackers: "Contemplative and thoughtful, people who prefer snack crackers base their decisions on logic rather than emotions."

(4) Pretzels: "Lively and energetic, pretzel fans seek novelty and thrive in the world of abstract concepts. They often lose interest in mundane, day-to-day routines."

(5) Cheese curls: "Formal, conscientious and always proper, the cheese curl lover can be described with one word—integrity. They will always maintain moral high ground with their family, work and romantic partners."

(6) Meat snacks: "Gregarious and social, those who reach for a savory bag of pork rinds or crave beef jerky and other meat snacks are often the life of the party. They are loyal and true friends who can always be trusted."

Wow! Did you notice that with this test everyone is a winner? That’s because the research for this personality test was "conducted on behalf of the Snack Food Association and the National Potato Promotion Board." To learn about some of the negative aspects of these personality profiles, just take some of the key words of each profile and compare them with some of the more detailed lists given with other descriptions of personality types, such as the four temperaments, the DISC, or the MBTI.

The question remains, however, as to whether "You are what you eat" or "You eat what you are." Can a person change personality types by choosing the snack with the most appealing personality? If this all sounds like nonsense, you are getting the point. However, we must end this nonsense with one more typology: there are two types of people: those who believe this nonsense and those who don’t.


I am a tortilla chip person (for those who wondered).

ONE NIGHT ONLY - BARBRA STREISAND AT THE VILLAGE VANGUARD

Below is a preview of Barbra Streisand's September 26, 2009 performance at the Village Vanguard - out on DVD May 4th.

MYTH OF THE 'GAY LIFESTYLE' JUSTIFIES BIAS

I read the following article on CNN this morning and found I had to post it (as I agree completely). I only took offense to his preferring Madonna to Streisand - but he is like many of my friends.....

(CNN) -- On most mornings, my better half wakes up around 5:30, throws on some sweats and heads to the gym before work.

About a half hour later, I wake up my 13-year-old son, go downstairs to the kitchen to make his breakfast and pack his lunch. Once he's out the door, I brew some coffee and get to work.

Ladies and gentlemen, may I present to you the "gay lifestyle" -- run for your heterosexual lives.

I understand opponents of gay rights must highlight differences in order to maintain the "us against them" tension that's paramount to their arguments. But this notion that sexual orientation comes with a different and pre-ordained way of life -- as if we're all ordering the No. 3 at a drive thru -- only highlights how irrational groups such as Focus on the Family, the Family Research Council, the American Family Association and others like them are in this whole debate.

Pro-marriage organizations try to stop two consenting adults from marrying. Pro-family groups try to stop stable couples wanting children from adopting unloved orphans.

And somehow, me doing something like going to the grocery store threatens the very fabric of society, as Oklahoma State Rep. Sally Kern spewed. She says "the homosexual agenda is destroying this nation" and "homosexuality is more of a threat than terrorism." I'm not sure what her idea of a gay lifestyle might be, but with a growing teenager, buying and cooking food dominates my day-to-day.

I don't worship Barbra Streisand, I don't watch any TV show with the word "Housewives" in its title and I love fishing, beer and Madonna. But more importantly, I'm just a father trying to keep my son away from drugs, get him into college and have a little money left over for retirement. I'm no sociologist but I'm pretty sure those concerns are not exclusive to gay people.

In one of the most pivotal scenes in the biopic "Milk," Harvey Milk, played by Sean Penn, gathers a group of community organizers and activists to come up with strategies to combat a 1978 ballot initiative that sought to ban LGBT (lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender) teachers and their supporters from working in public schools in California. As the small crowd settles down, Milk quickly glances around the room and says ..

"If we're going to convince the 90 percent to give a ---- about us 10 percent, we have to let them know who we are ..."

"What" we are -- be it gay, straight, black, white -- is simply window dressing. "Who" we are is where the substance is, where the person is, where our humanity is.

Too often, discussions about gay people and gay rights focus on sex, as if a person's entire being is defined by his or her Hollywood crush.

This fixation has been the crux behind attempts to link gay men to pedophilia -- from John Briggs, a state legislator from Orange County who introduced the proposed ban on gay teachers in California, to the Catholic League's Bill Donohue, whose recent attempts to excuse the church for its global scandal coverup by seemingly blaming homosexuality, is evil incarnate.

"The vast majority of the victims are post-pubescent," Donohue recently said on "Larry King Live." "That's not pedophilia, buddy. That's homosexuality."

Actually, Bill, sexual predators whose victims are 13- to 17-years-old are called hebephiles -- a la Joey Buttafuoco, Madeleine Martin and Heather Kennedy -- not homosexuals. And that still doesn't explain why the church opted to save face as opposed to, in the words of the infamous anti-gay figurehead Anita Bryant, "Save our children."

Being gay doesn't dictate how people live their lives any more than being straight does. There are gay people who go to church every Sunday and straight people who do not believe in God. There are single gay men who believe in the sanctity of marriage and married straight men who apparently do not -- such as Gov. Mark Sanford, ex-Sen. John Edwards and Sen. John Ensign, to name a few.

The truth is the only thing all gay people have in common -- you know, besides being gay -- is that we face continuous rhetorical, social and legal attacks for simply existing, thus potentially making something as mundane as bringing a date to a work function a fight-or-flee situation.

And yet, even in the face of that discrimination, LGBT people all handle it differently.
Some of us live in the closet, some of us do drag every Wednesday night, some of us are Republicans hoping to be change agents within a conservative sect and some of us are apathetic Democrats too dumb to carry on a conversation about anything other than Lady Gaga.

In other words, we're just as diverse, intolerant, upstanding and tragic as our straight counterparts and unless there is an annual meeting I don't know about, the only item on the much talked-about gay agenda is an abbreviated passage from the Declaration of Independence -- "We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal."

In 29 states, people can be fired simply for being gay regardless of their education, experience or job performance; servicemen and women can be dismissed from the military regardless of their qualifications, dedication and courage; and partners are unable to see their better halves in the hospital regardless of the love, commitment and life they share.
Wanting to be judged by the content of one's character isn't a special right, it's a constitutional one guaranteed by the 14th and 15th amendments.

And yet, 145 years since the abolition of slavery, 90 years since women were allowed to vote and 20 years since the Americans with Disabilities Act, we're still involved in McCarthy-like investigations, holding Briggs-like elections and taking opinion polls based solely upon "what" someone is as opposed to "who" they are.

It's sad. We're such a great nation, still full of great hope and promise and yet we keep being tripped up by ignorance, which leads to fear and then eventually hate. Being gay isn't a choice, but being a bigot certainly is.

Editor's note: LZ Granderson is a senior writer and columnist for ESPN The Magazine and ESPN.com, and has contributed to ESPN's Sports Center, Outside the Lines and First Take. He is a 2010 nominee and the 2009 winner of the Gay & Lesbian Alliance Against Defamation (GLAAD) award for online journalism as well as the 2008 National Lesbian and Gay Journalists Association (NLGJA) winner for column writing.

EASTER 2010

For the past three weeks Fettit has taken the time to grow real grass in Noelle and Christopher's Easter baskets. Last year he wanted to do this for the kids but time slipped through his fingers and before he knew it, it was too late; however, this year he has gone out and tended to their Easter baskets like a mother hen to an un-hatched egg.



After 26 years, few things Fettit does surprise me, but occasionaly (actually rarely) his love for the traditional, in this case our grandchildren's Easter baskets, stuns me!