LGBT community

These days, the Senate doesn't pass anything remotely controversial, let alone pass it unanimously. But last month they did-- a bill by Tim Scott (R-SC), Cory Booker (D-NJ) and Kamala Harris (D-CA) to make lynching a federal hate crime.

Last month Malcolm Kenyatta won an open seat in the Pennsylvania House of Representatives against Republican Milton Street with 95.29% of the vote-- 21,382 to 1,050. This district includes parts of North Philadelphia, Feltonville, Francisville, Glenwood, Hunting Park, Kensington, Northern Liberties and West Poplar and, demographically, is 61.8% black, 25.5% white and 13.4% Hispanic. The win is being hailed as historic because Kenyatta, a third-generation activist just became the first openly LGBT candidate of color elected to the state legislature.

The Republican Convention Trump used Islamophobia to try to coverup Republican homophobia to reassure gay voters that he could be trusted to defend LGBTQ rights. "As your president I will to everything in my power to protect our LGBTQ citizens from the violence and oppression of a hateful foreign ideology, believe me."He also said he is a better friend of gays and that "someday, I believe, that will be proven out, bigly." Is today that day? I could be...

Should congressmen who get high and play dress-up be barred from buying homes in Orange Co?I can remember when I was a kid growing up on Long Island, there were fights in the suburbs-- Nassau County-- about selling houses to black families. Half the people who lived in some of these towns were there because of "white flight" and they brought their ugly bigotry and racism with them.

Anti-LGBTQ Democrat, Blue Dog Colin Peterson (MN)On July 7, 2011, notorious and deranged homophobe Virginia Foxx (R-NC) offered an amendment to a defense bill. There were only 19 homophobic Democrats who crossed the aisle to vote with the anti-LGBT Republicans. Most of them have been driven out of Congress but these are these 5 still serving

Who remembers Idaho Senator Larry Craig? He was elected to the House in 1980, was elected to the NRA's Board of Directors in 1983, the Senate in 1990, tried to seduce a humpy young undercover cop in a toilet in the Minneapolis Airport in 2007 and was forced to retire in 2009. Now he's a disgraced energy lobbyist. Craig was vehemently anti-gay but had spent his entire time in Washington orally copulating male prostitutes, many in public toilets, but some in his home.

This week Roy Moore, who still refuses to concede defeat in the Alabama Senate race, attacked Doug Jones' gay son, Carson for... being gay.

Do you read the Style Section of the NY Times? Me neither, but there was a piece yesterday about gossip columnist Liz Smith, who died Sunday. I didn't know she had died and didn't know she had lived her life in the closet.

Mashrou' Leila, a 5 piece alt-rock band from Beirut, is almost 10 years old. The sing about the some topics indie bands everywhere sing about-- like why stuff (like politics) sucks. But in their part of the world, those topics can mean trouble, especially now that they're hugely popular and draw gigantic crowds. Lead singer Hamed Sinno is openly gay-- which is dangerous in conservative Middle East societies.

I was lucky; I came out when I was living in Amsterdam. I worried there was something wrong with me so I went to see a psychiatrist. I told him I thought I could be gay. He asked me why I was coming to him and if I was looking for addresses of gay bars and other places where gay people met. I didn't. I lived right across the street-- literally, 30 steps-- from a side gate into Amsterdam's biggest park (like their version of Central Park or Griffith Park). And it was a special entrance, as it turns out. At night there were always gay men in that part of the park eager to meet other men.