Legal Issues

Quick News & Notes

• David Mixner Gets A Few Things Off His Chest.

  If you don't read David Mixner's blog daily, you're doing yourself a disservice. David is a civil rights icon, author, former Clinton White House senior advisor, and fellow Hell's Kitchen neighbor. And a hell of a great guy whose support of our community seems boundless.

  Here are a few jewels from today's post, "Impressions..............by David Mixner"

  "Eric Massa (D-NY) ... is clearly gay and looney!"

  "Political Guru Nate Silver has issued his latest projections for the results of the 2010 Senate Races. The brilliant prognosticator is projecting that the Democrats will lose just four seats in the elections. My recent forecast had Democrats losing seven seats. Let's hope that Nate is right and I am not."

  "Sean Hayes came out in The Advocate and you think he could have done it with a little more grace and support for his community. It was not pretty as Queerty.com reports."

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• Ken Cuccinelli II, Virginia's newly-elected Attorney General who ordered his state's public schools and colleges to remove all protections specific to the LGBTQ community is getting tons of Facebook fans -- so they can tell him on his Facebook page how angry they are. Sure is a firestorm brewing there!

  Might want to check it out...

  Then, sign up on the newly-formed Facebook group, "WE DON'T WANT DISCRIMINATION IN OUR STATE UNIVERSITIES AND COLLEGES!" whose mission is, "to protect the right of educators, administrators, and students to choose their own sexual partners AND to be treated fairly by the public universities and colleges of Virginia."

  Not surprisingly, they have a lot more fans then Virginia's Ken Cuccinelli.

  I'll have more on the entire Virgina LGBTQ rights story later today, just wanted to share this with you first!

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• Why Gawker Wants You To Vote Against Monserrate.

  Gawker very kindly linked to my "Anti-Gay Flyers Distributed In NYC Churches By Monserrate Supporters" piece today. Politics Staff Writer Alex Pareene, in "Face-Slasher Hiram Monserrate Just Getting More Vile Every Day," wrote,

  Peralta, who (as far as we know) has never violently attacked the woman he lives with and then dragged her out of the apartment against her will (on camera) and then driven her to a hospital that he thought was outside of city limits, supports the rights of two people who don't violently attack each other to get married, even if they both have penises (or neither of them have penises). Apparently the man who did slash his girlfriend's face open thinks that such marriages will somehow damage his eventual marriage to the woman he attacked.

  Gotta love it!

  And, good enough for me. If I lived in Queens, I'd vote for Peralta!

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• NYT: Same-Sex Couples Tax Questions - Ask This Week!

  I love the New York Times. This week, they offer, "Taking Tax Questions From Same-Sex Couples," featuring Tina Salandra, "who specializes in tax planning for gay and lesbian couples." She will answer reader questions this week. Perfect timing!

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• Breaking: Senator Lieberman To Introduce DADT Repeal Bill.

  This has been the talk for many months now, but The Advocate's Kerry Eleveld is reporting today that Senator Joe Lieberman (I-CT) will introduce a bill to repeal "Don't Ask, Don't Tell." Lieberman is a long-time opponent of the law, and voted against it back in 1993.

  Lieberman's recent healthcare reform stance, reviled by many ion the left, conveniently puts him in a unique position. Eleveld quotes an SLDN spokesperson as saying, "Sen. Lieberman is also in a good position to work on a bipartisan bill introduction and to win broader bipartisan support in Congress.”

  Read the full, in-depth piece here.

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• "Gay people are not vessels for votes."
  -- Nick Herbert, British MP, Shadow Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, Conservative Party.

  Today, at the Cato Institute in Washington, D.C., conservative British author and editor, and blogger at The Atlantic, Andrew Sullivan debates National Organization for Marriage (NOM) President Maggie Gallagher. British MP Nick Herbert gave an incredible introduction and set the stage.

  The Cato Institute is a libertarian think tank which claims to exist "to broaden the parameters of public policy debate to allow consideration of the traditional American principles of limited government, individual liberty, free markets, and peace."

  Come back later today -- I'll have audio up shortly after the debate ends.

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