Kayla Kearney, a Santa Rosa teen, comes out to her high school on MLK day. This young woman is courageous beyond belief. The video is a bit long for most people but please take the time to watch the whole thing. I am so proud of our younger generation.

Image by Sully Pixel via Flickr

Today is World AIDS Day.

There is no reason anyone should be contracting AIDS in this day and age. We know how to prevent the spread of this horrible disease. Put on a condom, it’s pretty simple.

I have been working nonstop on my book for the last month, I am almost finished. I have just created a fan page on Facebook which includes the introduction. Please head on over and “like” the page. I’m hoping to generate some buzz before I start sending out queries.

As soon as I finish the book, which will be very soon, this blog is getting my full attention.

I have been meaning to update this blog for a long time, I have been so busy with my other blogs I just haven’t had time to write a decent post here, I am sorry but I am not abandoning this blog.

I was going to post today about another child of a mixed orientation marriage who I recently met. You can read Erin’s story here. I was going to give a much bigger intro but then I saw that the judge overturned the ban on gay marriage in CA and wanted to comment very quickly on that.

This decision will be appealed for sure but this is a big step in the right direction. This is what Judge Vaughn Walker had to say about his decision:

“Moral disapproval alone is an improper basis on which to deny rights to gay men and lesbians. The evidence shows conclusively that Proposition 8 enacts, without reason, a private moral view that same-sex couples are inferior to opposite-sex couples,”  Walker went on to say, “Proposition 8 fails to advance any rational basis in singling out gay men and lesbians for denial of a marriage license.”

You can read about this landmark decision here on CNN.

Here on 365 Gay.

MSNBC

And Fox News.

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• Proposition 8 ruling: Gay marriage ban overturned (dailykos.com)

Is Elena Kagan gay or not? That is the question everyone is asking everyone else but Ms. Kagan.

My knee jerk response to the question of her sexuality is that it isn’t anyone’s business. However on further and deeper consideration it occurs to me that it is our business if she is gay.

Ms Kagan has accepted a nomination to the highest court in our country, she will be making decisions of the utmost importance which will affect all Americans. It is safe to say that in the next decade the Supreme Court will be asked to make some decisions regarding homosexuals.

I’m against outing anyone who doesn’t want to be outed. However, Ms Kagan has become a public figure by accepting the nomination. As someone who may hold considerable power it is her obligation to be forthcoming with the answer to this question.

The assumption seems to be that indeed she is a lesbian. If that is true, and not that there is anything wrong with it, then why isn’t she saying so? Is she ashamed of her sexuality? If she is gay and remains in the closet will she vote against gay rights?

She wouldn’t be the first.

Roy Ashburn, Republican senator who recently announced he was gay because he got busted, has voted against every gay rights bill put before him. And he only made number 5 on the top ten list of anti-gay gays.

The right might want to take Ms Kagan’s sexuality and make it an issue but the left has an obligation to ask this question so that she doesn’t use the court to hide her sexuality.

I hope she is gay, I hope she stands up and announces to the world “Yes, I am” like so many courageous men and women leading everyday lives.

It takes courage to come out of the closet. There will be a shit storm if she states that she is gay, no doubt about that. But if she refuses to answer the question and she is gay she is doing a horrible disservice to gay rights and to young men and women everywhere who struggle with their own sexuality.

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Tribal Blogs has just been lunched!

If you are looking for quality traffic and a way to interact and learn from other pro bloggers go check it out.

If you are tired of having to wade through all the “make money online” blogs that seem to be cluttering up Entrecard then give Tribal Blogs a try. The toolbar, which is free for anyone to download, is filled with quality blogs. You won’t find any link farms or unoriginal content.

Meet other bloggers who are interested in networking.

Read more about it at Tribal Blogs.

Couples waited in line to apply for their marriage license today outside the DC courthouse. Not a big deal usually except these couples were same sex couples.

No one was married today, there is a three day waiting period, but next week there will be an awful lot of newlyweds.

The day of celebration was not without disruption. Fred Phelps‘ Westboro Baptist Church was there to protest, name call, and be generally offensive. Fred Phelps and his minions are the people who protest at funerals for service men and women, they hate jews, they hate fags. They run around holding signs that say “God Hates Fagsthey are basically the scum in my opinion.

That’s them holding their “God Hates Fags” sign and this picture was taken at a protest last year. Sorry I can’t remember which one it was, nor who took the picture. I had permission last year but don’t know how long that is good for. If you took this picture and want credit please leave a comment and I will update.

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One of my favorite Kids of Queers readers is making lemonade out of lemons.

Pennies in Protest Raises Money for Local Jewish and LGBT Organizations

Richmond, VA (February 26, 2010) In response to the upcoming protests by the Westboro Baptist Church in Richmond, Virginia, a local group called Pennies in Protest is calling all Richmonders to donate money to the targets of the anti-gay and anti-Jew protests.

Westboro Baptist Church (WBC), based in Topeka, Kansas, is an anti-gay church known for picketing funerals of AIDS victims, stomping on American flags, and protesting gay and Jewish organizations around the country.

On its website, WBC has announced its plans to protest at four locations in Richmond: The Virginia Holocaust Museum, the University of Richmond Hillel organization at the Jewish Community Center, the Jerusalem Connection, and Hermitage High School because the school allowed the creation of a gay student group.

A local group called Pennies In Protest has started collecting money for every minute that WBC is protesting Richmond organizations. Founded by Richmonders Patience Salgado (aka www.kindnessgirl.com), Jessica Lucia, Sara Heifetz, and Sarah Allen-Short, the group hopes to turn the WBC protests into something beneficial for the targets of the hate attacks. The Richmond group got the idea from a synagogue in Manhattan that raised more than $10,000 for charity during a recent visit from WBC.

You can read more about Pennies in Protest on the website. You do not have to be from Virginia to support this cause. You can donate on the site for as little as 1 cent a minute, you just have to do the math.

This is an incredibly worthy cause and I encourage all of you to stop by and have a look. As you know I have all kinds of issues with Westboro Baptist Church. I can hardly contain my contempt for the lower than life forms that make up the membership.

Please support this effort by some great people.

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I run this kind of post every now and again to remind people with gay parents that they are not the only ones. When I was a kid I was sure I was the only child, not including my brother, who had a gay parent.

There were no television show about mixed orientation marriages or gays with children. As far as I knew gays couldn’t have kids, because they couldn’t get married. I was a little naive.

Growing up watching shows like The Brady Bunch, which set the standard for well adjusted families, it would have been nice if Robert Reed had been out or if I had known he was closeted. Of course if a 10 year old girl from Minnesota knew Robert Reed was gay it’s a sure bet everyone else would have too.

Of course we all know Melissa Etheridge is gay and a parent. She has had two highly publicized partnerships and when it was revealed who the sperm donor was of her children it got plenty of press.

Judy Garland’s father was gay though I never knew that until I was much older.

Today celebrities who are gay and have children aren’t big news. Which is as it should be. But it is nice to know there are many gay parents out there, celebrity or not, who are raising healthy and happy kids

To see more gay parents please visit this site.

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The winners of the Stormsister INtelligent Nutrients lipbalms are …

Drumroll

Patty from Happy Goat Soap and The Maaaa of Pricilla.

and

Katherine from Shoot-me-now and Agoosa.com and about four other blogs.

Congratulations ladies. Email your address to Becky[at]stormsister[dot]biz and she will ship ‘em out right away.

Thank you to everyone who entered, this was a lot of fun.