Schock Makes Instagram Account Private

A few days ago John Aravosis posted an AmericaBlog column titled The 7 Gayest Aaron Schock Instagram Posts Of 2013 in which he needled Schock's famous sense of fashion and devotion to bodybuilding. That AmericaBlog post was referenced in yesterday's Facebook piece on Schock by CBS reporter Itay Hod. And JMG reader Michael reports that Schock today made his Instagram account private. Previously the account was open to all, including non-members. Read into this as you will.

FRC Wants You On Your Knees

The logo for this weekend's Family Research Council event is causing a bit of snickering.

John Aravosis Vs Jennifer Rubin

Americablog founder John Aravosis appeared on CNN to debate convention coverage with wingnut blogger Jennifer Rubin. Things get "a little heated" as Aravosis put it. Watch this.

John Aravosis Vs. Dennis Prager

TENNESSEE: Major Corporations Back Statewide Ban On LGBT Rights

AmericaBlog Gay reports on the backers of yesterday's ban on LGBT rights in Tennessee.

The Tennessee Chamber of Commerce - chaired by Nissan, and whose other board members include such companies as FedEx, AT&T, Comcast, DuPont, Pfizer, Blue Cross Blue Shield, Caterpillar, KPMG, Whirlpool, Embraer, Alcoa, and United HealthCare - actively lobbied for a religious right bill in the Tennessee legislature that would rescind Nashville's civil rights protections for its gay and trans citizens, and which bans every city in Tennessee from passing any civil rights laws, for anyone, ever again. The bill passed yesterday. It's on its way to the state's Republican governor for his signature, unless he vetoes it. And these companies led the way in making it happen.

Sign this open letter to the Tennessee Chamber of Commerce demanding that they rescind their support for this hateful bill.

Obama's First Sit-Down With Bloggers

This afternoon President Obama had his first sit-down with five progressive bloggers, one of whom was Joe Sudbay (far left) from the LGBT-rights focused AmericaBlog. Sudbay has posted a transcript of his exchanges with the president, in which Obama indicated he'd be personally involved in the DADT lame duck strategy.

But perhaps more interestingly, the president revealed that his position on marriage equality was "evolving" and he hinted that a formal change may be coming.

"As you say, I have been to this point unwilling to sign on to same-sex marriage primarily because of my understandings of the traditional definitions of marriage. But I also think you’re right that attitudes evolve, including mine. And I think that it is an issue that I wrestle with and think about because I have a whole host of friends who are in gay partnerships. I have staff members who are in committed, monogamous relationships, who are raising children, who are wonderful parents. And I care about them deeply. And so while I’m not prepared to reverse myself here, sitting in the Roosevelt Room at 3:30 in the afternoon, I think it’s fair to say that it’s something that I think a lot about."

Cynics will, of course, deride today's meeting as a last-minute stunt to pull the wavering LGBT vote out of the fire. That's probably at least partly true. And the president did express some obvious resentment at LGBT activists for doubting his sincerity. Still, I felt somewhat more encouraged. Hit the link and read Joe Sudbay's entire report.

Jonathan Katz Cut From Oil Spill Team

Mere hours after the gay blogosphere reacted in disgust to the appointment of "proud homophobe" and physicist Jonathan I. Katz to the Obama administration's oil spoil team, the Department of Energy has canned him. Chris Geidner at Metro Weekly reports:

The news came after what the [DOE] spokesperson, Stephanie Mueller, termed ''controversial writings'' – which included a ''defense of homophobia'' – spread out over the web on Monday, writings of which she said the Department was unaware when it sought his assistance. On May 12, Energy Secretary Steven Chu ''assembled a group of top scientific experts from inside and outside of government to join in today's discussions in Houston about possible solutions,'' according to a Department news release. Katz was one of five outside scientists noted in the release. Bloomberg News reported about the group of scientists on May 14, reporting Chu ''signaled his lack of confidence in the industry experts trying to control BP Plc's leaking oil well by hand-picking a team of scientists with reputations for creative problem solving."

Credit for Katz' outster likely goes to AmericaBlog's John Aravosis, who earlier today launched a petition campaign against Katz' appointment.

Blog Swarm: Ask HRC To Demand Obama Work To Repeal DADT This Year

UPDATE: Today's blog swarm has been picked up by FireDogLake, Mediaite, the Advocate, and numerous gay and gay-friendly blogs. Thus far, HRC's official blog has remained silent, although its Palm Springs affiliate basically said it is a waste to time to contact HRC on this issue. I happen to think that's true, but not entirely for the reasons given.

------

A coalition of LGBT and progressive bloggers are today asking their readers to contact the Human Rights Campaign and ask that they use their famous White House access to demand that President Obama work to achieve the repeal of DADT in 2010. Via AmericaBlog:

OUR MESSAGE TO HRC IS SIMPLE:

Publicly demand that President Obama take the lead in getting DADT repealed this year.

1) That means the President needs to state publicly that he wants Congress to repeal DADT this year; and

2) The President needs to take the lead in working with Congress to make sure the repeal happens.

HRC Front Desk: (202) 628-4160
TTY: (202) 216-1572
Toll-Free: (800) 777-4723

HRC Web site comment page.
General membership email at hrc: membership@hrc.org

Some may say that there is little the President can do, or that this is up to Congress now. That is simply untrue. The President can send a powerful signal that he wants the repeal done this year. He can include the repeal of DADT in the Defense Budget he sends to Congress in the next few months. If the President is serious about keeping his promises to our community, now is his chance to prove it.

BLOG SWARM SPONSORS

Today's blog swarm is sponsored by the following bloggers and sites, all of which will also be writing about this issue today, and urging their readers to contact HRC:

Joe Sudbay and John Aravosis, AMERICAblog
Pam Spaulding, Pam's House Blend
Michelangelo Signorile, Sirius OutQ & the Gist
Markos Moulitsas, DailyKos
Andy Towle, TowleRoad
Joe Jervis, Joe My God
Bil Browning, Bilerico
Taylor Marsh, TaylorMarsh.com
Dan Savage, Slog

MOMENTUM HAS TURNED TO CONFUSION

HRC may argue that it's already told the President it would like to see DADT repealed this year. Well, that's not enough. And here's why.

We've had an amazing few weeks of momentum on DADT repeal following the mention of DADT in the State of the Union, the Senate Armed Services Committee hearing during which both the Secretary of Defense and the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs both stated their support for repeal, and the unexpected support we've received from former Chairman of the Joint Chiefs Colin Powell and former Defense Secretary and Vice President Dick Cheney.

But that momentum is quickly slipping away. After talking to people around Washington over the past two weeks, Joe and I have found a vacuum of leadership that is leading to confusion. The Hill has no idea if the President does or doesn't want them to move ahead with repeal this year. The House has already said that it's waiting for the Senate to do something. The Senate is in turmoil after the Democrats lost a single seat in January. And the DADT proposals being discussed in the Senate are focused on every possible approachexcept full repeal this year.

As we painfully learned last year during health care reform, nothing happens in Congress unless the President leads. And when the President doesn't lead, disaster is guaranteed.

Whatever HRC has been telling the White House about DADT, it clearly isn't working. In spite of the President's positive comments during the State of the Union, no one knows where President Obama stands on repealing "Don't Ask Don't Tell" this year. All the while, unnamed administration officials are telling the media that it could be years before repeal finally happens. The White House clearly didn't get HRC's message, and as a result, we are losing this historic momentum.

WHY HRC?

Why are we focusing on HRC? Because HRC is our community's largest, best-funded gay rights organization in Washington, and they carry the most sway with the White House. In fact, HRC often boasts about their close working relationship with the White House. HRC's President, Joe Solmonese, is so close to the White House that he gave the President political cover during the uproar over the administration's brief in support of DOMA. It's time HRC, and our entire community, got something in return for everything we have done for this President, this Congress, and the entire Democratic party.

Please feel free to use the Facebook link below to repost this.

VIDEO: Justice Alito Mouths "Not True" During POTUS Slam On SCOTUS

(Via - AmericaBlog)

HRC On AmericaBlog Call To Boycott DNC: Decide For Yourselves

The Human Rights Campaign has responded to yesterday's call by John Aravois and Joe Sudbay at AmericaBlog for a boycott of LGBT donations to the Democratic National Committee.

"Individual donors should always make their own careful assessments of how to spend limited political contributions. We all need to focus on the legislative priorities identified by AmericaBlog and with whatever tactic individuals decide to employ, the ultimate objective needs to be securing the votes we need to move our legislative agenda forward."

FireDogLake blogger David Dayen calls the HRC's response "a tacit endorsement, or at least not a public disavowal, of the strategy." He also notes that the HRC has not donated to the DNC since President Obama ordered that the DNC not accept funding from C(4) organizations.

AmericaBlog Calls For Gay Donor Boycott Of Democratic National Committee

Under the headline Don't Ask, Don't Give, John Aravois and Joe Sudbay of the widely-read AmericaBlog today called for a boycott of LGBT donations to the Democratic party over the failures of the Obama administration and the DNC to properly support and advocate for gay causes.

Joe and I are launching today a donor boycott of the DNC. The boycott is cosponsored by Daily Kos, Michelangelo Signorile, Paul Sousa the founder of Equal Rep in Boston, and soon others. It's really more of a "pause," than a boycott. Boycotts sounds so final, and angry. Whereas this campaign is temporary, and is only meant to help some friends - President Obama and the Democratic party - who have lost their way. We are hopeful that via this campaign, our friends will keep their promises.

So please sign the Petition and take a Pledge to no longer donate to the DNC, Organizing for America, or the Obama campaign until the President and the Democratic party keep their promises to the gay community, our families, and our friends. You can find our Frequently Asked Questions, below, that explain the entire campaign. You can use our "Tell a Friend" page to tell all of your friends, family members, and coworkers about this effort (and we won't keep any of the email addresses you entire, they'll all be deleted after the emails are sent).

Tensions between the DNC and AmericaBlog came to a boil last week after openly gay DNC treasurer Andy Tobias revealed that the DNC had "intentionally" asked Maine contributors to support NJ Gov. Jon Corzine with no such accompanying request to help Maine's marriage equality effort.

Sen. Mark Udall Asks Obama For DADT Repeal Plan Within 30 Days

AmericaBlog has a copy of a letter to President Obama from Sen. Mark Udall (D-CO), demanding a plan with repeal DADT within 30 days. John Aravosis:

President Obama has been claiming (incorrectly) for a while now that his hands are tied on Don't Ask Don't Tell until Congress takes action. Congress is now taking action and asking the White House for their help. The White House now has 30 days to make good on their promises. Otherwise, come November 14th or so, we're going to have another brouhaha in the gay community over why the President went to the HRC dinner and made a promise on DADT that he didn't intend to keep. Hopefully, the President will provide Senator Udall with the information he is requesting, so we can all move ahead on implementing the President's promise to get DADT repealed.

View the letter here.

The Mormon Church Has Posthumously Baptized President Obama's Mother

John Aravosis at Americablog went digging through the Mormon Church's online records and discovered that the LDS posthumously baptized Barack Obama's mother during the 2008 presidential campaign. Remember the scandal last November when the LDS was caught posthumously baptizing Holocaust victims even after they said they would stop? Read Aravosis' first and follow-up posts on this latest revelation.

Gay Bloggers Credentialed For Democratic Convention

The Democratic Party has released their list of bloggers credentialed to cover the convention in Denver. The LGBT blogs represented are Towleroad, Pam's House Blend, and AmericaBlog. Congrats to all!