Knowledge is power and history is knowledge. Some have compared Obama to Jack Kennedy, but Obama's latest passion for ex-gay gospel singers teaches us otherwise. Ironically, I can't find a reason to be upset about pro-gay Obama going all pro-ex-gay, willing to shake his gospel booty next to a profoundly misguided and psychologically-damaged gay man. The gay blogosphere has been all atwitter with this scandal, Obama creatively waffles, now caught between gays and evangelicals--a moronic dilemma of his own amateurish making. But for me the real concern is his Forty Days of Faith all God all the time magical mystery tour. And when you consider that the only thing that stands between queers and equality is all faith, all the time, it would seem that we're now seeing, as Ms. Lauper would say, Obama's "true colors." The other thing that concerns me is how we defile the legacy of Jack Kennedy. Students of history would understand the true cowardice of Obama and most other candidates as well. You can read the truth here. But start with this video and consider the real meaning of American, constitution-centric leadership. Dry and boring history teaches us that there is another way, a better way and that our current crop of Democrats is sadly lacking.

Closing arguments have wrapped, the jury's in and it's time for our second installment of Top Ten Worst Gay Jobs. This time we're tackling the "rough and tumble 4 ya" world of politics. Richard and I had some tough choices to make, but with the professionalism of David Vitter at a whore house, we got in there, did our business, and came away satisfied - that we picked the Top Ten Worst Gay Jobs in Politics.



Sure, we had a few disagreements. For example, while being a member of Larry Craig's family could most certainly be called a job, it's not a job in the true sense of the word. Richard fought hard for "Nancy Pelosi's hair stylist", which I did not find funny because I'm a lesbian with no sense of style for hair or anything else. Plus he ruled out Hilary Clinton's cleavage consultant.

I honestly thought "Barney Frank's Trans-gender Community Outreach Director", was a winner, until I found out that it was Richard's actual job. Anyway, here they are, not necessarily in order of worst-ness.

1. Congressional House Page
2. Diversity Coordinator for Pace-Dobson '08
3. Condi's eHarmony Representative
4. Mahmoud Ahmadinejad's Minister of the Census
5. Director of Seating at the American Institute of Bisexuality's Policy Dinner
6. Larry Craig's Communications Director
7. Men's Bathroom Attendant at the Republican National Convention
8. Comedy Writer for the Radical Lesbian Separatist Movement
9. Development Coordinator for the Mark Foley Junior Varsity Scholarship Fund
10. Mary Cheney's Manny

Note from Richard: Poor Susan and her hot flashes; they can be so blinding. I am not Barney Frank's Trans-Gender Community Outreach Director. I'm his sibilant coach.

Editor's Note: Today we have two essays about the most hotly debated issue in the GLBT community right now: the Employment Non-Discrimination Act, aka ENDA. The details are somewhat complex (they're explained further below), but boil down to whether to pass a stripped-down version of ENDA that could probably pass in the House now but would not include transgendered people, or holding out for a bill that includes everyone, meaning the "T" in GLBT, even if it means that the bill might be dead out of the gate due to a lack of Congressional support.

That's a simplified description of the situation, but each of these positions is argued more thoroughly and eloquently on QueerSighted today for your consideration.

First, guest blogger Chai Feldblum shares her views on why ENDA should keep the "T" in GLBT. Feldblum is a professor at Georgetown University Law Center, and a well-respected strategist within GLBT activism. She was one of the primary attorneys who drafted and negotiated the provisions of ENDA from 1992 until 2002, and we're lucky to have her voice on QueerSighted today.

QueerSighted writer Richard Rothstein writes in favor of a bill that can be passed in the House now, even if it means that transgendered protection will have to be excluded and revisited separately in the future. His essay is posted below this one, or you can click here to read 'Barney Frank Lives in America, Not Oz.'

After you've heard the arguments, tell us in the comments: What strategy do you support?

LET'S STOP THE TRAIN WRECK

By Professor Chai Feldblum

QueerSighted Guest Blogger

About two weeks ago, Congressman Barney Frank took a unilateral action that set into motion a potential train wreck for the LGBT community and for the Democratic party. Let's hope cooler heads can still prevail; that we will all take a collective deep breath; and perhaps we can still head off this train wreck.

The battle royale between Barney Frank and the majority of gay advocacy groups is likely providing delicious entertainment for the Christian right. Nothing pleases an enemy more than dissension in the ranks.--well maybe the one thing that pleases our enemies more is to see the ENDA debate suddenly focused on the complex transgender issue. It's a diversion and a misstep made in hell. With an ENDA vote already hanging by a thread we should be massing in front of Congress demanding an end to the outrage of minority discrimination in 21st Century America, instead gay advocacy groups across the nation are now taking to the streets to demand that ENDA be defeated.

Exclusion of transgender Americans from ENDA is heartbreaking, but Frank and a few others argue that casualties are an inevitable part of any war as are sacrifices and compromises. Victory is expensive--and not in terms of the dollars endlessly demanded by our generally ineffective gay advocacy groups. And compromise is essential to real progress, not extremism. Ironically, so many of us of have accepted necessary phased progress and compromises in the fight for same sex marriage, an effort that has almost exhaused the resources of gay advocay groups in the service of a very tiny minority within they gay community. But on an issue that profoundly matters to every single one of us, hundreds of gay advocacy groups around the nation are prepared to sabotage 30 years of work in the name of "all or nothing."

Until today, I've stood silent on the ENDA transgender issue because I've caused enough of a ruckus over these past few months with my belief that growing visibility dominated by gay stereotypes has done and continues to do serious damage to our fight for civil rights. But Barney Frank's October 11 press conference demands that I flap my jaws on this issue.

I grew up in North Carolina, the daughter of a beloved father who had attended Duke University. I went to the Duke basketball games every weekend as a child and to this day, I watch Duke basketball whenever there is a televised game. Part of loving Duke is hating the University of North Carolina and North Carolina State University. Hate is a strong word, but It's what we do in the Tar Heel State. Remember Jesse Helms?

I mention my upbringing because the Log Cabin Republicans have launched an ad campaign against Mitt Romney, and when I saw the ad, I felt like I was watching a UNC vs NC State basketball game. I was oddly compelled to root for someone, and yet, I don't care for either of them.



I first saw Log Cabin's 30 second anti-Romney ad last week in Tim Grieve's "Killing him with kindness" post on salon.com. The ad is also available for viewing on the Log Cabin Republican's website. (www.ivelostmygaymind.com)

So as we were all heading off for a lovely autumnal weekend, a very confused Terminator ran off to the local 7/ll for a quart of milk, a copy of Variety, some Depends and to veto the California same sex marriage bill. One can't be completely sure that he meant to do that, but Arnie's not terribly clever at multi-tasking.

I would never be so rude as to call the governor of California an "idiot". However, I don't agree with other gay voices who are this morning calling him a hypocrite and a bigot simply because he vetoed the gay marriage bill passed by the California State Legislature.

Clearly The Terminator is confused--which is very different from being an "idiot." The Republican party has insisted that the decision on same sex marriage should not rest with activist judges in the courts because the United States Constitution rests law-making power with elected representatives and not via popular vote and it was a popular vote five years ago in California that determined that the constitution was wrong and that civil rights and equality did not apply to gay Americans but under the constitution law-making power and determinations on civil rights rests with the legislatures which actually then passed a law approving same sex marriage but it is, as the Constitution says, up to the courts to determine the constitutionality of laws so The Terminator vetoed the same sex law constitutionally passed by the state legislature because he wants the determination to be made by the courts even though his party says the courts shouldn't be making such decisions rather such decisions should be made by lawmakers as outlined in the constitution.

Are you confused? Well, imagine how a brain ravaged by decades of steroids and fantasy role-playing both on the silver screen and with that insatiable Kennedy girl, gets all bewitched, bothered and bewildered in attempts to understand same sex marriage and the constitution.

Arnie is not an idiot, but how can he be anything other than terribly confused? However, his party, the Republicans--you've heard of them, I suspect? They're appearing every other Thursday in the men's room at Chippendales on the Vegas Strip--are counting on the notion that we're all idiots. And for the most part they seem to be right. The majority of Americans are idiots. What other explanation can there be for the widespread acceptance of the convoluted perverse logic that the GOP keeps using to block equality for all Americans?

As the news broke that yet another supposedly macho, homophobic, Roman Catholic Latin American nation is on the verge of federal legislation banning discrimination based on sexual orientation, it occurred to me that George W. Bush has likely done more for gay rights--everywhere but here--than all the world's gay activists combined.

I was raised by profoundly dysfunctional and cruel parents. As I observed my peers and their families and watched television families, I quickly came to realize that my parents had it wrong. It dawned on me that the solution to learning what is right was simple and elegant. In any situation, I would just ask myself what would mommy and daddy do and then I would do the opposite.

I think this philosophy has come to dominate politics and social and cultural life in many nations around the world. The presidents and legislatures of many countries have put aside their learning, religious teachings and old traditions and asked themselves, "What would George W. Bush do?" And then they just do the opposite. What other reason could there be for an evil dictator like Hugo Chavez standing tall for gay rights?

Countries like Mexico, Brazil, Colombia and now Venezuela are hardly known as paragons of human rights. The gap between rich and poor in these nations is a thousand times worse than even here. Corruption and violence are the order of the day. And yet one by one these nations are "fixing" their constitutions to extend civil rights and social benefits and protections to all citizens, gay and straight alike.

On Thursday of this past week, we learned that the evil president of Venezuela, Hugo Chavez, high up on Georgie's hit list, directed the Venezuelan legislature to amend his nation's constitution to formally outlaw discrimination based on sexual orientation. Last week, I reported that Colombia extended the customary legal and social benefits allowed straight couples to include gay couples. But 40 years after civil rights legislation was passed by the United States to protect women and all minorities--minus us--from discrimination in employment, housing, education, services and social benefits the Bush Administration and the current Congress blather on and on while we remain second class citizens.

Frankly, I find it revolting and profoundly embarrassing to consider that as an American citizen living in the self-proclaimed most robust democracy in the world, I would have more civil rights living in Colombia or Venezuela. I love my country and will go on fighting for my rights, but George W. Bush and the 110th Congress need to join the 21st Century or we need another revolution. The American voters sent a clear message to Washington in November of 2006: change. Just under one year later, things have changed, but for the worse. The Republicans screwed us--all of us--gay and straight but at least they were honest about their intention to do so. The Democrats lied to us and are guilty of betrayal. A Democratic-controlled Congress can't even muster enough votes to pass ENDA much less end the embarrassment and disaster that George W. Bush calls the world's newest American-made democracy, Iraq.

Can an entire American political party be based on homophobia? It would seem so. No, smarty pants, not the Republicans. They have a whole array of other issues to focus on: Iraq, terrorism, Islam, Shiism, Sunniism, Iran, the Koran and that 700-mile-long wall along the U.S.-Mexican border that will save us from an epidemic of mothers with starving children intent on destroying our economy.

No, we're talking about an entirely new third party. Of course, single issue parties aren't new. We already have the Green Party, for example. And many of our older readers may remember the Mugwumps, but this new third party will have numbers and financial clout that will make it a force to contend with.

So while many of us were horrified when our most powerful military leader, General Peter Pace told Congress that queers are immoral, light bulbs went off for the evangelicals. An idea was born. President General Pace. After all, if you have the courage and moral fortitude to take a very public stance against abominations, you've got the right stuff for leader of the free world.

As you've likely heard by now the Evangelicals are disgusted with the Republican offerings for 2008. George W. Bush set the bar way too high, almost as high as an axle in a trailer park. Giuliani? Does drag. Romney? Christian wannabe.

Under the divine guidance of Dr. James Dobson, 50 of America's leading vermin Evangelical leaders convened last week to discuss the formation of a fundamentalist Christian political party that would take on the misguided Republicans and the queer-loving Democrats.

But where to turn? Jesus' main bitch, Jimmy Dobson was rolling naked in his $138 million annual income (he likes to be paid in cash) wondering what to buy next. A private jet? A new $39,000 wardrobe for his wife from Chico's? The White House? And Jesus gave him the answer. Right there on the old telly, General Peter Pace instructing Congress that homosexuals are abominations.

During the Weekend Update segment of this past week's Saturday Night Live, the increasingly reliable Seth Meyers and Amy Poehler took on disgraced but defiant Senator Larry Craig, who was caught soliciting gay sex in an airport bathroom. In their recurring "Really?!" bit, they state the obvious, but do so with such entertaining disdain, as they mercilessly taunt Craig. "And, really, you oppose gay marriage. What? You think that marriage takes the sizzle out of it?" Meyers teases. "Or are you just afraid that if gay marriage is legalized, there'll be fewer single gay guys trying to have sex in airport bathrooms?" Take a look....

Kenneth Hill is the best friend I've never met. This may come as a shock to you, but Kenny and I have never met face to face, exchanged bodily fluids or gotten so drunk that we vomited on each other's cashmere sweaters. And yet, I've fallen in BFF with him. It's one of those superficial man things you hear about: A friendship based on personality, wit, wisdom and intellectual capacity instead of the way women form relationships--based on physical beauty, a firm ass and the size of the genitals.

Kenny and I rarely find ourselves in disagreement but when we do, a lively debate ensues. Recently we've locked horns on two issues: the role of sissies in the fight for gay civil rights and The Advocates handling of Hillary. Kenny and I went into a public "he said/she said" mode. (Kenny is "she") and some of our readers reacted badly to this. We were both grieved to hear that. Kenny did not post his rebuttals--as wrongheaded as they were--without my permission. Not all issues are black and white and an open and robust public debate is a good thing.

So we're going to debate each other as often as we disagree--which isn't that often. Of course, sometimes we'll argue over an issue just because we're both into that and it makes us hard.

So here we go, Kenny. Bring it on!

Scroll down, or click to QueerSighted Debates Folsom Street and Public Displays of Sexuality.

Editor's Note: In case you missed Richard Rothstein's explanation of the debates he and I have, which sometimes play out here, check out: Trapped Between a Rock and a Hard Place.

Now, please join us after the jump for

A few weeks ago I shared with you the new PETA ad featuring a birthday-suit-clad Alicia Silverstone. The controversial ad, which has since been pulled by Houston, TX's Comcast Cable Company for being too racy, shows Silverstone and her ample breasts advocating vegetarianism by explaining to the world that eating veggies makes you feel (and look) like a million bucks. The ad, which seemed to be targeted mostly towards straight men (and lesbians) has caused quite an array of responses, both negative and positive.

One group that had a blatant reaction to the video was Shake State, a Vlogging group that does humorous videos and parodies for YouTube, MySpace and other video-centric websites. Their "Alicia Silverstone Naked PETA Spoof" is certainly that but does it go too far? The video has had over 14,000 hits in just 5 days and although I thought it was pretty offensive, I'll let you be the judge.

Fred Thompson is a giver. He's also an embracer. As the next Republican President of these United States he wants to give the Christian wrong right a constitutional amendment that bans courts from legalizing gay marriage but he also wants to embrace the needs of gay Americans and allow state legislatures to retain the right to allow some form of gay unions within individual states. It's sort of a Bizarro World version of of Jim Crowism. For those of you who with limited and shallow lives devoid of Superman mythology, the Bizarro World is a contrarion mirror universe of people, including Bizarro Superman, who think up is down, evil is good and right is wrong. It's a world of bizarre and often illogical opposites. For example, in the United States, federal laws are designed to prevent states from discrimination against minorities. In Fred Thompson's Bizarro United Sates rogue states would have the right to not practice federally-mandated discrimination.

Many Christian conservatives have endorsed the Thompson compromise as fair. We've yet to hear from the gay groups--especially those Bizarro World gays over at the Log Cabin Republicans.

I wonder if this concept will typify a Thompson administration. Will The Compromiser follow the The Decider? And what other compromises can we expect? A federal law mandating the teaching of Creationism in American public schools that allows monkeys to attend classes? The deliberate flooding of New Orleans' Ninth Ward so that poor African Americans can enjoy better fishing? Fred Thompson's Bizarro America will surely be something extraordinary. It will be an America where the relentless stupidity of the Bush Administration is actually institutionalized and codified.

Can somebody explain to me the difference between the contemporary Republican Party and a full complement of short bus passengers? (My apologies to those who ride the short bus for comparing them to Republicans; it was just a joke.)

Most writers don't start off an interview by gushing over the artist with whom they're about to speak. I have spent time with and talked to my fair share of celebrities -- I like to think I can just act normal around pretty much anyone -- so in planning what to say to Annie Lennox, I certainly didn't expect that I would gush. Fearing it was a possibility though, I told myself (I might have even said outloud), "don't gush." But when Annie Lennox got on the phone and said my name, what was a gay guy to do? I gushed. Only for a second, but it was a gush nonetheless. She took it in stride, we even had a moment of, what, gay flirting(?), and then proceeded to talk about her new CD being released tomorrow, 'Songs of Mass Destruction.'

There are few artists working today who have what Annie Lennox has, which includes, namely: unparalleled musical talent, staggering commercial success, sustainable creative relevance, political conviction and a gravitas of spirit that envelopes whatever she does and wherever she goes. The Scottish-born artist who burned up the 80s as one-half of the Eurythmics sets a standard all her own, eschewing the trappings of diva for a journey in which she sets out to examine -- and then share with us -- the deepest, darkest places inside herself.

It's been four long years since

I had fully intended to write a light, fluffy little piece today called "Celebrities Who Made Me Gay". Unfortunately, while skimming the Concerned Church-Ladies of America web site, I spotted a truly crazy article by Pat Boone. I'm drawn to crazy Christians, like a magpie to tin foil.

I liked Pat Boone when I was a kid. He seemed so sweet and caring, so hairless, so pretty, so polite. Budding lesbians love those qualities in a boy. Pat was the 1960's equivalent to the boy band member who is described as the "sweet one". The "sweet one", as you all know, is the one who eventually "comes out" on the cover of People Magazine. Of course, Pat's not gay, but we have other things in common. He played Ann-Margret's love interest in the movie State Fair. I played Ann-Margret's love interest in my head.



When Ann-Margret sang How Lovely To Be A Woman Like Me, in the movie Bye Bye Birdie, I really wanted to believe she meant "like me". She's wearing jeans, a sweater and a baseball cap, for god's sake! If I had ever heard one rumor about Ann-Margaret being a lesbian, I would have been the first comedian to come out on national television, and you would all be surfing my web site, aftersusan.com, right now. Ann-Margaret has always been hip. She dated Elvis, she sang a duet with Tina Turner and my favorite ... she was the kitten in the movie, Kitten With a Whip. What was I talking about? Oh ... Pat Boone.

Again, Pat Boone is not gay. Don't read anything into the fact that he hawks Merv Griffin albums on his website. Honestly, who knew Merv Griffin was gay? No one. If there was ever any doubt about Pat's sexuality or his sanity, he cleared it up by releasing an album in 1997 entitled, No More Mr. Nice Guy. Pat changed his "sweet one" image forever by doing bad covers of heavy metal songs and dressing in leather on the album cover. Yes, nothing says "straight" like a bare chest, a leather vest and jewelry. Somewhere out there is a gay art director who is still laughing his ass off.